Chapter 515: A Conversation with Jobs

Before the Shanghai Film Festival ended, Duke took his own business jet and flew to Los Angeles, this trip to China, in addition to using several promotional activities to expand the signature of Rosenberg format films, other gains can only be said to be average, especially the simultaneous release of "Hurricane Rescue" in China and the United States, the actual income can only be said to be better than nothing.

Restricted by the size of the market and the number of theaters, when Duke left, "Hurricane Rescue" was released in China for a whole week and got a box office of 42.28 million RMB, although compared to most movies in this era, it is a pretty good box office result, but only 13% of the box office share ratio, which does not bring much practical benefits at all.

Fortunately, the future is bright, as long as his brand is loud enough, after a few years, there will naturally be a bumper harvest.

Compared with China, North America is the foundation of Duke's career, "Hurricane Rescue" maintained a stable performance in the four working days of this week, with a total of $41.17 million, plus $51.25 million in the first weekend, although the North American box office failed to break 100 million in a week, it also reached $92.42 million, which is already a very good result compared to the type of subject matter and investment scale of the film.

Moreover, the film's audience reputation has always been good, and the CinemaScore theater audience praise rate has always been maintained at more than 85%, and the IMDB score is temporarily as high as 8.5 points when the water army is basically not launched.

However, on the second weekend, "Hurricane Rescue" was met by Spielberg's "Happiness Terminal".

For example, in the past few years, Duke directed not the Lord of the Rings series, but changed to the genre of "The Shawshank Redemption", even if he couldn't make the film a super hit, many Hollywood films would not take a detour.

The same thing. In this year's summer file, many films have not avoided "Hurricane Rescue" like last year, because there is no need at all.

This schedule was actually carefully chosen by Duke, who has many blockbuster films. I have some impressions, and of course the persimmon is also a soft pinch.

Most of the time, Spielberg is a persimmon that is difficult to pinch, but "Happiness Terminal" is definitely an exception, which is a rare street work by an old Jewish man.

In recent years. DreamWorks' situation became more and more difficult, and every time DreamWorks encountered difficulties, Spielberg would release a work, and Hollywood also had a peculiar landscape - DreamWorks was in trouble, and Spielberg came to the rescue.

But no matter how great a director is, he can't support a company as huge as DreamWorks alone, Duke can't, James? Cameron can't, and neither can Spielberg.

What's more, no matter how good the director. There are times when you miss.

"Happiness Terminal" is undoubtedly Spielberg's miss, although it collects Spielberg, Tom? Hanks and Catherine? Zeta-Jones has three box office guarantees, but the response has been far lower than DreamWorks and the outside world expected.

In the three days of this weekend, "Happiness Terminal" only earned $19.05 million in North America, and it was not a success except for the classic line "I've been waiting for my whole life, but I don't know who I'm waiting for."

Although the box office of "Hurricane Rescue" fell by 40% the next weekend, the $30.75 million result was enough to ensure that the film continued to top the North American box office charts, and at the same time pushed the North American box office to the 100 million yuan mark. The cumulative amount reached 123.17 million US dollars!

Back in Los Angeles and with a weekend off, Duke got back to work, and Hurricane Rescue didn't take much of his energy. The film has come to this point, and it is not a problem to achieve high profits at all, and there is no need for him to pay too much attention to Warner Bros.

The first thing to do is to let Tina? Filipino and David jointly set up a negotiation team to negotiate the acquisition with Warner Bros.

The Duke holds many rights to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Harry Potter series, and the Matrix trilogy. It seems that the scale is not large, but the actual profit is very high, Warner Bros. wants to eat it, it must come up with a lot of real money, and Duke is not short of cash, he wants Warner Bros. or Time Warner equivalent shares.

Negotiations were never easy, and this one was just beginning, and Duke was involved in another negotiation - the partnership between Pixar Studios and Warner Bros.

After increasing his holdings in recent years, Duke's stake in Warner Bros. has been close to 9%, and Warner Bros.'s earnings are closely related to him, and once the acquisition of Duke Studios is completed, his Warner stake will continue to increase.

What's more, he has other ideas.

With the current scale of Pixar Studios, Warner wants to complete the merger, it must use stock exchanges and cash payments, compared to large film companies that must maintain huge liquidity, Duke has plenty of cash in his hands, and most of the proceeds from the Lord of the Rings trilogy have not been used.

It's a series of negotiations, Tina? The negotiations between Phyye and Warner Bros. will have a most basic condition, which is closely related to Pixar Studios.

Then Duke went to San Francisco to meet Steve? Jobs conducted an interview.

