I’m in Hollywood

The global box office of the first weekend was 232 million US dollars in three days, almost recovering half of the production and publicity costs. Everyone on the Iron Man crew was in a state of excitement. Firefly Group announced the box office data in the new week. After that, it was announced that a celebration banquet would be held on the weekend.

In addition, although the follow-up publicity work of the film is still going on intensely, the company has quickly launched the long-planned follow-up development plan for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The success of Iron Man not only opened the door to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but also greatly increased the popularity of all the big and small characters who participated in this movie.

Even Natasha Henstridge, who was born in Victoria's Secret Angel with only a few sets of shots, quickly gathered a group of fans, and the Underworld starring the girl has become the expectation of many people.

Therefore, with Firefly launching the three series of Captain America, Thor and Hulk at the same time, even if the information revealed inside shows that Firefly will sign very demanding long-term contracts with superhero actors, the entire Hollywood agency is still Played the spirit of twelve points.

Everyone understands that once the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe is rolled out, it is destined to bring a large number of brand-new Hollywood stars to the fore.

According to the firefly system, it likes to adopt the style of newcomers, which will be an opportunity for many people to reach the sky in one step.

After two days of intensive discussions at high-level meetings, all work on the follow-up development plan for the Marvel Cinematic Universe has begun to be implemented in an orderly manner.

Entering the working day, the single-day box office of Iron Man fell to between 6 million and 7 million US dollars. It is expected that the box office of about 25 million to 30 million US dollars will continue to be recovered in four working days, which is basically in line with the expectations of Firefly Group.

It's already Wednesday.

Burbank headquarters.

At nine o'clock, the core executives of the group gathered in the large conference room of the headquarters to discuss the implementation progress of another '4200' plan of the company.

It's already May, and only six months until the first big-budget movie Gravity hits theaters in 3D and imax in November.

Since last year, after perfecting the technical details of 3D and imax, the Firefly Group has officially negotiated with theater operators in North America and overseas, and has independently built 200 high-end imax theaters that belong to the Firefly Group.

On the huge projector screen in the conference room, a world map marked with dense numbers is being projected at this time.

Katzenberg stood in front of the stage and introduced himself to everyone: At present, we have completed the negotiation with major North American theater operators on 2,000 3D screens. Overseas, we can also ensure that Gravity is released when it is released. About 1,550 3D screens have been put into use in 26 ticket warehouse countries. Although this aspect did not meet the planned expectations, as long as Gravity succeeds at the box office, we can quickly expand overseas 3D screens to 2,000 or more. In addition, the construction of 200 imax theaters in China and overseas has been very smooth. It is expected that these 200 theaters can complete the equipment installation and personnel training in October, and then we have a month to carry out various debugging and test screenings, which is enough to ensure that nothing goes wrong.

Switching to show another map of the distribution of imax theaters around the world, Katzenberg sat back in his chair and began to introduce the detailed cooperation plan to everyone.

The imax theater is operated by the Firefly Group alone and does not need to be considered too much.

In terms of 3D screens, Firefly Group and major theater chains in North America and even overseas have finally decided to adopt the method of guaranteed cooperation.

In North America, the 3D movies released by Firefly Group adopt the same sharing model as traditional 2D movies. But in addition, combined with the annual average box office revenue of the 2,000 screens that have been renovated in recent years, Firefly Group provides a minimum box office guarantee of $300,000 per screen per year for a period of three years.

Within three years, the annual box office revenue of these 2,000 screens was less than $300,000.

Firefly Group will make up for it. This part of the compensation does not belong to box office revenue, and the producers will not participate in the share, which will be enjoyed by the major theater companies alone. If the revenue of a single screen exceeds 300,000 US dollars, the excess part belongs to the box office share of the theater chain business, and Firefly Group will extract 80% of it as the equipment installation cost of the reald system.

Overseas, although the details of cooperation have been adjusted, they are generally similar to those in North America.

However, once the 3D projection mode is successful, in order to facilitate the follow-up promotion of the reald system, Firefly Group also provides a one-time buyout option for the cinema line dealers in the contract.

