Chapter 1286: Dumping

When Simon arrived at Daenerys Studios in Malibu, the first thing in the morning was to have a video conference with the Asian side.

It is already late December.

On the Korean side, Hyundai, Samsung, and SK have had a tug-of-war with the Westeros system team. The acquisition or shareholding plan has basically been finalized and will be signed in the next few days.

The Hyundai side is to buy the entire electronics business unit of the Hyundai Group.

sk involves both communication and electronics.

Samsung is mainly Samsung Electronics.

The related businesses of the three companies, the Westeros system will achieve de facto absolute control.

However, this is really just the first step.

After obtaining the assets desired by the Westeros system, next, there will be other aspects such as assisting Samsung to accept Kia Motors, etc., which will require a large amount of investment. As for the specific operation, it is a protracted matter.

When Simon held a video conference with Chen Qing, who came to South Korea again, and the related team, even though it was Sunday in Hollywood, many people were still paying close attention to the single-day box office of the Christmas season.

Mostly Titanic.

On the Saturday of the second week after its release, "Titanic" earned $15.91 million in a single day. It seemed that it completely ignored the pressure of "The Flash 2", and once again achieved a year-on-year decline of up to 8, which can be called weird.

Things have developed to this point, and those who should have reacted have basically reacted.

This is going to explode.

Daenerys followed up a market survey directly to the audience in time, and concluded that this blockbuster costing 200 million dollars is gaining popularity rapidly with its shocking visual effects and touching love story. spread among the audience.

Word of mouth.

It has basically formed the popularity foundation of a phenomenal blockbuster movie.

Next, there is the question of more explosions and fewer explosions.

Simon got the report when he was having dinner with Mark Belford, vice president of global operations of Daenerys at noon on Sunday, and discussed some layouts involving the Korean entertainment industry. He just flipped through it briefly and ordered the girl A to pass it on to Daenerys. The Silk Film team is doing things cheaply.

He has nothing to do in the follow-up publicity.

It's a pity again that "Shakespeare in Love".

Compared with the original version, this time "Shakespeare in Love", although the budget is still well controlled at 25 million US dollars, but the hero and heroine are replaced by Daniel Day Lewis and Kate Beckinsale.

Needless to say, Lewis, the Oscar winner was once the best actor choice for "Shakespeare".

As for the heroine that Simon personally finalized, Kate Beckinsale, who became famous with "Charlie's Angels", has a stronger British rose temperament than the other two candidates, Julia Roberts and Gwyneth Paltrow.

In the small-scale screening on December 5, "Shakespeare in Love" not only got a classic-level media score of 9.1 points, but also won a box office of 1.21 million US dollars with only 39 screens, with an average of more than 40,000 US dollars.

The opening box office and word-of-mouth were both unsatisfactory, and since its large-scale release on 771 screens the following week, "Shakespeare in Love" has been a bit unsatisfactory.

In the first week of its large-scale opening, that is, the previous box office week that was released simultaneously with "Titanic", "King of Fighters 2" and "As Good as It Gets", the seven-day box office revenue of "Shakespeare in Love" was only US$5.69 million. The average price is only more than 7,300 US dollars, which is far from the threshold of the 10,000-million-level championship.

With a better lineup than the original version and a higher reputation, the large-scale show failed to reach even 10,000 venues in the first week, which can only be said to be bad luck.

Moreover, in the nominations for the 55th Golden Globe Awards announced on December 19, "Shakespeare in Love" had a total of 6 nominations, which was also less than the leading "Titanic" with 8 nominations. There will hardly be any surprises. Next, this movie will definitely not be able to repeat the glory of the previous awards season, and then rely on the word-of-mouth of major awards to continue to stimulate the market and win box office results of over 100 million in North America.

It would be nice to have 50 million.

Just like Simon's original thought, this is a sacrifice.

Inside the Executive Dining Room at Daenerys Studios.

Noticing Simon's distraction, Mark Belford asked, "Boss, what's wrong?"

"It's nothing," Simon smiled, facing Belford's curiosity, he said again: "It's a pity that "Shakespeare in Love" was very optimistic in the circle at the beginning. If it hadn't been for the encounter with "Titanic" and "Lightning Hero 2 should be able to achieve even better results."

"This is inevitable, but we are the ones who will benefit after all," Mark Belford said, thinking for a while, and then said: "Actually, this year is okay. In the next few years, Daenerys Entertainment's movie The business is forming a trend, boss, have you noticed it?"

