I’m in Hollywood Chapter 436: Road
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The 《A Nightmare on Elm Street》 series, which has been produced annually since 1984, has accumulated a considerable number of fixed fans. When Firefly announced that the founder of the 《A Nightmare on Elm Street》 series, Wes.Craven, will return to the end of the shoots series, it suddenly caused a lot of fans attention.
On November 1st, on the day of Halloween, "Death of Freddy" was released in more than North America1200 theaters, and the Box Office of 13 million USD was won on the first three days of the week, and also received considerable praise. Although the final Box Office of the film will probably stay around 50 million USD, compared with the production cost less than 15 million, Firefly can still make a small profit in North America.
In addition to the small opening at the end of the Firefly stage, Disney ’s production cost of "Billy Bathgate", which is as high as 48 million USD, as Eric imagined, announced that it was postponed to the summer of the following year. The reason given by Disney is that it is optimistic about the Box Office prospect of the film. , I hope the film can give full play to its commercial value. But people with a little industry knowledge scoff at this statement.
Although the film was postponed, the creators either kept their mouths shut or talked nonsense when they were asked by reporters. But then "Hollywood Reporter" interview with Heroine candidate Nicole Kidman of "Billy Bathgate" seemed to reveal some inside information to the public. Nicole did not comment on the film, but just equivocally said that a good friend did not recommend her to take the film.
Nicole is one of the "sex scandal girlfriends" of Eric. Most people can easily guess who the "good friend" in Nicole's mouth can easily control her selection. The news came out. The media of large and small immediately became popular, and directly attributed "Billy Bathgate" to the ranks of bad films, and the Disney's distinction became useless.
However. This turmoil did not have much impact on the stock price of Disney's. Since Firefly announced the public acquisition of Disney, Disney's stock has been slowly climbing in the past few months. In early November, the market value of Disney's has reached 4700 million USD, which has increased in three months. 34%.
In the close attention of all parties including Wall Street and Hollywood, November 4th. Competing with Firefly for Disney's Viacom Group formally made an offer of 4.9 billion USD to Disney.
This day happens to be Monday, before Firefly has got some news. Eric came to Firefly Headquarters early to discuss countermeasures with the acquisition team.
During the three months of financing for Redstone, in addition to the saw-saw negotiations with Disney's management and Disney shareholders, Firefly successively won 4% of Disney stocks at a high price. The current shareholding amount reached 15%, becoming the second largest shareholder of Disney's.
If the acquisition is deadlocked for a long time, Firefly can still request the re-election of Disney's Board of Directors at the next general meeting of shareholders, thereby intervening in the management of Disney's and even further seizing control of Disney's.
Moreover, even if the worst happens, Firefly loses in this acquisition battle, and at the current share price of Disney, Firefly cashes out the shares in its hands. It can also make a profit of not less than 300 million USD.
After Eric arrived in the conference room, Bernie Sanders, the head of the Morgan Stanley team, first said: "According to the information we have obtained, Summer Redstone has stripped off its theater business. The funds raised by Viacom are currently around 5billion USD. In addition, Viacom Group also Mastering a small amount of shares in Blockbuster, Redstone is lobbying Blockbuster in an attempt to obtain financial support from the other party. If successful, Viacom will have no less than 7billion USD in his hands. "
Eric while listening. While turning over the information about Blockbuster company.
Blockbuster is the largest video rental company in North America, with more than 2,000 branches. The most important thing is that Blockbuster, as a video rental company similar to retailers, has a huge cash flow in its hands, which is the most worrying point for Eric.
In memory, the malicious acquisition war between Redstone and Barry Diller in 1994 was after the acquisition of Blockbuster, and then obtained 10billion USD funds through asset mortgages, and eventually annexed Paramount.
Thinking of this, Eric asked: "Berney, will this be possible? Viacom will first use the funds in its hands to acquire Blockbuster, and then use Blockbuster as a mortgage to get more funds to join the acquisition." >
Bernie Sanders thought for a moment and shook his head: "Although this is a very effective method, but the possibility is extremely low. Blockbuster has been expanding rapidly at a rate of 500 new stores every year since it changed hands in 1987. The annual growth rate of market value exceeds 30%. As long as shareholders keep their shares in hand, they can double them in less than three years. In this case, it is impossible to sell. "
Eric is a little relieved. Although he still does not know why Viacom can acquire Blockbuster a few years later, the analysis of Bernie Sanders is also correct.
