With a global box office of $232 million in the first three days of the opening weekend, almost half of the production and publicity costs were recovered, everyone in the "Iron Man" crew was in a state of excitement, and the Firefly Group announced the news of a celebration banquet over the weekend immediately after the release of the box office data for the new week. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

In addition, although the follow-up publicity and distribution work of the film is still intensively continuing, the company has quickly launched the follow-up development plan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has been planned for a long time.

The success of "Iron Man" not only opened the door to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but also increased the popularity of all the big and small characters who participated in this movie.

Even Natasha Hensquich, who was born in Victoria's Secret Angel and only has a few sets of shots, quickly gathered a group of fans, and "Tales of the Night" starring the girl has become the expectation of many people.

Therefore, with Firefly launching the three major series of "Captain America", "Thor" and "Hulk" at the same time, even if the internal news revealed that Firefly will sign a very demanding long-term contract with superhero actors, the entire Hollywood agency is still in good spirits.

Everyone understands that once the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe is rolled out, it is destined to make a large number of new Hollywood stars popular.

According to the firefly system, he likes to adopt the style of newcomers, which will be an opportunity for many people to climb to the sky one step at a time.

After two days of intensive discussions at the top level, all the work on the follow-up development plan for the Marvel Cinematic Universe began to be implemented in an orderly manner.

Entering the working day, the single-day box office of "Iron Man" slipped to between $6 million and $7 million, and it is expected that it will continue to recoup about $25 million to $30 million in four working days, which is basically in line with the expectations of the Firefly Group.

It's Wednesday in the blink of an eye.

Burbank Headquarters.

At nine o'clock, all the core executives of the group gathered in the large conference room of the headquarters to discuss the implementation progress of the company's other '4200' plan.

It's already May, and there's only six months left before the first big-budget film, Gravity, released in 3D and IMAX format in November.

Since last year, Firefly Group has begun to formally negotiate with theater operators in North America and overseas after perfecting all aspects of 3D and IMAX technical details, and separately build 200 high-end IMAX theaters belonging to Firefly Group.

On a large projector screen in the conference room, a map of the world marked with dense numbers is projected at this time.

Katzenberg stood in front of the stage and personally introduced to everyone: "At present, we have completed negotiations with major theater operators in North America for 2,000 3D screens. Overseas, we can also ensure that Gravity will have about 1,550 3D screens in 26 box office countries when it is released, and although this aspect does not meet the planned expectations, as long as Gravity is a box office success, we can quickly expand to 2,000 or more overseas 3D screens. In addition, the construction of 200 IMAX theaters in China and overseas is very smooth, and the installation and training of personnel are expected to be completed in October, followed by a month of commissioning and test screening, which is enough to ensure that nothing goes wrong. ”

Toggling to show another map of IMAX theaters around the world, Katzenberg sat back in his chair and began to introduce the detailed cooperation plan to the crowd.

IMAX theaters are operated solely by the Firefly Group and don't need to be thought too much about.

In terms of 3D screens, Firefly Group and major theater chains in North America and even overseas have finally decided to adopt a guaranteed cooperation.

In North America, Firefly Group's 3D films follow the same sharing model as traditional 2D films. But in addition, combined with the average annual box office revenue of 2,000 screens that have been renovated in recent years, Firefly Group offers a box office guarantee of $300,000 per screen per year for a period of three years.

Within three years, the annual box office revenue of these 2,000 screens is less than $300,000, and Firefly Group will make up for it. If the revenue of a single screen exceeds $300,000, the excess part belongs to the box office share of the theater chain, and Firefly Group takes 80% of it as the equipment installation cost of the RealD system.

Overseas, the details of the cooperation have been adjusted, but they are generally similar to those in North America.

However, once the 3D projection mode is successful, in order to facilitate the subsequent promotion of the RealD system, Firefly Group also provides the cinema chain with a one-time buyout option in the contract.

That is, after the release of films such as "Gravity", if the box office is successful, the major theaters are optimistic about the prospects of the 3D projection mode, and can ask for a one-time buyout of the equipment to disconnect the sharing with the fireflies.

