Chapter 739

Taking advantage of the opening of the press conference, Eric gathered Amy Pascal and other MGM shareholders who attended the press conference to communicate the idea of issuing additional shares.

With a huge debt of $1.7 billion, the principal and interest due each year are no less than $200 million, and another reason why Corkrian repeatedly sold MGM was to restructure the debt through the sale to achieve the purpose of reducing expenses.

After this transaction, Corkrian was completely kicked out of Hollywood, and the new MGM certainly could not play this capital game again, and these principal and interest expenses could not be saved. If it can issue an additional 20% of the shares, the company's financial position will return to normal operating levels, and it will also have sufficient funds to repair MGM's production and distribution systems and start production of major series such as The Lord of the Rings.

After discussing this matter, the staff informed the press conference that it had begun, and everyone left the lounge and walked into the press conference hall.

In addition to the main creators of the "Breaking Bad" series, which is being filmed intensively, the protagonists of the new company's "007", "Mission Impossible", "Wonderful Night at the Museum", "Resident Evil" and other major series are all here today, and the scene can be described as star-studded, but today they are not destined to be the protagonists, but the reporters on the scene focused all their attention on MGM's shareholders and executives.

As the CEO of the new company, Amy Pascal took the stage in high spirits and spent more than 10 minutes giving a general overview of the new company, while at the same time answering a series of questions about the recent media attention during the MGM acquisition and integration.

The more than 100 reporters who were invited to attend were patiently waiting for the Q&A session after the speeches of several MGM executives, and some of them had already seen their eyes fall on Eric who was sitting in the guest seat more than once.

But. When Amy finally announced that MGM would issue additional shares, all the reporters on the scene immediately cheered up.

In recent media predictions, many people feel that MGM will choose to go private like Firefly, which is also in line with Eric Williams's usual style, not to mention that MGM currently only has 12% of outstanding shares. The difficulty of choosing privatization was also very low, so this news, which was very different from most media speculations, made all the media reporters present boil over MGM or, more directly, Eric Williams's intention to make this decision.

Unfortunately, after Amy's speech, Frank Maccasso, who had been reappointed president of MGM, took the stage again and introduced MGM's production plans for the next few years. And invite the celebrity guests on stage for a simple interaction.

After a full half an hour, the free question-and-answer session that the media people were looking forward to finally arrived.

When Eric, Drew, Amy, Frank Makazow and John Cali sat down on a few chairs on the stage, the host announced the start of the question session, and all the reporters in the audience raised their hands in an uproar.

The host randomly clicked on a reporter, a lady with big wavy brown hair and rimless eyes, who took the microphone, but instead of immediately asking everyone's concerns, he pointed the finger at Eric. "Mr. Williams, I'm a reporter for The New York Times. According to public information, the Firefly Group has completely divested from MGM, so in what capacity and position are you sitting here today?"

Eric smiled, he had long expected that he might be asked this question, and. The deeper reason is actually well known to many people.

However, Eric did not shy away from it, and replied with a smile: "If you have to have a reason, I should be the shareholder representative of MGM." My personal Firefly Investment Company is the largest shareholder of LTD Group. LTD Group is MGM's third-largest shareholder and currently owns 10% of the shares, and that's it. ”

The female reporter of the New York Times asked: "Mr. Williams, why do you complicate this matter, and don't you use the capital of the Firefly Group to operate this matter more simply?"

Although many large corporate oligarchs in North America have monopolistic behavior, the executives of any company will not publicly talk about the company's monopolistic behavior, or even admit monopolistic intentions, because any such statements may become evidence of the company's antitrust investigation in the future.

Of course, Eric also knew the rules, so he pretended to be silent for a moment, and said: "The internal system of the Firefly Group is already large enough, and if it continues to expand, it will be very bloated, which is very detrimental to the healthy development of the company. Therefore, MGM will be completely independent from the Firefly Group system. The possible future competition between the two sides can also prevent the Firefly Group from losing its enterprising spirit and generating pride and slackness. ”

This half-truth and half-truth answer made the reporter unable to find any fault, and the next questioner had to turn the conversation to MGM's upcoming stock placement.

"Mr. Williams, why did MGM decide to issue additional shares instead of going private?"

Eric's personal wealth has amassed to an astonishing level, and in the coming years with the explosion of the Internet wave, his personal wealth will be even more jaw-dropping, so he is no longer pursuing rapid growth in wealth, but expanding the influence and control that this wealth brings.

Just like MGM, Eric only indirectly controls 10% of MGM through LTD, but he can completely control the company, and at the same time, because he only holds a small number of shares, the resistance from the outside will be much lower. If he wants to turn Hollywood into his own kingdom, Eric will also adopt a similar approach in the future, gradually invading other media groups.

Of course, these words must not be spoken, and that will definitely make many people fidget.

So, when faced with this question, Eric just replied: "Every company should have its own development path, so I don't think it's a problem." The reason for the additional issuance of shares is to allow MGM to develop better in the next few years, as you have just seen, MGM will continue to shoot series such as "007" and "Mission Impossible" next. The production of Tolkien's epic "Lord of the Rings" series of blockbuster films required a lot of money. ”

"Mr. Williams, "007: GoldenEye" is also interspersed with easter eggs from the "Breaking Bad" series, and fans have always been very concerned, will MGM make "007" and "Breaking Bad" intersect in the future?"

