Chapter 2002 2004 [Acquisition of DreamWorks]
In March, the Oscar Awards will continue.
At this year’s Oscars, Crete Eastwood’s “Million Dollar Baby” was the biggest favorite.
Although Universal Pictures released many blockbuster films last year, such as "Spider-Man", "X-Men 2", "Pirates of the Caribbean 2", etc., most of them are commercial films. No matter how good the production is, they can only get a some technical awards.
?But because of face, Xiang Nan still has to participate.
He invited Alessandra Ambrosio to walk the red carpet with him. This made Alessandra extremely happy. Although she was a supermodel, this was her first time to attend such a sacred and solemn occasion.
In order to compete with the other actresses on the red carpet, she specially borrowed Dior''s haute couture. She wore a lace dress that was half-revealing and half-revealing, making it looming and particularly sultry.
…
At the subsequent Oscars ceremony, Universal Pictures received nothing.
?However, Xiang Nan is not discouraged. Next year’s Oscars will definitely be dominated by Universal Pictures. He''s very confident about it.
In April, the filming of "Mission: Impossible 4" officially started.
The film will be shot in Russia, Taiwan, India and other places, and the filming is still somewhat difficult.
In April, May, and June, Universal Pictures successively released "Scream 4", "American Pie 2", "Red Eye Flight" and "Fast and Furious 2".
? Among them, "Red Eye Flight" is a work by DreamWorks. It tells the story of a heroine who meets a handsome man on an airplane. She originally thought it was the beginning of a wonderful love. Unexpectedly, the man turned out to be a criminal and intended to hijack the plane...
??The film cost $45 million and stars Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy.
??"Wedding Crashers," starring Rachel McAdams, Owen Wilson, and Vince Vaughn, just took in $280 million at the box office;
??And Cillian Murphy also has famous works such as "Twenty-eight Days Later", "Cold Mountain", and "Girl with a Pearl Earring". In addition, his future starring role in "Peaky Blinders" was highly praised by countless drama fans and was hailed as the most fashionable gang drama.
?Director Wes Kraven also has many hit films such as "A Nightmare on Elm Street", "The Hills Have Eyes", "The Devil Under the Stairs", and "Scream".
So no matter from any perspective, this movie should be a blockbuster. But unexpectedly, in the end, the film only received more than 20 million U.S. dollars at the box office in North America, and only more than 58 million U.S. dollars at the global box office.
? Comparing the cost of US$45 million, DreamWorks Pictures lost about US$20 million, which is really unexpected.
…
Comparatively, Universal Pictures'' own "Scream 4", "American Pie 2", and "Fast and Furious 2" have all achieved very good results.
Among them, "Fast and Furious 2" even received a box office of 230 million US dollars, which is quite good. You must know that Paul Walker acted in that movie himself, and the cost was only 60 million US dollars, so it is quite good to have such results.
In July, "The Rescue" starring Xiang Nan was released.
??This film has an investment of only US$60 million, which is Xiang Nan''s smallest film investment in recent years. It tells the story of a bodyguard who bravely fights kidnappers and saves a little girl.
?The story is exciting and the plot is exciting. Although the investment is small, there is no shortage of big scenes. Explosions, chases, gun battles, fighting... it''s very lively. Therefore, after its release, the box office was very popular. In the end, the North American box office was US$210 million and the global box office was nearly US$500 million, which is really good.
This movie also confirmed Xiang Nan’s box office appeal. No matter how the times change, he is still the top star with the most box office appeal in Hollywood.
?At the same time, "Escape from Clone Island" produced by DreamWorks Pictures was also distributed by Paramount Pictures. As Xiang Nan expected, the North American box office only received 36 million US dollars.
?Although the overseas box office earned 120 million US dollars, it still failed to match the production cost of 120 million US dollars. It can be said that it was a huge failure.
Seeing this result, everyone in the industry was puzzled.
"Escape from Clone Island" has a pretty good reputation, and the stars it stars are also big enough.
Ewan McGregor is well-known for his role as Jedi Knight Obi-Wan in the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy; "Tomb Raider" starring Scarlett Johansson also set a box office record for a female action film .
But such a combination has achieved such box office results, which is really terrible. To be honest, the North American box office is 36 million US dollars, which is barely enough to pay the two stars.
?Only Spielberg knows why the film failed.
? Xiang Nan had already reminded him that even "The Sixth Day" starring top box office star Schwarzenegger failed miserably at the box office, let alone Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson. No matter how famous they are, they are still not as good as Schwarzenegger, and naturally they cannot surpass him at the box office.
?It is a pity that he insisted on going his own way at that time and did not listen to Xiang Nan''s words, so he incurred such a big loss. This "Escape from Clone Island" directly caused more than 80 million US dollars in losses to DreamWorks.
Coupled with the recent "Red Eye Flight", DreamWorks lost more than 100 million US dollars. Adding all the previous losses together, DreamWorks is probably in debt of about US$400 million.
Such an amount of debt is already unaffordable for DreamWorks, a medium-sized company.
?Coupled with the losses of many consecutive movies, shareholders also lost confidence in DreamWorks and sold their stocks one after another, causing DreamWorks'' stock price to plummet.
At this time, Spielberg, David Geffen, and Jeffrey Katzenberg no longer wanted to run the business.
?At that time, DreamWorks Pictures had many branches, such as DreamWorks Records, DreamWorks Animation, DreamWorks Interactive Entertainment, DreamWorks Television, etc.
Among them, Spielberg is in charge of DreamWorks Pictures, and David Geffen is in charge of DreamWorks Records. He has opened a record company before, and has handed over records to Guns N’ Roses, Elton John, the Eagles, and Bob Dylan. He distributes it; Jeffrey Katzenberg oversees DreamWorks Animation.
? Among them, DreamWorks Animation has produced blockbuster animated films such as "Shrek", "Chicken Run", "Madagascar" and "Shark Tale", and has been independently listed in 2004. In addition to the name "DreamWorks", it is actually an independent company.
In addition, DreamWorks Records has suffered from sluggish operations due to rampant Internet piracy in recent years, and has no longer been as prosperous as Geffen Records.
?Coupled with the fact that DreamWorks Pictures is heavily in debt and has unsatisfactory performance, Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg are naturally willing to get rid of their baggage.
Anyway, they can still make money by selling DreamWorks Pictures. And what a blessing it would be to not have to worry about $400 million in debt anymore.
(End of this chapter)