3?s?Sa{!?]vZ?BImI1J?Idk)?U0>.?|^o2^?9of Los Angeles In the first-class cabin of a Boeing 747, during the 12-hour flight, Michael Ovitz spent the entire time flipping through various information.
Initially trying to get Sony to buy MCA, Lou Vassalman offered a high price of US$8 billion. Sony, with a current market value of only more than US$14 billion, chose to refuse, and Michael Ovitz turned his target to Colombia. Coca-Cola also happens to be interested in giving up non-core businesses, and the two parties have officially started negotiations.
The time is January 7th.
Michael Ovitz led the acquisition team that assisted Sony in acquiring Colombia and stayed in Tokyo for two days and hurriedly returned today.
Now, the young man has left for Australia to film "Batman", but these days, Hollywood still seems to be revolving around Daenerys entertainment. The information Michael Ovitz reviewed along the way were all related to Daenerys Entertainment.
In the past year, as of December 31, 1988, the cumulative box office revenue generated by the US market was US$4.69 billion.
If calculated according to the deadline of December 31 and divided by distributors, the film company with the highest cumulative box office in Hollywood this year is Disney, with a total of 531 million US dollars and a box office market share of 11.3%.
After Disney, the other three companies, Paramount, Warner and Universal, also have market shares of around 10%.
Among them, "Scream", "Steel Magnolias", "Dead Poets Society", "Rain Man" and the additional "Elvira" independently released by Daenerys Entertainment, as of December 31 , the cumulative box office was only US$256 million, with a market share of 5.5%.
Judging from these numbers alone, there doesn’t seem to be anything special about Daenerys Entertainment.
However, the entire Hollywood actually understands that this calculation method is completely deceptive.
If calculated according to the producers, Daenerys Entertainment's seven movies this year are "When Harry Met Sally", "Pulp Fiction", "Basic Instinct", "Scream", "Steel Magnolias", " "Dead Poets Society" and "Rain Man", as of December 31, the cumulative box office reached 730 million US dollars.
US$730 million will immediately increase Daenerys Entertainment's market share from 5.5% to 15.6%.
What’s even more impossible to ignore is that the US$730 million in box office, which accounts for 15.6% of the market share, was generated by only 7 movies. In comparison, Disney’s US$531 million box office figure represents 15 movies, of which One is "When Harry Met Sally" produced by Daenerys Entertainment.
Moreover, if calculated according to the total North American box office estimates of Daenerys Entertainment's films, the total box office of the seven films is likely to reach a terrifying US$900 million. 900 million U.S. dollars, which is close to 20% of the U.S. annual box office share.
It is conceivable that if this situation continues, Daenerys Entertainment is very likely to become a Hollywood hegemon like MGM in the golden era.
An independent film company that has only been on the rise for two years has shown such strong discovery potential. Under other circumstances, Michael Ovitz would definitely not be able to help but praise it. But now, this such a powerful company has become antagonistic to CAA.
Michael Ovitz has no regrets at all for CAA's role in the "Rain Man" incident. He once told his clients that he would kill for them if necessary.
Officially because CAA stands unconditionally on the side of its clients and protects their interests as much as possible, more and more top stars are willing to join this talent agency.
If you can't be friends, then be enemies.
Daenerys Entertainment is so strong that it will definitely seriously damage the potential of traditional Hollywood movie companies. After his attempts to reconcile with Daenerys Entertainment were rejected a few days ago, Ovitz tried out the heads of major Hollywood studios. He wanted to know if it was possible for the Seven Major Studios to unite to suppress Daenerys. entertainment.
The answer is no.
Among the seven, Warner is cooperating with Daenerys Entertainment on "Batman" and "One Flew Over the Child". It is simply impossible to be an enemy of Daenerys Entertainment at this time.
Disney also has a directorial contract with Simon Westeros. Judging from "Run Lola Run" and "Pulp Fiction", films directed by Simon Westeros personally have great potential to exceed 100 million in box office. Disney Obviously they are not willing to compete with Daenerys Entertainment and lose a project that is likely to have a box office of over 100 million.
Subsequently, Fox collaborated on three consecutive films, "The Butterfly Effect", "The King of Death" and "Basic Instinct". In addition, the Murdoch family and the family of Westeros girlfriend John Stone are both Australians. Fox The likelihood of facing off against Simon Westeros is also very low.
Excluding three of the seven, joining forces to suppress Daenerys Entertainment has become a fantasy.
The remaining companies include Paramount, Universal, Columbia and MGM. Paramount has been doing very well in the past two years and has no intention of becoming an enemy of Daenerys Entertainment. Columbia was too busy selling herself to do that. MGM had such intentions when it was put in a bad position on "Rain Man", but given MGM's current dilapidated state, it was completely out of control.
