I’m in Hollywood - Chapter 834

[Chapter 826 Problems in the digital realm]

“I talked to Jon Landau and the others this morning, and Robert is also watching this in person. There are ten Oscar nominations in the technical category, and we should be able to win them all this time. Titanic can be said in this regard. There is no dispute. However, the six core nominations of the best picture, the best director and the four major performance awards, the best actor and the best supporting actor have no hope, Leonardo’s performance can only be said to be passable, There are also no outstanding male supporting roles in the film, and the other four, the nominations for the awards should be locked in advance.”

Firefly Studios, in the spacious office loft of the digital field, Eric and Katzenberg sat together in the lounge area, listening to After he finished speaking, he subconsciously said: “That is to say, 14?”

Katzenberg didn’t notice the other meanings implied in Eric’s words. He thought that Eric had also planned before, so he would say this. , nodded and said: “Yes, 14, there are 24 Oscar awards in total, but “Titanic” will definitely not be able to win nominations that have nothing to do with the film, such as best foreign language film and best animation, which first ruled out 7. Among the remaining 17 nominations, the best film score is divided into drama and musical comedy, which eliminates one more, and we have no hope of winning the best actor and the best actor, so there is only one left. 14. However, with only these 14 nominations, we have been able to match the nomination record set by “The Comet Beauty” in 1950, and the number of awards is likely to surpass that of “Ben-Hur”.”

Eric just said that sentence, He was already aware of the language sickness in it. Fortunately, Katzenberg didn’t care, and he didn’t show any abnormality.

If there is no recent media doubts about the Golden Globe Awards, Eric may also force people to publicize one of Leonardo’s best actor nominations, surpassing the nomination record of “Comet Beauty”.

However, because the Golden Globe Awards were widely questioned, although the Oscar jury dared not ignore the winning strength of “Titanic” this time, it also paid more attention to its own credibility. Xiao Lizi’s performance obviously did not meet the standard. If you get an award nomination, the media will definitely turn their guns on the Oscars after the nomination is announced.

Although it is impossible to break the “Comet Beauty” record in the number of nominations, as Katzenberg said, it is still possible to exceed the historical record of “Ben-Hur” 11 statues.

The two discussed detailed public relations details, and Eric asked, “How is the overseas release?”

Similar to North America, most of the countries where “Titanic” has been released overseas have gone out. Similar to the North American box office curve.

Especially in the United Kingdom, the box office in four weeks has already exceeded 36 million US dollars. According to the current box office trend, the British box office of “Titanic” will easily surpass the box office record of 71 million US dollars created by “Jurassic Park” a few years ago, breaking 100 million. It is not impossible. In addition, the box office of Spain, Australia and other countries and regions is also very good. It is just these nine overseas box office markets that have been released.

In one month, the cumulative box office reached 92 million US dollars.

Stimulated by this excellent box office performance, the overseas filmmakers who were quite indifferent to the release of “Titanic” have completely changed their initial attitude at this time.

“I will fly to Europe next week, and Robert will also rush to Japan to personally negotiate with the local distribution and theater chain,” Katzenberg paused and said: “Eric, my idea is, We don’t need to pursue a higher share ratio. The average share of 35% is quite good compared to the previous years. If we ask for a higher share, it will definitely dampen the enthusiasm of local publishers. However, we can make announcements and schedules. In terms of cinema and cinema, more resources are required.”

Although Firefly has its own branches in major ticket warehouse countries in the world, the specific distribution work still needs to cooperate with local distribution companies, and distribute certain haircuts to each other. unavoidable.

Katzenberg is personally responsible for European distribution, and distribution president Robert Thompson is in charge of Japan, and Eric is also very happy with this arrangement.

After thinking about it, Eric nodded and said, “Then do it according to your idea. In addition, let Robert drop by to China to see if it is possible to get the qualification for “Titanic”.”

Kasenberg Grid is a little puzzled, because Eric has inadvertently warned that Firefly has deliberately strived for one or two quotas in the Chinese market every year, but to be honest, although there is a huge population of more than 1 billion, the film market is still a big deal. It’s really small and pitiful, and the proportion of the share is even more outrageous.

However, he did not question Eric’s decision. After all, it was only an hour. He nodded and agreed, and then said, “Eric, there is one more thing, Harvey wants to start the production of “Black Road Family” ahead of schedule. , you were in New York some time ago, he chatted with me about this, recently he is busy working on Shakespeare in Love, shouldn’t he have time to talk to you?”

Eric originally planned to release this fall, waiting for ffm The TV station’s business situation stabilized, and then self-made dramas like “The Black Road Family” were launched. Hearing Katzenberg’s words, Eric asked, “What did he think?”

“Didn’t you say at the beginning that “The Black Road” is a slow-moving genre, and should rely mainly on awards to gain fame,” Katzenberg said, “Harvey thinks that since this is the case, it is best to start production now, and the autumn release in March. Play it, so it can hit the Emmy Awards in August. If you postpone it to the fall, you will definitely miss this year’s Emmy Awards, and there will be a one-year gap before next year’s Emmy Awards. Even if “Family” wins the award, the influence of the first season will be greatly reduced, and it is not conducive to the distribution of video tapes/dvds in the later period.”

After resting in New York for nearly a month, and having trouble with “Titanic”, he returned to Los Angeles again. , Eric found that he had accumulated too many things unknowingly.

Needless to say about the later work of “Casino Royale”, in other respects, the British arm company that Eric instructed Chris to acquire a few years ago, the two parties have signed the acquisition contract, but many subsequent decisions still need Eric to make the final decision. In addition, The setting of the Marvel Cinematic Universe plan, the listing of mp3 players, the equity investment of Clover Holdings, the operation of ffm TV, etc. Although these matters are all in charge of special personnel, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done by Eric himself. Decide.

