Hollywood Hunter

Europe Disneyland in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France.

After riding the Indiana Jones roller coaster, the couple wearing Mickey and Minnie couple T-shirts left the attraction, looked around for a lawn, and walked over together.

Leaving Simon lying on the lawn, Janet took off the sunglasses from her face and lay on the man's chest comfortably.

Wearing baseball caps and sunglasses, dressed like a pair of ordinary couples that can be seen everywhere, they have been playing crazy in Disneyland all day, and it is inevitable that some hesitating gazes have never been recognized.

It was already evening.

The soft and warm sunshine of early summer shining on the body makes people inevitably a little lazy.

The kitten rubbed against Simon, and Janet suddenly said, "Shall we not go to Cannes tonight?"

Simon reached out his arm around the woman's waist, nodding without thinking, "Okay."

Today is Monday, May 18.

The 45th French Cannes Film Festival opened on May 7th, and the closing ceremony was officially held tonight.

I haven't been to Europe for a long time, and it is inevitable that I have accumulated a lot of things to deal with.

Taking advantage of this film festival opportunity, Simon flew here with Janet last Friday.

I spent a day in Florence, Italy on Saturday, and flew to Helsinki, Finland yesterday. Today, I have a free day and there are relatively few tourists. On Monday, Simon took Janet to the newly opened European Disneyland.

In fact, it can be regarded as a personal experience of the operation of Disneyland.

After six years and a cost of US$5 billion and covering an area of ​​nearly 20 square kilometers, Euro Disneyland officially opened on April 12, and the official passenger flow in the last month or so was less than half of Disney's initial estimate. A huge loss can be imagined. And the heavy debt burden of theme parks embarrassed the initially smug Disney executives.

The failure of Euro Disney has had a very obvious impact on the preparations for Universal Studios Osaka, Japan.

The most direct point is that the Osaka City Government has finally slowed down during this period and no longer insists on changing all the land for shares, but for cash and shares. According to the plan that Japan has basically negotiated, the Osaka City Government’s shareholding in Universal Studios Osaka will eventually be reduced to about 5%.

For Simon, the failure of Euro Disney also brought him many warnings.

This Disneyland on the outskirts of Paris was built largely by the success of Tokyo Disney. At the beginning, Disney was full of confidence in this project, and European countries also racked their brains to compete for this theme park project that can have many positive effects on the economy and employment.

The initial blindness also brought very serious consequences.

In my memory, Euro Disney, later renamed Paris Disney, has been open for decades, and basically no profit has been realized. Considering that the consequences of bankruptcy and liquidation were too serious for such a huge project, Disney was unable to get rid of it. It was impossible to even let it go, so long-term subsidies were required to maintain its operations.

The lack of detailed market research in the early stage, excessive optimism caused the project budget to get out of control, and the failure to carry out localized operation that fits the market... These huge mistakes at European Disneyland are all things that the next Universal Studios Osaka needs to pay attention to.

Simon thought about it, and suddenly thought of another thing.

Disney on the original timeline, even in the relatively sluggish years at the beginning of the new century, has always been a Hollywood giant media group.

However, now Hollywood, because of the rise of Daenerys Entertainment, Disney has been significantly suppressed.

For example, Pixar, the animation studio that has maintained Disney's long-term dominance in the field of animation films, has been owned by Daenerys Entertainment.

Some of Disney's top-selling projects in the 1990s, such as "Pretty Woman in Wind and Moon" and "The Lion King", have also been cut off by Simon.

Miramax, which was originally an important sub-label of Disney, is now dying.

Even Disney’s crucial 2D animation film business, because Simon’s advance purchase of Pixar led to the transition of animation production technology from manual to digital, and the production scale of Disney’s 2D animation film was therefore restricted.

The wave of consolidation in the American media industry has begun.

Because of Daenerys Entertainment's series of cuts, although Disney currently operates fairly well in major Hollywood studios, it is impossible to have enough strength to annex Metropolis-ABC Group.

It is impossible to realize the transformation from a simple studio to a comprehensive media group. In the US media industry tends to concentrate resources in the industry trend, this old film company, which has been operating independently for many years, will probably end up in the future by other large media. Group annexation.

Twenty or thirty years later, Hollywood's most powerful major studios, whether it is Disney or Warner Bros. or Universal Pictures, are actually attached to a huge media group. Up-and-coming stars such as Lionsgate, because they remain independent, have been unable to truly stand alongside the traditional major studios. They briefly relied on one or two blockbuster series to become popular for a few years, and then quickly fell silent.

There are signs of instability in Disney now.

Simon couldn't help thinking about it. Perhaps one day, he could also include this old-fashioned studio. Or, let it be completely silent like the former Lianmei, Raidenhua and later MGM.

Such a heavy burden as Euro Disney can undoubtedly contribute to the decline of Disney.

Suddenly a pair of small hands stretched out, held Simon's face and rubbed it for a while, interrupting his thoughts.

Biting one of the hands in a gesture of force, the two small paws ‘pounced’ together without fear, and quickly shut up.

Janet squeezed the man's face again with dissatisfaction, and Janet let him go. She put her arms on his chest, still staring at her beautiful eyes and said: "Don't think about things anymore, think about where we are going to play tomorrow."

Simon wrapped his arms around the woman's waist, and said, "I will go to Chateau Latour tomorrow."

Jenny got her head and remembered one more thing, and said: "Dad told me last time that David's wedding at the end of the year, let me help prepare some red wine."

Although the old man is dissatisfied with David Johnston's fiancée, his face-saving temper is the same as before.

Smiling and scratching the woman's waist with his fingers, Simon pretended that it hurts and said: "Just pick the same one, it's great, I'll feel bad."

