Hollywood Tycoon [US Entertainment + Business War]

After signing the final agreement with Cotterian, assets such as MGM Film Production Company and United Artists Film Company are no longer subordinate to MGM Group, but instead become wholly-owned private companies under Sherman Entertainment Group—— Property of MGM Holdings, Inc.It's just that MGM doesn't have too many assets left at this time. According to the estimate of the asset appraisal company hired by Jed, the current market value of MGM Holdings is between 24 billion and 30 billion US dollars. The company has invested nearly 70 US dollars back and forth.It can be said that before the official operation, the company's assets have shrunk by more than half.

And the most troublesome thing for Jed is that MGM has no other assets except film library, copyright and trademark. Even MGM's headquarters building, MGM Tower, was sold by Cotterian and renamed Constellation Building.And the most frightening thing is that MGM and United Artists have a large number of redundant personnel and a large number of retirees. Due to the early humane policies of MGM and United Artists, the company's welfare expenses far exceed other businesses.When Jed saw such people who didn't work and only received their salaries, his first thought was to kick them all out of the company.

But the problem is that the guilds in the United States are very powerful, especially the dga (directors union), wga (screenwriters union), sag (actors union) and many professional unions in the American film industry are very close.Once Jed announced that he would fire certain employees, the three major trade unions would boycott MGM and even Galaxy.In Hollywood, if there is no union participation, then only small-budget productions under $300 million can be shot.More importantly, after this incident becomes a big deal, the government may not necessarily stand by the capitalists.The reason is simple, capitalists have banknotes, but trade unions have votes.No American politician dares to offend trade unions unless he intends to kill himself in politics.

"Actually, the easiest way is to declare bankruptcy as the labor union wishes." The current Galaxy Film Group has many professional vice presidents involved, although in Galaxy Pictures, the vice president is more to provide reference for the president , but according to the future concept, after Galaxy Pictures changed its name to Sherman Film and Television Entertainment Group, each vice president will manage a specific subsidiary or important business department by name.Therefore, everyone expressed their stance positively, hoping that they could be favored by Jade and become princes of the separatist side.

Although the statement made by the vice president is absurd, it has to be said that it is the best solution to the struggle between trade unions and management in the United States.The trade union will not accept any salary reduction or dismissal plan, so the management either reluctantly agrees, or simply declares bankruptcy.Of course, the most fundamental solution is to relocate the company to the Asia-Pacific region, where labor costs are lower.

Seeing that Jed had no objection, the vice president continued, "The most attractive thing about MGM and United Artists is the film library and trademark. As the largest shareholder of MGM and United Artists, MGM Holdings And creditors, we can let MGM and United Artists declare bankruptcy, then divide the film library and trademarks, and leave the remaining assets to the union. Such a distribution plan is also feasible for the court, after all, debt settlement is The priority creditor. With the film library and trademark, we just need to open MGM and United Artists. At that time, all the contracts between the union and us will be terminated due to the bankruptcy of the original company.”

"This is the last resort." Jed nodded. "We still try to reach a settlement with the trade union. After all, MGM, which went bankrupt once, will be announced by the Film Association to revoke its membership. We won't know when we go back. What time is it?"

Jed's concerns have also been acknowledged by the vice presidents, and part of the biggest assets of MGM and United Artists is the official membership of the Film Association.Once MGM and United Artists declare bankruptcy, Sony and Warner have countless reasons to expel MGM and United Artists from their membership.After MGM and United Artists are lost, it may take decades to get them back.Since Jed had the idea of ​​reconciling with the labor union, the financial department and the personnel department began to calculate the cost that MGM and United Artists could afford.If it goes any higher, then MGM and United Artists will have to go bankrupt.

While the Galaxy executives were discussing how to solve the crisis of MGM and United Artists, several guilds within MGM and United Artists also formed a trade union federation, and then tried to squeeze more money from Jed.In fact, generally speaking, although management and trade unions are natural enemies, they are not mortal enemies.After all, after the negotiation collapses, the employer can choose to go bankrupt or leave his hometown instead of continuing to cooperate with the trade union.And the big killer of the trade union can only be lethal when the economy is prosperous. After all, when faced with a lot of money, the management does not want the trade union to strike anyway.

But now that the U.S. economy has begun to fall into recession, most capitalists still wish you could go on strike.According to U.S. law, employers are not required to pay wages to striking workers.This left the capitalists with a lot of money, and they couldn't bear it. At worst, they declared bankruptcy and transferred their assets before continuing to develop in Southeast Asian countries.But the person who leads MGM and United Artists Federation of Trade Unions is just a fledgling boy, and he is also extremely homophobic, so he can't wait to "punish" Jed, a rich man who destroys the American spirit.

