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Chapter 214 Daenerys Studios (Revised)

Simon lowered his head and glanced at some records of Nancy Brill's report just now, looked at the woman in front of the stage and said: "Nancy, your explanation is very comprehensive, toys, clothing, accessories, books, video games, images Licensing and soundtrack releases that will be handled by the consumer division for the time being, but those are very broad long-term plans. Tell me about your recent priorities, like, within a month?"

"In the last month, I plan to recruit people to set up a product design and sales team. In this regard, I will dig out talents from other companies based on the contacts in the past work process, so as to ensure that employees can invest in peripheral products of the company's existing film and television projects as soon as possible after joining the company. development and promotion work,” Nancy Brill replied fluently without thinking at all: “In addition, I think the planning of movie derivatives should be forward-looking, and the company can’t wait for a movie to become really popular before proceeding. Consider developing spin-off products. Therefore, I also hope to get approval to evaluate the spin-off potential of all projects that Daenerys Entertainment is developing."

Simon nodded slightly, and asked again: "Survivor, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Scream, etc., the surrounding types of these projects will be very complicated, how do you plan to deal with this problem?"

Nancy Brill still replied immediately: "In the short term, I will choose the peripheral types with the most commercial value in these projects for development and promotion, so as to ensure that the limited resources and manpower of the team will not be dispersed. After the company has accumulated enough copyright resources to form a scale effect, it will continue to expand peripheral categories and maximize the value of derivatives of film and television projects.”

"So, what about the terminal channel?"

"Looking for a national chain store as a partner, if possible, open a special counter, which is convenient for marketing and promotion. We have a group of very popular film and television drama copyrights, and the retail network will be happy to cooperate with us. This is a comprehensive aspect. It can be applied to all types of film and television project peripherals. We can also use traditional cinema stores, toy houses and other channels to distribute goods. The operation in this area is mainly to familiarize with the market and cultivate channels. The company needs to wait for the accumulation of sufficient copyrights. Only then can we begin to pursue income," Nancy Brill said here, thinking for a while and then said: "In addition, I found that the company will generate a large amount of profits in the next few years, and I suggest investing in the video chain company that has developed rapidly in recent years Compared with the highly competitive theater system, the expansion of the video tape market is far from being saturated. If the company can have hundreds of thousands of video tape rental and sales stores across the country and even the world, the company can not only share the revenue of the emerging video tape market, but also At the same time, it can have a complete derivatives terminal sales network.”

Even if Daenerys Entertainment does not think about making progress from now on, with the copyrights of several popular reality shows in its hands, the company will be able to steadily obtain large profits in the next few years.

Although he has been planning to accumulate cash for some things two years later, Simon has not given up the idea of ​​​​continuing to expand Daenerys Entertainment. The big deal is to continue to borrow money. The company's debt ratio is far from reaching Simon's tolerance limit.

Nancy Brill's sudden proposal is indeed very attractive. The video chain store can not only provide Daenerys Entertainment with a complete terminal sales network, this type of company is like a supermarket, and also has a strong cash flow advantage .In my memory, Viacom completed the acquisition of Paramount through the cash support provided by the Blockbuster chain.

However, there are certainly potential problems with getting into the video chain business.

The biggest disadvantage of Daenerys Entertainment now is that the accumulation of content is not rich enough. At present, the big Hollywood film companies can only watch Daenerys Entertainment develop rapidly in the film and television business. Content dominance sets the bar for Daenerys entertainment.

"A very good suggestion, I will seriously consider it."

Simon thought for a moment, responded with this sentence, and then turned to the topic of this meeting again.

Nancy Brill continued to accept questions from Simon and several other executives before leaving the meeting room. Everyone discussed some other company affairs. The meeting ended and it was already past six o'clock.

Amy sorted out her documents and kept them until the end as usual, and asked Simon who was still sitting at the conference table, "So, what do you think of Nancy?"

"A very outstanding woman," Simon admitted, "I look forward to her turning all her written plans into reality."

"Nancy is very important in Hasbro's marketing department. I suddenly hired her, and Hasbro almost went to court with us," Amy said with a smile: "She came forward to solve this problem herself. .”

There are more and more male executives in the company, and Simon actually understands that Amy recruited a female executive to join the company this time to increase his confidence, so he will not hesitate to praise him.

Just smiling, Simon turned a page of the unfinished material in front of him, and didn't speak again.

Amy also realized that Simon must have seen through her thoughts, so she changed the topic a little embarrassedly, and said, "Simon, Nancy just made a proposal about getting involved in a video tape chain company, do you think it is feasible?"

