The wind and snow that affected many states on the East Coast lasted for three days. Fortunately, it was only overwhelming on Sunday and began to weaken in the new week.
The sudden cold weather will inevitably affect the public's desire to watch movies. Major Hollywood studios have generally lowered their North American box office expectations during this period.
However, many recent news hot spots, whether it is the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, the benefits of the new technology industry, or the upcoming IPO of Igret, etc., have continued to arouse widespread heated discussion. The media and the public are paying attention to last week's midterm elections. So it becomes less and less.
This isn't over yet.
On November 16, the day before the third Victoria's Secret Show was broadcast, media public opinion was once again detonated by a piece of bombshell news: after more than a month of negotiations and review, it was agreed to split up the television business that did not comply with federal media control regulations After collecting some assets, the U.S. Department of Justice officially approved the acquisition of Disney by the French Vivendi Group.
One stone stirs up a thousand waves.
Among the seven major Hollywood companies, Disney’s local cultural attributes in the United States far exceed those of Columbia, MGM and Paramount, which were successively acquired by overseas capital. Disney’s 2D classic animated movies are not only the childhood memories of many Americans, but Disneyland is also important. American cultural symbol.
Simon did not use resources to suppress relevant public opinion this time.
As a result, from the day when the news was announced, to the newspapers on the morning of November 17, there was overwhelming criticism and even abuse of the federal Department of Justice, senior Washington officials, and Disney shareholders and management.
The most vehement reporter from the Washington Post even criticized the Department of Justice's approval of the transaction as an act of betrayal.
Then, the finger was quickly pointed at the Democratic Party, which had just lost the midterm elections.
and the White House.
Faced with accusations from public opinion, the White House responded promptly.
The President personally explained the inside story at the press conference on the morning of November 17. The Department of Justice was not the one-man decision made by Attorney General Janet Reno, who was appointed by the White House, but a seven-member committee responsible for reviewing the transaction. Four of the seven are Republicans.
Therefore, the decision on this matter actually lies with the Republicans.
The media did not buy Mr. President's explanation. Everyone was concerned about how to stop this transaction.
A reporter asked the president on the spot whether he would use a presidential order to send the transaction back to the Department of Justice for review. Clinton simply stated very tactfully that the White House was still studying the matter, and also hinted that there were no legal violations in the transaction. , unless the acquirer voluntarily gives up, otherwise, this transaction will be difficult to be rejected.
After the White House's statement, the spokesperson of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs quickly responded publicly to the matter, saying that France is very optimistic about the development prospects of the entertainment industry. Vivendi Group's attitude is even somewhat tough, claiming that it has invested a huge amount of money in this acquisition transaction, and the U.S. Department of Justice has also approved it. If it goes against its promise, Vivendi will protect its own interests through litigation.
Then the news came out.
In order to ensure that there would be no major changes during the transaction, especially to prevent Vivendi from withdrawing midway and causing the company's stock price to fluctuate, Disney set a high breakup fee of up to 3% of the total transaction value.
Large merger deals all have similar breakup fee clauses.
Depending on the size of the transaction and the negotiations between the two parties, the breakup fee is usually between 1% and 5%. Of course, there are also situations where there is a higher ratio or no breakup fee at all. Everything depends on the game between the two parties. The core of the breakup fee clause is to avoid one party suddenly breaking the contract after some twists and turns, causing huge losses to the other party.
Therefore, this breakup fee actually works both ways.
In the agreement reached at the end of September, the final transaction price between the two parties was US$9.7 billion, and the 3% breakup fee was US$291 million.
US$291 million is definitely not a small amount of money for either Vivendi or Disney.
What's more, judging from Vivendi's tone, if something goes wrong with this transaction due to Disney, additional lawsuits will be filed to pursue losses. Although French companies sue American companies in the United States, everyone knows that they will not get much advantage, but Disney, which has been in decline in recent years, simply cannot bear this kind of torment.
As a result, Disney's shareholders began to quietly operate in Washington without Simon's quiet promotion.
It's fun to say.
Disney's two most important shareholders are the Bass family of Texas and the Disney family of California. One supports the Republican Party and the other supports the Democratic Party. They happen to work on both sides.
Both families have felt the decline of Disney before. Even if the Disney family is still a little reluctant to give up, they all understand that accepting Vivendi Group's cash acquisition of up to 9.7 billion US dollars is a very wise choice.
