"Eric, of course I know that stars' salaries are a bit inflated, but I recently heard that Firefly Pictures has just approved James Cameron's new film "Titanic", and the production budget of this film is 150 million US dollars Ah, since Firefly can make a budget of 150 million US dollars for such a very high-risk disaster film, why is it unwilling to make some concessions to the sequel of "Men in Black", you know, even if we are satisfied with the main creator Our request, the final production budget will not exceed 150 million US dollars?"
Eric glanced at Peter Cooper and said, "Peter, let's not mention "Men in Black" first, do you know why I am willing to let James go over budget again and again?"
Peter Cooper shrugged. n∈n∈,
Eric didn't expect Peter Guber to answer, so he said: "Because I'm pretty sure that every penny James spent was to make the quality of the film as good as possible, not to spend a lot of money Invite stars who are overpaid."
Peter Guber tried to retort: "But we invite stars, isn't it also to make the film more popular at the box office?"
"Of course, I don't deny this," Eric said: "But many times, it's not worth it, just like the recent "Beverly Cop 3" and "Law Enforcement Titans", Paramount and Warner spent a lot of budget on the remuneration of the protagonists. Eddie Murphy and Kevin Costner not only received a fixed remuneration of more than 15 million US dollars at the same time, but also enjoyed a high profit sharing agreement, but the result, You must have seen it."
Peter Guber said: "Eric, this was just an accident, and the salary Miss Kidman received from "The Mummy" is even more terrifying."
"Nicole completely gave up the fixed salary to obtain the corresponding profit sharing agreement. If "The Mummy" fails at the box office, Nicole will not get a penny." Eric said: "And James, he every time When a film production exceeds budget, they will voluntarily ask to give up their director's salary to reduce the budgetary burden for the film company. But what about those stars? Enjoying so many benefits, they will not take any risks for the film company. Like the two films I just mentioned, they both brought huge losses to the film company, but the two leading actors won a Tens of millions of dollars in income. I don’t care about any sky-high remuneration offered by other film companies to attract those stars, but in Firefly, and the film companies associated with Firefly. They will never think of such a good thing in the future.”
Peter Guber saw that Eric refused to make concessions on the salary payment, so he had to say: "In this case, Eric, regarding the copyright distribution agreement, I think it is necessary for Firefly and Columbia to renegotiate. The copyright of Men in Black belonged entirely to Columbia at the beginning, but it will automatically belong to Firefly five years later when the development of the sequel is blocked. This agreement is too unfair for Colombia.”
The original agreement Eric drew up with reference to the five-year automatic return of the Marvel Comics character authorization without a sequel. After hearing Peter Guber's entanglement, he finally stated the purpose of his trip. Eric simply waved his hand to let the people around him leave, leaned against the workbench and looked at Peter Cooper with a smile, and said: "Peter, everyone knows that this is an unfair agreement from the beginning, and the Japanese must also I know. Moreover, what everyone did in private is even more unfair, but since the Japanese want to enter Hollywood, they should have the consciousness to pay tuition.”
"But, Eric..."
Eric waved his hand. Interrupted Peter Guber, still with a smile on his face, said: "I know you were kicked out of the office by Katzenberg yesterday, you must feel that compared to Jeffrey Katzenberg. I I have a better temper, at least I won’t kick you out of the office like Jeffrey did, but just because I have a good temper doesn’t mean I’m easy to talk to, there’s no room for negotiation on this matter. As for your reason, it’s not valid at all, “The Man in Black” The copyright of "Includes the copyright of "Game of the Brave" released at the end of the year. Columbia has bought it for many years, but has not taken any action. Every film company has many similar film and television copyrights. If there is no Firefly, perhaps these two films I can’t wait for the day when the filming starts. In the final analysis, it is Firefly that gives them enough commercial value. Compared with Sony, everyone should be regarded as their own. The Japanese can’t understand some things, but we all know you in the past few years. How much has been taken from Colombia, so enough is enough, I think what you should do in the next period of time is to wipe off some traces as much as possible, and don’t give the Japanese a chance to find fault.”
When Peter Guber heard Eric's straightforward words, his old face flushed a little, but he couldn't think of any words to refute.
