Chapter 603 Rio Olympics

"I sat in the office for a while and found that it was more tiring than training in the gym. Honey, you have been tired these years."

In the office, Link poured a glass of red wine for Evaka.

"Not tired! You train in the gym, win the game and get the gold belt, I work in the company, watching Link Music and Lionsgate grow little by little, the same feeling as you get the gold belt, fulfilling and satisfying. If I hadn't worked in Link Music and Lionsgate in the past few years, I would probably have wasted a few years somewhere else."

Evaka blinked her long eyelashes, and her plump lips had a gentle smile.

"No, an outstanding executive like you will be very popular no matter where you are. Fortunately, I tied you in advance."

Link pulled her white palm and smiled.

"I tied you in advance. Don't forget that I asked you to watch the game at Madison Square Garden."

"Well, you are awesome. You can tell at a glance that I am the best man in the world."

Link smiled gently, hugged Evaka and kissed her against the counter.

After a while of being intimate in the office, it was time to get off work. Link and Evaka drove back home, and the next day they took the three children to Hawaii for vacation to avoid the increasingly hot summer in Los Angeles.

At the end of May, Lionsgate's second summer movie was released.

"Suicide Squad" was jointly produced by Lionsgate and Warner Pictures. It tells the story of a group of criminals who agreed to cooperate with the US government to do some dangerous and dirty work in order to reduce their sentences. This group of people is called the "Suicide Squad". The team members include Deadshot, King Shark, Captain Boomerang, Harley Quinn, etc. Their first mission is to save the world from disaster.

The movie stars Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Will Smith, Jared Leto and others.

The production cost is 175 million US dollars. Lionsgate invested 80 million US dollars and was responsible for film production and North American distribution. Warner Pictures was responsible for overseas distribution. The box office revenue was split in half, and the copyright belongs to Warner Pictures.

The movie was released on May 27th. In the first three days of its premiere, it earned 133 million US dollars in 4,255 theaters in North America. On the 9th day of its release, the North American box office exceeded 200 million.

According to the current box office growth trend, the North American box office is expected to be around 350 million.

It is also the sixth movie released by Lionsgate this year that has exceeded 100 million in North American box office, which is similar to last year's performance.

As of this week, the North American box office of "Jumanji" has exceeded 400 million after more than a month of release, becoming the second movie in North America to exceed 400 million box office after "Captain America 3".

In June, something happened that had a great impact on Link and Evaka. After several rounds of PK competitions, the old father-in-law officially became the first candidate of the Elephant Party.

On the day when the old father-in-law got the title of candidate and gave a speech, Link, Evaka and little Margarita were also on the scene, listening to the old father-in-law's speech on the stage, and were also pulled by the old father-in-law to be a campaign tool.

In June and July, before the Olympics, Link spent most of his time training in the pool, besides vacationing and attending several campaign meetings of his father-in-law, and also participated in the training camp of the US swimming team.

——

In August, Link, Eva Ka, Taylor, the three children, Selena, Katherine, Ms. Mandy, Daddario, Frank and his family, and a large group flew to Rio de Janeiro to participate in the Olympics and travel.

His father-in-law also brought his whole family to Rio to cheer for him.

Leonardo, Paul Walker, De La Hoya, Mario and other people who had nothing to do also flew to Rio to join in the fun.

The opening ceremony of the Olympics was on August 5. The opening ceremony with South American style had its own charm. Gisele Bundchen was full of aura when she appeared, and she looked more beautiful than when she was naked backstage at Victoria's Secret.

Link asked Leonardo what he thought and whether he regretted breaking up with Gisele Bundchen.

Leonardo curled his lips and said no, but his eyes were honest and he stared at Bundchen.

Paul Walker laughed at Leonardo for being a little man who could not deal with a strong woman like Bundchen. If they did not break up, Bundchen would control him tightly.

Leonardo had a dark face and did not respond.

After the opening ceremony, the Olympic Games entered the competition period.

