Chapter 954: DVD Player

Tang En didn't know much about Chen Chong. He only knew that she was a famous actress in the mainland back then. Later, she starred in "The Last Emperor" and started to break into Hollywood.

I really don't know what movies she directed.

Fortunately, Kathleen Kennedy sent detailed information.

Tang En looked through it. This female director Chen made a Chinese film "Tianyu" in 1997. It had a good reputation and won many awards.

Later, he made a romantic film "Autumn in New York" for MGM, starring Winona Ryder and Richard Gere, which also achieved considerable success.

The film was released in 2000 on a cost of $45 million and grossed $90 million.

Because MGM has been merged by New Universal, Tang En can see more detailed data.

The film earned $32 million at the box office, $700,000 from pay-per-view, $3 million from pay-TV, $5.4 million from free-to-air, $6.2 million from overseas TV rights, and $21 million from DVD/video sales and rentals.

Excluding the production cost of 45 million US dollars, publicity investment of 5 million US dollars, shareholder and actor dividends of 1.1 million US dollars, loan interest of 2.1 million US dollars, taxes and fees of 7.65 million US dollars...

As of yesterday, "Autumn in New York" has a total income of 68.3 million US dollars, a total expenditure of 60.85 million US dollars, and has produced a substantial profit of 7.45 million US dollars.

It's not easy.

Especially for MGM, which had countless bad movies and sold one and lost one, it was not easy to produce such a profitable movie.

Looking at the details, it is even more surprising.

In the crew of "Autumn in New York", a quarter of them are filmmakers from China!

Among them, the cinematographer of the movie was Gu Changwei, the queen photographer of the somewhat cynical Lao Mouzi who had had a drink with Tang En at the same wine table.

This is so important.

Although "Autumn in New York" is a film fully invested by the United States, part of the production team is from China, which can be regarded as a Sino-American co-production.

Chinese and American filmmakers work together in a crew, so they already have experience.

Although "Autumn in New York" is just a medium-budget romantic drama and cannot be compared with Hollywood commercial productions, its existence is better than nothing.

Chen Chong has lived in the United States for so many years, and has had so much work experience, so he has enough understanding of Chinese and American films.

From this level, she is much more suitable than those first-class directors in mainland China.

""Mulan" is a Disney cartoon. We can't change it according to the traditional Chinese story. We have to change it with the plot background of this cartoon. Even many plots, shots, and composition designs have to be copied from the original cartoon. , in order to achieve the emotional effect on the memory of the fans." Catherine Kennedy said.

In the cartoon of "Mulan", there are fantasy elements and the appearance of "dragon", which is completely catering to the Western imagination of Chinese culture and breaking the traditional story of "Mulan".

Precisely, because of the successful blueprint of the cartoon "Mulan", it is possible to plan the plot direction of the live-action movie. Coupled with the appearance of a series of big stars of Chinese-language movies, the popularity of "Mulan" in the mainland market will not be too bad.

There will be no ending like "The Great Wall", which neither succeeded in pleasing the West, nor met the tastes of mainland movie fans.

Tang En didn't think too much, and said decisively: "Okay! Let's do this! Catherine, "Mulan" will be handed over to you! We want to create the first female producer, female director, and female director in history. Starring in a major Hollywood commercial production! Rose Films is a pioneer of feminism in the film industry!"

...

If it is co-produced with Disney, according to the schedule, "Mulan" needs to be released in February 2006. This is in late October 2004, so it will be relatively hasty.

Now, Disney has withdrawn from "Mulan", and the schedule arrangement only depends on the will of New Universal, which is much easier. Don't be too anxious, just finalize the project and let them do it slowly.

After basically confirming Chen Chong as the female director, Twain can let go of the "Mulan" project, and he has the energy to focus on more company business, as well as the ongoing production of "The Avengers".

"The Departed" was released for 5 weeks, breaking the box office records of all Martin Scorsese's past films, with a North American box office of 210 million US dollars, an overseas box office of 190 million US dollars, and a global box office of 400 million US dollars.

New Universal still presents an invincible posture in the film market.

In contrast, among the giants of Hollywood, the worst... may not be the divided Paramount, but Sony Pictures.

