Hollywood Hunter

Of course, Bill Spoult’s promotion was not just because of a party. Simon added a little bit of encouragement and deliberately asked James Rebald to investigate Spoult’s details and make a poignant gesture.

Another habitual chess game.

No matter whether it can be used in the future, there will always be no harm.

Simon just didn’t expect that Swiss Bank would have the courage to directly promote Bill Spoult to the position of head of the large business department. Although on the surface it was only two consecutive upgrades, but any one of the thresholds, many investment bank employees have not had their entire careers. It will definitely pass.

Of course, Simon will not spend too much energy on such trivial matters.

After the two parties reached a settlement, the Hearst family disclosed the news to the public the next day. The other party originally wanted to be ambiguous, but Simon did not give them a chance. The New York Post then revealed the reconciliation in a more gossip tone. The general inside story, including the sale of ESPN shares for $1 and the full compensation of 370 million in 6 lawsuits.

Simon intends to use the ‘tragic’ encounter of the Hurst family to deter all potential opponents of the Westeros system.

Judging from the feedback during this period, the effect is very obvious. The North American media has formed a clear chilling effect when discussing matters related to the Westeros system. After all, the powerful Hearst Group has gone in front of Simon Westeros. After Half-Life, there are definitely not many media outlets in America that surpass the Hearst family.

Without the constraints of the Westeros system, the Hurst family restarted the asset sale some time ago. Judging from the initial feedback, it can recover about 300 million US dollars, which is equivalent to a 60% discount.

Metropolitan ABC Group, the parent company of ABC Television Network, under the secret instruction of Simon, also filed a transaction application with the Hearst family, hoping to buy back 50% of the shares of AE Television Network held by the Hearst family and make an offer. US$200 million is equivalent to a discount on the original price. Even if you bargain, you will not increase the price too much.

The Hearst family was still hesitant to raise more funds by selling which assets, and the ABC's invitation helped them make a good decision.

Two transactions, 500 million US dollars in cash, basically enough for the Hearst family to tide over the current difficulties.

Those who are interested can easily find that the total value of the remaining assets of the Hearst family is actually less than $1 billion after removing the almost free ESPN shares and the part of the assets that will be sold. It only took three months to degenerate from a century-old media family with the original family's total assets of up to 2.5 billion US dollars to this situation.

Moreover, even if the difficulties are temporarily overcome, the troubles of the Hearst family are far from over.

For example, the San Francisco Chronicle, which accounted for almost half of the remaining assets of the Hearst family, because of the increasing penetration of personal computers in the San Francisco area and the targeted operation of the Westeros system in the previous months, many residents will The channel for obtaining news information has shifted from print media to the Internet, which has led to the number of subscribers to the San Francisco Chronicle that has continued to decrease at a rate visible to the naked eye in the past quarter. It is expected that the second quarter of 1994 will end, and this large regional newspaper with a century-old history will experience its first quarterly loss in many years.

For an industry that has entered a decline cycle, once it falls into a loss, it is definitely not a simple matter to reverse it.

What's more, the Hearst Group, which is already badly injured.

Without this turmoil, the Hearst Group could also mobilize sufficient resources to resuscitate the business of the San Francisco Chronicle as much as possible. Now, a broken ship floating in the ocean, leaking on all sides, is too difficult to repair. Reach the sky.

After a standoff for three months, the matter was initially over. In addition to allowing people around him to continue to watch the Hearst Group's movement, so as to push the opponent into the abyss at the right time, Simon himself no longer personally follow up the matter. .

Continue to make recent preparations for the upcoming Daenerys Entertainment launch on July 1, and the summer vacation in North America is also continuing.

During the week from June 24 to June 30, North American theaters once again launched two more important new films, namely "Beverly Detective 3" produced by Paramount Pictures and the bomb disposal produced by Fox Pictures Genre action thriller "Zero Blast".

After launching two big-selling "Beverly Detectives" series in 1984 and 1987 respectively, because Paramount and the movie star Eddie Murphy have been unable to reach an agreement on the pay, the third part has been delayed until 7 Now after years.

After so many years of delay, Eddie Murphy got his wish and got the top 15 million US dollars in salary at this stage. The production cost of this sequel therefore reached the blockbuster level 50 million US dollars.

Last Friday, Paramount prepared 2,936 screens for this classic action comedy sequel. The scale of the opening screen of nearly 3,000 yuan is second only to "Batman: The Dark Knight Rises". ".

