Director’s Legend

August is the harvest season for Chasing Dream Entertainment and Shao Shuaijun, and it is also the season when "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" sweeps the world. With Shao Shuaijun's improvement, this version of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" is more refined in terms of details. In his six-year directing career, Shao Shuaijun has integrated commercial elements into his personal style. The connection between the two shots must be in line with the rhythm of the plot and appeal to people's hearts.

As a result, the box office is also rising steadily. At the end of August, the world has received a super box office of 630 million US dollars.

This year, "Toy Story 3" and "Alice in Wonderland" both made more than $1 billion at the box office, occupying the top two positions in the global box office this year. "Shrek" is US$740 million, and "Twilight: Breaking Dawn (Part 1)" is currently US$700 million, ranking third and fourth respectively.

The fifth place is "Rise of the Planet of the Apes", which was a smash hit. Summit Entertainment immediately announced that "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" will be filming a sequel, and the script is already being written. As for whether Shao Shuaijun will continue to direct the sequel, neither Summit Entertainment nor Shao Shuaijun gave an answer.

From September 3rd to 5th, "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" ushered in its fifth weekend. This weekend, another major production of Summit Entertainment will land in major theaters in North America.

Directed and starred by Sylvester Stallone, R-rated movie king Jason Statham, Chinese new kung fu king Li Lianjie, karate champion Dolph Lundgren, wrestling champion Randy Coutur, movie star Mickey Rourke The nostalgic classic action blockbuster "The Expendables", starring action superstars Bruce Willie and Arnold Schwarzenegger, was screened in 3,270 theaters in North America.

Film from production to publicity. There is almost never a lack of attention. In today's Hollywood, action movies have deteriorated. They are no longer full of blood, explosions and fireworks. It's the cool guy in "The Matrix" and the cool guy in "Pirates of the Caribbean".

Therefore, "The Expendables" claimed to return to the style of early action blockbusters, and it was immediately welcomed by fans who love action movies, and the pre-sale tickets for the movie were in a mess.

Together with "The Expendables", there are three new films released on a large scale, "The Americans", "Machete" and "Long Distance Love", all of which are low-budget films.

The weekend is over. The box office is out. Not surprisingly, "The Expendables" topped the box office with 36 million US dollars, which is already a very good result in this autumn season when the box office is cold. In addition to "The Expendables", the only box office tens of millions of "Americans", last week's "Rooters" and "Machete". They are all about ten million.

And "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" has passed four weeks. The energy remains undiminished. Ranked fifth this week with $8 million. The one-month release period in mainland China also ended, and it ended perfectly with 412 million yuan, although there is a big gap with "Avatar"'s 1.05 billion yuan. But it is also the second highest Hollywood box office in China this year.

The overseas form is similar to that of last week, earning about 60 million U.S. dollars. So far, the global box office of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" has reached 710 million U.S. dollars, surpassing "Breaking Dawn (Part 1)" and climbing to the fourth place in the world this year.

From September 10 to 12, "Resident Evil: Rebirth of God of War" snatched the title with US$27.7 million, "The Expendables" with US$18 million, and "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" unexpectedly climbed to third place with US$7.1 million. The autumn file is the off-season of the box office. This week's total box office is only 68 million US dollars, which can be said to be the worst period of the year.

Moreover, there are no literary films with a good reputation this year, and the films are scheduled for autumn. On the other hand, competition for the box office in the mainland is fierce. "The Wind Rises Again" carried the pressure of "Tangshan Earthquake" and grabbed 43 million in its first-week box office, which is a good performance.

Basically, the box office trend in September was very stable, with no unexpected bright spots or disappointing gaps.

At this time, Shao Shuaijun, who was accompanying his wife, received a call from Mitchell Bruce: "Shao, there may be some problems with our acquisition of Lionsgate."

"what happened?"

"Mark Rachesky of Lionsgate, who has been my good friend for many years, told me that Carl Icahn, the major shareholder of Lionsgate, has agreed to the merger plan between Lionsgate and MGM and is actively working on it. Facilitated. If Lionsgate and MGM merge, it may absorb capital injection from Warner Bros., which is very detrimental to our copyright recovery.”

"Why is it related to MGM again? Isn't MGM acquired by Sony?" Shao Shuaijun asked suspiciously.

Soon, Mitchell gave an explanation.

MGM was one of the Big Eight in Hollywood back then. In 2005, it was acquired by Sony because it was facing bankruptcy. However, after the acquisition by Sony, it was discovered that MGM was a mess and could not be saved at all. So in 2008, it stopped injecting capital into MGM, and no longer exercised the right to operate it. Let MGM kill itself, and Sony just acted as a shareholder role.

Now that MGM is facing bankruptcy again, the consortium behind MGM is actively planning a comeback in order to prevent MGM from going bankrupt. Among them, Carl Icahn, the largest shareholder of Lionsgate, has a lot of plans. Carl is a world-class rich man and one of the shareholders of MGM.

