Chapter 200 The Rise of the New Kingdom of Independent Film

On box office websites such as box, the top ten movies released in 2002 are the top ten in the world. The top is "The Lord of the Rings 2: The Twin Towers", produced by the new line company, with an impressive score of 925 million US dollars; the second is "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" by Warner Bros., and the third is "Spider-Man" by Sony/Columbia, which is the three movies with a global box office of more than 800 million in 2002.

The fifth is Fox/Lucas movie "Star Wars Prequel 2" with 649 million yuan, the eighth is Sony/Colombia "Man in Black 2" with 401 million yuan, the ninth is "Diet on a Day" with 400 million yuan, and the tenth is "My Grand Greek Wedding" with 368 million yuan in Ifc movies.

The positions of 4th, 6th and 7th are all taken by an independent film company with the same position, and are described by Fortune as a "rapid expansion" flame movie.

With the Golden Globes coming to an end and the Oscar nomination was announced, "The Ninth District" was once again painted in less than 100 theaters in North America, plundering some missing box offices; and at the beginning of the year, it also landed on the big screen in mainland China.

Although on the Internet, the clear and unclear pirated versions of "The Ninth District" are no longer new, and the street vendors can choose between 5 yuan per piece, and there are also a series of promotional CDs such as "Buy "The Ninth District" and "Juno" to get "The Ninth District", "The Hangover" and "The Ghost Records" will make you laugh!", and some people who disrupted the market order directly copied a "Wang Yang movie collection", which was also 5 yuan.

However, under the attention-catching and popularity of Wang Yang, the "Chinese magic director", "the whole world said it was OK", "special effects blockbusters" and other high popularity, the "Ninth District", which has cut off many bloody scenes that "do not affect the movie viewing experience" by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, received a record of 10 million US dollars in mainland China. "Spider-Man" was 4.983 million, and "Hero" directed by Zhang Yimou 30 million.

So the box office of "The Ninth District" has now risen to 330 million in North America, and the global box office is 765 million, ranking fourth on the 2002 total. On the annual top ten movie list of "Movie Weekly" in January, its comments said: "Many people will hate Shenqi Yang. It will inevitably become a science fiction model that emphasizes both business and art for a long time. It is that kind of movie."

The top ten movies of the year are a must-have list for many magazines, including Entertainment Weekly, Empire, Vanity Fair, Time and other magazines, as well as the top ten selected by well-known film critics in various newspapers, such as Roger Albert of the Chicago Sun, all of which have the appearance of "The Ninth District".

The box office of North America was 320 million yuan, and the world's 617 million yuan "Hangover" ranked sixth in the overall list, the highest-grossing comedy in 2002 and the highest-grossing R-rated comedy in history; the world's 476 million yuan "Ice Age" ranked seventh, and it was the highest-grossing cg cartoon in 2002.

"The box office miracle of "The Ninth District" is due to creative new viral marketing. Whether it is viral websites, viral activities, viral posters, and three-dimensional posters, it has become a new trend in the film industry. "The Return of Superman" has opened a viral website, and "The Hulk" has opened a viral website... The novelty of movie fans about this is declining sharply." - The Los Angeles Times.

"In 2002, Hollywood smelled two gold mines. The huge success of "Spider-Man" made many film companies re-emphasize superheroes. The era of cgi special effects production is coming; and facing the cost of "My Grand Greek Wedding" of 5 million, 368 million global box office, "Hangover" of 25 million, and 617 million global box office, many independent companies have seen hope, and large companies have seen ways to reduce investment risks. There are already 6 R-level comedy films scheduled to be released in 2003." - "Imperial" magazine.

Among the top ten box office movies in 2002, blockbusters and independent companies accounted for 5, three of which were from Flame Movies; and of the total box office of North America of 9.25 billion on January 1st, December 31st, Sony/Columbia ranked first with 1.407 billion and 15.2 market share, Disney's distribution brand "Bowei" accounted for 12, Warner Bros. 1.0.7, Universal 8.5, and Flame Movies ranked fifth with 810 million and 8.7 market share.

After Fox at 8.5, it was an independent film company. The new line released 10 movies with a total box office of 771 million yuan, ranking seventh in 8.3; then Paramount released 19 movies with 7.4, and then the ninth was an independent company, winning 5.1 DreamWorks with 7 movies; the tenth was MGM, which released 19 movies with 4 shares.

If we only talk about this in 2002, Flame Film is already the leader among all independent film companies; in fact, there may be many shortcomings, but there is no doubt that it is constantly growing rapidly and growing...

