Hollywood Hunter

In addition to "Four Weddings and a Funeral", the films released at the same time on February 11 also include "The Rich Man" produced by Disney and "Baby Lover 2" by Columbia Pictures. "A Wedding and a Funeral" are comparable.

"The Rich Man" tells the story of a young boy who accidentally earned $1 million and a criminal who lost a huge sum of money. "Baby Lover 2" was starred by Macaulay Culkin in the previous work, and the sequel was replaced by another newcomer child star.

Even if you don't explain the content, just look at the names of the two new films, it is not difficult to imagine that this is continuing to follow the trend of "Home Alone".

Daenerys Entertainment has long since shelved the further development of the "Home Alone" series, but Hollywood has never forgotten this children's film series that created a box office miracle. Of course, people have also made innovations. For example, "The Rich Man" created a very suitable lover. Festive atmosphere of little devil head with big vase plot mode.

The mainstream North American newspapers still have not reached a settlement with the Westeros system, but they are not polite in the face of these two works that compete with Daenerys Entertainment.

After the official release, with the public praise of film reviews, the overall media rating of "Baby Lover 2" was only a poor 2.7. This is not the worst. The reputation of Disney's "Little Ghost Rich" is completely broken. The mainstream media give almost all negative reviews. The comprehensive score after conversion is less than 1 point, only 0.9 points.

In comparison, "Four Weddings and One Funeral" withstood the natural negative BUFF of Daenerys Entertainment in front of the paper media, and the overall score only dropped from 9.5 points after the Sundance premiere to 8.6 points. It is a classic word of mouth, "Variety" magazine graciously praised "Four Weddings and a Funeral" as "a smart, funny and alternative love movie with a strong appeal as warm as the sun in winter afternoon".

Not only the film itself, but Hugh Grant, who had already debuted in the early 1980s but remained unknown, finally gained widespread attention with his excellent performance in this film. Many film critics specifically mentioned Hugh Grant introverted in the article. Without losing the humorous performance.

Andy McDowell, who was a model, was also affirmed to have participated in a classic again after "Sex, Lies and Videotape".

In terms of budget, the production cost of 5 million US dollars for "Four Weddings and One Funeral" and the same 5 million US dollars of publicity expenditure are not generous, and they are not as high as the production cost of 15 million US dollars for "Little Ghost", Simon From the very beginning, it was understood that in order for this film to succeed, it had to gain the influence of word of mouth.

After all, the Westeros system and mainstream paper media have not publicly broken their faces. If it is only a commercial film with a moderate reputation, traditional media can also ruin the film’s reputation through tendentious public opinion. For excellent works such as "Four Weddings and a Funeral" In the face of the unanimous praise of a large number of film critics, more media have to follow the mainstream even if they are unwilling to do so, otherwise they are testing the IQ of newspaper readers.

Moreover, for films that are destined to be classics, the media reputation is more of icing on the cake. The rapid popularity of "Four Weddings and a Funeral" among the movie fans is the key. As the influence continues to spread, more and more audiences are affected. The influence of people around you started buying tickets

The response of Daenerys Entertainment's publishing team was equally quick.

When the excellent box office results on Friday and Saturday came out, Simon personally approved an additional $10 million in the announcement budget.

In the end, from February 11th to February 13th, "Four Weddings and a Funeral" had a three-day box office receipts of USD 9.81 million for the first weekend, directly allowing Daenerys Entertainment to recover its production budget of USD 5 million.

Then came Valentine's Day on February 14.

Although it was Monday, after three days of word-of-mouth on the weekend, "Four Weddings and a Funeral" reached $5.13 million in the box office of the North American theaters on Valentine's Day, which exceeded the single-day payment for any day in the first weekend.

Three working days later, the box office of "Four Weddings and a Funeral" was released in the first week, and it reached a total of 21.79 million US dollars in seven days. It easily won the single-week box office championship on Valentine's Day, and the average box office of the museum also reached 13,000 US dollars. Big sell level.

The February movie off-season is not a popular Valentine's Day schedule. The small-cost love comedy produced by US$5 million won US$21.79 million in the box office in the first week and seven days. This market performance exceeded almost everyone's expectations.

Taking into account the film’s excellent reputation and continued popularity among the basic audience, there were no strong box office competitors in the same period, "Four Weddings and a Funeral" was enough to make a very beautiful long-term box office, and eventually North America broke through 100 million capitals. Not impossible.

Daenerys Entertainment won the first seeded player in the 1994 club with a box office of 100 million yuan.

A beautiful start.

In addition to "Four Weddings and One Funeral", on this week's list, the DC movie universe blockbuster "Steel Bones" entered its 8th week and ranked second in the box office.

Because it was Valentine’s Day, “Steel Bones” dropped only 17% in the box office this week, and continued to earn 7.98 million US dollars. The film’s cumulative box office has reached 241.43 million US dollars. In 1993, this performance was second only to "Superman". And "The Lion King", ranked third.

