Hollywood Director 1992

After two weeks of negotiations, Guess Pictures officially acquired Pixar Animation Studios for $300 million and 10% of Guess Pictures' shares.

Link and Jobs, representing the two companies, signed the agreement in the Guess Pictures Building conference room.

After Jobs and others joined Guess Pictures, significant changes occurred on the company's board of directors.

Link's shares decreased to 33.3%, and Flash Gold Capital's shares decreased to 15.2%, together holding 74% of the voting rights.

Vanguard Capital ranked third.

Vanguard Capital participated in two rounds of financing, buying 10% in the first round and 5% in the second round, currently holding 11.7% after the second round of financing and the acquisition.

Pixar Animation, represented by Jobs, ranked fourth with 10%.

Morgan Investment, which originally held 12% of the shares, did not participate in the second round, leaving them with 8.3%.

The remaining Goldman Sachs Investment, Deutsche Bank, BlackRock Investment, Carl Icahn Investment, and Sil-Metropole Organization all held less than 5% of the shares, belonging to the board of directors and possessing voting rights at meetings.

Daniel DeVito, Joe Feller, James Shamus, Liu Xiaoli, and other company executives continued to enjoy 5% of the profit sharing and voting rights, but their shareholding further decreased, totaling around 2%, giving them the right to participate in board meetings.

Many new faces also joined the company's management team, mostly representatives and directors arranged by the shareholders, who were not responsible for specific work.

During the financing and acquisition of Pixar, although the company was interfered with by the Big Seven film studios and suffered some setbacks, such as management resignations and rumor attacks,

under Link's strong suppression, the company gradually stabilized and returned to normal working order.

The current main task is to cope with the upcoming summer season and strive for a good box office result in the fiercely competitive summer season.

This week marked the official arrival of the North American summer film season.

The first commercial blockbuster of this year's summer season was "Crimson Tide", produced and distributed by Disney, with a production cost of $45 million, starring Denzel Washington and veteran actor Gene Hackman.

It tells the story of the conflict and struggle between the captain and executive officer on an American nuclear submarine during the Cold War, a pure 'men's movie'.

It earned $18.61 million in its opening week in 2,382 theaters, topping the weekly box office, a decent result.

Affected by this film, "While You Were Sleeping" fell to $8.36 million this week, with a cumulative North American box office of $66.18 million, ranking third in the weekly box office.

Second place was the romantic film "French Kiss" produced by 20th Century Fox, starring Meg Ryan, with a first-week box office of $9.01 million.

The competitive intensity of the first week's box office in the summer season was relatively average, like a few appetizers.

The competition will truly begin next week when "The Butterfly Effect" is released.

"Haha, Link, the summer season is here, are you ready?"

Link was processing documents in his office when Michael Ovitz suddenly called, his laughter revealing a hint of triumph.

"Ready for what?"

Link leaned back in his office chair and asked Lewinsky to pour him a cup of coffee.

"Ready to accept defeat! Ready to surrender to me! Ready to get out of the Hollywood stage!"

Michael Ovitz snorted coldly.

Link shook his head, not quite understanding the other party's thoughts. With Michael Ovitz's status, suddenly running over to taunt him during a battle seemed very childish.

"Michael, there's something I don't understand. It seems like there's no real conflict between us. Why do you always have to target me? Is there any point in doing this?"

"No conflict?"

Link smiled lightly, "You lost the bet to me because you're not as skilled as me. You should accept your defeat if you were willing to bet. You know better than I do the specific reasons why Robert Downey Jr. and the others got into trouble. And what you call the crown of King of Hollywood? That title was imposed on me by the media. I've never cared about it."

"Don't care? Hmph, do you think I'll believe that?"

"You don't need to believe it. I'm a billionaire ranked 102nd on the Forbes Global Rich List. My ranking will be even higher next year. In ten years, I'll be in the top fifty, or even one of the world's top ten billionaires, one of the richest humans in the world. The value of that title is dozens of times higher than the King of Hollywood."

"Hmph! Top ten in the world? You're dreaming!"

Michael Ovitz snorted coldly.

Link shook his head, "Whether it's a dream or not, you just watch. Besides, the crown of King of Hollywood never belonged to you. It originally belonged to Louis B. Mayer, in the fifties and sixties it belonged to McCarthy, in the seventies and eighties it belonged to Lew Wasserman, in the past few years it belonged to you, and now it's transferred to my hands.

The throne rotates, that's the rule of the entertainment industry. Whoever is strong gets it. Do you think you can become the King of Hollywood again if I give you this title?"

"I don't need you to give it to me. This crown is mine. No matter what despicable means you used to steal it, I will take it back with my own hands and make the thief receive the most severe punishment. No one can stop me."

