(FORTUNE Magazine) – When you are a legendary studio starved for a hit, who you gonna call? If you're Columbia Pictures Entertainment, you dial Michael Ovitz, 42, the agent extraordinaire often dubbed the most powerful man in Hollywood (''Movie Shogun,'' Fortune, January 2). After a string of stinkers, Columbia thought it saw a sure moneymaker in Ghostbusters II. Enter Ovitz, who represents original 'busters Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis, as well as the original director and producer, Ivan Reitman. Without these prototypes, everyone agreed, the sequel wouldn't have an afterlife. And what a deal Ovitz negotiated for his clients. They agreed to work for minimum union wages ($1,440 a week for speaking parts). Nobody will say exactly what they got in exchange. But insiders close to the deal believe the four will split about 18% of the box office take -- a huge cut by Hollywood standards. This means they'll divvy up $14 million from the first three weeks. It's too soon to tell if the movie will break even at the box office. Columbia may need big videocassette and television sales to make a profit.