Perfect Life

In the past few days at the end of 2003, it was doomed to be unable to calm down.

For the United States, and for China, it is the same.

On the one hand, Coca-Cola very quickly passed the resolution to contact Ming Lake Culture and Morgan Stanley at the internal high-level meeting, and on the other hand, quickly got in touch with the other party.

Columbia Pictures held a temporary high-level meeting on the afternoon of the 30th. There was a quarrel at the meeting. Many high-level personnel expressed strong dissatisfaction with their imminent acquisition by a film company from China. Dissatisfied, but not too strong. Of course, if the former wanted to take some action in protest, they would probably second and follow.

Surprisingly, Grenshire, the company's chief executive, said nothing about it.

From the beginning to the end of the meeting, he just watched from the sidelines and listened to everyone's speeches.

Another important figure in the company, Vice President David Emerge, also seemed to have listened to the meeting from beginning to end, which made many people in the company astonished.

Many of them probably know that Grenshire flew to Atlanta yesterday afternoon, so everyone can guess that he was in Atlanta and probably did not have any support from Coca-Cola, so even if he was angry, he had already Powerless.

But what none of them knew was that after the news was stabbed by Wall Street reporters yesterday afternoon, John Dyce called David Emerge that night, and the two chatted in a secret cafe. It took more than an hour - of course, Li Qian and Qi Jie didn't know about this.

At this time, many people can vaguely feel that once the acquisition is successfully completed, as the spokesperson of Ming Lake Culture in North America and Europe, John Days will become one of the strong contenders for the post of executive president of Columbia Pictures. one.

In short, things are such a mess.

In the end, at a high-level meeting within Columbia Pictures, nothing was decided.

But after the meeting, a vice president faced the reporter's microphone and blasted Minghu Culture loudly, believing that the acquisition was completely malicious and a cultural invasion of the United States, and called on the American people to oppose the acquisition and suggested that the United States The government froze the acquisition. At the same time, regarding this morning, Coca-Cola announced that it had officially started negotiations with Morgan Stanley and China's Minghu Culture. People are extremely angry and disappointed", "they always play the role of stab in the back", "they never seriously think about a way to bring Colombia back to life", "they just want to sell, sell, sell!"

After the meeting that afternoon, the company's historical heavyweight, Vice President David Emerge was not so angry when interviewed, but he was also worried. He said cautiously. , he is "cautiously not optimistic" about the fact that the two parties have started acquisition negotiations, and said that he "loves Columbia very much", and is currently working with the company's CEO Glenn Shire, who took office last year, in the implementation of the new The "Colombia revitalization plan", which "has begun to bear fruit", was interrupted by a sudden acquisition at this time, which he called "very helpless".

When asked about the acquisition of Fangminghu Culture, he said he liked China Liao and Li Qian very much. Not only did he know that he was the supreme national superstar in the Oriental Kingdom, but he had also seen all his films and regarded him as the Four Beauties. The album released when the band's lead singer is also very fond of. And in response to yesterday's "ignorant accusations and criticisms" from Disney, he expressed "disdain to refute" and claimed that the reason for the decision to release "Huluwa" was precisely because it was an outstanding animated film. As a director, Li dedicated An "impeccable, near-perfect work of art, and it tells a very good story"!

But for the company Minghu Culture, he said that he "doesn't know much" and "it's inconvenient to comment."

In short, it means the same thing. He is cautious and praises Li Qian, but he avoids talking about the acquisition, the acquirer and the future that Colombia may face after the acquisition.

At this time, the acquisition case is fermenting to the highest point. No one would think that his "prudent talk" would have any other meaning, but those who knew him could not help but be astonished.

He's always been the guy in the company responsible for balancing "the potentially radical changes that Grenshire brings" -- in other words, Coca-Cola wants Grenshire to save Colombia, but fears he's going too far , so that this company, which is currently only depreciating in value, but can still sell a lot of money, completely collapsed, so within Colombia, they chose David Emerge as a check and balance.

In fact, for the two previous acquisitions, David Emerge was very firm in expressing his firm opposition!

But this time, his words flickered, and his attitude towards the acquisition was vague.

Many people who were familiar with him quickly felt a strange smell.

Of course, for the media and the public, although David Emerge expressed his "extreme admiration" for Li Qian personally, he "expressed his disapproval of the final completion of this acquisition" for this acquisition!

In the midst of such a commotion, Grenshire remained silent from beginning to end.

But even so, the voices of opposition are not small.

On December 30, two licensed marches and sit-in demonstrations with hundreds of people in Hollywood and Washington have each held two demonstrations, expressing their opposition to the sale of "an American iconic cultural enterprise" to the Chinese, and said that once If the deal is finalized, they will reject all Coca-Cola products and all Columbia Pictures movies, because in their view, the former will be "traitors" and the latter "invaders" - "cultural aggressor"!

The scale of these two demonstrations was not large, but the matter was on the cusp, so it attracted countless media to interview, and the matter was very noisy.

Of course, the vast majority of ordinary Americans either don't care about this at all, or have nothing for or against such an acquisition, believing it to be a purely commercial act. What's more, I don't know if it has something to do with the Chinese culture craze a few days ago, and many ordinary people expressed their optimism about the future of the "Chinese elements" that the Chinese people in Colombia can bring to American culture when they were interviewed. .

They just hope that after entering Colombia, China Qian will not develop his own lover in the United States! They say the US is a monogamous country!

That afternoon, at the White House's last regular press conference before New Year's Day, when asked about it, a White House spokesman replied, "The White House is currently closely monitoring this acquisition" and "not Exclude any action that would harm the national interests of the United States at a critical moment!"

