The Industrial Giant Reborn

"Okay, I will send people to investigate the economic situation of Hong Kong and nearby countries, and then make a detailed analysis." Eisner said.

The approximate economic data of Disneyland can actually be calculated. For example, what is the local economic situation? This is very important, because only locals with a good economy will go there many times, while outsiders generally go there. Once, it is difficult to have a second time. Then there is the situation of local tourists. The more people travel, the more foreign visitors Disney can get.

Generally speaking, it depends on the nearby population and economic situation. The population in Asia is definitely enough, but the economic situation needs to be looked at again, but he also knows that the boss is more optimistic about the Asian economy, especially the mainland.

"Well, let's do the math first. My estimate is that the economy of the entire Southeast Asia, including the mainland, will develop at a very fast speed in the future. After the 1990s, the total consumption capacity will increase at least several times. According to the speed of Disneyland construction, The park is about to open at that time, which is very suitable." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

The preliminary negotiations and infrastructure construction of Disneyland take a long time. Taking advantage of the current ridiculously low land prices, we first purchase a large amount of cheap land, spend a few years building the park and hotels, and wait for the land prices to rise sharply in 90 years. , after the overall economy becomes better, Hong Kong’s consumption power alone will also increase massively.

Not to mention that after the 1990s, the mainland's economy will also improve significantly. Although the average economy is not very good, there are still many rich people. The tickets for Disneyland are only a few hundred Hong Kong dollars at most. For wealthy mainlanders, It’s nothing.

All the time is a perfect match. In this life, Chen Zhiwen plans to get Hong Kong Disneyland first and then go to Europe.

Although Disney in Europe does not make much money on the surface, the U.S. headquarters can definitely make a lot of money from licensing fees. Besides, the existence of Disneyland is to increase the influence of Disney Company, even if it is really Even if you lose money, as long as you become famous, you can make it back in other fields.

"Okay." Eisner nodded. If the Asian economy can really develop at a high speed, and the population there can exceed the population outside the circle, it is estimated that there will really be no losses. Besides, it is the boss who pays, and he only needs to provide management. Judging from the income of Disney in the United States, it is exactly the same as that in Japan, earning tens of millions of dollars in licensing fees and royalties a year for nothing.

"Well, the core of the current situation is still in movies. If the movie is successful, not only can we get a lot of funds, but we can also create more IP, which will facilitate us to create new theme parks and IP channels." Chen Zhiwen added.

No matter how big it is in the park industry, the core of Disney is IP. With IP, even if the company goes bankrupt immediately, it can be re-established within a few years. With more IP, Disneyland can attract more people. Other types of small theme parks can also be created.

It's a pity that current computer technology cannot support the special effects of "Jurassic Park". Otherwise, once this movie is released, the future Dinosaur Park theme park will be super popular.

Although he does not plan to participate too much in Hollywood movies, Chen Zhiwen still needs the IP of "Jurassic Park". Anyway, for this kind of special effects blockbuster, the main thing is the special effects. The plot is just about the same.

This is completely different from the movies before the 1980s, such as "Forrest Gump". It would be false to say that he is not excited about such a hit movie, but if he doesn't remember the plot, it is impossible to make it.

"It depends on how many well-known IPs we can create in the next few years," Eisner said.

Now that Disney's first step in its turnaround has been successful, coupled with Chen Zhiwen's financial strength, he already has full confidence in Disney's future rise again. Although this process mainly depends on the boss, he has no choice in this matter. He can't let the boss participate and then run it by himself, right?

"How is Marvel's acquisition going?" Chen Zhiwen asked again.

"I have arranged for people to contact them. Their chairman Stan Lee, after knowing that we wanted to acquire him, expressed his willingness to join Disney. The current Marvel Comics Company still belongs to Cadence Industries. We need to cooperate with They negotiated, and the other party’s offer was US$60 million. We evaluated it internally and found that it was not worth that much, only US$40 million at most, so we are still negotiating the price,” Eisner said.

