America: Starting with the acquisition of MGM...

Chapter 200, Page 199: We Found Taylor Swift

Eric's eyes lit up when he heard the name Kevin Feige.

Anyone familiar with Marvel knows that the DCEU's booming development over the past decade, with a bunch of superheroes forming a cinematic universe, was orchestrated and driven by Kevin Feige.

It can be said that until the end of Avengers 4, which is Marvel's Phase Three, the company's operations were extremely successful, raking in hundreds of billions of dollars globally over the past decade, making countless people envious.

The biggest contributor to this success is Kevin Feige, who oversaw the entire operation and was undoubtedly a successful strategist and mastermind.

Then came the quantum journey and Thanos's fall, and the climax that audiences had been anticipating for over a decade finally came to an end. Although some viewers complained that Avengers: Endgame had too many plot holes, most viewers were still satisfied, which can be seen from the box office.

Then the Marvel Cinematic Universe entered Phase Four, and the departure of Iron Man and Captain America left the hero team without its core members.

In addition, after more than a decade of superhero blockbusters, audiences have indeed grown tired of the genre. After watching Endgame, the wishes of fans who have been following the series for over a decade have been fulfilled.

Just like when a man ejaculates during sex, his desire drops drastically, and he naturally loses interest in what happens next.

The new movie-going audience is unwilling to revisit old movies from ten years ago. They can't understand many plots without starting from the first one, which has unknowingly raised the bar for movie viewing.

These factors all conform to objective laws, and no one can change them.

The fourth phase of film and television productions includes "WandaVision", "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier", "Loki", "Black Widow", "Shang-Chi", and "Eternals".

Have you noticed a problem?

The first few shows were of good quality, especially "WandaVision," which received high praise, but the quality dropped sharply afterwards.

The casting for "Shang-Chi" was clearly discriminatory, deliberately choosing Simu Liu and another ugly, disgusting Korean woman, and Tony Leung still went to participate.

It's because he's too famous that he wasn't banned, just like when he filmed "Lust, Caution." He wasn't banned because of his fame, but newcomer Tang Wei was unlucky and didn't get any roles for three years.

"Eternals" is an absolute mess, with its LGBT elements shining through, making it utterly awful.

The root cause of this situation lies within the internal context.

Just as Warner Bros. particularly liked to interfere in DC's planning and filming, Disney also began to interfere in Marvel's internal operations from this stage.

Mickey Mouse appointed Bob Chapek as the new CEO. After taking over Marvel, Chapek immediately placed a large number of his cronies in important positions in the company. The most prominent example is Victoria Alonso. They took away the power from Kevin Feige.

Because Kevin Feige understands both comics and film, he always meets with directors face-to-face to discuss project plans.

However, after Bob Chapek arrived, Kevin Feige was prohibited from communicating directly with the director and screenwriter; instead, other executives had to be present to negotiate.

If everyone disagrees, then I'm sorry, you can no longer make the decision as easily as before; you will have to hold constant meetings to negotiate and seek instructions.

If the director, screenwriter, and other executives agree, then Kevin Feige will be ousted and lose his right to advise.

Through Bob Chapek's series of actions, Marvel became a place where political correctness reigned supreme, and Kevin Feige was completely isolated, becoming a puppet with no real power.

Fortunately, the consequences were also obvious. Apart from Spider-Man 3 making a fortune based on nostalgia, most of the other projects suffered losses.

After being tormented for several years, Disney seemed to finally realize its mistakes, so it fired Bob Chapek and brought Kevin Feige back in the hope that he could clean up the mess.

Then Marvel created Loki 2, a masterpiece that once again cemented its legendary status.

The development of Marvel in later generations shows that Kevin Feige was an absolute genius; Marvel with him and Marvel without him are completely different companies.

This also indirectly proves that when laymen instruct professionals, things are bound to go wrong.

Eric must keep this talent under his wing. After two or three years, he should let him succeed Avi Arad as CEO, while Eric himself will become chairman of the board.

On the surface, Kevin Feige is in charge of Marvel, while Eric Carle oversees things behind the scenes. With one in the open and the other in the shadows, Marvel's long-term success can be guaranteed for decades.

