At the end of May, the USD 8 billion bonds issued by Firefly Group for the acquisition of ab gradually entered the stage of actual distribution. Therefore, as the first summer vacation after completing the acquisition of ab TV network, this summer is very important for Firefly. Once the summer movies cannot continue the excellent box office performance of Firefly movies in the past few years, it will seriously hit the investment institutions' interest in the bonds of Firefly Group.
Although the acquisition of ab by Firefly has been settled, in recent months, the attention of investors and the media on Firefly Group has not diminished in the slightest.
Under the attention of a lot of attention, the three films released by Firefly this summer have also aroused overwhelming doubts. Whether it is the war film "Saving Private Ryan" or the 2D animation "The Lion King", they are not favored by the media and investment institutions. . Similarly, because Arnold Schwarzenegger just stumbled in "The Last Action Hero" last year, this year's "True Lies" co-operated with Cameron has not yet been released, and it has already caused some naysayers hiss.
Moreover, the critics have blamed Firefly's practice of giving up its advantages in G special effects films and making "unpopular" films on Eric's personal blindness and arrogance, claiming that Eric has been completely overwhelmed by previous successes. Dizzy, thinking of himself as an omnipotent God. At the same time, many shareholders, including Buffett, asked Eric for other purposes for handing over popular special effects film projects such as "Men in Black", "Night at the Museum", and "Resident Evil", although these shareholders all used one Eric can still feel strong distrust from the harmless discussion tone, and he also understands the subtext of these shareholders asking him not to support 'competitors'.
The trip to Boston, which was originally planned for a week, was postponed from May 9th to May 25th. Although many things are still unfinished. However, Firefly Group is an important source of funds for Eric's subsequent series of industrial layouts. Therefore, feeling the growing restlessness of the dark forces targeting the Firefly Group inside and outside Hollywood, Eric handed over the cooperation negotiations with Microsoft to Chris and the Yahoo management team and hurried back to Los Angeles to preside over the situation.
As soon as Firefly's business plane landed at Los Angeles Santa Monica Airport, Eric rushed to Firefly's headquarters in Burbank.
"Beverly Hills Cop 3, out today and The Mummy in two days, will be serious rivals to Saving Private Ryan a week later, Paramount has arranged for Beverly Hills Cop 3 More than 2,900 opening screens, Universal Pictures' hair strategy for "The Mummy" is obviously imitating last year's "Jurassic Park", and the premiere canvas even reached 3,100. Paramount's other film " Star Trek 7's release time follows "True Lies" on June 10, and its schedule is scheduled for June 17. The cost of this film is only 35 million US dollars. The quality is definitely not comparable to "True Lies", but Therefore, Paramount has no box office pressure, and the announcement is very calm. Moreover, the "Star Trek" series has accumulated popularity for decades. Influence. In the end, Warner Pictures suddenly adjusted its schedule at the beginning of the month and chose to release it at the same time as "The Lion King" on June 24. The intention of targeting is even more obvious." In the conference room of Firefly headquarters, Michael . Lynn introduced the recent situation with a worried face.
Eric listened to Michael Lynn finish speaking. Asked: "What about July?"
Michael Lynn knew that Eric was asking about the situation of the two films "Charlie's Angels" and "Men in Black" in July. These two films were released by MGM and Columbia respectively, but Firefly still occupied the A large part of the rights: ""Charlie's Angels", "Men in Black" and...Fox's "Dumb and Dumber 2" did not have comparable competitors in the same period."
In the original time and space, the reason why "Dumb and Dumber 2" appeared more than ten years later was mainly because the producer's new line couldn't afford Jim Carrey after the first part of "Dumb and Dumber". Now "Dumb and Dumber" The copyright of "Agua" fell into the hands of the rich and powerful Fox, of course, this problem is no longer a problem, and it is not surprising to launch a sequel. After hearing what Michael Lynn said, Eric smiled lightly, and said, "They are quite relaxed."
