Chapter 1049: Uncle Can't Bear It

In this summer vacation, Relativity Entertainment is undoubtedly one of the winners, and the many films released by it have achieved good results.

Although the "Hulk" in May has little hope of recovering the total investment through the box office, the offline results ensure that the film can be profitable, and it has taken the entire Avengers plan a big step forward.

The online box office of "Cars" in June was good, and the offline box office was even more popular. The sales revenue of peripheral derivative products directly caught up with the "Harry Potter" series.

"Teddy Bear" has ruined countless people's childhood with its small size and greatness. At the same time, it has brought Relativity Entertainment nearly 200 million US dollars in North America and more than 400 million US dollars in the global box office.

Moreover, the film was released in North America and overseas, and the global box office has easily surpassed 500 million US dollars.

Needless to say, "Transformers" in July was a mess from online to offline. The love and killing of Optimus Prime and Megatron has affected the whole world. At present, the global box office has reached nearly 700 million US dollars.

"Kung Fu Panda" was released the latest, but the North American box office is also making steady progress, and it will exceed 200 million U.S. dollars in the next few days.

This film is following an international route, and the overseas response has been stronger. Currently, the overseas box office has surpassed the North American box office.

Although these five films have not yet been released from global cinemas, they have already generated more than $2 billion in box office revenue worldwide.

The Theory of Relativity Entertainment is like a money sucker, with a huge amount of money coming in constantly. On the basis of ensuring that the capital chain is healthy enough, most of it has become the company's reserve fund to deal with upcoming big plans and various troubles.

"Currently, the company's liquidity is operating normally and its cash reserves are abundant."

In the office of the Finance Department, Mary said to Ronan: "As of the end of July, we had a total of US$14.5 billion in reserve funds in addition to working capital. This figure is expected to increase to US$20 billion by the end of the year."

Ronan nodded slightly and asked, "What about credit?"

Mary replied immediately: "The Bank of America has the last loan left. If we want to mobilize funds, Bank of America can provide us with a loan of 5 billion US dollars in a short period of time. The mortgage loan mobilized for a long time can be doubled." Double."

Today's Relativity Entertainment is no longer the small company it was back then.

Ronan said again: "Mary, start preparing early. I request that in the second half of 2008 or 2009, when the group company needs it, it can mobilize at least 35 billion U.S. dollars in the shortest possible time without affecting normal operations. You have to plan and plan well.”

Mary knew Ronan and Robert Iger's plan, and said, "I understand, I will give you a satisfactory answer."

Ronan is not worried about the funding issue, because there is one last guarantee, Relativity Entertainment is still the absolute controlling shareholder of Netflix Network, and the stock price of Netflix Network, under the strong performance guarantee, has maintained a relatively stable and rapid upward trend. It is inevitable that the overall market value will exceed 100 billion this year.

Although it will be 2008 soon, Ronan has also done a lot of work in advance. The economic crisis will have some impact, but it will not affect Netflix too much.

And in my impression, the Internet industry has not been greatly impacted by this economic crisis.

In contrast, industries such as real estate, finance and insurance are the hardest hit areas.

Ronan basically has little investment in these industries.

Accompanied by the economic crisis, there is also a money shortage in Hollywood, and the financial industry has been impacted. Nowadays, many big productions need financing for filming in Hollywood, and there will inevitably be problems in raising funds.

Even, its own liquidity will encounter difficulties.

The other one is the famous strike event in Hollywood.

In the Hollywood industry, the industry agreements and sharing agreements between the Producers Union and the major trade unions are basically a 20-year cycle.

In the last cycle, that is, in 1988, a famous general strike broke out in Hollywood. Major unions, including the Directors Union, Screen Actors Union and Screenwriters Union, were preparing to go on strike and suspend business, demanding to share the producer's information on TV broadcasting and videotape rental and sales. etc. dividends.

The Producers Union settled the directors' union and the actors' union as quickly as possible. These two unions withdrew from the ranks of strike initiators and participants before they started the strike on the ground.

Then, the Producers Union rejected the Writers Guild's conditions, leading to a general strike by the Writers Guild.

Frankly speaking, the importance of a script as the basis of a movie is self-evident, but Hollywood’s neglect of scripts and screenwriters is also an objective fact. In the inherent concept of the producer alliance composed of major and medium-sized Hollywood companies, Screenwriters are a bunch of worthless goods.

Want to get the same treatment as the directors union and actors union? That was daydreaming!

Now that 2008 is approaching, the agreements between the Producers Union and major Hollywood labor unions are about to expire, and contact negotiations have already begun.

The Producers Union wants to get rid of the major Hollywood unions as soon as possible with the least cost and in the way that best suits their own interests.

