Chapter 782: Best stage
Elizabeth is only one step away from the president at Fox, and with the special status of Murdoch's daughter, she has great real power. Net is just that the company has invested in a large project of US$50 million, and it must still be approved by the board of directors. The chairman of Fox is of course the old man in her family.
Eric's suggestion that Fox participate in part of the investment in "Titanic" is actually to fine-tune Murdoch, and by the way, secretly strive for more power for Elizabeth.
He knew that Murdoch, as a standard businessman, would never agree to throw money into a bottomless pit like "Titanic." In his previous life, Fox was too shrewd. In order to avoid risks, he used a mere US$60 million to sell North America. The exercise was sold to Paramount, and as a result, "Titanic" North American box office 600 million, all Fox cried out.
This time, if "Titanic" is not a big success, then forget it. Once the film hits the box office like the original version, Murdoch will definitely pay more attention to Elizabeth's suggestion in the future. Elizabeth accordingly has more decision-making power in the company.
The next day, Eric was in the office and received a call from Elizabeth. The ending was completely unexpected.
After the Oscars ceremony, "Forrest Gump" won six heavyweight awards including best picture and best director from 13 nominations. In particular, Tom Hanks' reelection became the focus of the media. For example, the box office of films that were still shown in hundreds of theaters in North America once again showed a significant rebound. In the ninth month of the film’s release, it still received a box office of more than 100,000 US dollars a week and won the "Forrest Gump" outside of North America. The copyright firefly also started the next stage of the film plan.
Firefly Studios, the time is Friday, after a period of research, Katzenberg brought out the evaluation plan of 3d and ima technology.
"According to the detailed survey conducted by the Strategic Planning Department, everyone feels that the current 3D technology may have the possibility of promotion, but ima will not work. There are too many restrictions on this technology, and there is no possibility of large-scale promotion."
The two were still sitting in a cafe in the studio at this time. Eric pushed the coffee aside, flipped through the information that Katzenberg had compiled, and asked, "What is the main reason?"
Between 3d and ima, Eric actually prefers the latter. This may be the result of being poisoned by too many pseudo 3d movies in the previous life.
"The main thing is the cost," Katzenberg apparently did a lot of homework, without having to read the information, he blurted out: "Just take the theater renovation cost, for 3d, most movie theaters only need to replace a set of projection systems, the current most The price of advanced polarized 3D movie projectors is only about 10,000 US dollars, plus 3D eyes and other hardware, the total cost of the transformation will never exceed 150,000 US dollars. But ima is different, the small ima screen size is four As high as a five-story building, more than ninety-nine percent of movie theaters in the United States and Europe are not eligible for modification. If you want to build an ima theater, you can only start from scratch. The construction of the venue and the projection equipment will take about 15o. Ten thousand dollars, which is ten times the cost of 3D cinema reconstruction."
Listening to Katzenberg’s explanation, Eric suddenly understood why the mainland has become the fastest growing area of ima technology in the previous life. Because the popularity of ima and the explosion of the film industry there are almost simultaneous, and a large number of new theaters have been built from one place to another. The ima specifications can be determined from the beginning. But North America and Europe are different. In these regions, the film industry has been exhibiting for a hundred years, and the supporting cinemas have already been finalized. The projection halls of these cinemas basically do not meet the ima reconstruction standards. Facing the high cost of ima cinema, the enthusiasm of traditional cinemas to rebuild the ima cinema will certainly not be too high.
Going through the information in hand, in addition to the cost of theater renovation, want to popularize ima, from film shooting to film conversion, almost all accompanied by very high cost requirements. Relatively speaking, the difficulty of popularizing 3D technology is much lower. At present, ima technology cannot support a complete movie duration of more than 9o minutes. 3D technology has been roughly mature. The main reasons why it cannot be promoted are 3d film sources and 3d. The lack of theaters. Even the current ‘famous’ of 3D technology is not very good, because many theaters with 3D equipment are showing amazing movies that give people a sense of curiosity.
Eric is not a blind idealist. Many things need to be done step by step. After thinking about it for a while, he said: "I saw that ima company is currently working on the dmr reset technology for converting ordinary film to ima film. You can let people pay attention to it. , The other party’s financial situation does not seem to be very good, we can invest a sum of money in. In addition, on our own side, we have set up a special 3D technology research department in the digital field. Well, when I finish filming "Casino Royale", the lower part The video may be able to try 3d."
Katzenberg nodded. He generally considered Eric’s suggestions. However, after Eric finished speaking, Katzenberg continued: “Eric, I also think that 3D technology is definitely the future of the film industry. It’s a brand new exhibition field in 2010, so don’t you think this is a good driver for us to enter the cinema industry?"
"Theatrical line?" Eric raised his eyebrows unexpectedly, but he didn't think about it.
In the 1980s, during Reagan’s administration, the federal government gradually liberalized the control of the entertainment industry. The Paramount Act that separated film companies from theaters at that time was dead in name. Viacom, Time Warner, and Universal Each has its own cinema chain, among which Viacom holds the largest cinema chain and has high block screens in the United States.
However, the rise of the Firefly exhibition was relatively late, and it had not had time to get involved in the theater business. Because of the deep-rooted concepts of the Paramount Act, Eric did not subconsciously consider this matter.
At this time, after Katzenberg reminded, Eric discovered that in recent years, it is indeed the best time for Firefly to get involved in the theater business. Although in many people’s minds, “Avatar” is the beginning of the rise of 3D movies, in fact, 3D movies have appeared in the years before and after the new century. The well-known “Spider-Man” and “Halibo” in the past life Movies such as "Special" all have 3D versions, but because of various limiting factors, these movies have not reached the powerful influence of "Avatar".
Whether it is 3d technology or ima, the time has passed the Chinese New Year. Therefore, the promotion of these technologies is not technically difficult. The difficulty is that there is a lack of strong institutions to promote.
So, at this time, it is not bad for Firefly to be such a ‘pioneer’. After all, according to the historical trajectory, the North American film market reached saturation around 2ooo. The market growth for more than ten years was driven by the increase in ticket prices. If 3d and ima can be promoted, it will undoubtedly break the market. Saturation restrictions have prompted further growth in the industry.
After thinking about it for a while, Eric put down the empty coffee cup and said: "Jeffrey, this matter can be added to the next stage of the Firefly exhibition plan, but I hope you can be very cautious. I always hope that Firefly can be more Strong, but also worried that the firefly will become dull and bloated due to blind expansion, do you understand?"
"Of course, I'm not 100% sure, I won't do this easily."
Eric nodded, picked up the coffee pot and filled himself with a cup of coffee, and said, "Do you know what Steve they are doing?"
"David also talked to me, hoping that I could help in the past, I refused," Katzenberg said without concealing: "They will officially announce the news next month, but I don’t know the details. Clear."
David Geffen and Katzenberg have always been good friends. Eric also knows this. However, the friendship factor is unlikely to drive a determined business elite to change. The former Katzenberg was nothing else. Choose, at this time, he clearly understands that the firefly is the best stage for him to stretch his talents. (To be continued.) 8