The emergence of emerging media has brought a new round of reshuffle in Hollywood.

The most successful ones are New Universal and Comcast.

Needless to say, the former is the boss of Hollywood.

Comcast successfully entered the content provider industry from operators in this transformation and formed the entertainment giant NBC Columbia Group.

The one who is most disappointed is Viacom, followed by Time Warner.

Recently, big news has spread in Hollywood.

New Line Pictures, an independent Hollywood producer with a history of nearly 40 years, was merged by Warner Bros. Pictures!

New Line Film was founded by Bob Shay in 1967. After more than 20 years of development, it finally ushered in a big explosion in 1990!

At that time, the Hong Kong government's Jiahe filmed a movie called "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", which was bought with the copyright by 20th Century Fox.

However, Fox has been reluctant to release it for a long time, worried that the box office is not as expensive as the release cost, which leads to losses.

Xinyi Film chose to gamble, and bought the copyright of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" from 20th Century Fox for $3 million, and boldly released it.

As a result, the film earned $130 million!

It directly made the reputation of Xinyi Film and Television resound throughout Hollywood and established its position in the world.

Affected by this, the entertainment giant Turner Group at that time offered US$550 million to acquire Xinyi Film and gave Xinyi Film independent operation rights.

Later, Time Warner acquired Turner Group, and Xinyi Film naturally became a subsidiary of Warner Bros.

However, the contract has not changed and it is still operated independently.

Bob Shay was also very successful and led New Line Film to climb to the top. Because of the great success of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", New Line Film and Gasoline Film has formed a good relationship, and then the two sides cooperated and decided to launch the second Bruce Lee!

Then, Jack Chen was born.

The "Rush Hour" series made Jack Chen a top star in Hollywood.

The "Lord of the Rings" trilogy has brought New Line Film to its peak!

However, success is the Lord of the Rings, and failure is the Lord of the Rings.

"The Lord of the Rings" has made too much money for New Line Pictures, and these three movies have made more money than New Line Pictures in the past 30 years.

Because the copyright of "The Lord of the Rings" is very complicated and there are many dividend parties, it has led to a series of copyright lawsuits.

Including Harvey Weinstein, Peter Jackson, Tolkien Heritage Foundation, and Harper Press are all suing New Line Pictures, saying that they did not give enough dividends and there is a big problem with the accounts.

Especially the complaint from the Tolkien Heritage Foundation is really shocking.

They claimed that according to the copyright agreement, 7.5% of the revenue of the "Lord of Rings" series will be paid to the Tolkien Heritage Foundation as a copyright dividend. The "Lord of Rings" trilogy's global box office, the total revenue of the DVD and peripheral products has reached $6 billion, and the board should receive $423 million in compensation, but in fact, the new line company only paid them $62,500 before the filming of the movie begins. (In fact, the contract states that the profit dividend of 7.5% can be divided into about $150 million.)

It's simply shameful!

If the copyright lawsuit can still be tolerated by Warner, the subsequent development of the "Hobbit" film project failed, which made Warner very angry.

Warner has reason to think that the new line has offended all the key people, so that the "Hobbit" project is lost. The rumors have spread. When the authorization contract between Sar Zainz and Xinyi Film expires next year, he will turn to Xin Global and cooperate with Tangen Film to jointly develop this series!

It's infuriating!

Moreover, the streaming website Hulu is in full swing, but it doesn't have the share of Warner, which makes Warner feel a huge sense of crisis and frustration.

Reform is imperative.

First of all, you have to use the new line to start the operation!

The reason is good, cut expenses!

Xinyi Film Industry is operated independently, which means Xinyi Film Industry has its own many established departments, especially the distribution department, which has nearly a thousand employees!

Warner has the best movie distribution system in the world, but he has created a new line by himself. Isn’t this full and full?

Just to have independent marketing rights?

Now, Time Warner is facing a very serious debt crisis and needs to carry out substantial layoffs and sell related assets to maintain the company's daily operations and meet shareholder dividend requirements.

Even Warner Music Group sold it.

Is there any problem with the complete merger of new Line Film?

This time, Barry Mayer was very reckless and soon came up with the charter. The merged New Line Films can still produce its own movies, but the number will be greatly reduced, from 12-14 movies per year to half. More importantly, New Line Films will lose the right to release and marketing for movies, and these businesses are run by Warner Bros.

Meanwhile, nearly 800 employees in Los Angeles and New York will be forced to leave.

Including founder Bob Shay, and his long-time partner, New Line co-chairman Michael Lynn, all left the company.

This asset restructuring is also a side reflection of the Hollywood trend, reflecting the overall market of the US film industry at present.

