King of Hollywood
Chapter 473 - 194 The Last Puzzle Piece

Chapter 473: Chapter 194 The Last Puzzle Piece

"I understand your feelings. In fact, I was very optimistic about the prospects for Blue Sky Studio; otherwise, I wouldn’t have personally come over to convince you when you were still doing CG shots for commercials and TV series. You should know that I never engage in futile efforts. Since I acquired Blue Sky Studio and agreed to your terms, it signifies that I see potential in you. You differ from Pixar, who were pioneers much earlier and it was inevitable for them to reap great benefits. If you aspire to achieve the same, you must exert even greater efforts.

Moreover, the styles adhered to by the two studios are not the same; Pixar stands by stories suitable for all ages, whereas you believe in the pursuit of perfection. Human time is always more precious than machine time, right? Therefore, there’s no need to rush. I have already arranged everything. This year, I need you to go all out to produce a short animated film, eight to ten minutes will do; if it can be nominated for the Best Short Animation Oscar, I will agree to your production of a full-length 3D animation, with an investment of at least $50 million. If it wins, the investment will be even greater; how does that sound?"

The above were Adrian’s promises to Wicki and several key members after the turn of the year at Blue Sky Studio. Blue Sky Studio had attracted Fox’s attention and acquisition after winning the Oscar for Best Short Animation in 1998 which then provided the funds to produce animations; he didn’t mind repeating this process.

With Pixar firmly holding on to the surrounding copyrights and being profitable enough, there was no rush to have Blue Sky Studio generate returns quickly. In his plan, Blue Sky Studio also occupied an important position in taking the Disney route with AC Media.

A new year had arrived, and for Adrian, more opportunities were waiting for him; AC Media was poised to embrace expansion opportunities again, thus right after the New Year holiday, he began planning more initiatives.

"Who can tell me what people fear the most?" Sitting at the head of the conference room, Adrian swept his gaze over the executives present then asked.

Nobody spoke, even Claude and Laverne, whom he had personally discovered, looked at him with unclear gazes.

"Alright, perhaps that question is too vague. Let me phrase it another way, consider humans as animals—higher-order animals—under conditions where they have no worries about food and clothing, what do they fear most, what concerns them most?" Adrian reframed his question.

Still, no one answered, and eventually, Claude cleared his throat, "It’s still too vague, Ed. Perhaps you could provide more specific conditions."

"If I get any more specific, it would be akin to telling you the answer outright." Adrian shook his head, then looked over his right shoulder, "Can you tell me the answer, Charli?"

Charli, who was sitting there taking notes, looked up in astonishment, her eyes filled with surprise as Adrian gave her an encouraging smile.

"Um..." after thinking it over carefully, Charli finally spoke. "I think, you’re talking about loneliness, right?"

"Exactly, loneliness!" Adrian snapped his fingers, then looked again at the executives present, "As social animals, once people have their survival needs met, their greatest fear, their greatest concern is loneliness!"

He paused for a moment, allowing them to digest his words, then he continued: "In my view, there are two types of loneliness: one arises from various reasons, being isolated from society, abandoned in primeval forests or uninhabited islands. DreamWorks once wanted me to direct a movie starring Tom Hanks, but I declined. The movie told such a story. This should be a terrifying experience, no steak, no television, no baseball, no all forms of life and entertainment facilities, the most important part is no one to talk to. If one doesn’t keep exercising, perhaps in a few years, they might not even be able to speak anymore. Even Robinson needed a Friday for company, showing just how dreadful loneliness can be."

But that was only the first type of loneliness. There was another type that was even more terrifying. The former kind was due to accidental, passive isolation from society, whereas the latter was active abandonment by society itself. Simply put, no one cares if you are alive, and no one cares if you die! This is why so many people want to become beauty queens, bodybuilding champions, cheerleading captains, elite performers, actors, talk show hosts, etc., because only in such ways can they demonstrate their uniqueness, and feeling unique made them feel outstanding and valuable!

However, for a long time, there had been few channels through which one could showcase themselves. Despite towns having beauty contests and an increasing number of talent shows, relative to the total population, these opportunities were still few. Most people appeared to lead insignificant lives; aside from their relatives, no one cared about them, even if they indeed had many special qualities. But now, things were different. A flattened world had emerged before them where they could freely vent all their feelings and display all their aspects, using various ways to attract others’ attention! Yes, this was the Internet!

