The Spring Festival is less than a month away. The elders in the family are very traditional and it is impossible to celebrate the festival abroad. Zhou Buqi and his family will definitely want to go back.

During this period of time, Zhou Buqi had to start sorting out several things about Ziweixing Global, at least drive them forward, and then hand them over to his subordinates.

There are mainly four things.

First, to launch the TV series project for the entire "Lord of the Rings" series, it is necessary to find Tolkien's descendants to purchase the rights to adapt TV series such as "The Silmarillion" and "The Children of Hurin".

This is actually relatively easy.

It's nothing but money.

If they don't agree, Ziweixing Universal has many ways to manipulate them. According to the agreement, MGM will give 7.5% of all profits from the "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" books to the Tolkien Foundation.

If there is no profit after doing the accounting, there is no need to divide the money.

Hollywood has long been accustomed to this routine.

Rights holders must obey obediently.

Just like the "007" series of movies, part of the copyright is in the hands of the descendants of the British "007" novels. What say do these British people have? Basically, they will do whatever Hollywood says.

However, under normal circumstances, Zhou Buqi doesn't want to go too far. Everyone still benefits from each other and makes money together. The premise is that the other party must cooperate.

This shouldn't be too difficult to do, as Amazon did it in the previous life.

Second, start Ho Fung Shan’s biographical film project.

This process will be longer.

We need to collect as much information as possible and contact Ho Fung Shan's descendants to get the filming permission. We also need to find a producer and a screenwriter to write the first draft of the script.

Then it’s time to find a director.

Zhou Buqi prefers Li An.

Although the protagonist of this movie is Chinese, this movie cannot be a mainland movie. He Fengshan is not a person who compares himself to others, so it is okay to criticize him or ridicule him. If you make a movie to praise him, praise him

It is difficult for a movie to pass the domestic censorship system. Even if it passes, the plot will be changed beyond recognition, and some historical nihilistic parts will be modified or deleted as required, and this is impossible to obtain the consent of Mr. Ho Fengshan's descendants.

This can only be a Hollywood movie that can be shot without restraint. It would be more appropriate to leave it to Ang Lee to take the shot.

But he is currently out of schedule. He has already taken over the 20th Century Fox project "The Life of Pi." Originally, the film might have started shooting in June this year.

But with the release of "Avatar", 3D movies became very popular. The fantasy theme of "Life of Pi" is exactly in line with the visual setting of 3D movies.

In addition, Ang Lee himself also likes the challenge of new technologies. After some discussions, 20th Century Fox decided to invest an additional US$40 million to make this movie into a 3D blockbuster.

Then, the launch date was postponed, maybe until next year.

But don't be in a hurry.

After he finishes filming "Life of Pi", it won't be too late to come back and take over the filming of the biography of Ho Fengshan. "Schindler's List" is ahead of him, and this biopic about the diplomats of the Republic of China wants to be made.

To be successful, you must work hard.

The third thing is to promote the acquisition of Lucasfilm.

The two parties have reached a verbal agreement, and the matter is basically settled. The next step is to discuss the specific details of the acquisition.

The promotion process of this matter is very smooth, and unity should be reached soon.

Zhou Buqi has only one requirement - the faster, the better.

You can even give in appropriately.

Sign early and finish early.

If Disney suddenly jumps in to bid, it will be troublesome. It is impossible to win Lucasfilm with a price of US$3.5 billion. Once the two parties start bidding, they may raise the price to US$4.5 billion.

The fourth thing is to talk to Hulu’s management.

That’s almost it!

It’s time to close the net!

On January 31st, Universal Pictures held a premiere of a horror film called "The Wolfman". It stands to reason that it is just a horror film and not worthy of a premiere at all. This is the prerogative of blockbusters.

However, this movie is different. It can be called the most important horror movie in the past 20 years.

First of all, it has a brand, it is a remake of the 1941 classic film "The Wolf Man".

Secondly, it is directed by the famous director Joe Johnston. His last movie co-produced with Universal Pictures was called "Jurassic Park 3". And he has also won the contract for this year's Marvel's new blockbuster "Captain America"

invitation.

The most attractive thing is the super luxurious cast, Benicio De Roni, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, Hugo Weaving, and even Chaplin's daughter Jay

Latin Chaplin.

The production cost was as high as US$90 million.

In the off-season of January and February, "The Wolfman" was the most talked-about new film in Hollywood and received a lot of attention.

At the premiere, Zhou Buqi invited Jason Kilar, the chairman and CEO of Hulu, who did not refuse and accepted the invitation with his girlfriend.

This is a very good signal.

After the premiere, Zhou Buqi naturally invited him to have a cup of coffee.

"I heard that you have a big disagreement with Comcast?" Zhou Buqi asked knowingly when the coffee was served.

