I’m in Hollywood

Chapter 577

After a conversation with Amy Pascal, Eric temporarily let go of the flower film industry.

After Halloween, time went to November 1993, "Jurassic Park" global box office is getting closer and closer to 1 billion US dollars, which also caused the media to heat again after breaking the "et" box office record. Negotiation.

Eric has lived a busy life in different studios or studios these days. While checking the progress of the production or production of the big productions involved in the fireflies, Eric will also take into account the acquisition process of the TV network. From time to time, I have to participate in some party invitations that cannot be resigned.

Fortunately, the firefly's film announcement department is very mature and perfect. Under the control of Michael Lynn, Kasenberg and others, Eric does not need to worry about the release of the end-of-season film, otherwise he will be more busy.

Another day's work, Eric watched the filming progress of "Black Man", and Peter Cooper laughed and walked out of the studio of Culver City's Columbia Film Company, just planning to get out of the car and carry it around. The phone rang.

The phone was called by Michael Lynn. The two simply said something on the phone. Eric dismissed the idea of ​​returning to the stables and told the driver to go to the Firefly Films headquarters in Burbank.

Entering a conference room at the Burbank Firefly headquarters, Eric found that the main high-level fireflies, such as Michael Lynn and Jeffrey Kasenberg, have already appeared here.

However, Eric was keenly aware that these people had a touch of joy on their faces, so they put down their original fears. Simply greeted. Eric sat down on his seat. Smiling and asked: "Is there any good news?"

Michael Lynn, sitting next to Eric, handed a document to Eric. Some excitement said: "The latest box office statistics have been released, and the latest box office data for Jurassic Park is $100.3 million. Eric, your original prediction has been realized. Because today is Wednesday, The box office data for this week's workday will not be counted until Friday, so most people outside of the world still don't know the data, but we can publicly announce the news tomorrow."

Eric opened the file and saw the box office data for more than fifty countries in the file table, as well as the results of the striking 1 llion data at the end of the form. Nodded in satisfaction, put the documents aside and asked Michael Lynn: "I think you are so rushing to call me, isn't it just this thing?"

"Let Jeffrey say it," Michael Lynn pointed to Kasenberg.

Kasenberger handed over an envelope: "Eric, this is what we just received this afternoon, Warren Buffett's personal letter, you should check it out."

Eric heard of Buffett's name, not too surprised, Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway company is one of the major shareholders of abc TV. In the hands of abc more than 25% of the equity, fireflies want to buy abc. In any case, it is definitely impossible to bypass Buffett’s hurdles.

Open the envelope, there is only a simple piece of stationery, the content is very simple, Buffett wants to invite Eric to Omaha to talk about abc.

The envelope did not contain any seals or postmarks. Obviously the letter was handed over by someone else and was not sent by postal route.

After reading this text message, Eric looked up: "Have you seen it?"

Michael and others nodded at the same time.

Kasenberg is the main person in charge of the abc acquisition. At this time, he said: "From this letter, Buffett should have already discovered our intentions."

Eric folded the letter paper back into the envelope and asked, "Jeffrey, how are you doing here?"

Kasenberg said: "In order to avoid causing too much attention, we also absorbed the stocks of the three major TV stations in the secondary market. At present, we have about 7% of abc stocks in our hands, and the other two are relatively few. Less than 5%. In addition, abc's share price has risen from 43 dollars three months ago to the current 47 dollars, with a total market value of 96.7 billion US dollars."

Firefly originally planned to absorb abc about 10% of the stock, open the news and join the abc board, but now Buffett has already noticed this, and it is certainly not easy to implement the original plan.

Eric took a moment to say: "As soon as possible, all the stocks of the other two companies will be sold out, and the news that the Jurassic Park box office will break 1 billion will be announced tomorrow. In addition, a letter will be sent to Mr. Buffett to invite him to participate. "Jurassic Park" global box office broke the $1 billion celebration."

"Eric, this doesn't necessarily hold the initiative," Frank Wells, who hasn't spoken, said: "Although Berkshire Hathaway has only 25% of abc stock, at this time abc's chairman Tom. Murphy is also a major shareholder and a good friend of Warren Buffett. I think if we are interested in acquiring it, it is best to go to Omaha in person."

Frank Wells finished, although several executives in the conference room who were over 50 years old did not speak, but Eric could still see the approval from Jeffrey, Michael Lynn and others. For their generation, Buffett is a legend of wealth, and Eric can also appreciate their worship of Buffett.

However, Eric has other considerations. During this time, a large part of Eric’s energy is placed on the acquisition of the TV network. For Buffett, who directly controls the large shares of abc, Eric may not do anything. To understanding.

Buffett is definitely a person who decides to move. If there is no decision in his heart, Eric believes that it is absolutely impossible for him to receive Buffett’s invitation letter today. At the same time, Buffett has absolute rationality in investment, Eric believes that the other party will not easily change his attitude towards him because of the change at home.

In addition to these, Eric certainly has the mind to master some initiative, although Michael Lynn and others are not optimistic. Eric will not try.

"Okay. Just decide it. Everyone is ready." Eric waved his hand and set it down completely.

On the second day, Firefly announced the news that Jurassic Park’s global box office broke one billion. However, the celebration banquet was arranged after a week. The reason is mainly to give enough stock for hand nbc and cbs. time.

At the same time, after receiving a reply from the firefly, Buffett is as Eric expected. Accepted the invitation of the Jurassic Park celebration party.

