I’m in Hollywood

After attending the product launch conference of Firefly Electronics, the next day, Eric took the VH-60N helicopter retrieved from Larry Ellison and flew to the lonely town of Los Angeles, more than two hundred kilometers away from Los Angeles. Continue to film the exterior scene of Iron Man.

At the same time, entering the working day, under the hype of the three joint efforts, "Ace of the Great Spy 2" continued to harvest the box office at a rate of more than 6 million US dollars a day.

In the end, after the $46.99 million box office for the first three days of the first weekend, the full first week box office of "Ace of Heroes 2" reached $73.6 million. Created a first-week box office number that many blockbuster films are hard to match.

In comparison, the most media-loving "City of Angels", the first week of the box office was only 23.96 million US dollars, directly by the "Austin Powers 2" pulled out several positions.

The quality of the film "The City of Angels" is not too bad. Warner’s marketing is not too careless. However, under the ingenious marketing methods of Firefly, Fox and MGM, which together fully promote the audience’s emotions, Angel The City is almost completely in the state of being forgotten by the audience. Although Warner tried his best to remedy it, he still couldn’t get much attention from the ace of the slogan.

As it turns out, a film that lacks attention, the box office often has a bleak picture of a bad film that everyone has been slashing. What's more, although most of the film critics have been tagged with bad films, the reputation of "Ace Big Spy 2" on the ordinary audience is not bad.

In the Easter week, "Wedding Singer" and "Different" were simultaneously filed on a large scale. Inspired by the excellent box office results of "Ace Big Spy 2", the marketing departments of the three companies made persistent efforts to flexibly change the promotion strategy and hit ' More choices of 'slogan' continue to build momentum for the Easter Movie Package.

Although the topic of "Austin Powers 2" is very high, there are still a large number of people who do not like this kind of slap. The release of "Wedding Singer" and "Different Kind" just gave this group of people who want to enter the cinema to join in the fun, but also for the "Ace of Heroes 2" is a new choice, the marketing strategy of the three companies is also very accurate The focus is on this point.

As a result, many theater operators have found that the number of viewers entering the cinema during the Easter weekend has increased significantly compared to previous years.

So until the 13th of April, Monday.

Warner Bros. CEO Richard Parsons arrived at Burbank Warner Bros. headquarters early in the morning, and the secretary had placed the box office data for the Easter weekend on his desk in advance.

In addition to the new line and two new films from MGM, there were other low-cost films on Friday.

However, looking at the box office data in hand, Richard Parsons slightly frowned, the three films of the Firefly system, no suspense high hanging in the top three positions of this weekend's box office list.

Due to the intensification of competition, this week, there has not been a situation in which the "Ace of the Great Spy 2" was the only one in the past week.

As the most popular warm love comedy, New Line Film's "Wedding Singer" won the 31.7 million US dollars at the box office in three days, and ranked first in the box office of the Easter weekend.

Subsequent "Austin Powers 2", compared to the first weekend, the box office decline remained at a very impressive 45%, and then received 25.85 million US dollars, ranking second in the box office rankings.

It is worth mentioning that, in just ten days, the total box office of the "Austin Powers 2" in North America reached 99.45 million US dollars, only a very small gap of 550,000 US dollars.

In comparison, the main sci-fi horror "Different" performance was slightly weaker, the first three days of the box office was only 21.77 million US dollars.

Of course, this weakness is only relative to the other two films of the Firefly system. Because, the fourth-ranked Universal Studios film "Desperate", the first three days of the box office was only 13.12 million US dollars, compared with "Different" compared to nearly 9 million US dollars.

The fifth place in the rankings is Warner Bros.'s "City of Angels". It was squeezed by this series of films. "City of Angels" fell by 46% in the second week, leaving only $819.000 in the box office at the weekend. Ten days of cumulative box office of 32.15 million US dollars, still only one-third of the "Austin Powers 2".

It can be said that "Austin Powers 2" is definitely the biggest winner of this year's Easter season.

Putting down the box office data file, Richard Parsons smashed his forehead and thought about it bit by bit. Perhaps, if the companies of the Firefly System launch the 'Easter Film Package' next year, the inside will definitely be the first. There is a dispute in the first place, and it may be very lively at that time.

You should know that in the current situation, the "Ace of the Great Spy 2" ten-day box office is nearly 100 million. In the future, at least two weeks of centralized box office crediting period, at least you can get 60 million US dollars for the "Ace of the Great Spy 2". At the box office around, the entire North American box office cycle, if the performance is a little stronger, the total box office of "Ace of the Great Spy 2" may even go between 180 million and 200 million US dollars.

In comparison, whether it is "Wedding Singer" or "Different", according to the current opening, the limit of the North American box office is about 100 million US dollars, and this possibility is still very low, "Wedding Singer" may be able to come. With 100 million thresholds, "Different" is obviously unlikely.

In the Easter season, I got a $100 million North American box office, even if it was only 70 million. In terms of low-cost production specifications in the two films, this is definitely an exciting success. However, this success and Compared with "Austin Powers 2", it is destined to be inferior.

In the face of the income gap of hundreds of millions of dollars, Richard Parsons does not feel that the three companies will maintain the current close cooperation.

So comforted for a moment, Richard Parsons thought of Warner Bros.'s "City of Angels", and suddenly regretted it. At the beginning, he did not do his best to promote the three fireflies on the 'Easter Film Package'. Cooperation.

Everyone can see that the three films launched by the Firefly System are not too good in quality. The biggest reason for the success at the box office this time is the result of the marketing of the three companies in the previous period.

Warner had a great chance to join the program, and even the cooperation initiated by the fireflies, but because of the delays in the implementation of the specific executives, Warner missed the opportunity.

