"You can't engage in price wars, ask Daenerys to help obtain equal online payment channels, and reduce store density in some areas such as Los Angeles and New York. These terms can be agreed to, but major studios and competing leasing companies will form third-party supervision It's not okay for the agency to supervise Blockbuster. Unless this supervision agency supervises all owners and Blockbuster can also participate, otherwise, the result will only be a group of people holding magnifying glasses to find all kinds of faults for Blockbuster in the future. There will be no What business can stand up to this kind of harassment, so we might as well maintain the status quo.”
"The problem is, boss, everyone is very strict about this condition."
"So they are delaying on purpose?"
"It's obvious."
Los Angeles, Malibu Daenerys Studios.
This is October 5th.
on Monday.
From October 1997 to September 1998, it happened to be the end of another fiscal year. On the third day after Simon returned to North America, he arrived at the company in the morning. The first thing he did was to meet with several of Daenerys’ main leaders. , discussing some important recent matters.
What we are talking about is the Blockbuster acquisition that Simon is most concerned about.
In a small conference room in Building 1 of the Administrative District, Simon heard Nancy's affirmative answer, thought for a moment, and said: "Then put pressure on us. We will take the initiative to shrink the size of Blockbuster and give them the rental market. These If people are not satisfied yet, then they will expand again. Anyway, the control of Blockbuster is already in our hands."
Amy was looking down at a document when she heard this and looked up: "Simon, is it a real move or a fake move?"
"Of course it's a fake move, but if everyone still insists on not letting go, it doesn't matter if the fake move turns into a real move." Simon said, looking at Nancy: "You should come up with a plan as soon as possible."
Nancy also understood that this could only be the case, nodded and said: "I will let people out at noon. Blockbuster will make additional investment to expand 3,000 stores and 100 warehousing and logistics centers worldwide."
"There are 5,000 stores and 200 logistics centers."
"Boss, is this a bit exaggerated?"
"After saying that, we will start to implement it and see how long those peer leasing manufacturers can persist."
Nancy tried: "What if they never give in?"
"If they can really hold on until we complete the entire expansion plan, they should be bankrupt, right?" Simon shrugged: "And Daenerys, even if the expansion plan is doubled, it will not damage our foundation."
Amy said: "Also, where are the other studios?"
"They know better what the consequences are if there's only one Blockbuster left."
After everyone thought about it, it was indeed the case, and it was settled.
Then Amy talked about the construction progress of Universal Studios Rome.
It was officially announced in November 1995 and groundbreaking was started at the end of 1996. After nearly two years of construction, the 200-acre Rome Universal Studios with a total investment of 2 billion US dollars has begun to be completed. Everything is going well and it will be open for business in the first half of next year.
Amy briefly reported the project overview to Simon, and then talked about the opening.
If you want to catch up with the popular summer vacation when many people go on vacation, it is a good choice for Universal Studios Rome to open next Easter. However, even if the project has begun to be completed, the recruitment and training of employees have already begun at the beginning of the year, but it is calculated that Come down and open next Easter, time is still a bit tight.
After all, it is a theme park involving tens of millions of tourists. If it is opened in a hurry, resulting in a poor experience or even some safety problems, it will really be a waste of the brand.
This problem actually occurred in the original Disneyland Paris, or Euro Disneyland before it was renamed.
Various flaws in the early stage led to a very poor experience at Disneyland Paris, with complaints from tourists and continuous losses for several years after its opening. In addition to cultural, climate and other reasons, the theme park experience was not good enough, which was also a very important factor.
After hearing what Amy said, Simon shook his head after thinking for a moment and said: "There is no need to rush to find a time like Easter. Making sure everything is perfect before opening is not only responsible for ourselves but also for the tourists. Moreover, even if we can't make it in time, Easter, summer should be fine, this is also a popular time?”
“The problem is that opening in the summer will directly usher in a large number of tourists. Once problems arise, they will be further amplified and have a bad impact,” said Amy. “Opening on Easter can not only play the best publicity role, but also , there will be a short off-season soon after Easter until the summer. During this period, we can make timely adjustments to the park's shortcomings without causing much impact."
