[Hyde POV]
A few people stayed behind to discuss important issues such as traffic, overbooked hotel rooms, and the lack of infrastructure in town if these concerts were going to become a common thing.
It took a couple more hours before the meeting was finally done.
I groaned and sat down on the chair with my legs up on the conference table. "That's so tiring."
Max gave me a cup of coffee and massaged my shoulders slightly. "You've worked really hard, boss."
I nodded and said, "Yeah. I need a reward."
"But the meeting isn't over yet." Bruce said with a childish grin.
A young man in his mid-thirties entered the conference room. I stood up immediately and shook hands with him.
"This is our first time meeting. Bruce hired me to lead the company. I'm the general manager of the newly rebranded American International Pictures, Jonathan Price."
He looked a little like Sebastian Stan, but with long hair and a thick mustache. He also wore brown sunglasses, the same as me.
"Nice to meet you, Jonathan. I'm Steven Hyde." I introduced myself too. "Have a seat. Do you want some coffee?"
"Oh no. I already drank four cups of coffee today." He rejected politely. "You have really great coffee here."
"Thanks. It's French press." Max was happy and bounced slightly.
I sipped on the coffee and asked, "So. What do you honestly think about Bruce buying the company?"
"Hey. Why is that your first question?" Bruce complained immediately.
"Honestly?" Jonathan shrugged slightly. "I think it's the stupidest thing he's ever done. He has no experience running a company, much less a distribution company."
"He has no background in business, nor does he know how to market a product."
Jonathan was being really truthful without even minding Bruce's feelings.
"However, he's really confident about it. I'm guessing you have something to do with that."
Jonathan glanced toward me behind the sunglasses. "So I'm just going to take my time and see if you're worth that sort of confidence."
I chuckled and said, "Honestly, I'm even baffled by it myself. But since I'm a partner, I have to give my best to the company."
Jonathan chuckled softly.
Bruce interjected, fully annoyed. "Why don't we talk about Kentucky Fried Movie? And Encounter too! We need to send something to the theaters soon."
Jonathan nodded and said, "I think Kentucky Fried Movie is an excellent spoof movie. It's funny, distasteful, and the test screenings showed that younger audiences are really enjoying the skits in the film."
"So we can proceed with the theatrical prints." He said immediately.
I nodded slightly and said, "I'll handle the prints."
Jonathan looked slightly taken aback. "I'm sorry to ask this, but which lab are you using? Print quality affects box office returns quite a bit."
"It's a Kodak-affiliated lab in Indonesia." I replied casually. "I can get it cheap and fast. The quality is comparable to the ones in theaters right now."
Maybe it could even be better since it was made in 2025. I already talked to the company about this.
I added, "They offered us two choices. First, they'll deliver the prints after they finish the entire bulk order. So for eight hundred prints, it'll take around two months to get them all."
"Or, they can deliver every finished batch of one hundred prints separately. They charge more for delivery, but we can get the first hundred prints in just ten days."
Jonathan widened his eyes slightly and fell into deep thought.
"It's definitely better to get the first hundred prints immediately. We're not going to need all eight hundred at once anyway." He nodded slowly. "And ten days for one hundred prints is actually really fast."
Bruce interjected, "We can get the prints for Texas Chainsaw Massacre too."
"About that." Jonathan immediately spoke up. "Editing the movie without the creator's permission is actually illegal."
"What?" Both Bruce and I were surprised.
"But we own it." Bruce said cautiously.
"That actually makes it okay." Jonathan shrugged casually. "I just want to remind you not to do that again. We can get into really big trouble if you do that carelessly."
Both of us breathed in relief.
"So, two hundred prints for Kentucky Fried Movie. One hundred fifty for Texas Chainsaw Massacre. And two hundred more for Encounter." Jonathan wrote it down on a piece of paper.
"How much is the cost per print?" He asked me.
"Twenty-five hundred." I replied.
