Made in Hollywood

Hollywood is full of hustle and bustle during the awards season, but the entire entertainment industry is still running in an orderly manner. At the beginning of February, "Inception" ended its screening in Syria and officially released from all markets around the world. After nearly a year of screenings, this The film eventually grossed $1.12114 billion worldwide.

At the same time, the release configuration of the film's upcoming limited edition DVD/Blu-ray set has also been exposed in advance through unofficial channels.

As early as last year, the DVD of "Inception" was launched in North America. Despite the continuous decline of the entire industry background, it has still sold nearly 130 million US dollars in sales.

The limited edition DVD/Blu-ray set released this time is different from the previous ones, and has a certain collection value.

The limited-edition set includes several memorabilia, a limited-edition aluminum Dream Machine carrying case, an owner's manual for the Portable Automatic Somnacin IV, a set of postcards, a spinning top, and consists of a DVD, a Blu-ray, and a digital copy of three discs.

Once this set of products was launched on the market, it was enthusiastically sought after by fans of "Inception". In just ten days, it sold more than 35 million US dollars in North America alone.

For a popular film like "Inception", there are too many peripheral projects that can bring in profits.

"Inception" is down, and the popularity of another Duke film has also declined. "Gravity" has just spent its fifth weekend in North America, and its weekend box office has dropped to 12.15 million US dollars. 330 million US dollars, but the market potential is clearly consumed with little left.

However, the decline of "Tron Legacy", which has only come to the second weekend, is even more violent. Affected by the poor reputation of the audience, the box office of this film fell by nearly 60% in the second weekend compared to the first weekend. When it was reported to close at 19 million US dollars at the weekend, it received 87.37 million US dollars in ten days of release in North America.

Compared with "Robin Hood", this can be said to be a relatively successful commercial production.

As for whether Walt Disney and David Ellison will think so, Duke is not clear. What he cares about now is the list of Oscar nominations.

Because of staying in San Francisco to participate in the final negotiations of Lucasfilm. Duke did not attend the nominees lunch held on Wilshire Avenue in Beverly Hills, and was only represented by Scarlett Johansson. As soon as the nominees lunch was over, the Los Angeles side sent the relevant nomination list to Tina ? Fei's hands.

"The nomination results have been announced."

Taking advantage of the gap in the negotiation, Tina Fey walked up to Duke, sat on the chair beside her, and whispered. "We're the biggest winners on the nomination list."

After several months of hard work, for today, Duke couldn't help but asked with concern, "What have you gained?"

"Inception has eight nominations!"

Looking at the emails on the phone, Tina Fei said one by one. "Best Cinematography, Best Sound Effects, Best Sound Editing, Best Visual Effects, Best Film, Best Original Screenplay, Best Art Direction and Best Original Score."

Duke nodded slightly. These nominations are basically technical awards, which is completely in line with the Academy's usual style, such as Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. "Inception" is destined to accompany the run.

Tina Fey continued, "Gravity, which we focused on public relations, won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Effects, Best Sound Editing, Best Art Direction and Best Score. Ten total nominations."

"We have eighteen nominations in total." Tina Fey said regretfully, "It's a pity that you didn't get double nominations for best director."

Not getting double nominations is also a good thing in some ways. Double nominations are extremely easy to distract the votes of the judges, and Duke is well aware of this. Shaking his head, he said directly to Tina Fey, "Now that the list of nominations is out, let Nancy and Pani restrain their actions a little bit."

According to the Academy's regulations, after the nomination list is announced, the film studio is not allowed to carry out public relations work, but this is obviously impossible, not to mention other things, many members of the Academy are part of the Hollywood industry, and many filmmakers or preparations Among them, it is unavoidable for some film crews involved in the Oscar process to contact members of the academy.

As for what the two parties will discuss in private, it is not under the control of the academy at all.

However, there are some things that cannot be overdone, otherwise it would be too much for the academy to catch the example.

The academy's executive committee is also aware of this, as long as they don't go too far, they will turn a blind eye accordingly.

This is a game of money and fame. If these factors are eliminated, then there is no need for this game.

Putting Oscar nominations aside for now, Duke then devoted all his energies to negotiating a takeover with Lucasfilm.

