Entertainment upstart

Chapter 778

It's time for a big fight.

Zhou Xia's other companies are all left alone, but he is still in charge of promoting the major events of Xia Hua Film and Television.

In the next few years, as far as he knows, there will indeed be several very good acquisition opportunities in major Hollywood events.

If it can be grasped, it may be able to become a giant in the end like Sony, an island company entering Hollywood.

In 2014, DreamWorks Animation, that is, a child sitting on the moon fishing, the animation company spun off from DreamWorks, had negotiated with Japan’s Softbank, Hasbro, etc. about the sale, and had contact with several Chinese companies .

But it has never been negotiated. By 2015, one-third of the company's employees had to be laid off by 500 people, and the annual production of three cartoons was reduced to two.

The labor cost in Hollywood is very high, and the salary of animation talents is higher.

Therefore, even if 500 people are laid off, it is still a big team of 1000 people!
The production cycle of animation films is long, at least one or two years. It is said that when the funds were most scarce, the company had only 2000 million US dollars on the books, which was only enough to pay one month's salary, and it was almost impossible to survive.

Jeffrey Katzenberg, who had been the CEO of Disney for ten years and later founded DreamWorks with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen, as the current CEO of DreamWorks Animation, he had to go to Meet investors and find capital for the company.

Among them was Wanda's richest man Wang, but nothing happened in the end.

Carson (Jeffrey Katzenberg) had to let the company cooperate with online video stations to make some low-quality online cartoons to increase revenue for the company.

In this way, until 2016, DreamWorks Animation finally found a good buyer and completely sold itself to nbc Universal for $38 billion.

Carson himself was also out because of this, and Universal didn't want him to continue to helm DreamWorks Animation.

He is a top industry boss in Hollywood. He is at the same level as Harvey, and his qualifications are even older. He is a top talent in the industry. If he is left in Universal, who will lead whom?
But now it's early 2014, and DreamWorks Animation's valuation is only $23 billion.

This is a very good time, it can save more than a third of the money, and it can get a big guy like Carson.

But the acquisition of DreamWorks Animation is not something that can be done with money.

DreamWorks Animation is a high-quality resource of Hollywood. There are many companies that can afford it, but only a few giants can afford it.

Moreover, the Hollywood system determines that there are not many opportunities for new entrants.

For foreign investors, if you really understand Hollywood, you will find that there are not many places to invest.

Several major Hollywood film giants, such as Disney, Universal Pictures, Paramount, Warner Bros., and Fox, are not for sale. They are either too large or have already been bought almost. They are all bought by Viacom and Time Warner. Wait for the media group to buy it.

These large media companies of TV stations and TV networks with tens of millions of users in the United States are just like the monopoly giants in China, and they will not be short of money at all.

In the past few years, most of the companies that have been acquired are content manufacturers, such as Marvel and Lucasfilm, and now it is the turn of DreamWorks Animation, Studio 8, and Legendary Pictures to sell themselves.

Moreover, only good owners will sell themselves.

Because Hollywood is a system of big production companies, these giants with distribution rights are at the top of the food chain, and content production companies are low-end, and only by selling themselves to these giants can they get the most benefits.

And these giants also have an advantage in getting in touch with content production companies earlier than foreign investors.

DreamWorks Animation is so good at producing IP, it is because of the lack of derivatives and distribution capabilities that during the production cycle of animation, the funds cannot be turned over, and they are in trouble, so they have to sell themselves.

After Zhou Xia discussed with Ao Dasong, Zhou Xia finally decided to start with the company Studio 8, and let Ao Dasong go back to Hollywood to contact and communicate on his behalf.

Jeff Robinoff, the founder and CEO of Studio 8, was the president of Warner Bros. Film Group before founding Studio 8, where he served in management for 17 years.

He has directed numerous high-grossing and critically acclaimed franchise projects, including the Batman Begins trilogy, the Harry Potter series, The Hangover, Inception, Best Picture Oscar "Escape from Tehran", and "Gravity", which won 7 Oscars this year, including the best director award.