Psychologists had conducted a test where if a person wore a mask that made them unrecognizable, they would do whatever they wanted without any inhibitions. The Internet was just like that. See this copy of "The New Yorker" from ’94 in my hand? On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog. A gentleman who abides by various etiquettes in real life could be a shrew online. A villain in real life could be a calm thinker online. The Internet held infinite possibilities, it was both fictional and real; it was not considered a completely new media channel, yet it operated and fermented much faster than other media. Look at the websites we hold in our hands - Yahoo, Amazon, IMDB, etc., all of them are such, and there will be more in the future. Whoever can utilize this, catering to people’s desire to showcase themselves for promotion and influence, will lead in the upcoming 21st century!"

This wasn’t Adrian’s first time stressing the importance of the internet, but it had always been in private conversations with the company’s executives, never in a meeting. It was crucial to bring it up now, as in the early years of the 21st century, people expressed themselves far more than they had in the past decade because, after all, anyone could become a celebrity in the internet era if they were shameless enough.

Since he had calculated his way into becoming a media darling, if he did not seize this opportunity to expand into a big shot, then Adrian would certainly be the stupidest man on earth, and the first opportunity was the blog.

"Why didn’t you mention that... blog during the meeting just now?" After the meeting, back in Claude’s office, he asked.

"It’s always been my job to set the tone, and you handle the specifics. Since you didn’t bring it up, why should I?" Adrian spread his hands.

"Give me a break, everyone knows if you don’t say it, I won’t either," Claude rolled his eyes, "spill it, what crazy idea are you cooking up now?"

"Alright, alright, for two reasons," Adrian sat down, "First, I need them to think for themselves. It can’t always be just me telling them what to do, right?"

"Hey, why does that sound like it’s directed at me?" Claude suddenly exclaimed. Adrian ignored him and continued, "Secondly, I can’t very well slap my own face, can I?"

"Slap your own face?"

"You forgot? Two weeks ago, on New Year’s Eve, at the party held in Hearst’s mansion—they discussed it privately then."

"You mean, the news consortium website? But that’s related to... okay, I get it now."

Watching Claude grasp the concept, Adrian shrugged. In fact, even before the internet had fully formed, this kind of spontaneous expression already existed online, though it had never assumed a fixed form. Blogs, since they could publish a writer’s thoughts and also record news and various information, were clearly much faster than conventional methods of submission, especially if supplemented by a sharp search engine...

In every industry, the big players only have two choices when it comes to emerging entities: first, to suppress, swiftly absorbing them to maintain their advantage, and second, to try getting involved as much as possible and strive for a share of the pie. The former is suitable when the opponent is weaker, while the latter applies when the opponent already has a considerable scale.

If AC Media were to launch a blog service, it would undoubtedly belong to the latter category. However, how to tie in some big sharks, especially those from traditional media, requires considerable skill. Moreover, having just agreed to the news network site, launching another venture so soon would look rather unsightly. Anyway, cooperating well with the Hearst Group and the Newhouse Group is not a bad thing with more thorough preparations.

"Just wait and see, there’s still a lot more to come," Adrian thought satisfied, then he brought up another topic, "How’s it going with Seagram?"

"No suspense, they’ve loosened up. They know full well that blind expansion has already become too much for them," Claude laughed, but his expression became serious immediately, "However, the funds from Southeast Asia can’t be moved for now; Soros has been ready for a while, he’s about to strike in Indonesia, so if Seagram makes a decision, we must raise funds."

"It doesn’t matter, even if I only hold 35% of the shares, I can still control the company. Actually, as long as both of us together hold 35%, we can do the same," Adrian waved it off, though his eyelids twitched when he heard about the "strike in Indonesia."

"Promise me, take down Universal," he said, looking at him.

"Alright, I promise to take down Universal," Claude laughed heartily.

Yes, the final piece of the puzzle in the movie sector isn’t MGM, nor Columbia, and definitely not Warner Brothers, but Universal Pictures! There’s no need to mention Columbia; Sony would never let it go, especially with only partial recovery from its losses. And Warner Brothers is even less likely; the Warner Group has become a massive entity that could only be acquired, not overtaken, and Adrian certainly wouldn’t want that.

As for MGM, its former glory had long since faded, evident from Kirk Kerkorian’s frequently selling and then buying it back, likely laundering money in the process. Regardless, both Adrian and Claude were reputable people in the industry; how could they possibly have too much contact with such figures, even if they were already "whitewashed"?

Thus, Universal became the best choice. In the late 1980s, alongside Sony, another Japanese corporation that had invaded Hollywood was Panasonic, which had acquired Universal. Unlike Sony, Panasonic retained Universal’s management and granted considerable autonomy, but cultural differences weren’t so easily eradicated, and with similarly rapid expansion, digestion issues followed, leading Panasonic to sell Universal early to the Seagram Group.

