Heads Up Hollywood

The traditional Hollywood industrial area is a suburb in the south of Los Angeles.

With the growing influence of Hollywood and more and more film companies settled in, Hollywood in the current sense is no longer a corner, but the center of the American film industry composed of Hollywood and its surrounding cities such as Burbank.

For example, the new headquarters of Disney and Time Warner are located in Burbank, and the headquarters of Universal Pictures is located in Universal City Plaza between Los Angeles and Burbank.

Tang En Pictures' headquarters was also located between Los Angeles and Burbank, a piece of wasteland 50 kilometers away from Universal Studios, covering an area of ​​200,000 square meters.

Bill McNick contacted the famous German construction company - Schleich Engineering Design Company to participate in the design of the headquarters building of Dunn Films.

Although this company is not as large as well-known construction companies such as Liya and Ai Kang, it is more sophisticated and talented.

They provided the first-phase plan of the drawings. The headquarters building has 4 floors and a construction area of ​​80,000 square meters. It presents the shape and structure of the fourth-order magic method, presenting the connotation of magic and magic power. The construction budget is 200 million U.S. dollars and the construction period is 2 years. .

Tang En didn't understand architectural design, so he only put forward three requirements to Bill McNick, "The company's future development direction is an international multinational media group, and the design of the headquarters building must be high-end and elegant!"

"The design of the building is to become a landmark building. In the future, famous movie images such as Spiderman, Jedi Knight, and Transformers may be erected on the square in front of the building. This standard should be referred to during the design process, and the existence of the statue should not be too obtrusive."

"My office should be equipped with an assistant's office, a secretary's office, a wife's office, a secondary office, an auxiliary meeting room, a private study, a bedroom, a bathroom, a living room, a dining room, a piano room, a gym, a mini-screening hall, and an honorary office. Exhibition halls, art exhibition halls, etc.”

Bill McNick's face changed, he blocked his personal needs, but keenly grasped an important message in his words, "Transformers? Twain, you want to make Transformers into a movie?"

Tang En said as a matter of course: "I have this idea! However, with the current special effects technology, it is still somewhat difficult to achieve this. It will be possible in five or six years."

Bill McNick nodded, "Transformers is a fond memory of many people's childhood, and it does have the potential to be adapted into a movie. I will notify the production department later and buy the copyright first."

"By the way, what happened to the TV station?" Tang En was very concerned about this job.

Bill McNick said: "The most in line with the company's strategic requirements is AMC TV station, and the most likely acquisition is Starz TV station."

"AMC TV station? Isn't this a basic cable TV station?" Tang En frowned and shook his head again and again, "This is absolutely not possible. We promote high-quality drama series, and such a TV station cannot broadcast them."

Bill McNick frowned and said, "But AMC TV has a full 42 million subscribers, which is 30 million more than HBO TV network!"

"So what?" Tang En curled his lips, "There are a lot of users, but is the bond high? Is the total subscription income of TV stations as high as HBO?"

"Yes, it's twice as much as HBO!"

"Ahem..."

Tang En was very embarrassed. He forgot that it was 2000, and HBO was just in the stage of finding its direction. "I'm talking about the future! There are too many bad TV dramas on the market now, wait for the high-quality drama channel to appear, Once you have brand influence, it will completely reverse this situation."

Bill McNick obviously didn't believe it, "Excellent series? Dunn, I know your ambition, but... excellent series are more difficult to appear than classic movies."

"That's because of insufficient investment! How much does a TV show cost now? $1 million? $2 million? The cost of "Friends" is high, but the salary of the leading role in each episode is $5 million. How much money is there to create the picture? The beauty and appreciation of it?"

"The aesthetics of the picture? Dun En, this is a TV series." Bill McNick couldn't keep up with Tang En's train of thought.

The corner of Tang En's mouth twitched slightly, "Bill, "Band of Brothers" invested 120 million US dollars. What do you think is the difference between this and shooting a movie? The high-quality series I want is to shoot a TV series with the attitude of shooting a movie. I said it , I want to build a brand!"

Bill McNick frowned, "I'm afraid I won't be able to recover the cost."