As the Thanksgiving Festival of the new year approaches, the Thanksgiving-Christmas season is also open. On November 19th, Firefly launched the last film "Detective Aircraft Head 2" in cooperation with Jim Carrey. The first three days of the weekend is not good. Unexpectedly made a box office of nearly 30 million US dollars. The "Night Vampire" and Quentin's "Pulp Fiction", which are mainly responsible for the impact of Oscar, are scheduled for December.

In the same week, the Columbia Film Company also released Wu Baige’s second film, Broken Arrow, directed by Hollywood. The film’s performance was not as good as last year’s Smiths, but it was also influenced by the Smiths last year. According to the influence of this, Baige Wu has accumulated a good box office base in North America. "Broken Arrow" also received a box office of 32 million US dollars for the first three days of the weekend. Because the cost of this film is relatively low, as long as less than 50 million US dollars. Therefore, there is no problem in recovering costs.

However, what surprised many people is that the box office dark horse at the end of this year is not any of the films such as "Detective Aircraft Head 2" and "Broken Arrow". Instead, the cost of a 20th Century Fox is only over 2,000. Ten thousand dollars of "Daddy Daddy", this Robin Williams starred in the family comedy film three days time box office is close to 20 million US dollars, and the word-of-mouth is so good, the box office statistics based on the film's first week of the box office curve As well as the audience's word of mouth, it gives an amazing estimate of the $200 million North American box office, and several of them are ten times the cost of film production.

Because of this, Elizabeth saw Eric involuntarily when she saw Eric, and she was proud of her appearance until she was cleaned up by Eric.

On November 22nd, near the evening, although the celebration party has not yet begun, the sharp corner manor is already overcrowded, and Eric Carra is hiding behind a seat outside the villa, and jokes: "Jeffrey, I I think that you insist that I put the Jurassic Park celebration feast on the sharp corner manor is the biggest mistake. You must know that Warren Buffett is a very frugal person, most hate the rich and extravagant waste. Maybe he saw These are not willing to sell abc to us."

"Buffett's good friend and partner Charlie Munger not only has his own private jet, but also has a private island, and he has not seen Buffett and the other party. As far as I know, Buffett is indeed a thrifty person, but he will not I urge others to do the same. Well, Eric, I know that you don't like to party in your own estate. Today is different, isn't it, even if there is no Warren Buffett, today is the Jurassic Park global box office. Even a break of the $1 billion celebration feast is worth celebrating."

The two were chatting, and Drew, wearing a beautiful red dress, walked with Amy Pascal, and Xiao Nizi embraced Jeffrey intimately and got to Eric.

Jeffrey noticed that Amy Pascal seemed to have something to talk to Eric, and he took the initiative to get up and go elsewhere.

Eric gestured to Amy Pascal to sit down and ask, "Amy, is there anything?"

Amy Pascal said: "We have recently contacted all the companies in the "Spider-Man" copyright, Carlos Pictures, but the other party does not agree to transfer the copyright to us."

Eric recalled and asked: "Now Carlos Film is still responsible for Mario Casal?"

Amy Pascal nodded and said: "Since the summer file "The Bears" and "The Last Action Hero" lost at the box office, Caroline has been in a semi-closed state for the past six months. However, when I contact Mario At the time of Casal, he directly rejected the intention of us to purchase the copyright of Spider-Man when I just said my intention."

“Only these?” Eric asked.

Amy Pascal said: "Of course not. He said that he can cooperate with us to develop "Spider-Man", but will never sell "Spider-Man" to us."

"He must have guessed that you are behind the scenes of this matter," Xiao Nizi snorted on Eric, and laughed heartily.

Eric pulled the **** of Xiao Nizi's ear and thought about it for a moment. "What is the form of Carolock's purchase of "Spider-Man"?"

"It seems to have been bought for five years, bought from 1990, and the deadline is 1995. However, I have also found some subsidiary clauses. If within five years, if Carlos Films developed the "Spider-Man" movie, then the copyright will be It is automatically extended for five years. Also, the copyright transfer contracts for Captain America and Fantastic Four are similar to Spider-Man.

This is a very troublesome thing.

Eric thought about it. He remembered that the original Caroline movie was probably bankrupt in about 1995. Then the copyright of Spider-Man automatically returned to the Marvel Comics, and because the Marvel Comics just happened to be in an extremely difficult time, he had to Once sold to Sony Pictures, since then, because of the great success of the big movie developed by Sony, the return of "Spider-Man" has become far away.

Eric quickly thought of other things and asked: "Where is the main equity of Caroline's film now?"

"I don't know this very well, but the controlling stake should be in the hands of some funds on Wall Street. Eric, I am worried that if Mario Casal reveals this, it is likely to attract other film companies to compete for "Spider-Man". Copyright, Marvel Comics may also be in trouble."

Eric did not answer Amy’s concerns and asked: “If we buy the Caroline film, how much does it cost?”

"Probably, tens of millions of dollars. Although Carlos Pictures has produced and released a lot of movies in recent years, there are not many successes, or else there will be no bankruptcy status now."

"You collect relevant information. If Mario Casal insists on not letting go, then buy the entire Carlos film. I think those on Wall Street are now very happy to cash this mess."

Amy asked the question just now: "But if they realize that you are interested in the copyright of Spider-Man?"

Eric shook his head and smiled: "Do not worry, now is not the time to develop "Spider-Man", otherwise, do you think that the seven major film companies will let the superheroes of the comics fall into the hands of second- and third-rate movie companies, so Even if it is robbed by other film companies, it is not a big problem. It will be a big deal to start an acquisition. I still have many years." (To be continued.)

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