Chapter 434 The Battle of Pixar
Little Gilbert stayed in the island country for more than a month, and Scarlett returned to Los Angeles after spending his birthday with little Gilbert.
She is starring in "Lost in Translation" which will be released in August and she has to rush back to promote it.
Although Sofia Coppola's film is targeting Oscars, that doesn't mean it doesn't have a little bit of desire at the box office.
Sophia herself is eager to win an Oscar, but the original intention of the film company in investing in this film is to make money, and the Oscar is also to make money.
However, "Lost in Translation" will adopt a conservative release strategy and start screening first.
This is also a strategy adopted by general literary and artistic films, which use spot screenings to continue the popularity and allow the film to run throughout the entire awards season.
Generally speaking, it is not a problem for an independent film to be released for two or three months.
Some films disappear after being clicked, and some films will expand their screenings because of their excellent quality.
Miramax Pictures clearly has outstanding experience in this regard.
The Weinstein brothers are public relations experts during the awards season. Using them to handle awards promotion and distribution for independent films, coupled with the channels and resources of their parent company Disney, is simply getting twice the result with half the effort.
However, there have been some rumors recently about Miramax. It is said that the Weinstein brothers are dissatisfied with Disney's restrictions on Miramax and cannot allow the two of them to express themselves freely.
So the Weinstein brothers planned to resign and start their own companies again.
This matter really has something to do with little Gilbert, because he particularly dislikes Harvey Weinstein, a big fat man.
The reason is simple, Harvey once thought about Naomi Watts.
Men love kings and beautiful women, and they especially hate other men thinking about their women. The jealous little Gilbert naturally disliked the fat Harvey.
What's more, little Gilbert is so charming and charming, and is known as the most handsome guy in the Hollywood directing world. How dare an ugly fat guy like Harvey still miss his woman?
Although Harvey stopped in time and did not cross the line like Mel Gibson, Little Gilbert still did not let him go.
A beating or something was too no-brainer. After becoming a shareholder and board member of Disney, Gilbert Jr. encouraged Robert Iger to initiate subsidiary reforms.
To put it simply, subsidiaries used to operate independently. Except for the year-end financial report, other matters, such as investment projects, etc., do not need to be reported to Disney headquarters.
This is also to give the subsidiary some creative autonomy so as not to have its hands tied.
But Gilbert Jr. encouraged Robert Iger to require the subsidiary's projects to be verified and approved by Disney headquarters every year.
In addition, the review of subsidiaries by the head office every two years was changed to twice a year, which made the underlying subsidiaries miserable.
What's more important is that little Gilbert didn't deliberately disrupt Disney.
Previously, Disney's top management had internal management chaos due to disputes between Michael Eisner and the board of directors, and its subsidiaries also became local powerful princes because of the chaos in the board of directors.
There are many cases of false and concealed financial statements every year, and even more egregious ones are digging into Disney’s foundation.
So after Robert Iger adopted Gilbert Jr.'s advice, he thoroughly checked all the projects and accounts of the subsidiary. Although it has gone through some pains, Disney has eliminated all its problems and has better development prospects.
The board of directors was very satisfied with this, and Robert Iger also took over the power of the board of directors and truly took full control of Disney.
Little Gilbert has deep pockets of merit and fame. He not only achieved the goal of cleaning up the bad apples within Disney, but also took a small revenge on Big Fat Harvey.
Of course, Big Fat Harvey understood that. He felt that if he stayed at Disney any longer, not to mention becoming the head of Disney, he might end up with Mel Gibson as his companion, so he thought of quitting.
Little Gilbert didn't rush to kill them all. Anyway, Big Fat Harvey himself would eventually step on a thunderstorm and explode. He couldn't afford to fight a dying man.
Another thing is Pixar Animation Studio, which is still being worked on. Jobs wasn't worried at all, Disney was worried.
According to Jobs's temperament, Disney cannot win over Pixar without paying a heavy price.
The most important thing is that there are several giant companies waiting outside!
Everyone knows the value of Pixar Animation Studio. Jobs himself still prefers to cooperate with Disney, but the premise is that Disney’s bid cannot be lower than other companies.
This will involve little Gilbert. After all, little Gilbert is a shareholder of Apple and has a good personal relationship with Jobs himself.
So Robert Iger hoped that Gilbert Jr. would persuade Jobs to relax some conditions and agree to complete the deal in the form of some Disney shares and cash.
Little Gilbert, who was enjoying the sun and beach on Ryukyu Island, was talking about this with Robert Iger: "Bob, Steve Jobs himself is actually a very stubborn person.
I don't think it will have much effect if I try to persuade him. "
Robert Iger said: "It doesn't matter, little Gilbert, just show who you prefer. Mr. Jobs is a shrewd businessman who believes in vision the most."
