Eric doesn't know what Tom Cruise's attitude is, but Paula Wagner obviously very much hopes to facilitate this cooperation. To this end, Paula Wagner also said that Tom Cruise can sign three "Iron Man" film contracts with Firefly at one time, on the condition that he retains the bargaining power for the sequel's remuneration.
Compared with Tom Cruise's position, this condition is very sincere. Due to the explosion of the film market in recent years, the value of Hollywood stars has risen sharply. Nowadays, Hollywood's first-line superstars rarely sign multiple contracts with film companies at one time. Film appointment.
However, this obviously cannot meet Eric's requirements.
"Paula, the Marvel Cinematic Universe project is a very important plan for Firefly. In order to ensure the implementation of this plan, the bottom line for us to select core superhero characters is to sign at least six film contracts. This condition is no exception for anyone. , so, three parts are definitely not acceptable.”
Paula Wagner said: "Eric, since you attach so much importance to the Marvel Cinematic Universe plan, then Firefly should obviously be more cautious in selecting actors. I think you must know that a one-time six-film contract, any Hollywood front-line Superstars wouldn't agree."
Eric shook his head slightly and said: "I think you may have misunderstood a little. Firefly hopes to sign a long-term contract, but it doesn't mean that we are unwilling to pay the actors more lucrative remuneration. We have drawn up a detailed floating remuneration Plan. Take Cruise as an example, if he is willing to sign, we can even adopt a floating salary mechanism from the first film."
Paula Wagner glanced at Avi Arad sitting next to him calmly.
After she came into contact with Marvel, Avi Arad was very enthusiastic about Cruise's participation in "Iron Man". Everyone just had a brief discussion and rushed to Los Angeles. He heard the explanation of the floating remuneration plan from De's mouth.
From this small detail, Paula Wagner guessed that Avi Arad might not be too much in favor of Eric's plan. However, it is not difficult to imagine that Eric's one-time six-part contract bundle plan will definitely discourage more than 90% of Hollywood's first-line superstars. But in the traditional concept of Hollywood, how can a big-budget movie be successful if there are no big stars in it.
Even so, Paula Wagner did not show any abnormalities, and continued to ask: "Eric, can you explain in more detail?"
"Of course," Eric nodded, and explained patiently: "Take Cruise as an example, Firefly can offer him a guaranteed salary, let's count it at 10 million U.S. dollars. Next, the global box office of the film The base salary of US$10 million remains unchanged within US$300 million. Between US$300 million and US$500 million, the increase in salary is not too large. For every increase of US$100 million, add 1 million, because this is still in the payback range of the film. If the global box office reaches and exceeds 500 million U.S. dollars, multiply the highest figure by 3 million, that is to say, if the global box office is 500 million, Cruise can get 15 million U.S. dollars, and if the global box office is 800 million, Cruise can get 24 million. million dollars, and so on.”
Paula Wagner knew that Eric was simply giving an example, and the detailed rules and regulations involved in the specific salary contract would definitely reach dozens of pages.
However, Paula Wagner also realized that the overall salary package was not generous. In recent years, the number of Hollywood films that have exceeded $100 million at the local box office each year has approached 20, which is almost double that of the early 1990s. However, although Hollywood movies are thriving in the global market as a whole, there are still only a handful of movies with a global box office of more than 500 million U.S. dollars each year.
Take last year as an example, among the films with a global box office of more than 500 million U.S. dollars, apart from the anomaly "Titanic", there are only three films: "The Matrix", "The Mummy 2", and "Mission: Impossible 2".
Although "Men in Black 2" released by Sony and "Charlie's Angels 2" released by MGM also brought huge profits to the film companies, the global box office also stayed within 500 million U.S. dollars.
Since the production cost of mainstream Hollywood commercial films is still kept within 100 million US dollars, very few of them exceed 70 million US dollars. The global box office of a movie can reach 300 million U.S. dollars. Counting the multi-channel revenue in the later stage, it can already make a lot of money for the film company.
Therefore, in Paula Wagner's view, Eric's remuneration terms, although superficially generous, are more like an empty pie.
According to this salary condition, if an actor wants to get a salary of 20 million U.S. dollars, the global box office needs to reach 700 million U.S. dollars. In this way, only "Titanic" and "The Matrix" were able to meet this condition last year. "Two films, "The Mummy 2" and "Mission: Impossible 2" both had a global box office of just over 600 million. Paula Wagner is even more unaware that Firefly's plans for a 'mass-produced' Marvel Cinematic Universe have the potential to easily hit $700 million worldwide.
Although Cruise has entered a low ebb in his career in recent years, since he has acted as a co-investor and producer for most of the films, even if the box office of the films he participated in is not very good, he wants to get money from each film. Earning $20 million is still very easy.
After thinking for a moment, Paula Wagner said: "Eric, if I remember correctly, in the whole year of last year, there were no more than 5 Hollywood movies with a global box office of 500 million US dollars, right? In this case, you think, the global box office For $500 million, the protagonist can only get paid $15 million, is that reasonable?"
With a somewhat knowing smile on his face, Eric looked at Paula Wagner and said, "Paula, you should understand that if the Marvel Cinematic Universe plan is successful, Cruise will get more than just the pay , at least for the next ten years, he will be able to rely on the popularity brought by this film to be among the first-line superstars. I think this is the main reason why you are here today, isn't it?"
Due to missing the "Mission: Impossible" series, Cruise's popularity has been in decline in recent years. If he encounters one or two box office failures, he will lose his status as a first-line superstar almost every minute. John Travolta, Richard Gill and others who had a moment of glory in the past basically disappeared in the front line. Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce · Willis and others also reached the edge of this situation.
