Hollywood starts with a broker

As February arrived, the nominations for the 62nd Academy Awards were announced, with "Driving Miss Daisy" leading the pack with 9 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director.

Close behind was "Born on the Fourth of July" with 8 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director!

The Producers Guild of America awarded its Best Picture Award to "Driving Miss Daisy."

The Directors Guild of America gave its Best Director award to Oliver Stone for "Born on the Fourth of July."

As for "Sex, Lies, and Videotape," which had a close relationship with Aaron Anderson, it only received one Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay!

"Driving Miss Daisy" opened in a few theaters in Los Angeles at the end of last year. As word-of-mouth spread, the number of theaters increased to over 900. With the announcement of the Oscar nominations, the number further increased to over 1300!

And the box office for "Driving Miss Daisy" has exceeded $30 million!

"Born on the Fourth of July," with Tom Cruise's appeal, has reached a box office of $53 million.

Every year, the awards season in Los Angeles is the most lively time, with promotional cocktail parties, receptions, and various celebrity and movie parties emerging one after another!

At the public auditorium on Santa Monica Beach, the Independent Spirit Awards were being held. Nicole Kidman was nominated for Best Actress for "Dead Calm."

Aaron Anderson specially accompanied her to attend the awards ceremony.

The Independent Spirit Awards were established by the American film industry to reward small independent production companies for their hard work, mainly targeting independent films!

This year was the fifth edition, and Steven Soderbergh's "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" was the biggest winner of the awards ceremony.

It won Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress.

The distributor, Miramax, specially held a celebration party at a nearby pier hotel. "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" indeed earned them both prestige and profit.

"Miramax's three films have been nominated for Oscars, especially 'My Left Foot,' which has been nominated for five awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Amazing!"

Nicole Kidman and Aaron sat on the sofa in the banquet hall, taking a rest, and couldn't help but sigh.

Aaron stroked Nicole's arm, "These biographical films have always been one of the Academy's favorite film types."

"As long as it's not too bad, it can always get some nominations!"

From now on, Miramax will have a certain position in the independent film circle, and the Weinstein brothers will also begin to emerge.

"Hi, Aaron, Nicole," Harvey Weinstein walked over and sat on the sofa next to them.

"Mr. Weinstein, good evening!"

Nicole Kidman responded with a smile.

"Harvey, congratulations," Aaron seemed very calm.

"'Phone Booth,' you partnered with 20th Century Fox?" Harvey Weinstein asked Aaron.

"Yes, it will be released next month. Their spring season needs a replacement," Aaron smiled.

"Aaron, now that you have your own film production company, and Miramax has improved its domestic distribution channels;"

"I think we can strengthen some cooperation next, what do you think?"

Harvey Weinstein was already optimistic about "Phone Booth," but Aaron didn't have confidence in Miramax's size.

Aaron smiled, "Harvey, I'm not very interested in those independent art films. What I want is to develop commercial films;"

"The production budget for a movie will be tens of millions of dollars. Can Miramax afford it?"

Harvey Weinstein shook his head, "We are an independent film company. Now the production and distribution costs of a commercial film are about $22 million;"

"Even if we exchange half of the film budget for overseas distribution rights, this level of loss would be fatal to us;"

"Relatively speaking, independent films and overseas art films are much cheaper. We only need to spend a million dollars to buy an excellent work!"

Aaron rubbed his forehead, "Last year, 235 films were released in North America, with a total box office of $4.08 billion, an increase of 15.3% compared to the previous year. Although it was due to the impact of the financial crisis, it also shows the rapid development of the film market now;"

"And the average box office for last year's films was $17 million, and there were almost 200 TV movies or video tape movies that couldn't get into theaters;"

"Of this $4.08 billion in box office revenue, more than $3.6 billion was provided by the Big Seven film companies, accounting for more than 90%, and outside of the Big Seven, the highest-grossing film was only one distributed by Orion, ranking 31st, the highest box office for an independent film!"

Although MGM is no longer considered one of the Big Seven, it is still one of the MPAA's seven official members.

Harvey Weinstein sighed, "What exactly are you trying to say, Aaron?"

"What I want to say is that concentrating resources to develop an influential commercial film is much better than a large number of mediocre works."

Aaron knew that Miramax's current strategy was to acquire art films from film festivals on a large scale. If they encounter works like "Sex, Lies, and Videotape," "Cinema Paradiso," and "My Left Foot" again, that would be incredible!

But is it easy to come across such good movies?

Hollywood shoots more than 450 films every year, half of which cannot enter theaters, and no more than 10% of the other half can make money. Does Miramax really think it is God's messenger?

Harvey Weinstein laughed, "The premise is that you have to be able to attract this level of investment!"

Now Miramax will not only buy movies and edit them themselves, but also participate in the production of movies, and intervene in the investment and production fields.

After Harvey Weinstein left, Nicole Kidman frowned and said, "Aaron, what he said makes sense. Your idea is too radical."

"Don't worry, Miramax is already expanding now, purchasing movies on a large scale. They don't have much cash flow on hand," Aaron shook his head.

Otherwise, it wouldn't have been acquired by Disney because it was on the verge of bankruptcy. The loss ratio of independent art films is at least 90%;

Harvey Weinstein will also rely on Disney's funds in the future to create several Best Picture Oscars to make him king!

In the future, whether it is Miramax or Weinstein Pictures, most of the films will be loss-making, but there will always be a work with both good reputation and high box office at a critical moment;

Coupled with his public relations skills at the Oscars, external funds that want to enter Hollywood will also support him, how can he be so rampant?

With his own Dawn Films, as long as he intercepts those works with good reputation and high box office, he can directly kill Miramax!