[Chapter 915: A Brand New Era]
On September 5, with the release of Warner Bros.' action film by Steven Seagal, which was titled Fire Down Below, the summer blockbuster season of 1997 officially came to a close.
Overall, this summer's box office performance was brutal. It was overshadowed by two major hits, Finding Nemo and Casino Royale, both of which pulled in over $300 million at the box office. Other large productions that debuted in June were nearly wiped out, with Paramount's North American box office barely surpassing $200 million with The Lion King II, which could hardly be deemed a success.
However, as July approached, the chaos in the film market began to settle. Movies like Fox's Ice Age, MGM's Scream 2, and Universal's Air Force One achieved respectable box office results. Ice Age, in particular, drew the most attention.
This was not just because Ice Age grossed over $176 million in North America against a production cost of $59 million, but also because it marked Blue Sky Studios' first animated feature film. Despite the well-known technical support from Firefly Group, to receive acclaim in North America and triple the production cost at the box office was a huge motivational factor for other film companies.
Notably, apart from Casino Royale, the standout box office performers of the summer included The Lion King II, Finding Nemo, and Ice Age. These three animated films alone contributed close to $600 million in total box office, accounting for nearly a quarter of the entire summer's earnings.
Before Ice Age's success, several major Hollywood studios had begun establishing their own animation divisions. However, influenced by the monopoly Disney held over 2D animation and Pixar's control over 3D animation, along with the lengthy production times for animation, these studios felt producing successful animated films was a daunting task.
Now, however, whether it was Blue Sky Studios breaking traditional thought patterns or being driven by great profit motives, Hollywood's major film companies began to invest more heavily in their own animation departments.
On the other hand, the fierce competition of June made Hollywood realize that it could no longer adhere to the traditional approach of releasing major films just before Independence Day, as this only led to severe internal conflict.
The overseas box office performance further captured Hollywood's attention. This year's two billion-dollar potentials, Finding Nemo and Casino Royale, both saw overseas box office earnings significantly exceeding their domestic ones. While many media outlets were still marveling at Casino Royale breaking domestic opening-weekend records, the overseas first-week box office had already reached a staggering $136 million.
In its 13th week of release, Finding Nemo's North American gross exceeded $330 million, while its overseas earnings hit $390 million. Many overseas markets had yet to premiere, indicating at least an additional $200 million in box office potential still waiting to be tapped, in stark contrast to North America, which was approaching the tail end of its run.
Reflecting back, by September, Titanic, which was starting to wind down globally, ultimately earned an astonishing $1.6296 billion overseas, with total global box office surpassing an unprecedented $2.23 billion.
The Paramount Decree of 1948 and the subsequent rise of the television industry nearly marked the end of Hollywood's golden age of the American film industry.
However, in recent years, with Hollywood frequently creating box office miracles globally, the industry began to realize that a new golden age for American cinema was on the horizon. Moreover, this new era was accompanied by the rapid development of high technology and the ever-changing landscape of economic globalization. If you couldn't keep up with these changes, you would surely face obsolescence once again.
The biggest change was undoubtedly the rapid consolidation of several major media groups in North America.
It was somewhat ironic that the original intent behind the Paramount Consent Decree was to prevent monopolistic giants from dominating the industry. The unintended outcome was a severe blow to the American film industry. In recent years, the decree had become little more than a formality. Major media giants were even reaching into the theater industry, which had once been expressly forbidden, yet Hollywood was showcasing a rapid recovery.
As this summer season concluded, Hollywood entered into two major events related to media group consolidations. Viacom acquired CBS, and Seagram merged with the European music giant PolyGram.
Viacom's acquisition of CBS was nearly common knowledge in Hollywood. Since the 1980s, Summer Redstone had been relentlessly expanding Viacom's television business. Firefly Group and News Corp had jointly suppressed the promotion of The Lion King II, causing that $300 million potential 2D animated film to fall just over the $200 million mark. This debacle ultimately motivated Redstone to move forward with the CBS acquisition.
Eric Williams was very pleased with Viacom swallowing CBS. The North American public television network had already begun showing signs of decline, being increasingly overshadowed by numerous cable channels grabbing market share. Moreover, due to the influence of the new wave of technology, CBS's market value had surged several times over. Eric could determine that, without prior knowledge, Viacom would find CBS to be a cumbersome burden.
However, Seagram's acquisition of PolyGram caught Eric off guard. This came to light only when a reporter from a European newspaper accidentally captured a photo of Seagram's CEO Edgar Bronfman meeting with PolyGram executives.
When Seagram acquired Universal's parent company, MCA, it gained a powerful foothold in North America with Universal Records. If they also took over Europe's largest record company, PolyGram, Universal Records' power would far exceed that of other leading record companies worldwide.
...
"Alright, I'll send a plane to pick you up in Brisbane, but don't make it too obvious. By the way, shouldn't we share a kiss... Hmm, let's do it again... Haha, enough fun," Eric said, reclining in his office chair with his feet up on the desk while chatting on the phone with Miranda Kerr, who was all the way in Australia. Just then, Elisabeth casually walked into the office without knocking.
"Okay, let's wrap this up. I have a guest now, so I'm hanging up. Bye."
