America: Starting with the acquisition of MGM.

Chapter 333 331. No less than 40 billion US dollars

"The 77th Academy Awards ceremony has come to an end. All the awards have been given out, and MGM has become the biggest winner."

"MGM won 17 out of 11 nominations, becoming the most brilliant winner on Oscar night. This lion is regaining its glory and majesty from the last century."

"Oscar host Chris Rock took his joke too far and was slapped in the face by Sean Penn, and Jude Law was reported to be very angry."

"Jamie Foxx won the Best Actor award for his role in 'Soul Singer', becoming the third black actor after Sidney Poitier and Denzel Washington."

"Nicole Kidman surpassed Meryl Streep and became the first to achieve her second crown, firmly sitting at the top of the list of contemporary female stars, with her salary offer exceeding 1500 million US dollars."

"Eric Cooper has made history again, breaking various records since his debut, and becoming a god again at the age of 25!"

"Inception has become the most anticipated film at the Oscars, winning both box office and awards."

Although it has been a while since the Oscars, the heat has not completely dissipated and many people are still discussing it.

It's such a pity for so-and-so, this award should have been given to so-and-so, the Oscars are shady, MGM bribed the judges.

Anyway, there are both good and bad ones, and ordinary people and netizens can always interpret various conspiracy theories from various angles.

Eric admitted that he did do publicity and public relations, but the question is, which company doesn't do that?
If everyone does this, it would be fair competition as long as they don't use despicable means like Weinstein's blatant bribery.

As for whether the academy gave MGM any preferential treatment because it became the new leader in the industry, Eric himself was not sure.

Anyway, taking advantage of this favorable situation, "La Vie en Rose", which was still being screened on a small scale, immediately received many screening invitations.

The scale of screenings suddenly skyrocketed to more than 3300 theaters, and finally Mane was harvested to make a fortune.

"It rained all night."

“My love overflows like rain.”

"Leaves fall in the yard."

"A thick stack of my thoughts."

"A few words of gossip."

"It can't cool my enthusiasm."

“You appear on every page of my poetry.”

During lunch break on the set of "Dragon Ball", everyone happily watched Jay Chou singing his new song "Qilixiang" which he released just last year.

Although most people don’t understand Chinese, they just listen to the melody. Anyway, they are not professional singers, so no one understands the technical stuff.

Jay Chou's scenes have been filmed and he will leave by plane in the afternoon.

If there is no need for reshoots, we won’t see them again in the short term, at least until the movie is released, which may be at the end of this year or next year.

Clap clap clap!

After the song was finished, everyone immediately applauded.

Student Xiao Liu nodded continuously: "It sounds really good, but I can't hear some of the words you are singing."

"Uh" Jay Chou made a face.

Eric laughed and said, "This is Jay Chou's singing style. In the entertainment industry, it is important to have your own characteristics so that the audience can remember you at first sight."

"Hehe! I think what you said is one of the reasons. The main reason is that I have a bad memory and often forget the lyrics. It's easy to get away with it if I make them vague."

"Hahaha, I heard your new album is selling well?"

When talking about the album sales, Jay Chou nodded somewhat proudly: "Almost. It sold 350 million copies in Asia, barely winning the championship."

"350 million copies! You're quite impressive, young man. The overall record industry is getting worse and worse, and this sales volume is already quite impressive. Are you interested in trying your hand in the European and American music scene?"

Jay Chou, who was just so proud, immediately shook his head like a rattle: "I'm not interested. I had this idea before when I was immature, but I didn't have it anymore."

"why?"

"Brother, the road ahead is not easy. To be honest, Chinese singers have a hard time not only in Europe and America, but even in Asia."

"In 2002, I had been in the industry for two years and had released songs like "Nunchucks" and "Ninja". I was already known as the Little King."

"Hey, my king, that sounds pretty cool, right?"

"Then I held The One concert and brought it to the United States, in Las Vegas."

"I really thought the concert would be packed with fans holding light sticks and shouting Jay, Jay!"

"But the reality hit me hard. There are no stadiums, no venues that can accommodate 10,000 people, or even a few thousand people."

