Hollywood Starts with Animation

Time is fleeting.

In an instant, it was May 3, 1998.

Golden Dawn Entertainment Group.

As the chief assistant of Zhu Ke, the chairman of the group, at this moment, Alexander is fulfilling his responsibilities and wants Zhu Ke to report the situation of each subsidiary company in the last quarter in detail.

"Boss, first of all Wald Pictures."

"From January to the end of April, Wald Pictures has released a total of 3 films."

"One of them, "Deadly Bend 2", which was released on April 10, has already made $61 million at the North American box office, and it has been released overseas for a week, and has earned $49 million at the box office."

"The other two films, which were purchased by the company's copyright department from the Berlin Film Festival, cost a total of 3.5 million US dollars in copyright fees, publicity fees, and copying costs. , $4.1 million at the box office and an overall loss of $970,000.”

Alexander reported the revenue in a straight-forward manner.

Losing $970,000?

Zu Ke frowned and said: "I remember that last year, the movies we bought from overseas and the works released by small Hollywood film companies seemed to be as many as 9. The first half of this year is almost over, except for the movies we made ourselves. How did you only release 2 movies?"

Alexander hesitated.

"Humph!"

Zhu Ke snorted coldly: "I see, they are afraid of serious performance losses, so they will lower the assessment score and affect the option rewards in the coming year, right?"

Alexander nodded helplessly.

In the field of Hollywood, pure film production will never compare to dry distribution!

Because the film production company, after investing money to complete the film production, is not sure that it will be able to win the recognition of the market. In Hollywood, companies go bankrupt every year because of film failures. Even if one of your films is successful, you cannot guarantee that every future film will be successful;

However, companies that distribute films are different.

Basically, it can be described as "guaranteing income during drought and flood", but it is just a matter of earning more and earning less.

But.......

The distribution industry that guarantees income under drought and flood refers to the existence of the six major Hollywood!

Small and medium-sized film distribution companies in Hollywood still need to walk on thin ice, for fear that the cost of publicity and distribution will not be recovered because the film fails at the box office.

Well done, like Artisan Entertainment!

At a price of several hundred thousand dollars, it won a three-nothing movie like "Blair Witch" that cost only 60,000 dollars, but it was full of courage and boldly invested tens of millions of dollars, tens of millions of dollars. To carry out "deceptive" and "viral" marketing campaigns.

Profitable in one fell swoop!

It has created an impressive box office of 140 million US dollars in North America and 248 million US dollars in the world.

I have to say that Artisan Entertainment has made a lot of money!

However......

In fact, the vast majority of small and medium-sized film companies dare not play such a big game!

Because they invested tens of millions of funds, they basically caused no suspense... huge losses!

The distribution network of Wald Pictures has already completed the North American layout and the trend of overseas expansion. This is true, but this does not mean that Wald Pictures can compete with Hollywood Six in the North American distribution market Big and DreamWorks on a par.

The reality is that the gap is still not small.

Therefore, the vast majority of small and medium-sized film production companies, as well as independent film producers, still tend to choose the Hollywood Big Six when considering a film distribution company. Really really great.

Since the establishment of the Wald Pictures distribution network, it has released fewer than three films from other Hollywood natives.

Very few!

Moreover, the distribution of these films often fails to generate profits or even losses.

"Alexander, in my name, call Kevin Feige, vice president of Wald Pictures, call Wald Pictures' copyright purchasing department, and tell them that if you still act in this forward-looking style, then don't call it an option. The reward is divided, and I will get the fuck out of my mother as soon as possible!" Zhu Ke scolded angrily.

"Yes, boss!" Alexander responded hurriedly.

"I hate those timid mediocrities more than arrogant people!"

Zucker criticized unceremoniously.

In the following time, Alexander made a report on the problems of the UPN TV network.

"You mean, Ms. Donna proposed to buy Warner's WB TV network?" Zucker asked in surprise.

"That's right."

Alexander responded: "In the work report submitted by Ms. Donna, it is clearly proposed to further expand the scale of the UPN TV network."

Zuke nodded: "The specific document, you will find it for me later."

"Yes, boss."

......

That night.

After the meal, Zucker picked up the work report submitted by Donna and watched it.

In this work report, Donna Langley made an extremely surprising judgment on the future field of American cable television and public television.

She said in the copy: "In the field of limited television, with the further improvement of the Internet, satellite, and electronic communication technology, it is bound to achieve more amazing development in the future."

"Just like HBO!"

"HBO, which has many talents and abundant funds, will inevitably become the leader in the cable TV field, and even in TV series and movies, it can compete with TV giants such as ABC, NBC, and CBS."

"However!"

"In the field of variety shows and news programs, public TV stations have advantages that cable TV cannot match. They will still occupy a dominant position in the entire TV field, and their profits will definitely increase gradually."

a long time.

Zucker sighed: "I have to say that Donna Langley's vision is indeed powerful enough. No wonder in the original time and space, as a woman, he became the president of Universal Pictures, one of the six major Hollywood studios."

HBO TV station, which is affiliated to the Time Warner Group's limited TV station, is also known as the "Yellow Storm Pollution" TV station because of the large scale of production and broadcast of film and television dramas.

After entering the 21st century, he has participated in the production and broadcast of "Band of Brothers", "The Sopranos", "Sex and the City", "Six Feet Under", "Westworld", "Game of Thrones" and other high-quality TV series. There are countless moviegoers all over the world.

Its annual profit is extremely amazing!

Well, even the Big Six Hollywood studios are not as profitable as it is just making and distributing movies.

Look at public television.

As of 2020, there are only five remaining public television networks in the United States.

They are ABC (Disney's), NBC (Universal), CBS (Columbia), FOX (Fox's), and The CW (co-owned by Warner and Columbia).

These five public television networks occupy an absolutely dominant position in the production and broadcasting of variety shows, news, finance and other programs, and HBO can't compare them. After all, their main business directions are different.

Of course, its profit is also much higher than that of HBO.

"Donna's proposal to acquire the WB public television network is to make UPN TV station more powerful and make up for the deficiencies in the public television field outside the cable TV field."

"In fact, variety shows such as ''Got Talent'' and 'WWE', once they land on the public television network, will generate far more profits than the current UPN television network's revenue in the limited TV field."

It is worth mentioning that the acquisition target of Donna's WB TV network, in the original time and space, will merge with UPN TV network in the future to form the CW, one of the five public TVs.

Do you support acquisitions?

"I can make more money and further expand the group's territory. What reason do I have to object?" Zu Ke couldn't help but smile.

a few days later.

That is, on May 11, two days before the official opening of the 51st Cannes Film Festival, Zucker and Nolan set off for Cannes.

"Get out of the way, I'm here to chat!" Zu Ke narrowed his eyes.