This ensures that the initial 3D theaters will maintain the same competitive conditions as other new 3D projection system theaters, and the number of 3D screens will expand rapidly, and the Firefly Group can also gain more benefits from it.

On the surface, this cooperation plan is almost an unequal contract against the Firefly Group. However, this is also the price that the company must pay if it wants to promote the 3D projection system in the short term.

Moreover, once the 3D projection system is promoted in advance, the industry advantages and direct benefits obtained by Firefly Group, as the main sponsor, can fully offset the risks it bears.

In the initial plan, although it will be flexibly adjusted according to factors such as theater grade and broadcast time, the average ticket price of 3D theaters is basically determined to be $7.5, which is more than 50% of the average ticket price of $5 in North America, while the ticket price of IMAX screens is $10, which is equivalent to twice the average ticket price in North America.

It's just that this part of the box office premium, as long as the 3D and IMAX models are promoted, the firefly system, which basically monopolizes the 3D and IMAX film sources in the short term, can get more box office revenue.

Moreover, while guaranteeing the bottom of the box office revenue of the theater business, Firefly Group has also gained another potential advantage, that is, the standard promotion and formulation of the 3D projection system are firmly in the hands of the company.

In the future, all theaters using the RealD projection system will display the RealD logo during the movie playback, and at the same time, 3D movies produced by Firefly Group's RealD conversion technology will also have another RealD title.

Basically, for a long time in the future, because RealD equipment and technology are in the hands of the Firefly system, all mainstream 3D theaters can only play the icon of 'double D certification'.

As the most mature 3D projection system and 3D transformation technology so far, as long as a high-quality brand impression is formed in the minds of the audience, then other 3D equipment or transformation manufacturers want to join the competition for the market share of the RealD system, as long as it does not significantly exceed the technical level of the RealD system, it is destined to be difficult to succeed.

If some cinemas adopt low-quality 3D projection systems, it is tantamount to helping RealD systems promote their brand image. The inferior 3D system and transformation mode will also be resisted by the audience as 'pseudo-3D'.

Therefore, under the premise that everything goes well, as a monopoly on equipment and technology, the RealD system can not only bring direct and rich benefits to the Firefly system, but also obtain an incomparable advantage for the Firefly system film in the 3D market competition. After all, RealD's transformation technology must give priority to serving the firefly system.

The meeting on the '4200' program took place all morning.

At lunchtime, Eric and Katzenberg went to the restaurant on the big ship for lunch as usual.

Compared to the past, this small restaurant on the big ship does not seem to have changed on the surface.

But in fact, after the last eavesdropping incident, as an internal restaurant that is often eaten by the group's top management, the company's security department has re-planned strict security measures for this internal restaurant.

Not only is the entire restaurant completely closed to anyone other than the middle and upper echelons of the group, but a 24-hour monitoring system has been installed inside and outside the restaurant, including the kitchen, the chef and waiter in charge of the restaurant have also signed a stricter confidentiality contract, and the company's security department will conduct various anti-eavesdropping inspections on the inside of the restaurant from time to time.

The high-level executives who participated in the morning meeting entered the restaurant together, and instead of gathering together, they sat down in twos and threes.

Eric sat with Katzenberg and Frank Wells.

Amy Adams saw Eric's figure and took the initiative to come over without hesitation, and the other three waitresses, although obviously a little envious, did not dare to compete with Amy for this, so they could only walk to other tables.

"Amy is pretty again today," Eric complimented with a casual smile, "I'm still the same." ”

"Oh, thank you, Mr. Williams," Amy looked at Katzenberg and Frank Wells with a shallow dimple on her face, "Mr. Katzenberg, Mr. Wells, what about you?"

Katzenberg laughed, "I'm just as good as Eric. ”

Frank Wells is old and just needs a light meal.

The three of them ordered, and when Amy left, Eric went straight to the point and said: "The situation on the side of "Iron Man" has been determined, but I didn't plan to end it like this some time ago, you let the family entertainment department prepare, starting with Blockbuster." ”

During this time, Eric has shown more than once that he wants to get to the bottom of the last time of online gossip, and neither Katzenberg nor Frank Wells persuaded him to do so.

