During the Christmas period, the last batch of new Hollywood films of 1995 began to be released. In the past, at this time, because various literary films aimed at impacting the next year's Oscars were released one after another, under the manipulation of the film companies behind the scenes, the entertainment media would always be extremely lively. ≦
But this year, the media atmosphere, which is full of public relations, is much cooler. In the announced nomination list for the 53rd Film and Television Golden Globe Awards, "Forrest Gump" won seven important nominations including Best Drama, Best Director, and Best Actor without any suspense.
In the situation where "Forrest Gump" has taken away a series of big and small pre-awards like a rainbow, if it weren't for the Golden Globe film awards being divided into two categories: drama and comedy, some movies might even Even so, in order to avoid a head-to-head confrontation with "Forrest Gump" at the Golden Globes, some drama films were even squeezed into the category of musical dramas, which caused a lot of ridicule and criticism from the media. blame.
While ordinary people are enjoying their holidays, Hollywood has been brewing for several months. MGM began to consciously release news about "oo7 Casino Royale". When they heard that Eric Williams would personally direct this oo7 sequel At that time, many people's first reaction would even think that others were joking. Eric Williams didn't even bother to direct the sequels of the "Jurassic Park" series he created himself. How could it be possible to shoot? After all, in the eyes of insiders, there are only a few routines in the oo7 series, and there are really not many tricks to play. If you are purely as an audience, you may be able to learn from the hot big scenes and glamorous scenes. You can have some fun with a Bond girl, but as a director, the job can only be described as uninteresting.
However, as the news spread more and more, it became more and more clear.
... Eric Williams talks to oo7 series producer Barbara Bullocket at the Pointe Manor party.
… The next oo7 will feature Ian Fleming’s last unseen Casino Royale.
… MGM begins a secret engagement with the Charlie's Angels trio.
... The eighteenth oo7 will fully open the MGM Agents movie universe.
… The three major brokerage companies began to frequently test MGM's progress on the oo7 project in an attempt to gain more roles.
…
This series of scattered details has gradually proved that maybe Eric Williams is really going to direct the next oo7 himself.
Immediately, the media with a keen sense of smell quickly seized the news and began to dig deeper.
However, "Casino Royale of oo7" is still in the stage of script revision. After releasing some news, in order to properly maintain the mystery of the series and maintain enough topicality, MGM has been given a password from top to bottom, and began to keep silent. Without any confirmation or comment on external news, the media public relations department just stated very formulaically that the project is still in the process of preparation and everything has not yet been finalized.
Similarly, the current helm of the oo7 series, Barbara Blockley, is a woman who does not like public appearances very much, and media reporters have not gotten more information from her. However, Barbara Blockley also serves as The older brother of the producer of the series, Michael Wilson, was just the opposite. Director of "oo7 Casino Royale".
The news exploded at once.
More than two years have passed since "Jurassic Park" was released in 1993 and created a global box office miracle of 1 billion US dollars.
Because there is no news about Eric's next movie, the news that Eric will give up directing the film and move behind the scenes has appeared in the media more than once. With the rise of Lietime TV, relying on two reality shows, the integration of MGM, Huahua Pictures and DreamWorks productions, as well as the continued strong film business of Firefly Group, all prove the reliability of this view in the media.
Although ordinary people have paid less and less attention to Eric's news, in Hollywood, even in the emerging Internet industry, even in the irrelevant clothing industry, Eric's sense of existence is still so strong, its influence The power didn't even mean to stop at all.
Take 1995, which is about to pass, as an example. This year is still a productive year for Hollywood. With the last two weeks of Christmas, Hollywood's total annual box office has reached a new high, reaching a scale of 6.5 billion US dollars.
And the Firefly Group has harvested as many as 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000. With a box office of 100 million U.S. dollars, Firefly Group’s major labels released a total of 18 films throughout the year. Although compared with the previous two years, production has begun to decrease significantly, the cumulative box office of the 18 films still reached 1.39 billion, and the global box office share is even higher. Reached the astonishing scale of 2.7 billion US dollars.
According to the forecast of statistical agencies, in 1995, the total size of the global box office market was only about 17.5 billion U.S. dollars. Therefore, only one company, Firefly Group, had already occupied 15.4% of the global movie market. It is a well-known thing, but a company will carve up 15.4% of the global box office market, which can only be described as horror.
And behind the scenes of all this, there is no doubt that the young man who has been ridden with miracles since his debut is in control.
With the brewing of the topic, the news that Eric will personally direct "oo7 Casino Royale" unknowingly became a fuse, rekindling the public's gradually cooling interest in him.
The media is always able to grasp the trend very well, and as the popularity of this topic increases, they also begin to provide readers or viewers with more news that they are interested in.
The things that most people are interested in are undoubtedly very superficial. Last year, "Forbes" magazine had estimated Eric Williams' net worth at US$46.5 billion. The rich can only look up, which also makes many people who see this data feel numb. After all, ordinary people cannot imagine what the assets of 46.5 billion US dollars represent.
Although they don't know the huge energy of the huge wealth, they still have a very strong curiosity about Eric's net worth this year, so the media also began to take stock of the assets owned or held by Eric under his name.
A network map of Firefly's business empire that appeared in "Business Weekly" later caused crazy reprints in countless media magazines, and in the following months, it was frequently used as a topic of discussion in various types of media.
In this issue of "Business Weekly", the details of the two major business networks under Eric's name, Firefly Group and Firefly Investment, are fully displayed in front of the world.
