Heads Up Hollywood

Jobs' suggestion to Twain to buy Apple stock is like being offered a pillow when he is dozing off, not to mention how comfortable it is.

Let's talk again, when you are lucky, drinking cold water is... comfortable!

By August, "Spider-Man" has been released for 40 days, with a cumulative box office of 440 million US dollars in North America and 620 million US dollars in overseas box office, with a total box office of... 1.06 billion US dollars!

Just as widely predicted by the media when the film was first released a month ago, the third movie with a global box office of more than $1 billion was born after "Titanic" and "Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Man Menace". ,director……

It's Tang En again!

It's still Twain!

"Spider-Man", a superhero movie that was once disliked by many professionals, has also been written into film history and has become a typical representative of commercial blockbusters.

Tang En has heard that in the past period of time, the School of the Arts of the University of Southern California, the American Film Institute, the School of the Arts of Columbia University, Syracuse University, and Chapman University have all launched new topics around the movie "Spider-Man" Research.

Even New York University's Tisk School of the Arts, which has always scoffed at Hollywood, has made an exception and approved a grant of 2 million US dollars to establish the academic project "Examination of Film Rhythm and Narrative Process Related to Spider-Man".

Dunn Walker's name is not only popular in Hollywood, which has a strong commercial atmosphere, but after a series of successes, he has entered the textbooks of art colleges as a director of commercial films. It has to be said that this is a miracle!

Even the famous Steven Spielberg entered the Academy of Art because of "Schindler's List", not "Jaws", "Raiders of the Lost Ark", "E.T." commercial film.

In April, Twain encountered a series of bad luck. First, he was targeted by the federal government, investigated by the FBI, and then calculated by Disney and Fox. Even at that time, the Cannes Film Festival was still considering whether to cancel the competition of "The Girl Who Moved Soul" , they didn't want a suspect's work to be shortlisted.

Times come and go, in July, luck begins to come, and in August, it is good luck again and again!

Not to mention the box office hit of "Spider-Man", Dunn Capital successfully acquired 18.45 million Pixar shares for US$190 million, becoming the second largest shareholder of Pixar after Jobs;

At the same time, at Apple's shareholders' meeting, it was officially voted that Tang En would come to Apple's board of directors and take up the position of independent director. Moreover, the shareholders voted, with more than 78% of the equity approval, supporting Jobs to make drastic changes and implement Apple's reform and revitalization plan;

"Mr. and Mrs. Smith" has officially started filming in the United States. Thanks to Luc Besson's contacts and connections in France, he won a tax rebate of no less than 15 million US dollars for the film.

In addition to the nearly 20 million US dollars in car, clothing, cosmetics and other brand sponsorships, the movie "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", Tang En Pictures invested 100 million US dollars in name, but the actual cost... has been reduced to 65 million US dollars.

This is the benefit of joining superstars and modern standard commercial blockbusters.

However, compared to these happy events, it was Bill McNick who made Tang En truly feel the good luck.

Right now, Tang En still has an unresolved problem in mind, which is to establish a complete independent film distribution department for Tang En Pictures.

Bill McNick was just sending charcoal when he needed it, "Tang En, I want to recommend someone to you, who is very suitable for the company's current job vacancies."

Tang En didn't feel how important this proposal was at first, so he joked with a smile, "It won't be your old subordinate again?"

Bill McNick blushed and waved his hands in a smug manner, "That's right, it's the old subordinate!"

Tang En's face straightened, "Bill, it was just a joke just now. As long as it is beneficial to the development of the company, even if you recruit all the old subordinates from the past, it's fine!"

Bill McNick looked calm, and said slowly: "You know, Fox released a blockbuster film this summer called "Titan A.E.", including the publicity and distribution costs, the total investment is close to 100 million U.S. dollars, but the global box office is only 1,200 U.S. dollars. It’s a terrible loss. Now that the film has been released in North America, Fox has launched a accountability mechanism to appease shareholders’ anger.”

Tang En snorted coldly, "Didn't Tom Rothman want to fight in the ring? This is what happens when he fights against me, Tang En. He is going to step down? Humph! He deserves it!"

Bill McNick let out a long sigh and shook his head frequently, "Tom...it's not me, he already has a way to deal with it in private."

"Huh?" Tang En was taken aback, a look of surprise flashed in his eyes, ""Fight Club" only lost more than 40 million US dollars, and it took down you, an old hero of Fox. "Titan A.E." With all the pants left, can Tom Rothman still sit on Tarzan?"

