"Casino Royale 007" was filmed in the UK, Italy, the Czech Republic and the Bahamas, and there were more than 60 detailed shooting locations, which is where the 007 series has always been generous.
Eric set off in early April to survey all the shooting locations, and returned to Los Angeles on May 6th, which happened to be the fifth week of the release of "Seven Deadly Sins".
After the cumulative box office of "Seven Deadly Sins" reached 60.43 million U.S. dollars in four weeks, it again achieved a box office of 7.12 million U.S. dollars in the weekend of the fifth week, which is still only a weak 17% drop compared to the previous week's box office. Next is the summer vacation. Although the filming of "Seven Deadly Sins" will be squeezed by then, with the super high attention, the film's attendance rate will definitely rebound at that time, and there is no suspense for the total box office to exceed 100 million.
As for "First Fear", with its box office of 1.63 million US dollars in the three days of its fifth weekend, it is estimated that it will be completely withdrawn from North America after next week.
"Fear of the First Order" is not a film that Paramount focuses on, and neither film is a hit movie, so Firefly won so easily this time.
In the next blockbuster confrontation in the summer, it will not be so easy for a company to manipulate word of mouth and public opinion. You can only do the publicity work that you can do, and then sit back and wait for the market's reaction. Even, at this time, Even word-of-mouth is not the most important thing. Some movies have a bad reputation from critics, but they can't stop the audience from buying tickets to enter the theater enthusiastically.
"Titanic" is still in the late stage slowly, and it is expected to be completed by the end of July.
Firefly has only two main movies in this summer, "The Matrix" released on May 31 and "Into the Deadly Island" released on June 14. Because of the absence of "Titanic", New Line inserted the completed "Reaper" into the original "Titanic" schedule, and the file is scheduled for June 28.
"Casino Royale 007" is scheduled to be officially launched on June 2. However, it is impossible for Eric to arrive at the set on the same day. In order to match his schedule, the premiere of "The Matrix" was brought forward to May 27. As for the premiere of "Into the Deadly Island", Eric had to be absent.
Back in Los Angeles, Eric didn't even have a break for jet lag, so he had to devote himself to the preparation of the three FFM paid cable stations that worked together again.
After several months of preliminary work, in addition to the original cable station in the hands of Telecom, the three companies have successively acquired several smaller-scale paid cable stations from operators such as Cablevision, with a total of about 4 million users.
Eric originally wanted to take over Showtime from Viacom. This paid cable TV station was second only to HBO in size and fame in its previous life. Its current subscriber base is only about 500,000, because the scale is still small. Television stations are completely dispensable businesses in the Viacom system. However, after Katzenberg called to express his interest in the acquisition, Summer Redstone chose to refuse without hesitation. Eric estimated that Redstone would definitely study why Firefly was interested in Showtime in private. Interested, but this kind of behavior is destined to be useless. The only thing Eric is interested in at this time is the hundreds of thousands of showtime users.
Now that Redstone refused to sell Showtime, Eric focused on the several TV stations he had already acquired.
According to the original historical trajectory, except for HBO, several other major media companies have missed the fat of paid cable channels. When Showtime, Starz and other paid cable channels caught up, the era of network streaming media has arrived. At that time, in order to fight against Time Warner's old paid cable business and emerging network streaming business, Fox, Disney and Comcast jointly established a network streaming platform HULU, but the three companies have the same development ideas on HULU There were differences, and there was no absolute controlling interest in the platform, so they broke up in the end. Even the management had to leave to find other jobs, and it was impossible to talk about competing with platforms such as HBO and Netflix.
HULU's cooperation method is very similar to several FFMs that are currently preparing.
In the preliminary plan, FFM’s equity distribution is 30% of Firefly, 30% of News Corporation, and 20% of MGM, and the remaining 20% of the shares are held by cable TV operators such as Telecom and Cablevision. For Meilian, 50% of the equity is enough for Eric to fully control the company, but if they want to cooperate for a longer period of time, the TV station must reach an agreement on the development trajectory and profit model from the beginning of its establishment.
