Top of the big era

From a process perspective, the Internet and the entertainment industry are different. But from a larger perspective, from the perspective of capturing results, they are actually the same.

This is why Jobs was able to build Pixar into the world's largest animation studio, and why platforms such as Netflix and Amazon were able to develop streaming media businesses in Silicon Valley.

Both of these are actually creative industries!

Thinking from the perspective of the Internet, Zhou Buqi is enough to discuss Hollywood and MGM's future strategic tendencies from the same level as Bob Friedman...or even from a higher level.

Creativity and conservatism are relative.

However, creativity does not mean that conservative genes cannot exist.

Take Xiaonei.com for example. The biggest reason for its success is its slightly conservative strategic design. It is not open to all the public like many comprehensive e-commerce platforms. It just conservatively places customer groups in a small circle and places them in a small group. On college students.

It costs less and is simple to operate.

Even if it fails, the price is small.

After success, we can firmly target the college student group and become the preferred online shopping platform for college students. If you are too radical at the beginning and are dazzled by confidence like Fanke, you may be drowned in the wave of the e-commerce market.

Zhou Buqi said: "There is nothing wrong with being conservative. What is wrong is what kind of strategy should be implemented under conservatism."

Bob Friedman agreed: "Yes, MGM has had a tough time over the past few years, and they were right to be conservative in their business. But their conservative strategy was wrong. There are many conservative strategies. , but they chose the big-star strategy that has been gradually abandoned by the times."

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "The advantage of the big star strategy is that it can use the star's aura and influence to quickly attract a large number of movie fans. No matter whether the quality of the movie is good or not, we must first trick the movie fans into entering the cinema and spending money to buy tickets. "

"Yes, this trend was at its peak in the 1990s."

"In Hollywood movies back then, big stars and big directors were the biggest attractions. Driven by curiosity, impulse, and the guidance of public opinion, fans went to the theater and bought tickets one after another. This was actually impulsive consumption. But the Internet came and the Internet created Cooling off period.”

"Yes, it's a movie rating website!"

Bob Friedman was the president of Warner's distribution business in the 1990s, and he experienced it personally from that era.

He has deeply felt the changes in the Hollywood environment over the years.

Twenty or thirty years ago, when a big star like Tom Cruise released a new movie, moviegoers would go crazy and queue up in droves to buy tickets to watch the movie.

Because before going to the cinema, everything about the movie is unknown.

What is the sales volume of a so-called professional film magazine?

How many people can watch it?

Even if someone watches it, there won't be any negative reports on commercial blockbusters. Many professional film critics and film companies are in conflict with each other's interests, and they are all commercially exaggerating.

But in the Internet age, everything has changed.

The rating website is out!

With word-of-mouth ratings of hundreds of thousands and millions of people, the mystery of the movie has disappeared and it has become naked in front of movie fans. Good is good, bad is bad, it can’t be fake!

What about Tom Cruise?

In the past, I relied on impulse, curiosity, passion, and enthusiasm to go to the cinema to buy tickets. Today's young people check movie ratings online... Let me go, it's only 5.2 out of 10, which is not enough!

What a fart!

Subjectively, I felt a certain sense of rejection, just like pouring a basin of cold water on my head, and I instantly became calmer.

"Human nature is the same." Zhou Buqi gave an explanation for this phenomenon, "If you package a plate of cakes, consumers will not know what is inside and will accept impulse stimulation to consume. If you put a plate of cakes in a If shit is packaged, consumers will be willing to consume it even if they don’t know what’s inside. If the packaging is removed and real food on the plate is presented to consumers, one plate is cake and the other is shit, how do consumers choose? Help The tool for movie fans to break through this film packaging is the Internet."

Bob Friedman applauds!

The reason why he was willing to push Summit Entertainment to merge with MGM, in addition to having greater power, was because he was inspired by Zhou Buqi.

I find this young boss very charming and has profound insights into many business phenomena.

He achieved high positions at both Warner and Paramount. The reason why he left twice was mainly because his ideas were increasingly different from mainstream Hollywood ideas.

But the current boss Zhou has many similar non-mainstream ideas to him.

The metaphor of cake and shit is a bit exaggerated.

But the difference between good movies and bad movies can indeed be shown intuitively through movie rating websites.

Bob Friedman said: "It is indeed easy for movie fans to calm down and give up watching movies with low ratings. Many people may like a movie with a rating of 5.2, but they are embarrassed to admit it because it does not conform to the mainstream. , which indirectly reduces the spread of this film."

Zhou Buqi said: "Yes, the herd effect!"

Bob said: "The strategy of big stars in the past was a herd effect. Today's rating websites are another herd effect. Under the influence of the Internet, the mysterious aura of big stars has disappeared."

“So, the conservatism under the big star strategy will gradually fade out of the stage of history.”