Simon nodded and said: "You first make a plan with her for me, and you can also find some suitable companies for investment. We don't need to start from scratch."

The two continued to chat about some things. Simon read the documents in his hand and got up to leave, but Amy remembered something again, and walked out of the meeting room with Simon, saying: "Also, Simon, the company's office space is It’s not enough, this time Nancy will set up a consumer goods department, so she can only rent another office nearby, I think we need to think carefully about this matter.”

The current Daenerys Entertainment does appear to be a bit 'out of place'. The New York side is okay, the company has successfully bought the building in Greenwich Village, but the Los Angeles side has a total of four office locations, including San Francisco. Daenerys Entertainment HQ on 4th Street in Monica, Daenerys VFX and Pixar Animation on 2nd Street, Daenerys Entertainment Division in Burbank, and Marvel Studios near Burbank , This decentralized state is indeed not conducive to the development of the company.

Returning to Malibu by car, Simon rarely took the opportunity to look through some files and scripts, thinking about this issue by the window.

In recent months, Simon has indeed considered the idea of ​​building a Daenerys studio, but some of the sites he has seen have various problems, either the area is not large enough, or the land price is too high, or some remote.

The Land Rover Range Rover turned from Santa Monica to the coastal highway and entered the Malibu area. While thinking about it, Simon inadvertently noticed a fork in the road. Suddenly, he had a flash of inspiration and told Neil Bennett in the front row: "Stop the car. , Neil, stop quickly."

Neil Bennett didn't know why, but he quickly parked the car on the side of the road, looked up through the rearview mirror and asked, "Boss, what's wrong?"

Simon pointed back and said, "Reverse the car and back to that intersection."

It was rush hour, and there was a lot of traffic on the Linhai Highway. Neil Bennett carefully turned the steering wheel and slowly backed the Range Rover to a fork in the road tens of meters away, and turned directly into it under Simon's signal.

This is an upward slope, obviously just opened up, but the road surface has been leveled, and the asphalt has not been paved yet.The car traveled inward for about 200 meters, and another U-turn appeared.

When the car stopped, Simon opened the door and got out of the car. A relatively flat open space appeared in front of him. Except for a temporary wooden house and construction materials and props stacked in the open air, the rest of the place was still overgrown with bushes.

An unshaven old man heard the sound of the car, opened the door and came out of the wooden house, and found that it was not the little gangster who wanted to steal in the past. He grinned at the two of them, looked at the familiar Simon and said, "Guys, Is there a problem?"

Simon responded with a smile and said, "I'll look around, okay?"

"of course."

The old man nodded, subconsciously wanting to remind something, glanced at the expensive Land Rover Range Rover, turned around and went back to the wooden house without talking nonsense.

Simon continued to walk forward for a certain distance on the bushes, and soon came to the edge of a cliff more than ten meters high, with the Linhai Road under his feet.

Near seven o'clock, the winter sunset has sunk into the horizon, leaving only some dark red afterglow cast on the dark and magnificent sea level in the distance. You can also see the coast of Malibu in the west and downtown Santa Monica in the east. Turn on the lights.

After stopping for a while, Simon didn't intend to get in the car and leave. Instead, he turned around and continued walking towards the gentle slope to the north following some trivial information in his memory.

This triangular layout area is surrounded by ridges on the left and right sides, and the cliff adjacent to the Linhai Highway to the south.In the dim light, Simon stepped on the rugged slope and walked obliquely upwards for more than one kilometer before reaching the top.

I picked a foothold and looked down again, and the field of vision appeared to be wider, but because of the obstruction of the ridges on both sides, I couldn't see much of the city.

In my memory, this place will become a residential community in more than 20 years. Except for some luxury houses built in the golden area where Simon is at the top, the other areas can only be regarded as mid-range.But now, there is still a piece of barren land under his feet that is waiting to be developed.

Because of the information in his memory, Simon glanced around and quickly formed a simple plan in his mind.

Extending from the highest point to the seaside cliff, the entire triangular area surrounded by ridges on both sides exceeds 50 hectares in total, and a total of three open spaces from top to bottom can be opened up like terraced fields, each of which can exceed 10 hectares.

In addition to Universal Studios in Hollywood, which covers an area of ​​200 hectares, the other Warner Studios, Fox Studios, Paramount Studios and MGM Studios all have an area of ​​only about 30 to [-] hectares.At present, it is conservatively estimated that the construction land can exceed [-] hectares, which is enough to build a brand new film and television base.

Moreover, the geographical location of this plot is also just right.

