Lucas Ben is one of the largest film distributors in the United States. He has cooperated with DreamWorks for many years and has a good personal relationship with Spielberg. After Spielberg established a joint venture with Li Mu and transplanted the Mu Film ticketing system to American theaters, It is true that the convenience of the online ticketing system has brought about a comprehensive improvement to the entire box office market, and Lucas has benefited the most from it due to his relationship with Spielberg.
Lucas himself is not only a loyal supporter of Muying's ticketing system, but also a loyal supporter of Li Mu. He has always wanted to get acquainted with Li Mu, but he just lacked the right opportunity. What he didn't expect this time was that Li Mu actually It was perfect to find Spielberg to help introduce him to North American distributors, and Spielberg to find him.
Lucas' company itself is also trying to contact Makino Imaging, hoping to obtain the rights to zombie movies, and then take advantage of this off-season to make a small fortune in North America. Lucas has also specifically found "Mr. Zombie" and other Several copies of zombie films were screened on a small scale within the company. After watching the film, everyone's evaluation was very good.
The main reason for the high evaluation is that the movie itself is interesting and humorous, especially for viewers who have never been exposed to zombie movies. You must know that "Mr. Zombie" pioneered the zombie movie and directly brought the zombie movie to the forefront. Entering the golden period, it can be seen that this movie has a very good effect on popularizing zombie movies.
For this group of American filmmakers, the quality of this movie itself already has the possibility of manipulation, not to mention that this movie is full of oriental mysterious elements, every detail makes people feel novel, and the logic of the movie itself is also It is very rigorous and can explain the formation of zombies, their attack, spread and restraint methods very satisfactorily, and no bugs can be found, which is even more interesting to them.
Finally, the new version of "Plants vs. Zombies Online" has indeed planted the seeds of curiosity in everyone's psychology and a rough impression of Chinese zombies, so I have a little more expectation for this movie. When I see the characters in this movie After the content can be matched with the images in the game, the movie-watching experience will be further improved.
Based on these actual circumstances, Lucas used his keen sense of experience in the industry for many years to conclude that if "Mr. Zombie" is released in North America, it will not be a big problem to win a box office of 50 million US dollars based on the current mass base.
Moreover, this is just one movie. Li Mu, a beast, has bought all the copyrights for zombie-themed movies and TV series accumulated in Hong Kong over the years. If "Mr. Zombie" becomes an instant hit, there will be at least thousands more zombie-themed movies in China. Tens of thousands of dollars or even hundreds of millions of dollars in box office space.
For these box office fees, I have to go to China and talk to Makino Yingxiang in person to prove my sincerity. If I have the chance to meet Li Mu, that would be great.
…
Spielberg told Li Mu over the phone that Lucas had decided to come to Beijing. Li Mu was not originally prepared to follow up on the matter personally, but when he heard Spielberg say that Lucas was the largest film distributor in the United States, One of them decided to meet him in person.
Lucas hurried to Yanjing with two purposes in mind. One was to discuss the North American distribution rights for zombie films, and the other was hoping to meet Li Mu.
Although Lucas is very influential in the American film industry, his influence is greatly reduced outside the film industry, especially in front of big entrepreneurs and top wealthy people. People in the film industry have no status at all, let alone Lucas, even the all-powerful Harvey Weinstein in Hollywood, has to be an abstinent boy when he gets to Wall Street.
Because of this, Lucas placed special hope on this trip to China, hoping that with Spielberg's help, he could meet Li Mu.
And when he got a clear reply from Spielberg before getting on the plane, telling him that Li Mu was willing to meet him in Yanjing, he was excited all the way. Not only did he not sleep a wink during the more than ten hours of flight, but I don’t feel tired at all.
When the plane landed at Yanjing Airport, it was two o'clock in the afternoon, Yanjing time. Li Mu arranged for the driver of Makino Technology to greet him at the airport. At the same time, he asked the driver to make two arrangements for him on his behalf: go to the hotel to rest first, and then arrive at Makino Technology tomorrow morning. Interview with Li Mu, or go directly to Makino Technology to meet with Li Mu.
Lucas chose the latter almost without thinking, even though he had not slept for more than 20 hours.
