Hollywood is full of filmmakers who insist on writing, directing, and acting with a great script and become famous in one fell swoop, and Stallone is arguably one of the most legendary. Unfortunately, Peter Borg is not one of them.

Not only that, but this one is also a big hole in Hollywood.

In the past, Peter Borg's debut film "Bad Things" written and directed by Peter Borg ended in failure, but it did not stop the 'rise' of this naturally racially gifted filmmaker in Hollywood, and he directed more than a dozen films over the years, many of which were blockbusters with big investments and big productions.

However, except for "Superman Hancock" starring Will Smith at his peak, the others have basically failed, such as "Super Battleship", such as "Deep Sea Catastrophe", and even some big-budget movies such as "Jungle Raiders" and "Bloodstained Kingdom" that did not leave much impression on the audience at all.

However, Simon is very fond of this kind of filmmaker.

As long as you can't pit yourself.

At this moment, hearing Peter Borg's confident conditions, Simon's expression was not displeased at all, but with a look of pity for Bole when he saw Maxima, he decisively agreed: "No problem, Peter, I have read the synopsis of the script of "Bad Things" at breakfast, it is a very good story. ”

Peter Borg obviously didn't expect Simon to be so crisp, and was slightly stunned before he subconsciously said: "But, Mr. Westeros, Mr. Morris and I talked once, and he thinks I'm a novice......"

Simon waved his hand and interrupted: "Peter, I'm the boss, in this way, I think that if "Bad Things" is done well, it is very promising to rush to the Oscars, so it can be placed under the banner of Gordoor Pictures and let Ella be responsible." ”

Oscar?

Peter Borg was once again surprised, and inevitably excited, that if his project could hit the Oscars, even if it was just a nomination, it would be enough for him to make a name for himself in Hollywood.

It's just that this good thing seems to come too easily?

Seeing that Peter Borg didn't know how to react for a while, Simon skillfully changed the conversation: "But, Peter, if you want to direct it yourself, out of risk considerations, the budget must be controlled within 10 million US dollars, and the actors must also be decided by us." ”

That's normal.

Simon's voice fell, and even Robert Redford, who was in the audience, thought so.

Peter Borg also suddenly felt that things were back to normal, but immediately added: "Mr. Westeros, $10 million is too little, and frankly, several other studios interested in "Bad Things" have budgets of more than 10 million. ”

"Money may be important for a film, but it's never going to be the deciding factor, Peter, Mindcatcher has a budget of $10 million, so how much audiences like the film right now? ”

Saying this, Simon was really worried that Peter Borg would agree on the spot, so he stopped in moderation: "So, think about it, Peter, I look forward to your good news." ”

After Simon finished speaking, he deliberately ignored Peter Borg and turned his attention to Robert Redford next to him.

The purpose has certainly been achieved.

Surrounded by guests, Simon didn't lower his voice much just now, and compared "Bad Things" to the recent blockbuster "Soul Catcher", and the news spread, I don't believe that other Hollywood studios will not take the lead.

The noon drinks will last until 2 p.m.

Simon stayed until the end, patiently communicating with the filmmakers on the scene, until the end of the reception, and was about to leave, when he was stopped again by Natasha Richardson, who had chatted at the beginning of the reception.

"Simon, I think you should apologize to me. ”

Just whispered that Girl A greeted Ella Deutchman about her attitude towards "Bad Things", Simon heard Natasha Richardson's sudden words, and asked with a smile, "Why?"

Natasha Richardson stared at Simon: "You said, I'm going to die if I ski again, it's ...... That's ridiculous. ”

Simon knew he was wrong, and said, "Okay, I'm sorry, Nata. ”

Natasha Richardson's expression did not diminish in the slightest: "But, Simon, you have ruined my hobby, even if you take it back now, I still dare not ski again in the future." ”

"It sounds quite serious," Simon curled the corners of his mouth slightly: "In this way, don't you work on Broadway, and the next time I go to New York to invite you to dinner, it will be considered compensation, how about it?"

Natasha Richardson was stunned, is this direct or perfunctory? Although she thought so, her tone was unconsciously softened slightly: "Simon, this is too insincere. ”

Simon raised his arm and put on the trench coat handed over by Girl A, and said with a smile: "Dinner is just the beginning, we can seriously discuss more compensation at that time." ”

Feeling some hateful elements in the man's smile, Natasha Richardson subconsciously shook her head: "I didn't mean that, I mean, who knows if you remember this next time you go to New York, isn't it, well, not tonight?"

