Chapter 980 Warner's Calculation

After participating in the product launch of Firefly Electronics, the next day, Eric took the vh-60n helicopter retrieved from Larry Ellison and flew to Lone Pine Town, which is more than 200 kilometers away from Los Angeles in eastern California. , to continue filming the location scenes of "Iron Man".

At the same time, entering the working day, under the hype of the three joint ventures, "Ace of Power 2" continued to harvest the box office at a rate of more than 6 million US dollars in a single day.

In the end, Power 2's full first week grossed $73.6 million, following three days of $46.99 million in its opening weekend. Created a first-week box office number that many blockbuster films can't match.

In comparison, "City of Angels", which was originally the most optimistic about the media, only had a box office of 23.96 million US dollars in the first week, and was directly thrown out of several positions by "Ace of Power 2".

The quality of the movie "City of Angels" is not too bad, and Warner's marketing can be said to be careless. However, under the ingenious marketing method that Firefly, Fox and MGM have teamed up to completely stimulate the audience's emotions, "Angel" "City" is almost completely forgotten by the audience. Although Warners tried their best to remedy it, it still failed to regain much attention from "Ace of Power 2".

Facts have proved that a film that lacks attention is often even worse at the box office than a bad film that has been slapped by everyone. What's more, although it has been labeled as a bad film by most film critics, the reputation of "Ace Spy 2" among ordinary audiences is not bad.

Entering the Easter week, "Wedding Singer" and "Xenogeneic" were released on a large scale at the same time. Encouraged by the excellent box office performance of "Ace Spy 2", the marketing departments of the three companies continued to make persistent efforts, flexibly changed their promotion strategies, and played ' More choices' slogan continues to build momentum for the Easter movie package.

Although the topic of "Ace Power Spy 2" is very high, there are still a large number of people who don't like this shit movie. The release of "Wedding Singer" and "Alien Species" just gave a brand new choice to the group of people who wanted to enter the cinema to join in the fun, but were not interested in "Ace Power Spy 2". The marketing strategies of the three companies were also very precise. concentrated on this.

As a result, many theater operators have found that compared to previous years, there has been a very significant increase in the number of audiences entering theaters this Easter weekend.

And so on until Monday, April 13th.

Warner Bros. CEO Richard Parsons arrived early in the morning at Warner Bros. headquarters in Burbank, and the secretary had the Easter weekend box-office figures on his desk in advance.

In addition to New Line and MGM's two new releases, a number of other low-budget titles hit the shelves last Friday.

However, looking at the box office data in his hand, Richard Parsons frowned slightly. The three films of the Firefly system are without any suspense hanging high in the top three of the box office charts this weekend.

Due to the intensified competition, this week did not have the situation that "Ace Power 2" thriving last week.

New Line Cinema's "Wedding Singer" is one of the most popular romantic comedies. It earned $31.7 million at the box office within three days of its opening, securing the No. 1 position on the Easter weekend box office charts.

Subsequent "Ace Power 2", relative to the first weekend, maintained a very impressive 45% drop at the box office, and received an additional $25.85 million, ranking second in the box office rankings.

It is worth mentioning that in just ten days, the total North American box office of "Ace of Power 2" has reached 99.45 million US dollars, only a very small gap of 550,000 US dollars from breaking 100 million.

In comparison, "Xenogeneic", which is a sci-fi thriller, performed slightly weaker, with a box office of only $21.77 million in the first weekend and three days.

Of course, this weakness is only relative to the other two films of the Firefly system. Because the fourth-ranked Universal Pictures new film "Hard to Catch" only made $13.12 million at the box office in the first three days of the first weekend, which is nearly $9 million worse than "Alien".

The fifth place on the list is Warner Bros' "City of Angels". Squeezed by this series of films, "City of Angels" fell by 46% in the second week, and the box office was only 8.19 million US dollars in the next weekend. The total box office in ten days is 32.15 million US dollars, which is still only one-third of "Ace Power 2".

