Top of the big era

The total box office market for movies is only so big. If Ziweixing Universal eats up so much, the share of other movie companies will inevitably decline significantly.

The worst of them all is Paramount.

How miserable it is.

Except for the "Transformers" series snatched from DreamWorks, Paramount has almost no more profitable movie projects.

When he came to Los Angeles this time, Zhou Buqi mainly wanted to attend the 90th birthday party of Redstone, the big boss behind Paramount. It was originally supposed to be held at the Hilton Hotel, but Mr. Redstone was too old and his health was getting worse, so he stopped going out and held it in his Beverly Hills mansion.

Zhou Buqi looked at Gu Zanli's pitiful eyes and couldn't bear to refuse. He waved his hand and said, "Let's go! Invite Xiaotian and let's go together!"

In the entertainment industry, it is not strange at all to bring two female companions to a party.

As we all know, Redstone, who is 90 years old, still has two regular female companions living with him. One of them recently gave birth to a son through surrogacy. This child was very popular with Redstone, and then he modified his will to increase the future inheritance distribution of this female companion.

A mother is valued by her son, and she rises to power by relying on her son.

This has always been the case at home and abroad, throughout the ages.

Gu Zanli was very happy. She was wearing a little black dress tonight, and Zhang Zetian was wearing a little white dress. The two young and beautiful beauties staged a black and white partnership.

Sitting in the car, Gu Zanli held Zhou Buqi's arm intimately, "Boss, I'm watching the news. Paramount is in dire straits right now!"

Zhou Buqi said: "Paramount was not miserable back then. In the 1980s and 1990s, it was the largest movie giant in Hollywood. Viacom spent a total of 10 billion US dollars to acquire Paramount. It’s in the bag. It’s a pity that Lei Shidong brought disaster.”

Guzanli was a little surprised, "How could this happen? Is it sliding too fast?"

Zhou Buqi snorted: "It's all Feng Liu's fault, it's all Lei Shidong's responsibility!"

"ah?"

The corner of Gu Zanli's mouth trembled slightly, and she exchanged glances with Zhang Zetian on the other side, looking at each other.

Zhou Buqi said with disdain: "Lei Shidong's romantic nature is too much. Every time Paramount holds a movie conference, Paramount executives have to introduce young and beautiful actresses to him. No. It doesn't matter whether it's beautiful or not to his taste. This has become a routine. If not, Redstone will lose his temper. Later, the producer had no choice. When selecting the film's cast, it was not based on the film's demand and market. It’s time to choose, imagine Redstone’s tastes, and choose actresses according to his requirements.”

Guzanli breathed a sigh of relief and said angrily: "No wonder Paramount is getting worse and worse!"

Zhang Zetian, who was beside him, also felt the same and said: "Men are all romantic. This is normal, but you have to prioritize. If lust affects your career, then it won't work. Isn't that master?"

Zhou Buqi coughed and said "hmm".

Gu Zanli said nonchalantly: "That's not necessarily the case. If you are as good as our master, doing business is as easy as drinking water. No matter how romantic you are, it's not an exaggeration. If you ask me, Redstone is just not good enough. It’s also lustful, so it makes Paramount worse and worse.”

Zhou Buqi said strangely: "Am I very romantic? You are the only ones around me. What does this mean?"

Guzanli said with a smile: "That's what I meant. Others don't know, and I don't know yet. Boss, you have always been very restrained in this regard. Many Hollywood female stars have come to show their courtesy, but you have not agreed. "

Zhang Zetian also agrees with this, "Well, my supervisor's mailbox is scary. Every day, I receive a lot of nude photos from beautiful girls. There must be hundreds of them. Some are small The girl was so brave, she just said, 'I'll sleep with you, and then you give me a chance to act' or something like that."

Zhou Buqi asked: "Which email address? Domestic or foreign?"

Zhang Zetian said: "I am not responsible for the foreign ones and the domestic ones. They are all photos of foreign girls, and they are quite big. Hmm... do you want to see them? They are there every day. I see them at home and abroad, and they are pretty much the same. Young girls are willing to sacrifice anything in order to pursue the entertainment industry."

Gu Zanli curled her lips and said: "I have never seen the world, so I am pursuing some entertainment industry."

Zhou Buqi nodded, "Hollywood is different. In other places...such as China, handsome men and beautiful women can really become famous and become stars with just a little help. Not so in Hollywood. Look at those Hollywood female stars. , there are not many beautiful ones at all. The most beautiful ones are all unknown. Redstone, after all, he came from the golden age of Hollywood, and he is still used to the red sofa."

The "golden age" of Hollywood was the era of monopoly by big studios. At that time, movie casting was really based on beauty.

