Chapter 915： a new era

On September 5th, with the release of Warner Bros.'s action film "The Guns Down" starring Steven Siegel, the 1997 summer file officially came to an end.

Overall, the start of this summer program is fierce, and the two box office potentials of "The Undersea Story" and "Royal Casino" are all over 300 million US dollars. The other big productions released in June are almost completely wiped out, even if It was the Paramount Pictures North American box office that eventually broke through the $200 million "Lion King 2" and it was definitely not a success.

However, in July, the chaos in the movie market began to calm down. Fox's "Ice Age", MGM's "Scream 2", and Universal's "Air Force One" have all achieved very good box office results.

Among them, the performance of "Ice Age" is undoubtedly the most attention of everyone.

This is not only because "Ice Age" finally harvested more than 176 million US dollars at the box office in North America for $59 million, and this 3D animated film is also the first animated feature film of Blue Sky Animation Studio.

Although Blue Sky Studio is well known for its technical support in the field of fireflies, it is a good place to win in North America and a box office that is three times more expensive than the production cost. This is still very exciting for other film companies.

You must know that in addition to "Royal Casino", this year's summer file, the most brilliant at the box office, is the release of "Lion King 2", "Bottom Story" and "Ice Age". Just these three animated films, the summer box office total is close to 600 million US dollars, which is almost a quarter of the total summer box office.

Before "Ice Age", several major movie companies in Hollywood began to set up their own animated film department, but due to the concept of 2d animation being dominated by Disney's monopoly 3d animation by Pixar monopoly, coupled with the long production cycle of animated films, these Film companies feel that it is very difficult to make a successful animated film.

But now, whether Blue Sky Studio has broken the traditional thinking influence or is driven by strong interests, several other major Hollywood studios have begun to increase their investment in their animation department.

On the other hand, the fierce slaughter in June also made Hollywood realize that it is no longer possible to stick to the traditional practice of placing key films before the US independence day on July 4, which will only cause very serious internal friction.

The box office performance in overseas markets has further attracted the attention of Hollywood.

This year's two billion box office seeds, "Nemo" and "Royal Casino", no matter which one, overseas box office is significantly more than the United States, when many media are still breaking the first week's box office record for the "Royal Casino" North American box office. When we were amazed, the film’s overseas first-quarter box office had easily reached a height of $13.6 billion.

In the 13th week, the North American box office has accumulated more than 3.3 billion US dollars in the "Nemo", and the overseas box office has reached 3.9 billion US dollars. At the same time, many overseas markets have not yet released, and at least 200 million US dollars of box office potential can be tapped. It is far from the end of the sweeping period like North America.

If we push forward again, we will enter the "Titanic", which is completely downgraded globally in September. The overseas box office will eventually reach a stunning figure of $1,269.6 million. The global box office will eventually break through. An unprecedented $200 million.

The Paramount Act of 1948 and the subsequent rise of the television industry completely ended the American film industry, which flourished in Hollywood's golden age.

But in recent years, as Hollywood movies have repeatedly created box office miracles on a global scale, Hollywood has gradually realized that for the American film industry, a new golden age is coming. Moreover, this is an era of rapid development along with the rapid development of high technology and economic globalization. If you can't catch up with such changes, you are destined to face the fate of being eliminated again.

Among them, the biggest change is undoubtedly the rapid integration of several major media groups in North America.

I have to say that this is actually a very ironic thing.

The Paramount Act of that year was to prevent the monopoly of a monopoly giant from having a negative impact on the entire industry. But the result of this move has hit the American film industry. In recent years, the Paramount Act has existed in name only, and several major media giants have even reached out to the cinema industry that was originally banned, but Hollywood has thus shown its rapid recovery.

With the end of this summer program, Hollywood once again began a major event related to the integration of the two major media groups.

Viacom acquires the bs television network and Seagram acquires the European music giant Polaroid Group.

Viacom's acquisition of bs is almost a well-known thing in Hollywood.

Since the 1980s, Summer Redstone has been expanding the Viacom Group’s TV business. Fireflies and News Corp. jointly suppressed the announcement of Lion King 2, resulting in a $300 million North American box office. The potential 2d animated film finally regretted stopping at 200 million, which further stimulated Lei Shidong, making the other party finally determined to start the acquisition of bs.

For Viacom to swallow bs, Eric is very happy to see it.

Public television stations in North America have already shown signs of defeat. In recent years, more and more cable TV stations have been stealing a large market share. At the same time, due to the impact of the new technology wave, the market value of bs has also been inflated several times. It can be said that Viacom swallowed bs at this time, even if there is no previous memory, Eric can judge this public TV network. It will become a big burden for the Viacom Group.

However, Seagram's acquisition of PolyGram was beyond Erik's expectations.

This incident was a photo of a reporter from a European newspaper who accidentally photographed the meeting between West Graham eo Edgar Bronfman and Polaroid, and was uncovered.

When it acquired the parent company of Universal A, Seagram already had a very strong Universal Music record in North America. If you re-purchase Europe's largest record company, PolyGold, Universal Music's strength will far exceed the world's top ranks. Several other record companies.

"Well, I sent a plane to Brisbane to pick you up, but I don't want to be too arrogant. Also, is it a kiss... um, really, but it seems to be on the feet, come again... haha, good. No, no, "In the conference room of Firefly Studios, Eric's feet are on the desk, leaning against the boss's chair and talking to Miranda Kerr in Australia. The office door is pushed. Open, Elizabeth did not knock on the door and walked in: "Well, that's it, I am coming to the guest, hung up first, goodbye."