Zhou Buqi can easily come to such a conclusion by relying on his foresight.

But conclusions alone are of no use, only persuasive analysis of phenomena can impress people.

Through this complete analysis of the Hollywood situation under the influence of the Internet, we can further penetrate the fog of the future and formulate a more correct and confident strategic route.

Zhou Buqi had already planned it.

Why did he choose Bob Friedman as CEO of MGM?

Because after this guy became the chairman and CEO of Summit Entertainment, the first thing he did was to buy the rights to the best-selling book "The Twilight Saga" and then make it into a movie.

Foreknowledge can make a difference.

The future is the era of big IP!

The reason why Bob Friedman was selected as the CEO of MGM, and the reason why he was willing to take over the hot potato of MGM, was because many of the two people's ideas were surprisingly consistent.

He said in a very relaxed tone: "Summit Entertainment is a small company, and it should be more conservative than MGM. In fact, it is also true. MGM's conservatism wants to be reflected through big stars. What I chose is Remake.”

Zhou Buqi absolutely agreed, "Yes, a remake!"

Bob Friedman said: "'Transformers' is based on Hasbro's toys; 'Superman' and 'Spider-Man' are based on comic book characters; Paramount heard that it wanted to find Tom Clark again." Ruth cooperated, but this time they were not focusing on the big star strategy, but the sequel to "Mission: Impossible". Remake, adapt, reshoot, and sequel, and combine some successful ones with great social influence and popularity. When a brand is made into a movie, it is not only easier to market, but also has less risk in production. The characters, plot, and general framework of the movie are basically determined. If there is an expected imitation target, it will be easier to succeed than the original. Even Scorsese A great director of Si's caliber won an Oscar only by remaking a Chinese movie."

These words really spoke to Zhou Buqi's heart, and he said with a smile: "I call this phenomenon 'inertia effect'."

"Inertial effect?"

Bob Friedman doesn’t quite understand.

Zhou Buqi said: "These are some rules I summed up when I was running the Internet company Ziweixing. For example, Twitter and YikYak, these are two very similar websites, both mine. Twitter into It entered the market early, and YikYak entered the market late. During product design, YikYak has more and more interesting ways to play, but American users still choose Twitter. It is not because YikYak does not do well, but because of inertia. They have already I’m used to using Twitter and don’t want to change it. Inertia can defeat the quality of a product to a large extent.”

Bob Friedman's eyes lit up, "Yes, just like the movie!"

Zhou Buqi said calmly: "The inertial thinking of movies is the key factor for Hollywood movies in the new era to break through the blockade of rating websites!"

"Yes! That's great!"

Bob Friedman took a deep breath, feeling inexplicably shocked inside.

Sure enough, he is the Internet boss!

Be a world-class entrepreneur!

What an insight!

The emergence of movie rating websites has really dealt a fatal blow to the traditional model of Hollywood, making the current strategy of big stars almost unusable.

Even superstars like Tom Cruise can’t stand it!

This is the most painful problem that plagues contemporary Hollywood producers. How will future Hollywood blockbusters be produced?

Unexpectedly, Boss Zhou gave the solution in an understatement.

inertia!

Yes, inertia!

Bob Friedman only knows that adapting the novel "Twilight" is a project with a high probability of success based on conservative experience. But he had not thought about deeper theoretical analysis.

Now the big boss has solved his doubts.

If you want to solve Internet problems, you still need professional Internet experts to answer them.

When a movie is made in Hollywood, if the package is complete, movie fans will have to watch the movie with a sense of "mystery". Even if it is a bad movie, as long as it has enough mystery and good publicity, it can make a lot of money at the box office.

But movie rating websites gave Hollywood a hard time.

The mystery is gone!

Even if it's Tom Cruise, a movie with a rating of only 5.2, how many people are willing to take the risk of "watching a bad movie" and buy a ticket?

"Inertia" is the key to solving this problem.

Make a sequel, make an adaptation, make a remake, make a reboot, make a big movie with a brand...

No one likes to watch a movie with a score of 5.2, but what if this movie is "Mission: Impossible 4"? With the fans and brand accumulated from the first three movies, even if the score is very low, it cannot break the inertia of movie fans!

Even if it’s a bad movie, you still have to watch it!

Another example is "The Twilight Saga". This is really not a good movie and can also be classified as a bad movie. After it was filmed, the ratings were very low but the box office was very high!

Is this a success against the market trend?

No, because this is an inertial success.

Countless "Twilight" fans will flock to movie theaters to watch the movie, and under the influence of inertia, the plot of the book will be made into a movie. Inertia breaks through the blockade of Hollywood by movie rating websites.

At this moment, Bob Friedman was overwhelmed with admiration.

For the first time, I felt that the Internet and Hollywood are so close, as close as brothers. They are both creative industries, and the strategic concepts and product logic behind them are so similar.