Chapter 598： Going crazy

In Century City, James Murdoch, who had just arrived in Los Angeles from the UK, stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows in the reception room on the top floor of the Fox Building, looking diagonally across the street. A brand new building stood there with a line of eye-catching characters-Theory of Relativity. building.

What was originally a humble small Hollywood company has become a leader in the second line, and even threatened Fox to a certain extent.

After two years of hard work in London, James Murdoch won the trust of his father Rupert Murdoch. In addition to continuing to serve as the CEO of Sky TV and News Corporation’s UK branch, he was also allowed to participate in the second The business of Tenth Century Fox.

This also gives James Murdoch more hope, and the future seems to be in his hands.

The door of the reception room opened and Jim Pros, the president of Twentieth Century Fox, walked in.

"Hi, James." Jim Prolos greeted enthusiastically: "It's just been a meeting, so you have been waiting for a long time."

James Murdoch seems to respect Jim Pros very much: "I just arrived, your job is important."

The two of them sat on the sofa chairs in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows. From this place, they could overlook Century City and the entire Los Angeles.

James Murdoch pointed to the office building he had just looked at: "When I came to Fox last time, this building was still called the Death Star Building, right?"

Jim Prolos took a look there and said: "Relativity Entertainment spent more than 200 million US dollars to buy this building as the company headquarters."

"I saw Ronan Anderson in London a few years ago." James Murdoch still remembers the meeting at the royal charity party: "At that time, Relativity Entertainment was still a small company, right?"

Jim Prolos nodded slightly: "In the past two years, Relativity Entertainment has developed too fast, and the equity structure of Relativity Entertainment is simple. Strictly speaking, it is a sole proprietorship company and does not need to disclose revenue and financial reports. They can only roughly estimate their income based on market statistics. Except for internal executives, it is estimated that others are not clear about the true profitability of Relativity Entertainment in a year."

James Murdoch said: "On the film business alone, where do they rank in Hollywood?"

Jim Prolos said without hesitation: "The top three are inevitable, but Relativity Entertainment does not have TV and other media businesses, which is a weakness."

James Murdoch asked: "What is the basis for the calculation?"

"Mainly from the box office." Jim Prolos simply said: "The offline income is estimated by the box office."

"By the way, was there a Relativity Entertainment film released last weekend?" James Murdoch asked again.

Jim Prolos smiled: "Resident Evil, which is adapted from the game, is a sequel. The first box office is good, and this one is the same. The North American box office at the first weekend was 34.2 million U.S. dollars, and the box office at the single venue exceeded 10,000. "

James Murdoch raised his eyebrows: "Can the North American box office exceed 100 million?"

Jim Pross shook his head: "The reputation of this film is not ideal. The possibility of over 100 million in North America is unlikely, but 80 million US dollars should be fine." He sighed: "Compared with first-line commercial production, these medium-to-low-scale projects , The income does not seem particularly amazing, but the theory of relativity will release about five copies every year, which together make a huge profit."

James Murdoch looked at the Relativity Entertainment Building in the distance: "Ronan Anderson is very capable of running movies."

Jim Prolos said directly: "I think Ronan Anderson is above Jerry Bruckheimer."

James Murdoch didn’t expect Jim Prolos to have such a high rating. He was silent for a moment and then said for a while: “According to you, Relativity Entertainment is stronger than DreamWorks. The six major companies just watched. Is he stronger?"

"Relativistic entertainment has been a lot of trouble recently." Jim Prolos said: "But they have a simple equity structure, healthy financials, and sufficient cash flow. As long as they can produce high-quality movies stably, the Big Six has no good way to take him. It’s been too long to be separated from the studio. Paramount has used the means of exclusive releases, but the box office of "The Passion of the Christ" has exploded, and these means have all become laughing stocks."

James Murdoch is very aware of the weight of 20th Century Fox in the entire News Corporation. After thinking about it for a moment, he asked: "Can't we start offline?"

"Offline rental and sales market? There is no way to limit it." Jim Prolos smiled helplessly: "Fox has made this effort and it has no effect. The Big Six, including myself, have not paid much attention to relativity entertainment before. Think that the threat of future competition is DreamWorks. Even if the Relativity Entertainment has a good performance for two years, it is only a falling star."

He put away his smile, his gaze gradually turned dark: "When it really attracts attention, Relativity Entertainment has formed a nearly complete industrial chain."

