Chapter 479： Sniper from Paramount

Yin Jun was already in the United States when he received news that Chen Qizou was negotiating to seek Datong on behalf of Henglong Group and Qilin Culture.

At this time, the place where Yin Jun arrived was still in the suburbs of Los Angeles. The hotel where Tian Jiachun came last time was not far from Tang Shuxuan's house.

This time, in addition to the two bodyguards, Yin Jun ’s assistant was Ding Linxiang. She shouted that the last time she brought it was pure. This time it was time for her to come to the world. Yin Jun could n’t help her. Can only bring her over.

Suddenly came to the United States because something went wrong, and then there is another thing that he needs to decide.

The troublesome thing is actually the issue of the release of "Avatar".

"Puzzle Raiders" has been fully filmed as early as February, and returned to the Yankees in February, and Spielberg began post-production.

While producing on one side, Spielberg also edited a rough version, ready to be shown to the managers of major theaters, in order to seek the number of screens released.

As far as Spielberg and Lucas are concerned, they are very satisfied with "The Treasure Hunt", hoping to get at least 1,000 screen premieres.

From 1963, 17 years ago, the predecessor company of AMC, for the first time in the cinema, after the introduction of multi-hall cinema, the construction of multi-hall cinema has become the mainstream of the North American cinema market. The cinemas are all about 4-8 halls.

Oh, yes, AMC is the second theater company in North America that was later bought by Wang Shoufu.

When the first movie of "Star Wars" was released in 1977, less than 600 screens were released, but then gradually increased. At its most prosperous, more than 3,000 screens were released, accounting for almost 70% of the United States The number of screens in medium and large movie theaters.

It ’s been three years now, and the number of screens in American cinemas has increased a lot, plus this is the screenplay and producer of Lucas, the director of Spielberg, and the star of superstar Harrison Ford. Cass is absolutely the most anticipated. It is simply too easy to get the favor of the cinema.

Unfortunately, things are not as simple as imagined.

After looking for the top three theaters in North America, they all got the answer to "maintain a cautious attitude towards this movie". The most AMC gave 400 screens. He said he would not consider large-scale screenings in his theaters.

As for some small regional theaters, they valued the talents of Spielberg and Lucas, but the number of movie theater screens they gave was not much, and they were very scattered. There are only two of the top ten cities in the United States. Only more than 50 screens, so there is no effect at all!

As we all know, the heavyweight of the movie box office is the top ten cities in the United States. Sometimes New York can occupy more than 10% of the box office. In addition, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, Boston, Atlanta ... and other cities, Add up to at least 70% of the source of the total box office.

There is another point. If these cities fail to form a word-of-mouth box office, the distribution of "Avatar" will definitely be hit hard. This will undoubtedly be a huge blow to Lucas, which attaches great importance to the foreign market.

"Raiders" is absolutely not bad, and it is an excellent movie, which everyone knows, Lucas and Spielberg firmly believe this.

But why can't these cinema lines be seen?

Their vision should not be so low.

Fortunately, Lucas and Spielberg's relationship network in Hollywood is very large, especially Spielberg is still Jewish, so after some setbacks, they finally found the reason.

It turned out that this was Paramount's ghost.

Before Lucas was talking about cooperation with Paramount, but Paramount was so greedy that Lucas had been hesitant. After meeting Yin Jun, seeing the loose conditions given by Yin Jun, immediately It was decided to put aside Paramount and cooperate with Yin Jun.

In Hollywood, such things actually happen often.

This is true whether it is a substitution between a small production company and a cinema distributor, or a cinema deliberately squeezes a small company in order to obtain more profits.

Paramount didn't care at first, but with Spielberg's shooting, and feedback from various parties, he told Paramount that "Avatar" is an excellent movie, so Paramount immediately Greed.

Hollywood is still the seventh largest in name right now, but the 20th century Fox has fallen into recession, and Colombia is so-so, only Warner Bros. is the strongest.

The second count is Paramount.

