The emergence of new media has brought a new round of reshuffle to Hollywood.

The most successful of these are New Universal and Comcast.

Needless to say, the former is the boss of Hollywood.

In this change, Comcast successfully entered the content provider industry from an operator and formed the entertainment giant NBC Colombia.

The most frustrated is Viacom, followed by Time Warner.

Recently, there has been big news in Hollywood.

New Line Pictures, a Hollywood independent producer with a history of nearly 40 years, was merged by Warner Bros. Pictures!

Founded by Bob Shea in 1967, New Line Pictures finally ushered in a big explosion in 1990 after more than 20 years of tepid development!

At that time, Golden Harvest of the Hong Kong government made a movie "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", which was bought by Twentieth Century Fox.

However, Fox did not dare to release it for a long time, fearing that the box office would not be as expensive as the distribution, resulting in a loss.

New Line Pictures chose to take a big gamble and bought the rights to "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" from Twentieth Century Fox for $3 million and boldly released it.

As a result, the film earned $130 million!

directly made the name of New Line Pictures resounding in Hollywood, and established its status in the rivers and lakes in one fell swoop.

Affected by this, the entertainment predator at the time, Turner Group, offered $550 million to acquire New Line Pictures and gave New Line Pictures the right to operate independently.

Later, Time Warner acquired the Turner Group, and New Line Pictures naturally became a subsidiary of Warner Bros.

However, the contract has not changed, and it still operates independently.

Bob Shea is also competitive enough to lead New Line Pictures to new heights. Because of the huge success of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", New Line Pictures and Golden Harvest Pictures formed a good relationship, and then the two sides cooperated and decided to launch a second Bruce Lee!

Then, Jack Chan was born.

The "Rush Hour" series made Jack Chan a Hollywood A-list star.

The "Lord of the Rings" trilogy has brought New Line Pictures to its peak!

However, success is also "The Lord of the Rings", and defeat is also "The Lord of the Rings".

"The Lord of the Rings" made too much money for New Line Pictures, and these three films made more money than New Line Pictures combined in the past 30 years.

Because the copyright of "The Lord of the Rings" is very complicated and there are many dividends, it has led to a series of copyright lawsuits.

Including Harvey Weinstein, Peter Jackson, the Tolkien Legacy, and Harper Publishing are all suing New Line Pictures, saying that they did not pay enough dividends and had a big account.

In particular, the Tolkien Heritage Foundation's complaint is a real surprise.

They claim that under the copyright agreement, 7.5% of the revenue from the Lord of the Rings series will be paid to the Tolkien Heritage Foundation as a copyright dividend. The Council should have been compensated $423 million for the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, which had already grossed $6 billion at the box office, on DVD and merch worldwide, but New Line paid them only $62,500 before the film began shooting. (Actually, the contract states a 7.5 percent profit dividend, which is about $150 million.) ）

Shame on you!

If the copyright lawsuit can still make Warner tolerate, the development of the next "The Hobbit" film project failed, which made Warner very angry.

Warners has reason to believe that the new line has offended all the key people, so that the "Hobbit" project is lost. The grapevine has come out, and when Sal Zaynz's licensing contract with New Line Pictures expires next year, he will turn to New Universal and cooperate with Donn Pictures to develop this series together!

Outrageous!

Moreover, the streaming site Hulu is in full swing, but it does not have Warner's share, which makes Warner feel a huge sense of crisis and frustration.

Reform is imperative.

First of all, we have to start with the new line!

And for good reason, cut spending!

New Line Pictures is an independent operation, which means that New Line Pictures has many of its own departments, especially the distribution department, which has nearly 1,000 employees!

Warner has the best film distribution system in the world, but the new line has made its own set, isn't it full of food?

Just to have independent marketing rights?

Now, Time Warner is facing a very serious debt crisis, which requires significant layoffs and the sale of related assets to maintain the company's day-to-day operations and meet shareholders' dividend requirements.

Even Warner Music Group was sold.

Is there a problem with a complete merger of New Line Pictures?

This time, Barry Mayer was resolute and quickly came up with a charter. After the merger, the new line of pictures can still produce its own films, but the number will be greatly reduced, from the past 12-14 films per year, to half. What's more, New Line Pictures will lose its rights to distribute and market its films, which are run by Warner Bros.

