I’m in Hollywood

Noticing that Julia was pointing at him, the group of Holly Hunters who were chatting took the initiative to come over.

Eric exchanged a few words with the other party, and when they left, he glared at the innocent Julia angrily.

Julia shrank her neck, with hope in her eyes, and whispered: Eric, you are angry, right? Do you want to clean me up?

No, Eric shook his head and said, I will treat you well, in the gentlest way in the world.

Mmmmmm.

Julia Millet nodded as if pecking at the rice, obviously not disgusted by this method.

Well, it can't be sorted out.

Monday morning routine is to have breakfast with Katzenberg to discuss recent company affairs.

Elizabeth has not ended her 'quarrel journey'. Eric called her yesterday and learned that the cause of the matter was about the Fox Network. Murdoch wanted a strange woman to work on the Fox Network. Elizabeth naturally disagreed.

For this kind of family affairs, Eric is not very good at meddling.

Early in the morning, Julia and Elizabeth woke up in the mansion on the top of Beverly Hills, thinking that Julia would stay in bed, Eric planned to leave first, but did not expect Julia to follow, but went all the way to Burban The headquarters of Firefly is still a little dazed.

Morning, Eric, Katzenberg seemed to always be energetic, walked into the restaurant in a hurry, shook hands with Eric, and greeted Julia warmly: Morning, Juliet Leah.

Julia cheered up and nodded to Katzenberg. Morning, Jeffrey.

After greeting, Eric and Katzenberg sat down at the dining table, and Julia sat lazily next to Eric.

Katzenberg probably understood Julia's state. He didn't need to shy away from thinking about what he was going to talk about today, so he didn't care. After ordering breakfast from the waiter, Katzenberg couldn't wait to ask: Eric , have you seen AOL's quarterly earnings report?

The quarterly financial reports of most listed companies will be announced in the second half of the month or the first half of the second month after the end of the quarter. Today is only January 18. Eric really did not expect that AOL would announce the quarterly financial reports in advance. However, think about it. The situation that AOL is facing during this time, AOL's behavior is not difficult to understand.

Just past 1998, the Nasdaq index was finally fixed at 2733 points.

As of December 31 last year, the stock prices of a series of technology companies in the Nasdaq market have reached record highs. Among them, Microsoft's market value has successfully exceeded 400 billion US dollars, reaching 418.5 billion US dollars, firmly occupying the first place in the global corporate market value rankings. s position.

Cisco, the best-performing technology company in the Firefly system, has a market value of $166.6 billion, ranking tenth in the global corporate market value rankings.

Yahoo's stock price has been in a very volatile state of adjustment after the IPO explosion, but its market value eventually remained at a high of $106.7 billion before the end of last year.

In 1997, the assets of all technology companies controlled by Firefly's investment were less than 200 billion US dollars. Now, only two companies, Cisco and Yahoo, have a market value of more than 270 billion US dollars. In addition, compared with last year, Nokia's market value has also achieved doubled to $66.5 billion.

Counting the Firefly Group, a media group whose valuation is definitely over $100 billion, although it is not listed, the Firefly system is equivalent to having three corporate giants with a value of 100 billion.

If the Nasdaq index collapses ahead of the year as Eric expects, this year will also be the peak year of Eric's personal wealth. Although no specific statistics have been made, Eric's latest net worth is likely to exceed the unprecedented $300 billion compared to the $265 billion he received in November last year when he accepted the New York Times fortune.

It is conceivable that after the collapse of the Nasdaq index, it will take at least ten years for Eric's personal wealth to reach the current level, according to the development trajectory of the new technology industry.

However, at that time, once Eric's personal worth reaches this year's level again, the bubble component of his assets will definitely not be as serious as this time.

With this information flashing in his mind, Eric shook his head and said, Not yet, so what's the situation now?

Katzenberg beckoned his assistant not far away to bring a laptop for him, opened it and displayed it in front of Eric, saying: AOL just released the data, in the fourth quarter of last year, aol's camp The revenue amounted to 1.1925 billion US dollars, a 46% increase compared to the same period last year, and a 21% increase from the previous quarter's quarter-on-quarter data. The single-quarter profit was 190.5 million US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 41%. All relevant data Both far exceeded Wall Street's expectations.

This is the internal restaurant of Firefly's Burbank headquarters. Eric deliberately set up a wifi network here in advance. Katzenberg said, and skillfully switched a webpage to the AOL stock price display page.

At this time, it was nearly eleven o'clock in Eastern Time, and Eric only saw a steep upward curve.

More than an hour after the market opened, AOL’s stock price rose 11%, and its market value reached $73.6 billion in one fell swoop.

Eric read all the data on the browser carefully before laughing: This is a good thing, AOL will buy back the 3.1% of the shares in the Clover Fund next month. With such a rise, we A few hundred million dollars more. Eric said, turned on the calculator that came with the laptop and made a simple calculation, saying: According to the current stock price, it should be 2.28 billion US dollars, maybe the next few days. Weeks will go up quite a bit, and we might even end up with $2.5 billion.”

$2.5 billion, Katzenberg couldn't help but sigh. Although the Shamrock Fund bought this stock at a high level, if it can recover the $2.5 billion, it has already been achieved compared to the initial investment. After several times of profits, Katzenberg suddenly remembered something, and said with a smile: Exactly, this money is probably enough to buy Hasbro.

Although Hasbro has not announced its fourth quarter financial report, and because the Star Wars prequels will be released at the end of December, even if it is announced, the loss of Star Wars merchandise sales will not have much impact on Hasbro's financial report in the last quarter of last year. However, in the past half a month, the news of the failure of the sales of Star Wars peripheral toys has spread. During this time, Hasbro's high stock price has also begun to show a downward trend.

