Although Eric would try his best to focus on the interests of the Firefly system itself, he did not have the ambition to completely monopolize the 3D market. This was actually impossible.
After all, polarized 3D was not a difficult technology. In addition to IMAX, there were also other giant screen formats in the industry.
If the Firefly system attempted to monopolize the market, it would only lead to the emergence of other 3D and giant screen formats. The competition of different standards would undoubtedly consume the resources of the entire Hollywood, which was also not conducive to the benign development of 3D and giant screen movies.
Therefore, during this time, Firefly Group had already made preliminary pricing for the 3D and IMAX conversion to other production companies in the future.
In order to raise the industry threshold and achieve the goal of filtering inferior film sources as much as possible, RealD would charge US $30,000 per minute for the conversion of ordinary 2D films to 3D films. For IMAX, the 2D version of the IMAX format would cost US $10,000 per minute, and the 3D version would cost US $20,000 per minute.
This meant that based on the average two-hour film in Hollywood, if a 3D and 3D-IMAX version were to be released, the initial conversion cost alone would reach US $6 million.
Although in the future, by reducing the size of the 3D and IMAX showtimes and reusing domestic and overseas copies, film companies could save on the expensive 3D and IMAX film copying budget to a large extent. However, the initial conversion cost was absolutely impossible to save.
At the same time, due to the potential barrier of double D certification, it would be difficult for other 3D production companies to squeeze into the film source conversion market. The Firefly system could actually control the development of the entire 3D and IMAX film industry from the source.
Katzenberg still had to rush back to the Burbank headquarters. The two talked for a while before they parted ways in the corridor between the administrative district and the studio area. Eric returned to his office in the administrative district.
Eric turned on the computer and sat down behind his desk. He opened the box office prospect evaluation report that the company's distribution department had just completed. The two popular films for Thanksgiving and Christmas had long been confirmed. It was only with the gradual disclosure of the recent series of film test reviews and audience reviews that the distribution department came out with the relevant report.
Today was already November 9th.
Before this, New Line Cinema's "Final Destination 3" and Universal Pictures' "Bone Puzzle" were released two weeks before and after Halloween on October 29th and November 5th, respectively.
As a classic horror film brand, "Final Destination 3" maintained the same style and standard of the series, and the box office was quite stable. With a production cost of US $25 million, the box office reached US $25.71 million in the first week. The total box office in North America was expected to exceed US $50 million, and the global box office would exceed US $100 million.
In comparison, Universal Pictures' "Bone Jigsaw" starring superstar Denzel Washington had a production cost of US $73 million. The box office from November 5th to November 7th was only US $16.72 million in the first three days. The estimated box office for the first week was only US $23 million, about US $2 million lower than "Final Destination."
Eric flipped through the documents in his hands and found that starting from "Human Bone Jigsaw" to "Hurricane" on the last day of the year on December 29th, Universal Pictures would release five films at the end of the year.
Among them, "Hurricane" was also starring Denzel Washington. This disaster movie was actually a biopic and cost 38 million USD to make.
Universal Pictures had positioned this film as an award winning film. However, from the response of other film festivals, the quality of "Hurricane" was obviously not satisfactory. Eric didn't remember much about this film's award winning information.
In addition to "Human Bone Jigsaw" and "Hurricane," Universal Pictures would release three films in succession: "The Devil's End" starring Schwarzenegger, "Man on the Moon" starring Jim Carrey, and "Snowflakes Love on the Cedar Tree" starring Ethan Hawke.
Combined with the recent movements of the Seagram Group, it was clear that Michael Eisner arranged for such an intensive release plan to maximize Universal Pictures' 1999 performance and increase his bargaining chip to maintain his position in the process of Universal Pictures changing ownership.
However, whether it was from Eric's own memory or the evaluation of Firefly's distribution department, these five films didn't have the potential to be box office hits. Moreover, from the production costs of "Human Bone Jigsaw" US $73 million and "Hurricane" US $38 million, it was clear that Michael Eisner was trying his best to control costs, but the results were obviously not ideal.
