Made in Hollywood

The 1997 summer season has come to an end, and the biggest winner must be Universal's "Jurassic Park: The Lost World", and the loser?

As in recent years, most of the summer movies cannot recover their costs by relying on the box office. However, video tapes and increasingly prosperous discs undoubtedly allow many movies to make profits with offline revenue, but some of the box office and audience reputation are too miserable. Movies, even with offline revenue, are doomed to huge losses.

The most typical is the latest Batman masterpiece "Batman and Robin" by Warner Bros.

"The production cost of the film was $125 million, and the distribution cost was $40 million."

In the conference room of Warner Bros., Doge Walter, the head of the distribution department, looked solemn, not as relaxed as he was at the Fox Studios in Sydney, "Currently, the film has been released in North America for ten weeks, and the North American box office has accumulated 106.13 million US dollars; it was released overseas during the same period. 45 countries and regions, with a box office of 35.21 million US dollars!"

He paused, then added, "The audience rating of "Batman and Robin" has dropped to 61%, and the North American weekend box office is only $153. Although we have done a lot of work, the film may be at any time. Forced down by the Cinema Alliance."

With such a single-hall box office performance, the film can still be screened in North America. It can only be said that Warner Bros. has done enough work to save Batman.

However, the high-level executives on both sides of the conference table have serious expressions. They are not young people full of fantasy. They know that the film has actually reached its end. The reputation of the company was extremely poor, and subsequent sales of discs, videotapes and TV rights all faced enormous difficulties.

Doug Walter was silent for a few seconds. He added, "According to estimates, the film's final North American box office will not exceed 110 million US dollars, and the global box office will not exceed 250 million US dollars, and the audience's expectations for Batman have been reduced to a minimum, if the sequel continues. There may be a more catastrophic failure..."

Although DC has been acquired by Warner Bros. long ago, there is no need to worry about copyright disputes due to the poor box office of the film, but it is definitely not what Warner Bros. wants to see if such a famous series is completely ruined.

The fourth episode of Superman was a fiasco, and the fourth episode of Batman was a fiasco... It seems that the heroes of DC cannot escape this fate on the big screen.

All eyes turned to Jeff Robinoff, the fiasco of Batman and Robin. Putting the CEO under tremendous pressure, there have been recent rumors that the group company is planning to transfer him to Time Warner and choose a new CEO...

Jeff Robinoff was aware of the rumors, and there was a push from within Time Warner, even though the transfer to the head office seemed like a high-level job. In fact, there is not much real power, and an ordinary Time Warner executive is not comparable to the position of CEO of Warner Bros.

If he wants to keep the CEO position, he has to prove himself with the performance of Warner Bros.

the past few years. There are two thighs supporting the performance of Warner Bros. One is the Batman series. The second is a Duke Rosenberg movie...

Although Duke Rosenberg is closer to Warner Bros. than before, he is not a small director a few years ago. Any studio wants to work with a super director.

Only by working with Duke Rosenberg. Not enough to support Warner's performance, Jeff? Robinoff is well aware of this.

Moreover, the Batman series must not rot, and it is undoubtedly the most sensible choice to adopt a strategy similar to that of the Superman series.

"My advice, end Batman for now."

With everyone's eyes around, Jeff Robinoff finally said, "Save this series and wait for the right director and timing."

Executive Vice President Robert Solomon also agreed, "I agree with Jeff's suggestion that superheroes have never been the main force in the North American film market. This short-lived era of superhero movies is over. I think the next decade, superheroes Movies are not going to be significantly improved."

Others largely agreed with Robert Solomon and Jeff Robinoff.

After all, since the birth of superheroes, comics have belonged to them. Up to now, the superheroes who have really succeeded on the big screen are only Superman and Batman. Its superheroes were adapted into movies, but they failed without exception. Coupled with the arrival of the cold winter of comics sales, Marvel is ready to file for bankruptcy protection.

Discussions about Batman quickly reached a consensus, and the conversation of the meeting gradually shifted to other aspects.

“Now Universal has Jurassic Park, Twentieth Century Fox has a Star Wars franchise with Lucasfilm, MGM has 007, Sony Columbia is working on a Godzilla franchise… …”

Jeff Robinoff is very clear that if he wants to stay in a stable position, he must find new profit points. "I think everyone understands the benefits that a successful series of movies can bring. Warner Bros. needs new series projects, needs New Batman!"

