Made in Hollywood

PS:  The new week starts, we will try our best to keep the third watch, and if the code is not available, we will notify in advance.

As of the end of July, the number of North American screenings of "Iron Man" was less than 400, and the daily ticket sales fell below $200,000. It is basically impossible for the North American market to make a big difference. During the time, the film's North American box office accumulated to 381.24 million US dollars, and all the summer movies including "Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Gathering of Souls" were pressed down, and it was the well-deserved 2006 North American summer file champion.

Two years after losing the position, Duke once again reigned supreme in the summer.

However, the overseas performance of "Iron Man" is relatively poor. In almost the same time period, the film received 312.66 million US dollars from nearly 100 countries and regions.

"Iron Man" grossed a combined $693.9 million worldwide.

Although the total box office is infinitely close to 700 million US dollars, the global box office growth of "Iron Man" has been weak, and whether it can finally exceed the 700 million US dollars mark, Duke and Warner Bros. are also hard to say.

Some people must want to push the final box office number of "Iron Man" to more than 700 million US dollars, especially in the long run, this is good for the plan of the Marvel series. Marvel's executives have a fund ready at any time. may be cast out.

In addition, the DVD release of "Iron Man" is also in preparation. As long as the film exhausts its final box office potential in North America, it will be listed to make money.

Since the beginning of the new century, DVD has been one of the most important sources of income for major Hollywood production and distribution companies. It is not an exaggeration to say that Hollywood relies on DVD to make money. Hot movie, in North America alone, DVD sales can exceed 100 million US dollars in the first week. Those films that made it to the top ten of the annual box-office charts, with very few exceptions, ended up selling for about $100 million on DVD.

The production cost of DVDs is far lower than the once-popular video tapes, at most no more than 1% to 3% of the wholesale price sold by the producer and distributor to the seller. Even after marketing and other costs are included, the profit margin is still terrible. .

Generally speaking, the producer will provide the underwriter with a promotion fund of about 5% and no more than 10% at most.

There are also rentals. The division of leases is more complicated.

First, the renter will give a reserve price, which means that no matter whether the film is rented or not, the producer can get a sum of money from the renter, about $3 to $10 per piece.

Then there are several different ways of leasing. The normal leasing fee is the main source. In addition, if the rented disc is not returned on time, the renter will deal with it as an automatic sale. That is, the user's money is deducted according to the sales price. In the current general method, the producer draws 1 to 2 US dollars from each rental income, and the price is determined according to the box office figures of the film.

That is to say, the higher the box office, the higher the proportion of the film, so the box office is the basis for a film to be profitable.

If it is a sale. There is also a draw-per-card percentage, which is higher, around $5 to $10.

The rental fee is not always included, there is a valid period according to the contract. It's about 50 weeks or so, when it expires. Rentals must destroy a certain percentage of DVDs and either return the rest to the studio or buy them for a certain price per copy.

A single movie, if it's a hit. Studios can make $5-8 million from a single rental company, and that's just the rental portion, the sales portion is more than that, meaning a hit movie Hollywood can make tens of millions from DVDs Even hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, and this revenue is almost all net profit.

That's why Hollywood is making money off DVDs.

However, everyone who has paid attention to the relevant data is well aware that the heyday of DVD is coming to an end. According to a data compiled by Warner Bros. this year, DVD sales in Hollywood in the first half of 2006 fell by 6% compared with the first half of 2005. point three.

Although Hollywood's DVD industry still maintains a scale of nearly 2 billion US dollars, it is not difficult for people with a long-term perspective to see that this glory will not last for too long, and even decline sharply in the next three to four years.

Why does this happen? Are audiences fed up with Hollywood blockbusters?

The answer is of course no, the audience for Hollywood movies has not shrunk, but with the rise of Internet video sites, those teenagers who constitute the mainstream of the movie market have turned their attention to online on-demand and online downloads.

No one knows better than Duke that the rise of movies on the Internet has directly shrunk the size of Hollywood's DVD industry by two-thirds.

Hollywood is never short of elites, and many have discovered that.

On the one hand, studios are also looking for ways to reduce costs to ensure more profit per disc; on the other hand, while taking defensive measures, major studios are making movies completely free of charge. Prepare for the day when it disappears from the silver disc.

The offline distribution of movies in the future will inevitably rely more on the Internet or on-demand services of cable and satellite TV companies. According to the data of the media research company, the current market size has reached 800 million US dollars, and it has surged by nearly 100% in the past year alone. of twenty.

