Chapter 566： HD-DVD

The Hollywood Reporter: "New Universal Shines at the Golden Globes!"

"Time Magazine": "Dawn made the box office and created art! Following the box office market, Dunn once again dominated the awards season."

Complete Movie: "Unbelievable, three films, seven appearances, New Universal is dominating the Golden Globes!"

"Entertainment Weekly": "Competition is fierce, New Universal is proud of all heroes!"

"The Times": "The Golden Globes reject the European-style film style? The masterpiece "The Pianist", empty-running the Golden Globes."

Sohu Entertainment: "The 60th Golden Globe Awards ceremony was grandly unveiled in Los Angeles, and various high-profile awards were also announced one by one. "Chicago" won the Best Film, Best Actor and Best Actress in the Musical Comedy category. Three awards and became the biggest winner. The Chinese film "Hero", which had been highly expected by domestic fans, was narrowly defeated by the new work "Tell Her" by the famous Spanish director Pedro Almodovar..."

"Ming Pao": "The mainland film "Hero" participated in the competition for the 60th Hero Award. Director Zhang and Mr. Jiang went to the United States respectively. Since all the leading actors of "Hero" have new film assignments, many leading actors including Mr. Liang and Miss Zhang have Can't go to the Golden Globes. Mr. Jiang used to be the producer and distributor of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", although they didn't win the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film this time, but they will target the Oscars!"

...

With the announcement of the Golden Globe winners, New Universal shines throughout the awards season.

The three art films "New York City", "Chicago", and "Every Moment" are almost invincible. But surprisingly, Roman Polanski's "The Pianist" fell out of the list.

In the past few years, every time during the awards season, Tang En would hold a newspaper and hide quietly in the office or study by himself, reading articles and secretly having fun.

Now, it's immune.

If it is Oscar, Dunn may still be in high spirits.

The Ballon d'Or... had failed to arouse his interest.

After finishing the Golden Globe Awards, the next award ceremony Dunn wants to participate in is the Grammys.

However, during this period, Dunn and several others, such as Robert Iger, Andrew Mooney, Bob Chapek, flew directly to Osaka.

Tourism and vacation business is the top priority of New Global!

In 1998, Universal Pictures, the Osaka City Government, Goldman Sachs Investment Bank and a number of Japanese companies jointly invested 2 billion US dollars, which took two and a half years to build the third Universal Studios in the world.

Its design is similar to Universal Studios Orlando, including the "Jurassic Park" area, "Terminator" area, "Jaws" area, "Future Water World" area and other classic movies transformed adventure areas.

At present, the holding ratio of the entire Universal Studios is 41% of New Universal, 9% of Osaka City Government, 40% of Goldman Sachs, and 10% of other Japanese-funded enterprises.

With the current financial resources of New Universal, it is very unrealistic to want to buy back all the shares of Universal Studios Osaka.

In the past year, the revenue of Universal Studios Osaka has exceeded 100 million US dollars, which is very promising.

If you want to buy back 59% of the shares that are controlled by the outside world, at least a premium of 15%-20%, that is to say, it will cost at least 1.4 billion US dollars!

This money, Dunn can come out, but the cash flow is cut off.

Dunn also intends to continue to increase investment in Universal Studios Osaka, and then jointly invest 300 million US dollars to expand a "Spider-Man Amazing Adventure" park.

This time in Japan, Tang En is mainly to take back 10% of the shares controlled by Japanese companies, so that New Universal's controlling stake in Universal Studios Osaka will reach 51%.

Then you can rest easy and absolutely control.

Prior to this, Bob Chapek and the heads of the public relations and marketing departments had negotiated with the six companies to take back the 10% stake at a price of $220 million.

As a result, the shareholders of Universal Studios Osaka are only Shin-Universal, the Osaka city government and Goldman Sachs Investment Bank, making it easier to reach an agreement to strengthen further investment in the studio.

Because "Spider-Man" is the copyright of New Universal, so regardless of New Universal's 51% stake after the transaction is completed, in fact, it only needs to pay $120 million in cash and let the Osaka City Government and Goldman Sachs invest $180 million to build a new one. The new "Spider-Man Adventure Park".

Dunn had no intention of staying in Osaka any longer. After completing the signing ceremony and having lunch with the presidents of several major companies, he wanted to return.

The rest of the negotiation work is handed over to Robert Iger and the others.

However, when he left, Tang En was invited by Toshiba's executive Nishida Atsushi, and wanted to have a drink.

"Okamura is at the president's place?"

Dunn is a little strange.

Nishida Atsushi is the head of Toshiba Group's North America region. He speaks very fluent English. He bowed his body and said politely: "President Okamura is not good at English, so I entrusted me to communicate with Mr.

Dunn nodded, "what to talk about?"

"Sony."

Nishida Atsushi said the answer bluntly.

Tang En understood as soon as he heard it, and smiled, "Okay, let's go find a cafe outside, the environment is quieter, the hotel is too complicated."

