The Best Entertainment Era

Entering mid-July, the news that attracted the most attention in the entire North American business circle was that News Corp. issued a merger invitation to Warner Bros., a subsidiary of Time Warner, which is extremely controlled by Time Warner.

This caused an uproar in the media and entertainment industry, because once this invitation is successful, it means that an unprecedented super entertainment media group will be born in the United States and even the world.

On the day Ronan got the news, he convened a meeting of the top executives of Relativity Entertainment, and then had a secret meeting with Robert Iger and Chief Financial Officer Mary, in order to prepare for possible huge changes in the industry circle.

I don't think Warner Group will accept News Corp.'s invitation. Robert Iger expressed his opinion: Although AOL and Warner broke up in the past two years, it has had a great negative impact on the entire Warner Group. The media business has stagnated, but the development of Warner's entertainment business is enough to make up for this part of the loss and even bring more income to the Warner Group.

He further said: Once the two companies are merged, with Rupert Murdoch's strength, it will be difficult for Warner's management and major shareholders to guarantee their own interests.

As the chief financial officer, Mary said from the perspective of the capital chain: Based on the current situation of the two companies, even if Warner Group agrees to the merger, News Corp. will have to make an offer of more than US$60 billion.

Robert Iger nodded slightly: Maybe even more.

Mary continued: News Corporation and its 20th Century Fox are completely focused on the entertainment media industry. In recent years, Fox has performed poorly. The pillar of News Corporation is undoubtedly the media industry, but this industry is difficult to bring. Huge cash flow, Rupert Murdoch's mergers and acquisitions can only be completed in the form of stock exchange plus cash, and the former is the main focus.

She paused for a moment, and then said: Even if the deal is concluded, it will weaken the Murdoch family's control over News Corporation.

Ronan has been thinking about it, and finally said: We are ready with both hands.

Robert Iger agrees: Prepare for the worst.

Once these two companies merge, it will not be good news for any other entertainment media company. Ronan said slowly: This means that a giant company will have a huge impact on other companies in the industry, and even crushing dominance.

Mary made no comment, while Robert Iger looked serious.

Once News Corporation and Warner Group unite, it is definitely not in the interests of Relativity Entertainment.

Robert Iger said: We are definitely not the only ones who don't want News Corporation's plan to succeed. Hollywood and other giants in the media industry probably don't want to see such a situation. Based on the information we have about News Corporation and Twentieth Century Fox The biggest difficulty of Rupert Murdoch's plan is Warner Group's opposition, and the second is funding and equity issues.

Ronan reminded at this time: One more thing, political factors! Antitrust! He said to Robert Iger: Bob, you go to contact Hollywood and other companies in the media industry.

Robert Iger understood Ronan's intentions: Be prepared to restrict News Corporation's plans from a policy perspective.

Ronan nodded slightly: This kind of thing, I think every company will take action.

Large corporations have more or less ties to Washington authorities, Congress and other agencies.

After the small meeting ended, Ronan returned to the office, and Connie had sent over the latest report.

Before Ronan read it, he recalled it carefully and made sure that he remembered correctly. He had seen related news when he was on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation wanted to acquire Warner more than once. but never succeeded,

As a result, Disney finally took over the film and television company of Twentieth Century Fox, whose business was sluggish.

The Big Six Hollywood companies have since become the Big Five, and even Walt Disney even changed the label name of Fox.

The failure of News Corp. to acquire Warner once caused quite a chain reaction.

However, Ronan also has the impression that he can't remember the exact time it happened, but it should have happened after 2010.

News Corp. has now explored and planned in this regard, and it may be some kind of effect brought about by Relativity Entertainment.

Ronan straightened his expression and quickly read the information sent by Connie.

This is the market research department of Relativity Entertainment, carefully collected detailed information on the merger and acquisition plans of News Corporation and Warner.

The merger proposal was presented at a hosted lunch at the Newspaper Association of America's Manhattan headquarters on a weekday in July.

The actual participants are Rupert Murdoch's top aide Chase Carey and Time Warner Chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes.

The former tentatively proposed this plan to the latter, and the news spread, and News Corporation also admitted in an interview with the media.

But Warner has not made any response so far.

If the deal goes through, a News Corp.-Time Warner merger would bring together the two media giants.

