Chapter 816： Re-cooperation with Universal

Monday, March 25.

Around 9 a.m., Lyman and Liam, along with the company's legal staff, arrived at 100 Universal City Avenue between Los Angeles and Burbank.

This park is as imposing as Warner City, revealing the foundation of 5 major.

Speaking of which, Comcast, the parent company behind Universal, the second largest Internet service provider in the United States, had revenue of more than 870 million last year from its advertising business alone. In 2004, it proposed to acquire The Walt Disney Company for $66 billion. , but finally gave up the acquisition due to the opposition of the other party, Hao's yuppie.

It's just that Universal is backed by such a thigh, but Comcast's support for Universal is the same. As long as the performance is poor, it is a rebuke, but it is not as good as Fox's position in News Corporation.

To put it bluntly, when people engage in broadband and network services, they only place Universal in the media channels to drain and monetize. It’s not as good as News Corp.’s goal for Paramount is the top of the entertainment industry, and Comcast is very clear that the film and television industry is not rich. It’s just fun, and you have to produce content that the audience likes, otherwise it’s all for nothing, and it just so happens that you can’t be in a hurry with this kind of thing.

Let’s make blockbuster movies, because you are afraid of losing money and the management position is not guaranteed, so you can only shoot more projects that are easy to generate profits, such as low-cost comedy themes.

Like "Meet Your Father-in-Law" series, "American Pie" series, "Fake Gods" with Jim Carrey, or "Beanstalk", "BJ's Single Diary", "Spring Heart", "Forty" "The Old Virgin" and so on, etc. In the past few years, almost half of Universal's focus has been on comedy, which is simply a comedy professional.

Therefore, for the first-line blockbusters that Firefly may come up with - without them taking any risks, how can it be unwelcome.

The little girl at the front desk had probably been told before. When she saw someone coming, she greeted them and made an internal phone call.

Soon, Nassim Ellison greeted him with several executives.

After chatting all the way, we went to a meeting room that was arranged.

Both parties are efficient people. After a simple courtesy, they still have to talk about the project.

Ryman took out the prepared documents, including market audience analysis, sci-fi market prospects, and part of the "District 9" and handed it to Universal.

Next to him, Liam said in a timely manner: "This is the most thoughtful movie our company has prepared recently. The production budget is about 130 million. The purpose of coming here today, I also talked to you before, it is about distribution and peripherals. Promotion, I don't know how many..."

Nasim smiled and took over the words: "Our company still recognizes Mr. Lehman's directing ability, and is very interested in this cooperation. We can guarantee the Christmas schedule this year, but North American channels and overseas distribution, Does your company have any other requirements?"

When Lehman heard it, he raised his hand rudely and interrupted: "I only mentioned overseas distribution, but North America has not clearly stated that you will take over. You also know that Firefly has its own distribution system."

Nassim is not bothered either. It's not that Blue Butterfly Pictures has any business strength that cannot be inquired or analyzed. A first-line masterpiece like "The Ninth District" is still an original project, and it only depends on the popularity of Lehman and the main actors. Blessing is not enough in terms of publicity, because the theater dealers can't make room for the number of theaters that should be matched - if there is no big five to help distribute.

So seeing that he refused so bluntly, I just thought it was a price-pulling method.

Nassim smiled, "You two, you can listen to our conditions first. We are sincere, and we will be very satisfied in case."

They are still very optimistic about "The Ninth District" internally, mainly because Lehman deserves this expectation, not to mention anything else, as long as it can achieve the results of "The Mist", Universal relies on the distribution operation, not only to help the channel business, Profit margins are also not small.

Well, at least you don't need to consider whether the project you invest in and make will lose money.

Therefore, after a small meeting yesterday, the global executives have determined to actively strive for the project's distribution business.

And Universal gave 15% of the box office, 13% offline, and even Liam on the side was a little careful with the conditions of bearing the cost of copying, recording and transportation, with 15% of the revenue from omni-channel In comparison, it does make some concessions.

It's just that I haven't completely touched the psychological expectations...

Lehmann said calmly: "Not enough, if that's the case, I still hope that Universal will not participate in North American distribution. The majority of distribution rights in the North American market belong to Blue Butterfly. You are responsible for the communication with the theater, and Blue Butterfly is responsible for copying and publicizing. How? "

Several global executives sitting across from each other glanced at each other.

