Chapter 903: roller coaster
As Richard Lovett expected, the impression of the removal of Bruce South, MGM's share price fell by 6.8% on Tuesday. Since MGM did not take any remedial measures, the market value of MGM has dropped from the peak of $100 million to $11.5 billion at the close of the day.
Early in the morning on Wednesday, when major newspapers in North America discussed whether MGM’s share price would fall again, reporters who had been at the MGM headquarters in Century City suddenly heard heavy news, 9:00 am local time in Los Angeles. Twenty, James Bond's actor Pierce Brosnan suddenly appeared in Century City, and under the guard of a group of assistants and bodyguards, hurried into the MGM headquarters building. Related photos appeared on the Yahoo Portal homepage almost simultaneously.
In this case, even a fool can guess that Bruce South has undergone a major turn for the replacement.
Although MGM still did not announce any news, MGM's share price, which has fallen again since the opening of the day, suddenly rose sharply on the New York Stock Exchange on the East Coast. In just half an hour, the market value of MGM returned. A high of $12 billion.
Then, at ten o'clock, MGM finally released another announcement through the Yahoo portal, but the content was not related to the media and movie agents who closely watched the movie universe.
Announcement: In order to alleviate the cash flow and minimize the risk of investment, MGM decided to transfer the production rights of the Lord of the Rings trilogy to Firefly Pictures. The company only retains the global cinema release of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. right.
As soon as the news came out, the stock price of MGM's rapid rise suddenly stagnated, and even a short downward arc appeared.
The rumors that MGM is about to make a one-off trilogy of "The Lord of the Rings" have not been broken in the past two years. In the recent period, the industry has repeatedly reported that this project has entered a substantial preliminary preparation stage.
The rookie director, the 300 million budget, the unnamed card, and the risky words that are very unfavorable to the whole project often appear in the analysis articles of major media.
Many media also speculate that if Eric Williams, who controls MGM behind the scenes, is really optimistic about this project, it will definitely involve the firefly film industry. But if the fireflies don't participate at all, then the project is likely to be a gamble that Eric himself is not sure.
Therefore, the sudden announcement made everyone unprepared.
Fireflies did not choose to participate in the production of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, but almost took away the entire project. MGM's so-called global cinema distribution rights will ultimately only result in a global box office share of around 15% of the "Lord of the Rings" series. In the later period, the lucrative video tape/dvd distribution, TV broadcast rights revenue and peripheral product revenues obviously have nothing to do with MGM.
Less than the final dust settled, even if the media is well-informed, it is impossible to straighten out the various power games that have taken place in the past few days. But this does not prevent them from speculating on the meaning of this announcement.
Soon, the most daring and the most serious speculation came out, and quickly landed on Yahoo's hot topic list: MGM and Williams parted ways!
Yesterday, MGM released the announcement of the removal of Bruce South, the relevant inside story was quickly leaked, it is Eric Williams himself. Subsequently, MGM shares fell 6.8% throughout the day, MGM's European shareholder spokesperson Pierre Truk from New York rushed to Los Angeles to contact MGM executives.
Then, following this line of thought, MGM's European shareholders will certainly not be able to tolerate the impact of the removal of Bruce South's share price on MGM, although outsiders have speculated that Drew Barrymore, who holds the largest stake in MGM, is Eric. Williams’s embarrassment, but after all, there is no indication of this. The shareholding of Eric Williams and MGM is only indirectly through the 8.4% stake in MGM controlled by the Group. If Drew Barrymore and MGM's top executives are dissatisfied with Eric Williams' decision, plus the support of European shareholders represented by Pierre Truk. It is not impossible for several major shareholders to unite with Williams to turn their faces and completely get rid of each other's control.
Then, this morning, Bruce South re-entered the MGM headquarters, MGM gave up the risky "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, all these signs are contrary to the will of Eric Williams.
So guessing, MGM and Eric Williams completely broke apart, and the two sides parted ways, it seems completely reasonable.
Due to the speculations that MGM transferred the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, the stock price was in a very unstable state of volatility for the next hour.
As the core of the special movie universe, Pierce Brosnan is of course important, which can be seen from the stock price drop of MGM yesterday.
However, if the company's investors choose between Eric Williams and Pierce Brosnan, most people will not hesitate too much.
Anyone knows that the recovery of MGM in recent years is entirely the credit of Eric Williams. In recent years, MGM has brought lucrative profits, including the Agent Film Universe series, the Museum Wonderful Night series, the Resident Evil series, etc., all of which are dominated by Eric.
Perhaps these projects have entered a stable profit period, but a little sane investor will not think that Eric Williams is irrelevant. After all, although it has begun to recover, MGM is still the weakest of the seven major film companies, and the company's development is also limited to the traditional film business, far less than the other major integrated into a large media group. That way the tree is deep. If the support of the Firefly Group is completely lost, and even after the two sides tore their faces, they will be suppressed by the Firefly Group. The impact of MGM is definitely a lot more than the loss of Pierce Brosnan.
As a result, the news of the complete break between MGM and Eric gradually spread and was accepted by more and more people, and the situation suddenly changed.
At around 11 am Western time, the New York Stock Exchange on the East Coast was only one and a half hours away from the day's close.
But in just one and a half hours, MGM's stock price curve is like a gravitational shot. Under the flight, when the closing moment comes, MGM's share price finally stops at 22.82 US dollars, which not only completely offsets Pierce. Bruce South re-entered the MGM headquarters to boost, and compared to the opening of 26.45 US dollars, the whole day fell to a shocking 13.7%, MGM's overall market value has therefore fallen back to 10 billion In the dollar range, only $9.92 million is left.