Simon also understands that for such a large theme park, no matter how thorough it is in the early stages, there will inevitably be various detail issues before it actually opens. Once these problems are not resolved or are exaggerated by the media, they will cause unpredictable damage to the popularity of the theme park.
Thinking this, Simon looked at the other people in the conference room.
Robert Egger, who came here specially from the East Coast, said: "I don't know much about the details of the project, but since it will definitely need to be improved and adjusted in detail after opening, Easter should be appropriate."
Nancy also spoke and said, "I think so too."
"Then let's do Easter," Simon didn't hesitate, and turned to Amy: "If the project period is tight, then add some investment and hire more people. Two billion US dollars have been spent, and thousands more will be added." It’s nothing.”
Amy nodded and quickly jotted it down on her notepad.
Then Iger talked about the overview of the fall TV business.
Entering October, most of this year's popular dramas have been launched. The performance of the fourth season of "American Idol" is still stable. The number of viewers in the first episode reached 34.6 million, easily leading the ratings championship. In addition, there are several new dramas this year. Rating performance is very good.
Then there's ESPN.
Ever since ESPN bought out the eight-year broadcast rights of the NFL with a massive $9 billion deal, this sports TV station has grown rapidly in the past two years, which can be described as a highlight of the TV business. Therefore, Iger mainly told the person in charge of ESPN this time Steve Bernstein’s plan is to continue to buy out the broadcast rights of NBA and other events to further expand ESPN’s advantages.
Simon knows very well how the 'ESPN tax' in his memory came about. In the final analysis, it is still a monopoly.
Although huge agreements worth billions are a bit scary, in the final analysis, the wool comes from the sheep, and the audience will definitely pay the bill in the end, and as long as it obtains a monopoly, ESPN will definitely be the biggest beneficiary.
Therefore, there was not much objection to this matter and everyone passed it unanimously.
After discussing this matter, Mark Belford, Daenerys' fourth executive after Simon and the Big Three, reported to Simon an overview of Daenerys' overseas business operations in the past fiscal year.
Overseas, the biggest highlight of the past fiscal year was undoubtedly the release of "Titanic".
However, what Simon values more is Daenerys’ localization strategy in various overseas markets, including the localization of production, distribution and even peripheral businesses. Mark Belford is mainly responsible for this. Because it involves more than a hundred overseas markets, this is a very tedious task. In fact, it is too fragmented and it is difficult to make any highlights.
Simon has always been very satisfied with Belford's work.
After all, although it is fragmented and cumbersome, from the overall perspective, especially from the financial report, Simon can clearly see the strong growth of Daenerys' overseas revenue in recent years.
The meeting lasted until about twelve o'clock noon.
After the meeting, several giants who are currently playing a decisive role in the world's entertainment industry went to a restaurant to dine together and talked about some of the recent highlights of Daenerys Entertainment.
Mainly two, a game and a movie.
It was officially launched during the period when Simon left North America.
One of the games is "Frozen Age" from South Korea. This is a game with a science fiction background. It tells the story of the long nuclear winter era after the nuclear war, in which different forces compete with each other for survival on a continent. After a closer look, it is obvious that there are The shadow of real-time strategy games that have become popular in North America in recent years. Except for the OL mode, many of the settings are similar to real-time strategy, and the most important PK system is even more so.
This role-playing online game was launched in South Korea in November last year. Due to the economic crisis, the project was initially rushed. As a result, both praise and criticism coexisted.
After Chen Qing directly took over the game development company there, she made some corrections and filled in the gaps, and it became the first water test project in North America.
After being launched on Monday, September 21st, as of yesterday, exactly two weeks ago, relying on Daenerys Entertainment’s strong promotion capabilities and user technology in North America that far exceeds other markets, it took only half a month for the registration of "Frozen Age" The number of users has exceeded one million, with the exact number being 1.32 million.
And it’s still growing rapidly.
