Chapter 306： recruit generals

After Zack Snyder and Abraham left, Ryman went to the financial room and asked the representative of the accounting firm stationed here, "How are the company's accounts this month?"

The man was a tall, thin, middle-aged white man with glasses. He smiled at Laiman, flipped out the ledger and handed it to Laiman, while reporting: "This month, the company's revenue is mainly from "Micro Love". The North American box office share, Paramount, in the past two weeks, the accounts of 73.26 million have been delivered one after another, and the peripheral income of the company's previous works, including "Chainsaw", a total of 6.23 million US dollars, In addition, Europa Pictures has already delivered the overseas share of the first part of "Micro Love", which is about 13.25 million, and there are more than 70 million left, which will also be received in recent months."

Well, although "Micro Love" has not yet been released from overseas, the cumulative total in various regions has reached 230 million US dollars. According to the current trend, it is estimated that it is difficult to break through 300 million, and the landing point is about 250 million to 280 million. .

"In terms of expenditure, in addition to the daily management and personnel salaries, and the bonus issue a few days ago, the total amount is 7.42 million US dollars, plus the taxation of 17.22 million US dollars, the total expenditure is 24.64 million US dollars."

The tax of more than 17 million is still due to the premise of active tax avoidance. This also makes Lehman understand why most of the rich in the United States like to support charities and establish personal foundations. Let the state government take it away. Without him, there are too many tax items, and the tax on the "middle class" is too high.

Lehman thought for a while and said: "Prepare 30 million to the bank account created by Schneider in advance, and then there is a 30 million shooting budget, which will be paid slowly depending on the shooting situation. Also, how much money do I have now? ?"

The financial representative took out another ledger and said: "The money didn't go to the company's account, and they all asked Paramount to directly credit your bank account. If you include the director's salary and some box office incentives, there is a total of 9 million US dollars. , and, in terms of overseas and offline income, you can also draw a director’s share. In addition, Europa Films also gave an incentive red envelope, about 200,000.”

In this way, Lehman's personal assets have reached more than 22 million US dollars, plus the shares of the company and various studios, a Beverly Hills mansion and a Mercedes-Benz commercial car.

Of course, he is happy to have money. After Lehman signed it, he let the firm continue to take care of his private property, and then said: "Remember to send a part of the income to Ryan."

"Well, boss, I know. However, adding the original company's balance, as well as subsequent box office revenue and market revenue, the company's book liquidity is likely to reach 500 million. Boss, you don't want to try to invest this part of the money. Would you like to? Our firm has a lot of good projects that can help you run it.”

This accounting firm is the top in the industry. They have undertaken a lot of business. They also hope that such a good asset as Lehman will be operated by them, but the problem is that Lehman does not feel that there is a lot of money.

"The company has other plans." Ryman declined.

The man smiled and said no more. After all, it's best to be natural, but it doesn't matter if you can't, anyway, for him, it's just performance.

After Layman checked the accounts, he left without explaining anything to him.

He has been thinking about the distribution channel in his heart. After all, he watched his own project and tried his best to operate it successfully. As a result, most of the income had to be divided with the channel dealers, which was eaten by others wantonly, and he did not care about the complaints. , If you say that you are very willing, you must not have such a good attitude.

Moreover, the business is getting bigger and bigger, no matter what, for a production company, the importance of channels is understood.

No one wants to be strangled all the time, even if Paramount is actually a good partner, but in the business field, it is not always the relationship that has the final say.

Moreover, if the project is not profitable, Paramount must not have such a good attitude.

If you want to have a company that can be distributed in the United States, Lehman has also roughly estimated the market, and it will take 2 to 3 years to pave the way for its own establishment, and the cost will be roughly between 100 million and 150 million. The reference object, DreamWorks, that's how they built their North American distribution network.

There is also the acquisition of a company with a mature business, which will generally be more than 200 million, and the upper limit is extremely high. The reference object, Lionsgate Pictures, with the support of the major international investment banks behind them, waving banknotes, broke into Hollywood, and acquired a company with good distribution and production in one fell swoop, and established a foothold.

Lehman's method is naturally the latter, which means that a large amount of liquidity needs to be prepared, sometimes even higher than the market price, in order to impress the hearts of those shareholders.

After all, an investor with a distribution company and a good business will definitely be able to make money. Just like Lionsgate in the early days, it is easy to be a second-order dealer and distribute the projects of many other small production companies. profit.

There is a clear prospect of a profitable company, and no one will sell it without a high price.

After Lehmann walked out of the financial room, seeing that the company had nothing to do, he planned to go to Warner Studios to see the movie that "Top" was tinkering with. How was the progress.

Before I could leave, the girl at the front desk of the company called and said that Johnson was here.

When Lehman heard it, he thought that he had been ordered to collect the appropriate distribution companies in the industry.

Didn't think so, but didn't.

According to what he means, it is not easy to find an issuing company that has good conditions in all aspects and whose shareholders are willing to sell their shares. He is still collecting information, and he has not found any interested parties.

"Then you came here, what's the matter?" Lyman asked.

"It's the headhunting company that has a target. Don't you want to find a few suitable company managers? They found one. UU read "

"Who?" Lyman asked.

Johnson said: "Former executive at MGM, Benjamin Joseph."

"Will he come?" Lyman asked.

"This person left MGM half a year ago and has never looked for a job again. The headhunter I arranged has contacted him, and he has plans to start a new job."

"Why did he leave MGM?" Lehmann asked curiously.

"According to the investigation of the headhunting company, this person was the victim of the internal power struggle at MGM. The conflict between the top management and the board of directors made him firstly assigned from the head office to the British branch as the executive president. It went up, but he stayed there for three years, failed to return to the core management of the head office, and simply resigned."

"Then is he willing to join Firefly Pictures?"

"I don't know, but we have made an appointment to meet, and the rest is whether our conditions can impress each other."