Of course, Kevin Feige didn't always do a good job; for example, the storylines in "Captain America: The First Avenger," "Thor: The First Avenger," and "Thor: The Dark World" were not good.

Even if it's not good, it's still better than the later ones, and these bad works need Eric to take control.

As far as the DCEU is concerned, it would be best to make an Iron Man movie, but unfortunately the rights to Iron Man are still held by New Line Cinema.

After the success of the Blade series, New Line Cinema seems to have great confidence in superhero movies. They once announced that they wanted to bring Iron Man to the big screen and invited Tom Cruise to play Tony Stark.

So MGM had no choice but to settle for second best and make "Captain America" ​​first.

In terms of popularity alone, Captain America is far superior to Iron Man. The former has always been a top-tier hero, while the latter has never achieved that status.

Iron Man's popularity only began to rise rapidly after the movie was released, but he has never become the most popular character.

Spider-Man, Wolverine, Doctor Doom, Magneto, and others have always been one step ahead of him.

At Dream Manor, Eric and Michael discuss what has happened recently.

"Michael, I went to China a few days ago to promote Transformers, and I talked to the officials there about you."

"They asked me to help extend an invitation to you, hoping you can attend a large gala in China and perform on stage."

"Me? You mean China is planning to invite me?" Mike asked, pointing to his face in surprise.

"Yes, you are the King of Pop in the world. You have a huge number of fans in China, probably more than in the whole of the United States."

"There are a total of 13 billion people there. Do you know how big that is? The United States only has a little over 2 million, which is only one-fifth of China's population."

"Eric, wait for me a moment."

Michael stood up and left, but returned a while later with several photo albums.

"Wow. Judging from the cover, this photo album seems to be quite old."

"Yes, it contains photos of me from the 1980s, at least a decade or more ago."

As he spoke, he opened one of the books, flipped through it but didn't find what he was looking for, then picked up another book, opened a page, and immediately pointed at it with a smile, saying, "Look at this, guess what place this is?"

The photo shows a young Michael, whose skin was still completely dark back then. He looked to be no more than twenty years old, with a handsome face and a feminine softness.

Beside him was a kind-looking elderly Chinese woman, gazing gently at the camera.

Eric could tell at a glance that they were definitely Chinese; the feeling was completely different from that of Southeast Asians or Koreans.

"Hahaha. You can't guess, can you? I'll tell you, the place in the photo is China."

"That was in 1987. I went to Hong Kong for vacation and then went to a city in Guangdong Province, or rather, a rural area."

"I can't remember the exact place name, but look at the scenery in these photos. It's really beautiful there. It's a unique beauty that belongs to nature, mysterious and peaceful."

As he spoke, he pointed to a photo of a lake and said, "Look at this. I'm wearing a straw hat and sitting in a small boat, surrounded by water. The water is incredibly clear."

"That old lady even invited me to her home for tea and gave me some potatoes to eat."

"This memory suddenly came flooding back. Thinking about it now, it was such a wonderful time. I loved that country."

Eric stared at the photo album for a long time.

Fate is truly wondrous!

"Michael, would you like to attend the party? It will probably take up two or three days of your time."

"Which year specifically?"

"It's on the evening of January 22nd, but you need to fly there in advance. The show might require rehearsals, so you'll need to familiarize yourself with the stage beforehand."

"Eric, are there many people watching this party?"

Eric nodded solemnly: "The Spring Festival Gala is the highest-level gala in China. It is held only once a year and hundreds of millions of people watch it at the same time. You can think of it as China's version of the Super Bowl."

Americans may not understand the Spring Festival Gala, but no American is unfamiliar with the Super Bowl. American football is the undisputed number one sport in the US; baseball, basketball, and soccer combined don't even come close.

Sure enough, even Mike was surprised to hear the phrase "hundreds of millions of people."

"Good heavens! A gala watched by hundreds of millions of people, it seems I really have no reason not to participate. What do they need me to perform? Singing or dancing?"

Eric shrugged: "You decide on the show yourself. Consider it a warm-up for next year's national tour."

"Hahaha. You're right. I've been doing rehabilitation training recently, so I'll treat this gala as a touchstone for my comeback."

"It has always been my dream to let more people see me and know me. Just thinking about the scale of hundreds of millions of people is exciting."