Needless to say, Firefly Group, the largest media group in Hollywood, owns Disney Group, AB Group, Firefly Film Company, Pixar Animation Company, New Line Film Company, Firefly Records, Bowei International Company, Digital Domain Special Effects Company, A series of high-quality entertainment companies such as Marvel Entertainment, last year, the relevant agencies have already made a valuation of over 5 billion US dollars for the Firefly Group, and this year, with the excellent revenue growth rate of the Firefly Group, according to the annual growth rate of % Standard, its valuation once again broke through a new high, reaching 65 billion U.S. dollars. For this alone, Eric Williams, who owns about 73% of Firefly Group's shares, will have acquired assets of 47 billion U.S. dollars, which is more than his entire net worth last year. The valuation is $500 million more.
The subsequent scale of the Firefly Investment Company left many people dumbfounded.
After a detailed investigation by the reporter of "Business Weekly", this investment company, which has been somewhat unknown since its establishment, now owns high-quality company shares far beyond most people's imagination.
Let's see.
Yahoo Networks, the No. 1 portal in the Internet industry, has been a well-deserved small company in the Internet industry in recent years, with a valuation of over US$5 billion, and Firefly Investment holds 80% of the shares.
Cisco, a large network equipment company, currently has a market capitalization of 26 billion US dollars. After nearly a year of substantial increase in holdings, Firefly Investment holds 26% of the shares.
America Online, an emerging Internet service provider, will be listed on the Nasdaq market in January next year. The current valuation is close to 5 billion US dollars, and Firefly Investment holds 10% of the shares.
ltd Group, which owns Victoria's Secret and other well-known Neiyi fashion brands, has risen by virtue of the Victoria's Secret annual show for two consecutive years. The current market value is 5.9 billion US dollars, and Firefly Investment holds 35% of the shares.
Nokia, a mobile communication equipment company headquartered in Finland, achieved sales of 7 million mobile phones in 1995. Firefly Investment holds 51% of the shares and has an absolute controlling stake.
t, a well-known telecom operator, owns a nationwide mobile operating network, and Firefly Investment holds 10% of the shares.
Qualcomm, the latest emerging mobile communication technology company, owns a large number of technical patents for the third-generation digital communication technology, and has received support from mobile operators such as T, Verizon, etc. Firefly Investment holds 40% of the shares.
…
Although most traditional investors believe that the risk of investing in high-tech companies is huge, because these companies generally need to invest a lot of research funds every year to maintain their leading position in technology, and if they are not careful, they may be reversed by their peers and quickly decline. However, with the rapid rise of the Nasdaq index, which is dominated by high-tech stocks, and the rise of the Internet and mobile communication technology industries in the past two years, not many people doubt the development prospects of these emerging industries.
Therefore, the valuation and stock price of these high-tech companies held by Firefly Investment have doubled in recent years.
For example, Yahoo Networks, a high-tech company that owns popular Internet products such as Yahoo Portal and Yahoo Mail, has invested less than US$600 million in total in recent years from Firefly Investment, but according to its current market valuation, Value, if Firefly Investment is willing to sell, it will definitely get a 10 times premium return.
Although these companies held by Firefly Investment are still unable to compete with the huge Firefly Group, they are almost without exception leaders in related industries. It is conceivable that with the rapid development of high-tech industries, in the next few years, these The company may even produce a giant with a single company whose market value is higher than that of the Firefly Group.
Therefore, by then, Eric Williams' net worth will reach an even more jaw-dropping level.
Such a business miracle, born to a young man who is not yet thirty years old, makes many people feel a strong sense of powerlessness.
In the turmoil of public opinion, Eric rejected a lot of media interview invitations, and continued his life step by step.
During the Christmas period, MGM's "Mean Girls" and Firefly's "1o1 Dalmatians" were released at the same time. Disney is tall and thin in making family comedies. The release of "1o1 Dalmatians", with its interesting plot and an army of adorable Dalmatians, quickly conquered the Christmas audience and earned over 500 million in two consecutive weeks. box office in dollars.
Although the box office results of "Mean Girls" are not as impressive as "1o1 Dalmatians", but with the teen audience market that has just been hyped up by "Scream", this school girl horse-catching comedy week still gained 2 million The U.S. dollar box office earned another 1.56 million U.S. dollars the following week. The production cost of this film was lower than that of "Scream", so MGM has already recovered all the costs after only two weeks of broadcasting.
While paying attention to the box office of the last two films in the New Year's schedule, Eric had to rush to Mexico, Rosarito, the set of "Titanic" after Christmas.
During the Christmas period, MGM's "Mean Girls" and Firefly's "1o1 Dalmatians" were released at the same time. Disney is tall and thin in making family comedies. The release of "1o1 Dalmatians", with its interesting plot and an army of adorable Dalmatians, quickly conquered the Christmas audience and earned over 500 million in two consecutive weeks. box office in dollars.
Although the box office results of "Mean Girls" are not as impressive as "1o1 Dalmatians", but with the teen audience market that has just been hyped up by "Scream", this school girl horse-catching comedy week still gained 2 million The U.S. dollar box office earned another 1.56 million U.S. dollars the following week. The production cost of this film was lower than that of "Scream", so MGM has already recovered all the costs after only two weeks of broadcasting.
While paying attention to the box office of the last two films in the New Year's schedule, Eric had to rush to Mexico, Rosarito, the set of "Titanic" after Christmas. (To be continued.) 8