Chapter 321 Ronald starts the money printing press
As the major shareholder of Coca-Cola, Buffy's phone call quickly gained the attention of senior management. They expressed their gratitude to Ronald for calling him. Coca-Cola, which has always wanted to achieve a breakthrough in doing business with the most populous country in the world,
Someone was specially sent to the hotel where Ronald was staying in West Berlin to consult in person.
The Coca-Cola Company has long coveted the huge market of more than one billion people. They thought Ronald had received some official information. They were a little disappointed when they heard that it was just an advertising sponsorship for the PBS documentary "Will the Dragon Rise Again?"
.
However, it is still a free gesture to express goodwill. When Ronald flew back to Los Angeles, he heard the news that not only was Coca-Cola's huge sponsorship (compared to the documentary) already in place, but the news was also
This has caused a large number of Fortune 500 companies to show their favor.
In addition to Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Allianz Insurance have all taken the initiative to sponsor this program.
For a moment, the producers of Xinxing Company were laughing from ear to ear. When did they have such a rich budget for making documentaries? Helen called and said that they also planned to invite Helen to Xujiahui and the Great Wall to shoot a few scenes on site.
As the opening remarks of the documentary.
"Didn't you expect that my influence would be so great?" Ronald thought happily. He didn't expect that so many big companies would come to sponsor him just because of a phone call...
"No, I'm not that famous in the corporate world, am I?" Ronald was happy and sobered up. He asked Lawrence for the annual reports of several companies and looked at them. For a company with this kind of market value, he must not be so famous.
Big influence.
"It must be Buffy's influence..." Ronald revised his understanding. As a well-known investor, Buffy took full positions in Coca-Cola, and the stock price slowly rose. Many people on Wall Street expressed disapproval of him.
His vision was also very appreciative. It must have been Buffy's call. Many people in the industry misunderstood his idea.
"What, before I file my taxes this year, all the income I can transfer will be invested in Coca-Cola." Ronald thought that Buffy was so respected, it must be right to buy with him...
"Well, I'll also invest some in Microsoft..." Ronald added after seeing the Microsoft Word software used by accountant Lawrence.
Although he writes his own scripts, it is more convenient to use WordStar. However, Word is a software that requires no memorization of shortcut keys and can be used as soon as you get started. Many secretaries use it a lot.
Lawrence has long been accustomed to Ronald's investment style, so he doesn't say much. Last year, Ronald's income was very good. Although the sales of the original soundtrack of Dirty Dancing have gradually come to an end, the video tape is still very popular.
There is no intention of being unsaleable.
Last year, two million video tapes were sold in America. Although the sales volume was slightly lower than last year's 3.8 million copies, it still ranked strongly in the domestic video tape sales and rental rankings.
top ten.
As a movie released in 1987, this kind of achievement is really the envy of major studios. Usually for a blockbuster movie, the sales of video tapes will fall into weakness in the second year. With such strong sales, the seven major studios
There are not many other manufacturers that can match it.
In this alone, Ronald has sales of 80 million US dollars, which does not include sales in Japan, Europe and other places. In addition, there are some sales of the original soundtrack. From the video tape of this movie, Ronald
Nader can achieve sales revenue of over 100 million.
Coupled with the various dividends and surplus from the blockbuster movies in the past two years, and the financing of Carly Simon's "Working Girl" soundtrack, it has also entered the top 20 in America's sales rankings. Not counting his stock holdings
With dividends, Ronald's income from the film and entertainment industry in one year is already comparable to Spielberg's "Raiders of the Lost Ark" series and Lucas's "Star Wars" series.
Thinking about it, he didn’t have any special effects when making this movie, and he didn’t need to support an expensive special effects company like "Industrial Light and Magic". Ronald really had a money printing press last year, and it kept running.
That kind of.
Ronald's daydream now only invests in some low-cost movies, so with a lot of cash in hand, he still follows Buffy's footsteps and buys some stocks to share the fruits of economic development.
…
"Hey, Ronald, did you hear that? That idiot Minahan Golan is going to be filming Spider-Man?"
On this day, Ronald, who was resting at home, suddenly received a call from Cameron.
"What? You heard about it too? Hahaha" Ronald laughed loudly. It seems that Minahan's words to Hollywood have had an effect. Now several of the top seven companies have begun to invest in the filming of these two comic book adaptation movies.
Really interested.
"I heard that you have something to do with this? I'm very interested in taking over one of them, Spider-Man... Is there anything you can do?"
