American Entertainment: Starting with playing the role of Little Beaver

Chapter 130: Official Development of the Baby Beaver?

As before, when there were so many Harry Potter movies to film, Isabella received the news of Azkaban making history while filming Harry Potter and on the set of Harry Potter.

At that moment, she was so excited and happy that she jumped up and down like a madwoman.

Uh……

Ok……

During that period, everyone's state was essentially cut from the same mold...

When the box office of "Azkaban" surged wildly like a boar charge, the creative team behind Harry Potter, or rather everyone in the crew, were all looking forward to the arrival of a new history.

Throughout June, the crew checked the box office figures eight times a day.

Even Chris Columbus couldn't escape this trend.

Therefore, when the news broke that Azkaban had finally surpassed 10, everyone cheered and screamed!

Everyone is screaming and going crazy!
If I had to describe it, on that day, even dogs would avoid them, afraid of being bitten!
Since everyone was focused on the box office, David Heyman, who was specially stationed on set, had already hosted a grand celebration party for everyone on the night the film broke 10. The celebration team he brought along was even the Queen's personal team.

Going back further, when North America surpassed 200 million in seven days, Barry Mayer also gave out red envelopes on behalf of Warner Bros.

Each of the logistics staff in the film crew received £10,000.

Those who are slightly in charge receive more.

Don't think this number is too low.

The Warner team in Leavesden has more than 800 people.

Warner Bros. has already given out nearly $100 million in red envelopes alone.

It directly wiped out the production cost of one HP film.

Barry Mayer is quite sincere in his celebration.

Therefore, if we must get to the bottom of this, Robert Iger's arrival today is actually a step too late.

But nobody cared about these details.

Firstly, everyone is still happy right now.

Secondly, Robert Iger wasn't the CEO of Warner after all, so it was normal for him to be a little late.

Thirdly, people have come all the way to support you, and you insist on saying we've already celebrated? Isn't that just crazy?

Right?

and so……

play music!

Let's dance!

After what seemed like the umpteenth toast, the banquet, which had lasted for nearly three hours, finally came to an end.

After everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, they went home to their own mothers, while the little girl came to Aiger with a beaming smile.

"thank you."

She took the initiative and said, "If I'm not mistaken, you came here specifically to celebrate for me?"

"uh-huh."

Aiger tilted his head, shrugged, and spread his hands, asking with a puzzled look, "It's a big deal that Her Highness's movie has surpassed 10 billion US dollars at the box office. Shouldn't I, as her subject, celebrate with her?"

"So why did the princess have to guess?"

"Hahahaha—" The funny words made the little girl's eyes crinkle with laughter, and she felt happy.

Iger continued to showcase his poor acting skills, his right hand loosely clenched as if holding a microphone.

He stepped forward, adopting the persona of a media reporter, and said, "Okay, Isha, since you've seen through everything, I can only reveal my true purpose for being here: I'm actually here to find news for ABC..."

"Ms. Heywood, what are your thoughts on 'Azkaban' surpassing $10 billion at the box office? Are you happy about it?"

“Oh—of course—” the little girl nodded vigorously.

"Are you excited?" Egger continued to ask.

"Yeah~"

How excited are you?

"I was as excited as if I were on the tenth floor."

The little girl stretched out her arms, making a very tall gesture.

Although her tone was fine, the description of ten floors made Eger pause for a moment.

"Uh...excuse me for being blunt...I don't understand why your excitement is only ten stories high?"

"Azkaban is the second film in history to gross over $10 billion!"

"Such a big event only deserves the excitement of a ten-story building? That's way too low!"

“Oh~ that’s because I thought I had six billion fans~” the little girl said 'seriously': “I thought everyone in the world was my fan, and that Azkaban would easily gross six hundred billion or even a hundred billion at the box office. At that time, my excitement would be linked from the earth to the moon, but it didn’t.”

“…” Egger choked.

His Adam's apple bobbed, as if a lump of saliva was stuck there, unable to be spat out or swallowed.

After a long pause, he said, "Isha, paranoia is an illness, so should I call a doctor for you?"

"Hahahaha—" Isabella burst into laughter.

He waved his hands repeatedly.

This indicates that it is not needed.

The genuine joy caused Aiger to lose her composure.

She raised the corners of her mouth into a bright smile, her eyes sweeping over Vivian and Catherine not far away, nodding and smiling.

Then, he said to the little girl, "Do you have time to chat?"

"If you want to talk about The Voice Season 2, then I think I can."

Why can't we talk about "Enchanted"?

"Oh, because I don't need it anymore."

"Is it because you already own Transformers?"

"Tsk—there really aren't any secrets in this industry—"

As she spoke, Isabella tilted her head slightly.

He pointed to his mother not far away and said, "I'm going to call my mom. Wait for me for a bit."

