Aniston, who had been sitting quietly next to Eric, was a little confused, and when he came, Eric did not hide from her the purpose of inviting Robert Shay. However, now that dinner has been eaten more than halfway, the two of them have not talked about the acquisition of the film company at all. On the contrary, he chatted about all kinds of industry insiders without looking for margins, MGM's huge losses, the box office miracle when Robert Shea was born in 1939, why Disney rose so quickly, and the truth about Raiden Hua's bankruptcy, anyway, there is nothing about the acquisition of film companies, at least the little girl with a not very smart brain has not found any signs of this.

At first, Aniston listened with relish, but later gradually lost interest, but she didn't want to be rude and make her boyfriend lose face, so Xiao 丨 Niu could only sit upright and listen carefully, although her mind had flown to the sky.

Until the waiter removed the dishes and replaced the coffee for a few people, Eric's 'small talk' with Robert Shea was still over.

“…… The latest issue of the magazine published an article showing that from next year, the income of film tapes and TV broadcast rights will exceed the box office of the film across the board, and the development of various peripheral rights of the film is becoming more and more diversified, so the role of distribution channels will become more and more important in the film industry chain, and it will be difficult for pure film content providers to survive in the future. ”

"It's a bit one-sided, if there are no excellent works, then the expansion of distribution channels is impossible, Hollywood is relying on one high-quality film after another, to expand its territory in the overseas market, invincible, if our films are as enterprising as European films, there are few good films, then it will definitely be like European films, you can only entertain yourself in a small circle, the highway is important, but if there is no car, the highway has no value. Moreover, the remuneration of Hollywood movie stars has increased more than tenfold compared to ten years ago, and they have even begun to share the profit share of movies, which is the most intuitive reflection of the importance of content in the film market. After Eric finished speaking, he took a sip of coffee and glanced at Robert Shea, and shortly after the dinner began, the two exchanged pleasantries and a few words, and unwittingly began to exchange secret exchanges, although neither mentioned anything about the acquisition of the company, but the two have been arguing about who is more important in the content of the film or the distribution.

The discussion on this topic was started by Robert Shea, and from that moment on, Robert Shea was already at a disadvantage. Because since the other party provoked this topic, Eric also understood that Robert Shea was very excited about Firefly's proposal to buy the construction of the new line, and if the other party was unwilling to sell the new line, he would not want to bring up this topic at all.

Robert Shea, who was sitting opposite, was also slightly distressed in his heart, and he found that he still far underestimated the vision and insight of the young man sitting opposite.

As an old man who has been in Hollywood for more than 20 years, how can he not understand that once he provokes that topic, he is likely to let the other party discover his intentions.

But Robert Shea originally thought that Eric was only nineteen years old after all, even if he had some talent in film production, but he must know little about other aspects, and he was more than thirty years older than him, which can be said to be more than thirty years of experience, plus Robert felt that his eloquence was not bad, so at first he was very confident that he could suppress Eric, once a seed of 'distribution channel is the key' was planted in Eric's heart, Robert would be able to take the initiative in future negotiations.

Eric has produced several films in a row that have created miracles at the box office, so when Eric asked people to invite him and revealed some news, Robert Shea's mind came alive, Firefly acquired the new line, that's for sure, Robert Shea didn't consider the possibility of the opposite, but Robert Shea is fifty years old, but he is still very ambitious, he doesn't value the huge amount of money Firefly buys the new line, but hopes to achieve the merger of the two companies, and get as much equity as possible in the merged company。

The new line has now developed to a bottleneck, among the second-tier film companies, the new line is already a leader, it has a stable income of film series, but also in the United States to build a good distribution channel, overseas distribution also has a fixed partner, what is more commendable is that the new line has developed to the present, has not been attached to any film giant, completely maintained a state of independent operation. But compared with the six major film companies, the gap between the new line is still very large. The main reason for this gap is that the new line lacks blockbuster movies at the box office, or none at all. So far, the highest-grossing series of the new line has only a maximum box office of more than 40 million, and if the movie is a big hit, the North American box office must reach about 100 million US dollars to be qualified. Without a box office blockbuster, the new line is also destined to be difficult to rank among the giants.

