King of Hollywood

Chapter 194 The Last Puzzle

"I understand your feelings. In fact, I am very optimistic about the prospects of Blue Sky Studios, otherwise I would not have come to persuade you in person, even though at that time you were still making CG shots for some commercials or TV dramas. I think you should know that I never Don’t make useless efforts. Since I have acquired Blue Sky Studio and agreed to your conditions, it means that I am optimistic about you. You are different from Pixar. They are earlier pioneers, and it is inevitable to have huge gains. You want To get the same harvest, you must pay more effort.

What's more, the two studios insist on different styles. Pixar insists on stories that are suitable for all ages, while you believe in excellence. Human time is always more precious than machine time, right? So don't be in such a hurry, I've already arranged, just this year, I need you all to go all out to make a short animation, eight to ten minutes is fine, as long as it can be shortlisted for the Oscar for best short animation, I agree with you to make one For a feature-length 3D animation, the investment is at least 50 million US dollars. If it wins an award, the investment will be even more. How about it? "

The above are Adrian's promises to Weiji and several core personnel when he came to Blue Sky Studio after the new year. Anyway, it was because the short film animation produced in 1998 won the Oscar for best short film animation that Blue Sky Studio was spotted and acquired by Fox, and then had the funds to make animations. He didn't mind repeating this process.

Pixar, which holds all the peripheral copyrights tightly in its hands, is enough to make money, and is not in a hurry to let Blue Sky Studio generate benefits so quickly. In his plan, Blue Sky Studio will also play an important role in the media's plan to follow the Disney route.

The new year is here, and for Adrian, more opportunities are waiting for him, and the media will once again usher in opportunities for expansion, so just after the New Year holiday, he began to plan more things.

"Who can tell me what people are most afraid of?" Sitting at the top of the conference room, Adrian glanced at the high-level participants, and then asked.

No one spoke, even Claude and Lavern, who was discovered by him, looked at him with puzzled eyes.

"Okay, this question is a bit general, so let's change the way of asking, and regard people as animals—higher animals—what are they most afraid of when they have no worries about food and clothing?" Adrian changed the way of asking .

Still no one answered, and finally Claude cleared his throat: "It's still too general, Ed, maybe you can give more detailed conditions."

"Being more detailed is equivalent to telling you the answer clearly." Adrian shook his head, then looked to his right back: "Can you tell me the answer, Charlie?"

Charlize, who was sitting there recording the situation, raised her head in astonishment, looked at Adrian with surprise in her eyes, and Adrian gave her an encouraging smile.

"Hmm..." Charlize finally spoke after thinking carefully, "I think you should be talking about loneliness, right?"

"That's right, loneliness." Adrian snapped his fingers, and then looked at the executives present again, "As social animals, after people have met their survival needs, what they worry about the most is loneliness."

He paused for a while, and after they had digested his words, he said again: "In my opinion, there are two kinds of loneliness. One is because of various reasons, separated from society, abandoned in a virgin forest or No man's island. DreamWorks wanted me to direct a movie starring Tom Hanks, but I turned it down, and that movie told such a story. It should be a horrible experience, no Steak has no TV, no baseball, no living and entertainment facilities, and the most important thing is that no one talks to you. If you don’t keep exercising, you may not even be able to speak in a few years. Even Robinson has to have a Accompanied on Friday, which shows the horror of loneliness.

But this is only the first type, and there is another type of loneliness that is even more terrifying. The former type is passively separated from society due to accidents, while the latter type is actively abandoned by society. Dead no one cares that's why there are so many people out there who want to be Miss Beauty, Bodybuilder, Cheerleader, Four Five, Actor, Talk Show Host, etc., because that's the only way to show you're different , show that you are different to feel that you are outstanding and valuable

But for a long time, there have always been very few channels to show oneself. Although there are beauty pageants in an ordinary town, although there are more and more various talent shows, compared to the entire population base, there are still very few people. Less. More people seem to be doing nothing, and no one cares about them except their relatives, even if they do have many special places. But it's different now, a flat world has appeared in front of them, they can vent everything about themselves in this world, show everything about themselves, and use various methods to attract the attention of others Yes, this is is the internet

Psychologists have done a test, if a person wears a mask that no one can recognize, then he will do everything he wants to do without restraint. The Internet is like this. Have you seen the "New Yorker" published in 1994 in my hand? On the Internet, no one knows that you are a dog. A gentleman who abides by various etiquette in life may be a shrew on the Internet. A villain in life and a cool thinker online. There are endless possibilities in the Internet, which is both illusory and real. This is not a new media channel, but its operation and fermentation speed is far faster than other media. Look at the websites we hold in our hands, Yahoo, Amazon , imdb, etc., are all like this, and there will be more in the future. Whoever can take advantage of this, take advantage of people's desire to show themselves, promote and influence, and whoever can take the lead in the coming 21st century."

