Chapter 396: come to your door

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"It's also for investment!" Ryan was a little surprised.

Most of the films produced by Sony Classics are independent films, and the investment cost will not be too high.

China Film wants to invest in some large-scale commercial projects, not independent films.

"Not for investment."

Frank Macasso shook his head and said, "It seems to be a film called "Hero". The other party wants to find a suitable overseas distributor."

"hero"!

Ryan had a clear look in his eyes, "The success of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" has given many people an opportunity."

He is all too familiar with this film.

To put it simply, the style of this film is very similar to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", and it can be regarded as a relatively successful Chinese film.

The original "Hero" had a North American box office of $53.71 million and a global box office of $177 million, with a budget of only $30 million.

Either way, the film was a huge success.

Ryan drummed his fingers and said, "You can try to get the overseas distribution rights of this film."

"The bottom line is that you can agree to share the distribution." He deliberately added a sentence.

With the premise of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" being a big hit, the overseas distribution rights of "Hero" are definitely not so easy to win.

Even, it can be sold for a sky-high price.

It is impossible for Orion Pictures to spend a large amount of money to purchase the overseas distribution rights of the film, and China Film, one of the film production companies, may not agree.

The best option is to agree to share distribution.

This is beneficial to both parties.

"It seems that Michael needs to get busy." Frank Macasso said with a smile.

Orion Pictures' distribution business is almost entirely in the charge of Michael Kuhn.

In addition, Nancy Utley is also responsible for part of the North American distribution business.

At that moment, Frank Macasso left and walked towards Michael Kuhn's office.

Almost at the same time.

"Excuse me, is Mr. Ryan Gosling here!" Reed Hastings asked at the front desk of Orion Films in a hesitant tone.

"Sir, what can I do for you!" asked the female receptionist at the front desk.

Reed-Hastings' eyes lit up, and he hurriedly said, "My name is Reed-Hastings, and I'm from Netflix..."

In 1997, Reed Hastings, because of dissatisfaction with Blockbuster's late payment fees and the fact that the Internet was popular at the time, founded a company with his friend Mark Randolph to provide online rental disc business , shipped by mail.

Most importantly, no late fees.

In a short period of time, Netflix has received the support of many young groups.

But company founder Reed Hastings isn't exactly happy.

In order to attract users, Netflix issued many coupons. Instead of getting a large number of customers as expected, Netflix lost a lot of money.

Coupled with issues such as inventory and mailing costs, Netflix lost $11 million in just one year in 1998.

By mid-2000, Netflix expected a loss of $57.4 million, which was unsustainable.

Now there are only two paths for Reed-Hastings. The first choice is to continue to burn money until Netflix goes public or makes a profit.

However, the Internet crisis in March completely disrupted Netflix's financing plan.

In the face of a wailing Internet industry, Netflix has made things worse, and has been rejected by several venture capital companies one after another.

With Reed-Hastings' net worth and the debts he faces, it is obviously impossible to continue to invest a lot of money and burn money.

The second option is to sell Xunfei, and Reed-Hastings first found Blockbuster.

Faced with a price of 50 million US dollars and a huge loss of 57.4 million US dollars, Blockbuster did not even consider it, and directly rejected Reed-Hastings.

Based on Blockbuster's market share in the rental market, it doesn't look down on Xunfei's scale at all, nor is it optimistic about the online rental model.

In desperation, Reed-Hastings came to Orion Pictures, intending to find a new buyer.

Boom.

After knocking on the door, John-Denise pushed open the door and walked in, "There is a Mr. Reed-Hastings outside who wants to see you."

"He seems to be the founder of Netflix."

Orion Pictures has no cooperation with Xunfei.

However, as a website that mainly rents and hires discs online, John-Denise has not only heard of the name of this website, but even tried to use it once. The experience is not very good, and the postage is expensive , The delivery time is too long, the disc is easily damaged and so on.

It can be said that there are a lot of problems.

Netflix!

"Ask him to come in." Ryan immediately recalled the information about Netflix in his mind, which seemed to be a website mainly for renting and renting discs online.

