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Strictly speaking, Forbes magazine's valuation of Eric's net worth at US$98.7 billion this year is relatively accurate.
Eric's current assets mainly include Firefly Group and Firefly Investment.
The Firefly Group, which controls more than 20 subsidiaries in the fields of film, television, amusement parks, comics, music, and special effects, has reached 50 billion US dollars in fixed assets alone. In 1996, Firefly’s actual annual revenue data was US$31.3 billion, almost 1.5 times the combined revenue of Time Warner and Viacom. billion, then "Forbes"'s valuation of Firefly Group at US$85 billion is not an exaggeration no matter how you look at it.
Eric holds 73.7% of the shares of Firefly Group, and the value of this part of the stock reached 62.7 billion US dollars.
On the other hand, Firefly invests heavily in companies such as Cisco, Nokia, and AOL. Since most of them are listed, the value of their assets is easier to estimate. According to various public data, the value of Eric’s assets is about $36 billion.
The sum of the two is exactly the 98.7 billion US dollars given by Forbes magazine.
Westerners generally admire miracles and individual heroism. But when some miracles far exceed their cognition, they often have doubts.
Eric's personal net worth of US$98.7 billion is US$62.3 billion higher than the US$36.4 billion of the second-ranked Bill Gates. This disparity in data has caused too many people a strong sense of unreality , so doubts are almost inevitable.
In order to defuse the risk of anti-monopoly investigations that might be brought about by "Forbes" magazine rendering Firefly Group as a "media oligarchy", Eric took advantage of this doubt and subtly shifted the media topics in the next few days to himself.
After the publication of the latest "Forbes" magazine, those financial reporters and critics who could only publish articles criticizing Eric's overvalued personal net worth in professional journals with low circulation or second- and third-tier newspapers received reports from mainstream North American daily newspapers. I hope that they can discuss their views on the latest issue of Forbes magazine's rich list.
Of course, it is impossible for this group of media people to know that it is Eric himself who is behind the scenes to promote this matter. In the "Washington Post", "New York Post", "Wall Street Journal", "Yahoo Finance" and other influential media platforms Publishing articles is also the best way to expand one's influence, so one after another is gearing up and racking their brains, and articles with detailed discussions will be released soon.
Some of them are aware of the close relationship between these media platforms that have asked them to write articles and the Firefly Group or Eric himself, but as media professionals who at least superficially pursue freedom of speech, they will definitely not give up just for a chance. Easily change your point of view. After many people submitted commentary articles that they thought might be left-leaning with these media platforms, they even made up their minds to argue with the other party to show their strength. Unexpectedly, these articles were published without hindrance.
For a while, most of the North American media appeared articles questioning the accuracy of Forbes magazine's data and criticizing Eric Williams' personal net worth being seriously overestimated.
"98.7 billion US dollars, a grandstanding figures game."
"The massively overvalued Yahoo Internet company."
"Profit margins in the IT industry are generally low, and there is a serious bubble in the valuation of Firefly Investment Company at US$36 billion."
"The net profit is 1.76 billion US dollars, and the net profit rate of Firefly Group has shrunk severely."
"..."
Under the sudden and powerful public opinion offensive, in order to maintain its own credibility, the Forbes Group naturally fought back. For a while, the two sides quarreled fiercely on print media, TV, and even online platforms. Most of the news topics focused on AI. How much money does Rick have
Because the opponents of the Forbes data seemed too powerful, in the end, most ordinary people unknowingly accepted the opponent's point of view and regarded the Forbes data as a grandstanding joke. Under the repeated information bombardment, according to the general perception of most people, Eric's actual personal net worth is also locked in the scale of 60 to 70 billion US dollars. Although it is still much higher than the second place on the list, it is better than It is relatively easy to accept a figure close to 100 billion U.S. dollars.
This is exactly what Eric wanted to see.
After a week of quarreling, the topic naturally began to cool down, but few media have paid attention to the "media oligarchy" argument thrown by "Forbes" magazine.
Even if some people who are sensitive to the media are aware of the traces of human manipulation, they are doomed to find it difficult to find any direct evidence.
After all, Eric's method of manipulating public opinion this time is very ingenious. It just allows people who already hold certain views to make more voices in the media, and then causes the entire media circle to follow suit. There are always too many people in this world who don't know what purpose the opinions they express can achieve.
In a blink of an eye, a new week weekend has arrived.
A brand-new explosive news swept away the last trace of media interest in Forbes magazine's rich list, and quickly focused on this matter.
That's the new week's box office stats for "Titanic."
"Titanic" was released until today, with a series of miraculous box office data refreshing many people's perception of traditional movie box office data, the news about this film has surpassed the scope of film and television entertainment, and has become a social topic.
After another week of reflections, because the Oscars will be held next Monday, fans of "Titanic" in North America are looking forward to the moment when the local box office of the film breaks through 500 million US dollars. Therefore, compared with the previous week, "Titanic" North America In the 13th week of its release, the box office fell again, reaching 23 million U.S. dollars, and the cumulative box office reached 492 million U.S. dollars, which is only one step away from 500 million U.S. dollars.
But what attracts all the media attention is not the North American box office data that has already made people feel numb, but the overseas box office data.
Last week, after several months of strong publicity, the number of countries and regions where "Titanic" was released overseas increased by 17, and the total number of overseas ticket warehouses reached 46, including France, Germany and Japan. The most important overseas ticket warehouse country.
Obviously, when "Titanic" has created a series of miracles in North America both in terms of box office and award nominations, the expectations of audiences in these newly released overseas countries have reached the highest.
