Heads Up Hollywood

Because this year's Winter Olympics will be broadcast, Oscar does not want to steal the limelight, so the awards ceremony is postponed for a week.

Of course, this is just an official statement.

As an insider in the industry, Tang En understands the real reasons, one is because of interests, and the other is because of politics.

The so-called benefits are due to the disagreement on the rebroadcast fee and advertising share between the broadcaster ABC and local stations.

In the past few years, the Oscar Awards Ceremony has been broadcast by Disney's ABC television network, and the two sides have established a good cooperation relationship.

This time ABC encountered trouble, so Oscar was naturally willing to cooperate.

Not only the Oscars, but the problems faced by ABC are problems faced by national TV networks such as CBS, NBC and FOX.

Television stations in the United States are divided into national television stations and local television stations.

National TV stations like ABC can spread all over the country, while local TV stations can only be limited to a certain place and cannot expand their operations.

Of course, this refers to free stations.

There is no standard Mandarin in the United States. Although they all speak English, they have different accents. Television stations such as ABC and CBS speak a New York accent, which is the "American English" that is commonly learned all over the world.

But local language accents vary greatly.

This has led to local TV users preferring to watch local TV stations because the accent is easier to accept and the content is more relevant to local life.

Therefore, under such circumstances, large TV networks such as ABC, NBC, and CBS have very close cooperation with local stations, and will authorize them to rebroadcast some film and television content, and the local stations will share dividends with their broadcasters and advertising revenue.

With the increasing power of local TV stations and the increasing number of small and medium-sized entertainment companies in recent years, their appetite has also increased, and they demanded to reduce the advertising dividend requirements of large TV networks in order to increase their own profits.

Hollywood has become a conglomerate of giants, and in this respect it is naturally a community of interests.

During this year's Oscar Awards Ceremony, the organizer ABC set up 58 advertising seats, each 30-second advertisement, and the price tag was 1.5 million US dollars!

Although the price is high, the supply exceeds the demand, and the advertising seats were auctioned out in November last year.

In addition, when local stations are authorized by ABC to rebroadcast the Oscars, they can insert their own advertisements, and they can also receive a secondary advertising fee, and then share dividends with ABC.

In the end, the Oscars will be open to the world.

In addition to the national TV station ABC and some local stations in the United States, more than 60 countries around the world will also carry out broadcasting, and there will be broadcasting income.

In total, the domestic income in the United States was 104 million US dollars, and the broadcast fee in overseas markets was 28 million US dollars, with a total income of 130 million US dollars.

Naturally, not all of this money will belong to Disney.

ABC has to take 40% of the total income as the copyright fee paid to Oscar!

A total of $52 million.

The sponsor of the Oscars is the American Film Institute. The unit's annual budget is about 55 million US dollars, so it can be seen that most of it comes from Oscar's broadcast rights.

Of the remaining 78 million US dollars, ABC will spend about 25 million US dollars to rent the venue for the awards ceremony, hire security guards, and decorate the red carpet.

In addition, about 9 million US dollars are used for administration, education and charity every year to show the social responsibility of the Academy and ABC and to show the political correctness of Oscar.

Coupled with ABC's channel expenses and corresponding expenses, this year's ABC TV network... can make a profit of 10 million US dollars by broadcasting the Oscars!

The reason why I say it is fortunate is that ABC often loses money.

In 2002, because of the impact of the "9.11 Incident", it resulted in a loss of 2 million US dollars.

In many cases, the broadcast of such ceremonies is not for making money, but more for brand building.

Now the whole of America knows, the Oscars are televised on ABC.

ABC's brand image is naturally improved.

This is a decisive decision made by Michael Eisner after defying public opinion to acquire ABC. He gave Oscar a substantial profit and then left the awards ceremony in ABC.

Sure enough, the cooperation between the two parties over the past few years has been very pleasant.

In this competition for advertising dividends, ABC has received strong support from the Hollywood industry and the Oscars, and the local stations must not lose the opportunity to broadcast the Oscars! Or be obedient!

Although there was a little trouble, the awards ceremony was postponed for a week, but fortunately, everything was as usual.

