Heads Up Hollywood

"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" is the third part of the series. After Chris Columbus made two "children's films", the director of this one was replaced by Mexican Alfonso Cuaron, began the transition from children's films to youth films.

Affected by the transformation, the film's box office performance is not as crazy as the previous two.

However, this is the "Harry Potter" series after all, with a production cost of 130 million US dollars, it is still a big killer in the box office market!

In the first three days of the weekend, the film earned $93 million at the North American box office.

Now three weeks have passed, the North American box office has exceeded 200 million US dollars, and the overseas box office has also successfully exceeded 200 million US dollars.

Affected by this, Tang En Pictures was also invited by the White House, intending to bring a copy of "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" to the president's family.

This is of course a privilege.

But it has nothing to do with power, but an economic account.

If the president goes to the cinema to watch a movie, various security measures will cost at least 500,000 U.S. dollars for a trip.

It's much easier to take the movie to the White House for a showing, and it won't cost more than $30,000.

That's right, it costs money for the White House to invite film companies to show movies.

Hollywood is not a charity, and the president has to pay.

Tang En understood such an invitation.

President Bush Jr. has a pair of twin daughters, both 22 years old this year, and there is no younger child. Rather than saying that the president's family wanted to watch "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", it was better to say that the president wanted to meet and chat with Tang En.

Tang En didn't worry too much, and went to the White House with a few staff members.

It's the weekend and the president has a day off. His wife and two twin daughters were present, and there was also a 20-year-old tall girl whom Tang En actually knew.

This is the niece of President Bush Jr., Lauren Bush. She is a New York socialite, a signed supermodel of the elite model agency, and has had many close contacts with Leonardo.

Because of this, the Bush family also severely reprimanded her.

However, Lauren Bush is not a good person. She stopped dating Leonardo, but met a boyfriend of Pakistani origin, which caused a great uproar in the media, claiming that "she is helping Mr. President to maintain the Middle East." post-war peace".

Tang En had no interest in the girls from the Bush family. They were distinguished, but their looks were not satisfactory, so they couldn't be noticed. I just said to Laura Bush that "New Global is entering the fashion industry and we have the opportunity to cooperate", which naturally attracted the favor and comfort of the Bush family.

When the movie was played, just as Tang En expected, the president was more interested in exchanging opinions with Tang En, a new Hollywood media tycoon.

"In the next few years, in addition to restoring economic development, the most important national policy is to strengthen the export of cultural industries. Internally, we must further determine the Anti-Trust Association Act and implement domestic economic protectionism, especially For some small and medium-sized enterprises, externally, we must unswervingly promote cultural output.”

After the terrorist attack, the U.S. military sent troops to Afghanistan, which received universal support from all over the world except for opposition from some countries. However, the subsequent dispatch of troops to Iraq was greatly questioned.

This put a lot of pressure on the Bush administration, which almost failed to be re-elected.

In the next tenure, the U.S. government will vigorously support Hollywood’s overseas cultural hegemony, form overseas “cultural imperialism,” and subtly make people all over the world follow American ideas.

The success of Hollywood has never been the success of Hollywood movies.

Hollywood movies back then were not necessarily better than Soviet or European movies.

Behind the success of Hollywood is often the theory of "political economy", which comes from the conspiracy of capital and the state.

Back then, Hollywood film export companies were even known as the "Little State Council".

Tang En was deeply touched by this. Hollywood is the capital of entertainment full of politics.

The movie was still being shown, so the voices of the two were very low. Tang En said in a low voice: "Hollywood's work is good enough. The hamburger triggered the Mediterranean food culture, which is on the verge of extinction. In Hollywood movies, stars don't wear underwear. It once again caused similar products to be unsalable in the market. In today’s globalization, the penetration of cultural empires is even more ubiquitous.”

The president said: "Many countries are blatantly violating the WTO agreement, and they are all promoting protectionist policies for their own films. There are too many countries involved, and it is very difficult to handle."