Immediately, it was an encounter similar to last week's "Urban Hillbilly 2".

Word of mouth also collapsed.

Compared with the 1.8-point media rating of "Urban Hillbilly 2", the reputation of "Beverly Detective 3" is even lower, with a comprehensive media rating of only 1.1.

However, relying on sparing no effort in publicity and the influence of the previous film itself far surpassing the "Urban Hillbilly" series, "Beverly Detective 3" finally had a good first week box office, reaching 21.96 million US dollars. Although it only ranked third on the list, with a box office score of more than 20 million US dollars, it still gave Paramount some thoughts.

For the week from June 24 to June 30, the top weekly box office list is still "Batman: The Dark Knight Rises". The film fell by 32% this week and collected another $32.31 million. The cumulative box office reached 207253 Ten thousand U.S. dollars.

After the strong closing of US$42.39 million in the first week, "Call of Souls" really did not show its box office potential. The box office dropped as much as 43% in the next week, and it received another US$24.15 million. The cumulative box office in two weeks is US$66.54 million. A total investment of 40 million US dollars in production and publicity.

At the same time, under the propaganda of the New World Pictures team, the discussion about the ghost movie universe has also become a topic of great interest for movie fans recently. The first derivative film of the ghost movie universe on Halloween schedule "The Mortuary Haunted Time" is officially Before the launch of the publicity plan, it has attracted widespread media and public attention.

After the third-placed "Detective Beverly 3", Fox's new film "Zero Point Blasting" ranked fourth, earning $13.15 million in the box office seven days in the first week.

neither warm nor hot.

Fox invested 28 million US dollars in the production budget for this action thriller starring Jeff Bridges, and the total investment is more than 40 million US dollars including the announcement. In the first week, $13.15 million earned at the box office. Fox wants to recoup the cost with the box office, and can only expect the film to follow a miraculous box office trend.

As a popcorn commercial film, this hope is obviously not great.

The fifth place on the list was won by "Life and Death".

In its sixth week of release, this highly praised action movie surpassed last week’s short-lived "Urban Hillbilly 2". This week’s box office fell by only 19%, and it received 6.73 million US dollars. The total North American box office reached 95.22 million US dollars. It will officially break 100 million next week.

In addition to the top five, other films such as "Urban Hillbilly 2" have basically withdrawn from the summer competition.

Before the new box office week on July 1, Daenerys Entertainment held a grand premiere on Wednesday, June 29, for Simon’s 1994 super blockbuster "Forrest Gump". Yingli.

I don’t know if there is a deviation in the memory. It basically maintained the original "Forrest Gump" created by the original cast and the film effect was no less than the original version of "Forrest Gump" in Simon's memory. The comprehensive media score is only about 7.4 points.

A film critic in The Seattle Times unceremoniously criticized Forrest Gump, "Only in the United States can you see a movie that uses a fool as a medium throughout the modern history of the country, and he is not yet a movie. Satirical movie'.

The original work of "Forrest Gump" is a satirical novel, which is also because the critics of the "Seattle Times" would have such an argument.

For this same reason, the novelist Winston Bloom, who was squeezed out of the lead in the screenwriting stage, also publicly stated after the premiere that this film completely deviated from his original intention of creating "Forrest Gump" and left completely. Partial movie themes are therefore more'ridiculous'.

In fact, the media reputation of 7.4 points is definitely not bad compared to the films of "Urban Hillbilly 2" and "Beverly Detective 3". It's just that in this summer file, "Starcraft" related to Daenerys Entertainment "The Door", "Batman: The Rise of the Dark Knight" and even the horror film "Call of Souls" were immediately dwarfed. The comprehensive media scores of the latter films are all above the excellent level of 8 points.

Simon has formulated a relatively conservative publicity strategy for "Forrest Gump", hoping to form a phenomenon-level long-term box office trend through the audience’s word of mouth effect. Therefore, the number of screens of the film is only 2,137.

Now, the opening word of mouth has not met expectations, and the box office prospects of "Forrest Gump" have suddenly clouded.

Under Daenerys Entertainment's good cost control, the final production cost of "Forrest Gump" was US$50 million, which was US$5 million lower than the original version. However, 50 million US dollars still reached the real blockbuster level of this era.

Even with a relatively conservative distribution strategy, the film’s publicity budget reached US$20 million.