The 28 rule is particularly evident in the Hollywood box office market, where 20 percent of movies each year share more than 80 percent of box office revenue. The top ten films on the annual box office list have always been monopolized by the six major film companies, which means that more than 80% of the box office revenue is in the hands of the six major film companies, in fact, the proportion of the six major has decreased in recent years, because the vigorous development of various channels has given independent film companies a lot of room for development, so the six major film companies only occupy about 85% of the total box office every year, leaving 15% for other Hollywood film companies This proportion seems to be very small, but compared to more than ten years ago, this proportion is already very large, more than ten years ago, the six major film companies basically scraped all the box office every year, leaving a pitiful share of small film companies only 1%.

If the new line wants to join the ranks of giants to share the more than 80% of the profits, before meeting Eric, there are only two ways to go, either to concentrate all the strength and take the risk of making a big investment movie, so that it can achieve a big box office hit, but this is extremely risky, once it fails, the new line has only one way to go bankrupt. Either it is to stay up slowly, or one day, a small film invested by the company suddenly gets the box office against the sky, and quickly accumulates huge financial strength for it, plus the company's leaders have a good vision, and the follow-up investment in the film can also be a big hit, to achieve a virtuous circle, then it is possible to quickly accumulate strength and one day become one day among the ranks of large companies. Lionsgate in parallel time and space rose by luck in this way, Lionsgate, which was only established in 1997, was originally far inferior to the new line in terms of qualifications and strength. Miramax, a veteran second-tier company, but because of the low-cost documentary released under huge political pressure in 04, fortunately got a box office of $224 million worldwide, it quickly accumulated enough capital, and then with this capital to develop a series of super hits, once in the box office results of Universal and MGM under the feet, followed by Warner, Disney, Columbia and Fox, ranked fifth.

And after Eric threw out the acquisition intention, Robert Shea saw another broad road, this road allows the new line to neither take risks, nor slowly wait for good luck to come, but can smoothly enter the ranks of movie giants, Eric's previous movies have all been sold to prove that he has the strength to do this, since there are six major MGM-United States such a combined giant, there will definitely be a new line - Firefly, well, it is Firefly - new line.

With a cup or two of coffee in his stomach, Robert Shea didn't have the patience to spend any more time with Eric, and the patience of the young man in front of him was amazing, although he didn't want to admit it, Robert Shay still had to face the fact that he had lost in this confrontation. And if you don't get down to business, maybe Eric will really treat this meeting as a chat, and then get up and say goodbye, then the meeting again may only be at the negotiating table.

"Eric, I heard that Firefly is going to expand its own distribution channels?" asked Robert Shea, casually stirring the waiter's refilled coffee with a spoon.

A smile appeared on the corner of Eric's mouth, and finally he couldn't help it, this meal had been eaten for almost two hours, Eric almost didn't have the patience to spend it with Robert Shay again, the little girl had already floated over several charming little eyes in a row to suggest that he wanted to leave, Eric planned to finish the coffee in front of him, and the other party didn't bring it up, so he went back to hug Aniston and rolled the sheets, and the rest was that Firefly publicly and officially sent an acquisition invitation to the new line.

The reason why there is such a meal, Eric wants to probe Robert Shea's tone to see if the other party intends to sell the new line, because in memory, Robert Shea's desire to control is very strong, although the new line was recruited by Warner in his previous life, Robert Shea still firmly controls the control of the new line, it seems that almost 20 years later, until a huge loss, Robert Shea was forced to step down helplessly and under great pressure.

Robert Shea just raised the topic, and after arguing with Eric for a long time, he has already expressed his attitude, so there is not much need to talk about it or not, anyway, even if the preliminary intention is reached, the specific terms still need to be negotiated for a long time, and Sony's acquisition of Colombia has now taken more than half a year, plus the preliminary planning, it took at least a year. Although the acquisition of the new line by Firefly will not be so troublesome, it will definitely not be completed in a month or two.