"Of course not. ”

Scarlett said with a smile.

She didn't want to offend a capital tycoon like Zhou Fangyuan.

Although Zhou Fangyuan is still far behind the Wall Street bigwigs, compared with the Hollywood bigwigs, he may not have enough foundation, and he is not bad.

The most important thing in capital must be money, Zhou Fangyuan really has no shortage in this regard, followed by connections, Cameron can also help him make up for one or two, and then there are channels, holding Disney and Marvel with a large amount of IP hype, and at the same time Disney's cinema chain as a channel, it can be said that Zhou Fangyuan has mastered the upstream and downstream channels, and these stars who are stuck in the midstream, how many dare to offend him?

Of course, Disney itself does not have a theater chain, in fact, all Hollywood film companies at this time theoretically do not have their own theaters. All this is thanks to the Paramount clause in the antitrust law of the United States, which is also known as the Paramount Act.

It all goes back almost 70 years, when Hollywood was enjoying a golden age brought by monopoly.

The form of monopoly it adopts is called vertical monopoly, that is, it controls the entire link of the entire industrial chain. In the case of the film industry, this means production, distribution, and screening. Paramount Pictures was the first to achieve a vertical monopoly, and through the acquisition of theatrical chains, the studio controlled all aspects of the film. Other studios followed suit, and Hollywood formed the "Big Five", namely Paramount, Warner Bros., Lowe/MGM, 20th Century Fox and Raiden Hua, as well as the "Three Smalls", namely Universal, Columbia and United Arts. Sanxiao does not own a theater chain of its own, but through cooperation with the Big Five, the film industry cannot accommodate novices to enter. The studio system that laid the foundation for Hollywood's landscape and film style was thus formed.

This puts the studio in an overwhelming position in negotiations with other independent cinemas. A model called package distribution was developed – if a cinema chain wanted to show a movie that was popular with the audience, it had to show other additional films. Studios were able to bundle small-budget films with star-studded films to sell to theatrical chains. This means that theaters can't choose which movies they want to show on their own, and studios never lose money.

While vertically integrated companies encompass only a fraction of the country's 15,000 theaters — in the mid-1920s, Paramount owned 500 and MGM had only 200 — the main studio-controlled chain included many large first-wheel theaters, which was enough to make them lucrative. At the end of the 1920s, three-quarters of box office receipts came from these large theaters. Theaters in small cities or farms can only wait to get the films after the first round of screenings.

At the peak of Hollywood's vertical integration, the Department of Justice, which had been watching Hollywood's every move and always wary of monopolies, filed a lawsuit against the "Paramount Act" in 1938, accusing the "Big Five" and the "Three Small" of colluding with each other to monopolize the film industry and violating the Monopoly Law. After a series of trials, the Supreme Court issued a final judgment in 1948, finding that both the "Big Five" and the "Three Small" had monopolistic practices. The Big Five have a monopoly on the cinema chain, and the Three Small have also been accused of excluding other companies from entering the market through cooperation.

The court ordered studios to divest theatrical chains and banned package distributions and other practices that disadvantaged independent exhibitors, such as imposing minimum ticket prices. The studios complied with the verdict, and the Big Five retained the production and distribution companies and sold the theaters.

The Paramount Act verdict spurred Hollywood's creativity. The end of package distribution has given exhibitors the freedom to fill their airtime with independent films, and as a result, independent films have increased in cost, volume, and creative approach. According to David Bordwell's A History of World Cinema, between 1946 and 1956, the annual production of independent films more than doubled to 150. One of the "three smalls", United Arts is a company that only distributes independent films, and it releases 50 independent films a year. For comparison, A24, which has released a lot of word-of-mouth films in recent years, released only 15 films in 2017.

The producer-centric system and the star system under the studio system give producers and stars a great voice.

With the Paramount Act verdict and the post-war rise of television pushing the studio system to an end, film directors wielded more power. Young filmmakers of the time, such as George Lucas, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, seized the opportunity to make shocking productions such as Star Wars, Taxi Driver and Jaws.