"Well, you can discuss the price. According to the current market price, just increase it slightly." Chen Zhiwen nodded and asked: "Stan Lee is so easy to accept. It seems that life is not easy for Marvel comics now, right? "

Whether in Hong Kong or Europe and the United States, many companies have nothing to do with their founders after decades of development. For example, KFC, the founder got old in the 1960s and then sold his company. The same is true for Marvel, which was born in the 1930s. , has changed hands many times over the years, and few Marvel fans probably know who the founder is.

However, Stan Lee is very famous because he single-handedly created countless Marvel characters. When these characters were spread around the world through the movie screen, many people also knew the old man's name. Stan Lee even made several guest appearances. Several Marvel movies.

However, before Marvel Comics was released into movies, it was just a comic company, no matter how powerful it was, and could not match the scale of a small movie company. Now it is facing the impact of its Japanese counterparts.

"Yes, last year, Marvel published photos of all its superheroes in newspapers many times, just to let a movie company take a fancy to it and buy its rights to make movies." Eisner said with a smile.

"Oh, then has any film company purchased the copyright?" Chen Zhiwen frowned. He didn't expect that Marvel would start selling the copyright so early.

But it makes sense to think about it. If the painter can’t afford the salary, what’s the use of retaining the copyright? There are film companies that are willing to buy the rights and then shoot, which is a bit surprising, because in this era, the cost of shooting these movies is very high. After all, the enemies of superheroes generally like to destroy, and the plot of destroying the city is all expensive. High.

Unless we imitate the Japanese Ultraman and build a fake city, that would be too fake. Children can accept Ultraman, but adults will not spend money to watch this kind of movie. Besides, the filming method of Ultraman is actually not cheap.

"Yes, Cannon Pictures bought the rights to Spider-Man and Captain America," Eisner said.

"These two movies? Have all the copyrights been sold?" Chen Zhiwen asked with an unchanged expression.

Simply looking at the difficulty of filming, these two films are indeed much smaller, but they are only slightly better than those of Thor and Iron Man.

"No, Marvel only sold the rights for 10 years," Eisner said.

"Can Marvel take it back in 10 years?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"Yes, you can. Stan Lee is also very smart. He has always known that the copyright in his hands is very valuable, but there is no chance to develop it, so he is also waiting for an opportunity. Once someone successfully shoots any movie adapted from Marvel IP , the value of the copyright in his hands will immediately increase tenfold, so he would rather have a low price than sell the permanent copyright at once." Eisner said with a smile.

"It's very smart, but it's a pity that it's not that easy to shoot a Marvel IP superhero movie!" Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

Although he didn't pay much attention to the company Marvel in his previous life, Chen Zhiwen also knew that Marvel had a miserable life throughout the 1980s and 1990s. One meal was not followed after another, and even if the rights were sold, the film company would The movies that came out were also rubbish, and they were thrown into the street.

From Chen Zhiwen’s understanding, the plots of the Marvel series are all rubbish. It’s bullshit science fiction. Races across the universe are still fighting with guns. Thanos, who can destroy multiple civilizations, likes close combat. The earth’s nuclear bomb can destroy it. Invading spaceships, alien spacecraft weapons, or a bunch of guns...

Take a look at "The Three-Body Problem", that is a real science fiction story.

For Marvel's movie adaptations to be successful, the premise must be that computer synthesis technology reaches a certain level. Otherwise, it would be weird not to rely on that kind of garbage plot.

Marvel, in its original history, could no longer survive in the mid-1990s and sold a large number of copyrights, including "Spider-Man". Sony, which obtained the copyright to "Spider-Man", later made US$2.5 billion. It makes Disney feel very sad.

Now it's only a ten-year copyright, so it doesn't matter to Chen Zhiwen. Anyway, he will return to Marvel in ten years.

"I will continue to discuss acquisitions with Cardans Industrial in the future," Eisner said.

"Okay, let's settle it as soon as possible." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, "Also, tell Stan Lee that I only care about IP, so after we acquire it, we will increase his salary and that of all the painters, so that they can work hard."

In this era, the salary of Marvel cartoonists can really be described as the tip of the iceberg and a drop in the bucket compared to the value they can generate in the future.

However, although Stan Lee will be famous in the future, he is currently only the CEO of a small company with a total market value of only tens of millions of dollars. It is not worthy for Chen Zhiwen to meet him before the acquisition. Otherwise, if he is taken over by Marvel's current parent company, Cardans I know, I'm afraid they'll ask for prices all over again, and something will happen.

