Across America, Starting with the Boxing Champion

 Chapter 538 Cooperation

 After receiving the child, apart from training for a few hours of boxing every day, I spent the rest of the time at home taking care of the child.

With her older sister and brother around, little Margarita had more fun, running around behind Alexander and Cynthia every day.

Sometimes little Annie, Selena, and Tiffany would come over to play, and the Mid-Levels Villa became a paradise for children of all ages, with noisy activities from morning to night every day.

"World War Z" has been in theaters for four weeks, with the North American box office reaching 200 million US dollars and the global box office exceeding 500 million US dollars.

The North American box office of "Now You See Me", which was released until the end of its release, was 120 million, and the global box office officially exceeded 350 million.

Coupled with the large amount of embedded advertising revenue in the movie, Lionsgate Pictures made more than 150 million US dollars in profit from this movie.

Also this week, another comedy movie of good quality from "Lionsgate Pictures" was released.

The film, directed by "Bridesmaids" director Paul Feig, tells the story of female agent Sarah and violent policewoman Shannon who team up to hunt down a Russian drug cartel.

The two leading ladies are Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy.

Sang Po is an Oscar-winning actress and a top actress in the industry, while Melissa is an actress who became popular with "Bridesmaids". In the first half of the year, she starred in "Identity Thief", which grossed US$160 million at the North American box office. She also became popular with this movie.

Both of them have high box office appeal in the North American film market.

The film was originally planned to be released in March, but during internal test screenings, everyone received good reviews for the film. Therefore, the distribution department postponed the film to the summer release in order to achieve better box office results.

The box-office data of "Dragon Girl" are also worthy of the special arrangements made by the distribution department.

It grossed US$39.11 million in three days of premiere in 3,181 theaters.

On its 15th day of release, the North American box office exceeded 100 million, becoming Lionsgate's fifth film to achieve a box office of over 100 million in North America this year.

Compared to the 807 movies released publicly in North America last year, only 26 movies had a box office of more than 100 million in North America. The situation this year is probably similar.

Among the movies released by Lionsgate in the first half of the year alone, 5 of them grossed over 100 million in North American box office.

Considering that Lionsgate Pictures still has eight films that have not yet been released, including "The Hunger Games 2", "The Wolf of Wall Street" and "Insidious 2", "Complete Movies" magazine predicts that Lionsgate Pictures will have about 7-8 films that will break the North American box office this year. 100 million.

If the predictions of "Complete Movies" are accurate, Lionsgate's movies with a box office of over 100 million in North America this year will account for almost 1/3 to 1/4 of last year's.

From this point of view, Lionsgate Pictures' total box office this year is very likely to continue to rank among the top five or even top three in the industry.

For this reason, the top executives of the six major film studios are under great pressure and have frequently held internal meetings to discuss how to improve the box office performance of their films and prevent Lionsgate Pictures from getting into trouble?

The result of the discussion was that there was nothing we could do.

Of the 700 to 800 films publicly screened in North America every year, less than 1/5 can make back their money. Even if the six major film studios increase film production, there is no guarantee that the films will make money. Maybe they invest in too many films and lose more. .

Since there is no way to improve the box office performance of movies, we can only find ways to restrict and suppress Lionsgate movies. Unfortunately, Lionsgate has independent distribution and promotion channels, as well as Netflix, an online video distribution platform, and does not need to rely on the six major channels.

This also makes it impossible for the Big Six to seize the vitality of Lionsgate Pictures.

Just when Warner Pictures was preparing to join forces with Weinstein Pictures, Legendary Pictures and others to restrict Lionsgate Pictures, news came that Paramount Pictures was preparing to cooperate with Lionsgate Pictures.

Paramount Pictures recently signed a five-year cooperation agreement with Lionsgate Pictures.

The agreement stipulates that the two parties will jointly finance and produce 20 film and television works in the next five years. The premise of this cooperation is that Paramount Pictures will pay Lionsgate Pictures' production expenses of up to 1 billion US dollars in stages.

Lionsgate Pictures has strong production capabilities and accurate control of film market trends, while Paramount Pictures, backed by Viacom Media Group, has extremely strong promotion and distribution capabilities around the world.

The strong alliance between the two parties will definitely achieve very good results at the movie box office.

After the news was reported by the Los Angeles Times, New York Post and other media, it aroused heated discussion in the film circle.

In the past three years, Lionsgate Pictures has performed strongly in the film market. With an annual production investment of US$5.6 billion, it dares to compete with the 'Big Six' film studios. Miraculously, it won last year and ranked third in the industry in terms of total box office. , it is very likely to continue to be among the top five this year.

Paramount Pictures' performance has been mediocre in recent years, with its annual total box office often ranking fifth or sixth, rarely ranking among the top three.

If this continues, Paramount Pictures will likely be left behind in the ‘Big Seven’.

In this case, Paramount Pictures’ choice to cooperate with Lionsgate Pictures seems very ‘risky’.

For the six major film studios, Lionsgate Pictures is definitely an unpopular character. The best way to deal with this kind of role is to restrict the development of Lionsgate Pictures and prevent it from continuing to grow and eat up the six major film studios. box office share.

