[Owen POV]
(Speed Running 1997 to get to the meeting with the god. Sorry, I'm not continuing this novel)
In 1996, I had built the foundation for the future in this world.
4CLOVER and Lucky Clover.
4CLOVER continued to finance the movies from production companies while Lucky Clover made our in-house production.
Now, the cable channels, originally Auteur TV and Rashomon TV, were combined to become AURA TV.
It has around 500,000 subscribers each, which brought our total subscriber count to 1 million.
Compared to HBO which has 25 million subscribers, we were really a small channel.
People laughed at the name at first. But within months, "Aura Originals" started trending in trade magazines.
AURA launched with a modest 120 million dollar operational budget.
About sixty million went straight into new programming. Ten original shows spread across genres.
Wishbound, a dark remake of I Dream of Jeannie– a show from the 70s, became our breakout hit.
Campus Crush captured the twenty-something crowd with the same charm Friends had.
And since it was rated 16 plus without the same censorship public network has, the show definitely boosted the young audience's attention to my channel.
Mad Men, and The Soprano Family filled out the rest of our early lineup. Our first push into prestige television before the world even used the term.
As soon as both of the shows came out in June, the channel numbers boosted from 4 million at that time to 10 million subscribers.
Our agreement with the cable operator, Time Warner– was we would get 60% from the subscription fee. The cable channel was in a package deal, but our value was around 8 dollars per month.
So that means in June, we started to make 60 million monthly. At this time, it was still hard for us to recoup the losses from the earlier investment in the first half of the year.
To start up all the original programming, I had invested over 300 million in the cable channel.
It was something almost every one of the cable operators in the country was sneering at, except for HBO, which followed our lead and invested heavily in original programming too.
By mid-1997, Wishbound, The Sopranos, Mad Men drove the AURA tv brand into pop culture. Everyone was talking about it.
We didn't completely reject ads either—just the intrusive kind. Instead, we ran– Sponsored behind-the-scenes specials and product tie-ins like Coke + Campus Crush.
That added another $25 million a year in revenue.
At the end of the year, the cable company only made a meager profit of 50 million since I reinvested everything into the company– better programming, better movies, better actors.
That was on the cable channel side.
The main money-making came from 4CLOVER and Lucky Clover.
First, the Sixth Sense movie finished its theater run, so we put it on home video. It brought another 300 million to the movie revenue after a year.
Then, Hold On Tight also finished its theater run. That brought us 250 million in revenue from rental and VCD sales.
Fantastical Halloween made 80 million on the video market. Then, Scream, Swingers, both gave us 300 million more after a year in the 1997 market.
In 1997, we released a couple movies in theatres.
The first one was Upload– starring Jeremy Renner.
With the John Wick style fight scene but the comedic chops of Jackie Chan, the movie earned 323 million at the box office after a 6 month run, and it also made 'Jack Harper', my director's name skyrocketed.
The merchandising alone from that movie made around 500 million. Although we only get 30% of that. Rental and VHS sales brought another 200 million for it.
The second one was my first musical movie.
It was released in March, shot in January.
I crafted an intricate story about the music industry and rise to fame. Owen Chase– my actor persona, became the lead alongside Zoey and Britney.
I didn't want to do it at first, but I didn't find anyone with enough acting chops to do it.
The movie was about a next generation musician camp where several musicians and talented kids would go to the camp and compete with one other for a chance to get signed on by a label company.
It started with the song, "Waiting on a Miracle (Encanto)", but was sung by Zoey in the context of her wanting to stand on stage.
I heard it secretly as she was singing by the lake, and then approached her, asking her to write a song with me.
She was afraid of standing on stage at first. Then, at the middle of the movie, I forced her by singing Shallow (A Star is Born) alone and waited for her to come on stage.
When she did, the whole audience– which consisted mostly of teenagers and young adults cheered.
The song took the entire world by storm.
Britney had her own subplot about backstabbing in a girl's group team.
She also performed multiple dance scenes in the movie, acting as a seriously talented antagonist to Zoey and me.
There was also an African American kid who dressed like Urkel at the beginning, transforming into a heartthrob boy band kid at the end of the movie.
The plots were intertwined, and there were around 10 side characters, all with their own side plots.
I shot the dance movies in the same way Revolting Children in the Netflix's Matilda musical was shot.
Since the cameraman had to picked up the heavy camera and filmed the show, I had to be the one who became the cinematographer of the film.
Disney tried hard to suppress the musical release, even re-releasing a Disney Classic at that time to sabotage the theater run.
However, the impact of the musical was tremendous.
With a budget of 40 million dollars, the movie made around 350 million dollars at the box office. But home video and merchandising? Double that.
The soundtracks especially were selling like crazy.
