Chapter 606 Creative Director with a One Dollar Salary
Entering June, the popularity of the summer season is still unabated.
After being bombarded by "The Last of Us," "Transformers," "The Da Vinci Code," and "X-Men: The Last Stand" in May, the summer season in June is still very busy.
The blockbuster in June is "Cars" produced by Pixar Animation Studios, directed by John Lasseter, one of the Pixar Five, and written by Joe Ranford, who has written the "Toy Story" series.
Coincidentally, John Lasseter was the director of the first and second parts of the "Toy Story" series, and the two worked very happily together.
Each of the Pixar Five will have a collaborative team. While Hollywood animated film production is becoming more and more streamlined, Pixar still retains a creativity-centered production method.
It is said that when Pixar internally decides whether to approve a project, the discussion is not whether the film can gain market favor or how much profit margin it has.
What they discussed was the significance of this project and what kind of thinking this film can bring to people, mostly from the perspective of humanistic and artistic expression.
Of course, as long as you are in Hollywood, you cannot escape commercialization. But this is where Pixar is great. The animations it produces can be both commercially successful and stand out in the humanities and arts.
Although there are so many animation studios that have produced a lot of works, few can compete with Pixar.
It is no exaggeration to say that Pixar is the king of animated films today, and there seems to be no big problem.
Such a dazzling animation studio naturally attracts peeps from all sides. But Pixar boss Steve Jobs, like a seasoned fisherman, stood still, waiting for the fish to bite.
After several years of tug-of-war, the acquisition is now nearing completion. Disney attracted Steve Jobs with better terms, and both parties have reached an agreement.
If the contract is fully signed, Disney will acquire Pixar Animation Studio in exchange for cash and shares. Steve Jobs will also become a member of Disney's board of directors and become Disney's largest individual shareholder.
Who is the second largest individual shareholder? Naturally, it was Steve Jobs’ good friend and old acquaintance, the famous Gilbert Landrini Jr.
Disney was preparing to fully acquire Pixar Animation Studios, but it only received 50% of the equity of Cantaloupe Studios, and the other 50% was with Warner.
Therefore, it is normal for Steve Jobs's shares to exceed those of Gilbert Jr. After all, the difference in value and size between Pixar and Melon Studios is not that big.
This world-famous acquisition was no less sensational and influential than the merger and acquisition of related studios by Disney and Warner that year.
In order for Pixar to fully join the Disney system, Robert Iger also promised not to interfere with the creative freedom of Pixar Studio.
It was also against this background that the project of "Ratatouille" with the mouse as the protagonist was approved. Then there’s “Wall-E,” where you watch robots fall in love.
As the creative director of Pixar hired by Steve Jobs for one dollar, Gilbert Jr. also provided several ideas, such as "Kung Fu Panda" with a kung fu theme as the background and a naive giant panda as the protagonist.
According to the trajectory of its previous life, "Kung Fu Panda" is produced by DreamWorks Animation Studio and belongs to Paramount Pictures. But DreamWorks Animation Studios has nothing to do with Gilbert Jr., and he's not working with Paramount.
So there is no problem in cutting off the beard in advance, and the salary of one dollar is not for nothing...
There are also "How to Train Your Dragon", "Big Hero 6" and other cartoon ideas that Gilbert liked more, and Gilbert also provided them to Pixar.
Many times there is nothing technically wrong with animation production, it’s mainly about the creative aspect.
With good ideas, animated films will continue to be produced.
Of course, Steve Jobs would not treat little Gilbert badly. He promised that when these animated films are produced, little Gilbert will be the first signed screenwriter and will also receive screenwriting remuneration.
In fact, if he followed the routine of ordinary entertainment bosses, little Gilbert could have set up his own animation studio and found people to develop these animated films by himself. But to be honest, little Gilbert gave up, mainly because he didn’t have enough time. If you are doing it yourself, you will definitely be very serious. If you are afraid of losing money, you will be more cautious.
But if you leave it to others, you won't have that burden.
Besides, Pixar is immediately a sub-studio of Disney, that is, his studio. Pixar makes money, which means he makes money.
Going back to the movie "Cars", the film was released on June 2nd and earned $60.11 million in its first week.
Compared with today's live-action movies and commercial blockbusters, this first week's box office was not outstanding. However, the box office explosive power of animated movies has not been outstanding, but more durable.
In addition, many popular animated movies usually have excellent peripheral performance.
"Cars" is such a movie. Although it is a new IP series, "Cars" still generated US$23 million in peripheral revenue in its first week in North America.
Of course, there will be a steady stream of peripheral income later, and its profitability is much better than that of many live-action movies.
Although the box office was not too high in the first week, by this week, the films released last month had begun to decline.
Therefore, "Cars" won the weekly box office championship without any suspense. It also won the overseas box office championship with a score of 88.53 million US dollars. US$148.64 million was enough to ensure that "Cars" won the global box office championship in a single week.
However, "Cars" is not the only new film released this week. The romantic film "The Breakup" released by Universal Pictures and starring the famous TV star Jennifer Aniston was released this week.
What is very interesting before the release is that Jennifer Aniston cried many times in public, saying that she missed the sweet time with Brad Pitt.
She said she missed Brad Pitt and wanted to get back together with him.
In response, Angelina Jolie stood up and said that this was impossible, and scolded Jennifer Aniston for hyping up the popularity.
In fact, what Angelina Jolie said is true. Jennifer Aniston is just enjoying the popularity, which is normal. Many celebrities usually use their exes to hype up their relationship to attract attention.
For Jennifer Aniston, as a well-known TV actress, it is no secret that she wants to transition from television to movies.
But unfortunately, this road is very, very difficult.
How many well-known TV actors have failed in their attempts to transition into movies, and ordinary movie actors will not star in a TV show.
Don't look at the long list of Hollywood star guest stars in "Friends", but if you let him star in a TV series, it is simply impossible.
Even for DiCaprio, he only played supporting roles when he was a child and never played a starring role.
Of course, things will change, and it wouldn't be surprising for movie actors to star in TV dramas in the future.
No, little Gilbert, a great film director, has become a drama director, and he is also planning to recruit several movie actors to star in dramas.
"Breaking Up" is one of the few successful films in Jennifer Aniston's career as a film actor. Although it did not win the weekly box office championship, its box office performance of US$39.17 million was quite good.
According to this situation, it is not a problem to exceed 100 million US dollars in North America and 200 million US dollars globally.
(End of chapter)