That is, after the release of Gravity and other films, if the box office is successful, the major theater chains are optimistic about the prospect of the 3D screening mode, and can request to buy out the equipment at one time and disconnect the share with Firefly.

In this way, it can ensure that the 3D cinemas that are initially added maintain the same competitive conditions as other cinemas newly added to the 3D projection system. The number of 3D screens is rapidly expanding, and Firefly Group can also obtain more benefits from it.

On the surface, this cooperation plan is almost an unequal contract for the Firefly Group. However, this is also the price that the company has to pay if it wants to promote the 3D projection system in the short term.

Moreover, once the 3D projection system is promoted in advance, Firefly Group, as the main sponsor, will gain industry advantages and direct benefits from it, which can completely offset the risks it bears.

In the preliminary plan, although it will be flexibly adjusted according to factors such as the grade of the theater line and the broadcasting time, the average ticket price of the 3D theater is basically determined to be US$7.5, which is 50% higher than the average US$5 ticket price in North America. Tickets are $10, double the average North American fare.

Only this part of the box office premium, as long as the 3d and imax models are promoted, the Firefly system, which basically monopolizes the 3d and imax film sources, can get more box office revenue in the short term.

Moreover, while guaranteeing the bottom line of the box office revenue for theater operators, Firefly Group has also gained another potential advantage, that is, the power to promote and formulate the standard of the 3D projection system is firmly in its hands.

In the future, all theaters that use the reald projection system will display the reald logo during the movie playback. At the same time, 3D movies produced by the Firefly Group's reald conversion technology will also have another reald title.

Basically, for a long time in the future, since the reald equipment and technology are in the hands of the Firefly system, all mainstream 3D cinemas can only display the icon of 'Double D certification'.

As the most mature 3D projection system and 3D transformation technology so far, as long as a high-quality brand impression is formed in the minds of the audience, other 3D equipment or transformation manufacturers want to join the competition for the market share of the reald system, as long as they do not significantly exceed the market share of the reald system. The technical level of reald's system is destined to be difficult to succeed.

If some theaters adopt low-quality 3D projection systems, it is even more equal to helping the reald system to promote its brand image. Inferior 3D systems and transformation models will also be resisted by audiences as pseudo 3D.

Therefore, under the premise that everything goes well, as a monopoly of equipment and technology, the reald system can not only bring direct and substantial benefits to the Firefly system, but also provide the Firefly system's films in the 3D market competition. Other studios absolutely cannot. comparative advantage. After all, reald's transformation technology must give priority to serving the Firefly system.

The meeting on the '4200' plan took place all morning.

At lunchtime, Eric, Katzenberg and others came to the restaurant on the big ship for lunch as usual.

Compared with the past, this small restaurant on the big ship does not seem to have changed on the surface.

But in fact, after the last wiretapping incident, as an internal restaurant where the senior management of the group often dine, the company's security department re-planned strict security measures for this internal restaurant.

The entire restaurant is not only completely closed to anyone other than the middle, senior and senior management of the group, but also a 24-hour monitoring system has been installed inside and outside the restaurant, including the kitchen, and the chefs and waiters in charge of the restaurant have also signed a stricter confidentiality. According to the contract, the company's security department will also conduct various anti-eavesdropping inspections on the inside of the restaurant from time to time.

The high-level executives who participated in the morning meeting entered the restaurant together, and instead of surrounding each other, they sat down separately in twos and threes.

Eric sat with Katzenberg and Frank Wells.

Amy Adams saw Eric's figure and walked over without hesitation. Although the other three waitresses were obviously envious, they didn't dare to compete with Amy for this, and could only go to other tables.

Amy is beautiful again today, Eric casually praised with a smile and said, I can still be the same as I am.

Oh, thanks, Mr. Williams, said Amy, with a light dimple on her face, looking at Katzenberg and Frank Wells: Mr. Katzenberg, Mr. Wells, how about you?

Katzenberg laughed: I'm just as good as Eric.

Frank Wells is getting older and just wants a bland meal.

The three of them ordered a meal, and when Amy left, Eric went straight to the topic and said, The situation on Iron Man has been confirmed, but I didn't plan to end the incident some time ago, you ask the family entertainment department to prepare Let's start with Blockbuster.

