Rise To Stardom - Chapter 97

Chapter 97: Fan Mail
Two days had passed by since the celebration party.

At the same time, that meant that [Epoch One] had now completed its second week run in theatres and was now in its third.

Having already earned a sum total of $101 million in its opening week, five times the original budget, the second week stayed strong too, earning a total of $85 million and bringing the current total earnings to $186 million.

That was, indisputably, a huge amount of money considering the third, fourth and fifth week returns were projected to add an additional $80 to $100 million extra!

Due to these, Hank had already started handing out bonuses to his employees and even Mark, Bruce and Jeffrey, all of whom had invested heavily into the movie, couldn’t wait to get their cuts of the Box-Office returns once the movie’s theatrical run was over.

Added to that was the fact that Dot Productions would now have enough funds to further bolster their production company and take on even more projects.

That being said, unwilling to lose his ‘Secret Weapon’, Hank had called for a meeting between the major shareholders of the company; case in point – Mark and Bruce.

After coming to a decision between themselves, all three had then called up Oliver and negotiated a deal with him.

This deal of course, involved Kyle.

During their discussion, Dot Productions had offered to offer Kyle a percentage cut of [Epoch One’s] Box Office earnings and every other movie of theirs he was involved in.

Usually, this was an offer that was unimaginable for a newbie, much less a very young, independent artist with no sort of agency backing him.

However, Hank, Mark and Bruce saw the massive potential that Kyle, despite lacking an agency, had and could easily offer. As a result, they wanted to capitalize on it… big time!

Oliver too, the moment he had heard the offer, immediately understood what Dot Productions was after.

Basically, Dot productions was trying to tie Kyle down with a very juicy offer that they knew would make him want to come back for more, especially if the offer sounded very lucrative.

It was akin to the way popular movie studios had deals with top talent agencies to have their most successful A-listers or upcoming stars in a lot of their popular projects for a percentage cut in the Box Office earnings.

No.

It was more akin to some sort of slave contract.

One that threw away the interests of the actors and turned them into a tool for the studios since they would now need to act in certain movie roles regardless of whether the actors themselves liked it or not.

On the other end of the spectrum though, if things do work out really well between both parties and said actors are offered a good variety of movie roles in a lot of the studios upcoming projects, it was a way to easily bolster an actor or actress’s portfolio and get them more recognition, regardless of whether the movies flopped or not.

A double-edged blade it was really.

One that could either turn out fantastic or go south, really fast.

That being said though, after weighing the pros and cons, Oliver decided that it would be much more beneficial to Kyle in the long run because that way, at the very least, he would stay employed.

Added to that, he had previously informed the young man about something like this potentially happening, one that Kyle had given him the go ahead to make the decision he felt was the best for him if it did happen.

Besides, Oliver had also once informed Kyle that; For a movie that flops, the goal was to not, be the cause of the movie’s flop.

Rather, the goal was to ensure that even if a movie flops, one still had great acting performances, enough that people would still praise the actor for a job well done even if everything else was burning down.

Due to that, the negotiations finally went through and after a lot of back and forth haggling, Oliver was able to ensure that Kyle got a 6% cut from the Box Office returns of [Epoch One], 2% more than the original 4% Dot Productions were offering.

Considering the current projected estimates for [Epoch One’s] total Box Office returns were now roughly $270 million, Kyle would quite possibly be getting $16 million in a few weeks’ time!

That was a whole lotta money for a young, aspiring star and it was definitely going to go a long way in helping out with a lot of their other plans down the line.

Along with that, Oliver was now certain of one thing even if Dot Productions weren’t outrightly saying it during their negotiations.

There was going to be an [Epoch Two]!

…

…

…

Placing the first script away, a bit disappointed that it was another action-thriller with sub-par plot, Kyle picked up the second.

___________________________

{Level Up} – (60%)

Created by Director Danny Rock, this dance movie, follows a mismatched group of misfits trying to save their neighborhood from getting renovated by the government.

___________________________

‘Hmmm…’ Kyle mused, placing the script onto the pile which he was planning to audition for.

‘Might be a good chance to level up my dancing skills…’ he said to himself.

Picking up the third script from the stack of five that was offered to him, Kyle couldn’t help but grimace as he watched his system, roast the shit out of it.

___________________________

{Teenage Vampires – Part 7} – (11%)

Written by some bastard out there. Act in this movie only if you’re interested in seeing your career crash and burn to oblivion.

___________________________

“Sheesh. Another one bites the dust…” Kyle couldn’t help but mutter as he gently placed the script on the other side of the table, sighing as he picked up the fourth.

The system had definitely gone too far with its wickedly blunt appraisal.

___________________________

{Prom Perfect} – (45%)

A brainchild of Director Clarissa Shane, this movie script details a surprisingly heartfelt, coming of age story which unfortunately, is riddled with too many plot holes and other obvious inconsistencies that points to the Director being a total amateur at this.

