Time Warner headquarters in midtown Manhattan, New York.
It's December 16.
In the conference room, the board of directors, core management and important shareholders of Time Warner Group gathered together. The dispute has lasted for a whole afternoon.
When Terry Semel objected to Gerald Levin's request to take over time warner immediately, Levin immediately pointed the finger at Semel.
"As for DC, Terry, this is definitely one of the biggest mistakes the film department has made. We could have owned the whole DC movie universe, because your personal stupidity, the copyright of Superman, Batman and wonder woman are in the hands of Denise entertainment, and we don't even have the initiative to intervene in the production. "
Terry Semel, chairman and CEO of Warner Bros., has no direct jurisdiction over DC Comics.
Seriously, except for Superman, who was bought in advance at a high price, Ross, the leader of the group, made the film himself. However, Terry Semel can't put the responsibility on Steve Roth at this time. At the present moment, attacking Roth's prestige is tantamount to weakening the possibility of these Roth's direct executives taking over the power of Time Warner.
"Jill, I can't agree with you at all. DC company has been established for more than half a century. If the DC movie universe is so easy to build, why hasn't anyone come up with a similar idea in the past few decades? Therefore, the cooperation with Denise entertainment on the DC movie universe project is one of the smartest decisions made by our film department, and it is absolutely not a mistake. In recent years, DC movie universe project has contributed nearly half of the profits of Warner film industry. "
Gerald Levin did not give in, looked at Terry Semel and said, "but we could have gotten more, could not we?"
Terry Semel met Levin's eyes and said coldly, "if you're going to mess around, I have nothing to say."
"You should know if I've been messing around," Gerald Levin said, glancing around for a week and turning to Semel again. "It's understandable to lose the rights to Superman, Batman and wonder woman, but what did you do then? If I remember correctly, in the original plan, the production rhythm of DC movie universe should be two movies a year. Now? It's exactly what Simon westero says. You do it. Moreover, in order to cater to danielis entertainment, you also deliberately suppress the development of other superhero movies. If I were in charge of the film department, I would never let this happen. Not only that, after the success of DC movie universe, green lantern, sea king, shazan, Mars hunter and so on, these projects can actually be started and prepared, and the copyright is still in our hands. As a result, you have done nothing about it. "
After Gerald Levin's words, many people in the conference room couldn't help nodding.
Simon readjusted the development rhythm of DC movie universe at the beginning, delaying the original development plan of two movies a year to three movies a year or even one movie a year. Many senior executives in Time Warner were dissatisfied, even Steve Roth didn't agree with it at that time.
It's only because Denise entertainment has too much initiative in the DC movie universe plan, coupled with Simon's own strength, that the matter is settled.
At this time, Gerald Levin suddenly brought up the old story again, and also talked about a large number of other DC projects whose copyright was completely in Time Warner's own hands but could not be developed, which immediately aroused the resonance of hate to the top.
Terry Semel noticed the expression of people around him and said to Gerald Levin, "I think you should understand that over exploitation of copyright can only lead to the rapid boredom of the audience, Jill. What's more, the DC movie universe project involves our contract with danielis entertainment. I don't think it's just your words that will make Simon westlow give in. "
"We have the right to distribute the five superhero movies that have been developed and the four series." Gerald Levin obviously took the matter seriously and immediately said, "if Denise entertainment doesn't want these projects to be left out on the shelf, if they want to get a timely share settlement, they have to give in."
In fact, delaying the box office share of independent film companies by big studios is just like falsely reporting the distribution cost, which is a long-standing practice in Hollywood. This practice is often used as a "weapon" for film giants to suppress their competitors.
DC movie universe involves five superhero movie series, Superman, Batman, wonder woman, flash man and steel bone. In addition to "Wonder Woman" series released by Denise entertainment, Warner Bros. is responsible for the distribution of other projects.
If you want the neck of cadanilis entertainment, warner can really take such measures as "giving garbage schedule", "using Hollywood ledger to misrepresent the budget", "delaying box office and other channel revenue sharing settlement" and so on.
It's just, is that going to compromise Simon westero?
Terry Semel almost immediately thought of the original recording of bodyguard two years ago.
Because alista records, which is responsible for the distribution of the original album of bodyguard, tried to swallow up the revenue of the album, danielis entertainment stopped the distribution of the original album directly, completely ignoring the huge potential loss that a record that is expected to sell tens of millions of copies may suddenly go off the shelves.Of course, the interests involved in the DC movie universe are far more than the original record of bodyguard. However, based on Terry Semel's understanding of Simon, he thinks that if Warner dares to play tricks on the DC movie universe project, it is likely that danilisi entertainment will still face the strongest counterattack.
Terry Semel's first thought was to lead Gerald Levin to say what he had just said.
Since the goal has been achieved, he is too lazy to talk too much with each other.
Anyway, today's meeting is doomed to have no result.
