Early Saturday morning, Michael Eisner drove to Universal Studios Burbank. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

After more than three months of preparation, the "Titanic" theme exhibition hall in Firefly Studios officially opened today.

Although the senior management of Firefly Group has repeatedly understated in some interviews that this is just a test of the theme park project by Firefly Studios, it is even more like an image project of the company. But Universal is not taking it lightly.

Universal Studios, which is owned by Universal Pictures Group, did not have much competition with Disneyland, which is now part of Firefly, with one for adult visitors and the other for children.

But now, the opening of the "Titanic" theme exhibition hall heralds the official start of the Firefly Group's development of theme park projects for adult visitors over the age of 18.

Although Universal Studios has a deep heritage of more than 30 years, in terms of theme park operation, the Firefly Group, which owns Disney as its own, is obviously not inferior to Universal. What's more, the large number of popular movies continuously developed by Firefly in recent years will also provide a rich theme for its development of the Studios Park project, which Universal Pictures cannot compare with the other party at all.

According to the news found in advance, as early as a week ago, the 20,000 tickets limited to the opening day of the "Titanic" theme exhibition hall were sold out, and the tickets for the following week were basically sold out.

Obviously, even before the opening, the project was already showing signs of popularity.

Although with the gradual release of "Titanic" around the world, the popularity of this film will slowly cool down. A few months later, if you only rely on the "Titanic" theme exhibition hall, the number of visitors to Firefly Studios can be two or three thousand a day, which is not bad. However, as long as the senior management of the Firefly Group is not stupid, they will definitely take advantage of the success of the "Titanic" theme exhibition to expand other movie-themed projects, so as to maintain the popularity of Firefly Studios, and when the time comes, Firefly Studios will gradually develop into a competitor who directly captures customers from Universal Studios.

Michael Eisner walked around the park with the vice president of the group in charge of theme park operations, and asked about the ticket reservations for the next few days, and when the park officially opened at half past eight, he was a little relaxed when he looked at the tourists pouring into the studio. But then the theme park's management got together and held an impromptu meeting about developing new projects in the studio to compete with Firefly Studios.

This continued until noon, when Edgar Bronfman, CEO of the parent company, called and the two of them had lunch together at the restaurant in the studio.

Edgar Bronfman arrived half an hour later, warmly hugged Michael Eisner, and the two walked into a restaurant in the studio together.

After chatting a few words about the opening of the "Titanic" exhibition hall, Edgar Bronfman turned the topic to the movie: "So, how was the box office on the first day of "Air Force One", I have been busy with other things this morning, and I haven't seen the data report yet? ”

"Air Force One" is the main film of Universal Pictures this summer, starring Harrison Ford. This project originally belonged to Sony Pictures, but Sony put all its resources on "Godzilla", and Universal took the opportunity to grab it.

Michael Eisner is both excited and a little apprehensive about this film, because he almost released the film on the day of his own day with "Jedi Men 2" and "Ice Age", so that in the face of "Casino Royale", which has only been released for a week, "Air Force One" is likely to be crushed by "Casino Royale" like "Jedi Men 2".

"It's close to 12 million on the first day, and it should be able to reach more than $55 million in the first week," Michael Eisner said, adding with a smile: "There won't be any more blockbusters in the next few weeks, and according to the reputation of Air Force One, the film should go a long way, and North America should get at least $150 million at the box office." ”

Edgar Bronfman also nodded with satisfaction, the production cost of "Air Force One" is 85 million US dollars, and if North America can get 150 million, the production cost will almost be recovered, and the film will be profitable at the box office.

However, I thought of reading in the newspaper yesterday that the box office of "Casino Royale" was still as high as more than $52 million in the third week of its release, and Edgar Bronfman's fledgling satisfaction suddenly disappeared mostly. Although he arrived in Los Angeles from Canada just yesterday, Edgar Bronfman has a clear idea of what has happened at MGM Pictures in the past week.

Edgar Bronfman's heart was full of envy when he remembered the powerful influence that Eric Williams had shown in front of the stage in person during the whole incident, which was actually the reason why he finally made up his mind to come to Los Angeles.

Noticing the change in Edgar Bronfman's expression, Michael Eisner immediately realized his thoughts, and his original good mood suddenly dropped a lot.

There's really nothing to be thankful about.

Perhaps, compared to Sony and Warner's situation this year, Universal is definitely a lot better, but Michael Eisner has never been the kind of person who likes to compare himself with guys who are not as good as himself.

As a very orthodox American theme film, even if "Air Force One" can be successful in North America, the overseas box office will not be too good. Even if it can get 300 million in the world, it is not even as good as the North American box office of "Casino Royale", let alone compared with the global box office of "Casino Royale".

Think about "Casino Royale", which has grossed $247 million in North America just three weeks after its release.

At the same time, the film's overseas box office performance was even stronger. In the first week, 36 countries opened simultaneously, and "Casino Royale" won $136 million at the overseas box office in one fell swoop, and with the gradual increase in the box office of the release, the overseas box office fell by only 27% the next week, collecting another $99.28 million. The overseas box office also reached $68.5 million in the latest week.

In three weeks, "Casino Royale" earned $303 million in overseas markets, and it is expected that the first phase of overseas and North American release will be roughly synchronized, and the overseas box office of "Casino Royale" can easily reach more than $450 million.

Although it has achieved rough synchronization in many box offices, overseas, there are also many countries that deliberately rank "Casino Royale" after the summer file for various considerations such as protecting their own film markets.

