It was an ordinary lunch, but the grades of a fish were several times higher. Soon people gathered together and met Donna and Adam Ferguson's family for the first time.

Yang Cheng was very polite, and the other party was even more polite, and they all gave him a bottle of red wine. After all, it would be nice to see if he didn't bring anything.

The manor hasn't had guests for a long time, and White seemed particularly excited. This was his favorite job, no doubt.

The lunch was still being cooked, and everyone sat around the stove next to the outdoor swimming pool, and the beautiful scenery of Los Angeles and the Pacific skyline was in sight.

Adam sighed, "This house is awesome. I heard that it was set a transaction record at that time?"

Yang Cheng hugged Luo Yue with a smile, looking very lazy, nodded slightly, "But that's just a number of external publicity, and it actually didn't cost that much."

Adam also knows the tricks of real estate agents, "That's very expensive, I can't afford it~"

Yang Cheng laughed, "It's definitely affordable to buy it, but is it necessary~"

"It's right, but I'm really going to change the house. I wonder if there are any properties for sale near you? How about being a neighbor?"

Yang Cheng looked at White after hearing this, "You have to ask White about this, no one knows better than him."

White immediately responded, "Dear Mr. Ferguson, as far as I know, about two minutes' drive down from Jason Manor, there is a newly listed estate. The former owner was a real estate tycoon. He had to sell it because of financial problems. He had only bought the house for less than two years, renovated, and the facilities and furniture were very new.

Of course, the area is smaller, less than 800 square meters, but the scenery is good, the view is wide enough, surrounded by green trees, and it is very quiet."

Adam was quite interested, "Where is the price?"

"The listing price seems to be $14 million, so it should be possible to negotiate. If Mr. Ferguson is interested, I can help contact the agency. Of course, you need to discuss the specific details in person."

"Of course, please contact me."

"This is what I should do~"

White went to call, and Adam turned around, "I specially requested a meeting this time, and I want to hear your boss' attitude towards STX and the route we are currently taking."

Yang Cheng knew that his next words would determine Adam Ferguson's final choice, so he seemed very cautious and did not rush to talk. He took a sip of wine and said slowly, "Actually, your question is equivalent to asking when the Marvel dominance will be broken, or will the future be the era of blockbusters?"

He answered this question from a different perspective, and the initiative came into his hands.

Seeing Adam nodding in recognition, Yang Cheng pondered, "Avengers 2, released last year, hit a box office of $1.4 billion worldwide, which shocked the industry. Although it was 100 million less than the first one, and the production cost also increased, the fact that big profits are unchanged. It is expected that Avengers 3, which exists as the finale, will definitely trigger a frenzy again. Of course, because celebrities gathered in dumplings and the high production cost, they will further compress profits.

But we all know that Disney has never only made box office profits, but the real profit is the IP peripherals.

However, this size obviously cannot support Marvel's ambition to win a thousand miles in ten years.

Since the first "Iron Man" in 2008, over the past decade, Marvel has used a total of 19 movies that have been linked to each other with a plot, and an astonishing estimate of more than $15 billion in total box office, it has transformed from a comic company on the verge of bankruptcy and has become a huge IP film and television empire.

More importantly, Marvel's decade not only subverted the Hollywood landscape, but also changed the rules of the game in Hollywood.

In the past five years, the production of the six major Hollywood films has become increasingly inclined to have extended large IPs, and medium-cost original movies have almost disappeared. Let’s look at Hollywood’s filming plans in the next few years. Almost 80% of the movies are sequels to a certain IP universe, and the living space of original movies has been compressed to the extreme, but the appearance of STX has given people a bright feeling.

It’s like a green plant suddenly popping out among the flowers. Even if it’s not big and has a magnificent shape, it can still make people fall in love with it at a glance.”

He inadvertently praised Adam Ferguson for a few words, and everyone suddenly smiled. Someone was holding the flower sedan chair. He could hear the praise of a handsome hero like Yang Cheng, which would definitely be more beautiful than the praise of ten thousand ordinary people.

But everyone knows that the next turn will be a turning point, "But this situation is not stable, at least in my opinion, it is very dangerous. If you understand the ancient history of Z, you will know that Marvel's current practice is a chain of iron chains in the Three Kingdoms period. It seems that using solid iron chains to connect large aircraft carriers into a piece that can resist wind and waves, but the disadvantage is that all ships are kidnapped, and once a disaster occurs, it will inevitably cause damage.

The pay for star actors is getting higher and higher, and the production cost is getting higher and higher. The entry threshold is invisibly too high. Small companies cannot afford it, and large companies are struggling to play. Moreover, the iteration of audiences and aesthetic fatigue are potential crises, which is tantamount to firewood placed on hay. Without Mars, a gust of wind can stir up a surging fire.