Noticing the change in Peter Guber's expression, Eric didn't want to embarrass the Colombian helm as much as Katzenberg did. After all, the reason why Firefly was able to successfully sign the 'unequal treaty' with Colombia was that Peter Guber Still made a great contribution.
After thinking about it, Eric said: "Well, I will let Firefly make some negotiation moves, and I will also publicly support your side in the media, so that at least before next year, Sony will not risk everyone's shooting You will be kicked out because of the risk of being separated, I think you will definitely not stay in Colombia next year, right?"
Peter Guber nodded immediately. In fact, what he wanted was such a guarantee. As for the interests of the Japanese, he really didn't care at all from the bottom of his heart. Now that he got a personal promise from Eric, Peter Guber no longer bothered about the matter just now, and said: "Eric, many people will attend the celebration party of "Men in Black" tonight, why don't you come too?" ?”
Eric shook his head and said, "I still have important things to do at night, so forget it this time."
Peter Guber left Firefly Studios with satisfaction, but Eric was still thinking about "Men in Black".
In the original time and space, compared with other popular series of movies in Hollywood, the "Men in Black" series can be said to be the most ill-fated, and the production interval of the trilogy reached 15 years. Moreover, both word-of-mouth and box office are not as good as the first one, but the production budget has doubled. Moreover, similar to the "Mission: Impossible" series, most of the profits of the "Men in Black" series have been paid by Will Smith and other main creators. Dividing up, relatively speaking, Sony Pictures can only be regarded as a hard-earned money.
The reason for this situation is mainly due to the downturn in Sony's film business. Among the major film companies, Sony's performance has been at the bottom in most years, which has also caused its weak position in front of the first-line superstars. Paramount can still have a fight with Tom Cruise after the box office failure of "Mission: Impossible 3", but in order to maintain a decent operation, Sony Pictures does not even have the confidence to do so. project. In the original time and space, the first Hollywood salary of 20 million US dollars was offered by Sony Columbia for Jim Carrey.
Compared to Sony Columbia, Firefly has no concerns in this regard at all. If the salary of "Men in Black" cannot be negotiated, Eric would rather shelve this project for a long time. After all, he has a lot of projects with higher profit margins waiting to be developed. There is no need to compromise like Sony.
Thinking of this, Eric couldn't help but look forward to the next battle for Marvel. As long as Marvel, whose copyrights for superheroes are still in shambles, can be grabbed, even if there is nothing else, Firefly will be able to fight for the future in the next twenty years. Even longer to maintain their strong position in Hollywood.
…
"Men in Black" was the last film related to the Firefly Group in the 1994 summer file. When the first film was released, Firefly had already begun to count the harvest of this hot summer file.
At the end of July, the financial department of Firefly produced a preliminary financial report for the first half of 1994. Although the first half of the year experienced a brief period of confusion brought about by the abc merger, the operating income of the Firefly Group after the merger with abc still reached 73% in the first half of the year. However, due to the compensation expenses caused by departmental restructuring and layoffs, the group's net profit rate dropped slightly to only 9%. The group achieved a total net profit of 657 million US dollars in the first six months. This figure did not exceed the group's internal expectations, and was even higher than most Wall Street analysts' data.
At the same time, after intense bidding and negotiation, the well-known North American Condé Nast Group finally decided to buy the paper media assets spun off by Firefly at a price of US$1.52 billion.
Stimulated by a series of good news such as the summer box office, the 8 billion US dollars of bonds issued by Firefly Films for the acquisition of ABC were sold out on July 20.
Afterwards, all kinds of people inside and outside Firefly who had their own calculations became restless.
First of all, with the outstanding box office of "The Lion King" totaling 215 million US dollars in five weeks, Peter Schneider and Roy Disney, the directors of Disney's animation department who have been dawdling and waiting for the opportunity, first jumped out as "pawns" and started with confidence. Advocate for the interests of the 'long-squeezed' Disney animation employees.
The layout of Marvel Entertainment is still in the final finishing stage, and Ron Perelman is still hiding in the dark. In order to show his "importance" to Disney's animation department, Eric also cooperates with the Disney animation department in person. Peter Schneider and Roy Disney talked about terms.
Eric deliberately put on a tangled gesture of never mentioning the abolition of Disney's hand-drawn animation department but obviously did not want to compromise soon, and successfully conveyed some wrong signals to some people. (To be continued.) For mobile phone users, please visit m.