I’m in Hollywood - Chapter 582
[Chapter 577 Then buy it]
Chapter 577
After having a conversation with Amy Pascal, Eric temporarily let go of the Flower Pictures side.
After Halloween, the time entered November 1993. The global box office of “Jurassic Park” was getting closer and closer to 1 billion US dollars, which also caused a media heat after breaking the box office record of “et”. discussion.
These days, Eric lives a busy life of traveling between different studios or studios. While checking the preparation or production progress of the big-budget films involved in Firefly, Eric also has to take into account the process of TV network acquisitions. From time to time, there are party invitations that you can’t turn away.
Fortunately, Firefly’s film promotion department is very mature and perfect. Under the control of Michael Lynn, Katzenberg, and others, Eric doesn’t need to worry about the release of films scheduled for the end of the year, otherwise he will be even more busy.
Another day’s work. Eric watched the filming progress of “Men in Black”, and walked out of the studio of Columbia Pictures in Culver City, talking and laughing with Peter Cooper. He was just about to get in the car and leave. The phone rang.
The call was from Michael Lynn. The two briefly said something on the phone. Eric gave up the idea of returning to Malibu and ordered the driver to go to the Firefly Pictures headquarters in Burbank.
Walking into a conference room at the Firefly headquarters in Burbank, Eric found that Michael Lynn, Jeffrey Katzenberg and other major Firefly executives had already appeared here.
However, Eric was very keen to find that these people had a faint look of joy on their faces, so he put down his original worries.
Simply said hello.
Eric sat down in his seat.
He smiled and asked, “Is there any good news?”
Michael Lynn, who was sitting next to Eric, handed a document to Eric.
Some said excitedly: “The latest box office statistics have been released. The latest box office data of “Jurassic Park” is 1 billion and 2.3 million US dollars. Eric, your original prediction has been fulfilled. Because today is Wednesday, The box office data for this week’s working day will not be counted until Friday, so most people outside the world don’t know the data, but we can announce the news publicly tomorrow.”
Eric opened the file and saw the file Box office data for more than 50 countries in the table, as well as the eye-catching data results at the end of the table.
Nodding contentedly, putting the document aside, he asked Michael Lynn, “I don’t think it’s just about this, you called me over in such a hurry, right?”
“Let Jeffrey speak,” Michael Lynn pointed out. Pointing to Katzenberg.
Katzenberg handed over an envelope: “Eric, this is what we just received this afternoon,
a letter from Warren Buffett, please read it first.”
Eric heard Buffett’s name and said Not too surprised, Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is one of the TV’s major shareholders.
Holding more than 25% of the shares, Firefly wants to acquire it.
In any case, it is certainly impossible to bypass Buffett’s hurdle.
Open the envelope, there is only a simple piece of letter paper, and the content is very simple. Buffett hopes to invite Eric to Omaha to talk about things.
The envelope did not have any seals or postmarks. Obviously, the letter was forwarded by someone else, not sent by post.
After Eric read the text message, he looked up and said, “Have you all read it?”
Michael and the others nodded at the same time.
Katzenberg was the main person in charge of the acquisition. At this time, he said: “It can be seen from this letter that Buffett should have discovered our intentions.”
Eric folded the letter and put it back in the envelope, Asked: “Jeffrey, how is your side lately?”
Katzenberg said: “In order to avoid attracting too much attention, we simultaneously absorbed the stocks of the three major TV stations in the secondary market. At present, we have about 7% of the stocks in our hands, and the other two are relatively small, both at 5.5%. In addition, its stock price has risen from $43 three months ago to $47 now, with a total market value of $96.7 billion.”
Firefly originally planned to absorb about 10% of the stock, after making public the news and joining the board of directors, but now Buffett has already noticed this, and it is definitely not that easy to implement the original plan again.
Eric considered for a moment and said: “Sell all the stocks of the other two companies as soon as possible, and tomorrow announce the news that the box office of “Jurassic Park” has exceeded 1 billion. In addition, send a letter to Mr. Buffett and invite him to participate. “Jurassic Park”‘s global box office breaking $1 billion celebration.”
“Eric, this may not necessarily be able to grasp the initiative,” Frank Wells, who had just been silent, said: “Although Berkshire Hathaway is only 25% of the stock, but the chairman at the time, Tom Murphy, is also a major shareholder and a good friend of Warren Buffett. I think if we are interested in acquiring it, it is best for you to go to Omaha in person. After Frank Wells finished speaking
,
although several executives over fifty years old in the conference room did not speak, Eric could still see the expressions of approval on the faces of Jeffrey, Michael Lynn and others. For their generation, Buffett is a wealth legend, and Eric can also appreciate their admiration for Buffett.
But Eric has other considerations. During this time, a large part of Eric’s energy was devoted to the acquisition preparation of the TV network. It is impossible for Eric to not know anything about Buffett, who directly controls a large number of shares. .
Buffett is definitely a person who decides to move afterward. If there is no decision in his heart, Eric believes that it is absolutely impossible for him to receive this invitation letter from Buffett today.
At the same time, Buffett has absolute rationality in investment, and Eric believes that the other party will not easily change his attitude towards him because of the change of the home court.
In addition to these, Eric of course also has the mind to take some initiative, although Michael Lynn and others are not optimistic.
Eric would not fail to try.
“Okay. Let’s decide like this. Let’s get ready.” Eric waved his hand gently and completely settled the matter.
Firefly announced the next day that “Jurassic Park” broke one billion at the global box office. However, the celebration banquet was arranged a week later. time.
At the same time, after receiving a reply from Firefly, Buffett was as Eric expected.
Accepted the invitation to the Jurassic Park celebration party.
