The Best Entertainment Era

In the luxurious meeting room of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles.

Lawyer Dinah Upton laid a contract on the table and nodded slightly to Ronan. Ronan picked up the pen and signed his name on the signature part of the contract.

On the opposite side, Matsubara Takuya, the president of Long-term Credit Bank of the island country, also signed the contract.

The two stood up and exchanged contracts, and then their hands were tightly held together.

There was warm applause in the meeting room, and everyone congratulated the long-term credit of the island country on reaching a long-term cooperation with the Pacific Film Foundation again.

Matsubara Takuya said with a smile: Mr. Anderson, your investment vision is precise and admirable.

Ronan also had a smile on his face: We are responsible for every penny invested by every customer.

Both of them were very satisfied with each other's cooperation and shook hands again with a smile.

In business cooperation, the pursuit is nothing more than profit, and both parties can achieve their own satisfaction, so they are naturally satisfied.

After the signing ceremony, Ronan invited the long-term credit bank team headed by Matsubara Takuya to visit the Pacific Foundation, Sand Sea Entertainment and Relativity Entertainment, and took them to see several crews filmed in Los Angeles. The group was entertained with a banquet.

This time, on the basis of the original, the two parties reached a three-year investment cooperation agreement in total.

However, compared with the last time, under the negotiation of Scott Swift, the amount of investment in each phase has increased significantly.

The minimum investment amount of the Island Long-term Credit Bank for each issue is no less than 300 million U.S. dollars, and there is no upper limit for investment. For Ronan and the Pacific Film Foundation, the more investment the better.

The financing interest is the same as the previous contract.

The island country long-term credit bank's funds also come from financing, and their business policy has always been to earn the difference between loans.

Although the island country's long-term credit bank has other investment businesses in North America, they are not considered successful. The cooperation with the Pacific Foundation is a rare bright spot.

In addition to this investment, Long-term Credit Bank's investment focus is actually on Wall Street. According to the news that Ronan learned, this business seems to be caught in a Ponzi scheme.

Of course, it wasn't someone deliberately cheating long-term credit banks,

This kind of investment institution that frequently participates in international cooperation is completely different from companies in relatively closed countries, but they still plunge into it without hesitation.

There is no other reason, the high return is too attractive.

For example, some Wall Street companies have a fixed annual return on investment of 10%, which is an incredible rate of return.

Not to mention veterans in shopping malls and old-fashioned investment companies, people with a little sense know that financing companies with a fixed annual return on investment of 10% are very likely to have problems.

Not even 10 percent, if the annual return on investment exceeds 5 percent, you must be more careful.

How can these people or companies in vertical and horizontal shopping malls not understand such a simple truth, but high profits are always moving people's hearts, and they always firmly believe that as long as they control the timing of entering the market, someone will take over later.

Then, what greeted them was a tragedy.

The island country's long-term credit bank's investment in Wall Street fell into a Ponzi scheme, which further highlighted the importance of cooperation with the Pacific Film Foundation.

On the third day after signing the contract with the island nation's long-term credit bank, Ronan, on behalf of the Pacific Film Foundation, signed respective investment cooperation agreements with several Korean entertainment companies and investment institutions.

The Koreans are especially good, and they brought a few actresses this time, but Ronan declined.

On the one hand, these beauties who have obviously been artificially processed look like they were carved out of the same mold. Compared with the three in Korea, the quality is much worse.

Moreover, Ronan is now fighting fiercely with Scarlett Johansson. Although Scarlett Johansson has also used knives on the nose and other parts, it can still be regarded as natural in general. I am used to natural things and lack interest in artificial nature.

On the other hand, Ronan also has a lot of work on hand.

With the continuous expansion of financing channels and the further increase of financing amount, the investment business of Pacific Film Foundation must be upgraded, from a pure film investment foundation to a financial investment foundation with a wider range of business.

The review in this area is far stricter than that of ordinary film investment foundations. With Ronan's current conditions, it is not difficult to pass the review, but there are some procedures that require the presence of all the members of his foundation.

The upgraded foundation can invest financing in more industries.

This is also in response to Relativity Entertainment's next expansion.

If the company wants to develop further, it will undoubtedly need more funds.

You contributed a lot to these two negotiations. Ronan also rewarded Scott and the Foundation employees accordingly: Scott, you can't relax the financing work. The development of Relativity Entertainment requires more funds.

Scott Swift said: I understand. I have just contacted several investment companies in South Africa, and I will fly to Johannesburg next week to continue discussions with them. In addition, the contact with the two Israeli companies has not been broken. , although they have some doubts about us, but I am confident to get investment from them.

