Six Hundred and Ninety-Five - The Dirty Underlying Logic of Capitalists.

If Warner Bros., a company, does not interfere in the creation of its films, then the film will definitely achieve both box office and word-of-mouth success. And once executives and producers start playing tricks, they are destined to make sequels to blockbuster movie series until they are frozen indefinitely.

After entering Hollywood for so many years, Wayne has tried his best to avoid similar things from happening to himself and the crew of his projects.

Even for projects co-produced with Warner Bros., such as "The Matrix" and "The Departed", he only allows Warner Bros. to send one producer to the crew, and never allows too many talented people to appear on the crew. The voice that calls the shots.

Yes, Jeff Robinoff personally took the lead and controlled the beginning of "Superman" with himself as the production center. No one can find too many faults, but once Bruce Rosenblum is added, then Things immediately changed.

You can't blame Wayne for thinking too much. Over the years, he has tried his best to increase his Warner Bros. influence so that no second voice can appear in his projects.

As a terminal employee in the film industry in his previous life, he might not understand other things, but he knew very well what was going on with the traditional urination of Warner Bros. executives. This group of self-righteous "professionals" interfered in Zack Snyder's "Justice League". It can be said that everyone has their own ideas.

Although Zha Dao's status in the industry was not low at the time, he still couldn't get the treatment of Christopher Nolan, so he always worked with shackles.

The success of "Justice League" was not unexpected at all. In the eyes of many movie fans, it was possible to turn a movie that has Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, Diana Pliss, Barry Allen, etc. When a superhero movie that is famous all over the world fails, it will be much more difficult than making the movie a success!

I can only lament the trouble-making abilities of Warner Bros. executives. They can always clearly and unmistakably pick the most wrong one from countless right choices.

Because even movie fans who don’t understand the movie industry know very well that with these superheroes who are famous all over the world, as long as the movie is made understandable, even if it doesn’t have any new ideas, there is a high probability that it will not make money. You know, sometimes movie fans really don’t want much.

For now, Wayne has serious doubts about whether he got involved in the DC series too early. But there are no ifs. Compared with a mess that is too bad to clean up, the current result is obviously more acceptable.

The thing is obvious. If he hadn't laid the foundation for DC prematurely, overturned everything, and led DC movies on the right path, the executives at Warner Bros. might have made some weird decisions.

Just like in the late 1980s, after several meetings, Warner Bros. executives decided not to pursue the dead idea of ​​"Superman" and focused on another popular hero, well, Batman Bruce Wayne.

So they kindly invited the talented director Tim Burton, giving this director with a strong personal style full power.

Tim Burton did not disappoint them. He used his own unique dark gothic style to produce the first "Batman". After its release, it received both word-of-mouth and box office success.

The following film, "Batman Returns," did well at the box office. It still used less than 80 million US dollars in production costs to earn 270 million US dollars at the box office. However, the audience's reputation has declined.

At this point in time, the ancestral "passive skills" of Warner Bros. executives were activated again. Most executives and shareholders believe that the audience is tired of Tim Burton's personal style. After all, both the box office and the audience's reputation are lower than the first film, right?

Then something interesting came, and Warner Bros. decided to kick Tim Burton away. The original idea was to take advantage of the good situation created by the first two "Batman" films, replace all the core creators, and find a new one. A director who can make "Batman" a family-friendly movie.

The turning point of the matter was here. Wayne successfully persuaded the previous CEO Kevin Tesuhara with a complete, logical and highly feasible outline of the DC universe plan.

Without his appearance, Warner Bros. would have hired Joe Schumacher to produce the joyful "Batman Forever". Although it earned $336 million at the box office, its reputation among moviegoers has rapidly declined.

However, Warner Bros. does not believe in the word-of-mouth effect. They have no doubt that the good box office is due to the foundation laid by Tim Burton in the first two films. They paranoidly believe that their decision is right. Movie fans should like this happy bat. "Drag show".

Then he continued to tinker with "Batman and Robin" to completely kill "Batman". After "Batman and Robin" was released, its reputation and box office collapsed again, just like a repeat of the previous story in the "Superman" series. generally.

Warner Bros. can only seal the "Batman" series again, just like the previous "Superman" series, and wait for enough time to pass and fans will forget the bad viewing memories before looking for an opportunity to restart.

