MTL - I’m in Hollywood

Although it will be as close as possible to the interests of the firefly system itself, Eric does not have the ambition to completely monopolize the 3D market, which is actually impossible.

After all, polarized 3D is not a very difficult technology. In addition to IMAX, the industry also has other giant screen forms.

If the firefly system attempts to monopolize, the result will only result in other different 3D and giant screen formats. The competition of different standards will undoubtedly consume the resources of the whole Hollywood, which is also not conducive to the healthy development of 3D and giant screen movies.

Therefore, during this time, the Firefly Group has already made preliminary pricing for the future opening of 3D conversion and IMAX conversion to other production companies.

In order to raise the industry threshold and achieve the goal of filtering inferior sources as much as possible, RealD will charge $30,000 per minute for 3D movies for ordinary 2D movies. IMAX will convert the 2D version of IMAX to 10,000 per minute. The US dollar, the 3D version charges doubled to $20,000.

This means that, according to Hollywood's average two-hour film, the 3D and 3D-IMAX versions will be released, but the initial conversion costs will reach $6 million.

Although in the future, by reducing the scale of 3D and IMAX, and copying at home and abroad, film companies can save a lot of expensive 3D and IMAX film copy budgets, but the initial conversion costs are absolutely impossible to save.

At the same time, due to the potential barriers of double D certification, other 3D production companies will have difficulty in squeezing into the film source market, and the firefly system will actually be able to control the development of the entire 3D and IMAX film industry from the source.

Kasenberg also rushed back to the Burbank Group headquarters. The two exchanged for a while, and on the ramp between the administrative district and the studio area, Eric returned to his office in the administrative district.

Turning on the computer and sitting down behind the desk, Eric opened the end-of-year film box office outlook assessment report that the company's distribution department had just completed. The two popular seasons of Thanksgiving and Christmas have already been confirmed, but with the recent disclosure of a series of film reviews and audience ratings, the issuing department has come up with relevant reports.

Today is November 9.

Prior to this, New Line's "Death to Come 3" and Universal Pictures' "Bone Geometry" were released two weeks before and after Halloween on October 29 and November 5.

As the classic horror film brand of the new line, "Death to Come 3" maintains the consistent style and standard of the series, and the box office is therefore quite stable. The production cost of 25 million US dollars, the first week of the box office reached 25.71 million US dollars, it is estimated that the total box office in North America will exceed 50 million US dollars, the global box office broke 100 million and there is not much suspense.

In comparison, Universal Pictures' starring "Black Bone Puzzle" starred by black star Denzel Washington has a production cost of $73 million. From November 5 to November 7, the first three days of the weekend, the box office was only 16.72 million. In the first week, the US dollar is expected to have only $23 million at the box office, which is about $2 million more than "Death is coming."

Eric flipped through the documents in his hand and found that from the beginning of the "Bone Puzzle" to the "Hurricane" on the last day of December 29RB, Universal Pictures will launch five films at the end of the year.

The "Hurricane" is also the starring of Denzel Washington. This movie with a bit of a disaster film is actually a biographer, costing $38 million.

Universal Pictures' positioning of the film is a punch. However, judging from the reflections of other film festivals in the early stage, the quality of "Hurricane" is obviously not satisfactory. Eric’s memory does not contain much of the award information of this film.

In addition to "Human Bone Puzzle" and "Hurricane", Universal Pictures will continue to launch "The Devil's Doom" starring Schwarzenegger, "The Man on the Moon" starring Kim Kerry, and "Love" starring Ethan Hawke. Three films in the snow of the cedar tree.

In combination with the recent developments of the Seagram Group, it is clear that Michael Eisner has arranged such an intensive distribution plan to maximize the performance of Universal Pictures in 1999 and to maintain its position in the process of changing the global film industry. Increase the chip.

