Long Island, in a manor near the sea in Sandpoint City.
Sofia Fesi personally brought breakfast into the restaurant. While dividing the food, she glanced at the man sitting at the dining table and flipped through a document, and said with a smile: "There must have been a lot of girls who hated me last night."
Simon felt the refreshing fragrance coming from around him, put his hand on the woman's waist and caressed her gently, his eyes still falling on the documents in front of him, and said: "So this is the benefit of being a man. Other women only hate you, not me."
When Sophia thought that this was really the case, she couldn't help but roll her eyes. After sharing the meal, she didn't sit down next to him. She followed the strength of the man's hand and sat sideways on his lap, curiously asking: "What are you looking at?"
Simon showed the woman the following document cover: "Daenerys' plan to establish a premium cable network."
Sofia also knew a lot about the television industry in the United States. After hearing this, she asked, "HBO kind?"
"yes."
"HBO is now the mainstay of Warner's income. If you do this, the relationship with General Motors should be tense."
"That has to be done," Simon said, of course he understood this: "Daenerys has such rich content resources, and it cannot be cheap for TV stations such as HBO and Showtime."
Sophia thought for a moment and said, "Why not acquire it? It shouldn't be easy to start from scratch?"
"HBO will definitely not sell the several potential acquisition targets that I am interested in, and there is also Viacom's Showtime. In fact, I hope to buy the entire Viacom. This media company owns Showtime, MTV and Nickelodeon and Daenerys can complement each other, but unfortunately, after contacting Redstone several times, the old man was very stubborn and did not intend to sell."
"Forced acquisition?"
"Dual equity, and you may encounter multiple poison pill plans, which is not easy." Simon shook his head and said: "Moreover, the greater potential resistance is still among the officials. Daenerys's current scale is too huge, and Washington cannot It's unlikely that Blockbuster will approve the acquisition."
Sofia also regretted: "Then we can only start from scratch. However, I remember that America Online just started its cable TV business some time ago, so I can help."
"Yes, this is also the basis for Daenerys' plan to launch this plan, otherwise it will take some time."
When outsiders look at the United States, they always think that the media is very free and it would be easy to set up a TV station, but this is not the case.
As far as paid cable TV is concerned, it will be difficult to operate if there is a lack of basic cable TV operator platform support.
For example, the key reason why HBO is so successful is that Warner itself operates a large-scale cable TV platform Warner Communications. Its own channels are not only easy to control costs, but also easier to promote its own TV stations and even attack competitors. develop.
If Daenerys does not have the AOL platform and wants to become a paid cable station to compete with HBO, Warner Communications will first respond negatively. In order to avoid being accused of unfair competition, you may agree to allow Daenerys' paid cable station to enter the channel, but there are too many ways to manipulate this, and you will eventually give up.
After chatting for a while, Simon closed the document, and Sofia stood up and sat next to him and started eating.
The topic naturally turned to the fashion industry: "Melania's jewelry brand has been very popular recently, which reminds me of a report by Igret, which discusses the impact of information fragmentation on future society. As for the fashion industry, I’m wondering, will mainstream fashion brands be increasingly impacted by various personalized mini-brands, and will there be a similar trend of fragmentation?”
Simon thought for a moment and said, "Maybe, but the impact should be limited."
"Um?"
"You know better than me," Simon said with a smile: "Top fashion brands need to be accumulated. Which of Melisandre's flagship flagships has a history of tens or hundreds of years? Therefore, a mini personalized brand may It will carve up part of the market, but it will not affect the status of mainstream fashion giants, unless they themselves reach the scale of giants, then it will be competition between the same level again."
In my memory, more than ten or twenty years later, all kinds of luxury brands have indeed sprung up, but in terms of scale and popularity, the ones that dominate after all are the old luxury brands.
Sophia nodded and agreed with Simon's view, but said: "I still plan to make some arrangements in advance."
"No problem, but it's best not to change the current 'aircraft carrier battle group' industrial structure. This has proven to be a very effective long-term strategy for Melisandre."
"I know," Sophia did not deny it: "In addition, Melisandre's scale is getting bigger and bigger, and I am already preparing to divide the original two industrial clusters of clothing, luggage and jewelry watches into more aircraft carrier battle groups. , this can be more refined and the ability to withstand risks and long-term changes in the industry will be stronger."
"This is all your business, just go ahead and do it."
