Heads Up Hollywood

By the end of the year, there was a relatively sensational event in Hollywood, which had even risen to the level of the federal power structure, the soundness of the law, and the congressional hearings-the issue of pirated discs!

This incident has almost united the entire Hollywood, and various organizations mobilized all their connections and resources to protest the government.

The animated film "Monsters, Inc" released by Disney has only been released for a week, and there are pirated discs for sale on the roadside; when it comes to "The Chronicles of Narnia" and "Lord of the Rings", the number is even more unabated.

The influence of these two films is too great, and there are even scenes of selling pirated discs on the road. This is a flagrant violation of the law in the street, no different from robbery in the street!

In response, the Motion Picture Association of America filed a lawsuit with Congress, requesting investigation and rectification.

The Federation also responded quickly, notifying Disney, Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, Paramount, Columbia Pictures, MGM, and Twentieth Century Fox to make them ready and actively cooperate. The Federation has sent a working group to investigate .

Tang En Pictures, as the most popular film company in the past two years, is not on the list!

From an official point of view, the Motion Picture Association of America is the representative of Hollywood. No matter how much money Twain Pictures makes and how many classic movies it makes, it is still difficult to be considered elegant.

Tang En's reaction was relatively flat, and he just had a leisurely time.

"Juno" is about to be released. This is the first film produced by Rose Films, and it is also Tang En's first feminist-themed film. Even if it is a small audience, it must be taken seriously.

Tang En has already sent out invitations to the five major feminist organizations in the United States. When "Juno" is released, there will be a special screening to promote women's rights.

In addition, it is already the end of the year, and it is time to summarize the year-end.

At the peak of the STA TV network, there were as many as 15.8 million subscribers! After the broadcast of "Band of Brothers", the number of membership users dropped slightly to less than 15 million.

But this will not affect STA TV Network’s receipt of a huge subscription revenue from Comcast—excluding the 8%-10% operating commission, the total income is 580 million US dollars!

You know, the subscription revenue of the STA TV network in the first half of the year was less than 60 million US dollars.

As for the film industry...

This year, Dunn Films has released three films, "Unsinkable", "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", and "A Beautiful Mind", and they are all in theaters.

Including "Chain Saw", "Poison Net", and "Soul-moving Girl", which were still in theaters at the beginning of the year, this year, Tang En Pictures won a total of 850 million US dollars in box office revenue!

As we all know, the peripheral income of the movie is the big one. The peripheral copyrights of "Unsinkable" and "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" are still under development. With Universal Pictures as the middleman, the specific financial situation will not be seen until next year.

However, Tang En Pictures has already obtained the peripheral income reports of several films last year, including "Spiderman", "Soul Shifting Girl", "Chain Saw", and "Poisonous Web".

These four movies have received a total of 1.28 billion US dollars through peripheral products, discs, pay-on-demand, and TV broadcast authorizations!

Among them, "Spider-Man" alone contributed 90% of it!

Disc sales revenue, $210 million in North America, $90 million overseas; disc rental revenue, $45 million in North America, $17 million overseas; pay-on-demand, $56 million; North American TV revenue, $110 million, overseas TV revenue, $80 million ...

It is worth mentioning that the sales of "Spider-Man" toys are very hot!

Among them, the imitation "Spiderman" with a height of one person is priced at US$150. Once launched, 22,000 pieces were sold within 12 hours, and the total sales in the past year exceeded 560,000 pieces!

In the past year, the sales of peripheral products of "Spider-Man" reached 1.67 billion US dollars!

That's only $280 million short of the strong sales driven by "Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace"!

In terms of revenue from peripheral products alone, Twain Pictures earned 540 million US dollars!

This is the true power of Spider-Man!

In the previous life, the Sony Group once fell into bankruptcy, and it was the outstanding performance of Sony Entertainment that saved Sony.

Sony Entertainment relies on Sony Pictures, Sony Pictures relies on Columbia Pictures, and Columbia Pictures relies on the "Spider-Man" trilogy!

So much so that Sony, the once mighty electronics giant, once discussed internally to complete the strategic tilt, lay off the electronics department and game department, and transform into an entertainment company.

Throughout 2001, including Marvel Entertainment, Marvel Pictures, STA TV Network and many other subsidiaries, Tang En Pictures' total revenue reached 3.02 billion US dollars!

Of course, there are also a lot of expenses, and Tang En spends a lot of money.

In terms of investment in the production of TV series, movies, and cartoons, it has reached 1 billion US dollars.

In addition, in order to develop the STA TV network, he also spent a huge amount of money to acquire the TV copyrights of many movies; he also spent 130 million US dollars to order 3 planes in the name of Dunn Films, and allocated them to the president of Dunn Films, the president of Marvel Pictures and a group of set up a public business machine; coupled with the salaries of the employees and the dividends to the major guilds...

After one year, Tang En Pictures' expenditure also reached 1.73 billion US dollars!

