The last few days at the end of 2003 were destined to be uncalm.

This is true for the United States as it is for China.

Coca-Cola quickly passed a resolution to engage with Minghu Culture and Morgan Stanley at an internal high-level meeting, and on the other hand, it quickly got in touch with each other.

Columbia Pictures held an impromptu high-level meeting on the afternoon of the 30th, at which there was a lot of noise, and many high-level personnel expressed strong dissatisfaction with their imminent acquisition by a film company from China, and many people expressed dissatisfaction with this, but it was not strong. Of course, if the former wants to take some action to protest, they will probably seconded and followed.

Surprisingly, the company's chief executive, Glen Shire, was noncommittal.

From the beginning to the end of the meeting, he just watched from the sidelines, listening to everyone's speeches.

And another heavyweight of the company, Vice President David Emmerch, also looked like he had listened to the meeting from beginning to end, which made many people in the company stunned.

Many of them probably knew that Glen Schal had flown to Atlanta yesterday afternoon, so you could guess that he was in Atlanta, probably without the strength to get any support from within Coca-Cola, so even if he was angry, he was powerless.

But what none of them knew was that after the news was punctured by Wall Street reporters yesterday afternoon, John Days called David Emmerch that night, and the two chatted for more than an hour in a secret café - of course, Li Qian and Qi Jie didn't know about it.

And at this time, many people can vaguely feel that once the acquisition is successfully completed, as the spokesperson of Minghu Culture in North America and Europe, John Days will become one of the strong contenders for the position of CEO of Columbia Pictures.

Anyway, it's just such a mess.

In the end, a high-level meeting within Columbia Pictures failed to make any decisions.

But after the meeting, there was still a vice president in front of the reporter's microphone, loudly bombarded Minghu Culture, that the acquisition was completely malicious, is a cultural invasion of the United States, and called on the American people to oppose the acquisition, suggesting that the US government freeze the acquisition, at the same time, about this morning, Coca-Cola announced that it has officially launched negotiations with Morgan Stanley and China's Minghu Culture, the vice president is even more angry, saying that this is "extremely angry and disappointing", " They always play the role of stabbing in the back", "They never seriously thought about a way to bring Colombia back to life", "They only think about selling, selling, selling!"

After the afternoon meeting, the company's historical heavyweight, vice president David Emmerch in an interview, although not so angry, but also a worried look, he cautiously said that he has started acquisition negotiations between the two sides, "cautious and not optimistic", and said that he "loves Colombia very much", and is currently working with the company's executive president Glen Shire, who took office last year, in the implementation of the new "Colombia revitalization plan", and "has begun to bear fruit." At this time, he was interrupted by a sudden acquisition, which he called "very helpless".

When asked about the acquirer Minghu Culture, he said that he likes China Liao and Li Qian very much, not only knowing that he is the supreme national superstar in the Oriental country, but also watching all his film works, and he also loves the album he released when he was the lead singer of the Four Great Beauty Bands. And in response to yesterday's "ignorant accusations and criticisms" from Disney, he said that he "disdains to refute" and claimed that the reason why he decided to release "Hulu Baby" is precisely because it is an outstanding animated film, and as a director, Lee has dedicated an "impeccable, near-perfect work of art, and it tells a very good story"!

But for the company Minghu Culture, he said that he "doesn't know much" and "it's not convenient to comment".

In short, he is cautious, touting Li Qian, but avoiding the acquisition, the acquirer and the future that Colombia may face after the acquisition.

At this time, the acquisition case is fermenting to the highest point, and no one will think that his "cautious conversation" will mean anything else, but those who know him can't help but be stunned.

He had always been the one in charge of balancing "the potentially radical reforms that Glen Charles had brought about" — in other words, Coca-Cola wanted Glen Charles to save Colombia, but feared that he would go too far and bring down the company, which was currently only devalued but still sold for a lot of money, so within Columbia, they chose David Emmerch as a counterbalance.

In fact, in the previous two acquisitions, David Emmerch was extremely firm in his opposition to it!

But this time, his words flickered, and his attitude towards the acquisition was vague.

Many people who are familiar with him quickly feel a strange smell.

Of course, for the media and the public, although David Emmerch expressed "extreme appreciation" for Li Qian personally, he "said that he is not optimistic that this acquisition can be finally completed"!

In the midst of this commotion, Glen Charles remained silent throughout.

But even so, the opposition is not small.

On December 30, there were two licensed demonstrations and sit-ins in Hollywood and Washington, D.C., expressing their opposition to the sale of "an iconic American cultural enterprise" to Chinese, and saying that once the deal was finally reached, they would henceforth refuse all Coca-Cola products and all Columbia Pictures films, because in their view, the former would become a "traitor" and the latter would be an "aggressor" - a "cultural invader"!

The two demonstrations were not large-scale, but the matter was on the cusp, so it attracted countless media interviews, and the matter was very noisy.

Of course, the vast majority of ordinary Americans either don't care about any of this, or they don't have any opinion for or against such an acquisition, believing it to be a purely commercial practice. What's more, I don't know if it is related to the Chinese culture fever a few days ago, and many ordinary people expressed optimism about the future of the "Chinese elements" that Chinese can bring to American culture when they were interviewed.

They just hope that after they take over Colombia, they hope that China will not develop their lover in the United States! They say that the United States is a monogamous country!

In the afternoon of the same day, at the last regular press conference of the White House before New Year's Day, when asked about the incident, the White House spokesman replied that "the White House is currently paying close attention to this acquisition" and "does not rule out preventing any behavior that will harm the national interests of the United States at a critical moment"!

