[Chapter 92: Movie Merchandise, Investment in Microsoft]
The movie Step Up was flying off the shelves, and the soundtrack album was also selling like hotcakes. Daniel took the opportunity to have Shania Twain start promoting her songs on the charts.
In the first week, the soundtrack sold over one million copies in North America. Both Step Up and U Must Be made it into the top 40 of the Billboard singles chart. Although much of the success was riding on the movie's popularity, it was still an impressive achievement for a newcomer, making Daniel and Shania ecstatic.
Shania, especially, excitedly called Linton to share her feelings. She told him she finally had fans and people were asking for her autograph as she walked the streets. She ended the call enthusiastically saying she would have a big surprise for him once he returned from the promotional tour.
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The only downside was that Linton was too busy with the movie's promotional tour to dedicate time for promoting the single. B What You Wanna B only reached 23rd on the Billboard chart, failing to break into the top 20. But there was no choice -- he had to prioritize the film's promotion first. When Daniel called to ask about it, Linton promised to make time to promote the songs after finishing the tour.
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There was more good news: the movie merchandise also became a craze. The T-shirts and baseball caps Linton wore in the movie became hot sellers. Wherever Linton went, fans waiting at airports and attending fan meetups mostly wore the movie's T-shirts and caps. Many stores restocked the day after the film's release, and Universal even increased their orders.
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However, starting the second week, smear campaigns against Step Up intensified sharply. After investigating, Ellie told Linton that the attacks weren't from the Unforgivable crew. The latest movie Single White Female's production team was responsible, with some media outlets still getting paid by Harvey to spread damage.
The media's focus for slandering fell mainly on Linton and Naomi. Linton faced allegations of trading favors, poor acting skills, and a lack of artistic pursuit as a director. Naomi was accused of trading body favors to climb up, with weak acting and dancing skills. These old stories had been beaten to death by the media long ago; there was no fresh dirt, and both Linton and Naomi had built immunity against such attacks.
After weathering the initial smear storm, their mental resilience was strong, making them almost indifferent to the attacks. Audiences didn't take the slanders seriously either, so Step Up's success wasn't affected.
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In the second week, benefiting from the lack of strong competition and Universal's effort, the film's screening remained in 2,720 theaters with 5,650 screens. Inevitably, attendance and box office saw declines. Step Up was a fan-oriented movie, so the drop was healthy. The second weekend still delivered $22.52 million, holding the box office crown.
Coming in second was the newly released Single White Female, directed by Babette Schroeder, starring Bridget Fonda, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Steven Weber. Bridget and Jennifer treated viewers to lengthy fan service, and the first weekend grossed $18.23 million, a solid result. Third place went to Unforgivable, raking in $14.76 million during the second weekend.
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Internationally, Step Up started releasing in countries like the UK, France, Germany, Australia, Spain, Mexico, Italy, Japan, and Korea.
Universal heavily promoted the film's massive success in the U.S., feeding the foreign audiences' admiration for American hits. Linton's fan club also pushed the trailer with success. The overseas opening weekend box office reached $24.6 million.
Due to the usual six-month delay for Hollywood films to debut in Japan, the early release was surprising. But thanks to Universal being acquired by the Japanese Matsushita Group and effective PR from Matsushita, Step Up was able to open in Japan in the second week itself. Japan being the second-largest box office market, this news was excellent for the movie. Of the $24.6 million overseas revenue, $4.6 million was from Japan.
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According to Universal's promotion plan, the third week would involve adjusting the promotional tour. Linton was assigned to Japan, France, and Germany. Naomi, born in the UK and raised in Australia, was set to promote in the UK and Australia. The rest stayed to promote in North America.
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During the tour, Linton received a call from Richard at Skycrest Capital, reporting they had contacted the Bill Gates family office. Due to the Los Angeles riots, Microsoft's stock hadn't risen much this year, influencing Bill Gates's office's attitude.
They agreed to transfer Microsoft shares at current market prices, even offering to transfer more shares, asking how much they could accept.
Richard suggested reserving $2 million in cash and using the remaining $318 million to buy Microsoft shares since he hadn't found a channel to purchase Cisco shares yet. Even if he found a way later, the Microsoft shares could be used as collateral for bank loans. This was a rare opportunity. Linton naturally agreed, instructing Goodman to quickly head to Seattle with Richard to sign the contract.
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The next day, good news arrived: Richard and Goodman successfully signed the Microsoft stock transfer contract with the Bill Gates family office.
Based on Microsoft's current market cap of $19.2 billion, transferring $318 million meant Skycrest Capital held 1.65625% of the company. Adding the original 0.715% they owned, Linton's total Microsoft stake came to 2.37125%. By 1999, when Microsoft's valuation might surpass $500 billion, that stake would be enormously valuable.
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During downtime on the tour, Matt Damon humbly sought Linton's advice on screenwriting. He planned to adapt an essay he wrote in high school into a script and asked if Linton was interested in directing it. Linton recognized the script as Good Will Hunting, a film that had not only earned decent box office but also won numerous awards.
More importantly, by investing in the film, Harvey Weinstein made money and gained Matt Damon as a loyal ally. Linton shared his experience with Matt and enthusiastically said, "Once your script is ready, bring it to me. Even if I don't have time to direct, I'll help you find funding and a suitable director." Matt was deeply moved.
Indeed, Linton was planning to snatch opportunities away. With Harvey acting like a mad dog attacking everyone, Linton decided to take Weinstein's chances for himself. This included the lucrative Scream series later produced by Weinstein's company -- sorry, but Linton claimed those too.
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On August 21, Linton and Naomi finished their North American promotional tour and returned to Los Angeles. By then, Step Up had fully released in North America for two weeks, accumulating $89.73 million box office revenue.
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