I’m in Hollywood Chapter 680: Lessons

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Firefly and Columbia's negotiations on the development of sequels such as "Men in Black" are personally in charge of Katzenberg. With the strong character of Katzenberg, Eric is not worried that Firefly will lose in the negotiations. As for the so-called prosecution threat of Columbia, it seems to Firefly Not even worth mentioning, once Columbia filed a lawsuit, this lawsuit could not produce results in a year or two, Firefly can afford it, but Columbia dare not consume it.

However, Columbia thought about Flower Films, but Eric had to come forward in person. Therefore, just after the New Year in New York, Eric returned to Los Angeles.

Although Flower Films has no equities with Firefly on the surface, it is a very important step in Eric ’s Hollywood expansion plan. The whole Hollywood is actually clear about Flower Films. After all, the seven major Film Studios are basically In the case of a monopoly on the distribution channel, if the support of the Seventh Congress is not available, any new Hollywood player will not dare to make a film with an investment of more than 50 million USD, otherwise they will definitely be lost by the Seven Cards during the issuance process.

But the seemingly inconspicuous Flower Films did so. Not only did it continuously produce two super-large productions invested around 80 million, but also got a split from Columbia that made many second- and third-tier Film Studios envious and jealous. Terms, which absolutely cannot do without the full support of Firefly Group.

The biggest strength of Flower Films dare to do this is that if the big investment film it produces cannot obtain a reasonable distribution contract from the other six majors, Firefly can take over at any time.

After Columbia chooses the New Year, it is difficult for Flower Films to appear at this juncture. This is also the case. Flower Films currently has two films "Night at the Museum" and "Forrest Gump" to be released. Columbia originally set the schedule for the two films as the 1995 summer schedule. And now it is early 1995. The seven Film Studio summer film release plans have been basically determined, especially the Firefly. This year's summer files "The Lost World: Jurassic Park", "Independence Day" and "Toy Story 2" are all heavyweight films that require a lot of announcement resources.

Once Columbia and Flower Films have broken down in the negotiation of a share contract, although Firefly can take over two films of Flower Films, it is impossible to free up enough ~ style_txt; resources to distribute these two films, and the other big Film Studio may With this ability, Flower Films will definitely not take advantage of the sharing agreement. Well, in the end, these two films will likely be postponed.

The production cost of "Night at the Museum" is 80 million. The production cost of "Forrest Gump" has also reached 50 million USD. The movie cannot be released on time, and the total investment of 130 million USD cannot be realized in time, and the follow-up plan of Flower Films will not be launched. This kind of domino effect will hit Flower Films very hard.

Los Angeles, Venice Beach not far from Firefly Studios, Flower Films Headquarters office, Amy · Pascal worriedly told Eric what happened recently: "The reason given by Columbia is that" Jumanji "Box Office did not meet expectations. The film style of "Night at the Museum" is very similar to "Jumanji". If according to the original sharing agreement, Columbia will not be profitable. Instead, it will face a loss, so they request to change the established contract. Increase the distribution of Columbia ’s North America by 15% By 20%, they also requested to participate in the distribution of video and television broadcasting rights. "

Think carefully, the story styles of "Jumanji" and "Night at the Museum" are indeed very similar. A large number of animals, beasts, exotic flowers and other scenes appear in both films. Even the special effects of the two films are completely completed by the same team under the digital field.

However, "Jumanji" Box Office did not meet the expectations, not the quality of the film. Although the reputation of the film criticism is not good, as a commercial giant with CG Special Effects, the influence of the film criticism on the film Box Office is very small. The main reason why "Jumanji" Box Office did not meet expectations was due to the fierce competition in the schedule.

Compared to the seven Film Studios in the summer season, in order to avoid internal consumption, the potential tacit understanding of arranging a major production to be released on average a week, the competition of the 1994 Christmas season can only be described as tragic. On December 23, except for "Jumanji", There are also six films with more than 1500 screens such as "Street Fighter", "Little Women" and "Love" released at the same time. Relatively speaking, there were only three films that were simultaneously drawn with "Face/Off" the previous week.

A large number of new films opened at the same time, pushing the total Box Office of the week from 23 to 29 to 1.8800 million USD, reaching the highest point of the total amount of Box Office in the week of the end of 1994. But in this week, there were eight movies with Box Office exceeding 10 million USD in a single week. Under such fierce competition, "Jumanji" can still get 36 million USD Box Office in a week, and the new Christmas film Box Office has fallen sharply the following week. Box Office has only a weak 26% drop, and Box Office performance can be said to be very good. If you put "Jumanji" in a relatively loose summer competition, you definitely have the potential to impact 200 million USD Box Office. The reason why you have failed to meet the Box Office expectations now can only be said to be out of season.

