In the past week, the first wave of attacks on the Thai currency by international financial speculators ended with the Thai government slightly better. However, Chen Qing, who had read a lot of economic data about Asian countries from her boss in private, knew that Thailand's economy was already shaky.
For example, foreign exchange.
After the first war, Thailand's officially announced foreign exchange reserves were still US$33 billion, which seemed sufficient. However, in fact, through a large number of forward baht sales, more than 90% of Thailand's foreign exchange reserves had been locked in advance. According to the hedging contract, the Thai government needs to use these foreign exchange reserves to buy back the baht from financial speculators after 3 to 6 months.
Do overseas speculators have so many baht
No.
In addition to a small amount of Thai baht used as margin, overseas speculators borrowed a large amount of Thai baht funds from inside and outside Thailand, which were converted into US dollars. This is also one of the main ways to make profits in foreign exchange operations.
First, determine the short position on the Thai baht. International speculators will exchange the borrowed funds for US dollars. At this time, the Thai baht is worth 10 US dollars. As the Thai currency depreciates, it may only need 5 US dollars to buy it back in the future to repay the debt. The remaining 5 US dollars is International speculators' profits.
So this is a bet.
Because a large amount of foreign exchange reserves have been locked in advance, rash use will only bring greater risks. Therefore, the Thai government wants to fight against the attacks of international financial speculators again. After the remaining small amount of available foreign exchange is exhausted, it can only borrow debt.
Borrowed money must be repaid.
If you can't afford it, the result will be worse.
Therefore, without breaking the rules, there is only one way to go, which is to give up the protection of the Thai baht exchange rate and allow the Thai baht to depreciate. This way, the currency selling orders of international financial speculators can be accepted at the lowest cost, and the Thai baht will be in the hands of overseas speculators. When the currency is exhausted, the crisis is over.
Of course, it’s also possible to break the rules.
Just like when this crisis spread to Russia in 1998, the Russian government said it could not afford to play any more. It directly declared a default on its sovereign debt and allowed the currency to depreciate indefinitely. The incident spread and almost led to another crisis caused by the United States. World-class financial turmoil caused by Long-Term Capital Management.
This is something.
Now, the Thai government is obviously not as single as Russia, and it is very likely to surrender.
As for the Westeros system, the main focus is still on South Korea.
What Simon is looking through is a batch of information collected by a headhunting company on senior Korean companies or Korean elites in the United States. Taking into account the sensitive and radical national characteristics of South Korea and the special operating mechanism of Korean companies, Western executives will be directly sent to South Korea. Obviously it's not appropriate. It's better to use South Korea to control South Korea.
However, unlike other overseas layouts of the Westeros system, these people selected by Simon must be absolutely controlled by the Westeros system, without too much delegation of power, and are more inclined to be puppets.
Inside a cruise ship on Tai Lake.
Randomly flipping through a page of information in his hand, Simon ignored Chen Qing, who had just come in, and asked the woman on the other side: "I will return to North America the day after tomorrow, do you want to go back together?"
Before Ms. Liu could answer, Miumiu beside her said, "Yes, Dad, it's so boring here."
Simon smiled and pinched the girl's cheek: "Who wanted to go back to China with me in the first place?"
When the little girl heard this, she was even more displeased: "But, we had promised that you would accompany us, but you have been busy these days and have not accompanied me and my mother at all."
"Well, my fault, let's go back together."
The woman on the other side saw that the man and his daughter had agreed, so she had no objection. In fact, she thought the same way.
A few days ago, the Guofeng Art Troupe finished its performance in the UK and did not immediately start the next stop. Instead, they chose to rest for a while. Simon happened to be coming to China, so he informed them that those who are willing to come together can return to China to see some of them. People rushed over together.
After I came back, I realized that there was really nothing to see.
The mother and daughter went back home, which was considered a glorious return to their hometown. They were envied and jealous by their relatives and friends, but that was all.
After chatting for a while, Simon sent the mother and daughter away, then looked at Chen Qing, who had bright eyes next to him, and asked with a smile: "Over there in Southeast Asia, are you betting with me?"
Chen Qing didn't expect that her boss would suddenly ask about this, but she nodded unabashedly: "My boss has revealed so much. If I don't make some bets, wouldn't it look like I'm too stupid?"
Simon nodded.
Chen Qing talked about another thing: "Boss, the matter of "Hero" will definitely be settled in the near future."
