Chapter 2578 Indefinite Contract

Robert Egger is an industry expert. He discovered the disadvantages of Ziweixing Global's business structure at a glance. Regardless of the current market value of MSI Global, which is as high as US$156 billion, there are actually huge strategic deficiencies.

Movies are the leading source of entertainment.

Just like a train, the movie is the locomotive.

Only the powerful locomotive can pull the entire train to move quickly.

The trouble Disney is encountering now is that its film production capabilities are not as good as expected, and its locomotives are weak... They want to drive the train at high speed, but they can't pull it at all.

The situation at Ziweixing Global is completely opposite.

The locomotive is very powerful.

Marvel Studios, in particular, has produced a series of superhero movies that shine all over the world, plus serialized blockbusters such as "The Fast and the Furious", "Star Wars", "Jurassic Park", "The Twilight Saga" and "The Hunger Games". ”, “Shrek”, “007”, etc. It can be said that half of the global film industry is controlled by Ziweixing Universal.

However, this train only has two or three carriages.

There is nothing to haul.

There is only a leading effect, and subsequent business has not kept up at all!

The development of the entertainment industry in the past few decades has long formed a mature development system, and a very important point is "TV + movies".

Warner Bros. is surrounded by TV stations such as Turner Network, HBO, and CNN; Disney is owned by ABC Television Network and ESPN Channel; 20th Century Fox is surrounded by Fox Television Network; Paramount is also surrounded by Viacom. and CBS Television Network.

Sony Pictures and MGM both lack strong television business, so their performance is extremely poor.

A few years ago, when Universal Pictures was owned by General Electric and Vivendi, it had the NBC television network behind it. Universal Pictures also had its own cable TV network, and it was doing well.

But when it came to splitting the deal, Boss Zhou chose a different route.

He divested all of his television stations and sold them to Comcast.

Neither did Lianqiu Cinema.

Only the Universal Pictures sign remains.

This has resulted in the lack of business at the strategic level of Ziweixing Global at this stage, lack of support from media platforms, and lack of sales capabilities through derivatives channels.

Just like Disney.

Movies are the core business, and the revenue only accounts for about 20% of the company's total revenue; the remaining media business, amusement park business and consumer goods business basically each account for 25%.

Now Ziweixing Global has no media business, no amusement park business, and only half of Disney’s consumer goods business... When this train starts running, it will run empty, which will cause a huge waste of power.

Just like the cooperation between TV stations and movies.

TV stations need to broadcast high-quality content to attract viewers. Once you attract an audience and have ratings, you will have more advertising revenue or paid subscription revenue.

However, buying movie rights is too expensive.

If you own both a TV station and a film company, you can connect these channels and content, thereby increasing conversion rates, reducing costs and increasing efficiency.

Robert Egger is absolutely right.

Point-and-shooting pointed out some of the business difficulties currently existing at Ziweixing Global.

Zhou Buqi had already noticed it.

He was not in a hurry.

1. Consumer goods business.

Ziweixing Universal's consumer products business is indeed much worse than Disney, which is half of Disney's level. This is not to say that MSI Universal is doing poorly, but that Disney’s consumer products business is doing very well. The business of Ziweixing Global is at the average level of Hollywood, but Disney is at the phenomenal level.

Even Steve Jobs was so shocked by Disney's consumer products business that he imitated them and launched the sales model of Apple's retail stores.

Second, amusement park business.

This business is so tricky.

Disney has hundreds of thousands of employees, 90% of whom are employees in the tourism and resort divisions. The larger the number of employees, the more complex the management and the greater the risk.

Every time there is some major event in the world, it is easy for something to go wrong.

The last time Universal Pictures changed hands, it was dragged down by Universal Studios.

At that time, the "9.11 terrorist attacks" broke out, and the global tourism industry suffered a major blow. No one dared to travel. The amusement park business was completely destroyed, and there were no tourists.

The salaries of hundreds of thousands of employees had to be paid as scheduled, resulting in huge losses.

It took several years to get over it.

Universal Pictures simply cannot afford to support Universal Studios with the little income it makes from selling movies.

So much so that Vivendi, the world's largest media giant at the time, had to spin off Universal Pictures and merge with NBC Television Network to form NBC Universal Group.

Just like Boss Ma has repeatedly insisted that Alibaba cannot be self-operated in the express delivery business, and also said that JD.com has strategic risks... In fact, in China, it is okay, and the protection of labor contracts is not in place.

The same cannot be said for those developed countries.

With such a large number of low-level employees, a major management crisis can easily occur if one is not careful.

Zhou Buqi cannot put the company in such a dangerous situation when building Ziweixing Global.

Just like the Ziweixing Global train, it would rather run empty than run with a box of bombs. If it explodes, the entire train will be destroyed.

It doesn't matter if you make less money, but if it really blows up and causes a structural crisis in the company... As the world's richest man and business leader, Zhou Buqi can't afford to lose this person.

As for the third point, the media business of the TV station...

This is Zhou Buqi's long-term plan.

He is not a media person, he is an Internet person!

Purple Star Global has internal plans and has begun to form an Internet team. It will officially launch its own streaming video website in 2015.

The traditional entertainment industry is "TV + movie", thus completing the integration of "channel + content". What Zhou Buqi wants to do is to create a new industry and complete the merger of "channels + content" through "Internet streaming platform + movies".

