America 1982-Chapter 439 - 66: I’m Used to Standing on the Side Where There are More People

While enjoying the fine dining, Tommy casually heard some interesting Hollywood anecdotes from Herbert, the Vice Chairman of Warner’s Board of Directors.

In the eyes of the outside world, Hollywood is filled with freedom, inclusivity, and a constellation of stars, home to hundreds of film companies, large and small, and the sacred land of movie art for countless men and women who dream of becoming stars.

But in the eyes of the real Hollywood magnates, it isn’t so crowded; in fact, there are not even six major companies, only two major groups.

According to many business magazines, the six major companies of Hollywood today are Universal, Warner, Paramount, Columbia, and Fox.

Aside from the first five, the sixth spot is subject to varying opinions; some magazines hail Disney as the sixth major film company, while others insist that MGM deserves to be among the top six.

The reason for the dispute over the sixth spot mainly lies in Disney’s film library size, which is considerably smaller than the first five companies or MGM, along with lower film output and more limited categories, focusing primarily on animated films.

As for MGM, once a powerhouse in the silent film era, now even its contention for the sixth spot is questioned because its film library has already been bought by CNN, and if MGM wanted to re-release its previously shot films, it would need to seek authorization from CNN’s owner, little Turner.

Of course, whether it’s the big six or the big seven, in any case, to the outside world, the real bosses of the Hollywood film industry are these giants, solid and invulnerable, who often lobby together for certain interest-related bills or collectively take action against other capitalists trying to reach into Hollywood.

In reality, these major companies can be broadly divided into two factions. Warner, Disney, and MGM share an extremely close relationship, with Warner acting as the leader of this small group. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

The other faction includes Paramount, Universal, and Fox, which no longer care about who’s the leader, since Paramount and Fox are effectively under the command of the same mogul, Barry Diller, which, in a sense, means these two film giants share one president.

There’s also Columbia, which should be counted among Paramount’s faction, as its current president, Dawn Steel, also comes from the Diller camp of Paramount. However, for a few years now, the company has carved its own path, disinterested in competing commercially with other movie companies. Both major factions also hold special sentiments towards Columbia, so it is regarded as neutral.

The lack of interest in competition is naturally because all Jewish executives from top to bottom in Columbia have, since 1982, focused on one thing: shearing the wool of the inexperienced owner, the Coca-Cola Company, boasting a proud record of causing a loss of 1.6 billion US dollars throughout Coca-Cola’s seven-year ownership of Columbia Pictures.

Coca-Cola couldn’t understand why Columbia had several seemingly successful films each year, yet managed to show negative growth when it came to calculating profits.

Of course, the Coca-Cola Company isn’t foolish; they realized that Columbia’s executives were pocketing their money, so they decided to perform a major cleanup and look for new people to take over, leading to six major management reshuffles at Columbia Pictures within seven years.

Each time they recruited elite talent from other movie companies, each one with the ability to turn stone into gold before joining Columbia. Yet, once in charge of Columbia, they immediately became inept at making profits, drafting corporate strategies that even Coca-Cola, a company that only knew how to sell soft drinks, couldn’t help but frown upon.

All in all, this acquisition taught Coca-Cola a lesson, that it could make money all around the world, except in Hollywood.

Moreover, the cleanups were ineffective; whether the executives were from England or other countries, upon arriving in Hollywood, they were just as powerless. If they dared to break the rules, they were immediately embroiled in all sorts of scandals and forced to resign.

This left Coca-Cola with a profound impression of Hollywood’s influence.

Coca-Cola could only assure its shareholders at the annual meeting that their loss of 1.6 billion US dollars wasn’t entirely futile; during the seven years of holding Columbia, all movies produced by Columbia featured product placements of Coca-Cola, so the 1.6 billion could be considered advertising expenditures.

In fact, executives from the other five companies also indirectly participated in Columbia’s seven-year feast; otherwise, with six cleanups at Columbia, where would so many Hollywood-savvy management talents come from to fill the positions?

Therefore, despite losing money, Columbia Pictures always received unanimous praise from its peers, often recognized by the other five companies as the number one film company in Hollywood. This prestige also made the Japanese Sony Corporation, eager to establish a name in the United States, very interested, as it was in talks to acquire Columbia.

One could say that in Hollywood, Columbia Pictures is like an unruffled crane amidst the clouds, possessing a transcendent status and considered the honorary leader of Hollywood, upheld by the other companies.

The remaining five companies are the true forces stirring the storms of Hollywood, battling like the feuding families in Romeo and Juliet.

Steve Ross, the Jewish President and CEO of Warner, since the day he acquired the nearly bankrupt Warner Bros for 400 million US dollars in 1969, became a thorn in Paramount’s side, as his involvement thwarted Paramount’s plan to acquire Warner at a low price.