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Caroline and Melanie have basically taken most of the information they have collected in recent days with them on the plane. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Eric listened to the two of them's suggestion and asked them to bring the information, and the three of them discussed it more deeply and carefully.

Due to the increasing prosperity of the North American film market in recent years, in 1997, the total number of screens in major theaters in North America has exceeded 36,000, an increase of almost 10,000 compared with ten years ago.

Up to now, the top three cinema chains in North America, Regal Entertainment and Mark, after years of expansion, have more than 14,000 screens with the highest commercial value in North America, becoming the three most competitive commercial cinema groups in the United States. Although the number of screens owned by other small cinema chains, art cinema chains or local cinema chains is still far greater than the sum of these three, these second- and third-rate cinema chains basically have various reasons such as remote theater status, outdated equipment, and insufficient film sources.

If Firefly Group, which wants to enter the theater industry, puts aside the Big Three and initiates acquisitions of other small theater chains, it is even better to build a chain of cinemas from scratch. Even the first three theaters, due to the overexpansion over the years, there are more or less various problems, although the first-ranked regal entertainment has more than 7,000 screens, but among the top three, the business situation is the worst, and there is even a risk of bankruptcy in the next few years.

On the surface, Regal Entertainment seems to be the best M&A target for Firefly Group, but if Firefly Group really does this, and more than 7,000 screens distributed in prime locations in major cities in North America are taken into its arms, the entire Hollywood, and all film companies outside the Firefly system are estimated to be restless. The other two, although the number of screens are about three or four thousand, but Fireflies want to get involved, they will still face anti-monopoly problems.

In the study, Melanie showed Eric a document and said, "Eric, you see, the three major cinema entertainment groups all have several sub-brands, just like Regal Entertainment, which has three sub-brands, rds-theaters-unitedartiststheaters. In fact, we can take this sub-brand penetration method and cooperate with one of the top three cinema chains, I think the best is Regal Entertainment, which completed another big merger and acquisition a few years ago, although the number of screens has expanded to more than 7,000, but due to the rising debt ratio and chaotic theater management, it has been in a state of loss in the past two years. What we have to do is to select a group of screening halls from their theater chain, and Firefly Group will inject capital and hold shares, and transform it into a sub-brand specializing in 3D movies. ”

The biggest reason why Eric hopes to enter the cinema industry is that he hopes to promote 3D movies in advance and find a new profit growth point for the firefly system. On the other hand, he also hopes to lead the promotion of 3D films.

In the past, the promotion process of 3D movies can only be described as chaotic.

In the early stage of "Avatar", many Hollywood blockbusters already had 3D versions, but compared with the huge film market in North America, the source of 3D movies has always been scarce. Without enough 3D film sources, the number of 3D screens in North America has not been able to grow, and the insufficient number of 3D screens has also curbed the incentive for studios to produce 3D versions of their films.

After "Avatar", driven by huge profits, several major film companies in North America and major theater chains began to swarm to produce 3D movies and rebuild 3D theaters.

This trend of swarming naturally leads to the uneven quality of 3D film sources and cinema 3D projection systems, and even the quality of most 3D film sources and 3D cinemas is very poor, which causes the audience not only not to further accept 3D films, but gradually revert to this film model.

As long as the 3D film source and cinema projection system meet the standard, the visual experience of 3D movies is absolutely very shocking, and at the same time, it can also trend more and more audiences who are inclined to watch movies on TV or online platforms to re-enter the cinema.

What Eric wants to do now is to put the promotion of 3D movies on a benign development track, instead of being gradually destroyed by those overly profit-seeking theaters and studios using low-quality projection systems and rough reproduction sources.

After patiently discussing with Melanie and Caroline, Eric finally said, "Well, this sub-brand is called Reald." ”

Both women looked at each other suspiciously: "Reald?"

Eric nodded, reald, in fact, is the most popular 3D movie projection system in the original time and space.

The biggest problem with 3D movies is usually brightness.

Different from 2D movies, 3D movies will cause a significant reduction in the brightness of the film in three aspects: the 3D projector, the big screen and the 3D eyes during the projection. There is a special unit for the brightness of the movie screen, called FL (foot-lamberts), the traditional 2D movie, because there is not much attenuation factor, the brightness can easily reach 14FL, but after three attenuation 3D movies, the usual brightness is only about 4.5FL. In order to prolong the life of the projector's high-voltage xenon bulbs, many theaters even deliberately reduce the brightness, which further reduces the brightness of the 3D movie, giving the audience a dark feeling.

In the face of the chaos of the 3D film market, the later RealD company not only developed a special RealD projection system, but also launched a set of special RealD certification standards, the most important of which is to stipulate that the brightness of 3D movies in theaters should not be less than 6FL.

What Eric wanted to do at this time was to establish a set of specialized 3D film certification standards from the beginning. For this reason, he also inquired about the status of the reald company, but found that the company was not established at all, so Eric did not hesitate to take the name.

"Reald, you can understand the meaning of real 3D," Faced with the doubts of the two women, Eric picked up the pencil next to him and wrote the new word reald in the blank space of the document in front of him, and continued: "Not only this sub-brand, but I also hope that the 3D movie projection system developed in the digital field will also use this name, and at the same time, we will set a set of 3D movie playback standards in advance." In the future, in order to get a copy of the Firefly system 3D movie, the relevant theater must be certified to our standard. ”

Melanie nodded approvingly and smiled, "That's a good idea." ”

She thought that Eric was doing this mainly to monopolize the 3D film market.

