Whether to fully enter the field of digital music sales is related to the fundamental business strategy of several major record companies.
Eric didn't expect any agreement to be reached at the first meeting between the two parties. He continued to test each other with Edgar Bronfman and Doug Morrison, and agreed on the timing of the next meeting. Say goodbye and leave.
After personally sending Edgar Bronfman and Doug Morrison out of the administration building, Eric returned to the office and picked up the phone to discuss with Firefly Electronics CEO Victor McNally about the relationship he had just had with Edgar Brown. The result of the contact between the two of Fman.
In fact, while Eric was in contact with Universal, Bill Olson, president of Firefly Electronics, had already flown to Europe with a prototype of a mini music store to lobby the two major record companies, EMI and BMG.
Similar to the previous two years, the release time of the new generation of Fireflyer players is also scheduled for Easter in April this year, which is only about a month away from now.
Facing the pressure brought by electronics manufacturers who have announced their entry into the field of digital music players, considering that the mini music store plan will play a strong role in maintaining the leading position in the Fireflyer player market once it succeeds, in the next month, Firefly Electronics will The main focus of work with Yahoo is to reach a close cooperative relationship with at least one of the five major record companies to obtain the music copyright resources of the other party and make up for the shortcomings of the mini music store in terms of content.
Among the five major record companies, due to their own music player products, Sony Records under Sony is undoubtedly the most difficult bone to crack. Eric basically does not report any expectations, so he has no intention of contacting the other party. Warner Music is affiliated to Time Warner, and AOL and Time Warner have just announced their merger. At this time, Time Warner's internal management system, which is already in constant dispute, will become more complicated. The chances of a record cooperation are also close to zero.
Next, only Universal, EMI and BMG are left.
Among the three, Universal Music, which just merged with PolyGram last year to further consolidate its position as the world's largest record group, is undoubtedly the best choice. Although Eric did not show any cards in his statement just now, as long as To be able to facilitate this cooperation, he absolutely does not mind paying a certain price.
Of course, Eric didn't put all his goals on Universal Music, so Bill Olson flew to Europe.
After discussing with Victor McNairy on the phone for more than half an hour, Eric hung up the phone and looked at his watch. There was still some time before get off work, so he opened a document on the desk and picked it up next to him. pencil.
The action of holding the pen in the right hand inevitably affected the bite marks on the outside of the arm that had begun to scab, so he couldn't help but lift his sleeves and look at the gauze wrapped around his arm.
After what happened that afternoon, because the children were frightened and the shocking bite marks on Eric's arm, Virginia severely reprimanded Eric indiscriminately, even Joanna rarely Showed little emotion.
Back in Los Angeles, the scene became even more lively. Women came to watch the 'tragedy' of Eric being bitten.
The girl expressed her envy and wanted to bite Eric's arm again to leave her mark.
The chick's attention was on how Eric provoked the girl named Carmen Keith.
Elizabeth threw out two words directly, and she deserved it.
Julia looked very distressed, but her little eyes seemed to want Eric to do the same to her.
Nicole carefully checked Eric's wound, she was very sympathetic, but "accidentally" tore off a newly formed blood scab, and then claimed innocently that she had obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Famke felt that the bite mark was a bit off. It might look better if it could be bitten in the center of the outer arm.
All right.
They're all heartless.
Only Caroline showed a very distressed look after seeing the bite marks on Eric's arm, and called Olivia to tell it, and then naturally there was another concern from the UK.
Before I knew it, I thought of the girl with the petite face and decisive eyes. Paris Fashion Week opened today, and she should have started to walk the catwalk by now.
Thinking of this, he reviewed a few more documents. When he was about to leave work, the secretary knocked on the door and said that Kenneth Horn was outside.
Letting the other party in with some doubts, Kenneth Horn walked into the office with a very excited expression on his face, and said, "Eric, I just received calls from managers of several theaters. "How is the attendance rate?"
"It must be very good." Eric put down the pencil, changed the pen to sign his name at the end of a document, and then smiled: "Otherwise, you wouldn't have come here in such a hurry."
"It's not very good, it's really good," Kenneth Horn pulled up a chair and sat down opposite Eric, and said, "The manager of REGR Cinemas told me that the 50 screening halls they arranged for Almost all of them are full, and tomorrow’s movie tickets are already sold out. The same is true for several other theaters, and they suggested that we immediately increase the scale of the film schedule.”
Eric nodded and said: "Then increase it, you can arrange these things yourself."
Firefly is naturally different from the previous artisans, and this is the off-season for movies. If necessary, if you want to increase the scale of screenings, it only takes a week to get everything done.
"Hey, Eric, you don't seem to be excited at all," Kenneth Horn deliberately showed dissatisfaction, and said, "You know, a movie with an investment of 32,000 US dollars, even with the post-repair costs , and only $60,000. If all 200 screening halls are full in the next week, we can definitely create a box office miracle.”
"We have created enough miracles." Eric put down the pen with a smile, raised his head, and said, "Well, since you are so excited, here is a chance for you to invite me to dinner tonight. You can call Jeffrey and the others. Of course, if you haven’t made an appointment with your family to go back to dinner.”
Kenneth Horn nodded a little 'depressedly', and gossiped: "Today is Friday, don't you have any plans?"
"No."
Eric moved his wrist slightly, and after the women watched for a while, he was in a state of deliberately ignoring him recently.
While the two were talking, Eric's personal cell phone rang. He glanced at the incoming call and connected it directly in front of Kenneth Horn: "Hey, Warren, long time no see... Of course, what about you... I'm still in Firefly Studios, and I'm planning to invite everyone to have dinner together, do you want to come... Oh, tell me where you live, and I'll have someone pick you up."
After chatting for a few words, Eric hung up the phone.
