Time has entered October, the year-end schedule is approaching, and many films have begun the final stage of promotion.
Starting from Halloween, Daenerys Entertainment has a total of four key projects at the end of the year, namely "Seven Deadly Sins", "The Lion King", "Mission: Impossible" and "Schindler's List". There is also a DC movie universe film "Cyborg", Simon only serves as a producer, and the project is completely operated by Warner Bros. alone.
A special parent-child activity was arranged in the afternoon.
I took Janet and the little guy to Daenerys Studios to watch the finished film of "The Lion King". This was also Simon's first visit to Daenerys Studios after his vacation.
Unfortunately, Melbourne, who was only two months shy of turning two years old, was obviously not interested in cartoons. The little guy only stayed in the screening room for less than ten minutes before being taken out by Girl A.
Simon accompanied Janet and several Daenerys Entertainment executives to watch the film in a "self-serving" manner.
Several other films aside, as the most important project at the end of this year, Simon cannot completely ignore it.
Compared to the 2D version in his memory, the 3D version of "The Lion King" seems to Simon to be perfect in every detail. The film's production budget alone reached 60 million US dollars, far exceeding Pixar Studio's first "Toy Story" The production cost is US$35 million, most of which is used to improve the various 3D technologies required for film production.
Although the expense is huge, the entire Daenerys Entertainment management believes that such an investment is worth the money.
The excellent box office and huge peripheral income of "Toy Story" have proven the broad market prospects of 3D animated films. Even if the box office of "The Lion King" is not satisfactory, the various technologies accumulated through this film can also be applied to other animated films. Unlike live-action films, which are usually a one-time investment.
Out of confidence in "The Lion King", the film's promotion scale this time also reached 30 million US dollars.
With a total investment of 90 million US dollars in production and promotion, except for Simon, Daenerys Entertainment basically does not expect the film to recover the cost through North American distribution. What everyone values more is the peripheral output of "The Lion King" and the impact on the film. Daenerys Entertainment promotes the entire industry chain including records, games, and theme parks.
Because of the emphasis on this project, the film's schedule has been carefully arranged.
November 19th.
This is the first week of the Thanksgiving period and will span the entire year-end period, which can give the film market maximum room to play.
In order to make way for "The Lion King," Warner Bros. originally planned to schedule "Cyborg" for Thanksgiving, but Daenerys Entertainment used its energy to move it to December 24. "Mission: Impossible" was released a week after "The Lion King". Due to the difference in genres, the two films will not cause too serious conflicts.
It's not that Simon hasn't considered moving "Mission: Impossible" to the Christmas season, but doing so would be too obvious and unnecessary.
Speaking of which, news of the "Lion King" project has spread in Hollywood very early, because it is a gift from Simon to Janet. Other Hollywood studios can judge Daenerys Entertainment's interest in this project without guessing. Invariably, therefore, genres like animated movies or family comedies that might compete with The Lion King are actively avoiding this Thanksgiving.
Now we just have to wait and see whether the 3D version of "The Lion King" can win the audience's love like the original time and space.
After the screening, Janet kissed Simon on the face and left the screening room first.
Simon continued to listen to several executives introduce the promotion progress of "The Lion King" and peripheral product promotion strategies, and then left the screening room.
This screening room is located in the Pixar Studio office loft on the second floor of the studio.
After watching the film and meeting, everyone else left to do their own thing. Simon went to another office in the Pixar workspace. John Lasseter personally introduced Simon to the storyboard of another 3D animated film that had just been completed. .
"Beauty and the Beast".
As a French fairy tale created in the 18th century, "Beauty and the Beast" no longer has copyright issues. When it was confirmed that Disney had abandoned the project, Simon asked Pixar to quietly start preparations for the project.
Now that The Lion King is complete, the team working on The Lion King will jump straight into production on Beauty and the Beast.
Of course, it's also a 3D version.
In addition, the production progress of "Toy Story 2" has been mostly completed, and the initial plan is to be released by the end of next year.
