Chapter 476 Litigation
Time has passed November, and the arrival of December also means that more and more large-scale movies will be released, and Gladiator, which costs as much as 100 million US dollars, is undoubtedly the most eye-catching in this schedule. 's film, in addition to its creators being eye-catching enough, also involved a lawsuit, and until now the federal court has not made a final ruling.
However, another lawsuit in Hollywood quickly diverted the attention of the media.
Dozens of Walt Disney's retail shareholders and small investors holding shares have jointly sued Disney's board of directors in Delaware Chancery Court.
Disney shareholders allege that when the company hired Michael Ovitz as the company's president in 1995, the company's board of directors completely obeyed Eisner's will, and the company's nominating committee was dormant, precisely because the board was not diligent. , the absence of the nomination committee caused the company's will to be led by Eisner's nose, and the company was forced to accept Eisner's nomination. The company president of Disney, a fairy tale world composed of various categories such as parks and animation.
Michael Ovitz lacked the ability and experience to manage a giant company like Disney, and even lacked the creativity and coordination skills that Disney World needed. After taking office, instead of turning the company around, it made the company's situation worse. He was cronyism, abuse of power, Lonely, had bad relations with other directors, seized company property, and directly turned against his childhood friend Michael Eisner.
Similarly, Michael Eisner fired Ovitz without a rigorous procedural review, for which Disney had to pay a total of nearly $200 million, including $140 million in severance compensation.
Angry Disney shareholders, petitioned the court to order Michael Ovitz to return the severance compensation and interest already paid by the company $200 million, and asked the court to order the Disney directors headed by Eisner to be jointly and severally liable for repayment.
All the voices almost point to one point - the loss of the board and the nominating committee is related to Eisner's huge personal influence, and all the responsibility should be shouldered by Michael Eisner alone.
Once this lawsuit came out, it caused an uproar in the media, and then several Wall Street investment institutions that held shares in Disney issued a statement that they would join the lawsuit, which caused media speculation in the two major industries of entertainment and finance. .
The sued is from Disney's shareholders, and the sued is a group of Disney executives. It is not uncommon in North America for shareholders to have conflicts with management, and these shareholders do not target any institution, but directly point to Michael? individual executives, including Eisner.
Management's waste of shareholders' money, especially when hundreds of millions of dollars are involved, cannot be offset by a few explanations and a few statements.
In this highly developed country,
Interest determines the position of the butt. Whoever moves the cake of the interest group will jump out and go against whoever is right.
After a period of waiting, the most respected corporate court in the nation formally accepted the lawsuit.
Disney shareholders chose the Delaware court over the California court because Walt Disney was registered in Delaware.
Due to the tax incentives implemented by Delaware and the superior judicial system of Delaware, Delaware has become one of the most popular places for company registration in the United States, and more than half of the global Fortune 500 companies are located in Delaware. The state has a registered office or branch, and one-third of NYSE-listed companies are incorporated in Delaware.
However, because Delaware does not strictly require registered companies to operate business in the state, most registered companies only have a symbolic office in Delaware and pay taxes to the Delaware government during tax season.
Most companies such as Jenkins Films under Ryan's name are also registered in Delaware, but several companies share a large office.
The title of the United States, the country of all taxes, has no water at all. If you do not use legal and reasonable means to avoid taxes, the taxes paid are enough to make many large groups devastated.
The participation of some institutions on Wall Street makes this lawsuit more eye-catching. Neither entertainment media nor financial media are fools. If they lose the strong support of Wall Street capital, Michael Eisner's existing shares, director of The long and cum position is definitely not stable.
Soon, some reporters photographed Michael Eisner himself on Wall Street.
According to my estimates and Wilson Jr., this lawsuit is likely to drag on.
Scott, who came back from New York, was sitting in the living room of the villa, discussing the current situation with Ryan, The case will go through at least two rounds of cross-examination, and Michael Eisner and Michael Ovitz himself should be summoned. but……
Scott made a helpless gesture to Ryan, There are currently no relevant legal provisions. If the judgment is made in accordance with the Commercial Judgment Law, the board of directors of Disney may eventually be acquitted.
