Los Angeles, a movie theater in downtown Beverly.
At about ten o'clock in the evening, Michael Eisner and Michael Ovitz each left a VIP room in the theater with their families.
The car was already waiting on the street at the back entrance of the theater.
Listening to the excited discussions of their wives and children beside them, the two Hollywood tycoons got into a car together. When the car started, they looked at each other with a bit of confusion.
What the two families just watched was "Wonder Woman," which opened on a large scale today.
Unlike his wife and children, who just had the pleasure of watching an excellent movie, both Michaels were a little worried at this time.
Three years ago, "Batman Begins" opened up the DC movie universe with its explosive action design and advanced CG special effects. This time, "Wonder Woman" is more powerful than the two previous "Batman" films. Big Movie and "The Flash" are obviously a step further.
It is often difficult for ordinary viewers to appreciate the technical foundation contained in a film, and Michael Eisner and Michael Ovitz are naturally different.
In this "Wonder Woman", the action design is still wonderful, and it seems to be filled with a large number of real-life scenes. However, the proportion of CG special effects used is obviously higher than that of several previous DC superhero movies. For example, the magical scenes in the film The Mantra Lasso, one of the heroine's important weapons, is completely generated by CG in many scenes.
At the end of the film, the decisive battle between Wonder Woman and Ares, the God of War, and the use of large-scale CG images are even more breathtaking.
There have been many big-budget movie trends in Hollywood. However, in the past few times, the endings have basically returned to rationality.
Jeffrey Katzenberg, the head of Disney's film business, publicly issued a memo two years ago calling for Hollywood to return to low-budget movies. Michael Eisner originally agreed with this view.
Even the DC movie universe blockbuster series that has emerged in recent years is more of a special case.
High-budget action blockbusters represented by Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger have failed one after another in recent years.
On the contrary, even if it is Daenerys Entertainment, in addition to DC movie universe projects, there have been a series of blockbusters in the past few years, such as "The End of the World", "The Sixth Sense", "Pretty Woman", and "The Bodyguard" , "Home Alone", etc., are also all low- and medium-cost films, and few of them have a production budget of more than 30 million US dollars.
However, after watching "Wonder Woman" in person tonight, Michael Eisner found that his faith was shaken again.
Blockbuster-level, big-production, big-budget films may really be the future of Hollywood.
What Michael Eisner is worried about at this time is because of Disney's weak background in blockbuster film production, or, more accurately, the huge gap between Disney and Daenerys in blockbuster film production.
Through the accumulation of several DC movie universe films, Daenerys Entertainment has formed a very strong film technical team, which includes everything from film action design to CG scene production.
Especially CG technology. I just watched "Wonder Woman". Michael Eisner feels that the accumulation of CG technology for Daenerys' special effects may have surpassed that of other film special effects teams in the same period in three to five years. Lucas Industrial Light and Magic Studio, which created the "Star Wars" series, has been left far behind by Daenerys' special effects.
Although Daenerys' special effects have always maintained an attitude of external cooperation, Disney's summer sci-fi family comedy "Honey, I Turned the Baby Big" had Daenerys' special effects responsible for most of the special effects.
However, it is conceivable that if Disney wants to compete with Daenerys Entertainment in larger-scale special effects movies, it will be impossible to rely on the other party's technical resources.
In addition to Daenerys's special effects, whether it is Industrial Light & Magic or some other lower-level special effects companies, due to the lack of professional software and insufficient technical foundation, it will take at least three years to catch up with Daenerys's special effects.
Three years later, Daenerys’ special effects will certainly not stand still.
Therefore, if a Hollywood studio wants to produce the most top-notch CG special effects scenes, the most convenient way is to cooperate with Daenerys Entertainment.
but. Any studio executive with a little foresight can realize that this kind of cooperation is full of threats that may be choked by Daenerys Entertainment at any time.
If you want to get rid of this threat, you either don't get involved in the field of special effects movies, or you can only start a new one.
As the limousine shuttled through the late-night streets of Los Angeles, Michael Eisner was thinking about the studio's breakthrough in the field of special effects movies, but Michael Ovitz's inner worries were deeper than him.
This time, "Wonder Woman" has a production budget of up to US$80 million. However, the salaries of the film's core creators, including the director, screenwriter, leading actors and actresses, and several core supporting actors, are the 'online fees' of a film. , the total amount is less than 10 million US dollars.
It can be said that Daenerys Entertainment invested nearly 90% of the film's production budget in the filming and post-production of "Wonder Woman".
After CAA creatively proposed the project packaging mechanism, throughout the 1980s, the 'online fees' for Hollywood movies often reached 50% or even higher of a film.
Now, DC movie universe projects such as "Wonder Woman" may have the blessing of their own superhero IP, so there is no need to invite top stars. However, once other blockbuster projects also follow this trend, it is likely to have a subversive impact on the traditional salary system of Hollywood stars.
If a blockbuster with special effects as its selling point can be a hit without big stars, probably no studio will be willing to invite stars and endure the various demands of big stars and even the high salary that comes with it in addition to the basic salary. profit sharing.
When this trend takes shape, if current A-list stars want to avoid being gradually marginalized, they can only take the initiative to lower their status.
Michael Ovitz couldn't help but think of "Forrest Gump" that Daenerys Entertainment has just finalized with two CAA filmmakers, Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks.
Because it requires the use of a large number of special effects, the budget of "Forrest Gump" will reach about US$50 million, which is undoubtedly a blockbuster level. At the same time, due to the high budget required for film production, neither Zemeckis nor Hanks can ask for too high a salary.
Daenerys Entertainment also took the initiative to offer a salary reduction and commission plan. However, with a production budget of 50 million US dollars, plus even half of the production cost for publicity and distribution, "Forrest Gump" wants to recoup it through the local box office. The cost is probably US$150 million at the box office.
