"I understand how you feel. In fact, I am very optimistic about the future of Blue Sky Studio. Otherwise, I would not have come to persuade you in person, even though you were still doing CG scenes for some commercials or TV series at that time. I think you should know that I never do useless things. Since I bought Blue Sky Studio and agreed to your conditions, it means that I am optimistic about you. You are different from Pixar. They are the pioneers, and it is inevitable that they have a huge harvest. If you want to get the same harvest, you must put in more effort.
What's more, the two studios have different styles of persistence. Pixar insists on stories that are suitable for all ages, and you believe in excellence. Human time is always more precious than machines, right? Therefore, there is no need to rush. I have already arranged it. Just this year, I need you to work hard to make a short animation. Eight to ten minutes is fine. As long as it can be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, I will agree to let you make a feature-length 3D animation. The investment will be at least 50 million US dollars. If you can win, then the investment will be even more.
What do you think? "This was the promise Adriaan made to Wei Ji and several core personnel at Blue Sky Studio. Anyway, Blue Sky Studio was acquired by Fox because the short animation produced in 1998 won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. That was how they had the funds to produce animation. He didn't mind repeating the process.
Pixar, who had the peripheral rights in their hands, was making enough money. He was not in a hurry to let Blue Sky Studio generate profits so quickly. In his plan, Blue Sky Studio would also play an important role in AC Media's plan to take the Disneyland route.
The New Year had arrived. For Adriaan, more opportunities were waiting for him. AC Media would also usher in another opportunity to expand. Therefore, as soon as the New Year's holiday ended, he began to plan more things.
"Who can tell me what people are most afraid of?" Sitting at the head of the conference room, Adriaan glanced at the senior executives and asked.
No one said anything. Even Claude and Laffern, whom he had discovered by himself, looked at him with a puzzled expression.
"Okay, this question is a bit general. Let me change the way I ask it. Let's see humans as animals — higher animals. What are they most afraid of when they don't have to worry about food and clothing?" Adrian changed the way he asked.
Still, no one answered. In the end, Claude cleared his throat and said, "It's still too general. Eide, maybe you can give us more detailed conditions."
"More detailed is the same as telling you the answer." Adriaan shook his head, then looked behind him to the right and said, "Can you tell me the answer?"
Charlie, who was sitting there recording the situation, raised her head and looked at Adrian in surprise. Adrian gave her an encouraging smile.
"Well …" Charlie thought for a while and finally said, "I think you should be talking about loneliness, right?"
Adriaan snapped his fingers and looked at the executives again. "As social animals, after meeting the needs of survival, the thing people worry about the most is loneliness!" He paused for a moment, waiting for them to digest his words, and then said, "In my opinion, there are two kinds of loneliness. One is, for various reasons, separated from society, abandoned in a primeval forest or on an uninhabited island.
He paused for a moment, waiting for them to digest his words, and then said, "In my opinion, there are two kinds of loneliness. One is being isolated from society for various reasons and being abandoned in a primeval forest or on an uninhabited island. It should be a terrible experience. No steak, no TV, no baseball, no living and entertainment facilities, and most importantly, no one to talk to you. If you don't keep exercising, maybe you won't even be able to speak in a few years. Even Robinson Crusoe has to have a Friday with him. This shows how terrible loneliness is. But this is only the first kind. There is another kind of loneliness that is even more terrible. The first kind is being separated from society because of an accident, and the second kind is being abandoned by society. Simply put, no one cares if you are alive, and no one cares if you are dead!
This is why there are so many people who want to be Miss Beauty, Mr. Bodybuilder, Cheerleader, Quarterback, Actor, Talk Show Host, and so on. This is the only way to show that you are different. Even Robinson Crusoe has to have a Friday with him. This shows how terrible loneliness is. This was why there were so many people who wanted to be Miss Beauty, Mr. Bodybuilder, Cheerleader, Quarterback, Actor, Talk Show Host, etc. This was because only by doing so could they show that they were different from others. Only by showing that they were different would they feel that they were outstanding and valuable!
However, for a long time, there were only a few ways to show one's worth. Although there were beauty contests in an ordinary town, and although there were more and more variety talent shows, it was still very few compared to the entire population base. Most people seemed mediocre. No one cared about them except for their loved ones, even if they did have many special qualities. But now, it was different. A flat world had appeared in front of them. In this world, they could vent everything they had, show everything they had, and use all kinds of methods to attract the attention of others! Yes, this was the Internet!
