Made in Hollywood

Institutions such as the California Institute of the Arts and the Film Institute of New York University have opened special courses to study Duke and his films. Although in the eyes of academics, his films are too commercial, this is a In a business nation, no one ignores great commercial success.

Besides, most of the students trained by these colleges will also enter industries that are extremely relevant to Hollywood, and they also pay more attention to practicality.

If a person's success once or twice is accidental, then continuous success is definitely worth studying in the eyes of everyone.

Not to mention these professional schools, even Duke’s personal biographies appeared on the market. These unauthorized biographies, like the unauthorized biographies of other Hollywood stars, are full of various contents.

Especially the absurd things he did in the early years, Duke didn't hide it much at the beginning, and it was not a secret in the circle of insiders and entertainment reporters. It was described vividly, coupled with his current fame and appeal, Attracted quite a few people to watch.

Among them, the most famous one is the absurd affair between him and the country queen Shania Twain and pop queen Madonna Sicone circulated in the music circle, and someone has also confirmed from the mouths of the two divas that some film companies still want to Adapt the relationship into a film.

When a person becomes famous, all kinds of people and things will always find ways to get involved.

Duke's mentality is good enough, as long as these people are not too much, he will turn a blind eye, which is what celebrity effect will inevitably bring.

After a tour of several major cities in the Western Pacific, Duke returned to Los Angeles at the end of June, and "Transformers" also spent its fourth weekend in theaters.

Although the film only earned US$16.06 million this weekend, it still won the North American box office championship and easily achieved four consecutive North American box office championships. The cumulative North American box office of "Transformers" also reached US$366.54 million. The final box office figure is very likely to exceed the $400 million mark.

In terms of overseas box office, since the third week, "Transformers" has expanded to more than 150 countries and regions, and compared with "The Dark Knight", this cheerful movie is more popular outside North America, further expanding After the scale of overseas screenings. Overseas box office numbers have skyrocketed again, and it has now amassed a whopping $550 million.

The global box office of the film also successfully broke through the 900 million US dollars mark, and the target is directly at one billion US dollars.

In China, after nearly 30 days of screenings, the box office figure of "Transformers" has reached 985.66 million RMB, which is infinitely close to the billion mark. It will soon become the first film in Chinese film history to break through 1 billion RMB .

Moreover, China Film Group has also sent good news, after many efforts. "Transformers" has successfully obtained the extension key from a certain big scissors, and the release time in China will be extended for another month, with a total of 60 days of release time, which is enough for this film to squeeze out most of the potential of the Chinese market up.

Back in Los Angeles, Duke paid a little attention to the Transformers stats. The main energy has been transferred to other aspects, such as the Film Foundation established two years ago.

This film fund was a follow-up product of Wall Street's investment in Hollywood at that time. Duke established this film fund, and it was not originally intended to engage in film investment. Instead, I am going to wait for the catcher who will make those platter plans this year.

"Transformers" can be so popular, in fact, not only because of the movie itself and the excellent publicity and distribution. It is also inseparable from the social environment.

Now that the North American economy is in turmoil, companies from the insurance industry to the real estate industry to the financial industry have gone bankrupt, and a large number of people have lost their jobs. This is different from the economic situation. Whenever the social economy fluctuates, the North American film market will be relatively prosperous. Perhaps hiding in theaters or at home and immersing yourself in the virtual world is the best way to escape the cruel reality.

In the first half of this year, the North American theater market has been operating at a high level, and the box office figures for these six months have been nearly 12% higher than the same period last year.

But these cannot change the general economic situation in North America, especially those fund companies that invest in Hollywood through platter plans, and are also facing serious crises.

Although Hollywood still looks prosperous on the surface, there is a big problem hidden behind it-insufficient investment funds.

Not long after returning to Los Angeles, Tina Fey provided Duke with a complete related report. According to investigations by several agencies, from January 2006 to December 2007, major Wall Street banks, hedge funds and Driven by the $8.7 billion that wealthy limited partners poured into Hollywood productions, in just over two years to 2008, Hollywood produced more movies than in the previous five years combined twenty percent.

However, the current film investment is drying up.

Since August last year, no new film fund has been established on Wall Street. This fund includes financing partnerships including stocks, mezzanine funds and bank debt.

In past years, Hollywood studios have been able to obtain part of the funds for the production of films through these funds.