The production cost of 50 million U.S. dollars, the announced investment of 20 million U.S. dollars, and the total project budget of 70 million U.S. dollars, even if it all loses, will actually not make Daenerys entertaining.

Reluctantly, the release of Forrest Gump came at a very unfortunate time.

The film will start painting on July 1, on this day, Daenerys Entertainment Group will officially be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

As Bill Spoulter said at the evening party last Friday, the uncertainty of the film industry has always been the main reason that discourages many capital. If Daenerys Entertainment Group had just gone public, it would immediately suffer a total of 70 million US dollars. It is conceivable that the box office of investment movies has failed miserably. This event will inevitably affect the stock trend of Daenerys Entertainment Group.

In any case, the day of July 1 came on time.

Daenerys Entertainment Group's listing was ultimately selected on the traditional New York Stock Exchange instead of the emerging Nasdaq. There are many reasons for this, mainly because the NYSE market is more mature. In addition, In order to compete with the Nasdaq, the NYSE also gave Daenerys Entertainment more favorable terms.

Yes, in the United States, listed companies can negotiate terms with exchanges. Including commissions with underwriters, etc., there is also room for negotiation.

This is especially true of Daenerys Entertainment's large-scale IPO that raised more than $5 billion.

For ordinary corporate IPOs, commissions in various aspects often account for about 10% to 15% of the total amount of funds raised. Daenerys Entertainment’s IPO has been negotiated with the NYSE, underwriters and other related institutions, including investment banks Commissions, exchange fees, accounting and attorney fees, etc., the total expenditure is estimated to be only 160 million U.S. dollars, accounting for only 2.8% of the total amount of USD 5.625 billion raised.

This is the result of continuous consultations between the management of Daenerys Entertainment and all parties in advance.

Of course, US$160 million is already a very substantial income for all parties. The total IPO funds raised by most companies in the US stock market may not reach US$160 million.

After returning to Los Angeles for the weekend briefly last week, the Simons returned to the East Coast again on Monday.

On July 1, before 7 o'clock in the morning, the couple had already had breakfast and rushed from their apartment on Fifth Avenue to the famous 18 Broadway, the headquarters of the New York Stock Exchange.

Hundreds of media from all over the world have been outside the NYSE since last night, and some senior executives of Daenerys Entertainment Group also stayed at the NYSE headquarters all night.

At the gate of the New York Stock Exchange, the Simons had just got out of the car, and dazzling dense spotlights suddenly lit up around them.

The security team deployed in advance formed a human wall to protect the Simons and his wife from entering the exchange building together.

In order to be foolproof for today’s IPO, the Westeros system has quietly taken over the security affairs of the New York Stock Exchange since half a month ago. Simon knows exactly what an obvious goal he is at this time, except for 150 security guards. Or uniforms or plainclothes are all over the street, and the Westeros family intelligence team also has hundreds of people cruising around Manhattan.

Facts have proved that these measures are very necessary.

In just half a month, the intelligence team of the Westeros family successfully intercepted three criminals who tried to cause trouble on the day of Daenerys Entertainment's IPO.

Two of them wanted to shoot Simon on the day of the IPO, and another veteran from Oklahoma even planned to plant a car bomb outside the gate of the New York Stock Exchange. The reasons are different. Some people think that Simon’s huge wealth has threatened American society. Some people think that Simon’s anomalies shouldn’t exist in this world at all. The Oklahoma veteran was launched by Simon in Africa. war.

In the final analysis, Simon's huge wealth and huge power at this time has aroused more and more people's vigilance and fear.

The hatred of the rich is one of the long-standing negative public sentiments since human society entered the civilized era, and it is often even used by those in power to ease public grievances.

Therefore, Simon also knew very well that his situation at this time could not be avoided at all, and he did not have too deep fears about it.

If you want to wear a crown, you must bear its weight. Everything has its own two sides.

Because it was a more sensitive time, Simon did not let the three captured guys evaporate, but secretly escorted them to the FBI.

However, the Westeros family initiated a deeper investigation into the motives of the three.

If it turns out that someone else is behind the scenes, Simon will still be polite this time.

As for the three persons involved, prison disaster is inevitable. Even if they are released from prison in the future, both themselves and people around them will be listed as the key monitoring targets of the Westeros system. Simon will only tolerate this potential threat at best. once.