Chapter 903 Roller Coaster

As expected by Richard Lovett, MGM shares fell 6.8% on Tuesday on the news of Brosnan's replacement. As MGM never took any remedial measures, at the close of the day, MGM's market value had fallen from a peak of $12.3 billion to $11.5 billion.

Early on Wednesday morning, when major newspapers in North America were discussing whether MGM's stock price would plummet again today, the reporters who had been guarding the MGM headquarters in Century City suddenly came out with heavy news, at 9:2 a.m. Western time. Around ten, Pierce Brosnan, who played James Bond, suddenly appeared, and hurriedly entered the MGM headquarters building under the escort of a group of assistants and bodyguards. The related photos appeared on the Yahoo Portal homepage almost at the same time.

In this case, even a fool can guess that Brosnan was removed and replaced with a major turning point.

Although MGM still has not announced any news to the public, on the New York Stock Exchange on the east coast, the stock price of MGM, which has fallen again since the opening of the day, suddenly rose sharply. In just half an hour, the market value of MGM returned to $1.2 billion high.

Then, at ten o'clock, MGM finally made another announcement through the Yahoo portal, but the content had nothing to do with the agent movie universe that the media and fans were closely watching.

The announcement stated that in order to alleviate the tight cash flow and minimize investment risks, MGM has decided to transfer the production rights of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy to Firefly Pictures, and the company only retains the global theaters of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. exercise.

As soon as the news came out, MGM's rapidly rising stock price suddenly stagnated, and there was even a short arc of decline.

The rumor that MGM is about to produce the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy in one go has not been broken for the past two years. In the recent period, there have been frequent reports in the industry that this project has entered a substantial preparatory stage.

Words such as rookie director, 300 million budget, unknown cast, huge risk, which are very unfavorable to the entire project, often appear in the analysis articles of major media. Many media also speculate that if Eric Williams, who controls MGM behind the scenes, is really optimistic about this project, he will definitely let Firefly Pictures participate in the investment. But if Firefly doesn't get involved at all, then the project is likely to be a gamble that even Eric himself isn't sure about.

Therefore, the sudden announcement caught everyone off guard.

Instead of co-producing the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Firefly took almost the entire project. The so-called global theater exercise rights reserved by MGM will ultimately only receive about 15% to 20% of the global box office share of the "Lord of the Rings" series in the future. The lucrative videotape/dVd line, TV rights revenue and peripheral product revenue in the later period obviously have nothing to do with MGM.

Until the final dust settles, even the most well-informed media will not be able to straighten out the various power games that have arisen inside and outside MGM in recent days. But this does not prevent them from speculating on the meaning of this announcement.

Soon, the boldest and most serious guess came out, and quickly climbed 6 Yahoo's trending topic list: MGM and Williams parted ways!

After yesterday's announcement by MGM to replace Brosnan, the relevant insider leaked quickly, and it was Eric Williams himself who made this decision. Subsequently, MGM’s stock price fell 6.8% throughout the day, and Pierre Truk, the spokesman for MGM’s European shareholders, rushed to Los Angeles from New York to contact MGM’s executives.

Then, following this line of thinking, MGM's European shareholders will definitely not tolerate the impact of the replacement of Brosnan on MGM's stock price, although the outside world has speculated that Drew Barrymore, who holds the largest proportion of MGM's equity, is Eric Williams' puppet, but after all there's no sign of that. Eric Williams' equity involvement with MGM is only indirectly through the 8.4% stake in MGM controlled by the LTd Group. If both Drew Barrymore and MGM executives are unhappy with Eric Williams' decision,

Plus the support of European shareholders represented by Pierre Truk. It is not impossible for several major shareholders to unite and turn against Williams and completely get rid of each other's control.

Immediately afterwards, Brosnan stepped back into MGM headquarters this morning, and MGM abandoned the risky "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. All these signs are contrary to Eric Williams' will.

