Year: I had a good time when I was young

Chapter 460 Box Office Explosion

At this time, Americans' acceptance and love of Kung Fu movies far exceeded Chu Xiangqian's imagination.

But it’s right to think about it. In this era, there were basically no kung fu movies or specialized fighting movies.

For Asians, Western cowboys are a matter of curiosity and yearning.

But for most Americans, cowboys are the lower class, the targets of discrimination and ridicule.

To put it bluntly, they are herdsmen.

Not only is the income low, but it is also very difficult. Anyone who has worked in a ranch for three to five years will know that this job is not easy.

After watching too many Western movies, I naturally got tired of watching Western cowboys as protagonists.

In the final analysis, American fighting is only boxing.

Now, suddenly there is a movie with exciting fighting and humor. In addition, Americans despise and look down on ancient civilizations like China.

On the other hand, there is curiosity and yearning.

Finally, there is the fighting trend that has been launched recently. Due to various factors, it is not surprising that the attendance rate on the first day was 5%.

In this way, there is no need for Chu Xiangqian and Universal to mention it. I believe that the theater chain itself will take the initiative to expand the screening area to the central United States and the east coast.

Seeing that Chu Xiangqian had read the data on the note, Ovelia hurriedly spoke again, "Boss, Mr. Heideman from Universal is still waiting for your call."

Chu nodded forward, entered the living room of the main building, picked up the phone and said, 'Hi, I'm Stark. '

Mike Hedman hurriedly said, "God, you're going to shoot, Stark."

Chu Qianqian smiled. The box office on the first day was 31, which was indeed a big hit.

It is foreseeable that the box office of 500 cinemas in the first week will not be less than 200 million US dollars. From this alone, the profit allocated to the fund will be 146 million US dollars.

Just in this way, the tax avoidance method of the two funds that I devised seems to have overestimated the popularity of kung fu movies in the United States.

However, if the fund makes money, it doesn’t actually have to pay taxes.

Although he has to spend 5% of the fund's profits for charity every year, he will spend more money on charity every year to expand his influence and win over politicians and powerful people.

Overall, it's a good thing.

As expected, Mike Hellman asked Chu Xiangqian to go to the office building of Universal Studios early to sign a contract with the theater chain to expand the screening.

This time there are really 1500 movie theaters, and they are among the top 30 major cities in the United States.

In addition, within a few days, those small theater chains and local theater chains from various states will definitely come to seek cooperation.

In the end, there may be more than 2 theaters showing Snake Fist.

However, it is difficult to control the actual box office data of small theater chains and local theater chains in various states.

Maybe you can only get [-]% to [-]% of the box office.

The rest of the box office was naturally stolen by the cinema.

So after signing a supplementary contract with a major theater chain, Chu Xiangqian said to Mike Heideman, "If local theater chains from various states come to us, we will delay it for a week or two weeks before letting them play it.

Are theater chains in each state still willing to buy out?If you buy it out, how much can it be sold for? "

Mike was stunned for a moment, and then became embarrassed.

After thinking for a while, he said, "Stark, I suggest you stop worrying so much. Sometimes only by losing some profits can you have a better future.

And let me tell you clearly, even a few major theater chains have actually been stealing box office.

Even if Universal were one of the top eight companies in Hollywood, they would still face this situation.

Although there is no way to fight back against them, the price paid is very high.

If it offends theater chains, it will inevitably face a decrease in the number of films scheduled in the future.

Even if we send two people to watch every movie theater, you will eventually find that what we give is not as much as what the theater chain gives.

Many people below will definitely be bribed by theater chains, because it is difficult for us to supervise the supervisors who work for us.

In fact, most supervisors will receive money from both ends.We give 200 US dollars, and the theater chain also gives 200 US dollars.

Then the supervisor only needs to underreport by a few thousand dollars. Not only does the theater not lose money, it also makes a lot of money, and we can't find out. "

Chu Xiangqian nodded helplessly. This kind of thing will be difficult to avoid in the future when it becomes digital.

These days, relying on manual statistics, there are more things you can do.

Fortunately, theater chains don’t dare to go too far with big companies like Universal. After all, although theater chains are confident in their words, in fact they are not in the upstream industry.

If you want to make money stably, you still need to rely on movies from Universal and other eight major Hollywood movies.

Not to mention that the Big Eight in Hollywood hold the right to rate movies.

This is also the fundamental reason why these eight companies can become giants.

In the 20s, scandals occurred frequently in Hollywood, movies were full of obscene content, and the entire film industry was considered a mess.

