To put it in an old way: Columbia Pictures has also been glorious.

In the sixties and seventies of the last century, they once dominated the eight major Hollywood film companies at that time, and the annual production volume of one company accounted for nearly one-third of the total production volume of the eight companies! Even further back, in the forties and fifties, they also dominated the storm!

If you go back to 1980, it is entirely fair to say that Columbia Pictures is the best run of all the studios in Hollywood, and they are the standard-bearers of the Hollywood film industry!

At that time, their pinnacle was the acquisition of United American Pictures, one of the eight major Hollywood film companies at that time, in 1979 for a share exchange plus $780 million.

However, then, dragged down by the performance of United States Pictures, coupled with the repeated failures of its own investment in production, when the time entered the 80s, the state of Columbia Pictures began to decline rapidly.

In 1987, Coca-Cola bought Columbia Pictures for a sky-high price of $3.9 billion, but after entering the Coca-Cola era, Colombia still showed no signs of recovery, and has since become a huge burden to Coca-Cola.

In 1991, Japan's Sony wanted to take over Colombia from Coca-Cola to complete their overall global layout from the electronics industry to the film industry and the music industry, and the negotiations entered the substantive stage, when it was rumored that Colombia would change hands at any time, but at the time, the deal was questioned by the American public, who believed that it was a Japanese invasion of the United States.

Of course, no matter what the people think, they can't change Coca-Cola's determination to get rid of this big burden, but helplessly, just when this deal was about to be finally reached, in 1992, a large-scale economic crisis broke out in Japan, and all Japanese companies, as well as the whole of Japan, were seriously damaged in this economic crisis。

In 1997, Coca-Cola finally found another next home, that is, a film company co-founded by several major American directors at that time, Dream Maker Films.

Dream Makers, as an independent film company, dreamed of getting access to the library of films from Columbia and United States, and their strong distribution channels, but they didn't have enough money.

Coca-Cola offered $2.7 billion for Colombia – note that in the 10 years since they took over Colombia, the entire Hollywood studios have been making money and growing, but Coca-Cola is going to lose $1.2 billion in this deal!

However, Dream Makers, which had only been in existence for a few years at the time, could only come up with a maximum of $500 million to $800 million even if they tried their best, so they hoped to make some acquisitions and try to complete this amazing deal over the next eight to ten years.

But Coca-Cola firmly refused.

They would rather let Colombia continue to rot in their own hands, and they will never be able to accept such a long and painful acquisition, and they are even more unwilling to let this transaction of throwing off the burden become a ladder for several directors to realize their dreams step by step - if you want to buy, you can, take money, and you can sell it to you at any time!

But the phased transaction will never be accepted!

This kind of large-scale acquisition really can't afford any risk - what if the dreamers go out of business in the middle of the acquisition? They have only been established for a few years, but they have no family background, and they can't afford to fail a few times!

As a result, the deal stalled again.

And sure enough, after experiencing the prosperity of the first few years of entrepreneurship, when the time entered the new century, Dream Maker successively appeared in several movies with loss-making investments, and soon fell into a financial crisis!

Needless to say, it must have scared Coca-Cola into a cold sweat - fortunately, it resolutely refused at the time!

And Columbia, a former Hollywood giant, has fallen step by step - with the largest film library in all of the United States, with the top distribution capacity in the United States, but on the contrary, after a slump since the 80s, they have never been able to regain their former glory, but continue to slump in the acquisition negotiations and management turmoil after management.

So far, they are at the bottom of the seven major Hollywood studios. Everyone is struggling to survive in the global market that has been opened up since the 90s, but Colombia is getting weaker and weaker.

…………

Before coming to the United States this time, although Li Qian had also paid attention to the seven major Hollywood production companies, he really did not pay special attention to a single company. But for John Days, who has been in the film production industry since he became an adult, and has been in Hollywood for the past two decades or so, it is a treasure to say that Columbia has experienced countless acquisition negotiations over the years, each of which is of great concern to them as filmmakers.

So, Li Qian suddenly became interested.

After John Days introduced the ups and downs of Colombia over the years, Li Qian didn't even ask Colombia what conditions were given for the release of "Hulu Baby" and the two-way distribution of both parties, but asked directly: "John, can you collect as much information as possible about these acquisitions that Colombia has experienced in the past few years, as well as their current business conditions, including the financial situation and production status in recent years?"

John Days was a little confused when he heard this, "BOSS, what do you mean?"

Li Qian smiled and said, "I suddenly had an idea. ”

…………

When John Days left, Li Qian watched his car drive out of the manor, and he stood under the porch, all kinds of ideas in his mind quickly moving forward.

Raise your wrist and look at the watch, China time, it should be late at night.

But what he knew was that Qi Jie hadn't slept before two o'clock in the last Chinese New Year's Eve—yes, going to bed late, and getting up early. From half past two at night to half past six in the morning, four hours of sleep, and another hour at noon, she can already be energetic and deal with all kinds of things throughout the day.

She has been like this for the past few years.

But think about it again, if this call comes, it is estimated that she will not even be able to sleep for these hours tonight.

So he didn't call, turned around and walked back to his room.

Liao Liao was sweating on the treadmill.

Li Qian stood aside and watched for a while, and couldn't help but laugh at her, "You said how good it is for you to play tennis with me, running alone, or on the treadmill, how boring it is!"

