I’m in Hollywood

Chapter 856: Who bullies whom

Views:

[Please subscribe after an hour]

"Eric, do you mean that we want to use the distribution contracts of these films as bargaining chips in exchange for the early settlement of the box office of "Titanic" by Southeast Asian filmmakers?" As soon as Eric finished speaking, Robert Thompson, the president of the distribution department, said asked knowingly.

Eric nodded, but quickly shook his head and said: "It can be done, but it is not limited to this. What I mean is that we need to prepare for the worst of the Southeast Asian economy, and strive to recover the share of the "Titanic" as soon as possible." At the same time, the distribution rights of the film will be directly pre-sold to distributors in Southeast Asian countries at a buyout price for a period of time in the future."

The phenomenon of pre-sale distribution rights of Hollywood movies is very common, especially those second- and third-tier film companies with limited distribution capabilities, even in the United States, often resort to pre-sale distribution rights in order to return funds as soon as possible. However, after years of expansion of distribution channels, due to its strong film distribution network worldwide, even some low- and medium-budget films under the Firefly Group have rarely adopted this low-yield pre-sale distribution strategy. After all, the reason is the same as farming. The same piece of land, the original slash-and-burn cultivation and the complicated intensive cultivation, the harvested food must be different.

Sure enough, as soon as Eric's voice fell, there was a lot of opposition.

Robert Thompson said: "Eric, the box office of "Titanic" is almost confirmed. We try to recover the share in advance, and there will be no loss. But if we sell out the distribution rights of the unreleased film, we will not only It is very difficult to get a price that is too high, and, in case some films hit the box office, the decisions we make at this time to avoid the economic crisis that may not necessarily occur may bring us greater losses. It accounts for 30% of the total overseas box office, which I strongly advise against."

Eric recalled the box office data of "Titanic" he saw last Friday night. Southeast Asia did account for about 30% of the film's total overseas box office, but Japan accounted for almost 20%. In my memory, during the economic crisis in Southeast Asia, Japan’s currency depreciation rate was only about 20%, which was far lower than that of other Southeast Asian countries whose monetary systems were generally cut in half. Moreover, compared with other Southeast Asian countries, Japan's economic recovery will obviously be faster. In this case, Firefly can still bear the 20% currency devaluation.

As for other Southeast Asian ticket warehouses, there is no need to persist. It is conceivable that when the economic crisis breaks out, under the impact of currency depreciation, the small box office in Southeast Asia, which only occupies a little over 10% of the overseas market share, will definitely drop to an insignificant 5% or so, and there will be no recovery in the short term. possibility.

Perhaps, in the next few years, Hong Kong films, which were already on a declining trend, will completely fall silent, which should obviously be related to the sharp shrinkage of the Southeast Asian market.

After thinking for a moment, Eric said: "Let's do this. On the Southeast Asian side, Japan will maintain the original issuance strategy. Other ticket warehouses such as Xinmatai will be determined according to the plan I just mentioned."

If the Japanese market is taken away, the remaining small ticket warehouses in Southeast Asia combined are not as good as Latin America, so the high-level executives stopped insisting, discussed the detailed implementation details, and started the next topic.

The meeting was held all morning, and Eric had lunch at the Burbank headquarters before rushing back to Pointe Manor.

While still in New York City, Madonna called several times, wanting to come visit Eric after he returned to Los Angeles.

At this time, Madonna has already started a lawsuit with Warner Music on the issue of digital distribution rights. Although the result is not yet certain, this incident has obviously attracted more musicians' attention to online music sales. Coupled with the close cooperation between the two parties on the Yahoo Music Store, Eric still would not hesitate to set aside half a day to meet with the other party, so he made an appointment this afternoon.

Of course, Eric also knew that Madonna's visit this time might still have the intention of urging him to write a song for herself, which Eric had promised to the other party more than a month ago.

Tomorrow is the celebration party when the box office of "Titanic" broke through 1.8 billion US dollars. Katzenberg will also rush from the Burbank headquarters to Playa Vista Studios in the afternoon, so he will take the opportunity to hitch a ride with Eric. By the way Talk about some business affairs in a timely manner.

Eric mentioned the intention to return to Sharp Point Manor, and Katzenberg said: "Speaking of the Yahoo Music Store, although Warner Music and Universal Music did not participate in this lawsuit, Barry Weiss from Firefly Records called The call came, and Warner Records was trying to poach the Backstreet Boys away from us."

