Movie Queen Development Plan

"July 2005?"

Shion nodded.

"Luckily you chose 2005. If it was 2004 it would have been a bit troublesome."

"What's wrong?"

Nanaya felt a little strange when she saw Shion looking relieved.

Shion explained nonchalantly, "Because in 2004, the Washimine Distribution Company was probably just established, and it would be too much of a hassle to start such a big project directly."

"Establishing a distribution company... Are you saying that the global distribution of Fate will be handled by Washimine himself?!"

Nanaya's eyes widened, and the look he gave Shion became a little strange.

Originally, Nanaya thought that Washimine was just cooperating with the seven major Hollywood companies for distribution, but he didn't expect Shion to be even crazier than he thought.

"Are you crazy?!"

"No, I'm sober."

Nanaya leaned his hands on the table and asked, "How did an outsider like Washimine get the distribution channels in North America?!"

"I have already convinced Sony that Washimine will acquire MGM together with Columbia. Afterwards, I will get the distribution department of United Artists. At that time, I will use it as the backbone to establish Washimine Distribution Company's North American and global distribution agencies."

As someone who always pays attention to the North American film industry, Nanaya understood Shion's plan after just a moment's thought.

However, even though he understood it, Nanaya really had nothing to say about Shion's plan.

So he stared at those red eyes for a long time, and finally uttered a sentence.

"You are really... crazy."

"You taught me this, to form alliances and achieve win-win cooperation." Shion said with a friendly smile, "I was just trying my hand at Dentsu before."

Nanaya really had nothing to say about this.

Shion's plan may seem complicated, but in fact, the core of its execution is only one, which is to take over United Artists' North American distribution channel, which is also the ticket for outsiders to enter Hollywood.

There are thousands of Hollywood film companies, but only seven are truly recognized giants, commonly known as the Hollywood Big Seven.

This saying has been around for a long time. Everyone knows that the Big Seven is very powerful, but they only have a vague concept of it.

Nanaya is very clear about the real strengths of the Big Seven. The Big Seven have three things in common: a huge library of film copyrights, global distribution channels and MPAA membership.

The first two are hard power, and the last one is soft power.

The vast film copyrights are the cornerstone of these companies, which gives them the opportunity to turn around no matter how low they are.

For example, at Disney before 2000, every new movie was worse than the last.

However, as they own a large number of animated film copyrights, they relied on peripheral products and various animated DVDs to get through this difficult task and climbed to the top of Hollywood in 2010.

The same situation applies to Sony Columbia. As an outsider, they were stabbed in the back several times by the Americans, and there were even rumors that Sony was going to sell Columbia.

But relying on the big IP of "Spider-Man", Columbia has always been injured but not dead, and as strong as a cockroach.

Therefore, these film copyrights are the foundation for the survival of these large companies and the source of their revenue.

Powerful distribution channels are the key converter for them to monetize these copyrights, and are also an effective weapon for these companies to control small companies.

Those second-rate small companies may be able to get by with distribution in North America, but without global distribution channels, it is difficult for them to get their films out of Hollywood and expand their influence.

If they want to go out, they can only choose to cooperate with the Big Seven and accept their exploitation.

As for the last one, MPAA, many people think that this is the basis of the seven major confidences, but this is actually more of a reflection of influence in the entertainment industry.

In Nanaya's opinion, MPAA is more of a reflection of the seven major powers.

It doesn't mean that you can become one of the Big Seven if you get a ticket to MPAA, but you will be qualified to enter MPAA only when you reach the same level as the Big Seven.

A more direct example is Netflix, which, after becoming the world's most powerful streaming platform, became eligible to join the MPAA.

Having said so much, let's get back to Washimine itself. As an outsider, Washimine wants to enter the North American market. Apart from the copyright library of the content, the first thing Washimine needs is a hair channel.

Think about DreamWorks. At its peak, it was able to compete with the Big Seven. However, due to the lack of distribution channels, it was ultimately strangled to death by the Big Seven.

Nanaya originally thought that Shion's idea should be to acquire a small North American company and then develop it slowly, but he didn't expect that Shion's appetite was much bigger than Nanaya imagined.

She planned to directly take over the top eight United Artists, which was something Nanaya had never thought of.

As for swallowing up United Artists, why would they work with Sony to get rid of MGM?

Of course it was because MGM acquired United Artists back then.

In the 1980s, there were not seven major Hollywood studios, but eight.

At that time, MGM seized the weakness of United Artists, which was also one of the Big Eight, and acquired United Artists in one fell swoop to form MGM-United Artists Entertainment.

