I’m in Hollywood

I noticed that Julia pointed to herself, and several people who were chatting, Holly Hunt, took the initiative.

Eric and the other party chilled a few words, waiting for them to leave, did not glance at the innocent Julia.

Julia shrank her neck, looking forward with a gaze, whispered: "Eric, you are angry, right? Are you going to pack me?"

“No,” Eric shook his head and said, “I will be good to you, using the gentlest way in the world.”

"Uh huh."

Julia millet glutinous rice nodded, obviously not against this way.

Ok, I can't get rid of it.

On Monday morning, it was customary to have breakfast with Kasenberg, and by the way discuss recent corporate affairs.

Elizabeth has not yet finished her 'arguing trip', Eric called her on the phone yesterday, only to know that the cause of the incident is about Fox TV, Murdoch wants a strange woman to serve on Fox TV. Elizabeth naturally does not agree.

For this kind of family, Eric is not very good at intervening.

Waking up early in the mansion of Julia and Elizabeth Beverly at the top of the mountain, I thought that Julia would stay in bed, Eric planned to leave, but did not want Julia to get up, just to Burbank The firefly headquarters are still a little confused.

"Early, Eric," Kasenberg seems to be always a vigorous and energetic look. He walked into the restaurant and shook hands with Eric, and greeted Julia with enthusiasm: "Early, 茱Leah."

Julia put up her spirit and nodded to Kasenberg: "Jeffrey, early."

After greeting, Eric and Kasenberg sat down at the table, and Julia sat lazily next to Eric.

Kasenberger probably understands Julia's state. I don't need to worry about what I want to talk about today. I didn't care. I ordered breakfast to the waiter. Kasenberg couldn't wait to ask: "Eric Have you seen AOL's quarterly earnings report?"

Most of the listed companies' quarterly earnings reports will be announced in the end of the month after the end of the quarter or in the second month of the second month. Today, on January 18th, Eric did not expect that AOL will announce the quarterly earnings in advance, but Thinking about the situation facing AOL during this time, Steve Case's behavior is not difficult to understand.

In the past 1998, the Nasdaq index finally settled at 2,733.

As of December 31, the stock prices of a series of technology companies in the Nasdaq market reached a record high, and Microsoft's market value successfully broke through 400 billion US dollars, reaching 418.5 billion US dollars, firmly occupying the top position of the global enterprise market value list. position. Cisco, the best-performing technology company in the firefly system, has a market capitalization of $166.6 billion and is ranked 10th in the global corporate market capitalization rankings.

After Yahoo went through a market outbreak, the stock price has been in a very unstable state of adjustment. However, before the end of last year, the market value eventually remained at a high level of 106.7 billion US dollars.

At the same time last year, all the technology companies controlled by Firefly Investment had a scale of less than 200 billion US dollars. Now, only Cisco and Yahoo have a market capitalization of more than 270 billion US dollars. In addition, compared with last year, Nokia’s The market value has also doubled to $66.5 billion.

Counting the Firefly Group, a media group that has not been listed but whose valuation is absolutely more than $100 billion, the Firefly System is equivalent to having three corporate giants with a market capitalization of more than $100 billion.

If the Nasdaq index collapses ahead of this year as Eric expects, this year will also be the peak of Eric’s personal life. Although it has not been specifically counted, it was accepted in New York last November. The Times’s $265 billion in wealth, Eric’s latest personal data, will definitely break through $300 billion.

It is conceivable that after the collapse of the Nasdaq index, Eric’s personal identity would like to reach the current level. According to the development track of the new technology industry, it will take at least another ten years.

However, by then, once Eric's personal worth reaches this year's level, then the bubble content of Eric's assets will never be as serious as it is now.

This information flashed through my mind, and Eric shook his head. "Not yet, so what is the situation now?"

Kasenberger waved his assistant in the distance to help him bring a laptop. After opening it, he showed it in front of Eric. "America has just released data, in the fourth quarter of last year, AOL camp. The amount received was US$1.125 billion, a 46% increase from the same period last year, and a 21% increase from the previous quarter. The single-quarter profit was US$190.5 million, and the year-on-year increase was also 41%. Both far exceed Wall Street’s expectations."

This is the internal restaurant of the Firefly Burbank headquarters. Eric deliberately laid the WIFI network here in advance. Kasenberg said that he skillfully switched a web page to the AOL stock price display page.

At this time, the Eastern Time was nearly eleven o'clock, and Eric saw only a steep upward curve.

After more than an hour of opening, AOL's share price rose 11%, and the market value reached 73.6 billion US dollars.

Eric carefully read all the data on the browser and laughed: "This is a good thing. AOL will buy back the 3.1% stock in the hands of the clover fund next month. There are hundreds of millions more dollars in revenue.” Eric said, simply open the calculator that comes with the laptop and calculate it. “According to the current stock price, it should be $2.28 billion, maybe the next few. Weeks will rise a lot, and we may even get $2.5 billion in the end."

“$2.5 billion,” Kasenberger couldn’t help but feel a bit sighed. Although the Shamrock Fund was already a high buy when it absorbed the stock, if it could recover $2.5 billion, it’s already achieved compared to the initial investment. After several times the profit, suddenly remembered something, Kasenberg said: "Exactly, it is enough to buy Hasbro."

Although Hasbro has not announced the fourth quarter of last year's earnings report, and because the Star Wars prequel was released at the end of December, even if it is announced, the sales failure around the Star Wars will not cause too much for Hasbro's financial report in the last quarter of last year. Impact, however, in the past half a month, the news of the loss of toy sales around the Star Wars has also spread, during this time, Hasbro's high share price has begun to show a downward trend.