"Unfortunately, tonight is not good, I have a lot of things to do. ”

Natasha Richardson saw that Simon's tone was serious, and the man did not investigate some ambiguity in her words just now, so she had to agree.

Simon is indeed busy.

After the noon reception, there was another film forum in Park City, this time it had nothing to do with Sundance, but an exchange project jointly sponsored by several major studios in Hollywood, and many filmmakers would participate, and Simon also chose to attend. In the evening, it was a fashion party hosted by Melisandre's CK brand.

Even with some free time, Simon's eyes are on the festival.

A collection of film materials planned to be screened at the festival, most of them just a simple poster, Simon would flip through them when he had a little leisure during the ride or waiting, in order to pick up the leaks and discover the 'new talent'.

Because there is so much information in my mind, it is easy to find a lot of familiar names, but unfortunately they are all small characters. However, there is a trend that has seen that more films have been shot with digital video cameras this year.

In this case, some of the previous projects can try to replicate, such as "Blair the Witch", "Ghost Record" and other pseudo-documentary horror films that create miracles with small and big, and do not do it in vain.

Meanwhile, on the evening of January 19, the 54th Golden Globe Awards were officially held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.

The results were largely within Simon's expectations.

The recent hit nominee "Soul Catcher" won nothing, the best picture in the drama category was taken home by "The English Patient", the winner of the best picture in the musical comedy category was "Madame Peron", and Madonna also got her wish for a best actress in a musical comedy.

When the results of the awards were announced, the media continued to be skeptical, mainly for Daenerys Entertainment's two films "Soul Catcher" and "Ice Storm".

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is also helpless about this.

Daenerys Entertainment's PR project this time is "The English Patient", what else can they do?

As a result, although "Soul Catcher" got nothing, because of the attention of the media, the popularity increased, which once again stimulated the increase in the box office, and "Ice Blood Storm", which has already released a videotape, also ushered in a big increase in sales.

It's a joy for all.

Moreover, Daenerys Entertainment also quietly won the overseas distribution rights of "The British Patient", which can be regarded as some kind of exchange and compensation. You must know that in the past, the local box office of "The British Patient" was only 78 million, but it was 150 million overseas.

Although it is not involved in the production, it is just a release, and Daenerys Entertainment can also make a profit.

In fact, in recent years, many of MGM's projects have been released overseas by Daenerys Entertainment. On the one hand, MGM's overseas distribution capacity is limited, and on the other hand, after all, it is the owner of Daenerys Entertainment, and Simon also has to consider the interests of his own company. On a deeper level, doing so would also keep MGM firmly trapped in the Daenerys Entertainment chariot.

The new week is coming, Simon is back in Los Angeles on Monday, and the most talked-about thing this week is undoubtedly Ygritt's earnings conference.

It was Wednesday, January 22, at two o'clock in the afternoon.

Holding a grand press conference specifically for the release of earnings reports is not a first, but it is also rare.

However, whether it is the size of Igret's market capitalization, the public attention that the company has received, and even the most direct financial report data, it is worth planning with such fanfare.

In fiscal 1996, Egret's annual revenue was $33.6 billion, up 63% year-on-year from $20.8 billion in 1995, and it did not fall back to the trend of less than 50% annual growth that was widely expected by the industry.

Not only that, but Egret's net profit for the full year of 1996 also reached a staggering $3.5 billion.

What is the concept of $33.6 billion in revenue and $3.5 billion in net profit?

According to the revenue ranking, 33.6 billion US dollars, has squeezed into the top 20 ranks of the top 500 domestic enterprises in the United States. As for calculating the profit, it directly broke into the top 10 range.

That's not all.

The most important point is that it has been juxtaposed with a group of century-old corporate giants, and its revenue growth still shows no signs of slowing down, and if it continues like this, the industry does not even dare to imagine what a behemoth Igrete will be in the future.

When Jeff Bezos presented the company's 1996 revenue figures to hundreds of reporters in the room at the Eagle Convention Center, many people couldn't help but think of a bewildering corporate motto of the new tech giant.

You Know Nothing！

In recent years, there have been a variety of interpretations of the rumor that Simon Westeros personally hammered out the meaning of this corporate motto.