However, capital will always tend to monopolize. The profit-seeking nature of the company will always look for opportunities to maximize profits. Obviously, after the vertical monopoly was ended by the Supreme Court of the United States, Hollywood will not give up its efforts on the monopoly, and this time in the form of synergy.

In 2018, 41 years after the release of the first "Star Wars", George Lucas ranked first on the 2018 list of America's richest celebrities published by Forbes magazine, with a net worth of $5.4 billion that was much higher than the second Steven Spielberg's $3.7 billion. However, in terms of movies alone, Steven Spielberg is much better than George Lucas, he is the first director in film history to break 10 billion at the box office, and George Lucas's global box office is not even in the top ten.

What made George Lucas make a lot of money was not the Star Wars movie itself, but the Star Wars brand.

In the current entertainment industry, movies have long been no longer a separate existence, it has become a link of IP and brand. The box office of a movie is no longer the ultimate goal, but the standard for measuring the value of IP. As a result, we see Star Wars toys and Star Wars attractions in amusement parks, where derivatives can be even more profitable than movies — the Star Wars franchise has earned $9.5 billion at the box office, and derivatives have sold more than $40 billion.

In this case, the integration of synergies rather than vertical integration is the most economically beneficial approach. Disney is a representative of this integration. Disney was not named under the Paramount Act, but it and later studios followed the rules. When we talk about Disney now, we are not just referring to a movie studio, but a media empire with movies, television, theme parks, and integrating IP business into all aspects. The acquisitions of Marvel, Pixar, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox have left Disney with a growing inventory of IP.

Taking Disney's $71.3 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox's assets as an example, after taking 21st Century Fox's 20th Century Fox Studios into its own camp, Disney intends to integrate characters such as X-Men, Deadpool, and Fantastic Four into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is about to enter a new phase after "Avengers 4" and has already grossed $17.5 billion worldwide, Disney is naturally happy to see potential characters to develop.

The Justice Department has expressed monopoly concerns in Disney's takeover, but not for Disney's takeover of studios, but for sports channels. Disney's acquisition of 22 regional sports channels owned by 21st Century Fox is more expensive than 20th Century Fox. Disney hopes that these regional channel content can complement the limited channel ESPN, and also have leverage to reduce broadcast fees in the face of sports leagues. However, this hope was ultimately unrealized. When the Justice Department approved Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox, it imposed a condition that Disney sell the 22 sports channels to comply with antitrust rules. The Justice Department is concerned that having a regional channel will lead to higher fees for companies in their local markets.

After the Justice Department proposed a re-evaluation of the Paramount Act, some people sweated about the future of movie theaters, fearing that the reappearance of package distribution.

However, in fact, in the 1980s, the United States loosened its regulation of trusts, and even allowed some operations that would have been considered illegal in the past, such as the purchase of Loew's theaters by Samsung Pictures, founded by CBS, HBO and Columbia Pictures, the purchase of several theater chains by Warner Bros., and the purchase of more than 100 theaters by Paramount for $300 million, which Warner later injected. If you think about it, the main reason for the current media empire's strength in cinemas may have little to do with vertical mergers and acquisitions. Considering that the three major cinema chains in the United States, AMC, Regal and Cinemark, are not affiliated with any media group and the media empire is still strong, it can be understood that this discourse power comes from the integration of synergies.

A report in the Wall Street Journal used Disney as an example to point out that Disney demanded 65 percent of the ticket price when Disney released Star Wars 8, and the company received a 65 percent share of the ticket price, which set a new high for the share ratio, with studios for most movies taking about 55 percent and some blockbusters taking 60 percent. Disney's agreement with movie theaters also includes that Star Wars 8 must be shown in the theater's largest theater for at least four weeks, and that the scheduled film schedule cannot be reduced. If the theater fails to fulfill the agreement, Disney will also receive a 5% share of the movie ticket. While "Star Wars 8" grossed $620 million, the top of the year, some smaller theaters abandoned the film for fear they wouldn't be able to meet the conditions.