"If you agree, I'll give them my reply. You should sign the contract as soon as possible, but I predict the compensation won't be too high. I hope you don't mind."

Michael waved his hand: "Remuneration is not a problem, Eric. We are not people who value money. It's enough for hundreds of millions of people to see me at the same time."

It went much more smoothly than expected. Eric hadn't thought Michael would agree so easily. He had planned to try and persuade Michael.

After all, due to economic constraints and copyright restrictions, they mostly watched and listened to pirated content, which didn't actually contribute much economic benefit to Mike.

The Spring Festival Gala has never paid celebrities; they're lucky if they get a boxed lunch. Even if foreign celebrities are paid, it wouldn't be much in 2003.

It is said that Celine Dion only received a friendly price of 200 million RMB when she sang on the Spring Festival Gala.

In today's market, 20 RMB would be considered quite good. At the same time, Mike would inevitably bring his own clothing and team, which would essentially be a loss for him.

Eric knew exactly what Chen Ou was up to when she approached him. She knew about Eric's relationship with Mike and wanted to use Eric's influence.

Now that Mike has given us face, and MGM has been helping China expand its overseas markets and has paid so much, I don't believe they'll still hold back the approval process for American TV series to enter the market.

If he's really that heartless, don't blame Eric for turning on him later.

Of course, there's also a personal motive: to let Mike bring a small shock to the Chinese entertainment industry, preferably to severely crack down on the Korean wave and Taiwanese idol culture, raise the public's aesthetic standards, and also help with the ratings of American dramas entering China.

He picked up the phone and called Chen Ou on the spot.

"Hello, Director Chen, is this a convenient time to talk?"

"It's convenient, Mr. Cooper, please tell me."

"Regarding the matter you asked me to do, Michael has already agreed; he will participate in this year's Spring Festival Gala."

"Really? Thank you, Eric, thank you so much."

Chen Ou’s somewhat excited voice came from the other end of the line: being able to invite the world’s three tenors does not mean that we can invite the world’s pop king.

The former is too highbrow, which means it's too sophisticated for the general public to understand and doesn't have a wide reach. Therefore, in terms of popularity and value, it's far inferior to Mikey.

"You're welcome. I've said before that friends help each other."

"Hahaha. That's right, that's right. Friends are supposed to help each other. That makes so much sense."

"You should send someone over as soon as possible to sign the contract and then discuss the stage details, since time is running out."

"Well, I'll send someone to America right away. Eric, I really didn't expect you to get things done so quickly. To be honest, I was just giving it a try that day."

Eric smiled and said, "Director Chen, I also hope that your optoelectronics department can give me a reply soon."

"Don't worry, I'll do my best, no, I'll give it my all!"

After hanging up the phone, Eric looked at Michael: "China will send someone over soon. You two can handle the details; I won't interfere."

"What! That won't do! We'll go together, and as the middleman, you can't back out."

Eric chuckled: "No problem, watching the Spring Festival Gala live is a good idea."

After discussing that matter, the two then talked about the management of Mei Yi Records, especially the fact that The Voice of America should start recording, otherwise they would miss the chance to compete with American Idol next year.

"By the way, Michael, when does the recording of The Voice begin?"

"It will be soon, officially launched before the end of the month. The contestants we found this time are all promising talents with good skills."

"I listened to their demos, and some of them were outstanding. I think they deserve to be nurtured."

"Hehe. To gain your approval, they must be really strong. Do you have any detailed information? Like a resume or something?"

Soon, Mike brought over a thick document containing the contestants' personal information, including their names, home addresses, and preferred singing styles; there were dozens of entries.

That's right. Although the other three mentors didn't know the contestants' information, Mike, as one of the producers, would be incompetent if he didn't.

However, the demos we heard were quite different from the live performance, so they didn't affect the quality of the live recording.

Besides, even if it has some impact, there's always acting skills to make up for it.

Turning to the first page, Eric saw a teenage boy named Cavallon Sinai, whom he didn't recognize.

The second page features another teenage boy, whom I still don't recognize.

I flipped to the tenth page, and suddenly a young girl appeared in front of me. She looked to be only thirteen or fourteen years old in the photo.

The name field clearly reads: Taylor Allison Swift.

(End of this chapter)