Among them, although it also belongs to the third sequel, compared with the success of "The Mummy 3", "The Matrix 3", which Amberlin Pictures took over from the Firefly Group, has a total box office of only $139 million in North America and barely exceeded $400 million at the global box office, both of which have created a new low in the series.

The total cost of production and publicity of "The Matrix 3" exceeded 200 million US dollars, and the global box office of 400 million US dollars, which was simply not enough for Amberlin Pictures to recover the entire budget cost, and Spielberg and others could only hope that the film's follow-up DVD and TV peripherals would make up for the losses.

Although this summer, Amberlin Pictures' other low-cost production "American Beauty" won 130 million in North America and $350 million in the global box office with a production cost of $15 million, which can be said to be a great success. However, Amberlin Pictures' overall film business, including "The Matrix 3", is still showing serious losses, which has once again accelerated the parting of ways of several partners of Amberlin Pictures.

In addition, this summer, "I'm Crazy for Mary" and "Daddy Rushes Forward" from two comedy stars, Ben Stiller and Adam Sandler respectively, both achieved unexpected box office successes.

"I'm Crazy for Mary" earned $170 million at the North American box office with a production cost of $23 million.

Although the production cost of "Daddy Rushes Forward" is slightly higher than that of "I'm Crazy for Mary", reaching $34 million, the film's North American box office still reached $160 million, which is also a small and big one.

The success of the two films also announced the rise of two other Hollywood comedy stars after Jim Carrey.

Judging from the box office performance of various film companies, the North American box office of Firefly Group's "Iron Man" and "Cars" exceeded $500 million, easily ranking first.

Fox and Universal followed, Fox's "I'm Crazy for Mary" and "Shrek" two films have a total of $430 million at the North American box office, and Universal's "Mummy" has exceeded $300 million at the North American box office, but another major romance film "Notting Hill" has just exceeded 100 million at the box office, and the North American box office of the two films has accumulated $420 million, slightly inferior to Fox.

The next four major studios, Warner, MGM, Paramount, and Columbia, have all slipped to less than $300 million at the North American box office for films released in the summer.

Moreover, unlike in previous years, when there were always one or two films from a single production company on the hot schedule in North America, this year only Amberlin Pictures became the only solo studio that could barely rank alongside the seven major studios with the cumulative box office of $2.6 in North America for the two films "The Matrix" and "American Beauty".

The reason for this situation is not unrelated to the gradual tightening of overseas film capital's investment in Hollywood in recent years, and it is also the result of the further monopoly of film publicity and distribution resources after the integration of the seven major film companies and various media groups.

It is conceivable that after the dissolution of Amberlin Pictures, the monopoly of Hollywood by the seven major film companies will also be completely formed, and it is impossible for any latecomer to break it in the short term.

With the end of the summer schedule, the end of the year is no longer far away.

Eric's "Gravity" will be released on November 19, just over two months away, and the first eight-second concept trailer has been released at the end of August.

The IMAX and 3D theater renovations around the world are also in the final stages of commissioning.

Counting some additional expenses such as real estate purchases and peripheral software updates, Firefly Group has invested more than $1.9 billion in the entire '4200' program.

Although the purpose of the Firefly Group is to promote the 3D and IMAX film formats, in the eyes of the outside world, this is more of a 'willful move' made by Eric, the owner of the Firefly Group, for his new work.

After all, the public is not aware of the detailed promotion plan of the Firefly Group, and the media often likes to use more eye-catching rhetoric to attract readers. A huge amount of $1.9 billion was invested in a film that cost only $100 million to make, and in every way you look at it, it can be associated with words like profligacy. Therefore, the outside world is generally not optimistic about Firefly Group's move to promote 3D and IMAX.

Still, such a huge expenditure easily attracted a lot of attention to "Gravity", making the film the most anticipated film of 1999.

After spending a few days with Cindy on Martha's Vineyard, Eric returns to Manhattan.

This was the second week after Firefly Systems filed a lawsuit against At-Home and Microsoft.