Disney’s bad-mouthed "Little Ghost" had a box office of only US$6.91 million in the first week, and ranked third on the list. The number of screens of the film was as many as 1,841, and the box office of the first week of less than US$7 million was only a little over US$3,700. It is expected that the screen size will rapidly decrease in two weeks.

The fourth place is Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List". The film received 6.28 million US dollars at box office this week, and the cumulative box office reached 37.2 million US dollars. It has basically recovered the production cost of 22 million US dollars.

Lost Macaulay Culkin's "Baby Lover 2" has a lower box office score than the bad reputation of "Little Ghost". The box office for the first week and seven days was only $6.05 million, ranking fifth on the list.

Similar to "The Millionaire", because of the failed word-of-mouth and bleak box office start, the total box office of the two films in North America is expected to be around 15 million US dollars. Columbia and Disney want to recover the cost through the local box office. Make up for losses.

In the same week, when "Four Weddings and a Funeral" showed a dark horse posture, the 13th week of the release of "The Lion King" relied on the revenue of 4.35 million US dollars this week, and the cumulative box office officially exceeded the 300 million US dollar mark, reaching 300 million. Zero 2.56 million U.S. dollars, officially became the first local box office animation film in Hollywood history to exceed 300 million U.S. dollars.

At the same time, with the popularity of "The Lion King" being nominated for the Oscar Best Picture at the end of January, this 3D animation film has shown a rebound of varying degrees in the global box office, and many overseas that failed to achieve simultaneous release The market has also begun to paint recently.

According to the latest feedback data, the overseas box office of "The Lion King" has also reached 467 million US dollars, and the global total box office has accumulated to 769 million US dollars, which also broke the global box office record for Hollywood animated films.

Not only that, according to the current box office trends in various markets around the world, "The Lion King" in North America has about 20 to 30 million US dollars in box office potential, and overseas follow-up income can reach at least 100 million US dollars, which means "The Lion King" It is expected to hit the global box office mark of 900 million US dollars.

Even if it is still regrettable that the threshold of 1 billion cannot be reached, such an amazing box office performance of a 3D animation movie is enough to make countless people amazed.

As the box office of "The Lion King" was released at the end of last year, all other Hollywood studios have greatly increased their investment in 3D film technology, and Pixar has once again become the hardest hit area for Daenerys Entertainment. "Toy Story" The continuous success of the two 3D animation films in the entire industry chain, "The Lion King" and "The Lion King," has really stimulated too many people.

You know, it was also the most popular live-action movie "Steel Bone" at the end of last year. Due to the limited overseas market for the all-black protagonist, the film’s overseas box office is currently only about US$270 million, including the local US$240 million. Only 510 million US dollars.

Different from the long staying power of "The Lion King", as a popcorn commercial film, the global screening of "Steel Bones" has begun to close. It is expected that the follow-up North America and overseas will collect another 50 million US dollars. Between 570 million US dollars.

Such outstanding box office results are hard to match for most Hollywood commercial films. However, the film immediately pales in comparison to "The Lion King".

Even if there are also abundant peripherals, "Steel Bones" is expected to have a peripheral volume of less than US$500 million in the next five years, and it is not in the same order of magnitude as "The Lion King", whose peripheral sales have exceeded US$1.3 billion in recent months. In the same five-year operating cycle, the total output value of "The Lion King" will reach 3 billion to 4 billion US dollars.

It is just a phenomenon-level "Lion King". After long-term operation, the omni-channel output value driven by it will reach tens of billions. This commercial potential even makes the film's box office less attractive.

Simon rushed to New York with Janet after Valentine's Day to formally discuss the approaching Daenerys Entertainment IPO with Morgan and Goldman Sachs. With the local box office of "The Lion King" exceeding $300 million, the IPO that Daenerys Entertainment is promoting will inevitably become the focus of media attention.

In fact, just after the New Year last month, an article in the "Wall Street Journal" predicted that Daenerys Entertainment’s net profit in 1993 would reach US$2 billion, so this entertainment giant’s IPO valuation is the most conservative It is estimated that it will not be less than 30 billion US dollars.

A company’s IPO valuation needs to consider many factors, but there are actually only two points that are most critical. One is the company’s profitability, and the other is the company’s long-term growth potential.

When the North American box office of "The Lion King" exceeded 300 million and the global box office reached an astonishing $769 million, and it is expected to further hit the global $900 million mark, almost no one doubted Daenerys Entertainment's profitability.

The focus of media discussion fell on Daenerys Entertainment's future development potential.

In the past year, Daenerys Entertainment Group launched a total of 46 movies, among which four Daenerys Entertainment’s independent films have been achieved, including "Most Stars 2", "Sugar Coated Trap", "Seven Deadly Sins" and "The Lion King" The box office broke 100 million and entered the top ten of the annual list. In addition, there are a large number of "Dawn of Love", "Schindler's List", "What to Do with Love", etc., which have contributed a lot to Daenerys Entertainment Box office movies.

Even without considering a series of foreign cooperation projects such as "Superman" and "Sleepless in Seattle", Daenerys Entertainment had a share of US$1.7 billion in the total annual box office of US$5.6 billion in North America, with a market share of up to 31%. If you count "Superman", "Night Sleep in Seattle", "Gannet Assassination" and "Mission Impossible" and other foreign cooperation films, Daenerys Entertainment's market share will increase by another 15%.

