Hollywood Hunter

A new box office week started on July 15th. North American theaters have two major new films released, namely "Blood Romeo" produced by Daenerys Entertainment's Gaomen Pictures and Paramount's Children's Baseball The theme film "Big League".

Last year, the tentative title film (WorkingTitleFilms) team that had produced famous films such as "Four Weddings and a Funeral", "Murder Green Toe", "Ice Blood Storm", "Notting Hill", etc. was directly paid to Daenerys Under the entertainment, Simon selected the first three projects from the scripts reserved by the other party, namely "Four Weddings and a Funeral", "Love in the Heart of My Heart" and "Romeo on Blood".

The first two films have already been released. "Four Weddings and a Funeral" was sold at the box office after it was released on Valentine's Day at the beginning of the year. Subsequently, it also caused a worldwide boom in movie viewing.

Because of the poor quality of the film, "Love is Deep in My Heart", which was lost in early March, was a complete failure.

Finally, the script of "Romeo in Blood" was originally handed by Simon to Quentin Tarantino, who had completely changed his career line because of his big butterfly, as the other party's second project after "Falling Dog".

"Romeo in Blood" tells the story of an FBI agent who relied on selling tainted witness information in exchange for black money and fell into a series of conspiracies after making a betrayal.

After Quentin took over this script, which was already very suitable for his personal style, he made substantial changes according to his own preferences.

After the project started, although the budget was only 15 million U.S. dollars, but relying on Daenerys Entertainment’s extensive contacts over the years, the film also attracted a series of famous Hollywood stars with low salaries and even free guest appearances based on the actor Gary Oldman. , Including Robert De Niro, who has worked closely with Daenerys Entertainment over the years, Famke Jensen, the actor of Wonder Woman, Madonna, who likes Quentin’s "Falling Dog", and should have relied on "Pully" this year. John Travolta and other big coffees who turned over in "The Novel" all show their faces more or less in this movie.

Compared with the original version of "Romeo in Blood", which was completely ‘renewed’, it received a comprehensive media rating of 8.7 points from major media in North America on the first day of the official painting.

In fact, if it weren't for the good results during the internal trial screening, Gaomen Pictures would not put the film in the summer.

As a non-mainstream crime thriller that needs to take the word-of-mouth route, the number of opening screens of "Blood Romeo" still reached 2031.

At the same time, Paramount’s "League of Boys", the core is still the kind of children's film type of "Home Alone", which tells about a young boy who accidentally inherited the baseball team left by his grandfather and used his own unique characteristics. The story of the brilliant Linghui leading the team to the championship.

The script is obviously trying to capture the successful experience of films such as "Flying over the Future", "League of Red Fans", and "Home Alone", but unfortunately it failed to do so.

A comprehensive media rating of 3.3 points means that another summer cannon fodder is born.

Paramount probably didn't expect too much from "League of Boys", and only offered 1,532 opening screens. It is obvious that he has shifted his expectations to Harrison Ford's new film "Browning Eyes" to be released next week.

Simon returned to Los Angeles on July 16th. On the Hollywood side, the popularity of Daenerys Entertainment’s listing gradually faded. Many people’s attention turned to DreamWorks Pictures and France’s Victoria Wangdy's acquisition of Disney Pictures.

The biggest news about DreamWorks recently is undoubtedly the news that software tycoon Bill Gates invested 500 million US dollars to join the company in his own name.

Since the initial discomfort in the IE browser pre-installation cooperation, the door students have increased Microsoft’s Internet industry layout, and at the same time they have continuously used various means to eliminate the influence of the Westeros system on Microsoft, and even some important board meetings. Deliberately forget the representative of the Westeros system.

Simon just watched this with cold eyes.

If Microsoft completely moves towards the opposite of the Westeros system, it is actually not a bad thing. Of course, the premise is that the door students must first buy back close to 20% of the Microsoft shares in the Westeros system.

With the advent of the new technology wave, Microsoft’s stock price has surpassed US$50 billion. Although it is still a long way from the highest point before, Simon will not refuse if Damen students are willing to spend US$10 billion in cash to buy back Microsoft stock. .

