I’m in Hollywood

? readx; Grangers in Disguise earned more than $37 million at the box office in its first week, far exceeding its production cost of less than $30 million. There is almost no suspense at the total box office of over 100 million. |In every two people who watch romance, there is one who has registered an account on °.com.

Compared with MGM, which only released one movie in the summer and received less than 10 million US dollars at the box office, this result of tg will definitely be the idea and coveted of many people again. Like MGM, tg's box office report card in the summer of 1992 is also much brighter than Paramount, Universal and Fox.

Paramount's summer program featured Harrison Ford's action film Patriot Game, but this film only earned more than 80 million at the box office, while Universal and Fox are in similar situations. The three major film companies have summer programs. There is no movie with a box office exceeding 100 million. As for the 'rich and powerful' Sony Pictures, although Tom Cruise was invited to make The Prequel, the total box office of this movie was also stopped for various reasons. With a seat of around 80 million, it can reach the budget cost of the movie. The impact of the failure of the North American domestic box office market is often a series of effects, because the box office of Dark War is not ideal, overseas box office and peripheral copyright sales will be greatly affected, and this project will again bring huge losses to Sony Pictures.

A week after the release of Grange in Disguise, Disney's Nuns Are Crazy stepped on the tail of the summer season and boarded more than 2,100 theaters in North America. The release of this comedy almost also announced the end of the summer season. Movies are basically movies that studios don’t take seriously but want to try their luck at the end of the summer season, and the chances of dark horses appearing in these movies are very small.

There is no doubt that Tornado has become the biggest winner of the entire summer program. It is expected that the total box office of 300 million US dollars plus the subsequent Grangers in Disguise will exceed the total box office of Firefly's summer program of 400 million US dollars. If Disney's box office is included A few films, then, according to the current annual box office total in North America, in just one summer season, the box office received by Firefly Pictures has exceeded 10% of the annual box office total. If Firefly is a listed company, perhaps the stock price has risen a lot at this time.

However, when the North American entertainment media was talking about it, Eric had already left Los Angeles. After attending the premiere of Grange in Disguise, he flew to the Hawaiian Islands soon after.

Because of Jerry Bruckheimer's excellent preliminary work, when Eric arrived in Hawaii, Dr. Hadmond's experimental base, the gates of Jurassic Park, and the power grid to block dinosaurs were all completed, and at the same time. Two other small crews also filmed corresponding amber excavations and dinosaur archaeological scenes at the Amber Mine in Dominica and the Red Rock Canyon National Park in California.

Eric, look, this is the place, Jerry Bruckheimer pointed to a deep jungle passage: Kauai doesn't have the kind of terrain you need, but the conditions here are absolutely suitable, we just need to spend The corresponding equipment can be transported in one day and the shooting can be done.”

at this time,

The two were discussing the scene of the Tyrannosaurus Rex chasing the jeep. Because there was no convenient terrain on Kauai, Jerry Bruckheimer found a corresponding scene on the nearby Oahu Island, which also belongs to the Hawaiian Islands.

If you choose this place, you must make some changes to the surrounding environment. Otherwise, there will be no way to shoot. Will the Hawaii state government agree? Eric asked suspiciously, looking at the very primitive forest environment in front of him.

I've considered this for a long time, and they said it's fine, Jerry Bruckheimer gave Eric a determined expression.

Eric smiled and didn't ask any more questions. The two got into a jeep together. After the driver drove, Eric stretched, even though he only arrived in Hawaii yesterday. However, today he and Jerry Bruckheimer traveled all over the filming location, and tomorrow will do some preliminary test shooting work.

The shooting of a large-scale movie is like fighting a war in ancient times, which is a very labor-intensive thing. Therefore, it is impossible for Eric to take too much time to rest. It is a huge expense for a production team of several hundred people to eat horse chews every day, so Eric has to start working as soon as possible.

After the jeep arrived at the marina on Oahu, the two boarded a small yacht and returned to Kauai in the evening. After finishing the day's work and feeling relaxed, looking at the beautiful island behind him, Jerry Bruckheimer smiled and said to Eric: Eric, maybe you can try to buy an island. try.

Do you have a private island? Eric asked curiously. The trend of buying private islands has now risen, but Eric is not very interested in it.

Jerry Bruckheimer shook his head and said, Not yet, but I occasionally think about it.

Jerry Bruckheimer, as a gold medal producer who has been famous for more than ten years, is not inferior to Hollywood's first-line stars. Therefore, there is no financial problem in buying a private island.

Actually, I don't think it's worthwhile to buy a small island. If it is too close to the land, the guarantee is often not guaranteed. If it is too far from the land, it will be isolated overseas, and then the infrastructure will be a big problem, unless the cost is not considered. If you don't want to spend too much time on the island, don't think about it.

Jerry Bruckheimer looked thoughtful when he heard Eric's words.

Eric continued: If it were me, I'd rather buy a mountain. When the time comes, I bring my friends to the foot of a towering mountain and point to the cloud: Look, this mountain is mine.

Jerry Bruckheimer couldn't help laughing imagining the picture Eric painted.

After the yacht gradually moved away from Oahu, Jerry Bruckheimer looked at the assistant on the deck, winked at Eric, and the two got into the cabin.

Eric, according to the current box office trends of several movies, Firefly Pictures should be able to surpass $500 million at the box office this summer, right?

Eric knew that Jerry Bruckheimer would not say this for no reason, nodded silently, and sat down by the seat near the window.