To the west, it is directly downtown Malibu, and the distance from here to Cape Dumei is less than 20 kilometers, which is very convenient for Simon to commute to get off work.

To the east, five kilometers away is Palisades and the adjacent downtown Santa Monica.Moreover, the coastal California Highway [-] can also meet the western end of Sunset Boulevard in Palisades.Connecting Sunset Boulevard is equivalent to connecting Palisades, Brentwood, Bel Air, Beverly Hills, etc. from west to east, where a large number of wealthy Hollywood filmmakers gather. Wear Downtown Hollywood.

Generally speaking, compared with the urban area with flat terrain, the biggest difficulty in building a movie theater in this area is the cost issue, but for Simon, as long as he is satisfied, this issue is the least problem.

After returning home in the dark, Simon had dinner and began to design the general plan of Daenerys Studios.

Three-stage layout from top to bottom, the top floor is the administrative area, the middle is the work area of ​​subsidiaries such as Daenerys Special Effects, Pixar Animation, Marvel Comics, etc. The bottom floor is the largest and can be used to build a large studio and post-production center.

In the course of future development, Daenerys Entertainment will inevitably embark on the path of rapidly expanding itself by annexing other major Hollywood film companies, and will definitely get some other film and television bases by then.However, this did not affect Simon's idea of ​​​​building a separate Daenerys studio.

As long as the development of the enterprise is strong enough, no matter how many film and television bases are there, it will be able to support it.

The next day, Simon showed Amy and several other core executives of the company the sketch of Daenerys Studios that he had designed overnight. After a brief discussion with everyone, he quickly started to acquire the land.

Malibu in this era is still in a state of continuous development, and many areas with better geographical locations are still vacant.The housing market crash triggered by the stock market crash last year also brought Malibu's real estate development boom in the early 80s to a standstill.Therefore, it is not difficult for Simon to buy the hillside area he fancy.

On the other hand, with the opening of small-scale screenings, major media outlets in North America also published film reviews on "Steel Magnolia" the next day.

Due to C's refusal, the director of "Steel Magnolia" was no longer Herbert Ross, and the role of Sally Field was replaced by another queen-level actress, Jessica Lange. The heroine, Julia Roberts, Daryl Hannah, Dolly Parton and several other actresses have not changed.

Moreover, under Simon's personal control, the quality of the new version is no less than that of the original.

The director recommended by WMA is the touching "Golden Pond" director Mark Rydell. Compared with Herbert Ross, Mark Rydell has more accurately controlled the seemingly dull passage of "Steel Magnolias". The essence of the story that the plot moved the audience.

In addition, different from the market positioning of "Scream" for young audiences, "Steel Magnolia" is positioned as a warm drama suitable for the whole family to watch on festivals, and it also takes the word-of-mouth marketing route.

North American media and film critics have relatively little interference from production companies in the process of evaluating a film, but it is only relatively speaking.

When Daenerys Entertainment spared no effort to spend a large amount of advertising expenses on these media platforms, coupled with the excellent quality of "Steel Magnolia" itself, the film almost received overwhelming praise on various media platforms.

Chapter 215 Collaboration (Revised)

Crowded and busy, with a kind of excitement that cannot be concealed.

This is Julia Roberts' first impression of the Daenerys Entertainment Division office building in Burbank.

You know, today is Saturday, and most people in this company don't seem to have the slightest awareness that they should enjoy the weekend.However, Julia herself couldn't help but feel excited when she thought of the film review feedback on "Steel Magnolia" in the media today.

In addition to the expected praise for the film as a whole, director Mark Rydell, starring Jessica Lange and others, many film review articles also specifically mentioned Shelby played by her.

After analyzing the film critics in the morning and communicating with Daenerys Entertainment, Marvin Josephson, president of ICM, who has personally taken over her agency work, said that this time she even has a good chance of helping her win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress nominate.

Julia is only 21 years old this year, and she does not expect to win an award, but just one nomination is enough to give her an advantage over most actresses of the same age.

This time, he was going to participate in a publicity conference. Marvin Josephson did not come with him, but only assigned another agent to accompany him.The two were led to a reception room by the staff, and Julia unexpectedly discovered that the other star of "Steel Magnolia", Daryl Hannah, and her agent had arrived ahead of schedule.

Also an artist under ICM, if it was the past, Julia could only look up to Daryl Hannah.

Daryl Hannah is 28 years old this year and made her debut in the 70s. In 1982, she attracted attention with the role of a replicant in Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner". Over the years, she has participated in "The Mermaid", "Wall Street", Best-selling works such as "French Open Condor" can be described as one of the most popular actresses in the 80s.