Jim ProLogis knew James Murdoch’s ambitions, and he was also a supporter of James Murdoch within News Corporation. At this time, he took the trouble to say: “Online theaters, as long as the movie can bring traffic No matter whose film they are from, even if it is a Russian company, they can still take pictures. The most important thing in the offline market is DVD, peripherals and licensing, and TV copyright."

James Murdoch listened very seriously, because one day he will return to the United States from London to fight for what belongs to him.

Jim Prolos continued: “In terms of peripherals, a movie has a big box office, where characters or other products become popular, and profit-driven businesses will certainly not let it go, such as "Pirates of the Caribbean" and Captain Jack Sparrow, and the embassy The film industry has its own developed manufacturing and distribution channels."

"DVD can now account for nearly half of the profit of a movie. This is actually the best way to restrict. Viacom’s Blockbuster company has stopped selling and renting movies from Relativity Entertainment since last year. The impact is limited because Netflix, a subsidiary of Relativity Entertainment, has surpassed Blockbuster in terms of rental and sales performance."

"In addition, like the peripheral products, Embassy Pictures has an independent DVD producer on the other side of the Pacific. In that country, our ability to influence is limited and we can create foreign exchange business. No company will easily give up."

James Murdoch interjected: "What about TV rights? Relativity Entertainment does not have a TV station, right?"

Jim-Pross nodded and said: "CBS belongs to Viacom, ABC is under Disney's, NBC has just merged with Universal Pictures, plus our Fox TV station, all four major television networks in the United States and six major film companies The connection is close. The problem is that the six major companies have never really joined together. They are competitors."

If you want the big six companies to work closely together and take a shot at a very powerful company, I am afraid that the big six will first mess up themselves.

Although there is a certain tacit understanding between the six major companies, and even a small amount of cross-shareholding between each other, who does not want to completely suppress other companies and become the top company in Hollywood and occupy the largest market.

Visible opponents like Relativity Entertainment are not terrible, and those secret enemies who seem to be standing with themselves, no one wants to face them.

James Murdoch asked: "Is there no other good way?"

"It's too difficult. The Big Six itself is also difficult." Jim Prolos shook his head and said: "Universal Pictures has just merged with NBC, and the internal integration will not be completed within a few years. For the time being, there will be no energy to take care of others. Pella Meng Films had trouble with Relativity Entertainment, but was broken. There was a problem with their production business, and they stared at DreamWorks and wanted to swallow it. Warner Bros. and Relativity Entertainment are still in the honeymoon period, and the two parties are in multiple movies. There is cooperation on the project. Disney, not to mention, the two factions inside are about to shoot each other. We Fox is not easy, and Marvel comics seem to be crazy recently, requesting to modify "X-Men" and "Fantastic Four" 》’S contract, otherwise legal procedures will be required..."

"I remember the contract with Marvel is very clear." James Murdoch said.

Jim Prolos said: "This is not a contract issue. Marvel Comics is crazy. They sold almost all of their valuable copyright assets, and they turned their faces on us for money."

James Murdoch's tone became cold: "A worthless company is not worth paying for Fox. Don't be soft on Marvel comics. They are not worthy of sympathy."

Jim Pross also said: "I am not worried about Marvel comics. Marvel comics are indeed crazy because of lack of funds, but there are people behind them who are promoting this..."

James Murdoch was immediately alert: "You mean relativity entertainment?"

"Yes, Relativity Entertainment." Jim Prolos said slowly: "As far as I know, Relativity Entertainment and Ronan Anderson bought the copyrights of a number of second- and third-tier comic characters from Marvel. Since then, the relationship between the two parties has been very close. , Robert Lee and Avi Allard of Relativity Entertainment are very close James Murdoch stood up, came to the floor-to-ceiling windows, once again looked at the Relativity Entertainment Building, and whispered: "I In London, there are some people who can get exclusive news by special means. "

Jim Prolos quickly said: "James, be cautious. Ronan Anderson is not an ordinary person. He has at least one billion dollars in net worth. He is cunning and cunning. If we take the lead in using methods that exceed the rules..."

Unlike these professional managers in Hollywood who are fairly abiding by the rules of the game, James Murdoch dared to use illegal methods for his own benefit.

In London, he has instructed some media under News Corporation to do so.

"I understand." James Murdoch also knows to be cautious: "I will consider it carefully."

Jim Prolos was a little relieved, he was just a professional manager and couldn't go crazy.

James Murdoch added: "I'm going to meet Ronan Anderson."