"007: Casino Royale" was filmed in the United Kingdom, Italy, the Czech Republic and the Bahamas, and there are more than 60 detailed filming locations, which is also the place where the 007 series has always been generous.

Eric left in early April to survey all the filming locations, and returned to Los Angeles on May 6, Monday, which happened to be the fifth week of "Seven Deadly Sins."

After accumulating $60.43 million in four weeks, "Seven Deadly Sins" earned $7.12 million again in three days of the fifth week, a modest 17% drop from the previous week. followed by the summer file, although the filming of "Seven Deadly Sins" will be squeezed at that time, but with the super high attention, the attendance rate of the film will definitely rebound at that time, and there is no suspense about the total box office exceeding 100 million.

As for "Level 1 Fear", with its box office of $1.63 million over three days of the fifth week, it is estimated that it will be completely drawn from North America after next week.

"Fear of the First Degree" is not Paramount's focus of the film, and neither film is a popular genre movie, which is why Firefly won so easily this time.

In the next blockbuster confrontation in the summer file, it is not so easy for a company to manipulate word-of-mouth, you can only do the publicity work that can be done in place, and then sit back and wait for the market's reaction, even, at this time, even word-of-mouth is not the most important, some movie critics have a super bad reputation, but they can't stop the audience from enthusiastically buying tickets to enter the venue.

"Titanic" is still slowly in the late stage, and it is expected to be completed by the end of July.

Firefly has only two main movies in this summer's file, "The Matrix" released on May 31 and "Brave Island" released on June 14. Because of the absence of "Titanic", the new line inserted the already produced "Death is Coming" into the original "Titanic" schedule, which was set for June 28.

"007: Casino Royale" is scheduled to officially start filming on June 2, however, Eric is unlikely to arrive on the set on the same day, and in order to match his schedule, the premiere of "The Matrix" has been brought forward to May 27. As for the premiere of "Brave Island", Eric had to regret his absence.

Back in Los Angeles, Eric didn't even have time to rest from jet lag, so he had to devote himself to the preparation of the three FFM toll cable stations that worked together.

After a few months of preliminary work, in addition to the original cable station in the hands of remote communication, the three companies have successively acquired several smaller paid cable stations from operators such as Cablevision, with a total of about 4 million users.

Eric originally wanted to take Showtime in the hands of Viacom, which was second only to HBO in terms of scale and fame in the previous life, and now has only about 500,000 subscribers, because the scale is still small, this TV station is a dispensable business in the Viacom system. However, after Katzenberg called to express his interest in the acquisition, Somer Lei Shidong chose to refuse without hesitation, Eric estimated that Lei Shidong would definitely study why Fireflies would be interested in Showtime in private, however, this kind of behavior is destined to be useless, and Eric's only interest at this time is only the hundreds of thousands of users of showtime.

Since Lei Shidong refused to sell Showtime, Eric focused on the few TV stations he had already acquired.

According to the original historical trajectory, in addition to HBO, several other major media companies have missed the fat of paid cable stations, and when Showtime, Starz and other paid cable stations have caught up, the era of online streaming has come. At that time, in order to counter Time Warner's old paid cable business and the emerging online streaming business, Fox, Disney and Comcast cooperated to establish an online streaming platform HULU, but the three have always had differences in Hulu's development ideas, and none of the parties has an absolute controlling stake in the platform.

HULU'S APPROACH TO COOPERATION IS VERY SIMILAR TO THAT OF SEVERAL FFMS THAT ARE CURRENTLY IN THE PIPELINE.

In the preliminary plan, FFM's equity distribution is 30% of Firefly, 30% of News Corp., 20% of MGM, and the remaining 20% of the shares are held by cable operators such as Remote Communications and Cablevision.

In terms of FFM development, Eric and Murdoch did not have much disagreement between the two main decision-makers, MGM naturally sided with Eric, and several other major operators also promised not to participate in the company's operations, so as long as Eric and Murdoch negotiated, everything could go smoothly.