It can be said that "Ace Power 2" is definitely the biggest winner of this year's Easter schedule.

Putting down the box office data file, Richard Parsons rubbed his forehead, thinking with some bitterness, maybe, if several companies in the Firefly system launch an 'Easter movie package' next year, who will be the first internally There is a dispute in the first line, and it may be very lively at that time.

You know, based on the current situation, the box office of "Ace Power Spy 2" is nearly 100 million in ten days. In the next at least two weeks' concentrated box office receipt period, at least another 60 million US dollars can be obtained for "Ace Power Spy 2". In terms of the box office, the entire North American box office cycle, if the performance is a little stronger, the total box office of "Ace Power 2" may even reach between 180 million and 200 million US dollars.

In comparison, whether it is "Wedding Singer" or "Alien", according to the current start, the North American box office limit is only about 100 million US dollars, and this possibility is still very low, "Wedding Singer" may be able to reach At the 100 million threshold, "Alien" is obviously unlikely.

Getting $100 million at the North American box office during Easter, even if it's only 70 to 80 million, is definitely an exciting success given the low-budget production specifications of the two films. Compared with "Ace Power Spy 2", it is destined to be much inferior.

In the face of a revenue gap of hundreds of millions of dollars, Richard Parsons does not think that the three companies will maintain the current state of close cooperation.

After soothing himself for a moment, Richard Parsons thought of Warner Bros.' "City of Angels" again, and suddenly regretted that he didn't do his best to promote the "Easter Movie Package" with the Firefly Three. Cooperation.

Everyone can see that the three films launched by the Firefly system are not too good in quality. The biggest reason for the success at the box office this time is the result of the three companies in the early stage who did not spare no effort in marketing.

Warner originally had a great opportunity to join this plan, and it was even an initiative proposed by Firefly, but due to the delay of the specific executor of the distribution department, Warner missed this opportunity.

City of Angels cost $55 million to produce and $25 million to announce. The overall budget size reaches $80 million.

Now, according to the box office data of "City of Angels", the North American box office of this film is only about 50 million US dollars. Warner's distribution department is even considering canceling overseas distribution and directly selling the copyright to collect funds. Only about $10 million can be recovered.

Then, the funds that Warner can return at the box office before and after are only less than 40 million. The later period of DVD distribution and TV rights revenue will not be considered because the cycle is too long, which means that in the short term, Warner's book loss on this project will exceed 40 million US dollars.

Although Time Warner Group has a big business, the loss of 40 million US dollars is definitely not a small amount.

Although the responsibility for the failure to achieve this cooperation is not on Richard Parsons, but at last week's high-level meeting, someone had already attacked him with this issue. Richard Parsons is also very regretful in his heart. After all, as the CEO of Warner Bros., if he wants to force this cooperation that is not too big, no one can stop it.

However, although he is the CEO of Warner Bros., the film department of the group is also criss-crossed by various factions, and he was worried that it might intensify the internal contradictions of the company. Richard Parsons did not do this, so he could easily get it. A performance has become a decision-making mistake now.

Richard Parsons was thinking about how to defuse the possible impact of this incident on his future. There was a knock on the office door, and the secretary pushed open the door and said, "Mr. Parsons, Mr. Levin is here."

As the secretary said, a tall man with gray hair walked into the office. It was the current vice chairman of Time Warner Group, Gerald Levin. In addition to his position at Warner, Gerald Levin. Wen is also one of Time Warner's heavyweight individual shareholders.

Richard Parsons got to where he is now with the support of Gerald Levin, and he is one of the most capable men in Gerald Levin's lineup. Seeing Gerald Levin entering the office, Richard Parsons hurriedly got up to meet him.

The two embraced warmly, Richard Parsons ordered his secretary to make coffee, took Gerald Levin and sat down on the sofa in the reception area, and said, "Jerry, why are you at this time? come over?"