Seeing that Eric didn't hide himself, Kenneth Horn asked, "Warren, Warren Buffett?"
Eric nodded and said, "It should be for the Clover Fund."
Although Kenneth Horn has not been able to directly see the financial data of the Clover Fund, this matter is not a secret to an executive of his grade, so he asked curiously: "Speaking of which, the Clover Fund The value of its stock should now be 30 billion U.S. dollars, right?"
"It broke through $30 billion last week."
"I don't know much about stocks," Kenneth Horn said with a surprised expression, "However, Eric, I heard that the Nasdaq index is already shaky, and everyone is selling technology stocks now. You should also be more Be cautious."
Although Eric will not easily change his decision, he will not accept others' kind advice, nodded and said: "I understand, hey, call Jeffrey and the others, since Warren is here, everyone Let's entertain together."
"I think you just want us to be there, so that Buffett can't talk to persuade you to sell the stock," Kenneth Horn smiled and poked Eric's intentions, but still took out his mobile phone and started calling.
Although Berkshire Hathaway only holds 5% of the shares of Firefly Group, if the shares worth 3 million US dollars can be cashed out, even after various handling fees and taxes, Berkshire Hathaway will still Can get at least 1 billion US dollars.
1 billion US dollars, for any enterprise, is a cash that cannot be ignored.
However, once the Nasdaq crashes, the shares of the Clover Fund are likely to be locked up for a long time. Unless they cut their flesh and leave the market, it is impossible to cash out any cash in the short term.
As a person who is extremely conservative and cautious in his bones, Warren Buffett obviously does not want to see this situation happen, so he rushed from Omaha to Los Angeles in a hurry.
However, during the dinner at night, no matter how much the old man persuaded, Eric did not intend to sell the shares of the Clover Fund in advance.
Things have developed to the present, Eric is actually completely gambling.
As long as the Nasdaq index can successfully cross the threshold of 3,000 points without collapsing, according to the previous upward curve of the Nasdaq index, the cash scale cashed out by the Clover Fund in the future is likely to reach more than 40 billion or even 50 billion US dollars.
At that time, even after paying all kinds of taxes, Firefly Group can still retain about 30 billion to 35 billion US dollars in cash.
Such a huge amount of funds, coupled with the cash reserves of Firefly Investment, is enough for Eric to take the opportunity to further expand the territory of the Firefly system's economic empire when the North American economy is in a downturn after the Nasdaq crashes. Dilution of the shareholding ratio of own enterprises.
The lobbying was ineffective, and Buffett left Los Angeles the next day in dismay.
At the same time, although the weekend has not yet passed, news about "The Blair Witch" may create a box office miracle has already spread across North America, and a large number of media have published photos of long queues of fans outside theaters playing "The Blair Witch".
Moreover, some professional film critics have also joined in and began to discuss the "Blair Witch" phenomenon enthusiastically.
Although most film critics still mercilessly criticized "The Blair Witch" completely, and unceremoniously through various professional analysis, they revealed that "The Blair Witch" is definitely just a man-made film rather than an adventure documentary However, the matter has developed to the present level, and the public no longer cares about the truth or falsehood of the Blair Witch incident.
Everyone is just curious about what this film that seems to be discussed all over the world looks like.
So, after three days of the first weekend, the box office data for the new week was released, and the breathtaking box office data of "The Blair Witch" once again added a hot topic of discussion to this film.
$11.2 million.
Here's the three-day box office stats for The Blair Witch's opening weekend.
The box office is only in the early 10 million. For many blockbuster films, if they achieve such results in the first three days, it can definitely be said to be a disastrous failure at the box office.
But at this time, after a series of data disclosures, everyone can only describe it as a miracle.
Because the filming cost of "The Blair Witch" was only $32,000.
Even including the quality restoration that Firefly did to make the copy, the total cost was only $60,000.
A $60,000 production budget, and that's only second to none.
What's even more rare is that the screening scale of this film is only 200 screens, which is equivalent to three days in the first weekend, and the box office of each screening hall has reached 56,000 US dollars.
Without comparison, there is naturally no harm.
Look at the Mel Gibson crime action blockbuster "Dangerous People", which was released at the same time.
In the second week of the film's release, the box office of the second weekend was US$14.37 million, which was US$3 million higher than that of "The Blair Witch". The cumulative box office in ten days was US$41.33 million.
However, the scale of "Dangerous Man" was indeed more than 2,700 screens, and the single box office in the same period was only a little over 5,000 US dollars, less than one-tenth of "The Blair Witch". Moreover, the production cost of "Dangerous Person" reached 90 million US dollars, which is equivalent to 1,500 times the entire production budget of "The Blair Witch".
With such a disparity in production costs and the scale of the release, the box office of "Dangerous Man" only surpassed "The Blair Witch" by a mere $3 million. In any case, it can only be described as a failure.
Of course, there is another problem here.
Why is Mel Gibson, a big-budget movie with an investment of 90 million US dollars, thrown in the March schedule like a cemetery
the reason is simple.
Because this film was entirely financed by Mel Gibson's personal production company Icon Entertainment, and no major studios participated in the production.
Although the film is distributed by Paramount, Paramount will naturally only reserve the best schedule and publicity resources for its own films. As for the films of other independent film companies, even if there are big stars and big investment Without its own participation, Paramount will naturally not devote itself to it, and will even tacitly focus on suppressing it.
Speaking of which, after Columbia gave up distribution, Adam Sandler worked alone with an independent film company "Dad Going Forward". Although Warner Bros. was finally confirmed as the distributor, the schedule was still determined to be at the end of the summer. August.
Although Hollywood movies are also becoming more and more prosperous, with the completion of the integration of media groups, it will become more difficult for independent film companies to get a piece of the pie from Haolai.