"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" is the third part of the series, and after Chris Columbus made two "children's films", the director of this one was changed to Mexican Alfonso Cuarón, and the transition from children's films to young adult films began.

Affected by the transformation, the box office performance of the film was not as crazy as the first two.

However, in the end, this is the "Harry Potter" series of films, with a production cost of $130 million, and it is still a big killer in the box office market!

In the first three days of the weekend, the film grossed $93 million at the North American box office.

Now, three weeks later, the North American box office has exceeded $200 million, and the overseas box office has also successfully exceeded $200 million.

Affected by this, Down Pictures was also invited by the White House to bring a copy of "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" to the president's family.

This is, of course, a privilege.

But it's not about power, it's about being an economic account.

If the president goes to the cinema to watch a movie, all kinds of security measures, a trip will cost $500,000 to say the least.

It's much easier to get a film to the White House for screening, and it won't cost more than $30,000.

That's right, the White House invites film companies to screen films, and it costs money.

Hollywood is not a charity, and the president has to pay money.

Such an invitation, Don En understood in his heart.

President George W. Bush has twin daughters, both 22 years old, and there are no younger children. It's not so much that the President's family wants to see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, but rather that the President wants to meet and talk to Donn.

Don didn't ask for it, and went to the White House with a few staff members.

It's the weekend, and the president has a holiday. His wife and two twin daughters were present, and there was a tall 20-year-old girl whom Don actually knew.

This is President George W. Bush's niece, Lauren Bush. She is a New York socialite, a contracted supermodel of Elite Modeling Agency, and has had many intimate encounters with Leonardo.

Because of this, the Bush family also severely rebuked her.

However, Lauren Bush is not a good person, and he no longer dates Leonardo, but he met a boyfriend of Pakistani origin, which caused an uproar in the media, claiming that "she is helping Mr. President maintain post-war peace in the Middle East."

Don has little interest in the Bush girls, who are noble and unsatisfactory in appearance. Just said to Laura Bush that "New Global is getting involved in the fashion industry and has the opportunity to cooperate", which naturally attracted the favor and satisfaction of the Bush family.

When the movie plays, as Donn had predicted, the president is more interested in exchanging ideas with Donn, the new Hollywood media mogul.

"In the next few years, in addition to restoring economic development, the most important national policy is to strengthen the export of cultural industries. Internally, it is necessary to further define the anti-Toslav association law and implement domestic economic protectionism, especially for some small and medium-sized enterprises. Externally, we must unswervingly promote cultural export. ”

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, the U.S. military sent troops to Afghanistan, which was widely supported by the whole world, except for the opposition of a few countries. However, the subsequent dispatch of troops to Iraq was greatly questioned.

This put a lot of pressure on the Bush administration, which almost failed to be re-elected.

In the next term, the U.S. government should vigorously support Hollywood's cultural hegemony overseas, form overseas "cultural imperialism", and imperceptibly let people all over the world follow the ideas of the United States.

The success of Hollywood has never been the success of Hollywood movies.

The Hollywood films of those years were not necessarily better than Soviet films and European films.

Behind Hollywood's success, in many cases, is the theory of "political economy", which comes from the complicity of capital and the state.

Back then, Hollywood's film export companies were even known as the "Little State Council".

Donn is deeply touched by this, and Hollywood is a politically charged entertainment capital.

The movie was still being screened, so the voices of the two were small, and Donn whispered: "Hollywood's work is good enough." Hamburgers have triggered the imminent demise of Mediterranean food culture. Hollywood movies do not wear underwear, which once again caused similar products to be unsalable in the market. In today's globalized world, the penetration of cultural empires is even more ubiquitous. ”

"Many countries are blatantly violating the WTO agreement and are pursuing protectionist policies in their own films. There are so many countries involved that it's hard to do. ”

Donn smiled, "Film protectionism is just a wall, and Hollywood has long found a way to circumvent the wall." From the perspective of consumption, the development of film peripheral goods often makes consumers ignore the cultural source of the product. Disney, for example, flaunts global, repetitive spending, from cartoons and amusement parks to cable TV and gift stores. ”

The president glanced at him amusedly, "Another example of New Universal?"

