Malibu, Daenerys Studios.
Today is Monday, May 8th.
It’s a new week, Daenerys Entertainment’s weekly high-level meeting. The main theme of today’s meeting is the performance summary of Osaka Universal Studios within one month of its opening and the preparation of the European Universal Studios project.
From the beginning of 1995 to the present, the domestic situation in Japan has been gloomy.
On January 17, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake occurred in the Kansai region of Japan. Osaka Universal Studios, which was undergoing final preparations before its opening, was also affected to a certain extent. Fortunately, it did not affect the established opening schedule.
On March 20, the Tokyo subway sarin gas incident broke out, resulting in a huge tragedy that caused more than 5,000 casualties. With only two weeks to go until the opening, the theme park team had to urgently and significantly strengthen the security measures of Universal Studios Osaka in order to ensure that everything was as safe as possible. , Simon also mobilized a group of Westeros family's private intelligence teams to go to Japan, forming a protective dark network under the surface security team.
Affected by two consecutive large-scale negative events, the Nikkei Index, which was already stable at around 20,000 points, has fallen sharply in recent months. It fell below the low of 15,000 points in less than half a year, with an overall decline of more than 25%. As a result, the Japanese economy Suffered heavy losses.
April 6th.
Universal Studios Osaka opened under such stormy conditions, and the theme park team lowered its initial target of 10 million visitors in the first year of opening by 2 million, and used a series of promotions to attract tourists.
The target of 8 million visitors in the first year of opening is only half of the 16 million visitors to Tokyo Disneyland in 1994.
However, Universal Studios Osaka cannot compare with Tokyo Disneyland in terms of construction scale or location. Under the current social situation, it is considered a success to have 8 million tourists in the first year of opening.
Facts have also proven that the sluggish social environment has indeed had an impact on Universal Studios Osaka. Fortunately, the impact is far less serious than previously expected. It has even triggered the 'lipstick effect' in which entertainment becomes more prosperous as the economy becomes more depressed. Propensity.
On the first day of its opening, Universal Studios Osaka attracted 46,000 tourists.
This data slightly exceeded expectations, indicating that Japanese tourists have a fairly stable demand for theme parks.
In the first weekend that followed, it once again set a new single-day high of 53,000 tourists.
Then, during the Easter event around April 16, the number of tourists was also very impressive. The two-day weekend of April 15 and April 16 attracted a total of more than 100,000 tourists.
In the end, from April 6 to May 7, the first month of operation, Osaka Universal Studios delivered a very good report card, attracting a total of 970,000 tourists, exceeding the team’s initial estimate of 900,000 tourists. Monthly goals.
970,000 in the first month. If directly multiplied by 12, it means that the number of tourists in the first year of opening will exceed 11 million.
Of course things don't work out that way.
The outstanding performance in the first month was mainly due to the freshness of the cinema's newly opened location and the attraction of the extensive promotional activities to tourists. This is a very common 'opening effect'.
After the opening effect that lasts for a period of time, the number of tourists will definitely fall back.
After the first month and entering the summer, this kind of popularity can still be maintained. However, if it continues throughout the year, the average number of tourists in a single month may drop by 10% to 20% compared to the first month. Based on this calculation, in the first year of opening, The total number of visitors to Universal Studios Osaka is more than enough to exceed the previously set target of 8 million visitors, and is expected to reach between 8.8 million and 9.9 million.
Of course, no one will be proud of this, because the original goal was 10 million.
And the real test will come after the first year.
Because in the first year of its opening, Universal Studios Osaka is quite new to tourists from Japan and even Asia. Coupled with the large-scale advertising and marketing invested in it, it is completely natural to attract such a large number of tourists.
The key is whether stable operations can be achieved in the future.
Based on the investment scale of Osaka Universal Studios, this theme park can achieve breakeven as long as it attracts 7 million visitors per year.
However, just breaking through this data obviously fell short of Daenerys Entertainment’s expectations.
The purpose of opening a theme park, whether it is Daenerys Entertainment or Japanese shareholders, is to make a profit, and it is definitely not just about breaking even. Tokyo Disneyland's annual net profit in 1994 exceeded US$500 million. If Osaka Universal Studios only pursued a break-even level, it might become a laughing stock in the eyes of many people.
Therefore, at this regular meeting, the senior management of the group did not focus on the number of tourists exceeding expectations in the first month, but mainly focused on summarizing experience and checking for gaps.
According to Simon's request, the Osaka Universal Studios operation team collected a total of 30,000 tourist questionnaires in the first month of operation. Simon actually wanted more, but too frequent questionnaires would inevitably cause trouble to tourists and affect the user experience. On the other hand, various departmental attractions also collect quite detailed data.
Finally, it was summarized into three parts: 'highlights', 'disadvantages' and 'expectations'.
