Made in Hollywood

After a long period of screening, although the box office growth rate of "Independence Day" has become extremely slow, it is still climbing tenaciously.

In North America, the film's screening scale has been reduced to 211, with a total box office of 339.77 million US dollars, continuing to struggle and tenaciously move towards the 350 million US dollar mark.

Overseas, as the film landed in the last major markets, the overseas box office finally broke through the US$400 million mark, and the global box office totaled US$742.15 million, surpassing US$800 million. .

Yes, "Independence Day" has only one rival in front of the global box office, Steven Spielberg's "Jurassic Park," which not only surpassed the $900 million mark at the global box office, but is also in some remote locations. Screening in overseas regions has continuously improved the record of the first box office in film history.

"Independence Day" trying to catch up with "Jurassic Park" can be said to be a very difficult task.

However, even with the current box office results and the successive successes of "Speed ​​of Life" and "Brave Island", Duke already has the qualifications to stand in the high-rise buildings in Hollywood, and his suggestions will be received to a certain extent. attention on.

After Nancy Josephson had several contacts with people from Walt Disney and reached some consensus in private, Walt Disney directly offered more conditions than Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox, and Duke also implicitly expressed his interest in the Mickey Mouse is very interested in the cooperation. After repeated weighing, Warner and Fox finally decided to absorb Disney's investment, and the three companies formed a joint producer.

Entering October, the "Saving Private Ryan" project has been reviewed by three companies successively. Like "Independence Day", although the script is one of the most basic requirements for film production, it has little value in itself. To quickly complete the pre-trial and preliminary investigation, the most important thing is the director who led the project and his past achievements.

The completion of the review means that "Saving Private Ryan" can be approved at any time, but before that, together with Nancy Josephson representing Duke, the four parties must first negotiate the distribution of benefits.

In the final analysis, everything else is false, and interests are the basis for several parties to come together and cooperate.

After nearly a week of wrangling, the three companies finally reached an agreement on the allocation of investment. The film’s production cost budget is $80 million. Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox each take up $30 million of the investment, and Walt Disney exclusively owns the remaining $20 million. dollar investment.

Meanwhile, Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox acted as the film's overseas and North American distributors, respectively, and Walt Disney had no distribution rights.

As for whether the three companies solve the investment through financing or other means, and how the benefits involved are distributed, it does not matter what Duke has to do.

All he cares about is his director's remuneration!

In fact, a lot of time has been wasted in this week's rant Fang will definitely not agree.

Of course, the current Duke is not the Duke before Independence Day. The salary negotiation is basically based on 100,000 US dollars and 0.1% as the base, and the final agreement is still a step-by-step sharing agreement.

His screenwriter, director, and producer base salary is $10 million, and his participation in the project is no longer limited to the box office, but also peripherals.

In terms of box office, $150 million is the base, and under the strong competition from Nancy Josephson, as long as the film's global box office reaches $150 million, Duke will get 2% of the box office share, 200 million. $50 million to 5 percent, $350 million to 10 percent, $450 million to 15 percent, and $600 million to 20 percent.

Although the 20 percent share is capped, the film grossed more than $600 million worldwide, and the producers paid Duke an additional $5 million in bonuses.

The surrounding area has always been a restricted area for film companies. Unless top actors and directors, you should never want to share. Unlike box office revenue, surrounding revenue is generally limited in the short term, but it is a long-term meal ticket.

As long as the film can still bring income, those who enjoy the share will continue to receive income, and even after their death, they can designate others to inherit as an inheritance.

In terms of peripherals, Nancy Josephson won a 6% share agreement for Duke. Although the percentage may seem small, this is not a profit share, but a total income share around the film!

Perhaps this director agreement is still far from Spielberg's director contract on "Jurassic Park", but it is definitely the top salary contract in Hollywood.

You know, just last month, 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures signed a director contract with James Cameron. The basic salary for the new project of Tyrant on the set is only 8.5 million US dollars, and the box office share is only 100%. Fifteenth, and it is not the total box office revenue share, but the box office profit share.