Liao Liao waved his hand, "You go away!"

Li Qian shrugged his shoulders and had no choice but to turn around and walk away.

Li Qian is a big man of more than 1.8 meters, agile and explosive, and the key is that he can last, so a tennis game can't last long, that is, one or twenty minutes, Liao Liao has been abused to the point that he has lost interest, once, twice, three times, five times, slowly people will stop playing, and Li Qian can't lose deliberately.

So Li Qian walked back to the living room, took the materials left by John Days, returned to his own study, sat down, made a pot of tea, and slowly settled his heart with the help of boiling water and tea, and then felt that his heart was calm, and the heat of the impulse gradually subsided, and then he opened the folder.

The situation of several other companies, John Days's explanation has been more detailed, and when Li Qian looked at it, he simply glanced at it, and he focused on the conditions given by the Colombian side that John Dyce didn't have time to say, and he didn't ask at the time.

Compared with several others, Colombia has excellent conditions.

They basically agree to two-way open cooperation between the two sides, the so-called open style, that is, my film is you can choose, and your film is also up to me, but both sides can choose not to choose - this is a framework agreement at best.

Then, the focus of the negotiations between the two sides was on the next few films to be released by Minghu Culture, from "Hulu Baby" to "The Matrix", John Days and Columbia's negotiators negotiated a rough distribution framework - of course, it is shared, and it is a step-by-step sharing method.

With such a distribution method, the two parties can sign five films at one time.

In exchange, Minghu Culture needs to provide Chinese account-sharing import and distribution for films produced by Columbia and its subsidiaries in the next two years, starting in 2004.

It is also five.

This is very reasonable, and it can even be said that it is a completely reciprocal cooperation model.

In the current era of Hollywood sweeping the world, a company that is one of the seven major Hollywood studios is willing to reach such an agreement with a Chinese company like Minghu Culture can definitely be called a bargain - it can be said that they urgently need distribution performance in other markets, and it can also be seen how weak their overseas distribution capabilities, especially in the attraction of Chinese distributors, are before.

After reading all the cooperation frameworks negotiated by the two sides, and then looking back and again, carefully smacking some of the potential information revealed in it, Li Qian couldn't help but sigh.

No, it's really exciting.

No matter in the past or present life, in Li Qian's impression, the seven major Hollywood studios are all top-level existences, and it is no exaggeration to say that in the film world of the world, they are Jin Yongli's evil and poisonous powers, and they are the kind of invincible top masters in the world!

After coming to this time and space, after so many years, from music producer to band lead singer, to singer, as well as director and actor, Li Qian's biggest goal has always been to make Minghu culture bigger, and then try to lead China's music, film, TV series and other cultural industries to break through on a global scale.

I don't dare to say that I am fighting against Hollywood with bayonets on a global scale, at least we should avoid waiting until after the two rounds of special effects and 3D film technology, Hollywood blockbusters are rampaging in China, and Chinese films have fallen to the point of starting to sell so-called "variety movies".

Therefore, he has been doing it conscientiously, trying to take every step steadily, and strive not to make any mistakes.

And now, Minghu culture has indeed risen smoothly in China, whether it is music or film and television, it is the top group of existence in China, but Li Qian still feels that what he has to do has not been done well, not done, the next step, he plans to lead Minghu culture to start to do something that integrates the culture of the Chinese nation but is more able to adapt to the global vision, began to learn Hollywood, and tried to carry out global distribution - in his opinion, this is a very critical step to drive the rise of the entire Chinese film.

However, he never thought that he could have a better way!

Yes, the acquisition of Colombia!

I had never thought about it before, and I wouldn't think about it at all, but once this idea came up, Li Qian immediately found that as long as he could succeed, this was definitely a shortcut!

Today, and in the next few years, the three largest markets in the world film market are definitely North America, China and Europe - population and consumption power determine this.

Minghu Culture itself has a strong distribution capacity in China and Southeast Asia, and also has a solid and strong distribution partner in Japan and South Korea.

At that time, Minghu Culture will directly become a god and directly have the world's top distribution capabilities - and this is something that Chinese film companies and big Hollywood film companies in the United States do not have!

Domestic policy conditions do not allow American companies to come over to do distribution, and even do not allow relevant American companies to hold shares in companies engaged in the distribution of cultural products in China, so no matter how awesome the seven major American companies are in the world, they still can't go through the road in China, and domestic companies, even if they are as powerful as the Oriental Media Group, that is, a total plate of three or five billion yuan, they can't afford it, and they don't dare to buy an American distribution company!

And to be honest, they don't even think about global distribution!

Their favorite thing is to fight in the nest, that is, to be able to dominate in China!

But Minghu culture is not.

Minghu Culture has never regarded being the first in the industry in China as its goal.

From the very beginning, the goal of Minghu Culture has been to do business with Chinese culture, Chinese music, and Chinese film and television on a global scale! The Chinese market is only a part of it!

It's just that if you really do this, will there be a feeling of "speculating in stocks and becoming shareholders"?

I came to the United States, really to do the release of "Hulu Baby", but when I left, I bought a Hollywood film company......

…………

At night, at eight o'clock, Li Qian calculated that Qi Jie should have gotten up, so he dialed her phone.

The phone was connected, and he said, "I want to buy something, you can bring someone over!"