As the Thanksgiving holiday of the new year is approaching, the Thanksgiving-Christmas period also opens at the same time. Firefly released the last film “Detective Plane 2” with Jim Carrey on November 19. The first weekend of three days is amazing. Unexpectedly, it made nearly $30 million at the box office.
The “Interview with the Vampire” and Quentin’s “Pulp Fiction”, which are mainly responsible for impacting the Oscars, are scheduled for December.
Columbia Pictures also released “Broken Arrow”, the second Hollywood film directed by Wu Baige in the same week. “Influenced by “Broken Arrow”, White Pigeon Wu has already accumulated a good box office foundation in North America, and “Broken Arrow” also received a box office of 32 million US dollars in the first weekend and three days.
Because the cost of the film is relatively low, just under $50 million.
So there is absolutely no problem in recovering the cost.
However, what surprised many people is that the dark horse at the box office at the end of this year is not any of the films such as “Detective Plane 2” and “Broken Arrow”, but the one launched by 20th Century Fox that costs only more than 2,000. The $10,000 “Skinny Daddy”, a family comedy starring Robin Williams, grossed close to $20 million in three days after its release, and has a good reputation. The box office statistics agency based on the film’s first-week box office curve As well as the audience’s word of mouth, it has given a staggering $200 million North American box office estimate, several ten times the cost of the film’s production.
Because of this incident, Elizabeth raised her chin involuntarily when she saw Eric during this period of time, with a small proud look, until she was ruthlessly cleaned up by Eric before she became honest.
On November 22, approaching the evening, although the celebration party had not yet started, the Sharphorn Manor was already overcrowded, Eric dragged Jeffrey to hide beside a seat in the open field outside the villa, jokingly said: “Jeffrey, I I think it’s the biggest mistake you made of insisting that I put the Jurassic Park celebration party at Pointy Manor, you know, Warren Buffett is a very frugal person and hates the extravagance of the rich. Maybe he saw These are not willing to sell them to us.”
“Charlie Munger, Buffett’s good friend and partner, not only owns his own private jet, but also owns a private island, and he has never seen Buffett break up with each other. As far as I know, Buffett Really a frugal guy, but he doesn’t force others to do the same. Well, Eric, I know you don’t like partying on your estate, it’s different today, isn’t it, even without Warren Buffett , but today is Jurassic Park’s $1 billion global box office celebration, and even this is worth celebrating.” The
two were chatting, and German in a beautiful red dress was talking. Ru brought Amy Pascal over with him, and the little girl hugged Jeffrey affectionately, and then got close to Eric.
Jeffrey noticed that Amy Pascal seemed to want to chat with Eric, so he got up and walked elsewhere.
Eric motioned Amy Pascal to sit down and asked, “Amy, what’s the matter?” Amy Pascal said
: “We recently contacted Carlock Pictures, the company that owns the copyright of “Spider-Man”, but the other party I don’t agree to transfer the copyright to us.”
Eric recalled and asked, “Is Caroc Pictures still in charge of Mario Cassar?”
Amy Pascal nodded and said, “Since the summer archives” After the box-office failures of “Bear Peak” and “The Last Action Hero”, Carlock Pictures has been in a semi-closed state for the past six months. However, when I contacted Mario Cassar, he just said his intentions. Outright rejected our intention to buy the rights to “Spider-Man”.”
“That’s all?” Eric asked.
Amy Pascal said: “Of course not. He said he could work with us on Spider-Man, but he would never sell Spider-Man to us.”
“He must have guessed that you were behind this. Hey,” the little girl rubbed against Eric and laughed heartlessly.
Eric pulled the little girl’s ear and pushed the girl away, thought for a moment, and said, “In what form did Carlock buy the copyright of “Spider-Man”?”
“It seems to have been bought for five years, since 1990. , the deadline is 1995, but I also found some subsidiary clauses, within five years, if Carlock Pictures develops the “Spider-Man” movie, then the copyright will automatically extend for five years. Also, “Captain America” The copyright transfer agreement with Fantastic Four is similar to Spider-Man.”
This is a very troublesome thing.
Eric thought about it, he remembered that the original time and space Carlock Pictures probably went bankrupt around 1995, and then the copyright of “Spider-Man” automatically returned to Marvel Comics, and because Marvel Comics happened to be in an extremely difficult period, he had to Once sold to Sony Pictures, since then, because of the great success of the big movie developed by Sony, the return of “Spider-Man” has become a distant prospect.
Eric quickly thought of other things, and asked, “Where is the main equity of Carlock Pictures now?”
“I don’t know that, but the controlling stake should be in the hands of some Wall Street funds. Eric , I’m worried that if Mario Cassar discloses this matter, it is likely to attract other film companies to compete for the copyright of “Spider-Man”, and there may be trouble over there.
” Rick didn’t answer Amy’s concerns and asked, “If we buy Carlock Pictures, how much will it cost?”
“Probably, tens of millions of dollars. Carlock Pictures has produced and released many movies in recent years. , but there are not many successes, otherwise there would not be a version of bankruptcy now.”
“You collect relevant information. If Mario Cassar insists on not letting go, then buy Carlock Pictures as a whole. I think those on Wall Street are very happy to cash in on this mess now.”
Amy asked again .
The question just now: “But what if they realize that you are interested in the copyright of “Spider-Man”?”
Eric shook his head and smiled: “Don’t worry, now is not the time to develop “Spider-Man”, otherwise, do you think Will the seven major film companies let the superheroes of Marvel comics fall into the hands of second- and third-rate film companies? So, even if they are snatched by other film companies, it is not a big trouble. The big deal is to launch another acquisition at that time. I still have many years to go.” (To be continued.)
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[End of this Chapter]
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