"Not only that, from suits to leather shoes, to McDonald's to Coca-Cola, from Disney to New Universal...... Today's consumers are facing the pressure of assimilation of global cultures, and no one can avoid it. Hollywood is the driving force behind it all. ”

The president pondered for a moment and nodded, "So in the next few years, the federal government will further increase policy support for the cultural and entertainment industry and further promote the tax reduction bill." ”

Don was satisfied.

He had no nationalist ideals, especially for the United States. As long as it can bring substantial benefits to Hollywood and yourself, this is enough.

However, it can't be said that we must continue to be with the light, saying: "In the film industry, the trend of 'third film' has risen in many countries to resist the influence of Hollywood. Fortunately, these anti-Hollywood works, ideologically and aesthetically, have no commercial basis and only provide texts for the theoretical community, with little impact. Caution has to be taken, though. ”

"If Hollywood wants to have a greater impact on the world's entertainment landscape and cultural process, it must go further. The entertainment industry in the United States is not the Americanization of the world, but the globalization of entertainment. Globalization cannot be completely equated with 'Americanization', otherwise, it will inevitably encounter strong resistance. It is necessary to take advantage of the situation, and the main and secondary are clear and the transition is smooth. ”

"This is true in the entertainment industry, and it is also true in the economic field. Even with globalization, inequality between the 'center' and 'periphery' will persist. However, state control over the economy has weakened considerably, and transnational capital is playing an increasingly important role on the international stage. On the basis of this theory, it is very necessary for large multinational groups, very necessary!"

In these words, Don is taking a vaccination.

President George W. Bush just said that he will practice cultural hegemony externally. Internally, it is to strengthen anti-Tothra control to protect more small and medium-sized enterprises and make the domestic entertainment market in the United States more competitive and dynamic.

This is not a good sign for large group companies, and it will increase the difficulty of mergers and acquisitions and the risk of review.

As the strength of the New Globe Group grows stronger, the capital power will become stronger and the speed of expansion will become faster and faster.

Entering the fashion industry is just the beginning.

Many of New Global's key businesses are still in the stage of "grass deck" and have very ambitious room for development.

Like Facebook, like Netflix.

Companies of this level are likely to face antitrust investigations if they are not separated from New Global.

In addition, Dolby Laboratories, which has set foot in the hardware field, and Blizzard Studios, which is based on World of Warcraft.

The gaming industry is growing faster and faster!

Last year, for the first time, global video game revenues surpassed movie box office receipts.

In November this year, the total output value of video games in North America has reached $12 billion, leading the total box office of North American movies by $3 billion.

Blizzard is still too small to meet Donne's ambition to create a trump card in the game industry.

Next, New Globe will definitely have a blockbuster acquisition of the game industry!

It's only 2004, and the market value of the game giant EA is only $10 billion.

Seeing that the other party was silent, Tang En continued: "Plane integration and vertical integration in the film and television industry are inevitable trends. The investment in movies is getting bigger and bigger, and this "Harry Potter 3", including production costs and publicity costs, will have a total investment of up to 300 million US dollars. If there is no integration of more channels, relying solely on the box office and peripheral revenue, the profit pressure is very high. At the same time, the advantages of large multinational groups and multinational property rights can make 'global' and 'local' merge into one, so as to help our films open overseas markets more easily. Like Ford's slogan, 'To be a multinational group, you have to make the world home-grown'. ”

This topic is very big, and Mr. President can't make a decision in one word, so he has to discuss it with the staff team, so he changes the topic with a smile: "By the way, I always hear about assembly line production in Hollywood, what does this mean?"