Therefore, the injustice that Zack Snyder suffered in the DC series is not unusual at all. No matter how many times Warner Bros. executives have changed, their style of dictating their big productions has always been well preserved.

More importantly, it is not one executive who likes to do this, but n, which results in too many people giving orders and various voices affecting the direction of the film.

Taking all the circumstances into consideration, if a director wants to start a long-term cooperation with Warner Bros., the premise is that he is already at the top of the industry, has huge status and reputation, and can completely control the crew. This is the only feasible way.

Otherwise, even if the conditions are signed into the contract, Warner Bros. executives still have many ways to interfere with the crew's creation. It is extremely simple to send a few more production managers to the crew, and the director can make "nonsense."

"Boss."

Nina saw Wayne closing his eyes and concentrating, then gradually falling into deep thoughts and memories. After a moment of hesitation, Nina called out in a low voice.

"What's wrong?"

When he opened his eyes, he realized that the sun had already set in the west, and the clouds in the sky seemed to have been burned by fire, and his eyes were filled with blood-red color.

Raising his hands and rubbing his eyes vigorously, Wayne moved his body to rub against the couch. Wayne turned to look at the assistant and muttered, "What's the matter?"

Nina faced her boss, shook the mobile phone in her hand back and forth, shrugged and reported: "That Reed Hastings called again."

Wayne definitely doesn’t want to miss out on the Netflix piece of cake, and now he’s just putting his investment on hold for some reasons.

Since chatting with the founder of Netflix at the party, he has not seen each other again. Basically, Nina is the one doing the contact. In fact, to put it bluntly, it is just perfunctory. It can neither make the founder feel that he has lost hope, nor can he really give any sweetness.

"Reed Hastings is having a very difficult time now. The Internet is developing at an alarming rate, and the number of private computers is also growing rapidly. However, the number of registered members of his website is growing at a slow pace.

There is a lack of funds for development, but the bigger reason is that his Internet DVD rental company has too little content..."

Wayne nodded secretly, of course he knew what was going on. In his memory, even Netflix, which later became the world's largest streaming media group, still had its biggest flaw in content output.

Don't look at the endless Netflix dramas and movies, such as "House of Cards", "Darkness", "Survivor", "Love, Death and Robots" and so on, users will hardly be disappointed.

But it is because of the lack of content output that they do not hesitate to shoot self-made dramas. It is precisely these self-made dramas that have greatly increased Netflix’s profit costs. After all, people have seen that they are all successful dramas, and no one cares about the more. The drama was ignored by everyone.

The cost of self-produced dramas is so high that even if the world’s largest streaming media group throws money at it, the content output will still not be enough.

"His ambition is really quite big..."

Halfway through the assistant lady's words, Wayne already understood what Reed Hastings wanted. It can be said that the founder of Netflix was not only interested in the money in his hands, but also Warner Bros. and its affiliates. The lifeline of survival for dozens of small and medium-sized film companies: film library resources.

"Continue to drag him and tell him that of course Warner Bros. can license Netflix, and I have the ability to license Warner Bros.'s huge film library."

Wayne smiled softly, stretched out his hand to scratch the stubble on his chin, and ordered in a weird tone:

"But if he wants to get my investment and license Warner Bros.'s huge film library, what he has done now is not enough. I want to see more results, whether it is the number of Internet members or the growth of the company's revenue. You We can clearly tell him that his current small, workshop-like company is not qualified."

Nina nodded. "Plan to continue?"

"Go on, just keep an eye on him."

The reason is actually very simple. In his plan to invest in Netflix, Wayne completely adopted the assistant lady’s plan, a low-risk plan most commonly used by capitalists.

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Just like when Reed Hastings first approached him, he fully explained his idea about Netflix to him, and the answer he got was also a genius-like idea, even if he boldly let it go.

A few months later, Reed-Hastings invested tens of millions of dollars himself. It can be said that the company was successful at the beginning, but it was definitely far away from profitability and listing.

At this time, when he turned around and contacted Nina, the assistant immediately told him, "You have done a very good job in this future website. My boss plans to invest 50 million US dollars in you, but you There must be some necessary conditions. What conditions? Probably you want the website members to grow to millions, and the membership scope to spread throughout North America.”

