Simon arrived at Daenerys Studios in Malibu, and the first thing in the morning was a video conference with the Asian side.
It's already late December.
In South Korea, Hyundai, Samsung and SK are in a tug-of-war with the Westeros System team. The acquisition or shareholding plans have basically been determined, and everyone will sign formal agreements in the next few days.
Hyundai is purchasing the entire electronics business unit of Hyundai Group.
SK involves both communications and electronics.
Samsung is mainly Samsung Electronics.
The Westeros system will achieve de facto absolute control over the relevant businesses of the three companies.
However, this is actually only the first step.
After acquiring some of the most desired assets in the Westeros system, there will be other aspects such as assisting Samsung to take over Kia Motors, which will require a large investment. As for the specific operation, it is a long-term and steady matter.
When Simon held a video conference with Chen Qing and related teams who had arrived in South Korea again, many people in Hollywood were paying close attention to the single-day box office of the Christmas season even though it was Sunday.
Mainly "Titanic".
On Saturday the week after its release, "Titanic" grossed US$15.91 million in a single day. It seemed that it completely ignored the pressure of "The Flash 2" and once again achieved an 8% year-on-year decline. The box office trend was strange.
When things have developed to this point, those who should react have basically already reacted.
This is going to explode.
Daenerys promptly followed up with a direct-to-audience market survey and concluded that the $200 million super blockbuster is rapidly gaining traction with its stunning visuals and touching love story. spread among the audience.
Word of mouth.
The popularity foundation of a phenomenal blockbuster movie has basically been formed.
Next, there is the issue of more explosions and less explosions.
Simon got this report at noon on Sunday when he had dinner with Mark Belford, Daenerys' vice president of global operations, and discussed some layouts involving the Korean entertainment industry. He simply flipped through it and asked Girl A to tell it to Daenerys. Silk Film Industry team, act cheaply.
He has nothing to do with the subsequent publicity.
It's a pity once again that "Shakespeare in Love" was released.
Compared with the original version, this time "Shakespeare in Love", although the budget is still well controlled at US$25 million, the male and female protagonists are changed to Daniel Day-Lewis and Kate Beckinsale.
Needless to say, Lewis, the Oscar-winning actor, was once the best male lead candidate for 'Shakespeare'.
As for the heroine Simon personally selected, Kate Beckinsale, who rose to fame with "Charlie's Angels", has a stronger British rose temperament than the other two candidates, Julia Roberts and Gwyneth Paltrow.
In a small-scale screening on December 5, "Shakespeare in Love" not only received a classic-level comprehensive media score of 9.1, but also earned a box office of US$1.21 million on 39 screens, with an average of more than US$40,000.
Although the opening box office and word-of-mouth were not unsatisfactory, "Shakespeare in Love" began to have a large-scale release on 771 screens the next week.
In the first week of its large-scale opening, which was the previous box office week that coincided with the release of "Titanic", "King of Fighters 2" and "As Good As It Comes", "Shakespeare in Love"'s seven-day box office revenue was only $5.69 million. They are only over 7,300 US dollars, which is far from the average threshold of the 10,000-yuan-level museums that sell well.
It has a better lineup than the original version and has a higher reputation. It can only be said that it is bad luck because it failed to achieve even the first week's sales of more than 10,000 in the large-scale game.
Moreover, in the 55th Golden Globe Awards nominations announced on December 19, the total of 6 nominations for "Shakespeare in Love" was less than the 8 nominations for "Titanic", which led the way. Next, there will be almost no surprises. This movie will definitely not be able to repeat the glory of the previous awards season, and then rely on the reputation of major awards to continue to stimulate the market and achieve box office results of over 100 million in North America.
It would be nice to have 50 million.
Just as Simon originally thought, this is a sacrifice.
Inside the Executive Dining Room at Daenerys Studios.
Sensing Simon's distraction, Mark Belford asked: "Boss, what's wrong?"
"Nothing," Simon smiled. Faced with Belford's curiosity, he still said: "It's a pity that "Shakespeare in Love" was a script that everyone in the industry was very optimistic about at the time. If it hadn't been for "Titanic" and "The Flash 2" "Such a heavy hit will definitely achieve better results."
"This is inevitable, but we will benefit after all," Mark Belford said, thought for a while, and then said: "Actually, this year is not bad. In the next few years, Daenerys Entertainment's movies The business is forming a trend, boss, have you noticed it?"
"What do you mean?"