Aiger nodded, and Isabella turned around.

When they returned, only Vivian was with them. The girl said to Aiger, "My sister said she's tired and wants to go back to rest, so... shall we find a place nearby? Let's finish talking sooner and call it a day?"

"If I go home too late and disturb my sister, she'll scold me again."

What do you think of the Quidditch World Cup stadium?

“Of course.” Aiger smiled, looked up at the moon overhead, and said, “It’s perfect for moon-gazing.”

Robert Iger is, after all, Disney's Chief Operating Officer. Even if he and Barry Mayer are allies at the moment, he wouldn't go to his ally's territory to throw a celebration party for his ally's blockbuster project just because of his ally's success.

and so……

In fact, everyone knew that Robert Iger had come to see Isabella.

I don't mention it simply because it's unnecessary.

As for why Robert Iger came to find Isabella?

The Quidditch World Cup was filmed in Evanhoe, which is very close to Leavesden; it only takes a short drive to get there.

After greeting the crew guarding the location, the group entered the moonlit set. Then, medieval buildings bathed in silver light appeared before them, giving it a magical feel at first glance.

They found a place to sit down and had their bodyguards stand guard in a spot within sight but out of their ears.

Then, Iger took the initiative to start a conversation.

“Isa, since you want to talk about The Voice, let’s start with that.”

"The preparation for the second season of 'The Voice' is going smoothly, and many promising talents have emerged this year. Judging from the current situation, the second season will definitely continue the popularity of the first season. But even so, it still has its shortcomings because you didn't write a promotional song."

Iger shrugged with emotion.

Isabella laughed heartily. "Oh, Bob, you can't blame me for this."

"Because I told you guys back then that if I didn't have any ideas, then the promotional song for the second season would be up to you."

Although writing a promotional song for the second season of "The Voice of China" is not a difficult task.

Because in terms of music, Isabella is simply copying.

But this time she didn't copy.

Firstly, she doesn't have time; she's too busy.

Secondly, the promotional song for the first season, "Party in the USA," was too successful.

When she started out with chart-topping singles, she found it hard to accept... the subsequent mediocrity...

Uh……

To put it bluntly, she's burdened by her grades and wants to be number one in everything she does.

otherwise……

It's meaningless.

So when the release of the promotional song for the second season of "The Voice of China" didn't have any obvious gimmicks, she just "didn't bother" to make it.

This matter was not important to Robert Iger.

So he just smiled and shrugged, letting it go.

He then went on to talk about the amusement park games on "The Voice".

The planning for this project is already underway, and it is expected to be completed before 06.

They placed the amusement park, which housed the games, in Florida.

Because Florida doesn't support idlers.

Only by promoting a game in a place with enough oddities can you achieve operational miracles in the shortest amount of time?
Ok.

Enough with the nonsense.

The main reason is that Disneyland in Florida is big enough to provide the venue that "The Voice" needs.

hee hee~
After talking about "The Voice," Robert Iger then brought up "Enchanted."

He stated that if Isabella still needs the project, he can immediately initiate, invest in, and produce it on behalf of Disney.

And regarding this...

"Bob, you said it yourself, I've already found someone better."

“Oh, okay.” Iger only showed regret for a second before continuing, “Shall we get down to business?”

“Okay.” Isabella nodded.

"Okay, Isa, since you know I came here for you, you should be able to guess why I came, right?"

"beaver?"

"Yeah~"

"So you have strong ideas for development?"

"Don't you?"

Iger countered, "If not..." He drew out his words, looked at Vivian, and said with a smile, "As far as I know, Mrs. Haywood, wearing Iron Man's gauntlet at the premiere of 'Azkaban' wasn't your idea, was it?"

“Oh—that’s Barry’s—Barry Mayer’s—”

Before Mom could even speak, Miss Beaver had already pulled out a scapegoat.

Iger pursed his lips helplessly and looked back at the little girl. "I have Barry's phone number."

"Hahahaha—" Isabella tried to hide her embarrassment with a smile at her well-prepared performance... Yeah, right!
She's not embarrassed at all!

Vivian lightly slapped him and said, "Bob, just say what's on your mind. You know, when a child enters puberty, she becomes very naughty. Take Isa for example, she likes to cause trouble now."

“Okay, then I’ll get straight to the point.” Iger nodded and said, “I want to develop the baby beaver.”

"Or rather, I want to take over Disney."

The blunt words were not unexpected for the mother and daughter.

Everyone knows Iger's ambition.

Now that he's started telling the truth, Isabella will stop pretending.

“Okay, as you can see, Bob, I’m also interested in developing baby beavers.”

Upon hearing this, Egger immediately smiled.

but……

"But before we talk about the little beaver, Bob, I'd like to talk to you about something else."

