Chapter 576: Disney in Action

"They went to the Warner Building yesterday, and today they're touring the Twentieth Century Fox Headquarters in Century City."

Inside the chairman's office at the Disney Headquarters in Burbank, Dick Cook frowned. "Our people made contact with them, but they rejected our invitation," he told Michael Eisner.

Michael Eisner slowly tapped his fingers against his desk. "The situation isn't in our favor."

"It really isn't," Dick Cook agreed. Thinking about the feedback from across the Pacific, he added, "Our initial contact with them went smoothly, but that all changed once Time Warner and the News Group jointly proposed the Warner Fox World concept."

It was obvious that, aside from the resounding Disneyland brand, Walt Disney currently could not compete against both Time Warner and the News Group on any front.

"If we lose this project," Michael Eisner said, his brow creasing slightly as he struggled to find a way out of their current predicament, "it will be extremely detrimental to Disney's future—and to ours."

An investment of this scale was a contest of both public relations and overall strength. On either front, Walt Disney was at a disadvantage.

Dick Cook understood this, and he was equally aware of just how important the Disneyland project was to them.

Today's Walt Disney Group was no longer the empire Michael Eisner had single-handedly controlled a decade ago. The Disney family, led by Roy Disney, had become the largest opposition faction. With their backing, along with the support of other obscure factions, Robert Iger had been actively lobbying within the group, causing a great deal of trouble.

Ten years ago, they could have easily kicked Robert Iger out. But he had gained the support of certain voting shareholders, making his removal no simple task. Furthermore, the loss of Pixar Studio had left many shareholders extremely dissatisfied with both him and Michael Eisner.

The stances of these shareholders were slowly shifting. Although quite a few still supported them, winning over those who had turned neutral was a matter of utmost urgency.

How could they win those people over? Dick Cook knew perfectly well that their logic was simple: whoever could bring returns on their equity would receive their support.

Looking across North America and the entire Western world, Walt Disney was merely a newly risen media conglomerate, incapable of competing head-on with those veteran companies. Furthermore, with the departure of Pixar Studio, their most renowned division—animation—had lost its pillar of support, causing their market competitiveness to plummet. Emerging markets had thus become their lifeline.

That was why they were actively pioneering across the Pacific, aiming to establish a comprehensive foothold for their products.

But now, this plan faced a severe threat and might even be derailed entirely.

The chairman's office fell into a brief silence. Michael Eisner was carefully considering how he should respond if the Disneyland project fell through.

Only a select few knew that his ultimate goal was not simply to transform Walt Disney into a massive, world-class media conglomerate. Since being hired and brought to power by Roy Disney in the 1980s, he had constantly pushed Disney to issue new shares for financing. On one hand, this raised the necessary capital for expansion; on the other, it diluted the equity held by the Disney family.

After twenty years, he had finally engineered the current situation: the equity held by the Disney family was now less than six percent!

Walt Disney was no longer the Disney family's Disney, but with his own equity sitting at just over five percent, it wasn't Eisner's Disney either.

Many years ago, Michael Eisner had formed a singular ambition: to truly become the master of a media company, just like Rupert Murdoch and Sumner Redstone!

To this end, he had formulated a long-term strategy, firmly controlling the position of Walt Disney's chairman. Using every opportunity presented by share expansions, financing, and stock option rewards, he gathered as much of Disney's assorted equity as possible, laying out a plan spanning decades to achieve it.

However, this plan had constantly encountered setbacks in recent years. The most severe was undoubtedly the departure of Pixar Studio. If the Disneyland project were to fail now, it would be a blow equal to—if not greater than—losing Pixar.

Faced with this predicament, even someone as formidable as Michael Eisner felt a sense of powerlessness. He knew who was scheming and driving all of this from behind the scenes. If it were just Duke Rosenberg and Time Warner, he and Walt Disney would still have the strength to compete. But by pulling the News Group into the mix, the other party had made it clear they didn't intend to give Disney any chance at all.

Just as the Hollywood rumors claimed, Duke Rosenberg had never been just a simple director. Beneath that placid face lay a deeply calculating mind.

Strictly speaking, there hadn't been overly fierce competition between the two sides at first. But Pixar Studio was too tempting—a prize large enough to make anyone turn against their allies. Duke Rosenberg and Time Warner reaching out to take it was the most normal of commercial behaviors.

"Are we just going to give up?"

