The Industrial Giant Reborn

"Yeah." Chen Zhiwen nodded and asked, "How about the other movies?"

Among the several movies approved last year, only "Beauty and the Beast" was designated by myself. The others were decided by existing Disney executives. After all, such a large company cannot only make one movie, and it also needs to provide support to the entire movie. What if this opportunity for team practice can lead to a hit?

Even if it can't, it doesn't matter much. A team always needs to grow. Even Midea's game department is the same. They always make mistakes and launch games with average or poor results. But except for prophets like Chen Zhiwen, Jin Finger, the hit game, itself emerged through constant trial and error. In this process, the team members become more and more skilled and have higher levels, which can increase the probability of success.

The same goes for animated movies, and another advantage is that unlike other movies, its cost is controllable. It is difficult to make it very low, but it cannot be very high. Generally, a few million dollars is enough, unless We want to pursue high-end quality, but this also requires the cooperation of computer software, which is currently not possible.

Compared with games, Chen Zhiwen knows even fewer hit movies. Even if he knows, they only know some names, such as "Beauty and the Beast" that was just filmed, and The Lion King that will be filmed soon. He only knows the names, if not with the help of Disney. Platform, let him organize people to shoot, he will definitely fight to the end.

"It's not as good as "Beauty and the Beast." The current box office of the three movies combined is just over 60 million US dollars. It is estimated that including overseas sales, it will be almost 100 million US dollars. The shooting cost of these three movies is almost 10 million US dollars. If you look at the box office, you can make several times the profit," Eisner replied.

"Well, that's pretty good. Let's continue with this. You guys have agreed on which ones are suitable and report them directly to me." Chen Zhiwen said with a slight smile.

There is no reference for blockbuster movies, and they are all very difficult to appear. Before the era of blockbusters, the eight giants of Hollywood only appeared by luck. On average, they only appeared once every few years, such as "Jaws", "Forrest Gump" and so on, "Beauty and the Beast" can barely be counted, and the future "The Lion King" will also be counted, but such movies are rare. Although Hollywood giants are looking forward to this kind of movie, movies, but the focus is still on those movies that are usually shot.

If a movie can earn tens of millions of dollars, and if you can make a few more movies a year, then it is basically safe. These are the foundation. Only by stabilizing the market can we have the ability to attack those dark horses. Otherwise, many times, all efforts will be made. Once a movie fails, it's over. There are many such examples in Hollywood history.

Only in the era of blockbusters did things change. Before computer blockbusters, movies mainly relied on plot, and the plot was uncontrollable. After computer blockbusters conquered the world, as long as the special effects were good, many people would basically pay for it. Especially at the same time, the Asian economy also began to take off, bringing a large number of new customers, and the risk of investing in blockbusters was greatly reduced. This also led to the era of blockbuster films more than ten years later.

Now, Chen Zhiwen needs to rely on a few dark horse movies to stabilize Disney, and the Disney team needs to rely on itself to stabilize normal market returns.

"Okay, I will speed up investment and shoot more animation movies." Eisner nodded.

"Eisner, I still believe in your ability, but Disney is not just about movies, you also need to pay more attention to other businesses." Chen Zhiwen said again.

Eisner's ability is very strong, otherwise he would not have become the vice president of Paramount with such a bad temper, threatening the current CEO. What he is best at is making movies, Paramount Several of Monte's hit movies were also produced by him, and he also created two movie series. Even now that Eisner has left, the original creativity and fame are still making money for Paramount.

Now, at Disney, although there is a big difference between animation and live-action movies, he still relied on his own ability to shoot three movies. It is estimated that with the income from various channels in the next few years, the benefits to the company will eventually exceed hundreds of millions. Dollar. This is also the reason why Chen Zhiwen hired him with a high salary in the first place. He is worth an annual salary of US$5 million, and there will definitely be additional bonuses this year.

Of course, it is definitely not as good as the profit from Goldfinger, but Chen Zhiwen was able to achieve this profit only because of Eisner's organization and the filming of the movie.

