Chapter 952 Breaking News
On December 22, 2003, the day before "Calabash Baby" was officially released globally, Morgan Stanley, on behalf of China's Minghu Culture Company, formally submitted an acquisition application to Coca-Cola with a price of 2.44 billion US dollars , The overall acquisition of Columbia Pictures and all its affiliated assets.
Of course, debt is also included.
On the same day, Coca-Cola did not make any reply or response.
What's more, looking at the movement of Columbia Pictures, they didn't even notify the acquiree in time--Morgan Stanley analyzed that: The deal is very sure that it will be concluded in the end!
On December 23, "Calabash Baby" was officially released globally simultaneously.
China, Japan, South Korea, six countries in Southeast Asia, eleven countries in Europe, two countries in North America, two countries in Latin America, and five other countries and regions in the world are present in the film markets of a total of 29 countries and regions around the world. , this cartoon landed on the theater for ticketed screenings on the same day.
This is China's first domestically produced animation film on the big screen, and it is also the first time that a Chinese film work has been released simultaneously globally - many domestic films have done similar promotions before, but it was not really synchronized release.
In the Chinese market, the production of Minghu Culture, the works directed by Li Qian, the art direction of Cao Zhan, and the first major animation film carrying the "Chinese animation dream", it is conceivable that this film has a lot of publicity and distribution. , are absolutely not going to suffer, and are all done according to the top scale.
However, the box office can only be regarded as unsatisfactory.
It was released on December 23, and the box office on that day was 17.38 million yuan.
Facing this result, not only Cao Zhan was not very satisfied, but even the domestic cinema chains expressed some disappointment - once they were disappointed, the screening rate would of course drop.
Of course, there is a screening agreement, and after all, the box office is not low, and the drop is within a certain range.
On December 24, the box office on that day was 15.29 million yuan.
On December 25th, Christmas, although there is no holiday in China, young people have already started to celebrate this festival, so on this day, the single-day box office of "Calabash Baby" reached 18.11 million yuan.
On December 26, Friday, the box office on that day was 20.04 million yuan.
On December 27, Saturday, the box office of the day was 22.18 million yuan.
On Sunday, December 28, the box office on that day was 17.53 million yuan.
It was released for six days, and the box office broke through 100 million in the first week, and the cumulative total reached 101.053 million!
This box office is already enough to keep "Calabash Baby" at the top of this week's domestic box office list, but for the six words "directed by Li Qian", it has made many people in the industry accustomed to Minghu culture's frequent explosions. Hundreds of millions of people feel a little disappointed.
If there are no accidents, this basically means that the total box office of this movie is fluctuating between 200 and 300 million. It is possible to exceed 300 million, but it is absolutely impossible to exceed 400 million!
Although this is definitely the highest-grossing animation work, it gave a shot in the arm for domestic animators and the market for animated films, but...it's not enough!
For "Director Li Qian's work", for "Minghu Culture Production", for the investment of over 100 million yuan, no matter which one is for it, it is far from enough!
Of course, in terms of global distribution capabilities, at present, Minghu Culture is definitely the best among all domestic film companies, so "Calabash Baby" can directly report to the global box office!
At 4:30 p.m. on December 29, many people noticed that a banner suddenly appeared on the official website of Minghu Culture, and then, within five minutes, the homepage of Xunfei and the homepage of Xunfei News and Entertainment were also posted one after another. There was a headline news-"Calabash Baby" broke through 100 million US dollars at the global box office in the first week!
Seeing this news, many people who originally had a vague feeling in their hearts, but didn't really understand what the global simultaneous release of "Calabash Baby" meant, understood it all at once.
No wonder I always feel that the movie "Gourd Baby" is different from Li Qian's typical Chinese-style works in the past——
"Red Sorghum", "Once Upon a Time", and even "My Sassy Girl", which tells about urban emotions, although the themes of his works have always been varied, the root of his works has always been rooted in China's social environment. , are all telling stories about China.
But when it came to "Gourd Baby", people in the sensitive industry felt that the story was not bad, but compared with Li Qian's past works, it seemed that the sense of national, social, and cultural substitution was different. Not as strong as it used to be.
Now, everyone understands.
The movie "Calabash Baby" has been going to be screened all over the world from the moment it was conceived to shoot. It weakens China's unique social background to the greatest extent. Even mythology is more globalized. It belongs to the kind of thing that can be understood and liked by the audience without the nation, culture and society. — Or to put it another way, it is simply a Hollywood work made by a Chinese!
Moreover, the global box office exceeded 100 million U.S. dollars in the first week. Of course, it is not as good as those Hollywood blockbusters that are the world's biggest sellers, but for a Chinese movie, or a Chinese animation that is just on the road, it is already successful enough!