And Mark Rachesky is the second largest shareholder of Lionsgate, and he opposes the merger with MGM. Now Lionsgate's board of directors is arguing over whether to merge with MGM, and the negotiation between Summit Entertainment and Lionsgate Pictures on the copyright of superheroes was once shelved.

"Shao, there are two roads we are facing now, one is not to interfere with Carl's plan to merge MGM, I think Carl got our goodwill, and the superhero copyright will be returned to us directly. The other is to cooperate with Mark and help Mark Defeat Carl on the board of directors, so that our cooperation with Lionsgate Films will continue, and it will not be difficult to acquire Lionsgate Films. Of course, after helping Mark, Carl will definitely hold grudges, and it seems unwise to offend a world rich man."

Carl Icahn is not just a world-class rich man. In the latest Forbes ranking in 2010, he ranked 47th with a net worth of US$14.5 billion, much higher than Shao Shuaijun in terms of actual net worth. Of course he is not as tall as Shao Shuaijun. However, this old man in his seventies, nicknamed "Corporate Predator", is a lone wolf in the Wall Street investment community. The world was in an uproar.

"Mitchell, Summit Entertainment is listed in the top six companies, how many companies have we sinned?" Shao Shuaijun curled his lips lightly after hearing Carl's name. asked rhetorically.

"Ah, it should be a lot. Walt Disney must have been offended, and the other six major companies are also tense because we seized too many markets..."

"That's it. If we want to expand, we will offend people. We dare to snatch a giant like Disney. Are you afraid of him, Carl? An old man in his seventies, who might burp in a few days. What are you afraid of him! Lionsgate has been our coveted prey for several years. I can't bear to give up!" Shao Shuaijun said carelessly. To be honest, he didn't know much about the business of the company, but he had the confidence to chase after him. Dream Entertainment is not an ordinary company, it now represents the image of China, with the backing of the Chinese government, I'm afraid of a fart.

And Shao Shuaijun knows that although the company is listed, through various cross-shareholdings over the years, the company's equity under Dream Chasing Entertainment is all complicated and terrifying. They are firmly controlled by Li Xiuxiu and Shao Shuaijun, and they are not afraid of hostile takeovers by others at all. .

He needn't be afraid of anyone.

Of course, he doesn’t understand finance, so he just pretends to be big. How to make a real decision has to be discussed by the executives: “Mitchell, on this issue, I support cooperation with Mark in principle. I hope to acquire Lions Gate. But I don’t interfere in the company’s decision-making, and your management can discuss it on your own.”

Finally, after a few days of executive meetings, Summit Entertainment began working with Mark Rachesky to win over Lionsgate's two board chairmen, Rob Friedman and Patrick Wursberg, who They are all old friends of Mitchell, and have had a pleasant cooperation with Shao Shuaijun. Compared to Carl, who likes to squeeze the management, they prefer to cooperate with Summit Entertainment.

Soon Lionsgate made a decision at the regular board meeting to accept financing from Summit Entertainment to dilute Carl Icahn's shares.

In a very short period of time, Lionsgate and Summit reached an agreement. Lionsgate accepted Summit Entertainment's $500 million financing and acquired 25% of the common stock. At the same time, Lionsgate issued 16.2 million new common shares to Mark Rachesky. shares, so that Mark's shareholding in Lionsgate reached 31.5%, while Carl Icahn's shares were diluted to 29.7%, and Summit Entertainment was diluted to 22.4%.

As a result, Mark and Peak held more than half of the shares, directly activated the board of directors, and rejected the merger plan for MGM.

The whole process was very smooth. Carl's spokesperson at Lionsgate tried to persuade the board of directors to reject the cooperation with Summit Entertainment, but there were very few responses.

Originally, Summit Entertainment had already completed the long-term see-saw negotiations for the acquisition of Lionsgate. Who would have thought that because of MGM's intervention, Summit Entertainment would take advantage of the vacancy and get the shares quickly and directly.

Two dogs fight, play off.

Within a few days, Marvel Comics announced on the official website: "Good news, after friendly negotiations with Lionsgate, from September 15th, the Punisher, Humanoid and Kick-Ass three superheroes will be released. All copyrights have officially returned to the hands of Marvel Comics! We will start to create a movie plan for these three superheroes, and strive to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe trio as soon as possible."

The return of these three superheroes has made a good start for the copyright road, and it also makes Marvel fans look forward to the return of the next superhero.

On September 20th, another weekend passed. Summit Entertainment struck while the iron was hot and started negotiations with Lionsgate on further acquisitions. The company's official website also released a new set of data. As of today, "The Hunger Games", "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn (Part 1)", and "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" have all been officially drawn.

"The Hunger Games" has a global box office of 650 million U.S. dollars, including 410 million U.S. dollars in North America, making it one of the top-grossing films in North America this year. "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1" has a global box office of US$725 million, temporarily ranking fifth in the world this year.

"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" has a global box office of 780 million US dollars, surpassing "Shrek" and temporarily ranking third in the world this year.

"Shao Shuaijun's era has come!" - "Time Magazine". (to be continued..)