Summer has arrived, and the children have reached summer vacation. The Westeros family moved to the East Coast again in June and moved into the Westeros Tower in Manhattan.
We have had guests in recent days.
Anthony Johnston's family came from Australia and also lived in the building. Of course Anthony came here for business, but Anthony's youngest daughter Rebecca, who came with him, was the happiest because she could be with her cousin every day again. When she returned from Australia after the last New Year in Melbourne, the little girl was sad for a long time, mainly because she was worried that her cousin would fall in love with other girls.
All right.
There are so many people that it becomes very lively at breakfast.
Simon and Anthony, who wanted to talk about something, could only leave the chattering big restaurant and eat in the small hall next door.
The topic was about the negotiations between a team of African government investment representatives who had recently arrived in New York and the Westeros Corporation regarding stock exchanges. The only things Africa can offer are resources. Therefore, Johnston Holdings needs to be the central coordinator and responsible for the follow-up management.
"A major problem in Africa is that the political situation in most countries is very unstable. We can cultivate our own power in Africa and even elect our spokespersons to power at critical moments, but there are still variables, which requires an institutionalized model To ensure our interests, state-owned enterprises are a good idea, and external investments are sovereign investments, which are best managed by us. In this way, no matter how the local regime changes, as long as the winner is not too stupid, he can help the other party take over the relevant While protecting our assets, our interests can also be protected to the greatest extent.”
The Kosovo War was an earth-shattering event, and the world's mainstream media rushed to follow up the report. However, most people seemed to have forgotten that there was also a large-scale melee in Africa that had been going on. No one cared about how much damage it had caused, and how many casualties there were. Not cared about either.
In fact, until more than ten or twenty years later, the situation in Africa had not changed much, and news of coups would pop up every three days.
Therefore, if you want to gain a foothold in Africa, just doing business honestly will definitely not work. At least, the price will be very high. Investments of hundreds of millions and billions may be wiped out due to a regime change. If you are not wealthy enough, If you use money improperly, you need to have enough means to ensure your own interests.
What Simon was talking to Anthony about at this time was just one of the ideas, and it was not an innovation, it was just a common method used by Western consortiums.
Anthony knew that this was a cooperative tone set by Simon for the replacement transaction of investment representative teams from seven African countries, including Angola and Rwanda. He nodded in agreement and said: "As for South Africa, Simon, plans to withdraw private capital from South Africa. It’s also worth tens of billions of dollars, so there’s no way we can use the same tactics against them?”
Nelson Mandela has been in office for five years and has very, very thoroughly completed the democratization process in South Africa. He will successfully end his first term in the middle of this month and will not seek re-election.
Not much else to say about South Africa, but the huge amount of capital that has been flowing out of South Africa in recent years is definitely a piece of fat that all countries are competing for.
Most of those who were able to leave lightly have already run away, and now the remaining ones are less easy to evacuate. It just so happens that the stock exchange plan launched by the Westeros Company has given some people a channel to escape.
Simon thought for a while and found no good solution. He could only say: "You and Jim should discuss this matter. The key is that we only want the highest quality assets and the prices should be lowered to minimize risks."
Anthony nodded, that was all he could do.
After all, there are risks in doing business. If it is foolproof, others will not exchange it.
Simon remembered something and explained: "In addition, Australia can accept more high-quality immigrants from South Africa. We should take the initiative to do this. Otherwise, they will definitely be more inclined to Britain and the United States."
"I know."
Anthony agreed again, chatted a few more details, and then turned to another matter: "Simon, I read the document related to sodium-ion batteries that you handed over. If sodium-ion batteries are really expected to become mainstream in the future, Do we still need to continue to reserve lithium resources?”
"Of course," Simon said decisively: "At least in the next ten years, or even twenty years, lithium batteries will be the mainstream."
"I understand this," Anthony said, "The problem is, if we bet too deeply in the lithium battery industry, it might not be easy to change direction in the future?"
"It won't be too difficult," Simon didn't think so: "We are players now, not chess pieces involuntarily. Even if we make heavy bets now, we can still give ourselves enough time to make adjustments to related industries before turning. Reduce your holdings and cash out, and transfer risks. In addition, I have always believed that it is better to eliminate yourself than to be eliminated by others. Therefore, if you have to turn around in the future, even if you fail to achieve sufficient cash out, you should abandon it decisively. Otherwise, we are more likely to be abandoned by the times. Finally, regardless of future industry trends, I will never dislike our possession of more resources. Even if lithium-ion batteries are eliminated in the future, scarce lithium mineral resources will There are other uses. Tony, you know my layout ideas very well for this."
