Hollywood Hunter

After the start of the period, from November 17 to November 23, a complete week, a beautiful "beauty and the beast", the first week of the first seven days of the painting, the final account was 68.73 million US dollars.

Easily obtain the average position of the box office in a week.

This result ranks among the four animated films released in Pixar, which is lower than the $87.31 million in the first week of "Toy Story 2" and $70.31 million in "The Lion King", only higher than the 46.73 million in the same period in 1991 in "Toy Story". US dollars.Of course, even if it ranked third, the box office of "Beauty and the Beast" in the first week of $68.73 million still made many Hollywood movies unmatched.

"White House Pocahontas", which ranked second in the list, ended up with $13.49 million at the box office for seven days in the first week.

Even if it can get out of a slightly better curve, the local box office of the film is only about 50 million US dollars.The huge production budget of US$62 million can only be said to be another expensive tuition for Sony.

It is also the "Zhao Hun 2" owned by Daenerys Entertainment that occupies the third place on the list.

In the fourth week of the release, even if the themes were not in conflict, "Zhou Hun 2" was still hit by "Beauty and the Beast". The box office fell by 38% in a single week, and continued to record 10.39 million US dollars. The threshold of the yuan box office club reached USD 105.12 million.

The fourth place in the list is an old film released on October 20, called "Dwarf in Dao", which is a novel based on the black underworld theme comedy, produced by MGM, directed by Barry Sonnenfield, Starring John Travolta and Renee Russell, the production cost is $30 million.

With an excellent media score of 8.7 points, "The Short Man" started the first week although it was only 16.78 million US dollars, but it successfully walked out of a very beautiful long-term.

From November 17th to November 23rd, the fifth week of the release, the film's single-week decline was 36%, and it still recorded USD 6.09 million, and the cumulative box office reached USD 59.61 million.

Simon actually knew about the project, and personally selected the original heroine Renee Russell. However, after the film was made, MGM was not too confident in the business prospects of the project, so he chose the unfavorable period at the end of October. Interference, mainly due to the unpopular period of October, is actually very suitable for relying on word-of-mouth non-mainstream films to survive.

The success of the film is also expected by him.

Simon is more concerned about the project's director, Barry Sonnenfeld.

This is the director of the original "Black Man" series.

It happens that the copyright of "The Man in Black" has already been included in Daenerys Entertainment.

However, Simon did not intend to launch the "Black Man" series in the short term. After all, until 1997, Daenerys Entertainment's film list was basically full.

Afterwards, "Cutting Throat Island", which cost $100 million, finally reached the fifth place in a weekly box office list.

The start was tragic, and no miracles occurred subsequently. Seven days into the first week of the painting, the cumulative box office of "Cutting Throat Island" eventually reached 4.96 million, and even failed to exceed the $5 million threshold.

The opening scale of 2505 screens was only USD 1980 in the first week.

Hollywood studios and North American theaters usually sign a two-week guaranteed contract, part of which will be four weeks, and then adjust according to the specific box office situation.

Now, the average of less than 2,000 US dollars in the first week of "Cutting Throat Island" has directly hit the lower threshold.You should know that the "Beauty and the Beast" hall at the top of the weekly box office is $25,600, which is more than ten times that of "Cut Throat Island". The attendance rate is low, but the operating cost of the theater will not be reduced, even if it continues for a week. Faced with a loss, many theaters either negotiated a compromise agreement with Paramount, or simply tore up the contract to pay liquidated damages. Anyway, they insisted on removing most of the canvas of Cut Throat Island.

When a new box office week started, the number of screens for "Cutting Throat Island" had plummeted to 119 Lujia.

On November 24, the second week of the Thanksgiving schedule, the number of films opened in North American theaters increased to seven.

Four of them are commercials with more than a thousand pieces, which are produced by Warner Bros. Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro's new films "Casino" and MGM produced Olsen twins starring in family comedy. "Good things come in pairs", Paramount produced Johnny Depp's thriller "A Thousand Shots" and Sony Pictures' black action star Wesley Snipes starred "Silver Line".

There are three other small-scale feature films, two of which are from the high-end film industry. They are "72 Hours of Life and Death" directed by Sean Pan and a French drama "Love Under the Stars". It is the film "Two Fifty Five" starring Al Pacino, produced by Orion Pictures under Paramount.

Of the seven new films, only Martin Scorsese's "Casino" is a blockbuster, with a production cost of $52 million, and Simon quietly and quietly pushed the project to Warner Bros.

This is not because Simon is worried about the risks, but that Daenerys’ projects are full and lack a suitable schedule.

Martin Scorsese’s project has gradually become less popular with Hollywood in recent years. However, this is a director whom Simon admires and appreciates. Simon also believes that Hollywood should not only be left for the sake of profit. Commercial films like movies or animated movies.

If Warner Bros. did not take over the project, Simon planned to take over in person.

MGM's "Good Things Double" still follows the development strategy of a few blockbusters plus assisted low-cost genre films determined by Simon himself. The film production cost is only 10 million US dollars, and the screen size is 1545.Johnny Depp's "A Thousand Shots" starring Wesley Snipes' "Silver Line" is also a low- and medium-scale film with a cost of less than $30 million.

With the tragic first-week box office data for "Cutting Throat Island" released, and the failure of "Dancing Girl" with a summer production cost of $50 million, Carlock Pictures, which has been in Hollywood for many years, has declared thorough. End.

Simon has been considering this matter these days.

In the 1990s, due to the continuous opening of overseas film markets and the recovery of the global economy, the overall upward trend in the Hollywood film industry has not been slowed down by the continuous growth of a film company.