After hearing Nina's conditions, Reed Hastings turned around and once again devoted himself to promoting the website. What to do if you don’t have money to expand? Whether you mortgage the property or borrow money, it has nothing to do with potential big investors, right?

Because of the current Internet environment, large-scale user growth is extremely normal, and there is no interference from competitors. With the rapid expansion and expansion of the number of users, some difficulties will inevitably surface, such as the shortage of content that needs to be ranked first in funding!

At this time, Wayne not only became a potential development fund solution for Netflix, but also became a life-saving straw to solve the company's biggest difficulty: "insufficient content."

When Reed Hastings turned around and contacted Nina again, it was this time. The reply given by the assistant lady was also quite simple. "Your current scale is still too small, and the results you have achieved are not enough. Mr. Greenberg wants to see more. Otherwise, there is no way to convince Warner Bros. executives to license Netflix's film and television content.

All you have to do is continue to promote the website, increase the number of users, and attract more users who are willing to spend money on the Internet. When Netflix is ​​able to generate its first profit, Mr. Greenberg will not only invest $100 million in you, but also give you the coveted Warner Bros. film library license. "

As a normal person, of course he would doubt the validity of these promises, but now, Reed Hastings has no choice because he simply cannot find a better potential investor than Wayne. There are many people with money who can invest in him, but the only one who can provide Netflix with a development platform is Wayne.

Therefore, he had no choice but to carry the company forward and strive for the indicators given by Nina.

You know, in this process, Nina's plan greatly reduced Wayne's investment risk. In the process, Reed Hastings' personal risk was greatly increased.

The other party is mortgaging real estate to raise funds, carrying unhealthy capital flows to expand the market, etc. If anything goes wrong in any of these attempts to expand the company, Wayne will not lose a cent.

More importantly, the conditions and suggestions given by Nina every time she talked to Reed Hastings were all in line with market development, without any mistakes. I support your entrepreneurship and help you figure out the follow-up path. Not only can you not complain, but you must also thank me secretly...

Now Nina's plan is actually only progressing to the second part. Once Reed Hastings really meets those conditions, whether it is the number of user groups or profit indicators, Wayne will definitely be the first person to invest in him. .

Because of all the potential investors, Wayne knew him best. Not to mention the possibility of finding others, even if there are other potential investors, they must learn about Netflix from the beginning. The setbacks and time wasted will make it impossible to omit this process. You can’t want to invest but not give people time to analyze your company, right?

In the end, you will only find that you simply cannot wait for that time, and it will take more time to build trust with other investors. However, Nina participated in every process of starting your business and followed you all the time you started your business.

That means that Nina is the one who knows all your situations best, and Wayne behind the scenes is definitely the first to invest in you and will give you everything you want.

What are the benefits? The good thing is that even if Wayne finally invests in him, the valuation given to Netflix will not be too high. You know, Wayne is not afraid of being intercepted. The assistant lady participated in the entire development process, and every promise given is what Netflix needs most.

And this is the most basic capitalist investment behavior. It is the same not only in North America, but also around the world. Countless entrepreneurs and start-up companies have been rubbed to the ground by capitalists like this.

Don't think that "angel investors" are really angels in nature. This is determined by the social system in North America. Power is infinitely subdivided. After a few years, a group of people will be replaced. At that time, there is a statute of limitations. Billionaires like Wayne and others with large sums of money are the real vested interests standing behind the scenes, and the ones who truly have long-term power.

From a global perspective, politics is undoubtedly the number one bloody knife, but in a capitalist land like North America, it is completely the opposite. Money, or financial means, is the dirtier Sword of Damocles when it comes to politics.

Having said that, is Reed Hastings stupid? After all, he is also a multi-millionaire who has successfully started a business in Silicon Valley. In fact, he is not stupid, because this is the most common method used by big capitalists, big investors, and investment institutions, and it cannot be avoided.

And in the past few months of starting a business, he must have thought about giving up countless times, but on the one hand, he invested real money of his own money, and on the other hand, Nina continued to encourage him.