However, thinking about her five-film contract with Daenerys Entertainment, Julia immediately regained her confidence.

I just don't know if I can see Simon Westeros today.

It's a pity that the man who has made countless Hollywood actresses envious already has a girlfriend.Moreover, there are rumors in the circle that he seems to prefer mature women, and "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" is influenced by this tendency.

Yes yes.

There is nothing wrong with a little boy who lacks love since he was a child, and he likes a gentle and considerate big sister.But, who said young girls can't be gentle and considerate?

Thinking of this, Julia and Daryl Hannah greeted each other, seeing that the other party was not too enthusiastic, and she didn't deliberately make fun of herself, but the agents accompanying the two parties chatted with each other from time to time to avoid silence.

After waiting for more than ten minutes, the other creators of "Steel Magnolia" arrived one after another.However, after the agreed two o'clock in the afternoon, Daenerys Entertainment had no intention of starting the meeting.

Just as the director of "Steel Magnolias" Mark Radell got up to ask about the situation, Amy Pascal, CEO of Daenerys Entertainment, walked in, greeted everyone apologetically, and explained the temporary Something happened, so we need to wait for a while.

Whether it's director Mark Radell or stars such as Jessica Lange, Dolly Parton, and Daryl Hannah, they are usually the kind of objects that need to be waited on by others.However, Amy apologized in person, and Daenerys Entertainment is also in full swing, and all the big names are very talkative.Otherwise, Daenerys Entertainment would not have been able to bring these people together on a day like Saturday.

However, everyone couldn't help being curious about what happened suddenly that would temporarily delay the meeting.

Amy and everyone left in a hurry after a brief greeting, leaving Jennifer and Vanessa to entertain everyone.Everyone knows that the two women are the personal assistants of Simon and Amy. This has already shown Daenerys' sincerity in entertainment, so she doesn't have too much emotion.

Meanwhile, a large conference room upstairs.

Almost all the executives from Daenerys Entertainment were present, and even Robert Iger from the East Coast flew over from New York in the morning.

At this time, the two presidents of Daenerys Entertainment in charge of distribution and television business, Robert Rehm and Robert Iger, the president of New World Pictures Danny Morris, and the president of Gaomen Pictures Ella Deutschman , Daenerys Special Effects President Mark Silvers, Marvel Entertainment President James Gordon, Consumer Products President Nancy Brill, and the company's Chief Financial Officer Paul Schmidt and other core executives all gathered around Sit at a large conference table.

Only Simon stood at the top with a serious expression.

Although he didn't get angry, the calm temperament accumulated by Simon II and his huge wealth and reputation halo made the group of senior executives in the conference room, who were called industry elites, not dare to take it lightly.

The cause of the incident was the road show plan for "Steel Magnolia".

At the end of the year, the four films "Scream", "Steel Magnolia", "Dead Poets Society" and "Rain Man" probably have different audiences. In order to complete the announcement and distribution of these films more efficiently and accurately, these four films The films were handed over to the company's four teams.

According to the established brand strategy, "Scream" is assigned to New World Distribution Company, and the film title uses the label of New World Pictures; "Steel Magnolia", "Dead Poets Society" and "Rain Man" belong to Dan Niris distribution company, the title uses the Daenerys film label.

Because "Scream" is the first commercial film released by Daenerys Entertainment in the true sense, it is self-evident that the company attaches great importance to this project.

Robert Rehm transferred all the elites of the distribution department to the publicity team of "Scream", and at the same time gathered a lot of resources that the company could use.

After all, just a national road show requires the support of a large number of media contacts. If some film companies with weak strengths do this rashly and arrive in a city, they may not even be able to find media willing to cooperate with the publicity.

The combination of New World Entertainment's accumulation of background accumulated over the years and Daenerys Entertainment's strong economic strength was able to achieve this on "Scream".

"Scream" got off to a good start with a box office of 2071 million US dollars in the first week, and the team responsible for the publicity of this project must have contributed a lot.

When it came to "Steel Magnolia", the problem immediately appeared.

Since the four films are divided into four groups, there will naturally be a sense of competition among them.

Moreover, whether it is Robert Rehm, the person in charge, or the employees of the distribution department, they will naturally express their own inclinations based on the box office potential of several films. Scream has the highest box office potential, and everyone wants to be in this group, and Robert Lemm will allocate more resources to it. Before the distribution rights of "Rain Man" returned, "Steel Magnolia" was undoubtedly the least favored film among the other three films. After some adjustments, it naturally formed a weaker distribution team.

