Chapter 600: thank you letter

Shares of Viacom continued to fall.

Redstone was flustered.

The platter investment in cooperation with Merrill Lynch failed to bring confidence to investors.

Redstone must breathe new life into the film industry.

On April 13th, there was shocking news from Hollywood - Shirley Lansing, known as the first strong woman in the Hollywood industry, was fired!

Shirley Lansing became president of Twentieth Century Fox in 1980, the first woman to head one of the eight major Hollywood studios.

In 1992, she jumped to Paramount and became the chairman and chief executive officer of the board of directors. She has been in charge of Paramount for ten years now.

During her time in charge of Paramount, she pushed John Wu to the throne of the world's top director, and also included action superstar Tom Cruise, and launched a plan to remake old films, creating great profits for Paramount. .

Even, in the annual "Hollywood Women's Rights List", the "Shirley Lansing Leadership Award" named after her was specially established!

But even so, Paramount's sluggish performance in recent years has caused Redstone to be very dissatisfied, criticizing her for lack of adventurous spirit and only remaking old films.

And asked her to start the "Paramount Revival" plan to lead Paramount out of the slump.

However, before this plan was actually implemented, Viacom went to war with New Universal and Disney.

In order to save the stock price, Redstone had no extra time left for Shirley Lansing, so he fired directly and invited Brad Gray, a famous Hollywood producer, to take over the helm of Paramount!

...

Barry Diller came to Dunn's office and reported to him the acquisition of Rotten Tomatoes.

New Universal spent $52 million in cash to acquire all the assets of the Rotten Tomatoes website and integrate it into the New Universal Interactive Entertainment Division under the management of Kevin Turner.

Dunn has no objection to this, just a warning, it is best to let Rotten Tomatoes operate independently at present, and it is forbidden to cross with the idmb website.

"By the way, what do you think about Shirley Lansing?"

After talking about Rotten Tomatoes, Barry Diller switched to a new topic.

"Shirley Lansing?" Tang En smiled contemptuously, "It's just that he was rushed to the hospital, and Redstone won't be able to jump for a few days."

Barry Diller shook his head and said, "I'm not talking about Redstone, but Shirley Lansing."

"Um?"

Dunn was a little surprised.

Barry Diller said: "Don, didn't you say that New Universal will bring a new female force in Hollywood? It just so happens that Shirley Lansing is recognized as the No. 1 strong woman in the industry! Even better than Amy of Columbia Pictures. Pascal, and our company's Kathleen Kennedy, Nina Jacobson, Donna Langley are big names."

"You mean... to dig her over?" Dunn touched his chin, thinking about this issue.

Barry Diller said: "On the one hand, it can improve the external image of New Universal. In the case of Hollywood generally suppressing women, only New Universal has spared no effort to cultivate female senior managers. On the other hand, this is also a joint effort for Redstone. Thunder stick!"

Dunn understood what he meant.

New Universal hired Shirley Lansing in the name of supporting female managers, which also proves that Viacom is suppressing women in the workplace.

Redstone's attempt to save the stock price by replacing the person in charge of Paramount will also be completely shattered.

Maybe it will also bring infamy for it, making Viacom's stock even worse.

However, Dunn also had doubts, "But I heard that Shirley Lansing likes to engage in nepotism."

Shirley Lansing's husband is William Friedkin. He is a well-known American director. He has made well-known films such as "The Exorcist" and "French Trafficker/Drug Network", and has also won an Oscar.

However, after the 1990s, he was exhausted and could no longer grasp the pulse of the times.

At this time, Shirley Lansing took action. Through her power in Paramount, she forcibly hired William Friedkin, which caused a lot of controversy. As a result, William Friedkin did not make any money for Paramount.

Barry Diller said: "This is a lesson from the past, and she cannot and will not be allowed to repeat the same mistakes."

Tang En thought for a while, then waved his hand and said, "I don't have much contact with Ms. Shirley Lansing. If you think it's appropriate, then that's the decision."

Barry Diller showed a smile, he was very satisfied with Dunn's delegation of power, "There is one more thing, I want her to be Bill McNick's deputy."

"Um?"

"In the past few years, Viacom has not invested a penny in Paramount, and has to withdraw profit and cash flow every year. It can be seen that she has excellent ability to control the budget and limit the cost. Film and television The investment spending of the entertainment department is too high and must be curbed.”