Thanks to the conclusive patent evidence provided by both Firefly companies, At-Home's stock price has plummeted for more than a week, and the original market value of $7.6 billion has slipped to only $2.6 billion.

In the face of Yahoo's lawsuit, the first reaction of the board of directors of At-Home after a period of confusion was to ask Microsoft for help, and also deliberately released the news that Microsoft was about to acquire At-Home.

It's just that Microsoft, which was still in contact with At-Home, denied the news of the acquisition at the first time.

After all, both sides know that this is a collision between Microsoft and the Firefly system, and if Microsoft loosens its mouth to acquire At-Home at this time, it will be tantamount to completely carrying the burden of At-Home.

Yahoo's claim against At-Home is $1 billion.

Although it has a market capitalization of billions of dollars, even if At-Home is squeezed dry, it will definitely not be able to make up $1 billion.

However, if Microsoft buys At-Home at this juncture, it will be equivalent to a fat sheep getting into the mouth of a tiger. Microsoft could easily come up with $1 billion.

As for Firefly Electronics' lawsuit against Microsoft's upcoming Zune player, although the trial of the case will not be completed overnight, a week after Firefly Electronics filed the lawsuit, the San Francisco District Court still issued an injunction to Microsoft, requiring Microsoft not to sell the Zune player until the case is concluded.

Although Microsoft raised objections at the first time, it temporarily canceled the Zune player TV commercial, which was originally intended to be placed on various TV stations in North America.

As a company that also often relies on patent monopolies to suppress competitors, Microsoft clearly understands that if they want to develop their search engine and digital music player business, they absolutely cannot bypass the patent barriers of the Firefly system.

As a result, Microsoft's top brass quickly got in touch with the Firefly system, hoping to reconcile.

Bill Gates apparently didn't want to deal with Eric anymore at first, and instead had Microsoft President Steve Ballmer talk to Eric on the phone a few times. After several times in a row, there was no result, and Daimun-san obviously understood that he had to fly to Manhattan again.

On the Upper West Side, led by Eric's bodyguards to an ordinary apartment, Bill Gates couldn't help but look at this obviously not very high-grade building, and wondered why Eric had a residence here, and he despised it a little in his heart.

It's just that when the door of the apartment opened, looking at the beautiful girl in front of him who was still taller than him even in flat slippers, with a beautiful face and long straight legs that was always smiling, the little pleasure that the door classmate had just raised suddenly dissipated.

"Hello, Mr. Gates," the girl didn't mean to introduce herself, but leaned sideways slightly, and said, "Eric is already waiting for you." ”

Gates didn't know that Carmen Cays's habit of being alienated from strangers in her bones, and that she had received a lot of compliments over the years, so it was natural to recognize the girl's attitude as snubbing, and then naturally shift her resentment to Eric.

Walking into the apartment, looking at Eric sitting leisurely on the sofa in the living room flipping through magazines, the door classmate wanted to step forward and kick someone.

Of course, he only thinks about this kind of thought, not to mention maintaining his demeanor in front of beautiful women, with the age and physical strength gap between him and Eric, he will only be unlucky when he clashes with the youth in front of him.

"Hey, Bill," Eric just got up and shook Gates' hand, then gestured to the other side, "Sit down." ”

With that, Eric saw Carmen Kath going to the kitchen and stopped him, "Carmen, no, Bill will be leaving soon." ”

Carmen Cayth stopped, hummed softly, and moved to the bedroom, avoiding the conversation between the two.

Bill Gates listened to Eric's words, his expression was obviously not good-looking, is this not even willing to do superficial work?

Having learned the lessons of the first two times, Eric is really too lazy to do any more superficial work.

You can't drink it anyway.

As Carmen Keys's figure disappeared, the atmosphere froze for a few seconds, and it was Gates who spoke first: "Eric, what do you want?"