Hearing Katzenberg's mention of Hasbro, Eric asked again, Speaking of which, did the consumer product department come up with a report on the failure of the sales of Star Wars merchandise?

Katzenberg nodded and said, I've been watching, and I'll be able to transfer the detailed documents to you in a few days. However, the basic issues are also very clear. Hasbro lost this time mainly because they performed too well. Greedy. The licensing fee of 100 million US dollars, correspondingly, almost got the license of more than half of the peripheral products of Star Wars. According to the investigation of the Consumer Products Department, Hasbro launched a batch of products based on the latest characters in the Star Wars prequels. Toys are still very popular, but because there are too many types of products, it affects consumers' shopping choices. As a result, except for the core batch of toys, most of the other products are in a state of unsalable. I think that in the future we will The company's movie peripheral products should be classified more accurately and in detail, and the types of peripheral products should be strictly limited.

Eric listened carefully and said: This year, our Iron Man, Cars and The Lord of the Rings all have very rich development potential for peripheral products, so you'd better watch it yourself, I don't Hopefully, the consumer product sector is just learning from experience, not practicing.”

Of course, Katzenberg agreed, the waiter brought the three people's breakfast, the conversation paused for a moment, and when the waiter left, Katzenberg said: Also, about the '4200' plan , Eric, in North America, although the final contract is still under negotiation, 2,000 3D screens and 100 imax screens have basically been confirmed to be rolled out across the board when Gravity is released at the end of the year. However, overseas, I think there could be a delay of one to two months.

Eric initially hoped that the promotion of 3D and imax screens could be synchronized globally, but after a year of preparation last year, he gradually realized the reality. The North American market is better, and the overseas film market is affected by the market policies of the corresponding countries Due to the influence of various complex factors, it is basically impossible to achieve synchronization.

Of course, the imax auditorium, which is completely controlled by the Firefly Group, may be able to do this, but it is even more difficult for the other 2,000 3D screens to be spread in overseas markets at the same time. But only 100 imax screens distributed in other countries around the world are obviously not enough, and it is impossible for Firefly to let Gravity and The Lord of the Rings be released on these few 100 screens in advance.

Eric doesn't doubt that Katzenberg didn't do his best in this matter, and since he brought it up at this time, it basically proved that it couldn't be done.

In this case, it's good to ensure that North America is synchronized. Although he was a little disappointed, Eric said quickly: As long as North America can succeed, I think overseas expansion will definitely be very fast.

However, on the North American side, I met with representatives of several major theater chains last week, and they still had some hesitations, mainly about the source of the film, Katzenberg nodded, and added: From November's Landscape There is only one month between Gravity and The Lord of the Rings in December. Because of the popularity of the two films, the theater chain is also very optimistic that these two films can support the 3D film market for two months. However, from December From The Lord of the Rings to our confirmed 3D source Sleepy Hollow, there is a gap of more than three months, even if The Lord of the Rings can support the two-month schedule, these 2000 The 3D screening hall will also be short of film sources for a month, so the cinema dealer requires us to provide at least two more 3D film sources.

According to the current technical level, the main difficulty of 3D film source is cost, and time cost is second. According to the scale of 2,000 screens, only the conversion cost and copy cost can increase a film by millions of dollars. If it is a medium-low-cost production under $50 million, just these two costs may reach 10% of the production budget.

Even, this is not even the more expensive imax version. The cost of max-3d film copy is ten times that of ordinary 3d copy. If both formats are available, the distribution investment of that film will be even greater.

However, since he made up his mind to promote it, there was no room for retreat at this time. Eric took a sip of the mineral water next to him and asked Katzenberg, What do you mean?

Katzenberg said: It is too risky to put the company's big production films in the unpopular schedules of February and March. If we choose low-cost productions, it will not be able to highlight the visual effects advantages of 3D and imax films. I think, maybe we can Select some classic blockbusters from the film library for re-production, which can not only reduce the risk, but also ensure the visual effect.”

Hearing what Katzenberg said, Eric immediately thought of a series of 3D reset blockbusters in the original time and space, but he quickly shook his head and said, No, now is not the time.

Although many 3D reset movies in my memory have obtained very good box office, it is generally a matter of ten or twenty years after the release of a movie.

It has been less than ten years since the rise of Hollywood special effects blockbusters. Before the 1990s, Eric couldn't think of too many movies that were worth 3D conversion. After the 1990s, there were too many.

Just under the Firefly Group, the Jurassic Park series, Terminator series, Tornado, Independence Day and other films all have the potential for 3D transformation.

However, compared with the past, the release years of these films are too short, and they have not reached the point of selling feelings. Moreover, although he is very satisfied with the 3D film system developed by Firefly, Eric still hopes that this technology can be developed for another ten years before launching 3D versions of these classic films.

Katzenberg didn't expect Eric to refuse, and asked: Eric, according to the Disney animation's seven-year re-screening rule, it is actually ok. Although it is a film for adults, it is not enough for seven years in North America. The same is true for generating a whole new audience.”

That's not what I meant, Eric shook his head and said, It's true that the re-screening is once every seven years, but I don't want to rush to tap the commercial potential of these films now. Maybe, wait another ten years or so, When these films become classic memories in the hearts of a generation, if we re-screen them in 3D, we will get better market effects. Now, it would be a pity to take out these classic films just to fill the vacancy in the schedule. already.

In this case, Katzenberg was apparently persuaded by Eric, We can only choose from the existing films. Speaking of which, the Underworld is not bad, with a grim gothic style. , the violent gunfight scene, if it is made into 3D, it will definitely achieve very good results, but the new line has already set the film for the summer.