However, whether it is based on Eric's own memory or the evaluation of the Firefly Distribution Department, there are not many potentials for box office sales in the five films. Moreover, from the "Bone Puzzle" $73 million, "Hurricane" $38 million production costs have a lot of details, Michael Eisner is clearly controlling the cost as much as possible, but the effect is obviously not ideal.

Among them, Schwarzenegger's "Devil's Doomsday" production costs still reached 100 million US dollars, Kim Kerry's "The Man on the Moon" also spent $ 82 million. Eric’s love story “Love Snow in the Pine Tree” has never been heard by Eric. The budget of $35 million is also somewhat outrageous.

Universal Pictures used the big selling "Mummy 3" and "Notting Hill" a few months ago. The box office share of the summer file is almost the same as that of Fox, second only to the Firefly Group.

However, it is clear that the five films that appear to be quick and profitable are likely to drag down the overall performance of Universal Pictures this year.

In a word, this state is also very much related to the firefly system.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kim Carey, and Denzel Washington are obviously superstars with very low price/performance ratios in Hollywood.

In recent years, because the firefly system has strongly suppressed the production strategy of controlling the cost of superstars, many first-line stars who insist on their worth can only turn to Warner in the absence of cooperation with Firefly, Fox, MGM and the recent Columbia Pictures. , Universal and Paramount and other independent production companies with capital strength.

The concept of star core system that Hollywood has long formed can not be changed overnight. The prosperity of Hollywood in these years has made film financing very easy.

As a result, the other three major and some of the capital that entered the gold rush of Hollywood will receive all the stars that turned to themselves. Continue to provide them with huge pay, continue to produce a film of high quality and high cost.

In addition to these films from around the world, Eric knows that Warner has directly issued 20 million for Adam Sandler’s new film "The Devil's Successor" due to the success of the box office of "Daddy Forward" in the summer file. The US dollar plus the box office is divided into huge payouts and a production budget of $85 million. The cost of production of "Hurricane Warrior" by Will Smith and Warner has also begun to overspend, and in recent years, Togo has maintained the highest paid position of Paramount.

In the past, even in many years, even after many years, although the cases have proved that the superstars are not indispensable, but Hollywood has not completely changed the concept of chasing the superstar at all costs.

While looking at the documents in hand, thinking about these problems, the office door was knocked, and Eric responded, and Meyer took a document and walked in.

Handing a blue folder to Eric, Mayer said: "Eric, there is news from Canada, the Nokia team has officially negotiated the acquisition agreement with RIM, the transaction price is 200 million. $60 million, this price is comparable to the beginning of the year, but 27% higher than RIM's current market capitalization."

RIM is naturally the brand holding company of the BlackBerry. In Eric’s memory, it was not until many years later that RIM merged the company name with the BlackBerry.

During this time, the firefly system was basically implementing the buy-and-buy model. The acquisition of RIM's less than $300 million was not worth mentioning for the expansion plan of the entire firefly system.

However, due to Eric's personal attention to the BlackBerry, Nokia is also very concerned about this acquisition. With the departure of Jorma Ollila last year, Eric has also been strengthening the control of Nokia to prevent Nokia from continuing its old path.

Open the file, Eric read the terms of the Nokia and Blackberry transactions, noticed the beautiful figure of Mayer across the desk, looked up at the girl and said: "So, you really don't think about staying with me anymore. Are you around?"

Meyer looked at the man across the desk, and his eyes were a touch of faintness.

With the explosion of the word of gravity, Eric has once again become the focus of many media and theories. Or, this man has always been so dazzling, like the sun, many people usually do not look into the sky, but occasionally look up, always notice a round of light shining.

After a moment of silence, Meyer still said: "I have already discussed with Mr. McNally. I will go to the YOS system R&D department for a period of time as a software engineer. I will familiarize myself with the technical details of all aspects and turn around after three months. Go to the hardware department."

Listening to Meyer's well-organized career plan, Eric understood that the girl's mind had been decided, and she no longer persuaded, but she still smiled: "Somewhat unwilling, I really want to tie you around."

