I’m in Hollywood

I talked to Jon Landau and the others this morning, and Robert is also watching this in person. There are ten Oscar nominations in the technical category, and we should be able to win them all this time. Titanic can be said in this regard. There is no dispute. However, the six core nominations of the best picture, the best director and the four major performance awards, the best actor and the best supporting actor have no hope, Leonardo's performance can only be said to be passable, There are also no outstanding male supporting roles in the film, and the other four, the award nominations should be locked in advance.

Firefly Studios, in the spacious office loft of the digital domain, Eric and Katzenberg sat together in the lounge area. After listening to him, he subconsciously said, That is to say, 14?

Katzenberg didn't notice the other meanings implied in Eric's words. He thought that Eric had also planned before, so he said so, nodded and said, Yes, 14, there are 24 Oscar awards in total, But Titanic will definitely not be able to win nominations that have nothing to do with the film, such as best foreign language film, best animation, etc. This excludes 7 first. Of the remaining 17 nominations, the best film score divides the plot category and musical comedy category, this has eliminated one more, we have no hope of winning the best actor and the best supporting actor, so there are only 14 left. However, with only these 14 nominations, we have been able to tie The Comet Beauty in 1950 set the record for nominations and probably won more awards than Ben-Hur.

As soon as Eric said that sentence, he was already aware of the language problem. Fortunately, Katzenberg didn't care, and he didn't show any abnormality.

If there is no recent media doubts about the Golden Globe Awards, Eric may also force people to publicize one of Leonardo's best actor nominations, surpassing the nomination record of Comet Beauty.

However, because the Golden Globe Awards were widely questioned, although the Oscar jury dared not ignore the winning strength of Titanic this time, it also paid more attention to its own credibility. Xiao Lizi's performance obviously did not meet the standard. If you get an award nomination, the media will definitely turn their guns on the Oscars after the nomination is announced.

Although it is impossible to break the Comet Beauty record in the number of nominations, as Katzenberg said, it is still possible to exceed the historical record of Ben-Hur 11 statues.

The two discussed detailed public relations details, and Eric asked again, How is the overseas release?

Similar to North America, most of the countries in which Titanic has been released overseas have stepped out of the box office curve similar to North America.

Especially in the UK, the box office in four weeks has already exceeded 36 million US dollars. According to the current box office trend, the UK box office of Titanic will easily surpass the $71 million box office record set by Jurassic Park a few years ago, breaking 100 million. It is not impossible. In addition, the box office of Spain, Australia and other countries and regions is also very good. It is just these nine overseas box office markets that have been released.

In one month, the cumulative box office reached 92 million US dollars. Stimulated by this excellent box office performance, the overseas filmmakers who were indifferent to the release of Titanic have completely changed their initial attitude at this time.

I will fly to Europe next week, and Robert will also rush to Japan to personally negotiate with the local distribution and theater chain, Katzenberg paused and said: Eric, my idea is, We don't need to pursue a higher share ratio. The average share of 35% is quite good compared to the previous years. If we ask for a higher share, it will definitely dampen the enthusiasm of local publishers. However, we can make announcements and schedules. In terms of cinema and theaters, more resources are required.”

Although Firefly has its own branches in the world's major ticket warehouse countries, the specific distribution work still needs to cooperate with local distribution companies, and it is inevitable to give each other a certain haircut.

Katzenberg was personally in charge of European distribution, and distribution president Robert Thompson was in charge of Japan, and Eric was very pleased with the arrangement.

After thinking about it, Eric nodded and said: Then do it according to your idea. In addition, let Robert drop by to China to see if it is possible to get the qualification for Titanic.

Katzenberg was a little puzzled, because Eric inadvertently reminded Firefly that Firefly will deliberately strive for one or two quotas in the Chinese market every year, but to be honest, although there is a huge population of more than 1 billion, But the film market is really small and pitiful, and the proportion of the share is even more outrageous.

However, he did not question Eric's decision. After all, it was only an hour. He nodded and agreed, and then said, Eric, there is one more thing, Harvey wants to start the production of Black Road Family ahead of schedule. , You were in New York some time ago, and he talked to me about it, he has been busy working on Shakespeare in Love recently, so he shouldn't have had time to talk to you, right?

Eric originally planned to release this fall, and after ffm TV's business conditions stabilized, he would launch self-made dramas such as The Black Road Family. Hearing Katzenberg's words, Eric asked: What did he think? ?

Didn't you say at the beginning that The Black Road is a slow-moving genre, and should rely mainly on awards to gain fame, Katzenberg said, Harvey thinks that since this is the case, it is best to start production now, and the autumn release in March. Play it, so it can hit the Emmy Awards in August. If you postpone it to the fall, you will definitely miss this year's Emmy Awards, and there will be a one-year gap before next year's Emmy Awards. Even if Family wins, the influence of the first season will be greatly reduced, and it will not be conducive to the later distribution of video tapes/dvds.

After resting in New York for nearly a month, and having the trouble of Titanic, and returning to Los Angeles again, Eric found that he had accumulated too many things before he knew it.

Needless to say about the later work of Casino Royale, other aspects, the British arm company that Eric instructed Chris to acquire a few years ago, the two parties have signed the acquisition contract, but many subsequent decisions still need Eric to make the decision personally. In addition, The setting of the Marvel Cinematic Universe plan, the listing of mp3 players, the equity investment of Clover Holding Company, the operation of ffm TV station, etc. Although these affairs are all in charge of special personnel, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done by Eric himself. Decide.

