After finishing his work in the morning, Simon had a meal in the management cafeteria with Amy Pascal, Mark Belford and other senior executives of the group at noon.
The topic of conversation at the dinner table was about Disney's recent turmoil.
Things still have to start with the movie "The Lie" directed by Robert Redford last year. Simon used a trick to deliberately push this project to Disney. The film ultimately cost 40 million US dollars, but the final effect of the film was Not satisfactory. As a result, Disney not only gave up the high-quality schedule at the end of last year, but also almost lost it to the schedule graveyard in January and February of the new year.
Finally, with Redford's insistence and mediation, "The Lie" was released on April 1 at the same time as "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3."
It's a pity that compared to "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3" and the subsequent hit "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", "The Lie" only had a box office of US$6.19 million in its first week.
Not only that, due to the impact of two blockbuster films in the same period, when it was hastily canceled after four weeks of release, the total North American box office of "The Lie" was only 16.35 million US dollars, and the box office share only barely offset Disney's publicity and distribution expenses. Considering the failure of the local box office The resulting bleak prospects for overseas and peripheral distribution, "The Lie" will bring Disney a net loss of at least US$30 million.
The failure of "Behind the Scenes" can be described as a microcosm of Disney's increasingly bleak situation in the past two years. It has also become a trigger for the outbreak of internal conflicts among the management of this veteran film studio.
From the time they jointly took over Disney in 1984 to the present, Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg, who were once both subordinates of Barry Diller, can be said to have worked closely together in the early days. Through the high-concept film model inherited from Barry Diller and In exploring the commercial potential of Disney's classic animations, Disney was prospering in the second half of the 1980s. It once launched "Three Dads and a Baby", "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", "Detective Supreme" and other annual list toppers. 10 blockbuster films, re-releases and video tape releases of Disney's classic animated films have repeatedly brought huge profits to Disney.
Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg, one is the CEO of Disney and the other is the head of several Disney studios. Due to differences in corporate management and personal compensation, the two Deep conflicts have accumulated unknowingly over time.
For example, in 1988, after Disney experienced a bumper harvest, Michael Eisner received a bonus of US$6.8 million. However, due to special accounting rules for studios owned by major movie companies to deliberately create losses in order to avoid taxes, Jeffrey Card Sunberg's bonus figure is a pitiful 'zero', and the conflict between the two parties has been made public once.
According to the original agreement, in 1994, that is, this year, the contract of Disney's second-in-command and current president Frank Wells expired, and Katzenberg will become the successor to Disney's president. However, Michael Eisner has no intention of letting Katzenberg take over as president. Instead, he has recently quietly discussed with CAA president Michael Ovitz, who is also his neighbor and friend, about joining Disney.
The Hollywood world is small, and the news unexpectedly spread, and Katzenberg went directly to confront Eisner.
Coincidentally, "The Lie" failed at the box office again. Michael Eisner did not hesitate to put the blame for "The Lie" and Disney's poor film performance in the past two years on Jeffrey Katzenberg. The result was that the executive, who had worked for Disney for ten years, angrily announced his departure.
Historically, the conflict between Eisner and Katzenberg also broke out this year, but the trigger was Frank Wells' death in a helicopter crash while skiing during Easter in 1994. At that time, Disney's situation was far better than this time and space, but Eisner still did not want Katzenberg to take over as president, which eventually led to Katzenberg's departure. Disney lost Katzenberg, and the film business in the second half of the 1990s It was a slippery slope that eventually led to Michael Eisner being forced to step down.
Now, because of Simon, the big butterfly, Frank Wells did not encounter a helicopter accident, but the Disney president's contract will still expire in August this year, and Wells is 62 years old this year and has not been renewed. Although Disney intends to retire early and enjoy life, Disney still needs to select a new company president.
Then came the recent changes.
Disney's management turmoil is largely due to the rise of Daenerys Entertainment.
The current Daenerys Entertainment is similar to the Disney that Simon remembers twenty years later. At that time, through the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Disney animation, live-action adaptations of fairy tales, and several ace cards in the Star Wars series, Dimple topped the annual box office in North America almost every year. It divided half of the top ten list, and suppressed other major Hollywood film companies until they lost all their arrogance. In the end, the seven majors became the six majors, and the six majors became the five majors. Second-tier film companies such as Lionsgate and Summit, which seemed to be rising rapidly, even It's a flash in the pan.
