Top of the big era

The Spring Festival is less than a month away. The elders in the family are very traditional and it is impossible to celebrate the festival abroad. Zhou Buqi and his family will definitely go back.

During this period of time, Zhou Buqi had to start sorting out several things about Ziweixing Global, at least to promote them, and then hand them over to his subordinates.

Mainly four things.

First, to launch a TV series project for the entire "Lord of the Rings" series, it is necessary to find Tolkien's descendants to purchase the rights to adapt TV series related to "The Silmarillion" and "The Children of Hurin".

This is actually relatively easy.

Nothing more than money.

If they don't agree, Ziweixing Global has plenty of ways to manipulate them. According to the agreement, MGM will distribute 7.5% of all profits from the "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" books to the Tolkien Foundation.

If there is no profit after doing the accounting, there is no need to divide the money.

Hollywood has long been accustomed to this routine.

Rights holders must obey.

Just like the "007" series of movies, some of the copyrights are in the hands of the descendants of the British "007" novels. What right do these British people have to say? Basically, whatever Hollywood says, they do.

However, under normal circumstances, Zhou Buqi doesn't want to go too far. Everyone still benefits from each other and makes money together. The premise is that the other party must cooperate.

This shouldn’t be too difficult to do, as Amazon did it in the previous life.

Second, start Ho Fung Shan’s biographical film project.

This process will be relatively lengthy.

It is necessary to collect as much information as possible and contact Ho Fung Shan’s descendants to obtain permission to film. You also need to find a producer and a screenwriter to write the first draft of the script.

Then it’s time to find a director.

Zhou Buqi prefers Ang Lee.

Although the protagonist of this movie is Chinese, this movie cannot be a mainland movie. He Fengshan is not comparing himself to others, so it is okay to criticize and ridicule him. If you make a film that praises and praises him, it will be difficult to pass the domestic censorship system. Even if it is passed, the plot will be changed beyond recognition, and some historical nihilistic parts will be modified and deleted as required, and this is unlikely to get the consent of Mr. Ho Fengshan's descendants.

This can only be a Hollywood movie, which can be shot without restraint. It would be more suitable for Ang Lee to take the shot.

But he is currently unavailable and has taken over the 20th Century Fox project "Life of Pi." Originally, the movie might start shooting in June this year.

But with the release of "Avatar", 3D movies became popular. The fantasy theme of "Life of Pi" is exactly in line with the visual setting of 3D movies.

In addition, Ang Lee himself also likes the challenge of new technologies. After some discussions, 20th Century Fox decided to invest an additional US$40 million to make this movie into a 3D blockbuster.

Then, the launch date was postponed, maybe until next year.

But there's no rush.

After he finishes filming "Life of Pi", it won't be too late to come back and take over the filming of Ho Fung Shan's biography. There is "Schindler's List" in front of it. If this biographical film about the diplomats of the Republic of China is to be successful, it must be carefully crafted.

The third thing is to promote the acquisition of Lucasfilm.

The two parties have reached a verbal agreement, and the matter is basically settled. The next step is to discuss the specific details of the acquisition.

This matter is being promoted smoothly and unification should be reached soon.

Zhou Buqi has only one requirement - the faster, the better.

You can even give in appropriately.

Sign early and finish early.

If Disney suddenly jumps out to bid, it will be troublesome. It is impossible to win Lucasfilm with a price of $3.5 billion. Once the two parties start bidding, the price may be raised to US$4.5 billion.

The fourth thing is to talk to Hulu’s management.

about there!

It’s time to close the net!

On January 31st, Universal Pictures held a premiere of a horror film called "The Wolfman". It stands to reason that it is just a horror film and not worthy of a premiere. This is the prerogative of blockbusters.

However, this movie is different. It can be called the most important horror movie in the past 20 years.

First of all, it has a brand, it is a remake of the 1941 classic film "The Wolf Man".

Secondly, it is directed by the famous director Joe Johnston. His last movie co-produced with Universal Pictures was called "Jurassic Park 3". And he has also received an invitation to this year's Marvel's new blockbuster "Captain America."

The most attractive thing is the super luxurious cast, including Benicio De Roni, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, Hugo Weaving, and even Chaplin's own daughter Jay. Latin Chaplin.

The production cost is as high as 90 million US dollars.

In the off-season of January and February, "The Wolfman" is one of Hollywood's most talked-about new films and has received a lot of attention.

At the premiere, Zhou Buqi invited Jason Kilar, chairman and CEO of Hulu, who did not refuse and accepted the invitation with his girlfriend.

This is a very good sign.

After the premiere, Zhou Buqi naturally invited him to have a cup of coffee.