Eric asked: "If I remember correctly, their contracts should be five years?"

"Yes, around 2000, Barry said that they were all a little bit emotional, but Warner Records might not be willing to pay them all the liquidated damages, so it didn't work out. However, if the contract expires," Carson said. Berg paused, glanced at Eric, and said again: "I'm afraid they probably won't stay in Firefly Records anymore."

Eric knew that the close cooperation between Firefly Records and Yahoo Music Store would definitely cause some scruples among its artists.

Due to the publicity of other record companies, most singers subconsciously feel that the cooperation between Firefly Records and Yahoo Music Store is based on sacrificing their interests. Under the manipulation of several major record companies, the American Music Association is not even willing to admit The sales of digital music albums will undoubtedly cause the sales volume of the singers under Firefly Records to be much lower than the actual number.

Eric doesn't think so. Impacted by the rise of the Internet, the decline of the recording industry is almost inevitable.

Firefly Records cooperates with Yahoo Music Store to open up the online music sales market in advance, which can greatly reduce the damage caused by online music piracy to Firefly Records artists. Platform media promotion resources.

Eric believes that with the further promotion of Fireflyer, this advantage will soon appear in the next few years.

"Universal Warner and the others want to do what they want, we just see what they do."

Eric said, looking out of the car window. At this time, the car was shuttling on Venice Avenue, and Eric happened to see a huge movie poster of "Godzilla" flashing past him.

If you don't consider the information in your memory at all, the upcoming summer vacation will still look heavy.

In addition to the three major animated films "Finding Nemo", "The Lion King 2" and "Ice Age", there are also three super live-action masterpieces in this summer file.

"Casino Royale" directed by Eric himself, "Batman and Robin" produced by Warner Bros. and "Godzilla" produced by Sony Pictures.

The cost of these three live-action blockbuster films is more than 100 million U.S. dollars. The production cost of "Casino Royale 007" finally reached 110 million U.S. dollars, which is still the lowest among the three films. "Batman and Robin" spent 120 million, and the production cost of "Godzilla" even reached 150 million in the end.

At the same time, as the only blockbuster movie featuring CG special effects in this summer, perhaps stimulated by the recent success of "Titanic", Sony also seems confident in "Godzilla", although the production cost has reached 1.5 100 million, but Sony did not hesitate to invest 70 million US dollars in the promotional budget, raising the total cost of "Godzilla" to 220 million. In this way, this monster blockbuster needs to recover 600 million US dollars worldwide , in order to recover the cost at the box office.

Eric can't remember the global box office of "Godzilla" in his previous life, but according to the bad reputation that has been scolded for more than ten years, it must be far less than 600 million US dollars.

Although the producer of "Godzilla" is Sony, since the special effects are completely in charge of the digital field, it is still very easy for Eric to see the material of this film. It's just that this version of Godzilla's Tyrannosaurus rex shape is almost the same as the previous life, Eric doesn't think this film has much possibility of success.

As for "Batman and Robin", don't mention it.

However, Warner and Sony are obviously full of confidence. Maybe they noticed that Firefly did not have any blockbuster special effects movie released this summer, so they followed Universal’s strategy last year and also set the release date in June, which is the usual time for Firefly. The mind is not pure.

This can be seen from the specific schedule of the two blockbuster films.

Firefly's summer film is still a "trilogy" strategy, but unlike before, due to the absence of "Jurassic Park 3", Firefly only has two films released in June, namely "Prison in the Air" starring Cage and Pixar The latest animated film "Finding Nemo" and the other one is "Tarzan Forest" produced by Disney Pictures. However, in order not to directly confront "007: Casino Royale", this medium-cost animation adaptation live-action film is scheduled for 7 mid month.

The other two films, "Prison in the Air" are scheduled for May 30, and "Finding Nemo" is scheduled for June 13.

Obviously, Sony and Warner still have some scruples about "Prison in the Sky" produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and starring Nicolas Cage, so they wisely set the schedule of "Godzilla" on June 6, " The schedule of Batman and Robin is confirmed on June 20th, which is the week before and the week after "Finding Nemo". Obviously, Sony and Warner want to sweep the box office with their own blockbusters, and rely on their powerful The big guy squeezed the living space of "Finding Nemo" by the way.

It was the first time Eric saw the detailed schedule form of this year's summer vacation, and he almost had the urge to mourn for the two colleagues.

Two big hits on the street to stir up a billion seeds.

It's really not sure who bullies whom.

…