In the first month of its opening, the biggest highlight of Universal Studios Osaka surprised everyone, and it turned out to be the sales of peripheral products in the store inside the studio.
In order to welcome the opening of Universal Studios Osaka, Daenerys Entertainment has specially customized a large number of new peripheral products, many of which are limited editions that are unique to the Japanese market at least, involving Pixar animation series, DC movie universe series, Jurassic Park series and other core IPs of Daenerys Entertainment.
With 970,000 visitors in the first month, Universal Studios Osaka’s ticket revenue was 7.1 billion yen, equivalent to US$68 million based on recent exchange rates. As for the peripheral products that should have been the icing on the cake, sales in the first month reached 8.3 billion yen, which was higher than ticket sales, equivalent to US$77 million. Because of their popularity, many limited edition peripherals were out of stock.
The last item of main revenue is food and accommodation. In this regard, Universal Studios is far from being able to compare with Disneyland. However, its revenue in the first month reached 2.7 billion yen, equivalent to 26 million U.S. dollars.
After calculation, the total revenue of Universal Studios Osaka in the first month of its opening reached 18.1 billion yen, equivalent to US$175 million.
Taking Tokyo Disney as a comparison, Universal Studios Osaka's ticket revenue accounted for 39%, which is far lower than Tokyo Disney's recent 51%. The high proportion of peripheral product revenue of 45% is far higher than Tokyo Disney's 27%, and it directly hits Disney's fundamental advantage. The only backward catering and accommodation is 16%, which is far behind Disney's 24%, because this originally It is not the core business of Universal Studios Osaka.
After analysis, it is not difficult to find that more than half of Tokyo Disney's ticket revenue actually means the decline of the entire Disney company. In recent years, the company's high-quality content has become less and less attractive, resulting in tourists spending less and less inside the park in addition to tickets.
In contrast, Daenerys Entertainment’s current content advantage can only be described as powerful.
In the past few years, most of the blockbuster Hollywood movies at the box office were produced by Daenerys Entertainment, and top IPs have almost a monopoly. These super blockbusters have frequently sold well in Japan, successfully breaking through cultural barriers. In the end, the success resulted in Universal Studios Osaka’s sales of peripheral products being higher than ticket sales in the first month of its opening.
On the other hand, the results are gratifying, but they also indirectly show that Daenerys’ entertainment consumer products department has not done enough to develop the Japanese market. Nancy Brill, who is in charge of this part of the business, said on the spot that she would come up with a copy as soon as possible. Peripheral product development plan for the Japanese market.
In addition to the encouraging sales of peripheral products, the three major projects in the studio, Jaws Water Park, Jurassic Park and Pixar World, have also become the most popular attractions of this theme park in the first month of its opening.
All these actually mean that content is the foundation of a movie theme park.
Only by continuing to release high-quality movies can Daenerys Entertainment maintain Universal Studios' long-term appeal to tourists.
There is no shortage of highlights, but there are also many shortcomings.
According to visitor feedback and team evaluation, the biggest flaw of Universal Studios Osaka is that it is too small.
This is the consequence of Simon's original conservative construction strategy.
Tokyo Disney, which has not yet begun construction of the second phase of Ocean Park, has a total area of 250 acres including supporting facilities, while Universal Studios Osaka only occupies 100 acres.
This inevitably leads to the relative congestion of the attractions inside Osaka Universal Studios, which in turn reduces the time tourists spend in the studio. Because the area is too small, the flow of people is too concentrated, and the queues at many popular attractions are very serious, which also reduces tourists’ visit. experience.
Unfortunately, this shortcoming cannot be made up for in the short term.
After all, theme parks in Japan are still mainly for Japanese tourists. The potential tourists in the Kanto Circle where Tokyo Disney is located reach 30 million, but there are only 10 million potential consumers around the Kansai Circle where Osaka Universal Studios is located. If Osaka Universal Studios follows If Tokyo Disneyland is built to the specifications, the visitor experience will definitely be greatly improved. However, Daenerys Entertainment will have a long way to go to recover the cost.
Simon's plan is to operate it for three years first, and after three years, decide whether to expand the cinema based on specific circumstances. After all, the biggest role of Universal Studios is not only to make profits, but also to promote the Daenerys entertainment brand. As long as it is not Paris Disney's protracted pit, appropriately expanded, would certainly do more good than harm to Daenerys' entertainment.
At the moment, we can only choose to make up for the defects that can be improved.
Fortunately, several other shortcomings, such as the performance program is somewhat out of the understanding of Japanese audiences, the internal restaurant is too small to meet the needs, and some attractions are not friendly enough for children, can all be improved.
This is also in line with the original plan of the park.
