Exploiting Hollywood 1980

The latest website: Ronald did not expect that the news of the successful pre-sale of his director's "Top Gun" in the video tape market caused a huge noise that he never expected.

The film's revenue has been divided into two major parts in the past, and one part is the revenue of the theater box office. Another part is the proceeds from the second broadcast on the cable station.

The latter part of the income, unless separately agreed, is generally distributed to the main creative team and members of the three trade union groups according to a fixed small proportion.

They are the Actors Guild, the Directors Guild, and the Writers Guild.

The so-called surplus means that after the TV station broadcasts more than ten times, or the revenue exceeds 10 million US dollars, a percentage of the profit must be distributed to the members of the three trade unions.

This part of the remaining dividends, led by the union, is collected from the filmmakers uniformly, and then distributed quarterly to union members participating in the filming of the film.

And photographers, editors, makeup, costumes, props and other technical jobs have no right to participate in this residual value dividend.

Because Hollywood generally believes that when a movie is overpaid, it is the outstanding contribution of the artists, not the skilled workers.

After the rise of TV in the 1950s, many old directors, old actors, and old screenwriters depended on this for a large part of their income. The old films they filmed were repeatedly broadcast on TV stations, and the remaining dividends were brought.

After going through the struggles and negotiations between the three major labor unions and the Producers Association, including when Ronald first entered the industry, he experienced a strike by the Screenwriters Guild and a strike by the Actors Guild. This ratio has gradually been determined.

As long as the number of replays of old movies or the revenue, one of which meets the triggering conditions, the producer will distribute about 3% of the TV station's broadcast revenue to the three unions. Then let them distribute to their respective members.

It is easy to see that this distribution method is the least controversial for the director's union with the smallest number of people. The Directors Guild stipulates that a film can only be signed by one director, so the 1.2% remaining dividends given to the Directors Guild belong to the director.

While the Screenwriters Guild gets the least share, and the Actors Guild gets the most money, they are the ones who want to increase the dividend ratio the most.

On the other hand, this dividend method is only valid for those popular movies. If the number of broadcasts on the TV station or the income does not meet the standard, then the creators will not receive any remaining dividends.

Of course, the union won't just watch those members starve to death who can't make good works.

After this part of the remaining dividends is transferred to the union, the union will draw a portion to supplement the union's pension pool.

For those ordinary members, after they can't work and retire, they still have a pension that they can hold to support their lives for a while.

This distribution ratio is an equilibrium price obtained by trade unions, members, and producers after a long period of repeated games.

However, the "Top Gun" video sales hit this delicate balance.

Who knew that the market could grow tenfold just by reducing the price of videotape from $80 to around $30?

The effect of this market size is that the production cost of video tapes has been greatly reduced, from a few dollars to a few dollars a box. The marketing and distribution costs that producers bear in order to distribute the videotape are also shared among more customers.

Although the retail price has dropped a lot, the gross profit that the producer gets from it has not dropped much.

All of a sudden, the three trade unions saw fire in their eyes, mobilized their members quickly, and began to be interviewed in the media to criticize this phenomenon.

The creators did most of the work, but why did the producers take the richest piece of the cake?

...

"I think Tom Cruise and their contract need to be renegotiated. In the past, in the videotape part, the usual division of content is not suitable for the development of the new situation."

Paula Wagner has been pregnant for several months, wearing flats, holding a document, and talking with her husband Nisita.

"Although the reason for legal renegotiation is far-fetched, but it happens that the Actors Guild is making a lot of noise, can we take advantage of the situation and put some pressure on the two producers?"

"You have to pay attention that your client Tom, and the two producers signed a separate sharing agreement, not the remaining dividends stipulated by the union. Among the union members, there are a large number of people who are already dissatisfied with the stars' income. If you're going to continue the boom in video tape revenue to get Tom's revenue, you need to prevent the other party from separating you from other ordinary actors."

