Soon, the answer to why The Shawshank Redemption didn't have any correct marketing guidance automatically jumped out and appeared in front of Ronald's eyes.
But it unfolded in a way that Ronald never expected. The CEO of Sony Columbia, the most expensive executive in history, had to pay a lot to get his hands on the man at Warner Bros.
…
Peter Guber resigned from Sony America's board of directors.
In order to get him, Sony, which had just acquired Columbia Pictures, launched a talent war with Warner Bros. Warner Bros. said at the time that Guber already had a long-term contract with Warner, and leaving Sony would be equivalent to breaking the contract.
In order to prevent the post-acquisition company's first CEO hired by old president Morita from being unable to take office due to legal disputes, Sony actually paid a heavy price for the lawsuit between Guber and Warner.
Although the final terms of the settlement were not disclosed, Hollywood and Wall Street have rumors that it is an escape fee of hundreds of millions. The specific number ranges from 200 million to 1 billion. Ronald heard that a more reliable figure was also
Almost halfway between the two.
How could such a CEO be kicked out after less than five years of service?
The reason why I say he was kicked out is because there are widespread rumors in the industry that it was Gubel who made the first move this time. He heard that Sony was planning to fire him, so he took the initiative to resign so that his career would not be stained.
After Sony acquired Columbia Pictures, Ronald was actually the first choice for CEO. Now Guber has been fired, but Ronald is already the chairman of the listed media group.
It is unlikely that Sony will acquire Ronald's company and then put him in the position of CEO. After all, this is the era of William's leadership, and the acquisition of large American companies by Japanese capital is not as relaxed as it was a few years ago.
And Japan itself is also experiencing the bursting of its asset bubble and falling into painful deflation. Whether Japan's multinational companies still have the ability to acquire an American company worth billions of dollars has also become a big question mark.
Just in the past three years, Mitsubishi Group spent hundreds of millions of dollars to acquire 50% of the equity of the landmark Rockefeller Center in New York. But this year, due to the unsatisfactory domestic asset situation, they had no choice but to acquire 50% of the equity of the landmark Rockefeller Center in New York for tens of millions of dollars.
Sold for cheap. Shares in Rockefeller Center.
Several wealthy people who originally intended to acquire the Empire State Building in New York because they owned a large amount of Japanese real estate were insolvent and bankrupt due to the plummeting real estate prices. Now the acquisition wave in Japan has fallen into recession.
Because of such a general environment, Sony's top priority now is not to acquire a new company or introduce new talents, but to find ways to deal with the various adverse effects caused by Gubel's escape and prevent it from causing problems on Wall Street.
The stock price fluctuations have affected the stability of Sony's global business.
Because it is impossible for Sony Norio Ohga to acquire Ronald's company again, the two companies will definitely still have a certain degree of competition in Hollywood film and television production and distribution in the next few years.
But precisely because Sony Chairman Norio Ohga had no possibility of hiring Ronald, the two could still chat about industry matters as friends.
Dahe is also a little angry now. Regarding Guber, he invested more than 500 million US dollars in costs when he first hired him (including the cost of settlement with Warner and the cost of acquiring Guber's company).
Then after the merger and acquisition was completed, Sony was still losing $200 million on Columbia Pictures every year.
"Losing 200 million U.S. dollars every year? How is that possible? I have cooperated with Columbia and TriStar Pictures on many projects in the past few years. All of them have made money, and some of them have won Oscars. You must be right, it is not a profit of 200 million U.S. dollars.
Dollars?”
When Ronald heard this number, he immediately suspected that there was something wrong with his ears. He didn't know if he had worn headphones in the editing room for too long, causing hearing damage.
"Ronald San, you heard me right, we are indeed losing $200 million a year. Gubel San has indeed helped us win multiple Oscar nominations and trophies, including Sleepless in Seattle and Silence of the Lambs.
A work that brought both fame and fortune, but..."