Michael Ovitz's tone became fierce.

"Take it back? How are you going to take it? With a honey trap? Oh, dear Michael, there's something I have to thank you for. Cameron Diaz and Nicole are both good women, beautiful, gentle, well-behaved, and have super hot bodies. Thank you for sending them to my side.

If you know any other good girls, please continue to send them over, okay? I will thank you again."

Squeak, squeak!

A sound of gnashing teeth came from the phone, "Link, don't be complacent! This matter is not over!!!"

Bang!

The phone was hung up heavily.

Link picked his ears, put down the phone, and then picked it up again to call Liu Xiaoli and Jon Gordon, asking them to pay attention to recent public opinion.

"The Butterfly Effect" will be released on Friday.

The Big Seven film studios will definitely not let go of this good opportunity to suppress this movie.

The company must pay close attention to relevant public opinion to prevent being ambushed by the Big Seven film studios' media outlets.

At the same time, in order to ensure that the films under Guess Pictures have an advantage in publicity, Link proposed allocating $5 million as a special fund, one to increase the company's resource reserves in publicity, and the other to be used for emergency public relations.

After arranging the work, Link thought for a while and picked up the phone again to call the four shareholders: Vanguard Capital and Morgan Investment, Goldman Sachs Investment, and Deutsche Bank.

These four investment companies also own shares in the Big Seven film studios or the Big Seven media groups.

No matter who wins or loses in the struggle between the Big Seven film studios and Guess Pictures, the four investment companies will suffer losses.

Link asked them to put pressure on the Big Seven film studios through their investment companies to stop them from joining forces to deal with Guess Pictures.

Only Gregg Davis rejected his proposal.

Because of the matter of increasing the shares of Guess Pictures, the investment company is now divided into two factions:

One faction supports the Big Seven film studios, and the other faction supports Guess Pictures.

The investors who support the Big Seven film studios hope to suppress Guess Pictures and restore the Big Seven film studios' dominant position in Hollywood.

The people who support Guess Pictures hope that the two sides can coexist peacefully and only compete for box office revenue with their films, without using other unconventional means.

After discussion by the board of directors, the two factions continued to be opposed, and the faction that ultimately wins will gain more resources and power.

In other words, the rise of Guess Pictures has also divided the capital side into two factions.

Gregg Davis hoped that Link could focus on film promotion and strive for the company's films to achieve good results in the summer season and defeat the Big Seven film studios.

He and the senior executives who support Guess Pictures will also gain more power.

"It's another company infighting drama."

Link shook his head, picked it up again and called Jobs.

Continue to persuade him to take the position of chairman of Guess Pictures.

Jobs is an extremely capable entrepreneur. If he can come to Guess Pictures to take charge, Link will also have more time to make movies.

It's just that after persuading him many times, Jobs didn't agree.

The reason is that the achievements made by Link during his tenure as chairman of Guess Pictures are obvious to all.

Jobs said that if he handed over this position to him, he would not have the confidence to do better, so he would not accept it.

In addition, he also has NeXT Computer Company under his command, and he does not have the time and energy to manage a large company like Guess Pictures.

However, Jobs agreed to serve as the company's vice chairman and continue to manage Pixar Animation Studios.

Jobs' answer was the same this time.

Seeing that Jobs was unwilling, Link did not continue to force him.

The two talked about the situation of Apple Computer.

After Microsoft launched Windows 95, Apple's situation became worse and worse, and it also encountered a financial crisis. In just two weeks, the stock price fell by 3.2%. If it does not make changes, it will face the risk of bankruptcy.

Link asked him if he had any thoughts of returning to Apple, and if he had this plan, he would be willing to help.

Jobs said he hadn't considered it yet, and hoped that he could help if he considered it.

After hanging up the phone, Link continued to deal with other work.

In the afternoon, Gong Li came to the office to chat with him about recent work.

After filming "Chinese Box", Gong Li has successively received several supporting roles, such as the female teacher in "Scream", the female neighbor in "The Runaway Bride", and the Oriental witch in "Final Destination 2", etc.

The reason why she wasn't given too important roles.

On the one hand, there are still some problems with her acting style, which is not suitable for playing the protagonist.

On the other hand, she is an Asian actor and has no box office appeal in Europe and the United States.

Wait for her to play more roles, accumulate some fame, and then play more important roles.

After talking about the movie, it was time to get down to business, and the table in the office began to shake.

This desk has been with him for more than three years, and it has carried too many things in the past, such as thick files, computers, pen holders, ornaments, women's hips, etc.

It's probably under too much pressure and can't support it.

When it needs to be used to support the body, it complains endlessly.