As popular outcry grew, so did political pressure, with Hollywood either beholden to lay lawmakers or enacting self-censorship guidelines.

Finally, it goes without saying that behind closed doors, Hollywood established the American Film Producers and Distributors Association, and later the Production Standards Administration, with only the top eight shareholders in Hollywood.

In the mid-60s, the association was renamed the Motion Picture Association of America, and the rating system was truly established.

But before the advent of ratings, the Production Code Authority had greater powers.

There was even a time when someone from the administration used a ruler to measure the cleavage of an actress on the screen. Even if nothing was actually exposed, they said the cleavage was too wide and restricted the release of the movie.

There are too many such ridiculous things in Hollywood.

Thinking of this, Chu Xiangqian was persuaded to give up and buy out the movie to a small theater chain.

But Mike Hedman smiled and said, "Stark, how about Universal give you 30, and you leave the distribution to small theaters to us?"

Chu Xiangqian rolled his eyes after hearing this, but to be honest, he did have his own way to supervise the small town and the small town's cinema.

Calculating silently in my mind, judging from the box office of 500 cinemas on the first day, the box office was 31.

I feel that the total box office of Snake in Small Theaters should not be less than US$300 million.

If you sell it for 30, you will lose money no matter how you calculate it.

According to the fixed accounts that Universal can get, Universal can get at least between 120 million and 150 million.

And there is basically no need to invest in publicity expenses for this movie.

When Chu Xiangqian mentioned his guess of a box office of 300 million, Mike Hyndman frowned and secretly said that Chu Xiangqian was really difficult to deal with.

Although Universal estimates that it will have 350 million to 400 million US dollars, it is not that easy to win 300 US dollars.

"How about $50?"

Chu Qianqian laughed and said, "If it's 60, we'll sign the contract."

One person earns half, or he earns 3% or 4%. This ratio will never be obtained by other small and medium-sized Hollywood film companies.

Mike shook his head helplessly. At this time, Universal really needed profits and data.

And compared with "The Ten Commandments" in 56, which Paramount spent US$1325 million on and had a final box office of US$8780 million.

Universal spent 1200 million to produce "Spartan" last year, and it really cost the grandma's family.

Chu Xiangqian also has another Drunken Master waiting to be released. It can be predicted that the movie with the same protagonist will definitely not be bad at the box office.

As soon as the contract was signed, Universal went into full gear and was determined to have a box office of over 1400 million.The best box office performance came out, exceeding Spartan's $[-] million.

Decca Records was naturally welcomed with both hands and feet.

The better Universal's performance is, the more difficult it will be for American music companies to acquire it, and the greater the cost will naturally be.

Even if you are finally impressed by the price of American Music Company, you can still merge with it instead of being acquired.

The merger means that the shareholders of Decca Records can get part of the shares of the new company instead of being driven away with money.

You can still reap the dividends of the new company in the future.

A week has passed quietly, and the box office of the first week has been released smoothly. The first week box office of 1500 theaters in the United States actually reached 560 million US dollars.

After the news was reported by the media, it instantly caused a sensation across the United States.

Then it spread to Hong Kong Island and Asia, causing huge sensation and envy.

The production cost of the snake-shaped trickster does not exceed 12 Hong Kong dollars, which is only 3 dollars when converted into US dollars.

In Southeast Asia, he has received huge returns of more than 300 million Hong Kong dollars.

The box office in India, South Africa, England and France also amounted to more than 40 pounds, which is more than 160 million US dollars.

Now in the United States, the box office has exceeded 560 million after only one week of release. If it is released for two or three months, it will not be difficult for the box office to exceed 1500 million.

As for small theaters, they will have to wait another week for the film to be released.

Otherwise, several national theater chains would never give Snakehead such a high film schedule.

The estimated total box office of "Snake" is indeed far less than last year's "Xirubin", which had a production cost of US$1500 million and a total box office of US$7300 million.

But the return on investment, whether it is in the past or in the future, will definitely be in the top three.

Although the cost of filming the future "Blair Witch" will be very low, more than 1000 million US dollars will be spent on publicity.

Although Snakehead also had publicity, Universal spent only 10,000+ on radio broadcasts and hanging banners in movie theaters.

In other words, the production and promotion of Snake-Shaped Trickster cost less than US$30.

A return rate of 50 times is enough to leave a mark in history.

But what people didn't expect was that the box office grew in reverse in the second week, directly exceeding 700 million US dollars.

Although it dropped a bit in the third week, it still reached US$520 million.

Including the release in small theaters, the total box office exceeded 600 million.