As a result, many people in the industry would sigh subconsciously, thinking to themselves: So people have begun to stay out of the country, at least they no longer only focus on the domestic film market!
However, it was the first time it was released globally, and the box office exceeded 100 million US dollars in the first week!
This is definitely a success!
So everyone felt that Li Qian was Li Qian after all, and Minghu culture was Minghu culture after all!
In fact, what they don't know, and what they have no way of knowing for the time being, is that the box office of this movie exceeded 100 million U.S. dollars in the first week of its global simultaneous release. Yes, but in fact, from the perspective of the producer's Minghu Animation, they are not too satisfied with the box office.
Not to mention China, in the North American film market, the 15 million US dollars of publicity and distribution funds, Columbia Pictures as the main distributor, and the sudden wave of Chinese cultural enthusiasm before the film was released, all made this film popular in the North American film market. The North American market has received some attention.
However, the box office was mediocre.
The opening scale of up to 2039 theaters is not small, and the schedule like Christmas is said to be extremely wonderful, but an animated film from China has inherent disadvantages in a market like North America. What's more, at the same time, there is also a Big Mac with an opening scale of nearly 4,000 theaters!
"Wig the Pooh" is not the best among the works produced by Disney Animation over the years, but its standard is definitely above the passing line. In addition, Disney has accumulated many years of experience in animation, promotion and distribution of family-friendly movies. As soon as the movie was released, it became a big hit in North America.
Released on December 22, plus the advance screening, the film earned a box office of 23.61 million US dollars on the first day of its release, and it was still a weekday box office!
The next day, although "Calabash Baby" was released, but with more than 900,000 US dollars in advance, this Chinese animation film with an opening scale of 2,039 theaters only got a single-day box office of 6.38 million US dollars. And on this day, "Wig the Pooh" continued to win a box office of 17.36 million on weekdays!
So, on the second day, the screening scale of "Calabash Baby" suddenly dropped below 2,000 theaters, and on the eve of Christmas Eve, "Wig the Pooh" got a screening scale of 4,133 theaters at a sky-defying level!
The people of North America have ushered in their own Christmas holidays. If you add the following Saturdays and Sundays, they even have a total of five days of vacation starting from December 24.
During these five days, most people will choose to spend with their families.
So there is no doubt that "Wig the Pooh" ushered in its super explosion.
22.49 million US dollars on the 24th, 24.51 million US dollars on the 25th, 20.38 million US dollars on the 26th, 18.22 million US dollars on the 27th, and 16.3 million US dollars on the 28th. After seven days of release, the North American box office of "Wig the Pooh" reached US$142.87 million!
Even with conservative estimates, many box office forecasting agencies have given estimates that the North American box office of this film will reach as high as 280 million to 300 million US dollars, and the global box office may reach 600 million US dollars.
There is no doubt that even for North America, where the film market is developed, even for a rich man like Disney, this movie is considered a big hit.
At the same time, in the North American market, "Gourd Baby", whose release scale has been continuously reduced since the second day of its release, has earned 8.42 million US dollars, Box office results of 5.77 million, 4.21 million, 4 million and 3.68 million.
In the six days since its release, the cumulative total box office in North America has reached 32.46 million US dollars.
The five-day long Christmas holiday in North America is over, but the screening scale of "Calabash Baby" has remained at more than a thousand theaters, and this oriental animation film whose box office has been completely crushed by "Wig the Pooh" has gained quite a good reputation from the audience , many parents in North America commented after watching the movie, thinking that this is a movie with a certain exotic style but a good story.
And its scores on some professional movie rating websites and audience rating websites are not low.
This largely means that the follow-up box office of this movie will be relatively stable.
Therefore, many professional box office forecasting agencies, as well as professionals in Columbia, have given the film a North American box office estimate of US$65 million.
For Li Qian, let alone 65 million US dollars, even if it is only 60 million US dollars, he is basically satisfied. As for the distributor, Columbia Pictures, according to the account sharing agreement between the two parties, they can not only properly recover the 10 million US dollars There is even a lot of money to be made from the cost of publicity and distribution—at the time of the initial negotiations, they were mentally prepared to lose money for the release of Minghu Culture's film works in North America.
They just hoped that Minghu Culture would be responsible for distributing Colombian films in China, reciprocating the cost, and making money, but surprisingly, they started making money now.
Of course, for Dongfangmeng Film Company, things are not so wonderful. Because they had to try their best to squeeze into the ranks of the distributors, Dongfangmeng Film Company suffered a lot in the distribution of accounts. Even if the movie sold for 65 million US dollars, they would still lose money. Only if the North American box office exceeds $70 million can they possibly break even, or even make a little money from this release.
Of course, because Dongfangmeng Film Company represented the distribution rights of this movie in many countries in Europe and Latin America, so, after all, the movie must still be profitable.