For such a drama about a "fool" who went on a "rampage" in modern American history, people are worried about whether it can even get a box office of US$50 million, let alone US$150 million.
Give up voluntarily
This is also a way.
With Zemeckis and Hanks' current celebrity status, they are indeed confident enough to give up on this project, and both of them have no shortage of film contracts.
However, considering that this was a film written by Simon Westeros himself, both of them had some scruples.
It’s not that they are worried about Westeros being angry if they reject the project, but if they give up and the project becomes a big success in the future, then two more competitors are likely to appear in Hollywood.
Especially Hanks, an actor who is approaching middle age, does not want another actor of the same type in Hollywood to compete with him.
This is exemplified by the apparent 'surplus' of A-list actresses in Hollywood in recent years.
The emergence of Simon Westeros has really made a large number of Hollywood newcomers famous.
As for female stars, in just a few years, there have been different generations of Sandra Bullock, Meg Ryan, Valerie Golino, Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman, Demi A large number of female stars such as Moore quickly rose to the top with a series of blockbuster movies.
The just-released "Wonder Woman" will obviously introduce another Famke Janssen.
However, the opportunities that Hollywood can give to this large number of first-line actresses are actually not that many.
As the quantity increases, the relative value naturally decreases.
After becoming famous in "Pretty Woman", it stands to reason that Julia Roberts should be able to command a high price of US$5 million for starring in a movie. However, in last year's "Captain Hawk", the actor who played Tinker Bell Julia Roberts actually only received $2 million.
Two million dollars is not much, but if Julia Roberts doesn't play, then there may be Nicole Kidman, Valerie Golino, or Meg Ryan who may also want to play the role. Try it.
It is conceivable that if the actresses Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman who initially collaborated with Simon Westeros can firmly 'monopolize' Daenerys Entertainment's blockbuster projects, then there will be no There wouldn't be so many 'latecomers'.
This is the situation Tom Hanks is facing at this time.
Simon Westeros likes to use different female stars in different projects. However, when it comes to male stars, Daenerys Entertainment seems to be quite specialized.
Not to mention the male protagonists of DC movie universe projects, in recent years, Robert De Niro, Tom Hanks, Keanu Reeves and others have almost become Daenerys Entertainment’s reserved male stars. In addition, Ovitz also inquired that Westeros is deliberately cultivating Coppola's nephew Nicolas Cage, who will obviously become a direct descendant of Daenerys Entertainment in the future.
However, with Michael Ovitz's understanding of the young man, he knows very well that if De Niro and Hanks and others are too demanding in some projects, Westeros will not hesitate to replace them.
Daenerys Entertainment has done this more than once.
Therefore, after several contacts, the relatively conservative Robert Zemeckis finally decided to accept Daenerys Entertainment's one-time director's salary of US$6 million. This price is equivalent to Zemeckis's net worth, which can be said to be neither high nor low.
Tom Hanks chose a contract with a basic salary plus sharing, a basic salary of US$3 million, plus a 5% North American box office share.
Last year's "Captain Hawke", Sony gave Steven Spielberg, Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams a total of 40% of the omni-channel net profit share, among which Spielberg 20%, with Huffman and Williams each receiving 10%.
Because of the huge cost of "Captain Hawke" and its tepid box office success, the 40% net profit sharing plan proposed by Spielberg and others is actually a pile of waste paper.
Although the public often hears that a certain star received a huge salary of tens of millions of dollars due to a share contract for a certain movie, in fact, Hollywood stars are not as willing to accept the share plan as the outside world imagines.
Within the circle, everyone prefers to call the subsequent sharing plan "arrear salary sharing", because this model is often used by studios when they hope to lower project budgets and reduce risks. Hollywood only releases four to five hundred films in theaters every year, and the ones that are big box office hits are often only a dozen or twenty.
Therefore, Daenerys Entertainment's model of directly giving box office share is actually very kind.
Even if "Forrest Gump" failed miserably at the box office and only recovered US$10 to 20 million at the North American box office, Hanks would still be able to extract a share of it.
Because of previous blockbuster projects such as "Future" and "A Few Good Men", Hanks' current salary can reach US$8 million to US$10 million.
Before "Forrest Gump", Hanks received a one-time salary of US$8 million for "Sleepless in Seattle," which will be filmed in the second half of the year.
This time, "Forrest Gump" is a project that Westeros personally participated in the screenplay and led. Michael Ovitz knew that Daenerys Entertainment would never miss the budget for this movie, even if it really failed. Daenerys Entertainment can fully afford to spend 60 to 70 million US dollars and fail at the box office in the future.
However, Daenerys Entertainment is very careful to control the budget of "Forrest Gump".
As for Hanks's compensation plan, even if it is 'share of back wages', there is still no omni-channel profit sharing plan.
In total, if the North American box office of "Forrest Gump" can reach 100 million U.S. dollars, Daenerys Entertainment can ensure profitability through subsequent operations. Hanks' 5% share of the local box office, including a basic salary of 3 million U.S. dollars , can only reach the $8 million he made in "Sleepless in Seattle".
All in all, Daenerys Entertainment is generally suppressing the uncontrolled rise in the salaries of Hollywood's top stars.
Michael Ovitz clearly discovered this phenomenon, and many Hollywood stars also clearly felt this trend, but they were somewhat powerless about it.
Unless, Daenerys Entertainment suffered several big losses in a row and never recovered.
At that time, Hollywood stars will be able to regain the initiative and gain the power in Hollywood that they have had for many years.
Just, is this possible
Judging from the development of Daenerys Entertainment in recent years, this Hollywood giant, which has evolved into a comprehensive media group after annexing MCA, has no chance of declining in the short term, even if it suffers a few big failures in movies. possibility.