In New York, Upper East Side, James Murdoch walked out of the apartment and met Jim Prouss who were waiting here, and took a car to the newly purchased luxury house by Rupert Murdoch.

"How is the situation?" James Murdoch looked through the car window and looked at the gloomy sky: "Is there a possibility of rescue overseas?"

Jim Prous knew that he was talking about "Ten Thousand Years of Prehistoric". Out of the sense of responsibility of a professional manager, he could only tell the truth: "Overseas may be worse than North America."

James Murdoch is not lacking in decisiveness: "Don't invest overseas, stop loss."

"Okay." Jim Prous said with some guilt: "I have to be responsible for the failure of these two projects..."

James Murdoch waved his hand: "Now isn't this time to talk about these things. Haven't you succeeded in the projects you recently launched? The Simpsons' results are good."

He doesn't seem to let Jim Prous take the blame for the time being.

For every Hollywood company, it is normal for the success and failure of the films produced and released. The three movies released by Twentieth Century Fox this summer, "Pharaohs and the Gods" and "Ten Thousand Years of Prehistoric", failed commercially, but there were also the success of "The Simpsons".

The movie, adapted from animated series, has been released in early June and has had a box office of over $150 million in North America.

Jim Prous didn't say anything anymore, after all, from the bottom of his heart, he didn't want to be held accountable.

Although the three summer films are two failed and one successful, and one is often seen in the six major Hollywood films, the production costs of failed "Pharaohs and the Gods" and "Ten Thousand Years of Prehistoric" are both more than 100 million US dollars, while the successful "The Simpsons" are only a medium-sized production.

However, this also means that the Simpsons can make up for the losses of "Pharaohs and the Gods" and "Ten Thousand Years of Prehistoric".

James Murdoch suddenly asked: "Jim, do these two failed films have something in common?"

"Well..." Jim Prous had actually thought about it and said, "It's all costume war epics."

James Murdoch asked: "Is there any such type of film in the big production project?"

Jim Prous said: "There is another movie, "Robin Hood", which has a very high investment, $130 million..."

As soon as this number came out, the air in the car seemed to stagnate for a moment.

Even companies like Twentieth Century Fox, more than 100 million US dollars is a considerable investment.

Although I can't figure out where the problem lies, Hollywood film companies have their own survival standards and ways to judge their projects. James Murdoch asked: "Can the project "Robin Hood" be terminated?"

Jim Prous shook his head and smiled bitterly: "The project has entered the post-production stage. We have invested hundreds of millions of dollars. If it is terminated, the loss will be huge."

"Then complete it." James Murdoch made a quick decision: "After completing it, organize a few more movie-watching meetings, and then decide to promote the investment scale in the distribution according to the specific response."

Twentieth Century Fox will also learn from the failures of "Pharaohs and the Gods" and "Ten Thousand Years of Prehistoric". Each of the two epic masterpieces has a total cost of up to 200 million US dollars in production and promotion. There are not many that can be recovered in the short term.

Since the beginning of the new century, the investment in promotion and distribution of large-scale films has become increasingly high, not only infinitely close to the production cost, but some even exceed the production cost.

Jim Prous quickly responded: "Okay."

It is impossible to give up the post-production "Robin Hood", which has begun to produce, but the failure of two consecutive costume epics has also made senior executives of 20th Century Fox, including Jim Prous, become very cautious about this genre.

"I have issued a formal notice," Jim Prous said at this time: "In the short term, Twentieth Century Fox will no longer have epic projects."

James Murdoch nodded softly: "This decision is timely." He thought of another thing and reminded: "There are two directors, Ridley Scott and Roland Emmerich. In the next few years, Twentieth Century Fox will not work with them."

"I understand." Jim Prous said: "The company's management has reached a tacit understanding."

This kind of thing will not be said openly, but no one is willing to cooperate with the loser.

James Murdoch asked: "Where are the other big investments and big production projects?"

Jim Prous said: "There are no epic projects. Among the major projects that are currently investing in production and planning, in addition to the X-Men spin-off series, there are also disaster-type "Super Storm", science fiction films are also sequels "Terminator 4", and the big-production game adaptation movie "Dragon Ball".

Hearing these words, James Murdoch rested his heart and said, "Abandon other epic projects except Robin Hood and devote all the savings to these projects."

