Midas Pictures was a small movie company just down the street from Zane's office. It made movies, sold DVDs, and helped get movies into theaters.
"Mr. Midas," said Taro Hashimoto, Zane's head of Home Entertainment, "my company, the Golden Sunrise Group, is very serious about this offer."
He was talking to Brandon Midas, the 27-year-old boss of the company. Brandon had taken over the business from his father five years ago, right after college. He had big dreams, but he wasn't very good at running the company. He had messed up some big projects, and now Midas Pictures was losing a lot of money.
"Mr. Hashimoto," Brandon said, looking sad and tired, "please let me think about it. This library of movies is my father's life work. It's all he left me."
"I understand," Taro said gently. "But the bank won't understand. They want their money. If you don't sell the movies, you'll have to sell the whole company. Would your father have wanted that?"
Brandon was silent. The pressure from the bank was crushing him. If you owe money and your company is doing badly, the banks will chase you down!
Finally, Brandon asked, "Mr. Hashimoto... we also have a way to get movies into theaters. Would your company want to buy all of us? The whole company?"
Sell the whole company? Taro thought. Ha! We already have our own way to get movies into theaters. We don't need yours!
"Mr. Brandon," Taro said honestly, "you need to understand. We are only interested in the rights to your 65 movies. We don't need the rest. I'm sorry."
Two days later, after the bank called him again, Brandon gave up. He had no choice.
Taro paid $2.8 million to buy the rights to all 65 movies from Midas Pictures.
...
For the next few weeks, Taro and his team were busy. They traveled all over Hollywood, visiting small and medium-sized movie companies, trying to buy their old movies.
Why didn't they go to the big "Big Six" studios?
Because the big studios were already rich! They had their own TV channels and theme parks (like Disney). They made millions of dollars every year just by showing their old movies on TV. They would never sell!
So, Taro focused on the smaller companies. He also went to video rental stores.
Blockbuster was the biggest video rental chain in America. It had 9,000 stores! But there were lots of smaller video store chains, too. Many of them were struggling and going out of business. But even a dying company still owned the rights to some movies.
By the end of January, Taro and his team had bought the rights to 1,400 movies!
"Boss," Taro reported to Zane, "we now have the 8th biggest movie library in Hollywood! Only the 'Big Six' and MGM have more movies than us."
Zane nodded, very satisfied. But he also laughed a little.
"We have a lot of movies," Zane said, "but... wow, some of them are really bad!"
Taro sighed. "Boss, the rights for the good movies are all owned by the big companies. We bought what we could."
"I know you did your best," Zane said kindly.
Quality wasn't everything. Quantity mattered, too! A great movie might cost millions to buy. A bad movie might only cost a few thousand dollars.
"It's fine!" Zane said with a smile. "Even if these 'junk' movies don't make money right now, it doesn't matter. We're building a library. And in the future, when companies like Sony and Toshiba are fighting over DVDs, we can sell these rights for a lot more."
Zane knew the future. He knew that one day, online streaming sites (like Netflix) would need thousands of movies to fill up their sites. Even "junk" movies would become valuable then. Zane never made a bad deal!
"How much have we spent so far?" Zane asked.
"Boss, we've spent $60 million," Taro said with a bitter smile. "I wanted to spend the whole $100 million you gave me, but... some of the movies out there are just too terrible. I couldn't bring myself to buy them."
"Hahaha!" Zane laughed and waved his hand. "It's fine! Just spend the money! Use up the whole $100 million. No matter how trashy the movie is, there will come a time when it makes money. Go for it! Be bold!"
"Yes, boss!" Taro said, feeling relieved.
...
Meanwhile, at Paramount Pictures...
CEO Shirley Lansing looked at her assistant, Jordan. "You said Zane's company is buying up movie rights like crazy. What is their goal?"
Jordan shook his head. "Boss, it makes sense that they want to build a library. They're a new studio. But... the weird thing is, they aren't picky!"
"They're buying everything," Jordan explained. "Good movies, bad movies... they're taking it all. That part confuses me. The rights to those junk movies are totally useless."
Jordan frowned. "That Zane Blackwood is a cunning guy. He should know those movies are worthless. I really don't understand his plan."
Shirley was puzzled, too.
