Chapter 1489

After his trip to South Korea, Simon returned to North America on March 2.

The first concern is the past Valentine's day schedule in North America.

Danilis Entertainment's first major film in 1999, the American version of love call transfer starring Tom Hanks, was released on the eve of Valentine's day on February 12, and finally grossed $41.95 million in the first week from February 12 to February 18.

A good start.

Subsequently, in the week following its release from February 19 to February 25, the decline of love call transfer was well controlled to 36%, and then received another US $26.83 million, totaling US $68.78 million.

Simon returned to North America on Tuesday. The box office of the film has also been released on the weekend of the third week. He continued to earn US $12.89 million, and the cumulative box office exceeded 80 million, reaching US $81.67 million.

Obviously, it is only a matter of time before the local box office of this American version of love call transfer breaks through 100 million. Moreover, according to the prediction of the current box office curve, the local box office of the film in North America is expected to rise to $120 million to $130 million.

In addition, overseas, although some core ticket warehouse countries have not been able to synchronize Valentine's day, they have basically opened paintings.

By the time Simon returned to North America, the cumulative overseas box office of the American version of love call transfer has also exceeded US $70 million. Based on various data, the total overseas box office of the film is expected to be between us $150 million and US $200 million.

The total global box office is expected to reach US $300 million.

The production cost of the film is US $40 million and the publicity and distribution expenditure is US $20 million. Calculated by US $300 million worldwide, the film can achieve a profit of about US $70 million only in the cinema stage, which is obviously another great success.

The most intuitive feeling is China.

The original "love call transfer" is made in China. After all, most people don't know the inside story of this project. Therefore, an adaptation of their own project can break the box office in Hollywood, and a sense of pride arises spontaneously.

First of all, the project has passed the review of mainland China all the way. It is scheduled for the end of March, which is absolutely amazing in the field of introducing films.

Secondly, the new year's film "Party A and Party B", which is also released in China, is the original team of last year's "Aihu". After winning glory overseas, we can't see last year's "Aihu" in the cinema, so we place our emotions on "Party A and Party B".

As the news of the big sale of the American version of Aihu spread in China, the box office curve of Party A and Party B rose unexpectedly again. It was expected that the local box office volume of 150 million would increase by about 30 million in one fell swoop, and the final landing point is expected to reach 180 million yuan.

Brocade book also plans to push its original version back into the cinema for a replay when the American version of Aihu is released in China at the end of March.

No matter how much you earn or how little you earn, you must earn.

In North America, for the success of this film, the industry will inevitably have a variety of interpretations and plan to follow the trend.

However, some people, especially those in Hollywood, actually see more.

The unpopular February schedule, even with the blessing of Valentine's day, in previous years, those who can break through the threshold of 100 million yuan box office Club basically belong to the dark horse of the year.

Now, is the American version of Aihu a dark horse?

Not really.

The main feature of dark horse films is that they sell unexpectedly when everyone doesn't expect them.

The total investment in the production and publicity of the American version of Aihu is US $60 million, which can be said to be a heavy bomb. The production company is willing to invest so much money for a project, and obviously has considerable expectations for the business prospect. Therefore, this is not an unexpected success.

However, the American version of Aihu is undoubtedly a very successful project, especially in February.

So the question is, why is it so successful?

Because now Hollywood is no longer the Hollywood that once stood side by side.

Danilis entertainment, born in the sky, has occupied more and more resources, cut into a larger and larger market, has more and more profound strength, squeezed other peers, and has less and less living space. Finally, it has completely changed everything.

In addition, in the past, in our traditional concept, it is difficult to produce a 100 million yuan box office film in February.

Because during this period of time, compared with the end of the year or summer, the number of film viewers first decreased significantly, which naturally reduced the market volume. Secondly, even if the ticket warehouse is so large, in the past, we still had to compete with each other and cut the already small cake smaller. Therefore, it is difficult to make blockbusters at the box office level of 100 million yuan.

Now, daenerys entertainment broke the rules.

With its strong publicity network, danilis first stimulated more public to enter the cinema during this period, expanding the market volume.

Secondly, due to the growing strength of danilis, other studios in Hollywood have been continuously reducing production and investment in recent years, resulting in a significant reduction in the number of projects competing with danilis's films in the same period.

It is not surprising that the cake has become larger and the competition has been reduced. In addition, the American version of Aihu has enough excellent quality, so it has easily broken the box office volume limit of the popular schedule in February.

In the original time and space, this is also a trend in Hollywood.

Once in history, when other popular schedules could not meet the displacement of their own films, the strong Dibao began to open the February schedule.

The more typical is "Panther", which was released in February. To some extent, it also shows that Dibao is more or less unsure of this marvel pure black hero film. As a result, the film sold $700 million at the beginning of the year.

The internal reason for this market performance, which completely broke the schedule limit, is the same as the American version of Aihu at this time. One was that Dibao was too strong at that time, and the other was that other competitors were getting weaker and weaker.

The big studios at that time, except Disney, Warner and universal, were only empty shelves.

At this time and space, danilis began to work completely and unreservedly in Hollywood last year. Next, in addition to the "competitors" Simon plans to reserve, other studios will inevitably soon become empty shelves.

Simon returned to Hollywood and a merger that had been quietly promoted also took shape.

About MGM and fox.

And the little move of old Murdoch trying to buy Lucas film first. Simon actually heard the news soon, but he didn't mean to intervene. Anyway, he ended up in his own pocket.

Because Simon did not intervene, Murdoch finally negotiated the deal at a total price of $1.7 billion in cash and shares. $1.7 billion to acquire Lucas film, including industrial light and magic, which has developed well in the CG field behind danilis special effects in recent years, as well as the copyright of popular series such as star wars and Indiana Jones.