With such a guess, MGM and Eric Williams broke completely, and the two sides parted ways, which seems completely reasonable.

Shares were in a very volatile state for the next hour due to speculation surrounding MGM's transfer of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

Pierce Brosnan is certainly important as the heart of the Secret Service movie universe, as seen in yesterday's slump in MGM's stock price.

But if the company's investors were asked to choose between Eric Williams and Pierce Brosnan, most would not hesitate too much.

As anyone knows, MGM's resurgence in recent years has been entirely due to Eric Williams alone. The projects that have brought huge profits to MGM in recent years, including the Agent Cinematic Universe series, the "Night at the Museum" series, the "Resident Evil" series, etc., are all led by Eric.

Perhaps these projects have entered a stable period of profitability, but a slightly rational investor will not feel that Eric Williams is irrelevant. After all, although it has begun to recover, MGM is still the weakest among the seven major film companies, and the support for the company's development is still limited to the traditional film business, far less than the other major media groups that have been integrated into large media groups. That tree has deep roots. If it completely loses the support of the Firefly Group, or even is suppressed by the Firefly Group after the two sides have torn their faces, the impact that MGM will encounter will definitely be countless times more serious than the loss of Pierce Brosnan.

So, when the news of MGM and Eric's complete breakup gradually spread and was accepted by more and more people, the situation changed abruptly.

At about 11 a.m. Western time, the New York Stock Exchange on the east coast was only an hour and a half away from the day's close.

But in just one and a half hours, MGM's stock price curve was like a shot put by gravitational force. Under the fly, when the closing time came, MGM's stock price finally stopped at $22.82, which not only completely offset Pierce. Brosnan re-entered the MGM headquarters, and compared with the opening price of $26.45, the decline reached a shocking 13.7% throughout the day, and the overall market value of MGM fell back to 10 billion. In the dollar range, only $9.92 billion is left.

I tossed and turned all night, although I occasionally thought that it would be a big deal to break up with MGM. But when the day lighted up, and from the Beverly Mid-Levels mansion he had just bought overlooking the early morning Los Angeles, Pierce Brosnan finally decided to accept the salary conditions offered by MGM. What Richard Lovett said is actually true. Losing oo7, all the fame, glory, and money he has just acquired in Hollywood after struggling for more than ten years will all vanish. He may also be jointly suppressed by Firefly, MGM and even Fox, then he will basically be unable to continue to have a foothold in Hollywood.

However, although it was decided to compromise on the salary, the detailed terms such as personal treatment on the set, whether to cooperate with MGM in advertising placement, the scale of dangerous actions during filming, etc., whether Brosnan himself or personally came to negotiate. Richard Lovett showed an attitude of paying close attention to money. MGM did not entangle with details such as on-set treatment, but did not compromise on terms that might affect the quality of the film. The two parties spent a whole day in the MGM conference room, and it was not until night fell that the contract was finally finalized.

During this period, the news that MGM’s stock price fell again naturally could not be concealed from anyone present, and it was inevitable that there would be another stir within the company.

Knowing the detailed cause and effect of the matter, Drew, who was sitting at the conference table and participating in the negotiation in person, let the stock price fall, and even stopped Amy Bu's proposal to clarify the news. It's not just because she knows better than anyone that the outside rumors are completely false, with proper clarification, MGM's stock price will surely rise again.

Moreover, the girl is even happy to see this situation.

Just a rumor that Eric may break with MGM can cause MGM's stock price to plummet, which can also make many people who have different ideas clearly see Eric's influence and importance to MGM. . After a heart-to-heart talk last night, the girl decided to let go of her hands and feet to help Eric hold MGM in her hands, but she didn't intend to give the impression that Eric's influence on MGM would be reduced as a result.

However, the girl also knew the reason to stop when it was enough, and let MGM's stock price go up and down like a roller coaster all day, which made some people feel enough stimulation. That night, MGM began to take action to restore the stock price.

After officially signing the contract with Brosnan, MGM announced the news on the Yahoo portal that night.