In general, Mr. Robin (Jeff Robinoff)'s idea of ​​looking for investors coincides with Zhou Xia's idea of ​​looking for companies and managers.

Robin has been in the film industry for 35 years. What he is looking for is not someone who knows more about production than him, but a strategic partner who trusts him, trusts in the company's vision, has abundant resources, and can help the company develop.

He founded this production company because he wanted to make Studio 8 a company with film creators at its core, creating his own IP instead of chasing existing IP.

Just like "The Matrix" and "Inception" (a project led by Robin), this kind of interesting movie with original ideas, becoming an ip movie is what he wants to do.

After all, Zhou Xia knows the future. Later, this Mr. Robin sold the company to the consortium of Sony United Renaissance Capital. Moreover, Huayi Brothers also invested 1.5 million US dollars to obtain the domestic distribution rights of all Studio 8 films.

After discussing with Mr. Ao Dasong for more than an hour, and after clearly communicating my thoughts with him, the conversation ended.

To do specific things, in fact, the North American branch of Xiahua Film and Television is already doing it. Mr. Ao Dasong is participating as Zhou Xia's personal representative, and then keeps in touch with him. Zhou Xia will come forward when the time is right.

When sending Ao Dasong teacher out, Yaya heard the movement, and also came out of the bedroom, saying hello to Ao Dasong.

After closing the door, Zhou Xia looked at Yaya strangely, wondering why she was so confident and strong today, she really regarded herself as the hostess.

"What's the matter, you don't know me anymore?" Yaya knew what Zhou Xia meant and said deliberately.

"Hehe, you are really weird today. When you met outsiders in my room, you dared to deal with it like this. When did you become so courageous? Are you afraid that you will not be able to explain to Xiaohu now?"

Zhou Xia asked amusedly, Yaya and Xiaohu seemed to be allies, and Xiaohu let Yaya watch him take medicine or something.

"Oh, you don't need to worry about this matter, but you should explain it best. You went to Hollywood to receive the award, which is a record and earned a lot of money, but you have an affair with Hollywood's popular actress and Oscar queen. ;I went back to the half-mountain villa with the sexy goddess widow, and who Tangtang said was pregnant, what happened to all these, you have to explain clearly, right?"

Yaya stopped Zhou Xia who was walking inside, and said seriously.

"What's there to say, it's all true, do you believe it?" Zhou Xia went the other way and asked deliberately.

"Why don't I believe it? It's a fact that you provoke people wherever you go."

"In that case, then you still ask, why make me so embarrassed?" Zhou Xia shrugged helplessly.

He is too lazy to deny it now, anyway, everyone knows who he is, if they accept it, they will continue to be together, and if they don't accept him, they won't force him to stay.

"You——, you, Zhou Xia, how can you do this, are you too lazy to perfunctory and lie now?"

Yaya looked at Zhou Xia in surprise, her complexion was very ugly for a while.

Looking at her angry and sad expression, Zhou Xia suddenly realized that things were not as simple as he thought.

People know what a thing is like, but accepting it is another matter.

Yaya and the others basically knew that he was fickle and knew that he was dating many people in private, but they all believed that the sweet words he said in the past and the promises that had not been fulfilled were sincere.

At least he is willing to do those things, which means he is still willing to pay attention to her. Now that he suddenly doesn't even do these things, in Yaya's view, it is different, and he doesn't care about her feelings at all.

Thinking of this, Zhou Xia hurriedly stepped forward to hug her tightly and said, "Yaya, don't do this, I didn't mean that, I'm just afraid that in the future you will say that I lied to you, not a word of truth, let alone make you sad."

"Really, since you know, why can't you change it? If you continue like this, aren't you afraid that you will get retribution if you go out sooner or later?" Yaya couldn't break Zhou Xia, so she could only ask angrily.

"It's okay, I always go out at noon." Zhou Xia patted her on the back jokingly.

"What?" Yaya asked back, and when she understood what Zhou Xia meant, she couldn't help but sneered and said, "Then you always go out, you are not afraid to go out, the family has planted a grassland for you!"

(End of this chapter)