Both Warner Bros. and Duke Studios are planning ahead, not waiting a few weeks for the movies to be released on DVD before releasing online or pay-TV versions, but launching them simultaneously.

In this way, it can attract young people who will not buy DVDs.

Another shift in the pipeline is to allow viewers to download online versions of films after they are released, and this could also be before DVD releases, an attempt to charge customers an additional fee for early viewing of high-definition movies.

It can be said that how to use the Internet to make money from movies is currently the focus of research by major companies.

Even some people's eyes are also aimed at the network revenue of the film.

As we all know, Hollywood has never been a place of love and kindness. It can be said that good people and soft-hearted people basically have no living space here. This industry has attracted countless people and companies, with capital, fame and interests. Fighting, this fight is also reflected in several major Hollywood associations.

The most famous associations in Hollywood are nothing more than the Producers Union, the Directors Guild, the Editors Guild and the two Actors Guilds. There are also conflicts and entanglements of interests among these four associations.

Of course, it is basically a conflict between the Producers Union and other associations.

At present, the contract between the Producers Union and the Writers Guild is about to expire at the end of 2007. The Producers Union, which represents the interests of the studio, has started preliminary negotiations with the Writers Guild, but the negotiations are not going well, and the Producers Union does not want to Easily meet the conditions of the Screenwriters Guild.

In 1988, the Screenwriters Guild called on screenwriters to hold a 22-week strike, in which they obtained a fixed percentage of the revenue from videotapes and television broadcasts from the producers. Now they are focusing on the Internet revenue of the film.

Not only the Writers Guild, but also the Directors Guild and Actors Guild also requested to share this piece of revenue, but they encountered completely different treatment from the Writers Guild. Although there were major differences with the Producers Union, there was room for discussion, not Like the Writers Guild, rejected outright by the Producers Union.

This also reflects the screenwriter's status in Hollywood from the side.

The script is one of the foundations of making a film, but in quite a few projects, it is not that important.

Duke is very clear that the Producers Union will make certain concessions to the Directors Guild and Screen Actors Guild, but it will not easily make concessions to the Writers Guild.

Future strikes are simply inevitable.

He knew that a strike would definitely happen and that it would affect his profits, but he was powerless. This conflict of interests cannot be resolved by a single person or a small group.

In fact, even if the strike is effective, the status of Hollywood screenwriters will not improve much.

Today, everyone, including the production companies, believes that the biggest weakness of Hollywood movies is the lack of originality. It can also be said that the Hollywood system is trying its best to combat innovation. The producers are afraid of the risks of innovation, so they would rather make a sequel or an adaptation. This best-selling book and comic book will not support the so-called new script full of creativity.

For example, let Duke choose, someone recommends a script to him, one is a novel with a novel story and structure, and only requires an investment of 50 million US dollars; the other is a script adapted from a popular comic that seems vulgar, an investment of 80 million US dollars, he is sure I would choose the latter without hesitation.

Ninety-nine percent of Hollywood producers make the same choice.

The remaining 1%, after accepting the creative script, will usually be put on the shelf. Some people may find it a little interesting and get it on the so-called Hollywood script blacklist, and then hang it for many years, slowly waiting for someone willing to invest. ...

In Hollywood, a big film factory, most films, even literary films, must comply with the rules of the assembly line, and the script will not be an exception, even if it is a book like "The Dark Knight", after Duke finished the outline and character design , and handed it over to the following screenwriter team, a total of 22 screenwriters participated in the writing of this script.

These screenwriters have a clear division of labor, distinguishing the political scenes, love scenes, and action scenes that have written the film... Even the dialogue is divided into threats, love, humor, and action.

A movie of the scale of "The Dark Knight" must be the product of the Hollywood assembly line. If such a large-scale investment is not produced in an assembly line mode, Warner Bros. must go crazy.

With the arrival of August, preparations for "The Dark Knight" have become more and more hectic, and Duke has also made several trips between Warner Studios, Hughes Aircraft Factory and Chicago to check the progress of preparations.

Perhaps the success of "Batman: Hour of War" brought a certain publicity effect. The Chicago government gave strong support to "The Dark Knight", and the mayor also met with Duke twice.

When Duke returned to Los Angeles from Chicago in mid-August, he saw Heath Ledger, who had disappeared for more than a month. (To be continued ~^~)