Therefore, after a new week, the box office figures of "Titanic" in 46 overseas countries and regions reached a jaw-dropping US$179 million in one fell swoop.
You know, before this, "Titanic" has been released overseas in countries and regions. Although the release date is uncertain, the cumulative box office has only reached 400 million U.S. dollars in the 12 weeks since the North American release at the same time. In just one week, with the help of 17 new box office countries, the overseas single-week box office of "Titanic" was close to half of the cumulative box office of the previous 12 weeks in just one week. This is definitely a miracle.
Among these newly released countries, it is no surprise that the box office performance of the three box office countries of France, Germany and Japan is particularly eye-catching.
France's box office in the first week was equivalent to US$28 million, Germany's first week was US$26 million, and Japan reached an astonishing more than US$49 million. Just these three box office, in one week, made the total of "Titanic". Box office figures contributed $103 million. Although the remaining 43 countries and regions only provided an average of more than 1.7 million U.S. dollars in box office, the overall box office of 76 million U.S. dollars still far exceeded the average data of the previous 12 weeks.
Considering that overseas box office centers such as France, Germany, and Japan may walk out of a box office curve similar to that of North America, and that there will still be 22 countries and regions that will be released one after another in the next period of time, many box office agencies have boldly predicted that "Titanic" will be released in the next week. , with the help of the Oscars and the newly opened box office, the overseas single-week box office is likely to exceed the miraculous US$200 million.
In this era, 99% of Hollywood films may not have a total overseas box office figure of 200 million, but "Titanic" may achieve this feat in a week.
At this time, stimulated by the overseas box office of 179 million US dollars, the global box office of "Titanic" has exceeded 1.071 billion US dollars. If in the next few weeks, the overseas box office of "Titanic" can maintain a scale of around 200 million US dollars in a single week, the total global box office of "Titanic" will reach 2 billion US dollars, which is no longer an unattainable figure.
The global box office is 2 billion U.S. dollars, just box office data alone will bring a net profit of 500 million U.S. dollars to the Firefly Group. The seven major film businesses in Hollywood, let alone a movie, most of the time, the total net profit of the movies released throughout the year , are not necessarily able to reach 500 million US dollars.
Moreover, box office revenue is only the beginning. Because the box office data is too bad, although the peripheral income such as video tapes and original soundtracks in the later stage cannot be calculated according to the traditional income ratio, it is conceivable that this part of the income will still be a terrifying astronomical figure. In the entire profit cycle of "Titanic", after the operation of the entire industry chain, it is not impossible for Firefly Group to recover a profit of 2 billion US dollars equivalent to the box office figure.
This weekend, Eric finally got a little rest.
However, it is impossible to completely relax. After all, next Monday is the Oscars ceremony. This time, because "My Heart Will Go On" won the Oscar for Best Original Song nomination, Eric will definitely attend.
It’s interesting to say that, from 1988 to the present, Eric has produced many films, but so far, he has not won the best director award, but won the best screenwriter and best original song Nominated, and the former's statuette has already been obtained, this time it is no surprise that he will definitely get another statuette.
In a living room of the Angle Manor Villa, Eric stretched out his arms and let the identical-looking twins beside him help him put on the dress. He asked with great interest the girl who was standing side by side with an account manager of the Givenchy store: " Baby, look, I have already won the best original screenplay award, and this time I won the best original song statuette, it should not be a big problem. Then, will I continue to win these peripheral awards, the best Special effects, best editing, best soundtrack, etc., all the awards one by one, oh, what did you say, grand slam?"
The girl laughed and said, "You must not be able to win the grand slam, because you are a man."
"Well, I mean," Eric also remembered that the best female lead and female supporting role would definitely be impossible in his life, and continued: "Those I can get."
"You can't get the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor either," the girl raised her lips, of course she knew what Eric was thinking, and continued to 'strike'.
Everyone laughed lightly.
Sister Natasha buttoned up Eric's black dress and stood quietly beside her.
Eric has no interest in things like trying on clothes by nature. He is more used to buying a stack of all kinds of exactly the same clothes and wearing them all the time. However, this time the girl was going to walk the red carpet with Eric, so she insisted on letting him try on a suit that matched her dress.
Anyway, Eric couldn't figure out why it was necessary to try on these black suits that looked similar.
The girl obviously also saw Eric's impatience, walked over to look up and down, whispered a few words with Givenchy's good-looking female account manager, and said: "Okay, let's just set it up, Na Tasha, take your shirt off, the sleeves need a little more work."
…
…
The girl laughed and said, "You must not be able to win the grand slam, because you are a man."
"Well, I mean," Eric also remembered that the best female lead and female supporting role would definitely be impossible in his life, and continued: "Those I can get."
"You can't get the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor either," the girl raised her lips, of course she knew what Eric was thinking, and continued to 'strike'.
Everyone laughed lightly.
Sister Natasha buttoned up Eric's black dress and stood quietly beside her.
Eric has no interest in things like trying on clothes by nature. He is more used to buying a stack of all kinds of exactly the same clothes and wearing them all the time. However, this time the girl was going to walk the red carpet with Eric, so she insisted on letting him try on a suit that matched her dress.
Anyway, Eric couldn't figure out why it was necessary to try on these black suits that looked similar.
The girl obviously also saw Eric's impatience, walked over to look up and down, whispered a few words with Givenchy's good-looking female account manager, and said: "Okay, let's just set it up, Na Tasha, take your shirt off, the sleeves need a little more work." (To be continued.)