Therefore, it can almost be said that Daenerys Entertainment is equivalent to half of Hollywood.

Such a high market share is actually on the verge of monopoly. Therefore, many media believe that the core business of the film business, which contributes most of the profits to Daenerys Entertainment, cannot grow much in the future. Even the Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs teams that are about to take on Daenerys Entertainment's IPO task have such views.

If Daenerys Entertainment will not have much growth in the future, the P/E ratio of the IPO valuation cannot be too high.

The simpler basic calculation formula for corporate valuation is the price-earnings ratio multiplied by the annual net profit.

In Simon’s memory, Apple has the world’s strongest corporate profitability because of its peak growth, but its stock price-earnings ratio has been hovering at a low level of about 10 times for a long time, while companies such as Amazon that still maintain high growth can have a price-earnings ratio of nearly 100 times .

According to an article in The Wall Street Journal at the beginning of the year, the conservative valuation of $30 billion is calculated at a price-earnings ratio of 15 times.

In fact, Simon has been aware of the problems Daenerys Entertainment is facing very early, so he keeps focusing more on Daenerys Entertainment's business areas such as music and games.

After all, the growth of the core film business has entered a bottleneck, which does not mean that the entire Daenerys Entertainment Group will stop its rapid growth. As a comprehensive large-scale entertainment group, relying on the locomotive of the movie business, Daenerys still has a lot to do in music, games, peripherals, theme parks, etc.

What's more, even if it fails to explore other fields, it will only rely on the rapid natural growth of the global film industry for at least 10 years, Daenerys Entertainment's future performance growth rate will not be too bad.

Not only that, once the ban on the integration of the American media industry that the Westeros system has been secretly promoting is lifted, Daenerys Entertainment can take advantage of the trend to expand into the TV field. Although the Internet era has come early, the North American television industry, especially cable television, also has at least a decade of rapid growth.

Therefore, no matter how the media talks about Daenerys Entertainment's IPO valuation, Simon does not intend to back down this time.

If the IPO valuation price-earnings ratio is less than 20 times, he would rather give up the listing plan.

According to the calculation of 20 times price-earnings ratio, Daenerys Entertainment's IPO valuation can reach at least 40 billion US dollars.

A valuation of US$40 billion will also make Daenerys Entertainment Group's listing become the world's largest corporate IPO. And, not surprisingly, as long as it can be successfully listed, Daenerys Entertainment can easily enter the $50 billion market capitalization club and become the world's top super corporate giant.

Manhattan, New York.

The time is already Saturday, February 19.

The couple came to New York after Valentine's Day and stayed here for a few working days. Janet returned to Los Angeles yesterday and took Veronica back to the West Coast by the way.

Simon continued to stay in New York.

In fact, this is already a small tacit understanding formed between Simon and Janet.

Simon had never intended to be a man of peace at home, and Janet also stated early on that her husband could not have only one woman, so she always reserved some personal space for Simon in due course. After so many years of getting along, the relationship between the two has not been affected too much. Except for Jennifer, who has given birth to a daughter, no other woman has been able to interfere with the lives of the two in these years.

In the evening, I accepted Murdoch's invitation to attend a party in the other party's house. The location was in a high-rise apartment building in Midtown, just south of Central Park, where there was a Murdoch family property.

Because of some unknown evil taste, the female partner with Simon tonight is still Jerry Hall.

Jerry Hall divorced Mick Jagger, the lead singer of The Rolling Stones, last year.

The two had no feelings for a long time. After Jerry Hall filed for divorce, Mick Jagger quickly fought back in order to avoid being divided too much property, and petitioned the local court in London to declare that the two were in Bali. Jerry Hall's private wedding was invalid, and Jerry Hall was not to be outdone, and both parties went directly to court.

After several months of tossing, Jerry Hall finally received a lump-sum divorce compensation of 5 million pounds, which is roughly equivalent to one-tenth of Mick Jagger’s personal assets. Custody of three children.

After the divorce, Jerry Hall moved from London to New York and began to focus on his TV career, still maintaining an ambiguous relationship with the towering tree of Simon in private.

With ease, he stayed at the Murdoch house party until ten o'clock in the evening. Simon saw that it was late and took the initiative to bid farewell to his host.

Murdoch invited Simon to discuss the possibility of further cooperation in the Internet field.

Unlike the relatively conservative Redstone, although Murdoch will continue to use newspapers as the foundation of News Corporation for a long time to come, he does not resist emerging industries. The News Corporation in Simon's memory has invested in many Internet companies, such as partnering with Disney to fight against Netflix's streaming media platform Hulu.

Seeing that Simon was about to leave, Murdoch did not keep him, but instead brought a portfolio to him, explaining: "This is a press release intercepted by News Corporation in the British "News of the World. The content is about a group of girls from Russia in London. Simon, News Corporation will not be involved in related reports, but you also know the situation in the UK. Other media are not what we can guarantee to you."