Meiyu: I don’t care about the cost when making movies

Chapter 45 The lion speaks loudly!
In the corner of the screening room, Annie, who once again took the initiative to come up to him, looked at Wayne, who was sitting on an equal footing with such 'big shots', chatting and laughing. She couldn't help but feel in a trance, and a strong regret could not help but well up in her heart again.

But from Wayne's point of view, this was nothing to make a fuss about.

What about the vice president?He's just a high-end wage earner.

Can he invest $5000 million to make a "Bourne Supremacy" movie?
Give me a break!

He can't even invest 1200 million US dollars to make a "Happy Death Day".

Wayne can guarantee that as long as he sells "Happy Death Day", his net worth will definitely exceed that of the 40-year-old vice president in front of him.

After a few pleasantries, he met representatives from Fox, Universal, and DreamWorks under Serra's introduction.

"Haha, Mr. Anderson, do you know? Miramax originally wanted to send someone over, but as soon as Harvey Weinstein heard about the production cost of your film, he immediately gave up the idea."

I don’t know if this Universal executive has any grudge against Miramax or Harvey Weinstein, but he pulled them out as a joke at this time.

But Miramax did exactly what he said.

In addition to being particularly famous for his ability to manage Oscar awards, Harvey Weinstein is also known for his unique vision and is best at selecting and operating outstanding small-budget independent films.

However, although "Happy Death Day" is an independent film, the production cost is as high as 1200 million US dollars, which is somewhat beyond Miramax's ability to afford.

The screening will officially begin soon.

The official version that has been carefully edited and includes dubbing and soundtrack just looks different, much better than the first cut version.

The only thing that made Wayne a little awkward was that Terry, played by Jessica, was still a bit slutty in the early stages, at least much worse than the original Jessica Lord.

But this is not a gap in acting skills, the main thing is that Jessica looks too sweet.

Of course, if there is no reference to the original work, there will be no such awkward feeling. After all, Terry's debauchery is just an appearance, and she still needs to change her ways later.

It is also worth mentioning that in the original version, after Terry died several times, he began to completely let himself go. It was like a catwalk, wandering around the campus without clothes, but he hesitated for a long time but still retained it. .

Of course, a stand-in was used in this scene, and the body on the screen has nothing to do with Jessica.

After 95 minutes, the scene on the screen ended.

"Oh my God! Like Stephen said, this is really a new and exciting movie. I can't wait to buy it!"

The vice president of Warner spoke immediately, unabashedly expressing his love for the movie.

Being able to attend this kind of movie viewing party not only shows his importance to Hemera Pictures, but also his own appreciation level. In fact, he has been promoted all the way from the film purchasing department, whether it is Wiggins or Wilson was his subordinate.

Of course, when it comes time to actually pay for it, the price still has to be decided through negotiation. You won’t just buy it if he likes it, nor will you give him a discount if he praises Wayne twice.

But compliments don’t cost money. If you can make good friends with Wayne, an emerging capital with potential, what’s the point of a few compliments?
Maybe a little kindness today will yield unexpected rewards in the future?
Again, although the current size of Wayne and Hemera Pictures is far less than that of Warner, it is still enough to attract Warner's attention.

Moreover, he is the boss of his own company, which is completely different from a wage earner like him.

Even vice presidents or even presidents will still be fired if they hit a movie too hard. Many presidents and vice presidents among the Big Seven were fired because of this, so they are actually not as good as Wayne. Feel free and comfortable.

"Thank you for your compliment, William. As for the sale of copyright, my CEO Serra will still be responsible for it."

Afterwards, Wayne said hello to the representatives of Fox, Universal, and DreamWorks, exchanged a few words, and then left the company directly with Jessica and Charlize Theron.

Mia will stay and participate in the negotiations between Serra and the four distribution companies.

These were all proposed by Wayne.

This kind of trust also moved Mia and Sierra very much, and they were very motivated for the upcoming negotiations, and they were bound to get a good price for "Happy Death Day".

So in the afternoon of the same day, the four companies received the quotations given by Sierra and Mia after negotiation.

"What 6000 million US dollars?! Is that Hemela woman crazy?"