"That's actually very competitive." He said while calculating the numbers on his notepad. I handed him a calculator to make his job easier.
"It comes to around 1.375 million dollars." He nodded slightly. "How about the delivery?"
"Thousand dollars per shipment." I explained. "Ah, they can print multiple movies at once. So we can get one hundred, one hundred, and one hundred together. The thousand dollars is just for the delivery itself."
"That's actually pretty good." Jonathan nodded slightly.
Bruce added, "The price is higher than normal. But considering the efficiency and the fast printing time, it's actually quite good. We don't have to wait months to get the first print ready."
A normal 1977 print would cost around 1000-2000 dollars depending on the lab. If it's a rush job, it could spike up to 3000-4000 dollars.
Even a rush job would take at least 20 days. Getting the prints in 10 days was worth that sort of pricing.
Jonathan took out a checkbook and began writing the numbers there.
"I'll handle the international payment, so just put it in the company account." I told him.
I could access the company account online so I could transfer it straight to my Paypal account later on.
Jonathan nodded and gave me the finished check. "I'll come by in two weeks to check the print quality."
"Is Kentucky Fried the only movie we have right now?" I asked curiously.
"Yes." Jonathan let out a beleaguered sigh. "Bruce fired all of the people responsible for acquisitions, so we basically have to start from scratch."
"Well, they kept picking trashy movies." Bruce argued defensively. "We still have to release Tentacles and Empire of the Ants from the acquisition."
I already checked the numbers before.
Tentacles would actually make a pretty nifty profit at the box office. Somewhere around ten to twenty million dollars.
The actual figure wasn't fully known since B-movies rarely had accurate public records for their box office numbers.
But with a production budget of around one million dollars and marketing costs of roughly one and a half million, the movie would still generate a healthy profit for both us and the filmmakers.
The prints for Tentacles were already finished, so the movie had already started showing in theaters.
We held thirty-five percent of the profits since we carried the distribution risk upfront. And profits would only be calculated after we recouped the marketing and printing costs first.
Empire of the Ants was a different story though.
That movie was trash visually.
It only made around 2.5 million dollars against a one million dollar production budget and another million spent on marketing. After the theaters took their cut, we'd barely make anything back from it.
"We don't have the prints ready for Empire of the Ants yet." I looked toward Jonathan. "Why don't I see if I can improve the movie a little?"
"Again, that's illegal." Jonathan immediately replied.
I looked at him in disbelief and explained, "I'm only adjusting the sound design to improve the suspense. Then you can show the new cut to the filmmaker and see if they approve it. I'm not changing the storyline."
Jonathan furrowed his eyebrows slightly.
"…Fine." He sighed tiredly. "Do it within one week. We still need time to print the movie too, so we don't have much time left."
"Got it." I grinned.
Bruce interjected and said, "Enough about that. I want to know when we're going to put Encounter into the theater? Shannon called me every single day, wanting to know the update."
I grimaced slightly and said, "The movie's done. But I still recommend that we wait. Star Wars is extremely huge right now."
Jonathan added, "But it's a different audience. It can still be risky, since there's a lot of movies that come out in the summer."
I thought about it and said, "Why don't we hold a test screening for it?"
"Great!" Bruce was excited. "I'll call Shannon to come here to Point Place."
…
I didn't go home after the meeting.
Instead, I took out the film-to-digital machine from my system storage and began digitizing the movie; Empire of the Ants.
Everyone else had already gone home since it was dinner time. I stayed alone in the office and began editing the sound of the movie.
I also rejected the talent manager's offer to let me debut as a rock star. I already had a lot to do. I wasn't going to add going on tours to my list.
"The low-shrill hum of the ants is too much. It works for a short time, but it ruins the ending scenes."
The audio in the movie was especially terrible. It took me hours just to bring it to a passable level.
"I'll do two versions. One with only audio and sound editing. Another one with added stock footage and replaced ant footage."