In other words, "Casino Royale" will start the second phase of large-scale release after September, and by then, "Casino Royale" will not have a problem getting another two to three hundred million dollars at the overseas box office. This means that by the end of the year, "Casino Royale" is destined to break the $1 billion global box office mark, becoming the second consecutive film in Eric Williams' directing career to break $1 billion at the global box office.

$1 billion.

In comparison, "Air Force One" is not worth mentioning at all.

Taking a sip of the soda water brought by the waiter, Michael Eisner put aside these frustrating thoughts and said to Edgar Bronfman: "Ed, do you remember the "Scorpion King" we are working on, the special effects movie derived from the "Mummy" series? ”

"Of course," Edgar Bronfman nodded, "what, is something wrong?" ”

"No," Michael Eisner said, shaking his head, "I've been thinking about this for the last few weeks, since MGM can make a secret agent cinematic universe, maybe we can also make a mummy universe around Egyptian mythology?" ”

Edgar Bronfman paused, nodded immediately, and said, "That's a good idea, why not." By the way, do you have a detailed plan now? ”

"I haven't figured it out yet, but, well, it's pretty much it."

Speaking of this, Michael Eisner replied with some vagueness.

In fact, the plan in his heart is relatively mature, but if he wants to implement it, it is not so simple.

The main problem is still a few leading actors.

The success of the two consecutive "Mummy" series, all the leading actors of the film have asked for a significant increase in salary, the main two male and female protagonists are completely negotiated, and at the same time the high price of $20 million plus profit sharing is quoted, Universal must be unaffordable, so the salary negotiations for the third part have been at a stalemate.

The "Mummy" series is the only project that can bring stable and lucrative profits to Universal in recent years, and Michael Eisner thinks that he definitely does not have the confidence of Eric to break up with Pierce Brosnan, so this matter has not been resolved until now, and if several leading actors can't get it, the so-called mummy universe will definitely not be able to be implemented smoothly.

Edgar Bronfman didn't realize Michael Eisner's problem, and the more he looked like it, the more he felt that his plan worked, so he said, "In this way, I happen to be in Los Angeles for a while, and we can take time to discuss it together." ”

Michael Eisner nodded, and asked curiously: "Are there any important things that you are going to stay in Los Angeles recently?"

"Yes, I just met with Doug Morris this morning, and maybe you can give me some advice on this matter."

Doug Morris is the CEO of Universal Music, and Michael Eisner usually deals with each other no less, asking, "What about the record company?" ”

"That's ......"

Edgar Bronfman was just about to speak, the waiter brought the lunch for the two, he paused slightly, and waited for the waiter to leave before continuing: "I plan to continue to increase the proportion of Seagram's media business, and it just so happens that there has been news from Europe recently that Philips intends to sell Polygram Records, and I think this may be a good opportunity to further expand Seagram's record business." ”

Michael Eisner, who had already picked up the cutlery and was ready to eat, frowned slightly when he heard Edgar Bronfman say this, put the cutlery down again, and said seriously: "Ed, I don't think this is a good idea. You must know that Fireflyer player from Firefly Electronics, right? Now that everyone is talking about the topic that online digital music may seriously impact physical records, if this trend comes true, buying PolyGram now is tantamount to taking over a big burden at a high level. ”

"I don't think so," said Edgar Bronfman, shaking his head and laughing, "Michael, I think I know a little more about this than you do." In the past few decades, from vinyl records to cassette players, and then to CD records that appeared in previous years, although there have been people who have said that new broadcast mediums may affect record sales, in fact, this has never happened, and the record industry as a whole is still thriving. The reason why there are so many rumors this time is actually very simple, but Japanese electronics manufacturers are worried that the FireFlyer player will affect their market position in the field of traditional portable players, so they will create so many alarmist remarks. ”

Michael Eisner doesn't know much about the record industry, listening to what Edgar Bronfman said, realizing that he had actually made up his mind to pay attention, he didn't plan to persuade anymore, but after thinking about it, he still said: "I think if PolyGram wants to find a buyer, Firefly Group should be more suitable, they want to promote Fireflyer players, and it is definitely not possible to have enough music rights." So, Ed, maybe you can wait, and if the Firefly Syndicate isn't enthusiastic about this at all, Seagram had better be cautious. ”

"Speaking of which," Edgar Bronfman looked left and right very deliberately, and lowered his voice carefully, "I happened to hear some news, Williams had already been in contact with Polygram last time he went to the UK, although there is no news revealed yet, but you should also know that if there is really any news in the media, then the Firefly must have talked about it with Philips, and there will be no chance for us to make a move." ”

Michael Eisner was stunned for a moment, and asked in a cautious tone: "Ed, where did you get the news, aren't you afraid that this is what Polygram specially revealed to you?" ”

"Haha, don't worry, this is something I finally found out, and the source must have nothing to do with Polygram. What I have to do now is to reach an agreement with Philips in advance before Firefly officially strikes. Edgar Bronfman smiled smugly.

Michael Eisner echoed and asked, "So, how much does it cost to buy Polygram?" ”

"About $10 billion," said Edgar Bronfman, "I'm going to sell off the rest of the company's beverage business, and by the way, you're going to need to cooperate with that, and then Seagram will issue another $5 billion or so in bonds, which will be pretty much enough." ”

The total size of the Seagram Group is about $30 billion, and due to the continuous expansion in recent years, the media industry, including Universal Pictures and Universal Music, has accounted for more than 70% of Seagram's total market capitalization. If Polygram were to be bought, Seagram would probably be completely transformed into a media conglomerate.

However, Michael Eisner suddenly realized that after buying Polygram, half of the entire Seagram Group industry will be the record business, and now he will issue $5 billion in bonds to further increase the debt ratio of the Seagram Group. (To be continued.) )