Elizabeth is only one step away from the president at Fox, and coupled with the special status of Murdoch's daughter, she has a lot of real power. However, the company's investment in large projects exceeding 50 million U.S. dollars must still be approved by the board of directors. The chairman of Fox is of course her old man.
Eric's proposal to let Fox participate in part of the investment in "Titanic" is actually to fine-tune Murdoch and secretly fight for more power for Elizabeth.
He knew that Murdoch, as a standard businessman, would never agree to throw money into a bottomless pit like "Titanic". The distribution rights were sold to Paramount. As a result, "Titanic" had a box office of 600 million in North America, and Fox all wept faintly.
This time, if "Titanic" is not a big success, so be it. Once the film is a box office hit like the original, Murdoch will definitely pay more attention to Elizabeth's suggestion in the future. Elizabeth has correspondingly more decision-making power in the company.
The next day, when Eric was in the office, he received a call from Elizabeth, and the outcome was not what he expected.
After the Oscar Awards Ceremony, "Forrest Gump" won six heavyweight awards including Best Picture and Best Director out of thirteen nominations, especially Tom Hanks' reelection, which immediately became the focus of the media. For example, the box office of the film that was still screened in hundreds of theaters in North America once again rebounded significantly. In the ninth month of the film's release, it still earned a box office of more than 3 million US dollars in a single week. The copyright of Firefly has also started the next stage of the film's distribution plan.
Firefly Studios, the time is Friday. After a period of research, Katzenberg came up with an evaluation plan for 3D and IMAX technology.
"According to the detailed research of the Strategic Planning Department, everyone feels that the current 3D technology may still have the possibility of promotion, but IMAX will not work. This technology has too many restrictions, and there is no possibility of large-scale promotion at all."
The two were still sitting in a coffee shop in the film city at this time. Eric pushed the coffee aside, flipped through the materials Katzenberg had sorted out, and asked, "What's the main reason?"
Between 3D and IMAX, Eric actually prefers the latter, which may be the result of being poisoned by too many fake 3D movies in his previous life.
"The main thing is the cost," Katzenberg obviously did a lot of homework, and he blurted out without flipping through the materials, "Just take the cost of theater renovation as an example. For 3D, most movie theaters only need to replace a set of projection systems. Currently, the most The price of an advanced polarized 3D movie projector is only about 100,000 US dollars. With the addition of 3D eyes and other hardware, the total transformation cost will never exceed 150,000 US dollars. But IMAX is different. The size of small IMAX screens is around four As high as a five-story building, more than 99% of the movie theaters in the United States and Europe do not meet the requirements for renovation. If you want to build an IMAX theater, you can only start from scratch. The construction of the venue and the projection equipment will cost about 150 yuan. ten thousand dollars, which is ten times the cost of 3D cinema renovation.”
Listening to Katzenberg's explanation, Eric suddenly understood why in his previous life the mainland would become the region with the fastest development of IMAX technology. Because the popularity of IMAX and the explosion of the film industry there were almost simultaneous, and a large number of new theaters were built from one place to another. The IMAX specs can be determined right from the start. But North America and Europe are different. In these regions, the film industry has developed for a hundred years, and the supporting movie theaters have already been finalized. The projection halls of these theaters basically do not meet the IMAX reconstruction standards. Faced with such a high cost of IMAX theaters, the enthusiasm of traditional theaters to rebuild IMAX auditoriums will certainly not be too high.
I went through the materials in my hand. In addition to the cost of theater renovation, the popularization of IMAX, from film shooting to film conversion, is almost always accompanied by very high cost requirements. Relatively speaking, the difficulty of popularizing 3D technology is much lower. At present, IMAX technology cannot support a complete movie duration of more than 90 minutes, but 3D technology has been roughly mature. The main reason why it cannot be popularized is 3D film sources and 3D lack of theaters. Even, the current 'reputation' of 3D technology is not very good, because many theaters with 3D equipment show pornographic movies that give people a sense of curiosity.
Eric is not a blind idealist. Many things need to be done step by step. After thinking about it for a while, he said: "I saw that IMAX is currently developing the DMR reset technology for converting ordinary film to IMAX film. Please pay attention to it." , the other party’s financial situation does not seem to be very good, we can invest a sum of money in it. In addition, we will set up a special 3D technology research and development department in the digital field. Well, when I finish filming "Casino Royale", the second part The film may try 3D."
Katzenberg nodded, and he generally considered Eric's suggestions. However, after Eric finished speaking, Katzenberg continued: "Eric, I also think that 3D technology must be the key to the film industry in the future. It’s a new field of development, so don’t you think, this is a great driver for us to enter the theater industry?”
"Cinema?" Eric raised his eyebrows in surprise, but he didn't think about it.
In the 1980s, during the Reagan administration, the federal government gradually loosened control over the entertainment industry. The Paramount Act that separated film companies from theaters had already existed in name only. Viacom, Time Warner, and Universal’s All have their own movie theaters, of which Viacom holds the largest theater chain, with over 3,000 screens across the United States.
However, Firefly's development rose late, and it hadn't had time to get involved in the theater business. It was constrained by the deep-rooted concept of the Paramount Act, and Eric subconsciously did not consider this matter.
At this time, after being reminded by Katzenberg, Eric discovered that in recent years, it is indeed the best time for Firefly to get involved in the theater business. Although many people always think that "Avatar" is the beginning of the rise of 3D movies, but in fact, 3D movies have already appeared in the years before and after the new century. There are 3D versions of films such as "Special", but due to various constraints, these films have not achieved the strong influence of "Avatar".
Whether it is 3D technology or IMAX, they have been around for more than 30 years. Therefore, the promotion of these technologies is not difficult in terms of technology. The difficulty lies in the lack of strong institutions to promote them.
Well, at this time, it is not bad for Firefly to be such a 'pioneer'. After all, according to the historical trajectory, the North American film market reached saturation around 2000, and the market growth in the following ten years was entirely driven by the increase in ticket prices. If 3D and IMAX can be promoted, it will undoubtedly break through the market Saturation constraints have prompted further growth of the industry.
After thinking about it for a while, Eric put down the empty coffee cup and said, "Jeffrey, this matter can be added to Firefly's next development plan, but I hope you can be very cautious. I always hope that Firefly can be more cautious. Powerful, but at the same time, I am also worried that the fireflies will become dull and bloated due to blind expansion, do you understand?"
"Of course, without 100% certainty, I will not do this lightly."
Eric nodded, picked up the coffee pot and added a cup of coffee to himself, and said, "Do you know what Steve and the others are doing?"
"David also talked to me, hoping that I could go to help, but I refused," Katzenberg said without concealing, "They will probably make an official announcement next month, but I don't know the details. Clear."
David Geffen and Katzenberg have always been good friends, Eric also knows this, but the friendship factor is unlikely to drive a determined business elite to change his family, Katzenberg used to be no other At this time, he obviously understands that Firefly is the best stage for him to stretch his talent. (To be continued.)