After attending the Firefly Electronics product launch conference, the next day, Eric took the VH-60N helicopter retrieved from Larry Ellison and flew to Lone Pine Town, more than 200 kilometers away from Los Angeles in eastern California, and continued to film the outdoor scenes of "Iron Man".

At the same time, as the weekdays begin, under the hype of the three companies' joint topics, "Ace Spy 2" continues to harvest box office at a rate of more than $6 million in a single day.

Finally, after the three-day box office of $46.99 million on the first weekend, the full first-week box office of "Ace 2" reached $73.6 million, creating a first-week box office figure that many blockbuster movies could not meet.

In comparison, "City of Angels" was originally the most optimistic about by the media, with a box office of only $23.96 million in the first week, and it was directly dumped several positions by "Ace Spy 2".

The quality of the films of "City of Angels" is not too bad, and Warner's marketing is not careless. However, under the clever marketing methods that Firefly, Fox and MGM have joined forces to completely drive the audience's emotions, "City of Angels" is almost completely forgotten by the audience. Although Warner tried his best to remedy it, he still failed to regain much attention from "Ace Spy 2".

Facts have proved that a movie that lacks attention often has a box office that is even worse than a bad movie that is one-sidedly criticized. What's more, although it is labeled as a bad movie by most film critics, "Ace Spy 2" has a bad reputation among ordinary audiences.

Entering Easter week, "Wedding Singer" and "Alien" were launched on a large scale at the same time. Inspired by the outstanding box office results of "Ace Spy 2", the marketing departments of the three companies continued to work hard, flexibly changed their promotion strategies, and put forward the slogan of "more choices" to continue to build momentum for the Easter movie package.

Although "Ace Spy 2" is very popular, a large number of people still don't like this kind of shit, peeing and fart film. The release of "Wedding Singer" and "Alien" happens to give this group of people who want to join the cinema, but are not interested in "Ace Spy 2". The marketing strategies of the three companies are also very precisely focused on this.

Therefore, many theater operators have found that compared with previous years, the number of viewers entering the theater this Easter weekend has increased significantly.

That's until April 13, Monday.

Warner Bros. CEO Richard Parsons rushed to the Burbank Warner Bros. headquarters early in the morning, and the secretary had already placed Easter weekend box office data on his desk in advance.

In addition to the new line and two new films from MGM, there were some other low-cost films released last Friday.

However, looking at the box office data in his hand, Richard Parsons frowned slightly. The three films of the Firefly System were undoubtedly ranked in the top three in the box office rankings this weekend.

Due to the intensification of competition, there was no situation where "Ace Spy 2" was the only one that last week was the best.

"Wedding Singer" by Xinyi Films is a warm romantic comedy with the widest audience. It won a box office of 31.7 million in three days after the painting, and it firmly ranked first on the Easter weekend box office rankings.

The subsequent "Ace Spy 2" maintained a very considerable box office decline of 45% compared with the first weekend, and closed at another $25.85 million, ranking second in the box office rankings.

It is worth mentioning that in just ten days, the total box office of "Ace Spy 2" in North America reached 99.45 million US dollars, which is only a very small gap of 550,000 US dollars from breaking 100 million US dollars.

In comparison, "The Alien", which focuses on science fiction thriller, performed a little weaker, with a box office of only $21.77 million in the first three days.

Of course, this weakness is only relative to the other two films in the Firefly system. Because, the fourth-ranked Universal Pictures new film "The Story of Getting", had a box office of only $13.12 million in the first three days of the first weekend, which is nearly $9 million lower than "The Alien".

The fifth place in the list is Warner Bros. "City of Angels". Squeezed by this series of films, "City of Angels" fell by 46% in the second week, with only $8.19 million left in the next weekend, and the cumulative box office of $32.15 million in ten days, which is still only one-third of "Ace Spy 2".

It can be said that "Ace Spy 2" is definitely the biggest winner of this year's Easter schedule.

Putting down the box office data file, Richard Parsons rubbed his forehead and thought with some pain, perhaps, if several companies in the Firefly system launch the "Easter Movie Package" next year, there will definitely be disputes about who will take the lead first, and it may be very lively at that time.

You should know that, judging from the current situation, "Ace Spy 2" has a box office of nearly 100 million yuan in ten days. In the next two weeks, the box office period can at least be earned about 60 million US dollars for "Ace Spy 2". If the performance of the entire North American box office cycle is a little firmer, the total box office of "Ace Spy 2" may even reach between 180 million and 200 million US dollars.

In comparison, whether it is "Wedding Singer" or "Alien", at the current start, the box office limit in North America is only around 100 million US dollars, and this possibility is still very low. "Alien Singer" may be able to reach the 100 million threshold, and "Alien" is obviously unlikely.

In the Easter period, it won a box office of $100 million in North America, even if it was only 70 to 80 million. With the low-cost production specifications of the two films, this is definitely an exciting success. However, this success is destined to be much inferior to "Ace Spy 2".

Faced with a profit gap of hundreds of millions of dollars, Richard Parsons does not think that the three companies will remain in close cooperation.

After comforting himself for a moment, Richard Parsons thought of Warner Bros. "City of Angels" again, and suddenly regretted it very much. He did not do his best to promote the cooperation with the Fireflies on the "Easter Movie Package".

Everyone can see that the quality of the three films launched by the Firefly System cannot be considered too outstanding. The biggest reason for the success of the box office this time was the result of the three companies not spared their efforts to conduct marketing in the early stage.

Warner originally had a great opportunity to join this plan, and even proposed cooperation by Firefly, but due to the delay of the specific executor of the issuing department, Warner missed this opportunity.