After finally finishing work, Simon found Janet and her son playing in the rest area, and found that Veronica had also appeared here, patiently accompanying Melbourne to build building blocks.
Today is October 1st, Friday.
Veronica arrived at about the same time during this period, and Simon was about to leave and fly to San Francisco to spend the weekend with his female assistant.
After saying hello and continuing to play here for a while, everyone returned to Dume Point Manor.
“AOL doesn’t have much financial problems. However, this company seems to be too aggressive. A comprehensive technical audit and a disguised monthly price reduction will definitely lead to continued losses for this company. If it continues to expand to other regions in the United States, , losses next year may reach US$1 billion."
In the Cape Dume Manor, Veronica was introducing the results of her work during this period to Simon.
Over the past six months, AOL has not only begun to comprehensively upgrade its ADSL network, but also officially launched a monthly package with a minimum of US$29, which has completely changed the previous hourly charging model. In fact, it is a large-scale price reduction in disguise.
Although exclusivity agreements initially restricted several large operators in AOL's operating area from entering the ISP field, due to the development prospects of the Internet industry, many small Internet service providers have emerged in AOL's sphere of influence in recent years. .
The ADSL network upgrade and monthly package plan gave AOL a decisive market competitive advantage in one fell swoop, which was a completely devastating blow to other competitors.
Logically speaking, with these two sets of powerful weapons, AOL should thoroughly consolidate its existing sphere of influence before expanding. This seems safer. However, whether it is ADSL or monthly subscription, it is not impossible to imitate, especially the latter.
Therefore, AOL must quickly break into other regional operators' territory before they can react.
There is actually only one way to achieve this goal, which is to burn money.
Unlike America Online, which in the past mostly just rented line networks from other operators to provide Internet access services, now America Online, under the development strategy forced by Simon, attaches great importance to the laying of its own network lines.
As of now, AOL has two backbone optical fibers running through the east and west coasts of the United States in the United States, and the total length of optical cables it owns throughout North America has exceeded 150,000 kilometers, which means huge capital investment.
Historically, many operators fell into bankruptcy due to overinvestment after the Internet bubble burst.
However, there is nothing wrong with investing heavily in infrastructure.
The bankruptcy of many companies after the Internet bubble burst was mostly due to factors such as completely blind investment and financial fraud like the Enron incident.
Many new technology business operators simply don’t know what they should do and just follow their inner herd mentality.
AOL's development goals are very clear.
Build a nationwide ADSL high-speed broadband network and promote the integration of telephone, television and broadband after the federal government deregulates telecommunications.
ADSL technology is the future of Internet service providers. America Online missed the upgrade from dial-up Internet to ADSL technology and declined rapidly. Another reason is that America Online made a mistake in its development direction and ignored its basic lines. The construction of the Internet has instead turned to Internet media, which has a lot of bubble content.
Although AOL has also started the portal business now, as long as this company is still under Simon's control, he will not allow AOL to follow the old path.
Although the current ADSL upgrades, monthly packages and all-round expansion are a bit radical, they are all in the right direction.
According to a business principle in the Internet industry that I remember, this is an all-round dimensionality reduction attack on competitors, actively suppressing the industrial environment to the worst state, and thereby eliminating competitors one by one.
If it is other start-up companies or operators that have just entered the ISP field, of course they would not dare to do this, and in fact they do not have the strength to do so.
America Online, which has more than 26 million users in North America, already has such confidence, not to mention that the company has a more powerful Westeros system behind the scenes to support it.
As long as it can unify the entire North American market, let alone a loss of US$1 billion for the whole year, even if it doubles again, Simon will have enough strength to make AOL lose money for more than five consecutive years.
Five years is enough time to eliminate most competitors.
Simon did not hide these thoughts from Veronica, explained them carefully, and finally said: "As long as AOL does not go on the wrong path, temporary losses are acceptable. My only request is that this company The company’s operations and financial status are completely transparent, at least to me, and there is no concealment or fraud.”