Their guilt and innocence is not what we want to achieve, is it? Ryan waved his hand indifferently, playing with the coffee cup in his hand, As long as it can distract some of the energy of Disney's board of directors, it will be less during our preparation period. Just make trouble.
Something like Gladiator, if it pops up every once in a while to make a fuss, it's really annoying.
Of course, some people are not fools. This kind of out-of-rule means can be used occasionally. If you use it frequently, you want to be the public enemy of the industry.
According to Ryan's analysis, it may have been for selfishness before, but now it is for huge interests.
Interest is always the best tool to move people's hearts and induce greed.
The release date of Gladiator is getting closer and closer. Jenkins Pictures and Paramount Pictures, which act as distributors, seem to have not been affected at all. On the Internet, TV and print media, Gladiator can be seen everywhere. ” pictures and trailers, and huge posters were erected early in the most conspicuous advertising spots in major cities.
Especially in the publicity area of the Internet, there have been many viral links about Gladiator on portal sites such as Yahoo and Google. Nowadays, viral marketing has long been known, and it is far less than the fake film they filmed in Darren. Documentary effects.
This was well confirmed in the Blair Witch released last year. Lionsgate has almost perfectly replicated the viral marketing methods of Flower Pictures, but with the audience who have experienced it once, it will be hard for a short period of time. Once faced with this kind of publicity in the overdraft market, I would not buy it much.
As a result, the production cost of this fake documentary is only tens of thousands of dollars, and the publicity expenses have invested tens of millions of dollars. It will never return to the glory of the previous life. It only received less than 3 million US dollars at the box office in North America, and the overseas screening rights have not been sold. Going out a few, the executives of Lionsgate Pictures wanted to cry without tears.
Viral marketing is not as magical as imagined. If you don't master the degree of it, the tragedy must be the investor.
Rebellion doesn’t just exist in teenagers, but adults as well.
The simplest example is to hype the male and female starring actors or the director's scandal during the filming of the film as a publicity method. The first time or even the first few times may pull up a little box office number. What if there are more times?
A director or actor's film always attracts attention in the form of scandals, and it will not be long before it will be eliminated by the market, especially in Hollywood, where the transition between the old and the new is fast and it pays more attention to real interests.
Looking at Hollywood, how many first-line actors or directors will use this method to promote movies?
Of course, neither the movies starring Ryan nor the movies produced by Jenkins have used this kind of publicity.
Gladiator is about to be released, and it has entered the most intensive publicity period. From the producer to the distributor to the cinema, all ignore the so-called plagiarism incident, and the best publicity columns in the cinema are all reserved for this movie. , Ryan's past achievements are the source of their confidence.
And Monsters, Inc., which is currently in theaters, continues to make efforts in terms of publicity. Pixar once again invested 10 million US dollars in publicity expenses, bringing the total cost of the film to 155 million US dollars, which is completely more than Toy Story 2 has become Pixar's most expensive animated feature to date.
The effect of this is extremely obvious. After the first week of more than 69 million US dollars and the second week of 52 million US dollars, the film received more than 35 million US dollars at the box office in the third week, and the total North American box office has reached 150 million US dollars. This figure It is very likely to become the second North American film to break 300 million at the box office this year.
At the same time, there was good news from the federal court. Just ten days before the scheduled premiere of Gladiator, the federal court rejected the plaintiff's lawyer's request for a preliminary injunction, and Gladiator can fully Show on time.
And after the film's release, the same judge ruled that there was no connection between Gladiator and Mark Morik's script.
Protecting their own interests is a natural choice made by anyone who stands at a high level. Although the other party is only a small person who is active on the bright side, Ryan will not let them continue to be at ease.
His team of lawyers soon sued Mark Morick for defamation in the name of Jenkins Pictures, offering a public apology and nearly $3 million in damages.
It doesn't matter whether the lawsuit is won or not. Ryan just let Wilson Law Firm drag on indefinitely. The other party must respond to the lawsuit, and the response will incur costs. Time, energy and money alone can completely drag them down.
At such a time, could the people hiding behind jump out to pull these pawns who are destined to be abandoned?
Hollywood is always power and reality! rs()