I tried adding some footage from a National Geographic documentary at the start of the movie. A swarm of ants devouring everything from scorpions, snakes, grasshoppers, lizards, and even caterpillars.
It created a much stronger opening for the movie and immediately gave it a sense of eeriness.
There was also a scene where an army of ants crawled across the docks toward a ship. They used miniatures for the ant march, so it didn't look that bad. But once they got onto the ship, there's only an ant shadow instead of actual ants.
The visual effects were truly low-budget, and honestly, they looked terrible.
I decided to contact one of my YouTube editors since he specialized in VFX in college. Although, now he had to work with Youtubers to make a living.
I told him to try fixing the fifteen-second footage.
[Editor: I can do it. But why? This is a movie from fifty years ago.]
[Me: Just for fun. I want to know if the movie would be better if they had modern technology back then.]
[Editor: Like a research project? I can run it through AI. Sora can probably handle it pretty quickly. Then I'll overlap the actual actors into the footage.]
[Me: Sure. Just don't change the footage itself. Only improve the VFX.]
[Editor: Give me two days. No, just one is enough.]
My smile suddenly disappeared.
"…Why am I even editing this movie myself?" I muttered tiredly. "Can't I just outsource the hard part?"
After finishing Empire of the Ants, I began digitizing Kentucky Fried Movie and cleaned up the audio there too.
It didn't need much editing since it was mostly comedy skits. I only fixed the sound a little bit.
Then I sent the films to the lab for theatrical printing.
Three hundred prints cost me only seventy-five thousand dollars.
I added two hundred more prints for Texas Chainsaw Massacre and another three hundred for Encounter.
"Since the print cost is relatively cheap, I might as well keep extras in storage in case the movies become hits and additional prints are needed."
Eight hundred prints cost me around two hundred thousand dollars in total. I paid upfront since I still hadn't cashed Jonathan's check yet.
"Alright. Now I just need to wait for the ant movie to finish."
My stomach suddenly gurgled.
It was already midnight, and I hadn't even eaten dinner yet.
Getting into my Chevelle, I drove back to the Formans' house and entered the kitchen.
Mrs Forman had set aside some food for me in the fridge. She made pork chops tonight.
I heated them up on the stove and began eating alone when Laurie suddenly tried sneaking out of the house.
She was wearing skimpy clothes, blue eyeshadow, and bright red lipstick.
"Oh, where are you going, you hussy?" I asked teasingly.
Laurie glared at me and made a mocking face.
"I have a party to go to tonight. Let me borrow your car."
"Like hell I'm letting you borrow it." I grimaced. "Take Forman's car."
"I can't find the keys. I'm pretty sure he brought them upstairs with him before going to sleep." She complained.
"I'm not giving you my car." I said firmly.
"Come on." Laurie rolled her eyes dramatically. "Give me your car and I'll bring you to the party. It's full of college students, so there's gonna be a lot of drunk girls there. Drunk… and loose."
I scowled slightly.
"I don't want to go to your frat party. And also, you're starting work tomorrow. Shouldn't you be sleeping already?"
"What are you? My father?" Laurie mocked immediately.
"No. I am."
Red suddenly appeared by the kitchen doorway.
Laurie turned around with a face full of shock.
"Daddy?!"
"Steven. Did you just get home?" Red walked toward me and asked.
"Yeah. I had to prepare the movies for printing and send them to the lab." I replied casually.
Red nodded approvingly before turning toward Laurie.
"See? That's what being an adult looks like. Working hard and actually taking your job seriously."
"But Daddy—" Laurie tried arguing, but Red immediately cut her off.
"Go upstairs, wash that makeup off your face, and go to sleep! You start working at Price Mart at eight tomorrow morning!"
"UGH!" Laurie stomped her foot angrily. "I don't want to work at Price Mart! It's so lame!"
"Well, you have to do something." Red snapped back. "You stay out partying all night and waste the entire morning sleeping. So it's either Price Mart or you find another job!"