"Okay, let me try..." Little Gilbert took a sip of lemonade and continued: "I heard that Warner also has this intention. Doug may also ask me for help. You can't blame me then."
Disney and Warner Pictures have cooperated closely in recent years because of Gilbert Jr., but this does not mean that there is no competition between the two companies.
For example, Pixar Animation Studio, Warner wants to win more urgently than Disney.
Universal has Blue Sky Studios, not to mention Disney. When the live-action film business was not very good, it all relied on the animated film department. Paramount and DreamWorks animation departments work closely together, and 20th Century Fox’s animation studio is also very powerful.
As for Sony Columbia Pictures...well, they have the money!
Warner Pictures alone does not have a decent animation studio, so Pixar is desperately needed by Warner Pictures, and Doug Walter will definitely make a heavy move.
Robert Iger was a little silent when he heard this. After a while, he said: "It doesn't matter. You try your best to convince me. Whoever Pixar ends up with, I won't blame you for the result."
"I feel relieved when you say that," little Gilbert promised: "Don't worry, I will make it clear to Mr. Jobs."
"Okay, thank you, little Gilbert..." Robert Egger hung up the phone and sighed.
The day in the island country coincides with the night in Los Angeles. Because of the Pixar acquisition, Robert Iger is still working overtime in the office.
Solomon, who had been promoted to vice president of Disney, saw Robert Iger hang up the phone and quickly asked: "Bob, is the communication not going well with Little Gilbert?"
"No," Robert Egger shook his head and said, "It went smoothly."
"Then do you have any worries?" Solomon was a little confused.
Robert Iger sighed and said: "Little Gilbert is also a shareholder of Time Warner!"
Solomon then remembered that not only did they want Pixar Animation Studio, Warner Pictures must also want it.
"Who will little Gilbert help?" Solomon asked.
Robert Egger shook his head and said he didn't know.
After Robert Egger's call, at night, little Gilbert received a call from Doug Walter with the same request as Robert Egger.
It’s obvious that everyone wants to eat this fat piece of meat from Pixar Animation Studios, and they all want it to themselves.
In fact, before Melon Studios was acquired, little Gilbert was thinking about setting up an animated film department.
After all, he has creativity and technology can be developed.
But later, because he was too busy with work and had no time and energy to build an animation studio, little Gilbert gave up.
Now he somewhat understands how popular Pixar Animation Studio is. In fact, he can tell just by looking at Disney.
"Finding Nemo", released at the end of May, now has a North American box office of over 200 million US dollars and a global box office of over 400 million US dollars.
But the most outstanding performance of the film is its peripherals, which have brought in US$322 million in revenue for Disney and Pixar Animation Studios. The cost of peripherals is less than one-third of the production cost of the film.
The core of animated movies is always peripheral products.
"Finding Nemo" was the last animated feature film signed by Pixar and Disney for release. Because the contract ended after "Finding Nemo", Pixar attracted the attention of all parties in Hollywood.
Speaking of box office performance, let’s pay attention to the movie market.
Little Gilbert has been on vacation in the island country for more than a month. It's the first weekend of July. As of July 6, the North American box office of "Pirates of the Caribbean" has reached 291 million US dollars.
Nowadays, the film can still make hundreds of thousands to one million US dollars at the box office every week. The North American box office is definitely 300 million US dollars. It depends on where the box office ends up.
In terms of overseas box office, "Pirates of the Caribbean" ushered in a wave of slight growth as it was released in the Chinese market and the Korean market.
The overseas box office has now accumulated US$403 million, but the box office growth has also come to an end and should not exceed US$450 million.
In this day and age, it is a very normal phenomenon that the overseas box office of Hollywood blockbusters is higher than the domestic box office. The performance of "Pirates of the Caribbean" is very consistent with the performance of a typical Hollywood commercial blockbuster.
For the beginning of a series, "Pirates of the Caribbean"'s current global box office of $694 million is satisfactory enough.
The final box office should be around US$730 million, which is already the performance of a top commercial blockbuster.
Movie fans who may be used to the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy's box office raking in more than a billion dollars may feel that "Pirates of the Caribbean" did not perform well at the box office.
But in fact, as an original, fantasy pirate adventure-themed movie, this box office performance is excellent.
If it had been another director, the media would have blown him to the sky by now. But the director is Gilbert Jr., so the media is still dissatisfied.
For example, the "Washington Post" secretly mentioned Gilbert Jr., saying that his performance in this summer's summer season was not as good as expected, which disappointed them.
The Washington Post has nothing good to say about little Gilbert. Whatever little Gilbert does is wrong.
Little Gilbert was angry and donated ten dollars to the Elephant Party because the Washington Post supported the Donkey Party.
Another movie with a good box office is "X-Men 2" released by 20th Century Fox. Although it is not as popular as "Pirates of the Caribbean", it has a North American box office of 203 million and a global box office of 622 million US dollars.
(End of chapter)