Although they have long expected the recent amazing performance of Fire Lion TV, the senior management of Fire Lion Group still did not expect that in just half a year, there will be only two programs. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info has made the Lion TV station achieve a double jump, although compared with NBC, CBS and other behemoths with annual sales of tens of billions of dollars, the Lion TV station is still insignificant.

However, with a profit margin of nearly half, the profit of Fire Lion TV has reached hundreds of millions of dollars in half a year, and the annual profit of the four major TV networks is only billions.

This makes the name of "Hollywood's strongest spoiler" once again confirmed, of course, because Fire Lion TV is not a listed company, so it does not disclose its financial information. Therefore, the outside media can only speculate about its earnings.

After the Wall Street Journal's comprehensive tracking of "Survivor" and "Who Can Become a Millionaire", through a series of data, it came to the conclusion that the combined income of the two will be at least more than $1 billion in the long run!

Such a conclusion has indeed made many big TV networks enthusiastic and have stepped up their treasure hunting trips in Europe.

"There's nothing wrong with 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' and 'Survivor', just go the way we go. But we can't just sit back and wait, So, how's the preparation for Big Brother and Noble Boy Jon?" Sid asked, scratching his hair.

After the strategy of one main program per quarter is decided, for Fire Lion TV, high-quality programs are the most important development goal at present. In addition to the already successful "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and "Survivor", the new development goals were placed on "Big Brother" and "Noble Boy Jon".

The former is an experimental reality show that is popular all over the world "in history", needless to say, the setting of putting a group of strangers in a room is novel and interesting, and it can be regarded as the city room version of "Survivor". And after buying the rights from the TV production company Endemol, the other party also sent professionals throughout the process to help the fire lion with the elaborate production, so Sid is not too worried about this.

The key is mainly on "Noble Son Jon".

The fame of this show on the other side of the ocean is far less than the several reality shows that Fire Lion has succeeded in now. But as a pseudo-blind date show with only one season in "history", the ratings of "Noble Son Jon" ranked third in the show after 2000 with 40 million, second only to the finale of "Friends" and the finale of the first season of "Survivor".

The reason why it is called a "pseudo blind date show" is because it is compared to the blind date reality shows that became popular on both sides of the ocean.

The biggest selling point of "Noble Son Jon" is that the program team found a poor boy who was a construction worker in the United States. Then, after careful packaging, he was transformed into a multi-millionaire from Italy, who was suave and young and rich.

Then on the show, 20 beauties of all colors screened from the network across the United States will fight for this "noble son", and each episode of "Noble Son Jon" will screen out the beauties who enter the next round. What's more important and fun is that these 20 beauties don't know Jon's true identity in advance.

Therefore, the audience watched the unwitting beauties fight for a packaged "noble son", all kinds of bloody plots and wonderful, and the audience couldn't help but be fascinated.

"We're almost done with Jon's training, and the etiquette experts in England and Italy are quite happy with his performance, saying that he's reached the point where he can be faked. Old man Charles said with a smile.

"And the audition for the 20 beauties is also coming to an end, and we can start filming at the end of this year, and then broadcast it next summer as originally planned. Shirley Sandberg explains.

At the end of the year, it is both the harvest season and the time for sowing. In addition to planning for the coming year, rewards for the current year are essential.

Although the Fire Lion TV has only been established for half a year, it has achieved remarkable results, Sid's accurate "vision" and the Fire Lion TV team led by Mr. Charles, and the practical ability. made his performance amazing, so the Fire Lion TV station on Mr. Charles's side won a generous year-end bonus.

On the other hand, although Fire Lion Pictures only released two films this year, "Ghost Record" and "Little Sunshine Beauty", the former's dazzling performance in both theatrical and video markets finally locked in the North American box office at $180 million. The latter's performance against the trend has exceeded the $50 million mark at the North American box office in just two months.

Among them, in the second week of release, because of the excellent reputation of "Little Sunshine Beauty", although the number of theaters has increased several times, the average box office has also doubled against the trend, reaching a terrifying single-hall box office of $87,000.

This also made the single-hall box office of Sid's two consecutive movies exceed $50,000 (Ghost Shadow has recorded 100,000 single museums + Sunshine Little Beauty 87,000 single museums), setting a new record at the individual box office.

Therefore, Fire Lion Pictures, from the top management to the employees, also received generous bonuses again. Correspondingly, Sid also proposed the goal of expanding the number of employees to 300 for Fire Lion Pictures and Fire Lion TV, and carefully selecting and building a new elite team has become the main goal of the next stage.

"And how's the progress of 'Warm Corpses?'" Sid asked about the next movie.