In fact, Adrian contributed to this scenario. In the early 1990s, Universal had several good productions, but because Adrian interfered, "Schindler’s List" was gone, and "Jurassic Park" turned into a joint investment, reducing Universal’s revenue significantly during that time compared to its previous existence, prompting Panasonic to sell a year earlier.

The Seagram Group, known for brewing, ambitiously took over, hoping to establish their own media empire, but the chasm between brewing and media was vast. Coupled with blind expansion akin to Panasonic’s, they too quickly found themselves in a difficult position, especially with Adrian unsettling the playing field, and Steven Spielberg, who had a good relationship with Universal, also started DreamWorks, making Seagram seriously contemplate selling.

This was the opportunity for AC Media. After all, Universal Pictures still ranks as the second-most historically significant film company in Hollywood. Although it had once fallen to a second-rate status, it still held one of the positions among the Seven Major Film Companies. Particularly in the last ten years, its ownership had changed every few years, but under the leadership of CEO Ron Mayer, it still maintained its position as a major film studio, especially impressive given Adrian’s meddling, portraying Mayer as quite an adept figure.

Universal had history in Hollywood, a place in the MPAA, and produced both movies and TV series well. Although its film library wasn’t as extensive as Miramax’s, most were high-quality films, and they had connections that could help, free from any unsavory elements—tailor-made for AC Media! The only issue was Universal’s poor overseas distribution, but no situation is perfect, and this deficiency could be mitigated with effort. If it weren’t for Panasonic selling at a time when Adrian was short on funds, he might have already made his move.

It wasn’t too late now, and perhaps it was even more appropriate.

Having secured Claude’s promise and formally broached the importance of networking in the senior meeting, Adrian immediately turned his attention to the later part of the Christmas-New Year slot. After all, although his strategic foresight was excellent, completion would still take time.

So far, "A Time to Kill" had officially broken the $100 million box office mark in North America, but that was as far as it could go. For such a film, it was already a commendable achievement, making Kate’s comeback a decent start. As for "Armageddon," it was still progressing towards $200 million, but the outlook was not very optimistic. Whether it could break $200 million remained an unknown; however, including overseas box office revenue, at least recouping the cost was not a problem.

Meanwhile, "Titanic" was still holding strong in theaters, even though the number of theaters had reduced significantly over the past few months. It still persisted. Critics were all astonished, calling it a miracle, and even the most critical had to admit that commercially, no one could compare to this film.

By now, the ship had sailed past $700 million in North American box office earnings, and the international box office had reached $1.2 billion! After some setbacks, it was released in China at the end of the year, almost reaching 400 million RMB, and the third generation got to see how a capitalist country marketed itself as expected.

Now, people all over the world, eager and with bated breath, waited to see whether "Titanic" could reach an unprecedented global box office of $2 billion before leaving the screens.

"Definitely!" was Adrian’s answer, although he was well aware that the ship had already broken the records in his memory, he still hoped immensely to hit the $2 billion mark globally.

"Tell the cinema chain owners that as long as the ship stays online a bit longer, just through that period, I can increase the revenue-sharing ratio to 70%. They should know which period!" Adrian said to Laverne.

If it weren’t too conspicuous and ostentatious to do so now, he would have personally spent $20 million to push it past the $2 billion mark.

Wait and see, if it really can’t hold on, being ostentatious wouldn’t matter anymore. Adrian thought.

There was no need to mention supporting through which time. By the time it was mid-January 1998, it was the end of the Christmas-New Year slot, and the third film had belatedly premiered. The reason for this timing was that the film was not suitable for a hot release period.

"This really is a good movie, especially since its major appeal is nostalgia. This limits its popularity because the primary consumer group for the movie market ranges from 18 to 25 years old. Hence, releasing this movie during a peak period would be disastrous." When deciding the release date, an assistant manager at Bossworth took the opportunity to share his thoughts with Adrian.

Adrian was pleased to accept his advice and promoted him. While he didn’t care much for the movie, scheduling it at the year’s end mainly aimed to make an Oscars run, yet too poor box office figures wouldn’t look good. As for whether premiering in January would disqualify it from competing for the Oscars, oh, don’t forget the requirements of the Film Academy. "L.A. Confidential" had already screened in Los Angeles during Christmas, fully compliant.

However, at the premiere, Adrian walked the red carpet with Zetajones, so right as they appeared, photographers on both sides eagerly started snapping away, and there were fresh stories to write.(To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for it on qidian.com, your support is my greatest motivation.)