Once Upon a Time In Hollywood

Chapter 374 Free Market

However, just when Roland Allen readily accepted Paul Allen's clearing behavior, allowing him to sharpen his knives and stalk the pigs and sheep, and gathered all the benefits that could be embezzled, David O. Elson took a very different view.

"Roland, do you really think it's okay to do this?" David, who was fishing with Roland, asked.

At this moment, they are in the Pacific Ocean.

In fact, after Roland split the group company into four and placed the positions of chairman and CEO of all companies on David's head, they were brothers and settled accounts.

The annual salary of tens of millions is the hard work of David acting as a shield and running around.

The yacht at your feet is the employee benefit that the company distributes to it.

Of course, although the assets are clear, the right to use will always be cut and messed up.

No, Roland thought staying at home was too boring, so David, who was also fine, dragged him out to go fishing.

Blowing the sea breeze and basking in the sun, throwing the miscellaneous things to the subordinates, while enjoying it comfortably, chatting at will.

"What do you think is the problem?" Roland leaned back with his foot on the fishing rod, not paying attention to the whole matter.

But David was different. While looking at the sea with his hands on his stomach, his mouth did not go empty like his eyes, but he spoke out his thoughts, "When the development situation of a company is clear, the major shareholder embezzles It is a matter of course to kick out the minority shareholders' shares from the game.

Paul Allen left Microsoft that year because he was suffering from cancer and was unable to take care of the company, so he withdrew, but in fact, a year before he left, he had already fallen out with Bill Gates, and when they reconciled , he served as a consultant to Microsoft.

Steve Jobs is the same, when the momentum of Apple's progress is extremely clear, those investment companies dare to unite, cooperate with Sequoia Capital to implement the beheading operation, and kick him out of the company.

But this kind of clearing will only happen when the strength is extremely different.

Paul Allen couldn't beat Bill Gates, so he couldn't keep his position, Steve Jobs couldn't beat Sequoia Capital, so he could only be out in pain, but Lee Mi-kyung...is different from them. "

Speaking of this, David turned his head and glanced at Roland.

After finding that Roland was listening carefully with his arms around him, he continued: "Although Samsung is no match for Microsoft, they are backed by the entire Korean market. If you want to keep the shares, Samsung, the Korean chaebol, can hinder the development of DreamWorks.

Even with the channel of Sony, Amblin and Warcraft Film and Television Joint Distribution Company, channels are channels after all. They only have the qualifications to connect with the market and have no ability to influence the market. However, Samsung, a chaebol, can influence the Korean market.

You can see what I mean? "

Roland nodded, of course he could understand David's meaning, "Are you worried that if Paul Allen forces Li Meijing to sell shares, then Li Meijing may find a way to prevent Dreamworks' works from entering the Korean market?"

"Yeah, that's what it means." David admitted frankly, "Although this possibility is very small, we have to guard against it.

After all, everyone is doing business and putting profit first.

Even if we put in 240 million yuan to ensure that DreamWorks will not be taken away by others, we must also consider our own interests while taking power. Not losing money is the bottom line, making a profit is the goal, and making a lot of money is success .

From the current point of view, Paul Allen's act of swallowing the shares in Li Meijing's hand is only beneficial to them, but the impact will make us suffer, so... Don't you think about it? "

How else can we say that capitalism is weak and compromised!

In order to realize the re-appreciation of the capital in their hands and to obtain more capital, they have many concerns during development, and such concerns will only arise and end due to interests.

If it is said that Roland wants to swallow Li Meijing's shares, then David will definitely not talk nonsense and let people do it, because this is something they can actually get. Compared with the Korean market, the integrated DreamWorks is definitely more valuable, but If Paul Allen takes it, then I'm sorry, before he got the membership of the American Motion Picture Association, this deal was a loss!

What's more, this deal is different from Yahoo, which can keep recovering blood.

Carl - Icahn paid real money at the time, but now, what the two parties have reached is only a verbal agreement.

