Chapter 915 A New Era

On September 5th, with the release of an action film "Gun Down" starring Steven Seagal from Warner Bros., the summer of 1997 officially came to an end.

In general, this summer has a tragic start. It was crushed by the two blockbusters "Finding Nemo" and "Casino Royale" with a box office potential of more than 300 million US dollars. It was "The Lion King 2" that Paramount Pictures finally barely exceeded $200 million at the North American box office, and it was definitely not a success.

However, entering July, the chaos in the film market also began to calm down. Fox's "Ice Age", MGM's "Scream 2", Universal's "Air Force One" and other films have achieved very good box office results.

Among them, the performance of "Ice Age" is undoubtedly the most eye-catching.

This is not only because "Ice Age" finally earned more than $176 million at the North American box office at a cost of $59 million, but this 3D animated film is also Blue Sky Animation Studio's first animated feature film.

Although it is well known that Blue Sky Studio is fully supported by Firefly in terms of technology, as a first-time film, it can receive a good reputation in North America and a box office that is more than three times the production cost, which still gives other film companies a great stimulus.

You know, in addition to "Casino Royale", the most eye-catching box office performances this summer are "The Lion King 2", "Finding Nemo" and "Ice Age". Just these three animated films, the summer box office total is close to 600 million US dollars, which is almost a quarter of the total summer box office.

Before "Ice Age", although several major Hollywood film companies began to establish their own animation film departments, due to the influence of the concept of 2D animation being monopolized by Disney and 3D animation being monopolized by Pixar, coupled with the long production cycle of animated films, these Film companies all feel that it is very difficult to make a successful animated film.

But now, whether it's Blue Sky Studios breaking the traditional thinking influence or being driven by powerful interests, several other major Hollywood studios have begun to increase investment in their animation departments.

On the other hand, the tragic battle in June also made Hollywood realize that it can no longer stick to the traditional practice of focusing on the film before the July 4th American Independence Day, which will only cause very serious internal friction.

The box office performance in overseas markets has also further attracted the attention of Hollywood.

This year's two billion-dollar box office seeds "Finding Nemo" and "Casino Royale", no matter which one, the overseas box office significantly exceeds that of the United States. When many media are still for "Casino Royale" to break the first-week box office record again at the North American box office. While amazed, the film's overseas box office has easily reached a height of 13.6 billion US dollars.

In its 13th week of release, "Finding Nemo", which has accumulated more than 3.3 billion US dollars at the North American box office, has also reached 3.9 billion US dollars at the overseas box office. At the same time, many overseas markets have not yet been released, and there are at least 200 million US dollars of box office potential to be tapped. , far unlike North America, which has entered the final phase.

If you push it further, into September, "Titanic", which began to be completely downgraded worldwide, will eventually reach an astonishing figure of 1.6296 billion US dollars at the overseas box office, and the film's global box office will eventually break through. an unprecedented $200 million.

The Paramount Act of 1948 and the subsequent rise of the television industry completely ended the thriving American film industry during the Golden Age of Hollywood.

But in recent years, as Hollywood movies have repeatedly created box office miracles on a global scale, the whole of Hollywood has gradually realized that for the American film industry, another new golden age is coming. Moreover, this is an era accompanied by the rapid development of high technology and economic globalization. If you cannot catch up with these changes, you are destined to face the fate of being eliminated again.

Among them, the biggest change is undoubtedly the rapid integration of several major media groups in North America.

I have to say, this is actually a very ironic thing.

The Paramount Act of that year was to avoid the negative impact of a monopoly giant's dominance on the entire industry. But the result of such a move has devastated the American film industry. In recent years, the Paramount Act has existed in name only, and several major media giants have even reached out to the theater industry, which was originally banned, but Hollywood has shown a rapid recovery.

With the end of this summer vacation, Hollywood once again started a major event related to the integration of the two major media groups.

Viacom's acquisition of bs television network, and Seagram's acquisition of European music giant Polygram.

Viacom's acquisition of bs is almost a well-known thing in Hollywood.

Summer and Redstone have been expanding Viacom Group's TV business non-stop since the 1980s. Firefly and News Corp. jointly suppressed the release of "The Lion King 2", resulting in a $300 million North American box office. The potential 2D animation film finally ended in the early 200 million yuan, which further stimulated Redstone, making the other party finally determined to start the acquisition of BS.

For Viacom to swallow bs, Eric is very happy to see it.

The public television stations in North America have already shown signs of decay, and in recent years, more and more cable stations have been taking a lot of market share. At the same time, due to the influence of the new technology wave, the market value of bs has also been inflated several times. It can be said that at this time Viacom swallowed bs. Even if there is no memory of the previous life, Eric can judge this public television network. Will become a big burden to Viacom Group.

However, Seagram's acquisition of Polygon was beyond Eric's expectations.

The incident was uncovered when a reporter from a European newspaper accidentally took a photo of Seagram eo Edgar; Bronfman was meeting with Polygram executives.

When he acquired Universal's parent company a, Seagram already had a very strong Universal Music in North America. If he acquired Polygram, the largest record company in Europe, the strength of Universal Music would far exceed that of the world's leading music company. Several other record companies.

"Okay, I'll send a plane to pick you up in Brisbane, but don't be too arrogant, and also, should you kiss...well, it's good, but it seems to be on the foot, come again...haha, okay Come on, don't make trouble." In the conference room of Firefly Studios, Eric had his feet on the desk, leaning on the boss chair with Miranda who was far away in Australia; Kerr was talking on the phone, and the office door was pushed Open, Elizabeth walked in without knocking on the door: "Well, that's it, I have a guest, hang up first, goodbye."

