Chapter 436： road

Since 1984, the "Ghost Street" series, which was produced at a frequency of one year, has accumulated a considerable number of fixed fans. When Firefly announced that the pioneer of the "Ghost Street" series, Wes Craven will return to the end of the series. After that, it suddenly caught the attention of a large number of fans.

On November 1st, on the day of Halloween, "The Death of Freddy" was released in more than 1,200 theaters in North America. On the first three days of the first day, it won a $13 million box office and received considerable praise. Although the final box office of the film will probably stay at about 50 million US dollars, but compared to the production cost of less than 15 million, fireflies can still make a small profit in North America.

In addition to the small opening of the fireflies at the end of the year, Disney’s production cost of $48 million, like Eric’s imagination, was announced to be postponed to the summer of the following year. Disney’s reason is to be optimistic about the film. The box office prospects hope that the film will be able to fully exert its commercial value. But people with a little industry knowledge are scornful of this statement.

Although the film was postponed, the main creatives were either ignorant or nonsense when faced with reporters’ questions. But then the "Hollywood Reporter" interview with Nicole Kidman, the former heroine candidate of "Yongdan Fengyun", seems to reveal some insider information to the public. Nicole did not comment on the film, but ambiguously said that a good friend did not recommend her to pick up the film.

Nicole is one of Eric's ‘Gossip Girl’, and most people can easily guess who is the “good friend” who can easily influence her selection. The news came out. The large and small media suddenly burst into flames, directly attributed "Yi Dan Fengyun" to the ranks of rotten films, and Disney's resolution has become useless.

but. This storm did not have much impact on Disney's stock price. Since Firefly announced the public acquisition of Disney, Disney's stock has been slowly climbing for several months. In early November, Disney's market value has reached 4.7 billion US dollars. The monthly time has increased by 34%.

In the close attention of Wall Street and Hollywood, November 4th. The Viacom Group, which competes with Firefly for Disney, officially made a $4.9 billion offer to Disney.

It was just Monday, and the fireflies had already got some news before that. Eric came to the Firefly headquarters early to discuss countermeasures with the acquisition team.

In the three months of the rescue of Lei Shidong, in addition to the sawing negotiations with Disney's management and Disney shareholders, Fireflies successively won 4% of Disney stocks at high prices. At present, the amount of shares held in the hands reaches 15%, becoming the second largest shareholder of Disney.

If the acquisition is deadlocked for a long time, Fireflies can still ask for re-election of Disney's board of directors at the next general meeting to intervene in Disney's management and even take control of Disney.

Moreover, even in the worst case, the fireflies lost in this acquisition, with Disney's current share price, Firefly cash in the hands of the shares. You can also earn no less than $300 million in profits.

After Eric arrived at the conference room, Bernie Sanders, head of the Morgan Stanley team, first said: "According to the information we have received, Summer Rasto has divested the cinema business. Viacom Mum currently raises about $5 billion. In addition, Viacom Group holds a small stake in Blockbuster. Lei Shidong is lobbying Baishida to try to obtain financial support from each other. If successful, Via Comm’s chips will not be less than $7 billion.”

Eric listened. Open the front of the company about the company.

Blockbuster is the largest video tape rental company in North America with more than 2,000 stores. Most importantly, Blockbuster, a video rental company similar to a retailer, has a huge cash flow in its hands, which is what Eric is most worried about.

In memory, the hostile takeover battle between Lei Shidong and Barry Diller in 1994 was the acquisition of Baishida, and then received $10 billion in asset collateral, eventually annexing Paramount.

Thinking of this, Eric asked: "Berny, will there be such a possibility, Viacom first buys a Baishida with the funds in hand, and then with Baishida as a collateral, get more money to join Acquisition."

Bernie Sanders thought for a moment and shook his head: "Although a very effective method at this time, the possibility is extremely low. Since the change of owner in 1987, Baishida has been adding 500 stores every year. With rapid expansion and an annual growth rate of more than 30% in market capitalization, shareholders can only double their shares in less than three years. In this case, it is impossible to sell."

Eric was a little relieved, although he still didn't know why Viacom could buy Blockbuster a few years later, but Bernie Sanders' analysis was not wrong.

