Chapter 394

As the CEO of Disney, Robert Iger had been feeling quite triumphant recently.

For him, the plot of this period could simply be considered a shocking reversal.

First, *Pirates of the Caribbean*, which he insisted on rebooting, exploded, then exploded again, then exploded again...

As of now, January 22nd, the film has been in theaters for 28 days, grossing 370 million USD in North America and 460 million in China. Counting the box office from countries where it has just been released, the global box office has already exceeded 930 million USD.

Not to mention Disney, for any Hollywood film company, this belongs to a blockbuster in the absolute sense.

The huge success of this film has extraordinary significance for Robert Iger. This is not just about a film exploding; the symbolic significance is actually even greater—

When you, Michael Eisner, were the CEO of Disney, didn't you say bluntly at the board meeting that I could only be an "executor"?

Didn't you say that I lacked the courage and wouldn't "innovate," and absolutely couldn't serve as the CEO of Disney?

Now I am doing quite well in the position of Disney CEO!

*Pirates of the Caribbean*, which you led during your tenure, flopped and was shelved.

After I took office, I rebooted it, and it exploded, globally pushing for 1 billion USD!

Haha, for a film like this, my good brother Director Cao Yang said there are at least three more sequels!

Just go to Hollywood or the whole world and count; for sequels of such explosive films, which one doesn't sell better and better at the box office, bringing exponential growth in all aspects of benefits?

This is a hen that lays golden eggs, and it's the extremely rare kind.

Look at the damn Warner Bros., possessing the *Harry Potter* series, having completely swallowed New Line which possessed the *Lord of the Rings* series, and having rebooted the *Batman* series...

May I ask, who in Hollywood isn't dying of envy?

Not to mention anything else, just by relying on the *Harry Potter* series, those few executives at Warner Bros. mess around like lunatics, but no matter how they court disaster, their positions at Warner are very secure, and the board of directors seems to turn a blind eye to this.

Why?

The *Harry Potter* series makes money; it can smooth over all the bad debts.

Nowadays, Disney will also possess a film like this!

The direct and indirect benefits brought by this film alone can make that group of insects on the Disney board of directors all shut their mouths.

Haha, not only shut their mouths, but they also smile at me, and after seeing the box office and expected revenue of this film, they applaud me warmly and sing praises to me!

I'll just ask you all, I am serving as this CEO; who approves? Who opposes?

You insects, why aren't you saying anything? Haha...

Robert Iger now feels that Cao Yang is his own brother.

In the next few years, before Cao Yang finishes shooting all the *New Pirates of the Caribbean* sequels, whoever is detrimental to Cao Yang is my irreconcilable enemy!

Especially those idiots in the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers; I must kick them out of the alliance, just because those few idiots actually proposed letting Cao Yang take the fall.

Is this framing Cao Yang?

No, this isn't framing Cao Yang; this is framing me, Robert Iger, not wanting me to be the CEO of Disney.

Even God can't save them; I, the CEO of Disney, Robert Iger, said so.

In addition, there is another thing that makes Robert Iger happy, which is that the negotiations with the Writers Guild have made breakthrough progress.

That group of idiots in the Writers Guild made such a big scene, and I thought they were so hard to deal with; I didn't expect that giving them a tiny bit of sweetness:

For example, for DVD sales, the writers' share increased from the original 4 cents per disc to 5 cents, and they actually really negotiated seriously, and also promised that they would no longer boycott the Oscar awards ceremony!

I damn...

I thought this group of bastards wanted to cut meat from the film studio; I didn't expect they just wanted to lick a bit more soup.

As for the share rights requested by the Writers Guild for works on new media platforms such as the Internet and mobile phones, let's negotiate slowly; the revenue model generated in this regard is also being explored by the film studio.

The sharing model for new media platforms such as the Internet is different from the traditional pay-per-view model; Internet video platforms currently mostly adopt the buyout method, so it is difficult to calculate how to share with writers.

Since it is difficult to calculate, the film studio previously adopted a method that was easy to calculate—don't share with them!

It seems that won't work now, and this is also one of the main demands of the Writers Guild.

Actually, it's not difficult to calculate; as long as you convert the buyout fee and see how many pay-per-views this money is equivalent to, it is very clear and simple; just share according to the proportion.

Everyone understands this principle.

But what the film studio thinks is that for this new profit model, it must be shared less or not at all, dragging it out one day at a time; if it can't be dragged out, like the current situation, then negotiate again.

This is also something that most film studios tacitly understand.

There are even some people in film studios who want to push out a "scapegoat," just to drag it out for more days—the revenue generated by new media during these dragged-out days is real money flowing into the pockets of the film studio.

There is one more thing that makes Robert Iger happy.

Before *The New Pirates of the Caribbean* was released, he could only choose to trust Cao Yang; as for what the film would eventually become and whether the box office would explode, he actually didn't have much confidence in his heart.

Therefore, in order to increase the popularity and subsequent revenue of *The New Pirates of the Caribbean*, he let Disney invest some money to operate it at the Oscars.

Of course, he didn't have much certainty about the result, but combined with Cao Yang's reputation and influence, getting one or two nominations was generally not a problem.

Today is January 22nd, not only the 28th day of *The New Pirates of the Caribbean*'s release in North America, but also the day the 80th Academy Awards nominations were announced.

Once again exceeding Robert Iger's expectations, *The New Pirates of the Caribbean* won seven nominations in one fell swoop: Best Actor, Best Visual Effects, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Original Score.

Robert Iger knew very well that from this nomination, one could see the influence of Cao Yang plus Depp.

Nominations for different Oscar categories are first proposed by members of the corresponding departments.

For example, the acting department is responsible for nominating lead actors and supporting actors, and the directing department is responsible for nominating Best Picture and Best Director.

Then, this department will vote on the internal nomination list, and when the number of votes exceeds one-fifth, it will directly become the Oscar nomination list.

The Oscars now have over six thousand members, and each corresponding department has over one thousand people; wanting to get more than one-fifth of the votes is not an easy thing.

To tell the truth, very few members have actually watched these nominated films.

Therefore, outside of operation, the popularity of the film's title, director, and lead actor is very decisive.

For example, Cao Yang and Depp; the reputation of their combination has been established, and the films they collaborated on have all won awards, including many major Oscar awards.

These members who haven't watched the film will subconsciously think when they see their combination of names that even if they haven't watched the new film they collaborated on, the quality is definitely guaranteed, and voting for them at least won't be a mistake.

Added to this, the release date of *The New Pirates of the Caribbean* happened to be the time point when the Oscars started voting to select the nomination list; under the explosion, the popularity was even higher.

This led to another surprise that exceeded Robert Iger's expectations.

Four days ago, the country was still reporting extensively on Cao Yang's *Manchester by the Sea* being shortlisted for the main competition unit of the Berlin Film Festival; I didn't expect that after only four days, Cao Yang gave the media another surprise.

"... After Director Cao Yang's new film *Manchester by the Sea* was shortlisted for the main competition unit of the Berlin Film Festival, more good news came.

*The Fault in Our Stars*, produced and written by Director Cao Yang, received four major award nominations at the 80th Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Score.

*The New Pirates of the Caribbean*, directed by Director Cao Yang, received seven nominations: Best Actor, Best Visual Effects, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Original Score.

*Sanctuary*, executive produced and written by Director Cao Yang and directed by Director Tian Zhuangzhuang, received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film; this is the first time in five years since Old Mouzi's *Hero* that a domestic film has once again received an Oscar nomination..."

Li Xiaowan put down the newspaper and asked Yang Mi, who was standing obediently beside her: "You've read the content of the newspaper, right? Do you have any thoughts?"