"But why can Ronald get that 1.2% share?" Paula is no longer Ronald's agent. She can't share this part of Ronald's income, so she is a little dissatisfied with her husband's attitude. This, combined with the hormonal changes of pregnancy, made her a little pissed off.

"Ronald helped to shoot the Pepsi commercial at the beginning of the video, and in fact, if it wasn't for the outstanding effect of the Super Bowl commercial he helped Pepsi shoot, it is very likely that Pepsi would not have added $6 per cassette this time.

This time, the pre-sale of Top Gun's video tape exceeded one million boxes for the first time. To what extent was due to Ronald's additional contribution, it is hard to say. I think the two producers may have picked up a big bargain. "

Nisita helped his wife open the door with one hand and helped her get into the car with one hand on her waist. Paula's age is already advanced maternal age, go to the doctor for examination.

But Paula is very precious in action, but she doesn't give in, "So, Paula. You'd better not let Tom compare himself with Ronald, it's not good for his future acting career."

"I understand that Tom's better to appear in Ronald's movies in the future, this time Top Gun has raised Tom's status too much.

I'm just a little pity, seeing the huge market potential of video tapes, the seven major studios will not be so easy to talk about in the future. Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, the two lucky ones, are really lucky. "

...

"This is a contract in black and white, why, do you want to not abide by it?"

Don Simpson cocked his mouth, holding a large cigar, facing the manager of Pepsi Cola's marketing department, and asked with a smile.

"When we signed the contract, we made a forecast based on the sales volume of 500,000. Now that the pre-sale has exceeded 1 million, it makes no sense for us to give a subsidy of six dollars per box of videotapes."

Pepsi's marketing manager answered politely there.

Originally, PepsiCo had already paid $6 for each videotape. After seeing Ronald's Super Bowl commercial, which brought a lot of heat and discussion to Pepsi for a long time, people from Pepsi felt a little bit towards Ronald. superstitious.

Therefore, they had previously added another $6 subsidy to each cassette. That is, for every videotape sold for $26.95, Pepsi will subsidize Top Gun by $6.

However, the sales of the videotape were unexpectedly hot, and the pre-sale has exceeded one million boxes before it even went on sale.

tomato

Pepsi's original marketing budget could not include this additional subsidy at all. So this time the marketing manager in charge of the project, along with the lawyers in the legal department, came to negotiate with the two producers.

"Why do you think that? Every box of our videotape sold is the marketing medium for an event.

Every viewer who watches the videotape will watch the one-minute commercial in its entirety. This is an effect that you can't achieve on any TV program. "

Bruckheimer didn't want to fall out with the big sponsor, and from their point of view, he thought of some reasons.

"We have paid a flat subsidy of six dollars per cassette, and this extra six dollars is estimated based on the estimated sales of 500,000 cassettes.

Therefore, this part of the direct subsidy to the producers of "Top Gun" must be stopped when the sales figures continue to rise. "

"What you mean is to ignore the original intention of the contract in black and white, and then look for the business logic behind the terms. Do you expect the judge to judge like this? Is there any?"

Don Simpson doesn't believe that there are judges who don't care about simple terms.

"Of course, whether you sue in Los Angeles or New York, we are sure to win this lawsuit. Also, if you don't agree to set a sales cap on the subsidy for videotapes, we will let the court issue a temporary injunction to temporarily ban the videotape's sales. On sale.

This means that your sales channel can no longer continue to pre-sell videotapes. "

Standing in the back row, several senior lawyers from the legal department of PepsiCo stepped forward uniformly, putting a lot of pressure on the two producers.

"Who do you think you are? You can do it if you say yes? Prohibit it if you say it's forbidden? Huh?"

Don Simpson doesn't pay much attention to this tough statement. In Hollywood, what star doesn't need such tough coaxing and intimidation to be intimidated?

I have long been familiar with this kind of game that is bigger than the hole card.

"Because we are Pepsi, we say yes, we can."

The leading lawyer, taking another step forward, was already approaching Simpson's side.

"Also, you are fighting between two people this time. We have contacted Paramount, and they are also very interested in the sales of the video tapes."

