Chapter 477 Sniper From Paramount

When Yin Jun got the news that Chen Qizong was negotiating with Qilin Culture on behalf of Hang Lung Group and Datong, he was already in the United States.

At this time, Yin Jun arrived at the outskirts of Los Angeles, and the hotel where he brought Tian Jiachun to stay last time was not far from Tang Shuxuan's home.

This time, apart from the two bodyguards, Yin Jun brought Ding Linxiang as his assistant. She shouted that she brought Chunchun last time, and this time it was time to meet the world by himself. Yin Jun had nothing to do with her. Just bring her here.

All of a sudden, he came to the United States because something troublesome happened, and then there was another matter that he needed to decide.

The troublesome thing is actually the release of "Raiders of the Lost Ark".

"Raiders of the Lost Ark" was fully filmed as early as February, and Spielberg began post-production when he returned to the Yankees in February.

During the production, Spielberg also edited a rough version, ready to show it to the managers of major theaters, in order to find the number of screens for release.

As far as Spielberg and Lucas are concerned, they are very satisfied with "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and hope to get at least 1,000 screens in the premiere.

Since 1963, 17 years ago, the predecessor company of AMC introduced multiplex theaters in movie theaters for the first time. After that, the construction of multiplex theaters has become the mainstream of the North American movie theater market. Movie theaters are configured around 4-8 halls.

Oh, by the way, AMC is the second theater company in North America that was bought by the richest man in the future.

In 1977, when the first part of "Star Wars" was released, less than 600 screens were screened, but gradually increased, and at its peak, more than 3,000 screens were screened, accounting for almost 70% of the U.S. The number of screens in medium to large movie theaters.

It has been 3 years now, and the number of screens in American movie theaters has increased a lot. In addition, this is the script and producer of Lucas, the director of Spielberg, and the starring role of superstar Harrison Ford. The cast is absolutely the most anticipated, and it is simply too easy to win the favor of the theaters.

Unfortunately, things are not as simple as imagined.

After looking for the top three theaters in North America, they all got the answer of "keep a cautious attitude towards this movie". The most AMC gave 400 screens, while Emperor Entertainment Group and Cinemark Said that it would not consider a large-scale release in its own theaters.

As for some small regional theater chains, they value the talents of Spielberg and Lucas, but the number of movie theater screens they give is not many, and it is very scattered. Among the top ten cities in the United States, there are only two That's just over 50 screens, so it doesn't work at all!

As we all know, the top ten cities in the United States are the most important positions in the movie box office. Sometimes New York can account for more than 10% of the box office. In addition, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, Boston, Atlanta... and other cities, Add up to be the source of at least 70% of the total box office.

There is another point, if these cities fail to form a word-of-mouth box office, then the release of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" abroad will definitely be hit hard. This will undoubtedly be a huge blow to Lucas who attaches great importance to foreign markets.

Raiders of the Lost Ark is definitely not bad, and it's a good movie, everyone knows that, and both Lucas and Spielberg are convinced of it.

But why can't these theaters see it?

Their vision shouldn't be so low.

Fortunately, Lucas and Spielberg have a large network in Hollywood, especially Spielberg is Jewish, so after some twists and turns, they finally found the reason.

It turned out that it was Paramount's fault.

Lucas was discussing cooperation with Paramount before, but Paramount was so greedy that Lucas has been hesitant. After meeting Yin Jun, seeing the loose conditions Yin Jun gave, he immediately So I decided to abandon Paramount and cooperate with Yin Jun.

In Hollywood, things like this actually happen quite often.

Whether it is a replacement between a small production company and a theater distributor, or a theater deliberately squeezes a small company in order to obtain more profits, this is the case.

Paramount didn't care at first, but with Spielberg's filming and feedback from various parties, Paramount was told that "Raiders of the Lost Ark" was an excellent movie, so Paramount immediately Got greedy.

Now Hollywood is still nominally the top seven, but 20th Century Fox has fallen into recession, Columbia is also average, and only Warner Bros. is the strongest.

Coming in second is Paramount.

