Chapter Six Hundred and Fortieth Chapters

In an office at Universal Pictures headquarters, Michael Eisner put down the "Variety" magazine that published Firefly's financial report for the first half of the year, and couldn't help feeling a little emotional.

Although the net profit of all businesses of Firefly Group is only more than 600 million, which is less than half of the combined profits of Firefly and the two companies last year, this has exceeded everyone's expectations. Generally, in the process of merging two large companies, due to the integration With the turmoil caused by restructuring, it is very common for new companies to experience declines in performance in a short period of time. But the Firefly Group went through this turbulent period very smoothly. Michael Eisner had to admit that if he sat in that seat, it would be difficult for him to do better.

After having survived the quadruple heart bypass surgery, except for the need to maintain a vegetarian diet, Michael Eisner's body has not changed much from before. Moreover, with the excellent box office performance of "The Mummy", after his physical recovery, Michael Eisner easily returned to his global position, but now, another thorny problem he has to face is before his surgery. , In order to appease the board of directors, Michael Ovitz, who was the president of Universal, was personally brought in.

Thinking about how to squeeze Michael Ovitz, who has been trying to share his power, out of the world, the office door rang a few times before Michael Eisner came back to his senses, thinking that the next person needs more attention to deal with, Michael . Eisner quickly cheered up.

A bald fat man with a smile walked into the office under the guidance of the secretary. Michael Eisner showed a warm look, and took the initiative to stand up and stretch out his hand: "Mr. Perelman, it's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Eisner."

After the secretary brought two sets of coffee, Michael Eisner and Ron Perelman chatted for a while, and then they said knowingly: "I wonder what Mr. Perelman has an appointment with me today?"

Ron Perelman took out several copyright transfer contracts from his briefcase and handed them to Michael Eisner, saying, "Before talking about this, I think Mr. Eisner can look at this first."

Michael Eisner briefly glanced over the copies of several contracts and put them aside. Dao: "So, Marvel wants to get help from Universal to avoid bankruptcy protection, right?"

"Yes. I think we can cooperate," said Ron Perelman. "It can be seen from these copyright transfer documents that Firefly is not simply seeking revenge against Marvel this time. They are definitely against Marvel. It has been coveted for a long time. From the perspective of Eric Williams developing movies, this also indirectly shows that the copyright of superheroes under Marvel is definitely more valuable than imagined. As long as Universal can help Marvel get out of this crisis, then we will We can become the most solid partner, and we can jointly develop these superhero projects under Marvel in the future.”

Michael Eisner curled the corners of his mouth calmly,

Asked, "So, Mr. Perelman, what does Universal need to do?"

Ron Perelman was stunned, but he said quickly: "I just need Universal to make a gesture of buying Marvel at a high price, it's just a gesture, Universal doesn't have to pay any price at all. As long as this kind of good news stops Marvel is forced into bankruptcy protection, so I have enough time to deal with things inside Marvel."

Michael Eisner's sneer almost overflowed: "Then, Marvel will have a deep cooperation with Universal, right?"

Ron Perelman replied very confidently: "Of course."

Michael Eisner finally stopped hiding his sneer and said bluntly: "Mr. Perelman, I am very clear about the predicament that Marvel has encountered, and at the same time, I am also clear about your character. , so we don’t have to play with these little tricks that have no substance. If you want Universal’s help, yes, but I need to see the real benefits.”

Ron Perelman's face became a little embarrassed, but he still said: "Mr. Eisner. In this case, how can Universal help Marvel?"

"As long as Marvel transfers the film and television rights of popular heroes that I still hold to Universal, I can promise to publicly support Marvel."

"It's impossible..." Ron Perelman blurted out subconsciously, but then he realized his gaffe, and quickly restrained his expression, saying, "Mr. Eisner. This condition is too much."

Marvel has lost the copyrights of "Spider-Man", "Fantastic Four" and "Hulk". With the attitude shown by Firefly, Ron Perelman speculates that Marvel wants to take back the copyrights of these three superheroes will be very difficult. If the copyrights of the remaining popular superheroes are transferred to Universal, Ron Perelman can't imagine the value of Marvel.

Although Marvel always publicly claims that it has thousands of superheroes, in fact, this calculation method is to calculate all the characters that appear in the Marvel comics system, which is ridiculously high. In Marvel comics, there are actually dozens of superhero characters that are really known to the public, and there are no more than 10 superheroes with the same popularity as Batman and Superman.

Although Ron Perelman was aware of Firefly's coveting of Marvel, he still felt that what Firefly really wanted was a superhero under Marvel that had the same potential for film adaptation as Batman and Superman, not the entire comic book. Wei.

Once Michael Eisner's request is met, and he accidentally transfers the superhero copyright valued by Marvel's Firefly to Universal, he will completely lose this bargaining chip.

Michael Eisner's mind is actually the same as that of Ron Perelman. He also doesn't think that the entire Marvel is a treasure with huge adaptation potential.

Therefore, from the beginning, Michael Eisner was not too eager to participate in this troubled water. Although he also really wanted to take this opportunity to win the copyright of several popular heroes of Marvel, Firefly has already shown such an aggressive attitude, Ron Perelman is as shrewd as a fox, so Universal wants It is almost impossible for a fisherman to profit.

What's more, at the moment Universal is negotiating with Nicole Kidman about the sequel of "The Mummy". If Firefly is angered by this incident, Michael Eisner is worried that Eric will let Nicole Kidman Deman quits The Mummy series. If you screw up a lucrative project because of a goal that has no prospects at all, that's a good thing. (To be continued.)