Chapter 1926 1928【Marvel】
Jennifer Aniston also has a good impression of Xiang Nan.
On the one hand, although Xiang Nan is eleven years older than her, older people know how to care for others better. Jennifer is so old, so naturally she has been in love.
??But most of those boys are naive and have little thought about the future. They basically just muddle along and enjoy themselves, and they don''t take relationships seriously, and they mostly just wander around. In comparison, Xiang Nan is steady and down-to-earth, as solid and reliable as a big mountain.
On the one hand, she also appreciates Xiang Nan''s talent. "Friends", "Prison in the Sky", "Sleepless in Seattle", "400 Years Old", "Pretty Woman"...those are the movies she likes to watch.
Not to mention that Xiang Nan is also the boss of Universal Pictures, a super rich man with a net worth of billions of dollars. No girl can resist such a man who bends over backwards and pursues him actively.
?So Jennifer Aniston also fell quickly.
…
In April, Universal Pictures released the movie "The Dark Horse" starring Alan Cumming and Sean Bean. It tells the story of a horse who was born into a rich family, but was forced to change hands many times due to the rich man''s bankruptcy, and experienced various setbacks, hardships, good times and bad times.
??This is adapted from Anne Silver''s book of the same name. This novel is her posthumous work. After its publication, it achieved great success, selling more than 50 million copies. It is one of the best-selling and most read works in history.
Historically, this novel has also been adapted into film, television and stage plays many times, which has a huge influence.
The "Black Stallion" was faithfully adapted from the original work, and coupled with the wonderful performances of the actors, the film has an excellent reputation and is hailed as the most outstanding adaptation in recent years.
?But it is a pity that this movie with great reputation has failed at the box office after its release, with only 4.6 million US dollars, which is probably not enough to pay for this horse.
After all, in order to film this film, the production company rented twenty horses so that they could be replaced at any time. The pay for a single horse is not high, but for twenty horses it is an astronomical figure.
?The failure of this film has also made Hollywood more and more convinced that films with animals as protagonists cannot be made, and they will definitely lose money if they are made.
…
In May, the filming of "Prison in the Sky" officially started.
In the same month, Universal Pictures released the science fiction film "Fantastic Four" produced by Horizon Pictures.
In the 1990s, Marvel''s life became increasingly difficult.
On the one hand, it is because the sales of comics have further declined. With the birth of video games and the Internet, young people had more fun pastimes, so the comics market took a hit. To put it simply, it was hit by dimensionality reduction.
On the one hand, Marvel was acquired by capital tycoon Ron Perelman in 2016, and then began seeking to go public. In order to obtain a higher valuation, Marvel had to expand aggressively and acquired a large number of toy manufacturers and small comic book dealers. For example, Marbury Comics, where "Men in Black" is based, was acquired by Marvel.
??However, such an acquisition also saddled Marvel with heavy debts, which made it difficult to move forward and fell into operating difficulties.
This "Fantastic Four" was sold to Horizon Pictures because Marvel wanted to pay off its debts. Horizon Pictures made this movie because of the success of Warner Pictures'' "Batman" series of movies.
?It thought it could replicate this miracle, so it invested a huge investment of 30 million US dollars to shoot the "Fantastic Four".
But I didn’t expect that after the movie was released, it would receive unanimous condemnation from comic book fans.
??One is that the story of "Fantastic Four" has been changed to a pulp, and the other is that the visual effects of "Fantastic Four" are terrible and do not meet their expectations at all. It’s no wonder. Warner Bros.''s "Batman" series has invested hundreds of millions of dollars, and the special effects produced are naturally guaranteed. Horizon Pictures only spent 30 million US dollars, which is equivalent to a mid-range production, and it is not surprising that the special effects are poor.
Therefore, this also caused "Fantastic Four" to fail miserably at the box office. The North American box office was less than 3 million US dollars, and the overseas box office was almost negligible.
Horizon Pictures suffered a huge loss of more than 30 million U.S. dollars and declared bankruptcy. The outside world also shunned film and television adaptations of Marvel superheroes for a while.
?This also makes Marvel’s life even more difficult. After all, licensing film and television dramas is a large part of its funding source. Now that the road is blocked, it has lost a lot of money.
Furthermore, the failure of Marvel''s film and television adaptation also caused its stock price to plummet.
After all, the most valuable thing about Marvel is its IP, and film and television is the best opportunity to maximize the value of these IPs. Now that this road is broken, the value of the IP in Marvel''s hands has naturally shrunk. It''s no surprise that the stock price plummeted.
…
??At a time when Marvel was experiencing internal and external troubles, Xiang Nan saw an advantage.
He knows how valuable Marvel’s IPs are. It is no exaggeration to say that the Marvel Universe alone in those years grossed tens of billions of dollars in box office around the world, making it the most profitable project in the new century film industry.
It would be a pity for such a company to give others an advantage.
So he then asked a third-party company to help him acquire Marvel, offering a price of US$200 million.
?At that time, Marvel''s market value was only US$300 million, and it was also burdened with huge debts. It was almost unable to make ends meet and was on the verge of bankruptcy. The asking price is US$200 million, which is pretty good.
??Marvel boss Ron Perelman has also long been interested in stepping down. After all, he is engaged in capital operations and is not really interested in comics.
?But now that capital is operating and he can no longer continue playing, of course he hopes to sell Marvel and take the money to leave. It''s just 200 million US dollars, which is not his ideal price, so he wants more.
Xiang Nan did not agree to his price rashly, because he knew that a capital tycoon like Ron had an endless appetite. Agreeing too quickly only allowed him to see that he was destined to win, which naturally gave him the confidence to raise the price again.
So he just ordered the third party to continue negotiating with Ron, slowly eroding his confidence and confidence.
…
May, Cannes Film Festival.
The film "Beautiful Legend of Sicily" directed by Giuseppe Tornatore and starring Monica Bellucci immediately caused a strong sensation upon its screening.
On the one hand, this movie profoundly reveals the bad nature of human beings. Just because she was beautiful, Malena was jealous of the women on the island and coveted by the men on the island, forcing her to change from a chaste woman to a married woman who could do whatever she wanted.
?A few years later, when she returned to the island and her appearance was no longer the same, those people greeted her falsely. The despicability of human nature is really sad.
On the one hand, this movie also achieves a perfect unity in terms of commerciality and artistry. Its photography, composition, editing, music, scenery, performance, etc., have reached a very high level in all aspects. It can be said to be the masterpiece of Giuseppe Tornatore''s exhaustive efforts.
?As a result, "Legend of Sicily" finally won the Palme d''Or, and Monica Bellucci also successfully won the Best Actress crown at Cannes with this film, becoming an instant hit.
(End of this chapter)