For America's ultra-rich, nothing is more terrifying than a divorce lawsuit.
Divorce means massive asset division, damage to the company's reputation, plummeting stock prices...
Especially for a celebrity like Jay-Z, whose wealth is measured by fame.
Without the halo of his diva wife Beyoncé, it would be a huge blow to his career, and the value of his multiple brands would be greatly discounted.
Currently, the only thing Leon needed to worry about was whether this tape would achieve the desired effect.
The impact of marital infidelity on Beyoncé would be too great, and she might choose to swallow her pride and stay silent.
"Maybe I should put some more effort into Beyoncé," Leon muttered to himself.
He suddenly realized that he had perhaps been too cold to her at the AMA awards ceremony.
Because Taylor was present, apart from a greeting, there was almost zero communication. Beyoncé had left in a hurry during the segment where the couple showed off their affection.
Leon had to pour some "offerings of love" into Beyoncé's parched heart before the Dark Christmas arrived.
Women are most likely to lose their rationality at times like this.
At 2 PM, Leon took the brand-new stretched Bentley Mulsanne to SLW Apocalypse.
Filming for The Witch was already halfway done, and Russell had many ideas about the movie's promotion plan that he wanted to discuss face-to-face.
"Goddamnit! This big baby is a beast!" Touching the steering wheel of the new car, Jorge exclaimed repeatedly.
After a series of modifications, including stretching and adding weight, this car didn't feel like a luxury sedan at all.
The moment he stepped on the gas, the powerful thrust gave the illusion of driving a heavy-duty pickup truck.
"This thing would sell like crazy in Sinaloa!"
"Are you sure? This thing is okay against semi-automatic weapons, but in the face of real firepower, it's just an iron coffin." Leon laughed. "I heard that the private armies of Mexican drug lords have fiercer firepower than the regular army."
The so-called ability to withstand RPG rockets claimed by luxury car dealers was just a standard marketing gimmick.
After all, no one would really use such an expensive car for such a violent test.
"Mexico wasn't like this before the 80s. Whether it was El Chapo Guzmán or El Mayo Zambada, they were just ordinary farmers before doing this business." Jorge lowered his voice and asked, "Who do you think made Mexico what it is now? I want to hear the Yankee's perspective."
"Miguel Félix Gallardo? The founder of the cartel model? I've seen that guy's documentary."
"No, it's those politicians." Jorge wagged his finger. "If you perform in Mexico one day, maybe you'll understand what I'm saying. That country has rotted to the marrow."
Leon pursed his lips and didn't reply.
Setting aside Mexico's security issues, his influence in Spanish-speaking countries wasn't enough yet, and he had no plans to perform there for the time being.
While the two chatted, the Bentley arrived at Brooklyn Heights.
The big boss rarely showed his face, and employees popped their heads out of their cubicles to observe.
The walls of the corridor were covered with movie posters Russell had produced, and various chicken soup for the soul slogans were everywhere: "Remember the mission, we are creators of light and shadow art," "The harder you work, the luckier you get."
Some corporate culture had initially formed here, and compared to more than a month ago, it looked more and more like a legitimate film company.
"Welcome, Boss." While shaking hands with Leon, Russell signaled his secretary to bring hot coffee.
He opened a drawer and took out a thick promotion plan, describing his plan eloquently.
According to the current progress, The Witch could wrap up filming by the end of December at the earliest, followed by post-production work such as editing and scoring.
The final film would be sent to France in May to participate in the Cannes Film Festival, which was the most important link in all promotion plans.
As an independent film, the highest destination is naturally to show its face in sections at Cannes. The problem is that it cannot show content at other international film festivals or public platforms beforehand, which makes other promotional plans difficult.
Leon was originally quite dissatisfied with the arrangement of releasing it after the Cannes Film Festival, which would greatly extend the timeline and delay the film's cost recovery.
If it couldn't be shown on other public platforms, this meant that after the film festival, The Witch would have to set aside at least another two months for promotion.
Counting the squeeze of theater scheduling, the actual landing in North American theaters might have to wait until next September.
"This is simply a waste of our time."
Leon frowned, and for a moment had the idea of giving up on participating in the Cannes Film Festival.
"You know the French; they are keen on setting up various red tape to show off their unique taste." Russell spread his hands. "A bunch of extremely hypocritical guys. The French don't have so many rules regarding the management of their own crotches."
The two laughed out loud in unison.