Then, we had our first , second, third, fourth and fifth flop.
I invested in a couple of newbie writers and directors, but their movies failed to gain any traction at the box office because they were heavy dramas and experimental.
It did however, gained a lot of critical acclaim for it.
L.A Confidential, Good Will Hunting, I Know What You Did Last Summer, were all movies I financed, and it brought back a great profit.
The last one was O-Class. The movie took 5 months of pre-production starting from September 1996.
I shot the principal in March-April 1997. It took another two months for editing, CGI and such before it was released on June 1 again.
The movie started with explaining the premise of O-Class through a class scene. Then, the main character, 'Henry Brand', was then kicked out of the school as he lacked potential to enter the O-Class team.
20 years ago, the government, in the particle accelerator experiment, cracked the dimensional barrier on earth and brought monsters into our reality.
Then, humanity began to develop powers to fight off the monsters.
Henry has the power of fire. However, he could only heal himself with his flame, and not hurt others.
He couldn't even heal others with it. That's why he was kicked out of the school which was training the other superhumans.
It showed the journey of a weak protagonist. How he trained himself to the limit. Sword training, traps and alike. He also has a sidekick, Sackboy, which I based on the game I played in my previous life.
Sackboy is a doll-like character from the video game series LittleBigPlanet, described as a small, anthropomorphic, burlap-like doll with button eyes and a zipper.
As I controlled him with my puppetry skill, which made him seem alive and really on the screen– like Baby Groot, the merchandising sales of the toy alone had surpassed the box office collection of the movie.
Like a shounen protagonist, he didn't give up after being thrown out of the school, and accidentally stumbled into a plant-type humanoid monster kidnapping a girl.
The plant monster wanted revenge on the developer of the new mall since it was built on its habitat and killed all of her sapling.
The plot was an allegory for climate change and habitat destruction, where the action of the people would affect the next generation, not them.
The action in the movie was unlike everything Hollywood– the world has ever seen.
Micheal got into the humanoid plant costume. Everyone knew about the prosthetic costume, but when the movie came out, the audience was stunned by it.
The fiery sword, the extremely terrifying plant monster, and the impeccable story telling of a hero's journey. And most importantly, the visuals of the movie were mesmerizing.
Henry almost died a few times in the battle against the weakest of the O-Class monsters. However, he didn't give up and kept standing even when he was bruised and battered.
The impact of the movie was tremendous. It made 822 million at the box office, which was basically the last straw for the big 6 companies before they banded together and tried to put me down.
But, I was prepared for that.
Starting from January 1997, Victor D Andre, the Greed demon, had been lobbying for a fairer ratings system and created the structure for the college reviewed rating system.
He went to Japan, China, Europe, Middle East, and made the governments there recognize the new ratings system.
Then, a documentary came out with multiple theater chains owners telling the viewers about the MPAA method and how they put down the smaller studios.
It created a backlash to the MPAA system immediately. The big 6 was really confused as to why the theater chain would personally break their decades long relationship with each other, unaware of the Greed demon influence.
O-Class had to start at the unrated theater first before it went into the major theater since MPAA refused to give it a rating before the release date on purpose.
It made around 300 million internationally before it had its wide release in the US. In total, it got almost 990 million dollars worldwide. It was a phenomenon before the Titanic took over.
Everyone knew about it since Victor used O-Class as the spearhead on why the MPAA system was monopolistic and needs to be abolished.
Victor also said that the MPAA wants to give O-Class an R rating, when it was clearly PG13. It made people go to the theater to check it out themselves.
It pressured the big six studios greatly and the MPAA said it would work together with the colleges to review the movies to get the ratings.
But Victor lobbied a politician to pry away the control from MPAA and force the theater chain to recognize the new rating system.
It took almost a year for that to happen. Finally, the new rating system was recognized and many had benefited from it, not just me.
→ Total Revenue (All Films): ≈ $4.65B
→ Total Costs (production, marketing, prints, merch licensing, employee salaries, movie financing etc.): ≈ $1.7B
→ Net Film Division Profit: ≈ $2.95B
That's how much I've profited in a year, which puts me at number 2 in the market share rank, just under Disney.
Still, since I kept the numbers private, no one really knew about the profit I've gotten. That was the benefit of being a non-public company.
Besides, in the entertainment industry, profits weren't really profits.
Most of the money would be reinvested into building the channel , the brand and most importantly, the staff.
…
"Another year has passed by huh?" I muttered as I wore a tux in front of the mirror.
Elena picked up the Golden Globe awards I got last year for Best Actor in a comedy series and Best actor in a Drama series, given by the Golden Globe. I also received a nod at the Oscar for Best Actor for the Sixth Sense movie.