Nishida Houcong bowed deeply and expressed his sincere gratitude to Tang En for accepting the invitation.

The two found a quiet cafe on Dotonbori Street, which played the music of Lisa Ono, which was bright and lazy, full of petty bourgeoisie.

Through the window, you can see the landmark-style "Chengshi Taro" and the giant "Glico" signboard, which are very local cultural characteristics.

Such a quiet environment is rare in the nouveau riche-like life rhythm in the United States.

Unless it's the top business club in Beverly Hills.

"You want to talk about the format standard of high-definition discs, right?" Tang En didn't hide it, and provoked the topic generously.

Nishida Atsushi sat upright, coffee placed in front of him, he didn't even move, both sides were on his knees, like a samurai during the Meiji Restoration, sitting upright.

Hearing Dunn's question, he immediately bowed, "That's it, Mr. Walker, I'm sorry to trouble you."

Tang En said with a smile, "There's nothing to be sorry about. Since it's business cooperation, it's equality and mutual assistance. Mr. Nishida, you don't have to be too cautious."

"Thank you for your concern, Mr. Walker." Nishida Atsushi nodded again.

Tang En was speechless, so he did as he wished, "When will your hd-dvd format be released?"

Nishida Atsushi said: "The final test and online adjustment are underway. Within this year, it will definitely be brought to the market."

Tang En's eyes lit up, "So soon? This is a good thing, at least a year ahead of Sony's Blu-ray, right?"

"That's right, Mr. Walker. HD-DVD is an upgraded high-definition format based on DVD technology, so there is no need to replace the existing production line, just upgrade the production line equipment to make HD-DVD. This is us biggest advantage."

"Oh? What about Blu-ray?"

"Blu-ray is a new disc medium developed by Sony, which is completely different from DVDs in the past. Therefore, Blu-ray is not only slow in development, but also has to replace the entire production line after its launch."

Dunn nodded calmly.

How can there be such a good thing in the world?

If Blu-ray was so useless, would you still find me?

The initial investment of Blu-ray is much larger than that of HD-DVD, but once the production equipment and R&D technology are completed, the advantages of Blu-ray Disc will be reflected in mass production, with larger capacity and lower cost!

Tang En didn't make a point, he followed his words and said, "Well, if you launch it first, you can take the lead in grabbing more market share."

Nishida Atsushi said: "Sony owns Sony Pictures after all, and they have more resources in Hollywood..."

"Wait! Isn't Microsoft going to buy MGM?" Dunn interrupted him suddenly.

Nishida Atsushi shook his head and said, "After Microsoft sent a team to investigate, they have withdrawn from the bidding. They have no experience in managing a film and television company, and they don't think they can save MGM."

"Well, go ahead and talk."

Dunn sighed.

Now, MGM faces bids from eight major companies and is the sweet spot in the market.

Unexpectedly, Microsoft quit so soon.

Nishida Atsushi said: "The launch of high-definition video discs is inseparable from content protection. In this regard, New Universal is a leader in Hollywood!"

Tang En waved his hands in disapproval and said, "I can't talk about being a leader, it's just that the box office performance in recent years is pretty good. If we talk about the film and television library, they are still the number one in Warner Bros. They have 6,500 film stocks! It's almost New Universal. twice."

"Warners, we've made a deal."

"what?"

Dunn opened his eyes wide.

The combination of Toshiba and Microsoft is really fast enough!

Got Warner Bros so soon?

Nishida Atsushi said, "Yes, we have reached an agreement with Warner Since 2004, Warner's film and television works will be exclusively produced in hd- DVD format."

Tang En's eyes narrowed into a line, "How many years have you signed the contract?"

Nishida Houcong said: "Two years."

Dunn nodded slightly.

This should not be a lie.

Such an agreement cannot be signed for a long time.

"What conditions did you offer?"

"Cost price."

"Not only?"

If it is only the cost price, it is impossible to get the "exclusive right".

Besides, only Toshiba knows the real cost price.

The cost price of external publicity must have been processed.

Nishida Atsushi said: "For every hd-dvd sold, 50 cents will be given back to Warner."

Dunn's eyes jumped.

If he remembered correctly, last year, New Universal sold a total of 180 million DVDs.

After the high-definition format is launched, 20% of the 180 million DVDs are sold in HD-DVD, which can bring a subsidy of 18 million US dollars to New Universal.

To be honest, not much.

This kind of side payment (that is, additional subsidies) is too small compared to the Internet subsidy wars that Dunn has seen.

"Mr Walker, look..."

Nishida Houcong looked at Dunn with anticipation.

Dunn frowned and said nothing.

He was not satisfied with such conditions.

Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced, but found a strange pair of men and women sitting on the seat not far from the next door.

The male is in his forties, with big nose and small eyes, short, chubby, and wretched; the female is sixteen or seventeen years old, with a beautiful and charming appearance.

Especially in the big winter in January, she was wearing a school uniform with a knee-length skirt underneath, revealing two smooth legs.

Dunn couldn't help but open his eyes.

(Sanqi Chinese)