The French are keen on sunbathing on nude beaches, and more than half of French people think it is acceptable for their partners to cheat.
This is the romance as they understand it.
"Do you have any better ideas? To promote the movie without affecting its release process," Leon asked.
"Exactly!"
Russell smiled and put the coffee cup on the table. "That's what I wanted to tell you! I thought of an unprecedented great promotion plan."
"Let's hear it." Seeing the other party's excited face, Leon's curiosity was piqued.
"This is the inspiration Ready Player One gave me! I thought of a perfect promotion plan combining the internet and reality!"
Before the opening of the Cannes Film Festival, any participating film cannot publicly display film details, otherwise, it will be immediately disqualified.
Under these circumstances, how to promote the film became the biggest headache for Russell for a long time.
After thinking hard, he came up with a solution of "combining interaction and easter eggs."
This practice is not uncommon in the film industry and has created many classic cases.
In 1993, Schwarzenegger's Last Action Hero made a big move during the promotion period.
They erected a huge 22-meter-high figure in Times Square based on Schwarzenegger's look in the movie.
Left hand holding a shotgun, right hand holding dynamite, looking incredibly cool.
But the problem was that the planning department overlooked that just three days ago, a bombing terrorist attack had occurred at the North Tower of the World Trade Center Twin Towers not far away.
Six bearded men placed more than 600 kilograms of explosives in the underground garage.
The explosion blasted through four floors, causing more than 1,000 casualties.
This led to Schwarzenegger's statue holding explosives... leaving aside whether the public could emotionally accept it, the NYPD couldn't sit still first—"Are you guys gloating here?"
In the end, this statue only existed for three days before being removed by law enforcement.
The movie Million Dollar Mystery, released in 1987, also made a big joke during the promotion period.
They published in the newspaper that as long as someone guessed the final puzzle of the movie—the specific location of the bag containing millions of dollars—they would have a chance to win a $1 million prize.
As a result, the movie box office flopped. A total of more than 200,000 movie tickets were sold, but more than 400,000 answers were received.
The box office was only over $900,000, and the prize money alone cost $1 million.
Charity-style promotion became a joke for a while.
Russell planned to launch an activity on newspapers and social media—share the true supernatural events you encountered in life. Those stories with the most likes could win prizes ranging from $10,000 to $1,000, and the publishers of selected stories could get a free The Witch movie ticket.
This avoided the strict requirements of the Cannes Film Festival while also achieving the purpose of movie promotion.
"Sounds not bad, but I doubt how much effect this can achieve." Leon nodded thoughtfully.
Interactive promotion on social networks is a good idea, but how much heat it can generate remains a question mark.
"Trust my judgment, Boss! We are in a great era for horror movies!" Russell said, "Many young people really believe in the existence of supernatural forces..."
The decade after the millennium was the era with the largest volume of horror film releases in American film history.
Not only did the Final Destination and Saw series become classic IPs, but pure gore films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre also sold well.
Even R-rated trash films like Wrong Turn had four sequels, and 20th Century Fox even planned to shoot four more...
The consumer group for such films is mainly young people under 30. On Reddit's tree hole section, the heat of the "supernatural events" tag has been at the forefront for years.
Obviously, American happy education did not turn young people into firm materialist warriors.
"Alright, you decide these things yourself."
Leon didn't have high expectations for The Witch; anyway, the cost was less than $5 million.
He didn't expect Robert, directing a feature film for the first time, to achieve a box office myth like James Wan; as long as it didn't lose money, it was acceptable.
He got up to leave but was stopped by Russell.
"Wait, Boss. The Oscar organizing committee sent an email to the company's mailbox a few days ago, hoping you can appear as a presenter on the night of the gala."
"Inviting me to be a presenter?"
Leon looked confused. Normally, Oscar presenters are well-known figures in the film and television industry.
And in the film industry, he count at most as an investor; his main job was still a singer.
"Their intentions aren't hard to guess. Wherever you go, the traffic goes~" Russell said. "Oscar traffic has been declining year by year. They have to seek some new elements and new gimmicks to change this status quo."
Leon had many opponents in the music industry, and quite a few in the film industry too.
Will Smith rarely missed the Oscar ceremony, and the two often sprayed trash talk at each other on Twitter.
When enemies meet, their eyes turn red. Maybe the two could really make some big news at the ceremony.
But Leon didn't take long to decide to accept the invitation from the Oscar organizing committee, not letting go of this opportunity to expand his influence.
