My Life in Hollywood C29 Streaming Is the Future (Patreon)

The reporters weren't stupid. They could see what the young filmmaker was doing—using this interview to pitch his company. But honestly? They didn't mind. If anything, it made for better copy.

"Your website sounds interesting with the whole streaming thing," Hana said, genuine curiosity in her eyes. She'd majored in computer science, had dreams of launching her own internet startup someday. The concept had potential, she could see that much. "But here's what I don't get—why would anyone subscribe to your site when Blockbuster's got over 9,000 stores across the country? They're literally everywhere. Even with your DVD rental perks, I'm not seeing people choose you over them. What's your play here?"

The other reporters leaned in slightly, more out of politeness than real interest. This was a sixteen-year-old's company, after all. They figured Hana was just being nice, letting the kid have his moment.

"Great question." Marcus smiled, genuinely appreciating her for opening this door and keeping the conversation on Netflicks. "Look, I'm not gonna lie to you—we can't compete with Blockbuster. Not now. They're a billion-dollar empire. My little company?" He shrugged. "We're not even a blip on their radar."

Then his expression shifted, confidence settling into his features. "But who says people are gonna stick with DVDs forever? That's not the game we're playing. We're building for what comes next."

What comes next? Everyone's eyebrows went up. They hadn't expected this level of ambition from the kid.

Off to the side, Nathan caught those words and felt a sinking sense of déjà vu. 'Oh god, he's gonna do it. He's actually gonna say something crazy to the press.' A headache was already forming behind his eyes. But what could he do? The kid was stubborn as hell.

"Wait, what do you mean 'what comes next'?" Hana asked, genuinely thrown. "You're saying you're not even trying to compete with Blockbuster right now?"

Marcus laughed, easy and confident. "Exactly. It's pretty simple, actually. In the future—maybe not this year, maybe not next year—but eventually, people are gonna want to watch everything from home, through the internet. When that day comes? That's when we'll be ready."

The room went quiet. Everyone got it then—Summit's publicist Klara, the reporters, all of them. They understood exactly what Marcus was implying.

"You're saying DVDs are going to be obsolete?" Hana's voice carried real shock now. This wasn't some vague prediction. This was a direct shot.

Marcus didn't answer. He didn't need to. His silence said everything.

The message was clear: DVDs are dead, streaming is the future, and Blockbuster's entire business model is headed for the graveyard.

(⁠ʘ⁠ᗩ⁠ʘ⁠’⁠)

The reporters' eyes widened. They stared at the sixteen-year-old kid sitting across from them. To make a claim like that... to essentially predict the death of a billion-dollar giant...

Sure, they were Hollywood reporters, here to cover an indie film made by a teenager. But they were still reporters. And this? This was a story. A headline. Maybe even front page material.

They'd definitely be using this. Might even spice it up a bit for the lead.

Part of them felt bad for the kid. His career was just getting started, and here he was, potentially burning bridges before he'd even finished building them. Sometimes the truth was inconvenient—sometimes it cost you. But that was the price of speaking it out loud.

But hey, he'd said it. Nobody forced those words out of his mouth. ⁽⁠⁽⁠ଘ⁠(⁠ ⁠ˊ⁠ᵕ⁠ˋ⁠ ⁠)⁠ଓ⁠⁾⁠⁾

They were already mentally drafting their articles, imagining the clicks, the shares. Still, they had a job to finish. They'd come here for the indie horror movie, not his streaming company. Time to pivot back to Paranormal Activity.

Marcus didn't mind the shift at all. As far as he was concerned, the Netflicks promotion had been a massive success.

What he didn't realize was that Publicist Klara was having a minor crisis. The interview had spiraled completely out of her control, and she'd just sat there and let it happen. Even though they'd moved on—interviewing Katherine, Mike, the young crew members, Arya and Ryan—she knew the damage was done. There was no putting this genie back in the bottle. These reporters wouldn't waste this gift. Marcus's bold predictions about Blockbuster's demise would be in tomorrow's headlines, guaranteed.

---ᕦ⁠⊙⁠෴⁠⊙⁠ᕤ---

When the interview finally wrapped, Ryan slumped back in his chair and let out a long breath. "Man, I always thought interviews looked easy. You see actors just sitting there talking, looking all relaxed. Actually being in one? Completely different story." He rolled his shoulders, working out the tension.

