Hollywood Hunter

The wind and snow that affected many states on the east coast lasted for three days. Fortunately, only Sunday was overwhelmed and the new week began to weaken.

The sudden cold weather will inevitably impact the public's desire to watch movies. Hollywood studios generally lowered their North American box office expectations during this period.

However, many recent news hotspots, whether it is the Victoria's Secret show, the positive new technology industry, or the upcoming IPO of Igreat, continue to arouse widespread heated discussion. The media and the public are concerned about the midterm elections last week. So it becomes less and less.

This is not over yet.

On November 16, the day before the third Victoria's Secret TV show was broadcast, media public opinion was once again detonated by a heavy news: after more than a month of negotiation and review, they agreed to split the TV business that did not comply with federal media control regulations After waiting for some assets, the US Department of Justice formally approved the French Vivendi Group's acquisition of Disney.

One stone stirred up a thousand waves.

Hollywood’s top seven, Disney’s native American cultural attributes far exceed those of Columbia, MGM, and Paramount that were previously acquired by overseas capital. Disney’s 2D classic animation movies are not only the childhood memories of many Americans, but Disneyland is still important. Symbol of American culture.

Simon did not use resources this time to suppress relevant public opinion.

As a result, from the day the news was announced to the newspapers on the morning of November 17, there were overwhelming criticisms and even abuses of the Federal Department of Justice, Washington executives, and Disney shareholders and management.

The most fierce "Washington Post" reporter even criticized the Department of Justice for approving the transaction as a traitorous act.

Then, the spear was quickly directed at the Democratic Party, which just lost in the midterm elections.

And the White House.

In the face of public criticism, the White House responded in time.

Mr. President personally explained the inside story at a press conference on the morning of November 17th. The Justice Department was not the White House's confessed Attorney General Janet Reynolds who made the decision in one word, but a seven-person committee that was responsible for reviewing the transaction. Four of the seven are of Republican background.

Therefore, the decision on this matter is actually in the Republican Party.

Regarding Mr. President’s explanation, the media did not buy it. What everyone cares about is how to stop the transaction.

A reporter asked on the spot whether Mr. President would use a presidential decree to send the transaction back to the Department of Justice for re-examination. Clinton only said very smoothly that the White House is still discussing the matter, and hinted that the transaction does not have any legal violations. , Unless the acquirer voluntarily gives up, otherwise, the transaction is difficult to be rejected.

After the White House's statement, the French Foreign Ministry spokesperson quickly responded publicly to the matter, saying that France is very optimistic about the development prospects of the entertainment industry. The Vivendi Group’s attitude is even a bit tough, claiming that it has invested a huge amount of money in this acquisition, and the US Department of Justice has approved it. If it goes wrong, Vivendi will defend its own interests through litigation.

Then there was news.

In order to ensure that there will be no major changes in the transaction process, Disney originally formulated a high break-up fee of up to 3% of the total transaction amount, especially to avoid Vivendi’s midway exit, causing the company's stock price to fluctuate.

Large merger transactions have similar break-up fee clauses.

According to the volume of the transaction and the negotiation between the two parties, the break-up fee is usually between 1% and 5%. Of course, there are also higher proportions or no break-up fee at all. All rely on the game between the two parties. The core of the break-up fee clause is to avoid a sudden breach of the contract after a set of twists and turns, causing huge losses to the other.

Therefore, this break-up fee is actually two-way.

In the agreement reached at the end of September, the final transaction price between the two parties was US$9.7 billion, and the 3% breakup fee was US$291 million.

The US$291 million is definitely not a small amount of money, whether it is for Vivendi or Disney.

What's more, from Vivendi's tone, once the transaction changes due to Disney, additional prosecution will be required to pursue losses. Although French companies sue American companies in the United States, no one knows that they can't take much advantage, but Disney, which has been declining in recent years, can't stand the toss.

So, without Simon's quiet push, Disney's shareholders began to operate quietly in Washington.

It's very interesting.

Disney’s two most important shareholders, one is the Bath family in Texas, the other is the Disney family in California, one supports the Republican Party, and the other supports the Democratic Party.

Both families have felt the decline of Disney before. Even if the Disney family is still a little bit reluctant, they all understand that it is a very wise choice to accept the Vivendi Group's $9.7 billion cash acquisition.

Otherwise, everyone can only watch this asset shrinking step by step, and it is not impossible to even go bankrupt.

