Chapter 964 Counterattack on Hollywood

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Los Angeles International Airport.

Disney CEO Sandy Littlewater and President Bill Michanick wait in a VIP room.

Watching Litwater hang up a call, Bill Michanick asked, "Simon must have refused, right?"

"That happened a few days ago, how could Simon agree to attend the party to greet the French," Sandy Litwater smiled indifferently, put away his phone, took a sip of coffee next to him, and said: " In any case, we just need to do what we need to do, just like when Peter Gublera entertained Akio Morita with a lot of stars and made the Japanese happy."

Bill Michanick said with a little regret and self-deprecation: "It's a pity we didn't get as good treatment as Cooper and Peters."

"At least in a short period of time, donkeys won't step on the same spot twice, we just haven't met a good time," Sandy Litwater shrugged and smiled, looking at the airport runway outside the glass window of the VIP room, suddenly He added, "Have you had any contact with Michael recently?"

Michael, of course, is Michael Eisner, their former boss.

Bill Michanick didn't hide it either. He nodded and said, "We had breakfast together two years ago. Michael's LinkedIn workplace social networking site has done a good job. He also tried to see if I would be interested in doing it together."

Sandy Littlewater was a little disappointed that Eisner didn't get in touch with him after hearing what Michanic said.

But soon relieved.

Sandy Littlewater, a lawyer, was once the head of Disney's legal department. Although he managed the business he was responsible for in an orderly manner during his tenure, he did not have much of a standout. Moreover, he has a good understanding of the emerging Internet industry. Not familiar with either.

What's more, Littlewater also knew that Michael Eisner had also brought in former Disney president Frank Wells, who had retired from Disney, as LinkedIn's legal counsel. Frank Wells was also born in law, and he was Sandy Littlewater's direct boss at the time. Now that he has the top spot, Eisner certainly won't think about him again.

Bill Michanick is different.

The former head of Disney's home entertainment division successfully operated the videotape distribution of a series of Disney's old animated films in the 1980s, which not only created sales miracles one by one, but also directly provided a large sum of money for the development of Disney in the 1980s. funds, and prompted a sharp rise in Disney's stock price.

All in all, Michanic is a practical talent who is very good at business development and marketing. If he switches to LinkedIn, he will hopefully help Eisner improve the business model of this workplace social networking site. This is an urgent need for many Internet companies at this stage. A problem that needs to be solved.

Thinking this way, Sandy Littlewater asked, "Then how did you reply to Michael?"

Michanic shook his head and said, "I refused."

"Why, I think this is a good opportunity?"

Bill Michanick said: "The Internet industry is so crazy now, I can't understand it, and I think this bubble wave, um, can last for a year at most. If you go to LinkedIn, maybe you haven't gotten started yet. In the face of the bubble bursting and the market entering a crisis of undervaluation. I'm more stable in Hollywood by comparison."

Sandy Littlewater said half-jokingly: "You could be missing out on hundreds of millions of dollars this way."

Michanic shook his head and said: "Whether it's Wall Street or Hollywood, many people are desperately trying to squeeze into Silicon Valley. How many people can really make a fortune? Once the Internet bubble burst, do you think these people can easily return to the realm of the cause. And, in my opinion, the monopoly pattern of the Internet industry has taken shape, and the Westeros system occupies most of the interests. Unless there is another change, the people who dig gold from this field will only get more and more less and less."

Litwater pondered what Michanic said, and had to nod, but couldn't help but say, "I heard that LinkedIn is already preparing for an IPO?"

"Yeah, it's going to be listed early next year at the earliest. Michael has revealed that the valuation will probably reach 500 million US dollars. Compared with the investment in the website, this is a considerable number," Michanick said, and added: "But , that's why I didn't go. If you choose to join at first, you can get some more stocks. If you switch jobs now, you can only get some future options. You must know more about this than I do. Once the bubble bursts, those options will only be available. would be worthless."

In fact, I was thinking about whether to use the savings over the years to go to Silicon Valley to give it a shot. After listening to Michanic's analysis, Litwater rubbed the coffee cup in his hand, somewhat disappointed, and dispelled some thoughts.

