Year: I had a good time when I was young

Chapter 442: Investing in Global and Ten Thousand Mu Ranch

At No. 100 Universal City Plaza Avenue, north of Hollywood, Chu Qianqian was sitting in a Coopers car. As soon as he got off the car, he saw five or six middle-aged people in suits and ties, standing next to the steel globe fountain in the center of the studio, waiting. Hold yourself.

Chu Xiangqian looked at Universal's unique globe trademark and couldn't help but sigh in his heart. This is the second oldest film company in Hollywood.

Seeing that I am about to become a shareholder of this company, it would be a lie to say that I am not excited.

And as long as you join the team, you will have plenty of time to eat away at the company's shares and power bit by bit.

When it comes to making money quickly, Chu Xiangqian doesn’t believe that anyone is better than him.

After some polite greetings, Chu Xiangqian knew the intentions of the executives of Universal and Decca Records who wanted to take him to visit the film and television city first.

Universal Pictures' movie projects are suffering huge losses, so the only thing the company can offer is Universal City, which was built in 1914.

Starting in the 60s, Universal began to focus on movie theaters because of too much uncertainty in the film industry.

Compared with the first Disneyland, which opened in 55, Universal has a great advantage in amusement park projects.

It's a pity that I don't know what this company is like. The management will always make some decisions that make people wonder whether the management is suffering from collective insanity.

Not to mention rides like roller coasters, this Universal City is more of a photo studio than an amusement park.

But this is fine. Once you get the power and manage and operate the movie theater to make a profit, your power and influence in the world will continue to expand.

Think of future Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman.

Jurassic Park and dinosaurs, Harry Potter, Kung Fu Panda and Minions.

It is not difficult to create an amusement park that is more popular than Disney.

The more Chu Xiangqian thought about it, the more interesting it became.

But someone pretended to be disappointed and shook his head, looked at Universal General Manager Mike Hellman and said, "Mr. Hellman, take me to the studio to have a look."

People from Universal and Decca Records could clearly feel Chu Xiangqian's disappointment in the movie theater, and he was muttering in his mind that Asians were ignorant.

But I heard Chu Xiang walking towards the nearest studio and saying, "There are no roller coasters, Ferris wheels, bumper cars, pirate ships, big balance wheels, haunted houses, water parks, bungee jumping, not even carousels.

This and that could be considered an amusement park, or just a studio. "

Mike Hellman was stunned for a moment, then realized that what Chu Xiangqian was talking about must be an amusement park attraction.

Everyone knows the literal meaning, but except for roller coasters, merry-go-rounds and water parks, they can’t imagine how to play them just by relying on their imagination.

Since Universal has failed in movies, it is not that it has not thought about expanding the movie theater into an amusement park at this time.

If the movie theater can make more profits, the revenue for the company may not be less than the money earned from making movies in its heyday.

Chu Xiangqian has naturally done a lot of homework in the past few days. Before the 50s, Universal could be said to be a typical example of specializing in small-budget films.

Comedies, horrors, westerns, and musicals were what it was best at. However, in the mid-to-late 50s, the company sought to transform and began shooting many high-investment movies.

Unfortunately, although the cost is high, although it does make a lot of money, the investment will become larger and larger after success. Once an ultra-high-investment project fails, it means that the company's cash is drained, and it will also affect the promotion of future film projects.

The $1200 million investment in Spartacus in the first half of the year broke the entire Hollywood investment record.

Although many people said it was a success with a box office of more than 1400 million, but it was all done to deceive laymen and film producers outside the United States.

Without the US$3600 million domestic box office, this movie would have lost money.

And foreign film producers are not fools. Spartacus is long and boring, and not only people in their countries may not be able to understand it.

At least most viewers in Latin America, Southeast Asia and Western Europe have no idea about the history of the small city-state of Sparta.

Also because the film is nearly 3 hours long, the number of screenings will be reduced.

So it is inevitable that this movie will suffer a big loss.
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After that, Chu Xiangqian looked around the studio, and even went to another studio to see the crew who were filming.

I soon discovered that it didn’t seem to be much better than the one on Hong Kong Island.

However, there are indeed not many advantages in terms of technology, but in other respects, they are a regular army, and the Hong Kong Island side looks like a grass-roots team.

It doesn't seem like anything special to me, but there are a lot of things you can really learn from.