"Are you serious?" Ronald stood up from the sofa in a hurry. What happened? I just asked Minahan to use some deception to get the basic copyright I wanted from Warner Brothers.
Who knew good brother Cameron really had the idea to make Spider-Man?
"Let me ask about this. I'll contact you when I have more details." After thinking about it, Ronald calmed down Cameron first and went to Minahan to talk about the situation.
"There is no response from Warner Bros., Ronald. However, Columbia, which was before the change of ownership, has some interest from other TV stations..." Minahan received Ronald's call and hurried to his home to drink coffee.
"This coffee is really good..." Minahan took the coffee made by Diane and drank it very vigorously.
"What do they think?" Ronald frowned slightly. He didn't really want to make a movie based on a comic book. The investment in such a movie is huge and the risk is huge. Last year, it sounds like he made a lot of money, but in fact, he made a movie.
For such a large investment, that’s about it.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "Hi, Robert Daley of Warner Bros. is an old man. He always wants to spend a small amount of money to do big things. He wants to buy the film rights directly from me. Below is
Those people are not allowed to..."
Minahan Golan said the direct reason is that Daly, an invisible Jew, is actually still using the TV station's management method to run the film industry. Those who can spend nothing will not spend it, and those who can spend less will not spend too much.
flower.
"How can you still pick at me?" Ronald glanced at Minahan. He performed very well today and did not spit in front of Diane at home.
"Now there is an opportunity. There is a very suitable director who really wants to shoot the script in your hand. What do you think?" Ronald released the news first to see Minahan's reaction.
"Quack, quack, really? I'm going to turn over?" Minahan let out a burst of vulgar laughter, drank the coffee in one gulp, and started to express his thoughts while dancing.
Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ronald's smile. Minahan felt a sudden thought and immediately put down his cup, "In this way, Warner Brothers will definitely alleviate their doubts about our script. As long as we put a little more emphasis on
If there is news that other large studios are interested, they will definitely increase their offer, so that our real purpose can be achieved."
"Very good, but I'm not unreasonable. As long as we can get Warner Bros. to let go, if this movie can be approved, and you are willing to cooperate with them, I will facilitate it instead of obstructing it."
Ronald knew that Minahan had a dream in his heart to make a blockbuster movie, and Cameron also had a dream to make Spider-Man. If Cameron expressed interest, it could really lead to the script he wanted.
Changing hands, he doesn't mind others realizing their dreams.
"Quack, can you tell me who is interested?" Minahan is very clear about his role as a tool. If Ronald were not behind him, he would probably have the rights to adapt these two comics.
I can't keep it. But I heard that a director is interested and can also get the interest of Qida. I feel itchy. Could it be Spielberg?
"What's the inconvenience? It's Jim Cameron."
"It's him? Okay!" Minahan started dancing. He liked the style of searching for light in the darkness in Cameron's movies. If he could hire such a person, he might really succeed.
"He has been a fan of Spider-Man since he was a child..."
"Gah...uh..." Minahan, who was smiling happily just now, suddenly choked.
"You mean Spider-Man? I thought it was the Fantastic Four."
"Fantastic Four? Are Warner Bros. interested in the Fantastic Four?" Ronald was also surprised, "Why? Superman and Batman have proven that comic book adaptations require characters with the best comic fan base.
?”
"Hey, Warner Bros., I think the Fantastic Four are also very popular... uh, uh... you know, there is only one Spider-Man, but there are four Fantastic Four..."
Minahan Golan stretched out four chubby fingers, waved them in front of Ronald, and then replaced them with one finger.
"What's the point of this?" Ronald couldn't laugh or cry. Movies are not toy manufacturing, how can they still count heads?
Besides, the various villains in Spider-Man are not more interesting than the Fantastic Four? Moreover, the format of the movie, with four protagonists, actually weakens the plot and character portrayal of the movie...
"Hey, they are completely judging by the TV series now. Robert Daley doesn't read comics anyway..." Minahan retracted his chubby fingers. He has dealt with Warner Bros. more and expressed his feelings.
Said it once.
Although they filmed the first few Superman films, a lot of the money went to the Mexican independent producers Salkind and his son, who held the rights to adapt and film the films. After Daly took office, they cut back on filming the Superman sequels.
He also gave the script of Superman III to Richard Pryor, a popular black comedy star at the time, and asked him to take charge of the filming of the third part. The whole movie was made nondescript, a comedy was not like a comedy, and science fiction was not like science fiction.
It caused a round of curses from the audience.
Later, I felt that the potential of this series had been drained, so Minahan Golan took advantage of it and persuaded Christopher Reeve to star in the fourth part (of course, he failed even more badly).