"You're doing a great job" "Mr. Greenberg is always paying attention to you" "Go ahead, it's just a little bit off. As long as you do a little better, you can get everything you want and realize your life dreams!" "

Since he was a child, Wayne's father taught him, "Business is business, and business is just business." Don't underestimate this sentence, which contains the truth about the continued success of Jews. Therefore, once it comes to business, there is naturally a set of business rules, and all nonsense ideals and emotions must be thrown aside.

In fact, this is true in business, both in the East and the West. Don't expect anyone to help entrepreneurs when they need it. You must clearly understand that if others don't make things worse for you, you are already a good person.

Since you want to succeed, you must endure things that ordinary people cannot endure. In life, everyone will inevitably eat shit sometimes. The key is, don't chew it carefully.

For the new CEO of Sony Columbia at this time, he can now deeply understand this feeling. On August 11, that is, at 7 o'clock in the evening on Thursday, Paul took the invitation letter he found through his connections and entered the premiere of "X-Men" through the VIP channel.

As the new CEO of one of the top six companies in Hollywood, he is definitely one of the top bosses in the entire industry. However, after being roundly rejected by Wayne, he still tried his best to get together, just to achieve his own goals. .

"e on, let me see how superheroes other than DC should be made to be successful..."

There was a huge crowd in front of the Chinese Theater in Hollywood. Hundreds of movie fans cheered and cheered. Reporters from hundreds of media pressed their camera equipment like crazy, and cheers erupted from time to time in the crowd.

Paul didn't even look at it. He didn't even enter the VIP lounge where guests usually socialized before the premiere. He went directly to the screening room and quietly waited for the premiere of "X-Men" to begin.

He just wants to confirm one thing now, and that is whether the path taken by Twentieth Century Fox Townsend-Rothman will work. He wants to see what is the difference between "X-Men" and DC superheroes. Can Can it achieve the terrifying offline revenue of Warner Bros.?

Perhaps in the eyes of others, it is basically impossible to meet the conditions set by Wayne. Copyright monsters like the six major Hollywood companies will never easily let go of the copyrights they have acquired, even if there are backlogs in the script library. Ash. After reviewing the past two decades, it is difficult to find the six major cases of selling their own copyrights.

Paul has already made plans. As long as this path works, he will mobilize all the relationships within the company to promote cooperation with Wayne.

He is now the CEO of Sony Columbia. To put it bluntly, he is just a high-level wage earner. As long as Sony Columbia can have its own successful superhero series under his leadership, he will not care about the company's interests in a few years or even more than ten years. Gains and losses.

But all prerequisites must be based on the success of "X-Men". It doesn’t take long, and you can already see clearly the results from the premiere, first day, and first weekend.

At this time, in the media interview area in front of the theater, dozens of reporters were surrounding Wayne. Although he was not the director of "X-Men", compared to the director Bryan Singer who walked past, it was obvious that Wayne He gained more media attention.

From the moment he took Halle Berry into the media interview area, reporters kept asking questions about "X-Men", superheroes, etc.

"Mr. Greenberg."

Seeing that the interview was about to end, a reporter from the New York Times loudly asked: "According to the information we have learned, you are only playing a role similar to a producer on the "X-Men" crew this time. . So, how do you ensure that the direction of this film is what you designed? How do you ensure that the crew and creatives who are doing the specific work are working completely according to the plan you designed?"

"First of all, I want to correct something. The contract I signed with 20th Century Fox clearly states that I am the first producer of "X-Men."

Faced with the reporter's question, Wayne smiled and shrugged. After thinking about it for a moment, he answered to the countless microphones and recorders in front of him: "As early as the beginning of the preparation of the "X-Men" project, the core creator The directors, actors and other experts in the industry were carefully selected by me, which can guarantee their ability to work on "X-Men" to a certain extent.

As for how to ensure that the work direction goes according to plan, there is no need to worry too much, because these creative staff are all the top industry geniuses in the industry. "

Having said this, he paused deliberately, looked at everyone and spread his hands, and continued: "Excellent talents manage themselves, they don't need to be managed. Just like Bryan Singer and a group of Excellent actors know what they have to do and will try their best to do their best without any special management.

My job is to get them to share a common vision, which is the secret to ensuring the direction of "X-Men". Propose a vision shared by everyone and clearly communicate it to every member so that they understand that everyone is working hard for the same vision, and what I have to do is to make this vision recognized by everyone. ....."