Heads Up Hollywood

Steve Burke said a lot of nice things to Dunn at the Vanity Fair party after the Oscars.

Even secretly said a lot of "secrets".

However, how could such an elite businessman tell the truth?

In the last week of March 2003, a group of people quietly gathered at the Marriott Hotel near the Philadelphia airport for a meeting.

These include current Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts, president Steve Burke, and three other Comcast executives.

In order not to be detected, the nominal purpose of this meeting is to discuss the telecom operation business that Comcast will focus on developing next.

But this is clearly not an ordinary meeting.

In the meeting, in addition to many executives from Comcast, it also included two investment bankers, as well as Steve Ratner, chairman of Quadruple Group.

When Steve Burke left Disney to join Comcast, the cable TV operator had only 4.5 million subscribers. After several years of unremitting efforts, the number of Comcast users has approached 30 million, making it the largest cable TV operator in the United States!

It has more than 10 million more users than Time Warner, which ranks second.

Despite widespread skepticism on Wall Street, under Steve Burke, Comcast successfully integrated AT\u0026amp;T's far-flung cable business, and its stock price has doubled since 2002.

Comcast is seen as a merger master, and after successfully integrating AT\u0026T's business, it can prepare for a new move.

Among the largest cable TV companies in the United States, only Comcast is a pure "distribution channel" company, that is, the kind that Michael Eisner ridiculed as coming from another planet compared with Disney and other content companies. Wonderful Company.

Regardless of what Steve Burke and Tang En said that day, they vowed that Comcast would focus on the development of telecom operations, but in fact, it was a secret.

It is generally recognized in the television industry that as long as the number of subscribers exceeds 20 million, a profitable cable TV channel can be established.

Comcast has nearly 30 million subscribers, which means that Comcast is fully qualified to launch its own content programs with its own cable TV system.

Channels are easy, what's missing is content!

When Brian Roberts poached him from Disney, he was not asked to operate TV operations or telecom operations, but to help Comcast develop the film and television entertainment industry that he had always coveted!

Get your hands on the content!

Under the operation of Steve Burke, this is the gathering today.

He is the chief planner and executor of this operation!

There are only a few entertainment content providers in the United States that deserve attention: 20th Century Fox, New Universal, Sony Entertainment, Disney, Viacom, and Time Warner.

These companies are "not for sale" and have erected a series of insurmountable obstacles.

As for Lionsgate, DreamWorks, and MGM, they're not even worth considering.

Last year, there was turmoil in Disney. Roy Disney and other veterans launched the "Save Disney" campaign, intending to force Michael Eisner to step down. The entire Disney was in chaos.

It was an excellent time to shoot.

However, Michael Eisner survived with his tenacious will, and with the help of Dunn Walker, Disney's stock price continued to soar.

Buying Disney is no longer possible.

Comcast can only find new targets.

Coincidentally, in the blink of an eye, in 2003, the landscape of the film and television entertainment industry seems to have undergone new changes!

New Universal and Disney team up to fight Viacom!

Seeing Viacom's stock price continue to fall, Blockbuster's first quarter performance of this year fell by 30% year-on-year, which is disappointing.

Lei Shidong has already started to go to the doctor in a hurry, and the conflict between him and the president Kamasin has become more and more clear.

Inside Viacom, people are panicking.

This is just one of them.

And second!

New Universal has signed an agreement with Toshiba, joined hands with Time Warner, and joined the ranks of HD-DVD format to fight against Sony's huge investment in Blu-ray DVD.

Sony Entertainment wants to acquire MGM to expand its movie library and increase its Blu-ray DVD capabilities.

Tang En, however, stared at MGM.

New Universal and Sony seem to be having quite a bit of trouble.

New Universal is a vigorous new company, and Sony is an old company that is getting old. What will be the result of the collision between these two companies?

In the field of electronics, New Universal is by no means an opponent of Sony.

But in Hollywood... Can the Japanese play well?

So, the choice is simple.

Comcast rejected Sony's alliance application without hesitation, and extended its cooperative hands to New Universal to help New Universal acquire MGM.

MGM is helpful to Comcast, but New Universal is even more helpful!

As long as New Universal beats either Viacom or Sony Entertainment, Comcast could make a move at the right time.

Either buy Viacom or buy Sony Entertainment.

Only with Tang En's help, Comcast can overcome the insurmountable difficulties and get involved in the film and television entertainment industry.

This is the focus of discussion at this meeting.

Comcast's key target, in the end is Viacom? Or Sony Entertainment?