The production method of TV series is actually very different from that of movies. In comparison, characters are more important in TV series. Many viewers watch TV series just to watch the important characters in it. As for the plot, it is secondary.
of.
Therefore, it is not surprising that Warner Bros. pays more attention to the "Fantastic Four" with four main characters, and it is not Minahan's nonsense.
Rather than buying the rights to "Fantastic Four" from Minahan, or using "other people's money" in exchange for "Forrest Gump", Warner Bros. is more willing to wait for Minahan's adaptation rights to expire.
, and then re-purchase it from Marvel at a very low price (two to three hundred thousand US dollars)... Marvel, which is now in financial difficulties, may have more favorable terms for adaptation.
"That's it...then, let's use Spider-Man to stimulate Warner Bros."
Ronald found the daydream man, learned about the situation with Richard, and confirmed Minahan's statement.
After that, he immediately contacted Columbia Pictures to get support from them.
"Sorry, Ronald, Colombia has its own troubles to deal with now, and we can't initiate such a big project for the time being..."
Ronald approached the new president, Frank Price, to discuss the matter, but was politely rejected by the latter.
It turns out that Columbia now has its own problems. New CEO Peter Guber, and his good friend, Jon Peters, had previously signed a distribution agreement with Warner Bros., with Warner Bros. underwriting their production company's
Movie.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Now after Sony acquired Columbia, it spent a lot of money to buy out their production company, and then all the works of the previous Gubel-Peters Production Company
, are also under the new Columbia Pictures banner.
In this way, in fact, the two of them breached a contract with Warner Bros. This made Warner Bros. executives furious. After Guber became CEO of Columbia Pictures, he launched a lawsuit against Sony, seeking one billion US dollars in compensation.
Of course, Sony was not a small player like Ronald, and immediately filed a countersuit, suing Warner Bros. for infringement proceedings against its CEO and vice president.
Now within Sony Columbia Pictures, many film projects have been suspended due to this incident.
"Is that so? Are you disgusted enough by Warner Brothers? Do you want to think of some way to disgust them?" Another idea popped up in Ronald's mind.
In fact, if this kind of prosecution occurred in two companies controlled by American Capital, it would not be a problem at all, let alone an issue between Jews.
It's just a Japanese company that has a bad reputation in America, so Warner Brothers made a big deal about it and wanted to take advantage of it privately.
Japanese people love saving face, and regardless of the actual outcome of this lawsuit, they feel they have been insulted by their Hollywood counterparts.
That's why they were so rude and had to launch a countersuit. They couldn't let their reputation as the first company to acquire a Hollywood company be shattered by a bizarre lawsuit.
Lawyers for both parties are trying their best to reach an out-of-court settlement. If such a case goes to court and lifts the lid on a large number of scandals within Hollywood, neither party is willing to see it.
At this time, if it can slightly win over Warner Bros. in the competition, I'm afraid Sony will be willing to do it no matter what.
However, doing so would be very humiliating to the current CEO Guber. The big turmoil he caused would allow Frank Price, another faction in the company, to regain his face, and he would definitely be unwilling to do so.
In this way, the matter was submitted to Dahe's office. In the midst of his busy schedule, Dahe called Ronald.
"Ronald Sang, as long as it is within the scope of the company's rules, you and Plessan can do whatever they want, and I will support you. But don't break the rules and let Chairman Morita pick out..."
Guber was recruited by Akio Morita after an "inspiration", while Price was recommended to Dahe by Ronald. There are actually many interest groups within Japanese companies like Sony, and they use some methods that make America's executives unable to understand.
, but effective methods are being solved and operating.
"It's within the rules... that means don't make trouble with them?" Frank Price didn't quite understand the Japanese way of thinking and wanted to ask Ronald for advice.
"Gubel and Peters have the power to greenlight the project. Do you have any power under the regulations?" Ronald asked rhetorically.
"I can buy a script with one item and pay it in advance, I understand..." Price finally understood the implication of Da He.
One day later, Minahan received the good news and immediately called Ronald to request that Spider-Man be promoted immediately. After all, the time for the adaptation rights to expire was running out.
"Quack, Ronald, we have received an advance payment from Columbia to purchase the distribution rights of Spider-Man video tapes, and an advance payment from Viacom for the TV broadcast rights. Can we then send an invitation to Director Cameron?"
"Okay, you send a formal invitation to Jim right away, and I'll call him right away. Wait, what did you say about Viacom buying the TV broadcast rights?" He was about to hang up when he found Minahan