If this offer is not accepted, then combined with the fact that Blue Butterfly must participate in the announcement, they probably guessed a little of the intention.

It is nothing more than expanding the channel business, not wanting to give up the North American market, and the bulk of the global distribution can only be overseas.

However, it is too "low price". When Spielberg was still at DreamWorks, he didn't call it that.

But it seems that Spielberg didn't make money without him, and people haven't lost it yet.

Nasim thought for a while and then asked: "The two of you have a very optimistic attitude towards the project, but can you have specific expectations?"

"Let's put it this way." Lehmann pointed to the material, "This is a very creative project, not just as simple as science fiction. I think it should be a work that is easier to achieve than "The Mist", of course, this is just a My opinion as a director is for reference only.”

If other directors say this when there is no feature film, Nassim will not believe much, but he also knows a little about Lehman's character. In order to surpass "The Mist", it may be a lot, such as breaking 500 million in the world.

And the project is a sci-fi movie, even if it is not as simple as sci-fi, in terms of performance in overseas markets, the market limitations of sci-fi works are also not large. The combination of the two is still very tempting.

"Director Lehman, you have your own production company and distribution company. Of course, you should know the factors that affect the performance of a movie, far more than the quality and content. The proportion of publicity and distribution is very high. It is difficult for me to believe Blue Butterfly's publicity channels. If we can promote such high-investment works, if we can’t open up the situation, the impact on overseas markets will also be great. If we really want to do this, this part of the loss is far higher than the fees charged by the global agency.”

In a word, Blue Butterfly may not be able to bring so much media traffic, so there is no need to support it.

Lehman said: "I don't deny the importance of publicity, but if the film itself is not worth investing in resources, even if it has the strength of the channel, it is useless. I have confidence in my project and am willing to spend money, as long as Universal provides enough theaters, and we can talk about the next step.”

This also makes sense. Lehman's biggest advantage is his market vision from later generations, and his accumulated production experience over the years, which allows him to identify the deficiencies of certain projects and then find ways to supplement them, such as shooting some out. The brain-damaged plot that was sprayed, he can avoid stepping on the pit again in advance, like Wen Ziren is far smoother than the previous life, Sophia was not dragged down by "The Peerless Queen", and in the "No Hulk" project, Marvel brought Bruce Banner and Hulk. The primary and secondary of the dual mind is too reversed, and it has become a sabotage movie...

This is the market experience that the filmmakers spent a long time shooting, thoughtful, and trial-and-error in their previous life.

Just like the failure of "The Golden Compass", everyone understands that children should not go to the epic title for magic movies, and the audience will be bored. When they enter the theater, they feel that they have been deceived by the propaganda, and then they give bad reviews.

People all over the world are lost in thought.

Many people have analyzed the success of Firefly, and have come to one point, that is, Lehmann's production ability and film selection vision are the guarantee of everything.

Every year, I can shoot works that far exceed the market revenue rules The dark horse is always from the firefly, once or twice is lucky, but it has been 5 years, it is really good vision.

If Universal had such a slap in the face and cooperated with their channel system, it would not have beaten Warner, kicked Paramount, and won the first market share, wouldn't it be because there was no guarantee?

Seeing that they didn't speak, Lehman eased his tone, "Overseas, Firefly is incapable of intervening, and we agree with the 15% cut. You may not know that when we cooperate with Lionsgate, we pay 100%. Of 10, but "District 9" is different from "Twilight" and "I Am a Hero", there is no traffic blessing, um, you understand what I mean." - If it wasn't for Lionsgate, I would have looked for them long ago. After all, the original work of "Twilight" is sold all over the world, and it is mainly aimed at teenagers. The same is true for "I Am a Hero". It is not without foundation, and the slogan of the sequel can easily attract audiences.

"I admit that we don't have enough weight in the theater chain to get more support from the theater chain, but with such a little help, right, in exchange for a project with a budget of 130 million, you don't have to worry about anything."

Eyes converge for a few seconds.

Nasim nodded as if persuaded, "Let's talk about the details of the cooperation."