The day after the all-night meeting, Disneyland Europe, which had just opened for less than ten days, suddenly announced its temporary closure, which shocked the whole of Europe and quickly spread around the world.

The construction of European Disneyland took seven years and the investment was as high as 5.5 billion US dollars, which is even equivalent to the financial revenue of some small European countries for several years.

On the day of the incident, Disney published a clarification and apology statement on the front page of well-known newspapers such as "Le Monde", "European Times", and "Le Figaro", which are among the top newspapers in France in terms of circulation, saying that because it was found that a series of problems had occurred after the opening of Disneyland in Europe, out of the concept of being responsible for tourists, the management decided to temporarily close Disneyland and rectify the relevant problems after careful consideration.

However, this statement that completely follows the truth is basically not believed by many people, and most of the media and the public are more inclined to the major changes in European Disneyland, and some irresponsible tabloids have published news such as dozens of casualties caused by an accident at Disneyland in Europe, and this completely apocryphal news has been recognized by many people, and some newspapers that do not know the truth have even reprinted it.

Within a day of the news, and after repeatedly confirming that it was not a prank, reporters from countless television outlets, newspapers and magazines around the world boarded flights to Paris in an attempt to find out the truth.

On the day of the incident, the French government also expressed strong concern about the matter through a press conference, and Jacques Chirac, who was the mayor of Paris at the time, met with Eric Williams, chairman of Firefly Pictures, and Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of Disney, for the first time. Ask for yourself why Disneyland is closed.

Come out of the mayor's office. Eric and Katzenberg got into a black sedan together. Two days in a row busy. Even Katzenberg, who had always been known for his energy, could clearly see a feeling of the end of a strong crossbow, and Eric leaned back in his seat and narrowed his eyes.

Suddenly there was a sound of cans being pulled open beside him, and Eric barely opened his eyes to glance, and saw that Katzenberg had just opened a can of can of coffee for refreshment, and remembered a joke about Katzenberg, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but hook slightly.

"Eric, do you want it?" asked Katzenberg in a low voice.

Eric shook his head, now it's time to give him a can of stimulants. He couldn't lift his spirits, either. Since the night before yesterday, the two of them have basically not had much rest, Eric feels that his biological clock has completely collapsed, and he is even a little envious of Katzenberg's abundant energy, when this guy feels tired, he can pour a bottle of refreshing drink casually, and he can basically 'resurrect with full blood', which is more effective than the red and blue medicine in the game.

The decision to temporarily close Euro Disneyland was also the result of careful discussions between the two of them, and the problems of Euro Disneyland were already very serious, and it was difficult to predict the effect of conservative management and rectification. The cycle will be correspondingly much longer, in which case it is better to have a big action like cooking oil on fire. Even if it doesn't solve the problem completely, the attention that this series of actions has attracted can be a world-class publicity and marketing, and it doesn't cost money. The reopening of Disneyland Europe after some time is sure to attract a much larger amount of attention than it did when it first opened.

Katzenberg quickly finished his coffee and said, "Eric, if you can't hold on, I'll just wait for the negotiation with the French investors myself, and you can go back and rest first." ”

Eric nodded in confusion and agreed.

According to the questionnaire survey and the first week's revenue data, even after rectification, it is very difficult for European Disneyland to achieve the original profit in the short term, and most of the 5.5 billion US dollars in construction funds are bank loans, which must be repaid through the operation of European Disneyland, and the average annual principal and interest repayment amount is as high as 200 million US dollars.

At the same time, the initial serious budget loss and a large number of redundant projects were built, which also made the operation and maintenance costs of European Disneyland much higher than that of Tokyo Disneyland, which is not difficult to find from the scale of the two parks, the total area of European Disneyland is nearly 2,000 hectares, while Tokyo Disneyland is only 204 hectares, which is only one-tenth of that of European Disneyland.

In this case, Disney can only renegotiate with the French investor to discuss the redistribution of profits, and from the current situation, Eric basically no longer expects European Disneyland to bring profits to the headquarters, he only hopes that this overseas park can break even, and will not become a drag on the head office.

Relieved to hand over the matter to Katzenberg, Eric returned to the hotel, didn't even bother to take a shower, threw himself directly on the big bed, woke up in the boundless black dream, and fell into darkness outside the window again.

After washing, he picked up the phone in his room and dialed it, and then Eric went to the restaurant downstairs, gave a few words to the waiter, and found a booth to order dinner for himself.

Before the dinner was finished, Katzenberg had already led the waiter over.

"I'll have one for Jeffrey for dinner," Cartzenberg casually ordered the waiter as he sat down across from him. Katzenberg apparently didn't eat dinner either, and didn't object, just asked the waiter to add himself a glass of milk.

"How's it going?" asked Eric, wiping his mouth with a tissue.

Katzenberg took out the folder from the briefcase he was carrying and handed it over: "After reading the information, Louis Batll has no objection to the temporary closure of Disneyland in Europe for rectification, but they want to take back the management rights of the park, and I refused." ”

If he relinquished control of Euro Disneyland, the project would be completely out of control, and Eric had no confidence in the French's ability to run it.

Eric nodded in agreement with Katzenberg's decision, and then flipped through the folder to read a draft contract inside, which was not much different from the bottom line he and Katzenberg had negotiated. Disney waived the cost of licensing patents for the first five years of Disneyland Europe. Half the patent grant fee after five years. And in exchange. The French investor needs to invest another $300 million in the project as working capital for Euro Disney.

