After carefully reading the information of the two companies, Eric discovered that, perhaps because it was established more than ten years ago, the strength of New Line Cinema is far stronger than that of Miramax. The simplest evidence is In terms of distribution capabilities, New Line Cinema of the second-tier film studios had been able to roll out to nearly 1,500 screens for a movie, but Miramax was still in the midst of small fights, and can only raise up to four or five hundred screens for their movies. Moreover New Line Cinema, whilst Miramax were still developing, had already started the production of the independent movies. They already had the very profitable copyright of the"A Nightmare on Elm Street"series, but Miramax was still in the process of buying pictures for release.Seeing this, Eric couldn"t help but wrap the table as he suddenly remembered that he missed one thing, that is, about Steven Soderbergh"s"s.e.x, Lies and Videotapes", with this film, Soderbergh became the youngest Palme d"Or winner at the Cannes Film Festival a few months ago.
At the time, Eric had reminded himself to buy the North American copyright of the film, but because he was busy during shooting of the"Running Out of Time"at the time, he forgot it.
If there isn"t a shift in history, the film"s rights will be won by the Weinstein brothers. In his past, Miramax relied on"s.e.x, Lies and Videotapes"to make a comeback. After a small profit, they had enough capital to enter the field of independent production, and slowly explored their own ideas. The road of which was survival began to flourish.
Now it was late July, Eric only knew that "s.e.x, Lies, and Videotapes" had won the Palme d"Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May, but he was yet to see the film in North American newspapers or magazines.
If the distribution rights of the film were already picked up by Miramax, then if one wanted to acquire Miramax, it would be best to reach an agreement before the film was released. Otherwise, once"s.e.x, Lies and Videotapes" had its good box office results, even if the Weinstein brothers still agree to be acquired, Eric would definitely have to pay more. The rule in the circle is like this, a good movie can make a company"s market value increase, just like his previous life"s Pixar, which was originally a 50 million US dollar animated film studio, but because of the success of «Toy Story», the market value increased by 20 times in a short period.
As far as Eric"s vision was concerned, it would be best to take both companies together so that both commercial and artistic films could be developed in tandem as the cla.s.sic Oscar-winning films in Eric"s mind, and as such even if Miramax once again goes down the road of art film distribution, it will certainly not earn less than a studio that focuses on commercial films.
The estimated market value of New Line Cinema in the data was about 150 million US dollars, because the other party was a veteran company that had been in business for 20 years, and not only had a small film library, but also the very valuable copyright of the"A Nightmare on Elm Street"series, as following 1984, the series has filmed once per year. As a low-cost horror film, it was built to make money. Although the box office will not be too high each year, it will last forever.
JOIN THE DISCORD Miramax is still in a third-tier position, the market value of the company is estimated to be around 20 million US dollars. Because these years, the Weinstein brothers have been drawing in quality films from across the globe, and have acc.u.mulated a lot of movie and resources. Eric also understood that Miramax"s value was not the company"s label, nor the movies in the film library, but the Weinstein brothers. His previous live"s Weinstein brothers gave up the company in 2005. Afterwards Miramax was no longer a big name, and after a few years, Disney bought it at a discount price.
But now that"Pretty Woman"had made more than $100 million, Eric can borrow again, but wanting to take the two companies at the same time is not a simple matter, and it definitely involves the management of stockholder rights. He knew that with the savvy of Robert Shaye and the Weinstein brothers, even if he managed to raise enough funds by means of loans, as long as he intended to wholly acquire the other companies, those people would not agree to a sale. Though there was still an advantage to be had in exchanging for the equity of a film company with great development potential.
As he was thinking about these things with a slight brow, Jeffrey knocked on the door and walked in.
"The news had come from Venice. «The Others» successfully entered the main compet.i.tion. Also, Jonathan Demme made some revisions to the film according to your advice. Eric, would you like to see it again?"
"Sure, In my screening room," Eric nodded, and temporarily letting go of the idea of acquiring the two companies, he got up and followed Jeffrey out of the office.
"Just what are you thinking about to be so troubled?" Jeffrey and Eric walked side by side, asking casually.
"I just saw New Line Cinema and Milamax"s information, you know." Eric replied: "I want to eat both companies at the same time, but I don"t want to pay too much equity."
Jeffrey was somewhat at a loss, as once the company expanded its scale, Jeffrey understood that his talents would not be enough to support the entire company"s operations. After all, now he only needs to be responsible for the several films produced and invested in by Eric, and he doesn"t even worry about the release. After the acquisition of the new companies, Fireflies will start to get involved in the releases, and Jeffrey, who doesn"t have and ability or experience in this area, will certainly have to give up the position of the CEO.
However, after just a brief entanglement, Jeffrey decided he would be relieved as long as Fireflies was still Fireflies. He once thought they shouldn"t turn Fireflies into a large film company. Now that it had that trajectory he had wanted to give up his position of CEO as he had been unable to do anything since the bankruptcy of the original Fireflies, after his wives untimely demise, because of his own personal filming. As a result Jeffrey had become very self-aware and now he just occasionally grumbled to Eric about film production. He would make small comments, but never intervene in the production of the film because he knew he had no strength in this area.
After thinking about this, Jeffrey patted Eric"s shoulder: "It"s no good to rush. I have also read the information of these two companies. To be honest, I prefer New Line Cinema, even if you have to sacrifice some shares, it"s worth it. The size of Miramax is too small, and I don"t see what you"re seeing in it."
Eric smiled: "You will understand in the future."
The two talked and walked into Firefly"s screening room together, and the Jonathan Demme they saw had clearly stayed up late, such that his eyes had faint dark circles, but his devotion to the film was also evident.