During this time, Eric has more than once expressed his intention to pursue the last online gossip, and neither Katzenberg nor Frank Wells persuaded him.

Among Viacom's Paramount Pictures, cbs TV, mtv TV, Paramount Animation, Blockbuster video tape rental and sales chain stores and other businesses, Blockbuster is undoubtedly the most vulnerable to the constraints of the Firefly system.

Over the years, with his in-depth understanding of Hollywood, Eric also found that the decline of Blockbuster chain stores was not affected by the rise of online video rental and sellers. In fact, although the current netflix has already appeared, the company is still in the seedling stage and cannot have any influence on the traditional video tape rental giant like Blockbuster.

And, in recent years, the home entertainment market has actually been growing in size, even as videotapes have begun to be rapidly replaced by DVDs.

In addition to Blockbuster, other traditional video and DVD rental and sales chains, such as film galleries and Hollywood video companies that are ranked second only to Blockbuster in the same industry, have been expanding rapidly. Wal-Mart and other large chain retailers, which are also involved in the sales of video tapes and DVDs, are also increasing the layout of this business.

In the final analysis, the fundamental reason for Blockbuster's rapid decline before the rise of online rental and sellers is that Viacom itself has made major mistakes in the operation of Blockbuster.

Therefore, when the entire home entertainment market is booming, Blockbuster, which was originally very powerful, is rapidly declining, and its market share has dropped from the peak of 45% when it was acquired by Viacom to now less than 25%. It also quickly fell to only $3 billion now, less than half of what it was when it was acquired.

Firefly Group has no intention of intervening in the traditional video and DVD sales business, so Eric has no intention to study Blockbuster's mistakes.

However, if the Firefly system wants to push Blockbuster further into the abyss, it is also very easy. It only needs to stop providing Blockbuster with the latest movie and videotape DVD sources.

In this regard, the Firefly system can almost completely jam Blockbuster's throat.

After all, just last year, the three companies in the Firefly system accounted for seven of the top ten movies in the North American box office rankings. The entire list continues to push back, and most of the popular movies are basically from the Firefly system.

At this time, the films released last year have passed the half-year release window, and are about to land in the home entertainment market one after another.

In fact, more than 70% of the profits of terminal video tape and DVD retailers come from those medium and low-cost films with a larger quantity base. Since the distributors will ask for a higher sales share for popular films, these films are provided by the retailers. Profits are less than 30%.

However, the reason why terminal retailers are willing to offer a higher sales share for the movie company's popular movies actually reflects the importance of these movies.

To put it simply, a popular movie is like a restaurant's signature dish. Although a few dishes will not bring much profit to the restaurant, it can play a very obvious advertising role for the restaurant.

If the Firefly system cuts off this part of the film source supplied to the Blockbuster chain, it would be tantamount to smashing Blockbuster's brand.

In addition, the production scale of the entire Firefly system is also very large, not only popular films, and the quality of medium and low-cost films is significantly better than those produced by independent producers. This part of the film source is still very important to Blockbuster.

In the restaurant, Eric stated his plan, although there was no objection, Frank Wells still said: Eric, directly cut off the supply of film sources to Blockbuster, the company's losses will not be mentioned for the time being, Viacom Mu will never give up and will definitely file a lawsuit against us.

Then find a valid reason, Eric looked at Katzenberg and said, This should be easy to find, right?

What did that sentence say?

If you want to add guilt, there is nothing to worry about.

Katzenberg nodded with a serious expression: Recently, Bowei Home Entertainment submitted a report that Blockbuster may have concealed the sales of DVDs of several films. Perhaps, we should report to Blockbuster. A review of the sales data. Until then, it is best for the company to temporarily suspend the cooperation with Blockbuster. I think MGM, Columbia and Fox should follow up, after all, Blockbuster hides sales It is very likely that the behavior of the data is not limited to the Firefly Group alone.”

Frank Wells was a little puzzled: How could I not know such a big thing?

Katzenberg said solemnly: The document has not been made yet, and I will show it to you when it is made.

Frank Wells was stunned for a while, then laughed and said helplessly: Okay, about you young people.