Too much risk!

At first glance, David's idea made sense, but after Roland thought about it for a while, he didn't think the problem was too big.

"David."

"Um?"

"Lee Mi-kyung is not as strong as you think, and Samsung is not as powerful as you think, even if it is a Korean chaebol.

First of all, let’s clarify the first point, Lee Mi Kyung’s goal is to break into Hollywood.

So fundamentally speaking, she is the passive one.

When faced with Paul Allen's offer, the first thing she thought about was whether the sale of DreamWorks shares would affect her goals. If not, she had a high probability of selling directly.

Secondly, if Dreamworks really got the membership of the association, then Li Meijing would not dare to take advantage of Samsung's power to secretly revenge Dreamworks in South Korea. The significance of the existence of the association is to first ensure that the interests of the members of the association cannot be violated.

Finally, the South Korean film market has always been controlled by themselves, and our films can’t sell much there, so there’s no point in persuading Paul Allen for that little bit of profit. "

That's right!

In Roland's view, Paul Allen took Li Meijing's DreamWorks shares if he took them!

Because Li Meijing is not as capable as David thought! Samsung can't find the flowers either!

As David thought, after Lee Mi-kyung is cleared out, there is a high probability that she will borrow the power of the Samsung family behind it to boycott DreamWorks' works in South Korea, thereby retaliating?

How is this possible!

Because South Korea dares to do the first grade of junior high school, the American Motion Picture Association dares to do the fifteenth grade!

directly turned their film market into an island!

Don't say it's impossible.

Because in Roland's previous life, the American Film Association really did this kind of thing.

If there are no accidents, it will still happen in this life.

Because "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" did not hit the street, "Hero" is coming soon.

That's right, the American Film Association in the previous life used Chinese-language movies as a knife.

After the success of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", Miramax, who discovered that there is a market for kung fu movies, fished for gold from the bottom of the sea. He chose "The Iron Monkey" from among the many films in Xiangjiang. , and moved it to North American theaters.

After long-term screenings, this 1993-year-old movie earned a box office of 14.69 million in North America.

Although compared with the 12.8 billion of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", it is not even a fraction, but for Miramax, this small business of buying and selling copyrights can leverage more than 20 times profit.

So, after the filming of "Hero" produced by Jiang Zhiqiang, the boss of Anle Films Co., Ltd., was done, Miramax took another shot and snatched the North American distribution rights of the entire film.

After all, capital is profit-seeking.

When the situation is very good, if you have money but don’t make money, you are not a fool!

And their efforts have been rewarded accordingly.

With a box office of 53.71 million US dollars, they made a lot of money.

Not only that, but the top box office for two consecutive weeks allowed them to see the market and potential of Chinese-language films in North America.

However, just as the Weinstein brothers were about to make persistent efforts and contract more Chinese-language films, the Hollywood moguls who had also witnessed all this saw a very serious problem.

That is-

The box office market is limited.

The box office volume of a country will not increase due to the increase of films. Whenever a work achieves a market harvest, then correspondingly, other works will lose money, and the harvest in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is 1.2 800 million, "Hero" directly won the championship for two weeks, and "Young Huang Feihong: Iron Monkey" can harvest 15 million. If the mainland continues to produce similar works, the box office will reflect Aren't the US dollars being taken away by the mainland as foreign exchange?

How could this situation be accepted by Hollywood?

So, since then, going out has become an empty talk.

Because the Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of China used its membership power in the Film Association to directly obstruct the release of Chinese-language films.

As we all know, if you want to release a movie in North America, you must first be reviewed and graded before large-scale filming. If it is not graded, you can only do small-scale screenings, otherwise it is illegal.

It is precisely because of this clause that cardholders become extremely relaxed.

The first to suffer from it was "House of Flying Daggers".

11.05 million US dollars, only one-fifth of the score of "Hero".