At the same time, nearly 800 employees in Los Angeles and New York will be forced to leave.

Founder Bob Shea, as well as his longtime partner, New Line co-chair Michael Lynn, have left the company.

This asset restructuring is also a side reflection of the general trend of Hollywood, reflecting the overall market of the current American film industry.

In recent years, with the emergence of new media, the traditional film market has also been impacted, with movie audiences losing day by day, and movie DVD sales becoming weaker and weaker.

At the same time, film companies' management expenses are swelling and film production and marketing costs continue to soar, all of which are constantly compressing the profit margins of film companies.

The overall downturn in the general environment can't hide the brilliance of New Globe!

Time Warner is busy selling businesses, restructuring assets, and cutting expenses, while New Globe is trying to spend money.

Donn and George Lucas have already agreed.

New Universal wants to acquire Lucasfilm!

Such a large-scale merger and acquisition will certainly not be completed in a short period of time, and the real merger will not be completed until after the listing of New Global.

In this way, after the listing, New Globe will have an exact market capitalization.

As long as the price of Lucasfilm is negotiated, the deal will go very smoothly.

However, this does not prevent Don from visiting Lucasfilm in advance as a host!

This time, Don went to ILM.

Industrial Light & Magic is not in Hollywood, but on a hill in San Francisco's Pusidi Park, which is idyllic and has the standard Silicon Valley temperament.

Far away, you can see a large sculpture standing on the hill - Master Yoda!

After Tang En and his party got off the bus, they saw many tourists taking pictures next to the sculpture.

Well, it's become a tourist attraction!

Don has been here many times, each time as a director to talk to the special effects artists about the film, but this time he is the owner of the laboratory that explores the future of technology.

"Dennis!John!"

As soon as he reached the door, Don saw an old acquaintance greet him.

The former is Dennis Mullen and the latter is John Knoll, and they are the top special effects artists of Industrial Light & Magic, and the best special effects artists in the world today.

Dennis Mullen is a god-level existence in the special effects industry, has won the Oscar for Best Visual Award nine times, is the first special effects artist to leave a name on the Walk of Fame, he is Spielberg, George Lucas's royal special effects artist, and also collaborated with Donn on "Spider-Man" and "The Avengers".

John Knoll is not far behind, he is the special effects director of the "Pirate League" series, and the special effects director of "Avatar", which Cameron is preparing, has handpicked him. What is especially amazing is that 20 years ago, he and his younger brother had nothing to do and developed a photo editing software, which was later renamed - Photoshop.

Dennis Mullen is very old, doesn't talk much, rarely goes to the front line, and is mainly responsible for the management of ILM. John Knoll was still young and energetic, and when he saw Donn, he smiled and said, "Will you be our boss in the future?"

Don waved his hand, "It's all old friends!"

Afterwards, he visited the special effects studio of Industrial Light & Magic, surrounded by everyone.

Been here many times.

The main thing is to shake hands with everyone, get to know each other, and make a statement.

Let everyone understand that the owner of ILM has changed, and it will be a subsidiary of New Globe in the future.

There are more than 900 special effects artists working here, and of course Tang En can't shake hands one by one, mainly because he has a simple exchange with some grassroots leaders.

"How many projects do you have now?"

"17 pcs. ”

Don's eyes widened slightly, "Seventeen?"

Hollywood can release about 20 commercial blockbusters a year, which is a round?

Dennis Mullen followed Donn and said: "There are 11 projects with an investment of more than 100 million yuan, including 6 in New Global. The remaining 6 films have an investment of about 70 or 80 million US dollars. ”

"Who are you outsourcing to?"

Don knows that a special effects blockbuster requires thousands of special effects artists to work day and night. With the ability of ILM, they simply cannot complete so many projects, they will only be responsible for the core special effects production of the movie, and simple special effects will be outsourced to overseas special effects companies.

