Chapter 829： Political bottom line is torn

If every major studio goes through a cycle—booms-peaks-troughs-booms-falls… this year has been a low point for Fox.

In particular, Fox is not because of the normal reasons such as poor production business or too little distribution share, but the party that has been affected - Fox's parent company News Corporation has been keeping down the eavesdropping door of public opinion. It finally broke out.

A few days ago, the British newspaper The Sun was first accused of bribing the police, reporting adverse events and manipulating power to add to the scandal. Then, the former British head of News Corp. was arrested by the London police, and it was even reported that the head of the group, Rupert Merger, was to be detained. Doc.

As for what Labour leader Ed Miliband is proposing to dismantle Murdoch's media empire and prevent the abuse of power;

Former British Prime Minister Brown delivered a speech in the House of Commons, angrily denounced the "despicable behavior" of Murdoch's media;

And the current Prime Minister Cameron also took this opportunity to "disconnect" with this huge news empire;

There are also a large number of media colleagues who have been holding their breath for a long time and directly united to attack Murdoch's son James, asking him to step down from the chairman's seat - Murdoch is already old, if he can bring his son down, the group will directly The change of ownership, the management's major cleaning, is a very sinister move.

It can be said that the wiretapping door has directly shaken the "political bottom line" of the British ruling party, tearing up the past glamorous, forcing those politicians who have fought fiercely with Murdoch to stand up and draw a clear line.

What is everyone shouting and beating? That's all. After all, the paper didn't cover the fire.

Affected by this, the executives of the entire group in the UK have been targeted, and one or two have to be questioned. Many businesses are afraid to carry out indiscriminately, for fear of being slapped again, they can only pretend to be dead, but secretly they must be actively public relations.

After all, despite the great loss, News Corp. was not dismembered as the public saw it, and survived...  

And this year's summer season, Fox did not launch a blockbuster, only a romantic comedy "Love in Las Vegas" with a production cost of less than 55 million, silly sister Cameron Diaz + Ashton Coetzee Acting as male and female starring, it was released for 5 days, and the North American box office exceeded 19 million, which is not very eye-catching but not bad.

Of course, even if the business is not going well, Fox is still one of the largest studios in Hollywood, and there is no need for outsiders to worry too much.

the next day.

Lehman came in, and Fox executives were enthusiastic.

This is also true, who is not interested in cooperation that can benefit?

Fox has the resources and channels, but what is lacking is a good movie that can make its own advantages play a role, and then realize it.

For these studios with a complete distribution system, dialogue with theaters, and more initiative, this is very important, and it is the wealth generated by circulating and satisfying the market.

With the success of Mann Media day by day, Lehman has become more and more "strong".

This is the way of the world.

When the producer is strong, the distributor and the theater chain are "weak"; and vice versa, even if you kneel and beg, no one will look at it.

A lot of things, see too much will be indifferent.

She responded with a smile and entered a reception room.

Bill McNico shook hands with Lyman and said politely: "Lehman, congratulations, "Iron Man" has achieved outstanding results, and all of this is inseparable from your careful direction."

"Mr. is serious, but it just happens that the audience likes it." Lehmann responded neither humble nor arrogant, and was very adaptable to this routine of praising first.

At this time, Isaac, the president of Fox TV station next to him, also followed up and said: "That's right, in the film and television industry, don't we just try to make it as popular as possible for more audiences. "Iron Man" can create such a dazzling effect. The transcript of the report, the potential can be described as immeasurable, or congratulations."

"Yes, yes. Come on, let's sit and talk." McNico politely extended his hand, and the three of them took their seats.

After talking about some scenes, Isaac said: "Mr. Rust, you want to buy back Daredevil's copyright, can you talk about it in detail?"

Fox executives were very curious, and neither of them could guess what Lehmann was thinking, and then they heard him say, "After I acquired Marvel, people often proposed to me to take back the characters. I am more supportive of this matter, after all, this As far as I can afford, like your company's Daredevil, I think I can sit down and talk."

The words were euphemistic, but Isaac and McNico exchanged glances, and they all felt that Lyman was bullshitting. What's the point of looking for nothing?

"To be honest, Fox still has some disagreements about Daredevil's rights, so..."

Lehman sighed slightly, and then said, "So, what do you two think? After all, this matter has to be discussed, and there is a result."

Isaac's eyes lit up, and he immediately mentioned with a smile: "The copyright is not non-transferable, but we hope that you can cooperate with Fox when shooting Daredevil-related projects."

"Mister thinks too much." Ryman bluntly said, "Marvel's recovery of copyright is true, but I don't know how to deal with Daredevil, and there is no special direction. But when it comes to cooperation, everyone's energy is limited after all, so I I was just thinking about the "Captain America" ​​that has been clearly planned for the Marvel project, I wonder if you are interested?"

The two were stunned, this time the turning point was a bit big.

How to talk about Daredevil, and how to become Captain America?

Originally, they planned to discuss with Laiman whether it was possible to jointly develop Daredevil. After all, the failed project was more risky, but if someone had the budget, there would be a certain amount of traffic attention. This kind of thing is changed to any studio, and the top management will move this idea.

On the contrary, if Lehman didn't mention it, because of the experience of losing once, Fox would not expect to make money by developing Daredevil, but if it was given away for nothing, in case it happened again, wouldn't it be regarded as a joke by the industry people, it would be disgusting .

Therefore, Fox does not have the idea of ​​being too cheap, but he does not want to be completely ignored.

But Leiman's idea was that if you don't have all the copyrights for a TV series, then it's not necessary - the income is not high, and it is shared with others, so just put it on hold, and everyone will save some effort.

Furthermore, because of the success of "Iron Man", Lionsgate President Jon Feilermei always called him when he was okay, and he wanted to get a piece of the pie, if he had any projects that could be released by them. , the commission is still low.

But because of the particularity of the Marvel project, Lehmann does not value the small favors at the box office. It is completely different from the other projects produced by the company. With the idea of ​​"in one basket", Warner has limited resources and certainly cannot provide all of Marvel's resources. It is very necessary to pick a few more allies.

Even if it was Disney in the previous life, the internal inclination of project resources would make Marvel give way to some high-quality projects, leaving the schedule empty.

Just give an example.

The summer season is a bit more general From mid-April to the end of August, it is a little bit sticky, but this is close to a 4-month box office spree. A studio can release at most two blockbusters, because of market capacity, publicity The energy can only support so much, and the rest are just thrown into a few small-cost projects.

Even if you add Christmas, in fact, it is roughly maintained at about 3 blockbusters.

And Lehman's plan for Marvel has been perfect. As long as "Iron Man" is successful, at least 3 movies will be released every year on average in the future. How to arrange it is difficult for any studio, because no one can eat them all. Announcement and schedule are impossible, not to mention taking care of "outsiders" wholeheartedly, regardless of their own projects.

You don't need to think much. Once there is a conflict in the schedule, whose interests will be sacrificed and left out, it's obvious, okay?

In addition, it takes time to establish an overseas distribution network, and it also takes energy to maintain the channel. If you can tie up a few capitals, the transition to self-reliance will be less stressful and will not be crowded out too much. This is also the advantage of finding more allies.

If everyone has the same interests, it is not impossible to hold your nose and tolerate it for a while.

This is also Lyman's calculation.