In the future, if you call the director of the company over and work with the team as an assistant director, you will definitely learn a lot.

Moreover, by introducing Kung Fu movies from Hong Kong to Hollywood, at least for many years to come, Universal's action movies will definitely be better than those from other film companies.

Thinking about Uncle Xiao Long's movie, which had a global box office of 2.3 million, Chu Xiangqian felt that cheating was a pleasure.

I can't win over other film companies, so I might as well go home and become a rich man from now on.

The subsequent negotiations went much smoother. Chu Xiangqian no longer struggled with Universal's market value, and finally won 740% of Universal's shares for US$20 million.

However, although the contract was signed, it was signed by a publishing company in England.

Universal and Decca Records didn't have any objections, and they even wanted him to take the initiative to hide behind the scenes to prevent anyone from jumping out and making irresponsible remarks.

Moreover, being related to the British royal family is quite attractive to ordinary people around the world to a certain extent.

This is one of the reasons why Universal and Decca Records agreed to take shares so quickly.

The Americans said they looked down on the decline of the English nobility, but in action they ran over to get close to them from time to time.

To put it bluntly, the English aristocratic system at this time was quite popular around the world.

Moreover, many of the people in power in the United States are from England.

There is even an unwritten unspoken rule when choosing a president, that is, one’s ancestors are either of Irish or English descent.

The money for this investment was naturally in pounds. 740 million US dollars equals 185 million pounds.

Including the US$300 million spent on filming Roman Holiday, that's £75.

Chu Qianqian silently calculated that he only had 238 million pounds in his hand now.

And this is after adding two trades with India, including the price difference earned from it.

So Chu Xiangqianhua spent a week with Universal and Decca to confirm his investment.

Immediately ask someone from Cooperation to help you find wine estates and ranches in California.

Yongdao just received a commission of 37 US dollars, which is a positive move for Chu Xiangqian.

It only took one day to find Chu Xiangqian who was at the Universal Pictures headquarters discussing the Roman Holiday crew affairs with General Manager Mike Hellman.

Directors are actually easy to find. It’s best to be obedient and have experience and achievements.

If it doesn't work, it doesn't mean that the new director can't do it. Anyway, the director is just a tool. He just needs to shoot the split shots drawn by Chu Xiangqian.And he will definitely keep an eye on it with his team. After all, this is the first movie, and the box office will determine his future power within Universal.

The male protagonist is not a big problem. The whole movie is in Chu Xiangqian's mind. He is about 30 years old, tall, handsome, more elegant in appearance, and his acting skills are acceptable.

It's easier to find other actors. The soul of the whole movie is, to put it bluntly, the heroine.

For this reason, Mike collected all the photos of beautiful actresses under the age of 25 in Hollywood and gave them to Chu Xiangqian for preliminary selection.

It can be said that Chu Xiangqiang's eyes were dizzy just looking at the photos all morning.

There are too many girls who are really beautiful but long for fame.

When he saw Elizabeth Taylor's photo, Chu Xiangqian decided to use her without even thinking about it.

In addition to her noble appearance, which looks a bit like Audrey Hepburn, this woman is famous for her acting skills.

However, she is also famous for being difficult and busy, which is probably a common problem among all famous women.

When Mike saw that Chu Xiangqian had chosen Taylor, he couldn't help but scratch his head, "SIR, Taylor's acting skills are fine. She was the Oscar winner for Best Actress last year and was nominated for Best Actress this year. The only trouble is that the pay is very expensive."

Chu Xiangqian didn't care at all. In his eyes, the salary in Hollywood these days was just that.

Better Oscar-winning male actors earn $50 million, while women earn even less.

"Can you afford her $20?"

Mike was stunned, then frowned and thought for more than ten seconds before shaking his head, "Although after winning the Best Actress, Taylor, like most Best Actors and Actors, had to go through several years of panic.

But this woman was nominated twice and won once. She is now at her most famous time. There is really no chance that 20 can hire her. "

Chu Qianqian thought for a moment and nodded, took out his checkbook, wrote a check for $25, handed it to Mike and said, "Give her the check and the script.

It depends on whether she is interested in how it ends.If it doesn't work, then replace him. "

Mike felt relieved now. $25 was not too high, and it seemed that the new boss was not someone who couldn't walk away from a beautiful woman. This was a good thing for the company.