You know, before Vivendi initiated the transaction, Disney's market value was less than 7 billion U.S. dollars, but it had debts totaling 5.3 billion U.S. dollars. Coupled with the downturn in the film business, Disneyland Paris continued to lose money. It is difficult to say when it suddenly became unavailable. Debt repayment. At that time, if the debtors exert pressure and reorganize their assets, the stocks in the hands of their major shareholders may be directly cleared to zero.

Now, after completing this transaction, both parties can pocket billions of dollars in cash.

In front of interests, culture and feelings are all clouds.

In this incident, the only thing Simon did was once again to get the New York Times to have a good relationship with the Westeros system to provoke the topic of lifting the media integration ban, accusing it of the Washington authorities for delaying the release of this issue. Untimely industry bans and the Disney deal should have local giants competing, and the treasures of American culture would not easily fall into the hands of the French.

Everyone actually understands that even if the media integration ban is lifted ahead of schedule, apart from Daenerys Entertainment Group, which has already exceeded the industry by several orders of magnitude, no other local giants have won the high cash offer of Vivendi Group. This does not prevent the bill to lift the media integration ban, which was quietly suppressed by Congress in the first half of the year, from re-entering the media and public view.

This time, Washington must also give a satisfactory answer.

In the uproar of public opinion caused by the passage of the Disney acquisition, on Thursday, November 17, ABC TV officially aired the third Victoria's Secret Fashion Show at the prime time at nine o'clock in the evening.

For this big show, not only the production budget reached 30 million US dollars, but the associated publicity investment also reached 20 million US dollars.

Before the live show on Saturday, the Victoria's Secret brand and Daenerys Entertainment had jointly started to put advertisements on major platforms, and the huge billboard in Times Square in New York was hung up for a month.

At nine o'clock that night, as soon as it started broadcasting, with the sound of "ThePhoenix", which appeared in the ears of the audience for the first time, the initial viewership of the program directly exceeded the 32 million mark.

It is just a rock that is destined to be on many music charts, and this Victoria's Secret show has been upgraded to a full-scale entertainment feast from visual to auditory. Many people eagerly inquired about "ThePhoenix" through the Internet and telephone channels before the first topic was over.

Of course, a group of supermodels that have become popular in the world are still the focus of this big show.

The fashion section of the Eaglet portal opened a special interactive topic after the Victoria's Secret on-site held last Saturday, and opened a prize draw for giving away 10,000 copies of the third edition of the Victoria's Secret Show Collector's Edition videotape. With the opening of the TV broadcast, related topics The popularity of Instagram has risen online. This time it has expanded to 43 members of the Victoria's Secret Army. Every Victoria's Secret Angel’s Facebook and Instagram pages have seen a rapid increase in traffic within a short period of time.

When all the TV broadcasts on the east and west coasts were completed, the Eaglet portal announced the ratings data for the third Victoria's Secret Show.

In its third year, the ratings of the Victoria's Secret Show hit a record high. The peak viewership reached 45.6 million, surpassing the 42.1 million in the first Victoria's Secret Show, which is 3 million and the average viewership reached 37.9 million. It also broke the 35.5 million record created by the first Victoria's Secret.

The TV version of the Victoria's Secret show with a total of six themes was edited according to the standard 43-minute TV series duration, leaving ABC with 17 minutes of advertising time.

Because there is only one hour, the total advertising time of the Victoria's Secret show is far less than the Oscars of the same ratings. However, only the 17 minutes of advertising time, ABC also sold for a high price of 1.5 million US dollars every 30 seconds. In just one hour, ABC just passed this fashion show, which is a super commercial blockbuster, and earned $51 million.

In the first edition of Victoria's Secret, because neither side expected how popular this fashion show would be, ABC bought the player for only US$5 million.

This time, of course it will not be so cheap again.

According to the agreement signed by both parties, as the copyright owners of Victoria's Secret, Daenerys and Victoria's Secret brand will receive 60% of the advertising share. Therefore, the advertising revenue of 51 million US dollars and the share of 30.6 million US dollars directly allow the two to recover this The production cost of the second-dimensional secret show.

What's more, the follow-up video tape sales are the bulk.

It was also the first edition of the Victoria's Secret. At the beginning, because of the hot sales in the early stage, everyone felt that the total sales of video tapes were expected to reach 15 million. This is already a record. As a result, in a few years, the actual video tapes of the first edition of the Victoria's Secret Show Total sales reached more than 27 million boxes.

