hollywood melon man

Chapter 660 Further Action

Ever since Spider-Man 3 broke the first-week box office record of The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, this summer season was destined to be extremely lively.

On May 3, "Shrek the Third" was released and grossed $1 million in its first week, becoming the second movie of this summer to gross over $2162 million in its first week.

However, the sensation caused by the box office exceeding 3 million was not as explosive as that of Spider-Man , and the popular commercial films in recent years seem to be getting closer and closer to the box office of million US dollars in the first week.

But no matter what, since DreamWorks was divided up, the value of Paramount's acquisition of DreamWorks Animation Studios has been fully demonstrated this summer.

Moreover, the profit focus of animated films has never been on the box office, but on peripheral products.

However, "Shrek the Third" did not remain arrogant for long. The next weekend, it faced a heavyweight rival, the sequel to last year's highly successful "Pirates of the Caribbean" series.

However, there were some episodes before the release of this movie. Warner Pictures clearly informed Disney and Cantaloupe Studios that after the third film in the series, Warner would not participate in the production of subsequent series.

When Disney heard Warner Bros.' decision, he clapped and laughed, thinking that the executives of Warner Bros. had lost their minds.

Is this series exclusive to Disney from now on? No, there is also Cantaloupe Studios.

Currently, Warner Bros. Pictures and its parent company Time Warner Group are using their shares of Cantaloupe Studios in an orderly manner to exchange for the Warner shares held by Gilbert Jr.

I heard that there was a capital that wanted to buy the shares of Cantaloupe Studios with a large sum of money and wanted to participate in it. But Qili Ross's plan was to completely eliminate Gilbert Jr.'s influence from Warner Pictures, so she didn't agree.

Come to think of it, if we don't take back all of Gilbert Jr.'s Warner shares, how can we talk about eliminating Gilbert Jr.'s influence?
Of course, Warner has only said that it will not participate in the subsequent production of the two IPs "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "The Lord of the Rings", but has not said that it will not participate in the "Harry Potter" series.

It may be that "Harry Potter" is too profitable, so Warner is reluctant to give it up, so it continues to maintain its due share.

In fact, in the original history, there was no fourth or fifth part of "Pirates of the Caribbean". In fact, if the first part failed, there would be no sequel.

But the box office was too high and the returns were too great.

Unable to bear the high pay of the actors, Disney simply kicked the other two out and only kept Captain Jack as the core protagonist to shoot subsequent series of movies.

It’s just that Johnny Depp can be very difficult to deal with sometimes. Not only is his pay high, but he also has a weird temper.

Just after Warner decided to withdraw, Gilbert Jr. called Robert Iger and said that the series of films could continue to be filmed as long as the core character Captain Jack Sparrow was retained.

Robert Iger took the advice and although the third film has not yet been released, the idea of ​​making a fourth film is already under consideration at Disney.

The decoupling between Warner and Cantaloupe Studios is not limited to the film level, but also includes film-related products.

For example, the Disney-Warner Grand Theme Park, which had already started construction in Shanghai, became Disney's investment because of Warner's withdrawal.

Of course, apart from a portion of the other half of the shares being bought by local Chinese businessmen, the rest fell into the hands of Gilbert Jr.

Warner's series of actions are so big that they can't be hidden from others. Many people want to get involved to see if it is profitable.

But Warner and Cantaloupe Studios acted very quickly. As soon as one side sold off, the other side took over immediately, leaving very little opportunity for others to intervene.

What puzzles many people is why Warner is so anxious to decouple from Gilbert Jr. You know, Gilbert Jr. is Warner's performance guarantee. Isn't it self-destructive to do so?

Although David Ellison was recently lured away by Gilbert Jr. to play with Megan Fox, and Andrew Garfield even ran away to Gilbert Jr.,

But he has been very honest during this period, and has no intention of revenge at all, which makes people feel unlike him. But in fact, David Ellison received a warning from his father Larry Ellison to keep a low profile during this period and not to be accidentally hurt.

In the past, his competition with Gilbert Jr. was generally controllable and a fair competition.

But the struggle between that group of people and Little Gilbert was basically a life-and-death struggle. If David Ellison got involved without thinking, the one who would die in the fight between the two sides would be David Ellison.

David Ellison has also seen the situation that Will Smith and his wife have been in Hollywood in recent times. These are people who work for them, but they were abandoned just like that.

Although David Ellison is in Hollywood, he also belongs to the old Silicon Valley capital and is a squid man.

In such a situation, no matter how much he hated Gilbert Jr. personally, he had to remain neutral to avoid causing unnecessary trouble to the Ellison family.

Sure enough, Gilbert Jr. was saved, but David Ellison felt that the matter would not end so easily. The separation of Warner and Cantaloupe Studios was a foreshadowing of the next step, and there was a big thing hidden behind it.

Michael Ovitz largely agrees with David Ellison's analysis, saying: "On the surface, Warner's behavior is indeed stupid.

But behind this surface of stupidity, there is actually a bigger plan.

I have heard that a private equity firm on Wall Street has contacted Warner Bros., probably for the remaining shares of Cantaloupe Studios in Warner Bros.’s hands, as well as the copyrights to so many high-quality series of films.”

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David Ellison has been around for a few years and is not stupid. He immediately said, "So these people want to interfere with Cantaloupe Studios?

But will this work? To cause trouble?

Everyone knows that although those movie copyrights are high-quality assets, the most important thing for Cantaloupe Studios is always Little Gilbert. According to the current situation, it is basically impossible for those people to control Little Gilbert.

If I can’t control Little Gilbert, even if I control Cantaloupe Studios, it’s all meaningless.”

"That's true," Michael Ovitz shook his head and said, "This is not just a war at the Hollywood level, it may involve Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and the wars between those old financial groups.

We know too little information, so we can only remain as spectators. David, only people of your father's level are qualified to participate."

David Ellison was a little unconvinced. Michael Ovitz meant that Gilbert Jr. was also at the same level as his father.

But after calming down and thinking about it, it is true that the two sides are not on the same level.

But David Ellison still refused to accept it. It doesn’t matter about other aspects, but in terms of film, I, David Ellison, am the only rival of Little Gilbert.

Only I am qualified to defeat him, no one else can.

After thinking for a while, David Ellison said to Michael Ovitz: “Keep an eye on Mel in the near future and don’t let him mess things up.

It’s too sensitive now. If I show my head, I’ll be killed as the first one to come out.”

Michael Ovitz nodded: "Don't worry, I have already told him that the Australians will be honest."

Mel Gibson obviously hated Gilbert Jr., after all, he was imprisoned for more than ten years because of Gilbert Jr. But this is not the time to take revenge, Mel Gibson needs to calm down.

(End of this chapter)