"Hmm," she thought. "Well, if we can't figure it out, let's just ignore it. Doesn't his company have two new movies coming out soon? Let's pay attention to those instead."
"Okay, boss," Jordan said.
Even though they weren't partners anymore, Paramount was still watching Zane very closely. They were still hoping that one day, they could just buy his whole company.
Chapter 245
Zane's bold move to buy thousands of movie copyrights caught everyone's attention. It wasn't just Paramount watching him; the whole country was talking!
The Los Angeles Entertainment News headline said: "Wald Pictures Has the 8th Biggest Movie Library in America!"
The California Entertainment News headline said: "Wald Pictures: A New Power Rivaling the Big Six!"
Suddenly, newspapers all over America were buzzing.
"Come on," a reporter from the Boston Post said. "Everyone knows those California papers are just fans of Wald Pictures. This praise is too much!"
The New York Times editor agreed. "So what? They have 1,400 movies. That's just behind the big studios. But look at MGM—they have 4,000 movies! The gap is still huge."
"Ha ha!" laughed a boss from the Utah Morning Post. "Why be proud of 1,400 junk movies? I heard they bought 200 of them for less than $1,000 each! What use are those trashy movies?"
Newspapers all over the country—from Pennsylvania to Hollywood—were making fun of Zane. They thought buying so many "bad" movies was a silly mistake.
However...
Some people in America thought it was great!
"I think it's cool," a high school student said on TV. "I never knew there were so many 'junk' movies in Hollywood! I want to see just how terrible they are. It sounds fun!"
...
In Texas...
A young mom named Jenny was interviewed outside a supermarket.
"I don't see a problem with it," she said. "My kids love SpongeBob and Peppa Pig, so we subscribe to Zane's TV channel, UPN. Now that they have 1,400 new movies... that just means more stuff for us to watch! I think it's great!"
...
In Florida...
A middle-aged lawyer gave Zane a huge compliment.
"You say these junk movies are useless?" he said. "No! I think the opposite! Hollywood is growing fast, and many small movie companies are disappearing. If no one saves their movies, they will be lost forever. That would be a huge loss for art! Even 'junk' movies are a part of our history."
The reporter interviewing him looked confused. Really? Junk movies are history?
But the lawyer made a good point.
...
At the Sony Group...
The bosses at the electronics giant Sony were also reading the news.
"A lucky guy is just a lucky guy," one boss sneered. "Is Zane Blackwood really collecting junk movies? I don't know what to say."
"Yes," his assistant agreed. "We need movies for our new DVD players, but we wouldn't want those junk movies."
Everyone nodded.
"We want excellent movies!"
"Junk movies are useless. They should be thrown in the trash."
"Zane Blackwood made a stupid move!"
"They call him the 'Little Hollywood Fox,' but he's not that smart."
"I heard he's spending $100 million on this!"
Everyone at Sony was laughing.
However... they couldn't see the future. They didn't know that a huge war over DVD formats was coming.
Are junk movies worthless?
Nonsense!
In the future, when the DVD battle gets intense, the price of every movie copyright will soar!
A junk movie that cost $500 today... might cost $5,000 in a few years. A movie worth $10,000 today... might cost $100,000 later!
Garbage is garbage, but if you're in the right place at the right time, even garbage can be gold.
Zane spent over $60 million on 1,400 movies. No one could imagine that in a few years, those "worthless" movies would be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Sony and Toshiba were going to pay a very painful price for laughing at him.
...
At the end of January...
Zane wasn't sitting at home. He took a flight to a small town called Park City, Utah.
Why? Because the famous Sundance Film Festival was happening there!
Zane brought his assistant Alexander, a distribution expert named Marco, and his team of 12 security guards.
When they arrived at the airport, everyone stared.
"Who is that?" a man asked, stunned. "That's quite a show!"
"Is he a prince?" "Look at those cars! They shipped their own cars on the plane? That must cost a fortune!"
Zane's 12 guards, all in black suits and sunglasses, looked very impressive walking through the small town. It was a huge display of wealth.
"Hey, hey," a young man sneered to the crowd. "Don't you know him? That's Zane Blackwood! He owns Wald Pictures and is worth over $3 billion!"
The crowd gasped.
Zane Blackwood might not be a movie star, but everyone knew his name now.
"If I'm not careful," Zane smiled to himself, "I end up showing off without even trying!"
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