American Life

Chapter 241 Sweep, theater fight
In the rainy Chicago, the howling cold wind swept across the land, and a movie theater in the city center was full of seats.

The scene of "Slumdog Millionaire" was playing on the big screen. Everyone was holding their breath and staring at the screen with countless pairs of eyes.

If everyone was still skeptical before the movie was officially broadcast, after all, it looked no different from those imported movies from Bollywood. Many people even walked into the theater with the attitude of passing the time.But with the recommendation of the plot, all the previous indifference and lack of optimism disappeared.

Everyone held their breath and the entire cinema was silent except for the lines in Hindi.

When the movie came to an end, watching the male and female protagonists meet again in front of the screen, some people shed tears.

But as the subtitles "Don't go away, there will be dancing later" appeared on the movie screen, a knowing smile appeared in the theater.

As the lively and iconic song and dance segment ended, the audience walked out of the theater.

"That's what good movies are like. They make you feel uncomfortable at one moment and make you laugh at the next."

"I think this is the best movie I've ever seen in my life."

"At least it's better than "The Return of Youth." That movie was simply a backwards version of "Forrest Gump." It might have been a good movie in the past, but now it can only be regarded as a poor imitation.

Among the people leaving, there were constant discussions, and similar discussions took place in thousands of theaters across the United States.

At his home in Chicago, Charlie was faced with several Hollywood media articles about the film. Magazines such as "Hollywood Reporter", "Variety" and "Vanity Fair" all gave this film high praise. Some even said that this film has already booked two Oscars for the 81st Academy Award for Film of the Year and Best Director.

In the face of overwhelming praise, the box office curve of "Slumdog Millionaire" has bucked the trend for several consecutive days. Word-of-mouth plays a vital role in this. The large-scale distribution of PB Pictures has made the film's box office record boom. It has been rising steadily. In just one week, it has accumulated a box office of 5000 million. This is very rare for an independent film without any big-name cast support. If you take into account the distinctive Indian cultural background, it is a first in film history. once.

As far as Charlie is concerned, this is actually just the beginning. According to the current momentum, the release time of Slumdog Millionaire will continue until the middle of this year, followed by the release of DVD. I believe that with the blessing of the Oscars, this film The film will bring itself no less income than the box office.

In the blink of an eye, it’s the end of February, and it’s another grand Oscar ceremony of the year. This year’s Oscar ceremony will be hosted by Hugh Jackman.

There is no doubt that the biggest winner of this awards ceremony is "Slumdog Millionaire", which swept this year's Oscars with 8 awards and became the biggest winner.Looking at the producer who finally came on stage to accept the statuette, Charlie, who was sitting in front of the TV, showed no emotion or anger on his face, as calm as if the matter had nothing to do with him.

In fact, he would have been the one on stage to receive the award if he had wanted to, and although many people had tried to invite Charlie to the party, Charlie had declined them all.

"You have understood this truth and are used to hiding in the dark." Militao's voice came from the phone.

"I admire you very much, Charlie Rossi. You can always find the most valuable movies. This alone is enough to guarantee you a lifetime of prosperity and wealth in Hollywood." Militan's voice on the phone revealed envy.

"It's a pity that some people won't sit idly by and ignore it." Charlie seemed to have foreseen what happened this year.

"The original structure will change, and the people sitting at the table will naturally refuse to give up their seats and stay away from the center of fame and fortune, so sometimes we need a more brutal method."

"Sounds like it's going to be a bloody storm."

"I can only tell you that this is just the beginning." Charlie hung up the phone.

"Mark Shapiro and Ali Emmanuel have agreed to meet with us and are willing to discuss the acquisition with you, sir." Kayla walked into the room and said to Charlie.

These two are now the co-managers of IMG.

A few days later, Charlie and Gisele Bundchen appeared at the IMG global headquarters in New York.

Ali Emmanuel stepped forward and hugged Gisele Bundchen enthusiastically, even taking priority over Charlie.