In the end, at Universal, Michael Ovitz knew that Lou Vassalman was behind the "Scream" rating incident, but for some reason, Universal made no other moves afterwards.
All in all, it is simply impossible for the seven major Hollywood film companies to join forces to suppress the rise of Daenerys Entertainment. Outside of the Big Seven, second- and third-tier film companies like Orion have absolutely no capital to compete with Daenerys Entertainment.
Michael Ovitz also understands that in the final analysis, there is still a lack of profit motivation. In other words, although Daenerys Entertainment’s share of Hollywood’s box office is very large, it has not yet reached a point where other film companies feel unable to survive.
In this case, the traditional forces of Hollywood can only instinctively fight back in some aspects.
Such as the upcoming awards season.
The Oscar statuette represents interests. In order to win the award, traditional forces will definitely suppress Daenerys Entertainment.
Additionally, presumably to snatch potentially successful projects directly from Daenerys Entertainment.
Thinking of this, Michael Ovitz lowered his head again and found the two scripts "The Rocketeer" and "Firebird Attack" from a pile of materials.
In recent days, Ovitz has read the two scripts several times, and also inquired in detail about how Paramount obtained the two scripts.
Paramount president Sidney Ganis bribed Simon Westeros' secretary to cut both scripts. This kind of thing is actually not uncommon in Hollywood, so it can't be said to be glorious or disgraceful.
However, Ovitz instinctively felt that this matter was not as simple as it seemed.
Because Simon Westeros's reaction seemed too calm, Daenerys Entertainment only fired the secretary afterwards and did not make any attempt to save the two projects. Compared with Daenerys What Silk Entertainment and CAA did regarding the "Rain Man" incident is so abnormal.
Michael Ovitz has considered many possibilities.
Or is Simon Westeros confident enough that these two projects wouldn't be successful in the hands of others
Or was this a trap thrown by Simon Westeros
Neither guess seems very reliable.
Michael Ovitz has always believed that as long as the film company is serious enough and dedicated enough resources to a project, then the film cannot fail, at least it will be difficult to fail completely. Because a movie goes through so many steps from script to finished film, it is unlikely that there will be a script in Hollywood that is inherently destined to fail. In most cases, it is just the creator who messed up the script during the filming process.
I don't know how long it took, but the radio in the cabin reminded me that the plane was about to land, and Michael Ovitz came out of his thoughts.
Maybe, I am really a little paranoid.
Among the movies currently being developed by Daenerys Entertainment are two comic book adaptation projects, namely "Batman" and "Angel". Warren Beatty has also been discussing a comic book adaptation project with Disney recently, "The Detective Prime."
So, looking at the "The Rocketeer" in hand, maybe comic book movies will really be the trend in the next few years.
As for "Firebirds", he was the one who personally pushed for Tom Cruise to star in "Top Gun". Now, a film like this that attempts to replicate the success of "Top Gun" will obviously not fail as long as it is done seriously. .
Moreover, it is said that Matt Dillon, represented by Jonathan Friedman, is trying to win the leading actor in "Firebird Attack". The relationship between Jonathan Friedman and Simon Westeros is self-evident. It's enough to rule out the possibility that this script is a trap.
When the plane started to land, Michael Ovitz packed up the information in front of him, put on his seat belt, and made up his mind to let CAA's artists strive for the leadership of these two projects as much as possible. Cruise should be unwilling to repeat a similar role in "Top Gun", so the male protagonist of "The Rocketeer" is still very suitable for him.
With this plan in mind, I got off the plane all the way.
As soon as he sat down in the car dispatched by the company to pick him up, Ovitz's assistant told him something that happened suddenly in the past two days.
Kirstie Alley, a CAA-owned TV drama star, suddenly announced her move to WMA in recent days. Kirstie Alley is still very famous in the television industry. If a star of this level insists on changing jobs, it is usually difficult for the agency to retain her. CAA didn't care and simply let the other party leave.
Then, just this morning, Daenerys Entertainment suddenly announced that Kirstie Alley has officially joined the cast of "One Flew Over the Child", replacing Meg Ryan who was originally expected to star in the female lead.
After listening to the assistant's narration, Ovitz, who had always been well-educated, couldn't help but curse loudly while sitting in the carriage.
Ovitz didn't care that it was just a star jumping ship. However, the sudden arrival of Daenerys Entertainment may send a wrong signal to the industry: if you want to join Daenerys Entertainment's films, you must first withdraw from CAA.
It is conceivable that if this view spreads and if the box office miracle of Daenerys Entertainment continues, CAA will definitely face a disaster of talent loss.