Elizabeth glanced suspiciously at Eric's face, who hung up the phone in a hurry, and found nothing unusual. She curled her lips and sat opposite to herself, holding the whole pile of documents on Eric's desk into her arms. Look inside.

Putting the phone on the desk, Eric sat up straight and looked at Elizabeth who was flipping through a thick stack of documents: "Are you blatantly being a commercial spy?"

Without raising her head, Elizabeth said, "Hmph, I won't hold you back for talking on the phone with those little foxes. How dare you be so righteous."

"I'm planning to make integrity my motto recently," Eric said with a smile, taking out a pencil from the pen holder and revising on a script in front of him.

The script in his hand was "Desperate Housewives" that he just remembered a few days ago. Eric spent a few hours writing a simple script idea, and then threw it to Mark, the original screenwriter of "Desperate Housewives"; profit.

Now Mark; Cherry is just a very inconspicuous little person in Hollywood, naturally conscientious, and quickly wrote the complete synopsis of the first season and the script of the first three episodes.

Just after writing a few lines on the script of "Desperate Housewives", Elizabeth, who was opposite, burst out laughing.

Eric raised his head: "You are so scary, what if you scare me out of a horror movie script, you have to work hard to write it."

Elizabeth threw the stack of documents in her arms back to the desk, leaving only one folder, raised it, still with an uncontrollable smile on her face, and said, "This, the script of "Teddy Bear", it's really too much It's vulgar, who wrote it?"

Eric pointed to himself with a pencil: "Recently, the inspiration has burst out, and I can't stop it."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes subconsciously, raised the folder in her hand, and said, "I want it."

"Come and lie on the table, I'll give it to you."

"Ah, you bastard, you don't think of good things in your mind, no wonder you wrote such a vulgar script," Elizabeth picked up a small ornament next to the monitor and threw it at Eric.

Eric reached out to catch the "Resident Evil" Ada with a crossbow; Wang figured it away carefully, and said, "This is out of print, if it breaks, I can only put you on the table as compensation. "

Elizabeth snorted again, shook the "Teddy Bear" script in her hand, and no longer mentioned what she asked for, just said: "Teddy bear is a plush toy that many children like, you just write it like that. , is the copyright owner willing?"

"I think there are only two reasons why copyright owners are unwilling. One is that they have not given enough money, and the other is that they have not given enough money," Eric explained: "Anyway, Firefly has signed a contract with them. With the copyright agreement, how we want to write the script has nothing to do with them.”

"Hmph, I don't have to think about it, they must have been tricked by you, thinking that you were going to make "Teddy Bear" a Disney-style children's feature film. If they knew in advance that the script would be so vulgar, they probably wouldn't kill them. selling."

Eric smiled and said: "That's not necessarily, it depends on whether the money is enough. However, this is a movie made, it must be R-rated, and children can't watch it at all, so it won't be affected. Good. Now, what's the matter with you, don't you suddenly think that I can't extricate yourself and run over, if I remember correctly, we just met the night before?"

"Who would miss you," Elizabeth curled her lips, took out a portfolio from her handbag and handed it over: "This is Chris; Wedge and the others just finished the Shrek script, help me read it."

Eric reached out and took it, opened it, and said, "Why don't you just send it to my mailbox, how convenient?"

"Everyone is in a hurry. Who knows when you will send it by e-mail. I'm not going to leave this afternoon. You help me read it and give suggestions for revisions. Well, that's it."

"Okay," Eric nodded with a smile, "then make me a cup of coffee first, add a piece of sugar, and put more milk."

Elizabeth gestured towards the Ada again; Wang's figure grabbed it before standing up and walking out of Eric's office.

After a while, she put the coffee in front of Eric, and she said, "Didn't it say that Seagram is going to buy Poly Gold recently, don't you feel it at all?"

Eric turned the pencil in his hand and asked casually, "How does it feel?"

"I said yes, you never thought about taking off Polygon. Recently, there have been more remarks that irelyer players condone piracy?"

"I only know that Firefly Records' performance will increase by more than 50% this year. Although digital music revenue still accounts for only 10%, they are smarter and should know where the future trend is. For brand-new technology, forcibly blocking only It will kill itself. Siemens wants to sell Polygram now, perhaps because of the rise of digital music in the next few years.”

"Then Seagram is a fool, can't they see this?"

"It's not about being stupid, Edgar; Bronfman wouldn't be too stupid to take Seagram's place in his family, and of course I don't think he's too smart. Just, just Like Redstone, many people only see the immediate short-term benefits and are not willing to think too far into the long term."

Elizabeth nodded thoughtfully and smiled again: "You are thinking very long-term. Fireflies have not expanded in the past two years. I am afraid that the annual growth rate will soon decline."

Eric approved another line on the script in his hand, and continued: "Even if Firefly Group's performance stops growing, it will be enough for other Hollywood film companies to catch up for several years, not to mention, it is uncertain whether it will stop growing. Recently It’s not like you didn’t know the economic bubble for a few years. Firefly is not a listed company and can’t enjoy the dividends brought by too many bubbles. Therefore, it is unwise to expand now. After two years, the bubble burst. , is the moment when the fireflies can show their strength."

"Then what do you think of Seagram's acquisition of Polygram?"

Eric remembered the original time and space, the integration of the media group was completed, and only the information that the Universal Group continued to change hands in the new century, said: "Well, I can only say that once Seagram completes the acquisition of Polymetal, in the future This company will become a hot potato, whoever picks up will be unlucky.” (To be continued.)