Chapter 955
These few days at the end of 2003 are doomed not to be peaceful.
This is true for both the United States and China.
On the one hand, Coca-Cola quickly passed a resolution to contact Minghu Culture and Morgan Stanley in an internal high-level meeting, and on the other hand, it quickly got in touch with the other party.
Columbia Pictures held a temporary high-level meeting on the afternoon of the 30th. There was a lot of noise at the meeting. Many high-level personnel expressed strong dissatisfaction with their upcoming acquisition by a Chinese film company. Although many people expressed Dissatisfied, but not too strong. Of course, if the former wants to take some action to protest, they will probably second and follow.
Surprisingly, the company's CEO, Glenn Shire, said nothing about it.
From the beginning to the end of the meeting, he just watched with a cold eye, listening to everyone's speech.
And another important figure in the company, Vice President David Emerge, also looked like he had listened to the meeting from beginning to end, which surprised many people in the company.
Many of them probably know that Glenshire flew to Atlanta yesterday afternoon, so everyone can guess that he probably didn't have any support from Coca-Cola in Atlanta, so even though he was angry, he already Nothing can be done.
But what no one of them knew was that after the news was leaked by Wall Street reporters yesterday afternoon, John Deiss called David Emerch that night, and the two chatted in a secret coffee shop It took more than an hour - of course, Li Qian and Qi Jie didn't know about this either.
At this time, many people can vaguely feel that once the acquisition is successfully completed, as the spokesperson of Minghu Culture in North America and Europe, John Dyce will become one of the strong contenders for the post of executive president of Columbia Pictures. one.
Anyway, it's such a mess.
In the end, Columbia Pictures' internal high-level meeting failed to make any decisions.
But after the meeting ended, a vice president still faced the reporter's microphone and loudly bombarded Minghu Culture. He believed that the acquisition was completely malicious and a cultural invasion of the United States. He called on the American people to oppose the acquisition and suggested that the United States The government froze the acquisition. At the same time, regarding this morning, Coca-Cola announced that it had formally started negotiations with Morgan Stanley and China’s Minghu Culture. People are so angry and disappointed", "They are always playing the role of stabbing in the back", "They have never seriously considered a way to bring Colombia back to life", "They only want to sell, sell, sell!"
After the meeting that afternoon, the company's all-time heavyweight, Vice President David Emerch, was interviewed, although he was not that angry, but he also looked worried. He cautiously expressed that , I am "cautiously not optimistic" about the fact that the two parties have started acquisition negotiations, and said that I "love Columbia very much". The "Colombia revitalization plan", which "has already achieved initial results", was interrupted by a sudden acquisition at this time, and he said it was "very helpless".
When asked about the acquisition of Fang Minghu culture, he said that he likes China Liao and Li Qian very much. Not only does he know that he is the supreme national superstar in the eastern country, but he has also watched all his movies, and treats him as the four beauties I also like the album released when the band was the lead singer. And in response to Disney's "ignorant accusations and criticisms" yesterday, he expressed "disdain to refute", and claimed that the reason why he decided to release "Calabash Baby" was precisely because it was an outstanding animated film. As a director, Li dedicated An "impeccable, near-perfect work of art, and it tells a really good story"!
But for the company Minghu Culture, he said that he "doesn't know much about it" and "it's inconvenient to comment".
All in all, it meant the same thing. He was cautious and praised Li Qian, but he avoided talking about the acquisition, the acquirer, and the future Columbia might face after being acquired.
At this moment, the acquisition case is fermenting to its highest point. No one would think that his "cautious talk" would have any other meanings, but those who know him are unavoidably astonished.
He's always been the one in the company balancing "the potentially radical reforms that Glenshire brings"—in other words, Coca-Cola wants Glenshire to save Colombia, but fears he's going too far So much so that this company, which is currently only depreciated but can still sell a lot of money, was completely destroyed. Therefore, within Columbia, they chose David Emerch as a check and balance.
In fact, David Emerge firmly opposed the previous two acquisitions!
But this time, his words flashed, and his attitude towards the acquisition was vague.
Many people who were familiar with him quickly noticed a strange smell.
Of course, for the media and the public, although David Emerge expressed his "extreme appreciation" to Li Qian personally, regarding this acquisition, he "expressed his disbelief that this acquisition can be completed"!
In the midst of such uproar, Glenshire remained silent from beginning to end.
But even so, the voices of opposition are not small.
On December 30th, there were two licensed demonstrations and sit-in demonstrations with hundreds of people in Hollywood and Washington respectively, expressing their opposition to the sale of "an iconic American cultural enterprise" to the Chinese, and saying that once If the deal is finalized, they will henceforth reject all Coca-Cola products and all Columbia Pictures films, because in their view, the former will be "traitors" and the latter "aggressors"-"cultural aggressor"!
The scale of these two demonstrations was not large, but the matter was on the cusp of the storm, so it attracted countless media to interview, and the matter was very noisy.
Of course, the vast majority of ordinary Americans either don't care about these at all, or they don't have any opinions in favor or against such an acquisition, thinking that it is just a purely commercial act. What's more, I don't know if it has something to do with the Chinese culture craze a few days ago. Many ordinary people expressed their optimism in the future of the "Chinese elements" that the Chinese can bring to American culture when they are interviewed. .
They just hope that after taking over Columbia, they hope that China Qian will not develop his lover in the United States! America, they say, is a monogamous country!
That afternoon, at the White House’s last regular press conference before New Year’s Day, when asked about this matter, the White House spokesperson replied, “The White House is currently paying close attention to this acquisition” and “does not Excluding any actions that would harm the national interests of the United States at critical moments”!
