"I talked to Jon Landau and the others in the morning, and Robert is also watching this matter personally. We should be able to win all of the ten technical Oscar nominations this time. "Titanic" can be said in this regard There is no dispute. However, the six core nominations for Best Picture, Best Director and the four major performance awards, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor have no hope. Leonardo's performance can only be said to be a pass, There aren't any outstanding male supporting roles in the film, and for the other four, nominations for awards should be locked in advance."
Firefly Studios, in the spacious office loft of the digital domain, Eric and Katzenberg sat in the lounge area together, after listening to him, subconsciously said: "In other words, there are still 14?"
Katzenberg didn't notice the other meanings implied in Eric's words. He thought that Eric had planned it before, so he said that, so he nodded and said: "Yes, 14, a total of 24 Oscars , but "Titanic" will definitely not be able to get nominations that have nothing to do with the film, such as best foreign language film and best animation, which first excludes 7. Among the remaining 17 nominations, the best soundtrack is divided into Drama and musical comedy, this has eliminated another one. We have no hope of winning the best actor and best supporting actor, so there are only 14 left. However, with only these 14 nominations, we can already catch up Pairing the nomination record set by "Beauty of the Comet" in 1950, the number of awards is likely to exceed that of "Ben-Hur."
Eric had already realized the language error just after he said that sentence. Fortunately, Katzenberg didn't care, and he didn't show any abnormalities.
If there hadn't been the media's questioning of the Golden Globe Awards in the recent period, Eric might have forced people to publicize Leonardo's best actor nomination again, surpassing the nomination record of "Beauty of the Comet".
However, because of the widespread doubts about the Golden Globe Awards, although the Oscar jury did not dare to ignore the award-winning strength of "Titanic" this time, they also paid more attention to their own credibility. Xiao Lizi's performance that obviously did not meet the standard, If he is nominated for an award, the media will definitely turn their guns to Oscar after the nomination is announced.
Although it is impossible to break the record of "Ben-Hur" in terms of the number of nominations, as Katzenberg said, it is still very possible to exceed the 11 statuettes of "Ben-Hur".
The two discussed the details of public relations, and Eric asked again: "How is the situation of overseas distribution?"
Similar to North America, most of the countries where "Titanic" has been released overseas have stepped out of the box office curve similar to North America.
Especially in the United Kingdom, the four-week box office equivalent to US dollars has exceeded 36 million. According to the current box office trend, the British box office of "Titanic" will easily exceed the box office record of 71 million US dollars created by "Jurassic Park" a few years ago, breaking the 100 million mark. It is not impossible. In addition, the box office of Spain, Australia and other countries and regions is also very good. Just these nine overseas box office markets that have been released, the cumulative box office reached 92 million US dollars in one month. Stimulated by such excellent box office results, the overseas film studios who were quite indifferent to the release of "Titanic" have completely changed their initial attitude at this time.
"I will fly to Europe next week, and Robert will also rush to Japan to personally negotiate with the local distribution and theaters," Katzenberg paused, and said, "Eric, my idea is, We don't need to pursue a higher share ratio. Compared with previous years, the average share of 35% is already very good. If we ask for a higher share, it will definitely discourage the enthusiasm of local publishers. However, we can In terms of theaters and theaters, more resources are required."
Although Firefly has its own branches in the world's major ticket warehouse countries, the specific distribution work still needs to cooperate with the local distribution company, and it is inevitable to give the other party a certain hairstyle share.
Katzenberg was in charge of the European distribution himself, and Robert Thompson, the distribution president, was in charge of Japan. Eric was also very satisfied with this arrangement.
After thinking about it, Eric nodded and said: "Then do it according to your ideas. In addition, let Robert go to China by the way to see if it is possible to get the qualification for "Titanic"."
Katzenberg was a little puzzled, because over the years Eric had inadvertently told Firefly to strive for one or two quotas in the Chinese market almost every year, but to be honest, although there is a huge population of more than 1 billion, But the film market is really pitifully small, and the share ratio is even more outrageously low.
However, he did not question Eric's decision. After all, it was only an hour. He nodded and agreed, and then said: "Eric, there is one more thing. Harvey wants to start "**** Family" ahead of time." You were in New York some time ago, and he talked to me about it, and recently he is busy working on "Shakespeare in Love", so he probably hasn't had time to talk to you, right?"
Eric originally planned to launch a self-produced drama such as "*** Family" after the FFM TV station's business situation stabilized this fall. Hearing Katzenberg's words, Eric asked: "How did he do it?" Thought?"
"Didn't you say at the beginning that "F***ing Family" is a slow-heating genre, and it should mainly rely on awards to gain fame?" Katzenberg said: "Harvey thinks that if this is the case, it is best to start production now. The autumn file will be played, so that it can impact the Emmy Awards in August. If it is postponed to the autumn file, you will definitely miss this year’s Emmy Awards, and there will be a year-long gap between next year’s Emmy Awards. Even if "Family" won the award, the influence of the first season will drop significantly, and it will not be conducive to the distribution of videotapes/DVDs in the later period."
After resting in New York for nearly a month, with the annoyance of "Titanic", and returning to Los Angeles again, Eric found that he had accumulated too many things unconsciously.
Needless to say, the later work of "Casino Royale", in other respects, the British ARM company that Eric ordered Chris to acquire years ago, the two parties have signed an acquisition contract, but many subsequent decisions still need Eric to make the final decision. In addition, The setting of the Marvel movie universe plan, the listing of MP3 players, the equity investment of Clover Holdings, the operation of FFM TV station, etc., although these matters are all in charge of special personnel, a lot of work still needs to be done by Eric Decide.