Among them, Schwarzenegger's "The Devil's End" still cost US $100 million, and Jim Carrey's "Man on the Moon" also cost US $82 million. Eric had never heard of Ethan Hawke's romantic film "Snowflakes Love on the Cedar Tree". The budget of US $35 million was also a bit outrageous.
A few months ago, Universal Pictures relied on the blockbuster "The Mummy 3" and "Notting Hill" to rank almost the same as Fox's box office share, second only to Firefly.
However, it was clear that the five films that seemed to be a bit too eager for quick success were likely to drag down Universal Pictures' overall performance this year.
Speaking of which, this situation actually had a lot to do with the Firefly system.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Carrey, Denzel Washington, these people were obviously Hollywood superstars with very low cost-performance ratios.
In recent years, due to the Firefly system's strong suppression of the superstar's production strategy to control costs, many A-list stars who insisted on their value could not reach a cooperation with Firefly, Fox, MGM, and the recent Columbia Pictures. They could only turn to Warner, Universal, Paramount, and other independent production companies with capital strength.
After all, the concept of a star core system formed by Hollywood for a long time could not be changed overnight. The prosperity of Hollywood in recent years also made film financing very easy.
Therefore, the other three major companies and some of the capital that entered Hollywood for the gold also accepted the stars who turned to them. They continued to provide them with huge salaries and continued to produce movies of varying quality, but the production cost remained high.
In addition to these films from Universal, as far as Eric knew, due to the box office success of "Dad Charges Forward" during the summer, Warner directly offered Adam Sandler's new film "The Devil's Successor" a huge salary of US $20 million plus box office share and a production budget of US $85 million. The production cost of Will Smith and Warner's "Hurricane Cop" had also begun to overshoot. In recent years, Tom Cruise had still maintained his position as the highest paid actor under Paramount's banner.
Speaking of which, in history, even many years later, although cases had proven that superstars with outrageous salaries were not indispensable, Hollywood still did not completely change the concept of chasing superstars at all costs.
While flipping through the documents in his hand and thinking about these issues, someone knocked on the office door. Eric responded and Mayer came in with a document.
Handing a blue folder to Eric, Mayer said, "Eric, there's news from Canada. The Nokia team has officially negotiated an acquisition agreement with RIM for US $260 million. This price is the same as the beginning of the year, but 27% higher than RIM's current market value."
RIM was naturally the company that owned the BlackBerry brand. In Eric's memory, it was not until many years later that RIM merged the company's name with the BlackBerry.
During this time, the Firefly system was basically implementing a buy-buy model. The acquisition of RIM for less than US $300 million was not even worth mentioning for the expansion plan of the entire Firefly system.
However, because Eric himself valued BlackBerry, Nokia was also very attentive to this acquisition. With the departure of Yoma Olila last year, Eric had been strengthening his control over Nokia to prevent Nokia from continuing on its old path.
Eric opened the document and read the terms of the deal between Nokia and BlackBerry. He noticed Mayer's slender figure across the desk. He looked up at the girl and said, "So, are you really not going to consider staying by my side?"
Mayer looked at the man across the desk with a hint of reluctance in her eyes.
With the explosion of the reputation of "Gravity", Eric once again became the focus of many media and discussions. Perhaps this man had always been this dazzling, just like the sun. Many people would not look at the sky under normal circumstances, but when they occasionally looked up, they would always notice the sun shining brightly.
After a moment of silence, Mayer said, "I have already discussed with Mr. Mike Nelly. I will first work as a software engineer in the YOS system research and development department for a while to familiarize myself with the various technical details. After three months, I will transfer to the hardware department."
Listening to Mayer's clear career plan, Eric knew that the girl had made up her mind. He did not try to persuade her anymore, but he still smiled and said, "I'm a little reluctant. I really want to tie you to my side forever."
"You," Mayer paused and said, "You can find another one."
