Chapter 577 Then Buy It
Chapter 577
After having some exchanges with Amy Pascal, Eric temporarily let go of the affairs of Flower Pictures.
After Halloween, the time entered November 1993. The global box office of "Jurassic Park" was getting closer and closer to 1 billion US dollars, which also caused a media heat after breaking the box office record of "et". discussion.
These days, Eric lives a busy life of traveling between different studios or studios. While checking the preparation or production progress of the big-budget films involved in Firefly, Eric also has to take into account the process of TV network acquisitions. From time to time, there are party invitations that you can't turn away.
Fortunately, Firefly's film promotion department is very mature and perfect. Under the control of Michael Lynn, Katzenberg, and others, Eric doesn't need to worry about the release of films scheduled for the end of the year, otherwise he will be even more busy.
Another day's work. Eric watched the filming progress of "Men in Black", and walked out of the studio of Columbia Pictures in Culver City, talking and laughing with Peter Cooper. He was just about to get in the car and leave. The phone rang.
The call was from Michael Lynn. The two briefly said something on the phone. Eric gave up the idea of returning to Malibu and ordered the driver to go to the Firefly Pictures headquarters in Burbank.
Walking into a conference room at the Firefly headquarters in Burbank, Eric found that Michael Lynn, Jeffrey Katzenberg and other major Firefly executives had already appeared here.
However, Eric was very keen to find that these people had a faint look of joy on their faces, so he put down his original worries. Simply said hello. Eric sat down in his seat. He smiled and asked, "Is there any good news?"
Michael Lynn, who was sitting next to Eric, handed a document to Eric. Some said excitedly: "The latest box office statistics have been released. The latest box office data of "Jurassic Park" is 1 billion and 2.3 million US dollars. Eric, your original prediction has been fulfilled. Because today is Wednesday, The box office data for this week's workday will not be counted until Friday, so most people outside the world don't know the data, but we can announce the news publicly tomorrow."
Eric opened the file and saw the box office data of more than fifty countries in the file table, as well as the eye-catching data results at the end of the table. Nodding with satisfaction, put the document aside, and asked Michael Lynn, "I think you're calling me over in such a hurry, isn't it just about this?"
"Let Jeffrey speak," Michael Lynn pointed to Katzenberg.
Katzenberg handed over an envelope: "Eric, this is what we just received this afternoon,
Warren Buffett's autograph, you can read it first. "
Eric wasn't too surprised to hear the name of Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway is one of the television's major shareholders. Holding more than 25% of the shares, Firefly wants to acquire it. In any case, it is certainly impossible to bypass Buffett's hurdle.
Open the envelope, there is only a simple piece of letter paper, and the content is very simple. Buffett hopes to invite Eric to Omaha to talk about things.
The envelope did not have any seals or postmarks. Obviously, the letter was forwarded by someone else, not sent by post.
After Eric read the text message, he looked up and said, "Have you all read it?"
Michael and the others nodded at the same time.
Katzenberg, who was in charge of the acquisition, said: "As you can see from this letter, Buffett should have discovered our intentions."
Eric folded the letter and put it back in the envelope, and asked, "Jeffrey, how are you doing lately?"
Katzenberg said: "In order to avoid attracting too much attention, we simultaneously absorbed the stocks of the three major TV stations in the secondary market. At present, we have about 7% of the stocks in our hands, and the other two are relatively small, both at 5.5%. % or less. In addition, the stock price of the company has risen from $43 three months ago to $47 now, with a total market value of $96.7 billion.”
After Firefly originally planned to absorb about 10% of the stock, it made public the news and joined the board of directors, but now that Buffett has noticed this, it is definitely not that easy to implement the original plan.
Eric considered for a moment and said: "Sell all the stocks of the other two companies as soon as possible, and tomorrow announce the news that the box office of "Jurassic Park" has exceeded 1 billion. In addition, send a letter to Mr. Buffett and invite him to participate. Jurassic Park's $1 Billion Global Box Office Celebration."
"Eric, this will not necessarily take the initiative," said Frank Wells, who had been silent for a while: "Although Berkshire Hathaway only owns 25% of the stock, the chairman at this time, Tom Murphy, Also a major shareholder, and a good friend of Warren Buffett, I think if we are interested in acquiring it, it is best for you to go to Omaha in person."
After Frank Wells finished speaking, although several executives over fifty years old in the conference room did not speak, Eric could still see the expressions of approval on the faces of Jeffrey, Michael Lynn and others. For their generation, Buffett is a wealth legend, and Eric can also appreciate their admiration for Buffett.
But Eric has other considerations. During this time, a large part of Eric's energy was devoted to the acquisition preparation of the TV network. It is impossible for Eric to not know anything about Buffett, who directly controls a large number of shares. .
Buffett is definitely a person who decides to move afterward. If there is no decision in his heart, Eric believes that it is absolutely impossible for him to receive this invitation letter from Buffett today. At the same time, Buffett has absolute rationality in investment, and Eric believes that the other party will not easily change his attitude towards him because of the change of the home court.
In addition to these, Eric of course also has the mind to take some initiative, although Michael Lynn and others are not optimistic. Eric would not fail to try.
"Okay. Let's decide like this. Let's get ready." Eric waved his hand gently and completely settled the matter.
Firefly announced the next day that "Jurassic Park" broke one billion at the global box office. However, the celebration banquet was arranged a week later. time.
At the same time, after receiving the reply from Firefly, Buffett was as Eric expected. Accepted the invitation to the Jurassic Park celebration party.
