Rebirth In Hollywood

For a business group like Walt Disney, the pursuit of profit is the eternal driving force. Under the premise that "The Hunger Games" is full of blockbuster movies, even without Ryan's intervention, the management quickly came up with the profit-maximizing method. various feasible options.

Disney, together with the spokespersons of Susan Collins and Ryan, held a press conference at Disney headquarters, announcing that the novel version of "The Hunger Games 2: Catching Fire" was on the market, and on the premise of retaining the original cast, the film version was also officially released. Start preparing.

In addition, Jenkins Pictures will also make a spoof "The Hunger Games" series similar to "Scream" based on this series.

Ryan and Disney are bound to drain every drop of the franchise, aside from traditional box-office and peripheral gains.

At this point, Disney Pictures didn't hold back any more, and invested the last $20 million of the $120 million publicity expenses into the market. While the peripheral products were selling well, the box office, especially the North American box office, still had potential. Digable.

The film earned $36.52 million in North America in its fourth full week, and the North American box office has surpassed $350 million!

This has been achieved in less than a month. In recent years, only two films, "The Lord of the Rings 3: The Return of the King" and "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith", have had such a crazy North American box office accumulation. But the latter two are the end of a series!

The success of "The Hunger Games" in North America cannot hide the overall weakness of overseas markets. Two weeks after the film was launched in North American theaters, it has appeared in major overseas markets one after another. So far, the overseas box office has only reached 150 million US dollars. Compared to those movies in North America and overseas that are advancing at the same time, it is indeed a bit worse.

This is a very helpless and very realistic thing. In North America, where thought and speech are more free, perhaps this kind of film containing the idea of ​​"new feminism" is easily accepted by the audience, but in most overseas regions. This kind of film with women as the protagonists needs both the accumulation of time and the breakthrough of concepts to break through the film market where male characters occupy an absolute dominant position.

As the most direct competitor of "The Hunger Games", "Escape from the Clone Island" only made $5.2 million at the North American box office in its third week. According to the current development momentum and falling speed, the film's North American box office can exceed 30 million at most. Dollar.

Michael Bay's transformation was a complete failure.

Compared with Bang Bei, Natalie is the hottest actress this summer.

Since Padmé Amidala of the "Star Wars" series, she has not had a new movie image, and there have been rumors that she is going to make a complete transformation and become a director. Until Katniss appeared on the big screen,

Triggered a movie craze in the United States.

This strong female character is so similar to Natalie's public persona that the two are an almost perfect fit.

"Natalie Portman as the heroine is like Katniss stepping out of a novel and her performance is captivating from start to finish!"

This is the evaluation of Natalie in many mainstream media. Although there are factors such as identity and ethnicity, it can always explain some problems.

The big sale of "The Hunger Games" completely pushed her into the ranks of Hollywood's first-line movie stars. This film not only earned Natalie her highest salary of 10 million US dollars. And after the film grossed over $300 million in North America, she also won a Chanel No. 5 endorsement deal worth $15 million a year.

However, entering July, "The Hunger Games" finally ended its frenzied box office growth. The single-week box office fell to more than 10 million US dollars, and it entered the stage of accumulating box office by a long release time.

Ryan also met Michael Bay in his office.

One of Hollywood's best commercial directors sat across from him, his trademark long face placid though. However, it can be vaguely seen that the confidence in the past is lacking. The box office of "Escape from the Clone Island" is too miserable. In the past, Hollywood encountered such a box office tragedy. As a result, there are not a few directors who fail to recover.

"I've heard a little about you in general."

After the secretary brought the coffee, Ryan said slowly, "Michael, your schedule should be free. Are you interested in cooperating with Disney Pictures?"

Michael Bay was stunned. He didn't know the specific reason why Ryan came to him. "Cooperation?"

Ryan nodded and made a please gesture to the coffee cup.

Taking a sip from the coffee cup, Michael Bay understood that, as Ryan, he would definitely not joke about this kind of thing, and he couldn't help saying, "Frankly, Ryan, I really want to take a break for a while, I really want to understand some problems."

"Why, a failed movie makes you lose confidence?"

Hearing Ryan's words, Michael Bay forced a smile, "I need to figure out the crux."