Jim Prous responded again: "Okay."

The car left Manhattan and finally arrived at Long Island and stopped in front of a luxurious manor.

Entering the manor, James Murdoch just greeted other brothers and sisters and potential competitors, and was called to the study by Rupert Murdoch.

Compared with other children, Rupert Murdoch prefers James Murdoch and gives him great power, first the control of the British media led by Sky TV, and then the Twentieth Century Fox.

In the eyes of the outside world, this is undoubtedly a very clear signal that the media empire of the Murdoch family will be dominated by James Murdoch in the future.

James Murdoch himself thought so.

"I heard that Fox had two major productions failed this summer?" Rupert Murdoch asked directly.

"Pharaohs and the Gods and Ten Thousand Years of Prehistoric." James Murdoch knew it could not be concealed: "It may cause some losses to the company in the short term."

Rupert Murdoch sat behind the desk and pushed several documents in front: "Don't be careless, always pay attention to the company's capital flow health."

James Murdoch picked up the documents and looked at them, saying, "I know, father."

In fact, most of the funds for these two projects come from Twentieth Century Fox, and some of the funds are investments from investment institutions. At least the losses of Twentieth Century Fox will not be as serious as they appear on the surface.

But this also brought other problems. Those investment institutions' confidence in Twentieth Century Fox was severely frustrated and did not intend to continue investing in other big-scale film projects of Twentieth Century Fox.

This forced Twentieth Century Fox to use its own funds to invest in major production projects such as Wolverine, Super Storm, Terminator 4 and Dragon Ball.

Also, the problem of bank loans needs to be solved. A considerable part of the investments in "Pharaohs and the Gods" and "Ten Thousand Years of Prehistoric" came from bank loans.

Before coming to New York this time, some banks had already started to collect loans, and some banks were even considering withdrawing loans for other movie projects.

Twentieth Century Fox faces many problems, but James Murdoch is not panicked. He is very confident and believes that he is fully capable of solving these problems.

After years of hard work, he has basically built his own back garden, and it is time to turn his main energy back to the 20th Century Fox.

Rupert Murdoch reminded: "The film and television industry has its own special features, don't be careless."

James Murdoch immediately assured: "Father, I will prove myself as I did in England."

Rupert Murdoch was quite satisfied with the achievements his youngest son made in the UK. He nodded slowly and suddenly changed the topic: "I have a plan, and News Corporation has also prepared for it for a while."

James Murdoch had never heard of it before, and immediately asked curiously: "Father, what plan?"

Rupert Murdoch said: "I am ready to send an M&A invitation to Time Warner and its holdings Warner Bros.!"

When he heard this, even with James Murdoch's knowledge and extensive knowledge, he was stunned for a moment.

This plan is really shocking!

"Why Time Warner and Warner Bros?" This is contrary to James Murdoch's plan.

That is, James Murdoch, if it were someone else, Rupert Murdoch would not explain at all: "After Time Warner broke up with AOL, the media business has been declining, but they have the best content production project in the world at present, and the Harry Potter series has brought Warner nearly 10 billion in total revenue."

He glanced at James Murdoch: "In addition, Marvel Entertainment's movies prove that the era of superheroes has begun. We missed Marvel, but the potential of DC Comics is only stronger than Marvel. News Corp's media business, coupled with Warner's best-quality content business, is a strong alliance and complementary advantage. If the plan goes well, we will become the world's largest media group in the future, and 20th Century Fox will also become Hollywood's leading company."

James Murdoch couldn't help but say, "It's too difficult."

Rupert Murdoch said: "So, now it's just a plan, I'll send news to the outside world to test Warner's attitude."

"Father!" James Murdoch hesitated for a moment, and said: "According to your opinion, News Corp. needs high-quality content. Twentieth Century Fox can no longer meet the requirements. I fully agree with this, but Warner is not the only choice, right?"

With Rupert Murdoch's eyes on, James Murdoch said: "Relativity Entertainment! A vibrant young company with countless high-quality content. If you can win Relativity Entertainment..."

"Do you think I haven't considered it?" Rupert Murdoch said lightly: "Relativity Entertainment's equity concentration is more difficult to acquire than to acquire Warner Bros."

James Murdoch didn't give up: "What if Ronan Anderson agrees?"
Chapter completed!