Century City, James Murdoch, who had just arrived in Los Angeles from England, stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of the reception room on the top floor of the Fox Building, with his eyes diagonally opposite, a brand new building stands there with a line of eye-catching large-character relativity building on it.

An inconspicuous small Hollywood company has become the leader in the second-tier tier and has even threatened Fox to a certain extent.

After two years of hard work in London, James Murdoch won the trust of his father Rupert Murdoch, and in addition to continuing to serve as CEO of Sky TV and News Corp. UK branches, he also allowed him to participate in the business of Twentieth Century Fox.

This also gave James Murdoch more hope, and the future seems to be in his hand.

The door of the reception room opened and Jim Prous, the president of 20th Century Fox, walked in.

"Hi, James." Jim Prous greeted warmly: "I just held a meeting and I've been waiting for you for a long time."

James Murdoch looks very respectful to Jim Prous: "I've just arrived, your work is important."

The two sat on the sofa chair in front of the floor-to-ceiling window. From this place, they could just look down at Century City and the entire Los Angeles.

James Murdoch pointed to the office building he had just watched: "Last time I came to Fox, this building was called Death Star Building, right?"

Jim Prous glanced over there and said, "Relativity Entertainment spent more than 200 million US dollars to buy this building as the company headquarters."

"I met Ronan Anderson in London a few years ago." James Murdoch still remembered the meeting at the royal charity party: "At that time, Relativity Entertainment was still a small company that was not very prominent?"

Jim Prous nodded slightly: "In the past two years, Relativity Entertainment has developed too fast, and the equity composition of Relativity Entertainment is simple. Strictly speaking, it is a sole proprietorship company and does not require public revenue and financial reports to the outside world. The outside world can only roughly estimate their income based on market statistics. Except for internal executives, others are not sure how much real profits of Relativity Entertainment are in a year."

James Murdoch said: "Where are they in Hollywood when it comes to film business?"

Jim Prous said without hesitation: "The top three are inevitable, but Relativity Entertainment has no television and other media businesses, which is a weakness."

James Murdoch asked: "What is the basis for the calculation?"

"It mainly comes from the box office." Jim Prous said simply: "There is the box office estimate of offline revenue."

"By the way, was there a film about Relativity Entertainment released last weekend?" James Murdoch asked again.

Jim Prous smiled: "The Resident Evil, adapted from the game, is a sequel. The first part has a good box office. This part is the same. The box office in North America in the first weekend was 34.2 million US dollars, and the box office in a single museum exceeded 10,000 yuan."

James Murdoch raised his eyebrows: "Can the box office in North America exceed 100 million?"

Jim Prous shook his head: "This movie has a bad reputation. It is unlikely that it will cost over 100 million in North America, but $80 million should be fine." He sighed: "Compared with first-line commercial productions, these medium-to-low-scale projects do not seem particularly amazing, but the theory of relativity launches about five pieces every year, and the combined profit is quite large."

James Murdoch looked at the Relativity Entertainment Building in the distance: "Ronan Anderson is very capable in operating movies."

Jim Prous said directly: "I think Ronan Anderson is above Jerry Brookheimer."

James Murdoch didn't expect Jim Prous to have such a high rating. He was silent for a moment. After a while, he said: "As you say, Relativity Entertainment is stronger than DreamWorks. Are the six major companies watching him become stronger?"

"Relativity Entertainment has been in trouble recently," said Jim Prouss. "But their equity structure is simple, financially healthy, and cash flow is sufficient. As long as they can produce high-quality films stably, there is no good idea for the six major players. The theater chain and studios have been separated for too long. Paramount has used exclusive release methods, but the box office of "The Passion of Jesus" has exploded, and these methods have become laughing stocks."

James Murdoch knew very well how much Twentieth Century Fox was in the entire News Corp. He thought about it carefully for a moment and asked, "Can't you start off the line?"

"Offline rental and sale market? There is no limit." Jim Prous smiled with helplessness: "Fox has made efforts in this area, but it has no effect. The six majors, including myself, have never paid attention to Relativity Entertainment before, and believe that the threat of future competition is a dream factory. Even if Relativity Entertainment has achieved good results for two years, it is just a meteor that has been sliding."

He put away his smile and his eyes gradually became dark: "When it really attracted attention, relativity entertainment has formed a nearly complete industrial chain."