"We haven't seen each other for almost a year, how are you doing?" Ali Emmanuel held Gisele Bundchen's hand, his eyes were like a kind old man, and it was obvious that the relationship between the two was very close. deep.

At the same time, Charlie shook hands with another co-manager, Mark Shapiro, and their conversation became much more formal.

Before coming here, Gisele informed the current power structure within IMG.

After Forstmann Little, a private equity fund specializing in leveraged buyouts, took control of IMG, it sent Mark Shapiro as an airborne manager last year, while Ari Emmanuel was a partner of the company. IMG had already The right-hand man of late founder Mark McCormack.

This is exactly the same as when Charlie acquired PB Company, and the two internal factions were fighting.

But this time, Charlie has a strong assistant beside him. It can be seen from Ali's reaction to Giselle that Giselle had a good relationship with the company's senior executives.

Thinking about it, as the most valuable model in the world, she is undoubtedly one of the faces of IMG, so it makes sense that she knows the company's top management.

Entering the conference room, Charlie explained his thoughts on the acquisition.

He expects to acquire all of IMG's businesses for US$20 billion in cash and stock, which is US$5 million higher than the last time Yahoo came.

Previously, Gisele, as an intermediary, expressed Charlie's intention to the company's senior management. The positions of the senior leaders would be guaranteed and would not be affected by the subsequent acquisition.

With Giselle as a middleman, the two parties gained trust very easily.

As for the private equity funds represented by Mark Shapiro, they also welcome the acquisition.This fund was originally a fund focused on leveraged buyouts. Through capital operations, it acquired many well-known companies including Gulf Meteor Airlines, Topps Playing Cards, Dr Pepper, Stanadyne, General Instruments, etc., and brought benefits to investors through sales. Profit of US$140 billion.

One wants money, the other wants trust, and Charlie satisfies the needs of both parties at the same time.Negotiations for the acquisition also went extremely smoothly.

Entering April, the movie-going market has welcomed a blockbuster movie at the beginning of the month. "Fast and Furious 4" was officially released on April 3, opening in 3 theaters, and the box office on the first day reached $461.

Bob Friedman chose to schedule "Black Swan" on April 4th, which will directly face "Dragon Ball Evolution", a work with high hopes in the first quarter of which 10th Century Fox invested US$20 million.

Intensive promotion for the film's star, Eva Green, continued leading up to the film's release.

However, theaters did not buy this somewhat melancholy thriller, and only about 1000 theaters chose to release it on the first day.

On the other hand, Dragon Ball Evolution has been so popular that theaters chose to screen it on its premiere day.

Although the theaters where they debuted were quite different, the first-day box office of the two movies was similar.Black Swan's first-day box office gross was $170 million.And Dragon Ball Evolution only costs $200.

There was a clear difference in attendance. Starting from the next day, theaters began to vote with their feet. Black Swan was screened in more than 100 theaters. By Easter, Black Swan was screened in 2000 theaters, while Dragon Ball was screened in Theaters plummeted by half.

There is never a shortage of movies in North American theaters, and movies with low attendance rates will naturally be discarded directly.

Ten days later, the gap between the two movies has widened. Black Swan has a box office of 2000 million, while Dragon Ball only has a measly 800 million.

During this period, a movie was released that left a deep impression on Charlie. "Heart of Fury" starring Jason Statham was released on April 17th, with a box office of 200 million on the first day.

Entering May, Black Swan ushered in another heavyweight competitor.

"X-Men: Wolverine" starring Hugh Jackman, Dragon Ball sadly bowed out less than a month after its release, and Wolverine's box office on its first day reached an astonishing US$400 million. In just three days, it overtook "Black Swan" which had been released for more than half a month.

Along with "Fast and Furious 4," both movies experienced rapid box office declines.

On June 6, "The Hangover" was released as scheduled. With its excellent reputation, it quickly became a dark horse at the box office this month. The box office exceeded 5 million in the ten days after its release, surpassing "Up", which was released two days in advance. It has continued until June 6.During this period, the movie "Fake Marriage" starring Sandra Bullock was released.