Stephen Wilson, who was rushing to write a report and planned to submit it before four o'clock in the afternoon, jumped up from his chair in excitement after reading the price given in the email.

After buying it for 6000 million U.S. dollars, including publicity and distribution, how much box office will it take to make back the money?At least 1.5 million US dollars!
"Uh 1.5 million?"

"It doesn't seem like there's no hope?"

"If the box office can reach this figure, the revenue from offline discs will be at least over 2000 million. Coupled with the sale of TV broadcast rights, the total revenue will reach about 3000 million."

Wilson thought for a while, including Xuanfa's total investment of 6800 million to 7000 million U.S. dollars, he would earn about 3000 million in one year. This return on investment is already considered very good.This is why even the financial giants on Wall Street want to come to Hollywood to get involved.

But the question is, who can guarantee that "Happy Death Day" will achieve the same results as "Admission Notice"?
"There is no plasma, no torture, this is not a traditional American horror film, but the editing skills are very good, the ability to create tension and horror is excellent, the plot setting is novel enough, and there are so many stars, but this is It does not mean that it will be as successful as "Admission Notice"

Wilson analyzed secretly.

His analysis is not wrong. The success of "Admission" and its outstanding opening results are absolutely inseparable from Warner's publicity strategy.

However, "Happy Death Day" is not as prominent as "Admission Notice" in terms of publicity.

The time loop setting is difficult to spoil in advance, so how to announce it will be a test for the publishing company.

Although Wilson's report has not yet been completed, his box office estimate for "Happy Death Day" is US$6700 million in North America and US$1.1 million worldwide.

This also includes the boost brought by the film's Halloween release.

Therefore, the maximum price he is prepared to give in the report is US$3000 million. In this way, Warner's total revenue should reach about 4500 million, and the risk assessment is medium.

No matter how high it is, you may not necessarily lose money, but the proportion of risk and return will become larger and larger.

"I need Hemera Pictures to give me a sincere price!" Wilson replied directly in the email, and then continued to write the report.

However, Sera was much tougher than he thought. "This price is very sincere. In fact, Hemera Pictures can release it in North America first."

Wilson couldn't help but be stunned for a moment after seeing the email, and then he immediately understood what Sera meant, and his brows knitted together.

Indeed, as Serra said, because of Halloween, even if the film does not have much publicity, a large number of horror film lovers will enter the cinema at that time.

By then, as long as a small portion of the audience has watched this novel horror film, it will be enough to slowly form a word-of-mouth effect.What's more, this movie also has the popularity and traffic brought by Wayne, Charlize Theron and Anthony Hopkins, so the attention will definitely not be low.

In addition, there are many distribution companies that can undertake North American distribution business. Not to mention Miramax is very good at this aspect of distribution operations.

Let Miramax pay a high price to buy the rights to "Happy Death Day". They may not dare to take the risk, but if they are only allowed to undertake the North American distribution of "Happy Death Day", then they will definitely be quite happy.

Wilson could even imagine that if Harvey Weinstein knew about Serra's plan, he would definitely dance with joy and wiggle his butt, and then use the greatest enthusiasm to promote this matter.

In this way, the final box office results of "Happy Death Day" may not be as much as if they were left to Warner to operate, but Hemera Pictures will definitely make more money.

"Damn!"

"Why does it happen to be Halloween!"

"And Hemera Pictures' funds are too strong, right? Don't those British guys treat their money as money?"

Wilson scratched his head hard and couldn't help but curse.

In addition to the free promotion factor of Halloween, Hemera Pictures' greatest confidence is that they have no financial pressure. They will not be like many small or even medium-sized production companies. If they don't sell the produced movies quickly, it will probably lead to financial losses. Broken chain and bankruptcy.

"I will pass this on to my superiors."

After Wilson pondered for a moment, he responded via email, and then silently wrote the situation and analysis of the situation into the report.
In addition, after hesitating for a while, he raised the original price of US$3000 million to US$4000 million.

Anyway, in his opinion, making less is still making money. As long as he does not lose money and makes some money, he can get credit.

As for the final price, that has to be decided by the senior management. He is just giving his own opinion.