Mark Belford didn't show off, and said: "Boss, our three brands are working together to form a commercial dumping trend. Dumping, boss, you must know this word, right?"
Simon nodded.
Of course I know this.
Simon has been pushing Daenerys Entertainment's three film labels to work together to squeeze out the living space of other Hollywood studios with higher and higher film output. However, Simon only reacted when Belford said this. .
This can be considered a kind of dumping.
The biggest characteristic of dumping, to put it bluntly, is to kill one thousand enemies and lose eight hundred to oneself. However, as long as all competitors can be eliminated, the market will belong to oneself.
You can do whatever you want.
"So..." Seeing that Simon understood, Mark Belford smiled and said: "A certain short-term loss is just for our longer-term substantial profits."
Mark Belford said this just to comfort Simon, who was a little regretful.
However, the executive's words once again reminded Simon of another matter, which was the Korean entertainment industry that the two were discussing.
Dumping.
This method can be used in South Korea.
Mainly movies.
During this time, Yiqian Label in South Korea has already approved 10 movie projects at once in accordance with Simon's requirements, including a blockbuster blockbuster with a planned investment of US$10 million in South Korea.
But, thinking about it now, this is not enough.
Even though South Korea is not that big, it still needs a population of 46 million. Counting domestically produced films in South Korea and imported films from overseas, there are currently only two to three hundred films entering theaters every year.
Even if Simon's strategy is to conduct large-scale acquisitions and integrations of Korean theaters through local Korean shell companies to achieve platform monopoly, if he wants to completely occupy the Korean market, the Westeros system must also show sufficient strength in terms of content.
Because he is far across the ocean, Simon cannot personally control the quality of the movie. So, the best way is to use quantity instead of quality.
Like Belford just said.
Dumping!
It's Hollywood's share, and Hollywood has gone as far as it can go.
What Simon has to do is to use a localized dumping strategy to occupy South Korea's 146-day local film quota. When the time comes, and cooperate with the theater monopoly, other Korean film companies outside the Westeros system will have no way to go.
In this case, 10 is definitely not enough.
Far from enough.
It's about 21 weeks, at least it has to reach a frequency of at least one new film every week to be considered dumping.
Then, if you add some more, it will be calculated as 30.
30 movies, according to Hollywood's tent theory, at least 3 blockbusters, all calculated at $10 million, this is a tent pole. For the rest, the average budget is calculated based on 2 million, and the total total is only 86 million.
Let’s just say $100 million.
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Adding in the $50 million in publicity, the total is $150 million.
Just the production cost of "The Flash 2".
As long as these 30 films are done well and strive for excellence, they can achieve a dumping effect in South Korea.
The recovery of Korean local films started with the quota system in 1996, and took off after the lifting of censorship in 1998. Simon happened to be stepping on a critical time point. Just like the big studios in Hollywood, as long as South Korea continues to 'dump' regardless of cost for several years, once the pattern of the film market is formed, it will be difficult to change.
Just do what comes to mind.
After lunch, Simon sent an email to Chen Qing, asking her to increase the number of film projects she was planning in South Korea from 10 to 30.
Not short of money.
A viewing room in the post-production center on the second floor of Malibu Studios.
It wasn't until about four o'clock in the afternoon that the "Blair Witch" team, who had been let go yesterday, met Simon. Considering that the subsequent discussion of subsequent editing would require at least one pull-out of the dailies, it would take three or four hours to complete it, and today was obviously going to be very busy. At least eight o'clock in the evening.
However, Simon Westeros sacrificed his Sunday time to work with everyone on a small film that cost only a million dollars to make. Of course, it is impossible for others to say anything.
However, Lena Kane, who also came to participate in the discussion, was a little resentful.
I had planned it yesterday. After discussing the later plans in the afternoon, I might fly overnight to Mexico for a weekend. That would be great. Lena plans to bring her friend Annika Settle, the screenwriter of "Blair Witch" with whom she has become more and more harmonious during this time.
Anne is very white.
Some guy would definitely like it.
Today, I don’t know if it is still possible. After all, tomorrow is Monday. Even if it is close to Christmas, with how busy the man is, he should still be working.
In addition to director Paul Greengrass, screenwriter Annika Settle and Lena Kane, who actually did a lot of work as a producer, Jerry Bruckheimer, who obviously wanted to have a good relationship with Simon, also rushed here again. Come.
After greeting everyone, it was inevitable to talk about "Titanic" again.
