Rebirth In Hollywood

Nicole can temporarily give up work and rest, but Ryan can't. Disney is entering a stage of rapid development. As an excellent professional manager, Robert Iger has never forgotten to expand Disney's territory, not to mention that he is also a relatively large Disney. One of the individual shareholders of the company, which is also closely related to his interests.

In recent years, major Hollywood film companies have replaced CEOs. Managers with content production experience like Ron Mayer in the past are no longer popular, and are replaced by a group of people such as Robert Iger. People who have no actual filmmaking experience, but are extremely good at dealing with relationships and marketing.

In Hollywood, content manufacturers are always at the bottom of the publishers. Only the labels with North American and even global distribution capabilities are at the top of the Hollywood food chain. Especially after entering the new century, the so-called six major manufacturers, except Disney itself, have become In addition to the media group, others are all acquired by media companies, which further expands their advantages in distribution.

Hollywood has been a game for giants since decades ago, and today is no exception.

Among the traditional six major companies, only Disney has maintained high production and high investment in films, and even rarely accepts external investment such as private film funds, and the division of labor at the top is quite clear. Ryan is in charge of content production. , Dick? Cook and Robert? Iger responsible for marketing and other day-to-day work.

In his previous life, Ryan was one of the most grassroots members of the film industry. He knew that the entertainment distribution in the future would become more and more fragmented. An executive with a keen sense of the changing market was responsible for the company's promotion and expansion. This is very important. , so Disney can react quickly and reposition its content investment strategy.

That might not mean better movies, but it certainly means smarter business.

"Robert knows how to expand Disney's horizons, scouring outside and within the company for potential sources of new entertainment businesses"

This is what Ryan once said to Nicole. Maybe he started using the other party more because of the factors he knew in his previous life, and it was also a helpless move at that time. But Robert? Iger's ability is indeed beyond doubt.

He has made excellent achievements in promoting Disney's copyrighted works to offline platforms, and even shortened the window period for Disney films from theatrical release to entering the family to the currently recognized shortest four months!

Since 2002, non-theatrical revenue has accounted for more than 70% of the total revenue of the movies produced by Disney, among which the high-quality movies brought by Ryan are the key, and Robert Iger's original work in Disney On this basis, the vertically integrated industrial chain of content production plus online and offline distribution plus peripheral channels has been further strengthened, which also played an important role.

During Jenkins Films,

Ryan made those movies. In the later stage, we can only rely on a simple model of copyright transfer fees and sales commissions to achieve extensive profits, but Disney's own capabilities can amplify these incomes to the limit.

The film industry is going through a transformation, and the traditional model is sure to be phased out.

Most typically, after major film companies become part of media groups, creative geniuses rarely appear in the top management, and their attitude towards brokerage companies is also tougher, such as caa.

Since the late 1990s. It is difficult for caa's agents to directly rush into the high-level office of the film company as in the past, and the people who deal with them are gradually replaced by some lower-level employees of the film company, and their bundled sales strategy is even more difficult.

Even caa's agents account for more than half of Hollywood's market. In fact, it is simply not enough to see in front of the media group.

Times have changed, and business thinking and business methods must change accordingly.

Like Disney, in addition to solidifying its inherent dominance, it has struggled to expand online. And the pace of expansion has never stopped.

It is now the largest online video website in the United States and even the whole world. The influence of this industry on the media industry has been evident in the past year. Although the balance of payments was barely achieved in the first half of this year, its future and potential are optimistic by countless people.

The online videoization of movies is a future that most Hollywood executives can see, and Disney is no exception.

Just this month, Disney invested $35 million to form another online video site, hulu, with 20th Century Fox. This site has a different business policy and its main goal is to develop potential paying users. .

This is just another beginning of Disney's digital layout after Facebook and Twitter. Also this month, Disney expanded Ryan's personal website to become the Disney-Ryan Family Online Channel, a website aimed directly at the current The main group of the network - teenagers!

With the complete digestion of Marvel, Jenkins, and Pixar, Disney is once again on the path to expansion.

Subsequently, Disney, under the impetus of Ryan, issued a good faith acquisition application to Netflix.