Paramount is now in their recovery stage. Since Barry Diller took over Paramount in the mid-1970s, he and his two assistants directly rejuvenated the old Paramount and gradually chased it. Come up, it has been very beautiful in recent years.

Such a powerful Paramount, it is relatively easy to want to block Lucasfilm.

At the beginning, Lucas planned to calm down, and he simply handed over the distribution rights of "The Treasure Hunt" to Paramount. Anyway, the big companies negotiated and operated, and he could save a lot of effort.

But the conditions given by Paramount made Lucas laugh.

They proposed a 15% box office share, but they were only responsible for contacting and guaranteeing a minimum of 1,000 screens. The rest of the cost of publicity, copy processing, insurance, warehousing, transportation, labor, public relations, etc. were all charged by Lucas. Out of business.

This is completely out of compliance!

If you only contact the number of screens released, the publisher will get up to 5%. If they get 15%, basically the above expenses are all paid by them, and the producers do not need to pay a penny at all.

If you can get 20%, in addition to the above-mentioned costs, the issuer must bear it, but because the producer is very weak, it can't be compared with the issuer.

But even the weakest producers will never be able to pay such high distribution fees to the distributors and bear such costs at the same time.

Because of this calculation, at least 30% of the box office is removed, plus about 45% of the theater line, the producer can take up to 25%!

The 25% share does not include taxes and other expenditures.

Lucasfilm's "Job Hunt" cost US $ 25 million in production costs, plus Lucas invested 5 million shares with technology, personnel, and team shares. The total investment is 30 million US dollars.

Because of the injustice like Yin Jun, Spielberg is more refined than before, and spends it cleanly.

According to this ratio, the box office of US $ 120 million is the tax-free profit and loss line. At least 150 million is needed to ensure that no loss is made. If you want to make money, you must go to the box office of at least US $ 200 million.

How many movies can reach 200 million at the box office?

I have been exhausted for half a year and got such a result?

This is only the North American market. Paramount ’s distribution fees have soared to 30% overseas. Similarly, Lucasfilm can only get a 20% box office share, which is even more profitable.

As a result, they did not negotiate.

In late March, Lucas again sought 20th Century Fox, Columbia, and even Warner Bros., but the results of the negotiations were not very satisfactory.

Lucas and Spielberg knew that this was because of the pressure exerted by Paramount. These movie giants often went back and forth together. For the sake of a Lucas film industry, it was really impossible to offend Paramount.

Therefore, Lucas had to call Yin Jun as a last resort and wanted to discuss with him what to do.

Yin Jun thought about it and decided to personally come to the United States to deal with the matter.

On the one hand, he wants to show the importance he attaches to this cooperation. On the other hand, he has thought of a good way. If it can be solved smoothly, he wo n’t be able to gain the friendship between the two major directors, or even develop in Hollywood Fewer benefits.

It is not easy for Yin Jun to come to solve this matter.

"It's Michael Eisner's ghost!"

Sitting in the restaurant of the hotel, Huo Jianning was eating a steak, and he was very upset.

At this time, he is far from the old fox 40 years later, but a young man full of enthusiasm for the future.

After spending more than half a year under Spielberg, Huo Jianning talked a lot, "Since the end of last year, he has started to pay attention to this movie. He sent two people to Europe and North Africa. For the sake of participation, but our funds are already abundant, so neither Lucas nor Spielberg agreed. When the edited film came out, Paramount himself came to see him. He did n’t say anything at the time. But after passing by, these things happened, and it was disgusting to think of it! "

"Is it okay if I don't agree with him?" Ding Linxiang, who already knows the whole story, asked unconsciously, "Although Paramount and other seven parties in Hollywood are very powerful, I heard that the cinema line has nothing to do with them. The law requires movies Companies ca n’t own cinemas! So would n’t we just go and find a few more cinemas? Is n’t it small? Not afraid of small ones, as long as they are united, they can have enough screens! "

The 30-year-old Ding Linxiang is hot and well-behaved, but she is definitely not a vase. She is an authentic high school student graduated from Xiangjiang University. She is good at various negotiations and public relations. Spreading it is simply amazing.