With the announcement of the third quarter financial report, Sony is really miserable.

The former world's largest electronics giant, at dusk, is about to go bankrupt.

Sony's CEO Nobuyuki Idei's resignation seems to be a certainty.

The candidate to replace him, no accident, will be the president of Sony Ando Kuni. As for Howard Stringer, the vice chairman of Sony and the head of Sony America, because of the poor performance of Sony Entertainment, he has completely cut off the possibility of promotion.

On this day, a few Japanese came to Tang En's office, and the leader of the team was the president of Sony, Kuniwei Ando!

Obviously, Kunitake Ando has seen Sony's current situation, and intends to work harder to create some performance and pave the way for his own success.

He will negotiate with New Universal, not the entertainment business, but the electronics business!

It's HD Blu-ray Disc!

The current DVD market is divided into two parts, one is the regular version and the other is the high-definition version. Among them, the high-definition version of the market is completely occupied by Toshiba's HD-DVD.

Since HD-DVD was launched last year, it has been favored by the market. Because the resolution of TV sets is getting higher and higher, 1K is the public standard, and 2K has appeared one after another.

The resolution of ordinary DVD is between 0.3K-0.8K, which can no longer satisfy the appetite of movie fans.

The future DVD market must be dominated by high-definition.

Toshiba launched HD-DVD one step ahead, and signed cooperation agreements with major Hollywood manufacturers. Including New Universal, all movies in the copyright library have produced HD-DVD versions.

Such a market environment makes Sony very worried!

Blu-ray Disc, because the technology is newer and more advanced, so the research and development time will be longer, and it will appear two years later. If there is no better preparation in advance, even if Sony successfully launches Blu-ray high-definition, it may be difficult to defeat HD-DVD.

In this situation, Ando Kuniwei stepped out.

He wanted to convince Tang En!

Pull New Universal into the blu-ray camp!

New Universal acquired MGM, coupled with Netflix's frantic acquisition of film copyrights around the world, New Universal's inventory exceeded 6,300, which is the largest film copyright library in the world!

After the new Universal is settled, Blu-ray has great hope.

"Mr. Ando, ​​I have long admired your name!"

Tang En warmly invited the Japanese visiting group into the living room.

The layout of the entire living room is very high-end. Tang En is surrounded by assistant Tosca Musk, secretary Ira Fisher, vice president of Interactive Entertainment Frank Derry, CEO of Dolby Laboratories, etc. people to accompany.

The scene is grand.

It's like a meeting with the leaders of the two countries.

Ando Kuniwei said with emotion: "Mr. Walker, I have also heard about Netflix Japan. It's amazing. It's a great initiative to rent DVDs on the Internet!"

Tang En was a little funny, "It's all your efforts."

Ando Kuniwei said solemnly: "I know Zhou Fang Yuxiong. He has a good level of drilling and business... Hehe. Without your support, he would not have found such an excellent network."

Tang En was noncommittal.

After the simple politeness, Ando Guowei said: "Mr. Walker, our sincerity is very great, and we sincerely hope to cooperate with a powerful company like New Global."

Tang En laughed and said, "We signed a three-year contract with Toshiba, which will not expire until 2006."

Ando Guowei hurriedly said: "I know, it doesn't matter! To be honest, the Blu-ray disc is still in the testing stage, and there are still several technical problems that have not been resolved. According to the normal research and development cycle, the official version will be launched next year. The real mass production is pushed to the The whole world will have to wait until 2006. HD-DVD is upgraded and modified from DVD, and even the production line does not need to be changed. From a technical point of view, it is relatively simple, so the development is faster and the test is simpler and shorter. But Blu-ray is different , This is a completely different form of disc from DVD, it is a video disc standard re-developed by Sony, and the development cycle... will naturally be longer."

Tang En nodded and said with a smile: "So, the research and development cost of Blu-ray discs is much higher than that of HD-DVD."

"Yes."

"Is there any advantage? Higher resolution?"

Ando Guowei said honestly: "In terms of visual effects, there is not much difference between Blu-ray and HD-DVD. For users, there is no difference in appearance and weight between the two discs. But for manufacturers It’s different, the cost of Blu-ray Disc will be lower than that of HD-DVD! For a large company like New Universal with a huge film library and strong DVD sales, choosing Blu-ray means lower production costs .”

