Domination in America, Starting from being a Boxing Champion-Chapter 830 - 601: Music Industry Recording Incident

Counting the releases in January and February like "Joy's Struggle," "Escape From Planet Earth 2," and "The Conjuring 3," as well as "Me Before You" which was released on Valentine's Day, Lionsgate Films' total box office in the North American Region has reached 460 million US dollars, a pretty good achievement.

Which has also caused Lionsgate Films' stock to slowly rise to 88 US dollars per share.

By April and May, Lionsgate Films will release four more movies, including "Black Crazy Woman 4," "Arrival," "Fifty Shades of Grey," and "The Shallows."

During the summer, Lionsgate Films will release six movies, including "Hacksaw Ridge," "Jumanji," "Suicide Squad," "Bad Moms," "Sausage Party," and "Subpar Love."

Among them, "Jumanji" and "Arrival" are co-produced with Paramount Pictures, "Bad Moms" is a collaboration with Disney Pictures, "Suicide Squad" is in cooperation with Warner Bros. Pictures, and "Sausage Party" and "Subpar Love" are collaborations with Annapurna Pictures.

Compared to last year, Lionsgate Films has fewer blockbuster releases this summer, but the quality is good. The actual box office will depend on the performance of competitors.

In order to keep the company competitive against the Big Six Studios, Link continues to read bestsellers or review scripts collected by Lionsgate Films during his free time, gradually finding multiple promising film projects.

Including "The Shape of Water," "Three Billboards," "The Universe in an Instant," "A Star is Born," plus recommendations from the production department like "Phantom Thread," "Baby Driver," "Money World," and "Green Book."

Currently, there are over thirty promising film projects in Lionsgate's script library. If managed correctly, Lionsgate Films can still maintain a dominant position at the box office for the next two or three years.

"A Star is Born?"

While reading scripts, Taylor walked from behind and snatched the script from his hands.

Link helplessly spread his hands, took a sip of juice from the table, and, seeing Cynthia come over, asked her how school was and if she had made any new friends.

Cynthia jumped into his arms, chattering eagerly about her experiences at school. The little girl, five this year, had been home-schooled by a tutor in previous years and had now been sent to a private school to interact with peers and enhance her social skills.

Alexander also went through the same.

Lil Margarita, seeing her brother and sister had arrived, ran down from upstairs chattering nonstop.

The previously quiet living room suddenly became noisy.

"This script looks interesting, are you playing the male lead?"

Taylor asked after reading the script.

"No, it's Bradley Cooper's script for a collaboration with Lionsgate." ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com

"A Star is Born" tells the story of a washed-up country music singer, Jackson, helping a young girl, Ali, who dreams of stardom to achieve her musical aspirations. It looks very promising.

Originally, Bradley Cooper intended to collaborate with Relativity Media, but since Relativity declared bankruptcy at the end of last year, the script was then taken to Lionsgate.

"Why don't you act in it? You haven't released an album or sung for a long time, just like the male lead, a washed-up singer. I think you'd fit the role perfectly."

Taylor teased with a twinkle in her blue eyes.

"How could I possibly be washed up? As long as I want to release an album, I can still sell over a million copies in the first week, easily crushing you."

Link laughed.

Taylor wrinkled her nose and greeted Ivanka.

Today is the weekend, a day everyone agreed to meet for dinner.

"What do you think about me playing the lead actress?"

Taylor asked.

"You acting?"

Link shook his head; Taylor's acting was mediocre and often exaggerated. She was fine in music videos, but in movies, she seemed unprofessional and might ruin a good script.

Seeing him shake his head, Taylor glared at him irritably. If Ivanka hadn't been there, she would have certainly lost her temper.

"Don't be upset. It's not that your acting skills are bad, it's just this role isn't suitable for you. Ali is an ordinary-looking, undiscovered, short singer, while you are very beautiful and well-built, an instant hit singer before 20, too different from Ali for it to feel right."

Link explained.

"Hmph, I was just speaking off the cuff, why are you taking it so seriously."

Taylor said.

"I always take films seriously. If not, Lionsgate Films wouldn't be as big as it is."

Link smiled.

Taylor grunted lightly and ignored him, speaking with Ivanka and thanking her for her help the previous time.

In early January, Kanye West released a song "Famous," which mentioned the 2009 MTV Awards incident of grabbing the microphone and claimed that Link and Taylor were nobodies who got famous by hitching themselves to his 'rap god' status.

The lyrics even included some quite disrespectful terms.

After the release of the song, it was criticized by many. Link and Taylor are both creative musicians, talents combining beauty and skills.

In particular, from his debut in 2009 till his hiatus in 2014, Link's songs and his five albums were nearly invincible in the music world, easily topping the singles charts, and leading the album sales charts every year.

Even before entering the music world, Link was an Olympic champion, World Boxing Champion, and a movie star, already well-known, and with his romance with Taylor, he didn't need any publicity stunts.

Moreover, in 2010 and 2011, using many rap songs, Link beat the East Coast rap gang — Jay-Z, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, 50 Cent, T.I., and others were no match for him.

Rather than saying Link got big through hype, it's more accurate to say he climbed to the top of the music world by stepping on their heads with his talent.

And for Taylor, initially, her dating news with Link was well known, linking them in a publicity stunt.