The latter is an online movie rental provider that offers DVDs of many movies and allows customers to quickly and easily select movies while delivering them for free.

A few years ago, Netflix was the object of Scott Swift's investment, and Ryan's foundation has always held a 5% stake.

This website currently has millions of subscribers. In recent years, the development speed has not been particularly fast. Last year's annual profit was only 11.9 million US dollars. However, this is not a problem of website management. They are mainly trapped in copyright, and there is not enough good enough content, and the channels opened up are nothing but castles in the air.

Disney has the least shortage of content, and as a loose coalition of interests, it's not too difficult to license those great films from the libraries of companies like Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox.

To complete the acquisition, Disney offered $1.45 billion for a premium of five percent over Netflix's market value.

The management of Netflix has not responded publicly, but according to the news from the inside, many shareholders of the other company are interested in selling their shares for cash, and the final obstacle must be the issue of price.

What Ryan is most worried about is not Netflix's shareholders, but other companies. If a new company joins the acquisition, a good-faith acquisition will inevitably turn into a malicious bid.

Fortunately, after waiting too long, there was news that the negotiation could be negotiated from Netflix, and the rest was to wait for the result of the long negotiation.

For an acquisition of this size, Disney does not need to use working capital at all, nor does it need financing, just reserves are enough.

Netflix is ​​only one of Disney's goals. For Disney, the most basic and fundamental business is their biggest goal.

Whether it is Disney's management or Disney's employees, they have always placed themselves in the position of the world's animation hegemony.

So, when Robert Iger approached Ryan to discuss his next acquisition target, he was a little surprised and returned to normal.

"Robert, what do you mean..." Ryan looked seriously at Robert Iger, who was sitting across from him, "Let's take down DreamWorks Animation Studios?"

"Yes." Robert Iger said equally seriously, "I have discussed with Cook, and this aspect is completely feasible."

In terms of strength alone, Disney's swallowing of DreamWorks Animation Studio is just a trivial matter. The latter's market value is less than 1.5 billion US dollars. Even its market value in the previous life was only about 2 billion US dollars. It's nothing at all, if it's financing, even Ryan can solve it by himself.

"Ryan, although we have Pixar Studios and Disney Animation Headquarters," Robert Iger continued, "but these two subsidiaries are extremely low-volume and execute a boutique strategy. DreamWorks Animation Studios has the opposite philosophy. They once Three to five cartoons can be produced, and although there are failed products like "Shark's Tale", for Disney, as long as there is a one-fourth chance of success, it is enough for us to make money through various channels. "

As the largest shareholder of DreamWorks Animation Studio, Ryan is naturally aware that what Robert Iger said is the truth. Under the auspices of Jereph Katzenberg, DreamWorks Animation has embarked on the same development path as the previous life. To win with the tactic of the sea, in addition to the successful "Shrek" and "Madagascar" in the past few years, they have also produced works that are terrible at the box office, but they are still profitable every year, although the profit is not too high.

"Robert, have you considered Jerefer Katzenberg." Ryan reminded him not to forget that the other party was the president and creative chief of Disney's animation department.

"That was in 1994." Robert Iger was well aware of the grievance at the beginning. "It was Michael Eisner who drove away Jerefer, not to mention..."

He didn't say what he said later, but Ryan understood that as long as there were enough benefits, this little grudge was nothing at all.

"We need a competitive opponent."

Blue Sky Studio has only one signboard of "Ice Age", and it does not have the strength to compete with Pixar and Disney Animation. "Competition can keep Pixar and Disney Animation Department enough vitality, and we also need an opponent to deal with the monopoly of the federal government. bill."

This is not the time when Universal and Warner Animation Departments will develop in the future. The two are still in the groping stage. Not to mention whether the monopoly will be established, the relevant investigation alone will cause headaches, and countless past experiences have proved that once lost Competitors, the consequences are very dire.

"I agree with this acquisition in principle, but not now." Ryan finally said, "Robert, you can eat into the shares of DreamWorks Animation Studio to deal with future acquisitions." (To be continued..) ()