Then they talked about the script of "Tom and Jerry" that Chu Xiangqian took the initiative to bring out during the previous negotiation.

Now that television has begun to steal movie audiences, as long as the eight Hollywood giants are not stupid, they must hate the television industry while actively embracing television.

Universal has also begun to produce some TV series in recent years, but unfortunately the results are not very good.

When they saw the "Tom and Jerry" comics drawn by Chu Xiangqian, not only were Universal executives attracted at first sight, but people from Decca Records also felt that there would be a market for it as a cartoon.

Moreover, Universal was famous for producing comedies in the past, and its vision and capabilities in this area are still very strong.

According to Chu Xiangqian’s plan, he will film a TV series first.If it turns out to be successful and turned into an animated movie, maybe there will be many sequels.

This kind of project with excellent prospects and stable box office is a box office guarantee for a film company.

Once the company's other projects fail, it will announce the filming of a sequel, which can easily stabilize people's hearts.

Then Decca Records would have more leverage to negotiate with American music companies.

Even if it merges with the American Music Company, it will gain more shares and say in the new company.

Moreover, Chu Xiangqian also said that he could provide money to produce 10 episodes of cartoons to test the water, so Decca Records naturally had no objections.

As for the copyright being held by the publishing company in England, although Mike and other Universal executives did not agree, they could still hold 20% of Universal's shares even if Decca Records sold 59% of its shares to Chu Xiangqian.

Chu Xiangqian signed a concerted action agreement with Dika, which meant that no one within Universal could object to something that both parties agreed to.

If some shareholders still disagree, then sell the shares.

Chu Xiangqian publicly stated on the board of directors that he would acquire the company at a premium of 15%.

After chatting with Mike about the filming of "Tom and Jerry", it was almost noon when someone from Yongdao came to the door.

Chu stood up and asked Mike, "Would you like to go have lunch together?"

Mike shook his head hastily. Chu Xiangqian obviously had something to do. It would be too unsightly to follow him at this time.

At noon, in an Italian restaurant on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Chu Xiang was eating lunch while listening to Cooper's senior partners talking about the wine and ranch information they had collected.

Chu Xiangqian didn't have to buy a winery, but if the winery was not expensive, buying it could be considered an investment.

Although the four major French wineries are the most famous wine brands in this era, it is not these luxury brands that actually make money.

When Chu heard about a 1-acre ranch in the Central Valley, he immediately became interested.

“If I remember correctly, the Central Valley is also a major wine-producing region?”

The Yongdao people nodded hurriedly and said with a smile, "SIR, this is also the ranch we want to recommend to you. The ranch is located in the north of Santa Barbara, which is what Los Angeles people often call the Central Valley.

It is indeed one of the four major wine-producing regions in California.

And it's only two and a half hours' drive from Los Angeles and 45 minutes from Santa Barbara Airport. The location is excellent.

The transportation around the ranch is also good, and there is a road leading into and out of the small town of Solvang.

It's not far from the town, about half an hour by car.

There are also two rivers in the pasture, so there is no need to worry about irrigation.If you are willing to pay an additional $1 a year to the town of Solvang, the town is also willing to let the ranch dig two canals.

If used for irrigation, the pasture can develop approximately 1500 acres of farmland.

Even in years with abundant water, these two canals are enough to converge into a lake in the lower reaches of the pasture.

During drought years, don’t worry about water. "

Chu nodded forward. Central and southern California are considered semi-arid areas, and water sources have always been a top priority.

Otherwise, there will be no capital consortium in the future that will treat water resources as oil resources.

It’s not that capitalists are stupid because they have too much money, but that many states in the western United States are indeed facing increasing water shortages as their population, agriculture, animal husbandry, and industrial water usage increase.

"how much is it?"

The person from Yongdao looked overjoyed, "The other party quoted us US$900 million the year before last. In the past two years, the United States and Canada have had consecutive bumper grain harvests. Although the demand for meat has increased due to lower meat prices, people in both countries have increased their demand for meat.

But for ranchers, although the cost of raising cattle on pasture has been reduced, the price of meat has been correspondingly reduced, and the income from pasture has been even less.

We estimate that it is possible to win it for US$600 million.However, it is not yet known whether the ranch has any foreign debt. "

(End of this chapter)