Michael Lynn said: "I have been keeping the public relations department concerned about the recent trend of public relations, and have sent lawyer letters to six maliciously attacked newspapers and TV stations. The publicity department has drawn up an additional 10 million US dollars for each film. The plan for publicity expenses, I sent someone to your email last night, maybe you haven't had time to read it yet."
Eric nodded first, expressing his affirmation of Michael Lynn's work, but then shook his head and said: "There is no need to add additional promotional fees. The average promotional fee for each of the three films is 40 million US dollars. The advertising effect has reached Saturated, it’s not worth the loss if you continue to add more. This is not the first time we have encountered this kind of thing. There is no need for us to rush to deal with it when others put on a pose. In fact, you should be able to see that they are betting that Firefly will This summer file encountered Waterloo. Whether it was the unpopular "Saving Private Ryan", the genre failure "True Lies", or "The Lion King", which completely changed the publicity strategy, they all gave them a feeling that Firefly is likely to encounter The hint of failure, they are just waiting for this moment to come, and then make the firefly's failure more thorough." Speaking of this, Eric smiled confidently and said: "But they haven't considered it, Perhaps, the situation they imagined will be completely reversed?"
The Firefly Group has developed to the current level, and the competition with several other major film companies, some small means in private have no effect. In the final analysis, it is the competition of film quality, and this point, Eric has the advantage of absolutely They are incomparable. Not only that, Eric also decisively handed over the daily management of Firefly Group to more professional Katzenberg, Michael Lynn and others, and devoted most of his energy to film production. It can be said that he put his own The 'advantage' has been brought into full play. In this case, the original time and space produced have proved the box office potential of the film. Even because of the butterfly effect. The box office cannot reach the level of the original time and space. But the possibility of complete failure is also very small.
Eric's words seemed to give everyone present a reassurance. Prior to this, Michael Lynn and others were more or less similarly worried due to the influence of external public opinion.
The mind calmed down, and everyone began to discuss the next countermeasures.
The reason for the current situation is not only that the expansion of Firefly Group’s power has squeezed the status of other film companies in the same industry, but also the influence of other shareholders of Firefly and the power of Wall Street capital. Now is the most critical moment for the bond issuance of Firefly Group, once the bond issuance of 8 billion US dollars is blocked. According to the additional terms of Firefly's acquisition of ab, Firefly either chooses to increase the interest rate; or chooses to reduce the share of bond issuance, and the gap will continue to be paid with equity. No matter which of these two outcomes is, investors are happy to see it.
Therefore, Katzenberg, who came back from New York, said: "Eric, when I was in New York, Tom Murphy asked me more than once about the cooperation between Firefly and Sony and MGM. We cannot change the established contract." But I think we should take back the distribution rights of Miss Barrymore's "Mission: Impossible" and "Night at the Museum" and other films. Given the current situation in Colombia, there should be little resistance. Doing so can also greatly improve With the confidence of those shareholders and creditors in the company, we will have much less resistance to issuing bonds.”
A few years passed. Columbia was already in a mess under the management of Peter Guber. At this time, there is really little resistance to finding a reason to get back the distribution rights. But many of Eric's plans will be interrupted: "Columbia will not only bear 50% of the publicity costs of these films, but also only take 15% of the box office, even if we can still get from "Independence Day", "Jurassic" "Park 2" squeezed out distribution resources in these films, so it's impossible for Firefly to offer such a condition?"
Katzenberg nodded helplessly. With the current average distribution fee of more than 40 million U.S. dollars for big-budget movies, if Columbia wants to recover the cost from the investment, it needs Huahua Films' films to guarantee a North American box office of 130 million U.S. dollars. Of course, this Once Columbia obtained the overseas distribution rights, it could also earn some profits, but the video tapes and peripheral copyrights of the film and television are still owned by Huahua Film Industry. Huge profits in US dollars, the fat was divided up by Huahua Films and Firefly, Colombia, one of the seven big ones, was reduced to a soup eater, and these "soups" will definitely be used by Peter Guber in the form of bonuses and dividends Put it in your pocket. Katzenberg felt that if he was the majority shareholder of Columbia, he would absolutely use all means to throw managers like Peter Cooper into prison, but the fantastic reality is that Sony still treats this executive very much. Rest assured, and everyone in Hollywood knows that things are going from bad to worse in Columbia.