Now Paramount is in their renaissance stage. Since Barry Diller took over Paramount in the mid-1970s, he and his two assistants have directly rejuvenated the old Paramount and gradually caught up. Come on, the last few years have been very beautiful.

It is relatively easy for such a powerful Paramount to get stuck in Lucasfilm.

At the beginning, Lucas planned to keep things quiet, and simply handed over the distribution rights of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" to Paramount. Anyway, a big company would negotiate and operate it, and he could save a lot of effort.

But the conditions given by Paramount made Lucas laugh angrily.

They proposed to take 15% of the box office, but they are only responsible for contacting and guaranteeing the minimum number of screens of 1,000 yuan. Industry out.

This is totally against the rules!

If it is only related to the number of screens released, the distributor will get 5% at most. If they get 15%, basically they will pay for the above-mentioned expenses, and the producer will not have to pay a penny at all.

If you can get 20%, in addition to the above-mentioned expenses, the distributor will have to bear it, and because the producer is very weak, it cannot be compared with the distributor at all.

But no matter how weak the producer is, it is absolutely impossible to give the publisher such a high distribution fee and bear such a fee at the same time.

Because of this calculation, at least 30% of the box office will be removed, and about 45% of the theater will be added, and the producer will get 25% at most!

The 25% share does not include taxes and other expenses.

Lucasfilm's "Raiders of the Lost Ark" cost 25 million U.S. dollars in production costs, plus Lucas' technology, personnel and team shares, which accounted for 5 million shares, and the total investment was 30 million U.S. dollars.

Because of being taken advantage of by Yin Jun, Spielberg is even more refined than in his previous life, spending everything cleanly.

According to this ratio, the box office of 120 million US dollars is the profit and loss line excluding tax. It must be at least 150 million to ensure that it will not lose money. If you want to make money, you must get at least 200 million US dollars at the box office.

How many movies can reach 200 million at the box office?

I worked so hard for half a year, and I got this result?

This is only in the North American market. The distribution fee required by Paramount has soared to 30% overseas. Similarly, Lucasfilm can only get 20% of the box office, which is even more exploitative.

Therefore, they did not negotiate.

In late March, Lucas approached 20th Century Fox, Columbia, and even Warner Brothers one after another, but the results of the negotiations were not very satisfactory.

Lucas and Spielberg knew that this was due to the pressure exerted by Paramount. These film giants often advance and retreat together. It is really not worthwhile to offend Paramount for the sake of Lucasfilm.

Therefore, Lucas had no choice but to call Yin Jun, wanting to discuss with him what to do.

Yin Jun pondered for a while, and decided to come to the United States to handle this matter in person.

On the one hand, he wants to show that he attaches great importance to this cooperation, and on the other hand, he has already thought of a good solution. If it can be solved smoothly, it will have a great impact on his friendship with two great directors and even his development in Hollywood. Less benefits.

But if Yin Jun didn't come to solve this matter in person, it might not be so easy.

"Michael Eisner did it!"

Sitting in the restaurant of the hotel, Huo Jianning said angrily while eating a steak.

At this time, he is far from the old fox 40 years later, but a young man full of enthusiasm for the future.

After training under Spielberg for more than half a year, Huo Jianning is more talkative, "Since the end of last year, he has actually started to pay attention to this movie, and sent two groups of people to Europe and North Africa. To participate, but our funds are already abundant, so neither Lucas nor Spielberg agreed. When the edited film came out, he came to see it in person at Paramount, and didn’t say anything at the time. But after walking through, these things happened, it's disgusting to think about!"

"Is it okay if I don't agree to him?" Ding Linxiang, who already knew the whole story, asked unconsciously, "Although Paramount and the Big Seven are very powerful in Hollywood, I heard that theaters have nothing to do with them. A company can’t own a theater chain! So let’s just find a few more theater chain companies, right? Don’t be afraid of the small ones, or the fragmented ones, as long as they unite, we can still have enough screens!”

The 30-year-old Ding Linxiang has a hot body and a cute appearance, but she is definitely not a vase. She is an authentic high-achieving student who graduated from Xiangjiang University. She is good at various negotiations and public relations.

