Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Two days later, Ronald, Gale Hurd, and Jim Cameron visited Roger Corman, who had sold New World Productions and was preparing to retire.

In Coleman's president's office, which he soon no longer belongs to, there are several large cardboard boxes filled with photos, recording the many memories he has accumulated during his twelve years in the New World.

In addition to some photos of his family, they are photos of him with many directors and actors, as well as some posters of movies he directed and produced.

"Is this Stallone?" Ronald asked after seeing a group photo. In the photo, Stallone is still very young. He tilts his mouth and looks cool while holding a submachine gun. Next to him is a blond actor.

"Ah yes, that's David Carradine next to me, this was when they were doing 'Death Race'..." Coleman replied.

"Is this when Ron Howard did Grand Theft Auto?" Gail took another photo. Above is the famous actor and director Ron Howard, who still had a lot of hair back then.

"Ah, yes, when Mr. Coleman went to New York to sell rights to CBS, I drove him a car." Ronald still remembered Coleman's hearty laughter when he was on the phone with Ron Howard in his apartment.

"These movies are all very good. Do new buyers really don't want them?" Ronald felt that the movies in these film libraries were all well-made, and there were also some early works by now famous actors. They were all worth the money. Don't know why the buyer doesn't want it.

"Hey, if these were not all my beautiful memories, I wouldn't want them either." Roger Coleman said, "Although the climate in California is okay, the humidity is high, and the film is not well preserved, and it is easy to mold and deteriorate. I rent To store the film in a constant temperature and humidity library, we have to pay a lot of money every year.”

"You don't know, movie films can easily spontaneously combust. When the film industry was in recession a few years ago, Warner destroyed old films on a large scale to recycle the silver ions in the films." Cameron knows more about technology.

"Come on, help me move these photos to my new office." Roger Coleman directed the three of them to hold his baby and walk out of the New World building.

"I'm going to pick up the car." Ronald stood at the door of the office and said to everyone.

"No, let's walk." Roger Corman led everyone through the street at the door to a newly built office area opposite the theater named after the late actor Henry Fonda.

"Dangdang,

Welcome to my new office. "Roger Coleman opened the door to an office. Inside was a large room filled with second-hand office furniture. His secretary was already cleaning and preparing it.

"Mr. Coleman, is your office ready?" Ronald looked at his former boss.

"Help me put these photos here..." Coleman directed three former subordinates to decorate his office.

"Mr. Coleman, when did you find a good office and register a new company?" After placing the photos, Ronald looked around. It was more spacious than the original New World office, except that there was no small screening room.

"Hahaha, after you left that day, I took the check and had fun in the office for a long time. But when I got up the next day, after I finished the breakfast prepared by Julie and went to drive, Julie asked me what I was going to do. Then I realized that I was unemployed.

I stayed at home for a whole morning and found that I couldn't stop working. That morning of doing nothing made me feel more uncomfortable than the movie "Invaders" that I made and lost money.

So I found a lawyer in the afternoon and set up a production company. Anyway, the distribution business can be left to the new owners of New World. From now on, I will focus on production, and maybe I can regain the passion for directing. "

"What's the name of the new company, boss?" Cameron asked.

"It's called the millennium."

"What?", Ronald didn't hear clearly.

"Millennium means one thousand years after the birth of Christ." Coleman explained, and then asked his secretary to bring coffee, "Tell me, why did you come to me?"

"I have served as the producer of Jim's new film. Now I have found investment and distribution commitments from Orion, and I am still short of 3 to 3.5 million in filming funds."

Gale Hurd began to take out the plan and introduced it to his former boss Coleman. Cameron unfolded the characters and storyboards and showed them to Coleman.

"Where are your TV broadcast rights?" Coleman asked directly after listening to the introduction.

"It's in Orion's hands now, and it's not for sale yet."

"Gail, I'm afraid I can't invest. You know, all my film projects are based on pre-sale revenue from distributors and advances from TV stations. If the films I invest in are waiting for the final box office split, I'm afraid It’s already bankrupt.”

"But this is..." Gale still wanted to fight for it.

"Your script is indeed good, and it is very consistent with the shooting method of low-cost movies, but I can't violate my business principles. I'm sorry Gale, Jim."

"It's hard to change your nature." Gale complained in a low voice.

"Mr. Coleman, why do you say that the box office with equal accounts will go bankrupt?" Ronald didn't quite understand this sentence. The movies he shot for Universal were still paid with equal accounts.