In the beautiful Santa Monica, a board meeting was underway in the bright conference room of the Flame Headquarters. The meeting table was filled with senior company executives in suits and ties. Wang Yang, in a black suit, sat in the chairperson's position. He looked at the financial statements, and the amounts were no longer surprised.

The Flame Group currently consists of five parts: ff company, fm company, flame home entertainment, blue sky studio and image engine. The Blue Sky Studio and image engine don’t return much profit. After all, the investment costs are almost all the special effects engineers and animators’ salaries. At the same time, the ib department also needs to develop technology, and basically requires the parent company to invest money in it. This is why many companies cannot support animation companies and special effects companies.

The group's main business is still the film market. ff production has high costs with confidence in high quality, FM's small and medium-sized costs, and family entertainment is responsible for the TV business. The business policy is divided into two parts: "release movies in theaters" and "home movie disc market". The former has box office and various post-production peripheral revenues; the latter relies on small markets such as rental, copyright taxation, and TV on demand, which is the "film library" plan.

"Sweetheart" has a global box office of 170 million, "Ice Age", "Zero Ninth District", "Hangover"... "Mr. Hughes" has a total of 160 million...dvd, original soundtrack, copyright... 175 million yuan was allocated to the Blue Sky for "Ice Age 2", "Kung Fu Panda", 22 episodes of "Prison Break" 30 million yuan production fee, "Rampage" 60 million yuan production fee, "Hangover 2" 50 million yuan production fee, "mit21team" 25 million yuan production fee...

"Well..." Wang Yang looked at the income and expenditures one by one. The company naturally had to pay taxes and administrative expenses. At the beginning of the year, shareholder dividends were paid. Now the liquid cash in the company's account is more than 384.5 million, while his personal account is more than 301 million. Previously, he invested 100 million to establish a charity fund and handed over it to a dedicated person to manage it. There is no specific target for rescue, but it is mainly out of school children around the world and sudden disasters.

The Fire Group obviously not only has 384.5 million cash, 100 million studios, all subsidiaries' assets and businesses, and the movies being produced... The entire group has a value of about 1 billion, and it has no debts and is not listed.

However, today's meeting was not a financial report meeting, otherwise Wang Yang would not have "specially" run back from Las Vegas. After half a month of shooting, the crew had finished their work in Boston and moved to the casino Las Vegas. After nearly a week of shooting, the time entered March. Wang Yang came back this time because the company had a big deal and acquisition, and he just waited for him to make the final decision.

It is not acquiring the female website ivillage, the project is still under negotiation; the acquisition target is Yijiang Film Company, with a total of 160 million US dollars.

"Only we nodded and agreed, we can get the Artisan Company's video library, more than 6,000." Maxlunt sat on the left, a hint of excitement flashed across his face, looking at his colleagues and Wang Yang with a smile, and said in a heavy tone: "6,000! Plus our own 2,500, 8,500! Warner Brothers only have 1,400, and 4,000 Worldwide..."

In recent years, Flame Movie has always adhered to the film and television library plan, and purchased film copyrights everywhere around the world. Of course, there are also Chinese-language films from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The North American copyright of "Infernal Affairs", which was called "the "market-saving work" last year, belonged to Flame, and also included its adaptation rights.

"With these 6,000 movies, it is expected that the 'home DVD market' will generate 2.3 billion yuan in cash every year in the future." Max Longt paused, his eyes full of accomplishment, and he smiled: "This money is enough to deal with all the daily operations of the company."

6,000 movies are like big mushrooms in "Super Mary" and fruits in "Pac Man". After eating them, the film and television library plans to quickly get on track... Wang Yang looked at the "Artist Movie" in the document in his hand, and the situation vaguely appeared in front of him 5 years ago. At that time, he took a deep breath and walked into the Artist's door with high spirits, Nicole Vivoll, Stephen Thomas...

"Buy it." Wang Yang nodded, glanced at everyone, and said, "Buy it."

Although this was expected, the chairman would not have agreed to launch the acquisition plan at the beginning, excited applause still sounded in the conference room, and everyone laughed and cheered. Maxlunt, who proposed the plan, was particularly happy. He laughed and said, "This is crazy! Our company has been developing for 5 years!" Wang Yang smiled and raised his hands and shouted, "The Rockets have taken off. Everyone has grasped it, let's go!"