In terms of FFM development, the two main decision makers, Eric and Murdoch, do not have much disagreement. MGM naturally stands on Eric's side, and several other major operators have also promised not to participate in the company's operations. Therefore, As long as Eric and Murdoch make an agreement, everything will go smoothly.
In order to prevent the management of the three companies from affecting the development of FFM, Eric and Murdoch unanimously decided to establish a new limited television company, which is responsible for the operation of FFM. The management of the company directly reports to Eric and Murdoch Waiting for a few people to be in charge, not subject to the constraints of the respective management of the three major groups.
With the content support of Firefly, News Corporation and MGM, FFM wants to grow and develop, and there are not too many restrictions on content. The main problem of FFM is the lack of foundation, without the accumulation of brands like HBO that has been operating for more than 20 years. Therefore, in order to make FFM develop and grow as soon as possible, a manager who knows how to manage word of mouth with a small blog is essential. Ai Rick immediately thought of a fat man.
Beverly Hills is still the open-air restaurant that Eric has been to several times.
It was afternoon, and Eric and Murdoch occupied a terrace alone, chatting about FFM. Murdoch lives in New York most of the time, and occasionally goes to London. This time he made a special trip to Los Angeles for FFM.
"HBO has been developing for 23 years from 1973 to the present, and it already has a very solid reputation among audiences. If FFM wants to develop and grow in this brand-new market, the most critical issue is brand building, so that audiences can enjoy it in the shortest time. In this regard, although we have richer film resources than Time Warner, it is impossible for the audience to know this. The power of habit is very powerful, so we can only find another way.”
Eric said this, and Murdoch, who was sitting next to him, continued: "You mean, reality shows like "America's Next Top Model" and "Project Runway"?"
Lifetime TV became famous with these two reality shows, which has become a classic case in the industry.
Eric shook his head, and said: "No, although everyone knows that reality shows are not so real, they still carry the word 'true' after all. Reality shows on paid cable channels must go far beyond the audience's attention. Basic cable stations and public stations, if you don’t pay attention, you will touch the tolerance limit of social ethics and even the law. This is a minefield, and we should definitely not touch it.”
"That's a self-produced drama like "Lust and the City." Murdoch immediately understood, and then shook his head slightly: "However, TV dramas can never be as well-produced as movies, and basic cable channels are fine. It’s not that easy to get viewers to pay more to watch pay TV.”
"Then, we will use the standards of making movies to make TV series. In fact, Firefly already has such a project. It is the idea that I came up with after "Saving Private Ryan". A big miniseries about World War II, but unfortunately the project didn't work out for ABC, so it was shelved."
Murdoch gently rubbed the coffee cup in his hand, leaned back on the chair, and asked, "100 million dollars, do you think we can recover the cost?"
"If this project is placed on ABC, it will definitely not be able to recover the cost. It is absolutely impossible for advertisers to pay far more than other TV programs. After broadcasting on public stations, the income of syndicates and video tapes will also be greatly reduced. But in paid cable First of all, we can get a subscription income, and second, as long as these mini-series can gain enough fame, we can completely recover the cost and make a profit in the follow-up videotape and syndicated distribution."
Murdoch showed a clear expression, and said: "I see, that's why you want Weinstein to run this TV station, right?"
Eric nodded with a smile.
For a self-produced drama on a paid cable station to gain fame, apart from the necessary word of mouth, other methods are similar to those produced by an independent film company in order to get a high box office. .
Once HBO, the biggest gimmick to show its well-made work is the hundreds of Emmy nominations that are often mentioned by the media. And as long as there are enough outstanding works, there is no one who wants to surpass the Weinstein brothers in terms of operating awards in recent years. With "Forrest Gump" sweeping the Oscars this year, Miramax still snatched two heavyweight performance awards for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor.
When Eric was still in Europe, he talked with Harvey Weinstein several times on the phone. Weinstein was also very interested in taking over the FFM TV station, which led to today's meeting.
Eric looked at his watch and saw that the appointed time would be up soon, so he waved for the waiter and ordered a new pot of coffee.