What made Taylor's career explode was the news of her breakup with Link. During April to June 2010, Link's third album sold massively. Link had an affair, and they broke up, dominating the media at that time.

Lately, Taylor has solidified her position as queen of country and pop music with one high-quality record after another.

In the process of Taylor's rise to fame, even if there was a bit of being famous thanks to Kanye, it was just a tiny portion.

Moreover, the 'mic-stealing incident' was orchestrated by Kanye; Kanye put his face forward to be slapped, not someone trying to ride on his coattails.

After the release of Kanye's "Famous," both Link and Taylor's fans expressed their discontent.

Although Link hasn't released any songs in these two years, he remains a unique superstar in the music industry, with multiple album sales records still unbeaten. He is also a movie star, a super athlete, and the 13th richest person globally.

Besides Obama, Link can be considered the most famous American currently.

Meanwhile, Taylor's album sales have been higher than ever in these past two years, consistently ranking in the top three in earnings for three consecutive years. During the period when Adele was not releasing music and Lady Gaga's popularity was declining, Taylor was among the top queens of female singers.

In comparison, Kanye has been performing poorly in recent years, with unsellable albums and a serious decline in fame, left far behind by Link and Taylor.

His aim in writing such songs was to ride on the popularity of Link and Taylor to sell his music.

Now that many people know this song, Kanye has indeed achieved his goal.

Fans demanded Kanye apologize. Kanye refused to apologize, claiming he had forewarned Taylor and released a selectively edited audio recording of their phone call.

Kanye also took the lead in accusing Taylor of hypocrisy, acting one way on the surface and another behind the back.

Kanye's fans, unaware of the truth, came forward to blame Taylor, flooding her social media accounts with snake emojis.

However, before the situation escalated, Taylor privately had a chat with Kanye's wife, Kim Kardashian, and got the unedited phone recording from her.

The recording showed that Kanye lied, and most of the content in the edited recording was false.

After the new recording was released, mainstream media and fans heavily criticized Kanye as a bad person and demanded him to exit the music industry.

Kanye's reputation was destroyed as he was found to not only record calls but also alter their contents, which constituted a serious breach of trust, and even potential illegality.

Taylor's side sued Kanye using the new recording, and if found guilty, Kanye could potentially face imprisonment.

Eventually, Kanye had to come forward to apologize to Taylor and Link, agreeing to delete the "Famous" track and donate all the profits to a charity organization.

This matter finally concluded.

Link wasn't sure if this negative experience would rob Taylor of her creative inspiration, but no matter, he could help her write.

"How's your new album coming along? When will it be released?"

Link asked.

"I'm still working on it, aiming for a release by the end of the year."

Taylor said casually.

"If you can't come up with songs, I can write for you."

"No need, I have hundreds of songs in my book; I don't need yours,"

Taylor said proudly, waving her hand and then followed Ivanka into the kitchen to help cook.

Link shook his head and continued reading the script.

But the three little ones were running around nearby, sometimes even sneaking over to him to play hide and seek, asking him to join in.

He had no choice but to put down the script temporarily and take the three kids out for a walk.

——

At the beginning of the year, apart from reading scripts and taking care of the kids, Link was also busy training for boxing.

In April and May, he had two boxing title defense matches, against WBA Heavyweight challenger 'The Cobra' Kubrat Pulev, and WBC challenger 'Diamond Man' Manuel Charr.

Both opponents arrived from four qualifying matches and were among the top 50 in the international boxing rankings from both WBA and WBC organizations, proving themselves to be strong contenders. Facing them, Link treated them as equals to the Klitschko brothers.

Additionally, he heard that little Klitschko was dissatisfied with losing in the last match and planned another challenge against him.

Link didn't mind, as without opponents like the Klitschko brothers, the boxing industry could seem boring.

There are also young heavyweight boxers like Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, Alexander Usyk gradually coming up.

If Link wants to maintain his position as the undisputed leader of the four major organizations, he still needs to keep training.

In mid-April, Link flew with his boxing team to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to participate in the WBA World Boxing Championship held there, facing Bulgarian boxer Kubrat Pulev.

Pulev, 35 years old this year, 194 cm tall with a 202 cm reach, had previously won the European boxing heavyweight title in an amateur contest and turned professional in 2009. He is the European heavyweight champion and considered the strongest player among international champions.

In the final WBA challenger qualification matches at the end of last year and earlier this year, he defeated Morris Harris, George Arias, and Samuel Pitt to earn the right to challenge Link.

His current professional record stands at 24 fights, 23 wins, and 1 loss, only losing to little Klitschko in late 2014.

The opponent is a technical boxer, proficient in boxing techniques, and has good punching speed and response capabilities. His only weakness is his punching power, which ranks him second-tier among heavyweight boxers — this is why he's often called the 'gateway to the world champions.'

For such opponents, Link would use his heavy punches to break through their defenses and then launch a relentless attack.

Because his speed is fast enough and his punches are strong enough, Pulev managed to stand until the second round, being knocked down four times, and his forehead split open, bleeding.

At 143 seconds into the second round, Kubrat Pulev fell to the ground and failed to stand up for 10 seconds.

Link easily won this WBA World Boxing title defense, his second successful defense of the WBA Heavyweight Golden Belt.