Chapter 164: The Little Ghost Performs Admirably

William White was oblivious to the old timers' complaints, and even if he had known, he probably would have shrugged it off. Did they really take him for a fool?

The economy of the island nation had already taken off. With their limited land area, they lacked spacious sports fields, and even golf practice ranges came with exorbitant price tags. Those short folks were crazy about traveling, and Hawaii was always a top destination. Building a golf course in such a spot was bound to be a massive hit; making a fortune was inevitable.

So what if a club membership cost hundreds of thousands of dollars? For a long time, the islanders had more money than sense, and this golf course was built specifically to fleece them. After all, the US mainland was too far, but Hawaii was much closer. If managed properly, this venture would be a goldmine. It wasn't just about the island nation either; economies across Asia were booming, and there were plenty of wealthy newly rich around.

It would be even better if the Americans could adapt as well, with everyone flying roughly halfway so neither side had to suffer too much fatigue.

William White did not direct Home Alone 2, but the rest of the crew remained largely unchanged. Bolstered by the massive box office success of the first installment, the sequel naturally commanded a higher budget.

What if the box office performance turned out subpar?

There was really no need to worry about that. The current White Pictures had abandoned its fringe ways; they would organize test screenings for theater owners and actively listen to their feedback. In Hollywood, you could only play the eccentric card occasionally. If you kept doing it, people would treat you as a rule-breaker.

Theater owners might not know how to make movies, but they definitely knew which movies would sell. Throughout Hollywood's history, their box office intuition had rarely failed. If you insisted on bringing up something like The Blair Witch Project, I could only tell you that was a fluke; dropped into a different time slot, it might not have achieved such results.

The donkey party had already conceded defeat, and the market's reaction was reasonably positive, though it was hard to say how much endurance they had left. Either way, the hard times for ordinary Americans were far from over. Releasing a comedy at this juncture was rather clever—a fitting way to send a certain unreliable fellow packing!

With the advertising campaign selling out massively, followed by the movie's explosive success, the Hollywood majors finally saw the writing on the wall. They stopped treating him like a newcomer; even without the successful acquisition of Disney, he was still an industry titan.

The Disney family was naturally dead set against a takeover, but their employees did not feel the same way. Aside from a few die-hard loyalists, virtually no one held any affection for the current management. The reason was simple: ever since this bunch took over, Disney had been on a downward spiral. Forget returning to its former glory days; if things kept going this way, the whole operation would go under.

Look at White Pictures—that was the kind of movie they should be making. And those gorgeous comic books! Word was they were going to be adapted into animated films soon. By comparison, Disney was starting to look like a mom-and-pop shop.

William White didn't need to calculate how much money he had made; plenty of people were doing it for him, a phenomenon that was frankly baffling. Why were Wall Street folks so damn idle? Weren't they supposed to be balancing their own books? Why bother obsessing over how much cash a private citizen made? It was his company, and every cent he earned belonged to him alone.

In truth, the Wall Street crowd had it much worse. There were hardly any decent publicly traded companies left; even the hyped-up IT sector was struggling, and this year's returns would be dismal across the board.

The manufacturing prowess of the island nation was no empty boast. Once they mastered dynamic memory technology, they quickly surpassed their predecessors. This was the epitome of short-sightedness among American corporations: didn't you all enjoy selling those licenses? Feeling pretty foolish now, aren't you?

William White desperately wanted to tell these morons that their suffering had only just begun. The island nation had copied the Americans, and now the South Koreans and Taiwanese were copying the island nation. In less than five years, their so-called competitive edge would completely evaporate.

"Boss, Coca-Cola's profits have continued to climb this year with significant growth. Based on current intelligence, it will definitely open higher tomorrow."

"Tsk, is this another stroke of damn good luck?"

"While the stocks in his portfolio go up and down, overall they're performing quite well."

"Sigh, he can afford to buy like that, but our funds are too massive; we can't operate that way. Still, this soda play is interesting. Let's take a position as well."

"Understood, boss."

Following Morgan Stanley's lead, Coca-Cola began a steady ascent, a development that forced another group of so-called experts to shut their mouths. Just as William White had pointed out, they were merely hindsight experts. If you asked them to analyze why you made money in the past, they could rattle off hundreds of reasons. But if you asked them to forecast the upcoming market, they would simply claim that only God knew.

While one bastard was making money hand over fist, a bunch of other bastards could only drool and actively scheme about how to help William White make even more. Had these fellows read Das Kapital until their brains turned to mush? William White didn't know, but his mood was fantastic.

A drooling Morgan Stanley was thoroughly disgruntled. They made up their minds to package and sell off NBC and Disney. William White's debt-servicing capacity was off the charts; they didn't need to worry about financing issues—plenty of banks would be tripping over themselves to throw money at him.

These guys had lost all their pretense. Since he could secure low-interest loans from the island nation, he could do the same in Europe. If they were tactless this time around, they would likely be abandoned for good. Push a man like that too far, and just how difficult was it to buy your own bank?

Take a look at the settlement banks he chose: nearly all the major investment banks were included, save for the ones that had once offended him.

From this choice alone, one could tell how prudent his financial strategy truly was.

As for splashing money effortlessly on private jets and yachts?

Please! If you had earned that much money, you'd be showing off just as hard!

Good grief! Did they really have to make it this exaggerated? There was even a third act.

Watching a group of kids clamor about coming back next year to see Kevin, the industry executives who had sneaked in to watch the screening suffered a series of internal spasms. Exactly which parts of them spasmed was unknown, but they were certainly furious to the extreme.

Although this sequel fell short of the original, the sheer volume of fans was staggering. If these kids loved watching it, what could you possibly do?

Thinking ahead to next year's summer blockbuster season, the Hollywood titans felt a massive headache coming on. Three major blockbusters were already jammed into the lineup. They lacked the courage to jump into that fray; sure, the summer season was lucrative, but you needed to survive it to enjoy the spoils.

Fine, even Johnny English was being treated like a blockbuster. Never mind the production budget—Home Alone 2 didn't cost a fortune either, but look at the box office! Even if a film cost mere hundreds of thousands to make, as long as the box office reached those heights, who dared claim it wasn't a blockbuster? If you insisted on judging by production costs alone, the reigning champion of that era was undoubtedly Heaven's Gate.

Regarding this new film, the studios maintained a cautious stance. The director was a freshly minted Oscar winner, the production budget was a staggering fifty million, and the cast consisted almost entirely of A-list stars. As for the box office returns, they would wait and see how it performed.

Hollywood had already grown weary of someone's endless celebrations. This time, however, it was even better: that someone used the entire second week's box office revenue to buy food, shipping the whole lot straight to Africa, where a severe famine was reportedly raging.

Fine, twenty million dollars worth of food?

Were they certain those folks could eat that much?

Sigh, Americans really didn't understand the brothers over there. They simply didn't have the habit of saving. Storing food and fresh water was a foreign concept; they ate whatever grew in the fields, and if nothing grew, they simply starved. Such was their unique lifestyle—dare you disagree?