If it is said that the international chapter does not have Li Lianjie's appeal, which is why the theaters are cautious about filming, and North American audiences do not buy it, then the subsequent "Kung Fu" will be obstructed on the surface.

In the beginning, "Kung Fu" was defined as PG-13 after being reviewed.

But when Sony laid out the promotional materials and prepared to promote it according to the schedule, the American Motion Picture Association suddenly sent news that it would re-examine "Kung Fu" because there are large-scale fighting scenes in it.

Sony did not expect this situation.

When they wanted to argue with the association, the association insisted on a retrial and would not accept any appeals.

The arms cannot twist the thighs.

In the case of the association's surname Messoni surname day, they can only compromise.

But when they sent the film for review for the second time, the result they got was R.

Because the review team feels that the movie "Kung Fu" promotes violence and does not conform to the growth values ​​of young people.

What **** you say?

If the scale of "Kung Fu" belongs to R, then how did "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers" become PG-13?

The scale of the latter two films is much bigger than "Kung Fu", right?

Especially "House of Flying Daggers"!

The international chapter is still off!

Regardless of Sony's excuses, the association has no intention of changing it, so in desperation, they had to press R to release.

Although the modification was just a matter of lip service, all the publicity materials and theater arrangements that had been put in before were all cancelled. In the end, there was a situation where "Kung Fu" was only screened in six venues in the first two weeks. In three weeks, after completing all the procedures, it was able to be screened simultaneously in 2,500 venues in North America.

At that time, the explanation they gave was that publicity needs to cultivate word of mouth.

Although the box office of 17.1 million was very good, the lost two weeks made this result lose color.

After that, Sony gave up the competition for "Fearless" and let it be bought by Rogue Pictures, a branch of Focus Features, a subsidiary of Universal. With the intervention of American capital, hey! The review committee miraculously rated it PG-13 again!

The most amazing thing is that only six venues of "Kung Fu" controlled by Sony can be screened in the first week and the next week, resulting in a box office of only 200,000 yuan in the first weekend. It can be directly opened in North America, and the first weekend is 10.6 million!

As for the truth...

it's actually really easy.

North American market, only North American capital can share!

Other companies, eighteen generations of ancestors will find out for you!

Precisely because of this, Sega chose to cooperate with Paramount when making "Sonic the Hedgehog", and Nintendo and Toho chose to cooperate with Warner when making "Detective Pikachu" and "Godzilla".

Because of cooperating with Sony, Japanese capital + Japanese capital, will be kicked out by the Motion Picture Association of America!

What is the use of buying a membership for Sony?

The other companies pressed it casually.

The 24.63 million cut by "Fearless" is already the last glory of Chinese-language movies!

At that time, people only thought that directors from all walks of life were exhausted, and the mainland market had accumulated a lot of money, so they focused on the present.

After the filming of "The Great Wall" started, Lao Mouzi, who had been holding back for fifteen years, finally revealed the truth——

"Because of the current screening problems in the United States, the protagonist can only be an American."

This is also the reason why the director of "The Wandering Earth" publicly stated, 'serve the audience first'!

It’s the Chinese prefix on the back of Xiaopoqiu. Don’t know how to promote it overseas?

Is Xiao Poqiu so poor that he can’t even do an English dub?

It’s the penguin who invested in the little broken ball and the forty thieves. Don’t you know where to do the classification?

No!

Because the United States, which emphasizes free markets, said NO!

In this case, if Lee Mi-kyung dares to be a monster, the American Film Association can beat Korean movies to death!

Grandson wants to challenge grandpa?

Dreaming!

Of course, the American Motion Picture Association has the ability to kill Korean films, but at the same time, they also have the confidence to kill each other.

Because, the Korean film market is about to be controlled by themselves.

Although the highest-grossing film in Japanese film history is "Spirited Away", which will never be broken, after that, the second place is "Titanic" with 26.2 billion, and the next third is "Spirited Away". The 25.5 billion "Frozen", followed by fifth, ninth and tenth, are "Sorcerer's Stone", "Chamber of Secrets" and "Avatar".