It is a pity that $10 billion in cash is not available to anyone.

However, 500 million US dollars is not a big money for the door students who have already exceeded 20 billion US dollars at this stage.

This software tycoon apparently gave birth to many rich people who want to pursue fame after their fortune.

As for the result.

Simon has already proved it once in his memory.

Going home unfailingly.

For Disney, after the news of Vivendi’s contact with Disney’s senior management on the acquisition was exposed, Michael Eisner immediately denied it.

However, many subsequent news have proved this point.

After Jeffrey Katzenberg resigned, considering that once Disney is acquired, the management will definitely be adjusted in the future. He originally intended to join Disney to take over as the president of Frank Wells, who is about to retire next month. Michael Ovey Ci also began to stay on the sidelines.

Disney at this stage is basically a public holding company.

However, Disney’s two major shareholders, the Bath family in Texas and the Disney family, the founder of the company, still hold 25% and 11% of Disney's shares respectively, totaling 36%, and they can basically determine the ownership of Disney after the acquisition. .

According to Simon, the Disney family expressed strong opposition to the company's acquisition, but the Bath family was not determined.

Disney’s downhill in the last two years, the ongoing management turmoil, and Disneyland Paris in Europe are like a mess that can explode at any time, making the Bass family feel that taking advantage of this company is still worthwhile, and taking off the gloves is now a good one. select.

Now, the Vivendi Group, which is trying to acquire one side, and the Disney management and the Disney family, which are resisting the acquisition, are all trying their best to win the support of the Bath family.

After Simon and Joseph Schrapp re-established their lobbying strategy for a media integration ban, they returned to Los Angeles and were also considering how to help the Bath family make a ‘determination’.

Daenerys Studios.

The time is July 18th, Monday.

A weekly high-level meeting of the group is going on in a large office in the administrative district of the movie city. The Simons are in Los Angeles and naturally attend.

"The investment plan for the group's cash reserves is roughly the same. In order to avoid risks and, for the next stage of expansion, the funds we obtain from the IPO and the company's original cash reserves will only be invested with low risk and can be carried out in the short term. Cash-out fixed-income products. On Wednesday, Mr. Lawrence Fink, CEO of Black Rock Asset Management, will also come to Los Angeles to personally explain to the board of directors. Then, the next topic, about Universal Studios Osaka, is the theme park business president Bruce Pere Ke submitted a proposal to me last week, thinking that Universal Studios should add attractions with local Japanese cultural characteristics, and also made some suggestions. The information is in your hands. You can take a look."

After Amy Pascal finished speaking, all the core executives who were able to participate in the meeting looked down at the information.

Although the businesses they manage are different, Simon believes in teamwork management. In order to prevent the company from getting into misunderstandings due to the wrong ideas of a certain senior management, many more important topics will be discussed together at the senior meeting.

The finale of the IPO has recently come to an end. Excluding various commissions and fees, Daenerys Entertainment Group still received more than US$5.4 billion in cash. In addition, before the listing, Daenerys Entertainment Group’s own cash reserves also reached 2.7 billion US dollars, just this part of the total of 8.1 billion US dollars of funds, has exceeded the market value of several other major Hollywood studios.

Simon does not intend to use the money to repay Daenerys Entertainment’s liabilities, and there is no major project to invest in in the short term, so he intends to put the funds into the Black Rock Asset Management Company through investment in government bonds, agreement deposits, and 3A corporate bonds. And other fixed-income financial products gain a certain value-added.

The fundamental goal is actually to resist inflation, and profits are dispensable.

In fact, of course there are more lucrative investment channels, but since it has been listed, Daenerys Entertainment’s capital flow will be subject to supervision by the board of directors, shareholders and the SEC, and it is impossible to use it at will. Moreover, if the huge amount of funds of more than 8 billion US dollars is invested in certain fields, the movement will be very large, and public disclosure and filing will be required. Unevenness will become the goal of some people, so it is best to seek stability.

Simon combed through the matter while looking through the plans of Bruce Peck, president of the theme park business.