Frankly speaking, from Ronan's point of view, I couldn't stop feeling tired when I saw organizations such as the Directors' Union, Actors' Union, and Screenwriters' Union. How good would it be for these unions to be stable and honest mascots? What's the matter if you have to jump out from time to time to disgust people?

It’s fine to jump up and down from time to time, but what the hell is asking for an increase in employee salaries and dividends? Uncle can’t bear it, uncle can’t bear it, and grandpa can’t bear it either!

Ronan's thinking is actually the thinking of the members of the Producers Union.

Therefore, even though the Producers Union and the major labor unions have already started contact, the effect is very unsatisfactory, and even achieved zero results.

The times are changing, Hollywood is changing, the film market is changing, and the requirements of both labor and capital are also changing.

Today, the emerging DVD and Internet broadcasting channels led by Netflix have become the main source of income from film and television peripherals, but according to the agreement signed in 1988, these generally have nothing to do with directors, actors, screenwriters and other crew members.

Those who signed the post-sharing agreement are special cases, not the general situation.

The profit in this area is really enviable, and it has naturally become a point of conflict between the interests of labor and management.

The labor side wants to enjoy the dividends of emerging businesses such as DVD and the Internet. How can the management easily let go of their own interests?

The first few contacts between the two sides basically broke up.

The Producers Alliance formed a negotiating team with the six major Hollywood companies plus Relativity Entertainment and DreamWorks as the main body.

In this regard, the interests of major companies are exactly the same.

In the next six months, this negotiating team needs to deal with many unions in Hollywood.

In fact, the focus is on the Directors' Union, Actors' Union, and Screenwriters' Union. The interest demands of other organizations are not high, and more of them follow the trend.

The major and medium-sized Hollywood companies also have a certain tacit understanding. The directors' union and the actors' union are easy to talk about. Although they will not agree to the conditions proposed by them, it is not difficult to reach an agreement after both parties make concessions.

However, the Screenwriters Guild...

In the general view of the Producers Union, the Writers Guild is overthinking it.

Ronan is a very important member of the Producers Union, so it is clear that between the Directors Union and the Screen Actors Union and the Producers Union, there is a high probability that the old drama of 1988 will be staged, and the so-called strike will eventually be aborted. middle.

However, with Hollywood companies generally despising screenwriters and scripts, a strike by screenwriters is inevitable.

As a member of the management, Ronan will not foolishly jump out and take the initiative to act as a bad guy. The request made by the screenwriters union will also damage the interests of Relativity Entertainment.

It is in the interests of Relativity Entertainment to keep the conditions of the major trade unions as low as possible.

This inevitable strike involves major differences in interests, and it cannot be adjusted casually.

Therefore, Ronan did a lot of preparatory work in advance.

After leaving the financial department of the group company, he went directly to Shahai Entertainment, talked with George Clint for a while, and went to the scriptwriting department to urge multiple scriptwriting teams to complete the script work at hand before October this year. .

At present, several scripts in the screenwriting department have been completed, and nearly ten scripts are being actively created. Even if the upcoming strike lasts for several months, it will not have much impact on Shahai Entertainment's 2008 filming and production plan.

For many projects such as "The Clown", "The Hunger Games", and "Beauty and the Beast", the scripts have already been finalized. Even if there is no screenwriter, the crew can still prepare for the shooting normally.

However, some unforeseen circumstances will still affect Shahai Entertainment's filming and production plans.

For example, in the "Resident Evil" series, after "Resident Evil 3", Paul Anderson and Milla Jovovich, a husband and wife team, took a break to prepare for the fourth film, and then suddenly discovered that the heroine Milla Jovovich Vovich was pregnant, so the fourth part had to be postponed.

The filming and production of "Resident Evil 4" can only be carried out after Milla Jovovich gives birth to a child and regains her figure next year.

This can also be regarded as an irresistible factor for human beings.

Another zombie movie series, the script of "Dawn of the Dead 3" was also pushed into the fast lane by Ronan, because "Dawn of the Dead 2" achieved a slightly higher North American box office than the first one, with 38.65 million US dollars The results, for Relativity Entertainment grabbed a North American box office champion in August.

This film, whose main story and background are concentrated on the small island, is actually an old routine inherent in zombie films, but it is talked about by many fans of this type.

In particular, several videos were widely disseminated through social media such as Netflix.

The heroine of "Dawn of the Dead 2" is called Alexandra Daddario. In the film, she is chased by zombies several times and desperately escapes.

From the beginning of the publicity period, Alexandra Daddario, wearing a short white tight-fitting shirt, fully showed fans what is called the Mount Everest earthquake!

On the Netflix network, some fans said that the shot of Alexandra Daddario escaping from the zombies alone brought millions of male viewers to the film.

Those who have paid attention to Hollywood movies can easily find that some very clichéd plots are repeatedly used in Hollywood movies and continue to achieve success.