In the process of New Universal suppressing Viacom and Sony Entertainment, in what form will Comcast secretly help?

Tang En is like a sharp knife in Hollywood.

Comcast wants to borrow a knife!

...

Tang En's economics book "The Theory of Explosive Funds" has sold 380,000 copies in North America and 770,000 copies in overseas regions since it was launched.

To be honest, sales were mediocre.

Compared with those top theoretical masters, there is a big gap.

But another of his best-selling novels, Gone Girl, is a different story entirely.

Looking at the best-selling books in the world today, there are only tens of millions of novels in the "Harry Potter" series, but there are only two sets of five million-volume novels - the "Lord of the Rings" series and "The Gone Girl"!

Since the launch of "Gone Girl", sales in North America have approached 2.3 million copies, and overseas sales have also sold 3 million copies.

Tang En's fame and charisma are vividly displayed through this novel.

Even if the royalties were shared by Dunn and Isla Fisher, he still earned a full 22 million US dollars!

In the previous life, at the best-selling stage of the "Harry Potter" series of novels, there was only one book that could keep pace with "Harry Potter" - the masterpiece "The Da Vinci Code".

This book sold 7.5 million copies in North America and 65 million copies worldwide, almost crazy!

This book was released in mid-March this year, and it hasn't caught on yet.

Tang En has already notified the copyright department, requesting that the film copyright must be included in the bag.

"Gone Girl" is an excellent novel, but compared with "The Da Vinci Code", it is still a little worse.

Even with the blessing of Twain's halo, it would be difficult to replicate that magical skill.

However, with the release of the "Gone Girl" movie, it will always drive a wave of novel sales!

It shouldn't be a big problem to reach the tens of millions level.

Check out the cast of the film based on the novel "Gone Girl"—

Producers: Don Walker, Kathleen Kennedy, Reese Witherspoon;

Director: David Fincher;

Actor: Mel Gibson;

Actress: Nicole Kidman.

With the halo of the new Oscar queen, the film will definitely attract countless movie fans to watch the movie.

Wednesday, April 2nd.

The movie adapted from the famous best-selling novel "Gone Girl" finally meets the fans.

The film opened in 2,865 theaters and landed in the North American market grandly!

The awards season is over, and the two super blockbusters in the Christmas file have also begun to shrink the market.

"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" has a North American box office of 310 million US dollars, an overseas box office of 640 million US dollars, and a global total of 950 million US dollars;

"The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" earned $330 million in North America, $580 million overseas, and $910 million worldwide.

Both are approaching the $1 billion mark!

However, it is just a trend.

The two films have been screened for almost half a year. Even if they continue to reap part of the market, it will be difficult to break through the $1 billion mark.

Movie fans who "like the new and dislike the old" turned their attention to new movies - Rose Films' "Gone Girl", Fox Pictures' "Sniper Phone Booth", Sony Pictures' "Anger Management", Disney's "Inside Out" and so on .

"Do you really think an R-rated film will outsell a comedy?"

Jack Nicholson was invited by Down to Universal's in-house screening room, along with Martin Scorsese, William Monaghan, Leonardo Ricaprio, Marko Wall Berg, Martin Sheen and other crew members of "The Departed".

Martin Sr. intends to let Jack Nicholson play the villain "Frank Castro" in "The Departed". But this veteran actor has played too many villains, and he doesn't want to accept this role.

It was only then that Tang En invited him over to use the opportunity of watching the movie to communicate with him.

""Gone Girl" is an R-rated film, but it has an Oscar queen. There is also Mel Gibson in charge. In the past ten years, he has made more than 20 films, and none of them have failed at the box office!"

Jack Nicholson had a displeased expression, "Twain, are you comparing me to an action actor?"

Tang En smiled, "Mel is not just an action movie star, his acting skills are not bad at all."

Jack Nicholson snorted coldly, and said lightly, "Let's watch a movie!"

He starred in Sony Pictures' comedy "Anger Management," which coincided with Rose Pictures' "Gone Girl" on schedule.

The investment scale of the two films is about the same, with the former costing $70 million and the latter budgeting $65 million.

The key point is that the former is an entertaining comedy and the latter is an R-rated crime suspense film.

Can "Gone Girl" really blow up "Anger Management" at the box office?

Jack Nicholson didn't believe it.

What's more, Tang En also talked about acting skills.

In terms of acting skills, he hasn't convinced anyone yet!

He is the actor with the most Oscar nominations in Hollywood history!