Director’s Legend

The impact of Carl Icahn, the drag of MGM's reorganization, the morale of Sony, which had been stabilized by the management, fell down again, the market collapsed, and the situation was at stake. Moreover, Carl. Icahn also encouraged the media, trumpeting that Sony will go bankrupt.

In addition, in recent years, Sony's business has indeed been sluggish, and all aspects of business have been surpassed by rivals. Sony finally can't hold on. Ryoji Nakabachi came to San Francisco again, spent one night, met Shao Shuaijun and Li Xiuxiu. Without the calm and calmness of last time, his eyes were bloodshot and looked a little hideous.

After the meeting, Ryoji Nakahachi went straight to the point: "What are the conditions before agreeing to Sony's divestment of MGM?"

Li Xiuxiu didn't play tricks, and said directly: "We don't want Sony to withdraw its capital. In our opinion, the reorganization of MGM has made a lot of difference. If we give up MGM, I'm afraid we won't have such a good opportunity in the future."

"I know, I've always believed that MGM can do something, but Sony doesn't plan to follow suit. Director Shao, Mr. Li, make an offer."

"Okay, Sony will transfer its shares in MGM to Summit Entertainment at a low price, and at the same time transfer all MGM film copyrights, as well as the copyright of Spider-Man, to make up for the loss of capital and human resources invested by Summit Entertainment in MGM. .We agree that Sony will divest MGM!"

Ryoji Nakabachi closed his eyes and pondered for a while, then said, "We will transfer the copyright and shares to Summit Entertainment as soon as possible."

Ryoji Nakabachi left. Li Xiuxiu immediately contacted Carl Icahn: "Mr. Icahn, Sony is ready to divest MGM."

"A strong man breaks his wrist. Not bad, not bad, I thought Sony would last for a while. Mr. Li, after you get what you should take, you take the library resources and return the shares to me!"

"nature."

The battle is over, and the rest is the distribution of benefits.

In a blink of an eye, June 3rd, "Magic Mike" began to be released, and at the same time, "X-Men: First Class" produced by Twentieth Century Fox was also released. In the end, "X-Men: First Class" took the championship with $56 million, compared to the X-Men series of movies. The film's high reputation is exemplary. But the opening score is too low, only a little higher than the first part of the series, and far below 20th Century Fox's expectations.

"We will also make a sequel. We believe that the film has a high reputation. The sequel will be even better." Twentieth Century Fox spokesman. Hold on and say.

Compared with the box office failure of "First Battle". "Magic Mike" is simply blinding, with a cost of 7 million U.S. dollars and a first-week score of 40 million U.S. dollars. Earn a fortune. In particular, a large group of hunks sold their muscles, and were deeply loved by female audiences and gay audiences. Channing Tatum, the lead actor and producer, left messages on twitter asking for a sequel.

Summit Entertainment immediately held a press conference with Channing, and Channing excitedly affirmed the sequel plan, saying: "Yes, yes! We are conceiving, we hope to write the script as soon as possible, and the scale of filming will be larger. .And now, we are preparing to put "Magic Mike" on stage."

"Magic Mike" performed well, and "Kung Fu Panda 2" also performed well, earning US$24.3 million this week. Overseas markets performed astonishingly, earning US$126 million. The global box office has reached US$363 million.

From June 10 to 12, "Kung Fu Panda 2" earned US$16.64 million in North America, and "Magic Mike" earned US$14.95 million. "Weakness" is also officially released, with 256 million US dollars in North America and 311 million US dollars worldwide, making a lot of money.

At this time, Summit Entertainment and Sony Corporation reached an agreement on the film copyright and MGM shares and signed a contract to transfer them.

Marvel Comics announced on the official website at the first time: "Good news, after friendly negotiations with Sony, the copyright of Spider-Man has returned to Marvel Comics. We are already working on the script of Spider-Man, and it is very likely that we will join Marvel. The second ensemble of the movie universe, the majority of Spider-Man fans, can look forward to it!"

Comic fans clapped their hands and applauded. Xiao Chong is the most popular character in Marvel Comics. He has a lot of intersections with all superheroes, and even good friends. If Xiaochong joins the Women's Federation, it will definitely increase the influence of the Women's Federation to a shocking level. Of course, "The Avengers" has already shot most of the shots, and it is impossible for the bug to appear in the first part.

After launching the news of the return of Spider-Man, Summit Entertainment also announced another news. After negotiation, the MGM film distribution rights and copyrights acquired by Sony Corporation were all transferred to Summit Entertainment. As an independent economy, MGM’s film copyright is its biggest capital, and it cannot be sold easily. This so-called copyright is actually the distribution right of the film, and half of the ownership of the film series.

For example, the copyright of the 007 series must be in the hands of MGM. It is simply impossible to want the 007 series without acquiring MGM. MGM's shareholding is very complicated. Everyone knows that the film copyright is important and cannot be sold at will. Even if Carl Icahn now occupies the majority of MGM's shares, he cannot decide arbitrarily.

This half of the copyright owned by Summit Entertainment is only for new movies, based on the 007 series, the new movies are extended, and Summit Entertainment pays for the production, enjoying half of the copyright and income. But MGM will retain the sole copyright of the 007 series.