In order to maintain his popularity, Arnold Schwarzenegger took over the role of the Freeze Man in "Batman and Robin" last year, trying to find another way by playing the villain. Even Mel Gibson, who has achieved good results in his career as a director, also They all began to seek to restart the "Lethal Weapon" series. Therefore, Tom Cruise's deeper purpose in seeking to star in "Iron Man" at this time is not so difficult to guess.
Paula Wagner was not embarrassed by Eric's point of view, still with a decent smile on her face, said: "Eric, I think this is a win-win thing, as long as you can relax the contract restrictions Some, everyone can get a lot of benefits. What's more, if the "Iron Man" series is successful, even if the three contracts expire, Tommy will definitely be very happy to renew the contract."
Eric said in his heart that with Cruise's bidding style, Firefly would be very unhappy at that time.
Shaking his head slightly, Eric said: "Paola, I think it will be difficult for us to reach an agreement, but apart from "Iron Man", if Cruise wants to cooperate with Firefly, we are still very welcome. "
Paula Wagner was a little disappointed immediately. By cooperating with Paramount, Sony and other companies, Cruise can still get the biggest production and marketing resources, but Firefly, which has many high-quality projects under its umbrella, will definitely not give them this kind of preferential treatment. Therefore, Eric's solicitation was not very attractive to her. Paula Wagner thought of the recent dispute between Firefly and Paramount, and thought that Eric's words might be aimed at hitting Paramount. After all , Cruise/Wagner Productions is basically affiliated with Paramount.
Knowing that Cruise could not agree to the salary plan proposed by Eric, Eric did not mean to make any concessions, so the two parties did not continue the negotiation.
After lunch, Paula Wagner left in a hurry, and she will fly back to New York in the afternoon to take charge of Cruise's new film.
Avi Arad is not in a hurry to return, he will stay in Los Angeles for a few days, but after Paula Wagner left, Avi Arad seemed extremely disappointed, he didn't know much about Hollywood, so he and Like outside investors in Hollywood, they are used to the strategy of big production, big director and big star.
In Eric's memory, the superhero "dream team" originally conceived by Marvel is Tom Cruise as Iron Man, Brad Pitt as Thor, and Edward Norton as Hulk. Everyone knows the final result. The overall rise of Marvel superheroes also proves the correctness of the strategy of using potential directors and second- and third-tier newcomers.
If the "Dream Team" originally conceived by Marvel is achieved, the result will be difficult to predict, just like Warner's "Batman" series in recent years, because the main creators have to negotiate with the producers every time on salary, script, etc. After a while, the four Batman films have changed to three protagonists and two directors. This kind of strong instability of the main creative team eventually led to the fact that one Batman series is not as good as one.
Eric didn't explain too much to Avi Arad. The two chatted about some trivial matters about the establishment of Marvel Pictures, and Eric sent Avi Arad away from the manor.
Christina was a little depressed today. She received a call from Eric yesterday to spend the weekend at the manor, but early this morning, the girl named Miranda Kerr came uninvited and forcibly broke into the two of them. In the "world of two", near noon, two more guests arrived, and Eric will leave Los Angeles tomorrow. It can be said that this weekend is really a bit bad.
It wasn't until after two o'clock in the afternoon that the two guests left, and Eric was free.
But at this time, seeing Miranda pounce on Eric like a entangled kitten, Christina was even more depressed. In fact, she was always cautious in front of Eric, and never dared to act like this Girls are so presumptuous.
Christina even doubted whether the 'kitten' sitting on Eric's lap didn't know it was a lion occupying Hollywood in front of her, or she was too confident that the lion would not eat her in one bite Woolen cloth
Miranda Kerr, however, didn't bother to care about Christina's entanglement, depression and resentment. She threw herself on Eric affectionately, put her arms around his neck and said coquettishly: "Eric, I read the "Royal Royal Family" in the newspaper. The premiere of "Casino" will be held in London, and you will definitely be there then, right?"
Eric held Miranda's waist with both hands to prevent her from getting too close, and said with a smile, "Yes, but I definitely can't take you there, so don't think about it."
"It's disgusting, I haven't even brought it up yet," Miranda grabbed Eric's shirt collar and gently tugged, dissatisfied: "You said you would help me celebrate my birthday last year, but last month it wasn't I didn't see your shadow, hey, how are you going to compensate me?"
Eric knew that Giselle would definitely not tell Miranda about their trip around the world, so he just smiled and said, "Oh, what compensation do you want?"
Miranda straightened her body, slightly twisted her waist, and said: "The TV series on the Disney Channel I am participating in is so boring, Eric, look, can I play Gwen, "Spider-Man" Gwen Stacy in the movie?"
"Oh, that's not okay. In this way, I'll let you act as a female classmate next to Gwen."
"It's so insincere, I don't want these small corner characters," Miranda shook her head dissatisfied, rolled her eyes, and said, "Then, I, Christina and I just saw a lot in your garage. As for the car, well, so many good cars, what a waste, you haven't driven them a few times, have you?"
Eric pushed the girl away with a smile, held her small waist to keep her from moving, and said, "If you want, at least wait until you are sixteen, but not now."
Miranda glanced at Christina next to her, rolled her eyes, and said, "I don't look like I'm sixteen now, Eric, you can definitely help me get a driver's license, right?"
"Yeah, so, I can't help you," Eric smiled, pinched the girl's face, and said, "Don't be so restless, it's still far from your age to drive, in case something happens I can't explain to your parents."
Miranda begged for a while, seeing that Eric still didn't let go, she changed the condition and said, "Forget it, you take me in the car, um, how about Christina and I go for a drive, right now." (To be completed continued.)