Erin Lauder flew to Tokyo early the next morning. Duke not only went to the airport in person, but also asked his business jet to send her over. When he returned to the hotel, it was almost noon. He simply used lunch and declined several invitations to events. He finally had some free time.》,

Duke did not plan to watch the films screened by the film festival, nor did he plan to stroll around Shanghai. He had been to this city countless times, so he would definitely not feel new or curious. Perhaps because he was mentally older, he was less and less interested in non-essential social engagements, and he also liked a quiet environment more and more.

As he stood high, he naturally saw farther. In addition, his personality made his mentality more stable than before.

Perhaps he has been carrying the pressure for many years and is used to living under heavy pressure. He has been sitting leisurely in the living room of the suite for a while. Watching TV, Duke is bored and distracted. He seems to have returned to the experience of struggle at the bottom of the crew. It was not until Tina Fei walked out of the study that the sound of the wooden door brought his thoughts back to reality.

Although he returned to his former homeland, Duke did not intend to find anything. He was already careless, and the past has become the past. His eyes are always looking forward and he will never stop moving forward.

He will overcome all obstacles, seize the rare opportunity in this life, and continue to move forward.

No one or reason can stop him.

"The Duke Studio just came here."

Tina Fei walked over, sat next to him, handed over a fax document, "There are several items that require your signature to be officially implemented."

After opening the file, Duke quickly browsed it. The front was the various North American statistics of "Hurricane Rescue".

If you only look at the data, this video is more than one-level inferior to a super-large production like the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, but compared with the investment of the film itself, it can still make people feel satisfied.

In the first weekend of North America, "Hurricane Rescue" won $51.25 million in 3,624 theaters. The audience praise rate of 88% of the audience in the in-emasore theaters, with an average score of ‘a+’, 18,775 users of the imdb website scored 86 points, and the audience's favorite popcorn index was 89%, and 45 media reporters scored 84 points.

In general, although the market reputation of the film is far less than that of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and "The Matrix", it is also a high-scoring work in action films.

In addition to North America and China, "Hurricane Rescue" was released in the UK and France at the same time, with a net worth of $16.56 million and $14.11 million respectively on the first weekend. The overall performance exceeded the expectations of Duke and Warner Bros.

Importantly, yesterday's working day, the North American box office of "Hurricane Rescue" did not plummet, and the box office of $10.85 million in a single day was enough to keep the film on a steady pace.

After reading this report, Duke was basically relieved about "Hurricane Rescue". Even if there was a plunge later, the film could make a profit by relying on box office.

Then Duke turned his energy to the following, two new films collaborated by Duke Studio and Warner Bros. It also reached the upcoming stage of project establishment Zach Schneider's "The Three Hundred Warriors of Spartan" and Wallace Lee's "Legend of the Night".

After the Oscars, Zach Schneider ended his six-year vacation and officially began preparing to make a new film, becoming the leader of the 300 Red Pants Army. "Reloading" and "Matrix Revolution" finally received $715.6 million and $733.56 million respectively. He has proved his ability. He has also received full recognition from Duke and Warner Brothers, and the project plan he formulated was quickly approved.

What's more, the actual cost of this video is not particularly high.

Zach Schneider's project was officially launched, and it was already under the plans of Duke and Warner, and Wallace Lee got the opportunity to direct it alone. In addition to being the recommender of "Legend of the Night", it is also related to his own efforts.

In the past few years, this college classmate of Duke has left a great impression on him. He has shown certain abilities in the post-production of "Return of the King" and the planning and filming of "Hurricane Rescue". Although there are also shortcomings, such as gossip with several actresses circulating everywhere in the crew when he was an audition director, these are all negligible issues in Hollywood.

"Legend of the Night" has been confirmed to be established, but the final procedures are only short of the final procedures.

These two projects were originally from his support, so Duke certainly would not stop and instruct Tina Fei to follow up in time and maintain communication with Warner Bros.

Finally, there are Warner Bros.'s business, which mainly has three aspects: one is the negotiations between Warner Bros. and Pixar Studios, the other is the distribution cooperation between Warner Bros. and Marvel Studios, and the other is that Warner Bros. once again applies for the full acquisition of Duke Studios.

With the release of "Superman" in North America, Pixar Studios has fulfilled its animated feature film contract with Walt Disney because Michael Eisner has never stepped down, and the negotiations between Pixar and Disney have been in a stalemate.