"Then within Viacom, although Redstone currently has control of Viacom, Viacom shareholders should not let Redstone do whatever they want?"
Bernie Sanders nodded: "Redstone may raise more than 7billion USD, but when the offer price for Disney's exceeds 6billion, Redstone will get more and more resistance from Viacom. Once the price exceeds the psychological limit of other shareholders, Viacom There will even be infighting, and then we will be able to easily win this acquisition. But what is the limit, we do not know. "
There was a low voice in the conference room, and Eric quickly wondered if there was a way to let Redstone take the initiative to quit the competition. But a moment later, Eric was disappointed to find that this situation seemed impossible. Redstone is a typical authoritarian tyrant, with a strong personal will and will not listen to other people's opinions, let alone the two sides are still competitors.
During the malicious acquisition of Viacom a few years ago, Redstone overwhelmed everything by itself and increased the offer for Viacom from 2250 million USD to 3.4 billion. After the acquisition is completed. Faced with the resistance of Viacom management, Redstone did not hesitate to pay a high severance payment and removed all the senior management of Viacom. This shows the arrogant character.
Once such a person has made a decision, unless he is at the end of his desperate end, the chance of voluntary concession is basically zero.
On the day of the Viacom offer, Firefly immediately increased the price to 5billion USD, which is only the difference of 100 million USD, so that the followers of this acquisition have speculated that this is only a trial between Firefly and Viacom.
Nothing seemed to happen to both sides for the next week. But only those who are personally involved know it. During this time, the acquisition teams of Viacom and Firefly became more frequent with Disney.
At the same time, many people are aware. The Thanksgiving Christmas file in the next two months will have a decisive effect on this acquisition, mainly because the management of Disney's has not given up the idea of lobbying shareholders to boycott the acquisition together. If these two months, the performance of Disney's will improve. Or there may be major changes in Firefly, Disney management is likely to win the support of considerable shareholders again.
Although the total amount of Box Office at the end of the year is much lower than the summer, the intensity of competition is not weak.
November 22, the first week of the holiday season at the end of the year, led by Fox's "Home Alone3", including Disney's "Beauty and the Beast", Firefly "Dumb and Dumber", Paramount "The Addams Family" and Universal "An American Tail 2: Fievel Goes West" The new film was also released on a large scale.
Although there is no sequel developed in the middle of the year, the momentum of "Home Alone3" is not reduced. In the first three days of the weekend, he won 2more than 7 million Box Office in more than 2500 theaters, and won the Box Office championship for three days on the weekend without suspense. This result made Eric a bit surprised, but did not regret transferring the sequel development rights to Fox. after all. The cost of this sequel exceeds 50 million USD, and the profit margin of Fox is not large.
Following "Home Alone3" is Paramount's "The Addams Family", this family fantasy comedy got 24 million USD Box Office in more than 2400 theaters.
Firefly's road comedy "Dumb and Dumber" ranked third, Eric arranged 1900 theaters for this movie, Box Office just reached 20 million in the first weekend.
Although this result is far inferior to the previous two works, both "Home Alone" and "The Addams Family" have accumulated a lot of fame through the previous works or TV series. And "Dumb and Dumber" is a completely new work without any accumulation of popularity. Coupled with the very low cost of the film, the results achieved have attracted more attention.
The day the results were released on the first weekend, Hollywood Film Studio had already begun to study the film in an attempt to find the successful elements of this comedy to imitate. They also quickly found the key, the actor Jim Carrey. However, when they learned the content of the contract signed between Jim Carrey and TG, most of them lost their minds.
In addition to these three movies, Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" has won a good reputation, but it is limited to less than 1,000 screenings. Box Office is only ranked fifth, and even lags behind Universal Pictures. Cape Fear has been released for a week. , This movie is directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Robert De Niro.
As for another "An American Tail 2: Fievel Goes West" co-developed with Spielberg's Abeline Film Industry, Universal only harvested the poor Box Office of 3400,000 USD in 1700 theaters, becoming the first Box Office dummies at the end of the year.
In the face of open fights with Viacom and small actions from Disney management from time to time, Eric did not rest during the entire Thanksgiving period, and even Thanksgiving dinner was eaten with Jeffrey and others.