In her own words, "This girl is a man who can be capable of writing."

The remarks just made her seem to have research on the American film industry.

Because of the previous decades, American film companies have both production companies and cinemas, and they are also athletes and referees. Therefore, the American Fair Competition Commission decided that they formed a monopoly and demanded that they be split.

Since then, the film company is a film company, and the theater line is a theater line.

Therefore, Ding Linxiang feels that although the film company has a great influence on the theater line, it is impossible to control all the theater lines. As long as the small and medium theater lines can be combined, in large and medium cities, there are enough 1,000 screens to be released. It was a victory.

"You think so, that's because you don't understand the film market in the United States." Huo Jianning shook his head. "Although it seems that the Hollywood Seven and the Three Cinemas have little relationship, everyone knows that only the movies of the Seventh It is the most profitable, so the supply-demand relationship is a delicate balance, and the theater line cannot ignore their ideas.

And those small and medium theaters, they do n’t mind betraying the Seventh Congress, but the key is that their power is usually very weak. Only 20% of the movie theaters in the top ten cities in the United States are not from the three major cinemas, and these 20% are usually In black settlements, relatively remote communities, etc., it is not in a prosperous area at all, and many fans usually do not choose to go there to watch blockbuster movies.

If we do n’t have any pursuits and just want to make some money, it ’s not impossible to unite them. Both Lucas and Spielberg feel that it has perfect expressive power and should conquer Americans and conquer the world, so they very much hope to be released in large cities, rather than squeezing into small cities and struggling. "

"Michael Eisner still seizes 15% of the issuance fee, and has no relief?" Yin Jun asked.

"Yeah, I really don't know where he came from. It doesn't matter that he is now the chief executive of Paramount's film studio, but he is nothing compared to Lucas and Spielberg! Huo Jianning said disdainfully.

Yin Jun nodded and smiled.

Yes.

Now Michael Eisner is not much, but after 4 years, this man will usher in the beginning of his most brilliant career.

At that time, he was in danger and became the president of an animation and theme park company on the verge of bankruptcy, and then spent 21 years trying to build it into the world's top three entertainment empire!

The name of this animation and theme park company

Called

Disney.

Although Michael Eisner left Disney and fought for half his life between the betrayals and family members, no one could deny his contribution to Disney! No one can wipe out his contribution to Disney! !

Everyone knows that without the foundation laid by Michael Eisner, it is impossible for Disney to take off in the future and become the No. 1 super entertainment group in Hollywood!

Not only Michael Eisner, but now the three giants of Paramount ~ www.novelhall.com ~ are all super giants that Hollywood will play an important role in the next two decades.

President Barry Diller took Paramount back to its peak, and then turned to join Murdoch ’s 20th Century Fox, which built the fourth largest news TV network in the United States for 20th Century Fox. Genius in the field of television networks.

Moreover, this Barry Diller is also interested in new things and has a sensitive sense of smell. In the Internet era, it is also a brilliant business as an online business platform.

Another vice president is Jeffrey Kasenberg, in the future he will be the founder of Hollywood's emerging giant-DreamWorks, and he has made an industry super giant such as DreamWorks Animation Studio.

The Pixar acquired by Disney, plus Disney ’s own animation department, should have been invincible in the world, but only DreamWorks Animation is their biggest opponent, and they are strong in producing their own style of movies, which is highly respected by the industry. An animation company.

In this, Kasenberg is indispensable.

Now Michael Eisner comes out and wants to **** the fruits of "Puzzle Rogue", but this is sure that the remaining two giants are also aware of it.

Their no objection, or even support, can Michael Eisner mobilize Paramount's huge resources to suppress Lucasfilm.

Otherwise, who would recognize you as Michael Eisner?

Giving face is not personal, you are a senior worker, and face is for Paramount!

Thinking of facing three giants in the future of Hollywood, Yin Jun feels that this time the journey of the release of "The Treasure Hunt" is indeed not easy.

...