This is not the first time that Adrian has emphasized the importance of the Internet, but he has talked about this with the company's executives in private before, and it is the first time to bring it to a meeting. This is necessary, because in the early years of the 21st century, people showed much more of themselves than in the past decade or so. After all, anyone can become a celebrity in the Internet age if they dare to be shameless.

Now that he has finally become an upstart in the media industry after several calculations, if he does not seize this opportunity to further expand and become a predator, then Adrian must be the stupidest person in the world, and the first opportunity is a blog.

"Why didn't you mention that... blog you mentioned in the meeting just now?" He asked after returning to Claude's office after the meeting.

"I have always been in charge of the keynote, and you arrange the specific work. Since you haven't mentioned it, why should I mention it?" Adrian spread his hands and said.

"Come on, everyone knows that as long as you don't say these things, I won't say them either." Claude rolled his eyes at him, "Tell me quickly, what the hell are you thinking about."

"Okay, okay, for two reasons," Adrian sat down, "First of all, I need them to figure it out for themselves. They can't just do what I say all the time, right?"

"Hey, why does this sound like you're talking about me?" Claude suddenly called out, but Adrian ignored him and continued: "Secondly, I can't slap myself, can I?"

"Slap yourself?"

"You forgot, two weeks ago, on New Year's Eve, at the reception held in Hearst's mansion, what they discussed privately."

"You mean, News Syndicate? But it's the same as... well, I get it."

Seeing Claude's understanding face, Adrian shrugged. In fact, as early as when the Internet was not yet fully formed, there was already such a freehand expression on the Internet, but it never had a fixed form. Since the blog can publish the author's mood text, it can also be used to record news and various information. Compared with the ordinary way of submitting articles, the blog is obviously much faster. If you add a sharp search engine...

The giants in any industry will only have two choices when dealing with emerging things. One is to suppress and quickly absorb them while maintaining their own advantages; Take a share. The former is applicable when the opponent is weak, while the latter is applicable when the opponent already has a certain scale.

If the media launches a blog service, it will undoubtedly belong to the latter, but how to tie in some big players, especially those from traditional media, requires considerable skill. What's more, it just agreed to the matter of the news union website, and immediately made such a thing, it would be too ugly to eat. Anyway, the cooperation with the Hearst Group and the Newhouse Group is good, and it is not a bad thing to make more preparations.

Just wait and see, and there's still a lot to come out of. Adrian thought with satisfaction, and then mentioned another topic: "How about Seagram."

"There is no suspense, they have already let go, and they are also very clear that blind expansion has made them a little overwhelmed," Claude laughed, but then his face changed, "But the funds in Southeast Asia cannot be embezzled for the time being. In the past few months, Soros has been almost ready to attack Indonesia, so if Seagram makes a decision, we must raise funds.”

"It doesn't matter, even if I only have 35 shares in my hand, I can still control the power of the company. I don't even need that much, as long as the two of us have 35 together." Adrian waved his hand indifferently, but was listening My eyelids jumped twice when it was time to "will attack Indonesia".

"Promise me, take Universal," he said, looking at him.

"Okay, I promise to win Universal." Claude laughed.

Yes, the final piece of the movie puzzle is not MGM, Columbia, or Warner Bros. It goes without saying that it is Universal Films Columbia. Sony will not let it go, even if the loss situation is only partially improved. It is even more impossible for Warner. The Warner Group is already a behemoth. Unless it is acquired by mergers and acquisitions, it is impossible to take it under its command, and how could Adrian be willing?

As for MGM, its original glory is long gone. It can be seen from Kirk Kerkorian selling and buying it several times that it may be some kind of money laundering. Anyway, Adrian and Crowe De is considered a decent person in the circle, so how could he have too many contacts with these people, even if they have been washed clean.

So Universal became the best choice. In the late 1980s, there was another Japanese company that entered Hollywood together with Sony, and that was Panasonic, which acquired Universal. Unlike Sony, Panasonic retained Universal's management and gave it considerable autonomy, but cultural differences are not so easy to eliminate, and it is indigestible to expand too fast, and Universal's benefits are not very good , So it was sold to Seagram Group early.