Therefore, channels or something, theaters or something, although it can't be directly controlled, it's not completely impossible.

Let's briefly talk about the relationship here, first of all, Zhou Fangyuan has shares in Disney, but if you look at the shares, he is just a small small shareholder, and what really has big shares in Disney is the investment company, including the investment in Marvel, which also accounts for the majority, and the investment company is Zhou Fangyuan's, but in this investment company, there are not too many shares that belong to Zhou Fangyuan's own, and the shares, part of them are of the Far Fang Group, part of them are of the Far Theater, part of them are Zhou's parents and Zhou's mother, and part of them are Zhou Fangyuan's。 It can be said that within the investment company alone, the shares belonging to Zhou Fangyuan have been divided into five parts.

And the shares of Distant Pictures were also split in a similar way, as were Disney and Marvel.

In fact, if anyone can really check all the shares, it can be seen that most of the shares of these companies ultimately belong to Zhou Fangyuan. But it's a pity that the investment company is an offshore company, and it doesn't publish shareholder information to the public, so even if someone wants to check it, they can't find anything, even if it's the U.S. government...... Well, if you insist on checking it, it's not impossible to find out, but the problem is, Hollywood is like this, the entanglements of interests in it have long been tangled together, and no one in this world can find out all the relationships in it.

In contrast, Yuanfang Pictures and the investment company are just small companies with little reputation, and the government of the United States will investigate the investment company when it is crazy. Of course, if someone reports it, it's another matter, but the question is, who wouldn't want to do this kind of thing? Unless it is a life-and-death feud with Zhou Fangyuan and a series of relationships behind him, Zhou Fangyuan will really find someone to kill the other party for such an offending thing. Cutting off someone's financial path is like killing your parents, and that is not a contradiction that can be settled simply.

Since the relationship is already so complicated, can the investment company quietly take a stake in the cinema company?

In fact, among the four major cinema chains in the United States, AMC has been infiltrated by investment, although it only got a negligible 2.7% of the shares, but as long as it can enter, there is a chance to find a way to get more shares, and the other three, the investment is now also looking for a way, as long as it is successful, it does not seek to have a large share quota in these cinema companies, as long as it can be spoken, this strength is much greater. In fact, in several major theaters, there are also other Hollywood bigwigs, anyway, they are infiltrating each other, and the power of the anti-monopoly law is also limited, as long as you are willing to find a way, you can bypass it.

This kind of thing is not very clear to people outside, but how many people in the circle don't know? Well, the low-level laborers must not know, but the high-level bosses don't know who.

Scarlett is not a big star now, she can only be regarded as a little famous, but her news is undoubtedly relatively well-informed, although it is impossible to completely figure out the things behind Zhou Fangyuan, but she knows some more or less.

Because she knew, she understood even more that such a person could not be offended.

It's true that the other party has the ability to hold her, and it's also true that they don't have the ability to directly block her, but as long as it's the right time, it's okay to wear small shoes or a little pit. For a person of Zhou Fangyuan's level, pitting others may be just a trivial matter for him, but for a little star like Scarlett, who is not strong enough, this can make her vitality hurt a lot.

So although she was a little impatient in her heart, she still showed a smile and turned sideways to face Zhou Fangyuan at this moment.

Zhou Fangyuan held the wine glass, looked at Scarlett with a smile, and looked her up and down.

I have to admit that although Scarlett is still a little young at this time, the charm of that temptation has not diminished at all.

"Why is Miss Johnson here alone? There are so many colleagues in the circle down there, isn't Miss Johnson going down to talk to them? Or does Miss Johnson think that the body I made today is a bit boring and bored you?"

It's just boring!

Scarlett said something like that, but the words changed when it came to her lips.

"It's okay for Mr. Zhou to call me Scarlett, it's not that I'm bored, but I just feel a little uncomfortable, so I want to be quiet alone for a while. ”

It's still the same sentence, she doesn't dare to offend him.