Chapter 790： Lower than expected

The 007 Royal Casino has a view of the United Kingdom, Italy, the Czech Republic and the Bahamas. The detailed shooting location is more than sixty, which is the place where the 007 series has always been a big deal.

Eric set off at the beginning of April and surveyed all the shooting locations. Returning to Los Angeles is May 6th, the time is Monday, which happens to be the fifth week of the Seven Deadly Sins.

After the "seven sins" accumulated box office reached 60.43 million US dollars in the four weeks, the fifth week of the fifth week weekend, the US$7.22 million box office was again obtained, which was still only a weak 17% compared with the last week's box office. Followed by the summer file, although the filming of "Seven Deadly Sins" will be squeezed, but with the high attention, the attendance rate of the film will definitely rebound, and there is no suspense in the total box office of over 100 million.

As for "First-Level Fear", with its box office of $1.63 million for the fifth week of the fifth week of the weekend, it is estimated that it will be completely drawn from North America after next week.

"First-Level Fear" is not a film that Paramount focuses on. The two films are not popular types of movies, so the fireflies won this time.

Next, the big block of the summer file, a company wants to manipulate the word-of-mouth is not so easy, you can only do the propaganda work that can be done, and then sit down and wait for the market reaction, even, this time, Even the word-of-mouth is not the most important. Some movies have a bad reputation for the film, but they can't stop the audience from buying tickets.

"Titanic" is still slowly in the late stage and is expected to be completed by the end of July.

There are only two main movies in the summer of this year, the "Matrix" released on May 31 and the "Dragon Island" released on June 14. Because of the absence of the Titanic, the new line inserted the already-made "Death of Death" on the original "Titanic" schedule, which was scheduled for June 28.

The Royal Casino of 007 is scheduled to be officially launched on June 2, but Eric can't reach the studio on the same day. To coincide with his schedule, the premiere of "The Matrix" advanced to May 27. As for the premiere of "The Desperate Island", Eric had to regret the absence.

Returning to Los Angeles, Eric did not have any time off for the jet lag, and he had to re-enter the construction of three co-operating FFM toll booths.

After a few months of preliminary work, in addition to the original cable station in the telecom hands, the three companies have successively acquired several smaller paid cable stations from operators such as Cablevision, which totals about 4 million users.

Eric originally wanted to win Showtime in Viacom's hands. This former life and reputation is second only to HBO's premium cable TV station. The current user size is only about 500,000, because the scale is still very small. The TV station is in the Viacom system and is a serviceable business. However, after Kasenberger called to express his interest in the acquisition, Summer Reishi did not hesitate to choose to refuse. Eric estimated that Lei Shidong would definitely study how the fireflies would be on Showtime. Interested, however, this behavior is destined to be useless, and Eric is only interested in this time, only the hundreds of thousands of users of showtime.

Since Redstone refused to sell Showtime, Eric put his energy on several TV stations that had already gotten his hands.

According to the original historical trajectory, in addition to HBO, several other major media companies have missed the fate of the paid cable station. When the paid cable stations such as Showtime and Starz rose up, the network streaming media era has arrived. At that time, in order to counter Time Warner's old-fashioned toll-free cable business and the emerging network streaming business, Fox, Disney and Comcast collaborated to form a network streaming platform HULU, but the three have been developing ideas in HULU. There are differences, and the parties have no absolute controlling stake in the platform. In the end, they are not happy, and even the management has stepped out to find another. It is impossible to compete with platforms such as HBO and Netflix.

The way HULU works is very similar to the FFM that is currently being prepared.

Among the initial plans, FFM's equity distribution is 30% for fireflies, 30% for News Corporation, 20% for MGM, and the remaining 20% ​​is held by cable operators such as telecommunications and Cablevision, although fireflies and meters are high. Mei United, 50% of the equity is enough for Eric to take full control of the company, but if you want to cooperate more for a long time, the TV station must be agreed upon in terms of development track and profit model.