Psychologists once did a test. If a person wore a mask that no one could recognize, he would be able to do whatever he wanted without any scruples. This is the Internet. Do you see the 1994 issue of The New Yorker in my hand? On the Internet, no one knows that you are a dog. A gentleman who follows all kinds of etiquette in life may be a shrew on the Internet. A villain in life may also be a calm thinker on the Internet. The Internet is full of infinite possibilities. It is both illusory and real. This is not a new media channel, but the speed at which it operates and develops is far faster than other media. Look at the websites in our hands, Yahoo, Amazon, IMDB, and so on. They are all like this, and there will be more in the future. Whoever can make use of this, make use of people's desire to show themselves, to promote and influence, will be able to take the lead in the coming 21st century! "
This was not the first time Adriaan emphasized the importance of the Internet, but he used to talk about it in private with the company's executives. This was the first time he brought it up in a meeting. This was necessary because in the early years of the 21st century, people showed much more of themselves than in the past decade. After all, as long as they were shameless, anyone could become a celebrity in the Internet age.
Since he had finally become a rising star in the media industry, if he did not seize this opportunity to further expand, then Adriaan must be the world's dumbest person. And the first opportunity was a blog.
"Why didn't you mention the … blog you mentioned in the meeting just now?" After the meeting, he returned to Claude's office and asked.
"I have always been in charge of the tone, and you arrange the specific work. Since you did not mention it, why should I?" Adriaan spread his hands.
"Come on, everyone knows that as long as you don't mention these things, I won't say anything." Claude rolled his eyes. "Tell me, what are you planning?"
"Okay, okay, for two reasons." Adriaan sat down. "First of all, I need them to figure it out themselves. They can't always do what I say, right?"
"Hey, why does it sound like you're talking about me?" Claude suddenly yelled. Adriaan ignored him and continued, "Second, I can't slap myself, right?"
"Slap yourself?"
"You've forgotten what they discussed in private at Hearst's mansion two weeks ago, on New Year's Eve."
"You mean, the news website? But this and … Okay, I got it. "
Looking at Claude's understanding face, Adriaan shrugged. In fact, long before the Internet was fully formed, there was already this kind of expression on the Internet, but it never had a fixed form. Since a blog could publish the author's mood, it could also be used to record news and other information. Compared to ordinary submission methods, a blog was obviously much faster. If you added a powerful search engine …
The big players in any industry only had two choices when it came to new things. One was to suppress it and quickly absorb it while maintaining their own advantages. The second was to find a way to participate and fight for a piece of the pie. The former was suitable when the other party was weak, and the latter was suitable when the other party had a certain scale.
If AC Media launched a blog service, it would undoubtedly fall into the latter category. However, it would require quite a bit of skill to tie some big players, especially the big players of traditional media, in. What's more, he had just agreed to the news website. If he immediately came up with something like this, it would be too unsightly. Since he had a good partnership with the Hearst and Newhouse companies, it wouldn't be a bad thing to be more prepared.
Let's wait and see. Besides, there are still a lot of things that I haven't taken out. Adriaan thought with satisfaction. He then changed the topic, "How's Seagram?"
"Without a doubt, they have relented. They also know that blindly expanding has put a lot of pressure on them." Claude laughed, but then his expression changed. "But we can't use the funds from Southeast Asia for the time being. In the past few months, Soros has almost finished his preparations and will soon strike in Indonesia. So, once Seagram makes a decision, we must raise funds."
"It's okay. Even if I only have 35% of the company's shares, I can still control the company. I don't even need that much. As long as we have 35% together, it will be fine." Adriaan waved his hand nonchalantly, but his eyelids twitched when he heard "will strike in Indonesia."
"Promise me that you will win Universal," Feng Yu said, looking at him.
"Okay, I promise I will win Universal." Claude laughed.
Yes, the final piece of the puzzle was not Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Columbia, or Warner Bros., but Universal! Sony would not let go of Columbia, even if the company's losses were only partially improved. It was even more impossible for Warner to do so. Warner Corporation was already a giant, and unless it was acquired, it was impossible to take it over. How could Adrian be willing to part with it?
As for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, its former glory was long gone. From the fact that Kirk Kerkorian had sold and bought it back several times, it could be seen that they were involved in some kind of money-laundering business. No matter what, Adrian and Claude were still considered decent people in the industry. How could they have too much contact with these people, even if they had already washed their names clean?
Therefore, Universal was the best choice. In the late 1980s, there was another Japanese company that entered Hollywood with Sony. That was Panasonic, which bought Universal. Unlike Sony, Panasonic retained the management of Universal and gave it a lot of autonomy. However, cultural differences were not that easy to overcome. Also, expanding too fast would cause indigestion. Plus, Universal's profits were not very good, so they sold it to Seagram Group early.
