China Entertainment King of Science Fiction

Chapter 330 Greed

Across the ocean, Los Angeles, Universal Studios headquarters.

Jeff Miller braced himself and said to Universal President Robert Kent, who was sitting at the head: "Robert, this will cause an irreparable rift in the close cooperative relationship we have established with DreamWorks over the past two years. I don't understand.

"The Mummy" is obviously scheduled for Halloween, why should it be moved up?"

"Jeff, the close cooperative relationship you mentioned is actually just a sunk cost. Chen is a very cunning businessman. While he is using us, he is also perfunctory!" Robert looked at Jeff sternly, trying to convey a sense of oppression.

: "You have made too many concessions to DreamWorks!"

Jeff didn't seem to care about the sense of authority that the other party was trying to maintain, and responded unceremoniously: "The sunk cost you are talking about is not the US$1.02 billion global box office of "Gravity", right? Then I hope that such a sunk cost

The more, the better.”

Robert's eyelids twitched. The final global box office of "Gravity" was US$1.02 billion, ranking third in the current box office rankings for 2016. It is also the only non-Hollywood film in the top ten global box office.

It is also the highest-grossing movie released by Universal this year. It is ridiculous and regrettable that this is not a movie produced by Universal. It even made some unscrupulous media in Hollywood laugh at the fact that "Universal Pictures" should be renamed "Universal Distribution Company".

Or "DreamWorks North America Publishing Company".

The unprecedented success of "Gravity" not only symbolizes the fruitfulness of the cooperation between Universal and DreamWorks, but also makes senior vice president Jeff Miller, who leads the relationship with DreamWorks, gain momentum. He himself has a prominent family background.

He has a deep foundation in Hollywood. His grandfather is also a director of the parent company of NBCUniversal Group. He has long been eyeing the position of president. Now, the threat to him from "self-respecting foreign countries" has become even greater.

However, Robert Kent was well prepared: "Let me emphasize that 520 million of the US$1.02 billion box office of "Gravity" was obtained in the Chinese mainland film market. This is indeed a very amazing number. The entire China

The box office in mainland China and the Asia-Pacific region exceeded 600 million U.S. dollars, and we can only really divide the account with 420 million U.S. dollars."

As soon as this statement came out, the other executives attending the meeting who were sitting upright and did not dare to interrupt the two big bosses could not help but change their expressions slightly. Even though they had known this number for a long time, they still felt instantly dazzled every time they heard it.

.

The box office of a movie in a single market in China reached 520 million U.S. dollars. This figure has already ranked second in the North American market this year, second only to the American movie religion "Star Wars VII".

Chen Jingxing's movie "The Matrix", which will be released in China in October, is also distributed in Europe and the United States in cooperation with Universal. The two parties have jointly released three movies in a row and just experienced the unprecedented success of "Gravity".

There is no problem in the cooperation between the two parties.

Therefore, before the release of "Gravity", the two companies signed a co-production agreement.

Since I allow and even support you to eat meat in North America, then you must also let me eat meat in the Chinese market.

However, Universal President Robert Kent suddenly decided to push "The Mummy" to release in early October. This is Universal's own heavyweight project. Naturally, it cannot let a foreign film affect the box office of its own blockbusters, so it decided to postpone "The Matrix"

Released in North America and Europe.

Jeff Miller couldn't help but sigh when he saw everyone's reaction. It seemed that "The Matrix" was hopeless.

Robert even believed that at least a month's buffer should be left to wait until November before considering a release in the United States and Europe.

"The Matrix" has made some people dislike it just because of the large number of kung fu elements in it. Kung fu movies have long been in decline, and any movie with kung fu elements is easily dismissed.

This also allows Robert to dare to use it as a pawn to "raise the price" with DreamWorks. If it is a movie like "Gravity", the profit is moving, and if it loses such a high box office share, I am afraid that even if it is not tolerated by DreamWorks

Robert will feel bad too.

You must know that DreamWorks is eating up the North American market, and its increasing appetite has triggered a rebound from other major manufacturers. If Universal hadn't been "eating in and out" to support itself, "Gravity" would have faced strong suppression, let alone

With a record-breaking opening of 3,000 theaters for foreign films, it is still unclear whether the film can be opened in 1,000 theaters.

The primary reason that led Robert to take issue with the cooperation between the two companies was that he believed that Chen Jingxing was perfunctory with Universal and did not have the sincerity to implement the co-production agreement signed between DreamWorks and Universal.

However, this seems to be a lack of sincerity on the part of Universal, and is even suspected of being a waste of money.

What really united Robert to the majority and made Jeff a minority was the US$520 million box office of "Gravity" in China!

It's the greed that Global executives can no longer suppress, their greed for the Chinese market!

If you co-produce a movie with DreamWorks, you will get more money.