In this regard, the outside world quickly gave an almost unanimous interpretation-the White House objected!
For a while, although the two sides of the acquisition were still negotiating and seemed not to be affected by these external movements, the entire American public opinion circle began to make a certain subtle shift.
We're not against it, but we're "cautiously pessimistic".
However, at this time, one thing that has not attracted much attention is that after the screening on December 30, many North American box office statistics and analysis agencies suddenly discovered that in the past two working days, North American box office The box office is somewhat unusual. Specifically, the main reason is that the box office of "Gourd Baby" is a bit abnormal——
The long Christmas holiday is over, and the American people are back to work. The box office of almost all movies has begun to plunge, especially for those movies aimed at the family carnival crowd. After five days of crazy performances during the Christmas schedule, this A category of films is even more rapid!
The five-day holiday has made this type of movie a one-time crazy consumption of family carnival-type moviegoers in North America. So once the holiday is over, this type of film immediately weakens.
Even "Wig the Pooh", which was crazy and devastating last week, only received US$5.02 million and US$4.41 million at the box office on the first two working days of this week.
According to the forecast given by relevant box office analysis agencies, even during the New Year's Day, the moviegoers of family carnival movies will usher in a certain return, but the box office of "Wig the Pooh" this week will still be unable to break through 50 million U.S. dollars— — It should be hovering around the $45 million mark.
And that's already crazy enough!
The combined box office of the two weeks of its release will be as high as more than 180 million U.S. dollars, close to 190 million!
Although the cartoon will lose its charm quickly after the New Year's Day holiday, the subsequent screenings are still enough for it to continue to reap about 60 million to 70 million US dollars at the box office, making the film a breakthrough in the North American box office. Two hundred and fifty million dollars with almost no pressure! It is even expected to reach 280 million to 300 million US dollars!
This is an absolute hit!
In addition, almost without exception, the films currently being screened in the North American market continue to follow the laws that have matured in this market for many years-after the carnival, everyone ushered in a sharp drop!
However, the reason why we say "almost" instead of "all" is precisely because of "accidents"!
On December 29th, affected by the "Columbia acquisition incident" that broke out suddenly in the afternoon, "Calabash Baby", which has come to the second week of its release, seems to have been stimulated to a certain extent. Compared with last week's holiday period, the single-day box office Although the box office also plunged sharply, the decline was far less obvious than other films.
On this weekday, "Calabash Baby" had a single-day box office of 2.96 million US dollars.
On December 30th, this animation film from China, from China Qian, distributed by Columbia, and the producer of China's Minghu Culture, which is about to acquire it, unexpectedly rose against the market!
The single-day box office reached 4.75 million US dollars!
The single-day box office actually surpassed "Wig the Pooh" in one fell swoop!
Moreover, if only counting the box office of the first two working days, despite the impact of two movies that have just been released on a large scale this week, it actually ranked third with a box office of 7.71 million US dollars!
You know, it was only fourth last week!
And during the Christmas schedule a few days ago, its box office was only 4.21 million, 4 million and 3.68 million US dollars in a single day!
Now, it hit $4.75 million on weekdays!
And this is clearly not the end of it.
On December 31, the American people once again ushered in a period of three-day holiday - plus the following Saturday and Sunday, another five days!
As a result, American filmmakers and box office forecasting and analysis agencies just watched in amazement at the time when the "Colombia takeover incident" was hotly discussed in the United States, the box office of "Calabash Baby" soared against the sky!
On December 31, 2003, the single-day box office was 7.26 million US dollars.
On January 1, 2004, the single-day box office was 9.05 million US dollars.
On January 2, 2004, the single-day box office was 8.84 million US dollars.
On January 3, 2004, the single-day box office was 8.48 million US dollars.
On January 4, 2004, the single-day box office was 8.09 million US dollars.
In the second week of its release, the North American box office of "Calabash Baby" reached US$49.43 million, which was a surge of more than 50% compared to last week's box office of US$32.46 million!
At the same time, "Wig the Pooh", which also came to the second week of release, was affected by the diversion of "Calabash", but only got a weekly box office of 43.42 million US dollars - lower than the expectations of major box office forecasting agencies!
In particular, compared to the $104.287 million sold last week, the film even plummeted to only a fraction of last week in the second week-although at this stage of the North American market, such a situation is unlikely to happen. It's not completely incomprehensible, and it doesn't prove how bad this film is. It's mainly due to the excessive consumption of moviegoers during the Christmas period. It's a bit miserable!
And because there is only one new movie that is relatively strong, "Gourd Baby" actually ranked second in the weekly box office list after overwhelming "Wig the Pooh"!
This is the highest score in history for a Chinese film on the North American Film Week box office list!
So suddenly!
And the miracle is that as the box office of the movie soared against the market, and as the movie theaters found that it was profitable, they began to increase their efforts to release and schedule films. The scores and evaluations of animation works filmed and produced by the method known as "ink animation technology" on major movie rating websites in the United States have risen instead of falling!
Many American audiences think that this is a "stunning", "full of oriental elements", but "the story is very beautiful", "it can make children very happy, but when you walk into the cinema, And I don't feel like my IQ is being lowered" movie!
Some famous film critics even commented that although it is "full of childlike fun", it is definitely not a "children-oriented cartoon", on the contrary, it is "full of wisdom and courage in life"!
Therefore, it is so weird that "Calabash Baby", which suddenly gained more attention with the help of the "Colombia acquisition incident", became popular in North America in the second week of its release.
The box office and word-of-mouth went hand in hand for a while, and both became popular!
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