Hollywood New Century

"The performance of Tai Chi this time is very good. It has created a lot of records and has become a benchmark for Sino-US co-productions." Zhou Lixian, who is in charge of the Asian market, also came to Guangzhou this time, and Simon gave her advice.

Zhou Lixian is very satisfied with the performance of "Tai Chi" this time. Mainland China has won 1.25 billion famous coins. In addition to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, the box office in the Chinese market can basically make a return.

Simon nodded and said with a smile: "I estimate that the Asian market is still the main market, accounting for at least 70% of the global box office, and RB's box office seems to be more than 2.8 billion yen. According to the current exchange rate of US dollar to yen, it is about 86. , also has a box office of about 35 million US dollars, the Chinese market is almost 200 million US dollars, and the Asian market has a total box office of about 250 million US dollars!"

"Next, we will see how the box office in the European and American markets is going."

"Don't worry, this is a co-production film, and the mainland market is close to making a return. With the names of Anne Hathaway and Chinese Kung Fu, plus Universal Pictures, one of the six majors, it will be released in the European and American markets. $100 million," Zhou Lixian seemed confident,

"This kind of movie is hard to come by. "The Spy," which was released a month earlier than "Tai Chi" in the same period, is also a Sino-US co-production, and its box office in China is only 45 million yuan!"

"Sea of ​​Spies" was produced by Weinstein International Pictures and Huayi Brothers, and the budget was also $50 million.

"It's not that easy to make a film together, but Stephen Chow's appeal in China is indeed too great!" Simon should also have confidence, even five years ago, "Kung Fu" sold for 100 million US dollars, and the budget at that time was only 20 million What about the dollar.

"Tai Chi" is a movie with a budget of 60 million US dollars, and the storyline is good, and it is not the kind of shoddy plot, which is not Chinese or Western. "Kung Fu" has a box office of 80 million US dollars in markets outside China. Not even $150 million!

"Then should we continue to develop this kind of co-production film? Now the changes in the Chinese mainland market are getting bigger and bigger. "Tangshan Earthquake" has also sold 6.7 billion yuan, and the most important film schedule in the Chinese mainland market is also New Year's Eve. "Zhou Lixian is excited and excited, what should be considered is still to be considered.

Simon shook his head and said seriously: "This kind of film is difficult, and you know the reputation of the co-production film. "Tai Chi" is basically the same as the previous "Kung Fu", and it was directly handed over to Stephen Chow to direct it. The key to success. Whether it is Western culture or Eastern culture, it must be exported through movies, and it is difficult to produce a chemical reaction between the two;”

"Most of the co-productions, if the investment is a little bigger, will definitely not be able to return to the mainland market, and the overseas market will require the participation of Hollywood filmmakers. Cultural differences are a matter of ideology, and they will only be nondescript;"

"The King of Kung Fu, The Mummy 3, and the "Spy Sea" you mentioned are all negative materials."

Zhou Lixian nodded, but sighed again: "Now there are only 20 places for split-screen films in mainland China, and they all need to be reported and screened by the General Administration of Film, and there are not many places that our company can win;"

"According to the current situation, it is still dominated by commercial special effects blockbusters, or films with a high content of craftsmanship, such as 3D animation and IMAX films, which are easy to pass."

"Don't worry, the U.S. is currently negotiating with the Chinese Ministry of Culture. The new film export agreement is about to be redrawn, and the results should come out in a year or two." Of course Simon knew that the two countries would sign a new agreement in 2012. The film export agreement has been signed, and the box office commission of overseas split-book films will increase from the current 12% to 25%, and the number will increase by 14 every year.

As for the 3D animated feature film, it is not only because the plot is not bad, but also because the technical special effects of the film are good! Otherwise, Hollywood clearly knows that many animated feature films will not be high at the box office in China, so why do they still make component accounts?

"Toy General Animation", "Crazy Primitives", "Ice Age" and the like are very high box office in Europe and America, but basically have little appeal in China.

Jeff Zucker, CEO of NBC Television Broadcasting Group, and Bonnie Hamer, President of NBC Television Content Production, came to Simon's office in the morning to discuss the hulu video network.

Also in attendance were Netflix executives Dick Cook and Reed Hastings, an executive from Disney and the founder of Netflix.

Hulu Video Network was originally an online video website established by NBC Television and Twentieth Century Fox Entertainment in 2007, but Disney soon joined.

The current situation is that NBC, 20th Century Fox and Disney each have a one-third stake.

In terms of origin, hulu is a noble born with a golden key, and Netflix is ​​a poor boy. After all, Netflix's main business is DVD network sales.

With Simon's acquisition of Netflix, he hit it off with Reed Hastings and accelerated Netflix's transformation into online streaming media. After the delisting, the project to prepare Netflix's self-produced drama came.

The adaptation of "A Song of Ice and Fire" has been in the works and is scheduled to air on Netflix next year.

"The overlap between hulu and Netflix in the future is too high, and online streaming is the focus of the group's future business. This one-third of hulu's shares are of little use to us." Simon wants to develop Netflix after all. , hulu video has taken up too many video streaming copyright authorizations owned by Universal and NBC TV networks, and there are many exclusive authorizations.

"Time Warner has always had the idea of ​​taking a stake in hulu, but it can consider selling it to them. There are also many investors on Wall Street who are interested," NBC Chairman Jeff Zucker also agreed. After all, the complete and mature Netflix is ​​not comparable to hulu's stocking. .

"Now that Netflix has entered into cooperation agreements with more and more film and television production companies, Netflix's self-produced dramas will be broadcast next year, and the pressure on TV stations will be greater," Simon smiled, and the competition between streaming media and TV stations is about to begin.

According to the current valuation of Hulu, it is estimated that no one will want $2 billion. Simon’s price is the highest at $1.5 billion, and the NBC Group will slowly withdraw the authorized works, and the value will be further reduced.

Whether Xinghai Entertainment can recover $400 million to $500 million from hulu depends on the acquirer's confidence in streaming media.

"Okay, I'll talk to News Corp and Disney first!" Jeff Zucker also understood, Simon said that Time Warner wanted its shares not to be sold to Disney and News Corp.

No matter what, hulu has such good resources as Hollywood, and its future development will not be too bad. At that time, the battle for hulu's controlling rights will be interesting.

Twentieth Century Fox and Disney are both rivals of Universal Entertainment. How can the competition between the two of them be exciting? Not only Time Warner, but also Paramount.