Otherwise, everyone can only watch this asset shrink step by step, and even going bankrupt is not impossible.
You know, before Vivendi initiated the transaction, Disney's market value was less than US$7 billion, but it had a total debt of US$5.3 billion. Coupled with the sluggish movie business, Disneyland Paris continued to lose money. It is difficult to say when it will suddenly be unable to capitalize. Pay off debts. At that time, if the debtors exert pressure and restructure the assets, the stocks in the hands of these major shareholders may be directly cleared.
Now, with this deal done, both parties can put billions in cash in their pockets.
In the face of interests, culture and feelings are all clouds.
In this incident, the only thing Simon did was to once again ask the New York Times, which had good relations with the Westeros system, to stir up the topic of lifting the ban on media integration, accusing the Washington authorities of not being willing to release this issue that had already been Untimely industry bans, the Disney transaction, local giants should have come forward to compete, and American cultural treasures would not easily fall into the hands of the French.
Everyone actually understands that even if the ban on media integration is lifted in advance, except for Daenerys Entertainment Group, whose strength has exceeded the industry by several orders of magnitude, no other local giant can compete with Vivendi Group's high cash offer. This does not prevent the bill to lift the ban on media integration, which was quietly suppressed by Congress in the first half of the year, from re-entering the media and public view.
This time, Washington must also give an answer that satisfies everyone.
Amid the uproar of public opinion caused by the approval of the Disney acquisition, on Thursday, November 17, ABC TV officially broadcast the third Victoria's Secret Fashion Show during prime time at nine o'clock in the evening.
Not only did the production budget for this big show reach 30 million US dollars, but the associated publicity investment also reached 20 million US dollars.
Before last Saturday's live catwalk show, the Victoria's Secret brand and Daenerys Entertainment had jointly started advertising on major platforms, and a huge billboard in New York's Times Square was hung for a month.
At nine o'clock that night, as soon as it started airing, as "The Phoenix" appeared in the audience's ears for the first time, the initial viewership of the program directly exceeded the 32 million mark.
Just a rock song that is destined to enter many music charts has upgraded this Victoria's Secret show into an all-round entertainment feast from sight to hearing. Many people were eager to inquire about "The Phoenix" through the Internet, phone calls and other channels before the first topic was over.
Of course, a group of supermodels who have become popular around the world are still the focus of this show.
The fashion section of Yigret Portal opened a special interactive topic after the Victoria's Secret Live event last Saturday, and started a lottery to give away 10,000 copies of the 3rd Victoria's Secret Fashion Show Collector's Edition video tape. As the TV broadcast started, related themes The popularity has increased online, and this time the Victoria’s Secret Army has expanded to 43 people. The Facebook and Instagram pages of each Victoria’s Secret Angel have seen a sharp increase in visits in a short period of time.
When the TV broadcasts on the east and west coasts were completed, the Igret portal immediately announced the ratings data of the third Victoria's Secret Show.
In its third year, the ratings of the Victoria's Secret Show hit a new high, with peak viewers reaching 45.6 million, surpassing the first Victoria's Secret Show's 42.1 million by a full 3 million, with the average viewership reaching 37.9 million. It also broke the record of 35.5 million set by the first Victoria’s Secret.
The TV version of the Victoria's Secret show with a total of six themes was edited according to the standard 43-minute TV series length, leaving 17 minutes of advertising time for ABC.
Because it is only one hour, the total advertising time of the Victoria's Secret Show is far less than that of the Oscars with the same ratings. However, for these 17 minutes of advertising time, ABC also sold it for a high price of US$1.5 million per 30 seconds. In just one hour, ABC earned US$51 million just through this fashion show, which is itself a super advertising blockbuster.
For the first Victoria's Secret show, because neither party expected how popular this fashion show would be, ABC only spent $5 million to buy the player.
This time, of course, it won’t be that cheap.
According to the agreement signed by both parties, as the copyright owner of Victoria's Secret, Daenerys and the Victoria's Secret brand will receive 60% of the advertising revenue. Therefore, the advertising revenue of 51 million US dollars and the share of 30.6 million US dollars will directly allow the two companies to recover this The production cost of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.
What's more, the subsequent video tape sales are the bulk.
It was also the first Victoria's Secret show. At the beginning, due to the strong sales in the early stage, everyone thought that the total sales of video tapes were expected to reach 15 million, which was already a record. As a result, after a few years, the actual video tape of the first Victoria's Secret show Total sales reached more than 27 million boxes.