“Go ahead. There’s no one else here, so you can talk about anything you want.” “Okay, can you tell me what Fox’s core businesses are?”

This question made Egger's eyes narrow.

He stared at Miss Beaver for a moment, then looked at Vivian.

Seeing that Isabella's mother wasn't surprised, he smirked and said, "You hate them?"

“You won’t like someone if they keep wanting you to die,” Isabella shrugged.

“Oh~ you’re right~” Egg laughed.

As soon as he finished speaking, the room fell silent.

No one seemed inclined to continue speaking.

Only the insects in the wild were chirping away.

Iger seemed lost in thought, and neither Isabella nor Vivian asked. After a long while, as if he had made a decision, but also as if he knew that reaching the summit would come at a price, Iger spoke—

"Fox is now teetering on the brink of collapse, especially after losing American Idol and X-Man."

"But even so, they won't go bankrupt anytime soon."

"Emmm... Let's talk about them separately, starting with the broadcasting company."

Fox Broadcasting has three business groups: news, sports, and entertainment.

"The news refers to their news channel, similar to CNN. This business is used to boost viewership, not Fox's main profit driver. In other words, most television stations cannot make large-scale profits in this area."

"Sports, I'm referring to their sports channel. Fox Sports has broadcasting rights for many sports events, like the NFL and MLB, which are all in their hands. This part of the revenue accounts for about 20% of their group's revenue, because sports advertising is very profitable."

"But no matter how much money sports can make, it can't make as much money as entertainment."

"Their entertainment division is divided into two business segments: variety shows and dramas."

"In terms of variety shows, the original 'American Idol' program accounted for more than 80% of their variety show revenue."

"In terms of TV series, '24 Hours' made them a lot of money."

"Next, let's talk about the film companies."

"There are two sections here, one is live-action movies, and the other is animation."

"Let's start with the live-action movie."

"The disappearance of X-Man caused Fox to lose revenue from live-action film franchises."

"The X-Man toys produced by Fox are actually profitable."

"As for animation..."

"Ice Age".

"So, if you want to push them into the abyss..."

"The simplest and most effective method is to target their main source of income."

Iger's words were very long, but they were not tiring to listen to.

Because his logic is very clear.

As he spoke, a smile spread across Isabella's face.

"Oh, Bob, you really can't stop talking about my little beaver."

Aiger shrugged helplessly; that was exactly what he came for.

Isabella continued, "Is '24' the only source of revenue for their broadcasting company's shows?"

“How is that possible!” Iger shook his head and said, “No TV station can support a large number of advertisements with just one drama series.”

“What else?” Isabella asked.

"Uh... there's also 'The Bernie MacShow,' which is an episodic comedy that averages over 1000 million viewers."

Aiger recited it as if listing a menu—

"Malcolm's Family, a family sitcom, had an average viewership of over 1500 million at its peak."

"The O.C., a teen drama, was just produced last year and has an average viewership of around 1000 million."

"Then they wanted to make a show this year called 'House,' which is likely to happen because we originally wanted to sign it, but their producers have a good relationship with Fox, so there's nothing we can do about it."

Igor's words made Isabella nod repeatedly.

"Okay, Iger, do you think there's any possibility that 'The Voice' could be developed into a TV series?"

The sudden question made Egger frown slightly.

At that moment, he didn't think Isabella was being delusional.

Because a popular IP can take root and develop in various fields.

If not, then it proves one thing: your IP isn't popular enough.

It's that simple and crude.

but……

Perhaps Iger only has eyes for the little beaver?
Has he never thought about it from any other angle?

In a short period of time, he really couldn't think of a way to develop "The Voice of China" into a TV series.

and so……

“Tell me your thoughts,” Egger said seriously.

“Okay.” Isabella clapped her hands and said with a smile, “I have two ideas, so let’s start with A.”

"A's idea is very simple and fits the tone of your Disney. It tells the story of a 14-year-old girl who appears to be an ordinary junior high school student, but is actually a famous pop singer..."

Isabella admits that she is a very vengeful person.

Therefore, when she was attacked, her first reaction was actually revenge.

The reason we didn't take action last year was simply because the enemy's lineup was too ridiculous.

It's all capital, and there's only one new dollar. What's the point of this?

This year...

Since Fox has been severely weakened, she won't feel relieved unless she kicks her while she's down.

She couldn't accept being beaten all the time.

So, during breaks in filming, she had actually secretly disassembled the Fox.

Then, her personal analysis was roughly the same as what Iger said, the only difference being that she didn't pay attention to Fox Sports, but that didn't matter, because sports and news are not things that individuals can control.

This is the media group's exclusive battlefield.

As for Fox's other businesses...

Regarding TV series, she came up with two projects that could compete with Fox.

One is called "Hannah Montana", and the other is called "Land of Music".

