I’m in Hollywood Chapter 1155: Crazy surroundings
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Eric returned to Los Angeles on June 10, and the second part film "Cars" of Firefly Group summer file has just completed its first week of screening.
Compared to other works of Pixar Studio, although "Cars" maintains a consistent production level, it is also widely regarded by critics as the theme of the story is too young and unfriendly to adult audiences.
In the first week of release, "Cars" Box Office reached 83.32 million USD, slightly lower than the release department's expectations.
However, the car toy developed around "Cars" was very popular with the release of the film, and even exceeded the expectations of Firefly Group.
In just one week, the peripheral sales of "Cars" broke through 200 million USD, easily surpassing the same period of last year's Star Wars Prequel 1: Ghost Threat sales data at the end of last year.
The consumer products department of Firefly Group even made a very bold report, predicting that the sales volume of peripheral products during the entire operating cycle of "Cars" is likely to be second only to the 《Star Wars》 series.
According to the sales data of the first week, only this year and one year, the sales of peripheral products of "Cars" will reach between 2.5 billion and 3billion USD. Coupled with the success of Box Office's "Iron Man", which is also very rich in peripheral products, Firefly Group's consumer product business is expected to double its revenue this year, reaching about 6billion USD.
According to an average net profit rate of about 15%, the sales of 6billion USD's peripheral products will bring 900 million USD net profit to Firefly Group.
According to the financial data for the first half of the year, even if the huge non-operating profits brought by the clover fund are not included, the net profit scale of Firefly Group1999 in the whole year will exceed the 4billion USD mark for the first time.
In this way, the Consumer Products Division alone will contribute more than 20% of the net profit share to the entire Firefly Group, compared with the previous figure of only about 10%.
Although Firefly Group has a muffled mind to make a fortune, it has no intention of promoting the hot sales around "Cars". However, this matter was quickly unearthed by the media, and even the "supernaturally powerful" media got the forecast report of the Group's Consumer Products Department.
Last year, in order to gain greater initiative in the merger with AOL, the Time Warner Group ’s carefully designed annual financial report only managed to exceed the annual profit scale of 1.9 billion USD.
Now, Firefly Group is only a consumer products department, and the contribution of profits is close to half of that of Time Warner Group last year. How can this not make the entire Hollywood hot?
Although the Pixar animation studio has also established similar software technology barriers to the digital field, a series of core creators of Pixar quickly became the target of the headhunting company, and even John · Lasseter has people contacted and opened the conditions Let Eric himself be a little 'heartbeat'.
In order to avoid brain drain, Firefly Group had to start another round of salary increase plan for Pixar studio.
In the original time and space, Eric always had a question why why studios such as Blue Sky animation and lighting entertainment can maintain the production cost of animation movies at a low level such as 60 million USD, but the production budget of Pixar studio has reached 200 million USD.
It's completely understood now.
The main input of animation film is the labor cost. The production team is also 500 people. The two-year production cycle, the average annual salary of 100,000 USD team and the average annual salary of 50,000 USD team, can directly increase the production budget by one Times.
The Pixar studio not only has a larger animation production team than other small animation studios, the average annual salary of the staff is also much higher than other homes, and the production cost of animation movies is naturally high.
In addition to "Toy Story", Amberg Berlin Film Industry's "The Matrix3" finally chose the release date on Wednesday, June 9.
There is a very common hidden rule in the Hollywood film release date. If some films choose a non-Friday release date, it usually means that the producers do not have much confidence in the Box Office of this film, so they will pass the pull The long first week cycle, with the picture at the beginning of the release to get a higher Box Office credit.
"The Matrix3" obviously has not escaped this kind of rule. Last year's "The Matrix2" has consumed a large part of the charm of the movie. An Berlin Film Industry did not choose to let the finale release as soon as possible at the end of last year, but dragged it to this year's summer file. After waiting for one year, many viewers lost interest in this series again.