Giving up the patent licensing fee, although Disney's early investment will not be recovered for a long time in the future, in fact, Disney did not suffer a loss, because if European Disneyland loses money, just the repayment pressure of billions of dollars of loans may cause the bankruptcy of Euroland. At that time, Disney had no other way than to voluntarily give up the patent licensing fee. Because Disney was too strong in the early negotiations, it only took less than 15% of the total investment to get 49% of the shares of the joint venture, and most of the money still came from the loan specially approved by the French government, which means that once the European Disneyland does not achieve the expected profit, then Disney's strong position will be directly reversed, and then the French investor will not only not pay any more, but even need Disney headquarters to provide funds, and now, by giving up the seemingly generous condition of patent licensing fees. With another $300 million in operating capital from French investors, Disney can be said to have made a lot of money.

I hurriedly read the new contract. Eric continued to eat his own dinner, and the waiter brought Katzenberg's dinner.

After dinner, the two of them did not leave, the waiter took the initiative to remove the utensils, and served coffee, Eric said to Katzenberg: "Although the management of the park cannot be handed over to them, but this business adjustment still needs to involve them as much as possible, and you can see from the report given to me by the manager, many problems were obvious, but our team obviously ignored them." ”

"I know this," Katzenberg watched as the waiter poured himself a cup of coffee, but he just pushed the coffee aside, without any intention of drinking it again, obviously a little drunk in the past two days: "Eric, I will stay here and take the helm until the park reopens and is on track, the movies at the end of the year in the United States have all been confirmed, although Frank is a little conservative, there will be no mistakes, and there is no big problem for him to temporarily manage the business of Disney headquarters." ”

"Well, I wanted to tell you about it yesterday, but I was so busy that I forgot that you were just right here. However, I have been thinking about a problem for the past two days, the issue of changing the name of the park. ”

Katzenberg looked at Eric suspiciously, and made a rare joke: "You don't really imagine what the newspapers say, changing Disneyland to Fireflyland, right?"

"Of course not," Eric shook his head and laughed, "Disney is already a very mature cultural icon, and I wouldn't do such a stupid thing as turning Disneyland into Firefly Land." What I would say is to rename Disneyland Europe to Disneyland Paris. ”

Katzenberg shook his head slightly, "I don't understand, Eric, is this necessary?"

"I think it's very necessary, and as you can see from that survey, the French still make up a very large part of the people who come to Disney. Moreover, the so-called 300 million potential visitors within the radius of a two-hour plane flight does not seem very realistic now, and these 300 million people are clearly not as eager for Disneyland as we imagined in the first place. In addition to the French, most of the tourists who visited in the first week were tourists from the countries closest to France. In this case, we might as well focus on the most potential local French tourists first. Since the French are so proud, let's do what we want, the name change is just a point, and we have already agreed that the French will consider the superior language of the French to be the first language of the park, and English as an alternative, and the park programs and activities should also focus on the integration of French culture, like the Mickey Mouse photo I showed you the day before yesterday. ”

Katzenberg was somewhat persuaded by Eric, but still asked, "Wouldn't it be too abrupt and the purpose too obvious if you changed your name?"

Eric laughs: "It depends on the media PR methods of the operation department. ”

"Then I'll let them come up with a plan as soon as possible," Katzenberg nodded, "What about you, Eric, when are you going to go back, Jurassic Park is still in the late stages, you can't leave for too long, right?"

"I'll stay for a few more days, and Stan is in charge of the post-production work, he's involved in most of the film, and he knows exactly what I want, and nothing can go wrong. If he can let go of the digital realm, I even plan to hand over the sequel to him to direct. ”

Katzenberg knew that Firefly was expected to shoot three "Jurassic Park" films, and was a little surprised to hear this: "Aren't you going to direct the sequel yourself?"

Eric shrugged, "It depends, I'm not sure. ”

The two were chatting casually, and a rush of footsteps sounded from far and near not far away, and as soon as Eric turned his head, Alan had already come to him.

Alan nodded to Katzenberg hurriedly before he said to Eric, "Mr. Williams, the phone, the phone from New York, urgent." ”

"Jeffrey, wait a minute, I'll answer the phone and we'll continue talking," Eric said to Katzenberg, getting up and leaving with Allen.

Katzenberg wondered if there would be any urgent matter for Eric in New York, but he didn't ask, just nodded in understanding.

After more than ten minutes, Eric did not appear, but only Alan hurriedly walked over: "Sorry, Mr. Katzenberg, Mr. Williams has already gone to the airport, he is flying to New York tonight, let me tell you." ”

"What's going on?" said Katzenberg, his expression solemn.

Alan shook his head and thought for a while before saying, "I don't know, but it has nothing to do with the company, right...... It was Mr. Williams' private matter. ”

Katzenberg could see that Alan was about to stop talking, but since it was Eric's private matter, he relaxed a little and didn't continue to ask: "Aren't you going back with Eric?"

Allen replied, "Mr. Williams asked me to stay here for the time being, and to communicate with him at any time about the rectification work here." ”

Katzenberg nodded, "In that case, then you've been with me lately, by the way, does Eric have anything else to say?"

"No," Alan opened his mouth and didn't say any more, and Eric left in a hurry after answering the phone call, and didn't have time to explain anything. (To be continued......)