After communicating with Amy Pascal, Eric temporarily let go of the affairs of Huahua Pictures.
After Halloween, the time has entered November 1993. The total box office of "Jurassic Park" worldwide is getting closer and closer to 1 billion US dollars, which also caused a lot of media enthusiasm after breaking the box office record of "et" at the beginning. discuss.
Eric these days is living a busy life of shuttling between different studios or studios. While checking the preparations or production progress of the big-budget film involved in Firefly, Eric also has to take care of the acquisition process of the TV network. From time to time, there are party invitations that can't be turned down.
Fortunately, Firefly's film publicity department is very mature. Under the control of Michael Lynn, Katzenberg and others, Eric doesn't need to worry about the release of the film at the end of the year, otherwise he will be even busier.
Another day's work, Eric watched the filming progress of "Men in Black", talked and laughed with Peter Cooper, and walked out of the studio of Columbia Film Company in Culver City. He just planned to get in the car and leave. The phone rang.
The call was from Michael Lynn. The two briefly said something on the phone. Eric gave up the idea of going back to Malibu and told the driver to go to the headquarters of Firefly Films in Burbank.
Walking into a conference room at the Firefly headquarters in Burbank, Eric found that Michael Lynn, Jeffrey Katzenberg and other major firefly executives had already appeared here.
However, Eric was keenly aware of the slight joy on the faces of these people, so he let go of his original worries. Simply said hello. Eric sat down in his seat. He smiled and asked, "Is there any good news?"
Michael Lynn, who was sitting next to Eric, handed a document to Eric. Some excitedly said: "The latest box office statistics have been released. The latest box office data of "Jurassic Park" is 1 billion 2.3 million US dollars. Eric, your original prediction has come true. Because today is Wednesday, The box office data for this week’s weekdays will not be available until Friday, so most people in the outside world don’t know this data yet, but we can publicly announce this news tomorrow.”
Eric opened the file and saw the box office data of more than 50 countries in the file table, as well as the eye-catching 1 million data results at the end of the table. Nodding in satisfaction, he put the documents aside, and asked Michael Lynn, "I don't think it's just this matter that you called me over in such a hurry, right?"
"Let Jeffrey do the talking," Michael Lynn pointed to Katzenberg.
Katzenberg handed over an envelope: "Eric, this is a letter from Warren Buffett that we just received this afternoon, please read it first."
Eric was not too surprised to hear Buffett's name. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is one of the major shareholders of ABC TV. Holding more than 25% of abc's equity in its hands, Firefly wants to acquire abc. In any case, it is certainly impossible to bypass Buffett's hurdle.
Opening the envelope, there is only a simple piece of letter paper inside, and the content is also very simple. Buffett hopes to invite Eric to Omaha to talk about abc.
The envelope did not have any seal or postmark. Obviously, this letter was handed over by someone else, not sent by post.
After reading the text message, Eric looked up and said, "Have you all read it?"
Michael and others nodded at the same time.
Katzenberg is the main person in charge of the abc acquisition. At this time, he said: "From this letter, it can be seen that Buffett should have discovered our intention."
Eric folded the letter and put it back in the envelope, and asked, "Jeffrey, how are you doing?"
Katzenberg said: "In order to avoid attracting too much attention, we have also absorbed the stocks of the three major TV stations in the secondary market. At present, we have about 7% of the ABC stocks in our hands, and the other two are relatively small. They are all in the stock market." In addition, the share price of abc has also risen from $43 three months ago to $47 now, with a total market value of $96.7 billion.”
Firefly originally planned to absorb about 10% of abc's shares, then make public the news and join the abc board of directors, but now that Buffett has noticed this, it must not be so easy to implement the original plan.
Eric thought for a moment, and said: "Sell all the stocks of the other two companies for cash as soon as possible, and announce the news that the box office of "Jurassic Park" will exceed 1 billion tomorrow. In addition, send a reply letter to Mr. Buffett, inviting him to participate in the competition." Celebration of "Jurassic Park" breaking $1 billion worldwide."
"Eric, this may not necessarily be able to seize the initiative," said Frank Wells, who had been silent just now: "Although Berkshire Hathaway only owns 25% of abc shares, at this time abc chairman Tom Murphy is also a major shareholder and a good friend of Warren Buffett, I think if we are interested in acquiring, you'd better go to Omaha yourself."
After Frank Wells finished speaking, although several executives over the age of 50 in the conference room did not speak, Eric could still see expressions of approval from the faces of Jeffrey, Michael Lynn and others. For their generation, Buffett is a wealth legend, and Eric can also appreciate their admiration for Buffett.
But Eric has other considerations. During this period of time, Eric has devoted a lot of energy to the acquisition preparations of the TV network. For Buffett, who directly controls a large amount of shares in abc, it is impossible for Eric not to do anything. learn.
Buffett is definitely a person who makes decisions before making moves. If there is no decision in his heart, Eric believes that it is absolutely impossible for him to receive this invitation letter from Buffett today. At the same time, Buffett has absolute rationality in investment, and Eric believes that the opponent will not easily change his attitude towards him because of the change of home court.
In addition to these, Eric of course also has the idea of taking some initiative, although Michael Lynn and others are not optimistic. Eric would not fail to try.
"Okay. Let's make a decision like this. Everyone get ready." Eric waved his hand lightly, and the matter was completely settled.
Firefly announced the news that "Jurassic Park" had surpassed one billion at the global box office the next day. However, the celebration banquet was arranged a week later. The main reason for this was to leave enough money for the stocks of NBC and CBS. time.
