Taking advantage of the opening of the press conference, Eric called Amy Pascal and other MGM shareholders who participated in the conference to communicate about the idea of additional stock issuance. Naturally, Amy Pascal and others did not have any Opinion, although after the integration is completed, MGM seems to be thriving, but the capital chain is very tight.
The huge debt of 1.7 billion U.S. dollars, the principal and interest due each year is no less than 200 million U.S. dollars. The reason why Kerkorian sold MGM repeatedly at the beginning is also to pass the sale. Debt restructuring in order to achieve the purpose of reducing spending.
After this transaction, Kerkorian was completely kicked out of Hollywood, and of course the new MGM could no longer play this kind of capital game, and it was impossible to save these principal and interest payments. If an additional 20% of the stock can be issued, the company's financial situation will return to normal operating levels, and it will also have sufficient funds to repair MGM's production and distribution system, and start the production of major series such as "Lord of the Rings".
After discussing this matter, the staff notified the start of the press conference, and everyone left the lounge one after another and walked into the conference hall.
In addition to the main creators of the "Charlie's Angels" series, which is currently being filmed, the protagonists of the new company's "007", "Mission: Impossible", "Night at the Museum", "Resident Evil" and other major series are all here today. The scene can be described as star-studded Bright, but today they are destined not to be the protagonists, but the reporters at the scene focused all their attention on the shareholders and senior management of MGM.
As the EO of the new company, Amy Pascal came to the stage in high spirits, and spent more than ten minutes introducing the general situation of the new company, and at the same time unified a series of media concerns about the recent MGM acquisition and integration process answer.
More than 100 on-site reporters who were invited to attend were patiently waiting for the questioning session after the speeches of several MGM executives.
but. When Amy finally announced that MGM would issue additional shares, all the reporters at the scene cheered up immediately.
In the recent media predictions, many people feel that. MGM will choose to privatize like Firefly, which is also in line with Eric Williams' consistent style. What's more, MGM currently only has 12% of the outstanding shares, and the difficulty of choosing privatization is also very low. Therefore, this news, which is completely different from the guesses of most media people, made all the media reporters present boil up. More directly, Eric Williams' intention to make this decision.
What a pity, Amy? After speaking. Frank Macasso, whose position was changed to the president of MGM, took the stage again, introduced MGM's production plan for the next few years, and invited on-site celebrity guests to come on stage for simple interaction.
After a full half an hour, the free questioning session that the media people were looking forward to finally arrived.
After Eric, Drew, Amy, Frank Macasso, and John Carley sat down on the chairs on the stage, the host announced the start of the questioning session, and all the reporters in the audience raised their voices at once. hands up.
The host randomly selected a reporter. This was a woman with big wavy brown hair and rimless eyes. She took the microphone, but she didn't immediately ask the questions that everyone cared about, but pointed the finger at Eric. Said: "Mr. Williams, I am a reporter from The New York Times. According to public information. Firefly Group has completely withdrawn its capital from MGM. So, what kind of identity and position are you sitting here today?"
Eric smiled. He had expected to be asked this question a long time ago, and the deeper reason is actually well known to many people.
However, Eric did not mean to evade, and replied with a smile: "If you must have a reason. I should be regarded as the shareholder representative of MGM. My personal firefly investment company is the largest shareholder of the ltd group , Ltd Group is the third largest shareholder of MGM. It currently owns 10% of the shares, and that’s it.”
The female reporter from the "New York Times" asked: "Mr. Williams, why do you complicate this matter? Isn't it easier to directly use the capital of Firefly Group to operate this matter?"
Although many large corporate oligopolies in North America have monopolistic behaviors, none of the executives of any company will publicly talk about the company’s monopolistic behaviors, or even admit their monopolistic intentions, because any of these words may become the company’s antitrust encounter in the future. Evidence of investigation.
Of course, Eric is also aware of the rules, pretending to ponder for a moment, and said: "The internal system of the Firefly Group is already large enough. If it continues to expand, it will become very bloated, which is very detrimental to the healthy development of the company. So , MGM will be completely independent and out of the Firefly Group system. The possible future competition between the two parties can also prevent Firefly Group from losing its aggressiveness, resulting in pride and slack."
This half-truth and half-false answer made the reporter unable to find any faults, and the next questioner had to lead the topic to MGM's upcoming stock issuance.
"Mr. Williams, may I ask why MGM decided to issue additional stock instead of going private?"
Eric's current personal wealth has accumulated to an astonishing level. With the outbreak of the Internet wave in the next few years, his personal wealth will be even more jaw-dropping. Therefore, he no longer pursues rapid wealth growth, but expands The influence and control that come with this wealth.
Just like MGM, Eric only indirectly controls 10% of MGM shares through Ltd, but he can completely control the company. At the same time, because he only holds a small amount of shares, resistance from the outside world It will also be much lower. Wanting to turn Hollywood into his own kingdom, Eric will also adopt similar methods in the future to gradually invade other media groups.
Of course, these words must not be uttered, and it will definitely make many people restless.
Therefore, facing this question, Eric just replied: "Every enterprise should have its own independent development path, so I don't think this is a problem. The reason for the additional stock issuance is to let MGM It can develop better in a few years. As you have just seen, MGM will continue to shoot series such as "007" and "Mission: Impossible". Film production, these require a lot of money."