"Ughhh!" Laurie groaned in frustration before immediately taking it out on me. "This is all your fault! Daddy never forced me to do anything before!"
"That's why you flunked out of college and became an unemployed degenerate." I replied casually while eating my pork chop.
I smirked slightly and teased, "Besides, having some money is good. Maybe you can buy your own car and move out too."
Laurie went silent for a moment as the realization hit her.
"Okay! I'll work as a cashier, but only until I find another job!" she declared rebelliously before storming back to her room.
Red sat down beside me and asked quietly, "Are you staying out all day because of your father?"
"He's not my father anymore." I replied.
"Kitty's gonna get sad seeing you cut off your own family. Someone who's actually trying to make amends." Red hid his own concern behind Kitty again.
I chuckled self-deprecatingly.
"Red. When I was little, my parents left me at the mall. They were both drunk."
I paused briefly before continuing.
"I had to walk ten miles home in the blistering heat. Wearing shoes with holes in them."
Red listened quietly.
"Then I ran into a pack of wild dogs and got chased by all of them. One of them even bit my leg. Do you remember that?"
"Yeah." Red chuckled faintly. "You were limping for a month."
I smiled slightly.
"While I was curled up on the ground trying to fight those dogs off, I realized something. I had nobody I could rely on except myself. That's how I survived until now."
Red's expression froze slightly.
"You're not alone anymore." He spoke more softly now. "You have… Kitty. Eric…"
"Oh yeah. Eric." I laughed quietly. "You wanna hear another story?"
"Sure." Red sighed slightly.
"After my dad left, my mom became a complete mess. So I was hungry all the time. I didn't even have money to buy lunch at school."
I stared down at my plate. "So you know what I did?"
"What?" He sighed and asked.
"I stole Eric's lunch money."
Red immediately looked shocked. "You did that?"
"Yeah. Not once or twice either. I did it for two straight weeks." My voice cracked slightly. "I was too hungry. I didn't have a choice."
I swallowed hard before continuing, forcing out a smile. "One day, while I was trying to steal it again, Eric caught me."
I laughed weakly. "And then… he just looked away."
My eyes became watery and I sniffled quietly. But I held on and did not let myself break.
"I stopped after that. A few weeks later, I couldn't handle it anymore and finally asked him why he never got angry at me."
I smiled bitterly. "He told me…. he already knew from the very first day."
Red stayed completely silent.
"Then he showed me his GI Joe lunchbox and said…" My chin trembled slightly. "'My dad bought this for me. So he don't really need the lunch money back.'"
I lowered my gaze and laughed shakily. "I felt so ashamed, Red."
"You were a kid." Red comforted me immediately. "You were desperate."
"Yeah. I was a kid." I nodded slowly. "And the only person who looked out for me… was another kid."
I smiled faintly through the tears. "A snotty little brat with missing front teeth who treated me kinder than most adults ever did."
I took a deep breath and calmed myself down. "Eric even called me to come eat at his house. And Mrs Forman would always cook me the best food ever."
I forced a smile again and said, "So, Red. I'm not angry anymore. And I'm not ashamed of myself anymore either."
I stared quietly at the kitchen table. "But now he comes back?" My voice became slightly angry. "Why?"
I looked toward Red directly. "When I don't need him anymore?"
The kitchen became completely silent.
"If he really wanted to come back and be a good father…" My voice cracked again. "Then he should've come back for the little kid."
I swallowed hard. "The one getting bitten by dogs while crying for his dad to save him."
Red went silent for a bit. And he suddenly patted me on the head.
"If you don't want to see your dad, then you don't have to see him anymore. I'll talk to him and make sure he leaves you alone." he sighed and stood up.
"Now, finish your meal and go to bed." He ordered.
"Aye-aye sir." I replied jokingly and went to wash my plate.
(Read up to chapter 170 on my patreon.
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