I turned around and turned all night, although I thought about it occasionally, it was a big deal with MGM. But the day was bright, and from the Beverly mid-level mansion that had just started, overlooking Los Angeles in the morning, Pierce Brosnan decided to accept the payment conditions of MGM. Richard Lovett said that he was right. He lost 007. He struggled for more than a decade and he just got it all in Hollywood. His fame, glory, money... all disappeared, even because he completely tore his face. It may also be jointly suppressed by Firefly, MGM or even Fox, and he basically can no longer continue to stand in Hollywood.
However, although he decided to compromise on the pay, there are detailed terms such as personal treatment on the set, whether to cooperate with MGM in advertising, and the dangerous action scale when shooting, whether Brucenan himself came to negotiate in person. Richard Lovett, who has shown a certain attitude, MGM is not entangled in the details of the studio treatment, but also does not give up on the terms that may affect the quality of the film, The two sides came to me in the MGM meeting room for a whole day, until the night fell, and finally the contract was finalized.
In the meantime, the news that MGM's share price fell again and again couldn't help anyone who was present. The company was inevitably incited.
Knowing the detailed cause and effect of the matter, Drew, who was sitting at the conference table and personally participating in the negotiations, was a position to let the stock price fall, and even stopped Amy’s proposal to issue some clarification news. This is not just because she knows better than anyone else that the external rumors are completely false, and MGM's share price will definitely pick up again if properly clarified.
Moreover, Shantou is even happy to see this situation.
Just a rumor that Eric may break with MGM can cause MGM's share price to plummet, which can also make many people with dissidents thoroughly understand Eric's influence and importance to MGM. . Last night's heartfelt heart, Shantou decided to let go of Eric to hold MGM in the palm of her hand, but she did not intend to give the impression that Eric's influence on MGM would be reduced.
However, Shantou also knows the right reason, letting MGM's stock price roller coaster like a ups and downs, and let some people get enough stimulation. In the evening, MGM started to take action to save the stock price.
Officially signed a contract with Bruce South, MGM released the news on the Yahoo portal that night.
The four films were packed for about 60 million US dollars. When the news came out, they again exploded. This is obviously not possible because the average pay per $15 million is too high, but too low.
For most Hollywood stars, an average of $15 million per piece may be unpredictable. However, compared to the expected box office of Royal Casino and the huge profits brought by MGM in the entire agent movie universe, as the core starring, Bruce South's four $60 million packaging contract is simply the full price of cabbage. . Prior to this, many media speculated that Pierce Brosnan and MGM's next film will not be less than 60 million US dollars.
After the shock, some people began to realize that if the contract was true, MGM was clearly victorious in this dispute with Pierce Brosnan, and it was a triumphant victory.
So, in this case, Eric Williams, who led the suppression of Bruce South’s pay and even replaced the other side, would really break with MGM as most media speculated? After all, without the strong insistence of Eric Williams, MGM wants to sign four films with Bruce South, not to mention $60 million, even if it is $160 million, it may not be able to win.
Moreover, this victory has had a very positive impact on the overall promotion of the next stage of the MGM movie universe, whether it is the "Jiao Jiaowa" trio or the "Mission Impossible" Kevin Coster. Na, when negotiating with MGM, it is impossible to be full of enthusiasm.
In the chaotic comments and speculations, the next day, MGM gave the media and the public an answer in disguise.
MGM is about to launch a new selection of racing film series "Speed and Passion", which is composed by Eric as a screenwriter and a famous producer. At the same time, if the film gets a good market reaction, MGM will merge this series into the special movie universe in the future.
MGM released the news through the Yahoo! portal at nine o'clock in the US Eastern Time, but the market is still brewing the amount of information contained in this news, 9:30 pm, the New York Stock Exchange opened the moment EI Pierre Truk, the U.S. division of Vivay Group, announced that he will resign as a director of the MGM Group Board of Directors due to work reasons. The successor candidate will be jointly elected by MGM management and major shareholders. .
At this time, even those who were slow to respond, realized that Eric had not lost control of MGM from beginning to end. Not only did he dominate Mickey and Bruce South's remuneration negotiations, but he also mercilessly expelled Philip Truk, a European shareholder spokesperson who tried to intervene in MGM management, to expel the MGM board.
Although I still don't quite understand why Eric has transferred the risky "Lord of the Rings" trilogy to Firefly, it does not prevent the capital market from rekindling confidence in MGM. After all, investors are always the most valued. Eric's recent strong measures have caused MGM's turmoil, but there is no doubt that these measures are undoubtedly very beneficial to the development of MGM.
As a result, on Thursday, MGM's share price rebounded strongly to a high of 27 US dollars, with a market value of 11.74 billion US dollars.
Then, on Friday, due to a week of news that Pierce Brosnan may be replaced, the popularity of "Royal Casino" rose again, and a large number of fans went into the memory of the upcoming Pierce Brosnan. cinema.
In the end, the third week of the release, "Casino Royale" box office decline again narrowed, only 32%, and then received 52.73 million US dollars, three weeks of cumulative box office has reached 247 million US dollars, although temporarily failed to exceed the "Nemo" Five weeks of $263 million. However, compared with the same period of the "National Mobilization", "Royal Casino" third week at the box office was more than 8 million US dollars. In this way, "Royal Casino" North American box office will certainly exceed "Nemo", some analysts even raised the final box of Royal Casino's North American box office to 370 million, and the industry's North American box office expectations for "Nemo" are generally Less than $330 million.
After the box office data was released, further good news brought all kinds of good after-sales yesterday, which made MGM's share price break through the $30 mark on Friday, and finally stayed at the high level of $30.37, according to MGM's total of 435 million shares. In terms of equity calculations, the MGM market value reached $13.21 billion at the close of the week. (To be continued.)