Regarding "Hero", it is mainly a matter of what kind of film will be released in China.
Just like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", although Jinshu Media has assisted, it has not been included in Jinshu's film list. The main reason is that this film is mainly invested by Daenerys Entertainment. On the Chinese side, it will still be based on Imported film standards are distributed.
Simon didn't have high expectations for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" at the Chinese box office, so it didn't matter.
Zhang Guoshi's "Hero" is different after all.
Although it is still more inclined to tailor-made for overseas, considering the box office of "Hero" in China, if it is still released as an imported film, the 13% revenue sharing ratio will actually be a bit of a disadvantage.
So he took the initiative to contact the authorities, hoping to obtain the same treatment for "Hero" as a domestic film through a joint venture with a mainland film company.
To this end, a set of plans that are quite biased toward the mainland has been designed.
Just like this time, "Heroes" was completely shot in mainland China and is a theme that promotes Chinese culture. At the same time, foreign investors negotiate with domestic investors. Through a certain amount of investment, domestic investors fully obtain the domestic copyright, and therefore enjoy the domestic rights during the mainland distribution process. According to the split-account treatment, foreign investors only enjoy overseas income and do not participate in domestic account-sharing. Domestic investors also only enjoy domestic income in China.
The mainland partners that Daenerys Entertainment hopes to choose this time are China Film and Jinshu.
Based on the total investment of US$30 million, China Film and Jinshu only need to jointly bear 20% of the investment to obtain all-channel copyrights in the mainland.
20%, equivalent to US$6 million, equivalent to approximately RMB 50 million.
With the theme of "Hero", there are high expectations for the mainland box office to exceed 100 million, and even 200 million is not impossible. In addition, peripheral channels can also make some money, and 20% of the copyright is obtained, which is very cost-effective.
Overall, this is a plan that is completely tilted towards China.
As for Jinshu, it is actually a pawn of the Westeros system in China and has nothing to do with the overall situation.
What's more, whether the premise of this special plan can pass the review, the initiative is completely in the hands of the China Film Bureau. It has only advantages and no disadvantages.
Coupled with Simon's relationship, there really won't be much of an obstacle to specially approving a document.
From what Chen Qing said, someone had probably sent the news and it was basically finalized.
Simon nodded slightly again, remembered another thing, and said: "As for the Ukrainian aircraft carrier, don't interfere randomly, just let nature take its course."
Chen Qing blinked, looked at her boss again, understood roughly, and agreed, "I understand."
It's just a little bit regretful.
What my boss means is that this favor should not be extended to the Westeros system, which is a pity.
From the perspective of my boss, I really shouldn’t get involved in this matter, but in fact, just a few days ago, the Livni Free Trade Zone in Ukraine was established. The Chinese representative team also attended the signing ceremony, but Chen Qing was You know, another task of that team is to negotiate about the aircraft carrier.
After all, my boss has quietly provided a lot of convenience.
However, since you don’t want to stick to it, then don’t stick to it.
With this in mind, Chen Qing changed the topic to a lighter topic and said: "Boss, there is still one foreign actress missing in "Love Call Transfer". Why don't you designate her?"
Simon gave a song and an idea at the beginning, but he didn't have much involvement in the subsequent script of "Love Call Transfer". Therefore, even if the original screenwriter was found, the new story would be very different from the previous one.
Simon also recently reviewed the completed script.
The brand-new story is more in line with this era. The male protagonist encounters business women, women going abroad, conservative women, star-chasing women, money-worshiping women, righteous women and other types. It obviously has some meaning of discussing the current social phenomena in China. Among them, There is also a role of a 'foreign girl', which explores the cultural differences between China and the West.
Simon heard Chen Qing mention it and thought about it for a moment. He really didn't have any suitable candidates for a while. He smiled and asked Chen Qing beside him: "Who do you think is suitable?"
"Of course, the bigger the name, the better," Chen Qing also said with a smile: "I know that the top female stars in Hollywood are paid very high salaries, but it's just a small role. If the boss asks, they should be happy to come and make a guest appearance. Just for a moment, um, a free guest appearance, we definitely can’t afford it.”
Because filming is about to start next month, it has been basically determined that the project budget of "Love Call Transfer" is 20 million yuan, which is only 2.4 million U.S. dollars. Such a price is less than half of the worth of Hollywood's first-line actresses, so it is only You can make your boss owe you a favor.