DreamWorks is the company that has repeatedly set box office records for Chinese movies.

"Gravity" is almost perfect in terms of visual effects, music, plot and concept, and the person responsible for the special effects work is Universal's special effects studio, so Universal's executives and producers have long been interested in "Gravity"

Full of confidence, this is also an important reason why Universal is willing to fully support and participate in the release of "Gravity", and in the end, it has reaped fruitful results.

Of course, Robert's move is also to increase his bargaining chip. If his "soft rice and hard work" can dig out a bigger cake from DreamWorks, the original "Dream Hero" Jeff Miller will become the "appeasement"

"Send", the fruits of winning over Chen Jingxing and DreamWorks will also be picked up by Robert.

Everyone in the conference room is an elite, and all of them are from prestigious schools. Of course, they will not think that this is China's box office fraud like many ordinary people. They know that the film market in that country across the ocean has really skyrocketed.

Another channel is to split blockbusters, but there are two problems. First, the split ratio of the producers of split blockbusters is only 25%. This ratio is too low, which has made Hollywood studios very dissatisfied with China's import policy.

Universal's executives don't think this is greed, it's an exchange of equal value, and the price offered by DreamWorks obviously cannot satisfy their appetite. There are still "Matrix II" and "Matrix III" on paper, and

The more outrageous so-called zombie movies are too light in their opinion, or even have no weight at all.

Chen Jingxing rejected Universal's intention to invest in "The Martian" and promised that the projects that Universal could get a share of were the second and third installments of "The Matrix" and the zombie-themed movies to be developed by DreamWorks in the future - such themes are destined to be popular in the film industry.

Since it cannot be released domestically in China, it is a natural choice to find international partners to co-produce and earn global box office.

Of course, Universal has also received considerable profits from it, but it has shouldered the pressure from other major studios and escorted DreamWorks' movies all the way. Universal is naturally "repaying the favor" and asking for deeper cooperation with DreamWorks, and a bigger share.

They have the cake, that is, co-production, so that they can also eat the box office of Chen Jingxing's movies in China and the Asia-Pacific region.

Not to mention that the movie has some very strange aesthetics and the clothing style is so weird that several senior producers from Universal couldn’t agree on what to do after seeing the first cut sent from DreamWorks. Even though they all thought the movie was good, they still couldn’t agree.

estimate its market potential.

There are only two channels for Hollywood movies to enter the Chinese market. One is to approve films and sell off the copyrights at one time. Universal, as one of the Hollywood giants, naturally looks down on it.

Secondly, most of the superhero-themed movies can be sold in the Chinese market. This is a condition that Universal does not have, and there is more and more evidence that there is a limit to the box office of Hollywood blockbusters in the Chinese market. In the past two years,

It is China’s local films that can create one box office miracle after another.

And Robert chose to remain silent until he suddenly launched an attack. He wanted to take advantage of the fact that "The Matrix" was about to be released, and use "The Matrix" as an exchange to force DreamWorks to give in, expand the scope of co-production, and let Chen Jingxing put forward more sincere terms.

Jeff understood what these people were thinking, and he also knew that another important factor in Robert's decisive action was that "The Matrix" held far less weight in their hearts than "Gravity."

Co-productions can perfectly bypass these obstacles and restrictions and directly enjoy the Chinese film market.

Of course it's not because of Robert's ridiculous logic of "Don't let the Chinese unilaterally use us and take advantage of us."

"The kung fu craze around the world has long since subsided. There is no guarantee that there will be a second or third part of "The Matrix". Isn't this an empty promise?

Zombie movies are even more ridiculous. This kind of niche plasma movie has always been the scraps of small companies. Universal can't even shame it, let alone co-produce it with other companies? He is just stalling for time and perfunctory.

We, can we tolerate it?

Without our support, would that Chinese person be able to dominate the North American market? They would have been eaten alive by other major manufacturers!

We will not take advantage of others, nor will we allow others to take advantage of us!"

At first glance, these demands are reasonable, but in fact they are a threat to DreamWorks.

In terms of visual effects, it is far less shocking than "Gravity". Although the science fiction creativity is very shocking, shocking science fiction creativity has never guaranteed a box office hit.

Seeing that all the directors showed the same hatred and hatred towards Robert's "speech", Jeff knew that the situation was decided and there was no way he could change it.

…

Chen Jingxing hung up the phone, looked at Xu Wenshen who was staring at him and shrugged: "It seems that Universal has decided to add insult to injury."

"Do they have no confidence in "The Matrix"?" Xu Wenshen said with some worry: "If we rely solely on Firefly, I'm afraid we won't be able to get many theaters to open the show. If other companies suppress it again..."

"Then let's not consider the North American market for now." Chen Jingxing sneered: "They will ask for it when the time comes."

(End of chapter)