August is the harvest season for Dream Chasing Entertainment and Shao Shuaijun, and it is also the season when "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" sweeps the world. Under Shao Shuaijun's improvements, this version of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" has more refined details. Six years of directing
Career, Shao Shuaijun has integrated business elements into his personal style. The connection between the two shots must be in line with the rhythm of the plot and touch people's hearts.
As a result, the box office is also rising steadily. By the end of August, the global box office revenue was US$630 million.
This year, "Toy Story 3" and "Alice in Wonderland" both made more than 1 billion US dollars at the box office, occupying the top two in this year's global box office list. "Shrek" US$740 million, "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn"
(Part 1)" currently has US$700 million, ranking third and fourth respectively.
The fifth place is "Rise of the Planet of the Apes", which was a complete mess. Summit Entertainment immediately announced that "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" will be filming a sequel, and the script is already being written. As for whether the sequel will be directed by Shao Shuaijun, whether it is Summit Entertainment or Shao Shuaijun
, no reply was given.
From September 3rd to 5th, "War for the Planet of the Apes" will usher in its fifth weekend. This weekend, another major production from Summit Entertainment will land in major theaters in North America.
Directed by and starring Sylvester Stallone, the king of R-rated movies Jason Statham, the new Chinese kung fu king Li Lianjie, karate champion Dolph Lundgren, wrestling champion Randy Couture, and movie star Mickey Rourke
The nostalgic classic action blockbuster "The Suicide Squad" starring action superstar Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger as guest stars was released in 3,270 theaters in North America.
From production to promotion, movies have almost never lacked attention. In today's Hollywood, action blockbusters have deteriorated. They are no longer about fists and blood, nor about explosions and fireworks. Instead, they are about the flying escape in "The Matrix"
The coolness of the locals, the coolness of the weird costumes in "Pirates of the Caribbean".
Therefore, "The Expendables" is claimed to be a return to the style of early action blockbusters, and it was immediately wildly welcomed by fans who love action movies. The pre-sale tickets for the movie were extremely popular.
Along with "The Expendables", there are three new movies released on a large scale, "The Americans", "Machete" and "Long Distance", all of which are low-budget movies.
At the end of the weekend, the box office was released. Unsurprisingly, "The Expendables" topped the box office with 36 million U.S. dollars. This is already a very good result in this autumn season when the box office is sluggish. In addition to "The Expendables", the box office has exceeded 10 million.
Only "The Americans", last week's "The Robbers" and "Machete" are all around 10 million.
Four weeks have passed for "War for the Planet of the Apes", and its momentum remains unabated. It ranked fifth this week with US$8 million. Its one-month release period in mainland China also ended, with a perfect ending of 412 million yuan, although it was not as good as "Avatar"
RMB 1.05 billion is a big gap, but it is also the second highest box office for Hollywood in China this year.
The overseas performance was similar to last week, with about 60 million US dollars collected. So far, the total global box office of "War for the Planet of the Apes" has reached 710 million US dollars, surpassing "Breaking Dawn (Part 1)" and climbing to the fourth position in the world.
From September 10th to 12th, "Resident Evil: God of War Reborn" grabbed the championship title with US$27.7 million, and "The Expendables" earned US$18 million. Later, "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" unexpectedly climbed to third place with US$7.1 million. Autumn release
As it is a slow season for the box office, this week's total box office is only 68 million US dollars, which can be said to be the worst period of the whole year.
Moreover, this year there are no well-received literary and artistic films, which are scheduled to be released in the autumn. However, the competition for the box office in the mainland is fierce. "The Wind Rises Again" shouldered the pressure of "Tangshan Earthquake" and grabbed 43 million at the box office in the first week, which is a good performance.
Basically, the box office trend in September was very stable, with no unexpected highlights and no disappointing gaps.
At this time, Shao Shuaijun, who was accompanying his wife, received a call from Mitchell Bruce: "Shao, there may be some problems with our acquisition of Lionsgate Pictures."
"What's going on?"
"Mark Lacheski of Lionsgate, who has been a good friend of mine for many years, told me that Carl Icahn, Lionsgate's major shareholder, has agreed to the merger plan between Lionsgate and MGM and is actively working on it.
Promote. If Lionsgate and MGM merge, they may absorb capital injections from Warner Bros., which will be very detrimental to our copyright recovery."
"Why is it related to MGM again? Wasn't MGM acquired by Sony?" Shao Shuaijun asked doubtfully.
Soon, Mitchell gave an explanation.
MGM was one of the top eight companies in Hollywood at the time. In 2005, it was acquired by Sony because it was facing bankruptcy. However, after Sony acquired it, it discovered that MGM was in a mess and could not be saved at all, so it stopped injecting capital into MGM in 2008.
, and no longer exercise management rights, allowing MGM to self-destruct, with Sony merely acting as a shareholder.
Now that MGM is facing bankruptcy again, the consortium behind MGM is actively planning a comeback in order to prevent MGM from going bankrupt. Among them, Carl Icahn, the largest shareholder of Lionsgate Pictures, has many plans. Carl is
A global tycoon and one of the shareholders of MGM.
Mark Lacheski is the second largest shareholder of Lions Gate, and he is opposed to the merger with MGM. Now the Lions Gate board of directors is arguing over whether to merge with MGM, and merge Summit Entertainment with Lions Gate Pictures.