In terms of FFM development, Eric and Murdoch are not much different from each other. The MGM is naturally on the side of Eric, and other major operators have promised not to participate in the company's operations. As long as Eric and Murdoch negotiate, everything will go smoothly.

In order to prevent the management of the three companies from affecting the development of FFM, Eric and Murdoch decided to set up a brand new cable TV company, which is responsible for the operation of FFM. The management of the company directly goes to Eric, Murdoch. Several people are responsible and are not subject to the respective management of the three major groups.

With the support of Firefly, News Corp. and MGM, FFM wants to grow and develop, and there is not much restriction on the content. The main problem of FFM is that there is not enough information. There is no brand accumulation of HBO that has been operated for more than 20 years. Therefore, in order to let FFM develop and grow as soon as possible, a manager who knows how to operate a reputation with Xiaobo is indispensable. Rick thought of a fat man the first time.

Beverly Hills is still the open-air restaurant that Eric has visited several times.

The time is in the afternoon, Eric and Murdoch occupy a separate terrace and talk about FFM. Murdoch lives in New York most of the time, and occasionally goes to London, this time for the FFM thing to make a special trip to Los Angeles.

“HBO has been developing for 23 years from 1973 to the present, and has already had a very strong reputation among the audience. FFM wants to grow and develop in this new market. The most critical issue is branding, which keeps the audience to a minimum. In the meantime, we recognize the FFM brand. In this respect, although we have more film resources than Time Warner, the audience cannot know this. The power of habit is very powerful. Therefore, we can only find another way."

Eric said that the Murdoch sitting next to him said: "You mean, a reality show like "The National Supermodel Contest" and "Amazing Bridge"?"

Lifetime TV has become a classic case in the industry with the success of these two reality shows.

Eric shook his head and said: "No, although everyone knows that the reality show is not so real, but it eventually carries a 'true' character. The reality show of the paid cable station wants to attract the attention of the audience. Basic cable stations and public stations, if you don't pay attention, you will touch the limits of social ethics and even the law. This is a minefield, and we definitely shouldn't touch it."

"That is a homemade drama like "Wantong City"," Murdoch immediately noticed, and shook his head slightly: "However, the TV series can never be as well-made as a movie, and the basic cable station is over. It’s not that easy for viewers to spend more money on watching pay TV shows."

"Then, we use the standard of making movies to make TV dramas. In fact, Firefly originally had such a project. It was my thought after the rescue of Ryan Ryan. I originally planned to invest about 100 million US dollars to make a The big mini-drama of World War II, but this project is not suitable for ABC TV, so it is stranded."

Murdoch gently rubbed the coffee cup in his hand and leaned on the back of the chair. He asked: "A hundred million dollars, do you think we might recover the cost?"

"If this project is placed on ABC, it is definitely impossible to recover the cost. It is absolutely impossible for advertisers to pay for advertising far beyond other TV programs. After the public station is broadcast, the income of syndicates and videotapes will be greatly reduced. After the broadcast, it is not necessary. First, we can get a subscription income. Secondly, as long as these mini-drama can be well-known, we can recover the cost and profit on the subsequent videotape and syndicated distribution."

Murdoch showed a clear expression and said, "I understand, so you want Weinstein to run this TV station, right?"

Eric nodded with a smile.

A self-made drama that charges a cable station wants to make a name for itself. In addition to the necessary word-of-mouth, other methods are similar to those of a film produced by a single-player movie company, which are similar to the small-scale marketing operation. .

The former HBO, the biggest gimmick of its work, is the hundreds of Emmy nominations often mentioned by the media. As long as you have enough outstanding works, in terms of operating awards, you have to surpass the Weinstein brothers in the past few years. This year, Oscar in the "Gump of Forrest Gump" swept the four sides, Milamax still snatched the best actress and best supporting role two heavyweight performance awards.

When the Eric was still in Europe, he talked to Harvey Weinstein several times on the phone. Weinstein was also very interested in taking over the FFM TV station, and this was the meeting today.

Eric looked at his watch and the agreed time was right. He waved to the waiter and told the other person to put on a new pot of coffee.