The production cost of "City of Angels" is $55 million and the promotion cost is $25 million. The overall budget scale reaches $80 million.

Now, according to the box office data of "City of Angels", the North American box office of this film is only about 50 million US dollars. Warner distribution department is even considering canceling overseas distribution and directly selling off copyright to collect funds, so that it can only recover about 10 million US dollars.

Then, the funds that Warner could recover at the box office were less than 40 million. The later DVD distribution and TV broadcast rights revenue was too long and would not be considered for the time being, which means that in the short term, Warner's book loss on this project will exceed 40 million US dollars.

Although Time Warner Group has a big fortune, its $40 million loss is definitely not a small amount.

Although the responsibility for not achieving this cooperation is not on Richard Parsons, someone had already attacked him with this issue at the senior meeting last week. Richard Parsons also regretted it very much. After all, as the CEO of Warner Bros., if he wanted to forcibly promote this cooperation, no one could stop it.

However, although he is the CEO of Warner Bros., the group's film department is also intertwined with various factions, and he is concerned that it may intensify internal conflicts within the company. Richard Parsons did not do so. Therefore, the performance that could have been easily obtained has become a decision-making mistake now.

Richard Parsons was thinking about how to resolve the possible impact of this incident on his future. The office door knocked and the secretary pushed open the door: "Mr. Parsons, Mr. Levin is here."

The secretary said that a tall, tall, gray-haired man had already walked into the office. It was Gerald Levin, the current vice chairman of Time Warner Group. In addition to his position in Warner, Gerald Levin is also one of the heavyweight shareholders of Time Warner.

Richard Parsons got to his current position step by step with the support of Gerald Levin. He was also one of the most capable players in Gerald Levin's series. Seeing Gerald Levin walk into the office, Richard Parsons quickly stood up to meet him.

The two hugged enthusiastically, and Richard Parsons ordered the secretary to make coffee, took Gerald Levin to sit down on the sofa in the reception area, and said, "Jerry, why are you here at this time?"

"I just met Steve Case on the weekend, and I'm going to talk to you about something," Gerald Levin said, noting that the worry that had not completely disappeared on Richard Parsons' face, "What's wrong with you?"

Richard Parsons stood up with a wry smile, walked to the desk and took the document he had just read and handed it to Gerald Levin, saying, "It's still the box office thing during the Easter period."

Gerald Levin took the document and glanced a few times, then threw it away, and said in a relaxed tone: "Don't worry, as long as we accomplish the next thing, these little things will not affect you, not to mention that Fred, who is responsible for the issuance, is Semer's person, you can completely push this mistake on them."

While chatting, Richard Parsons' secretary brought coffee to the two. The conversation paused for a while, and the slim blonde beauty left, and the conversation continued.

"I have already talked with Steve Case in detail. As long as we can jointly promote the merger of AOL and Time Warner, he is willing to work with us to take control of the new companies in the future. At that time, we will still have the final say on Time Warner."

Since last year, Gerald Levin has started to secretly contact with Steve Case, CEO of AOL, to discuss the merger of the two companies. As Levin's confidant, Richard Parsons has always known the inside story of this matter.

Just as he picked up the coffee cup, Richard Parsons was a little puzzled when he heard Gerald Levin's words, saying, "Jerry, do you mean that this merger is dominated by American Online?"

Gerald Levin nodded: "In theory, this is indeed the case. American Online initiated a merger and acquisition with Time Warner, and we will respond."

Richard Parsons frowned slightly. In recent months, with the return of a large amount of hot money caused by the Asian financial crisis, the North American Nasdaq Index has begun to rise rapidly again. As one of the most popular technology stocks, the market value of US Online has exceeded US$30 billion.

However, Time Warner's market value is close to $50 billion, and this is just the apparent gap in stock market value.

If we talk about our foundation and strength, Time Warner can far surpass American Online. Not to mention the rest, Time Warner Group is 5 times that of American Online.

Therefore, it is difficult for Richard Parsons to accept that the acquisition was dominated by American Online. He does not think that companies like American Online that have been swollen by the new technology wave are qualified to acquire veteran media giants like Time Warner.

However, it is hard to accept that Richard Parsons quickly figured out that only by giving up the dominance to AOL can they ensure that they have enough power in the merged new company. Otherwise, if Time Warner leads this acquisition, as a weaker group of people within the group, the control of this merger transaction will not fall into Levin's group at all.

As timely development reaches today, Time Warner is basically considered a mass-owned company. Important individual shareholders like Gerald Levin have basically maintained their holdings in the entire Time Warner Group within single digits.

Because shareholder power is too scattered and no one has the right to speak for it, the management of Time Warner Group is basically the controller of this media giant. As long as they can obtain control of Time Warner, even if it involves its own personal interests as shareholders, Gerald Levin is willing to make certain sacrifices, let alone the interests of other shareholders of the group.

So, after receiving the promise from Steve Keys, Gerald Levin gave up his power to dominate the acquisition without hesitation.

Thinking through these quickly, Richard Parsons took a sip of the coffee in his hand, put down the cup, and said, "So, Jerry, the most important question, what is the attitude of Firefly? They are the largest shareholders of American Online?"

"Chris Hansen, the head of Firefly Investment, made it clear that ABC is moving towards a comprehensive media group, which is probably what Eric Williams means. They don't want ABC to get involved in the media industry, but want it to focus on being an Internet service provider," Gerald Levin explained. "However, Firefly Investment has only 30% stake in ABC. Steve Case is lobbying other shareholders of ABC to be on their side. He told me not to worry, we just need to solve the problem on Time Warner."

Richard Parsons nodded and said, "What do you need me to do?"
Chapter completed!