Made in Hollywood

After the cost of any film has reached a certain stage, the review and investment of the production company will become extremely cautious. Although James Cameron's two masterpieces really opened up the era of Hollywood's billion-dollar production, such as Such a huge investment that Duke shouted for "Independence Day" can be described as rare.

Those small productions with an investment of only a few million dollars will be strictly reviewed by the film company, not to mention projects such as "Independence Day". The birth of each tens of millions of dollars of film projects is an extremely cumbersome process.

In Hollywood, the process from a script concept to the actual approval of the studio and the decision to shoot is called "green light" (GREEN.LIGHT). In addition to the necessary review committee review, there are many preliminary investigation processes.

First, there must be a script, quality and creativity that the production company will be interested in.

Second, the script must be systematically reviewed by the production department. The production department will analyze whether the script is novel, has commercial value, and whether it conforms to the production company's product structure. If approved, the production department estimates the cost of film production, tax costs, and more.

Third, this project will be reviewed by the distribution department, and they will cooperate with the distributors to investigate many questions - what is the commercial value of this film? Who is its target audience? Is it adapted from a novel, and is there a fixed fan base? Will the film fit into the studio's global distribution system? Can you get support from cooperative TV stations and videotape partners? The type of film and when it was released? Is it possible to place ads in the video? Is there any chance of the film hitting awards? How many films of the same genre have been released or are in the pipeline in the past and next 18 months? How are they doing? What about the ROI?

Fourth, establish a production team. For Independence Day, this is a relatively simple problem.

Fifth, finalize the shooting details and cooperation intention...

Sixth, the budget, shooting, location, and production team were finally approved, and finally got the "green light".

In fact, this is only a rough process, and does not explain the completeness and refinement of the commercial laws in Hollywood film production, but there are some data that may illustrate this point.

For example, Hollywood studios receive more than 15,000 scripts every year, and in the end only about 300 movies enter the production stage, and it is unknown how many of them are scripts that have been suppressed for several years.

Even if Duke has the success of "Speed ​​of Life" and "Brave Island" as capital, Warner Bros. and other companies just have more confidence in him, and will give priority to his projects, but will not take it lightly Then the green light was given, which would ultimately involve more than $100 million in investment after all.

"Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox have completed their initial reviews."

In the Duke's studio, Nancy Josephson sat opposite Duke, tapping on the humble desk in front of him with one hand, "Their production department, distribution department and marketing department have temporarily given the project an A-level evaluation. , of course, the premise is that after the film is shot, it can achieve the effect described in the script."

"As long as there is enough money, I don't think it will be difficult for me," Duke said.

Special effects can't save money at all. Different prices can produce completely different effects. If the project passes smoothly, Duke's first choice for special effects must be Industrial Light and Magic!

"Have the tripartite talks been held?" Duke asked again.

"I've had three conversations with the management of Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox."

During the conversation, Nancy rubbed her forehead lightly, her face seemed to be tired, and she probably consumed a lot of energy, "Basically, the intention to cooperate in shooting has been basically reached. If the project can finally pass the review of the two companies, they will each Responsible for half of the investment, and a consensus has been reached on distribution for the time being, Warner is responsible for overseas distribution, and 20th Century Fox is responsible for North American distribution.”

Pulling in other companies to collaborate on filming is the most common way to reduce investment risks in big productions. Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox competed fiercely in the summer. Now being able to sit together and negotiate is enough to prove the survival of big Hollywood companies. Normalcy, competition and cooperation are eternal themes.

To put it bluntly, in the face of profit, no business conflict is irreconcilable.

"Nancy, Warner and Fox..."

Now that it has passed the preliminary review, it is very likely that the project will be approved. Duke asked the broker on the opposite side, "Do you plan to invest independently or raise money?"

"They are ready to start pre-sale, and if the project review is over, they will contact you as soon as possible," Nancy sat back in a high-back chair, "to discuss the possibility of placing advertisements in the film."

This kind of commercial film with an investment of hundreds of millions and a modern social theme is impossible without advertisements. Duke does not reject it. Just like "Brave to the Dead Island", he will try to arrange advertisements in the Be in the right place at the right time.

"With the pre-sale, there will definitely be a third-party guarantee." Duke sighed. No director actually likes the appearance of a third-party, which means more wrangling and censorship.