"Right?" Arya nodded. "We barely even talked, but just sitting there with all those reporters staring at you... my brain's fried."

If they were exhausted, Katherine and Mike were absolutely wiped. Other than Marcus, they'd fielded most of the questions, their minds working overtime to give thoughtful answers while the press fired away from every angle.

But underneath the exhaustion, there was relief too. Excitement, even. After this? Projects would start coming their way. They could feel it.

"You're really reckless, you know that?" Nathan's voice cut through the moment. Everyone turned to see him pointing at Marcus, shaking his head. "Why the hell did you run your mouth like that in there?"

Marcus put on his most innocent face. "What do you mean? I was just promoting my company. Is that a crime?"

"Promoting is one thing—but saying Blockbuster's gonna be obsolete? Are you serious?"

"I didn't say that!"

"You didn't have to! You implied it, which is the same damn thing!" Nathan pressed his fingers to his temple. "Seriously, kid. That kind of arrogance doesn't do you any favors."

Marcus hadn't actually planned to go that far. He'd just wanted to use the press junket to get some attention for Netflicks. But once he got rolling, the words just came out.

Even if he hadn't said it directly, those reporters would connect the dots. They'd put it in their articles, probably with a nice provocative headline too.

"What's done is done." Marcus shrugged. "I don't regret it."

"You..." Nathan wanted to keep lecturing, but stopped himself. 'He's still sixteen.'

He couldn't really blame the kid. He'd been young once too. This was just part of being that age—speaking without thinking about the consequences, believing you were invincible.

He just hoped to god that Blockbuster didn't take it personally. That would be a whole different level of problem.

The tension in the room thickened for a moment. Then Mike coughed, breaking the mood. "So, uh, I feel like I missed something here. Marcus, you actually started your own company?"

That opened the floodgates. Katherine, Arya, and Ryan started talking about Netflicks—what it did, how it worked. When it came out that the company was pulling in over $100,000, Katherine and Mike's jaws dropped.

Then Marcus casually mentioned they were losing around $200,000 a month, and the two of them looked like they might pass out. Arya, completely unfazed, threw in that they'd landed a $7 million investment, and that pretty much finished them off.

Nathan watched everyone talk, their voices overlapping with excitement and disbelief. He moved to the window, pulling aside the curtain to look out at the city. His expression was complicated—pride mixed with something else. Something harder to name. He sighed quietly.

When had it happened? When had his son become... this? A critically acclaimed filmmaker at sixteen with a $15,000 budget. A business owner pulling in six figures a month.

He never could have imagined this.

He turned back toward the group, their animated conversation filling the room. 'Marianna, you selfish bitch,' he thought, the familiar bitterness rising. 'If you hadn't walked out, you'd be here watching him become this. Watching him grow up alongside me.'

---ᕙ⁠(⁠ ⁠¤⁠ ⁠〰⁠ ⁠¤⁠ ⁠)⁠ᕗ---

The next day, headlines from the interview started popping up across the internet.

At first, they only caught the attention of indie film nerds. Made sense—Paranormal Activity was still hard to find in theaters, and the whole "$15,000 turning into millions" story was exactly the kind of thing that indie nerds obsessed over.

But nobody expected what came with it:

16-Year-Old 'Paranormal Activity' Filmmaker Launches Internet Company, Predicts Blockbuster's Demise

Teen Director Claims DVDs Are Dead, Blockbuster Headed for "The Graveyard"

Teen Filmmaker Says Streaming Will Kill Video Rental Giant

That kind of headline? Impossible to ignore. Shocked readers started sharing the articles immediately. Within hours, thousands of people were clicking through, reading about this kid's audacious claims.

These articles should've gotten maybe a few hundred views in a day, tops. Instead, tens of thousands of people knew about Marcus's "ridiculous prediction" before lunchtime.

The comment sections exploded:

"This kid's got some nerve. Blockbuster's been around for decades. They're not going anywhere."

"Arrogant little punk. Wait till the real world knocks him down a few pegs."

"DVDs obsolete? Yeah right. This is America, kid. We like owning our stuff."