He offered all labor unions an unattainable new contract. The film company must spend 5% of the box office proceeds to purchase various pension insurance and medical insurance for those involved in film production.But after this plan was put forward, a few smart people contacted the trade union they belonged to and knew that it was completely unreliable.You must know that American screenwriters can only get 2.5% of the box office share, so why can other people get 5%?So to Jed's surprise, the Directors' Union, Screenwriters' Union, Actors' Union and Photographers' Union announced that they would follow the arrangement of the Federation of Trade Unions and would not participate in the arrangement of the so-called joint union.In a fit of rage, the new leader actually cursed in a radio interview, even talking about Jed's sexual orientation and bloodline.As soon as the interview aired, the Gay and Gay Anti-Discrimination League and the NAACP were the first to criticize the man for his remarks.

"This man is so stupid!" Jed originally thought that he would entangle with the union for several months, but to Jed's surprise, the leader of the union actually shut himself out.

Because of his extreme remarks, the major trade unions did not draw a line with him.You must know that although the United States has always discriminated against homosexuals and people of color, you must never express your stance in public.With the help of this pig teammate, Jed quickly reached an agreement with MGM and the United Artists Union.The MGM and United Artists union consortium will receive 10 percent and 15 percent stakes in future MGM Studios and United Artists.But MGM's television, record and other assets have nothing to do with the union.After the agreement came out, it immediately aroused dissatisfaction with the largest trade union organization in the United States, the AFL-CIO.

But soon the AFL-CIO also chose to shut up, because Jed sneered when interviewed by reporters: "If MGM can't survive in the United States, I don't mind moving MGM to Hong Kong at all. "

After hearing Jed's threat, the AFL-CIO immediately chose to shut up.The trade union organizations in the United States are the same as the U.S. government. Although the AFL-CIO is the leading organization of all trade unions in the United States, they have no right to overturn the decisions of subordinate trade unions.Moreover, Hollywood and the Los Angeles government generally welcome this contract, because everyone knows that MGM has already reached the point of bankruptcy. Can go bankrupt and go to Hong Kong.Therefore, after the union sacrificed a little interest to keep MGM and United Artists, it made the entire industry welcome.Therefore, although the AFL-CIO was very dissatisfied with the union's compromise, but in the face of the expectations of the entire industry, the AFL-CIO finally expressed a "cautious welcome."

After the agreement with the labor union was reached, MGM and United Artists announced that they would lose weight.And just after MGM and United Artists began to lay off employees, Jed announced that he had redeemed the ownership of the Constellation Building and would re-transform the building into the MGM Building in the future.This news made the staff of MGM and United Artists very grateful, because Jed also knew that the future Milky Way and MGM could not be together, because the films of Galaxy-related companies are almost all commercial films, and MGM Helianyi is also an art film.Therefore, the headquarters of MGM and United Artists are still located in the MGM Tower in downtown Los Angeles, while Galaxy-related companies will move to another place.Interesting to say, the headquarters of the new Galaxy is under the most famous sign in Hollywood, USA - the "Hollywood" billboard.In fact, this was originally the factory site of a senior American film company, but this company went bankrupt in the 20s and 30s, and then the factory site was used as a slaughterhouse, a brewery and so on.After many years, this place has been deserted, but Jed still chooses the headquarters here.Many entertainment analysts think that Jade is a statement that not only MGM and United Artists want to join the Film Association, but also Galaxy.Although the new office address is far away from the urban area, Jade still provides a dormitory area, and more importantly, the air and scenery here are very good. Most people who make movies have artistic talents, so this place is really popular with high votes. Selected as the site of New Galaxy.

After acquiring and saving MGM, Galaxy's last Christmas movie of the year, "King Kong," was announced.This film is Peter Jackson's first film after the "Lord of the Rings" series, and it is also a remake. The film had polarized reviews from fans and film critics before its release.Fans are looking forward to it, but critics are worried that the film will make Peter Jackson lose his talent.But when "King Kong" was released, fans said that the movie was not as good as expected, but critics cheered for the movie.On Rotten Tomatoes, fans only have a 50% approval rating, but critics have an 80% approval rating.When this reversal of comments appeared, the entertainment media began to contact Peter Jackson.But Peter said through his agent, "After the movie is released, it's up to others to judge whether it's good or bad!"

Just after "King Kong" was released, Jed and the company's vice president and subsidiary CEOs began to discuss the next year's movie.Since the establishment of the new Sherman Film and Television Entertainment Group has too many brands under it, Jade must ensure that each sub-brand or sub-brand has a movie that can start the brand.Therefore, the vice presidents began to become stricter when reviewing scripts and budgets, especially the executive vice president in charge of script review.

Part Four: The Great Artist