After more than half a year of see-saw and investigation, the acquisition team jointly formed by Duke and Time Warner has become Lucasfilm's first choice. Time Warner can provide Lucasfilm with a broad and complete platform. The sum of money can meet the price requirements of Lucasfilm shareholders.

When Duke raised the acquisition offer to US$4 billion, there were only two interested acquirers left in Hollywood, he and Walt Disney.

The assets in the hands of Lucasfilm are indeed very attractive, but there are also loss-making departments such as Lucas Animation, Lucas Online and Lucas Games. Any investor will definitely consider the acquisition of such a huge amount of money. In terms of input and output ratio, the high price of 4 billion US dollars has exceeded the bottom line of many companies such as 20th Century Fox, Sony Columbia, and Paramount Pictures.

In the hearts of these companies, Lucasfilm is not worth so much money, and it is still a huge question whether they can recover such a large amount of money in the future.

Looking at the entire Hollywood, including Walt Disney, who finally competed with Duke, only Duke firmly believes that the power and potential of the Star Wars series is unlimited, and the future will definitely explode with infinite brilliance, as long as there are no major mistakes in operation , Only the sales of Star Wars peripheral products will not take long to offset this huge acquisition.

Therefore, in the face of the last competitor, Duke once again raised the price to 4.1 billion US dollars. Walt Disney, which was inherently unstable, finally retreated, and Lucasfilm basically became Duke's pocket. .

This time in San Francisco, the two sides have reached an agreement on the purchase price, and they are talking more about details.

For example, what Duke plans to do with Lucasfilm's main business in the future.

Since the end of the Star Wars prequel series, the entire Lucasfilm has only produced one film, "Raiders of the Lost Ark 4", and George Lucas is in a semi-retired state, so the performance is naturally not very good. This directly affects the income of many Lucasfilm employees and executives.

If the income cannot be guaranteed, it is useless to talk about beliefs or instill chicken soup for the soul to employees.

Duke is very aware of this. After a secret meeting with George Lucas, he directly wrote the restart of the Star Wars series into the negotiation agreement between the two parties, and promised that if necessary, he would personally serve as the director of the restart film.

With his past achievements, reputation and appeal in the film market, this undoubtedly gave Lucasfilm's management a shot in the arm. After reaching an agreement in this regard, the remaining details of the negotiation became much smoother .

In mid-February, Duke, Time Warner, and Lucasfilm held a press conference in San Francisco to officially announce the change of ownership of Lucasfilm, which involved a transaction amount of 4.1 billion US dollars!

In the new Lucasfilm, Duke holds an absolute controlling stake, and Time Warner's symbolic shareholding will also become the distributor of the new "Star Wars" series. Catherine, who is similar to George Lucas, • Kennedy accepted Duke's offer to become the new CEO of Lucasfilm.

With the completion of the transaction, Duke is very clear that he has a huge treasure trove of wealth in his hands-the Star Wars series!

He himself also enjoys nearly one-third of the revenue share of the "Harry Potter" series combined, plus today's Star Wars series, the two most marketable film series in history, can be regarded as his It's in the bag.

Correspondingly, the new Star Wars project will also be put on the agenda after Lucasfilm returns to the right track.

In this regard, Duke already has some ideas. The new Star Wars does not need to be so creative and technologically revolutionary.

In Duke's mind, the new Star Wars is above all without the obvious flaws of Anakin Skywalker's transformation.

In terms of special effects, the new "Star Wars" doesn't need to put too much effort, as long as the special effects scenes are above the level of Hollywood blockbusters, the breakthrough technological revolution is what James Cameron is going to do, not what the new work of this series should be. Don't take the risk, even if a robot like R2D2 is redesigned at that time, its main function is to 'show cuteness'.

In some ways, Duke just wants to repackage the new "Star Wars" with today's Hollywood technology and make it a retro movie with a good story!

Duke had an exchange with George Lucas in this regard. Lucas was not satisfied with the lack of creativity and lack of imagination in his proposed new "Star Wars". In his opinion, "new" should be " The Force of Star Wars.

However, George Lucas has always admired Duke's attitude towards the market, and he did not insist on his own opinion.

The launch of the new "Star Wars" is something that will happen in the next few years. After completing the acquisition of Lucasfilm, Duke has to make corresponding adjustments. After staying in San Francisco for half a month, he finally Back in Los Angeles, the 83rd Academy Awards ceremony is about to begin! (to be continued ~^~)

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