"Well, actually some of them are released by Samsung Pictures. In fact, Gubel still has objections to some projects. It's just that I insist on it, and Tristar Pictures' Mai Davoy is an expert. I actually have some objections to Tristar Pictures' Mai Davoy.
Davoy's ability is very promising..." Ronald promoted his friend by the way.
"Hey, Ronald Sang, I haven't had a real good friend like you in the past few years to tell me these things. As a Japanese, I am very surprised by the complexity of Hollywood.
Guber and Peters have always had many successful projects under their names, such as Batman and Rain Man, which were both box office and critical success films. But no one told me that they are executive producers and are actually not involved in the project.
It has little to do with success.”
"Hey, let's not talk about you. I have been in this industry for more than ten years. For some specific projects, I have to ask many people to know who is responsible for the success. This is the case in this industry. Some people are not worthy of their names, and some people only have one person.
A middle-level title, but the biggest contributor." Ronald realized that Dahe might have lost more money from Gubel than he thought.
"That's it. This is very different from our culture in Japan. A senior cadre here has a fixed team under him. As long as I promote him, his outstanding team can be counted under his name."
Norio Ohga regrets it now. He should have fought with former President Morita at that time and used half of the money Guber spent on poaching Ronald. Now Sony Columbia may have become the most profitable and successful in Hollywood.
company.
"Ronald San, you don't know, except for your projects that are profitable and have many awards, our other projects have lost a lot of money. I looked at the report of the film project, and Gubel actually doesn't know much about production.
, what he did was to pile up stars, and then copy all the elements from successful movies. The most typical representative of this approach is the movie The Last Action Hero starring Schwarzenegger..."
"Forehead……"
Ronald thought to himself, this is really the last action hero, using Schwarzenegger, the action movie star Cameron has worked with most often, to star in a movie about action stars.
It uses John McTiernan, the director of the film Die Hard that created a new paradigm for the action genre.
They also spent a lot of money to invite all the action movie stars and actors with influential roles in film history in the past era to come and make guest appearances. Even Stallone, who is the enemy of Schwarzenegger, also spent money to do it.
A poster image of him starring in The Terminator, making a guest appearance in disguise.
What was the final result? Not to mention the huge loss of production and marketing expenses, the sales of the video tape were also mediocre, and the peripheral toys and action figures were all in disgrace. It was a complete failure.
"Now when I pick someone to take over Guber's position, I will only look for a CEO who can discover core figures like Ronald Sand and Cameron Sand. I have understood that Hollywood is no different from Kamata in Tokyo. In the end,
What matters is the people..."
"Medavoy is actually a talented person who knows a lot about production..."
"I understand, Ronald San, but corporate governance still depends on other factors."
Dahe's concerns are also reasonable. Medavoy has become a laughing stock among the Jews, and his wife was abducted, which was a big blow to him. Moreover, since he is the head of Samsung, it is impossible for him to take a deputy position in Colombia.
Sony Columbia decided to let Guber's deputy Mark Canton take over as CEO, and then find someone from Hollywood who has the ability to understand production and projects to serve as the actual head of production.
This is like Eisner, the chairman of Disney, and Katzenberg, who is actually in charge of production projects. One straightens out the personnel relationship between property rights and the board of directors, and the other charges forward.
Medavoy's bad luck is that he is still at TriStar Pictures, focusing mainly on small and medium-sized projects produced by independent producers, which may be better for Sony and himself.
…
"Shxt! They chose Mark Canton instead of me."
Sure enough, not long after, Medavoy came to complain to Ronald.
"Mark Canton, this bastard, packages himself everywhere as a good man who loves his family and his wife, but what is he actually like? When Jon Peters was still in Columbia, he often dragged him to attend Heidi Frye
At the party organized by Si, her escort girls were all dressed up as French maids for them to have sex with..."
"Why……"
Ronald thought to himself that Medavoy was really miserable. He might have been forced to wander to Hongkou, China, with his family when he was a child, but he was a person who truly loved his family. But Hollywood is not a place that pays attention to morality.
