Hollywood Hunter

Malibu, Daenerys Studios.

Today is Monday, May 8.

In the new week, Daenerys Entertainment’s weekly high-level regular meeting, today’s conference theme is mainly a month-long performance summary of Universal Studios Osaka and the preparation of the Universal Studios Europe project.

From the beginning of 1995 to the present, the domestic situation in Japan can be described as haze everywhere.On January 17, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck the Kansai area of ​​Japan. At the time, Universal Studios Osaka, which was under final preparations before opening, was also affected to a certain extent. Fortunately, it did not affect the planned opening schedule.

On March 20, the Tokyo subway sarin gas outbreak caused a huge tragedy of more than 5,000 casualties. Only two weeks after its opening, the theme park team had to urgently greatly strengthen the security measures of Universal Studios Osaka in order to ensure as foolproof as possible. Simon also sent a group of Westeros private intelligence teams to Japan to form a security darknet under the security team.

Affected by two large-scale negative events, the Nikkei index, which has been stable at about 20,000 points, has fallen sharply in recent months. It has fallen below the 15,000-point low in less than half a year, and the overall decline has exceeded 25%. Hit hard.April 6.

Universal Studios Osaka opened in this kind of wind and rain, so the theme park team also lowered the target of 10 million tourists in the first year of opening to 2 million, and attracted tourists through a series of promotional methods.

The target of 8 million visitors in the first year of opening is only half of the 16 million visitors at Tokyo Disneyland in 1994.

However, both the scale of construction and the location of Universal Studios in Osaka cannot be compared with Tokyo Disneyland. Under the current social situation, it can be regarded as a success with 8 million tourists in its first year of operation.

Facts have also proved that the depressed social environment has indeed affected the Universal Studios Osaka. Fortunately, the impact is far less serious than previously estimated, and even some have triggered the "lipstick effect" of the economic downturn and the more prosperous entertainment. Propensity.On the first day of opening, Universal Studios Osaka attracted 46,000 visitors.

This data slightly exceeded expectations, indicating that Japanese tourists have a fairly stable demand for theme parks.

In the first weekend that followed, it once again set a new one-day high of 53,000 visitors.

Immediately after that, during the Easter event around April 16, the number of tourists visited was also very impressive, attracting more than 100,000 tourists on the weekends of April 15 and April 16.

Eventually, from April 6 to May 7, the first month of opening, Universal Studios Osaka delivered a very beautiful transcript, attracting a total of 970,000 tourists, exceeding the team’s original estimate of 900,000. Monthly goal.

In the first month of 970,000, if directly multiplied by 12, it means that the number of tourists in the first year of opening can exceed 11 million.

Of course things cannot be calculated like this.

The outstanding results in the first month were mainly due to the freshness of the new opening of the studio and the attractiveness of extensive promotional activities to tourists. This is a very common'opening effect'.

After a period of opening effect, the number of tourists will definitely decline.

After the first month, entering the summer season, this heat can still be maintained, but throughout the year, the average number of visitors per month may fall between 10% and 20% compared to the first month, based on this calculation, the first year of opening, The total number of tourists at Universal Studios Osaka is more than enough to exceed the previously set target of 8 million tourists, which is expected to reach between 8.8 million and 9.9 million.

Of course, no one will be proud of it, because the original goal was 10 million.

And the real test will be after the first year.

For the first year of opening, Universal Studios Osaka has a lot of freshness for tourists in Japan and the entire Asian region. Coupled with extensive advertising and marketing, it is completely natural to attract tourists of this size.

The key is whether the stable operation can be achieved in the future.

According to the investment scale of Universal Studios Osaka, this theme park can achieve a breakeven as long as it attracts 7 million tourists every year.

However, just breaking through this data, obviously does not meet the expectations of Daenerys Entertainment.

Launching a theme park, whether it is Daenerys Entertainment or Japanese shareholders, the purpose is to make a profit, and it is definitely not just a break-even.Tokyo Disneyland's annual net profit in 1994 exceeded US$500 million. If Universal Studios Osaka only pursues a breakeven, it may become a laughing stock in the eyes of many people.

Therefore, in this regular meeting, the eyes of the senior executives of the group are not beyond the expected number of tourists in the first month, and the main reason is to sum up the experience and check the gaps.

According to Simon's request, in the first month of its opening, the Osaka Universal Studios operation team collected a total of 30,000 tourist questionnaires. Simon actually wanted more, but the excessively frequent questionnaires inevitably formed problems for tourists and affected the user experience.On the other hand, quite detailed data have also been collected from scenic spots in various departments.

In the end, it summarizes three parts:'bright spot','shortcoming' and'expectation'.