Tang En smiled, "Movie protectionism is just a wall, and Hollywood has long found a way to overcome it. From the perspective of consumption, the development of peripheral products for movies often makes consumers ignore the cultural origin of products. For example, Disney, from From cartoons and amusement parks, to cable television and gift stores, Disney is a global, recurring consumer."

The president glanced at him amusedly, "What about New Universal?"

Tang En said seriously: "More than that, from suits to leather shoes, to McDonald's to Coca-Cola, from Disney to New Universal... Today's consumers are all facing the pressure of assimilating global cultures, and no one can avoid it. Hollywood is the powerful driving force behind it all.”

The president pondered for a while and nodded, "So in the next few years, the federal government will further increase policy support for the cultural and entertainment industry and further promote the tax cut bill."

Tang En was satisfied.

He has no ideals of nationalism, especially for the United States. As long as it can bring substantial benefits to Hollywood and itself, that's enough.

However, we can’t say that, we must continue to share the same light, saying: “In the film industry, the trend of ‘third cinema’ has emerged in many countries to resist the influence of Hollywood. Hollywood works have no commercial basis, and only provide texts for theoretical circles, with little impact. However, they have to be treated with caution.”

"If Hollywood wants to have a greater impact on the world's entertainment structure and cultural processes, it must go further. The US entertainment industry is not the Americanization of the world, but the globalization of entertainment. Globalization cannot be completely equated with 'Americanization', otherwise, will inevitably encounter strong resistance. We need to make the best use of the situation and make a smooth transition."

"This is the case in the entertainment industry, and so is the economic field. Even with globalization, the inequality between the 'center' and the 'periphery' will continue to exist. However, the state's control over the economy has been greatly weakened, and transnational capital will be on the international stage. Playing an increasingly important role. Based on this theory, large multinational groups are very necessary, very necessary!"

With these words, Tang En was inoculated.

President Bush Jr. said just now that externally, cultural hegemony should be practiced. Internally, it is to strengthen anti-trust control to protect more small and medium-sized enterprises and make the domestic entertainment market in the United States more competitive and dynamic.

This is not a good signal for large group companies, and will increase the difficulty of mergers and acquisitions and the risk of review.

As the strength of the New Global Group becomes stronger and stronger, the capital strength will become stronger and the speed of expansion will become faster and faster.

Entering the fashion industry is just the beginning.

Many key businesses of New Global are still in the stage of "grass team" and have a very large room for development.

Such as facebook, such as Netflix.

If a company of this level develops, if it does not split with New Global, it is likely to face anti-monopoly investigations.

In addition, Dolby Laboratories, which is involved in the hardware field, and Blizzard Studios, which is based on "World of Warcraft".

The game industry is growing faster and faster!

Last year, global video game revenue surpassed movie box office revenue for the first time.

Only in November this year, the total output value of video games in North America has reached 12 billion US dollars, which is 3 billion US dollars ahead of the total box office of North American movies.

Blizzard's scale is still too small to satisfy Twain's ambition of shaping the game industry's trump card.

Next, New Universal will definitely make a major acquisition of the game industry!

It was only 2004, and the market value of game giant EA was only 10 billion US dollars.

Seeing that the other party was silent, Tang En went on to say: "Plane integration and vertical integration in the film and television industry is an inevitable trend. The investment in movies is getting bigger and bigger. This "Harry Potter 3", including the production cost and The total investment will be as high as 300 million U.S. dollars for publicity and distribution costs. If there is no integration of more channels, the profit pressure will be very heavy relying solely on movie box office and peripheral income. At the same time, the advantages of large multinational groups and multinational property rights can make 'global' and "Local" is integrated into one to help our films open overseas markets more easily. Just like Ford Motor's slogan - "If you want to become a multinational group, you must turn all parts of the world into local."

This is a big topic, and Mr. President couldn’t decide with a single word. He wanted to discuss it with his staff, so he changed the subject with a smile: “By the way, I always heard about Hollywood’s assembly line production. What exactly does this mean?”

"It's a bit complicated."