Jason Kilar sighed, "Very big, bigger than before!"

"oh?"

"They just want to do free content."

"It's not surprising." Zhou Buqi is an industry insider. He has already obtained relevant data. He said with a smile: "Last year, video advertising revenue in the United States reached 4.39 billion US dollars, an increase of 49%. This is an emerging industry.

An industry with huge potential.”

This is the difference between the situation between China and the United States.

When building a video website in China, even if all the film and television content is pirated, the website does not need to spend money to buy copyrights, and the meager advertising fees cannot meet the operating expenses of the website.

However, the scale of online advertising in the United States is very large, with a small Internet user base and low traffic, which means there are certain industry advantages. For Hulu, last year, it was basically able to maintain a break-even by relying solely on video advertising revenue. Those on-demand subscriptions

The income is basically net income.

Jason Kilar is a senior practitioner of the Internet. He cannot be so short-sighted. Netflix is ​​coming in a menacing way!

If Hulu wants to be competitive, it must make a breakthrough in the monthly membership system, instead of only having paid on-demand services like in the past.

But then the problem came.

If members cannot have ads, it means losing the video advertising market with huge growth potential. What if the membership business doesn't take off and the advertising business is also lost? Isn't that troublesome?

This is where Hulu's management and Comcast disagree.

This is also the fundamental contradiction between entrepreneurs and large companies.

What big companies pursue is stable development, while entrepreneurs pursue a strategy of neither breaking nor establishing. In Comcast's view, Hulu's current model is already very good, and it even generated some profits last year, which proves that Hulu's current model is the best

Yes! You know, YouTube lost $380 million last year!

This is just like a game. You change your tactics only after you lose. Hulu won, so why should you change it? Just follow this tactical idea and develop it.

Jason Kilar was very unwilling and sighed, "Mr. Zhou, do you know about Blockbuster?"

Zhou Buqi thought for a moment and said, "I've heard of it. It seems to be a competitor of Netflix."

Jason Kilar said: "Yes, Blockbuster is engaged in offline video tape and DVD disc rental business. Netflix has been engaged in online rental business in the past few years. In the past year, Blockbuster has at least

1,000 stores closed."

Zhou Buqi nodded, "The economic crisis has had a great impact on physical stores."

"The economic crisis has had an impact. Netflix's online rentals and Redbox's DVD rental machines have had a great impact on Blockbuster. I don't know much about Blockbuster's operating conditions, but I judge that this company was once worth

A giant group worth nearly 100 billion US dollars is likely to go bankrupt within a year or two."

"One hundred billion giant..."

Zhou Buqi was very touched.

The changes in business models brought about by the changing times have a huge impact on a company. Once the changes are not made in time, it will be completely abandoned by the times.

Jason Kilar said: "Hulu is currently developing quite well relying on the video advertising model. This is only temporary. The development of the Internet is changing with each passing day. If Hulu cannot keep up with the times and complete the changes in time, it will soon be eliminated.

Eliminated. Blockbuster is going bankrupt, but the demand of movie fans for watching movies has not decreased. This consumer market of up to 10 billion US dollars per year will not disappear, it will only shift."

This point of view is indeed hit the nail on the head. Zhou Buqi also has a new theoretical idea surrounding the streaming media track. "Free advertising cannot consume the consumption of movie fans. The annual rental market of 10 billion US dollars is only based on membership subscriptions."

Only streaming media platforms can undertake this.”

Jason Kilar sighed again, "But not many people understand."

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "There will always be someone who understands."

Jason Kilar smiled, "Who are they?"

Zhou Buqi was noncommittal. During this period, people from Ziweixing Global often contacted them, and the meaning was obvious. He said calmly: "When I acquired Universal Pictures, I divested all the TV station assets of Universal Pictures and left

Gave it to Comcast.”

"Are you so unfavorable to the TV station industry?"

"I am more optimistic about the streaming media industry!"

“Netflix?”

"Of course Netflix is, but the competitor of streaming media is not only the movie DVD rental industry, not only the annual rental market of 10 billion U.S. dollars. It is also the TV industry's annual consumption market of up to 100 billion U.S. dollars. Any individual streaming company

No media platform can handle such a large amount of funds."

Jason Kilar took a deep breath. He understood Boss Zhou's ambition, "Weixing Global wants to support Netflix, but Netflix alone is not enough. The streaming media industry ultimately challenges the traditional TV industry.

, which requires the emergence of many streaming media platforms."

Zhou Buqi smiled slightly and said, "Netflix is ​​Netflix, and Ziweixing Global is Ziweixing Global. Now, Ziweixing Global lacks an experienced, capable, passionate and aggressive management team surrounding the streaming media industry."

"I see."
Chapter completed!