Made in Hollywood

Irene Lauder flew to Tokyo early the next morning. Not only did Duke go to the airport in person, he also let his business jet take her there. When she returned to the hotel, it was close to noon, so she simply used it. At lunch, he declined invitations to several events, and he finally had an afternoon of free time.

Duke didn’t plan to go to see the films screened at the film festival, nor did he plan to wander around Shanghai. He had been to this city countless times before, and he would definitely not have the novelty and curiosity. Perhaps his mental age is indeed older. He is less and less interested in non-essential communication and entertainment, and more and more likes a quiet environment.

Standing taller, he can naturally see far away. Coupled with his own character, his mentality is more stable than before.

Perhaps it was because he was carrying pressure all the year round, he was used to living under heavy pressure, sitting leisurely in the suite living room for a while, watching TV, Duke was boringly distracted, he seemed to have gone back to the past. The experience of struggle at the bottom of the crew, until Tina Fei walked out of the study, the sound of the wooden door brought his thoughts back to reality.

Although he returned to his former homeland, Duke didn’t intend to find anything. He had nothing to do with him. The past has become the past. His gaze is always looking forward, never stopping. pace.

He will cross all obstacles, seize the rare opportunity in this life, and continue to move forward.

No one or reason can stop him.

"The Duke's studio just passed it over."

Tina Fei came over, sat next to him, and handed over a faxed document, "There are several items that need your signature to be formally implemented."

Open the file, Duke quickly browsed it, the first is the North American statistics of "Hurricane Rescue".

If you just look at the data. This film is more than an order of magnitude worse than a super large production like The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but compared with the investment of the film itself, it still makes people feel satisfied.

In the first weekend of North America, "Hurricane Rescue" won US$51.25 million in 3624 theaters. The audience praise rate of cinemascore is as high as 88%, and the audience has an average score of'a+'. The 18,775 users of the imdb website scored 86 points, and the audience love popcorn index was 89%. 45 media reporters from metacritic scored 84 points.

In general, although the film’s market reputation is far behind the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and The Matrix, it is also a high-scoring work in action movies.

In addition to North America and China, "Hurricane Rescue" was also screened in the United Kingdom and France at the same time, earning $16.56 million and $14.11 million in the first weekend. The overall performance exceeded the expectations of Duke and Warner Bros.

What’s important is that on the working day yesterday, the North American box office of "Hurricane Rescue" did not plummet. The box office of 10.85 million US dollars in a single day was enough to keep the film going on with a steady momentum.

After reading this report, Duke is basically assured of "Hurricane Rescue", even if there is a sharp drop later, the film can completely rely on the box office to achieve profit.

then. Duke turned his energies to the following, two new films co-authored by Duke Studios and Warner Bros. It has also reached the stage of project approval-Zach Schneider's "Spartan Three Hundred Warriors" and Wallace Lee's "Underworld."

After the Oscars, Zach Schneider ended his half-year vacation and officially began preparing for a new film. He became the leader of the 300 Red Trousers. "Reloading" and "Matrix Revolution" finally received 715.6 million. US dollars and 733.56 million US dollars, he has proven his ability. It was also fully recognized by Duke and Warner Bros., and the project plan he developed quickly passed the review.

Moreover, the actual cost of this film is not particularly high.

Zach Schneider’s project was officially launched, which was already planned by Duke and Warner, and Wallace Lee was given the opportunity to direct it alone. In addition to being a recommender of "Underworld", it is also related to his own efforts.

In the past few years, this college classmate of Duke has left him an excellent impression. He has shown a certain ability in the post-production of "The Return of the King" and the planning and shooting of "Hurricane Rescue". Although there are also shortcomings—such as gossip about acting as an audition director with several actresses circulated throughout the crew—in Hollywood, these are minor issues that can be ignored.

"Underworld" has been confirmed that the project can be established, only the final procedures are left.

These two projects originally came from his support. Of course, Duke would not stop, and told Tina Fei to follow up in time and maintain communication with Warner Bros.

Finally, there are Warner Bros.-related businesses. There are three main areas. One is the negotiation between Warner Bros. and Pixar Studios. The other is the distribution cooperation between Warner Bros. and Marvel Pictures. The other is Warner Bros’ application for a wholly-owned acquisition of the Duke. room.

