In 1994, the number of members of the Screen Actors Guild of America (SAG) had reached more than 120,000, and the annual income of over 99% of the members was basically the same as that of the working class, and only the top 1% of the pyramid were less than 1% Talented people can live the glamorous and flashy life of Hollywood. While enjoying generous remuneration, these people also hold a large part of Hollywood power.
After the seven major film companies publicly stated that they would reduce the remuneration of top superstars, these top superstars quickly formed an alliance under the tandem of the Actors Association and several major brokerage companies. Almost on the day the seven major film companies announced their announcement, including Harrison Ford , Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson, Bruce Willis and a group of top Hollywood superstars whose salary exceeded tens of millions immediately cut off all the film projects being negotiated with the seven major studios. The spokesperson of the top superstar has also stated without threat that he will refuse to cooperate with the promotion work of the film that has already been filmed.
After the news came out, the entire Hollywood was once again in an uproar.
In recent years, although G special effects movies that rely less on superstars have begun to rise, the films that account for more than half of Hollywood's box office revenue are still inseparable from the participation of these superstars. The influence caused by the actors on the scene is comparable.
The first to be affected by the suspension of first-line superstars is undoubtedly Time Warner, which has been taking the superstar route since the Steve Ross era. Warner has just gone through a dismal summer, and eo Terry Semel has been living his life with trepidation in recent times, but as Warner is working with Robert De Niro, Kevin Costner, Arnold Schwarzenegger Terry Semel was once again attacked by shareholders and competitors due to the grounding of projects such as Pirate Line, Future Water World, and Steam Secret Order, which were being negotiated by others.
Some projects of several major film companies such as Universal, Paramount, and Fox have also been greatly affected by this incident.
The situation of film companies and stars is very different. Even if first-line superstars don't make movies for a year or two, they can still live comfortably with their previous salary income. However, it is impossible for a film company to shut down for a year or two for no reason. Without continuous release of popular films, the film company will soon face serious problems such as a sharp drop in revenue and a broken capital chain.
When some film company executives in a dilemma turned their attention to Firefly, which provoked the trouble, they found that the film companies under Firefly were basically not affected.
The Firefly Group's two films at the end of the year, Changing Face and Runaway Bride, have basically been completed. Needless to say, the Runaway Bride starring Julia Roberts, although Face Changing has a superstar Nicolas Cage, but after the film has been produced, even if Cage completely ignores the fact that he was personally promoted by Eric The old love and the firefly turned their faces. It is also impossible to have too much impact on the release of the film.
Immediately afterwards, Jurassic Park 2 and Independence Day, which will be launched next year, are both blockbusters with special effects. Even Will Smith in Independence Day was just a newcomer to Hollywood when he signed the contract. The first 3D animated movie Toy Story 2 didn't need a human being at all. It is also said that it has not been affected.
Moreover, the Matrix, Titanic and other films that Firefly is in the preparatory stage still focus on G special effects. Although Firefly has also contacted some first-line superstars, judging from the cast of Firefly's previous films, even if there are no superstars to join, Firefly It doesn't seem to worry too much about film quality and box office issues.
After discovering this, the executives of several other major film companies envied Firefly's production strategy of not being bound by superstars, but at the same time, they couldn't help but have a thought in their hearts: they would not be given by Eric Williams. Is it a trap
Otherwise, why did you stir up trouble. Everyone is in dire straits, but you have nothing to do
Conspiracy theories are always very easy to accept. When some people think more and more that this is a big hole dug by Eric, they have no idea of continuing to stick to it.
Less than a week after the stalemate between the two sides, Warner's Terry Semel made a compromise due to pressure from all parties. He publicly stated at a press conference that Warner has always maintained a good cooperative relationship with Hollywood stars, and will continue to Continue to maintain the close cooperation of mutual benefit.
Although Terry Semel did not directly say that Warner will not compress the star's salary expenditure, but no one would be so stupid as to not understand the meaning of Terry Semel's words.