Don Simpson's face changed, and this son of a bitch went to Paramount for an alliance. The top management of Paramount has long been very dissatisfied with the fact that the two of them received most of the proceeds from the videotape business.

In the future, video tapes will become an important source of income for the seven major studios. They all understand that this big sale is not because of anything special about "Top Gun", but because of the pricing this time. acceptable price range.

In the future, as long as prices continue to be set in the 30-40 price range, new popular movies and classics in the film library can be put on the market on a large scale.

After "Top Gun", the producers who cooperated with the Big Seven on film distribution could never get such good conditions as them.

Even with the terms of this time, it is not that Paramount has not thought about going back on it. If they were to join forces with Pepsi, no matter how powerful the two producers were, they would still lose.

Moreover, the two sides can also make external moves to set up obstacles on the issue of video tape sales. In this way, if the momentum of the pre-sale is stopped, it will make a lot of money less.

"We can talk to you about this subsidy clause again."

Bruckheimer hurriedly pretended to be the good guy in the game of good guys and bad guys, and made concessions to the other party.

The two parties negotiated new terms, and within three days after signing the new supplementary terms, the pre-sale figures reached were still within the scope of Pepsi's subsidy.

After the pre-sale, and the sales figures after the official launch, Pepsi will no longer subsidize their six-dollar subsidy per box.

"It's much better than expected." The two producers settled the bill there.

The first two weeks of pre-sale saw the strongest sales momentum, with more than one million boxes pre-ordered. After three days, the number will rise to nearly 1.2 million boxes.

This part of the videotape, just directly subsidized by Pepsi, can make an income of 7 million.

"What a good business! We are so lucky, hahaha!"

There is nothing unacceptable to the two of them. Even if the subsequent sales are not subsidized, it is still a huge amount of income. Many Hollywood producers may not be able to earn so much money in their lifetime.

"We continue to party, continue to have fun, and ask Ronald if he is free. This time, the agent we found said that we could find beautiful women from New York's elite modeling agency."

Don Simpson decided to forget the unpleasantness and continue the y-conference spree in the wine pool and meat forest every day.

...

"Ronald, you are our director's lucky star. This time, I was able to renegotiate the terms of the remaining dividends with the Producers Guild, thanks to your 'Top Gun'." A white old man, well-dressed, with a little hair Sparse, but neatly combed, he sat behind his desk and said to Ronald.

The old white man sitting in front of Ronald is a famous director in Hollywood. He once won the Oscar for best director for "General Patton", and also filmed a generation of sci-fi masterpiece "Planet of the Apes" Franklin. Schaffner.

He has just been elected president of the American Directors Guild in the general election.

When Ronald received his new Directors Guild ID card last month, he saw the signature of the new president, Schaffner.

"It's a coincidence, and I don't get much credit. No one knew before that the $30-$40 videotape would make the most money for the movie."

Ronald answered modestly.

In fact, if it weren't for him, there would be other movies. Other producers revealed this, and he was just lucky and just happened to step on this opportunity.

"Humility is a good quality, especially for a famous director." Schaffner, who was born in 1920, is already sixty-seven years old. It is pleasing to the eyes of Ronald, the new director of his own children and nephews.

"But don't be too modest, what you bring to the Directors Guild is not only more residual dividends, but also more bargaining power for us in front of the studios.

Also, the number of new members joining the Directors Guild is decreasing. We have a whole bunch of old guys my age going for retirement.

You have opened up the videotape market, and our Directors Guild can also receive a lot of dividends and increase it into the pension pool. "

Schaffner was elected as president by many retired directors from the golden age of Hollywood.

One of his important policy agendas is to develop more financial resources, so that these old brothers and old folks can have a more decent retirement life.

"What? The number of new members is decreasing now?"

Ronald heard what he was interested in and asked the president.

"Yes, there are a lot more advertising directors, but their first-level members can't pay much membership fees. The number of film directors and TV drama directors who can pay large membership fees and bring dividends, and the number of newcomers who have joined the directors' union in recent years. are slowly declining."