"But even if the venue can hold a thousand people, it's still not full. Most of the faces you see are familiar faces, all of them are overseas Chinese."

"Among the few foreigners, some were brought here by their Chinese friends."

Eric nodded silently: "So you face the reality?"

"It's about accepting reality. There are too many interfering factors. The first one is the language barrier. Not understanding the lyrics is a huge obstacle that cannot be overcome."

"You can't expect fans to learn a language just to understand it. There are too few such people."

Eric recalled the conversations he had with Michael, Ivy and others: "But I heard professionals explain that lyrics are not the most important thing, melody is more important."

"Yes, that's the second reason I want to talk about. The Chinese music scene generally doesn't pay much attention to composing music, which is the exact opposite of the European and American music scene."

“The arrangement is relatively simple and similar, but it is catchy and is well accepted by fans.”

"But it also caused singers to immerse themselves in this style. For example, the ones I sang were already unorthodox and very avant-garde."

"But even in my songs, I rarely use electronic music or other trendy things, while the European and American music scene is paying more and more attention to electronic dance music."

"You are not on the same wavelength at all. How can others accept you? To be more precise, you cannot fit into their environment."

Eric sighed: "The road is built step by step. At least we should have the courage. Look at Jackie Chan and Jet Li. After conquering Asia, they embarked on the road to conquer Hollywood."

“And they are all doing very well and have been recognized by the mainstream Hollywood market.”

Jay Chou continued to shake his head: "It's too difficult. The question is who has the courage? No one is willing to sacrifice themselves to pave a bloody path for their peers."

"Besides, even if I make sacrifices, I may not succeed. Wouldn't it be better to just enjoy the present moment? I can't do that anyway."

"But the Chinese music market is too small. If you want to make big money and gain fame, you still have to go global."

"We Chinese have an old saying that two birds in the bush are worth a bird in the hand. What you get in your hand is the best. Besides, I'm making a lot of money now, and I can't spend it all in my lifetime." "Anyway, I don't plan to break out of Asia for the time being. I hope someone can achieve this goal in the future."

Eric couldn't help but laugh in his heart. Even you, a leading figure and flagship figure in the Chinese music scene, seem to be content with enjoying yourself. How can you count on others?

It will only get worse and stinker in the future, and will be left further behind by the European and American music scene.

I saw Jay Chou off in the afternoon and ended a busy day at work.

It can be seen that Xiao Liu and Daddario both have longing expressions and want to ask him out to sleep with them.

But the last battle consumed too much of his energy, and he had been recuperating these days, so he reluctantly refused.

During this period, I felt that this was not a solution and I didn't want to die in bed at such a young age.

After asking my father, he recommended an Indian yoga master to me, saying that many people were learning from him and the results should be good.

But Eric didn't like Ah San, so he contacted Lao Han and asked him if he knew any great Chinese medicine masters, preferably those who knew the secret method of improving male sexual function.

Old Han was also shocked when he heard that he was now living in the same room with six women.

You can't be so reckless when you are young. Even if you continue to do this, even if you drink health wine like water, you won't make up for it.

But there is a solution. This wine was passed down from an old Chinese medicine doctor. Eric can come over when he has time and get the treatment in person.

It just so happens that the post-production of "The Meg" is almost completed, so I'll go over there and take a look at the results of the factory expansion.

Fast forward to late March, and "La Vie en Rose" was taken off the screen after two weeks of large-scale release.

In the end, the North American box office took in 8500 million US dollars, which is a very ideal result for an art film without intense conflicts.

There are still some countries around the world where the film has not been released, but it sold very well in Europe, especially in France, where it made it into the top ten at the French box office.

It is expected that the film will have no problem getting nearly 200 million US dollars at the box office, which is considered a big profit.

Apart from this, MGM has no movies on the big screen, and the two-month schedule is given to its younger brothers.

Because there were so many films piled up last year, the competition is still fierce.

Disney and Warner did not participate much in this period, only releasing a few low-budget films, and it seemed that they were also holding back to compete with MGM.

