Chapter 513 (1/2)
Time Warner headquarters in midtown Manhattan, New York.
It's December 16.
In the conference room, the board of directors, core management and important shareholders of Time Warner Group gathered together. The dispute has lasted for a whole afternoon.
When Terry Semel objected to Gerald Levin's request to take over time warner immediately, Levin immediately pointed the finger at Semel.
”As for DC, Terry, this is definitely one of the biggest mistakes the film department has made. We could have owned the whole DC movie universe, because your personal stupidity, the copyright of Superman, Batman and wonder woman are in the hands of Denise entertainment, and we don't even have the initiative to intervene in the production. ”
Terry Semel, chairman and CEO of Warner Bros., has no direct jurisdiction over DC Comics.
Seriously, except for Superman, who was bought in advance at a high price, Ross, the leader of the group, made the film himself. However, Terry Semel can't put the responsibility on Steve Roth at this time. At the present moment, attacking Roth's prestige is tantamount to weakening the possibility of these Roth's direct executives taking over the power of Time Warner.
”Jill, I can't agree with you at all. DC company has been established for more than half a century. If the DC movie universe is so easy to build, why hasn't anyone come up with a similar idea in the past few decades? Therefore, the cooperation with Denise entertainment on the DC movie universe project is one of the smartest decisions made by our film department, and it is absolutely not a mistake. In recent years, DC movie universe project has contributed nearly half of the profits of Warner film industry. ”
Gerald Levin did not give in, looked at Terry Semel and said, ”but we could have gotten more, could not we?”
Terry Semel met Levin's eyes and said coldly, ”if you're going to mess around, I have nothing to say.”
”You should know if I've been messing around,” Gerald Levin said, glancing around for a week and turning to Semel again. ”It's understandable to lose the rights to Superman, Batman and wonder woman, but what did you do then? If I remember correctly, in the original plan, the production rhythm of DC movie universe should be two movies a year. Now? It's exactly what Simon westero says. You do it. Moreover, in order to cater to danielis entertainment, you also deliberately suppress the development of other superhero movies. If I were in charge of the film department, I would never let this happen. Not only that, after the success of DC movie universe, green lantern, sea king, shazan, Mars hunter and so on, these projects can actually be started and prepared, and the copyright is still in our hands. As a result, you have done nothing about it. ”
After Gerald Levin's words, many people in the conference room couldn't help nodding.
Simon readjusted the development rhythm of DC movie universe at the beginning, delaying the original development plan of two movies a year to three movies a year or even one movie a year. Many senior executives in Time Warner were dissatisfied, even Steve Roth didn't agree with it at that time.
It's only because Denise entertainment has too much initiative in the DC movie universe plan, coupled with Simon's own strength, that the matter is settled.
At this time, Gerald Levin suddenly brought up the old story again, and also talked about a large number of other DC projects whose copyright was completely in Time Warner's own hands but could not be developed, which immediately aroused the resonance of hate to the top.
Terry Semel noticed the expression of people around him and said to Gerald Levin, ”I think you should understand that over exploitation of copyright can only lead to the rapid boredom of the audience, Jill. What's more, the DC movie universe project involves our contract with danielis entertainment. I don't think it's just your words that will make Simon westlow give in. ”
”We have the right to distribute the five superhero movies that have been developed and the four series.” Gerald Levin obviously took the matter seriously and immediately said, ”if Denise entertainment doesn't want these projects to be left out on the shelf, if they want to get a timely share settlement, they have to give in.”
In fact, delaying the box office share of independent film companies by big studios is just like falsely reporting the distribution cost, which is a long-standing practice in Hollywood. This practice is often used as a ”weapon” for film giants to suppress their competitors.
DC movie universe involves five superhero movie series, Superman, Batman, wonder woman, flash man and steel bone. In addition to ”Wonder Woman” series released by Denise entertainment, Warner Bros. is responsible for the distribution of other projects.
If you want the neck of cadanilis entertainment, warner can really take such measures as ”giving garbage schedule”, ”using Hollywood ledger to misrepresent the budget”, ”delaying box office and other channel revenue sharing settlement” and so on.
It's just, is that going to compromise Simon westero?
Terry Semel almost immediately thought of the original recording of bodyguard two years ago.
Because alista records, which is responsible for the distribution of the original album of bodyguard, tried to swallow up the revenue of the album, danielis entertainment stopped the distribution of the original album directly, completely ignoring the huge potential loss that a record that is expected to sell tens of millions of copies may suddenly go off the shelves.Of course, the interests involved in the DC movie universe are far more than the original record of bodyguard. However, based on Terry Semel's understanding of Simon, he thinks that if Warner dares to play tricks on the DC movie universe project, it is likely that danilisi entertainment will still face the strongest counterattack.
Terry Semel's first thought was to lead Gerald Levin to say what he had just said.
Since the goal has been achieved, he is too lazy to talk too much with each other.
Anyway, today's meeting is doomed to have no result.
Gerald Levin saw that Terry Semel stopped contradicting himself, but he didn't stop. He continued: ”as long as you agree that I will take care of this company, I will immediately start a new negotiation with Denise entertainment. The film department may be very dependent on the DC movie universe, and so is Denise entertainment. What's more, even if there is a temporary stalemate between the two sides in the worst case, we will only lose Superman, Batman and wonder woman. Without these three superheroes, DC can still develop such superheroes as flash, steel and green lantern. ”
In the conference room, Robert Daley, another Warner executive who is in the same camp as Terry Semel, was a bit reluctant to look down on it. He said sarcastically, ”Gerald, you don't know what losing the big three means to DC.”
Gerald Levin was suddenly interrupted and said, ”of course I understand. I'm just saying that time warner can take more initiative and share more interests in this matter, instead of being constrained by a kid in his twenties all the time.”