"Okay, I will definitely tell you." Eisner promised.

"By the way, there's another thing. A painting software from Midea is about to take shape. You should have participated in it. Let's study it together when we have time to see how we can reduce the painter's painting time and increase efficiency. ." Chen Zhiwen suddenly said again.

It has been two years since Midea launched the PS project. During this period, Chen Zhiwen was notified of the progress every few months. Recently, Chen Zhiwen also tried to use this software and was able to do some basic drawings. However, he did not understand comics and did not know how to do it. If you know how to draw, whether this software is easy to use or not depends on the evaluation of professionals.

"Okay, Disney has sent people to cooperate with this software before, but recently there has been less activity." Eisner nodded and said.

He actually didn’t know that in the early days, Midea’s task was to collect the needs of professionals. Later, when it developed its own development, it would not communicate much with the outside world, because as the world’s largest electronics company, even large projects have strong confidentiality. demand. Only when the software is almost out and the relevant patents are registered, then it doesn't matter.

Of course, this premise is that there are no competing products, otherwise it will still be kept strictly confidential.

"Okay." Chen Zhiwen nodded.

Later, I discussed Disney's financial situation with Eisner. With the improvement of the U.S. economy and Eisner's operating capabilities, deducting interest payments on debt, even if there is no blockbuster movie "Beauty and the Beast" this year, Disney is basically able to turn a profit.

Chen Zhiwen was not surprised by this. After all, in the original history, Disney could be said to be much more difficult than it is now, but Eisner still only took 5 years to turn the company around from losses.

He is worthy of being one of the top 100 CEOs in the 20th century. His ability is so strong that Chen Zhiwen admires him very much.

…

After the success of its first blockbuster movie and the success of several animated movies by the team led by Eisner, Disney has already got half a foot out of the predicament. In the future, it only needs to follow this route, and occasionally Chen Zhiwen will help Well, before the new century, Disney’s performance will definitely not be lower than its original history.

This process does not require Chen Zhiwen to intervene too much. Mature large companies and top managers basically have their own operating rules. Only major investments and major events require authorization from the boss. Such as Hutchison Whampoa, Land, Wharf, AMC, etc., which can basically make the boss Chen Zhiwen feel more at ease.

Those who grew up with Chen Zhiwen, such as Midea, Red Bull, Galaxy Trading, Costco, etc., especially in the early days, made Chen Zhiwen spend a lot of energy. Fortunately, it is basically successful so far.

There are also some companies that are pure investments and use capable people to make money for themselves, such as Wal-Mart, Nike, etc. who invested in the early stage. Chen Zhiwen does not ask these questions once a year, just look at the financial reports and stocks.

But there is another one that is special, and that is the home products retail supermarket: Home Depot.

Like Apple, Chen Zhiwen was also the earliest angel investor to invest, and obtained more than 30% of the stocks of the two companies. However, Apple only invested in short-term and had already cashed out, while Home Depot was prepared to invest in the long-term.

"Eric, long time no see." Chen Zhiwen came to a Home Depot supermarket in east Los Angeles and met with Bernie Marcus, the founder of Home Depot.

"Haha, Bernie, I am very relieved to have you running Home Depot." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile: "Pierce spoke very highly of you. He also said that it was fortunate that you did not operate a membership warehouse supermarket, otherwise Costco would be It’s dangerous.”

"Eric, don't be kidding me. Who in the entire United States can compare with Costco's warehouse supermarket chain." Bernie shook his head and said.

Today, Costco and Wal-Mart are known as the strongest dark horses in the U.S. retail industry in the 1980s. Costco focuses on large cities, while Wal-Mart focuses on small and medium-sized cities. The two have a tacit understanding and do not confront each other head-on, avoiding each other's sharp edges. , and then desperately expand to seize the market of traditional brands.

The retail giants Celtic and Sears, no matter how hard they try, can't compete with the two younger ones. Other cities with Costco and Wal-Mart are either going bankrupt or losing money, and they can't compete with these two companies at all.

"Bernie, do you want to turn Home Depot into the largest supermarket in the home furnishing industry?" Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.