The Best Director

Chapter 170 The Envious Flame Movie

Rushing——As September gets closer and closer, this summer is about to pass, students are beginning to return to school one after another, and the beaches in Santa Monica are much deserted. In this pleasant seaside city, there are many headquarters of film companies, and the flame movie that has been in the limelight recently is one of them.

In the headquarters building of Flame Films, the employees in each office are busy with laughter and laughter. The whole company is full of happiness. The generous and good treatment and the bright future of the company make them very satisfied with this job; and this year the company The income is blowing out, and there must be a lot of bonuses at the end of the year.

Anyway, regardless of whether "The Ninth District" can get any Oscar nominations or awards, it is already a great success for the flame movie. Its production cost is 100 million. Of course, the real figure is more than 9.78 million, and the global publicity cost plus miscellaneous expenses such as copying and transportation are about 10,000. In front of him, it seemed that it was no big deal.

The highest-grossing R-rated movie in history steals money. How much money can the chairman reappear "The Ninth District" for Flame Movie? If the global box office is 700 million, the flame movie can at least get 100 million; it can be estimated that the popular dvd sales, it has an excellent reputation and is well received, and one of the benefits of cult movies is that cu1t fans like to collect dvd; In addition, original sound CDs, TV copyright income, etc... It is another coveted treasury.

But the downside is that this is a treasury, not a gold mine, and it will be gone if it is moved all at once, because everyone in Flame Movie knows that the chairman of the money grab said that "The Ninth District" will not make a sequel, at least not for the time being, maybe ten years later. It may be possible to shoot a sequel after two years; no one is surprised by this, this is in line with the chairman's style, he likes the new and hates the old, everyone thought that the "High School Musical" trilogy would give him the title of "Fantastic Bby Director". Develop in an uncontrolled direction.

"Wonderful Baby" has become "Mr. Fantastic", and the cover slogan of "Time" magazine represents an attitude: "Wonderful Yang, welcome to officially join the Great Directors Club"

What is a great director? In terms of rights, it means having absolute control over the directing of a film, the selection of characters, script details, shooting methods... More importantly, the right to final cut. It is up to the producer to decide what the theatrical version of a movie looks like when it is released in theaters. They hand over the scissors to the producer, editor, and even the leading actor in the movie.

The director who edited with them can only yell helplessly and angrily at times: "Man, listen to me, my cut version is better" and then the producer says: "That's great, it's great to put it in the DVD." Director Are the edited versions better? Not necessarily, there are cases where the theater version is scolded and the director's cut version is a classic;

In any case, the big director owns the final cut rights, and they decide both the theatrical version and the director's cut version. There are not many people in this rank,

Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Coen Brothers, Quentin Tarantino, Tim Burton... Directors who have final cutting rights for each movie, the whole Hollywood only uses ten fingers That's enough.

Wang Yang's situation is of course special. He is both a full investor and a producer and director. Every film is an "independent film" no matter how much it costs, so he has always been able to enjoy the rights of a major director.

But the title of "big director" still needs the recognition of the media and the public, it is very simple, an absolute classic in film history. "Ghost Story" and "High School Musical" are naturally not qualified, "Happiness Knocks" and "Juno" are not unique, and there is no "big scene"; but "District 9" clears everything obstacle.

Highly praised by the critics, ImdB's score of 8.8 ranks among the top ten in film history, the global box office is 600 million, and it is recognized as a sci-fi classic that has not been seen in many years... There are also a total box office of 100 million, with an average of 400 million per movie. Besides his young age, Wang Yang is already a great director recognized by movie fans, but he is also the most immature, least convincing, and most likely to be kicked out.

Lack of a second classic? Lack of various director awards? Too young is likely to encounter Waterloo suddenly and become a belated "one piece director"? Play lost in life like Robert Downey Jr., and then wake up in the next year, and then rise again? These are all reasons. In the hearts of the media public, he still has a long, long way to go before establishing the title of "Mr. Fantastic" as a great director.