In order to prevent the respective management of the three companies from affecting the development of FFM, Eric and Murdoch unanimously decided to establish a new cable TV company to be responsible for the operation of FFM, and the company's management is directly responsible to Eric, Murdoch and several others, and is not subject to the management constraints of the three groups.

With the content support of Firefly, News Corp and MGM, FFM wants to grow and grow, and there are not too many constraints in terms of content. The main problem of FFM is the lack of heritage, and there is no brand accumulation that HBO has been operating for more than 20 years, so if you want FFM to develop and grow as soon as possible, a manager who knows how to operate with a small reputation is essential.

Beverly Hills, still the same open-air restaurant that Eric visited a few times.

It was afternoon, and Eric and Murdoch occupied a terrace alone, chatting about FFM. Murdoch lived mostly in New York, occasionally going to London, and this time he made the trip to Los Angeles for FFM.

"HBO has been developing for 23 years from 1973 to the present, and has a very solid reputation among audiences. FFM wants to develop and grow in this new market, the most critical issue is branding, so that the audience can recognize FFM's brand in the shortest possible time, in this regard, although we have more film resources than Time Warner, but the audience is impossible to know this, the power of habit is very strong, so we can only find another way. ”

Eric said this, and Murdoch, who was sitting next to him, answered: "You mean, reality shows like "America's Top Model" and "Flyover"?"

Lifetime TV has become famous with these two reality shows and has become a classic case in the industry.

Eric shook his head and said: "No, although everyone knows that reality shows are not so real, but it has a 'true' word after all, if the reality show of the paid cable station wants to attract the attention of the audience, the scale must far exceed the basic cable station and the public station, and if you don't pay attention to it, it will touch the tolerance limit of social ethics and even the law, this is a minefield, we should definitely not touch it." ”

"That's a self-made drama like "Lust City"," Murdoch immediately understood, and shook his head slightly: "However, TV series can never be as well-made as movies, and the basic cable station is just fine, and it is not so easy to get the audience to spend more money to watch paid TV series." ”

"So, let's use the standards of making movies to make a TV series, in fact, Firefly originally had such a project, which I had after "Saving Private Ryan", and originally planned to invest about 100 million dollars to make a big miniseries about World War II, but unfortunately this project was not suitable for ABC TV, so it ran aground. ”

Murdoch gently rubbed the coffee cup in his hand, leaned back in his chair, and asked, "For $100 million, do you think we can recover the cost?"

"If this project were placed on ABC, it would definitely not be able to recoup the cost, and it would be absolutely impossible for advertisers to pay far more than other TV shows, and the revenue from syndicates and videotapes would be greatly reduced after it was broadcast on public stations. But that's not necessarily the case after the paid cable broadcasts, firstly, we can get a subscription revenue, and secondly, as long as these miniseries can make a name for themselves, we can recoup our costs and make a profit on the subsequent videotape and syndicate distribution. ”

Murdoch showed a clear expression and said, "I understand, that's why you want Weinstein to run this TV station, right?"

Eric smiled and nodded.

In addition to the necessary word-of-mouth, the other ways for a self-made drama to become famous on a paid cable station are similar to the way a film produced by a solo film company wants to get a high box office, which needs to be similar to a small marketing operation.

Once HBO, the biggest gimmick to show that its work is well-made is the hundreds of Emmy nominations that are often mentioned in the media. And as long as there are good enough works, in terms of running awards, there are no more than the Weinstein brothers who want to surpass the Weinstein brothers in recent years. This year's Oscars swept the Quartet in "Forrest Gump", and Miramax still snatched the two heavyweight performance awards for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor.

When Eric was still in Europe, he talked to Harvey Weinstein on the phone a few times, and Weinstein was also very interested in taking over FFM TV, which led to today's meeting.

Eric looked at his watch, and the appointed time was almost up, so he waved the waiter and ordered him to get a new pot of coffee.

The old god Murdoch was waiting for the waiter to leave, and suddenly changed the tone of the elder who spoke earnestly, and said, "Eric, you will be twenty-six years old soon, right?"

