Hollywood Tycoon [US Entertainment + Business War]

With the arrival of the new year in 2006, Galaxy Film Group officially announced its name change to Sherman Entertainment Group, and at the same time integrated many of its companies into 12 subsidiaries.Except for MGM, United Artists, Lions Gate, Summit, Europa and Media Asia, the other six subsidiaries are all wholly-owned subsidiaries of Sherman Entertainment Group, and even these six companies with foreign capital , Sherman Entertainment Group is also in the position of an absolute major shareholder.

The new Sherman Entertainment Group has three locations, with Galaxy Films, Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment in the upcoming Sherman Movie Park; MGM, United Artists, Media Asia and Europa moving to the already established The MGM Tower redeemed by Jade was established; the rest of the companies remained in the original Galaxy office address - Burbank Dongfeng Media Center.

After announcing the completion of the company integration, Sherman Entertainment Group went on to announce that they would seek to go public within the next three years.At the same time, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase announced that they will compete for the main stock underwriter of Sherman Entertainment Group's future listing.

Jed naturally got the underwriting plans of these four companies in his hands, but Jed knew that in the financial crisis that will sweep the world next year, Merrill Lynch will go bankrupt completely, and the other three companies will also have to accept the trusteeship of the US federal government to avoid bankruptcy.If it is Jed, Jed is indeed willing to find a small securities company to be the underwriter.After all, after the financial crisis, a company like Sherman Entertainment Group with reasonable debt and healthy revenue will immediately become the pinnacle of the stock market.At that time, people will not care whether the underwriter is a big investment bank, as long as it meets the basic regulations of the United States, it will immediately approve the listing.

But at this time, the Sherman Entertainment Group is not completely Jed's one-man company. Although Jed's equity is the largest, in order to maintain the company's stability, Jed still introduced Italy's UniCredit Bank and Burke. Investment by Shaha Thaway Corporation.UniCredit Bank is the largest investment bank in the Eurozone, and with its Italian background, it is easy to be trusted by Jed; as for Hathaway, it is because the chairman of this company is Warren Buffett.At the same time, the company also has executives holding shares and internal employees holding shares. After all, the public shares that can be issued on the stock market may not exceed 10%, which barely meets the relevant regulations.After thinking for a long time, Jed finally took out the plans of Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase and put them in his drawer.

"Sherman Entertainment Group's opening drama is actually a musical!" As the most senior movie entertainment publication in Hollywood, "Hollywood Report" soon got the filming plans of several major theater companies, and Sherman Entertainment Group's The first play was actually "High School Musical".

Although the film's production company is Summit Entertainment, the column for the distribution company says Sherman Distribution.In another parallel time and space, the first two of Disney's "High School Musical" were just TV movies.Therefore, when the trailer for "High School Musical" produced by Summit Entertainment was released on major television networks across the United States, many film critics were in a daze at the last production company and distribution company, thinking, this should not be the talent of Disney and Broadway International. Right?

And people inside Disney were even more panicked, because Disney did plan to launch a TV movie called "Music High School" on their TV channel.To the surprise of Disney insiders, the two works are so similar.The matter was quickly reported to Disney executives, who angrily stated that they would investigate the matter thoroughly.

In the United States, there are four ways to protect the copyright of works. The first is to go to the Copyright Office to register obediently. This is a typical time-consuming and labor-intensive process; It must be a published work, and drafts are not accepted; the third method is to send your own work to yourself, but do not open the envelope; the last method is the most commonly used in the United States, which is to submit your work to the American Screenwriters Guild Register and put it in the script library of the screenwriters union.This method is very simple, and the fee is only tens of dollars, so it has become the preferred method of many writers and playwrights in the United States.

The playwrights of Disney and other film companies will naturally adopt this method, so Disney immediately announced that "Peak Entertainment plagiarized Disney's ideas", and on the other hand asked the Screenwriters Association to come up with corresponding works.To Disney's delight, Summit Entertainment's script was not in the script library of the Screenwriters Association. Therefore, after learning of the news, Disney immediately called a meeting of the legal department to discuss how to solve Sherman Entertainment Group once and for all.

However, as Sherman Entertainment Group's Peak Entertainment, it continued to promote it regardless, and for a while, the major media didn't know how to comment.Until Disney threatened to go to court to apply for an injunction to stop the promotion of "High School Musical", the general manager of Summit Entertainment took out an unopened envelope and announced that it contained the original script of "High School Musical", and this original script It was written four years ago, long before the script for Disney's High School of Music.

After this evidence was submitted to the court, Disney had no choice but to retreat in frustration.Although no one copied anyone in this matter, Summit Entertainment ruined Disney's TV movie project because it was written earlier than Disney.Because if Disney wants to start filming "High School of Music", it will have to find a license from Summit Entertainment.