He waved his hand behind him, and immediately an assistant walked to the conference table and distributed a book to the hands of many senior executives present.

Robert Solomon flipped through it. "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone? Jeff, is this the new project you're talking about? How come I've never heard of it?"

Several independent directors also looked at Jeff Robinoff with questioning eyes.

"Everyone, this is a magical novel for all ages." Jeff Robinoff didn't ask them to wait, he said directly, "Duke recommended this book to me a few months ago, and recently For two months, our marketing department has been doing targeted research."

Hearing Duke's name, several directors who disapproved immediately bowed their heads solemnly and went to read the book in their hands.

If they didn't even pay attention to the work recommended by such a successful director, they would not be sitting in their current position. That is a shareholder of Warner Bros., and he has been increasing his shareholding ratio since last year. Now he is the largest shareholder of Warner Bros. one of the individual shareholders.

Warner Bros. shares too many common interests with him.

"Up to now, we have done a lot of research and statistics on this novel in the UK and the US."

Jamie Johnson from the market research department took over the message. He asked his assistant to issue a statistical report, and then said, "The sales of the novel are not good. It has only sold less than 30,000 copies since it went on sale this year."

Less than 30,000 copies?

Although many people frowned, they were all seniors in the media industry and understood that books and movies actually have many similar operating rules, such as the need for hype and publicity.

Jamie Johnson added, "The novel is only written by an ordinary middle-aged British lady, and neither she nor the book publisher has much reputation and strength, and basically no publicity and recommendation have been made for the work, which are severely limited. Book sales."

"However, we have done a lot of return visits to the group of children who have purchased books." He looked at the statistical report and said confidently, "The market research department spent two months, through phone calls, letters and door-to-door visits. In this way, the total response of nearly 10,000 buyers to the book was counted.”

"Ninety-five percent of readers over the age of ten thought it was an incredible book that opened their eyes, and their parents claimed it was the best children's book. According to author feedback, the novel The second installment is complete, and it's going to be a whole series..."

Listening to Jamie Johnson reading out the statistics, the management of Warner Bros. became more and more solemn. Duke Rosenberg might be wrong, but the statistics don't lie.

"I want to ask." Robert Solomon looked up from the book, "Have we got the rights to adapt this series?"

This is the focus of many high-level attention at Warner Bros.

Jeff Robinoff said, "The right to adapt is temporarily in the hands of Duke Studio, but Duke is willing to share the copyright with Warner Bros. to build this series together."

He looked at the subordinates in the conference room, "No one can guarantee the success of a series, just like we cooperate with other companies to share the risk on Batman, if the group company decides to push this series vigorously, we will join forces with Duke Studio. , which can not only use Duke's influence to promote the popularity and adaptation of the work, but also minimize the early risks..."

The meeting is gradually coming to an end, and the fate of the Harry Potter series has not been completely decided. Warner Bros. not only has to conduct relevant market research, but also conduct preliminary negotiations with Duke. Both parties must also reach preliminary opinions on future investment and income ratios. .

No capital will only invest and not care about the income!

"Doug..." Jeff Robinoff said, "Keep in touch with Duke, contact Nancy Josephson as soon as possible, if the group company can pass this project, I will go to Australia to talk to Duke in person ."

Just after the Warner Bros. meeting ended, Duke, who was far away in Sydney, received a call from Jeff Robinoff. Although the other party didn't say anything explicitly, the implied attitude was already obvious. The special series was also recommended by others, and the company of the producer whose name he could not remember also shares interests with Warner Bros...

The only difference now is that he wants to get as many pieces of this big cake as possible, which depends on the results of the negotiation between the two parties.

Duke is very clear that the failure of the Batman series has temporarily made Warner Bros. temporarily lose the most important pillar of performance, and he, as a director who has cooperated more and more with Warner Bros., will inevitably increase his weight, so that he can be in future negotiations. Increase your own chips.

From this point of view, Duke has always maintained a very clear mind. With the strength of Duke's studio, it is impossible to stimulate the full potential of the little wizard. Independent production and promotion, the income will definitely be significantly lower than before, and even can It is a miracle to create one-tenth of the industry chain of hundreds of billions of dollars.

If the negotiation goes well, in terms of the final actual benefits, independent production is far less cost-effective than working with Warner Bros. (To be continued ~^~)