Vol 2 Chapter 515: Conversation with Jobs

Chapter 515 Dialogue with Jobs
Before the Shang Hai Film Festival was over, Duke took his own business jet and flew to Los Angeles. During this trip to China, apart from using several promotional activities to expand the signature of Rosenberg format movies, other gains can only be said. In general, especially the "Hurricane Rescue" released simultaneously in China and the United States, the actual income can only be said to be better than nothing.
Limited by the size of the market and the number of theaters, when Duke left, "Hurricane Rescue" was released in China for a full week, and got a box office of 42.28 million RMB, although compared to most movies of this era, it is a pretty good box office result. , But only 13% of the box office share ratio does not bring much practical benefits.
Fortunately, the future is bright. As long as his brand is loud enough, after a few years, there will be a bumper harvest.
Compared with China, North America is where Duke’s business is based. Hurricane Rescue has maintained a stable performance during the four working days this week, with a total of 41.17 million US dollars, plus 51.25 million US dollars in the first weekend. Although the North American box office failed to break 100 million a week, it also reached 92.42 million US dollars, which is a very good result compared to the type of film subject matter and investment scale.
Moreover, the audience's reputation of the film has not been 23. The emascore cinema audience's praise rate has always been maintained at more than 85%. When the navy is basically not launched, the imdb score is temporarily as high as 8.5 points.
But on the second weekend, "Hurricane Rescue" encountered Spielberg's "Happiness Terminal".
In Hollywood. The subject matter type and investment scale of commercial films are equally important for market performance, and can even match the role of directors and superstars. For example, a few years ago, Duke did not direct the Lord of the Rings series, but replaced it with the type of "Shawshank's Redemption". Even he could not make the film super popular, and many Hollywood films would not make a detour.
For the same reason, in this year's summer file, many films no longer dodged "Hurricane Rescue" like last year. Because it is not necessary at all.
This schedule was actually carefully chosen by Duke, and he generally had some impressions of many of the most popular movies. Of course, the persimmon is also soft.
Most of the time, Spielberg is a persimmon that is not easy to pinch, but "Happiness Terminal" is absolutely an exception, this is a rare jewish old man's street work.
Recent years. DreamWorks' situation is getting tougher. Every time DreamWorks encounters difficulties, Spielberg will release a work, and Hollywood also has a peculiar landscape-DreamWorks is in trouble, Spielberg takes the rescue.
But no matter how great a director is, no one can support a company as big as DreamWorks alone. Duke can't, James Cameron can't, and Spielberg can't.
Not to mention. No matter how good a director is, sometimes he misses.
"Happiness Terminal" is undoubtedly Spielberg's missed work. Although the three major box office guarantees of Spielberg, Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta Jones were collected, the response was far below DreamWorks and outside expectations.
In the three days of this weekend, "Happiness Terminal" only collected $19.05 million in North America. Except for the classic "I have been waiting for my whole life, but I don't know who I'm waiting for" lines, I can't talk about it. On success.
Although the box office of "Hurricane Rescue" fell by 40% the following weekend, US$30.75 million was enough to ensure that the film won the North American box office chart again, and at the same time pushed the North American box office to the 100 million mark, reaching a total of US$123.17 million!
Back in Los Angeles, after a weekend break, Duke returned to work. "Hurricane Rescue" didn't cost him too much energy. The film has reached this level, and achieving high profits is not a problem at all. Warner Bros. The publicity department is staring, and he doesn't need to pay too much attention.
The first thing to do is to let Tina Fei and agent investor David jointly set up a negotiation team to conduct acquisition negotiations with Warner Bros.
The Duke’s Studio holds many copyrights for the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Harry Potter Series, and The Matrix Trilogy. It seems that the scale is small, but the actual profit is very high. Warner Bros. wants to eat it, it must be taken out. A lot of real money, and Duke is not short of cash, he wants Warner Bros. or Time Warner's equivalent shares.
Negotiation has never been a simple matter. This negotiation has just begun, and Duke has participated in another negotiation-the cooperation between Pixar Studios and Warner Bros.
After increasing its holdings in recent years, Duke's shares in Warner Bros. have been close to 9%. Warner Bros.'s income is closely related to him. Once the Duke Studio acquisition is completed, his Warner shares will continue to increase. .
Besides, he has other ideas.
With the current scale of Pixar Studios, Warner must use stock exchanges and cash payments to complete the merger. Compared with the large film companies that must maintain huge liquidity, Duke has sufficient cash in his hands, and the Lord of the Rings trilogy won Most of the proceeds were not used.
