In the original time and space, Marvel has always been criticized in terms of actor remuneration, mainly because Marvel had a very stingy CEO Isaac Perlmutter at that time, and it was even rumored in the industry that the furniture in Marvel Entertainment’s office was Jokes about second-hand stuff.
Before snatching Marvel from Ron Perelman, Isaac Perlmutter was also a member of Marvel’s board of directors. Firefly swallowed Marvel completely, and the original board of directors was naturally disbanded. Isaac Perlmutter offered an olive branch. As a boss, Eric certainly hoped that the top managers could increase revenue and reduce expenditure as much as possible to create more profits for the company, but he also felt that there was no need to be harsh. Backfired.
Compared with these minutiae, Eric is more concerned about the overall cost control in the production process of Marvel movies, which is the foundation for the stability and sustainability of the Marvel movie universe. Therefore, during the two weeks in New York, discussions on the salary plan of the protagonists of Marvel movies took up a long time. The core of the final plan is actually two points: long-term contracts, and salary linked to the box office.
The core actors participating in Marvel superhero movies must sign at least six contracts. As long as the box office is good enough, Marvel can guarantee that they will get the remuneration of A-level stars, but they will never pay a single movie such as $50 million.
Chatting casually with Stuart Runkel about these things, the two inevitably talked about some past events back then, and both were a little embarrassed.
The expectant eyes of the guests around him made Stuart realize that Eric is not as leisurely as he appears to be. After chatting for more than ten minutes, he expressed that he would seriously consider whether to participate in "Spider-Man". The boy took the initiative to talk to Eric. Rick said goodbye and walked towards his parents and sister who were waiting not far away.
Eric was still leaning on the railing and gestured to the passing waiter. Just as he took a glass of champagne from his tray, a couple walked over.
The man among them has gray hair, wears a neat suit, and wears glasses. He looks like a university professor, but if anyone knows that he shot "The Exorcist", which was once known as the number one horror film in Hollywood, they must not You will have a similar impression, this man is William Friedkin, the master of Hollywood horror films, and the middle-aged woman holding his arm is naturally his wife, Shirley Lansing, the current CEO of Paramount.
Eric also noticed that Shirley Lansing's expression obviously carried a hint of aggression. Obviously, the purpose of the other party's appearance at this party tonight is not so pure, and, according to common sense, now this occasion , although it will not refuse, it is impossible for Firefly to take the initiative to send an invitation letter to the head of its competitors such as Paramount, and the other party is obviously uninvited.
Pretending not to notice Shirley Lansing's expression, Eric stood up straight and greeted William Friedkin warmly: "Hi, William, good evening."
"Good evening, Eric, this is really a time to celebrate," William Friedkin apparently was not affected by his wife's emotions, or did not show it, and greeted Eric with the same enthusiasm, saying: " A global box office of $1.8 billion is a miracle, but Eric, I'm curious as to why you chose that figure for the celebration banquet, wouldn't it be better to have a global box office of $2 billion?"
Eric made an excuse at will, and said: "Some things are done as soon as they are thought of. It is not a good thing to be always bound by the inertia of thinking."
William Friedkin laughed approvingly.
Shirley Lansing followed Eric's words and said, "But, Eric, don't you think Firefly has gone too far in some things?"
William Friedkin didn't expect his wife to be so direct, he looked a little embarrassed, and coughed a few times helplessly.
From Shirley Lansing's gunpowder-flavored words, Eric is almost 100% sure of the other party's intentions. Presumably, due to the joint blocking strategy of Firefly and Fox on "The Lion King 2", Paramount has been cornered.
Although Lei Shidong once made a bold statement in the media that "The Lion King 2" will kill all "Finding Nemo" and "Ice Age", but since the last stage of the promotion of the summer film at the end of March, "The Lion King 2" has been released on Firefly. And News Corporation's media network is almost completely invisible, and Firefly and News Corporation-related Yahoo portals and print media also rarely appear any news related to "The Lion King 2".
Due to factors such as advertising audiences, the marketing promotion of animated films is much more dependent on TV advertisements than live-action films. "The Lion King 2" not only lost more than half of the TV advertising channel platforms in North America, but also suffered joint attacks from Firefly and Fox on the advertising placement of the two major TV networks, NBC and CBS. In the past month or so, almost all marketing actions They can only be described as getting twice the result with half the effort.
On the contrary, the promotion of "Finding Nemo" and "Ice Age" is in full swing. With the powerful combination of various marketing methods such as TV, newspapers, the Internet and traditional posters, the influence of these two animated films is like a virus. It spread rapidly among the public.
Although he guessed the intention of Shirley Lansing's words, Eric did not pretend to be stupid, shrugged, and said: "Shirley, I don't think there is anything excessive about Firefly. If I remember correctly, at the end of last year MTV also rejected the trailer for Titanic."
"It's not the same, Eric," Shirley Lansing argued, "Firefly is killing everything right now, which is not good for either of us, and don't forget, Firefly still retains the merchandise copyright of "The Lion King" , if "The Lion King 2" fails at the box office, you also get nothing."
Eric spread his hands: "Shirley, it doesn't make sense for you to say these things. Although the seven major Hollywood companies have never lacked cooperation, and occasionally work together on some things, in essence, we will always be competitors. In this case , each of us will definitely choose the solution that is most beneficial to us.”
"But the TV network should belong to the open public service field, Eric, it is not even legal for you to do this, it is unfair competition."