Ronan nodded slightly: We don't care which country the investment comes from. The investment of Arabs is money, and the investment of Jews is money. If possible, I have no problem with investing in India and Pakistan.

He solemnly reminded: But one thing. Scott, the source of funds must be legal. We have entered a stable development period, and illegal funds will only bring us huge troubles.

Scott Swift said earnestly: I understand that illicit money won't get past me in the first place.

In fact, Ronan also knows that there are many shady investments in the film industry. Hollywood has been slightly better in recent years. In many places where entertainment laws are not standardized, the film industry is simply a weapon for money laundering.

Involving the Pacific Foundation and Relativity Entertainment in a money laundering scandal would do more harm than good.

Now his company doesn't have to take such a risky road.

Many commercial companies, when they first start a business, always have the situation of playing around the edge, but smart people, when the company is a little stable, they often turn to operate within the rules of the game.

Before Scott Swift left, Ronan said again: I have 15 million US dollars transferred to my personal foundation account, and you continue to invest in companies such as Amazon and Apple.

No problem. Scott agreed.

Ronan has never put all his eggs in one basket. Personal investment is more about asset preservation and appreciation. Although he lives a luxurious life, with monthly support of up to hundreds of thousands of dollars, compared to his income, his The cost is not high.

Shortly after Scott Swift left, Connie knocked on the door and walked in, saying, Director Ang Lee just sent an invitation letter, and he's going to hold a party in Los Angeles next month, and he wants to invite you to attend.

Ronan took the invitation letter from Connie, looked at the specific time, and found that there was still more than half a month, and said: You call Li An, I can't confirm the schedule for the time being, and I will meet you before the party starts. Give him a clear reply within a week.

Connie made a note, turned and left the office.

Putting away the invitation letter, Ronan roughly understood Li An's thoughts. He sent the invitation so early because he wanted to inform him earlier so that he would have enough time to adjust his schedule.

Ang Lee's life has been really difficult recently, holding such a party might not have strengthened his prestige, so as to find out what the circle thinks about his latest opinion as a director.

Hulk really hurt Ang Lee's vitality.

This superhero movie is definitely a typical example of highs and lows. After winning a decent weekend box office in the first weekend, it started to plummet all the way like the Nasdaq stock market in 2000. It has been released for more than seven weeks now. The cumulative North American box office is only 112 million US dollars.

The overseas box office of the film is also very unsatisfactory, and the global total box office has not exceeded 200 million US dollars so far.

For such a top giant with a production cost of close to 140 million US dollars and a publicity and distribution expenditure of more than 70 million US dollars, there is no doubt that it failed.

And the fact that the box office fell far short of expectations is not the most frightening thing. The most frightening thing is that the word-of-mouth of the film from the audience, the media, and other aspects has all collapsed.

This will seriously affect Universal Pictures' running Hulk offline.

Which TV station would pay a high price for a TV broadcasting copyright for such a big commercial production that failed disastrously at the box office? Who can expect DVD release to get impressive data?

It is conceivable that Ang Li was under a lot of pressure.

It can even be said that this film makes Ang Lee a different person inside and out.

Universal Pictures has a problem with Ang Lee. The crew headed by Eric Bana accused Ang Lee. Fans believed that Ang Lee was blinded by the Oscars and made a bad film irresponsibly. Fans of the Hulk comics are said to be direct A letter of protest was sent to Ang Lee.

Ronan also received a private message from Avi Arad of Marvel Comics, if Shahai Entertainment uses Ang Lee as the director to shoot a Marvel superhero movie, Marvel Comics will not hesitate to issue the strongest public protest.

Fortunately, Ronan never had the idea of ​​letting Ang Lee direct a purely commercial production.

For movies with a cost of 20 million U.S. dollars, Ronan can let Ang Lee make whatever he wants. He has such value in himself, but once the investment is high, he must limit it.

There was another knock on the door, this time it was Scarlett Johansson.

Somewhat unexpectedly, Scarlett Johansson was carrying a briefcase, as if she had business to discuss.

Didn't disturb your work? Scarlett Johansson pulled out the chair, sat opposite Ronan, and said carelessly, I have something to do with you, please do me a favor.

Ronan nodded: Speak.

Scarlett Johansson opened the briefcase, took out a script from it, and pushed it directly to Ronan: I received an invitation, commercial film, female lead. But I'm not sure whether to accept it, can you help me see it?