Media and audience feedback from the Cannes premiere of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" spread back to North America. Daenerys Entertainment immediately pushed the relevant news to various media platforms such as newspapers, TV and the Internet. The Hollywood Reporter and Variety ” all gave very favorable comments, and the first official trailer was also launched on the YouTube video website in due course.
Everything is familiar.
In today's Hollywood, Daenerys Entertainment is not only a major studio that attaches great importance to marketing, but more importantly, the Westeros system also controls a large number of media resources.
Therefore, even if the final stage of promotion for a series of summer blockbusters is in full swing, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is still more than two months away from its release date of July 25. This movie is still among the current North American movies. The market coincides with the 'Kung Fu craze' and the stalls attract a lot of public attention.
On the other hand, the two new movies "Police Story 4" and "Absolute Power" in the summer season, which opened on May 16, can be regarded as happy and sad by some.
"Police Story 4" is Jack Cheng's new film, continuing the popular "Police Story" series in Hong Kong. However, after the popularity of "Rush Hour" last year, the production specifications of "Police Story 4" were upgraded across the board, and the script was specially modified to cater to the Western market.
As a result, the project attracted the attention of all parties in Hollywood, and was eventually won by Disney, controlled by Vivendi.
The film was shot all over the world, and the production cost of the final publicity reached 25 million U.S. dollars. It opened in North America with 2,376 screens. In the three days of the first weekend, relying on Jack Cheng's popularity and a comprehensive media score of 7.8, it successfully won 1,781 With a revenue of 10,000 US dollars, the box office in the first week is expected to reach about 25 million US dollars.
It's a big hit.
As for the film's subsequent total box office in North America, it depends on the subsequent box office curve, but even if Disney gave very high conditions at the beginning, it will definitely make a fortune this time, which makes other Hollywood studios regret not being able to do so. It was a little bolder when it came to asking prices last year.
Clint Eastwood's new film "Power" with Sony is in sharp contrast to "Police Story 4".
With a production cost of US$50 million and an opening screen size of 2,579, this crime thriller tells the story of a lone thief involved in the murder of a president who exposes evil and seeks justice. It only made US$15.17 million in the first three days of its opening. It is expected to complete its first run. Zhou is probably around US$20 million.
If the costs of these two films were reversed at the beginning of the summer season, it wouldn't be such a failure. Unfortunately, one costs 25 million, and the North American box office is conservatively estimated to reach 50 million US dollars. The other has a budget of 50 million, and the local box office is unlikely to match the cost.
In general, the box office results for the first three days are that Disney has made a steady profit, Jack Cheng's popularity in North America has been further consolidated, and Sony, which has been struggling, has once again suffered a setback, even if it is not a box office failure.
Los Angeles.
As a result of Simon taking a week off in China, he was surrounded by a lot of work during the week he returned to North America. Even if the new week of May 19 comes, it will still be the same.
Daenerys Studios in Malibu.
After breakfast, Simon arrived at his office at 8:20, and Amy Pascal also arrived early, planning to discuss some things before the regular high-level meeting at 9 o'clock.
"Regarding "Godzilla", some other detailed terms are still being negotiated. However, Toho requires a 30% investment share, and there is no room for concession. Simon, if there is no problem on your side, we can sign the agreement soon?"
Simon was sitting on the sofa in the reception area of his office, flipping through a list of documents that Girl A had just handed over, and asked with concentration: "30% investment is no problem, I can promise them. The details you mentioned are all Which ones?"
"It's mainly the distribution commission, and there is also the very important share of peripheral products. We have the initiative in the former and can probably get stuck at 15%. The latter is mainly with Toho. After all, they have been operating Godzilla for decades. time."
Simon nodded and motioned for Amy to continue. He was just asking and knew what was going on and had no intention of getting involved in these details.
Seeing Simon's agreement, Amy understood that the deal with Sony was basically finalized. She looked down at her memo, smiled slightly, and said, "At Sony Pictures, I met Chris again when I attended a party over the weekend. ·Lee, he said that the project of "2013 Godzilla" has been approved, huh, mainly because Sony knew that it would basically not get "Godzilla", but Sony only gave it a budget of 40 million US dollars."