And the "High School Musical" that allowed him to harvest the "magic baby" was taken over by Sarah Sugarman and ended. The first film has a global box office of 570 million, and the third film has a total box office of 889 million US dollars. Peripheral income, it is a stable gold mine for flame movies in the past few years.

However, after the trilogy ended, this gold mine seemed to be hollowed out. A long-term profitable series of works is very important to a film company, and often it is something that an independent film company "eats for a lifetime", relying on this series for ten years, just like "High School Musical", until it Finally, it doesn't work until it is completely destroyed.

In terms of big companies now, Warner Bros. has opened the "Harry Potter" series; Sony has just destroyed "Men in Black", but it has "Spiderman"; Men of War"...Independent film companies also have their own magic weapons. New Line has "Lord of the Rings" and "Rush Hour"; "Very Small Spy" will not let go...

But the flame movie lacks such a long and powerful series nowadays, and of course the cartoon "Ice Age" is not counted. However, "The Hangover" is likely to become a new gold mine for the flames. Even though it won't be released until Christmas this year, the whole company has great confidence in it and the money-grabbing chairman, and has even discussed the second part. The chairman still won't make a sequel.

Although there are no series, with "Sweetheart", "Ice Age" and "The Ninth District", Flame Movie's performance this year is already very scary; another popular brand Fm company also performed well, launching several films on the screen. It is a small-budget film with a small profit; and the rental and copyright market it is currently focusing on is full of surprises, the biggest one being "Death Illusion", which was purchased at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010.

Like "Memento," this thriller was praised but ignored because it cost $10,000 to make. FM Investment Director Peter Wilkes boldly purchased the film at a high price in line with the company's philosophy of "don't be afraid of losing money, but have the courage to try". It was screened in theaters last month on Halloween, but the results were not satisfactory, with only 10,000 box office in four weeks.

I thought it would definitely lose money this time, but I didn't expect that after it was put into the DVD rental and sales market, its sales gradually increased month by month, and it turned out to be very popular during the summer vacation; It was released in foreign theaters and has now received over 10,000 box office receipts. Counting all items, it has already generated tens of thousands of profits for Fm and counting.

"Actually, I didn't expect the box office to be so good."

In the elegantly furnished chairman's office, Wang Yang in a T-shirt was sitting behind the desk, turning a pen in his hand, looking at Mark Slanter in a black suit on the opposite chair, and said, "I thought the world could receive 4 100 million would be great, after all it’s very depressing.” Mark Slanter said with a smug smile, “My boss, if you’re 100 million, or if we release it in May, then that’s fine. It's 400 million." Wang Yang smiled and nodded.

These two reasons are indeed very important, otherwise "The Ninth District" would have a high rating, but it would not have the current box office results.

Excellent viral marketing and the popularity of the "Magic Yang" brand have led to the weekly box office of "Spider-Man"-style commercial blockbusters. It is also because there is no rival in August. It will inevitably divert many fans; then the high weekly box office, high ratings and year-old miracles have caused a herd effect of "asking for depression".

"Jan, many companies are jealous of us now, and this is not a good thing." Mark Slanter's tone became serious, and he said seriously: "Those guys could hold back before, but you know that "Ice River Century and District 9 are so enviable. I’m not saying they can’t stop us from making movies, but in terms of advertising, we need to maintain good relations with those big media groups, we need allies.”

He paused, looked at Wang Yang, and said seriously, "We want to share some benefits with them."

"Well, I understand..." Wang Yang nodded with his mouth pursed. The so-called profit sharing means joint venture film production; give them the right to exercise, domestic, international, DVD, etc., and let them earn operating expenses; Business is like this. When you make a lot of money, others will not pay attention to it for a while, but when you make a lot of money continuously and break their psychological endurance, you have to go back to the rules of the game. It is impossible to keep all the benefits forever. accounted for.

He turned his pen and thought for a while, then asked, "Is anyone interested in the films of Anne Fletcher and Sarah Shulaman? How about a joint venture with them?"