Tang En laughed, "Can't recover the cost? Bill, your vision is really outdated. Believe me, "Band of Brothers" will impress you! A method like AMC's lower subscription fee to attract users is not what I want to promote I want quality, not quantity! Just imagine, if there is a monthly subscription fee of $10, even if there are only 10 million household subscriptions, what is the annual revenue? A full $1.2 billion!"

"A subscription fee of $10 per month? Dunn, you're crazy!" Bill McNick opened his eyes wide and exclaimed crazy.

Tang En looked serious and shook his head, "Bill, you have to understand that the sales volume of Hermes is much lower than that of Nordica, but the profit is more than ten times. This is the power of the brand. Bill, I want to buy a TV station, yes Want to create a brand!"

Bill McNick was obviously shocked by Tang En's amazing thoughts.

In the current TV drama market, most of them are shoddy, DVD revenue is basically zero, and they all rely on advertising fees to survive. Even HBO is a bunch of bad movies, relying on "Prison Storm", "The Black D Family", and "Sex and the City" to support 7 million subscribers. (HBO is a TV station under the HBO TV network. The total subscribers of the TV network are 12 million, and HBO subscribers are 7 million.)

"Starz TV has not been established for a long time, only 6 years. It mainly broadcasts some popular movies and dramas. Because there are no original dramas and they are all reruns, there are not many subscribers. Now there are only more than 2 million subscribers. It's only $30 for a subscription."

"Oh? Such a big gap with HBO?" Tang En couldn't help frowning.

"Yes, the only professional cable TV station that can compete with HBO is SHO. But this TV station is the ace TV network under Viacom. It is impossible to buy it, and we can't afford it." Bill McNick said slowly. (SHO, that is, Showtime TV station)

Tang En pondered for a long time, then sighed, "This is making the challenge more difficult for me!"

"ah?"

"Cough...I mean, if we want to lead Starz to defeat HBO and SHO, we have a long way to go!"

Bill McNick stared at Tang En, "Have you really decided? To acquire Starz TV station?"

"Are there any other options?" Tang En rolled his eyes angrily, "If there is a choice, I would rather spend a little more money than spend so much effort. Forget it, let's go to Starz TV station, the price is about How many?"

"Between $200 million and $300 million."

"Huh? So expensive?"

Tang En couldn't help but exclaimed, with only 2 million subscribers, how dare you ask for such a high price?

Bill McNick explained: "That's how it goes, $100 a subscriber. Including Starz's sister channel, MoviePlex, it must be over $200 million."

Dunn waved his hand feebly, "That's it, buy it! Damn it, no wonder Viacom spent more than 37 billion dollars to buy CBS, the TV station is so expensive!"

Bill McNick said with a smile: "That's CBS's good performance and high revenue. Back then, Disney bought ABC very cheaply, and NBC's value was even lower."

"How many?"

"18 billion dollars is enough! What, you want to buy?"

Seeing Bill McNick's playful expression, Dunn almost vomited blood.

...

Jerry Bruckheimer is a gold medal producer in Hollywood. He has his own production company and has enough strength and confidence to share the dividends of major production companies.

The project "The Chronicles of Narnia" has aroused the interest of Jerry Bruckheimer. He has two requirements: first, the project should be based on his opinion; second, 5% of the film's future profit dividends.

Not just box office, including everything around!

Tang En Pictures readily accepted this proposal, and Tang En withdrew from the crew of "The Chronicles of Narnia" out of respect for the ace producer.

At the same time, Tang En Pictures also reached an agreement with DreamWorks and Tom Hanks' Preton Productions to cooperate with 5:5:2 investment distribution and profit sharing, and jointly invested 120 million U.S. dollars. The Normandy landing WWII drama "Band of Brothers".

In an instant, the entire entertainment media in the United States exploded.

"Shock! The most expensive TV series in history is born, \u003cBand of Brothers\u003e! "

"The first collaboration between new and old genius directors, a huge sum of money to reproduce Normandy! "

"$120 Million, Dawn Walker and Steven Spielberg Join Forces! "

"Twain Films is the first to challenge the theme of war, will \u003cBrand of Brothers" succeed? "

"Twain makes another move, laying out the TV industry! "

"..."