___________________________

‘Well I guess I’ll also take my chances with this…’ Kyle decided, placing the script onto the stack of scripts he was planning to at least audition for.

Ever since he had gotten a good exposure due to his role as Alex hunt, there had been no shortage of scripts that had been offered to the young man.

If before Oliver had been actively searching for work for him, now it was more like work was finding him.

There was a bit of downside to it though.

And that was the fact that most scripts that had been sent his way, were usually that of action-thrillers.

Sure it was nice to know he was being sought after but Kyle, unwilling to get stereotyped into a certain role, had tried to focus more on those that weren’t action movies.

Even if he could easily become rich by taking on the same roles over and over again, it would not sit well with his acting portfolio in the long run.

Variety is what makes an actor bankable and dependable after all and Kyle, understood that.

Added to that, most of the characters he was being asked to play in all these action-thriller movies, were usually so one-dimensional and lackluster, or straight-up third-rate clones of Alex Hunt.

That being said, the young man wasn’t in any hurry to jump right into acting again.

He really hadn’t taken a proper break since [Strange Canvas] blew up.

Coupled with also having to be present for everything [Epoch One] these past two weeks, it really was necessary that he took things slow for a while.

Just as he was about to pick up the last script which was titled [Gun ‘Em Down], presumably another action-thriller movie, Oliver walked through the door with a big white box in his hands.

Two days had passed since the entire negotiation between they and Dot Productions and now, they were both in a new three-bedroom apartment Kyle had rented for $7,500 per month in New York.

It was located in a secluded area of Greenwich Village.

Considering he was going to be travelling back and forth more and more as he began to work on more projects, it was necessary that he had a place to call his own instead of lodging at hotels every now and then.

There were still a bunch of unopened boxes lying around the apartment though, indicating that he had taken a break from unpacking to read the scripts.

“Decided which movies to audition for?” the agent asked as he closed the door with one leg.

“A few, yes. Can’t say I’m really feeling any of them but I’m not complaining. I appreciate whatever I can get.” Kyle casually responded, his curiosity piqued by the mid-sized box in Oliver’s arms.

“Just as I expected.” Oliver walked over, placing the white box on the table as Kyle cleared up space for it.

“That being said, I can give you a few deets about all the Directors involved in the movies you’re interested in auditioning for.” Oliver sat onto the chair as he did.

“That would be nice but, what is this?” Kyle pointed at the box.

“Why not check it out? See for yourself.” the agent gestured with a thin, mysterious smile.

{$2,185,355 USD has been deposited into your bank account ending with XXXX XXXX 9762 from GrooveBox-SWIFT}

{$5,882,510 USD has been deposited into your bank account ending with XXXX XXXX 9762 from ViewTube-BLITZ}

Glancing over the notifications on his phone, Kyle simply dismissed it, his interest solely on the medium-sized white box currently before him.

Staring at the box, his curiosity soaring through the roof, the young man gingerly opened it.

Widening his eyes in genuine surprise and excitement, Kyle’s joy reached a new height as he stared at the multiple stacks of different colored envelopes present in the box.

“Fan mail!” he exclaimed like a little kid in a candy store!

* * *

Usually, a lot of celebrities made it a thing to always keep their social media accounts active even if they had to hand it over to someone who would be managing it all.

This was usually done with the intent of wanting to keep their fans and general public engaged and interested in their lives.

Often times, these celebs would craft a carefully curated lens through which said public would view them through, feeding them only what they wanted to.

And of course, people also love following celebrities on their social media handles, almost to the point of obsession at times.

Why?

Escapism maybe?

The sense of witnessing a more positive, glamorous side of life?

One they wish they could identify with?

Or maybe, it’s just a parasocial relationship?

One could never tell.

Regardless, a lot of people really love keeping close tabs on a celebrity’s life, curious about what next they’re favorite star was up to.

And yet, among those celebrities, there were some who literally stayed off of the media as much as they could.

This usually went two ways for said celebrity.

Either people do steer off their case, much to the relief of said star… or, it backfires instead, causing people to become even more interested in their business.

Kyle Kestis unfortunately, was slowly becoming a case of the latter, mostly due to how he would just go radio-silent on all his accounts if there was nothing he needed to announce.

It was a bit weird yet intriguing to a lot of people, especially for a youngster like him in this day and age who should’ve been hardwired to want to share literally everything about his life on social media.

This same interest and curiosity in his business, was also one of the major reasons why he and Lily’s supposed ‘date’, along with their epic clap back at the paparazzi, had gone viral.

All as a result of the fact that his fans and the general public who were interested in what he was up to when he went radio silent, finally got to see a Kyle that wasn’t just being an artist on the big screen but simply just being a normal person like everyone else.

Maybe that was also why Kyle had suddenly started trending again on TweetTalk and his fans were going a bit crazy with joy…

…because, just a few minutes ago, he had posted a genuinely surprising video on his MediaGram and TweetTalk page that got literally, all of them, eagerly excited for his plans!