So Zhou Buqi was not in a hurry at all.

Although Robert Egger's words directly pointed out his pain points, once he was no longer in pain, this was all expected. However, it would certainly be better if there was an opportunity to make more money through Disney channels.

Ziweixing Global's train is very powerful and powerful, and its own business is full of empty carriages. This Disney train has many carriages and a lot of goods, but its own locomotive is weak and cannot pull it.

This creates good conditions for cooperation.

Ziweixing Global’s trains can help Disney pull some goods and collect some rent from Disney.

Mutual benefit, why not?

However, for now, it is better to finalize the blind box copyright of the "Disney Princess" series.

Zhou Buqi invited Iger to drink red Pu'er tea and said with a smile: "Let's not talk about the cooperation between Universal and Disney. Let's first explain clearly the copyright business between Fashion Commune and Disney."

"It's easy!"

Robert Iger is now less anxious than Zhou. He needs some business adjustments to improve Disney's development situation.

Zhou Buqi was drinking tea leisurely and asked casually: "Do you have any good ideas?"

Egger said: "Signing a guarantee agreement, I think 30 million US dollars is a reasonable requirement. If Chaowan Commune can bring 30 million US dollars in revenue to Disney every year, then they can always have the blind box hands of the Disney Princess series. If it is less than 30 million US dollars, Disney can take back the copyright at any time. Just like the copyright authorization of the "X-Men" series, there is no time limit and there is a guarantee. If the guarantee period is exceeded, Party A can take it back unconditionally copyright."

Zhou Buqi is very happy.

This is a fair deal.

Copyright transactions between Hollywood basically follow this model.

Paramount's "Transformers" licensed the IP copyright to Universal Studios, and Marvel licensed the IP copyright to 20th Century Fox's "X-Men". This is the case.

As long as Party B does well and gives Party A a share of the revenue according to the terms, it can own the copyright indefinitely. Party A cannot see that Party B is doing well and wants to take back the copyright at any time and do it himself.

If outsiders such as Shi Jinglin, Ning Yameng, and Wu Yu were allowed to negotiate with Disney, it would be impossible to negotiate a "guaranteed + unlimited" clause.

Don't say that these women can't do it, even American game giants like EA can't do it.

Star Wars games developed by EA are very profitable.

It brings in at least tens of millions of dollars in revenue for Lucasfilm every year.

However, EA cannot obtain unlimited copyright.

When the contract expired, Lucasfilm took back the copyright and authorized it to Changyou's Rockstar Game Studio to develop. The latest "Star Wars: Battlefront" is already being developed secretly.

If it is "guaranteed + unlimited", it will be a huge guarantee for EA. As long as EA develops this series of games well, they will be able to own the copyright permanently without having to worry about the strategic risk of the copyright being taken back by Lucasfilm at any time.

Even if the game development is not good, EA only needs to pay out of its own pocket every year to make up the guaranteed amount.

Just like the "X-Men" series.

It is almost impossible for Marvel to take back the copyright of this series. Even if this series sucks, 20th Century Fox only needs to launch a movie every five years and reach a "guaranteed agreement", and they can occupy the film and television rights of this series forever.

This "guaranteed + indefinite" agreement model often only exists among colleagues in Hollywood.

It is almost impossible for a company outside the circle like Chaowan Commune to obtain the copyright of the Disney Princess series indefinitely. It's different if Boss Zhou takes action. He can sign contracts within the industry.

However, the $30 million guarantee is ridiculous.

"30 million U.S. dollars?" Zhou Buqi couldn't help but laugh, "Bob, do you think this is possible? Even if each blind box sells for 10 U.S. dollars, 3 million blind boxes would need to be sold!"

Robert Egger laughed, "I think..."

Zhou Buqi waved his hand and interrupted him, "5 million US dollars!"

"this……"

Egg frowned.

Zhou Buqi said: "Bob, this is just a small business, we should end it as soon as possible. 5 million US dollars guaranteed. 30% of the net income from all Disney Princess blind boxes belongs to Disney. If 100 million US dollars are earned, 30 million will be distributed to Disney U.S. dollars; after making 10 million U.S. dollars, I believe Chaowan Commune will also meet the minimum guarantee of 5 million U.S. dollars and make up the difference."

Iger held out two fingers and said seriously: "Two conditions. First, I want a minimum guarantee amount of 8 million US dollars. Second, Disney's IP licensing has always signed a sales sharing agreement, not a profit sharing. According to As a rule, I want 25% of the sales. Zhou, 25% is a very sincere number."

Zhou Buqi said simply: "Then it's simple, 25% of the sales is fine. The guaranteed amount is US$6 million. If you agree, we will continue to discuss the cooperation between Ziweixing Universal and Disney."

The implication is that if you don't agree, there's no need to talk.

"make a deal."

Robert Egger smiled without any hesitation.

Disney has tens of thousands of IP licensing contracts, and its cooperation with Chaowan Commune is just an inconspicuous small business. Even if the global sales of Disney Princess's blind boxes reach US$100 million, Disney will only receive US$25 million, which is nothing compared to Disney's revenue scale of tens of billions of US dollars.

The cooperation with Ziweixing Global is more important.