Of course, he would not be stupid enough to persuade a person with a stubborn personality to accept Western medical treatment, and a person who can't even persuade his family will listen to an outsider's words, is that possible?

It's just a conversation about interests.

"Duke, you don't have to go around in circles."

Sitting under the vines in the hallway, Jobs poured a cup of tea for Duke, "There are six major companies in Hollywood, even if there are five more in addition to the weaker Sony Columbia, why should I choose Warner Bros.?" ”

"Five companies?" Duke picked up the teacup, took a sip, and shook his head slightly, "Steve, are there really five of your choices?" ”

Without waiting for Jobs to answer, Duke continued, "Your negotiations with Disney have not progressed so far, and the terms of cooperation you proposed are Michael? Eisner must step down, with Eisner's control over Disney, I'm afraid it's hard to do it, right? ”

Maybe it's the ripple effect of his presence, Michael? Eisner's position at Disney is still extremely secure.

"Twentieth Century Fox owns Blue Sky Studios, and they've been working together for many years, and they don't lack animation departments, so even if they want to work together, are you sure Pixar Studios will remain in the Disney system?"

"Universal Pictures is in talks with Illumination Entertainment, which is a very promising animation company, and their sincerity is a problem."

"Paramount Pictures is indeed looking for a suitable animation partner, but have you noticed Steve, DreamWorks is not doing well, and the Big Three want to spin off DreamWorks Animation Studios separately, and it is said that Paramount Pictures will become the new distributor of DreamWorks Animation."

Steve? Jobs looked at Duke quietly, without saying anything.

There is no doubt that even if all of Duke's statements were true, he would have taken the absolute initiative in the negotiations.

"Warner is different, Warner has a wide range of distribution channels all over the world, and is the No. 1 media company in terms of market capitalization." Duke wouldn't be stupid enough to think that a few words would impress someone like Steve Jobs, but just tell him some basic facts and remind him of Warner's advantages over other companies, "Although Warner also has an animation department, it is basically negligible, and we will give Pixar Studios the greatest creative freedom, more freedom than Disney." ”

The price issue is a matter of specific negotiations, and Duke does not need to mention it, if he wants to get Pixar, he must offer a price that satisfies Jobs.

"This is the tea I had someone bring from India," Jobs suddenly turned to the tea, "how does it taste?" Is it fresher and more natural than the black tea we are used to? ”

"Very good." Duke turned the teacup slightly, "It's just not to my taste, I'm still more used to drinking Chinese tea." ”

He suddenly changed the subject, "Steve, your life can only be described as legendary, and I would love to make a biopic of you in the future." ”

Jobs' eyes lit up, but he didn't say anything.

When a person enters the business world, what he pursues is nothing more than fame and fortune, Duke knows very well that for Jobs, money is just a numbers game, but what about the temptation of fame in history?

Like Schindler's List to the Oscars? Schindler, a successful film will create a monument to someone's misfortune for future generations.

It's not easy to impress Jobs, and it's impossible for Duke to let the famous Steve in a few words? Jobs was moved, and until he said goodbye and left, Jobs didn't say anything special.

But Duke believes his words can still have a little impact, as long as it can get Jobs to tilt slightly towards Warner, it will be enough.

Duke took a helicopter back to Los Angeles, but before he reached his destination, the news of his meeting with Jobs reached the ears of Disney executives.

"It's not very likely that other companies will really work with Pixar Studios."

Spacious office, Cook? Dick sat in a swivel chair and looked at Michael behind his desk? Eisner, "Warner and Duke? Rosenberg is our biggest competitor. ”

Michael? Eisner crossed his hands and placed them on his desk, "What about Marvel Studios?" ”

"Duke? Rosenberg has agreed to Marvel as the director of "Iron Man". "Cook? Dick quickly replied, "Marvel Studios is more inclined to work with Warner. ”

He reminded, "Michael, we can't afford to lose Pixar, we have to make appropriate concessions in the negotiations." ”

"Without Pixar, we still have Disney Animation Studios."

Since "Tarzan of the Apes", Disney Animation Studios has been committed to the development of 3D computer animation. Eisner believes that Disney animation will inevitably re-emerge, "can make appropriate concessions, but not allow Jobs to open his mouth!" ”

A flash of anger flashed in his eyes, and Eisner added, "Ovitz and David? Ellison's new film doesn't have to determine the release date first, wait for the release date of the new Batman to be announced, and then talk about it, I want to save Batman......"

A sneer tugged at the corner of his mouth. (To be continued.) )