"The inside of Viacom, although Lei Shidong currently holds the control of Viacom, but Viacom’s shareholders should not let Lei Shidong do whatever he wants?"

Bernie Sanders nodded: "Lei Shidong may have raised more than $7 billion in funds, but when the offer for Disney exceeds 6 billion, Lei Shidong will be more resistant to Viacom's internal resistance. The bigger the price. Once the quotation breaks through the psychological limits of other shareholders, Viacom will even be guilty, then we can easily win the acquisition. But what is the limit, we don't know."

There was a low-pitched discussion in the conference room, and Eric quickly thought about whether there was a way for Redstone to take the initiative to withdraw from the competition. But after a few moments, Eric was disappointed to find that this situation seemed impossible. Lei Shidong is a typical tyrannical tyrant. His personal will is firm and he will not listen to the opinions of others. Moreover, the two sides are still competitors.

When a malicious acquisition of Viacom a few years ago, Lei Shidong bent on his own, and increased the price of Viacom from $2.25 billion to 3.4 billion. After the acquisition is completed. Faced with the boycott of Viacom’s management, Lei Shidong did not hesitate to pay a high severance payment and completely removed Viacom’s senior management. This shows its arrogant personality.

Once such a person makes a decision, unless he is at a dead end, the probability of voluntary retreat is basically zero.

On the day of Viacom's offer, Firefly immediately increased the price to $5 billion, and the difference of just $100 million allowed the followers of the acquisition to speculate that this was only a test between Firefly and Viacom.

The next week, the two sides seem to have nothing to do. But only the people who are involved in it know. During this time, Viacom and Firefly's acquisition team became more exposed to Disney.

At the same time, many people are aware of it. The next two months of Thanksgiving Christmas will play a decisive role in this acquisition, mainly because Disney’s management has not given up the idea of ​​lobbying shareholders to boycott the acquisition. If these two months, Disney’s performance will be Change. Or the firefly has a major change, and the Disney management is likely to win the support of quite a shareholder again.

Although the total number of box office at the end of the year is much lower than the summer file, the intensity of the competition is not weak.

On November 22nd, the first week of the holiday stalls at the end of the year, led by Fox's "Little Ghosts 3", including Disney's "Beauty and the Beast", Firefly's "Dumb and Agua", Paramount's "Adams" and Universal's "American Rattan 2" was released simultaneously in five new films.

Although there was no development sequel in the middle of the year, the momentum of "Little Ghosts 3" did not decrease. In the first three days of the first weekend, he won more than 27 million box office in more than 2,500 theaters, and won the three-day box office championship without any suspense. This result made Eric somewhat surprised, but did not regret the transfer of the sequel to the development of the right to Fox. after all. The cost of this sequel is more than $50 million, and Fox's profit margin is not large.

Following the "Little Ghosts 3" is Paramount's "Adams Family", a family fantasy comedy that received a $24 million box office in more than 2,400 theaters.

Firefly's road comedy "Dumb and Agua" ranked third, Eric arranged 1900 theaters for the film, and the box office just reached 20 million in the first weekend.

Although this achievement is far less than the previous two works, "Little Ghosts" and "Adams" have accumulated a lot of fame through pre-productions or TV series. And "Dumb and Agua" is a completely new work, without any accumulation of popularity. Coupled with the very low cost of the film, the results achieved are even more interesting.

On the day of the first weekend's results, Hollywood studios have begun to study the film in an attempt to imitate the success of this comedy. They also quickly found the key, the film's male lead Kim Kerry. However, when I learned about the contract between Kim Kerry and TG, most people were distracted.

In addition to these three films, Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" has won a good reputation, but limited to less than 1,000 screenings, the box office is only ranked fifth, even behind Universal Pictures has been released for a week. Horror Horn, the film directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Robert De Niro.

As for the other American Universal Rattan 2, which was jointly developed with Spielberg's Abein Film, it only received a $3.4 million poor box office in 1,700 theaters, becoming the first box office duo at the end of the year.

In the face of the fight against Viacom and the little tricks that Disney's management made from time to time, Eric did not rest during Thanksgiving, and even Thanksgiving dinner was eaten with Jeffrey and others.