"Hey, my new world... isn't mine anymore. It's not a big company. The managers of those theater chains will always delay you as long as they can. In all likelihood, they will delay you for a year. It's not like they don't have money. Give it to me, I just like dragging it.

Several times, I threatened to sue them and they always gave me the check a few days before the court date. My lawyers always say to me, Mr. Coleman, just support the film industry.

Those movie theater operators are also having a hard time. With one year's interest on this money, they can also renovate the seats and upgrade the popcorn machine.

But I always want to get the interest myself. A big production worth six million is actually quite risky, and I won’t play this kind of game. A small company like mine cannot take the risk without an advance payment guarantee. "

"But you've always made movies and you've always been paid beforehand?" Ronald asked.

"It's a long story. When I was making films for American International Pictures, I received a fixed income. I would give out movie ideas, and American International Pictures would give a price, such as 50,000 yuan. If I could If it costs 30,000 yuan to shoot, you can make a net profit of 20,000 yuan.

This way I have a quick turnaround, I get money to buy film and rent equipment, pay actors and photographers. The distributor then makes money and orders the movie from me.

It takes no more than a year to recover the investment of those big studios. I can get the money before shooting starts, so in the time it takes for them to make one movie, I can make twelve.

Later, American International Pictures refused to tell me and edited my film randomly, so I set up a new world to do the distribution work myself. I was looking for drive-in theaters and theaters with relatively poor facilities. I could use the old method to collect their copy rental fees in advance. This money also turns over much faster than the accounting method. "Coleman talked about his business model.

"But Mr. Coleman, your method is already lagging behind. Today's blockbusters and theaters must rely on box office share, otherwise they would not be able to pay expensive rental fees for copies before screening.

There are many theaters that cannot afford to rent copies, so they can only secretly show pirated copies, or wait until a year later to rent second-run copies released by others. "Gail retorted after hearing this.

"You're right, Gail. But I invest my own money, not like those big studio executives who use other people's money. So I can't take too big a risk. With an average mid-level Hollywood production At eight million dollars, I only had three chances to fail.”

Coleman said this, raising three fingers, "Last year, there were less than twenty movies that successfully exceeded 30 million in box office."

"Hey, it's hard to change this nature, but it's all due to the limitations of the sluggish film market." Ronald sighed in his heart. Big productions have the same difficulties as big productions. Although small productions don't make much money, they are much safer.

Roger Corman was able to accumulate so much wealth by never taking risks and accumulating slowly. It is impossible for him to change his mind and suddenly start taking risks in big productions.

…

"What? Is the news accurate?"

In the Shinsegae office opposite. The three new bosses sat in the conference room. They received a surprising news and began to discuss countermeasures.

"Coleman, this old cunning guy, does he know something?" a lawyer asked.

"It's impossible. Our legal community is well-informed, so I knew in advance that Justice John Paul Stevens's minority opinion was written in the tone of the majority opinion. It seems that these liberals have expected that someone will The mutiny is over.”

The other lawyer forcefully untied his tie and banged it on the table.

"What are our legal chances of canceling this deal? Seventeen million is not a small number."

"The check has already been given to Coleman, and he has already credited it. It will take a long time to sue to invalidate the contract, and do you think those in Hollywood know that we regret it? Then we will be even less likely to sell. We must operate slowly and with confidence. It took a while before I had the opportunity to sell.”

"Then what should we do? Nowadays, the operators of those theater chains are having a hard time. They often deduct the box office share and renovate the seats just to earn some interest."

"It seems that the original plan did not take this accident into account. The operation of the cinema will definitely become more and more difficult. We have to find a master who not only knows how to make movies that meet the market's taste, but also knows how to manage the financial balance of the cinema chain. , to manage the company.”

"Then we must find an executive from the seven major studios. The original candidates either only know production or theatrical distribution."

The three lawyers seemed to regret borrowing money to buy Coleman's New World Company. But the deal was done, and they had no choice but to find an executive with experience in cost control of production and distribution to serve as CEO.

"Let's find headhunters and send invitations to those executives who were fired by Universal and 20th Century Fox. We have to get this done as soon as possible so that the market will report our good news, otherwise the Supreme Court's new ruling will come out. , the capital market has insufficient confidence in the film industry, and we will be in big trouble with interest rates."

"Coleman, you are such a lucky man." The lawyer who made the final decision looked at the portrait of Roger Coleman on the public relations release for the acquisition of New World by the three of them and let out a sigh.

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