"Mr. Williams, "GoldenEye 007" is also interspersed with Easter eggs from the "Charlie's Angels" series. Fans have always been very concerned about whether MGM will allow "007" and "Charlie's Angels" to overlap in the future?"
Hear the question. Eric smiled, handed the microphone to Amy Pascal nearby, and said, "Let Amy explain this to everyone."
Amy Pascal and others were left hanging for a while. Of course, they would not be dissatisfied because Eric attracted all the attention, but the loss in their hearts was inevitable.
Seeing Eric take the initiative to hand over the microphone, Amy knew that he was also implying the reporter at the scene, gave Eric a grateful look, then picked up the microphone and said: "This problem. The company has already conducted detailed discussions , our plan is to use the next ten years to create a film agent universe unique to MGM, combining MGM's "007" series, "Charlie's Angels" series, "Mission: Impossible" series and future possible It will be interspersed with other secret agent movie series in development. Before long, you will see James Bond, Charlie's Angels and Ethan Hunt appearing on the same screen at the same time."
The Agent Movie Universe? !
Other spy movie series
James? Bond, Charlie's Angels and Ethan Hunt appeared on a big screen at the same time.
…
There was a brief silence among the reporters at the scene, and they digested what Amy Pascal had just said in their hearts, and then quickly reacted, and the scene suddenly boiled again.
"Charlie's Angels" and "Mission: Impossible" are undoubtedly the most popular spy movies in recent years, and the popularity of the 007 series is even more impressive. In the past, there may have been some spoof b-movies that interspersed some films. However, there is no case of super blockbusters forming a crossover series. You must know that this kind of crossover not only involves movie copyrights. And whether the relevant leading actors are willing to play is a very big question. Just the possible intersection of the 007 series and the "Charlie's Angels" series has already made many movie fans look forward to it. MGM is ambitious to create a so-called "agent movie universe". Just thinking about it, part of the scene is also Reporters of movie fans were thrilled.
After a moment of silence, the flash lights frantically turned on again, and the impatient reporters threw aside the rules and asked questions loudly.
"Ms. Pascale. Can you explain the 'Agent Movie Universe' project in detail?"
"Ms. Pascal, has MGM discussed this with Pierce Brosnan, Kevin Costner and the three leading ladies of Charlie's Angels?"
"Isn't MGM worried that this plan will affect the brand of the 007 series?"
"..."
There was a commotion at the scene. It wasn't until the staff loudly maintained order that everyone calmed down again.
Then everyone started asking Amy about the 'Agent Movie Universe'. Eric also pushed the problems that fell on him to Amy and others, watching everything at the scene happily.
The 'Agent Movie Universe', undoubtedly, was derived from Eric's later series of 'Marvel Movie Universe', 'D Movie Universe', 'Monster Movie Universe' and the like. The 007, "Charlie's Angels", "Mission: Impossible" and other series in the previous life belonged to different film companies, and it is impossible for them to crossover.
But this time and space is different. Eric realized by accident a few days ago that these famous spy movies in the original time and space, with the integration of MGM, will all belong to one film company, except for these three films that have already been produced. In addition to the film, even the copyright of the "Bourne Movie" series is in the hands of Huahua Films, so it is very feasible to create a special agent movie universe unique to MGM.
Although the backgrounds of several series are different, this is not a problem in the slightest.
Except for the more alternative "Bourne Shadow", the core of the plots of several other spy blockbusters is nothing more than four words: save the world.
Just create a complete world background according to this theme, put all the major series in this story background for production, start with a single-player movie, and finally form an intersection, jointly deal with a big villain, and save the world The task, the whole story is completed.
At the same time, the intersection of several major spy movies will also bring a wider range of topics and influence to these series. Behind all of these, of course, there are even greater economic benefits.
Sure enough, when MGM announced at the press conference that it would combine the 007 series, the "Charlie's Angels" series and the "Mission: Impossible" series to create a separate agent movie universe, the next day, the media in North America and even the world began to discuss it. boil up.
"James Bond, Charlie's Angels and Ethan Hunt, several heroes of the screen agents appear on the same screen, I have to say, just imagine, I have a strong urge to go into the cinema. I hope MGM has really been able to bring the series to life."
"I very much doubt the feasibility of this plan. With the box office success of the three major movie series, Pierce Brosnan, Kevin Costner, and Charlie's Angels have all received tens of millions of dollars in salary. If five people Collectively, just the salary expenditure will be a very scary figure. It is hard to imagine how terrifying the complete film budget will be if there is a crossover. Perhaps, when it is released in the future, the global box office of the film will reach 1 billion Dollars, to be able to recover the cost."
"This is undoubtedly a very stupid idea. I really don't know if Eric Williams has been dazzled by his own success. The agent movie universe intersperses three blockbuster films with unlimited potential. If you don't pay attention, you may Destroy the reputation of the three series at the same time. Maybe this is just a gimmick thrown by MGM. After all, they are about to implement the stock issuance plan.”
"..."
While the media reported one after another, there was also a lot of discussion on the specially opened section of the Yahoo Internet forum. However, compared with the various opinions of the media people, movie fans have very unified expectations for the movie. What followed was that the box office trend of "007: Golden Eye" which is currently being released has risen sharply. In order to find possible cross-over eggs between the film and other series, the audience went into the cinema again. In the third week, the original institution It is predicted that the box office of "007: Golden Eye" will drop below 20 million US dollars, but with this news, in the new week, the box office of "Golden Eye" has won 1 million US dollars. (To be continued.)