[Chapter 843: Three Animated Films]
On the night of the 69th Academy Awards, besides the more than 50 million viewers who watched the ceremony live on ABC in North America, a staggering global audience of over 1 billion people followed the award results via overseas television broadcasts, live internet news streams, and various other channels.
Therefore, Titanic's sweeping win of 13 awards at the 69th Academy Awards, breaking the Oscar record for the most awards won, quickly made headlines worldwide the moment the results were announced. In a world where victors are celebrated, the fact that Titanic had created such an Oscar myth remained undeniable, regardless of any controversy surrounding the results.
Spurred by Titanic's colossal success at the Oscars, from March 21 to March 27, the film saw an impressive surge in box office numbers in North America and around the globe. In its 14th week, Titanic's box office saw a rebound, earning $25.1 million, bringing its cumulative box office in North America to $517 million, continuously breaking its own records.
The overseas box office was even more impressive. During that week, Titanic's overseas earnings skyrocketed to a remarkable $236 million. Following the announcement of Titanic's Oscar record, many countries where the film had previously been released experienced a significant rebound in box office figures. Countries that had released the film in the last two weeks reported strikingly strong numbers.
After initial statistics, Titanic's overseas earnings for that week reached $236 million, excellently meeting media predictions that the film would surpass $200 million in overseas earnings. Simultaneously, Titanic's global box office total soared to an astonishing $1.332 billion, raising the worldwide box office record from $1 billion to $1.333 billion, with no one able to predict what the ultimate number would be.
Easter Sunday in 1997 fell on March 30, meaning that in the following week, most Western countries would celebrate the Easter holiday. While each country held different lengths of holiday, there was no doubt that this popular timeframe would once again boost Titanic's global earnings. Even if North American ticket sales saw a noticeable dip after the Oscars, the robust overseas earnings were quite likely to push Titanic's total global box office close to $1.5 billion in the coming week.
...
As Titanic continued capturing the attention of millions, the launch date for Firefly Electronics' first MP3 player, the Fireflyer, approached, set for April 2, after an intense month of promotions. Despite being a completely new and unfamiliar music player, Firefly Electronics had generated significant buzz by giving away 10,000 Fireflyers for free. This leap in interest led to strong reactions across the United States. After the trial giveaway ended, eager users were posting requests on emerging online trading platforms, with prices for the device reportedly skyrocketing to $1,200.
Naturally, traditional music player manufacturers recognized the threat the Fireflyer posed to devices like the Walkman and CD players. Some media outlets, under the influence of various traditional manufacturers, began to highlight the perceived threat that the Fireflyer posed to the recording industry, especially considering its potential for easily spreading pirated music. They even called on the Recording Industry Association of America to sue Firefly Electronics and directly prohibit the production and sale of MP3 players.
In this climate, pop queen Madonna Ciccone immediately drew media attention after the Oscars by entering negotiations with Warner Records regarding her personal digital distribution rights. Soon after, news of Madonna mingling with Eric at a Vanity Fair party spread quickly, revealing to Warner Records their intentions.
Before this, Yahoo Music Store had not obtained online music sales rights from any of the five major record labels. Thus, record label giants anticipated that if Madonna succeeded, many of their top artists would likely make similar requests. At that point, Yahoo could implement a strategy of targeting individual artists with digital distribution rights, putting record labels at a significant disadvantage.
Warner Records quickly rejected Madonna's request for negotiations over digital distribution rights. Warner Records' president, Roger Ames, emphatically stated at a press conference that the company would do everything in its power to prevent certain artists from seeking these digital rights, as digital distribution rights should not exist.
However, while Warner Records outwardly maintained a tough stance, the internal situation was far less rigid. Back in 1992, when Madonna's career was soaring, her Maverick Records, while still under the Warner umbrella, allowed her significant control and ownership over the distribution rights for her albums.
This meant that even if Warner Records opposed or denied the existence of digital distribution rights, Maverick could still independently grant the Yahoo Music Store the rights to sell Madonna's recent albums.
Madonna's negotiation with Warner was primarily to reclaim digital distribution rights for several albums released from the start of her career to 1992, as those rights were still held by Warner. Warner's harsh attitude only fueled the stubborn diva's defiance.
On the very day Ames made his announcement, Madonna publicly stated her intention to collaborate with Yahoo Music Store to sell three of her albums online, claiming she would sue Warner over the ownership of the digital rights.
For average one or two-tier artists, Time Warner could still intimidate them with threats. But with someone of Madonna's stature negotiating from an almost equal level, traditional tactics against an artist like her became increasingly ineffective. Warner Records executives could only cycle through a series of good cop/bad cop tactics in hopes of persuading her to abandon plans to work with Yahoo.
Meanwhile, Firefly Electronics and Yahoo were not idle either. Under Eric's guidance, they offered Madonna various attractive benefits.
...
As Eric's focus shifted back to the entertainment world post-Oscars, he became notably busy again. Although two months remained until the summer release window, promotional efforts for summer films had already begun ramping up.
This summer was set to be anything but calm. Alongside hotly anticipated live-action films such as Casino Royale and Bad Boys II, there were three animated films slated for release: Pixar's Finding Nemo, Blue Sky Studios' Ice Age, and Paramount Animation's The Lion King II.
It was clear that all three animated blockbusters had strong ties to Firefly Group. Notably, The Lion King II was the sequel to the original film that had achieved a phenomenal $900 million in global box office, making it the most prominent film of the three newly announced animated features.
When the release dates for the animated films were announced, Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone confidently proclaimed that The Lion King II would outshine both Finding Nemo and Ice Age.
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