Chapter 1041： Once there was a mountain

Entering mid-July, the most interesting news in the entire North American business circle is that News Corp. issued an M&A offer to Warner Bros., a subsidiary of Time Warner's extremely absolute holding.

This caused an uproar in the media and entertainment industry, because once this invitation is successful, it means that the United States and the world will have an unprecedented super entertainment media group.

On the day that Ronan got the news, he convened a meeting with the senior executives of Relativity Entertainment, and then he had a close talk with Robert Iger and CFO Mary in order to prepare for the huge changes in the industry.

"I don't think Warner Group will accept the invitation of News Corporation." Robert Iger expressed his opinion: "Although AOL broke up with Warner in the past two years, it has had a great negative impact on the entire Warner Group, leading to Warner's The media business has stalled, but Warner’s development in the entertainment business is enough to make up for this loss and even bring more revenue to the Warner Group."

He further said: "Once the two companies merge, with Rupert Murdoch's strength, the original Warner management and major shareholders will find it difficult to guarantee their own interests."

As the chief financial officer, Mary said from the perspective of the capital chain: "In the current situation of the two companies, even if Warner Group agrees to acquire, News Corp. will have to offer more than $60 billion.

Robert Iger nodded slightly: "Maybe even more."

Mary continued: "News Corp. and its 20th Century Fox are completely focused on the entertainment media industry. In recent years, Fox’s performance has been poor. The backbone of News Corp. is undoubtedly the media industry, but this industry is difficult to bring. Huge cash flow, Rupert Murdoch’s merger and acquisition can only be completed by way of share swap and cash, and the former dominates."

She paused briefly, and then said: "Even if the deal is concluded, it will weaken the Murdoch family's control of News Corp."

Ronan has been thinking about it, and finally said: "We are ready with both hands."

Robert Iger agrees: "Be prepared for the worst."

"Once these two companies merge, it will not be good news for any other entertainment media company." Ronan said slowly: "This means that a giant company will have a huge impact on other companies in the industry, even A crushing advantage."

Mary did not comment, but Robert Iger looked serious.

Once News Corporation and Warner Group are united, it is absolutely not in the interest of Relativity Entertainment.

Robert Iger said: “We are definitely not the only one who does not want News Corporation’s plan to succeed. Hollywood and other giants in the media industry probably don’t want to see such a situation. Based on the information we have on News Corporation and 20th Century Fox. The biggest difficulty of Rupert Murdoch’s plan is the opposition of Warner Group, and the funding and equity issues."

Ronan reminded at this time: "There is one more thing, political factor! Antitrust!" He said to Robert Iger: "Bob, you go to Hollywood and other companies in the media industry."

Robert Iger understands Ronan’s intentions: “Be prepared to restrict News Corp’s plans from the policy perspective.”

Ronan nodded slightly: "This kind of thing, presumably every company will take action."

Large companies will have more or less contact with the Washington government, Congress and other institutions.

This small meeting ended, Ronan returned to the office, and Connie had already sent the latest report.

Before looking at it, Ronan carefully recalled it and made sure he remembered it correctly. Once he saw relevant news when he was on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation wanted to acquire Warner more than once. But it was never successful, and in the end, Disney took over the sluggish 20th Century Fox film and television company.

The six major Hollywood companies have since become the five major companies, and even Walt Disney has changed the label name of Fox.

The failure of News Corporation’s acquisition of Warner has caused quite a chain reaction.

However, Ronan also has an impression. He can't remember exactly when it happened, but it should have happened after 2010.

News Corp. has now had trials and plans in this regard, and it may be an effect brought about by Relativity Entertainment.

Ronan looked upright and quickly read the information Connie sent.

This is the market research department of Relativity Entertainment, carefully collecting detailed information on the merger and acquisition plans of News Corporation and Warner.

This merger proposal was proposed at a luncheon at the Manhattan headquarters of the American Press Association on a working day in July.

The actual participants are Rupert Murdoch's top assistant Chase Carey and Time Warner Chairman and CEO Jeff Beeks.

The former tentatively proposed this plan to the latter, and the news spread out. News Corporation also admitted in the media interview.

But so far, Warner has not made any response.

If the deal is concluded, the merger of News Corporation and Time Warner will bring the two media giants together.

Time Warner’s TNT, TBS, CNN and HBO and other profitable cable channels will be integrated with the FX, FoxNews and Fox broadcasting networks of Twentieth Century Fox.

Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox Pictures have also merged, and the combined company will also dominate the film and television studio business.

For the entertainment media industry in the United States, this will be a more terrifying super giant group than Walt Disney.

Relativity Entertainment also prepares for the worst situation as quickly as possible.

Regardless of the result, the most important point is the strength of Relativity Entertainment itself is the key.

Without strong enough strength, any big company will be in a hurry.

This summer file, relativity entertainment can be described as full of firepower.

After 14 weeks of screenings in North America, "Hulk" was officially released from theaters, and the North American box office eventually reached US$261.28 million.

At present, the global box office of this film has exceeded 400 million US dollars, and overseas screenings will continue for a long time.

Through box office share and revenue from TV series and DVDs, it is not a problem at all that Relativity Entertainment recovers the entire investment in "Hulk".

Even, the possibility of creating tens of millions of dollars in profits is very high.

The success of this film further allowed the market to see the charm of Marvel superheroes.

More importantly, with the movie’s hit, the concept of Avengers is spreading around the world.

These are the basis for the future "Avengers" want to succeed.

Without the foreshadowing of these previous films, the previous "Avengers" could not have achieved such a huge success.

The huge sales of "Hulk" has given the series more fans besides comics fans. Many people's eyes have also paid attention to the next Marvel Avengers film "Thor", which will last a few months. "Thor", which will be released later, has already gained considerable popularity.

Embassy Pictures and Marvel Entertainment are also doing some targeted promotional activities.

In addition, the DVD sales of "District Nine", which has been downgrade before, have been well sold. Within two weeks of its launch, North American sales reached USD 38.95 million.

This is incomparable to the North American movies that sold hundreds of millions of dollars in DVDs in the first week, such as "The Lord of the Rings", "Pirates of the Caribbean", and "The Bournemouth 3".

But no one would think that "District Nine" is such a heavyweight film.

Compared to investment, Relativity Entertainment can be said to be very profitable in "District Nine".

At the same time, "Transformers" spent its third weekend in North American theaters, which seemed to correspond to the number of weeks it was released. The film further slipped on the North American box office charts, dropping to third place.

However, the weight of the third place in the box office list is real.

The North American box office decline of "Transformers" has significantly narrowed. In the third weekend, the North American box office closed at US$27.1 million, and the North American box office totaled US$248.91 million.

The overseas trend is still stable. Such special effects blockbusters are truly a popular dish in the global market. As time goes by, the box office outside North America gradually catches up with the North American box office, and the completion of the surpass will only be in the next few days. thing.

"Transformers" on the following Tuesday or Wednesday will be able to achieve a global box office feat of over 500 million US dollars.

In contrast, the sales of peripheral derivative products of the film remain high. It’s hard to say that Hasbro’s products. The global distributors of Relativity Entertainment have once again been in the Embassy Pictures for less than two weeks. In order to meet the market demand, and under the guarantee of sufficient orders from Relativity, the number of OEM manufacturers on the other side of the Pacific Ocean has increased to twelve.

The DVD of this film is also under urgent pressing. The first batch of DVD orders for Relativity Entertainment reached 10 million.

"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" ranks ahead of "Transformers". The charm of the little wizard has never been doubted. The growing Gryffindor Golden Triangle will burst out with greater appeal in the future.

This week’s box office champion was picked up by an animated feature film-"Kung Fu Panda"!

Once upon a time there was a mountain, there was a temple in the mountain, and there was a panda selling noodles in the temple...

This animated film produced by Shahai Entertainment Animation Studio and distributed by Embassy Pictures, with super cute pandas plus kung fu and comedy, and the so-called mysterious oriental culture, attracted a large number of people into the theater.

Of course, the oriental culture shown in "Kung Fu Panda" is essentially the oriental culture that Hollywood thinks.

But because of Ronan's existence, the film has no sensitive points, and it passed the scissor review without cutting it on the other side of the Pacific.

Frankly speaking, Eastern culture can never be covered by a panda that can embroider its legs.

Anyway, "Kung Fu Panda" has been a huge success in the North American film market. It opened in 4,225 theaters during the opening weekend and won $71.25 million in the box office.

The box office in North America caught up with the production cost in the first week, and Shahai Entertainment Animation Studio has also had another successful animation film in addition to the "Minions" series.