"Eric, since the most important issue at present is to ensure the smooth issuance of corporate bonds, I think all we need is some good news that can really stimulate the market." After Michael Lynn said so, all the participants in the meeting Everyone looked at Eric.
Of course Eric knew what this group of people were thinking, and said with a smile: "It just so happens that I wrote a good script recently, and I plan to invite Julia Roberts as the heroine. Maybe I can announce the news tomorrow."
"It's not enough," Frank Wells said at this time: "Eric, you'd better direct yourself like "Pretty Woman". Since last year's "Jurassic Park", everyone has been I'm concerned about what your next film will be."
Eric spread his hands and said helplessly: "But you know, I have other things to do, at worst, I will be the producer myself."
Katzenberg said: "Eric, I remember you said that for the "Matrix" plan, if you can announce this project at the same time, the effect will definitely be better."
Eric thought for a while, "The Matrix" can also be put on the agenda at this time, and said: "No problem, you can prepare the press release later, and I will not participate in the press conference. In the next few days I will Need to check the production progress of all the projects in hand.”
After confirming this matter, Katzenberg briefly described the progress of the reorganization of the ab TV network, and the heads of various departments reported some trivial matters, and the meeting was considered to be over.
On the way back to Sharp Point Manor, Eric accidentally fell asleep in the car. When he opened his eyes, he found that he was still leaning on the back seat of the car, but there was Xiao Nizi's soft body next to him. Also covered with a blanket.
Thinking that every time he returned to Los Angeles, Drew would always appear by his side immediately, and Eric felt a warm feeling in his heart.
It should be in the garage, but it must have been dark outside, and I felt a little tired for no reason. Eric didn't bother to see what time it was, and didn't mind people in the car. He planned to continue sleeping with Xiao Nizi in his arms, but maybe Feeling his movement, Drew woke up.
"Eric..." lazily called out, the girl rubbed against him as usual, and then yelled dissatisfiedly: "It's so dark, Natasha, turn on the light."
Eric couldn't help smiling in the dark, and was about to remind him that he was in the car. After a soft sound, the lights in the car came on. Only then was Eric surprised to find that there were two identical figures sitting in the front row, and this was not the Mercedes he was sitting in when he came back, but another off-road vehicle with a large compartment. Eric doesn't have the habit of collecting cars, but Xiao Nizi often buys some luxury cars and saves them unconsciously. There are more than 20 cars parked in the underground garage of the manor, because they are rarely driven. Most of them are brand new.
Looking at the little girl who was smiling like a flower and wanted to act like a baby, Eric pinched her little ears and said, "Why do you let them sit in front?"
Drew giggled, "Do you want them to sit in the back?"
"Yeah, then you go to the front seat and drive." Eric said helplessly, then opened the door and got out of the car, Xiao Nizi and the twins also got out of the car.
Eric looked at another strange off-road vehicle in front of him, kicked the tires, and asked, "Is this a Hummer? When did you like this kind of car?"
"I bought it for you," Drew came over and took Eric's arm, and said, "Birthday gift."
Only then did Eric remember that he had just passed his 24th birthday, he shrugged indifferently, walked outside, and said, "I'm not a coal digger, why do I need a Hummer."
Drew didn't understand what the coal digger was, and Eric pouted dissatisfiedly to claim credit: "This is for military use, it's very strong."
"Then what… "
Drew blinked his eyes, and seemed to realize that... However, it was useless. Eric seldom drives by himself now, let alone drive around in such a ostentatious military vehicle: "If you don't like it, it's fine." It's just a birthday present."
Eric pretended to be curious and asked: "Oh, there is a backup, tell me?"
Xiao Nizi pointed to the twins who followed quietly behind her: "Hey, the two of them." (To be continued.)