Tang En smiled slightly.

In fact, he knew what the other party said.

He has the foresight, he knows the future world, belongs to Blu-ray!

Although HD-DVD is jointly developed by Toshiba and Microsoft, the cost is indeed too high. Hollywood is the world's largest output base of high-definition video discs. Even a price difference of 10 cents can reach a scale of 1 billion US dollars.

In this respect, Sony's strategy is successful.

The research and development of Blu-ray requires a stronger and more R&D team, as well as a brand-new DVD production line. The initial investment is very large, and it is not advantageous. But as long as it is successfully introduced to the market, it can take advantage of lower cost and defeat HD-DVD, which once monopolized the market.

To invest in the Blu-ray camp is an inevitable choice for New Universal in the future.

Tang En would put on such a big posture and negotiate with these Japanese mainly for another business - DVD player.

This is a big market with a total value of more than 20 billion US dollars per year!

In the past, DVD players could not play HD-DVD.

If movie fans want to watch HD-DVD, they must buy a new DVD player.

In the same way, if movie fans want to watch Blu-ray high-definition, they must also buy a DVD player that can play Blu-ray discs.

The development of Blu-ray discs is difficult, and the development of Blu-ray disc players is naturally more difficult than HD-DVD players in terms of technology.

Last year, once HD-DVD was introduced to the market, companies such as Philips, Panasonic, Samsung, Toshiba, and Siemens immediately launched HD-DVD players, which shows that there are no technical barriers.

However, Blu-ray is different!

The Blu-ray Disc was officially launched in 2005. It was not until half a year later that giant electronics companies such as Philips, Siemens, and Samsung successfully launched the Blu-ray Disc player.

Sony even took a full year to develop its own Blu-ray player.

What's more, HD-DVD players are not compatible with Blu-ray players!

HD-DVD players can only play DVD and HD-DVD formats,

Blu-ray players can only play DVDs and Blu-ray players.

It was not until more than half a year later that a DVD player capable of playing HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs was finally launched.

At that time, it was already 2007.

This kind of replacement of DVD players is very unfair to fans and users.

You know, within a few years, DVD players will be completely phased out, and we will enter the era of network streaming media.

Tang En wanted to enter this market.

On the one hand, it is for the sake of fans and users, and on the other hand... it also wants to make a quick buck!

"Mr. Ando, ​​in my opinion, Sony's current predicament is only temporary, and Toshiba is not an opponent at all. If the cost of Blu-ray discs can be lowered, it is possible for New Universal to cooperate with Sony."

Tang En's words made Ando Guowei very excited.

Tang En continued: "After three years, New Universal can sign an exclusive distribution agreement with Sony!"

Ando Guowei was even happier.

If the cooperation between Sony and New Universal can be facilitated, it will be of great significance to his promotion.

"However, I also have a little request here." Tang En changed the topic.

Ando Kuniwei hurriedly said: "Just say it!"

Tang En said: "I need the research and development materials for Blu-ray discs."

"ah?"

Ando Kuniwei was stunned for a moment.

Tang En said bluntly: "Mr. Ando, ​​New Universal has Dolby Laboratories, and also has hardware R&D and production capabilities. Of course, we are not interested in producing high-definition discs. What I value is the DVD player market."

Ando Kuniwei breathed a sigh of relief.

With the strength of New Universal and its influence in Hollywood, if it really enters the high-definition video market, Sony and Toshiba together will not be rivals.

It's good now, what Tang En values ​​is the DVD player market.

Kuniwei Ando also understood what Twain meant. If he could get the Blu-ray disc information in advance, Dolby Laboratories could start the research and development of the DVD player in advance.

Blu-ray was officially launched in 2005, and other companies could follow up at that time.

If Dolby Laboratories can collect enough materials now, it can enter the research and development stage 10 months earlier than companies such as Siemens, Philips, and Samsung!

Dolby Laboratories will be the first company in the world to sell Blu-ray discs.

"If that's the case, it's okay!" Ando Guowei took a deep look at Tang En, "As long as New Universal and Sony can become partners!"