As Richard Lovett predicted, MGM shares fell 6.8% throughout the day on Tuesday when they were impressed by the news of Brosnan's replacement. Since MGM has never taken any remedial measures, at the close of the day, MGM's market value has dropped from the peak of 12.3 billion US dollars to 11.5 billion US dollars.
Early on Wednesday morning, when the major newspapers in North America were discussing whether MGM’s stock price would plummet again today, the reporter who had been guarding the MGM headquarters in Century City suddenly broke the news. Around ten, James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan suddenly appeared, and under the escort of a group of assistants and bodyguards, he hurried into the MGM headquarters building. Relevant photos appeared on the home page of the Yahoo portal almost at the same time.
In this case, even a fool can guess that there has been a major turning point in Brosnan's replacement.
Although MGM still did not announce any news, on the New York Stock Exchange on the east coast, the stock price of MGM, which had fallen again since the opening of the day, suddenly rose rapidly. In just half an hour, the market value of MGM returned to $12 billion high.
Then, at ten o'clock, MGM finally issued another announcement through the Yahoo portal, but the content had nothing to do with the Agent movie universe that the media and fans were closely watching.
The announcement stated that in order to alleviate the tension of cash flow and avoid investment risks to the greatest extent, MGM has decided to transfer the production rights of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy to Firefly Pictures, and the company will only retain the global theaters of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. distribution rights.
As soon as the news came out, MGM's rapidly rising stock price suddenly stagnated, and there was even a short-term downward arc.
Rumors that MGM is about to produce the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy at one time have not stopped in the past two years. Recently, there have been frequent rumors in the industry that this project has entered the substantive preparatory stage.
Rookie director, 300 million budget, unknown cast, huge risks, these words are very unfavorable to the whole project and often appear in the analysis articles of major media. Many media also speculate that if Eric Williams, who controls MGM behind the scenes, is really optimistic about this project, he will definitely let Firefly Pictures participate in the investment. But if Firefly does not participate at all, then this project is likely to be a gamble that even Eric himself is not sure about.
Therefore, the sudden announcement caught everyone by surprise.
Instead of co-working on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Firefly took almost the entire project. The so-called global theater distribution rights retained by MGM can only get about 15% to 20% of the global box office share of the "Lord of the Rings" series in the future. The lucrative videotape/DVD distribution, TV rights income and peripheral product income in the later period obviously have nothing to do with MGM.
Until the final dust settles, no matter how well-informed the media is, it is impossible to straighten out the various power games that have taken place inside and outside of MGM in recent days. But this does not prevent them from speculating on the meaning of this announcement.
Soon, the boldest and most serious speculation came out, and quickly landed on Yahoo's hot topic list: MGM and Williams parted ways!
After MGM released the announcement to replace Brosnan yesterday, the relevant inside information was quickly leaked, and it was Eric Williams himself who made this decision. Subsequently, MGM's share price fell 6.8% throughout the day, and Pierre Truc, the spokesperson for MGM's European shareholders, rushed to Los Angeles from New York to contact MGM executives.
So, following this line of thought, MGM’s European shareholders will definitely not be able to tolerate the impact of the replacement of Brosnan on MGM’s stock price, although outsiders have speculated that Drew Barrymore, who holds the largest proportion of MGM’s shares, is Eric Williams' puppet, but ultimately there is no sign of that. Eric Williams' stake in MGM is only indirectly through the 8.4% stake in MGM controlled by the LTD Group. If both Drew Barrymore and MGM executives are dissatisfied with Eric Williams' decision, coupled with the support of European shareholders represented by Pierre Truc. It is not impossible for several major shareholders to unite to turn against Williams and completely get rid of the other party's control.
Immediately afterwards, Brosnan re-entered the MGM headquarters this morning, and MGM gave up the risky "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. All these signs ran counter to Eric Williams' will.
After guessing like this, it seems completely reasonable that MGM and Eric Williams broke completely, and the two sides parted ways.
The stock price was in a very volatile state for the next hour due to all the speculation surrounding MGM's transfer of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.
As the core of the agent movie universe, Pierce Brosnan is certainly important, which can be seen from the sharp drop in MGM's stock price yesterday.
However, if investors in this company were asked to choose between Eric Williams and Pierce Brosnan, most people would not have much hesitation.
Everyone knows that MGM's recovery in recent years is entirely due to Eric Williams alone. The projects that have brought huge profits to MGM in recent years, including the Agent Movie Universe series, the "Night at the Museum" series, the "Resident Evil" series, etc., are all led by Eric.
Perhaps these projects have entered a stable profit period, but some rational investors will not think that Eric Williams is irrelevant. After all, although it has begun to recover, MGM is still the weakest one among the seven major film companies, and what supports the company's development is still limited to the traditional film business, which is far inferior to the other major media companies that have integrated into large media groups. That tree has big roots and deep roots. If they completely lost the support of the Firefly Group, or even were suppressed by the Firefly Group after the two sides were torn apart, the impact on MGM would definitely be infinitely more serious than the loss of Pierce Brosnan.
So, when the news of the complete break between MGM and Eric gradually spread and was accepted by more and more people, the situation changed suddenly.
At around 11 a.m. Western time, on the New York Stock Exchange on the East Coast, there was only an hour and a half left before the day's close.
But in just one and a half hours, MGM’s stock price curve was like a gravitational shot put. Under the fly, when the closing time came, MGM’s stock price finally stopped at 22.82 US dollars, which not only completely offset Pierce. The boost brought by Brosnan's re-entry into the MGM headquarters, and compared to the opening price of 26.45 US dollars, the full-day drop reached a shocking 13.7%, and the overall market value of MGM fell back to tens of billions. In the dollar range, only $9.92 billion remains.