Among Viacom's Paramount Pictures, CBS TV, MTV TV, Paramount Animation, Blockbuster video cassette rental and sales chain and other businesses, Blockbuster is undoubtedly the weakness that is most vulnerable to the constraints of the Firefly system.

Over the years, as he has learned more about Hollywood, Eric has also discovered that the decline of the Blockbuster chain is not influenced by the rise of online video rental and sellers. In fact, although Netflix has appeared, it is just that this company is still in its infancy stage and cannot have any impact on traditional videotape rental and sales giants like Blockbuster.

And, in recent years, while videotapes have begun to rapidly be replaced by DVDs, the size of the home entertainment market has been increasing.

In addition to Blockbuster, other traditional videotape DVD rental and sales chains, such as Blockbuster's Movie Gallery and Hollywood Video, which are second only to Blockbuster in the same industry, have been expanding rapidly. Wal-Mart, a large chain retailer that is also involved in the sales of videotapes and DVDs, is also increasing its business layout in this area.

In the final analysis, the root cause of Blockbuster's rapid decline before the rise of online rental and seller sellers was Viacom's own major missteps in the management of Blockbuster.

As a result, while the entire home entertainment market is booming, Blockbuster, which was originally very powerful, is rapidly declining, with its market share falling from a peak of 45% when it was acquired by Viacom to less than 25% now, and its market value has also fallen rapidly to only $3 billion, less than half of what it was acquired at the time.

The Firefly Group had no intention of getting involved in the traditional videotape DVD sales business, so Eric didn't have the heart to investigate where Blockbuster had gone wrong.

However, if the Firefly system wants to push Blockbuster further into the abyss, it is very easy, and it only needs to stop providing Blockbuster with the latest movie tape DVD sources.

In this regard, the firefly system can almost completely jam Blockbuster's throat.

After all, just last year, the top ten movies in the North American box office list, the three companies of the Firefly system accounted for seven, and the entire list continued to push back, and most of the popular films basically came from the Firefly system.

At this time, the films released last year have passed a half-year release window period and are about to land in the family entertainment market.

In fact, more than 70% of the profits of the terminal videotape DVD retailers come from low- and medium-cost films with a larger number base, and these films provide less than 30% of the profits for retailers because distributors will demand a higher sales share of popular movies.

However, the reason why end retailers are willing to offer a higher share of the sales of popular films to film companies actually reflects the importance of these films.

To put it simply, a hit movie is like a restaurant's signature dish, and while a few dishes won't bring much profit to the restaurant, it can serve as a very obvious advertisement for the restaurant.

If the firefly system cuts off this part of the source of the supply to the Blockbuster chain stores, it will be equivalent to smashing the signboard of Blockbuster.

In addition, not only popular films, but also the entire Firefly system has a very large production scale, and the quality of low- and medium-budget films is significantly better than that of films made by independent producers. This part of the film source is still very important to BesTV.

In the restaurant, Eric said his plan, although there was no objection, Frank Wells still said: "Eric, directly cut off the supply of film sources to BesTV, the company's losses will not be mentioned for the time being, Viacom will definitely not give up, and will definitely file a lawsuit against us." ”

"Then find a valid reason," Eric said, looking at Katzenberg, "This should be easy to find, right?"

What does that mean?

If you want to add sin, there is no excuse.

Katzenberg nodded, and said with a serious expression: "Recently, Bowei Home Entertainment submitted a report that Blockbuster may have concealed the sales of DVDs of several films. Perhaps, we should do a review of Blockbuster's sales figures. Until then, it would be advisable for the company to temporarily suspend its cooperation with Blockbuster. I think MGM, Columbia, and Fox should follow suit, after all, Blockbuster's concealment of sales data is likely to be more than just the Firefly Group. ”

Frank Wells was a little puzzled: "How come I didn't know about such a big thing?"

Katzenberg said solemnly: "The document has not been made yet, and I will show it to you when it is made." ”

Frank Wells was stunned, then laughed and said helplessly: "Okay, you young people's business. ”