Tang En said: "No, Barry, you misunderstood what I meant. In fact, I also agree with your idea of controlling the budget, saving if you can. What I said is, if this is arranged, what will Ron Mayer do? "

In the current film and television entertainment department, Long Mayer is Bill McNick's deputy.

When Shirley Lansing joins, there will definitely be serious decentralization.

Barry Diller said: "Ron Mayer was transferred from the film and television entertainment department and promoted to the vice president of the group, responsible for several businesses such as public relations, personnel, and business coordination, and continued to serve as the chairman of the film project committee."

"This……"

Dunn was very hesitant.

Such an order is nominally a promotion, but in fact, it is a relegation.

Even if Ron Mayer is the second-in-command of the film and television entertainment department, he still has the power to a large part of the film business, and has the right to profit dividends from the film and television entertainment department. The annual income will not be less than 10 million US dollars.

However, if he is "promoted" to be the vice president of the group, he will lose the right to share the profits of the film, and his annual salary will be about 2 million US dollars.

Universal Pictures acquired it for more than half a year, and related businesses were integrated with the help of Ron Mayer, and then he was removed from the main leadership position.

is this okay?

Barry Diller said lightly: "The attribute of ability determines the distribution of positions. New Universal is a commercial company, and there is no need to consider any human factors here. I am the CEO of the company, and I will handle this matter!"

Tang En was silent for ten seconds before nodding his head, "Okay!"

...

"Gone Lover" is indeed the hottest movie in April this year.

North America: $54 million in the first week; $48 million in the second week; $34 million in the third week; $23 million in the fourth week...

As of April 27, "Gone Lover" has accumulated a total of $159 million at the North American box office!

The overseas box office also reached 223 million US dollars.

The total worldwide box office is as much as 382 million US dollars!

In the same period, only the comedy "Anger Management" starring Jack Nicholson and Adam **** has a fighting force in the box office market.

By the end of April, the North American box office exceeded the 100 million US dollar mark, but the overseas box office was only 12 million US dollars... No way, this is an American humorous comedy.

In addition, "Sniper Phone Booth" released in the same period, although the box office is only tens of millions of dollars, but the cost of the film is only 17 million US dollars.

Colin Farrell's performance has won the recognition of film critics, even more brilliant than Mel Gibson's performance in "Gone Girl".

The director of the film, Joe Schumacher, also has a tendency to turn around with this film.

For "Gone Girl", if you want to hit the North American box office of 200 million US dollars and the global box office of 500 million US dollars, it is time to seize the moment.

With the arrival of the May file, blockbusters will be released in a concentrated manner. .

At the beginning of May, there was only one major commercial production of 20th Century Fox's "X-Men 2".

Afterwards, many films such as "Daddy Training Camp", "The Matrix 2", "Daredevil", "Day to Day" and "Finding Nemo" will be released one after another.

However, even if the goal of "Gone Lover" fails, it does not prevent the film from making a lot of money.

The driving effect on the novel is even more obvious.

In the past half month, the physical book "Gone Lover" has sold more than 3.8 million copies worldwide!

On April 28, Shirley Lansing, who was fired by Paramount, officially joined New Universal as the vice president of the Film and Television Entertainment Department.

On April 30, Dunn received a handwritten thank you letter from Shirley Lansing.

"We've had a hard time for the past three weeks and I know it took a lot of courage to hand me such an important position. But those days are over and I just want to tell you~www.wuxiaspot. com~ I'm very happy to get this result. The most important thing to me...maybe not the money, but in the end you did what you were supposed to do and recognized my abilities."

"We've known each other for a long time, in fact, a lifetime if you count time in Hollywood. Not only do I hope, but I believe we can be together forever. You've been great, you're Hollywood The best filmmaker."

"You have always had extraordinary patience and caring, and you are full of responsibility for the big Hollywood family. Even when I am at Paramount, I can feel it deeply... I sincerely admire and thank you for this, And really love you. Shirley."

Dunn was a little dumbfounded when he saw the letter.

What's the situation?

Barry Diller was in charge of hiring Shirley Lansing.

He hadn't paid much attention at all.

More importantly, this letter is written... the expression of emotion is too abundant, right?

In fact, Ms. Shirley Lansing is 59 years old this year!

At the age of 36, she became the president of Twentieth Century Fox, the first female executive in the history of the Hollywood movie giant.

"Could it be... that she used this way of doing things to get to a high position?"

Dunn put away the thank you letter and shook his head.

It's a tough life for women filmmakers in Hollywood.

This is a fact.

But this is not required in New Universal.