Simon made some marks on the document list in his hand, and said with a smile: "It's good to get the project approved. At the beginning, "Future Water World" said it would only cost 70 million."
After all, it was not a matter of public interest. Amy didn't say much, just smiled and continued: "Also, Wu has recently been looking for a new project, cooperating with the leading actor of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" which just premiered in Cannes. Zhou, they are planning a shootout action movie. I have read the synopsis of the story. It is probably about a killer who failed in his mission and was hunted down. This is the type that Wu is good at. However, Danny talked to him once and Wu was not interested in continuing with us. The interest in cooperation is obviously not high. You don’t plan to be the director yourself this time and will only be responsible for the production?”
Simon knew what Amy meant by that.
If Simon thinks it is necessary to retain him, Daenerys can offer a higher price to fight for it.
Simon shook his head: "We insist on our own standards. If Wu can't accept it, let him do whatever he wants."
To put it bluntly, it was because of the continuous success of "Broken Arrow" and "Mission: Impossible 2" that Baige Wu had the idea of fighting for more salary and voice for himself.
This is human nature.
Unfortunately, while other Hollywood studios may indulge established directors a lot, Simon will not. After all, there are too many cases in my memory where the movie was completely messed up because of success. Anyone who wants to float on Daenerys' side has to get out, and Simon is not used to it.
Amy, who has long been convinced of her boss's judgment, did not refute, jotted it down in the memo, and added: "Then there is "The Matrix". Simon, the Wachowski brothers have talked to me several times during this time. Now, "Days of Independence" is about to be released, do they think their own project can be started?"
The Wachowski brothers had already fallen into Simon's sight a few years ago. The other two did not have the idea of "The Matrix" that Simon's big butterfly slapped away. They were just finishing Daenerys Entertainment's debut feature film. After "Butterfly Lovers", in order to allow the two brothers to accumulate more experience, Simon sent them to the crew of "Days Alone" to serve as assistant director to Roland Emmerich.
"Independence Day" will be released on July 4th, Independence Day in the United States, and the work of the Wachowski brothers has been successfully completed.
Simon heard Amy mention this, thought for a moment, nodded in agreement: "Okay, but the problem is still the schedule, please pay attention."
"This is definitely a blockbuster," Amy said: "Since you have been so optimistic about them, I think the summer release of 1999 should be very suitable."
"Um."
A lot of the preliminary work for "The Matrix" has been completed. It's just the summer of 1997. If we step up production, it will be released next summer. It’s just that the 1998 film list is full and can only be placed in 1999. In addition, Simon knows how successful this project has been. If it is not placed in the popular summer or year-end releases, it will be a waste.
Even in the summer of 1999, there were still two years left.
As a business, with the same profit prospects, the shorter the operation period of a fund, the more cost-effective it is. It's still the same principle. The concepts of earning 10% in one year and 10% in two years are completely different from US$100 million in capital. Therefore, when the schedule is determined, the closer the official start date of "The Matrix" is to the schedule, the more beneficial it will be for Daenerys Entertainment.
Even though Daenerys Entertainment is now a major studio with the richest cash reserves in Hollywood, Simon has always paid great attention to this issue.
Amy Pascal certainly had no objections.
The two went on to chat about a lot of trivia about Daenerys' various businesses, such as the game project of the same name that Daenerys Games will be developing in conjunction with Lucasfilm's Star Wars prequel series, such as The Second World War. Another summer tour that is about to start after the conclusion of "American Idol", such as the implementation progress of Simon's revised opinions after visiting the construction site of Universal Studios in Rome last time, etc.
This continued until nearly nine o'clock, when the two of them got up and went to the conference room where Monday's regular high-level meeting was held. As they walked through the corridor, Amy remembered one more thing: "I almost forgot, Simon, about the exchange study with two universities in China." How should we arrange the project?"