The Cost of Making the City of Angels is $55 million and the cost of the declaration is $25 million. The overall budget size reached 80 million US dollars.

Now, according to the box office data of "City of Angels", the North American box office of this film is probably only about 50 million US dollars. Warner's issuance department even considers canceling overseas issuance, directly adopting the method of selling copyright to collect funds, so probably Can only recover about 10 million US dollars.

Then, there are less than 40 million funds that can be returned at the box office before and after Warner. The late DVD release and TV broadcast rights revenue, due to the long cycle, will not be considered for the time being, which means that Warner's book loss on this project will exceed 40 million US dollars in the short term.

Although the Time Warner Group has a big family business, the loss of 40 million US dollars is definitely not a small amount.

Although the responsibility that this cooperation failed to achieve was not in Richard Parsons, last week's high-level meeting, someone has attacked him with this question. Richard Parsons also regrets very much. After all, as the CEO of Warner Bros., if he wants to force this cooperation that is not too big, no one can stop it.

However, although he is the CEO of Warner Bros., the group's film department is also intertwined with various factions. It is possible to intensify the internal contradictions of the company. Richard Parsons did not do this, so it was easy to get it. A performance has become a mistake in decision-making now.

Richard Parsons is considering how to resolve the impact this may have on his future. The office door knocked and the secretary pushed the door open: "Mr. Parsons, Mr. Levin is here."

The secretary said that a man with tall hair but a little gray has already walked into the office. It is Gerald Levine, the current vice chairman of Time Warner Group, in addition to his position at Warner, Gerald Leh. Wen is also one of Time Warner's heavyweight individual shareholders.

Richard Parsons is in the next step of Gerald Levin's support, and he is one of Gerald Levin's most effective cadres. Seeing Gerald Levin entering the office, Richard Parsons quickly got up and greeted him.

The two embraced passionately, and Richard Parsons told the secretary to go to the coffee and sit on the sofa in the reception area with Gerald Levin. "Jerry, how come you are this time." come?"

"I just met Steve Case at the weekend, some things, I plan to talk to you," Gerald Levin said, noting that Richard Parsons had not completely dissipated on his face. Worry, said: "What happened to you?"

Richard Parsons got up with a wry smile and walked over to his desk and took the document he had just read and handed it to Gerald Levin. "It’s still the box office in Easter."

Gerald Levin took a few words from the document and threw it away. The tone was easy: "Don't worry, as long as we do the next thing, these little things will not affect you any more. Moreover, Fred, who is responsible for the release, is a Semel person, and you can push this mistake to them."

As they chatted, the secretary of Richard Parsons gave the two men coffee, and the conversation paused for a while, waiting for the glamorous blonde beauty to leave, and the conversation between the two continued.

"I have talked in detail with Steve Case, as long as we can work together to promote the merger of AOL and Time Warner, he is willing to share with us the new company of the future. At that time, Time Warner is still us. I have the final say."

Since last year, Gerald Levin has started secret contact with AOL CEO Steve Case to discuss the merger of the two companies. As a pro-information of Levin, Richard Parsons has always been aware of the inside story.

Just picking up the coffee cup, Richard Parsons had some doubts when he heard Gerald Levin's words. "Jerry, what do you mean, is this merger led by AOL?"

Gerald Levine nodded: "In theory, this is indeed the case. AOL launched a merger with Time Warner, and we respond accordingly."

Richard Parsons frowned slightly. In recent months, with the return of a large amount of hot money caused by the Asian financial turmoil, the North American Nasdaq index has once again started to rise rapidly, as one of the most watched technology stocks, the United States. The online market value has exceeded $30 billion.

However, Time Warner’s market capitalization is close to $50 billion, and this is only the apparent gap in stock market value.

If you say the strength, Time Warner is able to open AOL far away. Others don't say that, just the annual turnover, Time Warner Group is five times more than AOL.

Therefore, Richard Parsons is hard to accept that the acquisition is dominated by AOL. He does not think that AOL, which is swelled by new technology, is eligible to acquire old media giants such as Time Warner.

However, it is hard to accept that Richard Parsons quickly thought about it, and only by giving the lead to AOL, can they ensure that they have sufficient power in the merged new company. Otherwise, if Time Warner dominates the acquisition, as a group with weak internal forces, the control of the M&A transaction will not fall to Levin.

Step by step to this day, Time Warner is basically a publicly held company, and important individual shareholders like Gerald Levin are basically holding single digits for the entire Time Warner Group. Within.

Because the shareholder power is too scattered, and no one has a decisive right to speak, the management of Time Warner Group is basically the controller of the media giant. As long as he can get the control of Time Warner, even if it involves his own interests as a shareholder, Gerald Levin is willing to make certain sacrifices, not to mention the interests of other shareholders of the group.

So, after getting the promise of Steve Case, Gerald Levin did not hesitate to give up the power to dominate the acquisition.

Quickly figured this out, Richard Parsons drank the coffee in his mouth and put down the cup, saying: "So, Jerry, the most important question, what is the attitude of the firefly, they are the AOL A big shareholder?"

"Chris Hansen, the head of Firefly Investment, made it clear that AOL is moving towards a comprehensive media group. This is probably what Eric Williams means. They don't want AOL to get involved in the media industry, but want to let It is focused on being a network service provider," Gerald Levin explained. "However, Firefly's investment in AOL is only 30%, and Steve Case is lobbying AOL's other shareholders. On his own side, he doesn't have to worry about it. We just need to solve the problem on Time Warner's side."

Richard Parsons nodded and said, "What do you need me to do?"

"I also need to lobby Time Warner's directors and shareholders during this time. What you have to do is to discuss the details of the merger plan with Steve Case. I hope that the two sides can reach a preliminary merger intention at the end of the year."