But Korean movies are a big deal. There is only one Hollywood movie in the top ten, and that is "Avatar".

Of course, this is the result of the perennial war of resistance.

Since the emergence of independent films in South Korea in the 1980s, they have been fighting against the system for the past two decades.

In 1998, South Korea officially abolished the film clipping system.

In two thousand years, there were no restrictions on film shooting, only grading.

As a result, film companies that serve entertainment have sprung up like mushrooms after rain.

In addition to CJ Entertainment, which is backed by Samsung, Lotte Group, one of the five largest groups in South Korea, also produced Lotte Entertainment, and the Orion Group, which is a friend of Holly and Friends, produced SHOWBOX, and because of bureaucratic exclusion, the guy who resigned from the above three companies They also formed their own N.E.W.

CJ Entertainment has Bong Joon-ho, and produced the No. 1 box office in Korean film history "Mingliang Sea Battle".

Although Lotte Entertainment could not break the record of CJ Entertainment, the third "Walk with God: Crime and Punishment" belongs to their family.

SHOWBOX is Feng Junhao's Bole, invested in the other party's "Han River Monster", and also created "Treasure Hunting League".

As for N.E.W, "The Gift of Room No. 7", "The Advocate", and "Train to Busan" are all made by them.

It took them nearly 30 years to go from 15.9% of the domestic film market share to now occupying half of the country. However, as the Hollywood film market share is gradually declining, if they act like monsters, then...

MPAA will happily grab their pigtails and accuse them of not having the competitive spirit of an open market!

Although it is only DreamWorks, the capital will rush in and let these companies spit out the market!

If not, it is lobbying Congress for sanctions.

And this kind of thing, no one is more familiar than them!

So, for Roland, the biggest problem after cleaning up Li Meijing is not actually the revenge from the Korean side.

"But Paul Allen's DreamWorks shares will be close to 24%.

Although the combined shares of Steven and I can exceed 50%, this will also prompt the other two to hold together for warmth. In this case, the situation is very delicate.

Because once any operation occurs, the balance is broken. "

Yes, Li Meijing's departure will only make the shareholding structure of DreamWorks more clear.

From three bands and two bands, to four heavenly kings.

This very close equilibrium situation will be broken by any transaction, and at that time...

The old man is going to have a headache again.

However, Roland felt that this had nothing to do with him.

According to the next rhythm, the old man's shares are destined to be diluted.

because of him-

poverty.

Note: ①Paul Allen and Bill Gates both personally disclosed the contradictions in the 1980s. The reason was that Paul felt that TV signals would eventually be able to be presented on computer terminals through broadband, which is the video service we use now, but at that time Even the Internet was not popular, so he was killed by Gates, and then Paul found out that he had cancer and left Microsoft. Afterwards, he spent his own money on these projects, which failed because the concept was too advanced, but after the failure, he discovered the foundation of the Internet, so he invested in America Online. In fact, AOL is the most likely company to merge with Microsoft. Unfortunately, when Paul left Microsoft, he wanted to prove that he was right, so when he invested in AOL, he agreed to add a clause prohibiting share expansion in the contract. This is also the reason why Microsoft did not succeed in the acquisition. After the failure of Microsoft's acquisition, Paul, who supported Gates, cleared all AOL shares in his hands, and then helped to stare at IE, pushing Microsoft into the Internet era. ②Although Miramax bought the copyrights of "Hero" and "Once Upon a Time" because of Quentin's liking (when "Hero" was released in North America, Quentin's words were directly printed on the poster), but Weinstein Brothers bought them because Chinese movies could make money at the time, and it was true that they were suppressed later. In early 2005, "Kung Fu" was inexplicably rated R, and the promotional posts about changing the schedule are still on Sina, Netease and Tianya. Hanging, and the source of the news is China News Agency.