The four films were packaged at about US$6ooo, and as soon as the news came out, a lot of eyeballs were once again shocked. This obviously can't be because the average salary of $1500,000 per movie is too high, but too low.

For most Hollywood stars, an average salary of $1500,000 per movie may be out of reach. However, compared to the expected box office of "Casino Royale" and the huge revenue that the entire agent movie universe has brought to MGM, as the core star, Brosnan's four-part $6ooo package contract is simply a complete cabbage price. . Prior to this, many media speculated that Pierce Brosnan's next film contract with MGM will not be less than $6ooo for a single film.

After the shock, some people began to realize that if the deal was real, MGM clearly won the pay dispute with Pierce Brosnan, and it was a maddening victory.

So, in this case, will Eric Williams, who dominated Brosnan's remuneration even at the expense of replacing him, really break with MGM as most media speculated? After all, without the strong insistence of Eric Williams, MGM wants to sign a four-film contract with Brosnan, not to mention $6ooo, even if it is $160,000, it may not be able to win.

Moreover, this victory has brought a very positive impact on the overall advancement of the next stage of the MGM film universe, whether it is the "Charlie's Angels" trio, or "Disc Costner, in the May is no longer able to appear confident when negotiating remuneration.

Amid the chaotic comments and speculations, the next day, MGM gave the media and the public an answer in disguise in another way.

MGM is about to start the casting of a new racing film series "Degree and Passion", the film is written and produced by Eric himself. At the same time, if the movie gets a good market response, MGM will incorporate this series into the Agent Cinematic Universe in the future.

MGM posted the news through the Yahoo portal at 9:00 a.m. ET, but the market was still mulling over the amount of information the news contained, at 9:30 a.m. ET, just before the New York Stock Exchange opened. Pierre Truk, CEO of the U.S. division of Havas Group, a subsidiary of Vivendi, announced that due to work reasons, he will resign as a director of the board of directors of MGM Group, and the successor will be jointly elected by MGM management and major shareholders .

At this time, even the most unresponsive person realized that Eric had not lost control of MGM from beginning to end. He not only dominated the salary negotiations between MGM and Brosnan, but also mercilessly expelled Pierre Truck, the European shareholder spokesperson who tried to meddle in MGM's management, from the MGM board.

Although I still don't quite understand why Eric transferred all the risky "Lord of the Rings" trilogy to Firefly Pictures, this does not prevent the capital market from rekindling confidence in MGM. After all, the most important thing for investors is always interest. Although Eric's recent strong moves have caused turmoil in MGM, there is no doubt that these measures are undoubtedly very beneficial to MGM's exhibition.

As a result, on Thursday, MGM's stock price rebounded strongly back to a high of $27, with a market value of $11.74 billion.

Then, on Friday, the popularity of "Casino Royale" rose again, stimulated by the news that Pierce Brosnan might be replaced for a week in a row. Cinema.

In the end, in the third week of its release, the box office decline of "Casino Royale" narrowed again, only 32%, and it collected another 52.73 million US dollars. The cumulative box office in the three weeks has reached 247 million US dollars, although it has not been able to pass the first release of "Finding Nemo". $263 million over five weeks. But compared with the same period of "Finding Nemo", "Casino Royale" box office is a full $800,000 higher in the third week. In this way, the North American box office of "Casino Royale" will definitely surpass that of "Finding Nemo", and some analysts even raised the final North American box office expectation of "Casino Royale" to 370 million, while the industry's North American box office expectations for "Finding Nemo" are generally in less than $330 million.

After the release of the box office data, further good news and all kinds of positive remnants from yesterday made MGM's stock price break through the $30 mark on Friday, and finally stayed at a high of $30.37. According to MGM's total of 435 million shares Calculated based on the total equity of MGM, the market value of MGM had reached $13.21 billion at the close of the week. (To be continued.) 8 More wonderful novels, welcome to visit everyone's school