"Well, you only need to be responsible for dating girls in the fashion industry."
"Actually, I prefer those in the entertainment industry."
"uh-huh."
Sofia left in a hurry after breakfast.
I'm going to Los Angeles today.
The main purpose is to visit the two little guys Snow and Greenwich, take the opportunity to be Jennifer's housekeeper for a few days, let the female assistant escape to New York, check out the decoration of the Wei family's penthouse in the Westeros Building, and go back to her parents' house for a few days. However, before leaving, I had to go back to Greenwich first. I didn't go back last night because I wanted to spend time together. I was about to leave for the West Coast and I also had to explain to my parents and a pair of children here.
Simon also rushed to the city.
Although it is Sunday, there is still work scheduled.
The main reason is that I saw the plan for Daenerys to establish a paid cable station before breakfast. In the morning, the TV team on the east coast organized a meeting to discuss the detailed plan. It was scheduled for Sunday, also to accommodate Simon's schedule.
In addition to various details, the name of the pay cable station was also determined at this meeting.
DHO (Daenerys-Home-Online), Daenerys Home Online.
The main reason is that the current concept of 'online' has begun to be popular again with the recovery of the Internet. In addition, it can also be regarded as laying a pit for future entry into streaming media.
The main streaming media player in the plan is, of course, Blockbuster Online.
However, again, don’t put your eggs in one basket. Just like HBO’s entry into paid cable channels this time, it is impossible for HBO to eat up all the cake. The scale of the streaming media industry will only become larger in the future. BesTV It is not unreasonable for Da Online and DHO to compete with each other internally in order to carve up more of the streaming media market.
As for the possibility of internal friction, Simon is not too worried.
Because DHO’s main development goal is still traditional TV, it will only be incidental to enter streaming media in the future. And Blockbuster Online must be the main focus of streaming media. Just like before, after fully acquiring FOX, Disney is actually equivalent to owning two major streaming media platforms, Disney+ and Hulu. They also have clear priorities. While competing with each other internally, they can also carve up more markets externally.
The general plan has been finalized, and DHO will launch promotion at the end of the month and be officially launched at the end of October. Then, when the end of the year comes, there happens to be an opportunity for DHO in the planning.
The TV department proposed an anti-seasonal marketing plan.
As we all know, the summer and the end of the year are the off-season for TV, especially the end of the year. During the standard winter break, most popular dramas will be suspended, and major cable channels will also slow down the introduction of content. From another perspective, this also happens to be the new season. A good opportunity for Jin TV to enter the game.
DHO plans to seize this opportunity.
In addition to DHO, there is also the past 1998 summer movie business summary and the year-end schedule announcement plan.
The first is this summer's flagship "Jurassic Park". It was released on June 5 and has been completely canceled recently. The total box office in North America is 406 million US dollars, which is lower than the 413 million US dollars of "Jurassic Park 2" and higher than "Jurassic Park 2". The first installment of "Jurassic Park" grossed $356 million, ranking second in the series.
Overseas, the release of "Jurassic Park 3" is continuing. The overseas box office is expected to be between US$700 million and US$800 million, and the global box office is expected to exceed US$1.1 billion, which is equivalent to the second film.
It is rare for a Hollywood series to be so stable at the box office from beginning to end, so it is a perfect ending to the trilogy.
Then there is "Rush Hour 2", which became the only movie this summer after "Jurassic Park 3" to have a domestic box office of over 200 million US dollars. It has also declined, with a total North American box office of 213 million US dollars. Overseas issuance is also continuing, and is expected to be around US$250 million, with global sales expected to exceed US$460 million.
Of course, the overall revenue volume cannot be compared with "Jurassic Park 3", especially the peripherals. However, compared with the huge expenditure of "Jurassic Park 3", the production cost of "Rush Hour 2" is only US$55 million. 460 million worldwide, also a great success.
The third place was "The Hangover" that surprised everyone.
From its opening on July 10th to now, as a popcorn movie, it has been released for more than two months. It has also entered the final stage with a box office of only a few hundred thousand US dollars. The current cumulative box office has reached 178 million US dollars, and it will not exceed 180 million US dollars before the movie is released. question.
Because it is too successful and popular in North America, "The Hangover" has successfully broken the curse of weak Hollywood comedies overseas. Judging from the current distribution trend, the film's overseas box office can also exceed 200 million US dollars, and the global box office is expected to be exceeded US$400 million.