The end result for such a hard-working man is that his wife is cheated by a wealthy man who made a fortune from Wall Street junk bonds.
Now that Mark Canton, a fake lover but a real promiscuous person, has been offered a position at Columbia Pictures, aren’t you feeling quite depressed?
However, Ronald had no place for him here, so after a round of comforting, he had to say something nice, "If I had a medium-sized studio like Miramax here, specializing in newcomers and new genre films,
I must find you to work for me. This kind of medium-sized film project is too risky. Without an expert like you to check it, I wouldn’t dare..."
"You are a true friend, Ronald..." Medavoy was very touched. Although he knew that the other party was just giving empty comfort, there were not many people in Hollywood who could do this.
However, does Ronald really have such a company that can fulfill today's promise? Medavoy still cares about the successful history of cooperation with Ronald, and it would be very comfortable to work under him.
.
"But speaking of it, Gubel is also a straightforward person, better than his friend Peters. When he heard that Peters was fired, he went to Gubel's office to cry. Before Gubel was fired, he said he would resign...
…”
Ronald now understands better why Gubel didn't pay much attention to many things before. It turned out to be because he was facing pressure to be fired.
Moreover, Columbia, the publisher of The Shawshank Redemption, is facing the firing of its CEO, and its producer Castle Rock has been acquired by the new owner Turner Media. Everything is in a mess, and there is a rookie director who can't lead the entire marketing process.
What a surprise.
"You may not know that Gubel's contract stipulates that it has a termination compensation of US$50 million."
"Hi……"
Ronald was unhappy. He was too busy working to death. If he made a movie at the box office, his income might only be about 50 million US dollars. If someone did nothing and just waited to be fired, he could still get 50 million US dollars.
"Add another US$200 million to invest in Gubel's newly established independent production company and an exclusive distribution contract..."
"How many?"
"$200 million, not many people in the company know about this..." Medavoy smiled. Gubel came to power by flattering Akio Morita. Morita's office is still in the Sony headquarters. This matter
You can’t let the old president lose face, right?
Guber left because he was pursuing his own career. Sony was very satisfied with him and provided him with an investment of 200 million US dollars... In this way, he left without all kinds of messy things and left a stable and peaceful situation.
"Fuck, how much money did this MotherFuxker make from Sony?" Ronald slammed the wine glass on the table. He worked hard, relied on God's favor and the guidance of the memory in his dream, and was lucky enough to become a wealthy person.
A billionaire worth billions of dollars.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Gubel just relied on marketing himself to defraud Sony into an order of magnitude wealth?
"This is simply, simply..." Ronald had never imagined such a path to wealth.
"It's just highway robbery..." Medavoy helped scold Gubel and the stupid Japanese.
"It's worse than that..." Ronald thought to himself. The metaphor of highway robbery actually refers to the blatant "robbing" of people's wealth.
What Gubel did has already surpassed this level. He simply made the move first, and then let his employer jump in, causing the employer to lose hundreds of millions. Then he made Sony lose hundreds of millions every year, and finally
In order to send him away, several hundred million more would have to be spent.
"This can be said to be an accident, crashing someone else's car, then stealing a huge amount of property from the car, and finally successfully escaping..."
"Hit and Run..." Medavoy chuckled. This metaphor is so apt.
“Gubel leaves Sony Pictures to form his own company” Los Angeles Times.
“Gubel leaves Sony,” Washington Post.
The next day, the news spread, and major newspapers began to announce the news on the headlines of their entertainment pages.
Against the backdrop of these big news, The Shawshank Redemption barely managed to get close to two million US dollars at the weekend box office, rising into the top ten, still double the gap with Forrest Gump.
However, its position will soon be in doubt. A new movie is aiming for awards at the end of the year. After Tim Burton left the Batman series, he shot a movie of his own interest, "Ed Wood".
, only tens of thousands of dollars away from The Shawshank Redemption.
However, it will be difficult for Ed Wood to reach the top, because next week the Palme d'Or winner Pulp Fiction will be released across America.