Perfect Life

To use an old-fashioned phrase to describe it: Columbia Pictures was once brilliant.

In the 1960s and 1970s, they once dominated among the eight major Hollywood film companies at that time. The annual production volume of one company accounted for nearly one-third of the total production volume of the eight companies! Even further back, in the 40s and 50s, they were all powerful!

If the time is up to 1980, it can be said that Columbia Pictures is the best run of all Hollywood studios, and they are the standard bearers of the Hollywood film industry!

At that time, their pinnacle work was the acquisition of Lianmei Film Company, one of the eight major Hollywood film companies at that time, in 1979 at the price of stock exchange plus 780 million US dollars. Domineering attitude, disdain for the heroes.

However, later, dragged down by the performance of United American Film Company, coupled with the repeated failure of its own investment and production, when the time entered the 1980s, the status of Columbia Film Company began to decline rapidly.

In 1987, Coca-Cola acquired Columbia Pictures at a price of $3.9 billion at the time, but after entering the era of Coca-Cola, Colombia still showed no signs of recovery, and it has become a huge burden on Coca-Cola since then.

In 1991, Japan's Sony once wanted to take over Colombia from Coca-Cola to complete their overall global layout from the electronics industry to the film industry and the music industry, and the negotiation entered a substantive stage. The deal was questioned by people across the United States, who saw it as a Japanese invasion of the United States.

Of course, no matter what the public thinks, it cannot change Coca-Cola's determination to let go of this big burden, but unfortunately, just when the deal was about to be finalized, in 1992, a large-scale economic crisis broke out in Japan, and all Japanese Enterprises, and Japan as a whole, have been severely damaged in this economic crisis. Of course, Sony is no exception. They were quickly overwhelmed by this economic crisis and were simply unable to launch acquisitions involving huge amounts of money. The acquisition was stillborn.

In 1997, Coca-Cola finally found another next home, that is, a film company co-founded by several major American directors at the time - Dreamer Films.

Dreamer Films, as an independent film company, dreams of getting the film library of Columbia and United Artists, and their strong distribution channels, but they don't have enough money.

Coca-Cola made a $2.7 billion offer for Colombia - note that during the ten years they took over Colombia, the entire Hollywood studios were making money and growing, but Coca-Cola lost money in this deal $1.2 Billion! But even so, they want to sell it as soon as possible!

However, the Dream Creator Film Company, which was only founded for a few years at that time, could only come up with a maximum of 500 million to 800 million US dollars even if they tried their best. Therefore, they hoped to make some acquisitions first, and strive to make a profit in the next eight to ten years. Within a year, this amazing deal of snake swallowing elephants was completed one after another.

But Coca-Cola firmly refused.

They would rather let Colombia continue to be so rotten in their own hands, and they absolutely cannot accept such a long and painful acquisition, and they are even more unwilling to let this business of getting rid of the burden turn into a ladder for several directors to realize their dreams step by step - want to buy , you can, take the money, you can sell it to you at any time!

But phased transactions will never be accepted!

This kind of large-scale acquisition is really unbearable for any risk - what if the acquisition is halfway through and the Dream Creator goes bankrupt instead? They have only been established for a few years, but they have no family background, and they can't bear the failure of several productions!

So, the deal stalled again.

And sure enough, after a few years of prosperity in the early days of entrepreneurship, when the time entered the new century, Dream Creators successively appeared in several films that lost money on investment, and soon fell into financial crisis!

Needless to say, it must have scared Coca-Cola into a cold sweat - fortunately, it firmly refused!

And Columbia, a former Hollywood giant, has fallen down step by step. It has the largest film resource library in Hollywood in the United States, and has the top distribution capabilities in the United States. However, after the collapse since the 1980s , they never regained their former glory, but continued to slump amid repeated acquisition negotiations and management turmoil after another.

So far, they are at the bottom of the seven major Hollywood studios. Everyone has been supported in the global market that has been developed since the 1990s. Only Colombia has become more and more weak.

...

Before coming to the United States this time, although Li Qian also paid attention to the seven major Hollywood production companies, he really did not pay special attention to a single company. But for John Days, he has been in the film production industry since he was an adult, and it is a familiar story about the ups and downs of Hollywood in the past two decades-the countless acquisition negotiations that Columbia has experienced over the years, every The piles are all the filmmakers who are extremely concerned about it. At this time, it is natural to have flesh and bones.

So, Li Qian suddenly became interested.

When John Days finished introducing Colombia's ups and downs over the years, Li Qian didn't even ask Colombia what conditions were given to the two-way release of "Hulu Baby", but directly asked: "John , Can you give me as much detailed information as possible about the acquisitions that Columbia has experienced in the past few years, as well as their current operating conditions, including their financial status and production status in recent years?"

John Days was a little stunned when he heard the words, "Boss, what do you mean?"

Li Qian smiled and said, "I suddenly have an idea."

...

When John Days left, Li Qian watched his car drive out of the manor, and stood under the porch himself, all kinds of thoughts in his mind moved forward quickly.

Raise your wrist and look at the watch, China time, it should be late at night.

But what he knew was that Qi Jie had never slept before two o'clock in recent years—yes, he went to bed late and got up early. From 2:30 at night to 6:30 in the morning, she sleeps for four hours, and then makes up an hour at noon, and she can handle all kinds of things energetically throughout the day.

She has been doing this for the past few years.

But think about it again, if this phone call passes, it is estimated that she will not be able to sleep even for these few hours tonight.

So he finally didn't call, turned and walked back to the room.

Liao Liao is sweating on the treadmill.