A few days ago in China, because the courtyard house in Maoer Hutong was very close to the Chinese Opera, Simon took the time to go there. He came up with the idea of introducing a group of school students to Hollywood for exchange and study, and he casually gave instructions.
I thought it would take some time for the two parties to communicate before coming up with a plan. Seeing Amy mention it at this time, after thinking about it for a while, Simon said: "You should talk to Chen Qing about this matter, because some of them have special identities. She I must know that these people will arrange some comfortable positions for them with favorable treatment. Others will be thrown into the filming crew and treated as interns."
Amy nodded in understanding.
The subsequent regular meeting lasted for an hour. When I returned to my office again, there was already someone waiting here. It was an Asian man in his forties named Zheng Shoudong.
Just listening to the name, it is obvious that he is Korean.
Of course, this is not accurate.
Simon had already seen the other party's information when he was in China. Zheng Shoudong, 43 years old, was born in Seoul, South Korea. He graduated from Yale Law School and is currently an American national. He works for McKenzie International Law Firm, an American law firm that specializes in corporate mergers and acquisitions and bankruptcy reorganization. In addition, he has been based in Hong Kong for the past 6 years.
Although he has not reached the level of a partner at McKinsey, and is not even the chief of McKinsey's Hong Kong branch, this middle-aged man with a doctorate in law from Yale and a master's degree in economics is still very capable. During his career, Kensi participated in many mergers, acquisitions and restructuring projects.
Not top-notch, but rich in experience.
This can be regarded as one of Simon's criteria for selecting puppets.
"Mr. Westeros, it's... it's such an honor to meet you."
Facing Simon at this time, this middle-aged man who had been unable to move forward largely because of his ethnicity was obviously a little trembling. When greeting him, he instinctively bowed at 90 degrees. This made Simon very satisfied. He needed He is a person who still retains Korean habits.
When the other party straightened up, Simon stopped shaking hands with the other party. He motioned for Zheng Shoudong to sit down on the sofa in the reception area and walked aside.
Zheng Shoudong had been hesitantly waiting for Simon to sit down before he dared to sit down, with his butt just slightly touching the sofa. When he saw Girl A bringing him coffee, he subconsciously stood up and thanked her repeatedly.
Simon waited patiently for the other party to be polite with Girl A, and then said after a moment: "Mr. Zheng..."
Zheng Shoudong quickly turned his attention to the young tycoon next to him, and respectfully and carefully interjected: "Bruce, Mr. Westeros, you can call me Bruce, this is my English name."
Simon shook his head: "No, Mr. Zheng, if you plan to work for me, I want you to use your Korean name as much as possible."
Zheng Shoudong didn't know why, and thought it was inappropriate for him to interrupt rashly. There were some beads of sweat on his forehead, and he nodded quickly: "Oh, of course, of course it's no problem."
Whatever the young tycoon in front of him said, it must be exactly what he said.
Zheng Shoudong still doesn't understand why he suddenly appeared in front of Simon Westeros. So when his boss informed him about it a few days ago, he thought it was an expired April Fool's Day joke. It was not until he returned to the United States and officially received the meeting date from Simon Westeros, and the global chairman of McKenzie came from the Chicago headquarters in person yesterday to quietly meet with him to explore the reasons, that it was finally confirmed.
This is not a dream.
The only thing Zheng Shoudong can confirm is that this time is definitely a good thing for him.
It's a turning point in life.
The result now is that the more interested he is in this meeting, the more trembling he becomes, and the more calm he usually has is gone. Feeling the beads of sweat on his forehead, the middle-aged man almost wants to cry.
As long as you are not blind, you will probably not be satisfied with his performance at this time.
Of course Simon could see the nervousness of the middle-aged man next to him at this time, but he didn't mind and continued: "Let's get down to business. Zheng, I want you to come and work for me. Is there any problem?"
Zheng Shoudong's eyes lit up and he nodded without hesitation: "Of course, of course, Mr. Westeros."