Jim Prous knew James Murdoch's ambitions, and he was also a supporter of James Murdoch within News Corporation. He said tirelessly: "For online theaters, as long as the videos can bring passenger traffic, no matter whose videos they are, even Russian companies, they will keep reading. The most important thing in the offline market is DVD, peripherals, licenses and TV copyrights."

James Murdoch listened very seriously because one day he would fight back from London to America to fight for what should be his own.

Jim Prous continued: "In the peripheral aspect, a movie has a big box office hit, and the characters or other products have become popular. Merchants who drive profit will definitely not let it go, such as Pirates of the Caribbean and Captain Jack Sparrow, and Embassy Film has its own manufacturing and distribution channels."

"DVD can now occupy nearly half of a video's profit, which is actually the best restriction method. Viacom's PepsiCo has no longer released or rented videos from Relativity Entertainment since last year, but its impact on them is limited, because Netflix, a subsidiary of Relativity Entertainment, has surpassed PepsiCo in terms of rental and sales.

"In addition, like the surrounding goods, Embassy Film has independent DVD producers on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. In that country, our influence is limited and able to create foreign exchange business, and no company will give up easily."

James Murdoch interjected: "Where is the TV copyright? Relativity Entertainment has no TV station, right?"

Jim Prous nodded and said, "CBS belongs to Viacom, ABC is owned by Disney, NBC has just merged with Universal Pictures, and our Fox TV station, all four major TV networks in the United States are closely connected with the six major film companies. The problem is that the six major companies have never really joined forces and are competitors."

If you want the six major companies to work closely together and take action against a very powerful company, you may be in chaos among the six major companies.

Although the six major companies have a certain understanding and even have a small number of cross-holdings between them, who doesn’t want to completely suppress other companies and become the top company in Hollywood and occupy the largest market.

It is not scary to see opponents like Relativity Entertainment. No one wants to face those dark enemies who seem to be standing with them.

James Murdoch asked: "There is no other good way?"

"It's too difficult, and the six majors themselves are also difficult." Jim Prous shook his head and said, "Universal Pictures has just joined forces with NBC. The internal integration has not been completed in a few years, and we will not have the energy to take care of other things for the time being. Paramount Pictures has found trouble with Relativity Entertainment, but it was broken. There was a problem with their production business and they were focused on DreamWorks to swallow it. Warner Bros. and Relativity Entertainment are still in their honeymoon period, and the two parties have cooperated on multiple film projects. Disney, it's better not to say it, both internal factions are about to raise guns and shoot at each other. We are not easy either. Marvel Comics is like crazy recently, asking for the modification of the contracts of "X-Men" and "Fantasy Four", otherwise they will have to go through legal procedures..."

"I remember the contract with Marvel was clear," said James Murdoch.

Jim Prous said: "This is not a contract issue. Marvel Comics is crazy. They sold almost all of their valuable copyright assets and turned against us for the sake of money."

James Murdoch's tone became cold: "A worthless company is not worth the price of Fox. Don't be rude to Marvel Comics, nor do they deserve sympathy."

Jim Prous said again: "I'm not worried about Marvel Comics. Marvel Comics is indeed crazy because of lack of funds, but there are also people pushing this matter later..."

James Murdoch immediately became alert: "Are you talking about relativity entertainment?"

"Yes, Relativity Entertainment." Jim Prous said slowly: "As far as I know, Relativity Entertainment and Ronan Anderson bought the copyrights of a batch of second- and third-tier comic characters from Marvel. Since then, the relationship between the two parties has been very close. Robert Lee of Relativity Entertainment has been very close to Avi Arad."

James Murdoch stood up, came to the floor-to-ceiling window, looked at the Relativity Entertainment Building again, and whispered: "I am in London, and there are some people who can get exclusive news with special means."

Jim Prous said quickly: "James, be cautious. Ronan Anderson is not an ordinary person. He has a net worth of at least one billion dollars. He is cruel and cunning. If we take the lead in using methods that exceed the rules..."

Unlike these professional managers who are more abiding by the rules of the game in Hollywood, James Murdoch dares to use illegal means for the sake of his interests.

In London, he has instructed some of the news company's media to do so.

"I understand." James Murdoch also knew to be careful: "I'll think about it carefully before talking about it."

Jim Prous breathed a little relieved. He was just a professional manager and could not go crazy.
Chapter completed!