This can be described as a series of negotiations. The negotiations between Tina Fei and Warner Bros. will have one of the most basic conditions, which are closely related to the Pixar studio.
Duke then went to San Francisco to have an interview with Steve Jobs, who was recuperating.
Of course, he would not be so stupid to persuade a person with a stubborn character to receive treatment with Western medicine. Even a family member who can't persuade him would listen to an outsider. Is that possible?
This is just a dialogue about interests.
"Duke, you don't have to go around in circles."
Sitting under the vines in the hallway, Jobs poured a cup of tea for Duke. "There are six major companies in Hollywood. Even if you remove the weaker Sony Columbia, there are five. Why should I choose Warner Bros.?"
"Five companies?" Duke held up his teacup, took a sip, and shook his head slightly, "Steve, do you really have five choices?"
Without waiting for Jobs to answer, Duke continued, "Your negotiations with Disney have not progressed so far. The conditions for your cooperation are that Michael Eisner must step down. With Eisner's control over Disney, I am afraid it will be difficult to do so. Come on?"
Perhaps it was a chain reaction triggered by his appearance. Michael Eisner's position at Disney has been extremely stable up to now.
"Twentieth Century Fox has Blue Sky Studio, and the two sides have cooperated for many years. They do not lack an animation production department. Even if they want to cooperate, are you sure that Pixar Studios will maintain its position in the Disney system?"
"Universal Pictures is negotiating with Lighting Entertainment. This is a very promising animation company. Their sincerity is the problem."
"Paramount Pictures is indeed looking for a suitable animation partner, but Steve, have you noticed that DreamWorks is performing poorly. The Big Three want to spin off DreamWorks Animation Studios separately. It is said that Paramount Pictures will Become the new distributor of DreamWorks Animation."
Steve Jobs looked at Duke quietly, without saying anything.
There is no doubt that even if Duke said all these situations are true, he still has the absolute initiative in the negotiation.
"Warner is different. Warner has broad distribution channels all over the world and is the largest media company by market value." Duke is not so stupid to think that a few words can impress people like Jobs, just telling some basics. The situation reminded him of Warner’s advantages over other companies.
Although Warner also has an animation department, it is so small that it is basically negligible. We will give Pixar Studios the greatest creative freedom, more freedom than Disney.

The price issue is a matter of specific negotiation, and Duke does not need to mention it. If you want to get Pixar, you must offer a price that satisfies Jobs.
"This is the tea I brought from India." Jobs's topic suddenly turned to the tea. "How does it taste? Is it fresher and more natural than the black tea we are used to?"
"Very good." Duke gently turned the teacup. "It's just not to my taste. I'm still more used to drinking Chinese tea."
He suddenly changed the subject, "Steve, your life can only be described as a legend. I really want to make a biographical film of you in the future."
Jobs' eyes lit up, but he said nothing.
When a person enters the business circle, what he pursues is nothing but fame and fortune. Duke knows very well that for Jobs, money is just a number game, but what about the temptation to stay in history?
Just like "Schindler's List" to Oscar Schindler, a successful film will create an unlucky monument for someone else.
It's not easy to impress Jobs, and Duke couldn't possibly make a few words, so that the famous Steve Jobs was moved, until he left, Jobs did not express anything in particular.
But Duke believes that his words can still bring a little impact, as long as it can make Jobs a little biased towards Warner, that is enough.
Duke took a helicopter back to Los Angeles, but before he arrived at his destination, the news of his meeting with Jobs was passed to the ears of Disney executives.
"It is unlikely that other companies will really cooperate with Pixar Studios."
In the spacious office, Cook Dick sat in a swivel chair, looking at Michael Eisner behind the desk, "Warner and Duke Rosenberg are our biggest competitors."
Michael Eisner folded his hands on his desk, "What about Marvel Pictures?"
"Duke Rosenberg has agreed to Marvel as the director of "Iron Man." Cook Dick quickly replied, "Marvel Pictures is more inclined to cooperate with Warner."
He reminded, "Michael, we cannot lose Pixar, we must make appropriate concessions in the negotiation."
"Without Pixar, we still have Disney Animation Studios."
Since "Tarzan of the Apes", Disney Animation Studio has been committed to the development of 3D computer animation. The countless glories in the past have also convinced Michael Eisner that Disney Animation will inevitably rise again. "You can make appropriate concessions, but you can't let Jobs Zhang Open your mouth!"
A trace of sullenness flashed in his eyes, and Eisner said again, "Ovitz and David Ellison's new film should not be fixed for the release date. After the release date of the new Batman is announced, I want to save Batman... …"
A sneer hung over his mouth. (To be continued...)