The superstar alliances also know the strategy of giving a sweet date with a stick. After Warner first subdued, negotiations on projects such as Stealing Fire, Future Water World, and Steam Secret Order were immediately restarted. The two parties announced the official signing of several major film projects almost the second day after Terry Semel's statement.
Following Warner's compromise, Universal, Paramount, and even Fox, Columbia, etc. have also made explicit or covert compromises, only Firefly Group has never made any statement.
Pointe Manor. Nicole, who had just taken a shower, just walked into the bedroom wrapped in a pale pink silk nightgown, stepped lightly on the cool floor with her two slender white legs, and jumped onto the big bed with bare feet.
"I really don't understand why you don't like to have a carpet in the bedroom, it's very comfortable to step on it," said Nicole, pecking Eric on the face while leaning against the bed to read documents.
Eric said without raising his head, "Carpets cost money."
Nicole rolled her eyes, then suddenly laughed again. Said: "Are you still upset about the fact that your plot failed this time?"
"You think too much. I didn't have any hope, so I can't say I was disappointed."
Nicole stared at Eric's face for a few seconds, and then said firmly: "I also said that I am not lost, I can see it."
Eric smiled, and handed a document he had read to Nicole: "Hey, take a look."
Nicole took it curiously, and when she saw the dense data charts on it, she immediately lost interest, threw it to Eric and said, "Just tell me what it is, I can't understand it."
"This is the internal statistics of the Yahoo Portal. Given the industry's strong curiosity about Yahoo's detailed operating conditions, if you take out this document, even if you offer $100,000, there will be people rushing to ask for it."
Nicole pretended to be surprised and covered her small mouth: "Yeah. So powerful."
Eric glanced at Nicole's seductive scenery when her pajamas slid down her shoulders while she was moving, and said with a smile, "You're so big, it's not cute at all to pretend to be a little girl."
Nicole pouted at Eric, pulled up her pajamas and blamed, "It's really incomprehensible. Is it because I've been with those beautiful models for a long time recently that I'm not interested in me anymore?"
"I'll definitely take care of you later," Eric said with a bad smile, "but since you came here today to inquire about my thoughts, I must satisfy your curiosity first, don't you?"
Nicole blushed slightly. He took the initiative to admit: "I'm not interested in these things, but Hanks and the others want to know what you think, so please let me ask."
"My thoughts are basically expressed on Yahoo News. In the final analysis, it is to make the salary of Hollywood stars reasonable, that's it."
Nicole tilted her head curiously: "Then what kind of salary level do you think is rational?"
Eric thought for a while, and said: "The star's salary is only 20% of the profit of a film, which is quite reasonable. I'm talking about rationality, and I don't mean to blindly reduce the actor's salary. I hope that the star can cooperate with the producer. The factory shares the risk. Just like when I suggested that you join the mummy in the form of remuneration as a shareholding, although you can get more than 000,000 remuneration now, it is still more reasonable, because the profit of Universal on this project will reach For $400 million, you only get 8% of it. Like the two action movies of Schwarzenegger and Stallone last summer, both of them received $17 million in salary, although it is much less than you, but Not only did those two films fail to make a profit, but they brought losses of tens of millions of dollars to the producers. This is very unreasonable.”
"Your idea seems to be difficult to realize. The risk of film investment is so great. Before a film is released, no one knows whether it will succeed or fail. A-list stars are willing to take risks as long as they don't pay much dividends. In case the film does not If they can make a profit, they’re done for nothing.”
"So," Eric shrugged, "I didn't have much expectations for this matter, I just need to control the firefly's budget."
Nicole was puzzled and said: "But you offended all the first-line stars in Hollywood this time. Even Hanks and Cage, who have a close relationship with Firefly, didn't say anything. I must have something against you in my heart. Since You knew it was impossible, why did you do it?"