However, Paramount chose to cooperate with Lions Gate. If the cooperation is successful, Paramount may surpass the other five companies in the future and achieve a better ranking among the "Big Six".

If the cooperation between the two parties fails, Paramount Pictures is likely to languish in the future and be far behind the other major film companies.

"The Hollywood Reporter" called Paramount Pictures' bet on Lionsgate Pictures a "surprising decision." Regardless of the cooperation between the two parties, competition in the film industry will become more intense in the next few years, even There will be major studio bankruptcies, and the source of all this is 'The Rise of Lionsgate', more precisely, it started with Link's acquisition of Lionsgate.

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"Haha, Link, congratulations on cooperating with Paramount. It will be more convenient for us to make movies together in the future."

At the reception celebrating the 500 million box office of "World War Z", David Ellison smiled while holding a wine glass.

Link nodded. This cooperation was first proposed by Brad Gray, chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures. David Ellison, who works in the production department of Paramount Pictures, also tried his best to broker the proposal. Backed by Sumner Redstone, chairman of parent company Viacom.

After several rounds of negotiations, the two parties signed a cooperation agreement and temporarily became allies.

This proposal has more benefits for Lionsgate. First of all, with an extra 1 billion project funds, Lionsgate can make more movies in the future.

Secondly, with the support of Paramount Pictures, Lionsgate Pictures' promotion and distribution capabilities will be strengthened, and the film's box office performance will be better.

In addition, after reaching a cooperation, Lionsgate Pictures can also give priority to investing in Paramount's movies. For example, movies with box office potential such as "World War Z" can be given priority to participate in investment as long as Lionsgate Pictures is optimistic about it. without being left out.

More importantly, after cooperating with Paramount Pictures, it can also break the tacit understanding between the 'big six' film studios, making it impossible for them to join forces to deal with Lionsgate Pictures.

These benefits are why Link agreed to cooperate.

"Are there any good projects recently? I mean big projects with an investment of over 100 million yuan. I like big projects."

David Ellison asked.

"Lionsgate Pictures currently doesn't have many blockbusters. In addition to "The Hunger Games 3", the tentative movies include "The Expendables 3". Are you interested?"

Link thought for a moment and said.

"I have seen the promotion of "The Expendables 3". Will you be the protagonist in this one?"

"Yes, the absolute protagonist."

"Okay, I'll follow."

David Ellison said without hesitation.

"You haven't read the script yet and you want to follow?"

"Haha, of course, so far, the movies you have starred in have never suffered a loss. I don't believe that this one will lose money. Even if it does, I will accept it."

David Ellison winked and smiled.

Link shook his head. He couldn't guarantee that "The Expendables 3" would not make a loss, because the script was completely new and an unprecedented movie. He was not sure whether it would make a loss after it was made.

In order to reduce risks, he wouldn't mind bringing in some film companies to jointly produce it.

"Hi Link, David."

"World War Z" actor Brad Pitt walked over with his wife Angelina Jolie.

Pitt's Plan B is also an investor in this film. This is the second time that Lionsgate and Plan B have collaborated after "Moneyball." Both collaborations were considered successful.

This time Brad Pitt approached him and proposed a new cooperation project, which was a film adapted from a documentary novel.

It tells the story of several investment geniuses on Wall Street who saw through the illusion of the subprime mortgage crisis in advance during the 2008 global financial crisis, and profited significantly by shorting subprime mortgage CDS, becoming one of the few investment tycoons who made large profits from the financial disaster.

After hearing this script idea, Link thought about a similar movie called "The Big Short". The box office was unknown and it was nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture. It should be good.

When Brad Pitt asked if he was interested, Link said he would recommend the project to the production department, and the specific cooperation would depend on the project plan.

"Link, I heard that you are now a baby daddy at home. Do you like children very much?"

Angelina Jolie, with long brown curly hair and a red dress, stood next to Brad Pitt and looked at him with a smile.

This woman is beautiful and **** in appearance. Her eyes seem to be sparkling when she looks at people. She always gives people the feeling that she wants to sleep with me.

Link didn't know if it was an illusion, and didn't want to go into details. He smiled and said, "Yes, Ivaca and Taylor are both busy, but I am relatively free. I spend most of my time at home taking care of my children."

"Haha, it's so funny. A big-name person like you actually takes care of your children at home every day. Brad, you should learn from Link."

Angelina Jolie taps Brad Pitt on the shoulder.

"Yes, being a dad is a very interesting experience. When I finish the work at hand, I will also prepare to take care of the children at home."

Brad Pitt shrugged and laughed.

"Link, I have a very good project in hand. It tells a fairy tale similar to "Sleeping Beauty", with a witch and a cute little princess. It is very interesting. Are you interested in reading the script?"

Angelina Jolie laughed.

"Sounds great, I'd love to see the script you're talking about."

"Okay, we'll contact you later."

Angelina Jolie pursed her red lips and clinked her champagne glass with him.

After chatting for a while, Jolie and Pitt left hand in hand.

Other leading actors, directors, and producers from the "World War Z" crew, as well as Paramount Pictures Chairman Brad Gray and Vice Chairman Rob Moore also came over to say hello to him.

Originally, Link planned to show up and leave before coming over, but he was so popular that it took him more than an hour to get out of the party.

(End of chapter)