"Where do you mean?"

Mark Belford didn't keep it secret, and said: "Boss, our three labels are working together, and a commercial dumping trend is forming. Boss, you should know the word dumping, right?"

Simon nodded.

Of course I know this.

Simon has also been pushing the three film labels under Daenerys Entertainment to work together to squeeze the living space of other Hollywood studios with higher and higher film production. However, Simon only reacted when Belford said this. come over.

This is also a kind of dumping.

The biggest feature of dumping, to put it bluntly, is to kill one thousand enemies and lose eight hundred. However, as long as all competitors can be swept out of the game, the market will be their own.

can be

do whatever you want.

"Where..." Mark Belford saw that Simon understood, and said with a smile: "The short-term loss is only for our long-term huge profits."

Mark Belford said this just to comfort Simon, who was a little regretful.

However, the words of the executive reminded Simon of another matter, which was the Korean entertainment industry that the two were discussing.

Dumping.

This method can be used in Korea.

Mostly movies.

During this period of time, a group of labels in South Korea have approved 10 films at one time according to Simon's approval, including a blockbuster blockbuster with a planned investment of 10 million US dollars in South Korea.

But, thinking about it now, it's not enough.

Even if South Korea is not big, after all, it is the demand of a population of 46 million. Counting domestic production in South Korea and imports from overseas, there are only two to three hundred films that enter the theaters every year.

Even if Simon's strategy is to carry out a large-scale acquisition and integration of Korean theaters with a local Korean shell company to achieve a platform monopoly, the Westeros system must also show sufficient strength in terms of content if it wants to completely occupy the Korean market.

Because he is far away across the ocean, it is impossible for Simon to personally check too much on the quality of the film, so the best way is to replace quality with quantity.

Like Belford just said.

dumping.

Hollywood's share, Hollywood has reached the limit.

What Simon has to do is to occupy South Korea's local film quota for 146 days through localized dumping. At that time, combined with the monopoly of theater chains, it will completely make other Korean film companies outside the Westeros system have nowhere to go.

In this case, 10 is definitely not enough.

Far from enough.

It’s about 21 weeks, and at least it needs to reach the frequency of at least one new film release per week before it can be considered dumping.

Then, if you add some more, it will be calculated as 30.

30 movies, according to Hollywood's tent theory, at least 3 blockbusters, all calculated at 10 million US dollars, this is the tent pole. For the rest, the average budget is calculated based on 2 million, and the total is only 86 million.

Let's say $100 million.

Plus the announcement of 50 million US dollars, a total of 150 million.

It's just the production cost of "The Flash 2".

These 30 films, as long as they can be done well and keep improving, can achieve a dumping effect in South Korea.

The recovery of Korean local films began with the cooperation system in 1996, and began to take off from the lifting of censorship in 1998. Simon just stepped on a critical point, just like the big Hollywood studios, South Korea, which has maintained local film production for several years regardless of cost. 'Dumping', once the structure of the film market is formed, it is difficult to change.

Do whatever comes to mind.

After lunch, Simon sent an email to Chen Qing, asking her to directly increase the number of film projects planned by her Korean side from 10 to 30.

Not bad money.

Inside a viewing hour of the post-production center on the second floor of Malibu Studios.

The "Blair Witch" team, which was released yesterday, didn't see Simon until after four o'clock in the afternoon. Considering that the subsequent discussion of the follow-up editing will at least pull the sample, there is no three or four hours to get it right, and today is obviously going to be busy At least eight o'clock at night.

However, Simon Westeros sacrificed his Sunday time to accompany a group of rookies to work on a small film with a production cost of only one million. Of course, it is impossible for others to say anything.

On the contrary, Lena Kane, who also came to participate in the discussion, had a little resentment.

It was planned yesterday. After discussing the later plan in the afternoon, I might fly overnight to Mexico for a weekend. How nice. Lena plans to bring her friend Annika Settle, who has become more and more harmonious during this time, who is also the screenwriter of "The Blair Witch".

Very white.

A certain man must like it.

Today, I don't know if it is still possible. After all, tomorrow is Monday. Even if it is close to Christmas, men should be able to work with how busy they are.

In addition to director Paul Greengrass, screenwriter Annika Settle, and Lena Kane, who actually did a lot of producer work, Jerry Bruckheimer, who apparently wanted to build a relationship with Simon, also rushed to the film again. Come.

After everyone said hello, it was inevitable to talk about "Titanic" again.