In this regard, the outside world quickly gave an almost unanimous interpretation - the White House is against it!

All of a sudden, although the two sides were still negotiating and did not seem to be affected by these outside trends, public opinion in the United States as a whole began to make a certain subtle turn.

We have no objection, but we are "cautious and not optimistic".

However, at this time, one thing that is not too interesting is that after the end of the December 30 screening, many North American box office statistics and analysis agencies suddenly found that in the past two working days, the North American box office was somewhat abnormal. Specifically, the main reason is that the box office of "Gourd Baby" is a little abnormal-

After the Christmas holiday, the American people have returned to work, and almost all the box office movies have begun to plunge sharply, especially for those films aimed at the family moviegoer, after five days of crazy performances on the Christmas schedule, this kind of film is even more plummeting!

The five-day holiday makes this kind of movie a one-time crazy consumption for the North American family carnival moviegoers. So as soon as the holiday is over, this kind of film immediately weakens.

Even "Wig the Pooh", which was crazy last week, only earned $5.02 million and $4.41 million at the box office in the first two working days of the week.

According to the predictions given by relevant box office analysis agencies, even if the movie-going crowd of family-friendly movies will usher in a certain return during the New Year's Day, the box office of "Wig the Pooh" this week will still not be able to exceed $50 million - it should hover around the $45 million mark.

And that's crazy enough!

The box office of the two weeks of release will be as high as more than 180 million US dollars, close to 190 million!

Although the cartoon will soon lose its charm after the New Year's holiday, subsequent screenings will still be enough to continue to earn about $60 million to $70 million at the box office, making the film almost no pressure to break $250 million at the North American box office! It is even expected to reach $280 million to $300 million!

It's an absolute big sell!

On top of that, the films currently being shown in the North American market, almost without exception, continue to follow the pattern of the market that has matured over the years - after the carnival, everyone ushered in a plummet!

However, the reason why it is said "almost" and not "all" is precisely because there are "accidents"!

On December 29th, affected by the sudden outbreak of the "Colombian takeover incident" in the afternoon, "Hulu Baby", which has come to the second week of release, seems to have been stimulated to a certain extent, and the single-day box office has also plunged significantly compared to the box office during the holiday last week, but the decline is significantly less than that of other films.

On this working day, "Gourd Baby" grossed $2.96 million in a single day.

Coming to December 30th, this animated film from China, from China, distributed by Colombia, and the producer is to buy it, is actually rising against the market!

The single-day box office reached $4.75 million!

The single-day box office actually surpassed "Wig the Pooh" in one fell swoop!

Moreover, if you only count the box office of the first two working days, although it faced the impact of two movies that have just been released on a large scale this week, it actually ranked third with a box office of $7.71 million!

You know, it was only in fourth place last week!

And in the Christmas schedule a few days ago, its box office was only 4.21 million, 4 million and 3.68 million US dollars in a single day!

Now, it's actually $4.75 million on weekdays!

And this, obviously, is not the end of it.

On December 31, the American people once again had a three-day holiday – plus the following Saturday and Sunday, another five days!

As a result, American filmmakers and box office forecasting and analysis agencies were so dumbfounded to watch the box office of "Gourd Baby" rise against the sky when the "Colombian acquisition" is being hotly discussed in the United States!

On December 31, 2003, the single-day box office was $7.26 million.

On January 1, 2004, it grossed $9.05 million in a single day.

On January 2, 2004, the single-day box office was $8.84 million.

On January 3, 2004, the single-day box office was $8.48 million.

On January 4, 2004, the single-day box office was $8.09 million.

In the second week of its release, the North American box office of "Gourd Baby" reached $49.43 million, which was more than 50% higher than last week's box office of $32.46 million!

At the same time, "Vig the Pooh", which also came to the second week of release, was affected by the diversion of "Hulu Baby", but only got a weekly box office of $43.42 million - lower than the expectations of major box office forecasters!

In particular, compared to last week's super blockbuster of $1042.87 million, the film even plummeted to a fraction of last week's price in the second week - although at this stage of the North American market, such a situation is not completely incomprehensible, and it does not prove how bad the film is, mainly due to the problem of excessive consumption of moviegoers during the Christmas period, but, I have to say, in comparison, "Bear Vig" fell a bit badly!

And because there is only one newly released movie, "Hulu Baby" actually ranked second on the weekly box office list after beating "Wig the Pooh"!

This is the best result in the history of Chinese films on the North American Film Week box office charts!

So suddenly!

And the miracle is that with the rise of the movie box office against the market, as the movie theater chain began to increase its efforts to release and schedule films after discovering that it was profitable, "Hulu Baby", an animation work from China that was shot and produced in a unique way called "ink animation technology", has actually risen in the scores and evaluations of major movie rating websites in the United States!

Many American viewers think that this is a movie that is "amazing", "full of oriental elements", but "the story is very good", "it can make children have a lot of fun watching it, but when you walk into the cinema, you don't feel like your IQ is lowered"!

Some well-known film critics commented that although it is "full of childlike fun", it is definitely not a "children's cartoon", on the contrary, it is "full of wisdom and courage in life"!

So, it's so weird, "Gourd Baby", which suddenly got more attention with the help of the "Colombian Acquisition Incident", became popular in North America in the second week of its release.

The box office and word-of-mouth went hand in hand for a while, and both were popular!

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