However, Chu Xiangqian cannot earn a share of the 80 box office for small theaters, and according to Mike, the 80 may only be half, or even one-third.

In other words, the small theater chain concealed the box office revenue of 80 to 120 million.

After hearing this, Chu Xiangqian was not angry but rather gloating. Anyway, he couldn't get a share of the box office of the small theater chain. Seeing Universal suffer from them, it made people feel happy just thinking about it.

Of course, he thought so in his heart, but he cursed with Mike on his lips.

The share that Chu Xiangxiang can get in the past three weeks has reached 1180 million US dollars.

After deducting Universal's 10% issuance fee, the profit was US$1062 million.

If the box office does not plummet in the fourth and fifth weeks, I believe it should still get around 1 million in two weeks.

According to Chu Xiang Xiang's agreement for a 20% share in the past two weeks, a Snake-shaped Trickster can earn Chu Xiang Xiang a net profit of US$1200 million.

This is higher than the full-year net profit of the following movie companies in the eight major Hollywood studios.

Margaret, who was still visiting the United States, ignored the visit and flew back to Los Angeles.

First, he had a friendly match with Chu Xiang, and the next day he followed him to attend Universal's shareholder meeting.

To put it bluntly, a group of Americans are jealous.

And it's not just ordinary jealousy.

The purpose of this meeting is naturally the release of Drunken Master.There is also an exclusive distribution contract signed.

The snake-shaped villain was a foregone conclusion, and Chu Xiangqian hired a lawyer and accounting firm like Yongsheng Law Firm, one of the top ten lawyers and accounting firms in the world.

If you want to withhold money from this movie, Universal Asset Management will be sued by Chu Xiangqian and bankrupt.

At most, it can only be delayed and the profit of the snake-shaped trickster will be paid in batches.

And if it is delayed, it might be delayed for a year or two.

Chu Xiangqian knew that Universal's shareholders wanted to use their funds to manipulate him.

But Universal was also worried about a problem, so Chu Xiangqian cooperated with other companies. After all, not only did the two parties not sign an exclusive distribution agreement.

Even for the distribution of Drunken Master, a contract has been signed with Universal.

But Chu's film company's future films do not necessarily have to cooperate with Universal.

And the shareholders, or in other words, Decca Records, intend to keep the estimated share of 1200 million US dollars in Universal.

Chu Xiangqian didn't have to take the money away. It would be better if he could exchange it for more shares of Universal.

No matter what, he also wants to get shares in Universal Studios.

Compared with Universal Pictures, fixed assets like movie theaters retain their value better, and at the same time, the brand name of the movie theater will be very valuable in the future.

Chu Xiangqian had thought about building a Universal Studios on Hong Kong Island with all the shares owned by him.

Not only has the construction of various amusement facilities started, but a studio is also being built in the movie theater.

In the future, this movie theater will be a comprehensive movie theater that integrates entertainment and film production.

Not to mention the future increase in land prices, there may be hundreds of thousands of tourists received every year.

Of course, Hong Kong Island, with a population of only 2 to 3 million, certainly does not have that many people going there, but Southeast Asia, island countries, South Korea, and Europeans and Americans who travel to Hong Kong Island every year.

The total amount is at least 50 million.

And Margaret running back is also a good thing for Chu Xiangqian.

When she was brought to the board of directors, the shareholders present immediately became excited.

Although before Chu Xiangqian became a shareholder, he used the name Margaret at the front desk.

Otherwise, it would be impossible for an Asian to invest in an entertainment company like Universal. However, most of the shareholders of Universal and Decca Records have never met Margaret.

Among the news in the United States these days, the only one that can completely suppress the fighting competition and the snake-like master is the news about Margaret's visit to the United States.

This girl just bought a few suits for Chu Xiangqian in a New York luxury store, and they were all on the front page of the newspaper.

It can be seen that Americans are very fond of the royal family.As a shareholder of Universal and Decca Records, it is difficult not to recognize Margaret.

Chu Xiangqian said directly, "Rong Zhong would like to introduce to you, Her Royal Highness Anne Margaret Windsor, the founder and one of the beneficiaries of the M&S Foundation.

He is also a shareholder and chairman of Universal Pictures. "

M&S is the abbreviation of Margaret and Stark.

More than a dozen middle-aged and elderly Americans all stood up and saluted Margaret respectfully.

Margaret nodded in return very appropriately and naturally, then took off her gloves, shook hands with each of the shareholders and management present, and exchanged a few words.

This routine has long been familiar to Margaret.

(End of this chapter)