Chapter 1459: The Boiled Frog
Lena and Annika worked separately until they reunited in a French restaurant on the Upper East Side in the evening. The first topic was not about today's work, but the nominations for the 56th American Film and Television Golden Globe Awards announced this morning on the West Coast .
It's December 22nd.
Tuesday.
On the booth by the window of the restaurant, the two women browsed a list of nominations printed out from the official website of the Golden Globe Awards. After sitting down for less than five minutes, they already let out several involuntary sighs.
Because of this latest Golden Globe nomination, it once again proved that Daenerys Entertainment no longer hides its edge.
Not to mention the lengthy nominations for TV awards, nor other non-core nominations for movies, but just one, the best picture of drama and musical comedy, two categories of nominations for a total of 10 films, this time, Daenerys No more, no less, exactly five of the films produced by Entertainment.
The five movies are "LA Confidential", "Saving Private Ryan" and "Elizabeth" in the drama category, and "The Hangover" and "High School Musical" in the musical comedy category.
First of all, aside from everything else, let’s just talk about the quality of these five films themselves, whether it’s Palmer’s smash hit “LA Confidential” many years later, or Spielberg’s war epic “Saving Private Ryan”. "En", or "Elizabeth", which has received rave reviews recently, and even "The Hangover" and "High School Musical", which both achieved dark horse word-of-mouth and box office in the summer, won the Golden Globe Award for Best Film of the corresponding genre The nominations are definitely well deserved.
Then, back to reality.
From the point of view of the film itself, there is no problem, but there are hundreds of film companies in Hollywood, large and small, and four to five hundred films are released in theaters a year. As a result, an awards ceremony, the cake is so big, it is directly cut by a film company Halfway through, even if the quality of the films produced by this film company reaches the nomination level, it will inevitably cause controversy.
This is no way out for everyone.
Inside the restaurant.
Annika browsed through the list of nominations in her hand, and looked at the opposite side. Lena was quickly pressing the limited-edition iberry-10&nbsra mobile phone in her hand, and asked curiously: "What are you looking at?"
"Some media reports about today's nomination, I will pass on to you."
Lina spoke and operated a few times, and Annika's iberry of the same model soon rang the email notification tone.
It has only been on sale for one year, and under the subtle influence of the ubiquitous Westeros system, iberry mobile phones have become a must-have favored by many business people. As a result, some mobile phone manufacturers, including Nokia, which also belongs to the Westeros system, have also begun to quietly develop their own similar business mobile phones.
&nbsra limited edition, even if there are as many as 100,000 units distributed worldwide, the supply is still seriously in short supply. At this stage, the price of brand new iberry-10&nbsra from some online retail or scalper channels has already reached tens of thousands of dollars, even if it is a second-hand one, the lowest price is also an official new product two or three times.
Annika operated the mobile phone that she still liked a few months ago, browsed for a while, and said: "It's so noisy, the "Hollywood Reporter" said that Daenerys caused a serious imbalance in the Hollywood structure. Light question, do you think the Golden Globe jury can withstand the pressure?"
"So what if you can't stand it?" Lina asked back, and then said, "I think he did it on purpose this time."
"deliberately?"
"This is intentional, so that Hollywood, as well as the entire movie circle, including the audience, will gradually get used to the fact that Daenerys Entertainment is equivalent to half of Hollywood. Heh, what we see on mobile phones is only a small part of the report, next For a few days, the media and the Internet will definitely be very lively, and I believe he will arrange to guide public opinion accordingly."
"You really have faith in him."
"Of course," Lina pretended to be arrogant, "That's my man."
Annika made an unbearable retching expression, but couldn't help but echoed: "Actually, I don't think it's a big deal, as this review article from the "Variety" website said, even if it won half of the best pictures Nominated, Daenerys has some films this year, such as "The Truman Show", and Redford's "The Horse Whisperer", which is equally excellent, but failed to be nominated."
Lina knew that "The Truman Show" would definitely not be nominated, including the next Oscar. Many people knew the reason, and I believe Annika knew it too, so she didn't say much, but said: "The pattern of Hollywood has already begun. It’s changed, Simon just made everyone realize the reality this time, plus this time he started to promote New Line Films, as well as the non-staffed MGM, Daenerys Entertainment’s territory in Hollywood will continue to grow. big."
"This is a monopoly," Annika looked away from the phone screen, and glanced at Lena with a smile: "From the perspective of our agents or filmmakers, the formation of a monopoly by studio giants is nothing to us Good thing, think about it, if one day you are dumped by him, if he says a word, you may be completely kicked out of Hollywood."
Lina glanced sideways: "Don't worry, I will try my best to please him."
"Tsk."
"Tsk, you are actually a gift I found to please him. Simon likes girls with fair skin, and you are just right."
Of course, Annika has been aware of this for a long time. When Lina pointed it out at this time, it is inevitable that some mixed emotions will emerge. I don’t know if it is anxiety or anticipation, but she does not show weakness: "Since I am more in line with his preference , be careful I squeeze you out."