Janet snorted threateningly in her eyes, she looked like a little daughter-in-law who was clearly about to turn her elbow away.

However, after staring at Simon for a moment, Janet was a little confused: "You really don't seem to care at all?"

Simon pretended to be displeased: "Am I a very stingy person in your heart?"

"of course not."

Janet said, tilting her head slightly, as if she was thinking seriously.

Simon wanted to learn how a woman had just rubbed his face, but was suddenly attacked by Janet and took a bite directly on his hand.

After frolicking for a while, Janet calmed down again and suddenly said, "I understand."

"Ok?"

"You seem to really treat the Johnstons as your relatives."

Simon's heart jumped a little, but there was nothing unusual on the surface, and he said naturally, "You are my relatives."

"No! No!"

Janet shook her head, as if entangled in some key issue.

Simon stood up, pulled her up, kissed the woman on the cheek, leaned in her ear and said, "Let’s go back, my chest will not rise today, I will help you deal with it."

Janet's face flushed immediately.

In December last year, the little guy under her body has only been half a year ago. After sending Melbourne to Australia, she often faces some small distressing problems without having to breastfeed herself.

He walked out with the man in his arms, and gave him a scornful glance.

Such an obvious change of topic is really clumsy.

However, the problem just now is really confusing.

After six years of getting along, she simply knew him well.

In his bones, he is almost like a person from another world, and he is full of almost indifferent feeling of alienation from the society he lives in.

After so many years, there are only so few people who can really break into his heart.

However, she felt more than once that he regarded all her family members as his own in many things.

The nuances are definitely not obvious to most people, but she feels it keenly.

For example, when getting along with Patrick Johnston, she could feel several times that his attitude towards Pat was exactly the same as that of his own incompetent youngest. If he disliked it, he would dislike it, and he would be impatient. Leave it alone.

It wasn't the politeness of the elder brother who was separated by one floor at all, on the contrary, it was almost the same as her sister.

and also.

Ok.

Little annoying thing.

Except for the experience and experience of two lives and accommodated more than a dozen people, Janet is definitely smarter than Simon, but she rarely reveals this.

After combing through the many details accumulated in my mind, vaguely, I always feel that I am about to grasp something, but it is always a little bit worse.

What's the difference?

Before they knew it, they got in the car, and the couple returned to their manor in the western suburbs of Paris.

When he got home, Simon seemed to have forgotten the evil thoughts she had in Disneyland not long ago, and Janet once again put aside a certain problem that had entangled her for a long time.

The couple entered the villa together. Girl A greeted him and handed Simon an invitation, but it was sent by the Brookly family, hoping that Simon would attend a party held by the Brookly family in London tomorrow night.

Obviously, the Brookly family wanted to talk to Simon about 007.

After the last fallout, Simon has decided to shelve the 007 series for a few years. The Brookly family now chooses to give in. It is already a bit late. Simon does not intend to change his decision.

Throwing the invitation aside, Janet started to instruct the people to prepare dinner. Simon went to the study by himself, and emailed some ideas generated at Disneyland to the team in Los Angeles and Japan who were preparing for Universal Studios Osaka. .

The layout of Disney may be a long-term five to ten years, but Universal Studios Osaka is an important layout of Daenerys Entertainment in theme parks.

The successful experience of Tokyo Disney and the failure of European Disney are enough to provide enough reference for this theme park in preparation.

After sending the e-mail, Simon clicked on the box office data report for the past weekend in North America.

Mel Gibson's "Lethal Weapon 3" was released last Friday. The first weekend was opened for three days and it earned $33.24 million with 2510 screens. It is expected that the box office in the first week is expected to reach about $45 million.

Only a few years ago, the box office of about 45 million US dollars in the first week was enough to break some box office records. After the full-scale saturation of the release, this number seemed very ordinary for the blockbuster.

Even if "Wonder Woman", released on June 5th, can only get $45 million in the box office in the first week, this movie will be regarded as a failure.

Originally planned to fly to Cannes tonight to participate in some activities after the closing ceremony of the film festival, Janet temporarily did not want to go, Simon also cancelled the trip.

However, Simon got the information about the award results of the film festival right away.

The winner of the Palme d'Or at the 45th Cannes Film Festival was won by film master Ingmar Bergman based on his parents' experience in the screenplay of "Benevolent Betrayal".

The film talent of Ingmar Bergman is beyond doubt.

However, this kind of Palme d’Or results, in Simon’s view, is more of an affirmation of the master's contribution to the film industry.

Daenerys Entertainment's entry this year is a novel adaptation of British novelist E·M·Foster "Howard Manor", the film is by Emma Thompson, Anthony Hopkins and Helena Bonham ·Carter starred in three Hollywood stars and received unanimous praise from the media during the Cannes screening.

However, despite entering the main competition unit, the film ultimately yielded nothing.

Ingmar Bergman's screenwriter won the award, which was already anticipated in advance. Daenerys Entertainment's performance at major film festivals in the past few years was quite ‘eye-catching’. At this time, it is still in the stage of keeping a low profile like the Oscars in March.

Although his own film failed to win the prize, Ella Deutschman, the head of Highgate Films, who came to Cannes as usual, has also begun to get in touch with several award-winning works this year "Benevolent Betrayal", "Little Thief's Spring", etc. The copyright of the movie.

After the silence of Miramax, Simon had planned to replace Miramax's position in Hollywood by Gaomen Films in the past few years, and even used greater efforts to promote overseas films in North America.

The rise of Hollywood in recent years has threatened the film industry of overseas countries in all aspects.

Daenerys Entertainment vigorously copied overseas films into North America, which not only serves its own interests, but can also ease the resistance of the overseas film market to Hollywood to a large extent, at least, it is resistance to the films produced by Daenerys Entertainment.