In February, "Ready Player One" directed by Spielberg was released.
The plot of this movie is actually very simple, it is the story of breaking through levels and winning treasures in the game.
But after it was released, it immediately detonated the film industry, attracting countless audiences to flock to the theater to watch it.
The reason for this is because "Ready Player One" is not about the plot, but the feelings. Hundreds of easter eggs make this movie the best object of nostalgia for movie fans.
In this movie, Spielberg has almost integrated well-known IPs in film history, as well as all the movie IPs he has ever directed.
Such as Superman, Alien, Gundam, King Kong, The Shining, Terminator, Batman, Iron Man 5, Chucky, Jurassic Park, Saturday Night Fever, Dungeons and Dragons...
These IPs belong to different film companies, and it is extremely difficult to combine them into one film. At least Xiang Nan only used the IP of Universal Pictures when he filmed "The Universal Universe".
Spielberg made his debut in the 1970s, and it has been more than 40 years now. He has a very high popularity and status in the industry. He has also cooperated with major film companies and has a strong affection.
So he just said hello and took all these IPs. Xiang Nan might not even have this kind of face. I really have to admire it!
In the end, the North American box office of "Ready Player One" was 250 million US dollars, and the global box office was close to 800 million US dollars. Spielberg still has such creativity at the age of seventy-two, which is really admirable.
…
In March, the Oscars ceremony was held, Xiang Nan went with Cong Shan as usual, and returned empty-handed as usual.
This year's big winners are "Green Book," "Roma," and "Bohemian Rhapsody." It is worth mentioning that the drama "Roma" is distributed by Netflix.
NETFLIX has been launching self-produced dramas since 2013. Before that, as an online video platform, it has always launched programs produced by other companies.
Until 2007, Sony Pictures and Disney Pictures suddenly announced the cancellation of cooperation with Netflix and removed all their movies. As a result, Netflix, which had a good development momentum, fell into a content crisis, and the outside world worried about its future. .
After all, an online video platform like it is severely restricted by the content provider and is choked by people. Once they cancel their cooperation with it, it will not be far from closing.
As a result, Netflix's stock price plummeted, from forty dollars per share at the peak, all the way down to only ten dollars per share. In this case, Netflix decided to withdraw from self-produced film and television dramas in order to get rid of the shackles of content suppliers.
So in 2013, "House of Cards" was born. This series became very popular after it was launched, and it also made a name for Netflix's self-produced series.
After that, Netflix made persistent efforts and launched many self-made dramas, self-made documentaries, self-made movies and so on.
Because online video is favored by investors as a next-generation entertainment method, with more and more users and higher profits, its stock price is getting higher and higher, with a price-earnings ratio of 380 times.
The so-called price-earnings ratio refers to the ratio of stock price divided by earnings per share. The higher the price-earnings ratio, the more optimistic the company's potential is. Generally speaking, if the price-earnings ratio is more than 20 times, it is considered a high price-earnings ratio.
For example, Google’s price-earnings ratio is 20 times, Apple’s price-earnings ratio is 27 times, Facebook’s price-earnings ratio is 11 times, and Universal Pictures’ price-earnings ratio is 20 times.
It is also because of this that Netflix financing is easier. And EASYMONEYEASYGO, because the money is easy to come by, it is naturally not distressed to spend it, so Netflix is more willing to invest in some themes and stories that other film companies dare not shoot.
Such as this "Rome", Martin Scorsese's "The Irishman", JC Chandor's "Three Frontiers" and so on.
The themes of this type of film are mostly niche, and the story is different from the three-stage style prevailing in Hollywood, which is more stylized, so investment has certain risks. Other studios are afraid to invest, but Netflix is.
Naturally, some of the movies lost money, but there were also some movies that achieved very good results.
Because in the past decade or so, mainstream Hollywood films have gradually become more conservative, and most of them are blockbuster special effects films with ordinary stories and ordinary characters, all relying on special effects and scenes to attract audiences.
The most classic example is the superhero movie under Universal Pictures.
None of these movies have a particularly exciting story, let alone compare with classics such as "Titanic", "Forrest Gump", "Shawshank's Redemption", and "The Godfather".
Even compared with popcorn movies such as "True Lies", "Prison in the Air", "Air Force One", "Die Hard", and "Death Island" in the 1990s, they are far behind.
The audience has actually started to get a little tired after watching blockbuster special effects movies for so many years.
Therefore, these niche movies and alternative movies invested by Netflix are becoming more and more popular, and the evaluation is getting higher and higher.
This can be seen from the increasing number of awards won by web series and movies at various awards ceremonies.
For this reason, NETFLIX announced that it will spend 13.7 billion US dollars in the future to invest in the production of movies and episodes.
Such an investment amount is astonishing. For a giant like Universal Pictures, the annual investment amount is only about 1.5 billion U.S. dollars.
Netflix's 13.7 billion US dollars is equivalent to nine years of investment by Universal Pictures, which shows that it is really ambitious.
…
Xiang Nan also knows that the online video platform is the future of film and television drama development.
On the one hand, with the development of technology, people do not need to go to the theater to enjoy movies.
For example, the resolution of DVD in 1996 was only 720X480, but with the development of science and technology, 4K video is no longer new, and its resolution has reached 3840X2160, which is 24 times the resolution of DVD.
In the future, 8K, 16K, and 32K videos will no longer be new, and they will already be comparable to the clarity of cinemas. Moreover, 20 years ago, TVs were generally 25 inches, but now the mainstream is 75 inches. In a few years, 100-inch and 200-inch TVs will not be uncommon.
In addition, there will be VR and AR technologies in the future. Watching movies at home can completely obtain an audio-visual experience that is not inferior to that of theaters.
On the one hand, traditional film giants are bound by their hands and feet, and they are less and less afraid to innovate. In the modern commercial society, it is no longer the big fish eating the small fish, but the fast fish eating the slow fish. Whoever is more adaptable to the situation and who is better at innovation will succeed.
Compared to the conservative and cautious Hollywood giants who dare not innovate, the aggressive and innovative online video platform actually represents the future.
That's why Xiang Nan bought YouTube early and invested in Netflix.