To Dick Cook, whether considering the situation in Los Angeles or the news coming from across the Pacific, it was almost impossible for Disney to win. Rushing to invest more resources would only result in further losses. Rather than wasting time and energy on a hopeless project, it would be better to pull back their forces and concentrate entirely on dealing with the Disney family and Robert Iger, stabilizing Disney's internal situation first.

But the market over there was too massive, and its future potential too alluring. How could Michael Eisner resign himself to failure? He thought for a moment before saying, "If something could severely distract Duke Rosenberg and Time Warner, we might have a chance to turn the tables."

After all, this was a project involving a massive investment. The other side couldn't possibly make a final choice immediately; Disney wasn't entirely without hope.

Dick Cook pinched his chin, his mind working rapidly. Half a minute later, he suddenly suggested, "Duke Rosenberg, Warner Brothers, and Marvel Pictures have laid out a massive initiative. Iron Man is the beginning of that entire plan. If this beginning were to run into trouble..."

He paused for a moment before adding, "Why don't we push the release of Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest up to early May? We can use a blockbuster sequel to compete against a brand-new project..."

As everyone in the industry knew, under normal circumstances, the competitiveness of a blockbuster franchise's sequel was something a new project simply couldn't match.

But Michael Eisner shook his head, rejecting the proposal without a second thought. "We can't take any risks with Pirates of the Caribbean. It's Disney's only signature brand in live-action film. Besides, from the day the sequel was greenlit, all our marketing has been centered around a July release."

His expression turned serious. "Don't forget, Cook, Iron Man is being directed by Duke Rosenberg. There aren't many people in this world like David Ellison."

Hearing this, Dick Cook could only offer a wry smile. The shadow Duke Rosenberg had cast over Hollywood these past few years was simply far too towering.

However, it wasn't as if no one dared to challenge him. For instance, David Ellison, who had lost disastrously with Flyboys, was reportedly already plotting a new project, intending to vie with Duke Rosenberg once more.

"Are we just going to watch them edge out the Disneyland project?" Dick Cook asked, unwilling to let it go.

"Watch?" A cold sneer touched the corners of Michael Eisner's mouth. "Don't forget, Duke Rosenberg was the one who reached out and snatched Pixar Studio first, and he's the one who instigated Warner Fox World from behind the scenes. How could we possibly just sit and watch them succeed?"

Dick Cook could see that Michael Eisner already had a plan in mind.

"Since they want to escalate this competition," Michael Eisner said in a slightly sinister tone, "we'll use the most extreme methods to compete with them."

In Hollywood, there was no shortage of methods to employ from behind the scenes.

Michael Eisner gave Dick Cook a few quiet instructions. After leaving the chairman's office, Cook immediately pulled out his phone and made several calls in rapid succession.

Duke knew that given Michael Eisner's personality and style, Walt Disney would definitely counterattack. He had also considered the possibility that the other party might resort to underhanded tactics, and he had taken a number of preventive measures.

But none of this was the focus of his work right now. While busy with the post-production of Iron Man, Duke also extended an invitation to Mountain Eagle, who had come to Los Angeles with the delegation, inviting him to formally visit Duke Manor as a guest.

"You seem to place a lot of importance on him and the market behind him."

In the living room of the Eye-Shaped Villa, Scarlett watched the housekeeper, Emma, lead the servants in busily setting up the small banquet hall. She turned to Duke beside her and asked, "I've seen the overseas reports for Taken and Batman Begins. If you convert it to USD, the total box office for both films over there doesn't even reach 50 million dollars. The cut that actually makes it into your hands is even less."

"Darling," Duke said, gently patting her back, "this is called looking toward the future."

In the past, he could have completely ignored that side of the world. But now, they were getting closer and closer to an explosion in that market. The WTO memorandum of agreement between China and the US regarding film and other cultural products was about to take effect. It was time to seize the market.

Although the capacity of the North American market was massive, it couldn't experience any more significant growth. The market across the Pacific was undoubtedly the biggest piece of the pie for the future.

Indeed, for a variety of reasons, film revenue over there relied heavily on the box office. But North America had gone through that exact same phase. Audience consumption habits and awareness had to be cultivated slowly; no market was mature in its early days.

As the sun shifted west, word came from the manor gates that Mountain Eagle's car had arrived at the estate. As the host, Duke offered his arm to Scarlett, and the two walked to the entrance of the villa.