Jed doesn't mind if Disney launches a TV version, which will also promote the movie version.But the Disney company has the backbone, and immediately announced that the filming plan was shelved indefinitely.In this regard, Jed couldn't help but shook his head.In fact, there are many child star training institutions in the United States, and Disney is one of them.

Disney's TV movies and youth movies are actually the first choice for many Disney child stars to transform or enter the industry. Obviously, this "Music High School" is enough to create countless youth idols, but Disney is so angry, it is estimated that the future of many child stars will be destroyed. delayed.But this matter has nothing to do with Jed, Jed just sighed and let it go.

In the saliva lawsuit with Disney, the attention of "High School Musical" suddenly increased a lot.Moreover, Summit Entertainment played the slogan "An extraordinary musical", which attracted the attention of many film critics.Musical films are actually a type of Hollywood film, but with the end of the golden age of Hollywood, musical films have also fallen a lot.Traditional musicals are actually typical Broadway styles, with luxurious and luxurious sets and lingering plots... But the scenes of the musicals released by Summit Entertainment this time are very simple. They are nothing more than common campus scenes such as classrooms and restaurants, and the plots are mostly related to love. It has nothing to do with it, it's basically about the hot-blooded youth and fresh ambiguity on the high school campus.

More importantly, the dance in "High School Musical" introduces a lot of hip-hop, hip-hop and other elements, which seems to be deviant; and the actors in charge of singing are not casual singers like traditional musicals. "High School Musical" "The first choice is handsome men and beautiful women. Basically, as long as they can sing ktv without losing their tune, it is enough.Therefore, when "High School Musical" premiered, the entire film received polarized reviews among film critics and fans.

Critics thought "High School Musical" was an "insult" to the genre; fans thought it was the best and funniest musical ever made.While critics didn't give "High School Musical" high marks in the press, social media was overwhelmingly positive.Especially among middle school students and college students, there is a tendency for you to be a Martian even if you don't see it.Therefore, the audience of "High School Musical" immediately showed a trend of younger age. Fortunately, this movie does not contain any violent and sexual scenes, otherwise it would inevitably attract criticism from parents.

But even so, when the parents watched their children twist their bodies and learn to dance hip-hop and hip-hop, they were still angry.They believe that such films do not teach children to read and should therefore be banned.It's just that such extreme remarks can't stand the film critics who don't like "High School Musical". They all reminded that movies are just a means of entertainment. If children are to be educated, it is the school and parents' business, not the director and screenwriter.

With the enthusiastic support of young people, "High School Musical" won a box office of 100 million in the first week.You must know that this time is already the spring file, and the movies at this time are basically one million in the first week, which is not bad.Moreover, due to the type of musical film of "High School Musical", many theater companies did not dare to make films. In total, "High School Musical" only arranged about 90 screens on the east and west coasts.After the box office of one million in the first week came out, theater companies opened more screens one after another, which also made "High School Musical" rise against the trend in the second week to $150 million at the weekend box office, but the revenue per theater has dropped. to around $8000.Although this benefit will not allow theater companies to reduce the number of screens, it will not increase the number of screens either.

"As a small-budget movie, High School Musical is undoubtedly a success. Brand new director and brand new actors, and then co-starred in a somewhat outdated genre. It’s a surprising trend.” Jeremy, a reporter from The Hollywood Reporter, commented, “Maybe "High School Musical" won’t be the box office hit of this year, but it will undoubtedly become an unforgettable memory for young people of this generation in the United States. And According to the author's understanding, with the release of the movie, the original soundtrack of the film has also sold gold records in the United States. According to the analysis of some music critics, this soundtrack is very likely to achieve platinum sales within the year. In addition, this The expected DVD sales and rental volume of the movie are also considerable, and it is said that several major American movie channels have already offered high prices for the premiere rights of "High School Musical" on TV."

Just five weeks after the release of "High School Musical," Summit Entertainment announced that it will hold a celebratory reception at the Four Seasons Hotel.Fortunately, Summit Entertainment also knows that it is currently only a third-rate company in the United States. Although it is backed by the Sherman Entertainment Group, it does not dare to be too presumptuous. It just contracts a medium-sized banquet hall in the Four Seasons Hotel and invites the leading actors and creators. By the way, some media friendly to "High School Musical" were also invited to the reception.At the reception, director Kenny Ortega was a little too drunk when he faced the media.

"Yeah, we've always been very confident about this movie. You know what? Mr. Sherman made the outline of a trilogy for this movie, which means we're going to do two more "Magic and Dance" in the next five to ten years. Youth. I can even tell you what the titles of the next two volumes are…”

Speaking of this, Ortega suddenly realized that he seemed to have said too much, so he immediately shut up, but the reporters would not let him go, but no matter how intimidating the reporter was, Ortega wisely chose to remain silent .