Tang En sorted out his thoughts, and said slowly: "It's mainly a few steps, such as creative, investment, production, props, clothing, music, publicity and other procedural processes, as well as modular work in art, finance, and law. Brief To put it simply, the producer signs a contract with the distributor, splits the account and raises funds in advance; then the producer contacts many professional small and medium-sized companies, such as actor brokerage companies, photographic equipment companies, special effects production companies, etc., to generate supporting flow Homework. The publisher will sign contracts with entertainment platforms such as chain video stores and cable TV, and share risks through peripheral property rights. If it is a large group company, it will also have derivative income such as tourism real estate, games, and consumer goods. So from this perspective It is said that the integration of the upstream, midstream and downstream industries of the film industry by large group companies will not only greatly improve efficiency, but also greatly reduce the production cycle and production costs, and create more social wealth."

President Bush Jr.'s face darkened.

Then again!

To put it bluntly, isn't the integration of the upstream, midstream and downstream industrial chains just to achieve more market returns through monopoly? It's just that this monopoly strategy is relatively advanced and obscure, and it's hard to judge.

In desperation, Mr. President had no choice but to say: "New Universal is an iconic Hollywood company. As long as it is within the scope stipulated by law, the White House will definitely support it administratively."

Tang En smiled slightly, and his goal was achieved.

Afterwards, the two were silent for a while at the same time, and began to watch a movie.

Not more than half an hour later, Mr. President spoke again, sighing: "The Federation also knows that a diversified group operation will be better in terms of economic benefits, and it will be more conducive to Hollywood's occupation of the market. At the same time, we must also realize that diverse If the proportion of overseas markets continues to increase, what will the American story become? Will Hollywood movies still symbolize American culture? This will no longer be the core value of the United States.”

Tang En agreed: "The power of capital cannot be underestimated."

"When I was governor in the 1990s, some members of Congress raised this concern. If the Germans bought Twentieth Century Fox, would there be structural changes in war movies about the two world wars? It has to be taken seriously.”

Tang En smiled and said: "There is no need to assume, it has already happened. Columbia Pictures has always been under the control of the Japanese consortium."

The president said sternly: "This is different. Japan is within the security range of the Seventh Fleet. Many other countries do not have such restrictions."

The so-called security, to put it bluntly, is control and supervision.

In fact, this is indeed the case. After Japan acquired Columbia Pictures, it has been working hard to promote Japanese culture and has made many Japanese-themed movies.

However, its influence is limited, and it has not diverged from the value orientation of the United States on major issues of right and wrong.

Tang En said very seriously: "Yes, this is very important. This is why I spared no effort to buy Universal Pictures back from the French. It will be fine in a short time, but after a long time, those controlled by overseas capital Companies are likely to use Hollywood as an export window for the United States to promote their cultural thinking."

"You have a way?"

"Simple!"

"how to say?"

Tang En smiled and said: "I have a good relationship with Steve Burke, the chairman of NBC. Currently, NBC is studying a plan to take advantage of Sony's current predicament to acquire Sony Entertainment. Sony Entertainment is like this, and 20th Century Fox is also As it should be, buy it back from the Australians!"

Murdoch is the big benefactor of President Bush Jr. He coughed lightly, shook his head immediately and said: "Rupert has long been naturalized in the United States, and 20th Century Fox has no disputes about this. Besides, 20th Century Fox With a body as big as Fox, who can eat and move?"

Sony Entertainment has a large volume, but it also has high debts, and the cash flow that really needs to be spent is not much.

Twentieth Century Fox is different. This is a listed company, which includes film, television, radio, publishing and many other businesses, with a current market value of 26 billion US dollars.

Who has the strength to buy Fox?

Tang En just smiled and remained silent.

Both "Avengers" and "X-Men" are series of comics under Marvel, but due to historical reasons, the right to adapt the movie has been separated.

"The Avengers" belongs to Marvel Pictures, and "X-Men" belongs to 20th Century Fox.

It is necessary to return!

necessary!

. Nine Heavens Emperor