Relying on his prophetic advantage, Simon has now achieved this, and upon careful comparison, Daenerys Entertainment today is even stronger than Disney at its peak in Simon's memory. The result of this strength is that the living space of other major Hollywood studios and second- and third-tier film companies is continuously compressed, triggering a series of domino effects.
In the early 1990s, Disney relied on blockbuster animations such as "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Lion King" and blockbuster films such as "Pretty Woman" and "The Great Detective" to be extremely popular in Hollywood.
Because of the emergence of Simon, many blockbuster projects that originally belonged to Disney were acquired by Daenerys Entertainment. In addition, other films developed by Disney did not perform well commercially. This led to the rapid rise of Disney in the late 1980s. It's been going downhill in the last two years.
In the entire Hollywood, Disney is obviously not the only one who has suffered the same fate.
The current seven giants in Hollywood can be described as vibrant at this time. One is Daenerys Entertainment and the other is Time Warner Group. Even MGM, which is personally supported by Simon, is still in the stage of recovery. , as for the remaining four companies, Disney, Paramount, Columbia, and Fox, in recent years they have all found that business has become increasingly difficult despite the rapid recovery of the Hollywood film market.
As for Miramax and New Line, which were supposed to shine in recent years, they have completely disappeared from the horizon of Hollywood circles.
Several major Hollywood studios have existed for more than half a century, and it is very difficult to completely eliminate them.
Simon's short-term goal is to knock Disney down to the status of actual second-tier film companies. For the time being, Hollywood only needs Daenerys and Time Warner to coexist.
Tolerating Time Warner to stand side by side with itself is partly because of the DC movie universe, and partly because of anti-monopoly considerations. After all, if there is a superpower and multiple powers in Hollywood, then other companies will only point all their fingers at Daenerys. entertainment. Now, there is an additional Time Warner, which can also share some of the firepower.
However, this is only temporary.
Simon's ultimate goal is still the three-legged alliance he had considered. Two of them are still Daenerys and Time Warner. The last one is either MGM, which Simon personally supported, or BesTV, which has quietly planted the seeds. Da Entertainment and the other remaining major players will truly be reduced to second-tier companies that cannot stand up, or even disappear completely.
In the management cafeteria of Daenerys Studios.
Nancy Brill interrupted Simon's thoughts: "Boss, do you think Michael Ovitz will choose to join Disney?"
Simon nodded: "Maybe, but this may not be good news for Disney."
Everyone looked over, and Robert Egger, who came to the West Coast yesterday, said: "Eisner and Ovitz are very good friends. I think the two of them will work well together."
Simon shrugged and said: "It is easy to maintain friendships between individuals without directly exploiting conflicts. The key issue is that Eisner and Ovitz are both strong characters who are used to being the top leaders. Eisner Even Katzenberg, who is not actually that powerful, can't tolerate it. How could Ovitz be allowed to enter Disney to share his power?"
Amy asked: "In this case, why did Eisner ask Ovitz to join Disney?"
Simon said: "It's very simple. He needs a strong enough excuse to squeeze Katzenberg out of Disney. If he is promoted from within Disney, it will be difficult for others except Katzenberg to convince others. Ovitz created CAA has implemented a project packaging mechanism and has a large number of top Hollywood stars as behind-the-scenes supporters, all of which can be reasons for Eisner to convince the board of directors."
Amy asked: "What then?"
Simon replied: "Then Eisner should have discovered that in order to consolidate his power, he had to find a way to remove his once good friends from the company."
Nancy suddenly glanced at the people around her and said, "I just said, our boss is a guy who doesn't believe in people's hearts and always thinks the worst about things."
Simon looked at his small female executive: "How about we make a bet?"
Nancy was not to be outdone: "Where's the bet?"
Simon smiled and said: "I happened to buy a batch of Mi-24 helicopters some time ago. If Ovitz does not turn against Eisner after joining Disney, I will give you one as a gift."