Gerald Levin saw that Terry Semel stopped contradicting himself, but he didn't stop. He continued: "as long as you agree that I will take care of this company, I will immediately start a new negotiation with Denise entertainment. The film department may be very dependent on the DC movie universe, and so is Denise entertainment. What's more, even if there is a temporary stalemate between the two sides in the worst case, we will only lose Superman, Batman and wonder woman. Without these three superheroes, DC can still develop such superheroes as flash, steel and green lantern. "
In the conference room, Robert Daley, another Warner executive who is in the same camp as Terry Semel, was a bit reluctant to look down on it. He said sarcastically, "Gerald, you don't know what losing the big three means to DC."
Gerald Levin was suddenly interrupted and said, "of course I understand. I'm just saying that time warner can take more initiative and share more interests in this matter, instead of being constrained by a kid in his twenties all the time."
Time Warner executives spent a whole afternoon arguing in the conference room of the east coast headquarters. Today is the premiere of Danielles Entertainment's other blockbuster movie Jurassic Park.
Hollywood Walk of fame.
In the afternoon on the west coast, a large number of fans have gathered near the Chinese theater, and Denise entertainment has spared no effort in the promotion of Jurassic Park, with a long red carpet spread outside the theater.
At six o'clock, guests began to appear one after another.
Fans on both sides of the road call out the names of Robert Redford, Julia Roberts, Robert De Niro, Nicole Kidman, Bruce Willis, Demi Moore and so on.
When the time approached seven o'clock, Steven Spielberg, Sam Neal, Renee Russell and other creators of Jurassic Park appeared, which once again caused the fans to stir and scream.
The red carpet ceremony ended and the film premiere ceremony officially opened.
In addition to a large number of star guests and media reporters, hundreds of lucky fans were invited to watch the special effects dinosaur blockbuster tonight.
While many people in this city spend an ordinary night as usual, the audience in the Chinese Theater has experienced a wonderful visual journey lasting for two hours.
Even though the DC movie universe project in recent years has made many audiences feel the great charm of CG special effects, when the ancient creatures that used to exist only in books and pictures or imagination appear on the big screen, everyone's feeling is still very shocking.
Moreover, if Denise entertainment does not agree to make enough concessions, Time Warner would rather shelve the development of Superman, Batman and wonder woman projects, get rid of Denise entertainment, and use its own superhero copyright to create a DC movie universe exclusively belonging to Time Warner.
By the end of the summer season, DC movie universe has only launched four films, but only these four films have generated more than 10 billion US dollars in box office, video, peripheral products and other channels. It can be imagined that the full implementation of the whole plan will bring huge profits to the two companies.
Therefore, the articles in the new york times almost immediately ignited the public opinion. A large number of media reporters called the top management of the two companies to inquire more about the inside story, and countless DC movie fans, too. However, this is tantamount to admitting the fact that the other side intends to reopen negotiations with Denise entertainment.
On the other hand, on the morning of the same day, the igritte portal published the personal response of Amy Pascal, CEO of danielis entertainment. Pascal said that he did not know the details of the matter. However, danielis entertainment regretted Gerald Levin's attempt to undermine the good cooperative relationship between the two companies.
However, this very official response on igritte's portal is accompanied by another piece of news, which is about the latest video sales data of "Spider Man" animated films in the first half of the year.
As of December, the global sales volume of this 2D superhero animated film released during Easter in April has exceeded 8 million boxes. In the next few years, it is only a matter of time before it can achieve 10 million sales volume through long tail sales.
As long as you're not a fool, you'll realize Denise's entertainment attitude when you see these two news stories next to each other.
Denise entertainment is not afraid of a stalemate with Time Warner.
Without DC movie universe, Denise entertainment can develop Marvel movie universe in an instant.
However, without Superman, Batman and wonder woman, the three giants of DC superheroes, can DC movie universe be called DC movie universe?Because of the sudden article in the New York Times, this day is bound to be very busy.
After igrit portal responded, some other online media on the same network platform also expressed their own views on this matter.
Many media think that Denise entertainment is more likely to bluff.
Looking only at the huge profits of the universe project of the previous DC films, Simon westero should not fall out with Warner as long as he has a little sense.
DC movie universe is very important to Warner, and it's the same for Denise entertainment.
After all, who can guarantee the success of DC movie universe by starting Marvel movie universe?
In addition, DC movie universe is undoubtedly the lowest risk and the most stable long-term series of daenerys entertainment. In addition to this plan, daenerys entertainment has no other similar heavyweight super blockbuster.
There are only two kinds of Hollywood movies, DC movies, universe movies and other movies. This is not just a statement.
In recent years, although danilisi entertainment has no shortage of blockbuster movies, none of them can achieve the revenue of DC movie universe project. Even the "kid in charge" series is far from enough to compete with the DC movies.
On Friday, December 18, Jurassic Park officially entered the North American cinema with 3153 screens.