With the one-off review after the release of "The Matrix3", the first week of two days yielded a fairly good 35150,000 USD Box Office, the subsequent Box Office curve of the film fell all the way, and finally the first from June 11 to June 17 In the second week, Box Office had only 62.53 million USD. In the following third week, Box Office fell by 67%. It is estimated that North America total Box Office and 150 million production cost line cannot be reached.
The failure of "The Matrix3" also became the last straw that made Amberlin Film Industry fall apart.
According to some news from the industry, David · Geffen, Spielberg and George · Lucas have already begun to discuss the spin-off, and the Microsoft, which invested heavily in the Film Industry of Anberlin, also stopped funding the Film Studio last year. stand by.
The Film Studio, which was once considered to have great potential to replicate the miracle of Firefly Group and became another big Film Studio of Hollywood, ended in failure. It also made many people realize that the future Hollywood will obviously no longer be able to be tied with the current seven majors. Of latecomers appeared.
In addition to a series of new films, "Iron Man" is still steadily acquiring Box Office.
In the seventh week of release, the film North America Box Office received another 10600,000 USD, and the cumulative Box Office reached 300 million59111 million USD.
Although it will fall within 10 million USD next week, North America Box Office, which is close to 360 million USD, is also close to North America total Box Office of Eric's last directed work "Casino Royale" 370 million USD.
It's just that according to the current Box Office curve, "Iron Man" is unlikely to impact the local Box Office of North America 400 million USD.
400 million USD seems to have become a threshold.
Of course, even so, no one is too disappointed.
At the same time, with the continuous increase in the number of ticket warehouses, the overseas Box Office numbers of "Iron Man" easily broke through 500 million USD, although the same has entered the closing period, but in the next few months, count North America, "Iron Man" The global Box Office broke through 1billion USD without any suspense.
Unconsciously, many people suddenly discovered that although "Iron Man" is the starring work of Eric, but counting "Jurassic Park" and "Casino Royale", this is already the third part of global Box Office that he led and participated in reaching 1billion USD level Videos.
A filmmaker makes a film where global Box Office breaks through 1billion USD, and he will be immediately taken to the altar by Hollywood.
However, if a filmmaker makes three global Box Office 1 billion USD movies in a row, it can only be described as a miracle.
Moreover, with the continuous disclosure of various aspects of "Gravity", many people have gradually realized that this is likely to be another Eric Williams 1billion USD Box Office miracle,
Hurry to New York to participate in the celebration feast of the merger of AOL and Time Warner, return to Los Angeles, and Eric will devote most of their energy to the final editing of "Gravity".
"Gravity" adopts the mode of making while converting. During the post-production process, the 3D conversion studio in the digital field has synchronized the corresponding 2D lens into a 3D picture, even including IMAX-3D. Restructuring.
Eric did this in order to constantly hone the 3D conversion team during the film production process, and further optimize the 3D and IMAX technology based on some of the experience in his memory.
Now, the 3D conversion of "Gravity" has been completed synchronously, and the team in the digital field has begun to produce the 3D version of "Underworld".
Although the 2D filming of "The Lord of the Rings First Song" has been completed, Eric hopes that the conversion team will work on the conversion of "The Lord of the Rings First Song" after the training of "Underworld". The release date of "The Lord of the Rings First Song" is December 17, and the time is also very ample.
It's so busy, time has come to the end of June without knowing it.
As we approached noon, Bill · Gates got off at the parking lot of Firefly Studios. Although I had no expectations, I saw that Eric ’s blonde tall and slender female assistant was waiting by the parking lot. Some are unhappy.
"Hello Mr. Gates," Meyer seems to have not noticed the look of Bill · Gates, and shook hands with him politely, saying: "Please follow me."
As Meyer walked out of the parking lot together, Bill · Gates still couldn't help saying: "Is Eric busy?"
Meyer nodded: "Boss is currently finalizing his new movie."
