Hollywood New Century

At the beginning of 2010, the most popular was the popular release of "Avatar", which has been at the top of the weekly list since the second week of its release.

In particular, IMAX theaters are basically full, and the stock price of IMAX is rising steadily.

IMAX has tried to lobby companies to develop 3D movies and set up IMAX theaters with little success because of the high price. Now, not only because of the pioneering work of "Avatar", many chain theaters have found business opportunities, but also because of IMAX Corporation's research to reduce the construction cost of 3D theaters The breakthrough of 3D cinema has also accelerated.

The annual American Film and Television Golden Globe Awards were held at the Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles on the 1.18th.

The anti-war film "The Hurt Locker" released last year swept the awards of every European film festival almost all the way. For the United States, it is also recognized by leftist politics, and it is also a strong contender for the best picture Oscar this year.

However, the Golden Globe Awards, initiated by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, went against the grain and awarded the best film and best director of the Golden Globe Awards to "Avatar", which is currently popular all over the world.

In fact, when it comes to movie awards, whether it's the three European awards or the Oscars, major Hollywood filmmakers don't care much.

What really cares is the people involved in the film and those independent film production companies, after all, after winning the award, it will help the film release to increase its popularity and influence.

The commercial blockbusters of major Hollywood studios have a large enough budget for promotion, and commercial blockbusters are mainly special effects, and they are not favored by some movie awards.

Xinghai Entertainment currently leads several blockbusters every year, and these are the key films released every year.

Those dominated by Marvel Pictures, of course, are based on special effects. The release of "Iron Man" and "Thor" has given the Avengers universe dominated by Marvel Pictures a firm direction.

There are two more releases this year, "Iron Man 2" and "Captain America: The Avengers" two Marvel movies. There is also the fantasy love idol "Twilight 2", which was popular last year, and the anti-hero special effects blockbuster "National Superman Hancock".

As the booth of Xinghai Entertainment is also getting bigger and bigger, Dick Cook, who stepped down from Disney last year, also became the chief operating officer of Xinghai Entertainment Group from the chairman of Xinghai International Films to assist the president Nina Jacobson to manage the company. .

The chairman of Xinghai International Pictures was taken over by the original Christine Birch. After all, when Birch joined the company in the early days, Xinghai Pictures had just developed and established a distribution channel.

With the experience and resources of Dick Cook and the support of the company, the overseas distribution channel is now on track for Kristen Birch to manage.

Dick Cook's years of management experience at Disney can better help Nina Jacobson manage Xinghai Entertainment Group.

Nina Jacobson and Dick Cook are in Simon's office at Xinghai headquarters in Burbank, Los Angeles.

"BNP Paribas does have some confidence in us, but the amount of funds and requirements they can provide is not what I expected," Simon leaned on the sofa, very casual,

"200 million euros, converted, it is now about 260 million US dollars, I still don't like it!"

"Well, the euro has been falling against the dollar right now, and maybe it will be lower in a while, and it may be harder to raise money from Europe in the future," said Dick Cook, who knows that the company is raising money for the acquisition of NBC Universal, and has recently Few European banks have been contacted because exchange rate issues are somewhat hindered.

"Don't worry," Simon waved his hand and asked again: "The company's current cash flow should be a lot, and some of the overseas funds have been transferred back before, plus the bonds issued, Xinghai Entertainment estimated that it would be able to spend four or five. Billion dollars in funding!"

"Nina, is there any news from Doncaster's side?"

"NBC Group owns 24 cable channels including CNBC in addition to European and Spanish channels. As the largest cable TV operator in the United States, Doncaster is absolutely subject to investigation by anti-monopoly agencies in this regard. Doncaster has cooperated with Time Cable Group for two years, and users are very worried that this will cause cable TV prices to rise, and the resistance is not small,” Nina Jacobson quickly explained, Time Warner’s subsidiary Times Cable is the second-largest cable operator in the United States.

"In recent years, Doncaster has not stopped the pace of mergers and acquisitions, and there is not so much liquidity. Doncaster's acquisition of NBC Universal also means holding, and it will jointly form a new company with GE Group to inject NBC Universal into Among them, in addition to providing some funds, it is likely that some assets will be injected into the new company in exchange for a controlling stake.”

Simon nodded and said, "General Electric has already gotten rid of the burden of NBC Universal. Their main business is the development of equipment industry, aero engines, finance, etc., and the media is not the focus!"

"Given GE's current high level of debt, it needs a lot of cash."

In an era when cash is king, Simon previously said that he could provide $15 billion, which is still somewhat difficult.

After all, Xinghai Entertainment itself needs a lot of cash to develop, and Nine Head Bird Capital also needs a lot of cash. It is inappropriate to invest too much into Xinghai Entertainment.

"By the way, MGM rejected the $2 billion purchase price, and their creditors are absolutely too low!" Nina Jacobson said immediately.

Simon nodded, didn't you know this early on?

"Don't worry, wait for them to go through bankruptcy and reorganization." Simon has no intention of managing the dying MGM. It is estimated that it will not be long before the bankruptcy procedure will be initiated like the original time and space, and then Telescope Pictures will enter into a merger and carry out a debt transfer. In the process of shareholding, 95% of MGM's equity became the creditor, and Telescope Pictures owned 5% of the shares for management.

After Nina Jacobson and Dick Cook left, Simon wondered how to raise money.

Nine-headed bird capital is now fully shorting the euro, and it will not be possible to put all the funds into it at that time. After all, both Nine Head Bird Capital and Phoenix Fund now hold a large number of high-quality stocks! Moreover, investing in new companies and technology ventures also requires cash.

It is indeed difficult to swallow big with small. In the future, when Xinghai Entertainment goes public, Simon will not be short of money anymore. I can make a fortune this time with the two or three billion dollars in my hands, but I really don't want to invest all of it.

After all, Simon also needs to continue to develop Jiutou Sports, or some other technology companies that defy the sky.

"Looks like we'll have to see if Nancy and Adam can raise some more money on Wall Street and in Asia," Simon muttered.