America 1982

While enjoying the food, Tommy listened to an interesting anecdote about Hollywood's past from Herbert, the vice chairman of Warner's board of directors.

In the eyes of the outside world, Hollywood is full of freedom, tolerance, and a gathering of stars. It has hundreds of film companies, large and small, and is a holy land of film art for countless men and women who dream of becoming stars.

But in the eyes of real Hollywood tycoons, it is not that crowded. There are not even six major companies, only two major groups.

According to many business magazines, the six major companies in Hollywood today are Universal, Warner, Paramount, Columbia, and Fox.

In addition to the first five, there are different opinions on the sixth place. Some magazines call Disney the sixth major movie company, while others insist that MGM should be among the six.

The reason why the sixth place is controversial is mainly because Disney’s film library is much smaller than the top five or MGM, and its film output is low and its categories are single, mainly focusing on cartoon movies.

As for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which was famous in the silent film era, even its sixth place in the list is now being questioned. This is because MGM's own film library has been bought by CNN. Even if MGM now wants to re-release the movies it shot before, They all need to go to CNN boss Turner Jr. to obtain authorization.

Of course, whether it is the Big Six or the Big Seven, in short, in the eyes of the outside world, the real BOSS of the Hollywood film industry are these giants. They are monolithic and impeccable. They often lobby in groups to lobby for certain interest-related bills, or collectively fight with other parties. Capitalists trying to get their hands on Hollywood fought.

But in fact, these large companies can be broadly divided into two groups. Warner, Disney, and MGM have a very close relationship, and among this small group, Warner is considered the leader of this group.

The other faction is Paramount, Universal and Fox. It doesn’t matter who is the leader, because Paramount and Fox are under the command of the same boss Barry Diller. In a sense, they can be said to be two major producers. The giants share a president.

In fact, there is also Columbia, which should be counted as a member of the Paramount faction. After all, the current president Dawn Steele also came from Paramount's Diller Gang, but this company was already considered a faction of its own a few years ago. , have no intention of commercial competition with other film companies, and the two major groups also have special feelings for Columbia, so Columbia is regarded as a neutral party.

The reason why they have no intention of competing with other film companies is naturally because all the Jewish executives of the entire Columbia company from top to bottom have been focused on one thing since 1982, and that is to recruit people from the stupid and rich layman boss Coca-Cola Group. , successfully achieved Coca-Cola’s proud record of losing $1.6 billion after holding Columbia Pictures for seven years.

Coca-Cola can't figure out why Colombia, which has several movies that look good at the box office every year, can show negative growth when calculating profits.

Of course, the Coca-Cola Group is not an idiot. They certainly realized that Columbia executives were taking their own money, so they decided to clean up and find new people to take over. Thus, Columbia Pictures emerged in seven years. Within six years, senior management had undergone six major purges.

Each time, they were elite talents poached from other film companies. Each of them had the ability to turn stone into gold before joining Columbia Pictures. However, once they took over Columbia, they immediately became mentally retarded and only knew how to lose money. The strategy makes Coca-Cola, who only knows how to sell soda, frown.

In short, this acquisition made Coca-Cola understand one thing, that is, it can make money all over the world, except in Hollywood.

Moreover, purges are ineffective. Whether they are executives from the UK or other countries, they are still helpless when they come to Hollywood. Once they dare to break the rules, various scandals will immediately break out and they will be forced to resign.

This allowed Coca-Cola to see the power of Hollywood.

Coca-Cola can only comfort its shareholders at the shareholders' meeting. At least 1.6 billion US dollars is not a gain. In the seven years of holding Columbia, all the movies produced by Columbia have Coca-Cola's advertising placement. 600 million can be counted as advertising expenditure.

In fact, the executives of the other five companies also indirectly participated in Columbia's seven-year feast. Otherwise, Columbia was purged six times. How could there be so many managers familiar with the Hollywood industry to fill in?

Therefore, although Columbia Pictures loses money, it has always received unanimous praise from its peers and is recognized by the other five companies as the largest film company in Hollywood. This name also makes the Japanese Sony Group, which suffers from lack of popularity in the United States, very excited. Contacted Columbia Pictures and prepared to acquire the other party.

It can be said that Columbia Pictures has a transcendent status in Hollywood. It can be regarded as an honorary leader of Hollywood held up by other companies.

The remaining five major companies are the ones that are really stirring up the turmoil in Hollywood. The two factions are like the two major families in Romeo and Juliet, fighting to the death.

Steve Ross, the president and CEO of Warner, a Jew, spent $400 million to acquire Warner Pictures, which almost closed down, in 1969. From the day he bought it, he became a thorn in the side of Paramount Pictures. Because of his intervention, Paramount Pictures Lamont's plan to eat up Warner at a low price failed.

At that time, Paramount Vice President Barry Diller, who planned to devour Warner Pictures, is now the chairman and CEO of Fox Group. All the Murdoch Group’s film and television businesses in the United States are in charge of this Jew from Poland. .

When Murdoch entered the U.S. film and television industry, his first choice was not Fox, but Warner. The reason why he targeted Warner was mainly because Barry Diller wanted to clear up the old grudge of the failed acquisition of Warner in 1969.

Warner Pictures and the Murdoch Group have been fighting for three years. Both sides have shown their magic, fighting all the way from the studio to the Supreme Court. Finally, Steve Ross found the white warrior Herbert Siegel and purchased it with investment from Clark Industries. 25% of Warner shares stabilized the situation. Although Murdoch failed to get what he wanted, his stock was repurchased by Warner through previous hostile acquisitions and made a profit of US$40 million, which was considered a small victory.