During the period, negotiations regarding superhero copyrights were put on hold.
"Shao, there are two paths we are facing now. One is not to interfere with Carl's plan to merge with MGM. I think Carl has received our goodwill, and the superhero rights will be directly returned to us. The other is to cooperate with Mark and help Mark
Defeat Carl on the board of directors, so that our cooperation with Lions Gate Pictures will continue, and acquiring Lions Gate Pictures will not be difficult. Of course, Carl will definitely hold a grudge after helping Mark, and it does not seem wise to offend a world rich man."
Carl Icahn is not only a world-class rich man. In the latest Forbes ranking in 2010, he ranked 47th with a net worth of US$14.5 billion, which is much higher than Shao Shuaijun. In terms of actual net worth, of course he is not as high as Shao Shuaijun. However,
This old man in his seventies, nicknamed "Corporate Predator," is a lone wolf in the Wall Street investment community. He does things very radically. The most famous one was his hostile acquisition of Trans World Airlines, which caused a stir around the world.
of uproar.
"Mitchell, Summit Entertainment has been listed in the six major companies. How many companies have we offended?" Shao Shuaijun heard Carl's name, curled his lips lightly, and asked.
"Well, it should be quite a lot. Walt Disney must have been offended, and the other six major companies are also in tension because we have seized too much market..."
"That's it. If we want to expand, we have to offend others. We dare to seize food from a giant like Disney, so why are we afraid of Carl? An old man in his seventies? Maybe he will burp in a few days.
Why are you afraid of him! Lionsgate Pictures has been our coveted prey for several years, and I can’t bear to give it up!” Shao Shuaijun said carelessly. To be honest, he didn’t know much about company buying and selling, but he had the confidence to pursue it.
Dream Entertainment is not an ordinary company. It now represents the image of China and has the backing of the Chinese government. What a fright.
And Shao Shuaijun knows one thing. Although the company is listed, through various cross-shareholdings over the years, the equity of the companies under Dream Chasing Entertainment are all terribly complex. They are firmly controlled by Li Xiuxiu and Shao Shuaijun, and they are not afraid of hostile takeovers by others.
.
He doesn't need to fear anyone.
Of course, since he doesn’t understand finance, he just pretends to be a big talk at the top of his lungs. The real decision needs to be discussed by the executives: “Mitchell, in principle, I support cooperation with Mark on this issue.
I hope to acquire Lions Gate. However, I will not interfere in the company’s decision-making. You, the management, can discuss it on your own.”
Finally, after several days of executive meetings, Summit Entertainment began to cooperate with Mark Rachesky and attracted the two chairman of the board of directors of Lions Gate, Rob Friedman and Patrick Vosberg.
They are all old friends of Mitchell and have had pleasant cooperation with Shao Shuaijun. Compared with Karl who likes to squeeze the management, they prefer to cooperate with Summit Entertainment.
Soon Lionsgate made a decision at a regular board meeting to accept financing from Summit Entertainment in order to dilute Carl Icahn's shares.
In a very short period of time, Lions Gate and Summit reached an agreement. Lions Gate accepted US$500 million in financing from Summit Entertainment and obtained 25 common shares. At the same time, Lions Gate issued 16.2 million new common shares to Mark Rachesky.
, bringing Mark’s shareholding in Lionsgate to 31.5, while Carl Icahn’s shares were diluted to 29.7, and Summit Entertainment’s shares were diluted to 22.4.
As a result, Mark and Summit held more than half of the shares, directly activated the board of directors and rejected the merger plan for MGM.
The whole process went very smoothly. Carl's spokesperson at Lionsgate tried to persuade the board of directors to veto the cooperation with Summit Entertainment, but there were very few responses.
Originally, Summit Entertainment had already prepared for long-term negotiations to acquire Lionsgate. Who would have thought that because of MGM's intervention, Summit Entertainment would take advantage of the situation and quickly and directly obtain the shares.
The snipe and the clam fight, and the fisherman gets the benefit.
Within a few days, Marvel Comics announced on its official website: "Good news. After friendly negotiations with Lionsgate Pictures, starting from September 15th, the three superheroes: Punisher, Manoid and Kick-Ass will be released."
All copyrights are officially back in the hands of Marvel Comics! We will start creating movie plans for these three superheroes and strive to join the trio of Marvel Cinematic Universe as soon as possible."
The return of these three superheroes is a good start for the copyright road, and it also makes Marvel comic fans look forward to the return of the next superhero.
On September 20th, another weekend passed. Summit Entertainment struck while the iron was hot and started negotiations with Lionsgate Pictures on further acquisitions. The company’s official website also announced a new set of data. As of today, "The Hunger Games", "
"The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn (Part 1)" and "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" have officially been released.
"The Hunger Games" has a global box office of US$650 million, including US$410 million in North America, making it one of the top-grossing movies in North America this year. "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn (Part 1)" has a global box office of US$725 million, temporarily ranking fifth in the world this year. .
"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" has a global box office of US$780 million, surpassing "Shrek" and temporarily ranking third in the world this year.
"Shao Shuaijun's era has come!" - "Times". (To be continued. Please search Piao Tian Literature, the novel will be better and updated faster!)