As the Thanksgiving holiday of the new year is approaching, the Thanksgiving-Christmas period also opens at the same time. Firefly released the last film "Detective Plane 2" with Jim Carrey on November 19. The first weekend of three days is amazing. Unexpectedly, it made nearly $30 million at the box office. The "Interview with the Vampire" and Quentin's "Pulp Fiction", which are mainly responsible for impacting the Oscars, are scheduled for December.
Columbia Pictures also released "Broken Arrow", the second Hollywood film directed by Wu Baige in the same week. "Influenced by "Broken Arrow", Baige Wu has already accumulated a good box office foundation in North America, and "Broken Arrow" also received a box office of 32 million US dollars in the first weekend and three days. Because the cost of the film is relatively low, just under $50 million. So there is absolutely no problem in recovering the cost.
However, what surprised many people is that the dark horse at the box office at the end of this year is not any of the films such as "Detective Plane 2" and "Broken Arrow", but the one launched by 20th Century Fox that costs only more than 2,000. The $10,000 "Skinny Daddy", a family comedy starring Robin Williams, grossed close to $20 million in three days after its release, and has a good reputation. The box office statistics agency based on the film's first-week box office curve As well as the audience's word of mouth, it has given a staggering $200 million North American box office estimate, several ten times the cost of the film's production.
Because of this incident, Elizabeth raised her chin involuntarily when she saw Eric during this period of time, with a small proud look, until she was ruthlessly cleaned up by Eric before she became honest.
On November 22, approaching the evening, although the celebration party had not yet started, the Sharphorn Manor was already overcrowded, Eric dragged Jeffrey to hide beside a seat in the open field outside the villa, jokingly said: "Jeffrey, I I think it's the biggest mistake you made of insisting that I put the Jurassic Park celebration party at Pointy Manor, you know, Warren Buffett is a very frugal person and hates the extravagance of the rich. Maybe he saw These are not willing to sell them to us.”
"Charlie Munger, Buffett's good friend and partner, not only owns his own private jet, but also owns a private island, and has never seen Buffett break up with each other. As far as I know, Buffett is indeed a frugal person, but he does not Force others to do the same. Well, Eric, I know you don't like to party at your manor, today is different, isn't it, even without Warren Buffett, today is Jurassic Park at the global box office The $1 billion celebration dinner, even that, deserves a serious celebration."
The two were chatting. Drew, who was wearing a beautiful red dress, walked over with Amy Pascal. The little girl hugged Jeffrey affectionately, and then came to Eric's side.
Jeffrey noticed that Amy Pascal seemed to want to chat with Eric, so he got up and walked elsewhere.
Eric motioned Amy Pascal to sit down and asked, "Amy, what's the matter?"
Amy Pascal said: "We recently approached Carlock Pictures, the company that owns the rights to Spider-Man, but the other party did not agree to transfer the rights to us."
Eric recalled and asked, "Is Mario Cassar still in charge of Carlock Pictures now?"
Amy Pascal nodded and said, "Since the box-office failure of the summer episodes "The Bear Peak" and "The Last Action Hero", Carlock Pictures has been in a state of semi-closure for the past six months. However, before I contacted Mario When I was with Casal, he rejected our intention to buy the rights to Spider-Man as soon as I said it."
"Is that all?" Eric asked.
Amy Pascal said: "Of course not. He said he could work with us on Spider-Man, but he would never sell Spider-Man to us."
"He must have guessed that you are the mastermind behind this incident," Xiao Nizi rubbed against Eric and laughed heartlessly.
Eric pulled the little girl's ear and pushed the girl away, thought for a moment, and said, "In what form did Carlock buy the copyright of "Spider-Man"?"
"It seems to have been bought for five years, from 1990 to 1995. However, I also found some affiliate clauses. Within five years, if Carlock Pictures develops the "Spider-Man" movie, then the copyright will be Automatic five-year extension. Also, the copyright transfer agreements for Captain America and Fantastic Four are similar to Spider-Man.”
This is a very troublesome thing.
Eric thought for a while, he remembered that the original time and space Carlock Pictures probably went bankrupt around 1995, and then the copyright of "Spider-Man" automatically returned to Marvel Comics, and because Marvel Comics happened to be in an extremely difficult period, he had to renew it. Once sold to Sony Pictures, since then, because of the great success of the big movie developed by Sony, the return of "Spider-Man" has become a distant prospect.
Eric quickly thought of other things and asked, "Where is the main equity of Carlock Pictures now?"
"I'm not sure about this, but the controlling stake should be in the hands of some Wall Street funds, Eric, I'm worried that if Mario Cassar discloses this matter, it is likely to attract other film companies to compete for "Spider-Man" Copyright, there could be trouble over there at Marvel."
Eric didn't answer Amy's concerns and asked, "If we buy Carlock Pictures, how much will it cost?"
"Probably, tens of millions of dollars. Although Carlock Pictures has produced and released many movies in recent years, they have not been successful, otherwise there will be no bankruptcy."
"You collect relevant information. If Mario Cassar insists on not letting go, then buy Carlock Pictures as a whole. I think those on Wall Street are now very happy to cash in on this mess."
Amy asked the question just now: "But what if they realize that you are interested in the copyright of "Spider-Man"?"
Eric shook his head and smiled and said, "Don't worry, now is not the time to develop "Spider-Man", otherwise, do you think the seven major film companies will let those superheroes from Marvel Comics fall into the hands of second- and third-rate film companies, so , even if it is robbed by other film companies, it is not a big trouble, the big deal is to launch another acquisition at that time, and I still have many years." (To be continued.)
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