In the first month of opening, the biggest highlight of Universal Studios in Osaka surprised everyone. It turned out to be the sale of peripheral products in the studio's internal stores.

In order to welcome the opening of Universal Studios Osaka, Daenerys Entertainment has customized a large number of brand-new peripheral products, many of which are limited editions unique to the Japanese market at least, involving Pixar animation series, DC movie universe series, Jurassic Park series and so on the core IP of Daenerys Entertainment.

In the first month of 970,000 tourists, Universal Studios Osaka’s ticket income was 7.1 billion yen, which is equivalent to 68 million US dollars at the recent exchange rate calculation.The peripheral products that should have been icing on the cake had sales of 8.3 billion yen in the first month, which was higher than the ticket income, equivalent to 77 million US dollars. Because of the popularity, many limited edition peripherals also appeared out of stock scenes.

The last item in the main income accounted for food and accommodation, Universal Studios in this respect is far from comparable to Disneyland, the first month accounted for 2.7 billion yen, equivalent to 26 million US dollars.

Calculated, the total revenue for the first month of opening of Universal Studios Osaka reached 18.1 billion yen, equivalent to 175 million US dollars.

Taking Tokyo Disney as a comparison, Universal Studios Osaka’s ticket revenue accounted for 39%, far lower than Tokyo Disney’s recent 51%.The proportion of 45% of the revenue of peripheral products is far higher than that of Tokyo Disney 27%, and it is a fundamental advantage that directly hits Disney. The only backward food and accommodation, the proportion of 16% is far from Disney’s 24%, because this was originally It is not the core of Universal Studios Osaka.

After analysis, it is not difficult to find that more than half of Tokyo Disney’s ticket revenue ratio actually means the decline of the entire Disney company.In recent years, this company has fewer and fewer high-quality content and lacks sufficient appeal, resulting in tourists spending less and less inside the park outside of the tickets.

In contrast, Daenerys’ current content advantage can only be described as powerful.

In the past few years, most of the Hollywood box office blockbuster films were from Daenerys Entertainment. The top IP is almost monopolized. These super blockbusters are frequently sold in Japan, successfully breaking through cultural barriers.Eventually, it successfully created a grand event that the sales revenue of peripheral products in the first month of the opening of Universal Studios Osaka was higher than the ticket revenue.

On the other hand, the results are gratifying, but it also indirectly shows that the Daenerys Entertainment Consumer Products Division is far from developing the Japanese market. Nancy Brill, who is in charge of this part of the business, said on the spot that he will take out a copy as soon as possible. Development plan for peripheral products for the Japanese market.

In addition to the gratifying sales of surrounding products, the three major projects of the Great White Shark Water Park, Jurassic Park and Pixar World in the studio have also become the most popular attractions of this theme park in the first month of opening.

All this means that content is the foundation of a movie theme park.

Daenerys Entertainment can only maintain the long-term attraction of Universal Studios to tourists if it continues to launch high-quality movies.

There are no shortage of bright spots and many shortcomings.

According to visitor feedback and team evaluation, the biggest defect of Universal Studios Osaka should be considered to be too small.

This is the consequence of Simon's adherence to the conservative construction strategy.

At the present stage, Tokyo Disneyland, which has not yet built the second phase of Ocean Paradise, has included a total area of ​​250 acres, but Universal Studios Osaka covers only 100 acres.

This inevitably led to the relatively crowded attractions inside Universal Studios Osaka, which in turn reduced the length of stay of tourists in the studio. Because the area is too small and the crowds are too crowded, the queuing of many popular attractions is very serious, which also reduces the tourists’ visits. Experience.

Unfortunately, this shortcoming cannot be remedied in the short term.

After all, the theme parks in Japan are mainly aimed at Japanese tourists. The potential tourists in the Kanto circle where Tokyo Disney is located reach 30 million, but there are only 10 million potential consumers around the Kansai circle where Universal Studios Osaka is located. The construction of Tokyo Disney’s specifications will definitely improve the tourist experience. However, Daenerys Entertainment wants to recover the cost, but it will be far away.

Simon's plan is to operate for three years in advance, and after three years, decide whether to expand the studio according to the specific situation. After all, the biggest role of Universal Studios is not only profitability, but also the promotion of the Daenerys entertainment brand, as long as it is not Paris Disney’s protracted pits and appropriate expansion of the scale will definitely do more harm than good for Daenerys.

At present, you can only choose to improve the defects to make up.

Fortunately, several other shortcomings, performances are somewhat out of the understanding of Japanese audiences, the size of the internal restaurant is too small to meet the needs, and some attractions are not friendly enough for child audiences and other details can be improved.

This is also in line with the original plan of the park.