Three days later, Blinding Lights was officially released, with first-day sales exceeding 150,000 copies.
Record stores all over the United States experienced a grand occasion where demand exceeded supply.
Especially in New York, the records were swept away by crazy fans as soon as they hit the shelves.
Inside Columbia Records, Stringer led a group of employees to pop champagne to celebrate in advance right at noon.
Tim said excitedly, "Amazing results! If this situation continues, how many records can we sell in the first week?"
"300,000 copies?"
"Maybe I should be bolder, 500,000 copies?"
Although this was just a single, such numbers were amazing enough.
Watch the Throne, collaborated by Jay-Z and Kanye, sold 435,000 copies in its first week on the market in the US, but this was still the second-best single-week sales result of 2011 so far.
Second only to Lady Gaga's Born This Way, which peaked upon release, selling 1.1 million copies in the first week before sales took a sharp turn for the worse.
According to the current sales data, by next week's Billboard chart release day, Blinding Lights would likely debut in the top three.
"Don't be impatient. Leon's work is a piece of art. I have a hunch this song will be popular for a long time." Stringer took the lead in raising his champagne glass. "Cheers, congratulations to this talented young man. He is the pride of Columbia Records!"
"Cheers!" Everyone was excited to the point of forgetting themselves, especially those team members who had long been responsible for the promotion of Leon's works.
On the TV in the conference room, MTV was reporting on the grand occasion of the Blinding Lights release.
The host exhausted words to blow up the greatness of this work: "From rocker to Drill rap leader, then to R&B and psychedelic electronic... You can never imagine what Leon Smith will do next."
"Blinding Lights gives me the feeling of 80s retro sentiment colliding with the future. What do young people call this style again? Cyberpunk?"
"Friends, I look forward more and more to what the full album will be like..."
Regarding the arrangement of the first week's promotional work, a disagreement appeared between Leon and Stringer.
Stringer had already booked him for exclusive interviews with New York music radio stations and MTV, leaving him no rest time for the entire week.
This put Leon in a difficult position. His contract with Tesla had been finalized a week ago, and he had to shoot two sets of promotional photos and a commercial blockbuster for them this week.
Before the news of the cooperation between the two parties was officially announced, Tesla's stock rose to $42 a share, slapping many financial experts in the face.
Before this, Wall Street unanimously believed that the limit value of this stock in 2011 would not exceed $40.
Obviously, some Tesla employees heavily invested in stocks through insider information, causing this breakthrough.
In addition, the recording of Not Like Us was also the core of this week. Ice Cube would visit Apocalypse Music with the beat today.
"New York is my base camp. Promoting too hard like this will make fans resentful..."
Under his continuous PUA (manipulation), Stringer could only accept the suggestion and cut some less important work.
At 2 PM, Cube arrived at 413 Fulton Street accompanied by two black bodyguards.
"Hey, Leon, little brother, how are you!"
As soon as they met, he bumped Leon with his muscular body and patted his back.
This was the street way of greeting.
"Finally meeting you, man. We couldn't meet during the filming of Straight Outta Compton, which has always been my regret."
Leon invited Cube to sit face to face and ordered Bonnie to bring coffee.
"That movie was fking awesome! What's that Chinese kid's name? Wan, right?"
"This isn't a movie at all, but a documentary!"
"I've known Dre since I was 16. The image you created for him in the movie is too real; that bastard is just that hypocritical!"
Cube not only had a violent temper but also a loud voice. His voice could be heard even through the thick solid wood door of the CEO's office.
This was exactly the same as the protagonist Darius he played in XXX: State of the Union.
Five minutes later, Cube, who had vented enough, pulled the topic back to music. "Bro, you are indeed amazing. I listened to your new song all the way here in the car. How did you manage to mix so many elements together?"
"Inspiration." Leon pointed to his head. "Inspiration is something indescribable."
"Haha~ I understand how you feel." Cube laughed one second, then suddenly became serious the next. "To mix in this circle, you not only need talent but also have to guard against those villains at all times. If you are not careful, they will steal the fruits of your creation. That's also why I chose to make movies at the peak of my career."
"I'm your fan. Your performance in XXX was not inferior to Vin Diesel at all." Leon adhered to his true colors, lying with his eyes open.
"Stop with the pretty words, Bro. I've seen through it long ago." Cube shrugged. "Crossing over from music to movies is just jumping from one stinking circle to another even more hypocritical cesspit."