Eric's original conservative Box Office for "Dumb and Dumber" is estimated to be about 80 million. As long as it can achieve this result, Eric will be satisfied. After all, the vulgar comedy has not cultivated enough audience groups in Hollywood before. However, the potential shown in this movie has the hope of breaking 100 million, and even with Eric, he is no longer too worried about the next "The Heat" Box Office.
However, although "Dumb and Dumber" achieved impressive results, it was attacked by Disney's. "Dumb and Dumber" was released the next day, and Disney accused the movie ’s vulgar style of being incompatible with the Disney's management idea. If the two companies merged If this kind of vulgar comedy will undoubtedly damage Disney's healthy and upward brand image.
In the face of Disney's accusations. Eric directly made a tough response. After completing the acquisition, Disney will become a brand and a subsidiary of Firefly. It is not that Firefly is dominated by Disney, so the accusation of the current management of Disney is completely nonsense. Works developed between different subsidiaries will not affect each other. After all, Touchstone Film Industry under Disney has also produced a considerable number in recent years. The R-rated movie.
After four weeks of Thanksgiving, "Home Alone3" Box Office has accumulated to 80 million USD, because the next is the Christmas file. Fox estimates that the follow-up reaction of the film can still get the same amount of Box Office, because of the same type of competition in "Home Alone3". Box Office only had 30 million USD in the first four weeks of "Beauty and the Beast". Although this movie has a good reputation, Box Office is destined not to do much. But "Dumb and Dumber" Box Office has reached 65 million, Box Office breaks 100 million without any suspense.
Spielberg is destined to be a hurdle that no one in Hollywood can get around. When most people focused their attention on Firefly and Disney's films, "Hook", which was highly anticipated by Sony Film Industry, boldly set the release date on December 6.
Although the script of this movie has been greatly modified with the participation of Eric, and it has increased the role of the little fairy played by Nicole, it still failed to save the reputation of the movie. There was a boo, Sony Film Industry originally expected Box Office to exceed 40 million USD in the first week of the movie, but in fact, the film only got 17 million in the first week. Although with the approaching of Christmas, the week Box Office has increased, but no week has exceeded the 30 million USD mark. This large production of 70 million USD is destined to recover costs by consuming Spielberg's personal word of mouth.
Dances with Wolves, which was released at the same time as "Hook", is even more unremarkable. Although the reputation of the small-scale movie has burst, the four-hour duration of the film also blocked most of the audience.
December 20, the first week of the Christmas season, Firefly's "The Heat" and Disney's "Father of the Bride" were simultaneously released in 1900 theaters. "Father of the Bride" as a remake, the focus of publicity relies on original Elizabeth. Taylor's reputation, but original is a classic. It has been 40 years since now, and the influence has long been left. Therefore, this movie only got more than 14.4 million Box Office in the first week.
Compared to the old-school comedy style of "Father of the Bride", "The Heat", which follows the vulgar comedy route like "Dumb and Dumber", has caught the eyes of a large number of viewers. Although the reputation of the film in film critic is not very good, the first weekend of the three God still got the Box Office of 21 million USD. A serious but dumb female detective played by Nicole partnered with Rosie O'Donnell's brutal fat policewoman to bring a 100-minute hilarious movie-free journey to the audience who entered the cinema. The subversive performance of Nicole in "The Heat" even made many people interested in the little fairy played by Nicole in "Hook", and unconsciously led to Box Office of "Hook", but most of the interview fans also expressed their preference Nicole's performance in "The Heat".
The last day of 1991 passed quickly. With the arrival of the New Year, the total Box Office statistics of Hollywood's major Film Studio1991 years were also released one after another, and it also seemed to imply a final competition.
Although some movies are still being released, according to the Box Office and audience reputation that the movie has accumulated, most of the final Box Office of the movies that are released can be roughly counted. Because of the war, compared with 1990, the total Box Office in North America in 1991 was only 4800 million USD.
Time Warner still sits firmly in the position of Hollywood big brother. 21 films are released throughout the year. The cumulative Box Office reaches 750 million USD, and the market share is 15.6%.
Even if you do n’t want to admit it, everyone can see that the name of Firefly is very dazzling in the second place. With "Terminator 2: Judgement Day", "Toy Story", "Death of Freddy", "Dumb and Dumber" and " "The Heat" these five films, Firefly will get a total of 6.600 million USD Box Office, occupying North America13.7 market share.
