Volume 4: The World of Great Conflict Chapter 0370 Paramount Judgment
"Not necessarily. He is so powerful, and we have never heard of him. This means he is not on our path. Since we are not on the same path, there is no need for him to step on us.
It seems that his family members were really present in the Shanghai Palace a few days ago.
Zhan Kui, find out quickly whether Qiu Chishan is really dead. If he is dead, and it was done by the FBI, then you really have to pay the money. "
If Qiu Chishan was shot secretly, Wu Jiazhao would not worry at all. Although someone touched the head of the bed this time, the defense around him was not tight to begin with, so he just had to be more careful in the future.
However, if it was really done by the FBI, then the power of this Nan is very powerful and cannot be provoked.
"Seventh Uncle, that's more than eight million. This will empty my family's assets." Yin Zhankui said with a painful look.
"Which is more important, money or life?"
Nan Yi's original idea was to kill Yin Zhankui and Wu Jiazhao quietly, but when he calmed down and thought about it, he realized that if he really killed these two people, there would be a power vacuum in Chinatown.
Basically, they will be encroached upon by the Xinan Gang or the Mafia, and then wait for the next Chinese force to rise and drive them out of Chinatown.
How many Chinese people in Chinatown have suffered greatly from this process?
I didn't kill Bo Ren, but Bo Ren died because of me. Nan Yi really can't do such a thing that harms others and does not benefit himself.
Nan Yi returned upstairs and saw Nan Ruoyin carrying a "chicken wing" to the sky garden. "What time is it now? Are you ready to grill?"
"No, such a big chicken wing, of course it has to be smeared with honey and smoked. It's so heavy, Dad, how heavy do you think this chicken wing is?"
"About thirty pounds, don't call it chicken wings, it's impolite."
"Ostriches can't fly, so they can only be considered chickens . I don't know if chicken wings this big are tasty or not."
"It's OK. It's similar to beef, but the texture is more delicate than beef. Don't cook it. Send it to Scarlett and let Renault cook it. This meat is not cheap. Don't waste it."
"Dad, didn't you say that girls should know how to cook? I'm learning how to cook now." Nan Ruoyin said righteously.
"Come on, you are just a little girl, what kind of girl is that?"
"It's the same. Never mind. I'm going to make smoked chicken wings today." As she said that, Nan Ruoyin continued to carry the ostrich wings and walked towards the sky garden.
Nan Yi shook his head and went to the kitchen to put away the remaining ostrich meat.
An African ostrich weighs nearly 300 kilograms, and its neck is enough for three people to gnaw on for a meal. I guess not many people would buy a whole one. In the future, sales will still have to focus on restaurants. Nuwa Animal Husbandry should not raise too many animals.
Nan Yi put away the ostrich meat and started studying "Paramount's Judgment".
The most profitable business is the monopoly business. Everyone knows this, so the industry leaders will do their best to obtain a monopoly position.
However, monopolies hinder competition and are very disadvantageous to consumers in the long run. Therefore, Washington will always use some means to limit monopolies and keep the market actively competitive.
For the Hollywood film industry, the battle between big companies' pursuit of monopoly and Washington's anti-monopoly efforts has been played out countless times over its century-long history.
One of the most critical turning points was the "Paramount Decision" in the 1940s, which broke the vertical monopoly of the Hollywood Big Eight over the entire film industry.
The defendants involved in the "Paramount Ruling" were the eight major film companies that occupied an absolute dominant position in Hollywood at the time. These eight companies could be divided into five major ones and three small ones.
The five big ones are Paramount, MGM, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, and RKO, which control the three links of production, distribution, and screening; the three small ones are Columbia, Universal, and United Artists, which only do production and distribution, and they do not own cinemas.
Since the 1920s, these eight major studios have attempted to monopolize the film industry by aggressively acquiring luxury cinemas in major cities in the United States. Although in terms of quantity, the cinemas they control only account for a small portion of the country's cinemas.
But what they control are the high-quality first-run cinemas in each city, which are the main ticket warehouses. In terms of box office share, the Big Eight have already achieved a monopoly position in the domestic market.
Small producers and independent non-chain theaters have been squeezed out, making it difficult for small producers' films to enter the first-run theaters controlled by the Big Eight, and non-chain theaters also find it difficult to get the Big Eight's most popular films.
The strategies of the eight monopolies include packaged distribution, extending the intervals between rounds, and screening films in their own theaters according to exclusivity in different cities.
Washington certainly cannot sit idly by and watch this kind of operation.
As a result, the judicial department initiated a lawsuit and brought all eight major film companies and theaters to court.
Although Washington won most of the lawsuits and the eight major countries signed various agreements and guarantees, who would sit back and watch the money go by?
To pretend to obey and actually disobey, and not to implement it, this is definitely what the question implies.
During World War II, Washington had no time to care about Hollywood affairs, so the Big Eight took advantage of this opportunity to occupy about 20% of the movie theaters in the United States.
Although the number seems small, 90% of these 20% cinemas are first-run theaters, and the number of films released accounts for as much as 75%.
So after the end of World War II, Washington, which had freed up its hands, began to deal with the Big Eight again.
According to the Sherman Antitrust Act, the local court determined that although the Big Eight Hollywood studios did not attempt to monopolize the production of films, there were indeed a lot of monopolistic practices in the distribution process, which must be broken.
Initially, the New York District Court proposed to negotiate with the Big Eight to come up with a "film distribution system that can ensure sufficient competition," but this idea was rejected when it was sent to the Supreme Court for approval.
The Supreme Court believes that the system proposed by the New York local law is simply not feasible. What's worse is that in order to monitor whether the BGAs are implementing this system, it is necessary to waste manpower and material resources and engage in long-term tracking of the BGAs' daily operations.
