I’m in Hollywood

Aniston, who had been sitting quietly beside Eric, was a little confused. When he came, Eric did not hide from her the purpose of inviting Robert Shea this time. However, now that more than half of the dinner has been eaten, the two have not talked about the acquisition of the film company at all. Instead, he talked about all kinds of industry insiders, the huge loss of MGM's Heaven's Gate, the box office miracle of Gone with the Wind when Robert Shea was born in 1939, and why Disney is rising so fast Ah, the truth of RKO's bankruptcy, anyway, there is nothing about the acquisition of the film company, at least the little girl who is not very smart has not found any signs of this.

At first, Aniston listened with great interest, but then gradually lost interest, but he didn't want to be rude to let her boyfriend lose face. Xiaoyi Niu could only sit up and listen carefully, although her mind had already flown to the horizon.

Until the waiter took off the tableware and changed coffee for a few people, Eric's chat with Robert Shea still didn't end.

...The latest issue of Variety magazine published a data article, statistics show that starting next year, the videotape revenue and TV broadcasting rights revenue of movies will exceed the movie box office across the board, and the development of various peripheral copyrights of movies will also increase. With more and more diversification, the role of distribution channels will become more and more important in the film industry chain, and it will be difficult for pure film content providers to survive in the future.”

It's a bit one-sided to say that. If there are no excellent works, then the expansion of distribution channels will be impossible. It is with the high-quality films one after another that Hollywood expands its territory in the overseas market. Invincible, if our films are as inactive as European films, and there are few good films, then it will definitely be like European films, only entertaining oneself in a small circle, highways are important, but if there are no cars, The highway has no value in existence. Moreover, the salary of Hollywood movie stars has increased by more than ten times compared with ten years ago, and they have even begun to share the profit share of the movie. This is the most intuitive reason for the importance of content in the movie market. Reflect. Eric finished speaking, took a sip of coffee without hesitation, glanced at Robert Shea, and shortly after dinner began, the two exchanged a few words of praise and compliments, and unknowingly began to secretly The confrontation, although neither of them mentioned any issues such as company acquisitions, but the two have been arguing over who is more important than film content and distribution.

The discussion on this topic was started by Robert Shea, and from that moment on, Robert Shea was already at a disadvantage. Because since the other party has provoked this topic, Eric also understands that Robert Shea is very excited about Firefly's proposal to acquire the new line. If the other party is not willing to sell the new line, he will not want to bring up this topic at all.

Robert Shea, who was sitting opposite, felt a little bitter in his heart. He found that he still underestimated the vision and knowledge of the young man sitting opposite.

As an old man who has been in Hollywood for more than 20 years, how can he not understand that once the topic is provoked, it is very likely that the other party will discover his intentions.

But Robert Shea originally thought that Eric was only nineteen years old after all. Even if he has some talent in filmmaking, he must know very little about other aspects, and he is more than thirty years older than him, which can be said to be a lot. Thirty years of experience, and Robert felt that his eloquence was not bad, so at the beginning he was very confident that he could suppress Eric. Once he buried a distribution channel is the key in Eric's heart The seed, in future negotiations, Robert will be able to take the initiative.

Several consecutive films produced by Eric have created miracles at the box office.

Therefore, when Eric sent an invitation to him and revealed some news, Robert Shea's mind was alive, and Firefly acquired the new line, which is for sure, and Robert Shea didn't even think about the reverse Although Robert Shea is fifty years old, he is still very ambitious. He does not value the huge amount of money from Firefly's acquisition of New Line, but hopes to realize the merger of the two companies and take as much as possible. equity in the combined company.

New Line has now developed to a bottleneck. Among second-tier film companies, New Line is already a leader. It has a stable income film series, and has built a good distribution channel in the United States. It also has regular cooperation in overseas distribution. However, what is even more commendable is that the new line has developed to the present, without being attached to any movie giant, and completely maintaining a state of independent operation. But compared with the six major film companies, the gap between the new line is still very large. The main reason for this disparity is that the new line lacks box-office hit movies, or none at all. So far, New Line’s best-grossing “Monster Street” series has a top box office of only over 40 million, and if the movie is to be considered a big hit, the North American box office must reach about 100 million US dollars to be considered qualified. Without a blockbuster movie, New Line is destined to struggle to become a giant.

