America gains both fame and fortune

Chapter 573 Someone surrenders
Burbank, Warner Building.

Kevin Tsujihara officially walked in as CEO.

"President!"

"President!"

People they met stopped, stepped aside and greeted them proactively.

Kevin Tsujihara smiled and nodded frequently around him, showing great friendliness.

The new CEO left a very good impression on his subordinates.

Going upstairs and entering his office, Kevin Tsujihara was full of confidence. Like all newly appointed decision makers, he wanted to make big moves.

This Japanese-American once worked as an executive at Warner Bros. for a long time. After AT&T acquired Time Warner, he was transferred to the parent company WarnerMedia as an executive.

To fight back, we naturally have to achieve certain results.

It cannot be the "Harry Potter", "Batman" and "Lord of the Rings" series. Those achievements belong to Barry Meyer and Alan Horn. If he relies on the legacy of his predecessor, the board of directors and shareholders of the parent company will only think that he has no pioneering ability and can't even keep his position stable.

At this time, the assistant, Bessen, who is also of Japanese descent, brought coffee and handed over a document.

Kevin Tsujihara asked: "Marvel Studios and the Cult of Coca Cola have calmed down?"

Nathan said respectfully, "It's settled. Kevin Feige publicly apologized, Martin had people appease the Coke cultists, Disney also did some work, and there are very few reports in the media."

Kevin Tsujihara nodded: "Robert Iger was very quick to react and figured out the best solution so quickly."

Nathan stood quietly by and did not respond.

Kevin Tsujihara thought for a moment and then said, "Take your team and think of something else. Our superhero universe plan will take time. If the next door is too successful, it will make us look incompetent. Keep trying to slow down the next door."

"Yes!" Nathan responded decisively.

Kevin Tsujihara waved his hand.

Nathan hurried away.

In the office, Kevin Tsujihara opened the document brought by Nathan, which was the resignation letter of Alan Horn, president of Warner Pictures.

The head office has approved it.

Kevin Tsujihara looked through it and signed his name on it.

The disastrous failure of "Terminator 2018" made the head office extremely dissatisfied with Alan Horn, who pushed for this project, and was also the direct reason for his resignation.

This is Warner Bros.' most painful failure since "Alexander the Great".

Even including estimated offline revenue, its losses exceeded $1 million.

Alan Horn is gone, and the next one is Barry Meyer.

According to the head office's plan, Kevin Tsujihara will continue to serve as chairman of Warner Bros. after Barry Meyer completely steps down.

The Japanese executive will hold great power.

From Warner Bros. Pictures to DC Films to Warner Entertainment, all the helmsmen need to be replaced.

Just like the big Hollywood companies, when the captain of the fleet's flagship is replaced, the captains of the other ships must naturally be replaced as well.

As for the resulting turmoil, it is of course the short-term price that needs to be paid to create the next glorious era.

Next, Kevin Tsujihara focused on Warner Bros.' core film business.

Today, Warner Bros. is extremely powerful. The Harry Potter series has made Warner Bros. a fortune, the Lord of the Rings series has made astonishing profits, and The Dark Knight has brought DC comic-based movies back to their peak.

In terms of other films, Kevin Tsujihara found that Martin Davis, who has worked closely with Warner Bros. in recent years, contributed considerable income.

But Warner also faces many problems. For example, Harry Potter is about to be completed, The Dark Knight is too dependent on Nolan, and The Hobbit in the same series as The Lord of the Rings is progressing slowly.

Kevin Tsujihara had a plan before he came from New York, and The Hobbit had to be accelerated.

Barry Meyer and Alan Horn treated their partners too generously and the contracts were too lenient, which affected Warner's profits.

And the most crucial point is that Marvel next door has already demonstrated the ambition of the Marvel Universe on the big screen, and DC cannot fall behind.

Kevin Tsujihara made a phone call.

Not long after, Hamada, the new head of DC Films, entered his office.

When Kevin Tsujihara took office, of course he wanted to use his own people. He tried hard to persuade the head office to abandon the original candidate and transferred Hamada, who is also of Japanese descent, from New Line Cinema to helm the DC comic film project.

"Superhero movies have been very popular in the market in recent years. Batman has sold well, Iron Man is very popular, and Marvel has already taken the first two steps of its movie universe plan." Kevin Tsujihara asked, "How is your plan going?"

Hamada has been studying DC comics carefully since Kevin Tsujihara talked to him two months ago. Now he has a preliminary plan and said, "I will definitely catch up. I am confident of this."

He said carefully: "Marvel's most popular Spider-Man, X-Men and Fantastic Four have all their copyrights sold, leaving them with only a bunch of second- and third-tier superheroes. On the other hand, DC has all the copyrights, from Superman to Batman to Wonder Woman. In the past few decades, they have been more popular in the comics market than Iron Man and Captain America."

Kevin Tsujihara said: "So, the first step I took when I took office was to choose DC and build a superhero movie universe belonging to Warner and DC."