This month, Lionheart released four works at once: "Daredevil", "Rick and Morty", "Alone in the Wild" and "Family Quiz", all of which received good reviews.

Daredevil's fist-fighting fighting style, realistic painting style and portrayal of the dark atmosphere of Hell's Kitchen have made comic fans very satisfied.

Although the portrayal of superpowers is a little weak, Daredevil is a street hero after all, not the "Smallville" next door.

Do you know how uncomfortable it is for everyone to watch Smallville?
A man who everyone knows can fly, but has not been able to fly for 4 years. Come on, that's Superman, the Superman who can reverse time when he goes crazy.

Watching Daredevil in comparison, there is only one word to describe it: awesome!

Also being compared was Ben Affleck's movie version, which was heavily criticized at the time and was brought out again two years later, with many bloggers on YouTube comparing the film and criticizing it at the same time.

At the same time, "Daredevil" also let Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, and Luke Cage each guest-starred in one episode.

With such a positive response from the audience, Marvel and MGM announced that they would start their own independent series for the three characters.

Even more popular than Daredevil is Rick and Morty.

The looks of the two protagonists are obviously modeled after the male protagonist and the doctor in "Back to the Future", which makes people feel very friendly and familiar.

The story is even more imaginative, with elements of warmth, perversion, heavy taste, ethics, and passion.

And there are many tributes to classic movies, such as Alien, Sesame Street, Star Wars, Nightmare on Elm Street, Animal Farm, Jurassic Park, Star Trek, Pokémon, and Ghostbusters.
There is no most imaginable, only more imaginative.

The extreme novelty and abundant creativity immediately ignited the young population as soon as it went online, and many viewers who originally did not watch cartoons were also attracted.

It has only been less than a month since its launch, and there have been many arguments that "Rick and Morty" is a masterpiece that can be compared with "The Simpsons" and "South Park".

After just one season, a solid fan base of tens of millions has been built, and they are all clamoring for the program production team to work overtime to produce the next season.

But what the audience doesn’t know is that “Rick and Morty” is actually the most difficult of all Lionheart’s self-produced dramas.

After Eric proposed the conceptual framework, it took more than a year for the screenwriters to expand from 3 to 6, from 6 to 8, and finally from 8 to 11.

The number of screenwriters alone is several times that of other dramas, and yet only 15 episodes were produced in the end.

If this happened in China, hundreds of episodes would have been edited.

Of course, it’s also because it was the first time and the efficiency will be much higher in the second season, but the screenwriter team still cannot be reduced.

Not only should it not be cut, it must also be well protected to prevent it from being poached by those with ulterior motives.

The original time and space was poached by Marvel, and the highly acclaimed "Loki" was written by the screenwriter of "Rick and Morty".

With such a high cost, the economic benefits created are naturally far greater than those of ordinary dramas. The peripheral products of "Rick and Morty" sold very well and once again became a money-making tool for DoubleStar Entertainment and Hasbro.

"Alone in the Wild" is also very popular due to its novel variety show format, while "Family Quiz" is entertaining and funny in nature, and Steve Harvey was invited to be the host.

He is experienced and often makes witty remarks, making the audience laugh.

Why does Lionheart.com release so many new works at once?

The answer, of course, is to increase the company's valuation. Paramount, Fox, Sony and Universal are all urging Eric to sell his shares to them as soon as possible.

Before selling, you naturally have to increase the value as much as possible, so that you can make at least a few hundred million dollars more.

And when it came to mid-April, the whole Hollywood was struck by thunder.

Lionheart, Paramount, Fox, Sony and Universal issued a joint statement, and four of them officially joined the big family.

All the movies, TV series, and variety shows that the four companies have in their film libraries will be uploaded to Lionheart.com, causing the latter's film and television resources to increase several times in an instant.

It is totally worthy of being called the best in the world.

The market then understood why the two sides suddenly stopped fighting and made peace. The reason lies here.

The amount of money spent by the four companies has not been made public.

But there are a lot of rumors flying around, and one of them is the most credible.

Each company cost no less than $8 million, and the transaction cost at least $40 billion.

(End of this chapter)