Speaking of which, Adrian is also responsible for this. Originally, Universal still had several good works in the early 1990s, but because Adrian intervened, "Schindler's List" disappeared, and "Jurassic" Ji Park" has also become a joint investment. Universal's income is much lower than that of the same period in the previous life, so Panasonic sold it a year earlier.

Seagram Group, which took over, is famous for its brewing. After taking over, it is also ambitious to create its own media empire. Unfortunately, the gap between brewing and media is too large. Coupled with the same blind expansion as Panasonic, they also quickly fell into a trap. In the midst of the predicament, not to mention Adrian, the variable who spoiled the situation to his heart's content, and Spielberg, who had a good relationship with Universal, also formed DreamWorks, and Seagram also began to seriously consider the possibility of selling it.

And this is an opportunity for the media. You must know that Universal Pictures can be regarded as the second-oldest film company in Hollywood. a location. Especially in the past ten years or so, the ownership has changed every few years, but under the leadership of Ron Meyer, it still maintains its position as a major film company, especially when Adrian is disrupting the situation. , I have to say that he is a very powerful character.

Has a history in hollywood, has a place in the MPAA, and the movies and TV series are well made, although the library is not as good as Miramax, most of them are high quality movies, and there are acquaintances who can help to connect, and nothing else What kind of dirty forces, this is simply tailor-made for the media. Generally, the only problem is that Universal's overseas distribution is relatively poor, but there is no perfect thing in this world. Besides, this can be made up for, if it is not Panasonic. When it was sold, Adrian did not have enough funds, and he might have sold it by then.

But it's not too late now, and it might be more appropriate.

After receiving Claude's promise and formally proposing the importance of the Internet at a high-level meeting, Adrian immediately turned his attention to the end of the Christmas-New Year's file. After all, although the prospect plan is good, it will take time to complete.

So far, "The Killing Hour" has officially broken the box office mark of 100 million yuan in North America, but it can only stop there. For such a movie, it is already a pretty good result, and Kate's comeback also has a certainty. Not a bad start. As for "The End of the World", it is still moving towards 200 million, but the prospects are not very optimistic. Whether it can break through 200 million is still unknown, but if you count the overseas box office, at least it will be no problem to recover the cost.

On the other hand, "Titanic" is still strong in the theaters. Although the number of theaters has shrunk too much compared to the past few months, it is still persisting. The film critics all exclaimed, this is a miracle, and even the harshest guy has to admit that this film is at least commercially unmatched.

So far, the North American box office of the ship has exceeded 700 million yuan, and the overseas box office has reached 1.2 billion. At the end of the year, after several twists and turns in China, it also received a box office close to 400 million yuan. Let's see how capitalist countries promote themselves.

Now people all over the world who pay attention to the big ship are stretching their necks and waiting, wanting to know whether "Titanic" can reach the unprecedented height of the global box office of 2 billion before it goes off the assembly line.

"Definitely can" is Adrian's answer. Although he knows that the big ship has broken the record in his memory, he still hopes to get a box office of 2 billion US dollars in the world.

"Tell the bosses of the theater, as long as the big ship is kept online for a period of time, as long as that time is passed, I can increase the share ratio to 70, and they should know when it is," Adrian said to Laverne .

If it weren't for the fact that it is too obvious and ostentatious to do so now, it would not be difficult for him to spend 20 million out of his own pocket to push the 2 billion mark.

Let's see, if you really can't support it, it doesn't matter even if you are ostentatious. Adrian thought so.

Needless to say which time to support, when the time comes, we will know that after mid-January 1998, it has reached the end of the Christmas-New Year file, and the third part of the three films that have been prepared before is long overdue. premiere. The reason why it will be held at this time is because the film is not suitable for release in the popular schedule.

"This is indeed a good movie. When its main point of view is nostalgia, it is doomed that there will not be a lot of people who like it. After all, the main consumers in the movie market are between 18 and 25 years old, so if you put It’s going to be terrible for a hit date.” When deciding on a release date, one of Bosworth’s assistant managers jumped at the chance to offer Adrian his opinion.

Adrian happily accepted his opinion and promoted him. Although he didn't care too much about the movie, it was scheduled to be released at the end of the year mainly to hit the Oscars, but the box office data is too ugly and it's not good. As for whether arranging the premiere in January will lose the qualification for Oscar, oh, don't forget the requirements of the Film Academy. As early as Christmas, "LA Confidential" was screened in Los Angeles, which fully complied.

However, at the premiere, Adrian walked across the red carpet with Zeta Jones on his arm, so as soon as he appeared, the reporters on both sides couldn't wait to press the shutter, and there was something to write again.

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