Harvey is an expert in the operation of awards. Since he thinks it's suitable, let's put it in the spring season. Well, I will make time to call him at night to talk about it.

Tonight? Katzenberg raised his eyebrows slightly and smiled, Harvey may not be free tonight.

Oh, I almost forgot, tonight is the Golden Globe Awards ceremony, so wait for another time, Eric shrugged, not wanting to talk much, Firefly is only the main creator of Red Alert tonight The team will attend the awards ceremony, and the Titanic team has long decided not to.

Finally, it's about Clover Holdings, Katzenberg obviously didn't have any interest in talking about the Golden Globes. Both of them are busy people, so he quickly switched to the next topic, saying: Plus the recent period of Buy, we have invested $1.98 billion in major Nasdaq IT stocks that have earned over $210 million on paper based on Nasdaq movements in recent months.

Eric nodded, he already knew these data, because of the stock investment in the Nasdaq market, Firefly's net profit this year will drop to about 1 billion US dollars, plus two print media assets and animation studios in the first two years. The final balance of the sale of the business will not total more than $2 billion. This is also because Eric needs to extract a large amount of profit from Firefly Group and invest it in the Internet company under Firefly Investment. Otherwise, Clover Holdings will buy more aggressively, and at the same time, it can temporarily save more taxes.

Eric felt that Katzenberg would not bring up this matter alone.

Sure enough, Katzenberg quickly said: Buffett, Tom Murphy and David West have called me many times recently, and I think there must be more or less on your side. If It wasn't the Clover holdings that turned a profit, and their opinion was definitely bigger.

I told David West last time, Eric picked up the coffee pot next to him, refilled himself a cup of coffee, and continued: I told them, if they have any doubts about Firefly Group's business strategy When in doubt, I can buy back their shares at any time.

David West played a big role in Firefly's acquisition of abc, so he was able to become one of the three directors outside the Firefly Group.

Moreover, the group of minority shareholders of Firefly Group from major investment funds represented behind him held nearly 14% of Firefly Group's shares at this time, and Buffett and Tom Murphy only controlled 10%, although initially They are relatively close, but after all, the two sides represent different interest groups.

In the first two years, due to the continuous sale of paper media assets, hand-painted animation studios and the strong profitability of the group itself, these investment funds, relying on their 14% stake, earned about $500 million in profit from Firefly Group each year. Enough for the managers of these funds to make a big splash on their annual financial reports.

However, this year, due to the additional expenses of Clover Holdings, the profit and dividends of small shareholders of Firefly Group such as Berkshire Hathaway and State Street Global Fund will drop by more than half, and these people themselves are experts in the investment field. , obviously has a strong distrust of Eric's vision in stock investment, so he is full of dissatisfaction with his behavior of buying Nasdaq stocks.

Katzenberg heard Eric say this and laughed: Unless they're crazy, they won't ask you to buy back your stock. However, David West discussed another thing with me on the phone yesterday, you I've mentioned it before, and I think now is a good time.

Eric's thoughts turned around, he suddenly understood, and said, He wants to go public in the digital domain?

Although he thought Eric could guess it, Katzenberg was a little surprised by his quick reaction, smiled, Katzenberg nodded and said, Yes, Eric, according to Titanic With the current box office trend, there is absolutely no problem with this film breaking through $1 billion at the global box office. As a film featuring CG special effects, the success of Titanic will definitely further stimulate the development of the Hollywood special effects industry, so I also think , next, should be the best driver to get the digital space public, and David also revealed to me that if the digital space goes public, Wall Street should be able to value it at around $3 billion.

What Katzenberg and David West are thinking now coincides with what Eric was thinking a few years ago.

Eric is well aware of the future development trajectory of the Hollywood special effects industry. Although in recent years, Hollywood special effects companies can still be regarded as a highly respected 'aristocratic industry', with the rapid development of computer technology and related software industries in the next ten years, With the support of top-level hardware equipment and software, it will be easy to set up a special effects studio. At that time, the competition in the special effects industry will be extremely fierce.

Therefore, Eric also thought that if Titanic can be as successful as the original time and space, then the CG special effects will definitely be highly respected. At this time, listing the digital domain will be the best way to get a lot of cash. good time.

But after what happened some time ago, Eric has changed his mind.

Perhaps in ten years, or even five years, there will no longer be a high threshold for the special effects industry, but now, the digital field is definitely one of the top special effects companies in the industry.

Therefore, if the external cooperation in the digital field is cut off, Firefly will be able to maintain a leading opportunity for at least three years in the field of special effects. Three years is enough for Firefly Group to put other Hollywood film companies behind in special effects movies.

Even after three years, with the strong size of the Firefly Group and the support of allies such as MGM and 20th Century Fox, there will still be no shortage of projects in the digital field, even if it is longer, as long as the digital field has absolutely excellent special effects Technology, even if it can't make a profit, or even make a slight loss, the Firefly Group is enough to support such an exclusive subsidiary.

Moreover, even if Wall Street's valuation of the digital field is as high as 3 billion US dollars, if it is listed for financing at this time, according to the public share issuance ratio of 20%, Firefly can only extract up to 600 million US dollars of funds. 600 million US dollars, to Firefly It's absolutely irrelevant, and it's conceivable that David West's suggestion at this time is definitely not just for the $600 million.

...

ps: There was a bug in the chapter yesterday. Spain should have been released in the settings and has been modified. (To be continued.)