The old god Murdoch was waiting for the waiter to leave, and suddenly changed the tone of the adverb with a serious elder, and said, "Eric, you will be twenty-six soon, right?"
Eric's heart skipped a beat, how come this kind of lines seem familiar.
What's next
Eric was thinking about how to interrupt the past, when a fat figure appeared in time, avoiding possible embarrassing scenes. Eric has always been a bachelor. In his previous life, he chose to get married at the age of thirty when his parents were forced to marry every festival, coupled with the influence of oriental traditional concepts. In this life, Eric doesn't want to be restrained anymore, not to mention that the situation around him is really complicated, and it's not suitable for marriage at all.
"Good afternoon, Rupert, Eric, I hope I'm not late," Weinstein walked up to the two, warmly embraced the two who stood up.
"Of course not, it's just that we were a little early," Eric let go of Weinstein, thinking that you were too timely.
Murdoch also has a helpless face. Although he can be as cunning as a fox in the mall, but in front of his children, Murdoch can't do the same thing as Lei Shidong. Instead, he is like those traditional doting parents who hope that their children can It’s a pity that each of the children is more worried than the other. Let’s not talk about the messy things about the second daughter and the eldest son. The youngest son James happened to be caught by the police while racing with someone. It’s okay. No accident.
Weinstein felt that Murdoch's expression was a little strange, and he took the initiative to take the coffee pot brought by the waiter, poured it for the three people, and gave Eric a questioning look.
Eric can only ignore it, there is no way to explain it.
Fortunately, Murdoch didn't feel melancholy for too long, and he took the initiative to say, "Harvey, how are you thinking about that matter?"
Weinstein said hastily: "Of course I very much hope to take over FFM, but I still have some questions."
"Tell me?"
Weinstein sorted out his thoughts and said, "If I were to manage FFM, I would definitely only need to be like you and Eric. Well, is MGM in charge?"
Murdoch looked at Eric.
Eric replied: "Of course, FFM operates completely independently, and the management of the three companies has no jurisdiction over you. However, I still hope that you can cooperate with them."
Weinstein received Eric's personal promise, and felt relieved. Miramax has developed very well in the past two years, but after all, it is only a subsidiary of Twentieth Century Fox, and it is two levels away from the parent company, News Corporation. Weinstein also hopes to gain a greater platform and power in the media industry. With the importance the three TV stations attach to FFM, he is of course sensitively aware that this will be a very good opportunity.
"Also, about the salary issue..."
Speaking of this, Weinstein rubbed his hands honestly, seemingly a little embarrassed.
Eric would not be confused by Weinstein's expression, and told the other party the plan discussed with Murdoch, saying: "Rupert and I hope you can sign a five-year contract with an annual salary of 250,000 U.S. dollars. 1 million stock options."
Relying on the outstanding performance of Miramax, Weinstein has received more than 10 million in bonuses and dividends each year in the past two years. However, he didn't feel that the annual salary of 250,000 US dollars was too little. Even Katzenberg's annual salary was only 750,000 US dollars. In Hollywood, everyone only cares about bonuses and dividends. The performance is good, and the annual income of Hollywood executives can range from a few million to tens of millions.
Weinstein also knew that the focus of this salary was on the 1 million stock options, so he asked, "Eric, what is the total share capital of FFM?"
Eric thought for a while, and said: "After the company integration is completed, there will be about 400 million shares."
The so-called stock option means that the shareholder proposes a lower selling price to the management, and within a certain period of time, the management can choose whether to purchase the corresponding number of shares of the company at this price. If the company's performance and market value do not increase, or even decline, the management is definitely unwilling to cash out the option at a high price. But if the company's stock price doubles or even exceeds, the management will buy the stock at that time, which is equivalent to giving away half price. This is actually a company incentive mechanism.
Weinstein has also read some materials before. The current market value of FFM is about 1 billion U.S. dollars, and 5 million options are equivalent to 1.25% of the total share capital. It only takes more than 10 million U.S. dollars to cash out. He will take the money himself come out.
However, even if the market value of FFM doubles in five years, the income he will get from this option will only be more than 10 million US dollars, which is far lower than his expectation. (To be continued.)