"The two Disney parks have basically restored their revenue balance due to the combined effects of lower oil prices, lower air tickets and economic recovery." Eisner said honestly: "If you want to attract more people, you have to We have to build a new paradise from scratch. The investment in this area is too high and we don’t have enough funds. Unless we borrow more debt, given our current operating conditions, borrowing for development is not a problem, but we have to judge whether it is worth it.”

"You mean, Disneyland in the United States is not worthy of our further investment?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"It can be said that Disney in Japan is very popular now. I have been there twice. In addition to being a little creative, the main reason why it is much better than the United States is that the locals and even other Asians have no I have been to Disneyland, and there are a large number of new customers. This advantage is too big. But here in the United States, everyone who is willing to come comes. Without new things, it is difficult to attract people from far away. I have done this before. Statistics show that currently, nearly half of Disneyland’s customers are foreigners traveling to the United States.” Eisner said: “It’s not that it won’t be renovated, or that Disneyland is unimportant, but at present, the cost-effectiveness of doing so is too low. At least in a few years, if we gain a lot from the film market, we can consider this issue, or you, the boss, can make a separate investment."

"That's okay. In this way, we can cooperate with large tour groups from the United States or overseas to attract more people to Disneyland. Appropriate discounts are also possible, similar to group purchases." Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said, Disneyland's infrastructure is very It costs money, but if it has been completed, then one more person will basically make more money.

However, the park itself cannot reduce prices casually, so it adopts a group purchase model, and it also has corporate group purchase projects. It's a pity that the Internet has not yet started. Otherwise, setting up a group buying website will definitely indirectly control part of the traffic in the tourism industry. Moreover, even if this website has a global monopoly, it will not be targeted by Western governments. After all, there are no sensitive factors involved.

"Okay, then increase the large-scale group business." Eisner nodded and said.

"Do you think we should consider building the next Disneyland?" Chen Zhiwen suddenly asked again.

"The fourth one? Is it in Europe?" Eisner was not very surprised, but asked very calmly.

Disneyland is one of the largest investment projects in entertainment projects in the history of global business. For example, the first Disneyland in the United States was built in the southeast of Los Angeles in the 1950s and cost more than 170 million U.S. dollars. The second Disneyland is in Orlando. Established in the 1960s at a cost of US$760 million, these two parks almost exhausted the energy of the Disney Company. Although it was very beautiful to build, the financial pressure was so great that it has not relieved itself to this day.

The subsequent third Disneyland was in Japan. At that time, the founder of Walt Disney had passed away. In order to avoid risks, the conservative management team gave up the equity of the park and only owned royalties and copyright licensing fees.

The United States and Japan are the world's top developed countries. Parks like Disney can only make money in economically developed places. Therefore, Europe is the best choice. If it weren't for Disney's previous financial constraints, I would have thought about it long ago. Go to Europe to invest.

"Europe is indeed good, but I would rather build a Disneyland in Hong Kong." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

Europe's economy is indeed developed, but the problem is that it is not one country, but multiple countries. Although it has a Schengen visa, it is still a bit troublesome, and the language is different, plus various unexplainable reasons. In the original history, , Disney's European parks have been in operation for 26 years, and have only made profits in 2 years, with a total loss of more than 5 billion US dollars. If it were not for the great business of Disneyland in the 21st century, I am afraid that this park would have been dragged down long ago.

Of course, it might be better if the European parks were smaller, but no one can guarantee that a small park will be profitable. After all, a small park will be less attractive to many people.

"Hong Kong? It's not appropriate to build a Disneyland in such a small city, right?" Eisner said tactfully. The boss is from Hong Kong. In his opinion, this may be the boss’s own idea.

"Hong Kong is indeed just a city, but its location is very good. It is backed by the mainland, where there are 1 billion people. Although the average income is very low, there are still many rich people. Moreover, Hong Kong itself is also the city where Southeast Asians travel the most , and Hong Kong is closer to Southeast Asia than Japan, making it more suitable for Southeast Asians to come." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

"But even so, it is difficult to maintain a balanced income. Disneyland's investment is a huge investment, and Japan's investment is close to 1.5 billion US dollars." Eisner said with a frown.