"I heard that you and Comcast have big differences?" Zhou Buqi asked knowingly when the coffee was served.

Jason Kilar sighed, "Very big, bigger than before!"

"oh?"

“They just want to do free content.”

"It's not surprising." Zhou Buqi is an industry insider. He has already obtained the relevant data. He said with a smile: "Last year, video advertising revenue in the United States reached 4.39 billion US dollars, an increase of 49%. This is an emerging industry. an industry with huge potential.”

This is the difference between the situation between China and the United States.

When building a video website in China, even if all the film and television content is pirated, the website does not need to spend money to buy copyrights, and the meager advertising fees cannot meet the operating expenses of the website.

However, the scale of online advertising in the United States is very large, the Internet user base is small, and the traffic is small, so there are certain industry advantages. For Hulu, last year it was basically able to maintain breakeven by relying solely on video advertising revenue. The income from those on-demand subscriptions is basically net income.

Jason Kilar is a senior practitioner of the Internet. He cannot be so short-sighted. Netflix is ​​coming with a menacing force!

If Hulu wants to be competitive, it must make a breakthrough in the monthly membership system, instead of only paying for on-demand services like in the past.

But then the problem came.

If members cannot have ads, they will lose the video advertising market with huge potential for growth. What if the membership business doesn't take off and the advertising business is lost?

This is where Hulu's management and Comcast disagree.

This is also the fundamental contradiction between entrepreneurs and large companies.

What big companies pursue is stable development, while entrepreneurs want nothing more than to break or establish. In Comcast's view, Hulu's current model is already very good, and it even generated some profits last year, which proves that Hulu's current model is the best! You know, YouTube lost $380 million last year!

It's just like a game, you only change your tactics when you lose. Hulu is winning, why should it change? Just follow this tactical idea and develop it.

Jason Kilar was very unwilling and sighed, "Mr. Zhou, do you know Blockbuster?"

Zhou Buqi thought for a moment and said, "I've heard of it. It seems to be a competitor of Netflix."

Jason Kilar said: "Yes, Blockbuster is engaged in the offline rental business of video tapes and DVD discs. Netflix has been engaged in the online rental business in the past few years. In the past year, Blockbuster has at least 1,000 stores closed."

Zhou Buqi nodded, "The economic crisis has had a great impact on physical stores."

"The economic crisis has had an impact. Netflix's online rentals and Redbox's DVD rental machines have had a great impact on Blockbuster. I don't know much about Blockbuster's operations, but I judge that this company was once worth A giant group worth nearly 100 billion US dollars is likely to go bankrupt within a year or two.”

"One hundred billion giant..."

Zhou Buqi was very touched.

The changes in business models brought about by the changing times have a huge impact on a company. Once the changes are not timely, it will be completely abandoned by the times.

Jason Kilar said: "Hulu is currently developing quite well relying on the video advertising model. This is only temporary. The development of the Internet is changing with each passing day. If Hulu cannot keep up with the times in time to complete the changes, it will soon be replaced. Eliminated. Blockbuster is going bankrupt, but the demand of movie fans for watching movies has not decreased. This consumer market of up to 10 billion US dollars per year will not disappear, it will only shift."

This point of view is indeed to the point. Zhou Buqi can be regarded as having a new theoretical idea surrounding the streaming media track. "Free advertising cannot consume the consumption of movie fans. The annual rental market of 10 billion US dollars is only based on membership subscriptions." Only streaming platforms can take on this.”

Jason Kilar sighed again, "But not many people understand."

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "There will always be someone who understands."

Jason Kilar smiled, "Who are they?"

Zhou Buqi was noncommittal. During this period, people from Ziweixing Global often contacted them, and the meaning was obvious. He said calmly: "When I acquired Universal Pictures, I divested all the TV station assets under Universal Pictures and left To Comcast.”

"Are you so unfavorable to the TV station industry?"

"I am more optimistic about the streaming media industry!"

“Nafli?”

"Of course Netflix is, but the competitor of streaming media is not only the movie DVD rental industry, not only the rental market of 10 billion US dollars per year. It is also the TV industry's consumption market of up to 100 billion US dollars per year. Any individual streaming service No media platform can handle such a large fund."

Jason Kilar took a deep breath. He understood Boss Zhou's ambition, "Weixing Global wants to support Netflix, but Netflix alone is not enough. The streaming media industry ultimately challenges the traditional TV industry. , which requires the emergence of many streaming media platforms."

Zhou Buqi smiled slightly, "Naifei is Netflix, Ziweixing Global is Ziweixing Global. Now, Ziweixing Global lacks an experienced, capable, passionate and aggressive management team surrounding the streaming media industry."

"I see."

Jason Kilar looked very determined and clenched his fists.