"You're wrong, Shirley, the four major TV networks have always been private, ABC is mine, Fox is Murdoch's, CBS is Larry Tish's, NBC is General Electric's, I last week Also saw Jack Welch's speech live on NBC, it seems to be an hour long, do you think, if NBC is not owned by General Electric, Jack Welch can get a full hour of solo show time? So, Just listen to some high-sounding words, if you take it seriously, you will be too stupid."
Shirley Lansing held the wine glass in her hand vigorously with her fingers, and didn't even think of rebuttal words for a moment.
Standing aside, William Friedkin saw his always eloquent wife being rendered speechless by the young man in front of him, so he took the initiative to smooth things over and said, "Eric, Shirley, there's no need for you to be so stiff, isn't it? How about How about we find a seat and talk slowly? There is a solution to everything."
"William, there's no need for that. I'm glad you can come over tonight and have a good time," Eric raised his glass to William Friedkin, then turned and left.
If Hollywood can still maintain a stable pattern of the coexistence of the seven majors as it did many years ago, Eric will naturally take the initiative to promote the state of co-existence among all parties in competition and cooperation. But now, with the rise of Firefly, this state of coexistence has been completely broken. Eric doesn't think it is necessary to reconcile now. After all, reconciliation must mean compromise. Eric really can't think of any need for Firefly to compromise.
With the rapid development and growth of Firefly, one ebbs and another, non-Firefly film companies and even media groups will definitely be strongly impacted, and even encounter threats to their survival. At that time, the competition among all parties will definitely reach the point of life and death. In this level of commercial competition, it is very impractical to seek reconciliation or even sympathy from the opponent, and it is also not wise to take the initiative to give opportunities to competitors.
Perhaps because the negotiation failed, after the "Titanic" celebration party, just in May, Paramount took the initiative to provoke the topic of "The Lion King 2" being jointly banned by Firefly and Fox during the promotion process in the newspaper.
For this reason, Lei Shidong personally landed on NBC's morning news interview program, angrily accused Firefly and Fox of such unfair competition, and even vowed to file a lawsuit with the US Department of Justice.
Perhaps because they felt that a media war was coming, a large number of newspapers across the United States immediately followed up and reported on this matter, and looked forward to the responses of Firefly and Fox.
However, no matter how provocative Viacom is, how furious Redstone is, the top executives of Firefly and Fox have not made any response to this topic, and the media controlled by the two companies has not shown any reports about the banning of "The Lion King 2" It seems that in the hearts of Firefly and Fox, this matter does not exist at all.
In the end, after being chased and blocked by a large number of media reporters for more than a week, Katzenberg finally spoke up "unbearable", but he just threw out a sentence: You can't force McDonald's to advertise for KFC.
The words are simply too powerful.
Anyone knows that as the same world-class fast food chains, McDonald's and KFC have always been competitors.
Likewise, Firefly Group and Viacom Group are undisputed competitors.
Isn't it natural to refuse to advertise for competitors on one's own media platform
Originally, many media who were filled with righteous indignation and wanted to seek justice for Paramount calmed down because of Katzenberg's words. Although some newspapers felt that the Firefly Group was too heartless, after all, "The Lion King" came from Disney's animation brand under Firefly, however, the buzz that was originally lively quickly dissipated when competitors almost didn't accept the move. Even though Viacom is still very unwilling to fan the flames everywhere, it is still difficult to arouse the follow-up of the media.
Of course, this storm naturally made "The Lion King 2" show its face in front of the public, but, obviously, as the main audience group of "The Lion King 2", no one would think that 6 to 6 Twelve-year-olds pay attention to this sort of thing.
As for teenagers or adult audiences, they have too many films to look forward to this summer, such as "Godzilla", "Batman and Robin", "Casino Royale 007", "Scream 2", "Jedi Men of War 2 and so on, even if it is an animation, even if the difference in publicity is not mentioned, after the influence of Pixar's several 3D animations, they are obviously more likely to accept "Finding Nemo" and "Ice Age" instead of the traditional " The Lion King 2" is a 2D hand-painted animation.
After the celebration party, during the three weeks from April 25th to May 15th, "Titanic" successively earned a cumulative box office of 163 million US dollars in the global market.
On May 16, Firefly Group officially announced that the global box office of "Titanic" exceeded 2 billion U.S. dollars, and the cumulative total box office figure reached 2 billion 15 million U.S. dollars.
This time, Firefly did not focus on holding celebration parties, but held interaction with movie fans in major box-country countries around the world. Although these activities could no longer stimulate the box office potential of "Titanic", they directly promoted a large number of moviegoers. Sales of "Titanic" peripheral products.
Since its release, the cumulative sales of peripheral products of "Titanic" have also exceeded an astonishing figure of 600 million U.S. dollars, and with the gradual release of peripheral products in overseas markets, this number will also grow rapidly.
The Firefly Peripheral Products Operation Department predicts that just the peripheral products of the movie "Titanic" will bring Firefly no less than 1.5 billion US dollars in sales in the next few years, which is almost as high as the sales volume of Firefly's peripheral products last year. Half, in 1996, the revenue of Firefly's peripheral products was only 3.3 billion US dollars.
This series of huge success numbers has further stimulated almost all film companies in Hollywood to start frantically looking for the next project that can rival "Titanic". Even for Firefly itself, Eric has received four or five "blockbuster" scripts in a row in the few weeks since he returned to Los Angeles.
Obviously, the success of "Titanic" has brought a false impression to the entire Hollywood, making many people think that since there is the first movie with a global box office of 2 billion US dollars, there will definitely be a second movie and a third movie soon. ,even more.
Of course, Eric will not be dazzled by this kind of success, but will continue to focus most of his energy on the formation of Marvel Pictures and the preliminary preparations for projects such as "Spider-Man" and "Iron Man". (To be continued.)