In the previous life, Netflix not only bankrupted Blockbuster, the giant in the disc rental market, but also successfully transformed into a video website focusing on movies and TV shows.

In terms of type, it is somewhat similar to Tencent Video, but with a larger scale and more comprehensive business.

It's just that Ryan hasn't paid much attention to Netflix.

Orion Pictures owns MGM's copyright library and the copyrights of Marvel's superheroes. When the time is right, it can choose to set up a video website by itself.

So the interest in Netflix is ​​not very great.

"Mr. Reed, sit down wherever you want." Seeing Reed-Hastings walking in, Ryan very politely invited him to sit down.

"Thank you." Reed-Hastings sat down somewhat restrained.

The next moment, he was attracted by the movie posters in front of him.

"Terminator 3", "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", "Saw", "Ice Age", "Rush Hour", "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "Inception", "Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring"...

Each one is a blockbuster film in North America, or even a blockbuster film globally.

One of the posters of "Spider-Man" made him think a lot.

If Netflix can get the online rental and sales rights of "Spider-Man", it will definitely attract a large number of user registrations.

It's a pity that facing high licensing fees is not acceptable to Netflix at all.

Reed-Hastings sighed, feeling like he was thinking too much.

He just wants to sell Netflix as soon as possible, so as not to delay for too long and face bankruptcy.

"Mr. Gosling, I wonder if you have heard of Netflix!" Reed-Hastings asked after finishing his emotions.

"I've heard of some." Ryan said very directly: "However, there are some old movies and niche movies on the Netflix website, and there don't seem to be many popular movies."

Speaking of this, Ryan suddenly asked: "Could it be that Netflix wants to purchase the license of Orion Pictures' film library?"

Whether it is Orion Pictures' film library authorization or MGM's film library authorization, it can play a very important role in the development of Netflix.

Reed-Hastings had a lot of thoughts running through his mind, and finally shook his head and said, "Not the library license, I'm going to sell Netflix as a whole."

As a businessman, he never thought about getting a sum of money first, so as to buy a large number of Internet copyright licenses for videos, attract more users to register, sell them at a good price, and even choose to go public.

However, with the advent of the Internet crisis, these have become empty talk.

"What about the price?" Ryan showed a hint of interest.

He wouldn't mind buying Netflix if the price was right.

"$50 million."

"This is the bottom line I can accept." Reed - Hastings did not raise the price.

It's no secret that he wanted to sell Netflix to Blockbuster for $50 million.

$50 million!

From Ryan's point of view, the price of 50 million US dollars is not too high, it is very cost-effective.

Netflix has grown to its current scale, and its actual investment has exceeded 70 million US dollars.

But right now Netflix isn't worth the price.

"$50 million is too expensive."

"Besides, if I remember correctly." Ryan said lightly: "Mr. Reed, you are only one of the founders of Netflix."

"I can make decisions on behalf of Netflix." Reed-Hastings is very confident about this.

He has a close friendship with Mark Randolph, and is very clear that Mark Randolph has no interest in rights and has no objection to the sale of Netflix.

After looking at the time, Ryan stood up, "Mr. Reed, I need some time to think about it."

Ryan didn't agree, nor did he refuse.

Not bad for Reed-Hastings.

In other words, Orion Pictures does not rule out buying Netflix.

The only problem, I am afraid that the price of 50 million US dollars, Orion Films will not accept it easily.

With Reed-Hastings leaving, Ryan came into the conference room and talked about the release plan of "Harry-Potter and the Philosopher's Stone".

Orion Films and Warner Bros. each bear half of the film's investment, with Warner Bros. in charge of overseas distribution and Orion Films in charge of North American distribution.

According to the release time set by Orion Pictures, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" will be released on November 26.

Beginning in October, the Super Bowl and several public television stations have successively appeared promotional videos of "Harry-Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone".

Among them, the advertisement on the Super Bowl is one of the key publicity plans of the film.

With the investment scale of "Harry-Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone", it is not difficult to get an advertisement on the Super Bowl, and only need to pay a sky-high advertising fee.