Even the most successful Orlando Disney World at this stage is actually initially a loss. The key is to continuously improve the tourist experience according to the needs after opening, and not to be self-confident.

Of course, for a project like Disney in Paris, there is no possibility of reversal because of the serious mistakes in the initial site selection and the complete runaway of the construction scale.At the beginning of this theme park, even with the opening effect, the number of tourists in the first month was less than half of the expected.

By comparison, the situation at Universal Studios Osaka is much better.

Even in the event of an earthquake and terrorist attacks, the downturn in the environment has forced the operating team to lower expectations. The transcripts for the first month of opening are still quite gratifying, not just like Disney in Paris.

Finally, there is the'expect' option in the questionnaire survey.

This survey is mainly to evaluate the future expansion.

Then I discovered that the most anticipated new project for tourists at Universal Studios Osaka was a roller coaster.

Disney Parks in North America and overseas have corresponding'Indiana Jones Roller Coaster' projects, which are very popular.

In the original plan, Universal Studios Osaka actually had a similar roller coaster project called the'Space Fantasy Train', but it was not a real roller coaster, but an indoor simulation experience that was cut off due to safety technology and other reasons.

Moreover, the roller coaster was not built, in fact, there is another reason

Roller coasters are actually standard equipment in amusement parks. There is no shortage of amusement parks around the world. If a large roller coaster project is also set up in Universal Studios Osaka, it may bring the impression that this is an amusement park rather than a theme park.

Universal Studios will cater to the needs of tourists as much as possible, but it will never insist on it.It is fundamental to protect the group culture of Daenerys Entertainment as much as possible.

If you lose your cultural characteristics, you really have to be reduced to an ordinary amusement park.

However, after discussion, including Simon himself, everyone felt that it was very necessary to restart a roller coaster project. The site also brainstormed a plan to set up a roller coaster attraction through the dinosaur world in Jurassic Park. Of course, This inevitably means additional investment. During the construction process, the popular Jurassic Park attractions still need to be closed, so it can only be placed in the plan for the time being, and it is impossible to implement it in the short term.

After discussing the Universal Studios Osaka, the next is Universal Studios Europe, which is planned to be built in Rome, Italy.

Now that the site has been completely finalized, the exact naming can also be called'Universal Studio Roma', just like the now-renamed'Disneyland Paris', there is no need to take too many names.Universal Studios Rome also makes it easier for visitors to think of the location of this Universal Studios.

Although it turns out that Universal Studios in Osaka is slightly smaller, Simon is still not blind to Universal Studios in Rome and has no plans to encircle 5,000 acres of land like the Disneyland Paris.

Of course, compared with the Universal Studios in Osaka, the area of ​​Universal Studios in Rome will definitely be larger. Italy is not as expensive as Japan after all. Coupled with the economic development gap, both land expenditure and construction costs will be much lower, the same The cost of 2 billion US dollars is placed in Italy, and doubling the area is not a problem.

The regular meeting is over, the time is already 12 noon.

Simon and Amy had lunch together and returned to the office. Girl A also sent Daenerys Entertainment stock price information after the stock market closed on the East Coast.

While holding a discussion meeting today, media from various platforms in North America have widely released performance information about the first month of the opening of Universal Studios Osaka.

Daenerys Entertainment internally lowered its original 10 million visitors forecast to 8 million. This will certainly not be announced.The focus of publicity is the opening of 970,000 tourists in the first month, and the resulting news that Universal Studios Osaka can break through the 7 million tourist breakeven line in the first year to achieve profitability.

The highlight of the sale of products around the inner shops of the Studios will certainly not be missed.

Anyone who has a slight understanding of the industry understands that this part of the income is not distributed according to the proportion of shares held by the studio, but Daenerys Entertainment has a big head, so it is definitely a surprise.

The lessons of the failure of Disneyland Paris and the harsh environment of Japan in the first half of the year have made the market very pessimistic about the opening prospects of Universal Studios.

Now, in the first year of opening, Universal Studios Osaka will be able to reap some of its profits while achieving break-even. No need for Daenerys and Japanese shareholders to replenish additional funds. This is the biggest benefit for this theme park.

In addition to this, Universal Studios made a good start, which also allowed the market to reduce concerns about Simon’s insistence on building a European Universal Studio in Europe.

As a result, as of the closing of the East Coast at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, Daenerys Entertainment's stock price rose 0.7% in a single day, and the market value reached a new high, reaching 141.9 billion U.S. dollars. Studio.Daenerys Entertainment's investigation of the three old TV networks in the United States has ended.

The group's market value has reached a new high. This afternoon, Simon also officially discussed with Amy Pascal the acquisition of ABC.