There were 16 men's swimming events in this Olympic Games, and Link filled in 13 events.

Including men's 50m/100m/200m/400m/1500m freestyle, 100m/200m breaststroke, 200m/400m individual medley, 4x100m, 4x200m freestyle relay, 4x100m medley relay, and 10km open water.

In the swimming events, the first ones were 400m freestyle, medley, and breaststroke. The preliminaries were held on August 7, and Link successfully won the first place in the preliminaries of the three events.

Because Link is famous, he is not only the most expensive athlete in the world, but also the most famous star with the most fans.

When his private plane landed at Rio Airport, he became the target of global media pursuit. During his competition, TV stations in various countries also broadcast it as a key event.

Fortunately, Link has participated in three Olympic Games, so his mentality is relatively stable, and he will not be nervous in front of the media.

After more than ten days of competition, he first won gold medals in five events of 50m/100m/200m/400m/1500m freestyle, and broke five world records.

In the 100m/200m breaststroke finals held on August 10, he successfully defeated British athlete Adam Peaty, South African Cameron van der Berg, American athlete Cody Miller and others, and won gold medals in two events.

The total number of gold medals reached 7.

In the 200m/400m individual medley held on August 11, he easily defeated old rival Michael Phelps, Japanese athlete Kosuke Hagino, American teammate Chase Calizzi and others, and won the championship in two events.

The total number of gold medals reached 9.

In the American media, in addition to the gold medal list of various countries, ABC, CBS and other TV stations also opened a list specifically for Link, detailing each of Link's games and the total number of gold medals he won.

Many media commented that Link alone is equivalent to a sports powerhouse.

In the 10km open water race held on August 12, Link broke the world record of the event with a score of 1 hour 42 minutes 21 seconds 20, and won another gold medal.

In the finals of the 4x100m, 4x200m freestyle relay and 4x100m medley relay held on August 13 and 14, Link and Phelps, Josh Prenot, Chase Calizzi and others from the US swimming team defeated the strong Australian team and won the world championship in three events.

So far, Link has won 13 championships in this Olympics and broken 11 world records, including 10 individual swimming events and 1 relay event.

Link has won a total of 26 gold medals in three consecutive Olympics, plus 3 silvers and 1 bronze, raising the record of the total number of individual gold medals in the Olympics to a height that no one can reach.

He is called a "real superman" and "alien" by the media of various countries.

At the closing ceremony, Link also spoke on behalf of all athletes, calling for world peace and caring for refugee groups, and finally participated in the fire-fighting ceremony.

After the Olympics, Link took his family to travel around Brazil for half a month before returning to the United States.

At the end of August, the summer season ended, and the box office of several movies released by Lionsgate Films came out one after another.

The best box office performance was "Jumanji", with a North American box office of 406 million US dollars and a global box office of 968 million US dollars. It is temporarily ranked third among all the movies released in the summer season, only after "Finding Dory" and "Captain America 3".

The second is "Suicide Squad", with a North American box office of 350 million US dollars, an overseas box office of 424 million, and a total box office of 749 million.

"Bad Moms", which ranks third, is about a mother who seems to have a glamorous life on the surface. In order to maintain a glamorous life, she swallows her anger. Finally, one day she is on the verge of exploding. The heroine decides to completely release herself with the other two mothers and start a joyful journey.

This is a low-cost comedy movie with a production cost of only 20 million US dollars.

After more than a month of release, the North American box office was 113 million US dollars and the global box office was 187 million.

It is also the seventh movie of Lionsgate Films that has broken the 100 million North American box office this year.

The fourth is "Sausage Party", a low-cost animated comedy film about a simple food purchased and brought home, but unexpectedly faced the dangerous situation of being eaten alive, skinned alive, and chopped up, and the sausage who discovered the truth will secretly make it public.

The production cost is 19 million US dollars. It has been released for nearly two months, with a North American box office of 97.68 million US dollars and a global box office of 145 million US dollars.