Eric believes that Columbia will never see this inside. Using "Jumanji" Box Office to fail to meet the expected excuse of trying to renegotiate the terms of sharing with Flower Films is a bit of a rogue sense.

After thinking for a while, Eric looked up again and asked, "What about their excuse for" Forrest Gump "?"

"Columbia feels that" Forrest Gump "is more suitable as an Olympic film, Box Office has limited potential, and there is a lack of interest in the release of this film Columbia from the beginning," Amy · Pascal finished, looked at Eric, said: " In fact, Eric, I think so. "Forrest Gump" is a very good film, there is no doubt about it, but its inspiring and nostalgic film style seems to be more suitable for the end of the year, the main audience of the summer film It ’s still a young man. So, what we should now ensure is the release of “Night at the Museum”. If “Forrest Gump” is delayed until the end of the year. For the impact of next year ’s Oscar. Perhaps it ’s a good thing, this film ’s United States culture is too strong, If there is no Oscar halo, the proceeds from overseas issuance will certainly be very limited. "

Eric patiently listened to the analysis of Amy · Pascal. As a previous life woman who can be the head of Hollywood and Film Studio, Amy · Pascal's personal ability is absolutely very good, and the analysis of the commercial positioning of "Forrest Gump" is also very accurate. But just like the famous chocolate quote in "Forrest Gump". There is no release of a movie, and no one knows what Box Office potential it will show. Fortunately, Eric knows exactly, so he only nodded slightly for the analysis of Amy · Pascal, and did not agree.

After looking at it, it ’s rare to sit quietly next to me, not to be coquettish, not to be cute. small girl, who listened to the dialogue between the two patiently and patiently, Eric asked, without examination, "Drew, what do you think we should do well?"

Drew heard Eric asking himself and thought for a while and said: "It depends on what you think, Columbia makes these gestures. It is nothing more than trying to force Firefly to develop through the sequels of" Men in Black "and" Mr. & Mrs. Smith " The plan is over, Oh. Now we must add the "Jumanji" sequel. If Firefly is no longer stuck, Columbia will definitely not be entangled with Flower Films on the share contract. After all, there are no two Movies, Columbia can't find a suitable movie to fill the schedule, and will also miss this summer's schedule, this is a matter of losing both sides. "

Eric smiled and said: "Actually, Sony looks like a wealthy upstart in Hollywood but wants to be a vassal. This kind of character who is willing to spend money and can not have too much influence on the rules of the game in the circle stays. For us, it is only good. If the players behind Columbia are replaced by other people, maybe we are not able to arbitrarily. So I do n’t plan to push the Sony out of Hollywood too tightly in those films copyright. "

Amy · Pascal showed a relaxed smile, and small girl also spread his hands: "Then we have nothing to worry about, everything is just as usual."

Eric watched the reaction of the two and shook their heads with a smile, saying, "You haven't pursued too much, as you can see from this incident, even your closest ally is sometimes unreliable. The reason why Columbia dared to do this is to see that even if Firefly now wants to connect to Flower Films, it will seem to be unable to work in a short time. Therefore, Flower Films ultimately depends on itself. "

Amy · Pascal is a little surprised: "Eric, you mean let us release these two movies ourselves?"

"Of course not. You can only take this slowly. The main thing is that Columbia should learn a lesson. Hollywood and other major Film Studios should also understand that if there is not enough confidence, do n’t cooperate casually. Partner turned his face. "

Drew shook his head: "Eric, we are a bit confused about what you said."

Eric looked at his watch and turned to the TV in the office: "It should be almost the same time, do you have n here?"

Amy · Pascal nodded, found the remote control and turned on the TV to find n news station.

The picture happened to be cut from a piece of news about the mobile license operation auction. The host held a press release and said to the camera: "Latest news, 10:15, Firefly Group CEO Jeffrey · Katzenberg and Sony United States branch Chairman Howard · Stringer We jointly held a press conference at Culver City Columbia Headquarters, announcing that both parties will start the production of the sequels of "Men in Black" and "Jumanji" at the same time this year. Please see the live report of our reporter stationed at Los Angeles ... "

The three of them were watching the TV screen. After a while, Drew said, "Eric, it's so sudden. I already knew that. I and Amy don't have to worry about the release of" Night at the Museum "and" Forrest Gump "these days. Now. "

The sound of small girl pulled Eric out of some thoughts. Instead of responding to Drew ’s words immediately, he picked up the phone and dialed a number. After connecting, he said to the phone: "Kelly, I just I saw a news about mobile operation license auction in n, check what is going on, I will see detailed information tomorrow. "

Simply say a few words, Eric hung up the phone, and did not explain what he had just done. Then the topic just said: "The reason why I let Katzenberg determine this matter as soon as possible. It is to make some people understand. The next action of Flower Films has nothing to do with the copyright dispute of movies such as" Men in Black. "

Amy · Pascal asked: "Eric, you mean, you are not going to let us cooperate with Columbia?"