On June 6, the summer blockbuster "Transformers 24" was released as scheduled. After Megan Fox left the Transformers crew early, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley took over her position.

The box office on the first day reached US$6000 million, showing great momentum.

In July, the most watched movie was undoubtedly "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", and its box office on its opening day was almost the same as Transformers 2.

Compared with a monopoly in July, the competition in the film market in August is even more intense.

At the beginning of the month it was Paramount's "G.I. Joe", in the middle of the month it was PB Pictures' "District 5000" and Warner Bros.'s "The Time Traveler's Wife", and at the end of the month it was Warner Bros.'s sequel to "Dead Man". The box office of the nine districts in the first month was million US dollars, firmly ranking second in the month.

In September, the bustling summer season has come to an end, and the market has become a bit sluggish compared to the previous two months. Various companies have not produced strong movies this month, but in this month, "Now You See Me" released by PB Pictures began to attract everyone's attention, dominating the box office rankings in the second half of the month.

This situation lasted until October, when "The Twilight Saga" took over. This month's dark horse at the box office was "The Ghost Story," but it was still dwarfed by "The Twilight Saga."

In November, masterpieces such as "2012" and "The Polar Express" will be released.

Bob originally scheduled "The Twilight Saga 2" to be released this month, but was directly rejected by Charlie.

Because the group of blue-skinned Na'vi people were ready to go, as a box office miracle created by James Cameron, Avatar dominated the North American market for two consecutive months, with only a few drops in the second place during that period. For a month, I was filled with the fear of being dominated by the Avatar.

In response, Charlie let "The Hurt Locker" choose Avatar to be released on the same day, and by the way, he also played the slogan of the duel between husband and wife in the past, which made a wave of gimmicks. It lasted for more than 20 days, but it was enough for Charlie. When he won the Oscar, this film will be extremely enthusiastically sought after in the DVD market like Slumdog Millionaire.

The acquisition of IMG has also been officially completed.

It is worth mentioning that Peter Rice left Fox Searchlight in the middle of the year and switched to work at FOX TV.

Although the position has not changed, the person in charge of a TV station is actually much more important than an independent film label, so it is considered a promotion.

·
In Time Warner's office, a group of senior executives looked at the information placed on the conference table.

The content of the information is not directly related to Warner, but is about the performance analysis report of PB Pictures in the past two years.

"Starting from last summer's summer season, 10 films have been released in two years, 3 Marvel-related comic-book movies, and the remaining 7 films are from PB Pictures. Except for The Hurt Locker, which was temporarily withdrawn due to poor box office, The other six movies have all achieved good results. The cumulative box office in two years is nearly 6 billion US dollars. This is only in theaters. Other back-end income will only be higher, and this does not include several other films currently being prepared by Charlie Rossi. Movie." CEO Kevin McCrary put down the analysis report in his hand, his voice trembling.

"This box office has already surpassed Sony, and it is in the middle of the current five major film companies. Maybe within a few years..." Kevin McCrary did not say any more.

Charlie Rossi’s PB rose rapidly at an incredible speed, becoming one of the top five players within two years and becoming a new giant.

This result has surpassed Paramount and Universal, and is slightly behind Disney. Even if it is less than one billion US dollars behind Warner, which has the highest box office among the top five.

"This does not include his current brokerage business." Another executive's face also became very ugly.

"Our comic book movie will also be put on the agenda." Kevin McCrary looked at everyone present and said seriously.

Just ten years ago, when people mentioned comic book movies, the first thing they thought of was Superman and Batman, not the red-skinned machine.

Apart from this, I can't think of any other ways to deal with it.

Similar discussions also occurred within the other four giant companies. Hollywood is in a state of turmoil this year, and the name that many people are talking about is Charlie Rossi.

As the center of the storm, Charlie Rossi received one after another invitations from the five major film companies.

This came a few years earlier than he expected, and Hollywood capital seemed to be very interested in him.

Next, he wants to merge with one of the five major companies. It is time to reach the pinnacle of fame and fortune in Hollywood.

(End of this chapter)