I tossed and turned all night, although I occasionally thought about it, it would be a big deal to break up with MGM. But when the sky was bright, Pierce Brosnan finally decided to accept the remuneration conditions offered by MGM, overlooking Los Angeles in the early morning from the Beverly Mid-Levels mansion he had just bought. What Richard Lovett said is actually correct. Losing 007, he has struggled for more than ten years to gain all this in Hollywood, fame, glory, money...all will disappear, and even, because of the complete tearing of face, still If he is jointly suppressed by Firefly, MGM and even Fox, he will basically be unable to continue to gain a foothold in Hollywood.
However, although he decided to compromise on the film salary, detailed terms such as personal treatment on the set, whether to cooperate with MGM in advertising placement, and the scale of dangerous actions during filming, etc., whether it is Brosnan himself or the person who came to be in charge of the negotiation Richard Lovett showed a penny-pinching attitude. MGM did not entangle with details such as studio treatment, but it also made no concessions on terms that might affect the quality of the film. The two parties came and went all day in the MGM conference room, and it was not until nightfall that the contract was finally finalized.
During this period, the news of MGM's stock price plummeting again naturally could not be hidden from anyone present, and there was inevitably another commotion within the company.
Knowing the detailed cause and effect of the matter, Drew, who was sitting at the conference table and personally participated in the negotiations, let the stock price fall, and even stopped Amy from releasing some clarifications. It's not just because she knows better than anyone that the outside rumors are completely false. As long as they are properly clarified, MGM's stock price will definitely rise again.
Moreover, the girl is even happy to see the success of this situation.
Just a rumor that Eric may break with MGM can cause MGM's stock price to plummet, and it can also make many people who have different ideas fully see Eric's influence and importance to MGM . Last night's heart-to-heart talk, the girl decided to let Eric hold MGM in her hands, but she didn't intend to give people the impression that Eric's influence on MGM would be reduced.
However, Yatou also knew that enough was enough. She allowed MGM's stock price to go up and down like a roller coaster all day, which stimulated some people enough. That night, MGM began to take actions to restore the declining stock price.
After officially signing the contract with Brosnan, MGM announced the news on the Yahoo portal that night.
The four films were packaged at about 60 million US dollars. As soon as the news came out, it once again shocked a lot of eyeballs. This obviously can't be because the average salary of $15 million per movie is too high, but too low.
For most Hollywood stars, the average salary of 15 million US dollars per film may be out of reach. However, compared to the expected box office of "Casino Royale" and the huge benefits brought to MGM by the entire agent movie universe, as the core protagonist, Brosnan's package contract of 60 million US dollars for four films is simply the price of cabbage. . Prior to this, many media had speculated that Pierce Brosnan's next film contract with MGM would not be less than $60 million per film.
After the shock, some people began to realize that if this contract is real, MGM has clearly won the salary dispute with Pierce Brosnan this time, and it has won a big and crazy victory.
So, if this is the case, will Eric Williams, who dominated the suppression of Brosnan's salary and even did not hesitate to replace him, really break with MGM completely, as most media speculate? After all, without Eric Williams' strong insistence, MGM wanted to sign four film contracts with Brosnan, not to mention $60 million, even if it was $160 million, it might not be able to win.
Moreover, this victory has had a very positive impact on the overall advancement of the next stage of the MGM Agent movie universe, whether it is the trio of "Charlie's Angels" or Kevin Coster of "Mission: Impossible" Na, it is impossible to appear confident when negotiating salary with MGM.
Amidst the chaotic comments and speculations, on the second day, MGM gave the media and the public an answer in another way in a disguised form.
MGM is about to launch a new racing movie series "Fast and Furious" casting, the film is written and produced by Eric himself. At the same time, if the film gets a good market response, MGM will incorporate this series into the agent movie universe in the future.
MGM released the news through the Yahoo portal at 9:00 a.m. ET, but the market was still figuring out the amount of information contained in the news. At 9:30 a.m. ET, just before the opening of the New York Stock Exchange , Pierre Trucco, CEO of Vivendi's Havas Group USA, announced that due to work reasons, he will resign from the board of directors of MGM Resorts, and the successor will be jointly recommended by MGM management and major shareholders. .
At this moment, even those who were slow to respond realized that Eric had not lost control of MGM from beginning to end. He not only strongly dominated the salary negotiations between MGM and Brosnan, but also mercilessly expelled Pierre Trucque, the spokesperson for European shareholders who tried to intervene in MGM management, from the MGM board of directors.
Although I still don't understand why Eric transferred all the risky "Lord of the Rings" trilogy to Firefly Pictures, this does not prevent the capital market from rekindling confidence in MGM. After all, what investors value most is always profit. Although Eric's recent strong measures have caused MGM's turmoil, there is no doubt that these measures are undoubtedly very beneficial to the development of MGM.
As a result, on Thursday, MGM's stock price rebounded strongly to a high of $27, with a market value of $11.74 billion.
Then, on Friday, stimulated by news about the possible replacement of Pierce Brosnan for a week, the popularity of "Casino Royale" rose again, and a large number of fans walked into the Cinema.
In the end, in the third week of its release, the box office decline of "Casino Royale" narrowed again, only 32%, and it received another US$52.73 million. $263 million over five weeks. But compared with "Finding Nemo" in the same period, "Casino Royale" grossed $8 million more in its third week. In this way, the North American box office of "Casino Royale" will definitely exceed that of "Finding Nemo". Some analysts even raised the final North American box office forecast of "Casino Royale" to 370 million. Within $330 million.
After the release of the box office data, further good news and yesterday’s positive influence made MGM’s stock price break through the $30 mark on Friday, and finally stayed at a high of $30.37. According to the total of 435 million shares of MGM In terms of share capital, MGM's market capitalization reached US$13.21 billion at the close of the week. (To be continued.)