The unexpected reversal in the last two days of this $200 million super blockbuster is really weird and unconvincing.

Time is tight, in the end there is not much nonsense.

After just chatting for a few words, Simon sat down on a sofa in front of the big screen. Paul Greengrass sat on the left of Simon, and the seat on the right was supposed to be Bruckheimer, but this veteran Hollywood gold medal screenwriter was After all, this film, frankly speaking, he, the nominal executive producer, is far from fully following up with Lena Kane, who has been deeply involved in the whole process, to learn more.

Paul Greengrass first briefly introduced his editing ideas, and then the staff next to him played the samples, and everyone discussed paragraph by paragraph, how to choose between different materials, whether certain shots need to be kept, and the relationship between different plots. How to convert, and so on.

This actually reflects once again that the film creator is more of an engineer than a designer. A movie is a huge project like building blocks, and it takes a long time. Perhaps the inspiration that belongs to the designer is indispensable, but more often, it is the engineer

tenacity and persistence.

Inspiration is often short-lived.

Making a movie takes a long time.

Why does the same director produce good films and bad films? Is it because of lack of inspiration or degeneration of ability? None of them, it's just that some are intentional and some are not.

For example, a typical explosive shell.

And "Titanic", which is being released, is the result of James Cameron's paranoid engineer's side being played to an almost harsh extreme.

At first, Simon was a little worried about whether a middle-aged director like Paul Greengrass, who was a newcomer to the film industry, would be able to control the new type of pseudo-documentary. After seeing the sample for the first time, he no longer had such doubts.

Because Paul Greengrass obviously puts his heart into it, too.

Years of experience in the media industry allowed Greenglass to transform this dedication into truly high-quality images.

After more than three hours of film discussions starting in the evening, after watching all the samples, not only Simon, but also Jerry Bruckheimer, who was quietly listening most of the time, was also very convinced that another pseudo-documentary classic was about to be born.

At the end of the discussion, about the scene of Keira, played by Rachel McAdams, walking towards the witch. Once the setting of the witch was compared and considered, Simon also listened to Greengrass' lobbying and gave up the original fantasy about the floating witch. The setting, however, did not follow Greengrass' idea of ​​complete realism, but a compromise, and chose the plan proposed by Bruckheimer, the witch fell to the ground, and the flames floated.

There were no ghosts in the last "Ghost Story" throughout. This time, from the very beginning, Simon was sure that there must be a witch, otherwise, the audience may feel that they have been tricked twice. As for the witch, Simon also firmly believes that even if it is a pseudo-documentary in the first-person style, it seems that it should remain realistic, but there must be more obvious supernatural elements.

Although the floating flame is less weird than the floating witch, the effect is also mysterious enough.

In addition, what satisfies Simon is that compared with the old and ugly witch in "The Witch" starring Anya Taylor-Joy in memory, even if the pictures taken with irec's home digital camera are obviously rough, it can still be seen that whether it is Kayla, who used a substitute, walked naked to the witch screen, and she was still a few red witches next to the flames at the box office. At least, her figure was very hot.

Even if the plan is only a short ten-second shot, this episode is enough to stir the audience's emotions for repeated viewing.

The plans were all finalized, and the time was close to half past eight.

Everyone is already hungry.

Simon brought a group of people to the executive restaurant in the studio, and discussed the announcement while having a meal.

The film wraps up this Friday, the same day the crew returns to Los Angeles, the 'Blair Witch' event website goes live, and there will be a period of viral marketing ahead of the Sundance Film Festival in January.

Simon recalled that "The Crying Game". During the release process of the Gaomen Films team, in order to cover up as much as possible the reversal that the "heroine" was actually a man, the male actor was directly hidden. This time, for sure It's the same: "The key is the actors. During this period of time, try to get as many of them as possible. Except for your relatives, don't contact anyone, otherwise you will definitely lose your way."

Jerry Bruckheimer suggested: "In that case, Simon, what do you think about sending them all to Australia?"

Sending it to Australia is obviously too remote.

Simon thought about it for a while, nodded and said: "Aren't they under a lot of pressure during the filming process? I have some holiday cottages in Tasmania in southern Australia, so I will lend them a team of psychiatrists. Rehabilitation at that time."

Australia was originally a land of exile.

Tasmania is also at the southern tip of Australia, except for Antarctica, which is almost the real end of the world. Sending it there, even if the media find out where it is going, it is impossible to find someone.