In contrast, the impact of another farce is worse.

Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film is "Paradise Now", from Palestine. Here comes the problem, in the hearts of the Jews, Palestine is not a country at all, it is seizing the land of Israel.

The move was met with several demonstrations, as well as opposition from many big names in the industry, including Spielberg and George Lucas.

When calling this movie, the country code name of "Palestine" cannot be used for introduction!

The Academy quickly ruled that the film should be considered an entry submitted by the Palestinian National Authority.

It's very political.

Twain also saw the domineering and outrageous style of the Jews in Hollywood.

In contrast, he made a small plan to make Lionsgate voluntarily withdraw "Crash", which is not worth mentioning.

In any case, under the ups and downs, the new Oscars have begun!

...

According to Oscar's practice, Twain, as last year's best actor, will be the award presenter, and he will be the Best Actress in this year's Oscar.

But there are always exceptions.

Tang En's special status, coupled with the fact that he did not have any works shortlisted this year, he simply did not attend the Oscar ceremony.

I held a small party by myself, invited some people in the industry, and watched the ceremony while drinking.

Mainly to comfort George Lucas.

As the most anticipated film of last year, "Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith" did not receive any nominations in this Oscar!

The fact that it didn't break $1 billion at the box office and that it wasn't even nominated for a technical award at the Oscars was a shame.

George Lucas was very disappointed, and really wanted to retire.

On the TV, a video was played, which was a clip of five films nominated for best picture, and then, a voice sounded: "Here is the Kodak Theater on Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, live broadcasting the 78th Academy Awards for you." Like an award ceremony!"

Soon there was warm applause and cheers from the TV.

The party scene was also much quieter.

After all, this is a viewing party. When communicating, everyone should speak in a low voice so as not to affect others watching.

At this moment, Leonardo approached stealthily, and said in a low voice: "It's open over there, and I'm betting on the first award for Best Supporting Actor, to play two?"

Tang En waved his hand impatiently, "What is there to gamble on? The best supporting actor must be George Clooney! I have business to do, I'm busy!"

Leonardo asked treacherously: "Who is that model?"

"Which one?" Tang En frowned, feeling a bad premonition.

Leonardo pointed in one direction.

Tang En turned his head to look, and immediately felt a little angry, that was Doutzen Kroes!

"Not bad, your friend?"

"That's mine, don't make up your mind!"

Tang En gave a warning, and he was too lazy to talk nonsense with him. He didn't go to the Oscars ceremony tonight, but held a small ceremony viewing party, not to comment on beautiful women with Leonardo.

He has more important things to do!

"You really want to retire?"

"real!"

George Lucas has decided. He is now the richest man in Hollywood after Tang En, with a net worth of more than 2 billion US dollars, and he has enough capital to enjoy retirement.

Tang En said: "Then give Lucasfilm to me."

George Lucas glanced at him and said amusedly, "Are you really planning to wipe out Hollywood? With the acquisition of Lucasfilm, "Star Wars" and Industrial Light \u0026 Magic, you are not afraid of becoming a public enemy?"

"Public Enemy?" Tang En shrugged lightly, "It's been a long time ago, and it's not like you don't know it. There are too many lice and it's not ticklish. Besides, apart from New Universal, which Hollywood company do you think is qualified to eat Lucasfilm ?”

The two have talked about this kind of thing many times.

George Lucas also confirmed that he had really considered selling Lucasfilm to New Universal, and he was happy to be an independent director of the New Universal Group with peace of mind.

However, he understands the situation in Hollywood.

New Universal is a thorn in the side of all giants.

For some time now, George Lucas has been worried. I am afraid that after selling Lucasfilm to New Universal, New Universal will be targeted by the Hollywood Group, then it will be over, and Lucasfilm will suffer a loss.

But with the end of the Big Five alliance incident, everyone saw Tang En's true strength.

One-handedly resorted to the big move of streaming media, which immediately disintegrated the situation and turned the world around.

As far as the current situation is concerned, the New Universal Group is already the general trend, and Hollywood, which leads the new era, has become an inevitable trend of the times.