It’s not cost-effective to do this, so we might as well think of a good way to solve the problem once and for all.
A good idea is to permanently separate cinemas from the Big Eight film studios. As long as the production, distribution and screening are not done by the same company, the previous monopoly practices of the Big Eight will naturally fall apart.
Ultimately, the process of the Big Eight divesting their theaters lasted for more than thirty years and has not yet been completely completed. However, the illegal means used in distribution operations disappeared very quickly.
According to the Supreme Court’s requirements, film distribution will no longer be a packaged package of multiple films, but each film will be negotiated individually, and all theaters will be treated equally based on the quality of the film .
In turn, theaters are not allowed to discriminate against distributors.
However, Nan Yi looked at the strategy proposed by the Supreme Court in his hand and found that it actually had loopholes. No wonder several of the eight major companies are now eyeing cinemas again.
In accordance with the Supreme Court's requirements, the Big Eight split into a film company and a cinema chain, and both parties are not allowed to interfere with each other's operations.
If a film company wishes to re-enter the screening process, or a cinema chain wishes to enter the production and distribution process, they need to appeal to the Supreme Court [state the situation]. The Supreme Court will only approve it if it is determined that it will not hinder competition within the industry.
This is a bit nonsense. As long as the two companies are still controlled by the same group of shareholders, it is still relatively easy to take care of each other, although it is not as convenient as before.
However, despite this, this has also resulted in the weakening of the Big Eight's control over film distribution channels, all films have been given fairer competition conditions than before, and films from independent film companies have more opportunities to enter theaters.
This has led to the current situation in which there are countless independent film producers in Hollywood.
However, this situation changed after Reagan came to power. Reagan pursued neoliberal economics and had very loose supervision over trust monopolies. He implemented a policy of small Washington, non-interference, and efficiency first, which was equivalent to reversing Roosevelt's New Deal during the Great Depression.
The Sherman Act was also reinterpreted during this period, and some behaviors that were previously considered monopolistic were now legal.
This foreshadowed the arrival of a period of large-scale mergers. Since the 1980s, there have been many corporate mergers in China, and many companies have been expanding rapidly in either a low-key or high-profile manner.
The Big Eight also smelled the opportunity. In 1980, before Reagan entered the White House, Love Theaters applied to the Supreme Court for permission to resume their film distribution business. Unexpectedly, the Supreme Court actually approved it.
Although there were some additional conditions, such as the Love family could not show their own films and tried not to conflict with Paramount's rulings, etc.
Decades ago, Love Theaters was actually a subsidiary of MGM. In this way, Love Theaters has returned to MGM in disguise.
In 1981, Columbia purchased a 48% stake in Waterley Reed Cinemas and also obtained a license.
In 1983, CBS, HBO and Columbia Pictures jointly established TriStar, and their merger was not blocked because it was believed that it would increase internal competition in the film industry.
After all, the three companies are production and distribution companies and are not involved in theaters.
But not long after, TriStar Pictures began to merge with Love Cinemas, and this move was actually encouraged by the Supreme Court. Recently, owners of independent cinemas have begun to speak out, calling for the abolition of Paramount, saying that the ruling would endanger free competition in the film industry and ultimately harm the interests of the audience.
But their appeal did not receive anyone's support. Samsung's successful acquisition of Lufkin was like the first shot in the Big Eight's counterattack. In an instant, the Big Eight merged internally and became the Big Seven.
Then one after another, Warner Bros. made a big move and bought shares of many cinema chains at once; Paramount spent 300 million US dollars and acquired more than 100 cinemas at once.
Then the big move began. Warner invested in the theaters owned by Paramount, and the two major companies began to join forces.
The other big ones, except 20th Century Fox, are actually connected to each other. The purpose is very simple. Independent film producers and theaters have to rely on them, and independent films must be distributed by one of the big seven.
Otherwise, just go to the cinemas one by one and see how many people will pay attention.
This ensures that the Big Seven can get the fattest piece of the Hollywood film industry pie, while independent film producers can only eat the leftovers.
If an independent film producer believes that his film has great potential, he must hand it over to one of the seven major companies for distribution. Otherwise, no matter how good the film is, it will not have a chance of getting a high box office.
Nan Yi took out a calculator and calculated the cinema chain's investment payback period and rate of return. He also calculated the investment in future theater renovations and projection equipment updates. The result of his calculations showed that he was not optimistic about investing in cinema chains in North America because the payback period was too long and the rate of return was not high.
You can consider investing in cinema chains in Asia, especially in mainland China, where the rate of return will be higher.
The Fang Group's Fang Plaza construction plan in East Asia has been launched. In East Asia, Fang will soon be able to set up a cinema chain. When Hong Kong films are popular, they will show more Hong Kong films. If they can't wait, they will seamlessly connect with Hollywood blockbusters.
"Dad, try it and see if it tastes good."
Nan Ruoyin came to Nan Yi with a large piece of ostrich wing meat on a barbecue fork.
"Are you kidding me? How long have you been smoking? Ostrich meat needs at least a day and a night to be smoked. Give it to me, let me smell it." Nan Yi took the barbecue fork, smelled it, and frowned, "What kind of wood did you use to smoke it?"
“No wood is used, it is smoked with walnut charcoal.”
"I……"
Nan Yi jumped up from his chair. More than two hours had passed. How much walnut charcoal must that damn girl Nan Ruoyin have used of his?
"Haha, Dad, I was kidding you, I used apple tree wood."
"Then your cooking skills are really bad. I don't smell any fruity aroma at all. Come on, dad will teach you how to smoke meat."