Eric's heart jumped, this kind of line, how can it be a bit familiar.

What's next?

Eric was thinking about how to interrupt the past when a chubby figure appeared in time, avoiding a possible embarrassing scene. Eric has always been a single, and in his previous life, his parents were forced to marry every festival, coupled with the influence of traditional oriental concepts, so he chose to get married at the age of thirty. In this life, Eric doesn't want to be tied up anymore, not to mention that the situation around him now is really complicated, and he is not suitable for marriage at all.

"Good afternoon, Rupert, Eric, I hope I'm not late," Weinstein walked up to the two and warmly hugged the two who stood up.

"Of course not, it's just that we arrived a little early," Eric happily let go of Weinstein, and said in his heart that you had come too soon.

Murdoch is helpless, although he can be cunning like a fox in the mall, but in front of his children, Murdoch can't be like Lei Shidong's six relatives don't recognize, but like those traditional parents who dot on their children, they hope that their children can grow up and start a family, but unfortunately, several children are more worryless than the other, the second daughter and the eldest son don't talk about the, the younger son James was racing with someone some time ago, and he happened to be caught by the police, but fortunately there was no accident.

Weinstein sensed that Murdoch's expression was a little strange, and took the initiative to get up and take the coffee pot brought by the waiter, poured it for the three of them, and gave Eric a puzzled look.

Eric had to ignore it, it couldn't be explained.

Fortunately, Murdoch didn't linger for too long, and took the initiative to speak: "Harvey, how did you think about that?"

Weinstein hurriedly said: "Of course, I would very much like to be able to take over FFM, but I still have some questions. ”

"Tell me?"

Weinstein gathered his thoughts and said, "If I'm going to manage FFM, I'm absolutely going to have to do things like you and Eric, well, and MGM?"

Murdoch looked at Eric.

Eric replied, "Of course, FFM is completely independent, and the management of the three companies has no jurisdiction over you, but I still hope that you can work with them." ”

Weinstein got Eric's personal promise and put his mind at ease, Miramax has developed very well in the past two years, but after all, it is only a subsidiary of Twentieth Century Fox, and it is two levels away from the parent company News Corporation. Weinstein also wants to have a greater platform and power in the media world, with the importance that the three companies attach to FFM TV, and he is certainly keenly aware that this will be a very good opportunity.

"Also, on the issue of remuneration......"

Speaking of this, Weinstein rubbed his hands honestly on the surface, and seemed a little embarrassed.

Eric, however, was not confused by Weinstein's expression, and told the other party the plan he had negotiated with Murdoch, saying, "Rupert and I hope you can sign a five-year contract, with an annual salary of $250,000 and 1 million stock options per year." ”

Relying on Miramax's outstanding performance, Weinstein has received more than 10 million bonuses and dividends every year in the past two years. However, he didn't think that the annual salary of $250,000 was too little, even if it was Katzenberg, the annual salary was only $750,000, in Hollywood, everyone actually only looked at bonuses and dividends, that was the big head, as long as the company's performance was good, the annual income of Hollywood directors was as little as millions, and as much as tens of millions.

Weinstein also knew that the focus of the compensation was on the 1 million options, so he asked, "Eric, what is the total share capital of FFM?"

Eric thought for a moment and said, "After the company's integration is completed, it will be about 400 million shares." ”

The so-called stock option means that the shareholder formulates a lower selling price to the management, and the management can choose whether to buy the corresponding number of shares of the company at this price within a certain period of time. If the company's performance and market value do not grow, or even fall, the management will definitely be reluctant to cash out the option at a high price. But if the company's stock price doubles or even higher, the management will buy the shares at half price, which is actually a reward mechanism.

Weinstein has also seen some materials before, FFM's current approximate market value is about $1 billion, 5 million options are equivalent to 1.25% of the total share capital, and it only takes more than $10 million to cash it out, and he can get this money himself.

However, even if the market value of FFM doubles five years later, the income he will receive from this option will only be more than 10 million US dollars, which is far below his expectations. (To be continued.) )