Even the most successful Disney World in Orlando at this stage actually suffered losses initially. The key is to continuously improve the visitor experience based on demand after opening, rather than resting on its laurels.
Of course, for a project like Disneyland Paris, there is no possibility of reversal due to serious mistakes in the initial location selection and the complete loss of control of the scale of construction. When this theme park opened, even with the opening effect, the number of visitors in the first month was less than half of the expected number.
In comparison, the situation at Universal Studios Osaka is much better.
Even after earthquakes and terrorist attacks, the downturn in the general environment forced the operation team to lower expectations. The results in the first month of opening were still quite satisfactory, rather than a failure like Disneyland Paris.
Finally, there is the 'Expectations' option in the survey.
This survey is primarily intended to assess future expansion.
Then I discovered that the new attraction that visitors to Universal Studios Osaka were most looking forward to was the roller coaster.
Disney parks in North America and overseas have corresponding 'Indiana Jones Roller Coaster' projects, which are very popular.
In the initial planning, Osaka Universal Studios actually had a similar roller coaster project called 'Space Fantasy Train', but it was not a real roller coaster, but an indoor simulation experience, which was cut due to safety technology and other reasons.
Moreover, there is actually another reason for not building a roller coaster.
Roller coasters are actually a standard feature of amusement parks, and there is no shortage of amusement parks around the world. If Osaka Universal Studios also has a large roller coaster project, it will probably give the audience the impression that this is an amusement park rather than a theme park.
Universal Studios will try its best to cater to the needs of tourists, but it will never be unreliable. It is fundamental to protect the group culture of Daenerys Entertainment as much as possible.
If it loses its cultural characteristics, it will really become an ordinary amusement park.
However, after discussion, including Simon himself, everyone felt that it was very necessary to restart a roller coaster project. A plan was brainstormed on site to set up a roller coaster attraction through the dinosaur world in Jurassic Park. Of course, This will inevitably mean additional investment. During the construction process, the popular Jurassic Park attraction will need to be closed, so it can only be placed in the planning for the time being and is unlikely to be implemented in the short term.
After discussing Universal Studios Osaka, the next step is Universal Studios Europe, which is planned to be built in Rome, Italy.
Now that the site selection has been finalized internally, the correct name can actually be called 'Universal Studios Rome', just like the now renamed 'Disneyland Paris'. There is no need to give it a big name. Universal Studios Rome is also easier for tourists to associate with the location of this Universal Studios.
Although it turns out that Universal Studios Osaka is slightly smaller in scale, Simon is still not blind about Universal Studios Rome, and has no intention of encircling 5,000 acres of land like Disneyland Paris.
Of course, compared to Universal Studios Osaka, the area of Universal Studios Rome will definitely be larger. After all, Italy is not as expensive as Japan. Coupled with the economic development gap, both land expenses and construction costs will be much lower. Similarly With a cost of US$2 billion, if placed in Italy, doubling the area would not be a problem.
The regular meeting ends and it is already 12 noon.
Simon, Amy and others had lunch together, and when they returned to the office, Girl A also sent Daenerys Entertainment stock price information after the stock market closed on the east coast.
At the same time as the discussion meeting was held today, media on various platforms in North America have widely released information about the performance of Universal Studios Osaka in the first month of its opening.
Daenerys Entertainment has internally lowered its original visitor forecast of 10 million to 8 million, and this matter will certainly not be announced to the public. The focus of the publicity was the good start with 970,000 visitors in the first month, and the news that Universal Studios Osaka would break through the break-even line of 7 million visitors and achieve profitability in the first year.
You won’t want to miss the highlight of the sale of peripheral products at the store inside the cinema.
Anyone who knows a little bit about the industry knows that this part of the income is not distributed according to the shareholding ratio of the studio, but Daenerys Entertainment gets the lion's share, so it is definitely an unexpected surprise.
The lessons learned from the failure of Disneyland Paris and the harsh environment in Japan in the first half of the year had previously made the market very unfavorable about the opening prospects of Universal Studios.
Now, in the first year of operation, Osaka Universal Studios can achieve breakeven while reaping part of the profits. It does not require additional funding from Daenerys and Japanese shareholders, which is the biggest benefit for this theme park.
In addition, Universal Studios has made a good start, which has also reduced the market's concerns about Simon's insistence on building European Universal Studios.
As a result, as of the closing of trading on the East Coast at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, Daenerys Entertainment's stock price rose 0.7% in a single day, and its market value reached a new high, reaching US$141.9 billion. Yaoyao continues to dominate the market, and Yaoyao is ahead of several other Hollywood producers. Film studio.
Daenerys Entertainment’s investigation into the three major established television networks in the United States has concluded.
The group's market value reached a new high. This afternoon, Simon also formally discussed the acquisition of ABC with Amy Pascal.