Of course Anthony knows.
Simon’s thoughts on the future development of the Westeros system have two very clear and mutually reinforcing lines. To put it simply, one is to capture more resources, and the other is to create a global production system controlled by the Westeros system.
Regarding resources, land, fresh water, forests, minerals, etc., it’s all about it.
The resources that human society can use on this planet are definitely not as abundant as people living in safe and prosperous countries imagine. In reality, they are never enough.
Possessing more resources is equivalent to possessing the future of mankind.
Secondly, create a global production system absolutely controlled by the Westeros system, which is set based on the shortcomings of the US economic development.
For the United States, the hollowing out of the manufacturing industry is an increasingly serious problem that this seemingly powerful country will face after the new century. Or, to be more precise, all developed countries that tend to have high-end service industries often have similar problems.
The world is currently in a period of relative peace that has been rare in human society for thousands of years. Therefore, regarding the issue of material production, all aspects do not pay too much attention. Subconsciously, they feel that there is a lack of demand and spending money. Just buy it.
However, throughout human history, true periods of peace have always been short-lived.
Therefore, it is necessary to prepare for a rainy day.
For the Westeros system, it has mastered enough basic resources and a production system that can convert these basic resources into modern social manufactured goods such as food, clothing, housing and transportation. If coupled with sufficient self-protection strength, In the future, it is not an exaggeration to say that it will basically control the world.
What else
After all, if you watch a post-apocalyptic science fiction movie, it is not difficult to find that the people with power in it often only control the most ordinary things like food or fuel.
This is actually the essence of the power structure of this society.
For one person, if he has enough resources and controls everyone's jobs, then he is the king of the world.
Very simple.
After breakfast, everyone went about their own business. Simon and Anthony did not go to the Westeros Company headquarters in Midtown, but to Daenerys' East Coast headquarters on 66th Street in the Upper West Side.
Today's work is mainly in media and entertainment.
This is June 9th.
Wednesday.
During the North American summer season, the much-anticipated and disappointing "Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace" has entered its third week of release. The film earned US$82.67 million in the second week of its previous screening from May 28 to June 3, a year-on-year decrease. Only 17%, the cumulative box office reached 222.86 million US dollars.
This past weekend, the film's three-day year-on-year decline expanded to 36% compared to the previous week. Such a decline is basically certain to not have too much impact on the upcoming new box office week for Daenerys' first blockbuster "Godzilla" this year. Big threat.
On the West Coast, the world-famous monster movie led by Daenerys will have its world premiere this afternoon local time, and is expected to be released tomorrow.
This is also a sign of Daenerys' confidence in this new version of "Godzilla".
Compared with Emmerich's version where the King of Monsters was made into a mutated Tyrannosaurus rex, the new "Godzilla", first of all, the image of the monster basically refers to the prototype of Japan's Toho series, and will not be significantly modified. Secondly, in terms of plot, Simon also put aside the Emmerich version and adopted more of the 2014 Warner version in his memory.
In short, it’s about learning from each other’s strengths.
The setting often deviates from reality. However, after investing a huge amount of US$120 million, which is higher than the first Star Wars prequel, even Simon II's more critical eyes can give this upcoming movie a try. A new version of "Godzilla" scored 8 points, so everyone is full of confidence.
In addition to the upcoming "Godzilla", Simon is also paying more attention to several projects in Asia.
The first is South Korea. After "The Spy" at the beginning of the year, the second multi-million dollar investment-grade blockbuster "Joint Security Area", which is also about the confrontation between South Korea and North Korea, opened on June 4.
It was a false start.
Going forward, "Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace" was synchronized in South Korea and also opened on May 19. However, even if South Korea's westernization is very serious, the influence of the Star Wars series is not too great. Judging from market feedback in the past two weeks, the total number of viewers of the film in South Korea is about 2 million. Although it is still a blockbuster, it is far lower than the 8 million annual number of "The Spies" at the beginning of the year.
The Star Wars prequels will not reach the phenomenon level in South Korea, so they will not put too much pressure on the "Joint Security Area".
Speaking of which, the pressure mainly comes after.
It’s just Daenerys’ three super blockbusters, “Godzilla”, “Armageddon” and “The Matrix”. With the penetration of the Westeros system into South Korea, with the support of enough publicity resources, the three films The film can basically lock in the top ten box office positions in South Korea in 1999.
Because the three blockbusters span the entire summer, "Joint Security Area", which does not lack some big scenes but can only be considered a conventional action drama, has no choice but to be released first.
In order to make enough market space for "Joint Security Area", Daenerys also took the initiative to postpone "Godzilla" that could have been synchronized by one week, which ensured that "Joint Security Area" would have at least two weeks to play. room.
