Chapter 476： Litigation

Time has passed November, and the arrival of December also means that more and more big-production movies will be released, and "Gladiator" with a production cost of up to 100 million US dollars is undoubtedly the most eye-catching period. In addition to the fact that its main creators are eye-catching enough, it also involves a lawsuit. Until now, the Federal Court has not made a final ruling.

However, another lawsuit in Hollywood quickly diverted the attention of the media.

Dozens of Walt Disney's retail shareholders and small investment institutions holding shares jointly sued the Disney Board of Directors in the Delaware Chancery Court.

Disney shareholders complained that in 1995 when the company hired Michael Oviz as the company’s president, the company’s board of directors completely obeyed Eisner’s will, and the company’s nomination committee was dormant because of the board’s industriousness. The absence of the nomination committee caused the company’s will to be led by Eisner’s nose. The company was forced to accept Eisner’s nomination, and Hollywood’s popular professional broker Michael Oviz served as the film and the theme of this episode. President of Disney, a fairy tale world composed of parks and animation.

Michael Oviz lacks the ability and experience to control a giant company like Disney, and also lacks the creativity and coordination capabilities that Disney World needs. After taking office, he not only failed to reverse the company’s situation, but worsened the company’s situation. He was cronyism, abuse of power, Alone, betrayed by other directors, occupied company property, and directly contradicted his childhood friend Michael Eisner.

Similarly, without rigorous procedures, Michael Eisner fired Ovitz. For this, Disney had to pay a huge sum of nearly 200 million US dollars, including $140 million in resignation compensation.

The angry Disney shareholders appealed to the court to order Michael Oviz to return the company's 200 million US dollars in severance compensation and interest that the company had paid, and asked the court to order Disney's directors headed by Eisner to bear joint and several liability for repayment.

All the voices almost point to one point-the loss of the board of directors and the nomination committee is related to Eisner's huge personal influence, and all the responsibilities should be borne by Michael Eisner alone.

Once this lawsuit came out, it caused an uproar in the media. Then several investment institutions on Wall Street that hold shares in Disney issued a statement that they would join the litigation team. It also triggered a stir in the media in the entertainment and financial industries. .

The complainant is from Disney’s shareholders, and the accused are a group of Disney executives. It is not uncommon in North America that shareholders and management conflict with each other, and the spearhead of these shareholders is not directed at any institution, directly including Michael? Individual executives including Eisner.

Management wastes shareholders' money, especially when it involves hundreds of millions of dollars, which cannot be offset by a few explanations and a few statements.

In this highly developed country of commerce, interest determines the position of the butt, and whoever touches the cake of interest groups will jump out and fight against whom.

After a period of waiting, the most respected company court in the United States formally accepted the lawsuit.

And Disney’s shareholders chose the Delaware courts over the California courts because Walt Disney’s place of registration is in Delaware.

Due to the preferential tax policies implemented by the State of Delaware and the superior judicial system of the State of Delaware, Delaware has become one of the most popular company registration places in the United States. More than half of the global Fortune 500 companies are located in Delaware. The state established and registered an office or branch, and one-third of the companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange were established and registered in Delaware.

However, since Delaware does not strictly require registered companies to operate in the state, most registered companies only symbolically have offices in Delaware and pay taxes to the Delaware government during the tax season.

Most companies such as Jenkins Pictures under Ryan’s name are also registered in Delaware, but several companies share a large office.

The name of the nation of ten thousand taxes in the United States has no water at all. If legal and reasonable means are not used to avoid taxation, the taxes paid are enough to make many large groups burn out.

The participation of certain institutions on Wall Street has made this lawsuit more compelling. Neither entertainment media nor financial media are fools. If they lose the strong support of Wall Street Capital, take Michael Eisner’s existing shares as a director. Chang Jian's position must be unstable.

Soon, a reporter caught Michael Eisner himself on Wall Street.

"According to my estimation with Wilson Jr., this lawsuit is likely to drag on."

Scott, who returned from New York, sat in the living room of the villa and discussed the current situation with Ryan, "The case will have to go through at least two rounds of questioning, and Michael Eisner and Michael Ovitz themselves should be summoned. but……"

Scott made a very helpless gesture to Ryan, "There is no relevant legal provision for the time being. If the judgment is made in accordance with the Commercial Judgment Law, the Disney Company's board of directors may eventually be acquitted.