What's more, the most important thing is that the boss is very satisfied.
For John Days, that was enough.
He knows that what is more important to him now is the right to speak in front of the boss. As for creating profits, it is something that can be done slowly.
Of course, if you can not pay, you should try not to pay.
However, with the end of the Christmas holiday, it is inevitable that the movie box office market in North America will drop sharply. The box office performance of "Calabash Baby" is bound to decline rapidly, even far greater than the decline of ordinary movies in other schedules, and the decline speed is even faster!
And at this time, during an interview, a vice president of Disney Films was asked about the issue of "Calabash Baby" seeking Disney's distribution. The vice president first admitted it, and then he was a little disdainful Authentic: "I haven't seen that movie, and we are one of the competitors now, so I can't comment on it, but they did come to us at the beginning. After seeing the director's works of China Li, our professionals, Finally submitted their professional opinion to me, and they advised the company not to accept the distribution job of that film! You know, I really believe in the ability and vision of our professionals, so, I turned Lee down, even though I like him a lot And Liao's music!"
The implication is that "Calabash Baby" is a very bad movie. Disney felt that if it operated the distribution and helped the movie to be released, it might smash the signboard and lose money, so they refused.
The incident happened on the morning of December 29, the first day after the Christmas holiday.
Last week's North American box office rankings have been released, and "Wig the Pooh", produced by Disney Animation and distributed by Disney Films, topped the list without any suspense with a box office of 104.287 million US dollars.
As the most direct competitor, "Gourd Baby", with a box office of 32.46 million US dollars, even less than a fraction of "Wig the Pooh", ranked fourth in the box office list.
Therefore, suppressing and belittling an opponent is nothing more than a trivial matter for Disney, who is now enjoying the spring breeze.
After hearing the news, John Days thought about fighting back, but he hesitated for a moment, and he held back again.
He felt it was not the time.
However, in the afternoon of the same day, a source suddenly broke a newsletter, saying that Minghu Culture Company from China was entrusting Morgan Stanley to initiate the acquisition of Columbia Film Company!
Moreover, it is said that Morgan Stanley has already made an offer to Coca-Cola, the owner of Columbia Pictures-it is said that the offer is not low!
In the afternoon of the same day, a vice president of Coca-Cola accepted an interview and personally admitted the news, and claimed that Coca-Cola was seriously discussing the feasibility of the acquisition.
As soon as the news came out, Wall Street and Hollywood were instantly shocked!
You must know that although Columbia Pictures has been on the verge of being acquired for the past twenty or thirty years, and has been constantly being reported that it is about to be acquired and is in acquisition negotiations, it is said that many people are concerned that it will be acquired soon. The thing is immune, but it's still one of the Big Seven Hollywood studios after all!
It remains one of the most famous giants in the global film market!
And the one who wants to buy it is actually a film company from China—whether it’s Hollywood or Wall Street, most Americans have never even heard of its name before!
Minghu culture!
Of course, the media and journalism industry in the United States is quite developed. In addition, there was a performance in Times Square not long ago, and "Calabash Baby" is still in theaters, so, in Less than an hour after the incident was confirmed, many fast-responsive online media have already begun to cut this matter! And after a few hours, the evening daily newspapers of that night began to follow up, and even many TV programs that night—including entertainment programs, talk shows, and of course, many political, economic and financial programs, also began to follow up. It's under the knife.
Li Qian, Liao Liao, the Four Beauties, "Gourd Baby", a performance in Times Square, oriental culture!
These names that Americans are familiar with at the moment were pulled together by them and began to analyze and dissect in detail to all American people who pay attention to this matter.
Then, Minghu culture completely surfaced!
What kind of company is it, who does it belong to, what is its main performance, what is its revenue, and whether it has sufficient financial resources to acquire Columbia. Where... Wait, wait, wait!
Some media believe that once two powerful companies based in their respective countries in the two largest film markets in the world join forces, it will be a perfect match. This will have an immeasurable and huge boost to the development of the two companies. Some media also believe that: We in the United States must start to be vigilant. The Chinese who are getting richer, just like the Japanese ten years ago, are trying to invade the United States!
And just as the United States was very excited about this sudden acquisition, on the night of December 29, all the media, including the Internet, newspapers, TV stations, radio stations, etc., were having various discussions, and with the These are discussions for or against, and when the name of "Calabash Baby" is constantly being mentioned, it is already the morning of December 30, 2003 in China's local time on the far side of the Pacific Ocean.
Waking up early in the morning, countless Chinese people were shocked and stunned by the news that came from various news channels such as the Internet, newspapers, and TV morning news.
The news from the United States has been confirmed: Minghu Culture is launching an acquisition of Columbia Pictures, one of the seven major film companies in Hollywood!
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