In the early stage of publicity and distribution, Simon did not find this problem because it only needed to place advertisements on various channels.

However, "Steel Magnolia" will also have a road show next. Simon realized the seriousness of the matter when he saw the huge difference between "Steel Magnolia" and "Scream".

This is not because the quality of the proposal of "Steel Magnolia" is too poor, the company is in a period of rapid growth, and everyone is doing their best, even if the team of "Steel Magnolia" cannot be compared with the team of "Scream" , but after spending enough thought, that plan is absolutely excellent.

The key is difference.

The two plans can be said to have very different styles.

This means that the two teams of "Scream" and "Steel Magnolia" did not communicate at all, and "Steel Magnolia" did not absorb many obvious advantages of the "Scream" plan.Similarly, some of the details of the "Scream" proposal that have proven unworkable, "Steel Magnolias" still exist.

Simon doesn't care if it's just the commercial success or failure of the two films, but he understands that if this situation continues, it will soon cause divisions within the company and further lead to infighting.

The most prominent feature of the disease of large companies is the internal struggle between the company's departments.

Daenerys Entertainment is far from developing into a big company with deep roots, but Simon does not dare to take this issue lightly.Moreover, Simon even felt a little fortunate to be able to discover this problem in time.

In a few years, Daenerys Entertainment will develop and grow, and the corporate style and culture will be completely finalized. It is impossible to reverse these problems without breaking the bones.

Amy came back soon after leaving for a short time, and Simon, who had been silent just now, continued: "Everyone must understand one thing, Daenerys Entertainment is a whole, production, distribution, derivatives development and other support departments, any link Both are indispensable. I don't expect all of you to get along well, there will be differences between the two of you, not to mention that Daenerys Entertainment now has over 800 employees. But, I ask you to work together, even if you You want to strangle each other in private, but at work, you must also cooperate with each other. If you can’t do this, then you can only choose to leave on your own initiative, or I will fire you. Daenerys Entertainment’s internal meeting There is competition, no doubt about it. But cooperation is more important than competition, and what follows will be directly reflected in the compensation packages of all of you."

Simon said here, picked up the two roadshow plans of "Steel Magnolia" and "Scream" and showed them to everyone, saying: "Like these two plans, the release of "Steel Magnolia" could have absorbed the "Steel Magnolia" The experience advantage of Scream, to avoid the mistakes that have already occurred, but this did not happen. This obviously means that there is a lack of communication between the two teams, and even, the "Scream" team waited to see "Steel" The jokes of the "Magnolia" group, the mistakes I made, how can you avoid them, how can I let you know the experience I have accumulated. This kind of thinking is very narrow, and I don't want to see similar situations in the future. And, Bob, it should be your job to coordinate communication between the two teams, so it's your fault that this happened."

Robert Rem felt the sharp eyes of Simon looking over, and did not dare to refute, saying: "I'm sorry, Simon."

"I don't want to hear words like sorry," Simon shook his head, and said, "As a punishment, your bonus this year will be deducted by 10%."

According to the salary contract agreed between Simon and Rem, in addition to the basic annual salary, he can also get a bonus of up to 300 million US dollars according to his work performance.Rem started to work in August. According to the strong development momentum of Daenerys Entertainment, he can easily get the full bonus of 8 million US dollars in August next year.

Now Simon has deducted $30 in one go.

Robert Rem could only smile wryly, and everyone could feel Simon's rare seriousness today.If he argues at this time, he thinks Simon will deduct another 10%.Could he still leave because of this?There are countless people in Hollywood coveting Daenerys' entertainment executive position. If he leaves, someone will fill him up immediately, and his ability will not be inferior to him.

Simon didn't hear Rem's objection to his decision, so he looked away, looked at the crowd and continued: "Because of the nature of the film industry, it would be more efficient to divide employees into different teams to take charge of each project in a targeted manner, but, I don't want to see all kinds of fragmented small groups within the company. It is your job to ensure the unity and synergy of the team. While you assign employees to be responsible for different projects, you must also ensure that they cooperate with other teams. In addition, The same must be true among your various departments. I tell you very clearly that from now on, this kind of cooperation is not voluntary, but mandatory, and everyone must provide for others on the basis of their own work. So that he can get a higher salary and a higher position. Amy and I have been in charge of the company's previous personnel work. Next, I will set up a separate company personnel department to coordinate and supervise this aspect of affairs as soon as possible. .It’s all here today, you can discuss it among yourselves, and then push this thing forward as soon as possible.”