Of course, when a big star comes to China, all meals and accommodation will be provided.
Simon thought for a while and simply said: "Then I'll ask Linda to ask. If anyone wants to come, just come. Just treat it as a vacation in China."
In fact, although such a guest appearance opportunity does not make money, in the long run, it will definitely bring a lot of benefits to a Hollywood actress. Just like in the past, the reason why Brooke Shields is so well-known in China is because of the Spring Festival Gala saying "spicy chicken shreds". This time, if an actress is willing to show her face in a purely Chinese movie, she may also appear here. Bian gained great popularity.
As long as you are willing, these popularity can be turned into tangible benefits in the future.
Moreover, this is probably the last chance to accumulate this popularity.
With the advent of the Internet era and the explosion of information, it is even more difficult to gain national attention.
After finally staying in China for a weekend, Simon finally set off on Monday, May 12, returning to North America after more than a month of overseas travel.
Although Simon basically stayed on the cruise ship on Taihu Lake in the last week and enjoyed himself, many things during this trip to China were not delayed at all. After all, in Simon's current position, there are indeed very few things that require him to do it himself, and There are countless people willing to do the work for you.
Except for some trivial matters regarding Jinshu Media, before and after this trip to China, the Westeros system's investment in Chinese real estate, food, technology, heavy industry, etc. was more or less a step closer.
On the second day after Simon returned to China, a special co-production film document basically tailor-made for "Hero" was also announced, which can be regarded as a project for "Hero" and even the planned "Shushan Legend" trilogy. Obstacles cleared.
Here in the United States.
Simon has been away for more than a month and is back again. The North American summer season is approaching.
Prior to this, the release of the four Easter films, "Alien 2", "Cable TV Repairman", "Taken" and "Scary" have all come to an end, and "Face" is expected to be released next week on May 23 , in order to move the canvas, basically lower the gear.
As of the last box office week before the summer season on May 15, the box office revenue of "Alien 2" was 82.73 million U.S. dollars. It is expected to completely drop the box office, and the box office will be about 83 million U.S. dollars.
The box office of "Cable TV Repairman" as of May 15 was US$56.31 million, which is difficult to exceed 57 million.
Then there's "Taken", with US$80.62 million, and the total domestic box office is expected to be about US$81 million.
"Spooky" was US$62.93 million, and the total box office was also just over US$63 million.
To sum up, among the four movies, only "Taken" can recoup its entire cost just by relying on local box office. The other ones rely on overseas revenue to achieve profitability. However, compared to other Hollywood studios in the past few months, the summer releases The box office performance of its films has been quite outstanding.
In addition, relying on Daenerys Entertainment's public relations and the film's participation by Chinese movie stars such as Jet Lee, "Taken" has also been confirmed to be released in the mainland in the second half of the year.
There is also "BJ's Diary" for Valentine's Day in February. It was officially released on May 15th. The North American box office has accumulated 145 million U.S. dollars. The overseas distribution of the film is still continuing and is expected to exceed 200 million U.S. dollars. The global conservative estimate is also Around $350 million.
With a production budget of US$30 million, including US$15 million in publicity and distribution, global revenue of US$350 million has made "BJ's Diary" one of the films with the highest returns in recent years.
Two other small films released at the same time as "BJ's Diary", Christopher Nolan's "Following" and Guy Ritchie's "Two Smoking Barrels", have also been canceled.
On the local side, the cumulative box office of "The Following" was US$34.61 million, and that of "Two Smoking Barrels" was US$43.76 million. Compared to the total cost of the two films, which was only US$5 million, it is considered a rare hit.
In addition to these major hits, in the 19 weeks before the 1997 summer season, Daenerys Entertainment also released other films such as "Once Upon a Time: The Iron Monkey". In addition, at the end of 1996, the film entered the 1997 box office. In summary As a result, the cumulative North American box office in the 19 weeks during the summer season was US$1.54 billion. Daenerys Entertainment alone accounted for US$670 million, with a box office market share of as high as 43%.
This is because there was only one "Good Will Hunting" for Daenerys in the Christmas season last year, and cooperation projects such as "Jumanji" and "Charlie's Angels" were not included. In addition, there was also the heavy focus on the Star Wars series in the first half of the year. reflect. It is conceivable that with the release of a series of films during the summer and year-end, Daenerys' films in 1997 are expected to capture more than 50% of the box office share of the North American film market, truly half of the country.