Since the promotional clips of "Terminator 3" and "Independence Day" appeared on the Super Bowl, the two films have sold well at the box office.

The halftime advertisement of the Super Bowl has directly become one of the most important publicity channels for Hollywood commercial films. Every year, large-scale commercial films pay astronomical advertising fees for this.

"The Grinch, produced by Universal Pictures, will be released on November 16, starring Jim Carrey, with a budget of $123 million."

"On the 22nd, Disney's "Undead" will be released. The director of the film is Knight Shyamalan, and the starring role is Bruce Willis."

Jon Fertimer looked at the information in his hand and continued: "These two films will be our biggest competitors."

"The Grinch is the biggest threat. It's a children's comedy that has a similar audience to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone."

Ryan nodded, "Pay more attention, Universal Pictures and "The Grinch."

The box office of the original film was very high, with a North American box office of 260 million US dollars, an overseas box office of 103 million US dollars, and a global box office of 363 million US dollars.

If it weren't for "Harry-Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" full of confidence, Ryan would rather postpone the release schedule by a week, and also stagger the hit release date of "The Grinch".

I have to say that from the end of the 1990s to the beginning of the 20th century, Jim Carrey's career reached a peak period, and his box office appeal can definitely be ranked in the forefront of Hollywood.

"Nancy, find someone to investigate Netflix's data."

The meeting was almost over, and Ryan looked up at Nancy Utley and said, "Next, I plan to buy Netflix."

Netflix, a somewhat unfamiliar name.

David Kobe asked with a puzzled face, "Is that the online DVD rental website?"

Online rental disc site!

Everyone couldn't help but look at each other, this is planning to get involved in the disc sales industry!

Hollywood film companies generally license out the copyright of film discs, and the same is true for Orion Films. Only a few film companies have their own sales channels.

"Ryan, have you thought about it?"

"Doing so may cause dissatisfaction with Blockbuster." Nancy Utley reminded.

Disc copyright is one of the main sources of profit for the film. Once Blockbuster and other large offline rental companies are dissatisfied, it will affect the income of Orion Films.

"No one can tell what will happen in the future." Ryan didn't explain anything.

No one would believe that Netflix, which seems unreliable, will skyrocket in market value in the next ten years, several times higher than Blockbuster at its peak.

"Reed, how's the talk going?"

A very tall and thin man in his forties, wearing casual clothes, stood up from the seat in the coffee shop, "Orion Films and Ryan Gosling agree?"

Mark Randolph didn't object to Reed Hastings' decision to sell Netflix.

Even, he very much hopes that Netflix can get funding.

Netflix is ​​not without the favor of venture capital firms.

At the beginning of the year, the French giant Arnault Group decided to invest in Netflix. This venture capital investment is divided into two rounds. The first round will invest US$30 million, and the second round will invest US$100 million in early 2001.

At the same time, the Arnault Group will be responsible for Netflix's promotional operations.

With the funds and publicity channels of the Arnault Group, Netflix is ​​likely to soar into the sky, and even be listed on NASDAQ, creating a myth of wealth.

However, these were all before the Internet crisis.

When the internet crisis broke out in March, Arnault Group canceled its investment plan without hesitation.

Mark Randolph had inquired specifically about Orion Pictures, and he was taken aback.

This Hollywood film company not only produced many blockbuster films ~www.wuxiaspot.com~ but also acquired MGM, which has the world's largest film library, as well as Marvel Comics.

It is said that Orion Films has also invested in two Internet companies, Google and Amazon.

There is no doubt that with the investment from Orion Films, Netflix will definitely enter a fast lane.

For example, the huge copyright library owned by Orion Films, Amazon’s online retail payment channel and offline goods distribution center, and the Internet promotion channel owned by Google.

These are things Netflix desperately needs.

And plenty of cash flow.

As we all know, the profitability of Orion Pictures is very scary, which is enough to support Netflix's continuous burning of money.

Reed-Hastings did not hide anything at the moment, and simply said it again.

In just a few days, the two sides began formal negotiations on Monday.

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