Now, the feeling is simple.

The world is changing so fast, you really don't know anything!

This is, of course, just an emotion.

As senior executives from different business units of Egrett came to the stage to conduct detailed analysis of the financial report data and different businesses, everything seemed so logical.

In addition to the core software services and advertising business, the business that attracted the most attention in 1996 was undoubtedly e-commerce.

After several years of solid foundation, Alice Ferguson's Amazon store expanded more aggressively in 1996, not only continuing to build warehousing and logistics centers across the United States, but also beginning to introduce more external merchants, and greatly increasing the variety of products on the website to meet the shopping needs of more consumers.

In addition, Amazon's European and Asian sites have also grown by leaps and bounds.

Compared with the 63% annual growth of the company as a whole, Amazon's revenue growth also leads the way among many businesses under Igret, reaching 103%, with a turnover of $11.6 billion, accounting for 34% of the entire annual revenue of Igret.

When I first saw this figure, the first reaction of some viewers who were more familiar with the industry was 'water'.

Because the retail industry, like automobiles, electronics, and other fields, is very easy to get huge revenues.

Just like Wal-Mart, the retail giant's current revenue has reached the level of 100 billion US dollars, in stark contrast to the revenue, that is, Wal-Mart's net profit margin is only about 3%, far less than the software services industry, which can reach a maximum of 20% of the net profit level.

Egrett is positioned as a new technology company, and it stands to reason that the source of revenue should be software and services with very high net profit margins.

However, after the initial doubts, most people were shocked again in the blink of an eye.

Tens of billions!

The Amazon online store was launched in early 1992, and it has been exactly five years since then.

Turning an online shopping business from zero to $10 billion in revenue in five years is a miracle in itself, as $10 billion in revenue is enough to occupy a fairly high position among Fortune magazine's Fortune 500 companies.

Who would dare to say that it will take five years to make a company with a revenue level of $10 billion, no matter what it is?

In this way, even if it is retail, what can it be!

What's more, when Alice Ferguson introduced more detailed data, many spectators inside and outside the press conference also noticed the difference.

The revenue of the e-commerce department of 11.6 billion US dollars, of which 10.3 billion US dollars is from Amazon's online retail, accounting for 88%, which is indeed a high proportion, but there is another revenue of about 1.3 billion US dollars, which comes from commissions, storage, logistics and other income charged by the platform to third-party sellers.

And that's not even counting advertising revenue, which is counted separately as another of Egret's core businesses.

Because it is the early stage of development, in order to attract third-party buyers, Amazon's fees for sales commissions, storage logistics and other services are very low, and it is completely operating at a loss, so this income only accounts for about 15% of the sales of third-party sellers, even if you count the expenses of sellers for advertising, it is less than 20%.

This also means that in just two or three years, the sales of third-party sellers in Amazon's online mall have rapidly reached 8.6 billion US dollars, and the growth rate is even faster than that of self-operated sales.

And this $8.6 billion in sales, according to Ygrit's official calculations, not counting the increasing number of employees in Amazon's own marketplace, is conservatively estimated to have created 50,000 new jobs for the Federation.

This data is naturally part of the focus of the event.

At the same time, Alice also announced that Egrett will further promote the platformization of Amazon's online mall to attract more third-party sellers, and plans to reduce its self-operated sales business to less than 30% in the next ten years, focusing on supporting third-party buyers, and it is expected that this move will bring no less than 1 million jobs to the Federation.

With solid performance as a backing, no one can easily suspect that Igrett is painting a big pie.

As the press conference continued, in addition to the dazzling financial results, onlookers gradually realized the purpose of the press conference, which was to once again publicly promote the importance of its company to all aspects of federal society.

Of course, most people can't know about the potential behind the scenes, but there are some who want to go to other things.

For example, the antitrust investigation that Igrett is encountering.

When the thinking turns to this point, something suddenly becomes clear, and Igret's high-profile earnings conference is likely to be putting pressure on Washington.

The subtext is simple.

If you were to split Igret, it would probably mean the loss of millions of potential jobs.

Further, for example, if the fastest growing e-commerce has created the most jobs, if the politicians and lawmakers in the authorities support the split of Igret, or if the state is the most desperate to pursue the antitrust investigation of Igret, then, unfortunately, your logistics center is gone, and the jobs are gone. The end result is that some people's votes are gone.