Heads Up Hollywood

In the early 1990s, Paramount was the film company with the best performance in Hollywood. It was spotted by Redstone, and the acquisition was successful at a cost of US$10 billion.

10 billion US dollars, what is this concept?

Even Sony, which was miserably cheated by Hollywood, spent 5 billion US dollars on the acquisition of Columbia Pictures, which shocked the world. Panasonic then acquired Universal Pictures for $6.5 billion.

More importantly, Universal Pictures is attached to Universal Music, while Paramount is just a pure film company and does not engage in music.

After Paramount became a subsidiary of Viacom, the business situation changed suddenly. Redstone believed that investing in movies was too risky and refused to inject capital into Paramount.

As a result, Paramount's executives had to cast a wide net in the market to find investors.

"Tomb Raider", which has just been released and has excellent box office results, is the most typical example.

Who would have thought that Paramount would start shooting this film without investing a penny?

The first step is to use the tax rebate policy in Germany and the United Kingdom to get 22 million US dollars;

The second step is to use the influence of the game "Tomb Raider" and Angelina Jolie's appeal to pre-sell overseas copyrights in Germany, Italy, Japan, Australia, Britain, France and other countries. Fund raising of US$65 million;

The third step is to pre-sell the TV rights in North America and sell them to Showtime TV station at a price of 10 million US dollars (because they are relatives, the price is very low).

After these three steps, "Tomb Raider" got 97 million US dollars before filming started, excluding some legal fees, and started filming at a cost of 95 million US dollars.

Paramount has combined vertically and horizontally to weave a beautiful investment network.

Every penny earned by "Tomb Raider" is Paramount's net profit!

It looks good, but Paramount's chairman, Shirley Lansing, has long been fed up with this kind of fundraising.

Paramount has no investment risk, but in the same way, how much return can Paramount get from such a good box office result of "Tomb Raider"? Only the North American market and a few small and irrelevant overseas markets are left.

The cakes have already been distributed in the form of pre-sale.

Tang En Pictures' films have an astonishingly high rate of return, because the films produced by Tang En Pictures are all exclusive investments! The risk is borne alone, and the profit is also enjoyed alone!

More importantly, it has been rumored that in Europe...especially Germany, the tax refund policy will be revised. The days of "cheating money" from Germany in the past are gone forever.

Paramount must find a new investor!

The most reliable, stable, and long-lasting investor is, of course, Legendary Films, which is thriving in Hollywood right now!

Platter investment, too attractive!

However, in recent years, Paramount's performance has been very poor, and it has been surpassed by Warner, 20th Century Fox and Universal. Shirley Lansing communicated with Michael Ovitz several times, but was rejected.

When I called Tang En, he was also vague.

There's no way, Shirley Lansing's face is too small, so she can only ask her big boss - Lei Shidong!

...

Lei Shidong has a daughter and a son, and the relationship is cold.

The person he trusts the most is Philip Dorman, Viacom's current vice chairman and chief executive, who has followed him for decades.

Even the SMR family trust fund set up by Redstone, the beneficiaries are his children and nephews, but the trustee is Philip Dorman.

At this moment, Philip Dorman was sitting in Redstone's office, discussing a troublesome issue.

In the field of professional cable TV, there is a new competitor - STA TV network!

"The two TV stations under the STA TV network were acquired by Dunn Films for 170 million U.S. dollars last year. Since March this year, STA TV Network has launched a series of reforms, increased subscription fees, and produced content with Dunn Films. , formally combined."

Philip Dorman is expressing his worries to Lei Shidong, "In May, two films "Spider-Man" and "Chain Saw" from Dunn Films landed on the STA TV network, rapidly expanding the user base in a short period of time. , although the number of paying members is still not high, it continues to grow. Especially after June, Tang En Pictures' self-produced TV series "Six Feet Under" began to air, which is very popular."

Because it involves Tang En, it has a great influence, even Philip Dorman can't make a decision without authorization, so he needs to ask for instructions.

Lei Shidong is 78 years old and looks very old, with a few age spots on his face, but his eyes are cloudy and bright, and he looks full of energy.

"Our SHO TV network... how many TV stations are there?"

"Now there are 6 subordinate channels, showtime 2, showtime women's channel, movie channel, family channel and extreme channel. In addition, there are 4 other channels, which are being conceived and expanded."

Lei Shidong nodded silently, "That little boy Tang En...hehe, there are still some tricks."

Philip Dorman smiled, disapprovingly, "It's just a small trick, if we do it, it will definitely make the market share of STA TV network not increase but decrease."

Lei Shidong waved his hand, it seemed that the old man had lost his sense of strength, "Michael Eisner underestimated him, do you see the current situation of Disney?"