For example, in 2006, Ryan Kavanaugh established Relativity Management, which raised more than $2 billion worth of cash and debt capital from hedge funds such as Elliott Partners and traditional banks such as Deutsche Bank, and leveraged He founded the Film Fund for 1 and 2 Gun Hill Road.

However, nowadays banks are becoming more and more picky when lending, and many banks have even lost their own insurance. The difficulty and cost of lending can be imagined.

The crisis on Wall Street can affect the whole world, and of course Hollywood is no exception. Many film producers are anxiously relying on the stock funds or lines of credit they have drawn before, while MGM and the like The down-and-outs are looking for patrons.

Where is the next person willing to burn cash in Hollywood? This is the answer that many film companies want.

If oil prices and Mumbai's stock market are still high, then the tycoons in the Middle East and India will not be stingy, but now that the brokerage crisis hits everyone and everyone is too busy to take care of themselves, this channel may not be realistic.

On the surface, with the North American box office soaring, Hollywood should be prosperous. But in fact Hollywood's revenue stream has shrunk.

So far this year, Hollywood's DVD sales revenue has decreased by 19% compared with the same period last year, and overseas distributors are only interested in pre-sales of typical Hollywood blockbusters such as "Transformers" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark".

"What's happening now is that you can't make a film without big stars and well-known directors involved."

In the office, when Duke's eyes left the file, Tina Fey spoke in a timely manner. "There would be no overseas buyers willing to pre-purchase distribution rights."

The sharp decline in pre-sale revenue is also a major problem facing Hollywood.

Tina Fey added, "Television revenue streams have also declined due to declining ad sales and competition from online video."

Hearing this, Duke couldn't help sighing. Although he himself would not be affected much, the impact of the economic crisis on Hollywood is far greater than he once understood.

Even a famous director like Spielberg is now worrying about funding.

Earlier this year. India's Reliance Communications Group has promised to provide his DreamWorks with an investment of US$550 million, so that it can successfully separate from Paramount Pictures, provided that JPMorgan Chase Bank will finance it for US$700 million.

But it didn't take long for the stock market to crash, and Reliance Communications lost more than 60 percent of its value. In the face of grim reality, Spielberg and JPMorgan Chase have reduced the amount of financing to 325 million US dollars, and Reliance Communications only needs to provide matching investment, but DreamWorks' share of the production cost of each film The ratio will also increase from 40% to 70%.

No production company wants to face such a situation. This also means that if a big investment film fails, the consequences will be catastrophic.

Not just DreamWorks. The tightness of funds has also forced the major producers to adjust the production ratio of various films, and a "dumbbell effect" has appeared in the entire industry, that is, the two extremes of big-budget movies and low-budget movies are frequently released, while movies with middle costs The number is scarce.

Hollywood studios will spend more money on blockbusters like "Transformers." On the low-budget end of the spectrum, there will be more films like Underworld, and there will be a significant decrease in the $50-$100 million range of films like Annihilation.

To be precise, Hollywood is experiencing an unprecedented 'money crunch'.

To use the words on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, those who hold a lot of money in their hands will become Hollywood's "God of Wealth".

Duke remembers very clearly that the person who once played this role was called David Ellison. He used his abundant cash flow to acquire investment shares in the corresponding movies at a low price from multiple movie platter projects, and used the savior attitude, saved Paramount Pictures, and thus truly gained a foothold in Hollywood.

Today, however, it is no longer David Ellison who is leading the way.

"Dune Capital and Relativity Management are both facing serious crises,"

Sitting opposite Duke, Tina Fey told him about the latest situation, "If they cannot integrate internal resources and obtain sufficient liquidity, they are very likely to follow the path of Lehman Brothers."

"How's the contact with them?" Duke asked.

"I talked to Ryan Kavanaugh personally three times, and he insisted on staying at 50 percent."

Tina Fey also frowned a little. Although she was taking advantage of the fire, it was not easy to buy the other party's film investment shares at half price.

"Continue talking, keep it down to 40% as much as possible." Duke thought for a while, and urged, "You can put the rest aside. ", Disney's "Alice in Wonderland" and "Pirates of the Caribbean 4," DreamWorks Animation's "The Flintstones" and "How to Tame Your Dragon" stakes are key points!"

"I understand." When Tina Fey was about to leave, she remembered something, "It is said that David Ellison also intends to take over some platter plans."

"That's it..." Duke only thought for a few minutes before saying, "According to the plan made in advance, release the news." (To be continued~^~)

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