Heads Up Hollywood

Shares of Viacom continued to fall.

Lei Shidong was flustered.

The platter investment in cooperation with Merrill Lynch failed to bring confidence to investors.

Redstone must breathe new life into the film industry.

On April 13th, a shocking news came out of Hollywood—Shirley Lansing, known as the number one strong woman in the Hollywood industry, was fired!

Shirley Lansing became the president of Twentieth Century Fox as early as 1980 and was the first female leader of the eight major Hollywood film studios.

In 1992, she jumped to Paramount and became the chairman of the board of directors and chief executive officer. She has been in charge of Paramount, and it has been a full ten years now.

While in charge of Paramount, she pushed John Wu to the throne of the world's top director, and also included action superstar Tom Cruise, and launched the old film remake plan, which created huge profits for Paramount. .

Even, in the annual "Hollywood Women's Rights List", the "Shirley Lansing Leadership Award" named after her was specially set up!

But even so, the sluggish performance of Paramount in recent years has caused Redstone to be very dissatisfied, criticizing her for lack of adventurous spirit and only remaking old movies.

And asked her to launch the "Paramount Revival" plan to lead Paramount out of the trough.

However, before this plan was actually implemented, Viacom went to war with New Universal and Disney.

In order to save the stock price, Redstone had no extra time for Shirley Lansing, so he fired directly and invited the famous Hollywood producer Brad Gray to take over the helm of Paramount!

...

Barry Diller came to Dunn's office and reported to him the acquisition of Rotten Tomatoes.

New Universal spent US$52 million in cash to acquire all the assets of the Rotten Tomatoes website, and integrated them into the New Universal Interactive Entertainment Department, under the control of Kevin Turner.

Tang En didn't have any objection to this, but just warned that it is best to let Rotten Tomatoes operate independently, and it is forbidden to cross with the IDMb website.

"By the way, what do you think about Shirley Lansing?"

After talking about Rotten Tomatoes, Barry Diller switched to a new topic.

"Shirley Lansing?" Tang En smiled contemptuously, "It's just a medical emergency. Lei Shidong won't be able to play for a few days."

Barry Diller shook his head and said, "I'm not talking about Redstone, I'm talking about Shirley Lansing."

"Um?"

Tang En was a little surprised.

Barry Diller said: "Twain, didn't you say that New Universal is going to bring up a new force of women in Hollywood? It just so happens that Shirley Lansing is recognized as the number one strong woman in the industry! Even better than Columbia Pictures' Amy Pascal, and Kathleen Kennedy, Nina Jacobson, and Donna Langley in our company are big names."

"You mean...you want to poach her here?" Tang En stroked his chin, thinking about this topic.

Barry Diller said: "On the one hand, it can improve the external image of New Universal. Under the circumstances that women are generally suppressed in Hollywood, only New Universal is sparing no effort to cultivate female senior managers. On the other hand, this is also a tribute to Redstone. Thunder is awesome!"

Tang En understood what he meant.

In the name of supporting female managers, New Universal hired Shirley Lansing, which also proves that Viacom is suppressing women in the workplace.

Redstone's attempt to save the stock price by replacing the person in charge of Paramount will also be completely shattered.

It might also bring infamy, making Viacom's stock even worse.

However, Tang En also had doubts, "But I heard... Shirley Lansing likes to engage in nepotism."

Shirley Lansing's husband is William Friedkin. He is a well-known director in the United States. He has made well-known films such as "The Exorcist" and "French Dealer/Drug Network", and has won an Oscar.

But after the 1990s, he was exhausted and could no longer grasp the pulse of the times.

At this time, Shirley Lansing made a move. Through her power in Paramount, she forcibly hired William Friedkin, which caused a lot of controversy. As a result, William Friedkin did not make any money for Paramount.

Barry Diller said: "This is a lesson from the past, and she cannot and will not be allowed to repeat the same mistakes."

After thinking for a while, Tang En waved his hands and said, "I don't have much contact with Ms. Shirley Lansing. If you think it's appropriate, then make a decision."

Barry Diller showed a smile. He was very satisfied with Dunn's delegation of authority, "There is one more thing. I want her to serve as Bill McNick's deputy."

"Um?"

"In the past few years, Viacom has not invested a penny in Paramount, and has also withdrawn profit cash flow every year. It can be seen that she has excellent ability to control the budget and limit the cost. Film and television The investment expenditure of the Ministry of Entertainment is too large and must be curbed."

Tang En said: "No, Barry, you misunderstood me. In fact, I also agree with your idea of ​​controlling the budget, saving as much as possible. What I said is, if this arrangement is made, what will happen to Lon Meyer? "

In the current film and television entertainment department, Langmeyer is Bill McNick's deputy.

