Chapter 246： Legendary Pictures

Legendary Pictures is no stranger to everyone.

It is the creator of the so-called "monster universe" - "Godzilla", "Kong: Skull Island", "Godzilla 2".

Before that, it was just a new production company.

The company's founder, Thomas Tour, had no idea how to make a movie.

This guy was originally a financier in the field of private finance. Before starting a film company, he was the CEO of vex (a venture capital firm focused on media and entertainment).

At an occasional dinner party, an executive of MGM complained to him about the dilemma of film financing today. Trust-Tour, who has a keen sense of smell, came up with the idea of ​​using private funds to intervene in film investment.

After several years of preparation, Thomas Tull persuaded the vampires on Wall Street with his excellent eloquence. After raising $500 million from the private equity firm behind them, he established Legendary Entertainment Pictures - which is also one of the same companies. The first film production company to be directly backed by private Wall Street shareholders and hedge fund investors.

Therefore, he is not short of money, and he has a large amount of flowing funds in his hands.

But what is he missing, a project that makes money beget money.

As I said just now, he doesn't know how to make movies, and he didn't think about independent production either.

He is playing with capital, so it doesn't matter if he has the ability to produce.

According to his idea, he only needs to cooperate with some excellent production companies, he will invest, the other party will produce movies, and the two parties will divide their interests. Can't everyone make money? Mutual benefit and win-win.

And he really did it.

If there is no Firefly Pictures in this time and space, Thomas Tull will take a ride with Warner Pictures, and the two sides will jointly sign a seven-year cooperation agreement, which stipulates that in the next seven years, the two sides will jointly invest and Produced 40 film and television works.

After the two sides joined forces, the first masterpiece to choose to cooperate was "Batman: Time for War".

Speaking of which, Barry Mayer is also an old fox. He understands that the board of directors is always worried and unwilling to set up a project, so he simply finds a bad guy and asks people to invest money in it and take the biggest production risk, while they just lie down and make money. That's it. In this way, the board has no reason to stop the development of the Batman project.

After the two sides agreed, Legendary Pictures paid most of the shooting funds, but the distribution rights and film rights were completely in the hands of Warner. Except for the box office and part of the offline revenue, they had nothing to do with Legendary Pictures. get.

According to incomplete statistics, the profit income of "Batman: Time for War" is almost more than 400 million (all the peripheral income is added up), and Warner directly eats more than 300 million, making a lot of money, and the legend, He also earned close to 100 million, but in comparison, he paid the most, took the most risk, and took the least.

But Thomas Tour didn't say anything, and chose to continue to cooperate - after all, the contract was signed.

After so many years of cooperation with Warner, such as "Spartan 300 Warriors", "The Hangover", "Watchmen" and "Inception" have been produced in North American box office of over 100 million US dollars. Movies, but they are not without losses, and productions such as "Water Spirit" and "Don't Mess With Ants" also lost a lot.

Moreover, what makes Thomas Tull more dissatisfied is that Warner's attitude towards Legendary Pictures has always been very harsh - not only the list of cooperative films is given after screening by the other party, but the absolutely high-quality and risk-free projects are tightly shaken by Warner. No chance at all, like Harry Potter. And Warners is also reluctant to help Legendary build its own production division.

From then on, Thomas Tour knew that, as a veteran of the Big Six, Warner Bros. did not want Legendary Pictures to become its own competitor. They hoped that Legendary Pictures would remain silent forever, as long as the money was thrown out.

As a result, the contradiction between the two parties was accumulated from the beginning, and then gradually deteriorated.

After the contract expired, Legendary Pictures immediately invested in Universal Pictures.

But the world is as black as crows, and Universal is not a serious bird.

After Thomas Tull gave up, he was acquired by Wanda Group (yes, Pharaoh.) for $3.5 billion (cooperating with Universal, losing money every year, and Wall Street investors were very dissatisfied), and he could only cash out.

but.

"He wants to see me? Why?"

Lyman frowned slightly after receiving the call. Of course he knew Legendary Pictures, but he didn't know who Thomas Tour was.

Also, who would pay attention to the president of a certain film company.

"I'm not sure, I'm just in charge of passing the word. He has made no less than three phone calls." Johnson replied on the phone.

Lehman thought about it for a long time, and really couldn't figure out what he had to talk about with the boss of Legendary Pictures, but he still didn't refuse.

In the afternoon, after the two parties agreed, Lyman drove to a private club by the beach in Santa Monica.

This meeting was very grand.

"Mr. Ryman, please, Mr. Tour is already waiting for you inside."

After entering the clubhouse, a beautiful blonde girl in a foreman professional suit immediately greeted her.

Lyman followed behind her, turned left and right, and came to a brown room.

The girl knocked on the door, and the two entered.

"Mr. Tour, the guest has arrived."

There was a small wooden table in the room, surrounded by sofas.

Thomas Tull smiled at Lyman and nodded again. The girl at the front desk withdrew.

"Hello, Mr. Ryman."

Thomas Tour stood up and took the initiative to reach out.

Lyman shook his hand and responded.

The two sat down facing each other again.

"This is one of the most authentic French restaurants in Los Angeles. Even the ingredients are flown in from France. You can try it later."

"Mr. Tour has a heart."

Lehmann said something indifferentlyThomas Tour probably knew what he was thinking, and the other party was not very appreciative.

But he didn't mind, and let the waiter outside take a box of cigars.

He took the scissors, cut along the wrapper, and handed it to Lyman, "Do you want one?"

This time, Lehmann did not refuse. For him, food is good, but his pursuit of food has always been low. It is enough to fill his stomach and taste good.

In fact, most directors are also like this. After all, what can be delicious during the filming of the crew, he will also feel good when he eats a fast food.

The smoke gradually rises, and the mellow aroma of the cigar is further released.

To be honest, Lehman is now a little curious about what the other party is looking for him for.

It's not necessary to say that the other party is just here for friendship.

It's strange that the posture is so low that there is nothing to look for.