"Oh? That's because the rookie director didn't join the union? Or?" Ronald was a little strange.

"America's film director must join the union, of course, except for Lucas, the freak. His own Lucasfilm, handling his own distribution business."

Schaffner sighed, if Lucas could return to the Directors Guild, he would get a lot more dividends.

"The production cost is very expensive now. When you joined the club, there was still a miracle of one or two million to make a movie, and now the lowest low-cost movie also needs 6-8 million to make.

Without training in low-budget films, film directors have no chance to enter the industry. I only feel now how many qualified members Roger Coleman's New World Pictures has delivered for Hollywood and the Directors Guild.

It is a pity that drive-in theaters are also declining nationwide, and his exploitative films with hundreds of thousands of dollars are not doing well at the box office. "

"Fortunately, I entered the industry early. If I entered the industry now, I wouldn't have to wait another ten years? Will I have a chance to get the guide tube for the first time?" Ronald secretly called fluke in his heart.

The first movie I participated in, "Rock High School", was a small cost of several hundred thousand. The director's first "fast paced" was a small cost of three million.

If it is now, all of a sudden, 8 million is given to a new director, Ronalds ask themselves, they may not have such confidence to believe in themselves who have not made a feature film in those years.

"I will gather senior members of the union and discuss with lawyers how to negotiate with the Producers Guild to add the videotape to the remaining dividends.

We're going to imitate cable TV and set a bottom line for sales. Any film that sells video tapes above a certain amount needs to allocate a portion to our directors' union.

I will also coordinate with the two actors' unions (the Film Actors Guild, and the TV Actors Guild) and the Screenwriters' Union.

In short, this time everyone accepts your love, and directors who make hot movies in the future will have an extra income. "

"Haha, I'm very happy to bring some benefits to everyone." As a member of the director's union, Ronald also gave him a lot of support back then, and I feel very happy to be able to repay."

"When it's time for the meeting, come and let the old guys meet you." The more Schaffner looked at Ronald, the more satisfied he became.

"If I have time, I will definitely come. You know, unlike you in the era of big studios, I have the opportunity to observe and learn from the big directors. I really hope to have the opportunity to communicate with other directors, preferably by their side, Look at their experience in making movies."

"Ha, good. There are some old men in our director's union who can meet your requirements. Billy Wilder is an old friend of mine, and he must also want to meet you."

...

Ronald, who returned home, received another call from Daydream's general manager, Eddie.

"Ronald, the president of the Producers League, called me Nick Conte and he invited us to join the American League of Film and Television Producers as Daydream Pictures."

"Hey? That's the capital's alliance... No, I'm the capital right now."

Ronald reacted, he opened Daydream Pictures himself, and also got involved in the distribution business. Now he is a proper owner.

"Yes, you are already the owner, my boss.

The Producers Union ( ) is a loose alliance that negotiates dividend contracts with major unions.

The seven major studios are all members of the alliance, as are several mid-sized studios, such as Heimdell Films, which made the Terminator, Orion Films, an Oscar regular, and the old Italian De Laurentiis. industry, plus dozens of small studios like ours.

This is different from the more official film association "MPAA". The Producers Union is mainly a loose organization, which is joked that it was established to sign contracts.

Nick Conte, a former Stanford law faculty member and a labor lawyer for many years, is now in charge of negotiations across the coalition and major unions.

So this time, it was he who invited us to join and coordinate our positions. "

"Oh, this... I'm a member of the director's union and the writers' union. Now if I join the producer's union, which side should I stand on when negotiating?"

"Hehe, in your situation, you should avoid all discussions and negotiations." Ed had already inquired about the details, and Spielberg had a similar identity to him, and he automatically avoided every negotiation.

"Okay, you can ask a lawyer to look at the documents, and we will join as soon as possible." Ronald reacted, and in the future movies produced by Daydream, the remaining dividends will also be allocated to the three major unions as soon as possible.

For some tricks in operation, it is better to join the alliance early and learn it honestly.