Elisabeth raised an eyebrow at Eric, who hurriedly hung up, but seeing nothing amiss, she shrugged and sat down opposite him, picking up a pile of documents on Eric's desk to leaf through.
After placing his phone down, Eric straightened in his chair and looked at Elisabeth, who was sifting through the thick stack of files. "Are you blatantly being a business spy?"
Elisabeth didn't look up, responding, "Hmph, I won't even dig into your phone calls with those little vixens, so how dare you be so smug?"
"I'm thinking of adopting 'being smug' as my motto," Eric replied with a laugh, pulling a pencil from his cup and making edits on a script spread out in front of him.
The script was an idea he had for Desperate Housewives from some time ago. Eric spent a few hours crafting a simple storyline, then handed it off to Marc Cherry, the original writer of Desperate Housewives.
Marc Cherry was still a relatively unknown figure in Hollywood at the time, so he worked diligently, quickly crafting the complete storyline and scripts for the first season's first three episodes.
Just as Eric wrote a few lines on the Desperate Housewives script, Elisabeth burst into laughter.
Eric lifted his head, "You're quite the frightening one. What if you scare me into writing a horror film script? That would take a lot of effort."
Elisabeth tossed a bunch of files back onto the desk, leaving just one folder, which she waved, still unable to suppress her laughter. "This one, the script for Ted, is just too cliche. Who wrote it?"
Eric pointed to himself with the pencil. "I've been bursting with inspiration lately, I can't help it."
Elisabeth rolled her eyes, brandishing the folder. "I want it."
"Come over and lean on the desk; I'll give it to you."
"Ugh, you jerk. You only think of awful things. No wonder you wrote such a cliche script!" Elisabeth exclaimed, throwing a small figurine of Ada Wong from Resident Evil at Eric.
He caught the figure of Ada Wong, displaying a little crossbow, and placed it gently down. "This one's a limited edition! If it breaks, I'll just have to put you on the desk for compensation."
She scoffed again, shaking the script for Ted. She didn't bring it up again but said, "Ted is a plush toy beloved by many kids. You're just writing this nonsense. Are they really okay with it?"
"I think there are two main reasons copyright holders might not be willing to cooperate. One, they're not getting paid enough, or two... they're really not being paid enough," Eric chuckled. "In any case, Firefly has already signed the copyright agreement with them. What we write for the script is none of their business."
"Bull, I know they must feel cheated, thinking you'd make Ted a Disney-style children's story. If they knew it would turn out this tacky, they wouldn't have sold it even if it killed them."
Eric laughed, "That might not necessarily be the case. It really depends on whether they're being paid enough. Still, this movie will definitely be R-rated, and kids can't watch it, so there won't be much impact. Now, what's the matter? You didn't come barging in here because you couldn't stop thinking about me, right? If I remember right, we just saw each other the night before last?"
"Who would think of you, you creep?" Elisabeth scoffed, pulling out an envelope from her handbag and handing it over. "This is the completed script for Shrek by Chris Meledandri. Can you take a look?"
Eric took it, opened it, and asked, "Why not just send it to my email? That'd be much easier."
"Everyone's in a rush. Who knows when you'd reply if it came in an email? I'm not planning to leave this afternoon, so help me out and give me some feedback after reading it. That'll do."
"Alright," Eric nodded with a smile. "But first, could you fetch me a cup of coffee with one sugar and plenty of milk?"
Elisabeth reached out as if to grab the Ada Wong figure again before standing up and leaving Eric's office.
Moments later, she placed the coffee in front of him and said, "Weren't you talking about Seagram acquiring PolyGram? Didn't you feel anything?"
Eric twirled the pencil in his hand, casually asking, "What kind of feeling?"
"I mean, you never thought about snagging PolyGram for yourself? There have been more criticisms lately regarding Fireflyer's player enabling piracy."
"All I know is that Firefly Records' performance has increased over 50% this year. While digital music comprises only about 10% of that, they're smart enough to realize where the industry trends are heading. For a new technology, resisting it will only lead to self-destruction. It seems Siemens wants to sell PolyGram now, likely anticipating the upcoming rise of digital music in the next few years."
"So, Seagram is the fool here? Can they not see this?"
"It's not a matter of being a fool. Edgar Bronfman managed to claim the CEO position at Seagram from his family; he can't be that foolish, though I wouldn't say he's incredibly smart either. Just like Redstone, many can only see short-term gains without thinking long-term."
Elisabeth nodded thoughtfully, then joked, "You're thinking pretty far ahead! Firefly hasn't expanded at all in the past two years; growth rates are bound to plummet soon."
As Eric made some more notes on the script, he continued, "Even if Firefly stops growing, that would still be enough for other Hollywood companies to catch up for several years. Plus, whether it will actually stop growing is uncertain. You know about the economic bubble in recent years. Since Firefly isn't a publicly-traded company, it can't enjoy the many benefits the bubble brings. Thus, expansion now would be unwise. When the bubble bursts, that'll be Firefly's moment to shine."
"So, what do you think of Seagram acquiring PolyGram?"
Remembering how, in the original timeline, once the media group consolidations were complete, only Universal seemed to switch owners continuously in the new century, Eric said, "I can only say, once Seagram completes the acquisition of PolyGram, that company will become a hot potato. Whoever takes it will be in trouble."
*****
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