Eric nodded and said: "Now the dispute between Firefly and Columbia is resolved, and Flower Films and Columbia are released from cooperation. It will no longer be affected by the dispute between Firefly and Columbia copyright. If you re-find the issuer, you will not be robbed by the fire. Risk. My plan is this, the release of "Night at the Museum" is transferred to Metro Goldwyn Mayer. At this point, I personally communicated with Frank · Makasso, and the sharing terms are consistent with Columbia. There is only one 007 for the Metro Goldwyn Mayer summer file, and a new "Night at the Museum" is temporarily added. There is no distribution pressure at all. The overseas and peripheral operations of "Forrest Gump" are represented by Firefly. It is a kind of exercise to distribute your own local distribution. "Forrest Gump" ​​is more inclined to rush to the art film, so the distribution pressure is not too great. The Box Office trend is also more likely to be a long line, as long as you can get more than 1500 premiere canvases. "

Amy · Pascal listens to Eric. Frowning slightly, but hesitated.

The release of the Hollywood movie is plain. In fact, there are just a few steps.

First of all, you need to contact Ken to show your movie theater. This is the inherent advantage of the seven major Film Studios. For the seven majors, some promising movies are often just established, and have already been linked with Many theaters have signed an issuance contract, and they can even get a huge down payment from the theater dealer. At the same time, it is also an important threshold to block most new players who attempt to enter Hollywood.

The movie distributors will come to the door to seek cooperation for the seven major release films, but if it is a brand-new Film Studio that wants to release the film, do n’t think about signing the distribution contract in advance, even if you complete the movie production, the theater line Businessmen often do not have much enthusiasm to distribute the film for you, and ultimately even have no chance to release it, because this involves the second key step of film distribution, marketing.

The films of the same quality, the same release scale, and the same schedule, the Box Office obtained by the seven major releases is often much higher than the second and third line Film Studio, the main difference is marketing. The Seven Major Film Studio already mastered a mature film marketing system. In recent years, the further integration of the media industry has allowed the overall media strength of the Seven Major to far exceed the second and third line Film Studio. Because the marketing of the film is done by the film distributor, in the case where the media resources are gradually gathered to the seven giants, the cinema line will even prefer to publish the mediocre quality films produced by the seven majors, rather than the small Film Studio. Distribute excellent movies, because the seven powerful marketing strengths can often make a mediocre movie far more excellent than the small Film Studio movie on Box Office.

However, although Flower Films appears to be a Hollywood novice, the key issues that these novices may face are not problems on the Flower Films side.

Amy · Pascal started more than ten years ago from the staff of a single production company, and finally reached the position of Columbia Vice Chairman. It can be described as any joint of the film release, even without the help of Firefly, she passed The network in his own hands can pull enough theaters for "Forrest Gump". At this time, with the support of Firefly, the largest media group of United States, the marketing problem of the film is also solved. Therefore, just operating the North America release of "Forrest Gump", in the opinion of Amy · Pascal, there is no difficulty at all.

But at this moment, she just feels that this thing seems completely unnecessary ... right?

Is n’t it better to release Sony or Metro Goldwyn Mayer for release, as Eric just said, there is only one 007 in the Metro Goldwyn Mayer summer file, adding a release task of "Night at the Museum", no difficulty, then add another style The completely different "Forrest Gump" is also nothing. Even if Metro Goldwyn Mayer really can't even eat two movies, isn't there some other big ones?

Do n’t worry about releasing, the time saved by Flower Films is completely enough to prepare another new film.

Of course, Eric also knows the thoughts of Amy · Pascal at this time. In addition to giving Sony a lesson, he also has another layer of thoughts, that is, to keep the profits of the film "Forrest Gump" as much as possible for his own people. The North America Box Office of the original "Forrest Gump" was 330 million USD. If it is handed over to any company for distribution, it must be distributed at least 15% of the distribution fee. This money is almost 50 million USD. More than 90% of the Hollywood movies squeeze the last profit. , Does not necessarily bring 50 million USD income to the producers.

Looking at the expression of Amy, Eric smiled and said, "Actually, this is just my personal suggestion. You and Drew consider it yourself. If you really don't want to be so troublesome, then consider as finished, just transfer the issuance contract to Metro Goldwyn Mayer. "

Eric said so, Amy · Pascal instead made up his mind and said: "Eric, let's listen to you, I believe you are definitely thinking about Flower Films."

The two agreed that small girl smiled and came over to hold the arm of Eric. Although she would never have any objection to the decision of Eric, the girl also knew that if she was completely obedient to Eric in everything, Without a bit of opinion, it will definitely hurt the feelings of Amy · Pascal. Flower Films is now inseparable from this administrator. (To be continued.)