This super blockbuster that cost 200 million US dollars has unexpectedly reversed its price in the past two days, which is really weird and makes people uncomfortable.
Time is very tight, so there is no need to talk too much.
After just chatting for a few words, Simon sat down on a sofa in front of the big screen. Paul Greengrass sat on Simon's left. Bruckheimer's seat on the right was supposed to be Bruckheimer, but this veteran Hollywood screenwriter was very knowledgeable. The land was given to Lena Kane. After all, for this film, frankly speaking, he, the nominal executive producer, knew far less than Lena Kane, who had followed the entire process and actually did a lot of work as a producer.
Paul Greengrass first briefly introduced his editing ideas, and then the staff next to him played the samples. Everyone discussed section by section, how to choose between different materials, whether certain shots need to be retained, and the differences between different plots. How to convert, and so on.
This actually once again reflects that the film creator is more of an engineer than a designer. A movie is a huge project similar to building blocks. Perhaps the inspiration of designers is indispensable, but more often, what is needed is the tenacity and perseverance of engineers.
Inspiration is often short-lived.
Making a movie takes a long time.
Why do the same director produce good and bad films? Is it due to lack of inspiration or deterioration of ability? No, it’s just that some are intentional and some are not.
For example, a typical explosive shell. In the same "Transformers" series, some can be made into classics, and some can be made into garbage.
The currently released "Titanic" is the result of James Cameron taking his paranoid engineer side to an almost harsh extreme.
Simon was initially a little worried about whether Paul Greengrass, a middle-aged director but still a newbie in the film industry, could control the new pseudo-documentary genre. After seeing the samples for the first time, he no longer had such doubts.
Because Paul Greengrass clearly means a lot too.
With many years of experience in the media industry, Greengrass can turn this intention into truly high-quality images.
After more than three hours of film discussions starting in the evening, after watching all the samples, not only Simon, but also Jerry Bruckheimer, who had been quietly listening most of the time, was also very convinced that another pseudo-documentary classic was about to be born.
At the end of the discussion, regarding the shot of Keira, played by Rachel McAdams, walking towards the witch, and after some comparison and consideration of the setting of the witch, Simon also followed Greengrass’s lobbying and gave up on the original over-the-top idea of a floating witch. Fantasy setting.
However, Simon did not follow Greengrass's completely realistic idea, but compromised and chose the plan proposed by Bruckheimer. The witch landed on the ground and the flames floated.
There were no ghosts in the last "Ghost Chronicles". This time, from the beginning, Simon was sure that a witch must appear. Otherwise, the audience may feel like they have been tricked twice. As for the witch, Simon also firmly believes that even a first-person pseudo-documentary should remain realistic, but it would definitely be right to have more obvious supernatural elements.
Although the floating flame is less weird than the floating witch, the effect is still mysterious enough.
In addition, what also satisfies Simon is that compared to the old and ugly witch in the movie "The Witch" starring Anya Taylor-Joy, even if the picture taken with the iRec home digital camera is obviously rough, it can still be seen that whether it is The scene where Keira, who used a stand-in, walked towards the witch naked, was still the naked witch next to the box office flames. At least, they were all very hot.
Even if it only lasts for ten seconds, this plot is enough to stir up the emotions of the audience to watch it again and again.
The plan was all finalized and it was almost half past eight.
Everyone is already hungry.
Simon led a group of people to the executive restaurant in the studio, where they discussed the announcement while dining.
The film wraps up production this Friday, and on the same day the crew returns to Los Angeles, the "Blair Witch Affair" website has been launched simultaneously, and there will be a period of viral marketing until the Sundance Film Festival in January.
Simon recalled that during the release of "The Crying Game", in order to cover up as much as possible that the 'heroine' was actually a man, the Gaomen Pictures team hid the actor directly. This time, for sure also the same.
"The key is the actors. During this period, let them hide as much as possible and don't contact anyone except their relatives, otherwise they will definitely become gangsters."
Jerry Bruckheimer suggested: "In this case, Simon, what do you think about sending them all to Australia?"
Sent to Australia, it is obviously extremely remote.
Simon thought for a moment and nodded: "Aren't they under a lot of pressure during the filming process? I have some holiday cabins in Tasmania, southern Australia. I'll lend them one and assign them a team of psychologists." , think of it as recuperation.”
Australia was originally a place of exile.
Tasmania is further south of Australia, and apart from Antarctica, it is almost the end of the world. Send it there, even if the media inquires about the whereabouts and wants to find someone, it is unlikely.