After all, both of them have reached middle age.

Can not afford to toss.

Now that they are in charge of Disney together, even if they can only be the puppets of the French, they are still the seven heads of Hollywood. Although the French control Disney is harsh, in order to stabilize people's hearts, it is not bad for them.

After waiting for more than ten minutes, an assistant came to inform them, and the two got up and brought a few entourages to a apron inside the airport for private jets to take off and land.

Jean-Marie Messier, the new chairman and CEO of Vivendi Group, came from France.

Jean-Marie Messier has just recently taken over from Guy Dejovani, the former head of Vivendi Group for 20 years.

Vivendi this

Formerly engaged in water affairs, transportation, energy and other fields, Jean-Marie Messier began to enter the media field during his tenure as president. Vivendi's acquisition of Disney was a project personally promoted by Jean-Marie Messier. With the qualifications accumulated in this acquisition, Messier defeated other competitors in one fell swoop and became the new head of Vivendi.

Having just completed the handover last week, Messier couldn't wait to arrange this trip to North America.

Even if Disney's current performance is somewhat tepid, after all, the time is short, and this transaction is far from being marked as a failure. At present, the global media and entertainment industry is recovering. The acquisition of Disney is very ambitious for Vivendi. For Messier, who has transformed into a media and entertainment giant, this is just the beginning.

After getting off the plane, Jean-Marie Messier, who came to Hollywood with a group of subordinates, did not go to the hotel to rest, but went directly to the Disney headquarters in Burbank.

A large conference room at Disney headquarters.

Sandy Litwater sat on one side with a group of Disney executives, looking at the other side of the conference table, the executives of Vivendi's French TV 4, the famous French executive of Gaumont, and the French director who is also famous in Hollywood Luc Besson and others felt a little weird in their hearts.

Is the Frenchman trying to counterattack Hollywood?

Jean-Marie Messier is also a resolute look. Everyone sat down, introduced each other briefly, and went straight to the topic, saying that he will personally promote Disney to focus on creating a number of blockbuster projects and other Hollywood film companies. At the same time, in order to share risks, Disney will also strengthen cooperation with major French media and entertainment companies.

After asking Sandy Litwater about the progress of the copyright negotiations for "Terminator" and affirming it, Jean-Marie Messier announced on the spot that he would cooperate with French Gaumont Films to jointly develop French director Luc Besson's preparations The sci-fi blockbuster "The Fifth Element" series for many years.

Messier also personally introduced that this is a sci-fi series with a perfect world view created by Luc Besson since he was young. At present, he has a complete conception of the trilogy, and it is not impossible to develop into a DC movie in the future. The Fifth Element of the Universe Cinematic Universe series.

Sandy Litwater and others did not express their dissatisfaction with the surprise attack that the Frenchman had not informed about in advance.

It's just that it's inevitable to rant.

Another movie universe, doesn't the movie universe need money?

Moreover, attracting a large number of French filmmakers to cooperate with Disney has made Disney's executives even more optimistic. It is strange that the French film style can adapt to Hollywood.

Just like Luc Besson, although "Blue Sea and Blue Sky" created a miracle at the French box office, the director, at least for now, has shown any potential to adapt to Hollywood. Two years ago, "The Killer is not too cold" ", in North America, it only has a good reputation, and the box office is completely out of hand.

After such a turbulent afternoon of meetings, and at the same time finalizing the contract for "Terminator 3", on the third day of arriving in Los Angeles, Jean-Marie Messier personally hosted a grand event at Disney headquarters in Burbank. At the press conference, an announcement was made of Disney's new phase of film development plans led by the two major projects "Terminator 3" and "The Fifth Element".

It's Friday, June 21st.

A box office week in North America has just ended. The original topic of "007 Spectre" was hot, but I didn't expect to be suddenly attracted by Disney's big moves.

However, this did not completely obscure the edge of "007 Spectre".