“Harvey is an expert in award operations. Since he thinks it’s appropriate, let’s put it in the spring. Well, I’ll make time to call him in the evening to talk about it.”

“Tonight?” Katzenberg He raised his eyebrows slightly and smiled: “Harvey may not be free tonight.”

“Oh, I almost forgot, tonight is the Golden Globe Awards ceremony, so wait for another time,” Eric shrugged. Shrugging my shoulders, I don’t mean to talk more. Only the creative team of “Red Alert” will participate in the award ceremony tonight on Firefly’s side, and the team of “Titanic” has already decided not to attend.

“Finally, it’s about Clover Holding,” Katzenberg obviously didn’t have any interest in talking about the Golden Globes. Both of them are busy people, so he quickly switched to the next topic, saying: “Plus the recent period of Buy, we’ve invested $1.98 billion in major Nasdaq IT stocks that have earned over $210 million on paper based on Nasdaq moves in recent months.”

Eric nodded, he already knew these data, because of the stock investment in the Nasdaq market, Firefly’s net profit this year will drop to about 1 billion US dollars, plus two print media assets and animation studios in the first two years. The final payment for the sale of the business will not total more than $2 billion.

This is also because Eric needs to extract a large amount of profit from Firefly Group and invest it in the Internet company under Firefly Investment. Otherwise, Clover Holdings will buy more aggressively, and at the same time, it can temporarily save more taxes.

Eric felt that Katzenberg should not bring this up alone.

Sure enough, Katzenberg quickly said: “Buffett, Tom Murphy and David West have called me many times recently, and I think there must be more or less on your side. If It’s not the Clover holdings that turned a profit, their opinions must be bigger.”

“I told David West last time,” Eric picked up the coffee pot next to him and continued to himself. After a cup of coffee, he continued: “I told them that if they have doubts about Firefly Group’s business strategy, I can buy back their shares at any time.”

David West was in the process of Firefly’s acquisition of abc. Very strong, so he was able to become one of the three directors outside the Firefly Group.

Moreover, the group of minority shareholders of Firefly Group from major investment funds represented behind him held nearly 14% of Firefly Group’s shares at this time, and Buffett and Tom Murphy only controlled 10%, although initially They are relatively close, but after all, the two sides represent different interest groups.

In the first 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, with their 14% stake, earned about $500 million in profit from Firefly Group each year. Enough for the managers of these funds to make a big splash on their annual financial reports.

However, this year, due to the additional expenses of Clover Holdings, the profit and dividends of small shareholders of Firefly Group such as Berkshire Hathaway and State Street Global Fund will drop by more than half. In addition, these people are experts in the investment field. , obviously has a strong distrust of Eric’s vision in stock investment, so he is full of dissatisfaction with his behavior of buying Nasdaq stocks.

Katzenberg heard Eric say this and laughed: “Unless they’re crazy, they won’t ask you to buy back your stock. However, David West discussed another thing with me on the phone yesterday, you I mentioned it before, and I also think the timing is good now.”

Eric thought about it and suddenly understood, “He wants to go public in the digital domain?”

Although he thought Eric could guess it, he With such a quick response, Katzenberg was a little surprised, smiled, Katzenberg nodded and said: “Yes, Eric, according to the current box office trend of “Titanic”, the global box office of this film has exceeded 10. There is absolutely no problem with $100 million. As a film featuring CG special effects, the success of “Titanic” will definitely further stimulate the development of the special effects industry in Hollywood. Therefore, I also think that the next step should be to make the digital field the most successful. Good driver, David also revealed to me that if the digital space goes public, Wall Street should be able to value it at around $3 billion.”

Katzenberg and David West’s thinking now, with Ire K’s thinking a few years ago coincides with that.

Eric is well aware of the future development trajectory of the Hollywood special effects industry. Although in recent years, Hollywood special effects companies can still be regarded as a highly respected ‘aristocratic industry’, with the rapid development of computer technology and related software industries in the next ten years, With the support of top-level hardware equipment and software, it will be easy 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 “Titanic” can be as successful as the original time and space, then the CG special effects will definitely be highly respected. At this time, listing the digital domain will be the best way to get a lot of cash. good time.

But after what happened some time ago, Eric has changed his mind.

Perhaps, ten years later, or even five years later, there will no longer be a high threshold for the special effects industry. But now, the digital field is definitely the top special effect company in the industry, no one.

Therefore, if the external cooperation in the digital field is cut off, Firefly will be able to maintain a leading opportunity in the field of special effects for at least three years. Three years is enough for Firefly Group to put other Hollywood film companies behind in special effects movies.

Even after three years, with the strong size of the Firefly Group and the support of allies such as MGM and 20th Century Fox, there will still be no shortage of projects in the digital field, even if it is longer, as long as the digital field has absolutely excellent special effects Technology, even if it can’t make a profit, or even lose a little, the Firefly Group is enough to support such an exclusive subsidiary.

Moreover, even if Wall Street’s valuation of the digital field is as high as 3 billion US dollars, if it is listed for financing at this time, according to the public share issuance ratio of 20%, Firefly can only extract up to 600 million US dollars of funds. 600 million US dollars, to Firefly It’s absolutely irrelevant, and it’s conceivable that David West’s suggestion at this time is definitely not just for the $600 million.

……

ps: There was a bug in the chapter yesterday, Spain should have been released in the setting, and it has been revised.

(To be continued.)

[End of this Chapter]