Speaking of which, there was also Adriaan's credit. Universal had a few good productions in the early 1990s, but because of Adriaan's interference, Schindler's List was gone, and Jurassic Park became a joint investment. Universal's income was much lower than it had been in Zhang Heng's previous life, so Panasonic sold it a year earlier.
Seagram Group, which took over, was famous for its brewing. After taking over, they had the ambition to build their own media empire. Unfortunately, the gap between brewing and media was too wide. Like Panasonic, they quickly fell into a predicament. On top of that, there was a variable like Adriaan, messing things up. Spielberg, who had a good relationship with Universal, had also established DreamWorks. Seagram began to seriously consider the possibility of selling it.
And this was an opportunity for AC Media. After all, Universal Pictures could be considered the second oldest film company in Hollywood. Even though it had been a second-rate film company for a period of time, it still held the position of one of the top seven film companies. This was especially true in the past decade or so. Every few years, there would be a change of ownership. But under the leadership of CEO Ron Meyer, it still maintained its position as a major film company, especially with Adriaan's interference. It had to be said that Ron was a very powerful person.
He had a long history in Hollywood and a position in the MPAA. His movies and TV series were all well produced. Even though his library was not as good as Miramax's, most of his movies were high-quality. He also had contacts who could help him contact them, and there were no unscrupulous forces involved. This was practically tailor-made for AC Media! The only problem was that Universal's overseas distribution was rather lousy. But nothing was perfect in this world. Besides, this could be made up for with hard work. If not for the fact that Adriaan had insufficient funds when Panasonic sold it, he might have already sold it.
But it was not too late now. In fact, it might even be more suitable.
After getting Claude's promise and officially mentioning the importance of the Internet during the high-level meeting, Adriaan immediately turned his attention to the end of the Christmas and New Year period. After all, although the prospects were good, it still needed time to complete.
So far, Moment of Massacre had officially broken the 100 million mark in the North American box office. But that was as far as it could go. For a movie like this, it was already quite a good result. It gave Kate a good start to his comeback. As for Doomsday, it was still moving towards 200 million, but the prospects were not very optimistic. It was still unknown if it could break 200 million. But if the overseas box office was included, at least it would not be a problem to recoup the cost.
Titanic, on the other hand, was still in the cinema. Although the number of theaters had shrunk a lot compared to the past few months, it was still holding on. Film critics were amazed. It was a miracle. Even the most demanding people had to admit that this movie was unparalleled in terms of business.
So far, the box office in North America had exceeded 700 million, and the overseas box office had reached 1.2 billion! At the end of the year, after several twists and turns, the movie was released in China, and it also earned a box office of close to 400 million yuan. As expected, the third generation wanted to see how the capitalist countries promoted themselves.
Now, people all over the world who were paying attention to the movie were waiting with their necks stretched. They wanted to know if Titanic could reach the unprecedented global box office of 2 billion before it went offline.
"Definitely!" This was Adriaan's answer. Although he knew very well that the movie had broken the record in his memory, he still hoped to get a global box office of 2 billion US dollars.
"Tell the owners of the cinema chains that as long as the movie stays online for a while, I can increase the share to 70%. They should know which time it is!" Adriaan said to Laffern.
If it were not for the fact that it was too obvious and ostentatious, it would not be difficult for him to spend 20 million out of his own pocket to push the 2 billion mark.
Just wait and see. If it really can't hold on, it doesn't matter even if it's ostentatious. That's what Adriaan thought.
There was no need to talk about how long they had to hold on. When the time came, they would know that after mid-January 1998, it was already the end of the Christmas and New Year period. The third of the three movies that had been prepared was finally held for its belated premiere. The reason why it was held at this time was that the movie was not suitable to be released in a popular slot.
"This is indeed a good movie, but its main attraction is nostalgia, which is destined to not be particularly popular. After all, the main consumer group in the movie market is around 18 to 25 years old, so if this movie is released in a popular slot, it will be very bad." When deciding on the release time, an assistant manager of Bosworth seized the opportunity to give his opinion to Adriaan.
Adriaan was pleased to accept his opinion and promoted him. Although he did not care much about the movie, and the main reason for releasing it at the end of the year was to fight for the Oscars, it would not be good if the box office numbers were too bad. As for whether the movie would be disqualified for the Oscars if the premiere was scheduled in January, oh, don't forget the Film school's requirements. As early as Christmas, LA Confidential had a pre-screening in Los Angeles, so it was completely in line with the requirements.
However, at the premiere, Adriaan walked the red carpet with Zeta Jones, so as soon as they appeared, the reporters on both sides could not wait to press the shutter. There was something to write about again.