The fifth is the war movie "Hacksaw Ridge", adapted from the true experience of Desmond Doss, a military doctor in World War II, telling the legendary story of how he refused to carry weapons on the battlefield and saved 75 comrades with his bare hands in the Battle of Okinawa.

The film was directed by Mel Gibson and starred by Andrew Garfield, Sam Worthington and others.

The production cost is 40 million US dollars. It has been released for three weeks, with a North American box office of 54.84 million US dollars and a box office of over 100 million overseas. The total box office is expected to be around 180 million.

Although the box office is not impressive, the movie has a good reputation, with an IMDb score of 87 points and a Rotten Tomatoes freshness of 85%. The New York Times listed this movie as one of the top ten movies of the year.

The sixth place is "Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising", which is starred by the original cast, but the box office is not satisfactory.

The production cost is 35 million US dollars. After more than two months of release, the North American box office has just exceeded 50 million, and the global box office has just exceeded 100 million.

It is much worse than the first global box office of 270 million.

The six movies brought Lionsgate 1.106 billion US dollars in box office during the summer vacation.

Including the box office of 9 movies released before May, as of September, the total box office of 15 movies released by Lionsgate was about 1.95 billion US dollars, second only to Disney.

Disney's current North American box office is as high as 2.26 billion US dollars.

Although Disney's total box office performance is good, there are also three big box office scumbags, causing serious losses.

The first one was the disaster film "The Angry Birds" released in January, which cost $80 million to produce and only grossed $52 million worldwide.

Disney Chairman Alan Khan publicly announced that the film had caused a loss of $75 million.

It also proved that Disney Pictures' attempts outside of family-friendly movies had failed.

The second one was "Alice in Wonderland 2" released in May, which cost $170 million to produce and only grossed $77 million in North America and $290 million worldwide, which was much lower than expected compared to the first film's global total box office of $1 billion.

The film caused Disney to lose about 70 million US dollars.

The lead actor Johnny Depp unfortunately became a box office poison and was named the actor with the lowest cost-effectiveness by Forbes magazine for three consecutive years.

The third film was "The BFG" released in July, which tells the story of an orphan girl Sophie who met a short giant.

The film was directed by Steven Spielberg, with a production cost of 140 million US dollars. After more than two months of release, it only received 55.48 million US dollars in North America and 195 million US dollars in the global box office.

The production cost plus the publicity cost caused a loss of nearly 100 million US dollars to Disney Pictures and Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment.

In comparison, Lionsgate Films only had a small loss in one movie this year - "Joey's Struggle" released at the beginning of the year, with a production cost of 60 million and a global box office of 101 million, with a loss of less than 20 million.

From the book, Lionsgate Films is temporarily better and has a higher return ratio.

Lionsgate's summer movies are selling well, with the total box office in North America about to exceed 2 billion and the global total box office exceeding 4.2 billion US dollars.

The market is as good as last year, which also makes Wall Street investors more confident in Lionsgate.

In August and September, Lionsgate's stock price rose to $115 at its highest. After several fluctuations, it stabilized at $108 per share, and Lionsgate's market value also rose to around 21 billion.

Link once again sold some of his shares at high prices to acquire Amazon and Alphabet shares, increasing his holdings in the two companies to 3.4% and 2.02%, leaving him with 38.5% of Lionsgate shares.

As for whether Lionsgate will be out of control if he has too few shares, he is not worried about this.

In another three years, the world will suffer a disaster, the film industry will be severely damaged, and the market value of all film companies will plummet, even Disney and Netflix will inevitably be affected.

At that time, he only needs to take advantage of the decline in Lionsgate's stock price and spend a small amount of money to buy back all his shares. However, if there are too many things to do at that time, he may consider selling Lionsgate and concentrate on other things.

In September, the PK between the Donkey Party and the Elephant Party began, and Link and Eva Ka also put down their work and actively supported their old father-in-law.