The "Joint Security Area" promotion team, which has accurately grasped the current mentality of Koreans, has done an excellent job this time. In the past three days of its first weekend, the film has attracted 1.53 million viewers nationwide in South Korea. It is expected that the number of viewers in the full first week is expected to be 1.53 million. Reaching about 2.3 million.
Coupled with the excellent word-of-mouth, based on a drop of about 30% in the next week, the cumulative number of moviegoers for "Joint Security Area" in two weeks is expected to be around 4 million.
From now on, it depends on the specific performance.
Taking into account the fierce competition in the summer season, this 'blockbuster' is a huge investment in terms of the size of the Korean market. The local box office in South Korea is expected to be around 6 million, which is not as good as the New Year's Eve film, "The Spies", which is distributed in local theaters. There will still be losses at this stage, but profits can be easily achieved in the future.
Generally speaking, the current film market in South Korea is still more suitable for small and big.
The three planned blockbusters are necessary to activate the market, but the relevant film and television companies controlled by the Westeros system will still focus on small and medium-sized investment films in the future.
Then there’s China.
The most important thing recently is that "Dragon Movie", which Simon invested in and produced out of his personal interests, is entering the release stage.
At the beginning, Simon alone gave a budget of 15 million US dollars, equivalent to more than 120 million yuan. Together with the resources provided by Hong Kong TVB and mainland CCTV, the total investment totaled 150 million yuan.
Then the problem arises.
The TV series was finally decided to have 40 episodes. Jinshu wanted to make it longer, but Simon directly interfered and severely rejected it, so it was still 40 episodes.
In short, each episode needs to sell 3.75 million to be considered profitable.
However, when looking at TV drama transactions in mainland China, the current average price per episode is actually only 80,000 yuan, calculated across the entire market. Although there is no shortage of dramas that have achieved astronomical transaction prices of hundreds of thousands or even millions for a single episode, no one can afford an episode of 3.75 million.
The final plan is to explore a long-term operating model.
This is actually Simon's expectation for the Chinese TV drama market. After all, one of the reasons why the TV drama market was so impetuous in the past and did not care about the follow-up efforts to make a profit was because of the Taiyi Hammer deal.
If it can be like Hollywood, where a "Friends" movie can sell for hundreds of millions of dollars many years later, the industry may be able to produce a few more high-quality movies.
Let’s talk about distribution. Although CCTV was involved this time, even Dad’s family still couldn’t afford it, so they once again cooperated with several other satellite TV stations. For the first round of two-year broadcast rights, the five companies jointly offered a single episode of 100 The price is 10,000.
This is also the limit.
After calculation, only 40 million investment was initially recovered, leaving a difference of 110 million.
Outside the mainland, because it is a cooperative project, Hong Kong's TVB directly took away the local permanent broadcast rights. This was the original condition. As for Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and other regional markets, at most another 10 to 20 million will be recovered. Therefore, Jinshu also focused its attention on North America.
Simon also made the decision himself again.
With US$1 million, we won the omni-channel copyright in Europe and the United States.
Blockbuster and DHO can jointly distribute, with one producing video tapes and the other producing late-night dramas. After all, after "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Heroes", there is still a small market for martial arts films and TV dramas in the West.
Moreover, I have to say that New Line's Robert Shea is a very thoughtful person. He confirmed that the big boss had personally decided on this project. It would definitely not work if he disagreed, so he took the initiative to suggest that several TV and movie versions could be cut. After all, with the top-notch For a martial arts drama produced at this level, 40 episodes may be too long, but there are many action scenes that will surprise Western audiences. If you put some effort into editing it, it will definitely have more potential than releasing the full version. If it is run properly, maybe the previous investment can be Earn money back by doubling it several times.
Simon also agreed, and once again approved US$1 million for post-production expenses, and asked New Line to contact Jinshu to find Chinese screenwriters as consultants, or directly do post-production in China. In short, don’t understand it yourself. Fool around.
Then, "To Our Fading Youth" has also been scheduled for release in China on July 9.
After the great success of the Lunar New Year films "Party A and Party B" and "Flash Girl", this is another campus youth film created by Jinshu Department and China Film and Television and others in cooperation, and it also has high hopes.
Simon also took the time to watch the finished film. Not to mention the finishing touches such as "My Deskmate" and several other interludes, the quality of the film itself is also above the standard. As long as Jinshu's marketing strategy is appropriate during this period, and given the general literary and artistic style that Chinese youth still maintain, there will be no problem in the Chinese film market to add another billion-dollar box office masterpiece this year.