In her own words, "This girl is capable of both literature and martial arts."

What she said just now shows that she has research on the American film industry.

Because in the past few decades, American film companies owned both production companies and theaters, and acted as athletes and referees, so the US Fair Competition Commission judged that they had formed a monopoly and asked them to break it up.

From then on, the film company is a film company, and the theater chain is a theater chain, and they have nothing to do with each other.

Therefore, Ding Linxiang felt that although the film company has great influence on the theaters, it is impossible to control all the theaters. As long as the small and medium theaters can be combined, in large and medium-sized cities, enough 1,000 screens can be screened, then Just a win.

"If you think so, it's because you don't understand the American film market." Huo Jianning shook his head, "Although on the surface, it seems that there is not much relationship between the seven major theaters in Hollywood and the three major theaters, but everyone knows that only the major seven films can It is the most profitable, so the relationship between supply and demand is a very delicate balance, and it is impossible for theaters not to consider their ideas.

As for those small and medium-sized theaters, they don’t mind betraying the Big Seven, but the key is that their power is usually very weak. Only 20% of the movie theaters in the top ten cities in the United States do not belong to the three major theaters, and these 20% are usually In black ghettos, relatively remote communities, etc., which are not in prosperous areas at all, many movie fans usually do not choose to go there to watch blockbuster movies.

If we don't have any pursuits and just want to make some money, then it is not impossible to unite them. But both Lucas and Spielberg felt that it had perfect expressive power and should conquer the Americans and the world, so they very much hoped that it could be released in big cities instead of being crowded in small cities and struggling. "

"Michael Eisner is still holding on to the 15% distribution fee and hasn't let go?" Yin Jun asked.

"Yeah, I really don't know where he got his sense of superiority. Don't look at him as the CEO of Paramount's film studio, but compared to Lucas and Spielberg, he is nothing! "Huo Jianning said disdainfully.

Yin Jun nodded and smiled.

yes.

The current Michael Eisner is nothing, but after 4 years, this man will usher in the beginning of his most brilliant career.

At that time, he was ordered to become the president of an animation and theme park company that was on the verge of bankruptcy, and then spent 21 years trying his best to build it into the top three entertainment empires in the world!

the name of this animation and theme park company

called

Disney.

Although Michael Eisner left Disney, which he had fought for half his life, in the midst of betrayal, no one can deny his contribution to Disney! No one can erase his contribution to Disney! !

Everyone knows that without the foundation laid by Michael Eisner, it would be impossible for Disney to soar into the sky in the future and become the number one super entertainment group in Hollywood!

It's not just Michael Eisner, but now the three giants of Paramount will be the super giants who will play an important role in Hollywood in the next two decades.

President Barry Diller single-handedly brought Paramount back to the top, then turned around and joined Murdoch's 20th Century Fox, and built the fourth largest news TV network in the United States for 20th Century Fox in one go. TV network genius.

Moreover, this Barry Diller is also interested in new things and has a keen sense of smell. In the Internet age, he is also an online business platform that has flourished and shined extremely well.

The other vice president is Jeffrey Katzenberg. In the future, he will be the founder of DreamWorks, an emerging giant in Hollywood, and single-handedly created such an industry super giant as DreamWorks Animation Studio.

Pixar acquired by Disney, together with Disney's own animation department, should have been invincible in the world, but only Dreamworks Animation is their biggest rival, and they are strong in producing their own style of movies, which is highly respected by the industry. An animation company.

Here, Katzenberg contributed a lot.

Now Michael Eisner came out and wanted to snatch the fruits of "Raiders of the Lost Ark", but the remaining two giants must also know about this.

Their non-opposition, or even support, allowed Michael Eisner to mobilize Paramount's huge resources to suppress Lucasfilm.

Otherwise, who would know who you are, Michael Eisner?

Giving face is not for personal use, you are a high-level migrant worker, and face is for the entire Paramount!

Thinking of facing the three giants who will rule the world in Hollywood in the future, Yin Jun feels that the trip to the release of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" this time is indeed not easy.

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