"The results of the MPAA (American Film Institute) classification have come out, PG-13. But if the release schedule is concerned, we can't find the schedule for the first half of next year at all, and only the schedule after August and September next year can be scheduled for us. The Valentine's Day schedule we originally wanted, it was almost impossible to get. Sean, the manager of the distribution department, reported.

Here you can see the gap between Fire Lion Pictures, as a new company established by grassroots, and those old companies. Not to mention the seven high-ranking companies, even second-tier companies such as DreamWorks and New Line Pictures, if they have a movie that needs to be urgently inserted two months later, the theater chain will also squeeze out some theaters because of their past performance.

Even if they have enough films, such as those large companies that have a fixed release of twenty or thirty movies every year, they can freely adjust the order of the films released in their own scheduled schedules, so that the flexibility is much more convenient than that of ordinary small companies.

"Well, I have a solution. Sid said with a mysterious smile.

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When Sid arrived at Disney's headquarters in Burbank, there were already several Disney executives waiting there. When Sid came down from the Rolls-Royce, they immediately greeted him warmly.

"Hello, Mr. Leon. The first person smiled enthusiastically and introduced himself, "My name is Connor, and I'm the CEO of Disney Studios. ”

Haven't heard of it at all!

Sid's first impression was like this, although the other party was enthusiastic, Sid still had to sigh that in the Disney era of Michael Eisner, everyone was indeed in his shadow.

Even the CEO of Disney Studios, one of the six major studios, is so unknown that everyone only remembers Michael Eisner, but not the other obscure and dedicated employees. This is not only a blow to morale, but also not conducive to long-term development.

As a business operator, you should be warned.

Despite thinking so, Sid smiled slightly, shook hands with the other party, and said, "Hello Connor, you can just call me Sid." ”

Sid's approachable style made the other party feel like a spring breeze, and then Sid and his entourage visited Disney's headquarters under the leadership of a group of high-level Disney executives.

"This is our animation department at Disney. After a round trip to the Disney Movie Museum, Connor took Sid and the others to Disney's most prestigious animation department. Disney animation, which invented the art form of feature animation, does have something to be proud of.

"What we are showing here is the original painting of "Mulan MuLan", which was released this year. "The head of Disney Animation is introducing Sid to their latest work.

Looking at the smooth and exquisite animation draft, Sid had to sigh that Disney's decades of profound accumulation of skills are really not to be underestimated.

But Sid is also secretly smiling and sighing, although Pixar's "Toy Story" three years ago has revealed the broad future of 3D animation, but today, the mainstream of the industry, including Disney and DreamWorks, still has a reluctant mentality for 2D animation.

Coupled with the poor box office of DreamWorks 3D's "The True Story of Ant Brother" this year, the global box office of only $170 million, compared to the cost of up to $100 million, simply lost DreamWorks its bottoms. If it weren't for the 2D animation masterpiece "Prince of Egypt" in the second half of the year, which broke the box office of $200 million, DreamWorks and even Katzenberg's animation dream would have been shattered.

And this year, Disney's "Mulan" exceeded $300 million at the global box office, which seems to show the vitality of 2D animation, which has not been affected by Pixar and 3D animation.

But Sid knows that this is just a return to the sunset of 2D animation, and no matter how much Disney and DreamWorks struggle, the arrival of 3D animation's mainstream status is unshakable.

"Mr. Leon, which anime do you like the most?" asked the person in charge of Disney's animation section curiously after signing his name on Disney's animation wall.

Sid smiled and thought for a while, and said, "Of course it's "The Lion King". ”

At the end of the tour, Sid finally came to the main topic of the day - the office of Disney CEO and Chairman, Michael Eisner.

"Welcome, Sid. Michael Eisner enthusiastically got up from his chair and walked over to Sid, his hand reaching out before he arrived.

Compared with the arrogant appearance of a few months ago, the Hollywood tycoon's enthusiasm now is quite a bit of condescension. Sid smiled slightly, and warmly hugged Michael Eisner, who was old enough to be his grandfather, "Hello, I'm glad to visit Disney, Mr. Eisner." ”

"Call me Michael (Eisner). Michael Eisner smiled heartily and patted Sid's shoulder, looking like a familiar big brother, and the staff on the side of the fire lion next to him suddenly became secretly angry.

However, Sid Anruo Taishan smiled slightly, and after taking a seat with Michael Eisner, Sid took the lead in speaking: "So, I don't know how Michael (Eisner) thought about the deal I proposed last time?"

"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" was exchanged for the broadcast rights of AMA (American Music Awards), with the former having a maximum rating of 36 million and an average rating of 28 million and 29 million. The latter is just an annual music award broadcast, and the ratings are fixed at about 1300~15 million all year round.