Lina just rolled her eyes and continued: "In the 21st century of informationization and globalization, the integration of resources from all walks of life is an inevitable result.
, because only in this way can we strengthen our global competitiveness. The coexistence of the seven, eight, and nine Hollywood companies in the past will completely change in the future. According to my observation, Simon may only intend to keep the two major players, and the others will take a back seat. "
Annika blinked and quickly realized: "There is another Warner?"
"Yeah," Lena nodded, "And, in the end, Warner's strength should be much weaker than Daenerys's. Only by bringing the whole ge can he be compared with Daenerys. Heh, in terms of market value, it is already That's it, even GE Group is not as good as Daenerys."
While the two women were discussing this matter in the restaurant, the entire North American film and television circles were arguing about this year's Golden Globe nominations.
However, whether it is cursing and clamoring or slandering and questioning, the facts are already facts.
Because from very early on, Simon adopted the strategy of boiling frogs in warm water to Hollywood. At first, his strength was weak. The profit sharing strategy, until now, there are still many projects continuing, the most famous is undoubtedly the DC movie universe series represented by "Suicide Squad 2" which started painting last Friday.
Then, from a grassroots team, it first took over New World Films, had its own discovery channels, and then took over MCA, the parent company of Universal, and was promoted to the ranks of major studios. Then, it annexed Metropolitan ABC Group to complete TV field layout until now.
With the arrival of another stage of the US stock market bull market, the market value of Daenerys Entertainment has recently approached 500 billion US dollars again, and it is only a matter of time before a breakthrough.
The market value of 500 billion US dollars is the most direct reflection of Daenerys' current strength. The other major studios, if they only talk about the media and entertainment business, they are not worth Daenerys alone. Even including their respective parent companies, such as the Ge Group behind Warner, which currently has a market value of only 360 billion US dollars, the overall value is not much higher than Daenerys Entertainment Group.
Boiled frogs in warm water have reached such a disparity in strength, even if other studios want to jump over the wall, how can they jump?
In fact, it's like twenty years later, Hollywood is basically the industrial structure of Disney, Gawarner and Universal with a group of old studios that occasionally break out. Disney, which owns several trump cards such as Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars series, divides up about half of the top ten shares of the annual box office every year, and has not seen how other companies have jumped up.
Because I can't jump up.
According to the business theory of the free market, this is the result of natural monopoly. If you can't make good movies and can't produce a good IP to compete with Disney, you can only endure it, and your market share will be reduced step by step, and it will decline step by step. The next big studio nameplate that might once have been glorious.
Now, Simon has opened up such a pattern ahead of time, and has gone one step further.
In the past, Disney had a market value of only about 200 billion at its peak, while Daenerys Entertainment Group, relying on the overall prosperity of film, television, games and other businesses, has a market value of close to 500 billion at present, and it is not that kind of bubble The serious 500 billion, according to the previous fiscal year's net profit of 7.61 billion US dollars, and considering Daenerys's strong growth momentum in games and other businesses, the price-earnings ratio of about 65 times is still within a reasonable range.
As Lina expected, when the nominations for the Golden Globes were announced, Daenerys' media PR department, which paid close attention to public opinion trends, began to operate accordingly.
There are only two core points.
First of all, do the five nominated films themselves have enough qualifications?
The answer is self-evident.
Second, is it really injustice if these films cannot be nominated at the same time because they are from one company?
The answer is also self-evident.
That being the case, what is there to be controversial? Is it necessary to divide the nominations of the Golden Globes equally among the film companies like pork?
The two core principles were simultaneously exerted on the Internet, TV and print media, and soon completely suppressed the initial controversy. Even the general public, under the overwhelming brainwashing of relevant arguments, generally tended to approve of this session's gold medalists. Ball Award nominations.
Even go one step further and start to speak for the next Oscar.
The problem is also very simple.
Should the Oscars divide the pork, or should they just choose one of Daenerys's string of excellent films eligible for nominations for balance, and then give up all the others?
People with a keen sense of smell can roughly judge this public opinion, which is obviously a kind of propaganda for the upcoming Oscars.
Or pressure.
How it turns out, one can only wait for the results of next month's Oscar nominations.
Amid the turmoil, the box office week from December 19th to December 24th will soon end.
Although Thursday's Christmas Eve caused the box office to shrink significantly year-on-year, as the most golden week of Christmas, the North American film market still handed over a dazzling report card.
First of all, it is naturally the much-anticipated "Suicide Squad 2".
As another super blockbuster of the DC movie universe, "Suicide Squad 2" reached the top of the box office this week without any suspense with a screen size of 4155 yuan. After earning 83.76 million US dollars in three days in the first weekend, In the first full week, the final seven-day box office reached 126.34 million U.S. dollars, second only to the summer file "Jurassic Park 3" with a box office of 162.36 million U.S. dollars in the same period, becoming the second highest-grossing film in the first week of 1998. .