"You," Meyerton said, "You can find another one."

"Don't find it," Eric shook his head and smiled. "I'm still a pretty old man. I will let Carly follow me by myself. Of course, when you want to come back, let me know."

Meyer hesitated, nodded lightly, but did not say anything.

Eric has previously discussed with the Nokia CEO Ollie Karassuo several times about RIM's arrangements, and even the details of changing RIM directly to the BlackBerry.

Therefore, the Nokia and Blackberry acquisition agreement was read carefully, signed a direct name, Eric will temporarily release this matter, Nokia will naturally follow the established plan to complete the layout of the BlackBerry .

Elizabeth had called before and said that Eric’s design draft for the Tasmania Manor in Australia had been completed. After Eric got off work, he rushed to the mansion of Elizabeth and Julia at the top of Beverly.

During this time, although Eric and Shantou have returned to Los Angeles, Eric’s agent in Australia has been responsible for contacting him for the acquisition of Tasmania.

Compared to Eric's current net worth, the Australian Tasmania land, which has low economic value in all aspects, can be said to be extremely cheap. Eric’s previous purchase of 200 square kilometers is equivalent to about 50,000 acres of land, and the cumulative expenditure is less than 60 million US dollars.

After several months of continuous acquisition, Eric has more than 1,000 square kilometers of land on Tasmania.

However, except for a small number of pastures, most of them are native forest land in Tasmania, and even have some virgin forests. It is said that there are wild platypus in the woodland. Although the only egg mammal found on the earth has a very high biological research value, it is not an endangered species, and it is still widespread throughout Australia.

Buying a large number of plots, naturally it is impossible to completely not develop and renovate.

In many people's minds, Australia seems to be very demanding on environmental protection, but in fact it is the opposite.

If it wasn't bought by Eric, the large native forest adjacent to Eric's pre-purchase plots was even included in the harvesting plan. In contrast, Eric, who prefers to maintain a complete virgin forest, is more like an environmentalist. In fact, Eric is indeed an environmentalist, but not extreme.

Although the land was not extensively remodeled, after discussing it with the women, Eric decided to build a Williams home holiday home.

As a local snake in Australia, Eric also unceremoniously entrusted this to Elizabeth, allowing her to contact the designer and engineering team locally.

"Look, the address they picked is here. In the south is Arthur HB on the side of a hill. On the west is two kilometers on the interstate highway. This is a photo of the surroundings, as well as some design drafts," returned to Elizabeth House, Julie. Asia prepared dinner for everyone, and Eric and the girl sat in the living room and looked through a large stack of information from Australia. Probably introduced again, Elizabeth said: "In fact, if you want to buy land, Queensland is the best choice, even if Victoria is good, why choose Tasmania, there are few personal?"

“There are not a few people in Australia as a whole?” Eric looked at the designer’s manor draft and said, “And, I hope that places with fewer people will be better and better.”

Elizabeth lost Eric with a blank eye and said: "If you really live there for a while, you will never think so."

"Nobody ever thought about staying there, as long as the land belongs to me. Well, you can always play in the past."

Elizabeth pretends to disdain: "What is fun."

Eric thought about it and pointed at the map on the coffee table. He smiled and said, "Look, here, this river is mine. Well, I am going to buy the mountain in the east. And your family's Lanai. Compared to this island is mine, this mountain is mine, listen, which is more powerful?"

Elizabeth smiled and smacked on Eric. "In fact, Dad doesn't really want the island. It doesn't have to go once in a few years."

Eric remembered some of the later things and said: "Then sell it. However, I will definitely not buy it. I am not interested in the island. If it is Tasmania, I can consider it. ”

Speaking of it, the news that Lanai was bought by Larry Ellison was smashed. But in fact, Lanai originally belonged to the Murdoch family. It's really interesting to think about the company's attributes between News Corp and Oracle, the low-key between the Murdoch family and the high-profile of Larry Ellison.