The old **** Murdoch was waiting for the waiter to leave, suddenly changing the tone of the elders with a long-speaking voice, saying: "Eric, you are twenty-six years old now?"

Eric’s heart leaps, and this kind of line is a bit like a deja vu.

What is the next drama?

Eric is thinking about how to fight in the past, a fat figure appeared in time, avoiding possible embarrassing scenes. Eric has always been a single person. In the past, when his parents were forced to marry during the festive season, and influenced by the traditional concept of the East, he chose to marry at the age of thirty. In this world, Eric can no longer be tied up, not to mention the fact that his situation is complicated, and it is simply not suitable for marriage.

"Good afternoon, Rupert, Eric, I hope I am not late," Waynestein walked up to the two, passionately hugging the two men standing up.

"Of course not, but we have been there for a while," Eric happily let go of Weinstein, saying that you came too timely.

Murdoch is helpless, although he can be deceitful in the mall, but in front of his children, Murdoch can not do the same as the deputy of Lei Shidong, but like the traditional parents who love children, hope that children I can grow up and become a family, but unfortunately, a few children are less worried than one, and the second daughter and the eldest son will not say anything. The younger son James was caught in the car some time ago. Ok, no accidents.

Weinstein felt that Murdoch’s expression was a little different. He took the initiative to pick up the coffee pot sent by the waiter and poured it on for three people. He also made a questioning look at Eric.

Eric can only ignore it, and there is no way to explain it.

Fortunately, Murdoch did not linger for too long, and took the initiative to say: "Harvey, about that, what are you thinking about?"

Waynestein quickly said: "Of course I really hope to take over FFM, but I still have some problems."

"Talk about it?"

Weinstein sorted out the idea and said: "If I manage FFM, is it absolutely only necessary to be responsible for you and Eric, um, and MGM?"

Murdoch looked at Eric.

Eric replied: "Of course, FFM is completely independent. The management of the three companies has no jurisdiction over you. However, I hope that you can work with them."

Weinstein got Eric's personal promise and let go of his heart. Miramax has developed very well over the past two years, but after all, it is only a subsidiary of the 20th Century Fox, which is two levels away from the parent company News Corporation. Weinstein also hopes to gain more platform and power in the media industry. With three emphasis on FFM TV, he is of course sensitive to realize that this will be a very good opportunity.

"And, about the issue of compensation..."

Speaking of this, Weinstein seems to be embarrassed by the slap in the face.

Eric will not be confused by Wayne's expression. He will tell the other party about Murdoch's good plan. "I and Rupert hope that you can sign a five-year contract with an annual salary of $250,000. 1 million stock options."

Relying on the outstanding performance of Miramax, in the past two years, Weinstein has received more than 10 million bonuses and dividends every year. However, he did not think that the annual salary of 250,000 US dollars is too small, even if it is Kasenberg, the annual salary is only 750,000 US dollars. In Hollywood, everyone is actually only paying bonuses and dividends, that is the big head, as long as the company Good performance, Hollywood executives have annual incomes ranging from a few million to tens of millions.

Weinstein also knows that the focus of this salary is on the 1 million stock options, so he asks: "What is the total share capital of EFR, FFM?"

Eric thought for a moment and said: "After the company's integration is completed, about 400 million shares."

The so-called stock option means that the shareholder formulates a lower selling price to the management. The agreed time period allows the management to choose whether to purchase the corresponding number of shares of the company at this price. If the company's performance and market value do not increase or even fall, management is definitely not willing to cash the option at a high price. But if the company's stock price doubles or even higher, the management will buy the stock at the time, which is equivalent to half-price gift, which is actually a reward mechanism.

Weinstein has also seen some materials. The current market value of FFM is about $1 billion. The 5 million options are equivalent to 1.25% of the total share capital. All of them are worth more than $10 million. This money is taken by himself. Come out.

However, even after five years, the FFM market value doubled, and the gain he got from this option was only over $10 million, which is much lower than his expectations.