v2 Chapter 687： God of Wealth in Hollywood

Colleges such as the California Institute of the Arts and the Film Institute of New York University have opened special courses to study Duke and his films. Although in the eyes of academics, his films are too commercial, but this is a In a commercial country, no one will ignore the great success in business......しs

Besides, most of the students trained by these colleges will also enter Hollywood and related industries, and they are more practical.

If one person succeeds once or twice by accident, then successive successes are definitely worthy of research in everyone's eyes.

Not to mention these professional colleges. Even Duke's personal biographies appear on the market. These biographies that have not been authorized, like the unauthorized biographies of other Hollywood stars, are full of all kinds of content.

Especially the ridiculous things that Duke did in his early years, Duke did not cover up at first, and it is not a secret in the circle of insiders and entertainment reporters. It is described vividly, plus his current fame and appeal. Attracted quite a few people to watch.

One of the most famous is a ridiculous story between him and the country queen Shania Dunn and the pop queen Madonna Siconi that circulated in the music circle, and some people have confirmed from the two queens, some film companies still want to Adapt this relationship into a movie.

When a person becomes famous, all kinds of people and things will always try to get involved.

Duke's mentality is good enough, as long as these people are not too much, he will open his eyes and close his eyes, which is inevitably brought about by celebrity effects.

After going around several major cities in the Western Pacific region. Duke returned to Los Angeles at the end of June, and "Transformers" also spent its fourth weekend in theaters.

Although the film only earned 16.06 million US dollars this weekend. However, it still won the North American box office championship and easily achieved four consecutive North American box office titles. The North American box office of "Transformers" also reached 366.54 million US dollars, and the final box office number is very likely to exceed the 400 million US dollars mark.

In terms of overseas box office, since the third week, "Transformers" has expanded to more than 150 countries and regions. And compared to "The Dark Knight." This cheerful movie is more popular outside North America. After further expanding the scale of overseas screenings, overseas box office numbers have skyrocketed again, and now it has accumulated as much as US$550 million.

The film's global box office also successfully broke through the 900 million U.S. dollar mark, with a goal of one billion U.S. dollars.

In China, after nearly 30 days of screenings, the box office number of "Transformers" has reached RMB 985.66 million, which is infinitely close to the one billion mark. It will soon become the first film in Chinese film history to exceed RMB 1 billion at the box office. .

And the China Film Group has also sent good news, after many efforts. "Transformers" successfully obtained the key to the extension from a certain big scissors, and the release time in China will be extended by another month. The total release time of 60 days is enough to squeeze most of the film's potential in the Chinese market. Up.

Back to Los Angeles. Duke has paid a little attention to the data of "Transformers", and his main focus has been transferred to other aspects, such as the Cinéfondation established two years ago.

This film foundation was a follow-up product of Wall Street's investment in Hollywood at that time. Duke established this film fund without intending to invest in films, but to wait for this year to be the successor of those platter plans.

"Transformers" can be so popular, in fact, it is not only the movie itself and the excellent publicity. It is also inseparable from the social environment.

Nowadays, the North American economy is turbulent. Companies from the insurance industry to the real estate industry to the financial industry have gone bankrupt, and a large number of people are unemployed. Unlike the economic situation, whenever the socio-economic shocks occur, the North American film market will be relatively prosperous, perhaps hiding in theaters or At home, immersing in the virtual world is the best way to escape the cruel reality.

In the first half of this year, the North American theater market has been operating at a high level, and the box office figures for these six months have been nearly 12% higher than the same period last year.

But these cannot change the overall economic situation in North America, especially those fund companies that invest in Hollywood through the platter plan, are also facing serious crises.

Although Hollywood still looks prosperous on the surface, there is a big problem behind it, underinvestment.

Soon after returning to Los Angeles, Tina Fei provided Duke with a complete report. According to surveys conducted by multiple institutions, between January 2006 and December 2007, major Wall Street banks, hedge funds, and The wealthy limited partners invested a total of US$8.7 billion in Hollywood film production. Driven by this investment, in the two years of 2008, Hollywood's film production was more than the sum of the previous five years. Twenty percent.

However, the current film investment is drying up.

Since August last year, no new film fund has been established on Wall Street. Such funds include financing partnership projects including stocks, mezzanine funds, and bank debt.

In the past few years, Hollywood film companies have obtained part of the funds for film production through these funds.

For example, in 2006, Ryan Kavalaug established the Theory of Relativity Management Company, which raised more than US$2 billion in cash and debt capital from hedge funds such as Elliott Partners and traditional banks such as Deutsche Bank, and used He founded No. 1 and No. 2 Film Funds on Gunshan Road.