"It's a bit complicated. ”

Tang En sorted out his thoughts and said slowly: "It's mainly a few steps, creative, investment, production, props, costumes, music, publicity and other procedural processes, as well as modular work in art, finance, and law. In short, the producer and the distributor sign a contract to advance the fundraising, and then the producer contacts many professional small and medium-sized companies, such as actor management companies, camera equipment companies, stunt production companies, etc., to produce supporting assembly operations. The distributor will also sign contracts with entertainment platforms such as video chains and cable TV to share the risk through peripheral property rights. If it is a large group company, there will also be derivative income such as tourism real estate, games, and consumer goods. Therefore, from this point of view, the integration of the upstream, midstream and downstream industries of large group companies will not only greatly improve efficiency, but also greatly reduce the production cycle and production costs, and create more social wealth. ”

President George W. Bush's face darkened.

Then again!

To put it bluntly, isn't the integration of the upstream, midstream, and downstream industrial chains just about achieving more market benefits through monopoly? It's just that this monopoly strategy is relatively advanced, relatively obscure, and difficult to judge.

In desperation, Mr. President had no choice but to say: "New Globe is an iconic company in Hollywood, and as long as it is within the scope of the law, the White House will definitely support it administratively." ”

Tang En smiled slightly, and the goal was achieved.

Subsequently, the two were silent for a long time at the same time and began to watch the movie.

Within half an hour, Mr. President spoke again and sighed: "The Federation also knows that diversified group operations will be better in terms of economic benefits and more conducive to Hollywood's occupation of the market." At the same time, we also need to recognize the drawbacks behind diversification: if the proportion of overseas markets continues to increase, what will become of the American story? Will Hollywood movies still symbolize American culture? This will no longer be the core value of the United States. ”

Donn agreed: "The power of capital should not be underestimated. ”

"When I was governor in the 90s, some members of parliament raised this concern: if the Germans bought the 20th Century Fox, would there be a structural change in the war film about the two world wars? ”

Don smiled: "Don't assume, it's already happened." Columbia Pictures has been in the grip of a Japanese consortium. ”

President Zhengse said: "This is different, Japan is within the security range of the Seventh Fleet, and many other countries do not have this restriction. ”

The so-called security, to put it bluntly, is control and supervision.

In fact, it is true that after Japan acquired Columbia Pictures, it has been working hard to promote Japanese culture and has made many Japanese-themed movies.

However, its influence is limited, and it has not diverged from the value orientation of the United States on major issues of right and wrong.

Donn said very seriously: "Yes, this is very important, which is why I spared no effort to buy Universal Pictures back from the French." In a short period of time, after a long time, those companies controlled by overseas capital are likely to use Hollywood, the export window of the United States, to promote their cultural thinking. ”

"Do you have a way?"

"It's easy!"

"How?"

Donn smiled: "I have a good relationship with Steve Burke, the chairman of NBC, and at present, NBC is studying a plan to take advantage of Sony's current predicament to acquire Sony Entertainment. Sony Entertainment is so, and Twentieth Century Fox should be too, buy it back from the Australians!"

Murdoch is a big benefactor of President George W. Bush, so he coughed lightly, immediately shook his head, and said: "Rupert has long been a naturalized American, and there is no controversy in this regard at Twentieth Century Fox." Besides, who can move the size of the Twentieth Century Fox?"

Sony Entertainment is large, but it also has high debt, and the cash flow it really needs to spend is not much.

Twentieth Century Fox is a different story, a publicly traded company with a current market capitalization of $26 billion, including film, television, radio, publishing and many other businesses.

Who has what it takes to buy Fox?

Don smiled and didn't speak.

"The Avengers" and "X-Men" are both Marvel's comic series, but due to historical reasons, the adaptation rights of the movie were separated.

"The Avengers" belongs to Marvel Studios, and "X-Men" belongs to Twentieth Century Fox.

It's time to come back!

It's necessary!

。 Nine Heavenly God Emperors