After signing the contract, the 160 million acquisition funds can be transferred immediately to complete the acquisition; the remaining 224.5 million in the Flame Movie account is enough to make plans for release this year. The independently operated FM company will release four movies on a large scale this year, including "Saw" which was eye-catching at the Sundance Film Festival at the beginning of the year, which will be released in April; ff is currently confirmed to release three movies, "mit21team" at the end of July, "Dance from My Life" in October, and "The Devil in Prada" during the Christmas period.

During this period, Lauren Weisberg, the author of "The Demon Wearing Prada", has reached an agreement with Flame to sell the adaptation rights. Flame movies immediately started preparations for production, and announced that the heroine Andrea will be starring Jessica Alba. It is now rumored in the media that Fantasy Young is going to be adapted and directed by himself, but Flame official has not responded for the time being.

This is also a marketing method. Let the market guess first, make the movie fans curious and interested, and then announce this 99-positive thing with certainty. The attention it received is higher than that when you explained everything clearly at the beginning.

After the meeting, the senior executives laughed and left the conference room. While walking towards the chairman's office, Wang Yang said to Maxlunt next to him: "Mark, I'm going to start a music record company first. You know that a TV station needs some music, MV, etc., and you can also cooperate with the original CD business of Flame Movie." He smiled and said: "Robert Downey Jr. is quite good at singing. I told him to give him a disc."

Maxlunt knew that he meant to be founded by himself, and it had nothing to do with Fire Finance; and a music record company is really rare for a person with a net worth of over 1 billion. Many film and television stars and sports stars have their own record companies and their singers, and of course they have to cooperate with big companies in distribution. So there is nothing to persuade or suggest. Mark smiled and said, "Yang, you can make your own discs. If you sing well, the sales must be good!"

"I'm going to sing without any sound, it seems quite interesting?" Wang Yang looked very interested, then waved his hand and said, "Forget it now, I'm so busy that my butt is rotten."

"Boss, to be honest, I really hope you make 12 movies a year." Maxlunt smiled like a drooling smile, his glasses flashed with light, and he smiled as he walked: "One movie every month, so you don't have to consider this issue." As he said, he said seriously: "After the initial completion of the film and television library plan, we can consider increasing production."

Wang Yang thought about it and said that increasing production means that the snowball rolls faster, and it also means that risks are intensifying, and financing and borrowing. He thought, "No matter what, I don't agree that it is unwise to borrow money for the sake of increasing production under financial health. We are already very fast now. The most important thing is to stand firm, don't return or fall, take one step at a time!"

"I didn't say that borrowing money to make movies. The interest rate is too high now, and the return rate is difficult to guarantee." Maxlunt shrugged, and Wang Yang said oh, why is it not good to borrow money? DreamWorks has always relied on a lot of financing to start making movies, and the debts accumulate more and more. According to a little information in his mind, it will eventually be acquired by Paramount. Proper financing can accelerate the pace, but excessive dependence will only dig your own grave.

Mark continued: "But borrowing money will allow us to continue to acquire and merge and expand the film and television library in big strides. The risk of this project is not high."

"Let's talk about it, we haven't acquired art craftsmen yet." Wang Yang turned to look at this CEO. The company's rapid development in the past two years is related to the movie sales and the company's senior executives' work. He smiled and said his thoughts had been thought of: "Mark, by the end of this year, I will adjust the company's equity once, and everyone will have a reward."

"Oh! Big surprise!" Maxlunt immediately smiled when he heard this. No one doesn't like rewards. This is a very exciting thing! He sighed: "It seems that this year's Christmas is full of surprises!" Wang Yang patted his shoulder hard and smiled: "This is not a Christmas gift. By the way, do you really think I sing well?..."

Within two days, a movie business news was released. Flame Movie completed the acquisition of Yijiang Company for US$160 million. Just like the original APIX, this was a complete acquisition. Flame got all the things of Yijiang, and a broken chair at the company's headquarters was no exception. Flame Movie announced that it would cut and reorganize the employees of the original Yijiang. In addition, Yijiang's movies will no longer use the original brand, but will all use Flame.

This means it is not a rescue acquisition, but annexation. Many commercial media are puzzled. Injecting capital into a broken company is worthless, so what will you do if you swallow it? Flame Movie has no explanation. This is a business secret. Countless competitors are speculating on the idea of ​​Flame Movie and Fantastic Yang.

According to inference, it is actually easy to get the result. Flame is definitely not for that chair. They are interested in the copyright of more than 6,000 movies, but the facts are basically "trash movies"! The highest box office movie is the cartoon "Adventures of Vegetable Baby" released in October 2002. The production cost of 14 million is only 25 million worldwide. Flame is not satisfied with "Ice Age"?
Chapter completed!