According to the price of video tapes of around US$30, 27 million cassettes have total sales of US$810 million. For this alone, the two companies that jointly hold the copyright of the Victoria's Secret Show received a net income of US$290 million, which is equivalent to the current year's net profit of the Victoria's Secret brand in the pure underwear business.

Records are always not so easy to break.

Considering that the ratings data of the second Victoria's Secret show did not decline much, the sales of video tapes have been reduced by more than half. Based on various factors, the sales of video tapes of the third Victoria's Secret Show can reach at least 10 million, which will be another 3 Sales of around US$100 million and net income of more than US$100 million.

In comparison, the $50 million investment in the entire Victoria's Secret show is definitely worth the money.

After the Victoria's Secret show, the Thanksgiving holiday is approaching.

The first week of the Thanksgiving schedule from November 11 to November 17 also officially ends.

Affected by the wind and snow on the east coast, the North American box office situation in the past week has indeed been affected.

Overall, the box office results are still gratifying.

Last week’s three major new films, the Kim Carrey fantasy comedy "Ghost in Disguise", which is most in line with the festive atmosphere, relied on its own quality and the strong announcement of Daenerys Entertainment, and successfully won the weekly box office championship, seven days in the first week. The receipt of 37.09 million US dollars, the museum is more than 15,000 US dollars.

Geffen Pictures produced "Interview with the Vampire" by Warner Bros. It lived up to expectations. It followed "Ghost in Disguise" with a gap of less than $1 million, ranking second on the weekly box office list, reaching 36.38 million in the first week and seven days. Dollar. However, "Interview with the Vampire" has 2,604 screens, the largest of the major new films last Wednesday, so the museum has only more than $13,000, which is a significant gap with "Ghosts in Disguise".

"Terror Zone" produced by MGM ranked third with a box office of $28.11 million in the first week and seven days.

Although lagging behind "Ghosts in Disguise" and "Interview with the Vampire" by an order of magnitude, this opening result also met MGM's expectations. Taking into account the fierce competition for a series of heavyweight films at the end of the year, the first week of $28.11 million is not enough to ensure that the local box office will exceed 100 million, and it may eventually be around $70 million.

The production cost of the film is 30 million U.S. dollars, and the announcement of 15 million U.S. dollars, even if the local box office is not enough to recover the full cost, relying on the popularity of Sam Neal and Jessica Lange, overseas distribution is enough to achieve profitability, not to mention it. There are follow-up video tapes and TV broadcast income.

After a deep drop in the second week of its release, and faced with the impact of three new films, the Halloween schedule of "The Mortuary Haunted Incident" still fell by 37% this week, earning $14.63 million. Within three weeks of its release, the cumulative box office of "The Haunted Morgue" reached US$83.69 million, and there is great hope that it will be promoted to the 100 million yuan club.

After the four films, the other old films have completely fallen behind, and the box office is not worth mentioning.

On November 18, the golden box office week spanning Thanksgiving Day opened.

The main new films this week are still three, namely "Toy Story 2" produced by Daenerys Entertainment, Schwarzenegger's new comedy "Little Guy" invested by Sony Pictures, and Paramount Pictures' veteran longevity science fiction "Star Trek 7: Star Trek".

The most heavyweight is undoubtedly "Toy Story 2" produced by Daenerys Entertainment's Pixar Pictures.

After the first great success, the production cost of this 3D animation sequel reached 80 million U.S. dollars, more than double the 35 million U.S. dollars budget of the first film. This time, the investment in publicity was as high as 50 million U.S. dollars.

The total project budget is 130 million US dollars.

Through negotiations with many theaters, at this stage, the share of heavyweight movies produced by Daenerys Entertainment generally exceeds the average 55% level. This "Toy Story 3" is expected to receive about 60% of each other's share from theaters. . However, even so, the total budget of US$130 million requires about US$210 million at the local box office to pay back.

It is conceivable that "Toy Story 2" is released in local theaters, and there will be little profit.

However, everyone knows well that the big profit of the "Toy Story" series is not the box office, but the toy surroundings.

Since the first movie was released at the end of 1991, in three years, the total sales of peripheral toys in the "Toy Story" series has exceeded the US$4 billion mark. With the release of "Toy Story 2", it will inevitably continue for several years. The surrounding boom of time, this is the main source of profit for Daenerys Entertainment.