I’m in Hollywood

Eric returned to Los Angeles on June 10, and the second film Cars of the Firefly Group's summer vacation has just completed its first week of screening.

Compared with other works of Pixar Studios, although Cars maintains a consistent production level, it is generally considered by critics that the theme of the story is too young and unfriendly to adult audiences.

In its first week of release, the box office of Cars reached 83.32 million US dollars, slightly lower than the distribution department's expectations.

However, the car toys developed around Cars were very popular after the film was released, even far exceeding the expectations of Firefly Group.

In just one week, the peripheral sales of Cars exceeded 200 million US dollars, easily surpassing the sales data of Star Wars peripherals during the same period when Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace was released at the end of last year.

The Consumer Products Department of Firefly Group even made a very bold report, predicting that the sales volume of peripheral products in the entire operation cycle of Cars is likely to be second only to the Star Wars series.

According to the sales data of the first week, this year alone, the sales of various peripheral products of Cars will reach between 2.5 billion and 3 billion US dollars. Coupled with the box office success of Iron Man, which is also very rich in peripheral products, the revenue of Firefly Group's consumer product business is expected to double this year, reaching about US$6 billion.

Based on an average net profit rate of around 15%, sales of peripheral products worth US$6 billion will bring Firefly Group a net profit of US$900 million.

According to the financial data in the first half of the year, even if the huge non-operating profit brought by the Clover Fund is not included, the net profit of Firefly Group in 1999 will exceed the US$4 billion mark for the first time.

In this way, only the consumer product department will contribute more than 20% of the net profit share of the entire Firefly Group, while this figure is usually only around 10% in previous years.

Although the Firefly Group wanted to make a fortune silently, it had no intention of promoting the hot sales of Cars peripherals at all. However, this matter was quickly discovered by the media, and even the magic media got the forecast report of the Group's Consumer Products Department.

Last year, in order to gain greater initiative in the merger with America Online, Time Warner Group's well-designed annual financial report only managed to achieve an annual profit scale of more than US$1.9 billion.

Now, Firefly Group is only a consumer product department, and the profit contributed by it is close to half of that of Time Warner Group last year. How can this not make the whole Hollywood envious?

Although Pixar Animation Studios also established software technical barriers similar to those in the digital field, a series of core creative personnel of Pixar quickly became the targets of headhunting companies, and even John Lasseter was contacted, and the conditions made Eric himself was a little 'heartbeat'.

In order to avoid brain drain, Firefly Group had to launch another round of salary increase plan for Pixar Studio.

In the original time and space, Eric always had a doubt, why studios such as Blue Sky Animation and Illumination Entertainment can maintain the production cost of animated films at a low level of 60 million US dollars, while the production budget of Pixar Studios can easily reach 200 million US dollars .

Now it is completely understood.

The main input of animated films is labor costs. The same production team of 500 people, a two-year production cycle, a team with an average annual salary of 100,000 US dollars and a team with an average annual salary of 50,000 US dollars can directly expand the production budget. double.

Not only is Pixar's animation production team much larger than other small animation studios, but the average annual salary of its staff is also much higher than that of other small animation studios. Naturally, the production costs of animated films remain high.

In addition to Toy Story, Amblin Pictures' The Matrix 3 finally chose a release date of Wednesday, June 9.

There is a very common unspoken rule in Hollywood movie release dates,

If some films choose a non-Friday release date, it usually means that the producer does not have much confidence in the box office of the film, so they will lengthen the first week cycle in order to obtain higher box office revenue in the early stage of release .

The Matrix 3 obviously did not escape the shackles of this rule. Last year's The Matrix 2 had already consumed a large part of the fans' enthusiasm. The summer file, the one-year wait, once again made many viewers lose interest in this series.

With the one-sided negative reviews after the release of The Matrix 3, after the first week of two days, it earned a fairly good box office of 35.15 million US dollars, the subsequent box office curve of the film has been declining, and finally from June 11th to June 17th. The box office in the second week of the film was only US$62.53 million, and in the following third week, the box office fell by 67%. It is estimated that the total box office in North America will not even reach the production cost line of 150 million.

The failure of The Matrix 3 also became the last straw that made Amberlin Pictures fall apart.

According to some news from the industry, David Geffen, Spielberg and George Lucas have already started discussing the spin-off. financial support from film companies.

This film company, which was once thought to have the potential to replicate the miracle of the Firefly Group and become another major studio in Hollywood, ended in failure. It also made many people realize that in the future, Hollywood will obviously not be able to compete with the current seven major studios. A parallel latecomer emerges.

In addition to a series of new films, Iron Man is still steadily acquiring the box office.

In the seventh week of its release, the North American box office of the film received another US$10.6 million, bringing the cumulative box office to US$359.11 million.

Although it will fall below tens of millions of dollars next week, the North American box office of close to $360 million is already close to the total North American box office of $370 million in Eric's last work Casino Royale.

However, according to the current box office curve, it is unlikely that Iron Man will hit the domestic box office of $400 million in North America.

400 million US dollars seems to be a threshold.

Of course, even so, no one was too disappointed.

At the same time, with the continuous increase in the number of ticket warehouses, the overseas box office figure of Iron Man has easily exceeded 500 million US dollars. Although it is also entering the closing period, in the next few months, counting North America, Iron Man There is no suspense in the global box office breaking through $1 billion.

Unknowingly, many people suddenly discovered that although Iron Man is Eric's starring work, but counting Jurassic Park and 007 Casino Royale, this is already the first film he has led and participated in. Three films that have grossed over $1 billion worldwide.

A filmmaker who makes a film that grosses more than $1 billion worldwide is instantly crowned Hollywood.

But for a filmmaker to produce three billion-dollar films worldwide in a row, it can only be described as a miracle.

