Chapter 826： Problems in the digital domain

Chapter 826

"I talked to Jon Landau in the morning, and Robert is also personally staring at it. Oscar nominated for ten technical awards. We should all be able to win this time. "Titanic" can be said in this respect. There is no controversy. However, the six best nominations for the best film, best director and four performance awards, the best actor and the best supporting actor have no hope, Leonardo’s performance can only be said to be a pass. There are no male supporting roles in the film. The other four, the award nomination should be locked in advance."

Firefly Studios, a spacious office in the digital domain, Eric and Kasenberg are sitting in the rest area, listening to him, subconsciously: "That is, 14?"

Kasenberg didn't notice the other meanings implied in Eric's sentence. He thought that Eric had calculated it before, so he would say so, and nodded: "Yes, 14 Oscar awards total 24 However, "Titanic" is definitely not the best foreign language film, the best animation and the nominations related to the film, which first excluded seven. Among the remaining 17 nominations, the best film score is divided. The plot class and the musical comedy class, which eliminated one more, the best man and the best male match we didn't want to get, so there are only 14 left. However, just these 14 nominations, we have been able to chase The number of nominations created by the 1950 "Iridium Beauty" is also likely to exceed the number of awards.

Eric had just said that he had already realized the language disease. Fortunately, Kasenberg didn't care, and he did not show any abnormality.

If there is no media questioning about the Golden Globe in the recent period, Eric may force the public to nominate Leonardo's best actor nomination, surpassing the nomination record of "Iridium Beauty".

However, because of the wide-ranging questioning of the Golden Globe Awards, the Oscar jury did not dare to ignore the award-winning strength of the Titanic, but at the same time, it also paid more attention to its credibility. Xiaolizi obviously did not reach the standard performance. If the award is nominated, the media will definitely turn the gun to Oscar after the nomination is announced.

Although it is impossible to break the record of "The Beauty of the Comet" in the number of nominations, as Kasenberg said, it is quite possible to surpass the 11 small gold people of Bin Xu.

The two discussed a detailed public relations detail, and Eric asked: "How is the situation of overseas distribution?"

Similar to North America, most of the countries that Titanic has released overseas have come out of a box office curve similar to North America.

In particular, the United Kingdom has more than 36 million US dollars at the box office. According to the current box office trend, the British box office of "Titanic" will easily exceed the $71 million box office record created by Jurassic Park a few years ago. It is not impossible. In addition, the box office in Spain, Australia and other countries and regions is also very good, just these nine overseas box office markets have been released, the cumulative box office in a month to reach 92 million US dollars. Stimulated by such excellent box office results, the original filmmakers who had been very cold on the release of Titanic had completely changed their initial attitude.

"I will fly to Europe next week, and Robert will also rush to Japan to personally negotiate with the local distribution and theater," Kasenberger paused. "Eric, my idea is, We don't need to pursue a higher share ratio. The average 35% share is quite good compared to the previous years. Re-requesting the share will definitely hurt the enthusiasm of local publishers. However, we can announce and schedule. And the hospital, asking for more resources."

Although fireflies have their own branches in the world's major ticket warehouse countries, the specific distribution work also needs to cooperate with local distribution companies, and it is inevitable to give each other a certain haircut.

Kasenberg is personally responsible for the European issue, and Robert Thompson, the president of the distribution department, is in charge of Japan, and Eric is very satisfied with this arrangement.

After considering it, Eric nodded: "Take it according to your ideas. In addition, let Robert take a trip to China to see if it is possible to get the qualification for the Titanic."

Kasenberg has some doubts, because in these years Eric has inadvertently embarrassed, fireflies have been deliberately trying to get one or two sub-book quotas in the Chinese market almost every year, but in fact, although there are more than 1 billion people, But the movie market is really small and pitiful, and the proportion is even lower.

However, he did not question Eric's decision. After all, it was only an hour. He nodded and agreed. Then, "Eric, there is one more thing. Harvey wants to start the production of "Family" in advance. When you were in New York, he talked to me about this. Recently, he was busy running "Shakespeare Love Story". Shouldn't you have time to talk to you?"

Eric originally planned this fall, and when the operating status of the ffm TV station stabilized, he launched a self-made drama such as "Family". When he heard Kasenberg, Eric asked: "What did he think?"

"You didn't mean that "family" belongs to the slow-heat type. It should rely mainly on the awards to make a name," said Kasenberg. "Havi feels that if this is the case, it is better to start making it now, and play it in the autumn of March. This will hit the Emmy Awards in August. If you postpone the fall, you will definitely miss this year's Emmy, and there will be a year-long interval between the Emmy Awards next year. The influence generated in the first quarter will also drop significantly, which is not conducive to the later release of video tape/dvd."

After resting in New York for nearly a month, and having the trouble of "Titanic", returning to Los Angeles again, Eric found that he had accumulated too many things without knowing it.

The post-production work of "Royal Casino" does not have to be said. In other respects, the British arm company that Eric ordered Chris to acquire, the two sides have signed the acquisition contract, but many subsequent decisions still require Eric to personally make a decision. The setting of the Marvel movie space program, the listing of the mp3 player, the equity investment of the clover holding company, the operation status of the fFM TV station, etc., although there are special personnel responsible for these matters, they still have accumulated a lot of work and need Eric personally. Decide.