The screen debuts of these two female directors are both produced by Flame Films. The relationship between the three is naturally very close, and the company is now planning to cooperate with them again to shoot two new films. Although the producer and script have not been finalized, Anne Fletcher will definitely make a dance film, and Sarah Sugarman will shoot youth themes. On or off campus, Jessica is likely to play the leading role.

"If you are the screenwriter and producer, of course they are interested; otherwise, they are not interested, so what is the difference with their own investment?" Mark Slanter shrugged helplessly, and his eyes under the glasses flashed a light , the voice was ambiguous and authentic: "What they want is Miracle Yang, and what they want is you. They are also jealous of you. The scale of the "High School Musical" trilogy (999,,); "When Happiness Comes Knocking on the Door", "Memento", "Juno" in 2009; o The Ninth District, all of them made a fortune.

On Flame's own list of top ten movies at the North American box office, the first is "The Ninth District", the second is the final third, "Juno" is the fourth and fifth billion "High School Musical"...

And what about other companies? Let’s take a look at Lionsgate Films, which is an independent film company like Flame. Its top movie is “Ghost Story” with 600 million yuan. , the highest one was "Scream" in 1996, "Scream" in 1997, "Scream" in 1990, and then "Catch the Ghost Festival" in 1998...

Of course, in Paramount's 600 million "Titanic" and .100 million "Forrest Gump"; o Century Fox's 400 million "Star Wars Episodes"; Universal's .500 million "e.T."; Sony/Columbia Billionaire "Spiderman"... In front of big companies, Flame Movie seems to have nothing to be jealous of, everyone is about the same level.

The problem is that everyone else is a big company, and to make a movie, they need to make a joint venture, share the rights, etc.; Flame is an independent film company, but every time it does everything, it bears all the risks and makes all the money.

"Flame Movie is like a crazy gambler. They always have strong confidence. They don't ask others to come in and invest, and they pay for it all by themselves every time. What you need to know is that a movie with a budget of 10,000 yuan, There are usually three or more production companies.” — Wall Street Journal.

This kind of topic has been discussed many times in business newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal. The reason is that the flame movie can make a lot of money every time. , it is getting better and better; many investors and institutions are waiting to buy the stock of Flame Movie, but it just refuses to go public.

In the beginning, the media groups didn’t care what a small company did. If you want to promote your movie, just pay according to the market price; but seeing that the flames are soaring, they want to share more benefits up.

This is also the reason why independent film companies are struggling. They lack the support of TV, newspapers and magazines from media groups behind them, and they need to spend more effort in publicity; no matter what their films are, they will rank among those media groups in terms of publicity opportunities. Behind the movies produced by the mainstream film companies under its umbrella, unless everyone has invested in that movie.

Fortunately, Flame Movie has identified some emerging promotional channels before, such as the largest sharp weapon Internet, and toilet advertisements, etc., so that it can "do whatever it wants".

Of course, even if the flames continue their own style, they will not fall, and there will be no "media groups boycotting flame movies". This is impossible; but their indifference is inevitable. The trailer is at the bottom; if you want to be on a talk show, it is at the bottom... If you have a long-term big media ally and compete with other companies, it is naturally a better choice.

"Have you ever thought about us doing it ourselves?" Wang Yang raised his eyebrows and looked at him with interest. Mark Slanter was stunned, wondering: "What do you mean?" Wang Yang aimed his pencil at the pen holder on the table, and said with a smile: "Those media groups are powerful because they have TV networks, and paper media networks. ?"

Mark Slant spread his hands with an "obvious" expression, then reacted, and said in surprise: "You want to engage in media groups? TV stations, newspapers?"

"No, we can't play the media group now; I don't want to, it's too annoying." Wang Yang smiled and threw the pen in his hand, and the pencil bounced out of the barrel. He rolled his eyes, picked up the pen, "But we could launch a premium cable channel," he said.