Moreover, with the continuous disclosure of various aspects of Gravity, many people have gradually realized that this is likely to be another Eric Williams miracle at the box office of 1 billion US dollars.

After rushing to New York to attend the AOL-Time Warner merger celebration dinner, and returning to Los Angeles, Eric devoted most of his energy to the final cut of Gravity.

Gravity adopts the mode of conversion while producing. During the post-production process, the 3D conversion studio in the digital field has already converted the corresponding 2D footage into 3D images, even including imax-3D conversion. .

Eric did this in order to continuously hone the 3D conversion team during the film production process, and at the same time further optimize the 3D and imax technology based on some experiences in his memory.

Now, the 3D transformation of Gravity has been completed simultaneously, and the team under Digital Domain has started to produce the 3D version of Underworld.

Although the 2D film of The Lord of the Rings has been completed, Eric still hopes that the conversion team will be trained in Underworld before investing in the conversion of The Lord of the Rings. The release date of The Lord of the Rings Part One is December 17, and there is plenty of time.

So busy, the time has come to the end of June before I know it.

Near noon, Bill Gates got off the car in the parking lot of Firefly Studios. Although he didn't have any expectations, he still felt a little bit when he saw Eric's tall, blond-haired female assistant waiting by the parking lot. Somewhat unhappy.

Mr. Gates, hello. Mayer seemed not to notice Bill Gates' expression, shook hands with him politely, and said, Please come with me.

As Mayer walked out of the parking lot together, Bill Gates couldn't help asking: Is Eric busy?

Mayer nodded. The boss is currently finishing his new movie.

Bill Gates listened to Mayer's corporate polite tone, and remembered that he had just stumbled on a woman recently, so he didn't talk about making fun of himself. But I couldn't help thinking in my heart that the chances of Eric Williams stumbled on a woman should be much higher than his own, why this guy hasn't encountered any bad luck similar to his own.

All the way to the studio in the digital field, under the guidance of Mayer, Bill Gates just sat down in the lounge, and Eric walked in with several other people talking and laughing.

Bill Gates hesitated for a while, but stood up and greeted him with a smile on his face.

Bill, it's nice to see you again. Eric shook hands with Bill Gates, and introduced a group of people beside him: This is Jim, Michael, you must know him, and Peter, he is from The Lord of the Rings The director of the series.

In fact, Microsoft has always had the ambition to enter Hollywood. Although it has just returned with no success in Amberlin Films, Bill Gates has not given up on this idea.

At this time, looking at James Cameron, Michael Bay, these hot Hollywood directors, he also shook hands with everyone very politely, exchanged a few words, and then jokingly asked: Eric, what are you doing? Do you want to make any big moves?

Eric sat down with everyone and said: It's still about 3D movies. There are some new technological breakthroughs in the digital field, so let's come and take a look.

In fact, in the past six months, in order to further lay out the 3D-imax film technology, a series of directors of the Firefly system have often appeared in Firefly Studios. Eric also personally approved a budget of up to 20 million U.S. dollars, specifically for these core directors of the Firefly system to shoot 3D short films to practice, so as to be familiar with all aspects of 3D and imax technology.

The core technologies of 3D and imax are in the hands of the digital field, and Eric is not worried that these directors will switch to other companies after mastering the application of 3D-imax technology proficiently.

Everyone drank a cup of coffee and chatted casually for a while. Knowing that Eric and Bill Gates must have business to discuss, Cameron and the others took the initiative to leave.

Eric took Bill Gates to the restaurant on the big ship.

After ordering the meal, the two quickly turned to today's topic.

Five years ago, in order to make the Yahoo browser Microsoft's default browser, and a series of other cooperation conditions, Yahoo and Microsoft signed a forward equity subscription contract, the content is that after five years, Microsoft can acquire up to 30% of Yahoo shares.

The expiration date of this contract is next month, and then Microsoft has a three-month hesitation period to decide whether to implement this subscription right.

Bill Gates' original idea was to acquire 30% of Yahoo's shares first, and then increase his shareholding in Yahoo step by step through open market absorption and other means, and finally control the company.

But now, the situation has changed far beyond the original imagination.

With the continuous explosion of Nasdaq technology stocks, Microsoft's current market value has reached 560 billion US dollars. At the same time, Yahoo's recent market value has also rushed to 170 billion US dollars.

The original contract stipulated that Microsoft could choose any equivalent form such as stock exchange or cash to make the acquisition.

But now, Yahoo's 30% stake is worth more than 50 billion U.S. dollars, and it is impossible for Microsoft to come up with such a sum of cash anyway. In the case of a stock exchange, although on the surface, Microsoft only needs 10% of the shares to get 30% of Yahoo's shares, which seems to be a big advantage for Microsoft.

But in fact, many people understand that the gold content of 10% of Microsoft, which already has a monopoly position in the industry, far exceeds the value of Yahoo's 30% stake.

Moreover, once the share exchange acquisition is carried out, Firefly System will become Microsoft's second largest shareholder, and even as Bill Gates continues to reduce Microsoft's holdings, it will soon become the largest shareholder.

Microsoft did not adopt a dual-shareholding structure at the beginning. Once the Firefly system becomes Microsoft's largest shareholder, it is likely to threaten Bill Gates' own control over Microsoft.

In comparison, even if 30% of Yahoo’s shares are transferred, Firefly Investment directly holds more than 48% of Yahoo’s shares. As long as Firefly System is willing, it can achieve absolute control of this company at any time. Therefore, unless Eric is willing to take the initiative to let go Otherwise, it would be impossible for Microsoft to gradually seize control of Yahoo as Bill Gates envisioned.

Therefore, the current situation is that the original forward equity subscription contract has completely become a chicken rib for Microsoft.