However, things have changed now. MGM, which is on the verge of bankruptcy, is about to be acquired by Columbia and become history.

Correspondingly, the title of the Hollywood Big Seven will soon become the Hollywood Big Six.

The decline of MGM was apparently due to the failure of Woo John's "Windtalkers", which completely broke the backbone of MGM.

But in Nanaya's view, "Windtalkers" was just the last straw that broke the camel's back.

MGM's real mistake was that it did not pay enough attention to distribution channels, which meant that even though it owned the distribution rights to a number of IPs such as "Tom and Jerry" and "007", it was controlled by other Hollywood companies.

You let your competitors help you distribute your movies. Do you think that as members of the MPAA, they will not take action against you?

So, if MGM doesn't die, who will?

The reason for this phenomenon is that MGM closed its distribution department in the 1970s.

At the time, MGM thought that because it released too few films, the cost of maintaining the department was far higher than the output of the department itself.

So in order to keep the company running, MGM simply closed its distribution department.

But everyone saw the result.

In fact, MGM still has a distribution department, which is the distribution department of United Artists, which it acquired.

However, this distribution department is basically a stepmother. The parent company does not attach importance to the distribution channels at all and almost ignores this distribution department.

The reason why they were not laid off was entirely because the original acquisition agreement mentioned that the original company's employees needed to be retained and layoffs could not be initiated.

After this, United Artists' distribution department could only struggle to survive on its own. Although it did not die out, its business was shrinking year by year.

Nanaya estimated that the attitude of MGM's top management towards this distribution department at that time was to simply leave it aside and let it fend for itself. When the last batch of employees in the distribution department retired, they could justifiably cancel the distribution part.

However, before the distribution department could die of natural causes, MGM itself gave up.

Fortunately, otherwise Washimine would not have had the chance to take advantage of this opportunity.

"I've already visited the United Artists distribution department." Shion explained to Nanaya, "Although there are only two or three kittens, the North American distribution channels are still there, and the foundation is there. If we can add some employees and develop slowly, there is still hope."

According to Shion, although the distribution department of United Artists is almost rotten, a lean camel is still bigger than a horse.

Although there are not many people left, the distribution channels and previous agreements with theaters are still there.

As long as there are new employees, it's not a big deal, but it's better than those small companies.

In particular, the distribution department has a very complete distribution channel for TV stations, which is simply a pleasant surprise.

The only regrettable thing is that United Artists' international distribution channels have completely disappeared.

As a result, European distribution channels need to be re-established.

However, Nanaya and Shion were both very satisfied with the current result.

"That's not bad, no, it's really great."

Nanaya was also very happy with this result. The less exploitation there was, the more money he could make from Fate.

"But it's a relief that you were able to convince Sony to cooperate. I thought you two would keep fighting until the end of time."

In Nanaya's opinion, this is already comparable to a singularity.

"There are no eternal friends or eternal enemies, only eternal interests."

Shion uttered Churchill's famous words.

"Sony couldn't come up with the money to acquire MGM on its own, so it had to work with others."

Shion poured herself a cup of tea. She looked at the green liquid in the cup and said leisurely, "Other partners want the copyright that Sony also wants, but I only want the distribution department that he considers a burden. What do you think he will choose?"

Nanaya raised the corner of his mouth, he understood what Shion meant.

This is like a rich man who already has a villa and looks at another villa, but what he wants most is not the villa, but the collection in the villa.

However, the owner of the villa went bankrupt and needed to sell the house and his collection together.

The rich man cannot afford to buy the entire thing all at once, so he has to find someone else to cooperate with.

At this time, two people found the rich man and were willing to cooperate with him to buy the villa.

As a reward, one of them wanted to take away part of the collection in the villa; while the other did not want the collection, but only the villa that the rich man considered a burden.

Faced with such cooperation conditions, although the latter person and the rich man are business competitors, they are the best partners when it comes to buying collectibles.

Nanaya knew that in the original world line, because Sony could not find a second collaborator, it could only share MGM's copyright library with others, which allowed Warner to obtain the copyright of "Tom and Jerry".

This time, it is estimated that all the good things of MGM will go to Sony, but Washimine will not lose out as he has obtained the distribution channel.

It's just that each one gets what he needs.

"You really are a natural businessman, Shion." Nanaya praised sincerely.

"It's OK, but now you need to work hard." Shion said with a smile, "I only have the distribution rights, but no content to distribute. This requires you, a great director, to fill in the content."

"Don't worry, I won't let you down."

Nanaya assured confidently.