Time Warner's money-making cable channels, including TNT, TBS, CNN and HBO, will be integrated with 20th Century Fox's FX, FoxNews and Fox broadcast networks.

Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox also merged, and the combined company would also dominate the film and television studio business.

For the entertainment media industry in the United States, this will be a more terrifying super giant group than Walt Disney.

Relativity Entertainment also prepares for the worst at the fastest pace.

Regardless of the outcome, the most important point is the strength of Relativity Entertainment itself is the key.

Without enough strength, any big company will be in a hurry.

This summer, Relativity Entertainment is at full strength.

After 14 weeks of showings in North America, Hulk was officially released from theaters, and the North American box office finally reached 261.28 million US dollars.

The film has now grossed more than $400 million worldwide, and overseas releases will continue for a long time.

Through the box office share and income from TV series and DVD, it is not a problem for Relativity Entertainment to recover all the investment in Hulk.

Even, the possibility of creating tens of millions of dollars in profits is very high.

The success of this film has further allowed the market to see the charm of Marvel superheroes.

More importantly, with the popularity of the film, the concept of the Avengers is spreading around the world.

These are the foundations for future Avengers to succeed.

Without the foreshadowing of these previous films, the previous Avengers could not have achieved such a huge success.

The huge sales of The Hulk have given the series more fans besides comic fans, and many people have also focused their attention on the next Marvel Avengers series movie Thor, which has made the series more popular for several months. Thor, which will be released later, has already gained considerable popularity.

Embassy Pictures and Marvel Entertainment are also doing some targeted promotional activities.

In addition, the DVD of The Ninth District, which has been released before, has sold well. Within two weeks of its release, the North American sales reached 38.95 million US dollars.

This is incomparable to The Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, Bourne Shadow 3 and other North American films that sold hundreds of millions of dollars in DVD sales in the first week.

But no one would think that The Ninth District is such a heavyweight film.

Compared with investment, Relativity Entertainment has made a lot of money on District 9.

Meanwhile, Transformers enjoyed its third weekend in North American theaters, seemingly matching its number of weeks in theaters, slipping further down the North American box office charts to No. 3.

However, the weight of the third place on the box office list is real.

The North American box office decline of Transformers has narrowed significantly. In the third weekend, it closed at $27.1 million in North America, and the North American box office has accumulated a total of $248.91 million.

Overseas trends are still stable. This kind of special effects blockbuster is truly a big dish that can be highly popular in the global market. As time goes by, the box office of the film outside North America has gradually caught up with the North American box office. It will only take a few days to complete the surpass. thing.

Transformers can achieve the feat of breaking $500 million at the global box office on the following Tuesday or Wednesday.

In contrast, the sales of peripheral derivative products of the film remain high. Hasbro’s products are hard to say. The global distributors of Relativity Entertainment, once again in the embassy film industry, have distributed the goods for less than two weeks. Called over and over again.

In order to meet market demand, under the guarantee of sufficient orders from Relativity Entertainment, the number of OEM manufacturers on the other side of the Pacific Ocean has increased to twelve.

The film's DVD is also in the rush, and Relativity Entertainment's first DVD order is as high as 10 million.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix ranks ahead of Transformers. There is no need to doubt the charm of the little wizard. The growing Gryffindor Golden Triangle will explode with greater appeal in the future.

This week's box office champion is won by an animated feature film - Kung Fu Panda!

Once upon a time there was a mountain, and there was a temple in the mountain, and there was a panda selling noodles in the temple...

Produced by Shahai Entertainment Animation Studio and distributed by Embassy Pictures, this animated film has attracted a large number of people to theaters with its super cute panda plus kung fu and comedy, as well as the so-called mysterious oriental culture.

Of course, the oriental culture shown in Kung Fu Panda is essentially the oriental culture that Hollywood thinks.

However, due to the existence of Ronan, the film has no sensitive points, and even passed the review of the scissors on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.

Frankly speaking, the oriental culture is by no means covered by a panda that knows how to embroider its legs.

In any case, Kung Fu Panda has achieved great success in the North American film market. It opened in 4,225 theaters and won a box office of 71.25 million US dollars.

The box office in North America caught up with the production cost in the first week, and Shahai Entertainment Animation Studio also has another successful animation film besides the Minions series.