Mark Slanter couldn't help but frowned when he heard it. An independent film company launched a premium TV channel? This idea is much more exaggerated than the acquisition of Blue Sky Studio and the acquisition of the image engine.

It's not how difficult it is to set up and manage. Satellite channels cooperate with satellite TV service providers such as etrk, and cable channels cooperate with cable service providers such as neter-cb1e; they are responsible for transmitting channel signals to TV sets of users all over the United States; Flame Movies is responsible for providing signal content, and public and pay TV stations such as , x, and so on are the same.

But the question is, how many customers will subscribe to this new channel? How to attract them to order? How to achieve profit? Before realizing profitability, does Flame Movie have enough funds to support it?

"Our positioning is a TV and movie channel. We will launch a few good drama series to attract and stabilize the number of users, and we will also broadcast some movies at ordinary times; when it is almost done, it may take a few years, ten years, or twenty years. Who knows, At that time, we will slowly add some reality shows, variety shows and other entertainment programs; the ultimate goal is to become a comprehensive TV channel."

Wang Yang casually talked about his ideas. Of course it was easy to say, but it was naturally difficult in practice. He smiled again and said, "We don't do it by our own company. We can join forces with companies like Lionsgate, Dimensions, and MGM, and a large group of people will do it together."

"Money" Mark Slant shook his head, and said coldly, "How much money can those companies get out? What about us? This is another extremely risky investment." Wang Yang hummed without objection, and said: "Yes, our current cash is a bit low. In five years, let's make the snowball big first. When everything is on track, the cash is almost there. How can we get 0 billion out of our IPO to raise funds? "

"0 billion? Wow" Mark laughed suddenly, and analyzed: "Even if the listing reaches 500 million, this is already an astonishing estimate; the remaining 500 million, we need a net profit of 500 million every year; and then such a big decision Shareholders are going to quarrel again." He shrugged again, and said, "In the end, 100 million is still not enough, unless you are confident that you will make a profit before spending them all."

Wang Yang felt annoyed when he heard that, and said, "Please, didn't I say that a group of people will do it? You can also do it with a certain media group. Anyway, they have been fighting for the premium channel market for a long time." He raised his hand in annoyance He raised his hands and said, "Okay, these things are really annoying, I don't want to take care of them anymore"

He shoots his movies and lives his life; these things just go with the flow, if the conditions come later, do it, there is no need to worry about endless money. He thought about something and suddenly thought of something, and smiled immediately: "Oh, yes, I think the Internet will definitely have pay TV in the future, and Yang Zhiyuan and I are good friends, we can cooperate with Yahoo to let those media groups die "

Of course, Yang Zhiyuan and him are not good friends, at most they are just "long friends".

"My boss, no matter what, we still have to cooperate with others now." Mark Slanter stopped talking about the TV channel, let's take a look at the development of the past five years, o billion? Oh, he adjusted his glasses, and said seriously: "I suggest that "T——Team" is about to cooperate with others. The male protagonist is Chinese, not Kung Fu. The new screen image and publicity will be very difficult without the support of big media. .”

Wang Yang naturally knew this, nodded with his lips pursed, looked at Mark Slanter, and said with a smile: "OK, if they are interested in investing in this kind of 'loss-making' movie, then let's cooperate and choose who?"

oCentury Fox is not a good choice, they already have some problems with Blue Sky Studios; Warner Bros.? Paramount? global? Sony/Columbia? Thinking of Old Man Wu and Grandpa, Wang Yang added: "No Sony." Mark Srant nodded indifferently: "Of course."

How can you not make other film companies feel jealous? When "The Ninth District" in the fourth week of August was accepted in North American theaters, it won the North American weekly box office champion for the fourth consecutive week. In the overseas market, it achieved US$4.46 million this week. This "The Ninth District" has a total global box office of 680 million, and it is just around the corner to reach the 700 million box office club.

And this week's second place is "Xtreme Agent" with 00,000 third place. The total box office in North America for one week was 600 million U.S. dollars, and the popular summer vacation schedule has also come to an end.