They can reshoot the 007 series, or transfer the copyright of a certain 007.

However, MGM retained the 007 series, and the complete copyright of the Hobbit series was acquired by Summit Entertainment. This is the compensation that Summit Entertainment should get, because the copyright of this series was made by the great director Peter Jackson and MGM. The purchase and sale belonged to MGM's outsourcing income, so they can naturally trade at will.

There are some other movies, or trade, or share copyright. Some old movies are directly shared with Summit Entertainment, and Summit Entertainment can use these old movies freely, except that they cannot be traded, and can be used under its own banner. MGM is down right now. But back then, it was a giant with countless film library resources, which fully expanded the film library of Summit Entertainment dozens of times.

Content has always been king in the film industry, and with content, Summit Entertainment can be considered a complete big company. Lionsgate's film library, Summit Entertainment's own film library, Golden Harvest's film library, and MGM's film library, the content occupied by Summit Entertainment is by no means inferior to any major studio.

After acquiring these copyrights. MGM to Summit Entertainment. There is no interest at all. After all, MGM's current debt has accumulated to 4 billion US dollars, and the acquisition of MGM must include these debts, which is not cost-effective at all.

Therefore, in mid-June. With Sony's withdrawal from MGM. Summit Entertainment also announced helplessly. Withdraw from MGM, transfer all equity to Carl Icahn. In the eyes of the outside world. Summit Entertainment was originally ambitious to reorganize MGM, but in the end it was defeated by Carl Icahn.

Of course, in the eyes of the media, Carl Icahn mainly defeated Sony, while Summit Entertainment cooperated in a disguised form and obtained a series of copyrights, which was enough to make up for the loss.

"Sony backs down, Summit turns around, MGM sinks, and corporate predator Carl Icahn becomes the new Lion. A century-old brand may be gone." - The Wall Street Journal.

"Wall Street won the first battle in Hollywood. Has capital already begun to infiltrate Hollywood? How does Sony face it?" - "Yomiuri Shimbun".

"Summit Entertainment's revitalization plan for MGM was aborted, and Icahn became the ultimate beneficiary. MGM currently has only two paths, merger and reorganization or bankruptcy reorganization. No matter what, Icahn is enough to make huge profits from it. The only loss is Sony. And stockholders at large!" - The Sun.

"Spider-Man returned to Marvel, half of the rights to the new 007 sequel, the Hobbit also invested in Summit Entertainment, and even enjoyed the sharing of MGM's film library! In the MGM reorganization case, did Summit Entertainment really lose? I'm afraid No!"—The Observer.

"Where is the way for the century-old MGM?" - "Mirror".

"Hollywood compromises with capital!" - Hollywood Entertainment Reporter.

Since the hostile takeover of Trans World Airlines that year, Carl Icahn has once again become the most bullish investor on Wall Street, and his reputation as a corporate predator has become more and more famous. Icahn is high-spirited, Sony is suffering, and Summit Entertainment is secretly laughing. This is the magic of capital.

"We have reached an agreement with MGM. The latest sequel to the 007 series has been confirmed. It plans to invest 150 million US dollars and name it "007: Skyfall." When Mitchell Bruce was asked, MGM In the reorganization case, when Summit Entertainment had any losses, they changed the topic with a smile.

Vice President David Joe Cole added on the side: "We have also discussed with director Peter Jackson about the issue of The Hobbit. The Hobbit will be in the form of a trilogy and will start back-to-back continuous production next year. , we believe that this will be beyond the existence of the "Lord of the Rings" series."

The Hobbit is the prequel of Lord of the Rings, and the copyright is in the hands of director Peter Jackson. At the beginning, the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy was cooperated with New Line Films. After the merger of New Line and Warner Bros., Peter Jackson no longer cooperated with Warner Bros. Instead, they switched to MGM, which was acquired by Sony.

I thought that MGM would be rejuvenated, but who knows it has been cheating, so the Hobbit has been delayed again and again. Now in the arms of Summit Entertainment, Jackson was the first to find Mitchell to discuss the shooting of The Hobbit. Mitchell asked Shao Shuaijun, and Shao Shuaijun replied at that time: "Peter Jackson can shoot whatever he wants!"

This is how The Hobbit started.

In this way, June ended in such a hustle and bustle.

Everything is settled.

On July 1, Summit Entertainment's last film in the "Twilight Saga" series, "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn (Part 2)" will be released globally simultaneously. "Transformers 3", which was originally scheduled for this week, was released a week earlier under the influence of Twilight. Although the global box office of the Transformers series is better than that of the Twilight series, the Twilight series has always been known for its unbeatable opening results, so we have to avoid the edge for the time being.

Movies based on best-selling novels like Twilight and Hunger have huge teenage fans as their support, and they will choose to support the movie as soon as possible, so the opening results are quite impressive, all breaking through 100 million.

This time is no exception. At the end of the three-day weekend, according to statistics, "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn (Part 2)" reached the top in North America with US$141.07 million. Affected by the dawn, the runner-up "Transformers 3" achieved only US$32 million in the second week. (to be continued..)