"Arrogant doesn't even begin to cover it. Blockbuster's rooted deeper in America than McDonald's. They're not going anywhere."

"Who does this kid think he is? He made ONE movie and now he's predicting the future?"

It escalated fast. By the afternoon, even WNN (World News Network) had picked it up.

Now it had broken out of the indie film bubble. Way more people knew about the claims than should've for some small-time interview. And with it, Netflicks was getting attention it never would've gotten otherwise.

The subscriber count jumped. A few hundred new sign-ups in the first 24 hours alone—and the numbers kept climbing.

Later that afternoon, after class let out, Marcus sat in his office at the rented Netflicks building. The space was simple—basic desk, a couple chairs, walls still mostly bare except for a whiteboard covered in revenue projections. Nothing fancy. Just functional.

He stared at the subscriber dashboard on his laptop, genuinely stunned. 'Did my promotion actually work this well?' It seemed almost too good to be true. Then reality set in. 'No... it worked because I said something controversial. That's what got people talking.'

The door slammed open.

Marcus looked up from his screen. Jefferson stood in the doorway, sharp suit and all, aPhone in hand.

"Jefferson—"

"Kid, did you actually say this shit in the interview?" Jefferson cut him off, thrusting his phone forward. The screen was small, the mobile browser clunky as hell, but the article was clear enough: Teen Filmmaker Arrogantly Claims Blockbuster Going Out of Business. "It says here you basically told them Blockbuster's finished!"

Marcus swallowed. "I didn't say it exactly like that... the reporters spun it—"

"Don't give me that." Jefferson could see right through the deflection. He shook his head, looking eerily similar to how Nathan had looked yesterday. "Kid, I told you to promote the company. I didn't tell you to piss off a billion-dollar giant!"

He kept going, pacing now, his voice rising with each point. Marcus just sat there, taking it.

After a few minutes, Jefferson ran out of steam. He dropped into the chair across from Marcus's desk, loosening his tie. "What now?" His voice came out tired, almost defeated. "You just made enemies with a giant. Things are gonna get ugly."

Marcus could see his partner spiraling. And yeah, it was his fault.

That's when it appeared.

[Major Quest: Bury the Giant]

[Objective: Successfully compete with and outlast Blockbuster Cinema in the home entertainment market.]

[Description: You've made bold claims about the future. Now prove them. Build Netflicks into a viable alternative that can survive and thrive while traditional video rental collapses. Your predictions must become reality.]

[Time Limit: Four Years]

[Reward: +1,000 Points]

[Failure Penalty: Company dissolution, permanent ban from entertainment industry quests]

Marcus blinked, staring at the notification. This was the first time the system had ever given him a failure penalty. That made his stomach tighten slightly. But honestly? Even without the system's punishment, if he failed to back up his words, Blockbuster would make damn sure Netflicks never got off the ground. They'd crush him. Make it impossible to operate. A giant didn't forgive threats—they eliminated them. So really, the stakes were already sky-high before the system got involved.

But damn, a thousand points? That made his pulse quicken. The thrill of it pushed past the nerves.

His nervousness about facing Blockbuster evaporated.

He cleared his throat. "Offending them?" Marcus almost laughed. "Even if I hadn't said anything in that interview, we'd have ended up on their radar eventually. We're building a competitor. That makes us a threat."

Jefferson's head snapped up. He looked at Marcus and saw something different in the kid's eyes. Something cold. Calculating.

"You should know this better than me—you've been in business longer." Marcus pressed his hands together on the desk, his expression dead serious. "There's no such thing as smooth sailing. You either fight for your position, or someone takes it from you. That's just how it works."

Jefferson felt something shift in his chest. He stared at the sixteen-year-old across from him.

He'd almost forgotten just how ambitious this kid was. The scale of what Marcus believed he could accomplish... it wasn't normal. It wasn't rational.

If someone asked him to put a word to it, Marcus had the will of conquest. That same delusional self-belief that every billionaire on the Forbes list possessed. The ability to look at impossible odds and genuinely believe the world would bend to their vision, not the other way around.

Jefferson's expression hardened. He sat up straighter.

What he didn't know was that Marcus had just gotten a system quest promising him 1,000 points. But that was a secret Marcus would take to his grave.