Eric originally estimated that the conservative box office of "Dumb and Agua" is about 80 million. As long as this achievement can be achieved, Eric will be satisfied. After all, the vulgar comedy has not yet cultivated enough audiences in Hollywood. But the potential of this film has a total of billions of hopes, and even Eric is no longer worried about the next "Spicy Hand" box office.

However, although "Dumb and Agua" achieved remarkable results, it was attacked by Disney. On the second day of "Dumb and Agua", Disney accused the film's vulgar style from being incompatible with Disney's business ideas. If the two companies merge, this vulgar comedy will undoubtedly hurt Disney's healthy and uplifting brand image.

In the face of Disney's accusations of a bit of entanglement. Eric directly made a tough fight back. After the completion of the acquisition, Disney will become a brand and a subsidiary of Firefly. It’s not that Firefly is dominated by Disney. Therefore, the accusation of Disney’s current management is completely nonsense. The works developed between different subsidiaries will not affect each other. After all, Disney’s Touchstone Film has also been produced in recent years. A considerable number of r-rated movies.

After four weeks of Thanksgiving, the "Ghosts 3" box office has reached a total of 80 million US dollars, because the next Christmas is. Fox estimates that the film's follow-up response will still receive the same amount of box office, because the same type of competition in "Little Ghosts 3". "Beauty and the Beast" around the box office is only $ 30 million in the early days, although the film has a good reputation, but the box office is doomed to not do much. The "Dumb and Agua" box office reached 65 million, and the box office broke 100 million without any suspense.

Spielberg is destined to be a hurdle for anyone in Hollywood. When most people focused on the fireflies and Disney films, Captain Hawke, who was highly hoped by Sony Pictures, boldly set the release date on December 6.

Although the script of this film has undergone a major revision with the participation of Eric, it has increased the play of the little fairy played by Nicole, but it still failed to save the word of the movie. It was ushered in the media two weeks before the release. A buzz, Sony Pictures originally expected the first week of the movie box office to exceed $40 million, but in fact, the film only got 17 million in the first week. Although the weekly box office has increased with the approach of Christmas, there is no breakthrough in the week that broke the $30 million mark. The $70 million big production is destined to recover the cost by consuming Spielberg's personal word of mouth.

The "Dance with the Wolf" released at the same time as "Captain Hawke" is even more inconspicuous. Although the word-of-mouth was smashed after the small-scale movie, the four-hour duration of the film also blocked most of the audience.

On December 20th, the first week of the Christmas season, Firefly's "Spicy Police Flower" and Disney's "New Father-in-law" were simultaneously released in 1900 theaters. As a remake of the film, "New Father-in-law" relies on the reputation accumulated by the original Elizabeth Taylor, but the original version is a classic. It’s been 40 years away from now, and the influence is running low. As a result, the film only received more than 14.4 million box office in the first week.

Compared with the old-fashioned comedy style of "New Father-in-law", and "Daddy and Agua", the "Spicy Hand Flower" of the vulgar comedy route is so bright that the audience is bright, although the film's reputation in the film critics is not very good. But for the first three days of the first weekend, it still got a $20 million box office. Nicole played a serious but somewhat cute female detective and Rosie O'Donnell's rough fat policewoman partnered with each other, bringing a 100-minute burst of laughter to the audience entering the cinema. And Nicole's subversive performance in "Spicy Police Flower" even made many people interested in the little fairy played by "The Captain Hawke", and unwittingly led the box office of "Captain Hawke", but most of them Interview fans also said that they prefer Nicole's performance in "Spicy Police Flower".

The last day of 1991 passed quickly. With the arrival of the New Year, the total box office statistics of the major movie companies in Hollywood in 1991 were also released one after another. It also seemed to imply a final competition for the rain.

Although some movies are still being released, according to the box office and audience reputation that the film has accumulated, most of the final box office in the release movie can be roughly counted. Because of the war, compared to 1990, the total annual box office in North America in 1991 was only $4.8 billion.

Time Warner is still sitting in the position of Hollywood's eldest brother, and released 21 films throughout the year, with a total box office of 750 million US dollars and a market share of 15.6%.

Even if you don't want to admit it, everyone can see that the name of the firefly is very dazzling in the second place, with "Terminator 2", "Toy Story", "The Death of Freddy", " The five films of Dumb and Agua and Spicy Police Flower, Firefly got a total of 660 million US dollars at the box office, accounting for 13.7 market share in North America.