I have seen the release schedules of Firefly and Disney's movies. At the end of the year, Firefly will release three films, Speed ​​of Life, The Detective Plane and Mr. and Mrs. Smith in cooperation with Sony, and Disney will release another one. The box office of cartoons has always been very stable, so the box office figures obtained by the end of the year will not be much worse than the summer ones, plus the box office accumulation of small and medium-sized films in non-popular schedules. Firefly Pictures’ box office share this year is likely to be Far more than Warner, at 30%.”

Eric has almost heard some of the meaning of Jerry Bruckheimer's words, and asked with a smile: Jerry, did someone ask you to help spread the word?

Jerry Bruckheimer nodded: Mr. Martin Davis from Paramount. You know, I've been working with Paramount before.

What does he want? Eric asked bluntly.

Jerry Bruckheimer smiled and said, If you agree, Mr. Davis will come to meet you in person. As for what you want to talk about, it's not my concern.

Okay, I'll give Mr. Davis a call when I find time, Eric nodded.

Jerry Bruckheimer's meaning was obvious just now. Firefly's film results are too bright, and it will definitely cause a backlash from several other film companies. At this time, Martin Davis asked Jerry Bruckheimer to speak on his behalf. I just want to cooperate with Firefly. After all, in the case of a win-win situation, few people will actively choose to be hostile.

Eric. Personally, I actually think you can split Pixar Animation Studios and Digital Domain from Firefly and form two separate companies.

Eric smiled and shook his head: Jerry, I managed to condense the fireflies into a whole, how can I take the initiative to remove the hands and feet?

Jerry Bruckheimer was stunned for a moment. He seemed to think that what Eric said made some sense, but he felt that something was not quite right.

Since the 1920s and 1930s, Hollywood has become accustomed to the Big Six, the Big Seven or the Big Eight, but that doesn't mean it should be the norm in Hollywood. In America, GM can dominate. Bell can be one. Dominant, Esenck Mobil can dominate, and even Wal-Mart, which has only been established for 30 years, can dominate, if that’s the case. Why can’t Hollywood dominate?”

Hearing this, Jerry Bruckheimer faintly felt a slight cracking sound. He has been in Hollywood since the early 1970s and has been in Hollywood for nearly 20 years. A state of coexistence. However, Eric's words made Jerry Bruckheimer realize. It turns out that this rule is not unbreakable.

Eric, why does Hollywood keep maintaining this pattern of coexistence? Jerry Bruckheimer couldn't help asking.

Eric thought for a while and said: Probably because of the ups and downs of performance, movies are different from other industries, such as Wal-Mart, they have developed a distribution system that is ahead of their peers, so they have dominated the entire United States in just 30 years. , under the circumstance that Wal-Mart has already occupied the market, other competitors will not be able to reach the scale of Wal-Mart even if they completely imitate the model of Wal-Mart. However, the film company is different. The strength of a film company is measured by the box office of the film, and the film company. The box office is the most volatile thing. Maybe a studio will contact and make multiple hit movies at a certain time, just like the years when Barry Diller took over Paramount, but because of various The reason is that that situation will definitely not last, and other film companies are not idle, and may also produce high-grossing movies from time to time, so it is difficult for you to come and go, and it is difficult to achieve a situation of dominance.

After saying this, Eric smiled confidently and said, But in Firefly, this situation will definitely continue, so, one day, I will let them get used to certain things.

Jerry Bruckheimer followed with a smile, but did not echo Eric's words. Since the performance of other film companies will fluctuate, how could Fireflies not appear?

...

Eric didn't take the words brought by Paramount's Martin Davis through Jerry Bruckheimer too seriously. Firefly has now developed a fairly stable mentality. Such a film company must rely on those crooked ways. It can't be beat. If you want to beat a film company, you can only rely on the film to speak. But if compared to the movie, Eric is confident that Hollywood does not have the strength of that movie company.

However, he did not ignore Martin Davis' message. That night, Eric called Martin Davis, who was far away in Los Angeles, and agreed that the two sides would take time to chat. As for whether they could reach a cooperation, they had to Look at the sincerity of Paramount. Eric knew that when MGM was ignored, Disney was swallowed up by Firefly, and Universal and Columbia were acquired by Japanese consortiums, outsiders wanted to intervene in Hollywood, and now the only option was to buy Paramount.

According to memory and some previously collected information, Viacom's Redstone directly shifted his target to Paramount after failing to compete with Eric for Disney, while Barry Diller left Fox and started his own business. After a period of time, he soon began to think of returning to Hollywood, united several companies, and began to test Paramount's shareholders.

Although Paramount's performance in recent years has not been very good, but with such a shell, only if it can pull high-quality movie projects, Paramount may rise again at any time, so Martin Davis does not have much at all. Sell ​​Paramount Minds.

But unfortunately, Paramount is a listed company. Although Martin Davis is the company's largest shareholder, if other film companies adopt a hostile takeover to annex Paramount, Paramount's poor performance Under this circumstance, shareholders of other companies are likely to agree to the other party's high-priced acquisition and choose to cash out.

It is estimated that this is also the reason why Martin Davis suddenly contacted Eric. When the Japanese acquired Columbia and Universal, both film companies had a brief cooperation with Firefly and achieved good results, although the last two The company was sold, but the Japanese spent a lot of dollars.

And Martin. Davis' mind is very clear, he just wants to improve Paramount's performance to prevent other shareholders from choosing to sell the company. With the gradual opening of the Eastern European film market and the continued growth of the annual box office total in North America, Martin Davis's desire not to sell Paramount is understandable. However, things are often not based on the will of some people. standard. (To be continued.)

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