George Lucas was much more at ease.

He really wanted to cooperate with Tang En, and had some business contacts.

"Some problems left over from history will be more troublesome!"

"What?"

"Copyright issue."

After a pause, George Lucas began to explain slowly.

There were six Star Wars films, all distributed by 20th Century Fox. Except for the first "Star Wars: A New Hope", the distribution rights of the other five will expire in 2020. And the first film "Star Wars: A New Hope", 20th Century Fox even has the permanent distribution rights!

20th Century Fox is an insurmountable hurdle if it releases a complete Star Wars set on DVD in the future.

It's as if Warner wants to cooperate with New Universal to develop the "Hobbit" series of movies. New Universal holds the distribution rights, and if they disagree with the development, Warner can only stare blankly.

Judging from the current situation, the relationship between New Universal and 20th Century Fox is not bad, and the other party will not set up obstacles because of this.

However, Lucasfilm's other big ace "Raiders of the Lost Ark" series is different.

The "Raiders of the Lost Ark" series is a film series jointly developed by Lucasfilm and Paramount, and both parties have production rights and distribution rights. Paramount has a more active and strong voice.

If New Universal wants to improve efficiency and reduce expenses, it must vertically integrate the copyrights of such series of films. Twentieth Century Fox and Paramount are both obstacles that cannot be bypassed.

Especially in the world of streaming media in the future!

Tang En also thought that high-quality films such as "Star Wars" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark" could become Netflix's exclusive content, as a tool to compete with other streaming media platforms.

The distribution rights are in the hands of others, and 20th Century Fox and Paramount will definitely cast a wide net in order to make money.

"The problem with 20th Century Fox...should not be a problem." Tang En pondered for a while, then whispered in his ear.

George Lucas was slightly taken aback, "What do you mean?"

If New Universal wanted to make a move on Lucasfilm, it would definitely not be a wholly-owned acquisition. For someone like George Lucas, too much cash was meaningless, and he would definitely ask for shares in New Universal.

When the merger is completed, George Lucas will definitely become a director of New Universal and have the right to know the group's decisions.

In this case, Tang En didn't need to hide too much, saying: "Twentieth Century Fox has something that New Universal urgently needs."

"Huh?" George Lucas froze for a moment, a little unresponsive.

Tang En said lightly: "Twentieth Century Fox is a TV network with a sports channel covering the entire United States. It has good film and television resources and interpersonal relationships, especially the copyright of Marvel's "X-Men."

"You...you want to..." George Lucas suddenly opened his eyes wide, showing an incredulous expression, "I thought Lucasfilm would be able to satisfy your appetite, but unexpectedly, You have already set your sights on a bigger goal!"

If New Universal acquires Twentieth Century Fox, then the copyright issue of "Star Wars" will be solved. As for "Raiders of the Lost Ark"... If you can cooperate, you can cooperate, and if you can't cooperate, forget it. Compared with "Star Wars", this series is a tasteless series. The treasure hunt genre is outdated.

Tang En smiled, "How do you feel now?"

George Lucas pondered for a long time, but did not answer directly, "By the way, who do you think is the most popular Oscar this time?"

Tang En said: "There is no doubt, of course it is "Brokeback Mountain"!"

"Brokeback Mountain" received a total of 8 nominations, which is the film with the most nominations this time.

"Controversy and praise coexist. "Brokeback Mountain" will win some awards, but it is unlikely to win the best picture." George Lucas is a veteran filmmaker and knows the Oscars all too well.

Tang En glanced at him and said with a smile: "There's a handicap over there, how about... let's make a bet too?"

"What bet?"

"I said "Brokeback Mountain" will definitely win the best picture in the Olympic Games!"

"What bet?"

"I was right, you pushed for the merger of New Universal and Lucasfilm."

"Is it wrong?"

"Then I'll push it."

"Ha ha."

George Lucas couldn't help laughing.

...

Two hours later, Jack Nicholson took the stage, and he will be the guest of honor to present the last award of this Oscar—Best Picture!

"Best Picture goes to...Brokeback Mountain!"

In the Kodak Theater, everyone stood up and applauded.