343 - Another Three Billion

"Mom?"

Xiaoli opened her eyes. Crystal stood beside the bed in a robe, the hall light behind her.

"What time is it?" Xiaoli asked.

"I woke up and Ethan was gone. He isn't in the bathroom. Did he tell you where he went?"

"He went home after you fell asleep."

"Without telling me?"

Xiaoli sat up. She and Ethan had slept together after Crystal went to bed, a secret that made her daughter's question almost unbearable. He had told her more about his household than he had told Crystal. She could not decide how much Crystal already suspected. She pulled the blanket around her shoulders and made room on the edge of the bed.

"Sit with me," she said. "We need to talk about what you expect from him."

* * *

Earlier that summer, in mid-June, the fight for moviegoers had been moving faster than Ethan's negotiations with Time Warner. Disney had taken Mulan II, a sequel it had held and reworked, off the shelf and into a wide theatrical opening. The original Mulan had won an audience around the world; Disney hoped the name would carry its follow-up through the summer.

Elizabeth wanted to see it. Ethan told her the early response looked poor, but she had grown up with the first film and refused to let a forecast make the choice for her.

"You can tell me afterward that you were right," she said. "I still want to decide for myself."

He went to a matinee with her and the Olsen twins. Halfway through, Elizabeth stopped defending the film. Outside, she rubbed her eyes, disappointed less by a bad sequel than by the feeling that someone had traded on a story she loved.

"They had Mulan and Mushu," she said. "How did they make it feel so small?"

"A familiar name gets people through the door," Ethan said. "It can't do the work once they're inside."

MGM had its own answer in theaters. Full Throttle, a street-racing picture led by Michael Fassbender and Dwayne Johnson, built its biggest set piece around a bank vault hauled through city streets. Eliza Dushku played the female lead; audiences who knew her as Peggy Carter in MGM's Captain America had another reason to turn up. The action was excessive, loud, and easy to describe to a friend who had missed it. Reviewers called it a competent crowd-pleaser, which was all Ethan had asked the film to be.

It could not take the number-one slot. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith was still drawing families, longtime fans, and people who wanted to see Anakin Skywalker's fall on the largest screen they could find. Ethan had never felt the series in his bones the way its most devoted audience did, but he understood how thoroughly it had shaped American popular culture. The new film had given that audience an ending it could argue about for years.

By the time the trades had enough data to compare the summer's early winners, Revenge of the Sith had taken roughly $488 million worldwide. Full Throttle was doing its job in second place, with about $124 million in North America and a path toward a strong international total. Mulan II was taking the criticism Disney's executives had feared.

Ethan and Judy had once planned to place a major MGM release directly against Disney's sequel. They no longer needed to. A weak film could do more damage to its own studio than a rival opening on the same weekend.

While the trades compared grosses, entertainment reporters gathered outside a rented house in Santa Monica. Ethan and George Lucas had been inside for almost an hour. The reporters knew talks had been underway; they did not know whether the numbers had held through the final round.

"Why sell before Sith finishes its run?" one asked.

"Maybe the box office estimate is already in the price," another said. "Lucasfilm owns more than two franchises. Think what MGM can do with Industrial Light & Magic."

Inside, the last pages were signed. Ethan and Lucas shook hands as the lawyers gathered the originals.

The price was $3.055 billion. Ethan would pay $2 billion in cash and transfer a block of his existing MGM shares, valued at $1.055 billion at signing. The block represented about 3.87 percent of the studio. No new MGM shares had to be created. Lucasfilm, Industrial Light & Magic, and Skywalker Sound were included, subject to the detailed schedules that had taken the lawyers so long to finish.

This was Ethan's acquisition, not a purchase made by MGM. Lucasfilm had been privately held, and Ethan had chosen to buy it personally. George would become one of MGM's largest individual shareholders through the shares he received, but he had no interest in running the studio. Ethan would have to manage the boundaries between his private company and MGM whenever the two did business.

The reporters were shown in. Ethan and Lucas came out together, not trying to hide how pleased they were.

"Mr. Lucas and I have completed an agreement," Ethan said. "I am acquiring Lucasfilm, including its effects and sound businesses, for a combination of cash and shares from my personal MGM holding. The total value is $3.055 billion."

George took his turn. "I care about the people who built this company. Ethan has promised to invest in the tools they use and give the stories room to grow. That matters more to me than watching the same sign stay on a door."

"Is Star Wars finished after Revenge of the Sith?" a reporter asked.

"The film is still playing," Ethan said. "I'm not announcing another theatrical episode today. I've been thinking about a television story, though. It would follow people living out on the edges of the galaxy after the Empire falls, far beyond the New Republic's easy reach."

"Does it have a name?"

"The Mandalorian. It's an idea, not a production order. We have to earn the right to make it."

Pens moved across notepads. Another reporter asked about Indiana Jones.

"I want to make a fourth film," Ethan said. "If the script comes together, Christmas 2006 is possible. I won't promise a release date before we know the story works."

George said he expected to step back from day-to-day franchise work. He might advise on a project, but he wanted time for the smaller, experimental films he had put aside for years. Ethan did not interrupt him or claim the decision was a retirement forced by the sale.

The photographers called for them to stand together once more. Ethan put an arm around George's shoulders for the cameras. Beyond the flashes, he could already see the next argument: if he owned Lucasfilm privately while MGM distributed its work, every deal between them would have to withstand scrutiny. It was a complication he intended to solve, not a reason to let the company go to another buyer.