Caroline apparently thought that Eric was thinking this way, and her face also showed a small expression of weakness as if she had done something bad.

However, Eric didn't really have that in mind.

In the early stage of 3D movie promotion, as long as the quality of 3D movies and the standards of theater playback are well controlled, with the advantages of technology and theater resources in hand, the firefly system can naturally enjoy exclusive profits for a long time. But in these extremely open film markets in Europe and the United States, other film companies will naturally follow suit when they see Fireflies benefiting.

Moreover, Eric doesn't want the fireflies to monopolize this aspect all the time, and if they eat alone for a long time, they will definitely lose the motivation to move forward. Introducing competition is the best way to keep the firefly system alive for a long time.

Unconsciously discussed for several hours, and when it was time for dinner, Eric kept his promise to prepare food for everyone, while Caroline and Melanie stayed in the study to continue sorting out the results of their discussions, and Eric planned to discuss the detailed implementation plan with the group management in Los Angeles after getting off the plane.

Not only from the 3D projection system to the reald of the cinema certification standard, Eric and the two women also discussed a plan codenamed '4200'. Eric hopes that in the next two to three years, Firefly Group will build 2,000 standard-certified 3D screens in North America and overseas, which is the 4,000 of the '4200', and the 200 is another IMAX cinema project.

At present, there are a total of 54 IMAX screens in the whole of North America, which are basically distributed in museums or science and technology museums in major cities, and the number of IMAX screens in the world is now no more than 100.

Two years ago, after watching the IMAX documentary at the Natural History Museum in New York, Eric contacted the Canadian company IMAX and urged them to speed up the development of the technology to convert ordinary 35mm films into IMAX films, which until then had been limited to about forty or fifty minutes long.

According to the information that Caroline and Melanie got from IMAX a few days ago, by next year at the latest, IMAX has been developing DMR (Digital Original) technology to convert a normal length movie into an IMAX movie.

Since "Gravity" is to be produced, Eric will naturally not let go of the IMAX screening, which can bring out the visual charm of this space epic film to the fullest.

Therefore, in addition to building the screen, Eric also plans to build theaters in North America and overseas.

Eventually, when the plane landed in London, Eric's residence on Garden Street in Kensington, London, discussed the 'reald' and '4200' plans with the Firefly executives via video conference, and Katzenberg and Frank Wells, who were far away in Los Angeles, couldn't help but be secretly speechless.

Eric's plan for the development of a real-screen projection system in the digital field must abandon the current stand-alone 3D projector and adopt a dual-camera 3D projection mode that can greatly increase brightness and reduce audience dizziness, which means that the cost of retrofitting each 3D theater could eventually reach $300,000. The cost of renovating a single theater is nothing, but the combined cost of renovating a theater around the world is at least $1.2 billion, not to mention the operating costs in the later stage.

Similarly, the projection hall, built from scratch, is an expense of $400 million, even at a cost of $2 million per house.

Thinking about it this way, in order to promote 3D and IMAX, the total investment that Firefly Group needs to pay will definitely not be less than 1.6 billion US dollars, not to mention, the operating costs in the later stage are also huge.

……

……

Moreover, Eric doesn't want the fireflies to monopolize this aspect all the time, and if they eat alone for a long time, they will definitely lose the motivation to move forward. Introducing competition is the best way to keep the firefly system alive for a long time.

Unconsciously discussed for several hours, and when it was time for dinner, Eric kept his promise to prepare food for everyone, while Caroline and Melanie stayed in the study to continue sorting out the results of their discussions, and Eric planned to discuss the detailed implementation plan with the group management in Los Angeles after getting off the plane.

Not only from the 3D projection system to the reald of the cinema certification standard, Eric and the two women also discussed a plan codenamed '4200'. Eric hopes that in the next two to three years, Firefly Group will build 2,000 standard-certified 3D screens in North America and overseas, which is the 4,000 of the '4200', and the 200 is another IMAX cinema project.

At present, there are a total of 54 IMAX screens in the whole of North America, which are basically distributed in museums or science and technology museums in major cities, and the number of IMAX screens in the world is now no more than 100.

Two years ago, after watching the IMAX documentary at the Natural History Museum in New York, Eric contacted the Canadian company IMAX and urged them to speed up the development of the technology to convert ordinary 35mm films into IMAX films, which until then had been limited to about forty or fifty minutes long.

According to the information that Caroline and Melanie got from IMAX a few days ago, by next year at the latest, IMAX has been developing DMR (Digital Original) technology to convert a normal length movie into an IMAX movie.

Since "Gravity" is to be produced, Eric will naturally not let go of the IMAX screening, which can bring out the visual charm of this space epic film to the fullest.

Therefore, in addition to building the screen, Eric also plans to build theaters in North America and overseas.

Eventually, when the plane landed in London, Eric's residence on Garden Street in Kensington, London, discussed the 'reald' and '4200' plans with the Firefly executives via video conference, and Katzenberg and Frank Wells, who were far away in Los Angeles, couldn't help but be secretly speechless.

Eric's plan for the development of a real-screen projection system in the digital field must abandon the current stand-alone 3D projector and adopt a dual-camera 3D projection mode that can greatly increase brightness and reduce audience dizziness, which means that the cost of retrofitting each 3D theater could eventually reach $300,000. The cost of renovating a single theater is nothing, but the combined cost of renovating a theater around the world is at least $1.2 billion, not to mention the operating costs in the later stage.

Similarly, the projection hall, built from scratch, is an expense of $400 million, even at a cost of $2 million per house.

(To be continued.) )