From June 14th to June 20th, the first week of "007 Spectre", which is only in the North American market, has a box office of 3,346 screens and won a crazy $89.17 million at the box office. Even if the inflation factor is calculated, this is 007 Highest opening week for the series since its inception.

The 007 movie cost only $75 million to make.

In the first week, it was $89.17 million. According to the step-by-step accounting rules signed by MGM and the theater chain, the publisher can get 90% of the theater chain’s box office revenue after deducting operating costs two weeks before the opening, and the actual conversion is about 70%. For one, a split of about $60 million in the first week will allow MGM to recoup most of the cost.

All in all, although the total cost of production and publicity of the project reached 125 million US dollars, only local distribution is expected to make MGM a good profit. Therefore, "Spectre 007" is likely to become the most profitable 007 movie in years.

Affected by "Spectre 007", the box office of other films during the same period has experienced a significant drop.

The second-place "Mission: Impossible 2" saw a 51% drop at the box office in the third week of its release, cutting it in half, continuing to earn $27.98 million. However, in three weeks, the action blockbuster adaptation of this TV series, which also belongs to the theme of secret agents, has reached a cumulative box office of 161.24 million US dollars.

Moreover, because "007 Spectre" is too strong, except for "Mission Impossible 2", which came in second place, the box office volume of more than 10 million US dollars was kept, and all other films this week were knocked down to 10 million US dollars. Within the range, and even "Romeo and Juliet", which has been performing strongly as a dark horse since the beginning of the painting, has seen a box office drop of as much as 46% in the past week.

In fact, it's a sign that Romeo and Juliet's box-office potential is starting to run out.

After all, it has been released so far, including the $6.76 million box office in the past week, this low-cost romance film with a production cost of only $15 million has successfully surpassed 100 million at the cumulative box office and successfully entered the ranks of the 100 million box office club, with a total box office of 100 million $6.43 million.

On June 21, a new box office week begins.

According to the ups and downs of this summer season, there are still not too heavyweight new films to appear this week.

The first is "Police Empire" produced by Gaomen Pictures, a subsidiary of Daenerys Entertainment. This crime drama starring Sylvester Stallone was delayed from the end of last year to the release of this summer. The production cost is only 10 million US dollars , the number of opening screens is 1697.

Then, Disney's 2D animated film "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", which was adapted from the "Notre Dame de Paris" cartoon, opened with 1,297 screens.

Compared with "Police Empire", it is still not worth mentioning.

Because of the rise of 3D animated films, 2D animated films in recent years have become less and less expected by the audience. Although "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" has a world-class super IP base like "Notre Dame de Paris", in fact, such a bias towards Adult-oriented themes are very weak for audiences of all ages, especially the key children's audience for animated films.

Disney also mentioned the topic of reviving animated films in its grand press conference on Friday, but unfortunately, limited by various factors, almost no one is optimistic that Disney can do this.

Finally, there is a "Angry Lock and Break the Tide".

This is a black-themed film adapted from a novel, directed by the famous Spielberg, with a production cost of $30 million and distributed by Paramount.

Compared with "Jurassic Park", "ET Alien" and even "Schindler's List", "Raging Locks and Breaking Tide" is almost unknown in Spielberg's director list. Not many people have heard of this movie.

In fact, this is a project between DreamWorks and Paramount.

And it is a very important project in the planning stage.

It’s a pity that Spielberg did not have the halo of never letting go. This project was disliked by Paramount at the project stage. It was only because of Spielberg’s status in Hollywood and the insistence of the other party that it was not allowed to develop this project. , and it was also placed in an important schedule such as June 21st in the summer season. Paramount also gave the opening scale of 1956 screens.

In fact, both Paramount and DreamWorks hope that this film will become the second "Schindler's List"

It's just that everyone was very careful about "Schindler's List" at the beginning, and many people still bought tickets for various purposes, allowing this Holocaust movie to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars at the global box office.

This time, "Angry Locks and Breaking the Tide", although it is also a sensitive racial theme, this time there is no need to be careful. Moreover, black people have limited spending power, and it is almost impossible to get the box office like "Schindler's List" again.

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