In addition, compared to the 9178 in the first week of the first "Suicide Squad"
The box office of "Suicide Squad 2" rose sharply by 38% over the same period, which basically means that, referring to the local box office of the first "Suicide Squad" of 303 million US dollars, not surprisingly, the local data of "Suicide Squad 2" is at least It is also a base of 300 million U.S. dollars. Considering that the final domestic box office of the summer "Jurassic Park 3" is fixed at 406 million, the North American domestic box office of "Suicide Squad 2" is most likely to be around 350 million U.S. dollars.
The total production and publicity cost of this "Suicide Squad 2" is 250 million US dollars, and the local market is 350 million. The dc movie universe project can get about 60% of the average share from the theaters, and only the local market will recover 2.1 Considering that overseas often surpasses domestic production, this project can easily achieve a profit of hundreds of millions of dollars only at the theater stage.
What's more, the dc movie universe series also has a volume of peripheral derivative sales revenue that is larger than the box office, and the profits can be imagined.
Therefore, even if a dark horse such as "Scream" in the same period can also earn 100 million yuan in revenue at the theater stage, the revenue volume of the omni-channel is not at the same order of magnitude, which is what the big studios are willing to Reason for throwing huge costs at something like a super blockbuster.
Even so, the new week beat "Suicide Squad 2" and "Scream", which won the second place in the weekly box office list in the same period as the other two new films, are still eye-catching.
In the second week of its release, under the strong pressure of "Suicide Squad 2", "Scary Scream" still kept a well-controlled decline of 41%, and received another 32.72 million US dollars. The cumulative box office easily rushed to 88.39 million US dollars, breaking 100 million soon.
Third place finally falls to a new film this week.
This is a medium-budget family comedy produced by Paramount, called "Christmas Love", which is completely customized for Christmas. It is also conceivable why it is scheduled to collide with "Suicide Squad 2" this week.
With a production cost of 25 million U.S. dollars and 2394 opening screens, because it is very suitable for the atmosphere of the Christmas family carnival, with a comprehensive score of only 7.1 points, facing the crushing of "Suicide Squad 2", "Christmas Love" still scored 2373 $10,000 first-week box office.
With such an opening, even if the next step is to cut the trend in half, Paramount will be able to recover the cost and make a small profit even if it goes overseas.
It was a surprise.
Then, the fourth and fifth places fell back to the two old films.
Fox's cooperative film "The Mummy 2" ranked fourth, and in its fifth week of release, it received another US$15.41 million. The cumulative box office reached US$188.77 million, breaking 200 million soon.
The fifth place is "Clash of Heaven and Earth".
In the sixth week of its release, "Clash of Heaven and Earth" continued to earn US$12.53 million, and the cumulative box office has reached US$234.51 million. Referring to the current trend, this blockbuster comet hitting the earth still has about 30 million US dollars of box office to spare, and the domestic market will be fixed at about 260 million.
It's a pity that it failed to break 300 million.
Needless to say, it is also the reason for a certain two words.
In addition to the top five, it is worth mentioning the award-winning film "Elizabeth" produced by Gaomen Films, a subsidiary of Daenerys.
In order to avoid the crushing of "Suicide Squad 2", "Elizabeth" still only opened 125 screens in the third week of its small-scale opening.
In the new week, with the announcement of the nominations for the Golden Globe Awards, the word-of-mouth and popularity of "Elizabeth" has once again increased. In addition, the most intense competition stage has passed, and the film has begun to increase its screening scale, with the number of screens reaching 506 this week. .
The new box office week begins on Christmas Day, December 25, and will end on December 31, the last day of 1998.
Both before and after are festivals, so it belongs to a golden period second only to Christmas week.
In addition to "Elizabeth", which has expanded its screening scale, and the award-winning films that were trial-screened at some checkpoints this week, there are also three films that have been launched on a large scale.
First of all, Daenerys produced another romantic film "My Best Friend's Wedding" starring Julia Roberts. The production cost was 35 million US dollars and the number of screens was 2,613.
Influenced by Simon, the super big butterfly, Julia Roberts, who was the box office queen of the 1990s in the original time and space, created classic films such as "Pretty Woman" under the promotion of Simon this time, but in recent years The development is obviously not as good as before.
Just like last year, Julia worked hard for a long time to participate in "Shakespeare in Love", but someone transferred it to Kate Beckinsale, who had a more suitable style and image. As a result, Julia missed at least His first Oscar nomination.
What else could Julia do?
A certain important person is not something she can resist, even if she loses her teeth, she can only swallow it.
Fortunately, this new film can be regarded as compensation.
Because it was the idea given by Simon and the well-known guarantee, both Julia as the heroine and Daenerys' internal production team have high hopes.
The second is MGM's crime thriller "Perfect Murder", starring Michael Douglas, which continues Douglas' consistent style since the popular "Fatal Attraction" in the 1980s. The budget is also 35 million US dollars. 2354 screens.
And finally there's a blockbuster from Disney called "Joyan the Gorilla."
Just listening to the name, you can probably imagine the content of this movie. It borrowed from the famous "King Kong", mixed with Meryl Streep's "Out of Africa", and at the same time took a wave of "Jurassic Park". The Behemoth trend started. Because the gorilla character uses full CG
Production, the budget reached 90 million US dollars, and the number of screens opened was 3176.