Hollywood starts with an agent

Chapter 465 He crossed the line
Saks Fifth Avenue is a well-known century-old department store in the United States and one of the world's top department stores.

The store offers a wide variety of products, covering a range of mid-to-high-end brands, including clothing, footwear, bags, jewelry, cosmetics, skincare, and home goods.

"The Saxophone Fifth Avenue store is very famous in the United States. Do you want to acquire it?"

In the hilltop villa in Hollywood Park, Wang Zhuxian lay on top of Aaron, kissing the man and making sounds.

"What's wrong with that? After so many years of development, we've only managed to operate in the US, with a total of just over 30 stores."

"Even Canada doesn't have it, let alone Europe and Asia!"

Aaron stroked the woman, "Saxophone Fifth Avenue has a wide variety of goods. We can go public and raise funds, and then expand overseas."

“I can support you to open in big cities like Hong Kong and Taipei first, and then in places like Beijing and Shanghai in mainland China.”

As for other ordinary cities, it probably wouldn't work, since Saks Fifth Avenue is a high-end department store that needs financial support!
"Mmm," Wang Zhuxian nodded, and then kissed Aaron passionately.

Because Aaron has been quite busy lately, Wang Zhuxian didn't stay in Los Angeles for long before flying to Vancouver, Canada...

With Amazon's IPO, its valuation reached a staggering $4.3 million!
In Beverly Hills, at the MPAA headquarters, Warner Bros., Universal, Disney, MGM, and other eight major MPAA members held a policy meeting regarding DVDs.

With the official entry of DVD technology into the US market, and the MPAA as a representative organization of the film industry, it actively promoted major Hollywood film studios to adopt the DVD format for film releases.

The eight member film companies under the MPAA have also begun producing DVD versions of a large number of classic and newly released films.

Of course, with the rise of DVD technology, piracy also emerged. The MPAA increased its efforts to protect DVD copyrights and implemented a series of measures to combat piracy:
In cooperation with various law enforcement agencies, we will conduct special operations targeting the production, sale, and distribution of pirated DVDs;
At the same time, the MPAA is pushing film companies to adopt encryption technologies, such as CSS and CGMS, in DVD production to prevent piracy and protect the copyrights and economic interests of film companies.

Furthermore, the MPAA has established a series of industry rules and standards for the DVD industry, including aspects such as DVD production quality, packaging design, and content labeling. These rules ensure the quality and consistency of DVD products and promote the healthy development of the DVD market.
For example, regulations stipulate that DVD packaging must clearly indicate the film's rating, runtime, director, actors, and other information to help consumers understand the product!
Finally, the MPAA has always been committed to maintaining a rating system for film content, and the DVD market is no exception.

For DVD releases, the MPAA rating standards must be strictly followed: G (General Audience), PG (Parental Guidance), PG-13 (Parental Guidance), R (Restricted), and NC-17 (Not for viewers under 17).

This allows consumers to understand the target audience for the film content by looking at the rating labels on the packaging when purchasing DVDs. This helps parents and consumers make choices and regulates the content sales in the DVD market!
The DVD Consortium, comprised of manufacturers such as Sony, Philips, Panasonic, Pioneer, Hitachi, Toshiba, Mitsubishi, JVC, and Thomson, also established the DVD standard.

To prevent illegal copying and protect film copyrights, the DVD Consortium specifically introduced the DVD region code system, and the code content will be managed by a specialized organization.
The DVD regional coding protocol uses a regional identification code system, which divides the world into 6 distribution regions. When the regional coding system is implemented, DVD discs and DVD players are simultaneously partitioned.

Each DVD player can only play DVDs from its designated region (except for globally encoded discs)!

Aaron shook his head when he saw the region codes on the DVD. 1 represented the United States and Canada, 2 represented Japan and Western Europe, 3 represented Asia (excluding mainland China), 4 represented Central and South America, New Zealand and Australia, 5 represented Africa, Russia and Eastern Europe, and finally 6 represented mainland China.

In a café on Rodeo Drive, Aaron and MPAA President Jack Valentine sat facing each other, enjoying their coffee.

"It seems everyone is quite worried about VCD products from mainland China!" Aaron smiled. The DVD Alliance has set standards for every aspect of DVD production, completely blocking China's path to DVD distribution.

Jack Valentine shrugged. "China developed VCDs, but we can't get patents. We only have the chip part, which isn't enough."

As an upgraded version of VCD, DVD will require China to pay a large patent fee for every DVD machine it manufactures!
"This time, the support your eight major film companies are giving to DVDs is quite substantial."

Aaron smoothed his hair. "The advantages of DVD over videotape are too obvious. Anyone with a brain knows that the future home market will definitely be dominated by DVD."

"We also want to sell more discs. The cost and storage of videotapes have no advantage over DVDs."

Didn't you see? Even Paramount supports it.

"Moreover, videotape chains like Best Buy and Hollywood Video are becoming increasingly rampant."

"Once DVDs become widespread, they can be stocked in large quantities in supermarkets, convenience stores, and any other type of retail store!"

After all, DVDs are much cheaper to produce, and companies like Bestone will definitely not be able to maintain the same dominance they had during the VHS era.

Jack Valentine nodded; he was certainly aware of the power struggle between chain stores like Papa Star and Hollywood film studios.
Negotiations between the two sides regarding the profit-sharing model have never stopped!
"DVD technology is still developing, and it will take time for it to become widespread. Manufacturers are also still cutting costs."

“In the United States, home entertainment is still mainly based on videotapes.”

Aaron didn't deny it, "It won't be long, just two or three years. Just look at how VCDs have developed in China."

"As the number of manufacturers increases, costs will definitely continue to be compressed. If it weren't for the DVD alliance created by these guys, Chinese manufacturers could have helped popularize DVDs in just one year!"

Jack Valentine smiled without saying a word. This is the difference in focus between film companies and DVD alliance manufacturers. Film companies want to sell discs, so of course the more people who own DVD players, the better.
The DVD Consortium manufacturers are different; they make money by selling DVD players. Without high patent fees, the low cost of Chinese manufacturers could crush these manufacturers.

"Forget it, let's not talk about that anymore. Anyway, right now our Dawn's works are the most popular, whether it's videotapes or DVDs, my opinion carries enough weight!"

"Now, I want to talk to you about Woody Allen."

Jack Valentine took it seriously. "Aaron, what do you mean?"

Aaron narrowed his eyes. "He crossed the line..."

(End of this chapter)