"Their guilt and innocence is not what we want to achieve, is it?" Ryan waved his hand indifferently, playing with the coffee cup in his hand, "As long as we can distract part of the Disney board of energy, we will come less during our preparation period Just ask for trouble."

Things like "Gladiator" are really boring if they jump out after a while and make a fuss.

Of course, some people are not fools. This method outside the rules can be used occasionally. If you use it frequently, you want to be a public enemy of the industry.

According to Ryan's analysis, it may have been for selfishness in the past, but now it is for great benefit.

Benefits are always the best tool to impress people's hearts and arouse greed.

As the release date of "Gladiator" is getting closer and closer, Jenkins Pictures and Paramount Pictures, which acted as the distributor, seem to have not been affected at all. You can see "Gladiator" everywhere on the Internet, TV, and print media. "Pictures, trailers, and huge posters were erected early on the most conspicuous advertising spaces in major cities.

Especially on the Internet, there have been many viral links about "Gladiator" on portal sites such as Yahoo and Google. Viral marketing is already well-known, far beyond the fake film they shot in Darren. The effect of the documentary.

This point was very well confirmed by "Blair the Witch" which was released last year. Lionsgate almost perfectly copied the original viral marketing method of Flower Pictures, but with an experienced audience, it was again within a short period of time. Once faced with this kind of overdraft market propaganda method, it would not buy it much.

As a result, the filming cost was only tens of thousands of U.S. dollars, and the publicity cost was invested in a fake documentary of tens of millions of U.S. dollars. It was no longer the glory of the previous life. It only gained less than 3 million U.S. dollars in box office in North America, and the overseas screening rights were not sold Going out for a few places made the senior executives of Lions Gate Pictures want to cry without tears.

Viral marketing is not as magical as you might think. If you can’t grasp the degree of it, the tragedy must be the investor.

Rebellious psychology not only exists among young people, but also among adults.

The simplest example is the use of hype about male and female starring actors or directors’ scandals during filming as a publicity method. For the first time or even the first few times, the box office numbers may be boosted. What if the number of times is higher?

A film by a director or an actor always wins eyeballs in the form of scandals, and will be eliminated by the market in a short time, especially in Hollywood, where the new and the old alternate fast and pay more attention to practical interests.

Looking at Hollywood, how many first-line actors or directors will use this method to promote movies?

Of course, neither the movies starring Ryan nor the movies produced by Jenkins Pictures have used this kind of publicity.

"Gladiator" is about to be released and has entered the most intensive publicity period. From the producer to the distributor to the theater, all the so-called plagiarism incidents are ignored. The theater’s best publicity columns are all reserved for this movie. Ryan's past achievements are the source of their confidence.

The "Monster Electric Company", which is currently in theaters, continues to exert its efforts in publicity. Pixar once again invested 10 million U.S. dollars in publicity expenses, bringing the total cost of the film to 155 million U.S. dollars, which completely exceeded "Toy Story 2" has become Pixar's highest-invested animated feature film so far.

The effect of this is extremely obvious. After more than 69 million U.S. dollars in the first week and 52 million U.S. dollars in the following week, the movie received more than 35 million U.S. dollars in box office in the third week, and the North American box office reached a total of 150 million U.S. dollars. It is very likely that it will become the second North American movie to break 300 million box office this year.

At the same time there was good news from the Federal Court. Just ten days before the scheduled premiere of "Gladiator", the Federal Court rejected the plaintiff’s lawyer’s request for a preliminary injunction. "Gladiator" can be released on time.

After the movie was released, the same judge ruled that there was no connection between "Gladiator" and Mark Morik's script.

Protecting their own interests is a natural choice that anyone who stands up to the top will make. Although the other party is just a small person active on the bright side, Ryan will not let them continue to be at ease.

His team of lawyers quickly sued Mark Morik for defamation in the name of Jenkins Pictures, offering a public apology and a compensation clause of nearly three million dollars.

It doesn't matter if the lawsuit is won or not. Ryan just let Wilson Law Firm drag on indefinitely. The other party must respond to the lawsuit, and the response will incur costs. Time, energy, and money alone can completely drag them down.

At this time, will the people hiding behind jump out to pull these pawns who are destined to abandon?

Hollywood is always powerful and realistic! rs()