Bill · Gates listened to the polite tone of Meyer, and remembered that he had just planted a heel on a woman recently, so he did n’t ask for it. In my heart, I couldn't help but think that the chance of Eric Williams planting heels on women should obviously be much larger than that of myself. Why did this guy never experience an unlucky thing similar to his own.
All the way to the digital studio, Bill · Gates, under the guidance of Meyer, just sat down in the lounge, Eric walked in with a few other people talking and laughing.
Bill · Gates hesitated, but stood up, and greeted the past with a smile on his face.
"Bill, nice to see you again," Eric and Bill · Gates shook hands and introduced the line of people beside them: "This is Jim, Michael, you must know, and Peter, he is" The Lord of the Rings " Series of Director. "
In fact, Microsoft has always had the ambition to enter Hollywood. Although he had just returned without success on Film Industry in Anberlin, Bill · Gates did not give up this idea.
At this time, looking at the hot Hollywood and Director of James · Cameron and Michael · Bei, he also shook hands with everyone very politely and said a few words before asking jokingly, "Eric, you are another Any big moves? "
Eric sat down with everyone and said, "It's still about 3D movies. There are some new technological breakthroughs in the digital field, so let everyone come and see them together."
In fact, in the past six months, in order to further lay out the 3D-IMAX film technology, a series of Director of the Firefly system often appeared in Firefly Studios. Eric also personally approved a budget up to 20 million USD, specifically for these core Director shoots3D short films of the Firefly system to practice hands to familiarize with all aspects of 3D and IMAX technology.
The core technologies of 3D and IMAX are in the hands of the digital field, and Eric is not worried that these Directors will master other 3D-IMAX technology applications after they master them.
Everyone had a cup of coffee and chatted for a while, knowing that Eric and Bill · Gates must have something to talk about. Cameron took the initiative to leave.
Eric took Bill · Gates to the restaurant on the ship.
After ordering food, the two quickly turned to today's topic.
Five years ago, in order to make Yahoo Browser the default browser for Microsoft, and a series of other cooperation conditions, Yahoo and Microsoft signed a forward equity subscription contract. After five years, Microsoft can acquire up to 30% of Yahoo Shares.
The expiration time of this contract is next month. Subsequently, Microsoft has a three-month hesitation period to decide whether to implement this subscription authority.
The original thought of Bill · Gates was to acquire 30% of the shares of Yahoo first, and then increase the shareholding in Yahoo step by step through open market absorption and other means, and ultimately control the company.
But now, the situation has changed far beyond what was originally imagined.
With the continuous outbreak of NASDAQ technology stocks, the current market value of Microsoft has reached the scale of 560billion USD. At the same time, the recent market value of Yahoo has also rushed to 170billion USD.
The original contract stipulated that Microsoft could choose any equivalent form such as share swap or cash for acquisition.
But now, the value of 30% of the shares of Yahoo has exceeded 50billion USD, and it is impossible for Microsoft to take out such a cash in any case. In the case of share swaps, although on the surface, Microsoft only needs 10% of the shares, it can get 30% of the shares of Yahoo. This seems to be that Microsoft is very cheap.
But in fact, many people understand that the Microsoft, which already has an industry monopoly, has a gold content of 10% shares far exceeding the value of Yahoo30% equity.
Moreover, once the share purchase is carried out, the Firefly system will become the second largest shareholder of Microsoft, and it will soon become the largest shareholder as Bill · Gates continues to reduce Microsoft holdings.
Microsoft did not adopt a dual shareholding structure. Once the Firefly system becomes the largest shareholder of Microsoft, it is likely to threaten Bill · Gates's control of Microsoft.
Comparatively, even if the 30% of Yahoo shares are transferred, the Yahoo equity directly held by Firefly investment still exceeds 48%. As long as the Firefly system is willing, absolute control of this company can be achieved at any time, so unless Eric is willing to let go Otherwise, Microsoft simply cannot take control of Yahoo gradually as Bill · Gates had originally assumed.
So, the current situation is that the original forward stock subscription contract has become completely tasteless for Microsoft.