At the same time, after receiving a reply from Firefly, Buffett did as Eric expected. Accepted invitation to Jurassic Park celebration party.
As the Thanksgiving holiday of the new year is approaching, the Thanksgiving-Christmas schedule also starts at the same time. On November 19, Firefly launched the last film "Aeroplane 2" in cooperation with Jim Carrey. The first weekend is very exciting. Unexpectedly, it made nearly 30 million US dollars at the box office. "Interview with the Vampire" and Quentin's "Pulp Fiction", which are mainly responsible for impacting the Oscars, are scheduled for December.
In the same week, Columbia Pictures released Broken Arrow, the second film directed by Wu Baige in Hollywood. The performance of this film was not as good as last year's "Mr. Under the influence of ", White Pigeon Wu has accumulated a good box office foundation in North America. "Broken Arrow" also won a box office of 32 million US dollars in the first three days of the weekend. Because the cost of this film is relatively low, as long as it is less than 50 million US dollars. So cost recovery is no problem at all.
However, to the surprise of many people, the dark horse at the box office at the end of this year was not any of the films such as "Aeroplane 2" and "Broken Arrow". The box office of this family comedy starring Robin Williams is close to 20 million US dollars within three days of its release, and its reputation is so good that the box office statistics agency based on the box office curve of the first week As well as the audience's word of mouth, it gave an astonishing estimate of US$200 million North American box office, several of which are ten times the production cost of the film.
Because of this incident, Elizabeth involuntarily raised her chin when she saw Eric during this period, with a proud little look, and she didn't calm down until she was severely punished by Eric.
On November 22, near the evening, although the celebration party had not yet started, the Angle Manor was already overcrowded. Eric took Jeffrey to hide by a seat in the open space outside the villa, jokingly said: "Jeffrey, I I think you made the biggest mistake by insisting that I put the "Jurassic Park" celebration party in Pointe Manor. You know, Warren Buffett is a very frugal person, and he hates extravagance and waste by the rich. Maybe he saw These, you are not willing to sell abc to us."
"Buffett's good friend and partner Charlie Munger not only owns his own private jet, but also owns a private island, and I have never seen Buffett break up with him. As far as I know, Buffett is indeed a frugal person, but he does not Force others to do the same. Well, Eric, I know you don't like parties at your estate, today is different, isn't it, even without Warren Buffett, today is Jurassic Park's global box office The celebration banquet of breaking $1 billion, even this point, is worthy of serious celebration."
The two were chatting, and Drew, who was wearing a beautiful red dress, walked over with Amy Pascal, and Xiao Nizi hugged Jeffrey affectionately, and moved closer to Eric.
Jeffrey noticed that Amy Pascal seemed to have something to talk to Eric, so he got up and walked away.
Eric motioned for Amy Pascal to sit down and asked, "Amy, what's the matter?"
Amy Pascal said: "We recently contacted Carlock Films, the company that owns the copyright of "Spider-Man", but the other party did not agree to transfer the copyright to us."
Eric recalled, and asked: "Is Mario Casal in charge of Carlock Films now?"
Amy Pascal nodded, and said: "Since the box office failures of the summer files "The Bear Peak" and "The Last Action Hero", Carlock Films has been in a semi-closed state for the past six months. However, after I contacted Mario Casal, he directly rejected our intention to buy the rights to Spider-Man as soon as I stated my intention."
"Is that all?" Eric asked.
Amy Pascal said: "Of course not, he said that he can cooperate with us to develop "Spider-Man", but he will definitely not sell "Spider-Man" to us."
"He must have guessed that you were the mastermind behind this incident," Xiao Nizi rubbed against Eric, laughing carelessly.
Eric pulled Xiao Nizi's ear and pushed the girl away. After thinking for a moment, he said, "What kind of form does Carlock buy the copyright of "Spider-Man?"
"It seems to be bought for five years, from 1990 to 1995. However, I also found some subsidiary clauses. Within five years, if Carlock Films develops the "Spider-Man" movie, then the copyright will be Automatic extension for five years. Also, the copyright transfer agreement of "Captain America" and "Fantastic Four" is similar to "Spider-Man."
This is a very troublesome thing.
Eric thought about it. He remembered that Carlock Films in the original time and space went bankrupt around 1995, and then the copyright of "Spider-Man" automatically returned to Marvel Comics. It was sold to Sony Pictures once, and since then, because of the success of the big movies developed by Sony, the return of "Spider-Man" has become far away.
Eric quickly thought of other things and asked, "Where are the main shares of Carlock Films now?"
"I'm not sure about this, but the controlling stake should be in the hands of some Wall Street funds. Eric, I'm worried that if Mario Casal reveals this matter, it may attract other film companies to compete for "Spider-Man" Copyright, Marvel Comics may also have trouble."
Eric did not answer Amy's concerns and asked, "If we buy Carlock Films, how much will it cost?"
"Probably, tens of millions of dollars. Although Carlock Films has produced and released many movies in recent years, they have not succeeded much. Otherwise, there would be no bankruptcy status now."
"You collect relevant information. If Mario Casal insists on not letting go, then buy Carlock Films as a whole. I think those people on Wall Street are now very happy to cash out this mess."
Amy asked the same question again: "But what if they realize you're interested in the Spider-Man copyright thing?"
Eric shook his head and smiled: "Don't worry, now is not the time to develop "Spider-Man", otherwise, do you think the seven major film companies will let the leading superheroes of Marvel comics fall into the hands of second- and third-rate film companies, so , even if it is snatched up by other film companies, it’s not a big trouble, the big deal is to launch another acquisition at that time, I still have many years.” (To be continued.)
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