Universal Studios Osaka began planning in 1991 and broke ground in mid-1992. It is expected to be completed by the end of this year and open in the first half of next year.

There has been a sound plan between the opening and construction of the studio. It was originally impossible to add additional projects. However, some time ago, one of the "Space Fantasy Train" projects proved to be a security risk. For the theme park, even if visitors I don’t think it’s so exciting, and it’s absolutely necessary to ensure safety first. What's more, this is not a core project such as Jurassic Park or Jaws Water Park. Simon personally approved the cancellation of this attraction, and then it appeared. vacancy.

Looking at the information in his hand, at a certain moment, Simon's mind flashed, and he thought of another thing.

In the conference room, Nancy Brill has taken the lead: "I don't think this is credible. In terms of theme park management, we need to conform to the Japanese cultural and living habits, so that we can achieve better localization, just like Tokyo Disney. However, for the setting of attractions, I believe that Japanese tourists buy tickets to enter the park and want to see American culture, not their own home."

"I think I can give it a try," said Danny Morris, president of New World Pictures. "Nancy's words are actually reasonable, but we can also Americanize Japanese culture. Hollywood never excludes people from direct countries. culture."

"The more important issue now is," said Ella Deutschman, President of Gaomen Pictures: "Universal Studios Osaka will open next Easter next year. It is now mid-July. It is time to reproduce a Japanese cultural classic. Is it enough? I’m not talking about simply building, but planning from scratch. This will be very troublesome. Therefore, it’s better to select mature projects from our existing theme parks and transplant them. First, make sure that the opening of Easter next year will not Procrastination. The disaster at Disneyland Paris is largely procrastination."

Mark Belford, vice president of group global operations, also said at this time: "I agree with Ella's opinion that ensuring that it is completed and opened according to the plan is very important for our first overseas theme park."

Everyone was talking about it, and Simon never expressed his opinion.

After more than ten minutes of such discussions, everyone finally decided that Bruce Peck’s suggestion was to transplant mature attractions from the existing Universal Studios Los Angeles and Universal Orlando to more than half of Universal Studios.

When Amy finally looked at Simon, Simon also nodded.

This year's meeting lasted until 11:30 near noon.

When the meeting was over, the others left to eat in the restaurant, and Simon called to Amy.

Starting from the issue of Universal Studios Osaka, Amy found that Simon was a little absent-minded. When only the two of them were left in the conference room, Amy first said: "Simon, Panasonic invites you to Japan at the IPO at the beginning of the month. As a guest, and about Universal Studios, maybe you should go to Japan during this time."

In this IPO process, in accordance with the agreement signed with Daenerys Entertainment when Panasonic gave up the acquisition of MCA three years ago, Panasonic initially invested $1 billion in Daenerys Entertainment in the form of loans in exchange for Danni at the issue price. The shares of Lisi Entertainment Group, at this time, can be regarded as one of the minority shareholders of Daenerys Entertainment, holding 45 million shares, which is equivalent to taking one-fifth of the 250 million new shares at one time, occupying Daenerys 1.9% of total entertainment equity.

Daenerys Entertainment's stock price continued to rise after its IPO. In fact, a large part of the stock was taken by Daenerys Entertainment's stakeholders. Among them, only Black Rock Asset Management subscribed for a full 20 million shares, plus A large number of stocks granted to Daenerys Entertainment employees in advance generally have a three- to six-month sales restriction period, so that not many stocks eventually flow to the secondary market for trading.

The market demand far exceeds the stock supply, and the stock price is naturally rising.

In the first half of the year, I have been entangled by the Hearst family for most of the time. Simon has never left the United States. Hearing Amy say this, Simon nodded and smiled: "The Japanese may just be polite, not necessarily welcome in my heart. I'll be a guest."

Amy laughed.

She has not forgotten the original "Westero effect".

After joking, Amy said, "You were a little distracted just now, Simon, what happened?"

Girl A brought coffee in at this time. Simon picked up the coffee and said to Amy: "You know, I have been thinking about how to make Disney shareholders make the decision to sell this company in the past few days. I just happened to have inspiration."