Chapter 827 Breaking News

As a world-class financial center, Wall Street is like a giant capital distributing port. Retirement, insurance, investment funds and capital from overseas countries from various inland states of the United States use investment banks and major exchanges as media to influence and even control the United States. and the world economy.

It is no exaggeration to say that Wall Street controls the US economy. Most of the top 500 companies in the United States are controlled by Wall Street capital through the listing situation. It is also the instinct of almost all Wall Street capital forces to infiltrate the economy in the United States and even overseas in order to achieve the purpose of control.

Therefore, the Firefly Group, which has risen rapidly in recent years but completely out of control, is particularly conspicuous in Hollywood, which is basically controlled by Wall Street.

For the shareholders of a company, unless they have a speculative mentality, no company will easily choose to go public and raise money and hand over their control to Wall Street step by step.

Eric admitted that he had a very strong speculative mentality in the first few years, but with the rapid expansion of the Firefly system and the continuous expansion of his personal vision, his impetuous mind has long since disappeared. Although he still won't easily let go of the opportunity to quickly grab profits like the Asian financial crisis and the Internet bubble, for his most important foundation, Firefly Group, even a long time ago, Eric never thought about making it listed for financing. , As the Firefly Group becomes more and more powerful, this kind of idea will no longer exist.

But Wall Street obviously will not easily let go of the efforts to penetrate the Firefly Group and promote the listing in the digital field, which should be a test by Wall Street.

Since it is impossible to promote the listing of Firefly Group as a whole, it should be split step by step and gradually realize the connection with the capital market. This may be the mind of some capital forces on Wall Street.

Katzenberg has focused on the operation of Firefly Group in recent years. Therefore, he may not have noticed David West's different intentions to promote the listing in the digital field, but Eric's attention to the capital market is far more than that. Katzenberg.

After thinking for a moment, Eric said: "Jeffrey, have you ever thought about it, if this time we agree to let the digital domain go public, then, next, maybe Pixar Animation, and then, New Line Pictures, Firefly Pictures , Disney Group... In the end, maybe one day you suddenly wake up, Firefly Group has once again become a pawn in the hands of Wall Street. At that time, it will be difficult for us to run this company with our own will. Hollywood Seven Big, why only Firefly has cultivated the digital field, because we can invest hundreds of millions of dollars in research and development of cg special effects technology for several consecutive years regardless of cost, regardless of the temporary gains and losses in financial reports. But what about other companies, in order to let Wall Street Satisfied, in order to make their annual or even quarterly financial reports more beautiful, they dare not and cannot do so, otherwise, even if they are making long-term plans for the company, it is still difficult to get capital recognition.”

"All right,

I get it," Katzenberg grinned. Eric did not directly reject the proposal to list the digital domain, but analyzed the benefits to him in detail. Of course Katzenberg knew that Eric was in He doesn't care about his personal feelings. Actually, he thinks Eric doesn't need to do this at all. After all, in most cases, if he thinks some of his subordinates' suggestions are bad, he will basically throw a simple and rude sentence '* ***' In the past, and rarely explained anything to the other party, looking at the "Financial Alchemy" that Eric had always kept at hand, Katzenberg said half-jokingly: "Perhaps, I should also take the time. Read some of these books. "

"If you're interested," Eric smiled and handed over the book at hand, "I'll give this to you. I bought several copies."

Katzenberg took it bluntly, thanked him, and asked, "I see you reading this book a lot lately. What's this about?"

"Soros's investment diary," Eric explained simply: "If you don't have three years and five years of foreign exchange investment experience, most people basically can't understand it, so I suggest that you can skip the previous theory. , Just read the case section that follows, you don’t have to deliberately understand those obscure foreign exchange operation skills, just feel the way of thinking of Soros. This is a guy with a big picture and grand spirit, and even reminds me of the far east. A famous saying."

Katzenberg secretly wrote down Eric's words that he was not well educated, and he entered the society and started working before graduating high school, but this does not mean that he is a person who is not enterprising, otherwise he would not be able to sit until now. on the seat. Just as he was about to put away the book, when he heard Eric's last sentence, Katzenberg asked curiously, "Oriental, what famous saying?"

"It's meaningless to explain this, just like sonnets will be difficult to have charm if they are translated into other languages. In short, I just commented on Soros. By the way, I wrote it on the title page."

Katzenberg turned the pages with interest, and saw two lines of unfamiliar fonts written in pencil on the title page.

Heaven and earth are furnaces, and creation is work.

Yin and Yang are carbon, and everything is copper.

Although Katzenberg can't read the running script font of the dragon flying and phoenix dance, he can still feel a wonderful sense of beauty.

Throughout the 1980s, Soros, based on the theory of reflexivity he created, took the global financial market as his laboratory, and practiced his theory through large-scale financial operations that had a profound impact on many countries in the world. . Therefore, this book is called "Financial Alchemy".

If we do not consider the destructive destruction of the economic systems of many countries from the point of view of good and evil, such a financial tycoon who can turn his hands and influence the direction of the world economy is completely worthy of the "Peng Bird Fu". Eighteen-word evaluation.

Skip this simple episode, Eric said: "So, don't mention the plan to go public in the digital field. However, since this matter is mentioned, let's talk about our next development plan for the digital field. ."

...

On January 19th, the 54th American Film and Television Golden Globe Awards Ceremony was held. Miramax's "Shakespeare in Love" and Firefly's "Red Alert" led the Golden Globe Awards and won the music respectively. Best Picture in a Comedy or Drama Series.