"Harvey is an expert in award operations. Since he thinks it is appropriate, let's put it in the spring file. Well, I will find time to call him to discuss this matter in the evening."
"Tonight?" Katzenberg raised his eyebrows slightly, and said with a smile, "Harvey may not be free tonight."
"Oh, I almost forgot, tonight is the award ceremony of the Golden Globe Awards, so let's wait for another time," Eric shrugged, and didn't mean to talk too much. Firefly only has the main creator of "Red Alert" tonight The team would be at the awards ceremony, and the Titanic team had already decided not to be there.
"Finally, it's about Clover Holdings." Katzenberg obviously wasn't interested in talking about the Golden Globe Awards. Both of them are busy people, so he quickly switched to the next topic, saying: "In addition to the recent Buying, we have invested US$1.98 billion in major IT stocks on Nasdaq, and according to the trend of Nasdaq in recent months, the book profits of these stocks have exceeded US$210 million."
Eric nodded, and he already knew these data. Because of the stock investment in the Nasdaq market, Firefly's net profit this year will drop to about 1 billion US dollars, plus the two paper media assets and animation studios in the previous two years. The final balance of the sale of the business will not exceed US$2 billion in total. This is because Eric needs to extract a large amount of profits from Firefly Group and invest in Internet companies under Firefly Investment. Otherwise, Clover Holdings will buy more and save more taxes temporarily.
Eric felt that Katzenberg should not bring up this matter alone.
Sure enough, Katzenberg quickly said: "Buffett, Tom Murphy, and David West have called me many times recently, and I think there must be a lot on your side. It’s not that the shares held by Clover Holdings have realized profits, their opinions will definitely be greater.”
"I told David West last time," Eric picked up the coffee pot next to him, refilled a cup of coffee for himself, and continued: "I told them that if they have any questions about the business strategy of the Firefly Group If in doubt, I can buy back their shares at any time.”
David West made great efforts in the process of Firefly's acquisition of ABC, so he was able to become one of the three directors outside the Firefly Group.
Moreover, the group of minority shareholders of Firefly Group represented by him from major investment funds held close to 14% of the shares of Firefly Group at this time, and Buffett and Tom Murphy only controlled 10%. Relatively close, but after all, the two sides represent different interest groups.
In the past two years, due to the continuous sales of paper media assets, hand-painted animation studios and the strong profitability of the group itself, these investment funds, relying on their 14% equity, received around US$500 million in profit dividends from Firefly Group every year. Enough for the managers of these funds to add a lot of color to their annual financial reports.
But this year, due to the additional expenses of Clover Holdings, the profit dividends received by minority shareholders of Firefly Group, such as Berkshire Hathaway and State Street Global Fund, will drop by more than half, and these people themselves are experts in the investment field. , obviously has a strong distrust of Eric's vision in stock investment, so he is full of dissatisfaction with his behavior of buying Nasdaq stocks in large quantities.
Katzenberg heard Eric say this, and laughed: "Unless they are crazy, they will ask you to buy back the stock. However, David West discussed another matter with me on the phone yesterday. You As mentioned before, I also think the timing is good now.”
Eric turned his thoughts around, and suddenly understood, and said, "He wants the digital domain to go public?"
Although I think Eric can guess it, Katzenberg was a little surprised by his quick response, smiled, Katzenberg nodded and said: "Yes, Eric, according to "Titanic" With the current box office trend, there is absolutely no problem with the global box office of this film breaking through 1 billion US dollars. As a film that focuses on CG special effects, the success of "Titanic" will definitely further stimulate the development of Hollywood's special effects industry. Therefore, I also think , Next, it should be the best driver to let the digital field go public, and David also revealed to me that if the digital field goes public, Wall Street should be able to value it at around $3 billion."
Katzenberg and David West's thinking now coincides with Eric's thinking a few years ago.
Eric is well aware of the future development trajectory of the Hollywood special effects industry. Although in recent years, Hollywood special effects companies can be regarded as a highly respected "noble industry", but with the rapid development of computer technology and related software industries in the next ten years, With the support of top-level hardware equipment and software, it will be easy to set up a special effects studio. At that time, the competition in the special effects industry will also be extremely fierce.
Therefore, Eric also thought that if "Titanic" can be as successful as the original time and space, then the CG special effects will definitely be highly respected. At this time, the listing of the digital field will be the best way to get a large amount of cash. good time.
But after what happened some time ago, Eric has changed his mind.
Perhaps, ten years later, or even five years later, the special effects industry will no longer have high barriers to entry, but now, the digital field is definitely the top special effects company in the industry, not one of them.
Therefore, if the foreign cooperation in the digital field is cut off, Firefly can at least maintain a lead in the field of special effects for more than three years. Three years is enough for the Firefly Group to leave other Hollywood film companies behind in terms of special effects movies.
Even after three years, with the strength of the Firefly Group and the support of allies such as MGM and 20th Century Fox, there will still be no shortage of projects in the digital field, even in the longer term, as long as the digital field has absolutely outstanding special effects Technology, even if it cannot make a profit, or even suffer a slight loss, the Firefly Group is enough to support such an exclusive subsidiary.
Moreover, even if Wall Street's valuation of the digital field is as high as 3 billion U.S. dollars, if it is listed for financing at this time, according to the 20% public share issuance ratio, Firefly can only extract 600 million U.S. dollars at most. It is absolutely irrelevant, and it is conceivable that David West made this suggestion at this time, and it is definitely not for the sixty-one dollars. (To be continued.)