The law of 28 in the Hollywood box office market is particularly obvious. Every year, 20% of the films share more than 80% of the box office revenue. And the top ten movies on the box office charts every year have always been monopolized by the six major film companies, which means that more than 80% of the box office revenue is in the hands of the six major film companies. The proportion has been reduced, because the vigorous development of various channels has given independent film companies a lot of room for development. Therefore, the six major film companies only account for about 85% of the total box office each year, leaving 15% to other Hollywood film companies. This ratio seems to be very small, but compared to more than ten years ago, this ratio is already very large. More than ten years ago, the six major film companies basically scraped all the box office every year, leaving it to small film companies. share is only a measly 1%.

If the new line wants to join the ranks of the giants to share the more than 80% of the profits, before meeting Eric, there are only two ways to go, or to concentrate all the strength and gamble, risk making a big investment in the production of movies, so that It is possible to achieve a big box office sale, but doing so is extremely risky. Once it fails, the only way for the new line to go bankrupt is to go bankrupt. Either it’s going to be slow, and maybe one day, a small production movie invested by the company suddenly won the sky-high box office, and it quickly accumulated a huge financial strength for it. It can also sell well and achieve a virtuous circle, then it is possible to quickly accumulate strength and one day become a big company. Lionsgate in parallel time and space is the way to rise by luck. Lionsgate, which was only established in 1997, was originally far inferior to the old second-tier companies such as New Line and Miramax in terms of qualifications and strength, but because of the 2004 The low-cost documentary Fahrenheit 911, released under huge political pressure, was fortunate to get a box office of 224 million US dollars in the world, and quickly accumulated enough capital, and then used this capital to continuously develop super big-selling films. The Twilight series and The Hunger Games series once stomped Universal and MGM at the box office, followed by Warner, Disney, Columbia and Fox in fifth place.

And after Eric threw out the acquisition intention, Robert Shea saw another avenue of prosperity. This road allows the new line to enter the movie smoothly without taking risks or waiting for good luck slowly. In the ranks of giants, Eric's previous films have been sold well, which has proved that he has the strength to do this. Now that there are giants like MGM-Lianmei in Liudali, there will definitely be a new line- Firefly, well, it's Firefly - New Line.

After a cup or two of coffee, Robert Shea didn't have the patience to spend any more time with Eric. The patience of this young man in front of him was amazing. Although he didn't want to admit it, Robert Shea still had to face this confrontation. the fact that he has failed. And if he doesn't raise the topic, maybe Eric will really treat this meeting as a chat, and then get up to say goodbye, then the meeting again may only be at the negotiating table.

Eric, I heard that Firefly is going to expand its own distribution channels? Robert Shea asked casually while stirring the coffee that the waiter refills with a spoon.

A smile appeared on the corner of Eric's mouth, and he finally couldn't help it. It's been almost two hours since the meal was eaten. Eric almost didn't have the patience to spend more time with Robert Shea, and the little girl has been floating continuously. Several charming little eyes came over to indicate that he wanted to leave. Eric planned to finish the coffee in front of him. If the other party didn't bring it up, he would go back and roll the bed with Aniston. The line has issued an invitation to takeover.

The reason why there is such a meal is that Eric wants to explore Robert Shea's tone to see if the other party intends to sell the new line, because in memory, Robert Shea's desire to control is very strong, and he has a new life in his previous life. Although the line was recruited by Warner, Robert Shea still firmly holds the control of the new line. It seems that almost twenty years later, it was not until the Golden Compass made a huge loss that Robert Shea was forced to step down with great pressure.

The topic that Robert Shea first raised, and after arguing with Eric for a long time, has already expressed his attitude, so there is not much need to talk about it or not. Anyway, even if the initial intention is reached, the specific terms are still there. Long-term negotiations are required. Sony's acquisition of Colombia has now taken more than half a year, and with the previous planning, it has taken at least a year. Although Firefly's acquisition of the new line will not be so troublesome, it will certainly not be completed within a month or two.