The female stars of that period were really as beautiful as each other.

It has something to do with the unspoken audition for "Red Sofa".

Only the most beautiful actresses will be liked by the most producers. The one with the most opportunities for hidden rules will have a greater chance of becoming famous.

Nowadays, Hollywood blockbusters are operated globally and with large capitalization. The kind of women with all kinds of charms that drive all men crazy often only appear in small-budget movies or literary films.

Just like some TV dramas, many people don't understand why they spend so much money and don't hire some experienced actors to film the scenes, but hire some handsome men and beautiful women with poker faces or zombie faces who can't act... Some handsome men The pretty girl is a traffic star, that’s it. But most of the time they are newcomers and don’t have much traffic, but they still excel in each competition.

Real top TV dramas often have few handsome men and beautiful women.

The reason behind this is actually the difference in casting logic, whether to choose according to the requirements of the audience and the market, or according to the preferences of investors and producers.

He originally didn't want to attend Redstone's birthday party.

But this is a neighbor.

There are only four top-notch luxury homes in this area of ​​Beverly Hills.

Zhou Buqi has one of them.

2 kilometers away is Redstone's mansion. In addition, the other party is indeed a well-known media tycoon. As a junior... I always have to show respect.

At the door of Redstone's home, Zhou Buqi saw the Ziweixing Global team. There were many people, including Jeffrey Katzenberg, Bob Friedman, Wilson Miller, Michael Moore and other senior executives. Tube.

Picked up Boss Zhou and then went in with him surrounded.

Katzenberg was worried that he would be affected by the chaos in the Redstone family, and carefully reminded: "After this, don't participate in anything and don't agree to anything."

Zhou Buqi smiled, "I know."

Katzenberg said: "Paramount is in chaos right now. It was originally in a lawsuit with Google, but now it really can't afford to fight and settled out of court."

"What's the meaning?"

"That's it...that was all five or six years ago. YouTube had just been launched not long ago, and the management was not very strict. There were a lot of pirated Paramount content on it. Redstone was very angry and wanted to claim 10% from Google. Billion dollars. Google didn’t agree, so it started to litigate, and it’s been five or six years.”

"Copyright disagreement?"

Zhou Buqi shook his head.

He is engaged in the Internet industry, and no one knows it better than him.

Paramount wants to sue Google for this reason. This is impossible. In addition to wasting sky-high attorney fees and litigation costs, it will not get any results at all.

This is a common phenomenon in the Internet industry.

There are some pirated and infringing contents on YouTube. These contents are not uploaded by Google. They are uploaded by users and are their personal behaviors.

This cannot be blamed on Google.

Just like there are some infringing news contents on Yahoo, some pirated resources on Baidu, etc., these are user behaviors, not platform behaviors.

The infringed object only needs to file a complaint and ask the platform to remove the relevant content from the platform. If, after complaints, the platform still allows pirated content to spread, this is an infringement by the platform.

Google obviously wouldn't make such a stupid mistake.

Zhou Buqi said: “I remember that in 1998, the federal government introduced the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Internet companies are not legally responsible for such copyright infringements, as long as they are immediately removed at the request of the content owner. As long as the platform does not gain commercial benefits from the infringing content, there will be no impact. YouTube five or six years ago did not have advertising services, right? Paramount had no chance of winning the lawsuit!"

Katzenberg said with a smile: "Yes, there is no chance, and Paramount's life is getting tighter and tighter recently, so I really have no choice, so I gave up the case. This time you come over, I guess Lei Shi Dong’s family may come to you and want you to contact Google and ask Google to provide certain compensation.”

"I'm not familiar with Google."

Zhou Buqi would not agree to such a thing.

Katzenberg continued: "Wanda Group, have you been contacted recently?"

"Um?"

"As far as I know, Wanda is in contact with Viacom about acquiring Paramount."

"Wanda?"

Zhou Buqi was slightly startled.

This matter may have something to do with him. He can refuse the request from the Redstone family, but if Wanda asks him for help, it's really hard for him to refuse.

However, there is a snag here.

Paramount is Redstone's "favorite". Although it suffers heavy losses and is about to die, it is still a veritable Hollywood giant after all, and it is the biggest hunting ground for the ninety-year-old Redstone.

He wants to date young and beautiful girls, and Paramount is the biggest resource, which is even more attractive than writing a check directly for money. Many young girls who come to Hollywood to pursue their dreams would rather get the best chance to perform without money, even if it means being in the arms of an old man who is older than their grandfather.

Will Redstone be willing to sell Paramount?

At least in Zhou Buqi's memory, it seemed that his previous life had not been sold.