With Steve Jobs's businessman nature, he will definitely not hang himself on the Disney tree. In recent years, his contact with Duke and Warner Bros. has never stopped. Now the Pixar Studio's ownership has reached its final stage, and it will not exceed two years at most. Jobs will definitely look for a new publisher.

The release seems simple, but in fact it requires years of accumulation and support from huge platforms. Why do Hollywood second-tier companies, including Harvey Weinstein brothers, New Line Film, Pixar Studios, and future DreamWorks Animation Studios all can't wait to join the big company or sign a contract that seems unfair to the point of not being fair with big companies?

The issuance channel can be said to be an extremely important reason.

This is not a problem that a single person can solve at all. Even when Steve Jobs was focusing on Pixar's studio, he was as talented as him and was at a loss for distribution channels.

Compared with Walt Disney, Warner Bros. is at a disadvantage in children's promotion, but has advantages in distribution and marketing channels around the world.

No matter how powerful Michael Eisner is, he cannot change the fact that Disney did not transform into a media group until the mid-to-late 1990s. Walt Disney is not the world's most powerful media company in the future. Compared with Time Warner Group, there is still a certain gap.

But Pixar's job is not the ugly duckling he used to be. He has transformed into a white swan in Hollywood. Steve Jobs, who holds absolute control, undoubtedly took the initiative.

For the Duke and Warner, a long and arduous negotiation has just begun, and it is not easy to stand out from several equally powerful competitors.

Relatively speaking, the release negotiations between Marvel Studios and Warner Bros. were much smoother, with Duke in line, and there were precedents of "Spider-Man" and "Men" selling well. Even competitors would still put aside their prejudices and cooperate in the face of sufficient interests.

What's more, D's cooperation with Marvel has happened more than once.

The negotiations between the two sides have entered the final stage, and they are only about to sign a formal contract. Moreover, both Marvel and Warner have the same requirement. Duke directed the opening work of Marvel's plan "Iron Man"!

Superhero movies will not be outdated for the next decade or even longer. If the series is more successful than ever, he, the dual major shareholder of Marvel and Warner, will undoubtedly be one of the people who benefit the most.

Although wealth has been around now, it is just a number superposition game for Duke, just like all the rich people in this world, once they join this game, no one will have the idea of ​​stopping until they are completely tired of it.

After thinking for a few minutes, Duke said to Tina Fei, "In principle, I agree to direct "Iron Man". You inform Nancy that she will discuss the specific details."

The last item is the ownership of the Duke Studio. Even today, the Duke Studio is still a shell company with a limited scale and Duke has no intention of getting bigger. The specific management work has always been led by a team led by Tina Fei.

If the company's employees are just about the number and size of its employees, Duke Studios is not even as good as the film studios of Tom Cruise, Drew Barrymore and Brad Pitt, but unlike the other two, Duke Studios holds a considerable number of copyrights of big-name movies.

Not to mention anything else, the copyrights of the "Matrix", "The Lord of the Rings Trilogy" and "Harry Potter" series are enough to make the whole Hollywood drool.

As early as a few years ago, Warner Bros. proposed to acquire the Duke Studio with full capital, but the Lord of the Rings had not been filmed at that time, and Harry Potter was not popular yet. Duke would definitely not be stupid enough to sell the company. Even though Warner Bros. proposed to complete the transaction through share purchase, he still chose to refuse.

The situation is completely different now.

Duke is very clear-headed and knows that Duke Studio cannot become bigger. Other major companies in Hollywood will not sit idly by and watch Duke Studio become bigger. And if you want to develop into the current six major situations, can you really do it by just shooting big movies?

He is not so stupid and naive yet.

"Tina, back to North America, you negotiate with Warner Bros. on my behalf." Duke thought for a while and reminded, "Remember, we are not short of cash."

Tina Fei nodded, "I know what to do."

After processing the few documents, Duke left the room and went around the Bund. He returned to the hotel in the evening and found the speech and revised it. This was his first time to give a speech at a university, and his attitude was quite serious and upright.

After giving this speech, all Duke's itinerary in China will be officially over. I'm afraid I'll have to wait a long time to come here again next time, and even wait until the film market here completely explodes. (To be continued...)
Chapter completed!