At the same time, almost identical scenes were also played out in the film purchasing departments of Universal, Fox and DreamWorks, but each company was different in terms of assessed prices.

Among them, the one with the highest estimated price is not the three giants, but DreamWorks.

This is actually easy to understand. As the first production and distribution company under the Big Seven, DreamWorks has always wanted to join the ranks of the giants.

And if they want to do this, they need more excellent films to help them conquer cities and expand their reputation and channels.

There are big names gathered, including the newly popular second-tier star Wayne Anderson, coupled with the novel setting and plot, as well as the director's skill in creating a tense and thrilling atmosphere.

Their estimated price for the film has reached $4600 million.

Obviously, at this price, they don't want to make a profit through box office, as long as they don't lose money.In the future, they will also be able to obtain a fairly good income through the sale of discs and TV broadcast rights.

It is worth mentioning that due to the popularity of "Admission", Wayne at this time is almost the same as Anne after "The Princess Diaries" was released in the parallel world.

They all rose from obscurity to instant fame, and their characters are all very likable. This will undoubtedly improve the performance of "Happy Death Day", after all, he is the male protagonist of this movie.

A few days passed in the blink of an eye, and it was October 10th.

Since several distribution companies were preparing to release it on Halloween after buying it back, and leaving at least three to five days for screenings, the negotiations for "Happy Death Day" were extremely tense and intense.

Especially on Serra's side, because they have to fight one against four, they are often negotiating with Warner one hour ago, and then having to argue with Universal the next hour. After a few days, the corners of their mouths are on fire.

However, the two trump cards of 'self-publishing' and 'no financial pressure' really gave Serra great confidence.

In the end, although the four companies were reluctant in every possible way, under the competition from their peers, they still gave quotations of 4000 million, 3880 million, 4300 million, and 3950 million respectively.

The highest bidder was not DreamWorks, but Universal Pictures.

Universal has been very proud of itself in the past few years. It ranks among the top three among the Big Seven in terms of the box office performance of its released films and its own revenue. It can be said that its vision is quite unique, and its actions are becoming increasingly bold and decisive.

In addition, there was a new owner just this year, and a large amount of new capital was injected, so it was naturally the most heroic thing to do.

However, after comprehensively considering the final conditions given by the four companies, Wayne chose DreamWorks, which only offered 3950 million.

Because compared to the installment payments of the other three giants, the latest installment cannot be paid until the film is released worldwide. DreamWorks made concessions in terms of payment and was the only one among the four that agreed to pay the entire amount in one go. of.

Wait three or four months, with the risk of being delayed, just to earn an extra 300 million?
Well, an ordinary person might choose this way. After all, it is more than 300 million US dollars, a huge wealth that many people cannot have in their lifetime.

Moreover, the Big Seven would at best delay the payment time and would not default on the debt, but Wayne liked the pleasure of DreamWorks.

Of course, he had a deeper consideration in choosing DreamWorks, which was to help DreamWorks, which was trying to challenge the blockade of the Big Seven, to charge forward, attract firepower, and gain enough secret development for Hemera Pictures. time.

The Big Seven are willing to spend 4000 million US dollars to directly buy all the rights to "Happy Death Day", but they will never spend 1 million to buy "The Bourne Supremacy".

And because of the system's return rules, the cost of the movies he produces in the future will get higher and higher, and the corresponding buyout prices will also get higher and higher, eventually becoming so high that no one can afford it.

At this time, the only option is to share the box office share.

As the old saying goes, it takes a thousand days to commit a thief, but a thousand days to guard against a thief.
If he doesn't want to worry about being cheated by the Big Seven or other distribution companies every time he releases a film, which will obviously be a hit at the box office but end up with a serious loss after all, the best way is to let Hemera Pictures have its own distribution channels. .

It is too difficult to build a global distribution channel from scratch, not even DreamWorks can do it.But if you just establish a North American distribution channel, it's not difficult.

Moreover, if the historical trajectory does not change much in the next few important events, almost two years later in 02, and four years later in 05, are good opportunities for him to master global distribution channels.

Because in the past two years, MGM and Universal Pictures will be sold and changed hands respectively.As long as he has money, he has the opportunity to buy these two giants!

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(End of this chapter)