The Split

Though surrounded by praise and admiration, Irene wasn't letting success go to her head. She stuck to her filming schedule, knowing she didn't want to be a shooting star that blazed across the sky for a moment and then vanished. She still had to work hard.

Besides, until the money came through, none of it was real.

She had nothing to do with the film's release in other countries, its television broadcast fees, or its physical rental fees. She could only profit from the North American box office, and even that was because she was an investor's daughter. Without that connection, she would have received a paltry $200,000 out of the $136 million.

From the original idea to the script and the filming of the entire movie, Irene had handled everything herself. But without connections, she would have been paid only a meager salary—a commonplace arrangement in Hollywood.

Once October began, Irene focused almost entirely on filming. When she occasionally took a break, she looked forward to the day they would finally divide up the earnings.

Normally, within two weeks of a film leaving theaters, the theaters transferred their share to the distributor.

But once the distributor had the money, when it would pay the production company and investors was anyone's guess.

Fortunately, Zoetrope Studios, part of the Coppola Family, wasn't some obscure Hollywood outfit or a newly formed independent production company. Even though MGM had passed on working with Irene again, as long as Francis Coppola was involved, they wouldn't dare delay the payment indefinitely.

After the theaters deposited their 50 percent share of the box office—$68 million—into MGM's account, Zoetrope Studios sent a team of professional accountants to reconcile the film's accounts with MGM.

As the distributor, MGM was entitled to 12 percent of the North American box office under the contract, giving it a distribution fee of $16.32 million.

On top of that, MGM deducted the promotional and publicity expenses it had covered, along with various charges for film prints, publicity, storage, research, and all sorts of other things. Who knew how much shady business was hidden in those expenses?

Fortunately, Britney had helped with the publicity, and its costs were modest compared with those for Eyes Wide Shut and Runaway Bride, which had come out around the same time. MGM charged a total of $9.6 million for all those miscellaneous expenses.

Irene didn't know whether the charges were reasonable, but it wasn't her place to comment.

After MGM took its cut, $42.08 million remained. That still had to cover the salaries of the actors and other staff, including more than $1 million in outstanding payments to Irene and the rest.

The nearly $40 million left after that was what Zoetrope Studios had earned.

Under the contract Irene had signed with Francis, she was entitled to 80 percent of any profits from the North American box office. That came to $24 million. After taxes and other expenses, she would actually take home about $20 million.

A year ago, no one could have imagined Irene would make that much. Fortunately, only a handful of people knew about the agreement between her and her father, and Irene had made herself a fortune.

At first glance, it seemed as though Francis's Zoetrope Studios had done all the work for nothing: it had invested $10 million, yet ended up with less than Irene.

But the North American box office was only the beginning of its returns. MGM would share the North American video and television broadcast rights, but Zoetrope Studios had retained full control of the overseas rights. With $136 million in North American box-office earnings, they could surely sell those rights for a good price.

Irene hadn't been involved in the accounting or negotiations at all, but she'd had Shelly follow the whole process from beginning to end. After all, Shelly was getting a share of every dollar Irene earned, so he was more than happy to do it.

From what Shelly had seen and heard, Zoetrope Studios had made nearly $60 million from the investment, despite putting up only $10 million to begin with.

A sixfold return in just one year—that was exactly the kind of payoff that had investors outside Hollywood waving cash and fighting to get in.

At lunchtime, Irene took her phone from Vera and saw an unread text.

She opened it casually. A bank deposit notification appeared on the screen.

Seeing the eight-figure transfer, Irene's heart soared. In her mind, fireworks were going off nonstop.

For the rest of the afternoon, she was in a good mood with everyone. Even when an actor needed several takes, nothing could spoil her happiness.

Filming wrapped early that afternoon. To celebrate her previous movie's successful run in theaters, she invited the main cast and crew to dinner.

The others didn't quite understand why she was celebrating a movie leaving theaters. Wouldn't it make more sense to celebrate its box office breaking $100 million?

Still, even if they didn't understand, they were glad to have dinner on the director.

Only her assistant Vera and her best friend's boyfriend, Edward, probably knew the real reason she was so happy.

"I think she was more beautiful in Notting Hill, and Hugh Grant was more handsome, too."

"Exactly, exactly. I agree. Richard Gere looks too old."

"What are you talking about?" Irene had gone to the restroom and, when she returned, saw her actors deep in discussion.

"Director, we were talking about Julia Roberts's two movies," said Jessica Alba, who played Karen Smith, Regina's friend.

She was a newly signed actress with CAA, and they'd brought her along with the rest of the cast for this production.

Irene raised an eyebrow. Aside from Julia Roberts and Irene themselves, Edward was the only person there who knew about her feud with Roberts. But Irene wasn't about to bring it up.

"This really has been Julia Roberts's year. Both her movies were hits. When will we be actors like her?" Seeing that Irene hadn't responded, Rachel McAdams took the initiative to carry the conversation forward.

"To become an actor like her, you need the right timing, the right place, and the right people. But don't sell yourselves short. You're still young, and your future is in your own hands." Irene picked up her glass and took a sip of champagne. There was no personal animosity in her assessment of Julia Roberts.

"People online say you'll be the next Garry Marshall, Director. You understand what ordinary audiences want and are good at creating warm, optimistic, hopeful stories with a fairy-tale quality. And they say Director Marshall is going to work with Ms. Roberts for a third time. They've got another great movie coming out next year."

At that, Irene's first thought was, Would they be going head-to-head again next year?

It wasn't that she was afraid. She just wondered whether this rivalry was going on a little too long.

"Oh? What movie are they working on this time?" Irene ate her steak, looking as though she wasn't particularly interested.

"I think it's based on a novel. What's it called..." Jessica tapped her head. "Oh, right. The Princess Diaries!"