In this sense, although Marvel's success led Hollywood's ten-year industrial direction, with the end of the decade, Marvel's future is equivalent to Hollywood's future.

This is also the reason why STX seems to survive well at the moment, because everyone is waiting and watching. The giants hope to have more choices when the crisis comes, and STX is undoubtedly one of the options."

Adam Ferguson said in surprise, "What do you mean is that STX can only passively accept choices, but cannot actively change what?"

Yang Cheng hesitated for a moment and shook his head, "It's very difficult!"

After finishing her own wine, she simply took Luo Yue's wine glass and took a sip, which made her scold her and patted him.

"The reason why Marvel was able to counterattack was that its own resources were the foundation, and they were in desperate situations, forcing them to fight against the enemy.

20 years ago, with the rise of new entertainment methods such as electronic games and the Internet, the bubble in the American comics industry burst, and a large number of comic shops went bankrupt and closed. Marvel's sales channels were severely hit. Just five years after it was launched, Marvel had to file for bankruptcy and reorganization.

In a desperate need for funds to recover, Marvel Studios began to sell its superhero's movie adaptation rights at low prices in exchange for funds.

Selling his signature cleanly, Universal bought the Hulk Hulk, Sony bought the copyright of Spider-Man, and Fox selected Fantastic Four and X-Men.

All of them are Marvel's first-line heroes. If they still have one, they will not be able to live in dire straits today.

Everyone knows what happened next. The two series "X-Men" and "Spider-Man" swept the box office in the United States. The Spider-Man series alone earned more than 2 billion yuan for Sony. Whenever Sony Pictures couldn't hold on, they used "Spider-Man" to save the scene, but these two series of movies only brought Marvel a box office share of less than 100 million yuan.

This number undoubtedly cannot change anything, but only slightly delayed Marvel's death.

However, when Marvel, who didn't want to be married anymore, decided to make his own movie, she found that almost all the most popular superheroes were sold.

There was no choice but to search all the heroes under his command before finding Iron Man ready to take a gamble.

When the movie was first filmed, Marvel was already at the end of her life and could only mortgage more than 20 superhero copyrights to the bank to lend $500 million.

Robert Downey Jr., who was also at the trough of his acting career at the time, just returned from drug rehabilitation and urgently needed to turn around. In Stan Lee's initial idea, Iron Man was a villain hero who was both good and evil. The character and story of Iron Man's playboy are very consistent with Donny's elegant temperament and ups and downs in Hollywood.

The two sides hit it off and the movie became a hit.

In the same year, the mediocre response of "Invincible Hulk" was released, and the Easter egg at the end of the film actually connected Hulk with Iron Man.

Of course, none of this escapes the fate of being acquired. Do you think this is a bit similar to the situation in front of you?

At that time, Hollywood was also in a critical period of transformation. The six giants were in a state of confusion. I wondered how to take the next step, whether to continue traditional large-scale production or transform into 3D production?

At this time, Disney bravely took the first step, acquiring Marvel for US$4.2 billion in cash and stocks. Marvel has since had the most powerful marketing and derivatives production chain.

Disney has completed a key step in its transformation. With Disney as its support, Marvel's marketing expenses have increased several times, the entire industrial chain has been completely opened up, and the IP value of superheroes has finally shone.

Starting from "Iron Man" and "Invincible Hulk", Marvel began to pay attention to the value of IP, gradually reclaimed the copyright of the sold IP, and built the Marvel cinematic universe through one single film after another.

Each movie has common story elements, plot setting and character integration, paving the way with easter eggs between each movie, using suspense to connect the entire story logic, and continuously extending Marvel's vitality.

At that time, this collective commercial film operation thinking connected all the films of a production company, which was unprecedented in Hollywood. Of course, now, this concept has also achieved unprecedented success.

Since the failure of "Invincible Hulk" and the success of "Iron Man", Marvel no longer uses difficult-to-control first-line actors as the leading actors, but boldly uses second-line actors with image and temperament in the choice of superheroes. The directors also choose non-famous directors. On the one hand, it compresses the production cost, and on the other hand, it also ensures Marvel's absolute control over the film style.

Looking at Marvel movies, except for "Spider-Man" which has relatively more light comedy elements, other movies still show a relatively unified visual style under the directing of different directors.

This is the key. Without a unified style, the audience will feel confused. There is no need to spend more. Just one movie can prevent a considerable number of viewers from entering the cinema.

Moreover, Marvel has controlled the production costs of all films very well, mostly around 200 million US dollars, and the global average box office of all films easily exceeds 800 million US dollars. This profitability is enviable, but as the saying goes, the factors of Marvel's rise are indispensable.
Chapter completed!