Eric praised the information that Yang had just handed to Nicole, and said: "Because of this incident, the average daily visits to the Yahoo portal in the last week are close to 1000,000. Although it will decline later, I believe that by the end of the year After the operation around the Victoria's Secret fashion show, next year Yahoo's average daily visits will remain above 1,000,000, do you know what this means?"
Nicole's eyes widened, and the corners of her mouth were a little girlish, she shook her head in a cute tone: "I don't know."
"Let's put it this way, we can simply compare Yahoo Portal to a newspaper. Some time ago, Firefly sold the assets of newspapers and magazines acquired from the ab group for US$1.52 billion. Together, there are less than 2 million copies. So, you can convert it, how much is a Yahoo portal with 1000 million 'subscriptions' worth?"
Nicole's mathematics is obviously not that good, her eyes blinked a few times, and she said in disbelief: "77.6 billion dollars, it can't be so much, right?"
In the original time and space, Yahoo, which was just a very simple directory website, had a market value of 500 million U.S. dollars on the day it went public. Now Yahoo owns a series of very popular Internet products such as Yahoo browser, Yahoo chat software, Yahoo portal and Yahoo mail, and the traffic has exploded out of the ten streets of Yahoo in the original time and space. The development plan has a very broad prospect. Even if the market value of next year's IPO does not reach 7.6 billion, it will definitely not be too far behind.
"Nothing is impossible, next year you will know."
Nicole still opened her mouth slightly: "Doesn't that mean that you will have billions of assets next year?"
Eric said: "When the Rockefeller family's wealth was the highest, it reached one-sixtieth of the gross national product of the United States. I think I should at least surpass them in the future."
Nicole subconsciously asked, "How much is one sixtieth?"
Eric recalled, and said: "The current gdp of the Federation is 7 trillion, and one sixtieth is 12 billion."
"12 billion, 12 billion" Nicole muttered a few words, as if she suddenly lost her strength, she fell softly on the bed.
Eric threw away the folder in his hand and approached, brushed away the strands of gold from Nicole's face, and said with a smile: "It seems that I feel difficult to breathe, do you need me to do artificial respiration?"
Nicole reached out and pushed Eric's head away, and said, "I've been proud for a long time because I made 100,000 from the mummy, but now that you tell me, I'm in no mood at all."
Eric smiled and said, "Isn't it said that women conquer the world by conquering men? I think your ambition should be bigger."
Nicole complained: "I can never guess what you are thinking, but I also know that you don't mean to get married, and you have two children. I don't know what we can have. When I think about it this way, I feel that I should stay far away from you."
Eric leaned over and kissed Nicole on the lips, reached out and took off the silver necklace around her neck, opened the heart-shaped pendant, and inside lay a rose-colored ring quietly.
Nicole looked softly at Eric as he picked up his left hand and put the ring on his ring finger, with a hint of expectation, he said, "Are you proposing to me?"
Eric shook his head, and without waiting for Nicole to show disappointment, he said, "No, the proposal should be worn on the middle finger, and wearing it on the ring finger means that you are already my wife."
Nicole raised her arm, looked at the ruby on the rose gold ring under the light, and said, "There is no proposal, no wedding, and what's more, this ring is not the only one, so you want to possess me , Hmph, don't even think about it."
Eric said: "If you are not afraid of being affected by public relations, I can give you a wedding at any time."
Nicole's eyes lit up, but she immediately asked again: "What about them?"
"They must have, too."
Nicole immediately wrinkled her little nose in dissatisfaction: "Do you want bigamy?"
"The laws of the world are only to restrain those who can be restrained. In my will, I can have many wives."
Nicole's eyes flickered, and she said, "I think maybe you can join the Mormon Cult, which would make the name more legitimate."
Eric held Nicole's face, kissed it fiercely, and said: "I just said that with my willpower, I can have many wives. I don't need external affirmation, whether it is from the Federation The law is still the God of heaven. Therefore, I will not join Mormonism for this kind of secular affirmation, that is self-deception." (To be continued.)
Click on the cloud. Come to the pavilion to get the view.]