Veronica didn't quite understand why Simon could be sure that AOL's current development path was correct. However, she didn't raise any questions and understood what Simon just said. He just needed her help to keep an eye on this company. That's enough, don't worry about the rest.
After chatting with Veronica for more than half an hour, Simon looked at the time, said goodbye to everyone, and rushed to the airport with Girl A and a group of bodyguards.
Los Angeles International Airport.
The private Boeing 767 is ready, and there is someone else waiting for Simon here.
One of them is an agent under ICM, a middle-aged white man in his forties. The other is a tall and beautiful girl in her twenties, who obviously has model attributes, and is indeed a model named Natasha Henstridge.
The middle-aged man saw Simon and came over very eagerly: "Hello, Mr. Westeros, I am Raul Bradley, Natasha's agent."
Simon shook hands with the other party, looked at Natasha Henstridge next to the middle-aged man, and said, "Let's get on the plane first."
Naturally, everyone had no objections.
Everyone got on the plane together, and more than ten minutes later, the Boeing 767 took off from the runway.
After the plane stabilized, Simon briefly explained a few words and walked to the front cabin with Natasha Henstridge.
Raul Bradley glanced at the figure of the girl who followed Simon away. He was a little envious and a little regretful. The one who was envious was naturally a young man. It was a pity that he would never have the chance to get involved with such a beautiful creature.
"Mr. Bradley?"
A figure in his ear immediately made Raul Bradley retract his gaze, cheer up and look at the girl A who was left behind by Simon: "Raul, Miss Norris, you can call me Raul."
Girl A nodded and said: "The boss has already decided on the matter of "Alien". What you have to do next is to arrange for Miss Henstridge to receive certain acting training."
Raul Bradley nodded, thought for a while and then said: "I have discussed this project with MGM. You know, Natasha has no acting experience yet, will the film's production progress be a little rushed?"
"No," Alison shook her head and said, "The boss said that in this movie, the heroine does not need any acting skills at all."
Raul Bradley echoed again and felt a little emotional.
How many people in Hollywood are looking forward to this opportunity that doesn't require acting skills.
"So, that's what happened in the movie," Alison said, then looked at Raul Bradley and said, "The next thing is about the arrangements for Miss Henstridge. First, ICM needs to match her with a The assistant must be a woman. Secondly, this is very important, Mr. Bradley, within the next year, ICM must ensure that no other women will appear around Miss Henstridge, do you understand?"
"Of course," Raul Bradley nodded, and then said subconsciously: "Only, only one year?"
Alison's tone didn't change much as she said: "A year at most, maybe three months, maybe a month, maybe just a week."
“…”
Alison ignored the change in Raul Bradley's expression and continued: "Go back today. Miss Henstridge can choose a house in Los Angeles. ICM only needs to hand over the bill to me."
Raul Bradley hesitated and said, "Well, what's the price?"
Alison glanced at Raul Bradley with interest and said: "Miss Henstridge can choose this by herself, as long as she feels it is suitable."
Raul Bradley suddenly thought of some rumors in the circle and nodded, feeling a little envious again.
Since Westeros has said that he can choose at will, even if he chooses a mansion worth two to three million dollars, it is no problem. However, if you think about it carefully, if this is the case, for a certain vase, maintaining this mansion every year is probably a problem.
As a barely second-tier model, Natasha Henstridge's income is not high. Even if she relies on the opportunity of "Alien" to become famous, due to the positioning of the vase, she will still only be considered a second-tier model in Hoolai in the future.
Alison waited for a moment, looked at the middle-aged man opposite and said, "One more thing, Mr. Bradley, have you brought Miss Henstridge's physical examination report?"
"Oh, of course."
Raul Bradley had a strange expression on his face, but he still quickly took out a document from his briefcase and handed it over.
Alison took the file and looked through it carefully without saying anything else.