"I just met Steve Case over the weekend, and I'm going to talk to you about something," Gerald Levine said, noting that Richard Parsons' face had not completely faded away. Worried, he said, "What's wrong with you?"

Richard Parsons got up with a wry smile, walked to the desk, took the document he was looking at, and handed it to Gerald Levin, saying, "It's still about the Easter box office."

Gerald Levin took the document and glanced at it, then threw it away, and said in a relaxed tone, "Don't worry, as long as we finish the next thing, these little things won't have any effect on you, more Besides, Fred, who was in charge of publishing, was Semel's man, and you can totally blame them for this mistake."

While chatting, Richard Parsons' secretary brought coffee to the two of them, and the conversation paused for a while. The conversation between the two continued when the slender blonde left.

"I have talked to Steve Case in detail, as long as we can work together to facilitate the merger of AOL and Time Warner, he is willing to work with us to control the new company in the future. At that time, Time Warner will still be ours. Say it."

Gerald Levine has been in secret contact with AOL CEO Steve Case since last year to discuss a merger between the two companies. As Levin's cronies, Richard Parsons has always been aware of the inside story.

Just holding up the coffee cup, Richard Parsons was a little puzzled when he heard Gerald Levin's words, and said, "Jerry, you mean that this merger is dominated by AOL?"

Gerald Levin nodded: "Theoretically, it is indeed the case. AOL launched a merger with Time Warner, and we will respond accordingly."

Richard Parsons frowned slightly. In recent months, with the return of a lot of hot money caused by the Asian financial crisis, the Nasdaq index in North America has once again started to rise rapidly. As one of the most concerned technology stocks, the United States The online market value has exceeded 30 billion US dollars.

However, Time Warner's market value is also close to $50 billion, and this is only the gap between the stock market value on the surface.

If we talk about its strength, Time Warner is able to get rid of AOL by far. Not to mention other, just the annual turnover, Time Warner Group is a full 5 times that of AOL.

Therefore, Richard Parsons has a hard time accepting that this acquisition is dominated by AOL. He does not think that a company like AOL, which is inflated by the new technology wave, is qualified to acquire an old media giant like Time Warner.

However, it is difficult to accept that Richard Parsons quickly figured out that only by ceding the leadership to AOL can they ensure that their side has enough power in the new combined company. Otherwise, if Time Warner led the acquisition, as a group of people with less power within the group, it is impossible for the control of this merger to fall to the Levin family.

Step by step to today, Time Warner is basically a public-owned company, and important individual shareholders like Gerald Levin have basically maintained a single-digit shareholding in the entire Time Warner Group. within.

Because the power of shareholders is too scattered, no one has a decisive right to speak. Therefore, the management of Time Warner Group is basically the controller of this media giant. As long as he can gain control of Time Warner, even if it involves his own vital interests as a shareholder, Gerald Levin is willing to make certain sacrifices, not to mention the interests of other shareholders of the group.

So, after getting the promise of Steve Case, Gerald Levine didn't hesitate to give up the power to lead the acquisition.

Thinking of this quickly, Richard Parsons took a sip of the coffee in his hand, put down the cup, and said, "Then, Jerry, the most important question is, what is the attitude of Firefly, they are the No. 1 of America Online. A major shareholder?"

"Chris Hansen, the head of Firefly Investments, made it clear that AOL is developing in the direction of a comprehensive media group, which is probably what Eric Williams meant. They don't want AOL to get involved in the media industry, but want to let AOL get involved in the media industry. It's focused on being an internet service provider," explains Gerald Levine, "but Firefly's only 30% stake in AOL, and Steve Case is lobbying other AOL shareholders. On my side, he let me not have to worry, we just need to solve the problem on Time Warner's side."

Richard Parsons nodded and said, "Then what do you need me to do?"

"I also need to lobby Time Warner's directors and shareholders during this time. What you have to do is to discuss the details of the merger plan with Steve Case. I hope that the two parties can reach a preliminary merger intention by the end of the year."