No matter how you look at it, this is obviously a deal where Disney takes advantage of it and Fire Lion suffers a big loss.

But the more this happens, the more difficult it is for Michael Eisner, an old fox, to decide. This is like Sima Yi facing an empty city plan, he always has to make up a few whimsical strategies in his own brain, which makes his own people and horses unstable.

"Just by using the rights to the AMA (American Music Awards), you can exchange 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' from the next year?" Michael Eisner questioned, with a piercing gaze.

"Well, after discussing with our management, I felt that I needed to add some conditions. Sid's words made Michael Eisner nod secretly, it really couldn't be that simple. After Sid gestured to his assistant Kevin Feige, Kevin Feige immediately handed over the prepared folder.

Michael Eisner opened it and said, "You want the copyright of "Hot Mom and Girls (Weird Friday)", and put the new film "Warm Corpse" through Disney's distribution channel to be released on Valentine's Day next year. ”

"Not bad. Sid smiled and smiled at Michael Eisner like a poker face.

Michael Eisner looked at Sid with some surprise, although he also had retro oily hair today, but his immature face clearly showed that he was not yet 18 years old. But in the negotiations, Sid showed a light weight, making Michael Eisner feel as if he was facing a peer who had the same life experience as himself.

This strange sense of disobedience really lingered in Michael Eisner's heart. However, he focused his attention back on the folder, even if he wanted to add "Hot Mom and Hot Girls (Weird Friday)" and a Valentine's Day slot in exchange, he definitely felt that he was making a lot of money.

According to the latest "Wall Street Journal" investigation and analysis of the popular Lion TV station in the past six months, a single season of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire", after integrating advertising expenses, videotapes and various peripherals, can create nearly $500 million in revenue, which is far from being comparable to these quid pro quo.

Not to mention the distribution rights of the Valentine's Day schedule, "Hot Mom and Hot Girl", as an old movie filmed in 1977, has a history of more than 20 years. Although I don't know why Sid and the team behind it took a fancy to this old film.

But as a habitual old fox, Michael Eisner still said: "I think these conditions are still negotiable. ”

Sid suddenly interrupted: "Michael (Eisner), of course we can put forward some conditions to each other, and then send our subordinates to negotiate and quarrel, you have your negotiation team, and I have my lawyer team." However, you and I are both very busy people. So, let's be sincere. ”

"Who Can Be a Millionaire" is the copyright of the US version, and the copyright of the movie "Hot Mom and Hot Girl", the AMA (American Music Awards) broadcast rights and the release of "Warm Corpse" on Valentine's Day in '99. No more, no less!"

Sid's rather rude interruption of Michael Eisner's words made the Disney personnel present quite nervous, because they all knew that Michael Eisner, who can be called a "tyrant", hated it most in his life when people interrupted him. And Michael Eisner, whose temper grew, even has a record of beating up his subordinates in the office.

But to the surprise of the Disney staff, Michael Eisner rarely did not move, but after a moment of quiet contemplation, he raised his head and smiled: "Okay! I agree to this condition." ”

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After finalizing the deal that was full of weirdness, and by the way settled the issue of the release of "Warm Corpse", Sid handed over the work to Shirley Sandberg.

Sid and Michael Eisner both feel that they have made money, Michael Eisner needless to say, one side is a popular TV program IP, and the other side is the broadcast rights of old movies and music awards that have been around for decades. No matter how you look at this deal, it is a big bargain, and "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" will definitely play a non-negligible role in boosting ABC's TV business.

The market performance of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" of nearly $500 million in half a year is really not a joke.

And for Sid, "returning" to them "Millionaire", which "historically" originally belonged to the ABC television network, would have been a good thing. And it can be easily exchanged for Lindsay's "originally" starring in "Hot Mom and Hot Girl" and the AMA (American Music Awards) for Britney, which is purely worth the money.

What's more, ABC, which has historically won "Millionaires", has tasted the sweetness of the first two years, but has suffered losses for a long time and lacks other business highlights.

As a result, they rushed for quick success and quick profit, and turned the originally benign money-making "Millionaire" into a four-hour ultra-long competition show every week. In the end, the audience who watched it was overly disgusted and lost their appetite, which not only turned the win into a loss, but also made ABC's ratings instantly fall from the top to the fourth of the four major TV networks.

And now, after two years of enjoying the benefits of Fire Lion TV, watching "Millionaire" falling from the sky, ABC and Michael Eisner can still bear it?

So, Sid now said that the trap has been dug and is waiting to invite you into the urn.