Eric put down the magazine in his hand, looked at the other side, and said, "Bill, it's actually what you want." On Microsoft's side, Firefly has expressed its goodwill without reservation, and I have always wanted to maintain a cooperative relationship with Microsoft, but the result? I helped Microsoft solve the biggest problem you faced, and Microsoft returned to Firefly for wanting to tear up the contract. ”

Gates retorted: "Microsoft has not torn up the contract, and every indos system is still pre-installed with Yahoo Browser." ”

"That's because Microsoft's attempt failed," Eric said, staring at Gates, "So, do you want to deny that the sudden hearing by the Department of Justice has nothing to do with Microsoft?"

Gates hesitated, but said, "This matter is presided over by Steve." ”

Eric shrugged, "I don't care about that, so it doesn't matter who you pull out to top the tank." ”

Gates also wanted to learn from Eric to make some free and easy gestures, but in the end he just straightened his waist and said, "Okay, Eric, let's talk about how to deal with this matter?"

Eric asked directly, "So, what about Microsoft's conditions?"

"At-Home and Zune get the corresponding patents in return," Gates paused, with some determined expressions, "Microsoft can not pursue the infringement of Microsoft software patents on the operating system of Yahoo Mini Music Store devices, and we can also make certain authorizations to Yahoo." ”

After hearing what Gates said, Eric couldn't help but laugh and said, "So, that's all?"

"Eric, you have to know that the tablet device that Yahoo is developing, in terms of operating system, will never avoid Microsoft's patents in any way. So, it's a win-win thing. ”

As Eric recalls, Microsoft did charge a lot of royalties for the Android operating system. This is mainly due to the fact that the software patent pool accumulated by Microsoft's indos system is too huge, and all software operating systems basically cannot avoid Microsoft's operating system patents.

Of course, there are exceptions to this, and that is Apple.

Apple's graphical interface operating system appeared earlier than Microsoft, coupled with a series of black histories such as plagiarism, Microsoft rarely bothered Apple when it came to patents.

"If that's all there is to it," Eric said, with a distinct sneer on his lips, "Bill, congratulations, you've managed to exhaust the last of my patience." I thought you came in person and brought some conditions of good faith, but you were just threatening me. So, Firefly Systems isn't going to settle with Microsoft, you can go back to Seattle right now and prepare to file a lawsuit against the mini music store, and again, I assure you, whether it's in the search engine space, or in the digital music player space, Microsoft doesn't want to get involved. ”

Eric said this, Gates obviously also came to the temperament, and said in an aggravated tone: "Then Microsoft can also ban the sale of Firefly Electronics' tablets, Eric, you should think about this kind of consequence." ”

"You seem to have forgotten a point," Eric said: "In terms of operating systems, although Indos has become a dominant company, but Indos is not the only operating system in this world, no matter how whitewashed, Indos is plagiarized Apple's Macintosh system after all, so, leaving Microsoft, Firefly Electronics can also obtain the patent authorization of the operating system from Apple, and it just so happens that Firefly Investment also holds a large part of Apple's equity, and if necessary, I can even buy Apple entirely." ”

"Apple is outdated," Gates retorted with a raised voice, "You should know why Microsoft wants to keep this company, if Firefly buys Apple, Microsoft can immediately attack this company." ”

"I just need to get the patent," Eric said in a flat tone, with a smile on his face, "Moreover, if Firefly really buys Apple completely, then Microsoft can also be said to use the Firefly system for patents." ”

"What about Jobs, do you think that stone would be willing for you to buy Apple?"

"Jobs was kicked out of Apple once, if necessary, he can leave Apple a second time, after so many years, he should understand that in front of capital, he is nothing, I appreciate Jobs' talent, but if necessary, Firefly will definitely put its own interests first," Eric finished speaking, pointed in the direction of the door again, and said, "So, Bill, you can leave now." ”

Gates has never been a good-natured person, and when he heard this, he stood up suddenly, but he still paused, and said, "Eric, it's not good for everyone that you're doing this." ”

"If I compromise with Microsoft, will it be beneficial?" Eric looked at Gates mockingly, and said: "Your attitude just now made me completely aware of one thing, Firefly has reached a settlement with Microsoft this time, then, next time, even if we have cooperation, Microsoft will also attack the Firefly system again, in the final analysis, Microsoft is a company that is not very trustworthy." ”