Hamada had just taken office and was full of ambition. He said, "Nolan is currently filming a realistic version of Batman, and its setting is completely contrary to the DC Universe. Superman just experienced a failure in the movie, and Wonder Woman is a female character. The three justice giants are not suitable for the time being."

Kevin Tsujihara thought it made sense and nodded slightly. Hamada added: "I chose Green Lantern, which has a certain audience base and can help DC advance its worldview to the cosmic level, catching up with Marvel next door."

Kevin Tsujihara thought for a moment and said, "You should lead DC Films to make a detailed plan first. A project of this scale needs the green light from the review committee."

Hamada responded: "I will go back and take people to do it immediately."

Kevin Tsujihara urged: "You must be fast!"

Hamada could feel the pressure from his boss because he was under the same pressure. He had just been promoted from an executive at New Line Cinema to the head of DC Films, and his first step was to achieve some impressive results.

…………

The atmosphere in the Warner building is quite depressing. Perhaps ordinary employees do not feel it obviously, but after the change of leadership at Warner Pictures and DC Films, the executives are all in danger.

New bosses like to use their own people.

This Japanese CEO has made it very clear.

Alan Horn has resigned and Barry Meyer will step down as chairman when his term expires, which makes Daniel, who is close to both of them, quite worried.

If things go wrong, he, the vice president of the issuing company and the person in charge of the issuance of medium and large projects, will be replaced.

There have been rumors in the past two days.

There are basically only two options for Daniel. One is to find another team like Allen Horn did, but it is not easy.

There are limited slots in the six major Hollywood studios, and they are all currently full, so changing industries is too risky.

For a middle-aged man like him who has purchased a luxury house and has several children studying in prestigious private schools, taking a wrong step could lead to irreparable consequences, or even bankruptcy.

Another path is one that some executives of several subsidiaries have already taken.

Surrender to Kevin Tsujihara.

The other party has just taken office and it is impossible for him to replace all the people in important positions. After all, they work for Warner Bros., not a certain executive.

Daniel, however, knew that his position was very critical and he had been thinking about it in recent days.

Today, Allen Horn officially resigned, reminding him that things have reached a critical moment.

Daniel needed this job and didn't want to take the risk of going to other companies, so he picked up a document in his hand, made a phone call, and then left the office and went upstairs.

Kevin Tsujihara met Daniel in the reception room outside the office.

"It's like this. I need to ask you for some work." Daniel lowered his posture appropriately: "Some time ago, Warner was sorting out the old films in the film library. After Martin Davis heard about it, he asked me for a detailed list. He intended to select suitable projects from them and remake our old films..."

He told the story with nine parts truth and one part falsehood.

Kevin Tsujihara didn't understand what he meant and asked with a puzzled look.

Daniel further said: "Martin Davis has a very good eye for selecting projects. Since he entered Hollywood, except for his debut film, Zombie Gigolo, all his other works have been released by Warner Bros. without exception, and all have been successful. Many of these projects were not optimistic before production, but they were all box office and DVD hits after release."

He passed the information about several old films selected by Martin to Kevin Tsujihara: "He has an inexplicable and terrifying intuition about the film market. The projects he selects are always successful. Similar situations have occurred in Hollywood in the past."

Kevin Tsujihara picked up the document, glanced through it quickly, and said with a smile, "Not bad."

Rather than talking about the three old films, this sentence is more about Daniel's attitude and position.

He returned the information to Daniel and said, "You are very familiar with Martin Davis. Go and ask him why he chose these three films."

Daniel didn't refuse at all: "I'll go find him right away."

He believes that he got close to Barry Meyer before because of work needs, and it is still for work needs now.

After seeing Daniel off, Kevin Tsujihara returned to his office and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window. He was in a particularly good mood today. Overlooking most of Burbank, he had the illusion that Hollywood was under his control.

…………

Warner Bros., the studio behind Gone Girl.

Martin, David Fincher and Charlize Theron are discussing roles and the script.

Bruce knocked on the door and said, "Daniel is here."

The film is currently in discussion with Warner Bros. for distribution, and Daniel is the direct head of Warner Bros.' negotiation team.

David Fincher and Martin went to meet Daniel together.

The latter said directly: "David, your shooting and production speed has always been slow. You must promise me that you can complete the shooting and production of this movie before November next year."

The North American premiere date agreed upon by both parties is set at the beginning of next year's holiday season.

David Fincher understands the current situation in Hollywood and knows that he has no hope of winning this year's award, but he still wants to continue to challenge the Oscar for Best Director. He immediately said: "From now on, I will work at least six days a week to ensure that Gone Girl is completed on time."

Daniel held out his hand.

David Fincher high-fived him.

This is just a confirmation on a personal level. The issuance negotiations are still ongoing. Once both parties complete the negotiations, it will definitely be concluded on paper.

(End of this chapter)