In recent years, with the emergence of new media, the traditional film market has also been impacted, with movie audiences increasingly losing, and movie DVD sales are becoming increasingly weak.

At the same time, the management costs of film companies are expanding, and film production and market costs continue to soar, and these situations are constantly compressing the profit margins of film companies.

The overall environment is sluggish, but it cannot cover up the brightness of the new world!

Time Warner is busy selling business, restructuring assets, and cutting expenses, while New Global is trying every means to spend money.

Donn and George Lucas have already agreed.

New Global is going to acquire Lucasfilm!

Such a large-scale merger case will definitely not be completed in a short period of time. The real merger will have to wait until Xin Global will go public.

This is also good. After it goes public, Xin Global will have an exact market value.

As long as you negotiate the price of Lucasfilm, the transaction will go very smoothly.

However, this does not prevent Don En from visiting Lucasfilm in advance with the attitude of his master!

This time, Tang En went to Industrial Light and Magic.

Industrial Light and Magic is not in Hollywood, but on a hill in Pusidy Park in San Francisco. It has a very pastoral atmosphere and is a standard Silicon Valley temperament.

A long way from here, you can see a large sculpture standing on the hill - Master Yoda!

After Tang En and his group got off the bus, they saw many tourists taking photos next to the sculpture.

OK, it has become a tourist attraction!

Tang En has been here many times, and every time he comes here as a director to communicate with special effects engineers about film processing. This time, he is a master who appreciates this laboratory that explores future technological development.

"Dennis! John!"

As soon as he walked to the door, Tang En saw an old acquaintance and came out.

The former is Dennis Mullen, the latter is John Noel. They are the top special effects masters of Industrial Light and Magic and the best special effects masters in the world today.

Dennis Mullen is a god-level existence in the special effects industry. He has won the Oscar for Best Visual Award nine times and is the first special effects artist to leave his name on the Avenue of Stars. He is Spielberg, George Lucas's personal special effects artist. He has also worked with Donne on "Spider-Man" and "Avengers".

John Noel is not far from that. He is the special effects director of the "Pirates League" series. The special effects director of the special effects director of "Avatar" that Cameron is preparing for. What is particularly amazing is that he and his younger brother were idle 20 years ago and developed a photo editing software, which was later renamed - Photoshop.

Dennis Mullen is already very old, doesn't speak much, and rarely goes to the front line, and is mainly responsible for the management of Industrial Light and Magic. John Noll is still very young and energetic. When he saw Tang En, he smiled and said, "Is it our boss in the future?"

Tang En waved his hand, "All old friends!"

Then, surrounded by everyone, he visited the Industrial Light and Magic's special effects studio.

I've been here many times.

The main thing is to shake hands with everyone, get to know each other, and express your opinion.

Let everyone understand that the owner of Industrial Light and Magic has been changed and will be a subsidiary of Xin Global in the future.

There are more than 900 special effects engineers working here, so of course Tang En could not shake hands one by one. He mainly had a simple exchange with some grassroots leaders.

“How many projects are there in hand now?”

“17.”

Tang En's eyes opened slightly, "17?"

There are about 20 commercial blockbusters that can be released in Hollywood a year. Is this a complete set?

Dennis Mullen followed Tang En and said, "There are 11 projects with investments of over 100 million yuan, of which 6 New Universal have invested. The remaining 6 movies have an investment of around 70 to 80 million US dollars."

“Who did you outsource it to?”

Tang En knew that a special effects blockbuster requires thousands of special effects masters to work day and night. With the ability of Industrial Light and Magic, they cannot complete so many projects at all. They will only be responsible for the most core special effects production in the movie, and simple special effects will be outsourced to overseas special effects companies.

Dennis Mullen said: "Mainly France, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Israel and the Netherlands. South Korea has made great efforts in this regard in the past two years, is seizing the market and has a good level."

Tang En nodded and said calmly: "It can strengthen some cooperation with China, which is in line with the group's overall strategy."

Dennis Mullen frowned, "The technology over there... I have been to the Hong Kong government. The level is very poor, and the difference is too big with South Korea and Japan. I watched "The Promise" and the special effects are a mess. I heard that at this level, it is also higher than that in the mainland? I can't cooperate."

Tang En choked, "It will get better in the future."

Dennis Mullen said: "Then let's talk about it later."

Tang En glanced at him with a funny look and shook his head. This old man was like this. When the two collaborated on filming "Avengers", there were many controversies, and instead said: "Recently, the MPAA is making proposals to parliament. Under the strong promotion of the global special effects industry, if we want to ensure the United States' leading position in this field, we must also provide policy support."

"Oh? Is the export tax rebate?"

"Yes, but it's only for special effects blockbusters."

"That's enough!" Dennis Mullen lighted up, "How much share?"
To be continued...