The former, that's Miley Cyrus's breakthrough hit.

Mai Li's popularity is all thanks to this TV series.

The latter is a classic American TV series about the competition between a fading diva and a new generation of singers.

Isabella thought of them entirely because both shows were related to music.

This commonality makes them potential spin-offs of "The Voice of China".

Currently, projects that leverage the "The Voice of China" IP are more likely to succeed.

In that case, using them to squeeze Fox's show ratings might be a pretty good decision?
Since Isabella couldn't obtain Fox's detailed income statements, all her previous ideas were just plans.

Because there are differences between dramas. Dramas aimed at teenagers won't attract viewers of political dramas, and people who like to watch lighthearted comedies won't watch dramas about infighting and palace intrigue.

But now, when Robert Iger says that Fox has teen shows, it's "The O.C." and dramas with palace intrigue and backstabbing, it's after "Malcolm's Family"...

Isabella then felt that her scheme could be turned into a plan.

And this...

"Oh, Mrs. Heywood—your daughter might just be born for this—"

After hearing Isabella's idea, Aiger laughed.

His praise prompted Vivian to say thank you.

After a couple of sighs, Iger looked at the little girl again and said, "I think your idea is fantastic. You can try to develop it and use it to squeeze out Fox. As long as you can squeeze out Fox's hit shows, Fox's revenue will drop again."

"Then... if you want to turn your inspiration into a TV series, we at Disney can put that on the table for you."

"But...do you have a production team?"

"No." Miss Beaver shook her head decisively.

"Then how do you develop TV series?" Iger's eye twitched slightly. "The development of TV series requires a team because it's a weekly broadcast."

"Don't you Disney have a team?" Miss Beaver asked matter-of-factly.

These words left Egger stunned on the spot.

After a long pause, he said somewhat nervously, "So you mean you only provide the inspiration, then let Disney's TV series team handle the production, and then sell the series to Disney?"

“Yeah~” Miss Beaver nodded.

"Wow—your idea is really brilliant—" Egger said, both amused and exasperated.

Although this kind of thing just doesn't sound right, but...

Okay, he admits that it's something he can actually do.

Just like the variety show "The Voice of China".

Isabella started it all; the rest they did.

“Okay, if you have a complete plan, then we can talk,” Iger said. “What else?”

"Can we talk about animation now?"

“Sure,” Isabella said with a smile, “but before we talk about animation, I’d like to talk to you about Prada first.”

"Although 'Prada' is a Warner Bros. investment project, that's not important, because aren't you celebrating the success of a Warner Bros. project on Warner Bros.' And, I want to say, this is how I feel about the 'Prada' project..."

Isabella shared her ideas for Prada.

When Iger learned that the protagonist of Prada would leave the fashion world and embrace an animation company at the end, he immediately laughed.

"So you've had the idea of ​​making an animated film for a while now? And you wanted it to be released after 'Prada'?"

"Yeah~ Do you think it's feasible?"

"Uh... first tell me, when will the filming of 'Goblet of Fire' end?"

"You knew that 'The Goblet of Fire' was filmed in stages, right?"

“Of course, Barry told me.”

“Okay, we can finish filming ‘Goblet of Fire Part 1’ by March next year, and ‘Goblet of Fire Part 2’ won’t be finished until October next year at the earliest.”

"And then you're preparing to film 'Prada'? No rest at all?"

"So-called good luck just means that a sudden stroke of luck meets your hard work, right?"

"Oh~ Great~ That's a wonderful sentence~"

"So The Prada movie will start filming next fall or winter, and if all goes well, it can be released in 06."

"Uh... if that's the case... then there's plenty of time..."

Robert Iger thought for a moment and said, "Nowadays, animated films are actually made very quickly because they are all made using computers. Take Monsters, Inc. for example. Although it was initiated in 1996, the actual production did not begin until 1999, and it was released to audiences in October 2001."

"As long as the inspiration and character design are good, we can make an animated film within two years."

"At that time, we can try to target Ice Age, if the timing allows."

"Of course, it doesn't matter if it doesn't match, because the same applies to other movies targeting Fox."

"And now... the little beaver's image is definitely fine, so..."

"Shall we talk about inspiration?"

Robert Iger winked at Miss Beaver.

This was the thing he most wanted to talk about, so he was very excited.

but……

"Bob, I can talk to you about inspiration, but before we talk about inspiration, I want to make something clear to you first."

"Oh, you have a lot on your mind... Alright... Go ahead and say it..."

"Does Disney take on outsourcing? Like the series we discussed before? If our collaboration is like Disney and Pixar's model, where the copyright is split 50/50... then I'd rather acquire an animation studio myself..."

"..."

Robert Iger narrowed his eyes.

Miss Beaver smiled.

(End of this chapter)