Because most of the resources are bet on "Cutthroat Island", Disney only released 12 films throughout the year, and the most anticipated "Cutthroat Island" Box Office failed, resulting in Disney only 380 million USD in Box Office throughout the year. Market share fell to the lowest 7% in five years.
Not only that, because the debt of up to 2billion USD needs to pay interest and principal due, Disney has suffered a loss of 120 million USD. Stimulated by this data. Disney stock price fell for the first time in more than five months.
The Disney shareholders, who had a silver lining to the management of Disney, were finally completely stubborn and began to take the acquisition of Firefly and Viacom seriously.
"Sorry, Mr. Bass, unfortunately we failed to reach an agreement and hope to have the opportunity to cooperate next time," Eric stood in the parking lot of Cliff Peak Manor and bid farewell to the two middle-aged people in front of them again.
The two people who are about to get on the train are named Sid Bass and Roy Disney. Sid Bass is the current helm of Bass Family with the largest share of Disney, Roy Disney needless to say. People of Disney Family, nephew of Walt Disney.
"I hope so," Sid Bass once again took a deep look at Eric and got into his silver car. Roy Disney's lips moved, he seemed to want to say something, but he eventually followed car.
When the other party ’s car leaves Cliff Peak Manor, Chris who has been standing quietly beside Eric ca n’t help but say: “Eric, I think the conditions proposed by the other party are not bad. If you agree, Viacom will never pose a threat to us again. . "
This visit of Sid Bass and Roy Disney represents a large part of the shareholders of Disney's, hoping to use the shares in their hands. In exchange for Firefly and Disney merged company shares, rather than a cash.
As long as Eric agrees, Disney ’s shareholders will unite. Helped Firefly complete the acquisition, but Eric still chose to refuse.
When hearing Chris, Eric glanced at Bernie Sanders on the other side: "Boney, what do you think?"
Bernie Sanders shrugged and said, "I'm just a referrer. In fact, when Sid Bass contacted me. I didn't report any hope. I know you have set your mind already."
Eric smiled and led the two back. Said: "You should have heard that Barry Diller will leave Fox in February."
The two nodded at the same time. During this time, they both paid close attention to the news of Hollywood.
The news that Barry Diller is about to resign has caused a great shock to Hollywood. As a foreigner, Murdoch was still focused on the newspaper business in Australia and United Kingdom. Without the assistance of Barry Diller, it is impossible for Murdoch to enter the mainstream circle of Hollywood, and the development of Fox TV Network is impossible to talk about. Therefore, the inside story of Barry Diller's sudden departure from Fox has become the object of speculation by many people. Eric met Elizabeth during Christmas, asked this question, and the girl did not hide it from her.
Eric said: "Barry Diller is a very talented person. The rise of Fox in recent years, Barry Diller occupies most of the credit. Mr. Murdoch also retained it, but probably it was September last year. Barry Diller said to Murdoch that he did not want to He is a part-time worker again, he wants to be the master, do you know how Murdoch answers? "
Chris and Bernie both showed curiosity.
Eric does n’t sell Guanzi, saying: "Murdoch said that Fox can only have one owner."
Both Chris were silent.
Eric said again: "The same is true for Firefly, there can only be one owner. Murdoch can surely realize that the departure of Barry Diller will have a great impact on the development of Fox, but he has not considered the second option at all. The choice will not affect his control of Fox at all.
Many investors always inculcate the concept of not being able to eat single food and sharing benefits in order to develop. In fact, this is just an excuse for them to seize control of the enterprise, and sell their shares in exchange for development funds. , Often just people who do n’t have much choice.
If there is sufficient funds, I think neither the owners of Microsoft, Oracle, or Cisco would choose to go public for financing. After most people succeed, they are desperately trying to increase their holdings in an attempt to achieve the purpose of re-controlling. Firefly is lucky. I just have enough funds to take a path that is completely different from other entrepreneurs. Although it is a little harder and pays a bit more, I think it is worth it. I will definitely not choose the path that is relatively easy, but lays a lot of hidden dangers for the future of Firefly. "(To be continued)
ps: The website server crashed. Hey, it used to be only the client. Now even the main site is like this. The upload is too late, sorry.