In this regard, the outside world quickly gave a near-unanimous interpretation - the White House objected!

For a while, although the two parties were still negotiating, they did not seem to be affected by these external trends, but the entire American public opinion circle began to make a certain subtle turn.

We have no objection, but we take a "cautiously unoptimistic" attitude.

However, at this time, one thing that did not attract too much attention is that after the end of the December 30th screening, many North American box office statistics and analysis agencies suddenly found that in the past two working days, North American The box office is a little unusual. Specifically, the main reason is that the box office of "Huluwa" is a bit abnormal——

The Christmas holiday is over, and the American people are back to work. The box office of almost all movies has begun to plummet, especially for those movies aimed at family-friendly moviegoers. After five days of crazy performances during the Christmas period, the This kind of film is a thousand miles away!

The five-day vacation made this type of movie a one-time crazy consumption of family-friendly moviegoers in North America. So as soon as the holidays are over, this type of film immediately weakens.

Even "Wigger the Pooh", which was crazy last week, only got $5.02 million and $4.41 million at the box office in the first two working days of this week, respectively.

According to the prediction given by the relevant box office analysis agencies, even during the New Year's Day, the audience of family-friendly movies will usher in a certain return, but the box office of "Little Pooh" this week will still be unable to exceed 50 million US dollars— — It should hover around the $45 million mark.

And that's actually crazy enough!

The combined box office of the two-week release will be as high as more than 180 million US dollars, which is close to 190 million!

Although the cartoon will soon lose its charm after the New Year's Day holiday, the subsequent screenings are still enough for it to continue to collect about 60-70 million US dollars at the box office, making the film's North American box office breakthrough $250 million is almost no pressure! It is even expected to reach 280 million to 300 million US dollars!

This is an absolute blockbuster!

In addition, the movies currently being shown in the North American market, almost without exception, continue to follow the law that has matured over the years in this market-after the carnival, everyone ushered in a plummet!

However, the reason why we say "almost" and not "all" is precisely because there are "accidents"!

On December 29, affected by the "Colombia Acquisition Incident" that suddenly broke out in the afternoon, "Hulu Baby", which has come to the second week of its release, seems to have been stimulated to a certain extent. Compared with last week's holiday period, the single-day box office Although the box office also plunged sharply, the drop was obviously far less than that of other films.

On this weekday, "Hulu Baby" made $2.96 million at the box office in a single day.

Coming to December 30th, this animated film from China, from China Qian, distributed by Colombia, and the producer of China's Minghu Culture, which is about to acquire it, actually went up against the market!

The single-day box office reached $4.75 million!

The single-day box office actually surpassed "Wigger the Pooh" in one fell swoop!

And, if you only count the box office for the first two working days, it came in third with $7.71 million, despite facing the brunt of two movies that were just released on a massive scale this week!

You know, it was only fourth last week!

And in the Christmas period a few days ago, its box office was only 4.21 million, 4 million and 3.68 million US dollars in a single day!

Now, it actually hits $4.75 million on weekdays!

And this, obviously, is not the end of it.

On December 31st, the American people once again ushered in a period of three-day vacation - plus the following Saturday and Sunday, another five days!

As a result, American filmmakers and box-office forecasting and analysis agencies were so stunned to see how the box office of "Huluwa" skyrocketed when the "Colombia Acquisition Incident" was being discussed all over the United States!

On December 31, 2003, it grossed $7.26 million in a single day.

On January 1, 2004, it grossed $9.05 million in a single day.

On January 2, 2004, it grossed $8.84 million in a single day.

On January 3, 2004, it grossed $8.48 million in a single day.

On January 4, 2004, the single-day box office grossed $8.09 million.

In the second week of its release, the North American box office of "Hulu Baby" was as high as 49.43 million US dollars, which was a 50% surge compared to last week's box office of 32.46 million US dollars!

At the same time, "Wigger the Pooh", which also came to the second week of its release, was affected by the diversion of "Hulu Baby", but it only received a weekly box office of 43.42 million US dollars - lower than the expectations of major box office forecasting agencies!

In particular, compared to last week's massive $1042.87 million ~www.wuxiaspot.com~ the film plummeted to a fraction of what it was last week in its second week - albeit at this stage in the North American market , the occurrence of such a situation is not completely incomprehensible, nor does it prove how bad the film is, it is mainly due to the excessive consumption of the moviegoing crowd during Christmas, but, I have to say, in contrast, "Pooh Pooh" Grid" This drop is a bit miserable!

And because there is only one new movie that is relatively powerful, "Hulu Baby" actually ranked second in the weekly box office rankings after beating "Little Pooh"!

This is the best record in the history of Chinese films in the North American Film Week box office rankings!

It came so suddenly!

And miraculously, as the box office of the movie bucked the market, and as the cinema chain found it profitable, it began to increase its release and film arrangement. "Huluwa", a movie from China, uses a unique, The animation works shot and produced by the method known as "ink animation technology", the scores and evaluations on the major film rating websites in the United States have actually risen instead of falling!

Many American audiences think that this is a "stunning", "full of oriental elements", but "the story is very good", "it can make children very happy, but when you walk into the cinema, It doesn't feel like your IQ has been pulled down" movies!

Some famous film critics commented that although it is "full of childlike interest", it is definitely not a "children's cartoon", on the contrary, it is "full of wisdom and courage in life"!

Therefore, it is so strange that "Hulu Baby", which suddenly gained more attention with the help of the "Colombia Acquisition Incident", became popular in North America in the second week of its release.

Box office and word of mouth go hand in hand for a while, and both become popular!

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