In February, "Ready Player One" directed by Spielberg was released.


    ??The plot of this movie is actually very simple. It is a story about breaking through levels and grabbing treasures in the game.


    But after it was released, it immediately detonated the film industry, attracting countless audiences to flock to the theater to watch it.


    The reason why this is so is because the main focus of "Ready Player One" is not the plot, but the feelings. Hundreds of Easter eggs make this movie the perfect object of nostalgia for movie fans.


    ?In this film, Spielberg has incorporated almost all the well-known IPs in film history, as well as all the film IPs he has ever directed.


    For example, Superman, Alien, Gundam, King Kong, The Shining, Terminator, Batman, Iron Man 5, Chucky, Jurassic Park, Saturday Night Fever, Dungeons & Dragons...


    ?These IPs belong to different film companies. It is extremely difficult to integrate them into one movie. At least when Xiang Nan originally filmed "The Instant Universe", he only used Universal Pictures'' IP.


    ? Spielberg made his debut in the 1970s, and it has been more than 40 years now. He has extremely high popularity and status in the industry. He has also cooperated with major film companies and has a lot of love.


    ?So he just said hello and took all these IPs over. Xiang Nan may not even have this kind of face, so I really have to admire him!


    In the end, "Ready Player One" grossed US$250 million in North American box office and nearly US$800 million in global box office. It''s really admirable that Spielberg still has such creativity at the age of seventy-two.


    …


    In March, the Oscars were held. Xiang Nan went there with Cong Shan as usual, but returned empty-handed as usual.


    ?This year’s big winners are Green Book, Roma and Bohemian Rhapsody. It is worth mentioning that the drama "Roma" is distributed by Netflix.


    ? NETFLIX has been launching self-produced dramas since 2013. Before that, as an online video platform, it had always launched programs produced by other companies.


    Until 2007, Sony Pictures and Disney Pictures suddenly announced that they would cancel their cooperation with NETFLIX and remove all their movies. As a result, NETFLIX, which had a good development momentum, fell into a content crisis, and the outside world was worried about its future. .


    After all, online video platforms like it are severely restricted by content providers and are strangled by their throats. Once they cancel cooperation with it, it is not far away from closure.


    ?As a result, NETFLIX''s stock price plummeted, from its peak of $40 per share to only $10 per share. In this case, NETFLIX learned from the painful experience and decided to withdraw from self-produced film and television dramas in order to get rid of the shackles of content providers.


    ?So in one or three years, "House of Cards" came out. This series became very popular after its launch, and also made a name for NETFLIX''s self-produced series.


    ?Since then, NETFLIX has continued its efforts and successively launched many self-made dramas, self-made documentaries, self-made movies, etc.


    Because online video is favored by investors and considered to be the next generation of entertainment, with more and more users and higher profits, its stock price is getting higher and higher, with a price-earnings ratio as high as 380 times.


    ?The so-called price-to-earnings ratio refers to the ratio of the stock price divided by earnings per share. The higher the price-to-earnings ratio, the more optimistic the company''s potential is. Generally speaking, a P/E ratio of more than 20 times is considered a high P/E ratio.


    ??For example, Google’s P/E ratio is 20 times, Apple’s P/E ratio is 27 times, Facebook’s P/E ratio is 11 times, and Universal Pictures’ P/E ratio is 20 times.


    NETFLIX''s price-to-earnings ratio is as high as 380 times, which is more than ten times higher than Internet hegemons Google, Facebook, and Apple, and more than ten times higher than Universal Pictures, which has Xiang Nan at the helm. This shows that investors have high expectations for it. How strong is the confidence.


    This is why NETFLIX financing is easier. As for EASYMONEYEASYGO, because money is easy to come by and it doesn’t hurt to spend it, NETFLIX is more willing to invest in themes and stories that other film companies dare not invest in. For example, "Roma", Martin Scorsese''s "The Irishman", JC Chandor''s "Three Frontiers", etc.


    ?This type of movie has many niche themes, and the story is different from the three-part style popular in Hollywood. It is more stylized, so there is a certain risk in investment. Other film companies dare not invest, but NETFLIX does.


    ??Of course some of the films suffered losses, but there were also some films that achieved very good results.


    Because in the past ten years, mainstream Hollywood films have become increasingly conservative. Most of them are special effects blockbusters with ordinary stories and ordinary characters, relying entirely on special effects and scenes to attract audiences.


    The most classic example is the superhero movies owned by Universal Pictures.


    ??None of the stories in these movies are particularly exciting, let alone compared to classics such as "Titanic", "Forrest Gump", "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Godfather".


    Even compared with the popcorn movies of the 1990s such as "True Lies", "Air Force", "Air Force One", "Die Hard", and "The Island", they are far behind.


    The audience has actually begun to get tired of watching special effects blockbusters for so many years.


    Therefore, these niche and alternative films invested by NETFLIX are becoming more and more popular and receive higher and higher reviews.


    This can be seen from the increasing number of awards that online series and movies have won at various award ceremonies.


    To this end, NETFLIX announced that it will invest US$13.7 billion in the production of movies and TV series in the future.


    Such an investment amount is astonishing. A giant like Universal Pictures only invests about US$1.5 billion a year.


    ??NETFLIX’s US$13.7 billion is equivalent to nine years of investment by Universal Pictures, which shows that it is really ambitious.


    …


    Xiang Nan also knows that online video platforms are the future for the development of film and television dramas.


    On the one hand, with the development of science and technology, people less and less need to go to theaters to enjoy movies.


    For example, the resolution of DVD in 1996 was only 720X480. With the development of science and technology, 4K video is no longer new, and its resolution has reached 3840X2160, which is 24 times the definition of DVD.


    In the future, 8K, 16K, and 32K videos will no longer be new, and will be completely comparable to the definition of theaters. And twenty years ago, TVs were generally 25 inches, but now the mainstream is 75 inches. In a few years, 100-inch or 200-inch TVs will not be rare.


    In addition, there will be VR and AR technologies in the future. Watching movies at home will provide you with an audio-visual experience that is not inferior to that of a theater.


    On the one hand, traditional film giants have their hands and feet constrained and are increasingly afraid to innovate. In modern business society, it is no longer the big fish eating the small fish, but the fast fish eating the slow fish. Whoever is more adaptable to the situation and better at innovation will succeed.


    Compared with the conservative and cautious Hollywood giants who dare not innovate, online video platforms that are enterprising and actively innovative actually represent the future.


    That’s why Xiang Nan acquired YouTube early and invested in NETFLIX.