If some measures are not taken, there will surely be more capital entering the market.

This is actually another manifestation of warmth.

With money, I always hope to gain some more fame. The Hollywood Vanity Fair is undoubtedly the best shortcut to fame. Even if I don’t come to the scene, I hold a lot of money, invest in some projects, and hang on to the title of executive producer. Being able to successfully enter this bright and beautiful circle is favored by the big stars who can only be seen on the movie and TV screens, and indirectly can also increase the visibility of investors behind the scenes in the world.

Therefore, the influx of foreign capital into Hollywood is inevitable.

If you can't stop it, you can only sparse.

Actively open up some places for foreign capital.

Or, if you want to play alone, try to be a fan, it must also be within the controllable range.

Of course, if possible, it is better to unblock to other industries.

For example, in the field of new technology.

Therefore, this week before and after Thanksgiving, Simon has been frequently discussing consultation strategies with the core backbones of the Westeros system.

When Thanksgiving is over, many ideas have basically taken shape.

The three brands of Daenerys Entertainment Headquarters will still not be open to the public. This is the first thing to determine.In the past, Hollywood studios relied heavily on external funds, mainly because this long-term operation model prevented large studios from forming their own sustainable cash flow, so they could only continue to borrow and borrow money, and the project made a lot of money. The funds have to be returned to the investors, and the project loses money, which often forms the long-term liabilities of the studio. MGM, who was tossed to the point of being almost unsustainable in the 1980s, is declining in this vicious circle of continuous failure.

Daenerys Entertainment grew from small to large, and the profitability of a series of its projects is very rich, so it can be said that Hollywood is the only major studio that successfully completed self-sufficiency of funds, even Warner Bros. can not do this.

In Simon's memory, only the Disney family can do this.

No longer relying on external funds, the profit and loss will be at your own risk. If it is a simple large studio, the risk is still very large, and it may not be able to sustain the status quo for many years.While achieving self-sufficiency of funds, Daenerys Entertainment has successfully diversified the company through continuous mergers and acquisitions, and its ability to resist risks has increased significantly.

Now Daenerys Entertainment, as long as there are no special major changes, will basically not return to the state of relying on external funds to operate.

This is not to say that no external funding is required.

It's just that without these money, Daenerys Entertainment can still live very moist for a long time.

This state of affairs was finally achieved, and of course Simon would not drive back again, and reopened the door in order to channel Hollywood's foreign capital.

In this case, although it has no equity connection with Daenerys Entertainment, MGM, which is also controlled by the Westeros system because of the Australian capital behind the scenes, has become a good platform.In addition, Time Warner and 20th Century Fox, which are closely related to Daenerys, can also undertake this task.

As for the other companies, Simon’s current strategy is to suppress them mercilessly, and eventually make Disney and Paramount completely second-tier film companies.

This is why none of the previous batch of foreign cooperation projects had the share of these studios.

The IPO has been completed, and now Daenerys Entertainment has been connected with a large number of American investors, Simon now has a lot of scruples.

On the other hand, the method of guiding external funds is very simple in the final analysis.

Still put out some projects to invest in these external capital.

Moreover, in order to avoid the failure of the project to cause the studio to assume additional debt, this time it will not be debt financing, but a direct investment that is jointly responsible for profit and loss.

Of course, Simon will not treat anyone as a fool.

Therefore, the selected projects will of course be quite attractive.

Simon soon finalized two films in person.

The first is the new film that Robert Zemigis is preparing, called "Macro Contact".

The success of "Forrest Gump" is still vivid. Therefore, "Macro Contact" is definitely attractive enough.Simon knew that the movie was not as successful as it had imagined. It cost US$90 million. The global box office in memory is only 170 million. Not to mention the follow-up channel revenue, the producer is still losing money at the box office.

So Simon handed the project to MGM.

Introducing external investment, MGM only earns one issuance fee this time, which can also avoid risks to the greatest extent. After all, MGM still bears a large amount of debt that has not been paid off.

The other is "Xenox 2".

The first "Xenomorph" was a great success because of the stunning appearance of Natasha Henschy. The sequel was taken for granted. However, Henschy was not very willing to participate in it again. After all, it was Simon’s woman. Reluctantly, the project was put on hold.During this time, MGM chief Shirley Lansing personally mentioned to Simon, hoping that Simon personally came forward to persuade a girl to show up in "Xenophobia 2", even if it does not take off, MGM can put This eye-catching task was handed over to other actresses, and Simon also agreed.

However, the cost of making a sequel will definitely increase significantly, and Natasha Henschy is only a cameo, and the risk will inevitably increase.

Therefore, Simon asked MGM to undertake at most half of the investment, and the remaining half was obtained from outside.

In addition to these two attractive projects, there will definitely be others.

Simon's plan is to package at least five parts and introduce foreign investment together, which is regarded as another'foreign cooperation plan'. In order to express attention, if necessary, Daenerys Entertainment will also invest a sum of money, Warner and Fox can also participate .

On the other hand, for those hot money that is not too determined to invest in Hollywood, Simon hopes to introduce it into Silicon Valley.

As a result, some popular projects in the Westeros system, such as eBay and iPets, will start a round of financing, of course, there will be no lack of IPO operations.

In order to allow investors to gain the same reputation as investing in Hollywood from investing in these projects, the Westeros system will also use its own media resources to build its momentum. For example, the Latin American corporate giant has unconditionally smashed down because of its optimism about eBay. 100 million US dollars is only for seeking a small number of shares or the like, as long as this segment spreads, all parties can benefit.

These are very detailed operations, but Simon doesn't mind staring in person.