The same box office of 400 million+, even if the total box office is slightly lower than that of "Rush Hour 2", but considering the production cost of a mere US$25 million and the absence of a profit sharing clause for the main creators, the expected profit of "The Hangover" is far higher than that of "Rush Hour 2" Rush Hour 2》
In addition to "The Hangover," two dark horses appeared this summer: "High School Musical" and "Magic Mike." The production costs were US$15 million and US$7 million. They were not very noticeable before they were released. As a result, both of them broke the market locally. 100 million.
"High School Musical", which opened on June 26, has also been released. The domestic box office is 135 million US dollars. The overseas distribution is still continuing and is expected to reach about 160 million US dollars. The global total box office is expected to be around 300 million US dollars, reaching the production 20 times the cost.
As the number one leading actress, Christina Aguilera has successfully become a popular global teen idol this summer.
Daenerys Records therefore deliberately accelerated the release of Aguilera's first record.
Then there’s Steven Soderbergh’s “Magic Mike,” which is the most surprising of Daenerys’ three dark horses this summer, compared to the success of “The Hangover” and “High School Musical.” There is still some context to follow. Even Simon himself is still a little confused about the success of "Magic Mike".
It quietly opened at the end of the summer season on August 7, with a box office revenue of US$27.32 million in the first week. Of course, it cannot be compared with films such as "Jurassic Park 3", but it directly recovered all production and promotion costs.
Next, after the New World Pictures team quickly increased the scale of screenings, this small film also developed a surprising long-term. Of course, a big reason for this is that there are no competitors in the second half of the summer season.
In short, in the previous fifth week from September 4th to September 10th, "Magic Mike" continued to earn more than 10 million US dollars in a single week at the box office, pushing the film's total domestic box office to 89.38 million US dollars.
Breaking 100 million is imminent.
According to the current trend, the local box office of this small film is expected to be between 120 million and 130 million US dollars.
Even if the recent overseas release of Daenerys while it was hot failed to make a splash, and it is expected that the overseas market will earn up to about 50 million, which is considered a failure, it cannot cover up the huge success of achieving a box office of over 100 million US dollars with an overall cost of only 7 million US dollars.
The three dark horses were successful, but they also caused certain problems for Daenerys.
Mainly about the sequel.
Even though it has become a common practice for Daenerys Entertainment to sign a package contract, because the three movies are so successful, if you want the major creators to devote themselves to the creation of the sequel, it will definitely not work without bleeding.
Simon's attitude towards this is that if you can do it, do it.
If not, then put it off.
This is also a decision made some time ago to suppress sequel movies and try to support originals to prevent Hollywood from losing its vitality prematurely.
In addition to the three dark horses, other films such as "L.A. Confidential", "Saving Private Ryan", "The Haunting of the Morgue" and "The Horse Whisperer" all performed within expectations, needless to say.
Finally there is a "Hero".
It will be released on July 31 and has already begun to wrap up.
In the most recent box office week from September 4 to September 10, the sixth week of the release of "Heroes", it earned 3.63 million U.S. dollars. The cumulative box office exceeded the initial expectation of 60 million to 80 million and has reached 83.06 million U.S. dollars. According to the current trend , there will be another 5 million in revenue in the future, and the total box office in North America is expected to be around 88 million US dollars.
It's still not as good as last year's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", but it's not far behind.
Furthermore, "Heroes" opened in China on July 9th. Like "Titanic" in the first half of the year, it also lasted for two months and ended successfully on September 9th. The box office reached 320 million yuan, equivalent to 37 million US dollars.
Adding the two major markets together, the total box office has reached 120 million US dollars.
The production budget of US$30 million, as well as other publicity investments, have all been recovered and made a profit.
Not only that, because Jet Lee and other Chinese actors with global influence participated in it, "Hero" performed equally well in other ticket markets such as Europe and Asia. Although the current release is still continuing, the most conservative estimate is that it can Taking in another US$100 million means that the global box office of "Heroes" will be more than US$200 million, exceeding the previous global total of US$170 million.
It can be said that the continuous success of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Hero" has directly raised the reputation of Chinese-language films to a whole new level from the previous harvest points at major film festivals.
This actually proves that Chinese-language films can gain their own place in the global commercial film system. It's a pity that Chinese-language filmmakers have not been able to hold on to such a brilliant start.
This time, there is still a question mark about what will happen next.