With Shirley Lansing joining, there will definitely be a serious decentralization of power.

Barry Diller said: "Release Lon Meyer from the film and television entertainment department and promote him to vice president of the group, responsible for several businesses such as public relations, personnel, and business coordination, and continue to serve as the chairman of the film project committee."

"this……"

Tang En was very hesitant.

Such a transfer order is nominally a promotion, but in fact, it is relegation.

Even if Lon Meyer is the second in command of the film and television entertainment department, he can still own a large part of the power of the film business, has the right to profit dividends from the film and television entertainment department, and his annual income will not be less than 10 million US dollars.

However, if he is "promoted" to be the vice president of the group, he will lose the right to share the profits of the film, and the annual salary is about 2 million U.S. dollars.

Universal Pictures acquired it for more than half a year, and the related business was integrated with the help of Lon Mayer, and then he was removed from the main leadership position.

is this okay?

Barry Diller said lightly: "Ability attributes determine job distribution. New Global is a commercial company, and there is no need to consider any human factors here. I am the CEO of the company, and I will handle this matter!"

Tang En was silent for ten seconds before nodding his head heavily, "Okay!"

...

"Gone Girl" is indeed the hottest movie in April this year.

North America: first week, $54 million; second week, $48 million; third week, $34 million; fourth week, $23 million...

As of April 27, the North American box office of "Gone Girl" has reached 159 million US dollars!

The overseas box office also reached 223 million US dollars.

The global box office totaled as much as 382 million US dollars!

Of the movies in the same period, only the comedy "Anger Management" starring Jack Nicholson and Adam Sandler has a fighting power in the box office market.

By the end of April, the North American box office of the film broke through the US$100 million mark, but the overseas box office was only US$12 million... No way, this is an American humorous comedy.

In addition, "Sniper Phone Booth", which was released at the same time, although the box office was only tens of millions of dollars, the cost of the film was only 17 million dollars.

Colin Farrell's performance has won the recognition of film critics, even better than Mel Gibson's performance in "Gone Girl".

The director of the film, Joe Schumacher, also has the potential to turn around with this film.

For "Gone Girl", if it wants to hit the North American box office of 200 million US dollars and the global box office of 500 million US dollars, it must seize the opportunity.

With the arrival of the May file, blockbuster movies will be released intensively. .

At the beginning of May, there was only one major commercial production of 20th Century Fox's "X-Men 2".

Subsequently, many films such as "Dad's Training Camp", "The Matrix 2", "Daredevil", "Stealing the Sun", "Finding Nemo" and so on will be released one after another.

However, even if the goal of "Gone Girl" fails, it will not prevent the movie from making a lot of money.

The driving effect on the novel is even more obvious.

In the past half a month, the physical book "Gone Girl" has sold more than 3.8 million copies worldwide!

On April 28th, Shirley Lansing, who was fired by Paramount, officially entered the job and joined New Universal as the vice president of the film and television entertainment department.

On April 30, Dunn received a handwritten thank you letter from Shirley Lansing.

"The past three weeks have been difficult for us, and I know it takes a lot of courage to give me such an important position. But those days are over, and I just want to tell you that to get such a job I'm very happy with the results. The most important thing to me...maybe not the few dollars, but finally you did what you were supposed to do and recognized my ability."

"We've known each other for a long time, in fact, a lifetime if you go by the way Hollywood counts time. I not only hope but believe that we'll be together forever. You've been amazing, you're Hollywood The best filmmaker."

"You have always had extraordinary patience and care, and you have a sense of responsibility to the Hollywood family. Even when I am in Paramount, I can deeply feel it... I sincerely admire and thank you for this, And love you with all my heart, Shirley."

Tang En was a little dumbfounded when he saw this letter.

What's the situation?

Barry Diller was personally responsible for the recruitment of Shirley Lansing.

He didn't pay much attention at all.

More importantly, the letter written... is too expressive, right?

In fact, Ms. Shirley Lansing is 59 years old this year!

At the age of 36, she became the president of 20th Century Fox, the first female executive in the history of Hollywood film giants.

"Could it be that... she used this way of handling things to ascend to a high position?"

Tang En put away the letter of thanks and shook his head.

It's a tough time for female filmmakers in Hollywood.

This is a fact.

But this is not necessary in New Universal.

However, it still feels very comfortable to be flattered, flattered, complimented, and flattered by subordinates who are almost shameless.

Aging veteran filmmakers like Bill McNick and Shirley Lansing have obvious shortcomings, but their advantages are also obvious enough.

They still have a lot of Hollywood habits from the golden age...