Hearing this, Eric smiled. He handed the microphone to nearby Amy Pascal and said, "Let Amy explain this to everyone." ”

Amy Pascal and the others were left to dry for a while, and of course they weren't upset that Eric had attracted all the attention, but the loss was inevitable.

Seeing that Eric took the initiative to hand over the microphone, Amy knew that he was also hinting at the reporters at the scene, so she gave Eric a grateful look, then picked up the microphone and said, "This issue has been discussed in detail within the company, and our plan." It is to use the next ten years or so to create a unique MGM movie agent universe, interspersing MGM's "007" series, "Breaking Bad" series, "Mission Impossible" series and other spy movie series that may be developed in the future. Soon after, James Bond, Charlie's Angels, and Ethan Hunter were seen on the same screen at the same time. ”

Agent Cinematic Universe?!

Other spy movie series?

James Bond, Charlie's Angel and Ethan Hunt appeared on the same big screen at the same time.

……

There was a brief silence for the reporters at the scene, and they all digested Amy Pascal's words just now, and then quickly reacted, and the scene suddenly boiled again.

"Breaking Bad" and "Mission Impossible" are undoubtedly the most popular spy movies in recent years, and the popularity of the 007 series is even more thunderous. In the past, there may have been some spoofed B-movies interspersed with some films. But there hasn't been a case of a super blockbuster forming a crossover episode, you know. This kind of crossover not only involves film copyright, but also whether the relevant leading actors are willing to star, which is a very big question. Just the possible intersection of the 007 series and the "Breaking Bad" series has already made many fans look forward to it, MGM is ambitious to create a so-called 'Secret Agent Cinematic Universe', just think about it. It made some reporters who were also movie fans excited at the scene.

After a moment of silence, the flashing lights came on frantically again, and the impatient reporters threw aside the rules and asked questions loudly.

"Ms. Pascal, could you please elaborate on the Agent Cinematic Universe project?"

"Ms. Pascal. Did MGM discuss this with Pierce Brosnan, Kevin Costner, and the three heroines in "Breaking Bad"?"

"Isn't MGM worried that this plan will affect the brand of the 007 series?"

“……”

There was a lot of chaos at the scene, and it wasn't until the staff shouted to maintain order that everyone calmed down again.

Then everyone began to ask Amy about the 'Agent Cinematic Universe', and Eric also pushed the questions that fell on him to Amy and the others, happily watching everything on the scene.

The 'Secret Service Cinematic Universe', undoubtedly, is derived from Eric's later series of 'Marvel Cinematic Universe', 'DC Cinematic Universe', 'Monster Cinematic Universe' and the like. In the previous life, 007, "Breaking Bad", "Mission Impossible" and other series all belonged to different film companies, and it was impossible to cross.

But this time and space is different, Eric accidentally realized a few days ago that these famous spy movies in the original time and space, with the integration of MGM, will all belong to a film company, in addition to these three films that have been produced, even the copyright of the "Spy" series is in the hands of Flower Pictures, then, to create a unique MGM agent movie universe, the feasibility is very large.

While the backgrounds of several series vary, this is not a problem in the slightest.

In addition to the more alternative "Spy Shadows", the core of the plot of several other spy blockbusters is nothing more than four words: save the world.

As long as you follow this theme, create a complete world background, put all the major series in this story background for production, start with a single-player movie, and finally form an intersection, work together to deal with a certain villain, and complete the task of saving the world, the whole story is completed.

At the same time, the intersection of several major spy movies will also bring a wider range of topics and influence to these series, and behind all this, of course, is a greater economic benefit.

Sure enough, when MGM announced at the press conference that it would combine the 007 series, the "Breaking Bad" series and the "Mission Impossible" series to create a separate agent cinematic universe, the next day, the media in North America and even around the world began to boil over it.

"James Bond, Charlie's Angel and Ethan Hunt, several of the biggest screen agent heroes are on the same screen, and I have to say, just imagining it, I have a strong urge to go to the cinema. Hopefully, MGM will be able to make this collection complete. ”

"I very much doubt the feasibility of this plan, with the box office success of the three major film series, the trio of Pierce Brosnan, Kevin Costner and Thunderbolt has already reached the level of tens of millions, if you gather five people, just the salary expenditure, it will be a very scary number, it is hard to imagine how terrifying the complete film budget will be if there is really a crossover. Perhaps, when it is released in the future, the global box office of the film will reach $1 billion before it can recoup its costs. ”

"This is undoubtedly a very stupid idea, I really don't know if Eric Williams has been carried away by his success, the Agent Cinematic Universe, interspersed with three blockbusters with unlimited potential, and if you are not careful, you can ruin the reputation of all three series at the same time. Maybe it's just a gimmick thrown by MGM. After all, they're about to implement a stock issuance plan. ”

“……”

While the media has reported on it, there is also a lot of discussion on the special section of the Yahoo Internet Forum, but compared to the different opinions of media people, fans have very unified expectations for the movie. Subsequently, the box office trend of the "007: GoldenEye" that is being released has risen sharply, and the audience has entered the cinema again in order to find possible crossover easter eggs between the film and other series, and in the third week, the original agency predicted that the box office of "007: GoldenEye" was about to fall below $20 million, but with this news, the box office of "GoldenEye" got $23 million in the new week. (To be continued.) )