"Hong Kong is just a small city. It does not need to be built as big as Japan. It is estimated that one billion US dollars is enough." Chen Zhiwen shook his head and said that the original Hong Kong Disneyland in history was also a very small park because of its own customer flow. Positioning is not as good as Japan, the United States or Europe, so it is normal to be smaller.

"One billion U.S. dollars is not a small thing, so we are also cooperating with the Hong Kong government, right?" Eisner asked. If the boss invests money, then 1 billion U.S. dollars may not be a problem.

"I also have several large local real estate companies in Hong Kong, one of which is called Land. I plan to let Disney cooperate with it. In terms of funding, we can learn from the Japanese model. The Hong Kong company will pay for it, and the United States will only be responsible for collecting licensing fees and providing services. Just a certain amount of management will be enough," Chen Zhiwen said.

Land, nearly half a year after being acquired by itself, has now resumed normal operations. However, land prices in Hong Kong have not yet recovered. Currently, Land can only break even. If it participates in the Disney project, Chen Zhiwen still has to inject capital alone. Just fine.

The reason why I chose Land is because Land itself is a large real estate company based in Hong Kong, and controlling Disneyland is also a big breakthrough in real estate.

You know, with Chen Zhiwen's current financial resources, unless it is a super large project, he no longer wants to compete with ordinary real estate developers or ordinary people for real estate income. Small scale and low profits are easy to get a reputation. It is completely unnecessary, but if It is to build a paradise that will greatly promote the economy and tourism, that is, everyone can benefit.

Historically, Disneyland also suffered losses in Hong Kong, but not a lot. Before the opening of Shanghai Disneyland, it had lost almost HK$2 billion in more than ten years, which was much worse than in Europe.

However, an important factor in Hong Kong Disneyland's losses is that it was built in 1999. Although Hong Kong's real estate crisis broke out at that time, it was only 70% of its peak value in 1997. Its price , at least the same as in 1996, and almost ten times the current price. Such a huge land price is included in the investment, and the land price needs to be shared equally for each subsequent business, and of course there will be losses every year.

Not to mention, anyone who is engaged in international trade knows that in this kind of project, there will definitely be profit transfer. Through authorization means, fees will be increased, thereby transferring Hong Kong profits to the United States or Disney’s companies in tax havens, etc., or even European parks. There must be this reason for such serious losses.

"If Disney doesn't have to pay, then I think it should be fine." Eisner nodded. Under normal circumstances, even if they don't pay for it, if other governments want to introduce Disneyland, they need to consider it carefully. But the boss has already spoken, and Hong Kong is the boss's territory, so he will naturally not object.

"Well, this is also my current idea. You still need to send someone to investigate the specific investment benefit data. In addition, my real estate can bear this investment, but when it comes to requesting a large amount of land from the Hong Kong government, it still needs to be done. Communicate with the Hong Kong government." Chen Zhiwen said: "In this way, you can check the relevant information first, and there is no need to communicate with the Hong Kong government for the time being. When the time is right, I will talk to people from the Hong Kong government about this matter, but I need detailed data to support it so that I can get a bigger discount based on this.”

Such large-scale projects definitely need to wait until the future of Hong Kong is determined before announcing them. In 1985, in order to stimulate economic recovery, the Hong Kong government transferred a large area of ​​Hung Hom port land under Li Ka-shing's Hutchison Whampoa to construction at a very favorable price. Business, it's almost free.

Now, that piece of land has been developed by Chen Zhiwen. If there is no other land, Chen Zhiwen doesn't want to waste such golden time, so it would be good to use the investment in Disneyland as a breakthrough. If a large piece of land can be acquired at a low price to build amusement parks, hotels, shopping malls, etc., then even if Disneyland loses money in ticket sales in the future, these real estate projects will definitely be profitable. This will mean to the Hong Kong government next year. It is also very helpful. They also need the real estate economy to recover and a large number of projects to start to drive employment.

Another thing is that whether it is building Disney or operating it in the future, a lot of people are needed. This can also help to some extent the people who are about to lose their jobs due to the transfer of Midea's industrial chain.