The Sixth Sense did win George the Oscar for best picture, which boosted his prestige and also played an important part in getting O-Class to get almost a billion dollars at the box office.
"Just a few more days left." Elena muttered with a nervous expression.
"Three days to be exact." I smiled as I comforted her. "I wanted to live too, but just in case I didn't… you know what you need to do, right?"
Elena nodded with difficulty.
I smiled at her and said, "Don't be sad if it doesn't work out. I've really enjoyed myself in the last two years."
"I don't want to talk about this." Elena said before pushing me to the courtyard.
Today, Agustin and Sandra decided to tie the knot. They were getting married.
We had the ceremony at the courtyard. It was the end of December 1997, and the New Year would come soon.
"Do you, Sandra Chase, take Agustin Chase to become your husband?" I asked Sandra as I became the officiator of the wedding.
"I do." Sandra wore a white wedding dress and replied with a beautiful smile.
Agustin's face was full of tears. I asked him the same thing, and he said, "I absolutely do."
"By the power bestowed on me by the State of California. I pronounce you, husband and wife. You may kiss the bride." I said ceremoniously.
Sandra whipped Agustin into a princess kiss and kissed him. Everyone cheered and wished them blessings.
Everyone here took my last name– Chase, as their family name. Elena Chase, Micheal Chase and so on.
In case anything happened to me, it would be their way to remember me by.
1998 came in pretty quickly since I was basically just working and cultivating for the last year.
On the third of January, I left the Montecito building and went to another city for my eighteenth birthday.
I went to Death Valley since I didn't want anyone to be implicated in case a giant creature attacked the place I live in again.
That night, the moment I was waiting for finally came. The meeting with the lawyer god.
He came to meet me in my dream.
"Hi Owen." He greeted me casually.
"Hi Bald God." I greeted back.
His expression fell and he said, "Call me Lapis."
"Alright." I said casually.
He sighed and said, "You don't have to worry. You're not going to die today."
I breathed in relief finally.
He added, "But you are going to die soon."
I froze and stared into his face.
"Your soul is tainted with death." He explained. "That's why we reset the souls after each death. To cleanse it and change its fate. But since you have been living ten lives– it's hard for me to reset your soul."
"So I am going to die?" I was disheartened.
"I thought you're prepared for it." He asked with a light chuckle.
I shrugged and said, "I guess I got a bit attached to them. My friends– no… my family."
The god smiled softly as he heard my words. After pausing for a while, seemingly to think, he finally broke the silence and said, "Alright."
He cracked his knuckles and said, "I thought about it. And there's some method that would work… I think."
"You think?" I raised an eyebrow, skeptical.
He grinned and said, "Well. You are a special case. Hmmm…" He stared at my entire body, studying my soul.
"I guess. If I made you my apostle, you can ignore the marks on your soul."
"Apostle?" I was shocked.
He nodded and said, "You are strong enough to become one. Nice job by the way. You're at the Ascension stage, is it? You sure are using your knowledge creatively."
"What do you mean by becoming your apostle?" I asked again.
He replied, "Becoming my apostle means doing stuff for me. In return, my divinity would mask your soul. And you would be able to live a natural life without the fate of your deaths haunting you."
I went silent for a while.
"What should I do as your apostle?" I asked warily. I wasn't going to agree to something I had no clear understanding about.
Lapis smiled and explained it to me with a serious tone.
"Make sure that no demons could cross through dimensions. If they did, then, it would be an irreversible cataclysm for the world."
He added simply, "Basically, what you're doing right now. Kill the demons you see. I will notify you of the large disaster and you stop that for the world."
"So I kill demons, you will add more years to my life?" I asked knowingly.
"Yes." He nodded.
"I can do that." I shrugged, nodding in agreement.
"Great. Cause, there is a demon trying to cross between the dimensions in the next few days." Lapis sighed in relief.
"Alone, you might not be able to do it. But the growth of your sect has been amazing. I think all of you will be able to fight him off and bring peace to the world." Lapis said seriously.
He gave me the details of the demons and then left the dreamscape.
As I opened my eyes in the small motel room in Death Valley, I realized that Elena, Micheal, and everyone else were there in the room, waiting for me to wake up.
I was a bit taken aback when seeing them there. Elena smiled at me and said, "You're not dead." She hugged and cried slightly.
I hesitated a bit, but I placed my hand on her back and let myself relax. "Yeah. I'm not."
"So, what did the bald one tell you?" Micheal asked.
I smiled and told them all, "That I can live with all of your help."
I explained to them the situation.
Elena grinned and said, "So. What are we waiting for? Let's go kill the demon."
She grabbed my wrist and pulled me out of the small motel room.
My snakes wrapped their body around my ring again-- I gave them to Elena before.
"I guess... I can live properly in this life."
-The End-