When he heard that Kasenberger mentioned Hasbro, Eric asked: "Speaking, is there a report from the Consumer Products Department that there is a sales failure around the Star Wars?"

Kasenberg nodded and said: "I have been staring. I can transfer the detailed documents to you in a few days. However, the basic questions are very clear. Hasbro lost this time mainly because they performed too Greedy. The license fee of 100 million US dollars, correspondingly, has almost obtained the authorization of peripheral products of more than half of the Star Wars. According to the survey of the Consumer Products Department, Hasbro launched a batch based on the latest characters in the Star Wars prequel. Toys are still very popular, but because there are too many types of products, it affects consumers' shopping choices. After receiving, only a core batch of toys are welcomed, and most other products are in a state of slow sales. I think, in the future We should carry out more precise and detailed classification of the company's film peripheral products, and strictly limit the types of peripheral products."

Eric listened carefully and finally said: "This year our "Iron Man", "Cars" and "The Lord of the Rings" have a very rich potential for peripheral product development, so you better stare at me personally. I don't want the consumer product department to just sum up the experience, but not to practice it."

"I understand," Kasenberg agreed. The waiter brought up the breakfast for the three people, the conversation was suspended for a while, and waited for the waiter to leave, Kasenberg said: "And, about the '4200' plan, Eric, North America, although the final contract still In the negotiations, however, 2,000 3D screens and 100 IMAX screens have basically been confirmed to be spread out at the end of the year when "Gravity" is released. However, overseas, I think it may happen for one to two months. delay."

Eric initially hoped that the promotion of 3D and IMAX screens could be synchronized globally. However, after preparations for the past year, he gradually recognized the reality. The North American market is better. The overseas film market is subject to the corresponding countries' markets, policies, etc. With a variety of complex factors, it is basically impossible to achieve synchronization.

Of course, the IMAX auditorium, which is completely controlled by the Firefly Group, may do this, but the other 2,000 3D screens that want to be spread out in overseas markets are harder. It is obviously not enough to distribute 100 IMAX screens in other countries around the world. It is impossible for fireflies to let Gravity and The Lord of the Rings appear on the 100 screens in advance.

Eric did not suspect that Kasenberg had not done his best in this matter. Since he proposed it at this time, it basically proved that things could not be done.

"In this case, it is good to ensure that North America is synchronized," Eric said quickly. "As long as North America is successful, I think overseas expansion will definitely be very fast."

"However, on the North American side, I met with representatives of several major theaters last week. They still have some hesitation, mainly about the source of the film," Kasenberger nodded and said: "From November "Gravity" to December "The Lord of the Rings", only one month in the middle, because of the popularity of the two films, the theater is also very optimistic about the two films can support the two-month 3D movie market. However, from December The "Lord of the Rings" went to another 3D source "Decapitated Valley" that we determined, but it has a gap of more than three months, even if the "Lord of the Rings" can hold up the two-month schedule, these 2,000 The 3D auditorium will also be missing a film source for a month, so the cinema dealers need us to provide at least two more 3D movie sources."

According to the current state of the art, the main difficulty of 3D film source is still in cost, and the time cost is still second. According to the scale of 2000 screens, only the cost of copying and copying costs can increase the cost of a movie by millions of dollars. The budget, if it is low-cost production of less than 50 million US dollars, only these two costs, it is possible to reach 10% of the production budget.

Even, this is not a more expensive version of IMAX. Compared to ordinary 3D film copies, the cost of IMAX-3D film copy is ten times that of copy. If both formats are available, the release of that film will be even more huge.

However, since the idea was to be promoted, there was no room for retreat at this time. Eric took a sip of the mineral water next to him and asked Kasenberg, "What do you mean?"

Kasenberg said: "It is too risky to put the big hard drive in the cold door of February and March. If you choose low-cost production, you can't highlight the visual advantages of 3D and IMAX movies. I think maybe we can get from the film. Curry picks up some classic blockbusters for conversion, which reduces both risk and visual effects."

Listening to Kasenberg, Eric immediately thought of a series of 3D resets in the original time and space. However, he quickly shook his head and said, "No, it is not the time."

Although many 3D reset movies in memory have gotten a very good box office, it is generally a movie that has been released ten or twenty years later.

Less than a decade after the rise of Hollywood special effects movies, before the 1990s, Eric couldn’t think of too many 3D conversions. After the 1990s, there were too many.

Only the Firefly Group, the Jurassic Park series, the Terminator series, Tornado, Independence Day, etc. all have the potential for 3D conversion. However, compared with the past, the release years of these films are too short to reach the point of selling feelings. Moreover, although I am very satisfied with the 3D movie system developed by Firefly, Eric hopes that this technology can be developed for another 10 years before the 3D version of these classic movies can be released.

Kasenberg didn't expect Eric to refuse, and asked: "Eric, according to the re-enactment of the Disney animation once in seven years, is actually ok. Although it is a movie for adults, it is 7 years in North America. It’s the same thing to create a whole new audience."

"I don't mean this," Eric shook his head. "It's true that it was re-enacted in seven years, but I don't want to rush to tap the commercial potential of these films. Maybe, wait a decade or so, Waiting for these films to become classic memories of a generation, and then re-enacting the 3D version, we will get better market results. Now, just to fill the vacancy, take these classic films out, it’s too It's worth it."

"In this case," Kasenberg is obviously somewhat convinced by Eric. "We can only cash out from the existing film. It is said that the "Night Legend" is good, the cold Gothic style. The violent gun battle scene, if made into 3D, will definitely achieve very good results, but the new line has already fixed the movie in the summer file."