Li Qian stood aside and watched for a while, and couldn't help laughing at her, "You said how good it would be for you to play tennis with me, running alone, or on a treadmill, how boring!"

Liao Liao waved his hand, "Go away!"

Li Qian shrugged and had no choice but to turn and walk away.

Li Qian is a big man of about 1.8 meters. He is agile and explosive, and the key is that he can last a long time. Therefore, after playing tennis for a long time, that is, for 10 to 20 minutes, Liao Liao has already been abused and lost interest. , once, twice, three times, five times, and slowly people stopped playing, even if Li Qian lost deliberately.

So Li Qian walked back to the living room, took the materials left by John Days, went back to his own study, sat down, made a pot of tea, and slowly calmed his heart with the help of boiling water to make tea. When I got down, I felt calm in my heart, the impulsive heat gradually subsided, and then I opened the folder.

Regarding the situation of the other companies, John Dyce's explanation has been more detailed. When Li Qian looked at it, he simply glanced at it. He focused on the Columbia that John Dyth didn't have time to talk about, and he didn't ask at the time. on the given conditions.

Compared with several other companies, Colombia's conditions are excellent.

They basically agreed on a two-way open cooperation between the two parties. The so-called open type means that you can choose my film, and I can choose your film, but both parties can choose not to choose - this is at best a framework agreement.

Then, the focus of the negotiation between the two parties was put on the next few movies that Minghu Culture will launch, from "Hulu Baby" to "The Matrix", John Dyth and Columbia's negotiators have negotiated a rough plan. Issuance framework - Of course, it is divided, and it is a step-by-step ledger method.

With this distribution method, both parties can sign up to five films at one time.

In exchange, Minghu Culture needs to start from 2004, and in the next two years, to provide the Chinese side for the introduction and distribution of the films produced by Columbia and its subordinate labels.

Also five.

This is very reasonable, and it can even be said that it is a cooperative model of complete reciprocity.

In the context of the current era of Hollywood sweeping the world, a company that is one of the seven major Hollywood studios can be willing to reach such an agreement with a Chinese company like Minghu Culture. It can be seen how urgently they need the issuance performance in other markets, and it also shows how weak their overseas issuance capabilities, especially their attractiveness to Chinese publishers, are.

After reading all the cooperation frameworks negotiated by the two parties, and then looking back at it again, Li Qian couldn't help sighing after carefully smacking some of the potential information revealed in it.

Nope, I'm really excited.

No matter the past or present, in Li Qian's impression, the seven major Hollywood studios are all top-level existences. It is no exaggeration to say that in the world of movies, they are the evil spirits in Jin Yong's novels. The supernatural powers of the Southern Emperor and the Northern Beggar belong to the kind of top master who is invincible in the world!

After coming to this time and space, after so many years, from the music producer to the lead singer of the band, to the singer, as well as the director and actor, Li Qian's biggest goal has always been to make Minghu culture bigger. Then try to lead China's cultural industries such as music, film, TV series, etc., to make breakthroughs on a global scale at some level.

I dare not say that it is fighting against Hollywood on a global scale. At least we should avoid waiting for the two rounds of special effects and 3D film technology, Hollywood blockbusters are rampant in China, and Chinese films have actually been reduced to start selling so-called "" variety show".

Therefore, he has been doing it conscientiously, trying to take every step steadily, and trying not to make any mistakes.

And now, Minghu culture has indeed risen smoothly in China. Whether it is music or film and television, it is the top group in the country, but Li Qian still feels that what he has to do has not been done or finished. , the next step, he plans to lead Minghu Culture to start to do something that integrates the culture of the Chinese nation but is more able to adapt to the global vision, start to learn from Hollywood, and try to distribute globally-in his opinion, this is to drive the entire Chinese film industry. A crucial step in the rise.

However, he never thought that he could have a better way!

Yes, buy Colombia!

I had never thought about it before, nor would I think about it at all, but as soon as the idea came up, Li Qian immediately discovered that as long as it was successful, it was definitely a shortcut!

Today, and in the world film market in the next few years, the three largest markets must be North America, China and Europe - population and spending power determine this.

Minghu Culture itself has strong distribution capabilities in China and Southeast Asia. It also has stable and strong distribution partners in Japan and South Korea. If Columbia is eaten again, then North America and Europe will be distributed. Channels will be replenished overnight!

At that time, Minghu Culture will directly consecrate the gods in one step, and directly possess the top distribution capabilities on a global scale - and this is something that neither Chinese film companies nor the major Hollywood film companies in the United States have!

Domestic policy conditions do not allow U.S. companies to come over for distribution, or even allow U.S. related companies to hold shares in companies that are engaged in the distribution of cultural products in China. Therefore, no matter how powerful the seven major U.S. companies are in the world, they will still not work in China. Way, and domestic companies, even if they are as powerful as the Oriental Media Group, which is a total plate of 35 billion, they can't afford it, and they don't dare to buy an American distribution company!

And to be honest, they don't even think about global distribution!

Their favorite thing is to fight in the nest, UU reading www.uukanshu.com is to be able to be the king and hegemon in China!

But Minghu Culture is not.

Minghu Culture has never regarded it as its goal to be the first in the industry in China.

Minghu Culture's goal from the very beginning was to do business in Chinese culture, Chinese music and Chinese film and television on a global scale! The Chinese market is just a part of it!

However, if we really do this, will there be a feeling of "specializing in stocks to become shareholders"?

When I came to the United States, I really came for the release of "Hulu Baby", but when I left, I bought a Hollywood film company...

...

At eight o'clock at night, Li Qian guessed that Qi Jie should have woken up, and called her.

When the call was connected, he said, "I want to buy something, bring someone over here!"