With the release of "The Incredibles" in North America, Pixar Studios has fulfilled its contract with Walt Disney for an animated feature film. Because Michael Eisner has never stepped down, the negotiations between Pixar and Disney have been in The stalemate stage.

With Steve Jobs as a businessman, he will certainly not hang himself on the Disney tree. In recent years, contact with Duke and Warner Bros. has never been broken. Now the ownership of Pixar Studios has come to the end. The longest period will not exceed two years, and Jobs will inevitably look for a new issuer.

The release seems simple, but in fact it requires years of accumulation and huge platform support. Hollywood’s second-tier companies, including the Harvey Weinstein Brothers, New Line Pictures, Pixar Studios, and the future DreamWorks Animation Studios, why can’t they wait one by one? Or join a big company, or sign a contract with a big company that seems unfair at all?

The distribution channel can be said to be an extremely important reason.

This is simply not a problem that a single person can solve. Even when Steve Jobs used to focus on the Pixar studio, his genius was as powerful as him, and he was also helpless in distribution channels.

Compared with Walt Disney, Warner Bros. is at a disadvantage in children's promotion, but it has advantages in distribution and worldwide marketing channels.

No matter how talented Michael Eisner is, he cannot change the fact that Disney did not transform into a media group until the mid to late 1990s. Walt Disney is not the most powerful media company in the future in the future. It is similar to Time Warner Group. There is still a certain gap.

But is Pixar’s job as the ugly duckling long ago, it has transformed into a Hollywood white swan, and Steve Jobs, who holds an absolute controlling stake, undoubtedly takes the initiative.

For the combination of Duke and Warner, a long and arduous negotiation has just begun, and it is not an easy task to stand out from several equally powerful competitors.

Relatively speaking, the release negotiations between Marvel Studios and Warner Bros. are much smoother. Duke is a matchmaking bridge, and there are precedents for "Spider-Man" and "X-Men" to sell well. Even competitors, in the face of sufficient interests. , Will still put aside prejudices and cooperate.

Moreover, the cooperation between DC and Marvel has happened more than once.

The negotiations between the two parties have entered the final stage, only to sign a formal contract, and both Marvel and Warner have the same requirements. Duke directed the opening work of the Marvel project-"Iron Man"!

Superhero movies will not be outdated in the next ten years or even longer. If the series is more successful than before, he, the dual major shareholder of Marvel and Warner, is undoubtedly one of the people who benefit the most.

Although wealth is now only a digital superposition game for Duke, like all the rich in the world, once you join this game, no one will have the idea of ​​stopping until they are completely tired.

After thinking for a few minutes, Duke said to Tina Fei, "I agree in principle to direct "Iron Man". You inform Nancy that she will discuss the specific details."

The last item is the ownership of the Duke’s studio. Even today, the Duke’s studio is still a leather and shell company with a relatively limited scale. Duke did not have the intention to expand. The specific management work has been led by Tina Fei. The team is in charge.

If you look at the number and scale of the company’s employees alone, the Duke’s Studio is not even as good as the film studios of Tom Cruise, Drew Barrymore and Brad Pitt, but unlike the other two, the Duke’s Studio Holds all or part of the copyrights of quite a few big-selling movies.

Not to mention other things, just the copyrights of the "The Matrix", "Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter" series are enough to make the entire Hollywood drool.

As early as a few years ago, Warner Bros proposed a wholly-owned acquisition of the Duke’s studio, but at that time the Lord of the Rings had not been filmed, and Harry Potter had not yet become popular. Duke would certainly not be stupid enough to sell the company, even if Warner Bros proposed. The transaction was completed by way of share exchange, but he still chose to refuse.

The situation is completely different now.

Duke is very clear-headed, knowing that Duke Studios cannot be bigger, and other major Hollywood companies will not sit back and watch Duke Studios grow bigger, and want to develop into the current six major situations, really only relying on shooting big-selling movies. Can do it?

He has not been so stupid and naive.

"Tina, back to North America, you will negotiate with Warner Bros. on behalf of me." Duke thought about it again and exhorted, "Remember, we don't lack cash."

Tina Fei nodded, "I know what to do."

After processing the few documents, Duke left the room and went to the Bund for a round. He returned to the hotel in the evening and found out and revised the speech. This is the first time he went to a university to give a speech. Seriously.

After this speech, all of Duke's itinerary in China will officially end. The next time I come here, I am afraid it will take a long time, or even until the film market here completely breaks out. (To be continued...)