In addition, when time-based charging is also adopted, due to different market environments, the discounts in North America are much lower than those in China. Therefore, with 1.32 million registered users, in just two weeks, the payment rate of players in North America has exceeded 60% . Within 14 days of its launch, the game brought revenue to Daenerys Entertainment of US$5.61 million.
Based on the current growth momentum of the game, the team of Daenerys’ game department predicts that the maximum number of registered users of “Frozen Age” will easily exceed 10 million, and it is not impossible to hit 20 million.
Obviously, it is another hit.
Furthermore, based on a two-year operating cycle and combined with the revenue data of the previous two weeks, the team’s total game revenue forecast is conservatively US$500 million, and may reach as high as US$1 billion again.
Simon chatted with everyone during lunch, and when he heard this number, he couldn't help but joke again.
It’s much more profitable than drug trafficking, and it’s not illegal.
You know, the Korean studio that developed this game, even including subsequent additions, spent less than 5 billion won, which is equivalent to about 3 million U.S. dollars at the current exchange rate. Now, it is only a market in North America. Even based on the most conservative revenue calculation of US$500 million, this is a return of more than 100 times.
What's more, what this company originally obtained was the agency rights for all other markets in the world except South Korea and mainland China. Daenerys will definitely promote this game to the world, and the revenue will be inestimable.
Obviously, as the news spread back to South Korea, the Korean people were inevitably excited.
But it can only be exciting.
Not to mention that the game studio that owns the copyright has long been taken over by the Westeros system. Even if a 30% share contract was originally signed, the corporate entity responsible for receiving the share is located in an overseas tax haven. Simon has no intention of using these proceeds. Return to Korea.
Earn money overseas directly.
What South Korea can get is honor and satisfaction.
Moreover, Simon does not intend to let South Korea enjoy this sense of satisfaction permanently. The reason for introducing a series of role-playing games from South Korea this time is mainly because this country has accidentally stepped on the industry direction that Simon is more interested in, but still That said, Simon doesn't put all his eggs in one basket.
While in Finland a few days ago, Simon came up with the idea of developing the gaming industry in Australia.
In addition to North America, China, and even Europe, we can cast a wide net and move forward together.
In the final analysis, if a country wants to remain strong in a certain industry, the key is to have a large enough market. Just like South Korea's game industry, its most prosperous time was in the early 21st century. Afterwards, although it still seems to be prosperous, most Korean game companies have actually become foreign-owned, and many of them have become foreign-funded. Most of them are still Chinese-funded.
After all, you are working for others.
In addition to "Frozen Age", another highlight is a movie released on September 25, "Happy Death Day".
This is part of a series of teen movies that Simon produced last year. It is based on the memory of the movie "Happy Death Day". The heroine is chased by a perverted killer in a clichéd teen horror film, and ends up trapped in a Groundhog Day style. The cycle is like dying every time, but never dying every time, always waking up in the same morning.
Overall, "Happy Death Day" is a story that is difficult to justify.
However, this is a popcorn movie. Why does the heroine fall into a death loop? Does it matter
Everyone has seen it and enjoyed it.
From the early years of "Friday the 13th" and "Moonlight" to now, over the years, it has been difficult for Hollywood teen horror films to get rid of clichés. Although "Happy Death Day" is an ordinary suburban hunt and time loop, A combination, but it is indeed an innovation.
Therefore, after its release, even the circle of film critics who are always harsh on horror films finally gave the film a comprehensive media score of 8.2 points.
Quite an outstanding result.
In the end, with 2,736 opening screens, "Happy Death Day" earned US$31.34 million in just seven days in the first week. The key to the problem is that the production cost of this small film with no stars and no special effects was only US$8 million.
Make a lot of money right from the start.
Based on the relatively good 37% drop last weekend, the film's estimated North American box office is at least around 70 million.
The return on local investment alone is close to 10 times.
It is conceivable that after its overseas release, it will easily exceed 100 million worldwide, making it undoubtedly another dark horse movie for Daenerys Entertainment this year.