Based on a video tape price of about US$30, the total sales of 27 million video tapes would be as high as US$810 million. From this alone, the two companies that jointly hold the copyright of the Victoria's Secret show received a net income of US$290 million, which is equivalent to the current year's net profit of the Victoria's Secret brand in the pure underwear business.
Records are never easy to break.
Considering that the ratings of the second Victoria's Secret show did not decline significantly, but the video tape sales dropped by more than half. Taking into account various factors, the video tape sales of the third Victoria's Secret show can reach at least tens of millions, which will be another 3 Sales of approximately US$100 million and net income of over US$100 million.
In comparison, the investment of US$50 million for the entire Victoria's Secret show is definitely worth it.
After the Victoria’s Secret show, Thanksgiving is approaching.
The first week of the Thanksgiving season from November 11th to November 17th has also officially come to an end.
Affected by the wind, snow and cold weather on the East Coast, the North American box office situation in the past week has indeed been somewhat affected.
Overall, the box office results remain promising.
Of the three major new films last week, Jim Carrey's fantasy comedy "The Man in Disguise", which is most in line with the holiday atmosphere, relied on its own quality and the strong promotion of Daenerys Entertainment to successfully win the weekly box office championship, with seven days in the first week. The revenue was US$37.09 million, with an average revenue of over US$15,000.
"Interview with the Vampire" produced by Geffen Pictures and distributed by Warner Bros. lived up to expectations, ranking second on the weekly box office list just behind "The Man in Disguise" with a gap of less than US$1 million, with a seven-day box office of 36.38 million in its first week. Dollar. However, "Interview with the Vampire" opened on 2,604 screens, making it the largest among the three major new films last week. Therefore, the average theater opening was only over US$13,000, which was significantly different from "The Man in Disguise."
MGM's "The Zone" ranked third, taking in $28.11 million at the box office in its first seven days.
Although it lags behind "The Man in Disguise" and "Interview with the Vampire" by an order of magnitude, such opening results have also met MGM's expectations. Taking into account the fierce competition among a series of heavyweight films in the year-end schedule, the first week's US$28.11 million is not enough to ensure that the local box office will exceed 100 million US dollars, and it may ultimately be around US$70 million.
The production cost of the film is 30 million US dollars, and the promotion and distribution is 15 million US dollars. Even if the local box office is not enough to recover the entire cost, relying on the popularity of Sam Neill and Jessica Lange, the overseas distribution is enough to make a profit, not to mention the There were subsequent video and television broadcast proceeds.
After experiencing a deep drop in the second week of its release and facing the impact of three new films, "The Haunting of the Morgue" in the Halloween season still fell as high as 37% this week, earning US$14.63 million. In the three weeks since its release, the cumulative box office of "The Haunting of the Morgue" has reached US$83.69 million, and it has great hopes of advancing to the billion-dollar club.
After four movies, many other old movies have completely fallen behind, and their box office performance is not worth mentioning.
On November 18, the golden box office week spanning Thanksgiving begins.
There are still three major new films this week, namely "Toy Story 2" produced by Daenerys Entertainment, Schwarzenegger's new comedy film "Little Ones" invested by Sony Pictures, and Paramount Pictures' veteran science fiction "Longevity" "Star Trek Episode 7: Beyond the Stars."
The most important one is undoubtedly "Toy Story 2" produced by Pixar Pictures under Daenerys Entertainment.
After the success of the first part, the production cost of this 3D animated sequel reached 80 million U.S. dollars, more than double the budget of 35 million U.S. dollars for the first part. This time, the investment in publicity and distribution was also as high as 50 million U.S. dollars.
The total project budget is US$130 million.
Through negotiations with many theaters, the current share of heavyweight movies produced by Daenerys Entertainment generally exceeds the average level of 55%. For "Toy Story 3", it is expected that the share received from theaters will be around 60%. . However, even so, the total budget of US$130 million will still require about US$210 million at the local box office to make back the money.
It is conceivable that if "Toy Story 2" is released in local theaters, there will basically not be much profit.
However, everyone knows very well that the bulk of the profit of the "Toy Story" series is not the box office, but the toy peripherals.
In the three years since the first part was released at the end of 1991, the total sales of peripheral toys in the "Toy Story" series have exceeded the US$4 billion mark. With the release of "Toy Story 2", it will inevitably set off another boom that will last for several years. The peripheral craze of time is the main source of profit for Daenerys Entertainment.