Elizabeth suspicionly swept her eyes on Eric’s face in a hurry, and found nothing unusual. He licked his mouth and sat on his own, and took a pile of information on Eric’s desk. Look inside.

Putting the phone on the desk, Eric sat up straight and looked at Elizabeth, who was carrying a thick stack of documents across the street: "Are you a blatant business spy?"

Elizabeth did not lift her head and said: "Hey, I don't want to hold you and the little foxes and call porridge, you dare to be so confident."

"I am currently planning to use my righteousness as my motto." Eric smiled and took a pencil from the pen holder and said it in a script in front of him.

The script in his hand was the "Desperate Housewives" that he just remembered a few days ago. Eric spent a few hours, simply wrote a script idea, and then threw it to the original screenwriter Mark Cut of "Desperate Housewives". Lee.

Mark Celi is still a very insignificant little person in Hollywood. He is naturally conscientious and soon wrote the complete story outline of the first season and the scripts of the first three episodes.

Just wrote a few lines on the "Desperate Housewives" script, and Elizabeth across from it screamed.

Eric looked up: "You are so shocked. If you scare me out of a horror movie, I have to bother to write it out."

Elizabeth threw a stack of documents in her arms back to her desk, leaving only a folder, raised her face, and her face still with a smile that could not be suppressed. "This, the "Teddy Bear" script is really too It’s a vulgar, who wrote it?”

Eric pointed to himself with a pencil: "There was a recent inspiration, and the block could not stop."

Elizabeth subconsciously rolled her eyes and raised the folder in her hand, saying, "I want."

"Come on the table, I will give it to you."

"Ah, you bastard, you don't want anything good in your head, no wonder you can write such a sinister script," Elizabeth picked up a small piece next to the monitor and threw it at Eric.

Eric reached out and grabbed the "Resident Evil" Ada Wang, who was holding the shackle. He carefully placed it and said: "This is out of print. If I break it, I can only put you on the table as compensation." ”

Elizabeth snorted again, shaking the "Teddy Bear" script in her hand, no longer asking for the things she wanted, just saying: "Teddy bear is a plush toy that many children like very much. You are so scribbled. Is the copyright party willing?"

"Generally, copyright owners are not willing to do so. I think there are only two reasons. One is that the money is not enough, the other is that the money is not enough," Eric explained. "In any case, the fireflies have signed with them." The copyright agreement, we want to write the script, it has nothing to do with them."

"Hey, I don't have to know, they must have been cheated by you, thinking that you want to make "Teddy Bear" a Disney-style children's feature film. If they know in advance that the script will be so vulgar, it is estimated that they will not kill them. selling."

Eric smiled and said: "That's not necessarily, you have to see if the money is enough. However, this is the film production, it must be r-level, the children can't see it at all, it will not be affected. Now, if you have anything, you won’t suddenly think that I can’t get out of it. If you remember correctly, we just saw it the night before?”

"Who would miss you guy," Elizabeth grinned and took a portfolio from her handbag and handed it over: "This is Chris Wedge's "Shrek" script they just finished, you can help me."

Eric reached out and opened it. "Why don't you send it directly to my mailbox? How convenient?"

"Everyone is very anxious. Who knows how to send it by e-mail. When will you give the news? I am not going to leave this afternoon. You can read it for me and give a revision. Well, that's it."

"Well," Eric nodded with a smile. "Take me a cup of coffee, add a piece of candy, and put more milk."

Elizabeth made another move to the Ada Wang hand to do it, and then stood up and walked out of the Eric office.

After a while, putting the coffee in front of Eric, she said: "Recently, it is not that Seagram wants to buy PolyGram. Do you feel nothing at all?"

Eric turned with a pencil in his hand and asked casually: "What does it feel?"

"I said yes, you have never thought of taking Baolijin down. Recently, I said that the irelyer player concealed piracy is more?"

"I only know that the performance of Firefly Records will rise by more than 50 this year. Although the digital music revenue is only 10%, but they are smarter, they should know where the future trend is. For new technology, forcibly block only Will be ruined. Siemens hopes to sell PolyGram now, perhaps considering the rise of digital music in the next few years."

"Thagram is a fool, can't they see it?"

"It's not a stupid question. Edgar Bronfman can take the position of Seagram's eo from his family. It's definitely not too stupid. Of course, I don't think he is too smart. Just, just Like Lei Shidong, many people will only see the short-term benefits in front of them, and they are not willing to think too long."

Elizabeth nodded thoughtfully and smiled. "You think it is very long-term. In the last two years, the fireflies have not expanded. I am afraid that the annual growth rate will soon drop."

Eric also approved a line in the script and continued: "Even if the Firefly Group's performance stops growing, it is enough for other Hollywood studios to catch up for several years. Moreover, it will not be necessary to stop growing. Recently. You haven't known the economic bubble for a few years. Fireflies are not listed companies, and there is no way to enjoy the dividends brought by too many bubbles. Therefore, it is unwise to expand now. After two years, the bubble burst. It is the moment when the fireflies show their strengths."

"So what do you think about Seagram's acquisition of PolyGram?"

Eric remembered the original time and space, the media group integration was completed, only the global group entered the information of the new century and continued to change hands, said: "Well, I can only say that once Sigram completes the acquisition of PolyGram, the future This company will become a hot potato, who will be unlucky." (To be continued.)