"No," Eric shook his head and smiled, "I'm a nostalgic person. I'll let Carly follow me from now on. Of course, whenever you want to come back, just let me know."
Mayer hesitated and nodded gently. She did not say anything else.
Eric had previously discussed the arrangement of RIM with Nokia's CEO, Olly Karasuo, several times in detail. It even involved the details of changing RIM's name to BlackBerry.
Therefore, after carefully reading the acquisition agreement between Nokia and BlackBerry and signing his name, Eric temporarily put this matter aside. Nokia would naturally complete the layout of the BlackBerry according to the established plan that had been discussed.
Elizabeth called before and said that the design draft of Eric's Tasmanian manor in Australia had been completed. After Eric got off work, he rushed to Elizabeth and Julia's mansion on the top of Beverly Hills.
During this time, although Eric and the girl had returned to Los Angeles, Eric's agent in Australia had been in charge of contacting the acquisition of the Tasmanian land for him.
Compared to Eric's current wealth, the land in Tasmania, Australia, which was not very valuable in any way, could be said to be extremely cheap. The 200 square kilometers of land that Eric had previously purchased was equivalent to about 50000 acres. The total expenditure was less than 60 million US dollars.
After a few months of continuous acquisition, Eric owned more than 1,000 square kilometers of land in Tasmania.
However, except for a small part of the pasture, most of the rest was the native woodland of Tasmania. It even had a hint of a primitive forest. It was said that there were wild platypus in the woodland. This was the only oviparous mammal found on Earth. Although it had a very high biological research value, it was not an endangered species. It was still common throughout Australia.
After buying a large number of land, it was naturally impossible not to develop and transform it completely.
In many people's minds, Australia seemed to be very strict with environmental protection, but in fact, it was the opposite.
If it was not bought by Eric, the large tracts of native forest adjacent to the land purchased by Eric would have even been included in the logging plan. In contrast, Eric, who wanted to maintain an intact primitive forest, was more like an environmentalist. In fact, Eric was indeed an environmentalist, but he was not extreme.
Although there would be no large-scale transformation of the land, after discussing with the women, Eric decided to build a Williams family resort in the local area.
As a local in Australia, Eric did not hesitate to entrust this matter to Y'lisabet and asked her to help him contact the designers and engineering team.
"Look, the address they chose is here. The south is Arthur HB, the east is a hill, and two kilometers to the west is the interstate highway. These are photos of the surrounding area and some design drafts." Back at Y'lisabet's house, Julia prepared dinner for everyone. Eric and the girl sat in the living room and flipped through a large stack of information from Australia. After a brief introduction, Y'lisabet said, "In fact, if you want to buy land, Queensland is the best choice. Even Victoria is good. Why choose Tasmania? There are not many people there."
"There are not many people in the whole of Australia, right?" Eric flipped through the designer's draft of the manor and said, "Moreover, I want a place with few people. The more spacious, the better."
Y'lisabet rolled her eyes at Eric and said, "If you really live there for a while, you will never think so."
"No one wants to live there for a long time. As long as the land belongs to me, it's fine. Well, you can go there to play at any time. "
Y'lisabet pretended to be disdainful, "What's so fun about it?"
Eric thought for a while, pointed to the map on the coffee table, and smiled, "Look, here, this river is mine. Well, I plan to buy the mountain in the east. Compared to your family's Lanai Island, this island is mine, and this mountain is mine. Listen, which one is more imposing? "
Y'lisabet smiled and hit Eric, "Actually, dad doesn't really want that island. He may not go there even once in a few years."
Eric thought of some things later and said, "Then sell it. But I will definitely not buy it. I am not interested in small islands at all. If it's Tasmania, I can consider it. "
Speaking of which, the news that Larry Ellison had bought Lanai Island had been heavily hyped up. But in fact, Lanai Island originally belonged to the Murdoch family. Thinking about the company attributes between News Corporation and Oracle, the contrast between the low-key Murdoch family and the high-profile Larry Ellison was really interesting.
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