"Actually, your problem is not complicated." Ryan believes that Michael Bay will be able to figure it out by himself in a short time, but he doesn't want to wait too long, "It's actually very simple to solve it, and return to the style you are best at. "

"The best style?" Michael Bay showed a thoughtful expression.

"Creating dazzling video effects at a sufficient cost." Ryan took the first draft of "Transformers" from one side and pushed it to Michael Bay, "In a fast editing method, accompanied by dynamic music, rendering Big moves, big explosions, big scenes, in the dazzling light and shadow, create the ultimate battle!"

This is the style of Michael Bay's previous films and the basis for his foothold and success in Hollywood.

"Ryan, you mean I'm going back to my old style?" Michael Bay picked up the script.

"Why not?" Ryan tapped the table and looked at the script in Bang Bei's hand. "I'm going to invest $150 million to make a live-action movie version of Transformers. I need enough big moves, Big explosions, big scenes, I need the most dazzling visuals."

"Michael, I don't think anyone in Hollywood is more suited to this series than you!" Ryan emphasized again.

"Escape from the Clone Island" seriously dampened Michael Bay's self-confidence. The reason why he said so much was that he didn't want to see a director with a feeling of failure, which would damage the enthusiasm of the entire crew.

Of course, he is not an agitator, and he has no magic power. These words can only make Michael Bay think that he trusts him very much. If Bang Bei wants to get out of the slump, the key factor is still himself, and it will take some time.

Michael Bay finally said sincerely that he needed to think carefully, but after earning Ryan's consent, he took away the first draft script.

The other party has worked hard in Hollywood for so many years. In fact, he is very clear that if he can't turn over as soon as possible, he is destined to be gradually forgotten in the power and reality of Hollywood. This is not the result he wants.

Although countless people are saying that Michael Bay's films are getting worse and worse, it cannot be denied that he is still a very ambitious director.

Complete commercialization is the way he should go.

After sending Michael Bay away, Ryan pressed the intercom and called George in.

The former bodyguard, after several years of study and training, has become a fairly qualified assistant to the chairman. Through his team, he handles a lot of daily affairs every day and helps Ryan to watch every move of the entire Walt Disney Group. .

Because of Michael Eisner's signing with Roy Disney, Ryan has never relaxed his oversight of Disney, although power has been delegated to group president Cook Dick and CEO Robert Iger.* *The supervisory committee of the board of directors and the auditing of external accounting firms have been fulfilling their supervisory responsibilities.

"Sit down, George."

Ryan pointed to the chair opposite, which was completely his own.

He took a novel, pushed it in front of George, and said, "Find someone to contact the author of this novel, get the film copyright as soon as possible, and let Touchstone Pictures or other subsidiaries do it."

"I understand." George nodded, picked up the novel, and left the office.

It was a novel that had just been released. It was a housewife's fantasy. It was called Twilight: Twilight. the best chance for the right.

With the big sales of novels and movies of "The Hunger Games", this youth-type theme will gradually become a category that cannot be ignored in Hollywood movies. It won't take too long, and similar movies will probably be flooded on the big screen in North America. Following the trend is not just exclusive to movies across the ocean, but Hollywood is no exception.

Hollywood's few excellent big productions are built on the basis of a huge number of bad movies.

It was also during this period that Walt Disney’s big hand extended to the Internet also paid off. After half a year of negotiations, Disney wholly acquired the company of Evan Williams, the founder of blog technology pioneer. After the initial integration, the main goals will be on blog miniaturization and entry into mobile platforms, etc., and the company name has also been changed to the name of this project - Twitter!

On the other hand, in the ''new financing plan, Disney easily defeated Li Ka-shing, the richest man in Asia from Hong Kong, and got 25% of the shares. If you count Ryan's hands, it was diluted to 30%. Five of the shares, has obtained an absolute controlling stake.

Of course, just like in the previous life, Mark Zuckerberg still holds nearly 30% of the shares. Even for his own interests, he will continue to struggle in this company.

In addition, Disney has also taken over Ryan's personal official website, which is now the personal website with the most traffic and the highest click rate in the United States. If Ryan did not allow it, I am afraid that a large number of advertisers would have come to the door. (To be continued..) ()