The Weinstein brothers originally ran for the Oscars, but because of the strong lift of "Titanic", Harvey Weinstein clearly realized that "Shakespeare in Love" would be difficult to make a difference in the Oscars, so Resolutely gave up, but the focus of public relations was on the Golden Globe Awards, winning five awards in one fell swoop for Best Musical Comedy, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Screenwriter. In comparison, "Red Alert" is inferior. Although it is the best film in the drama category, it has lost to "Shakespeare in Love" in terms of best director and best screenwriter. However, although Firefly has no hype, the media It is still impossible for fans to notice that this is the second duel between Cameron and Catherine. Correspondingly, the attention received by "Red Alert" is higher than that of "Shakespeare in Love", which the Weinstein brothers hyped. Some.

After the Golden Globes, "Shakespeare in Love" and "Red Alert" both greatly increased the size of their films, and the box office also began to climb.

Three days after the Golden Globe Awards ceremony, on January 22, the 69th Oscar nominations were announced, and "Titanic" became the most watched film of this year's Oscars with 14 nominations without any suspense. All the nominations for "Titanic" can be said to be worthy of their name. Therefore, with 14 nominations released, the media will inevitably turn around and ridicule the Golden Globes that have just passed.

Stimulated by the continuous topic of the announcement of the Golden Globe Awards and Oscar nominations within a week, the box office of "Titanic" in its fifth week of release once again achieved a miraculous reverse decline, with a single-week box office of 42.62 million US dollars and a cumulative box office of 252 million US dollars. .

A week ago, in the face of the miracle reversal of the second week of "Titanic" and the subsequent slight decline, the North American media only predicted that the film might reach such heights as "Star Wars" and "Jurassic Park", but When the box office data for the fifth week was released, the reverse fall again made all the media be cautious.

After waiting patiently for a week, in the sixth week, "Titanic" had a single-week box office of 32.83 million, again achieving a weak single-week box office drop of 22%.

As a result, the media, who were in a state of careful wait-and-see, finally began to speak out, saying that "Titanic" might become the highest-grossing film in North American film history, but at the same time, no one predicted how much the final box office of "Titanic" would reach.

In six weeks, the North American box office was 285 million US dollars and the overseas box office was 147 million US dollars. The global box office of "Titanic" thus reached 432 million US dollars. Therefore, Firefly has been able to get 200 million US dollars. The cost is also just a matter of time.

At the same time, many media have also discovered that the five major box office countries in Europe, the UK, France, Germany, Italy and the West, are only shown in the UK and Spain at this time. , Asia's largest box office market, Japan, has also not been released. Coupled with the Latin American and Southeast Asian markets that are also in the release stage, the overseas box office of "Titanic" may reach a terrifying figure far exceeding North America.

Before the box office shock of "Titanic" fell, the Firefly Group once again spread an explosive news.

After completing the existing film and television special effects orders, Firefly's digital special effects companies, including its three branches in Los Angeles, Florida and Sydney, will no longer accept Firefly Group and its partners MGM Pictures, 20th Century For the film and television special effects orders outside the three Fox companies, the main focus is on the production of film projects within the Firefly Group and the cooperative alliance system. However, Firefly Software, which is mainly responsible for the development of basic tool software for the digital field and Pixar animation, will continue to sell maya, 3dmax and other special effects software and special effects solutions, and special effects studios using Firefly Software's tool software will also be given priority. Firefly Group's redundant special effects outsourcing orders.

As a private company, Firefly Group simply made an announcement on the Yahoo portal.

But this news caused a sensation in the industry, but far more than the box office miracle of "Titanic".

Before the release of "Titanic", because of the unprecedented production cost of 215 million US dollars for this super blockbuster featuring CG special effects, the media and the industry have been reflecting on the big production trend that has emerged in recent years. Many people predict that the newly emerging CG special effects technology, it is likely to enter a years-long 'ice age'. But after the box office explosion of "Titanic", all the original arguments disappeared without a trace. Even since the second week of "Titanic" box office reversed, some film companies have begun to look for special effects blockbuster project scripts. The number of film companies that can't wait to negotiate cooperation with the digital space is endless.

Before "Titanic", the digital field had always been quite positive in accepting external orders, and other film companies also realized that the digital field was only out of the need for technological accumulation to implement this open cooperation strategy. Therefore, No one expected that after "Titanic", the attitude of the Firefly Group would suddenly change 180 degrees.

How powerful is the technical advantage in the digital field, and there is no need to compare it, because in recent years, all major Hollywood productions involving CG special effects have basically had close cooperation with the digital field, and those responsible for the digital field are often These are the most difficult part of the special effects in these films.

Therefore, when the digital field suddenly closes the gate of cooperation, it is almost conceivable that the technical support in the digital field will be lost. In the next few years, even if other major Hollywood film companies are willing to spare no effort in capital investment, it will not be possible in a short period of time. Catch up on the technology gap with the digital realm.

Without the support of the top special effects technology, several other major Hollywood film companies are also destined to usher in a few years of special effects movies. Of course, Hollywood does not lack other special effects companies, such as Industrial Light and Magic. However, if you produce Compared with the Firefly Group's film in terms of special effects, there is almost a gap visible to the naked eye. In this case, the audience is not stupid, how can they buy it.

One day after the news was announced, the phone rings of almost all the core executives of the Firefly Group basically did not stop. The media, like sharks smelling blood, were frantically digging into the deep meaning of the Firefly Group’s decision. (To be continued.)