"So, power competition... people with administrative backgrounds like them are better at it." Bill McNick had a bit of helplessness on his face, but also a bit of relief. He seemed to have figured it out. It's really not wrong for Man to do it.

When it comes to the content of the movie, Bill McNick claims to be no worse than anyone else, but when it comes to power competition... he really admires Tom Rothman.

"Titan A.E." lost so badly, Tom Rothman can still sit comfortably in the position of chairman of the board of directors and CEO of 20th Century Fox, this ability must be obeyed!

Dunn could hear some deep meaning from Bill McNick's words and tone, "You mean... Tom Rothman found a scapegoat?"

Bill McNick nodded heavily, "That's right!"

Tang En took a breath, and secretly admired Tom Rothman's methods.

Fortunately, the conflict between Tang En Pictures and 20th Century Fox is mainly in the field of movies. The competition in this field is all under the sun, with real knives and real guns.

As long as the quality of the movie passes the test and the word-of-mouth is strong, there is a market guarantee, and it cannot be manipulated by the black hands behind the scenes.

In this respect, Tang En never suffers, this is his greatest confidence.

But in the private competition... Tang En was not sure of winning, and even suffered repeated setbacks.

Just like Mattel's classic toy Barbie doll.

At the end of last month, Mattel has publicly announced that it has reached a cooperation with Disney to create a series of "Disney Princess" dolls. At the same time, Mattel announced that it will establish Mattel Animation Studio to independently develop "Barbie" cartoons.

This is tantamount to announcing to the public that Mattel refuses to cooperate with Tang En Pictures in the strategic development of toy copyrights like Hasbro did!

They want to fly alone, work alone, and break into Hollywood alone!

In the eyes of many Hollywood industry insiders, this is a complete joke.

Without the guidance of Hollywood forces, outsiders also want to develop in this industry?

dream!

Maybe Mattel's top executives think that they can get help from Disney's animation department if they have reached a cooperation with Disney. If so, then Mattel's top executives can resign collectively.

When Twain wanted to take a stake in the Nickelodeon Channel, Viacom was afraid of raising tigers and would rather face the risk of being eroded by Disney, so they chose to refuse.

Now, Mattel thinks Disney is defenseless?

Barbie dolls and Disney princesses are originally competitive and target the same consumer groups. It's just the competition in the toy industry. For Disney, it's just a small part of the income.

If Mattel is trying to make the image of Barbie doll appear on the big screen, competing with Disney princesses... that is a dream!

Disney has never been relentless when it comes to cracking down on competitors.

Twain only fought back against Bruce Willis, the star of "The Sixth Sense", but now he is at odds with Disney.

If Mattel Animation Studios dares to launch the "Barbie" series of big movies, Disney will definitely immediately terminate all cooperation with Mattel and suppress it with all its strength.

Through a simple analysis, one can imagine that it is absolutely impossible for Mattel Animation Studios to launch a big movie. Too much influence.

Every time Tang En thinks about this matter, he feels that the top management of Mattel is a pity, a pity, a pity, a pity!

Holding the super big IP of "Barbie" in your hand, but not knowing how to develop it, you only care about the meager income of the "Disney Princess" series of dolls, but you can't see the huge hidden value of the "Barbie" series. It is really reckless!

Of course, from another aspect, this also reflects the treacherous means and superb vision of Disney's top management.

Just licensing the "Disney Princess" series to Mattel cut off the possibility of "Barbie", a very dangerous potential opponent, entering the big screen, and shattered Tang En's layout in the animation and IP industries in one fell swoop.

It can be said to kill two birds with one stone, kill two birds with one stone!

Through this incident, Tang En also understood a truth.

That is, to bring down big companies like Disney and Fox, the small means of making troubles are basically useless, and may have an effect in a short period of time, but it is impossible to shake their foundation.

In order to win in this competition, there must be stronger strength and power to seize market share by overt means and make them hard to guard against.

It will be a long time.

Fortunately, Tang En is very young!

Tang En shook his head, no longer thinking about it, but focused on Bill McNick in front of him.

Through a simple conversation, he already understood that Tom Rothman had found a scapegoat inside Fox. And this scapegoat... just happened to be valued by Bill McNick, and he wanted to hire him in Tang En Pictures to play his light and heat.

"Titan A.E." suffered heavy losses, and the person responsible must have a high status in 20th Century Fox, if not Tom Rothman, at least at the vice president level.

Tang En had some expectations, what kind of talent would Bill McNick bring?