"Mainly France, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Israel and the Netherlands, South Korea has been pushing a lot in this area in the past two years, and it is seizing the market, and the level is also good," said Dennis Mullen. ”

Tang En nodded and said quietly: "We can strengthen some cooperation with China, which is in line with the overall strategy of the group." ”

Dennis Mullen frowned, "The technology over there...... I've been to the Hong Kong government, and the level is very poor, and the gap with South Korea and Japan is too big. I watched "Wuji", and the special effects were a mess. I've heard that even at this level, it's higher than that of the mainland. ”

Don was choked for a moment, "It will get better in the future." ”

Dennis Mullen said: "Then let's talk about it later." ”

Don gave him a funny look and shook his head. This old man is like this, when the two collaborated on "The Avengers", there was no less controversy, and he said: "Recently, the MPAA is putting forward a proposal to Congress, under the situation of strong promotion of the global special effects industry, if you want to ensure the leading position of the United States in this field, you must also provide policy support." ”

"Oh, export tax rebate?"

"Yes, but only for special effects blockbusters. ”

"That's enough!" Dennis Mullen lit up, "How much share?"

Tang En shook his head and said, "It depends on the outcome of the council, preliminary estimate...... It should be between 20%-25%. ”

"That's a lot of money!" exclaimed Dennis Mullen.

Based on the fact that Hollywood spends 2 billion yuan every year to shoot special effects blockbusters, 60% of which is spent on special effects, that is, 1.2 billion US dollars. If you want to refund 20%...... That's $240 million.

Of course, this money will not fall into the pockets of the producers, but the support for the special effects industry, which can further improve the treatment of special effects artists, so as to poach the best special effects engineers in the world to the United States and ensure the leading edge of the industry.

First and foremost, of course, is ILM.

According to the special effects market in the United States, 240 million per year, at least $200 million will fall into the pockets of industrial light and magic.

Well!

That's a good thing!

Soon, Dennis Mullen reacted.

What does Donn mean by this?

Oh, yes!

The special effects industry in the United States has been surviving for so many years, and the federal government has not issued policy support, why is there an export tax rebate all of a sudden?

Is it because New Universal wants to buy Lucasfilm?

It's very likely!

What is Parliament?

It's a capitalist's playground!

In the past, Lucasfilm was an independent film company, with no power and power, and even harbored crimes.

As a subsidiary of Lucasfilm, ILM naturally has a tight life.

Even if ILM is the industry leader, it doesn't enjoy too much profit.

But now that George Lucas and Donn have reached an agreement, it will be different immediately.

The MPAA came forward and submitted a bill to the National Assembly to apply for support for the special effects industry.

It's obvious!

It's Donn's handiwork!

It is the proposal of New Universal, and then it is applied by the MPAA!

Sure enough, it's good to enjoy the shade with your back against the tree!

The capabilities of the giant group are really extraordinary.

Far from being comparable to Lucasfilm.

This has not yet reached a definite acquisition agreement, and when the merger is completed, with the big backer of New Global, Industrial Light & Magic will only enjoy more benefits that it could not enjoy before.

Dennis Mullen was very excited, thought for a while, and said: "The South Korean government has a lot of support for special effects, and will sponsor directors and professionals to study in Hollywood, and there is a study group from South Korea here at ILM, and the tuition fee is 800,000 US dollars." ”

"$800,000 in tuition?" Don pouted, you're really dark enough.

Dennis Mullen takes it for granted that ILM has this capital, "I know that New Global is strengthening its cooperation with China and wants to be the first to enter that potential market." Now that ILM is going to be merged into New Global, it is natural that it must be in line with the group's strategy. In this way, we also provide an opportunity for Chinese filmmakers to come and learn and enhance exchanges. ”

"What about tuition?"

"$800,000!"

Don twitched the corners of his mouth.

Koreans can come and study because of the support of the government, and the government takes money. What should those Chinese filmmakers do? Can they afford $800,000?

That's enough money for them to make two movies!

If he told the Chinese side the news, saying that it was 800,000 US dollars in tuition to study at ILM, people would not appreciate it at all, and they would only think that Tang En was trying to make money.

"Forget it, when I didn't say it. ”

Tang En thought about it for a while, then sighed and waved his hand, very helpless.

In fact, China is also fully supporting the development of the special effects industry, and the state funding in this area is not small, but the direction is completely different from South Korea.

South Korea sends professionals to Hollywood to study, and the government pays for everything. China's approach is to enclose land, build buildings, and build all kinds of beautiful special effects industrial parks......

$800,000, you can build a building!