You know, the reason why Disney once spent $70 billion to win fox, in addition to the well-known desire to recover the copyright of the X-Men series, there is another reason, that is, it hopes to completely collect the Star Wars series.

The global distribution rights of the first six Star Wars films, including many peripheral interests, were always in the hands of fox before Disney's acquisition.

Now, fox has won Lucas film. Although Simon thinks that $1.7 billion is a little high, after all, the price is only $4 billion more than a decade later, it is also acceptable. After all, Lucas asked for up to $1.2 billion, equivalent to 70% of the shares, in order to continue to ensure the right to speak.

In short, after MGM merged with Fox, Simon basically mastered the super IP of Star Wars.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that there are industrial light and magic and the Raiders of loot.

Even if Simon's deliberate suppression in recent years makes the technical level of industrial light and magic far lower than before, it is also a fish that has escaped from the westero system. Now it is in his hand, and Simon's control over Hollywood special effects films will go to a higher level.

In that sentence, it's different to be able to do CG and participate in special effects, just as people who can do Kung Fu may not be able to do martial arts guidance.

And then there's the treasure Raiders.

This is also a gold mine series, but it's a pity that the issuance right is in Paramount's hands, and some can't live without Lao Si. However, as long as the project is started, paramount is already encouraging Lao Si to shoot treasure Raiders 4. In short, there will be no less interests to belong to at that time.

Took Lucas pictures, and then there was the question of who merged who.

Murdoch won the parent company of Star Wars Series in advance, in fact, to strive for more initiatives in this regard.

Simon didn't force it.

After all, News Corporation is also a partner that Simon attaches great importance to. Therefore, when they return to North America, they have breakfast together and the matter is settled.

MGM merged into fox.

However, as a concession, Shirley Lansing, promoted by Simon, will be the CEO of the integrated new Fox Film team.

Let's talk about the specific merger scale.

Due to the advantages of Westeros system and a series of box office projects in recent years, MGM's market value has been on the high side, with a recent market value of US $4.3 billion. On Fox's side, the current market value of News Corporation, the parent company of fox in the 20th century, is $16.5 billion.

Obviously, big fish eat small fish.

However, according to the agreement reached between Simon and Murdoch, News Corporation will be split into two parts: 20th Century Fox and News Corporation.

Even if the current paper media industry is declining, taking into account the paper media and television assets of News Corporation in Australia, Europe and Asia, after stripping, the new News Corporation, which mainly focuses on paper media and businesses outside the United States, will probably take away the market value of about $7 billion. The remaining 20th Century Fox company, including Fox TV network, fox cable network, Fox Film and other assets, The discount is about $9.5 billion.

Neither side asked for a premium or discount to trade at the current share price.

Also consider Lucas pictures.

Therefore, after the merger, the shareholding ratio of the new 20th Century Fox company is 63% in the former fox, 8% in George Lucas and 29% in the former MGM.

Looking at this shareholding ratio, it seems that Simon lacks the right to speak, but in fact, only 17% of the 63% shares of the original fox belong to the Murdoch family. Although it is also the largest shareholder, it is much worse from absolute holding.

To put it bluntly, the new company has basically tended to be a publicly held company.

However, in fact, minority shareholders must step aside.

As for major shareholders, they also need to rely on the board of directors to control the company.

This is also one aspect of Simon's comparison with old Murdoch.

Of course, an agreement was reached.

In addition to the one requested by George Lucas to protect his own rights and interests, the other eight board of directors with a quota of nine people are planned to be established, with half and half divided between the two sides.

After all, if we really want to strive for control of the new company through a public shareholders' meeting, Simon and Murdoch stand on the stage together. There is no suspense about who those shareholders will choose.

In addition, compared with Lei Shidong, who can turn against a group of children in order to grasp the power of the company, Murdoch is not so extreme in terms of corporate control. Moreover, Murdoch also knows that he doesn't have many choices.

If you refuse the deal?

sure.

At that time, we can continue to firmly control the company.

However, the current pattern of Hollywood basically means that the company will decline.

At breakfast that day, Simon directly clarified Murdoch's guess.

Therefore, this is an opportunity for Simon to give the Murdoch family, not Simon begging the Murdoch family to agree to the deal.

In the next Hollywood, Simon plans to keep only two competitors who can ostensibly compete with daenerys.

One of the places has been given to Warner.

Another, in fact, has been determined, is to expand based on MGM's team.

If fox doesn't get on the bus this time, it will be even more difficult to get on the bus in the future. Even Simon's original idea, there was no chance for fox.

Simon wants Disney, which is now in the hands of Vivendi, France.

Even if Simon, the big butterfly, takes away too much luck, Disney, which has the theme park business and a large number of animation IP accumulation, is still a sweet cake that can be revived with a little adjustment. Therefore, even if the merger was successfully completed, Simon did not give up Disney's plan.

As for others, including fox, it depends on fate.

Simon's initial intention was to see the upcoming launch of the Star Wars prequel series and a deeper alliance with the Murdoch family, which would further consolidate the voice of the Westeros system at the level of global public opinion.

However, if you don't want to, it's still fate.

As a result, it seems that Fox accounted for the majority of the transaction volume in the 20th century, but in terms of control, just as fox once sold to Disney, it is obviously impossible to win too much control, and so is this time. It is a good result that Murdoch will continue to serve as the chairman of the new company.

The basic transaction framework was reached, and the two sides officially announced the news on March 5.

There was another uproar.

Obviously, fox, MGM and Lucas film could only be regarded as the bottom seven or the three companies in the second tier. Together, they immediately showed a giant atmosphere. In the current Hollywood, in addition to danilis entertainment and Time Warner backed by GE, the new 20th Century Fox company will firmly catch up with the third position as long as it completes the merger.