The two director contracts of Duke and James Cameron directly reflect the achievements of the two most recent works. The biggest capital of Hollywood directors is commercial achievements. Compared with the huge investment, the box office of "True Lies" is not outstanding. , and Cameron's new film once again called out the production cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, which has caused his personal salary to drop.

Again, that's one of the reasons why 20th Century Fox agreed to Walt Disney's participation in Duke's new project. James Cameron's boat would require a bit of an investment, and even if it could be financed, 20th Century Fox would still struggle.

Originally, Duke heard that James Cameron's new project was about to start, and he also considered whether to wait for the "Independence Day" share to get in the account, but then gave up.

The final investment of the big ship is really terrifying. The share he can get can't even be seen by throwing it in, and it's only 1994. When will the film be released? The end of 1997!

When the film ends and gets its share, it is likely to be delayed until 1999, and such a large sum of money will be put on a project that has little say in it for a long time. Even if Duke knows almost nothing about finance, he knows that it is definitely not. Wise choice.

According to the agreement, Duke's team members will all join the crew and take up their respective roles. The only difference from "Independence Day" is that Sofia Coppola is no longer an assistant director, but has become the film's assistant director and executive producer. one.

Her goal is not to be an assistant to Duke for a long time, but to transform into a real film director after a certain accumulation.

Next, Duke also needs to recruit a personal assistant to take over Sofia? Coppola's position, as well as finding a suitable PR person in charge, he simply threw it all to Sofia to handle.

In mid-October, "Saving Private Ryan" was officially approved. Duke, while exchanging the preliminary work of the film with the producers, inevitably attended some necessary publicity activities. After all, the investment in the film is here, and the real type is still a commercial film.

Then, with the establishment of D-Day Studio as a shell company, Duke's focus completely shifted to the preparatory work.

"Duke,"

Because Jon Landau went to partner with James Cameron, Fox sent a new producer named Lynch, "Twentieth Century Fox's $10 million upfront funding has gone to AIA's account. superior."

"The first funds from Warner Bros. and Walt Disney have also arrived."

The speaker was Charles Rowan, who went on to serve as the film's first production manager. "We have enough upfront capital."

Hearing these words, the financial officer of AIA, who was sitting at the end of the conference table, nodded, but didn't say anything. As a third party, his most important job was to supervise, not make suggestions.

"Well."

Duke sat at the top of the conference table, his eyes swept over the people present, "We are now discussing the focus of the next work."

In the past two consecutive films, Duke used the same team and said hello in advance, and it turned out that following him would have better income and future. After the invitation from D-Day Studio, these collaborations were more familiar. Lighting, props, sets, art direction and many other behind-the-scenes personnel are in place almost as quickly as possible.

"Jos..." Duke's eyes turned to the person in charge of the pyrotechnics team, "This is a documentary World War II film, and we must abandon those exaggerated explosion methods."

"I understand," said Joss Williams immediately. "My people are working on weapons and explosives in World War II, and they will surely give you satisfactory results."

"Robin, I think Ireland is more suitable for the locations you suggested."

There is no way to do this. A few days ago, Robin Grande called the British government. The other party refused to send an army to assist in the shooting. The Irish government promised that if the crew hired local people, A force of about 800 people will be provided for the crew to assist in the shooting.

In fact, this is not difficult to understand. Ireland, which has a relatively difficult economy, needs more than a thousand jobs that the crew may bring, and the Kingdom of Great Britain has always been a little bit of Hollywood.

"Chris..." Duke said to an executive producer again, "You leave as soon as possible, go to a military museum in Europe, I want two or three Tiger tanks, and if I can't find a prototype, go to Russia and buy two Old-fashioned tanks, we transform ourselves."

It's not too difficult for Hollywood professionals to make other types of tanks look like Tiger tanks.

Next, other people who have read the script will also put forward their own opinions. This kind of preparation meeting exists to solve the problem. The crew needs to reach a basic consensus as soon as possible and work hard in one direction.

"That's right, Duke."

Charles Rowan asked, "Have you thought about a specific release date for the film?"

"What advice do the producers and distributors have?" Duke asked instead of answering.