Of course, this is not the end.

After more than two months of negotiations, the acquisition of imax has basically been completed.

Compared with the stock price of imax at that time, which was only $1.1, the current stock price has risen to $2.3 due to the acquisition rumors. Dunn Pictures, led by Chief Financial Officer Brandy Norris, continued to raise the price to $3.5 per share. The price finally satisfies the appetite of imax shareholders.

In addition to the transaction price of 180 million US dollars, Dunn Films also has to assume more than 40 million US dollars of debts from imax, and the total transaction amount is as high as 220 million US dollars!

Because it is a listed company, the approval procedures and the withdrawal of retail investors are more troublesome. It is estimated that the entire transaction will be completed within half a year.

Originally, the market capitalization of imax was only US$60 million, but Twain Pictures needed to spend US$220 million to complete the acquisition. This caused a lot of criticism within the company.

Especially Natalie's mother, Shirley Hershler, the former Twain Films financial director, had a lot of criticisms.

Obviously, she didn't like parachuting a financial business boss.

However, Dunn and Chief Financial Officer Brandy Norris were full of praise for this deal.

"Imax has developed a new DMR technology and is applying for a patent. It is expected to be approved in February next year. When this technology is launched, the revenue and market potential of imax will be greatly improved." Brandy Nuo Reese was very satisfied when he successfully completed the acquisition as soon as he entered Tang En Pictures.

Tang En was even more satisfied!

DMR technology is mainly able to convert the ordinary version of the movie into an imax version.

This technology is almost a revolution!

Let the imax giant screen have more possibilities to enter ordinary movie theaters.

Because everyone knows that a bigger screen means better enjoyment of watching movies!

There were very few imax screens in the past, and the main reason was that there were not enough imax movies-it was too painful to shoot movies with imax cameras!

However, as soon as the DMR technology is launched, it will immediately change the status quo, allowing the imax giant screen to successfully move from the edge of the cinema to the mainstream, and become a hot trend for new movie viewing experience in the future!

It can be said that Tang En Pictures spent 220 million US dollars to acquire imax, not too expensive, but a bargain!

If you wait for the DMR technology to be launched before purchasing, I am afraid that the price will double.

"Where is Dolby Laboratories? Is it so difficult?" Tang En asked with a frown.

Brandy Norris said: "It's a family business problem. Dr. Dolby is getting old, but he hopes the company can be handed over to his son to inherit. Dolby Laboratories is his life's work, and he doesn't want to sell it to others."

Tang En said in a deep voice: "Isn't he afraid of stepping into the footsteps of Wang An's laboratory?"

Brandy Norris shook his head and said: "This is different. Dolby Laboratories has relatively little business, and Dolby Jr. is also a scientist. He has been responsible for the business dealings in recent years. He's not a dude, he's different from Wang An's son."

Tang En pondered for a while, and said decisively: "No matter what, Dolby Laboratories must be taken down! In terms of price...we can make some concessions!"

Tang En Pictures' current capital flow is too abundant. Tang En Capital injected 7 billion U.S. dollars, and this year's profit is 1 billion U.S. dollars. In addition, Tang En Pictures has almost zero debt now. If it borrows money, it can get at least 5 billion US dollars in cash.

In 2002, several big deals must be done!

Brandy Norris said: "Actually... it is not difficult to buy Dolby Laboratories. I have already said the key point. Dr. Dolby values ​​the control of the company besides money."

Tang En narrowed his eyes and thought about the achievements of Dolby Laboratories under the leadership of young Dolby in his previous life.

very nice!

The market value of Dolby Laboratories when it went public in 2005 was US$2 billion. Under the leadership of Dolby Jr., the company has grown and its market value has also soared, once exceeding US$7.5 billion.

More importantly, Dolby's brand value is great, and through continuous innovative technical means, the viewing experience in movie theaters is getting better and better.

The contribution in this regard is even greater than that of imax.

Tang En nodded, "Do you know the model of Warner and New Line?"

"ah?"

Brandy Norris is a financial elite, not a Hollywood insider.

Tang En said: "New Line was acquired by Warner, but it has always maintained an independent operation, not only financial independence, but also independent business. The two parties signed an agreement, and Warner can only interfere in the internal affairs of New Line Pictures under one circumstance. "

Brandy Norris suddenly realized, "When New Line Pictures made a major strategic mistake and suffered a huge loss in performance!"

In the previous life, the commercial blockbuster "Dark Matter: The Golden Compass" invested by New Line Films, which invested a huge amount of money, failed disastrously at the box office and suffered serious losses, so Warner took back the right to operate it.

Tang En smiled and said: "That's right, Tang En Pictures is a film company. We will provide Dolby Laboratories with a rich film source foundation to help its business development, such as DMR technology. As long as Dolby Laboratories can walk in the right direction, On the development route of rapid and continuous innovation.”

Brandy Norris said solemnly: "If this is the case... Duby and his son will be very easy to handle!"