Hollywood legendary director

"AMC’s theaters are managed by an AMC Entertainment Holding Company. In 1920, the original intention of several theater owners to join together was to unify the screenings, more effectively control the screen, and avoid internal friction. After 87 and 98 years After the reorganization, AMC is now a very mature theater group with 346 theaters and a total of 5,028 screens in its hands. Among them, 120 IMAX screens and 2,170 3D screens are the second largest theater in the world. Line Group is also the world’s largest operating company that embraces multiple theaters and new projection technology......

From 2000 to 2006, AMC's revenue and financial reports were quite impressive. In the past few years, their earnings have been in a period of growth, and they have been favored by many investment companies on Wall Street. If it were not for their shareholders and management, they would not be willing to publicly offer shares. , Being hyped by brokerage firms, they could have been listed on the Nasdaq."

After Joseph knew that Lehman was interested in AMC, he immediately asked Caa to collect a lot of information.

For ordinary people, these things are of course difficult to access confidential information, but for people at their level, getting detailed internal information is nothing more than paying a little favor.

The homework continues.

"From 2006 to 2008, the overall expansion of the film market has caused many cinema chains to expand their screen shares and eliminate some outdated audio-visual equipment, but no one expected that it was caused by the sudden outbreak of the subprime mortgage crisis. The tightening of U.S. banking business and the unusual retreat of the film market in the second half of 2009 caused AMC to encounter some financial problems.

At the end of 2009, the second shareholder of AMC chose to leave, and other shareholders joined forces to eat the vacated shares. However, according to the management, although this method has ensured the stability of the board of directors, there is no excess liquidity for everyone. The rest of the theater's renovation and upgrade, and it is easy to be opened by other theater brands-if it is abandoned by fans because the audio-visual equipment cannot keep up with the trend, it is undoubtedly a loss for AMC.

So they have recently been planning to bring in several partners to solve the funding problem. One or more partners do not matter. The key is the cash that is enough to survive.

In March of this year, Gerry Lopez, CEO and operating officer of the AMC Group, revealed that in the past two years, the operating conditions of the AMC theaters have declined year-on-year, mainly because the money earned was quickly filled into the renovation work and Repay interest on bank debts.

By June, their internal financial report data showed that in the first half of this year, AMC had lost 82.7 million US dollars. In addition to debt repayment, which accounted for a relatively high proportion of theater profits, the biggest reason was that the number of high-grossing Hollywood movies fell sequentially. It is too obvious that AMC cinemas would have to spend a lot of money to show films (including fixed costs such as rent, water and electricity, personnel, etc.). As a result, the film market is still in a recession, so the situation is getting worse.It's like being stuck in a quagmire. The more you lose money, the more you struggle."

After reading the e-mail information and accompanying analysis, Lehman studied it several times carefully before closing the mailbox.

Although it is clear from a lot of information, it is AMC's own rapid expansion that has made the debt ratio too high, and the banks are not good at speaking, which seriously affects the basic financial situation. There is actually no problem with its own operating strategy. It can be seen that they really want to bring in the gold master, and this may be the biggest support for Wan D to enter the master.

Of course, the reason why it is a million D, and not anything else, is also because the US film market is very embarrassed at this time, because of the existence of the Paramount Act, even if the film company’s content is doing well and the revenue is strong, it cannot be directly. Intervene in the theater market, most of which can only exert indirect influence...

The temperature in the hotel room is pleasant, and Lehman is also thinking about how he can better get something from this exchange.

WanD has money and channels, but lacks content. He does have content, but has always lacked a platform that can exert influence and calmly monetize—the schedule resource depends on itself forever. The second-class days, if there is strong support for change, it must be Good thing.

The downturn in the film market this year has caused many people to hold a pessimistic attitude towards cinema companies. In Lehman's view, it is undoubtedly only temporary. Perhaps the same is true for the small target boss.Otherwise, he would not have played a game of ant swallowing elephants in this industry background. At this time, the number of theaters in the world's film industry must be the second highest in the movie industry. Too much out.

After all, if AMC is not in continuous losses and its operating status is very poor, no matter how much cash the parent company of Wan D has, it is impossible to find such a good opportunity to enter. The future result will prove that Wan D has won AMC, which can be said to be more than one stone. Carved.

Therefore, after careful consideration, Lehman knew that this is also beneficial to Mann Media’s content control. At least, Hollywood will no longer be a battle between Japanese capital and other British and American capital, and it will also usher in another share. It should not be underestimated, and if it is done well, it is at least close to his forces.

It is even said that in order for these Chinese capitals to go more securely in Hollywood, don’t pay too much tuition. Huayi, Bona, including the later Penguins, and Ali have all suffered losses in Hollywood, but they have absorbed the sky-high price of Sony’s acquisition of Columbia. After the loss case, I was not so miserable. At most, I often spent money on other production companies to raise projects like Legend Pictures.

After thinking about this, Lehman, who was planning to take advantage of it, called Andrew, "The President of Wanying who talked to you recently, make a statement to meet with him and talk to each other."

On the second day, Andrew didn't know what the boss was going to do, but he quickly contacted Li Yaoguang after receiving Lehman's order.

On the other side of the phone, Li Yaoguang, who felt that there was a drama, was excited. Even if the subordinates on the side reported that they had lost the results of the projects they had recently followed up, they didn't care. What was in his mind was how to negotiate the tasks given to him by the boss.

In addition, "Pacific Rim" is a stable and uncompromising business. If it can really connect with Man Media, Wanying Media will be 10,000 times better than its current situation. It can also rely on other people's mature The production model cultivates relevant talents of its own.

Regarding the matter of taking money for resources and exchanging content for the right to speak, Li Yaoguang himself agrees with a similar quick-acting model. Of course, he originally thought that Mann Media needed something, they could not come up with the right bargaining chip, and did not know the other party. What do you think-Wan D’s acquisition of AMC is actually quite a secret. It wasn’t until the end of 2011 that there was no news, and then in April of the following year, the negotiation work was almost over. After the actual reorganization of the equity structure, everyone knew that Wan D did it for this. The matter has been going on for two years... But now that people are willing to meet, it is natural to prepare well.

Within an hour after hanging up the phone, Li Yaoguang drove a black Mercedes to the clubhouse proposed by Andrew.

Later, when Andrew returned to the company to report, Lehmann realized that the WanD party was more active than he thought...