MGM's Plan

Upon hearing the news, Kevin immediately agreed.

The show could increase his visibility with the public and help build his personal brand as a director.

It would also benefit the box office, so there was no way he could refuse.

By May 4, Get Out had been in theaters for three days.

Over those three days, it earned $10.82 million on opening day, followed by more than $12 million and $13.3 million over the next two days.

At this pace, its North American box office could very well surpass $100 million.

In North America, the most important period for box office revenue was the first two weeks, after which it would begin to drop sharply.

Therefore, the early publicity was the most important part.

Although it was already likely to surpass $100 million, Warner and Kevin were naturally not satisfied with that.

Thus, the opportunity to appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show had been secured through Warner pulling some strings.

This was the opportunity Kevin had gained by knowing how to share.

Otherwise, no matter how good the film was, it would have been difficult to obtain such an opportunity.

Kevin, Will Smith, and Angelina Jolie arrived at The Oprah Winfrey Show.

A Black middle-aged woman with curly hair approached them with a beaming smile.

"Hello, Kevin, Jolie, Smith. How are you?"

Kevin, Steve, and Jolie all responded warmly.

After chatting briefly, the show officially began recording.

The main draw of The Oprah Winfrey Show was empathy. Of course, in Kevin's view, it was really just selling sob stories.

So, on the show, Kevin revealed that he was an orphan, that he had relied on his own efforts to become a genius director at the University of Southern California, and that his two consecutive films had both become major hits.

"Kevin, you're a classic American Dream story. Through your own efforts, you became a wealthy man step by step. By now, your net worth should be over ten million, right?"

"I heard you bought a luxurious villa in Beverly Hills worth several million dollars."

Oprah Winfrey put on an exaggerated expression as she said this.

After a simple display of wealth, the talk show finally got to the main topic.

"Kevin, what made you think of filming a movie with a Black protagonist?"

Oprah Winfrey asked curiously.

"Why can't a Black person be the protagonist?"

Kevin first responded with a question before continuing.

"In my films, I only cast actors according to the specific roles. I don't care about race."

"As long as someone is truly suitable for my movie, I'll cast them directly."

They chatted at length about the discrimination Black people faced in American society, while Kevin put on an expression of deep sympathy for them.

Will Smith chimed in from time to time. As a Black rapper, making people laugh was also one of his talents.

The talk show was recorded for more than two hours. Only after Kevin and the others exchanged contact information with Oprah Winfrey did they leave and head home separately.

A day later, The Oprah Winfrey Show aired, immediately drawing countless Black viewers and white liberals to Get Out.

That day, the box office successfully broke through $20 million.

Do not think that was too much. After all, The Oprah Winfrey Show currently had a fixed weekly audience of as many as thirty million viewers.

Spread across each day, it had more than four million viewers.

An increase of only several million dollars was actually not much at all.

MGM Film Company was one of Hollywood's eight major film companies.

Of course, according to Kevin, there were really only five majors.

Since MGM had been acquired by a casino tycoon in 1970, it had not produced any classics and had relied entirely on its old successes.

James Bond and Tom and Jerry were its last glories.

However, MGM's executives did not want things to remain that way.

They were searching for a way to help MGM escape its predicament and return to glory.

It was under such circumstances that MGM set its sights on Kevin.

Unlike film companies that had fixed partnerships with other major directors, Steve Kevin had only recently become famous and had yet to bear the mark of any film company.

MGM's plan was to stake everything on becoming Steve Kevin's patron.

Inside the MGM president's office.

"Everyone, can we afford to invite Steve Kevin to make a moderately budgeted film?"

Rett, the president, asked with a serious expression.

At the time, MGM was carrying debts amounting to several hundred million dollars. The crushing burden naturally made them cautious in everything they did, especially when it came to film investments.

But Rett, as president, knew that if things continued like this, MGM would merely die a slow death.

They had to find a way to reverse the situation.

For a film company, nothing could change the current situation more effectively than the emergence of a box office hit.

But truly famous, major directors were either making artistic films with a high probability of losing money or taking on investments of more than $100 million.

MGM could not accept either of those options.

Of course, there were famous directors willing to make smaller productions, but those directors had long since been snapped up by other film companies.

They had nothing to do with MGM.

At present, MGM was the only one with a chance.

"We can, but if it fails..."

The speaker's meaning was obvious. If it failed, Rett, as president, would bear the primary responsibility.

The likely consequence would be that he would take the blame and leave MGM.

As middle-aged men who had risen to senior positions at MGM, none of them wanted to take the blame and leave like that.

But they all knew that MGM would not last many more years if things continued this way. They had to find a solution.

Therefore, deep down, they all supported Rett as president. Of course, taking the blame themselves was out of the question.

"I will take full responsibility. Please support my decision."

With things said to this point, the others naturally could not refuse.

Thus, MGM's president began trying every possible way to find Kevin's contact information.

Inside his villa, Kevin was reading the news in the newspaper.

Ever since appearing on Oprah's talk show, Get Out had suddenly drawn a great deal of support, especially from several of the most famous Black movie stars.

Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington, Forest Whitaker, Samuel Jackson, and other famous Black actors jointly published messages in the newspapers supporting Kevin's Get Out.

After Kevin had clearly established himself as a champion of equal rights, and with the film's protagonist indeed being Black,

those Black actors collectively voiced their support for Kevin.