Barry Diller took over Fox for Murdoch, and Don Bruckheimer, who succeeded Barry Diller as chairman and CEO of Paramount, was one of Barry Diller's protégés. At that time, Paramount " "Diller Gang", so Paramount and Fox have established a very close partnership, or simply put, these two behemoths must listen to Barry Diller.

As for Universal Pictures, as early as the 1970s, under the leadership of Barry Diller, it cooperated with Paramount to establish an international company to distribute movies and have cooperated for many years.

Warner's ally Disney, President Michael Eisner, previously served as senior vice president at Paramount, is also a protégé of Barry Diller. He followed Barry Diller earlier than Don Bruckheimer, and he fully believed that Barry - Diller went to Fox for a higher position and would hand over Paramount to himself. As a result, Barry chose Don Bruckheimer to take over the position. This made Michael Eisner, who had always regarded himself as Barry's number one horse boy, feel that he was at Paramount. He was disgraced, turned against Barry's master and apprentice, resigned decisively, and repeatedly sought jobs as presidents of other large film companies. It was Warner's Steve Ross who spoke up and helped him contact several major shareholders of Disney, and finally let Michael E. Snar got the job as CEO of Disney.

As for the relationship between MGM and Warner, it all depends on CNN’s boss Turner Jr., who holds all MGM film copyrights before 1987, holds all Warner film copyrights before 1950, and also holds two shares in the company, plus he, like Steve Ross, has a bloody vendetta against Murdoch, so MGM is almost a natural ally of Warner.

If you want to describe the struggle between the two major Hollywood groups in the past two decades simply, it is the grudge between two Jews, Steve Ross of Warner Pictures and Barry Diller of Paramount Pictures.

Every Jewish movie tycoon, standing on the top of Beverly Hills overlooking the night view, has probably dreamed of defeating the Big Six and dominating Hollywood.

But in Hollywood, where there are countless practitioners, the only ones closest to realizing this dream in this decade are these two old Jewish guys with very different personalities.

Steve Ross is nicknamed the Godfather by industry insiders. With his personal charm, generous incentive system and free-range management style, all employees working for him have the illusion that Steve is the most important figure of their father in their eyes. Good interpretation.

After many Warner employees started their own business, they would come to him for advice on business doubts. This made his disciples all over California. Moreover, every time Steve Ross saw his subordinates, he would always use the word "child". Endearing words to say hello.

Over time, people who worked for Steve became accustomed to calling themselves Steve's children.

As for another explanation of the godfather, that is that Steve Ross is really the godfather of gangsters in Hollywood. Before entering the film industry in 1969, he ran a funeral and cleaning business in New York and New Jersey, and his partners were mainly Jewish gangsters. and Italian gangsters.

There is also unconfirmed news. It is said that Meyer Lansky, known as the "American Mob Accountant", is the godfather of Steve Ross. After Meyer fled to Israel, Steve became an American Jewish gangster and The Italian mob's new accountant in Hollywood.

Compared with Steve, the "godfather" who entered the business through hacking, Barry Diller is called "The Killer" by industry insiders. That's because his performance in the business world is like a calm and waiting killer. Once he finds any of his opponents' If there is a flaw, he will definitely take action without hesitation and kill with one blow.

Moreover, he started his career as an intern in a brokerage company at the lowest level, and gradually got to where he is today. Not only did he quickly rise to prominence with his own abilities, but he also formed the famous "Diller Gang" in Hollywood, which is similar to that of Steve who is everywhere in Hollywood. They are all his children. They are all completely different. The members of the Diller Gang are all cultivated by him. Each one is carefully selected. Their ability and loyalty are far beyond the comparison of others, and each one can stand alone.

In addition to Disney's current CEO Michael Eisner and Paramount's current CEO Don Bruckheimer, Columbia Pictures CEO Dawn Steele, these three minor movie tycoons came from Diller In addition to the Diller Gang, there is also a group of Diller Gang elites branded with Diller who are active in the American film and television industry.

For example, Garth Ancill, who was appointed by Diller as the founding president of Fox Broadcasting Company at the age of 28, Don Simpson, the gold medal producer who created the phenomenal commercial blockbuster "Top Gun" with Gang Ramon, and the Fox Television Network's The first Chinese-American executive, Stephen Zhao, and more than a dozen middle-level forces who have honed their abilities in major Hollywood companies and are waiting for opportunities to come forward are also members of the Diller Gang.

After Herbert finished chatting about these anecdotes about Hollywood at the dinner table, he picked up a piece of beef with his dining fork and put it into his mouth. He said vaguely: "Actually, I am more optimistic about Diller. The United States is an elite society, and the influence of the Diller Gang is not that of Steve Jobs." If Steve can buy back my Warner shares at a price I’m satisfied with, I’ll be ready to invest my money in Fox. Diller definitely has his way. He stands alone. Hollywood can keep Steve and Turner busy, while Murdoch can happily hold up a camera to take photos of naked women and publish them in the "Sun" in the UK. How many people in the United States can make history What about characters like Tiff and Turner who have their hands full?”

Herbert swallowed the food and looked at Julian Farrell: "What do you think?"

Julian wiped the corner of his mouth: "I have no interest in the film and television industry at all, and I don't know Diller and Steve... Diller, I'm optimistic about Diller."

"What about you, boy?" Herbert turned his eyes and looked at Tommy, who was eating spaghetti: "What do you think?"

"It sounds like Steve's children have more numbers and a more popular base." Tommy swallowed the food in his mouth and took a sip of lemonade: "I'm more used to standing on the side with more people."

Second update~