Because most of the resources were bet on Cut-Ross Island, Disney only released 12 films throughout the year, and the most hopeful "cut-throat island" box office was defeated, resulting in Disney's annual box office of only 380 million US dollars. Market share slipped to a minimum of 7% in five years.

Not only that, because up to $2 billion in liabilities required to pay interest and maturity, Disney had a loss of $120 million. Stimulated by this data. Disney's share price fell for the first time in more than five months.

The Disney shareholders who had a glimmer of hope for Disney's management finally completely lost their mind and began to take the firefly and Viacom acquisition seriously.

"Sorry, Mr. Bass, we regret that we have not reached an agreement and hope to have the opportunity to cooperate next time." Eric stood in the parking lot of the Sharp Corner Manor and said goodbye to the two middle-aged people in front of him.

The two men who are preparing to get on the bus are called Sid Bates and Roy Disney. Sid Barth is the current helm of the Bass family with the largest number of Disney shares, Roy Disney does not have to say. The Disney family, Walt Disney's nephew.

"I hope," Sid Basi once again looked at Eric and got into his silver car. Roy Disney's lips moved and seemed to want to say something, but eventually followed the car.

When the other car leaves the sharp corner manor, Chris, who has been quietly standing next to Eric, can't help but say: "Eric, I think the conditions put forward by the other party are not bad. If you promise, Viacom will It also does not pose a threat to us."

The visit by Sid B. and Roy Disney represents a large part of Disney's shareholders, hoping to take shares in their hands. In exchange for the shares of the company after the merger of Firefly and Disney, rather than a sum of cash.

As long as Eric agrees, this part of Disney's shareholders will unite. Helping the fireflies complete the acquisition, but Eric still chose to refuse.

When he heard Chris, Eric looked at Bernie Sanders on the other side: "Boni, what do you think?"

Pony Sanders shrugged and said: "I am just a referrer. In fact, when Sid Barth contacted me, I didn't report any hope. I know that you have already made up your mind."

Eric smiled and took the two back. Said: "You should have heard, Barry Diller will leave from Fox in February."

The two nodded at the same time, and during this time they were very concerned about the news of Hollywood.

The news of the departure of Barry Diller caused a great shock in Hollywood. When Murdoch was an outsider, his main energy was still in the newspaper business in Australia and the United Kingdom. If it wasn't for the assistance of Barry Diller, Murdoch could not enter the mainstream circle of Hollywood, and the development of Fox TV network could not be discussed. Therefore, the inside story of Barry Diller’s sudden departure from Fox has become the object of many people’s guess. Eric met Elizabeth during Christmas and asked about the problem. The girl did not hide her.

Eric said: "Barry Diller is a very talented person. Fox has risen over the years. Barry Diller has taken most of the credit. Mr. Murdoch has also made a reservation, but probably last September. Barry Diller told Murdoch that he didn't want to be a migrant worker anymore. He wanted to be the master. Do you know how Murdoch answered?"

Chris and Bernie both showed a curious look.

Eric did not sell off, said: "Murdoch said that Fox can only have one owner."

Chris both were silent.

Eric said again: "The firefly is the same, there can only be one owner. Murdoch is sure to realize that Barry Diller's departure will have a great impact on the development of Fox, but he did not consider the second option. Even if this choice does not affect his control of Fox.

Many investors always insin the idea of ​​not being able to eat alone and share benefits to develop. In fact, this is just an excuse for them to seize control of the enterprise, and the transfer of shares in the hands of development funds is often Just people who don't have much choice.

If there is sufficient funds, I think that the owners of Microsoft, Oracle, or Cisco will not choose to go public. After the success of most people, they are desperately trying to increase their holdings in the hands of the company in an attempt to achieve re-holding. Fireflies are fortunate. I just have enough money to take a path that is completely different from other entrepreneurs. Although it is more difficult, I pay a little more, but I think it is worth it. I will never choose the road that is relatively easy, but it has hidden many hidden dangers for the future of fireflies. "To be continued"

Ps: The web server crashed. Hey, it used to be just the client. Now even the main station is like this. Uploading is late, sorry.