"That's Disney's own problem." Philip Dorman shook his head, "I heard... Disney's board of directors has been in trouble recently."

"In short, don't look at Tang En based on age and experience." Lei Shidong saw that Philip Dorman didn't care, he pondered for a while, and said slowly: "Twain Pictures has produced two content products, one reality show and one Cartoons, he mentioned it to me at my birthday party last time."

"Well, "American Idol" and "Fantastic Four" are cooperating with us." Philip Dorman paused for a moment, then understood what Redstone meant, and his face changed, "You mean...he did it on purpose of?"

Lei Shidong said indifferently: "Half a month ago, I was also skeptical, but now... I am definitely convinced, this is what he did on purpose."

"this……"

Philip Dorman had an incredible expression on his face, horrified and shocked. He believed in the judgment of Lei Shidong, who had experienced countless experiences in his life.

"Where does he have such confidence? He can guarantee that "Six Feet Under" will be liked by the audience? It is a TV series about funerals and dead people. I watched it, and it is completely different from the current mainstream movie viewing trend match!"

"Yes, confidence!" Lei Shidong's eyes were blank, as if recalling the past.

As I grow older, I always like to remember.

After a long while, Lei Shidong came back to his senses, sighed, and shook his head again and again, "I met him once, and the sunshine, positivity, self-confidence and calmness he showed are definitely not the same in the social field."

Philip Dorman frowned, his face was ugly, "It seems... this kid has a lot of plans! Sir, let's do it!"

Even if it was powerful back then, DreamWorks, founded by the Big Three and invested by Paul Allen, did not dare to play TV stations. Tang En's ambitions are really too big!

"No!"

Lei Shidong directly vetoed it without thinking about it.

"Sir, raising tigers is a problem!"

Philip Dorman struggled to persuade.

Lei Shidong smiled and said, "I'll tell you two things. First, Shirley came to me this morning and asked me to support Paramount in terms of funds. Of course, this is impossible. The risk of the film is too great. Then She decided to settle for the next best thing, and asked me to come forward in person, use this old face to contact Legendary Pictures, and seek the cooperation of 'Assorted Platter Investment'."

"Indeed, platter investment is a very new and efficient investment method in the film field. It is said that Tang En conceived it." Philip Dorman nodded, "So you contacted Michael Ovitz? After leaving CAA, I don't care much about human relations."

Lei Shidong shook his head, then laughed dumbfoundedly, "This is the second thing. At noon today, I received a call from Tang En. He said that he hoped to promote the cooperation between Legendary Pictures and Paramount, so that I could learn from it." Help. Help? Hehe, look how this little guy can talk."

Philip Dorman's face was almost distorted, which was extremely exciting.

He was 45 years old this year, and he really couldn't understand, how could Tang En, a 23-year-old young man, handle things so smoothly?

Sophisticated, stable, gentle, calm!

More importantly, he can always react one step ahead!

Before "Six Feet Under" aired, Viacom had already sent enough benefits. Now, "Six Feet Under" is released, and he sent another big gift!

Philip Dorman didn't know what Redstone was thinking.

This big boss is so deep in the city that even his own children can't see through his mind. Philip Doman didn't know whether Lei Shidong didn't bother to care about Tang En, a junior, or he was very grateful for Tang En's "gift" interest.

But one thing is certain, Tang En has completely seen through his mind!

Philip Dorman didn't want to sit back and watch the STA TV network develop and grow, but Tang En had taken various measures to prevent problems before they happened as early as a month ago.

He is the executive chairman and CEO of Viacom. It is an absolute shame that the boss of a small film company has found out about him!

Lei Shidong took a deep look at Philip Dorman, and smiled slightly, "Your idea is not wrong, but you are wrong. What is business? Is it business? Wrong, it is people! Different things , Faced with different people, there must be different coping methods.”

Philip Dormans felt suspicious.

Can't grasp Lei Shidong's true thoughts.

His words, which sound high-sounding, are correct nonsense. Maybe...he valued the gift from Tang En too much, and it was just an excuse for himself out of face.

Thinking back to Lei Shidong back then, it can be described as ambitious!

The acquisition of Viacom is the largest cable network in the United States; the acquisition of Paramount is the best film company in the United States; the acquisition of Blockbuster is the largest video rental company in the United States; The nation's largest public television station.

Now, the other three major sectors are still No. 1 in the United States, and only Paramount has gone downhill.

At this time, Redstone must focus on the development of Paramount, even if he sacrifices part of the interests of STA TV network.

This is normal.

It's just that Philip Dorman, as a confidant, must understand his true thoughts.

And as Lei Shidong got older, he could no longer see clearly what the big boss really thought.