“Harvey is an expert in the operation of the awards. Since he feels right, put it in the spring. Well, I will take time to talk to him at night.”

"Tonight?" Kasenberger raised his eyebrows and smiled. "Havi may not be available tonight."

"Oh, I almost forgot, tonight is the Golden Globe Awards ceremony, then wait for other time," Eric shrugged, not much to say, fireflies here tonight only the "Red Alert" master The team will attend the awards ceremony, and the Titanic team has long decided not to attend.

"The last thing is the clover holding," Kasenberger apparently did not talk about the Golden Globe award. Both of them were busy people, so he quickly switched to the next topic, saying: "Plus the recent period. Buying, we have invested $1.98 billion in the main stocks of Nasdaq. According to the Nasdaq trend in recent months, the book profits of these stocks have exceeded 210 million US dollars."

Eric nodded, and he already knows the data. Because of the stock investment in the Nasdaq market, the firefly's net profit this year will drop to about 1 billion US dollars, plus two years of paper media assets and animation studios. The final payment for the sale will not exceed $2 billion. This is because Eric needs to extract a large profit from the Firefly Group and invest in the Internet company owned by Firefly Investment. Otherwise, the sales of Shamrock Holdings will be even greater, and it will temporarily save more taxes.

Eric felt that Kasenberg would not mention this alone.

Sure enough, Kasenberg quickly said: "Buffett, Tom Murphy and David West have called me a lot of times recently, I think you must have only a lot here, if Not that the stock held by Shamrock Holdings has achieved profitability, and their opinions will definitely be even bigger."

"I told David West last time," Eric took the coffee pot next to him and continued to have a cup of coffee for himself. Then he said, "I told them if they had a business strategy for the Firefly Group. I have doubts, I can buy back the shares in their hands at any time."

David West made a lot of effort in the firefly's acquisition of abc, so he was one of the three directors outside the Firefly Group.

Moreover, the group of small shareholders of the Firefly Group represented by the major investment funds behind him, the share of the Firefly Group held at this time is close to 14%, and Buffett and Tom Murphy also control 10%, although initially More close, but the two sides ultimately represent different interest groups.

In the past two years, due to the continuous sale of paper media assets, hand-painted animation studios and the strong profitability of the group itself, these investment funds rely on 14% of their shares, and the annual profit distribution from the Firefly Group is about 500 million US dollars. It is enough for the managers of these funds to add a lot to their annual financial reports.

But this year, because of the additional expenses of Shamrock Holdings, the profit margins of the Firefly Group, such as Berkshire Hathaway and State Street Global Fund, will suddenly fall by more than half, and these people are experts in the investment field. Obviously, Eric has a strong distrust of his investment in stocks. Therefore, he is also dissatisfied with his large purchase of Nasdaq stocks.

Kasenberg listened to Eric and said with a smile: "Unless they are crazy, they will ask you to buy back the stock. However, David West discussed another thing with you on the phone yesterday, you I have also mentioned that I also think the timing is good."

Eric thought turned and suddenly understood and said: "He wants to go public in the digital field?"

Although I think Eric can guess, but he reacted so agilely, he still surprised Kasenberg, and smiled. Kasenberger nodded. "Yes, Eric, according to Titanic." Now the box office trend, this film has a global box office breakthrough of 1 billion US dollars. There is absolutely no problem. As a film featuring cg special effects, the success of "Titanic" will definitely further stimulate the development of the Hollywood special effects industry. Therefore, I also feel that Next, it should be the best driver to get the digital market listed. David also revealed to me that if the digital sector is listed, Wall Street should be able to make a valuation of about $3 billion."

The current thinking of Kasenberg and David West coincides with Eric’s ideas a few years ago.

Eric knows the future development of the Hollywood special effects industry. Although in recent years, Hollywood special effects companies can be regarded as the highly regarded 'noble industry', but with the rapid development of computer technology and related software industry in the next decade, With the support of top-level hardware devices and software, it will be a breeze to set up a special effects studio. At that time, the competition in the special effects industry will be extremely fierce.

Therefore, Eric also thought that if the "Titanic" can achieve the same success as the original time and space, then the cg special effects will definitely be highly respected. At this time, letting the digital field go public will be the most expensive cash. good time.

But after a while, Eric has changed his mind.

Perhaps, ten years later, or even five years later, the special effects industry will no longer have a high threshold, but now, the digital field is definitely one of the top special effects companies in the industry.

Therefore, if we sever the external cooperation in the digital field, fireflies can at least maintain the leading opportunity for more than three years in the field of special effects. In the past three years, it has been enough for the Firefly Group to drop the roots of other Hollywood film companies in special effects movies.

Even after three years, with the support of the Firefly Group and the support of MGM and Twentieth Century Fox, there is still no shortage of projects in the digital arena, even if it is longer, as long as the digital domain has absolutely outstanding effects. Technology, even if it can't make a profit, or even a little loss, the Firefly Group is enough to support such a proprietary subsidiary.

Moreover, even if Wall Street has a valuation of $3 billion in the digital sector, at the time of listing financing, according to the 20% public share issuance ratio, fireflies can only take up to 600 million US dollars, and 600 million US dollars, to fireflies. It’s absolutely irrelevant to say that it’s hard to imagine that David West’s suggestion at this time is definitely not for the six-one dollar. (To be continued.)