However, nowadays banks are becoming more and more critical in lending, and even many banks are already unable to protect themselves. The difficulty and cost of lending can be imagined.

The Wall Street crisis can affect the whole world, and Hollywood will certainly not be excluded. Many film producers are anxiously relying on stock funds or credit lines they have previously drawn to spend their lives, such as MGM Films. The underdogs are looking for patrons everywhere.

Where is the next person who is willing to burn money in Hollywood? This is the answer many film companies want.

If oil prices and Mumbai's stock market are still at high levels. The tycoons of the Middle East and India are not stingy, but now everyone is overwhelmed by the brokering crisis. I am afraid that this channel is not realistic.

On the surface, the North American box office is soaring, and Hollywood should be booming, but in fact, Hollywood's source of income has shrunk.

From this year to the present, Hollywood’s DVD sales revenue has decreased by 19% over the same period last year, and overseas distributors are only interested in the pre-sales of typical Hollywood blockbusters such as "Transformers" and "Indiana Jones".

"The current situation is. A film without big stars and well-known directors."

In the office. When Duke looked away from the file, Tina Fei said in a timely manner, "There will be no overseas buyers willing to pre-order the distribution rights."

The sharp decline in revenue from pre-sales is also a major problem facing Hollywood.

Tina Fei added, “The revenue source of TV has also declined due to the decline in advertising sales and competition from online video.”

Hearing this, Duke couldn't help sighing. Although he said that he would not be affected much, the impact of the economic crisis on Hollywood was far greater than ever.

Even a famous director like Spielberg is now worrying about funding.

Earlier this year. India’s Reliance Communications Group once promised to provide his DreamWorks with an investment of US$550 million to smoothly break away from Paramount Pictures, provided that JPMorgan Chase Bank raised US$700 million for it.

But it didn't take long before the stock market crashed. The market value of Reliance Communications has shrunk by more than 60%. In the face of severe reality, Spielberg and JP Morgan Chase have reduced the amount of financing to 325 million US dollars, while Reliance Communications only needs to provide peer-to-peer investment. DreamWorks' share of the production cost of each film will also rise from 40% to 70%.

No production company is willing to face such a situation, which also means that if a large investment film fails, the consequences will be disastrous.

It's not just DreamWorks. The funding squeeze has also forced major filmmakers to adjust the production ratios of various films. The entire industry has seen a kind of "dumbbell effect", that is, the two extremes of high-cost movies and low-cost movies are frequently new, while the middle-cost movies The number is scarce.

Hollywood studios will invest more money in blockbusters like "Transformers". In the low-cost movies, there will also be more movies like "Underworld" and "Doomsday". Films with a budget in the range of US$50 million to US$100 million will be significantly reduced.

To be precise, Hollywood is experiencing an unprecedented ‘money shortage’.

In the words of the opposite side of the Pacific Ocean, people who hold large sums of money today will become Hollywood’s "God of Wealth."

Duke remembers clearly that the person who once played this role was called David Ellison. With ample cash flow in his hand, he acquired investment shares in corresponding movies at low prices from multiple movie platter plans, and used them as the savior. His attitude saved Paramount Pictures, thus truly gaining a foothold in Hollywood.

However, it is no longer David Ellison who is in the front.

"Dune Capital and the Relativity Management Company are both facing a very serious crisis,"

Sitting opposite Duke, Tina Fei told him about the latest situation, "If they cannot integrate internal resources and obtain sufficient liquidity, they are very likely to embark on the road of Lehman Brothers."

"How's your contact with them?" Duke asked.

"I talked to Ryan Cavalaug personally three times, and he insisted on not letting go."

Tina Fei also frowned. Although she was taking advantage of the fire, it is not easy to buy the movie investment shares in the other party's hands at half price.

"Keep on talking, try to reduce it to 40% as much as possible." Duke thought for a while, and exhorted, "Others can be put aside. The Wall Key Fund’s "Avatar" and "New Men" were published by the 20th Century Fox , Disney’s "Alice in Wonderland" and "Pirates of the Caribbean 4", DreamWorks Animation’s "Crazy Primitives" and "How to Tame Your Dragon" are the key points!"

"I understand." When Tina Fei was about to leave, she remembered something, "It is said that David Ellison also intends to take over some platter plans."

"That's it..." Duke just thought for a few minutes before saying, "According to the plan made in advance, release the news." (To be continued.)

ps: Ask for monthly and recommended tickets!