However, Hollywood has a mature film system, and the film completion guarantee system is obviously the biggest guarantee for the interests of investors. The production company wants to attract global distributors, video tape partners, TV stations, etc. to sell in advance, or to publicly raise some funds to support Shooting, third-party guarantee is essential.

"Duke..." Nancy asked tentatively, "Aren't you going to invest?"

"My dear, I have to repay my mother's loan, and the share of "Brave to the Dead Island" will not be credited in a few months at the earliest."

Spreading out his hands, Duke felt a little helpless. He would not overestimate the consciousness of Warner Bros. The agreement between the two parties is to pay off within half a year, and the other party may not insist on it until the end. The bank loan is too little for the huge investment in the film."

Speaking of this, Duke's mouth turned up slightly, "I believe that now I have the capital to make an offer to the producer?"

"Of course!" Nancy nodded without hesitation.

If you change to any director, the box office of two consecutive films has exceeded 100 million in North America and over 300 million in the world.

"Nancy, I want you to help me get a 1+2 salary contract!"

Just after Duke finished speaking, Nancy asked knowingly, "$10 million base salary plus 20 percent of the film's revenue?"

"No, I don't want a share of the net revenue." Duke shook his head and said, "I want a share of the box office in the early stage!"

In order to stimulate the creative desire of directors or actors, Hollywood allows big-name directors and popular actors to share the box office and copyright income. Now the maximum share can reach 25%, and the director's income and share are directly related to the amount. The box office of the last three films is related.

This part is divided into two categories: online and offline.

Online is mainly the box office share of the film, which is divided into a percentage of the full box office and the net box office revenue after deducting all costs. In this day and age, the film can still benefit from the box office. If you push it back more than a dozen times Years, the latter is completely a pit.

Offline is all peripheral income including copyrights. This area has always been a restricted area for distributors and production companies. In Hollywood, only a handful of directors and actors can participate.

For example, Spielberg, if "Jurassic Park", which still maintains its hot momentum, can sell as well as it once did, he may gain at least $200 million from all the film's income!

Duke has always been very clear-headed, and now he has the qualifications to call online revenue sharing, and forget it offline.

Of course, this is not the case when negotiating. Nancy Josephson is experienced and should know how to deal with it.

This is not just based on the consideration of its own capital, but there is another level of reason. In this era of relatively unsmooth information, the global income of the film is far less easy to monitor than box office statistics.

Let's talk about the current partner Warner Bros. Duke once read a related report that although the film "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" has achieved a total revenue of more than 700 million US dollars in North America, the book Lost nearly $200 million!

The reason is that Warner Bros. Pictures deducted up to $200 million in 3D copy and distribution fees - which it paid to itself, and $140 million in advertising costs - mostly paid to itself by Warner Bros. Yes, and another $77 million in interest, which is what Warner Bros. incurred by borrowing its left-handed right.

Warner Bros. has earned at least $400 million in revenue from these items alone, but after deducting it as an expense, after deducting $200 million in production fees and other expenses, it has incurred huge losses from an accounting point of view. .

In this way, the main creators who have signed a net revenue sharing agreement with the film side will not get much money.

On top of that, Warner Bros. isn't breaking the rules, both financially and legally.

Therefore, considering all aspects, what Duke wants is the proportion of the total box office, not the unreliable net income share. Even in the future, he will not sign an inexplicable net income share with Hollywood companies!

If it weren't for the lack of capital now, Duke even wanted to directly call out the full revenue share of the film.

There will be many more Hollywood filmmakers in the future, still counting on the big studios to find out in their conscience, allowing them to take a share of the "profit".

In fact, capital will never have the day when its conscience will be discovered.

After talking to Nancy Josephson, Duke was back at work, not only did Sofia Coppola quickly return to his assistant's job, but he also summoned Zach Snyder, John Schwarz, who had just returned from sabbatical, Team members such as Zeman, Robin Grande, and Joss Williams make formal preparations for the upcoming Independence Day project.

Later, Nancy heard the news that Paramount Pictures was interested in joining the investment, but was rejected by both Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox. The two companies almost completed the final review with the fastest speed allowed in the program, etc. It's September, and when Duke's team has drawn up a rough script list, Independence Day is finally ready.

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