"Very good," Simon affirmed, and then said: "Here's the thing, I plan to make some investments in South Korea next, so I found you. Zheng, first of all, what do you think of South Korea's current economic situation?"
Zheng Shoudong quickly determined two things.
He is already employed.
He also found out the reason why he was favored by Simon Westeros.
Therefore, he began to relax. After hearing Simon's question, the middle-aged man quickly thought for a moment and said: "Mr. Westeros, in my opinion, South Korea's economic situation is as shaky as Thailand's, which has been attacked recently. This has changed from This can be seen from the bankruptcy of Hanbao Steel at the beginning of the year. If Mr. Westeros wants to invest in South Korea..."
Zheng Shoudong said, becoming more transparent about why he was found, but he only paused for a moment and quickly said: "The next step is indeed an excellent opportunity, because South Korea's economic development has been pretty good in recent years. There are many companies worth investing in. So if the economic crisis in South Korea later causes some companies to be in trouble, Mr. Westeros will be able to launch a vulture acquisition."
Having said this, Zheng Shoudong paused again, and saw the young man next to him nodded slightly, and continued: "However, there are many obstacles, because the Korean economy is not open. Speaking of corporate equity, Korean law currently stipulates that foreign capital holds The maximum shareholding ratio of Korean companies is only 7%, and it is impossible to obtain control at all. Of course, South Korea has been promoting financial reforms since last year. Once a crisis occurs, I think that as long as Washington puts pressure on Seoul, many restrictions will be lifted in the short term. open."
When Simon heard what Zheng Shoudong said, he smiled slightly: "So, Zheng, you should understand what I want you to do?"
Zheng Shoudong did not hesitate this time and bowed slightly to Simon on the sofa: "Yes, Mr. Westeros."
"Very good," Simon repeated his affirmation again and pushed a document that Girl A had just placed in front of him in front of Zheng Shoudong: "In that case, this is your first title after working for me, Bank of New York. Think of the directorship as a part-time benefit. Oh, it should be Bank of New York Mellon now."
Zheng Shoudong showed an unexpected expression again, carefully picked up the document Simon pushed in front of him, opened it and took a look. It was an employment contract.
I quickly flipped through it, only missing the one signed by him.
This once again gave Zheng Shoudong the illusion that he was dreaming.
Even though he had been in Hong Kong before, Zheng Shoudong also knew that the Bank of New York had recently successfully acquired Mellon Financial Group to become a first-tier bank in the United States. What's more, given the nature of his previous work, he also knew that the position of director of a large bank with assets exceeding 100 billion meant that What.
It's just that because of his ethnicity, even if he was in management at McKenzie, he would never dare to think about such a position.
However, Zheng Shoudong was not a fool after all, and he quickly figured out the link.
No matter how Simon Westeros found this position for him, he entered the board of directors of Bank of New York Mellon. If he wants to secure this position, he must completely obey Westeros' orders. Once he has his own ideas, he will leave his job. Not far from getting out, but even further from losing everything else Westeros had to offer him.
Simon didn't explain too much, believing that the other party would definitely understand.
As for the deeper level, giving Zheng Shoudong one of the two director seats of Bank of New York Mellon that he got some time ago will make it easier for the other party to control. Secondly, it will also be related to the subsequent layout for South Korea.
Veronica has been sorting out the finances of various companies in the Westeros system for some time. However, based on past data, Simon can probably determine that the cash reserves that can be freely used by the entire Westeros system should be Around $60 billion.
Even compared to Simon's net worth, which has continued to shrink due to the collapse of the Nasdaq during this period, this amount of money is still not much.
Simon had no intention of using all the money.
For those at the top of the pyramid, borrowing money to make money has always been the way to go.
Placing Zheng Shoudong on the board of directors of Bank of New York Mellon not only gave him a sweet date in advance, but also had the intention of making the other party responsible for coordinating the Westeros system to withdraw funds from Bank of New York Mellon and invest them in South Korea. Of course, Bank of New York Mellon will certainly not be the only source of funds for the Westeros system.