Nancy didn't feel at all that she shouldn't mess with the murderous weapon that had wiped out tens of thousands of African soldiers in Rwanda not long ago. She nodded and said, "Okay, I lost. I'll treat you to a meal."
Simon suddenly looked dissatisfied that you could even express such an insincere condition.
Everyone laughed.
Nancy showed no sign of weakness in front of her boss and said: "You made your own bet, and of course I have to set my own terms. Moreover, you didn't say that our bets must be equal."
Simon raised his hand depressedly, indicating that he admitted defeat.
In fact, when it comes to Disney's infighting, everyone just thought of Daenerys Entertainment itself, but they soon understood it.
With Simon as a powerful boss personally in charge, there is no room for high-level infighting in Daenerys Entertainment. Simon has been promoting collaboration within Daenerys Entertainment over the years, and at the same time unknowingly transformed Daenerys Entertainment into A flat corporate structure in which each department is relatively independent.
Everyone has their own business, and most of them are directly responsible to Simon, the boss. There is no strong conflict of interest between them, so there is no soil for infighting.
After all, once there are signs of internal strife, Simon's strength will definitely nip the dispute in the cradle. His young boss seems to like everyone very much, but this is not the case in his heart. If a senior executive needs to leave to ensure the internal stability of Daenerys Entertainment, he will not hesitate to do so.
The flat corporate structure of Daenerys Entertainment also brings some hidden worries. The most critical point is that once a strong boss like Simon is missing, it will be difficult to find a second leader with sufficient power and prestige. Holding the massive Daenerys Entertainment firmly together.
However, Simon is only 26 years old this year. Compared with some veteran businessmen who built a corporate group in their fifties and sixties before retiring, what he lacks most is time, so he has enough experience to deal with many things.
After joking about Simon and Nancy's bet, Amy said another thing: "In recent years, David Geffen has been trying to unite some of his good friends to set up a new big studio. Jay Fury is also a target of his lobbying, as well as Steven, so the establishment of this major studio should be a certainty."
In the past, Hollywood billionaire David Geffen teamed up with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg to establish DreamWorks, which was unparalleled in Hollywood for a time. And in the late 1990s, he successively produced a large number of blockbuster films.
Unfortunately, because the foundation is not solid and DreamWorks, which is simply a studio that lacks complete film distribution channels, the results are not good. Most of the profits of many blockbuster films are either extracted by the large studios responsible for distribution, or by the history of the film industry. Steven Spielberg and other major creators have divided it up, leaving the investors who originally invested huge sums of money in this 'big movie company' with nothing but a mess of constant losses.
Although the rise of Daenerys Entertainment is very short compared to the traditional major Hollywood studios, from the initial small workshop to the acquisition of New World Entertainment to improve its own production and distribution team, and finally the acquisition of MCA, it has completely promoted the Hollywood Seven One of the big ones, every step is taken steadily.
The dream factory of David Geffen and the three of them is like building a large castle on the beach without even laying a foundation. It looks powerful on the outside, but it is fragile on the inside.
Simon didn't intend to get involved in this. Feeling the emotion in Amy's tone, he said, "We don't need to pay attention to this matter, just do our job well."
Amy said, "Simon, I'm saying maybe you can get MGM to partner with this new studio."
Simon shook his head and smiled again: "Even if we are willing, do you think Steven will agree to cooperate with us?"
Regarding the "Jurassic Park" series, although everyone seems to be getting together easily, in fact, the whole of Hollywood knows that Steven Spielberg was directly fired from Daenerys Entertainment. As a seventy-year-old It is strange that Spielberg, a Hollywood star who has been admired by many stars since the beginning of the 2000s, is willing to continue to cooperate with the Westeros system in such a tone.
Moreover, even if the other party agrees, Simon will not agree.
Simon's arrangements for MGM are also steady and steady, and he re-trains his own team by personally producing and distributing films. If it reaches a cooperation with the studios of Spielberg and others, MGM can only reduce production to adapt to the other party. The end result is that the studios of Spielberg and others may eventually become a mess. By then, MGM It is still lame in terms of 'production' and 'distribution'.