The driver drove Lucas to Makino Technology and handed it over to the administrative staff of Makino Technology. After a while, Li Ziwei knocked on the door of Li Mu's office and said to him: "Mr. Li, Lucas Ben from the United States is already here. Do you want to see him now?"
Li Mu nodded: "Let him come in."
A moment later, Lucas followed Li Ziwei to Li Mu's office. When Lucas saw Li Mu himself, he said excitedly: "Hello Mr. Li, it's a great honor to meet you!"
"It's an honor to meet you." Li Mu replied in proficient English, then walked out of his desk, pointed to the sofa in the reception area, and said to him: "Have-a-seat-please, Mr.Ben.”
When Lucas heard Li Mu calling him Mr. Ben, he hurriedly said respectfully: "Mr. Li, please just call me Lucas."
Li Mu nodded and smiled: "Okay, Lucas, please sit down. Would you like some coffee or tea?"
"Coffee bar, thank you!" Although Lucas was very excited, his body was already feeling tired, and he was worried that he would not be in good enough condition for the interview with Li Mu.
Li Mu then said to Li Ziwei: "Make arrangements to pour Lucas a cup of coffee and make me a cup of tea."
"Okay, Mr. Li." After Li Ziwei said that, she turned and left. Li Mu sat across from Lucas and said to him: "Welcome to China Lucas, especially when the outside world spreads rumors that China is very dangerous. It takes courage.”
Lucas smiled and said: "Mr. Li, we have learned about the actual situation of the epidemic in Yanjing through your statement. I think Yanjing is not as dangerous as many media exaggerate."
After saying that, Lucas added: "What's more, I came to Yanjing to meet you. No matter how dangerous it is, I will definitely come here."
Li Mu smiled slightly and said, "Lucas, I think Steven has told you my needs, right?"
"Yes." Lucas nodded repeatedly and said, "He told me that you wanted to distribute Hong Kong's 1985 "Mr. Zombie" in North America. I happened to be particularly interested in that movie and very optimistic about it, so I hurriedly Came here by plane.”
Li Mu asked him: "Do you also know about the movie "Mr. Zombie"?"
Lucas said hurriedly: "Of course, since the new version of "Plants vs. Zombies Online" was updated, some elements and backgrounds about Chinese zombies have become very popular in North America. Most people want to know more about the legend of Chinese zombies. Regarding the details, there are many articles and content on the Internet that use this movie material to explain. In the movie "Mr. Zombie", the background, causes of formation, combat effectiveness and ways to deal with Chinese zombies are well explained. , especially the Taoist character is very interesting and his skills are also very interesting, so the audience is looking forward to this movie. In my opinion, this movie already has a good potential audience base. If it can be released in North America If so, the box office will definitely be more impressive."
Li Mu asked him: "How much box office do you think you could achieve if this movie was distributed throughout North America?"
"Fifty million US dollars, maybe more!" Lucas said: "The public's enthusiasm is very high now. If it can be released as soon as possible to avoid wasting or even missing the popularity, I think 60 to 70 million US dollars is not a problem."
Li Mu nodded and asked him: "If we cooperate, according to your normal process and rules for introducing overseas film copyrights, how much of the actual box office can the copyright owner get?"
Lucas said: "This is not necessarily the case. We have done movies where we don't get a penny of box office share, and we have also done movies where the box office share is 30% or even higher."
Li Mu asked curiously: "Is there any copyright owner who doesn't want to share the share?"
"Yes." Lucas said, "But those are niche, small-production movies. The copyright holders usually just want to open up the situation, so they would rather not get a penny of box office share, and hope that we can help them expand their influence. , but the quality of such movies is generally relatively poor. Even if we don’t get a penny of profit sharing, we may not be willing to operate it. After all, if the movie is too bad, the theater chain will refuse to schedule it.”
At this point, Lucas paused and said: "Normal commercial films are usually around 20-30%. If you are willing to hand over the North American distribution rights of "Mr. Zombie" to my company, then I can I’ll give you the highest share ratio within my capabilities, 35%!”
For Lucas, making money is secondary to his trip to China. The key is to connect with Li Mu. The Muying ticketing system in Li Mu's hands will play an important role in the North American box office in the future. It will definitely get bigger and bigger. In this case, I will definitely have many opportunities to deal with Li Mu's companies and platforms in the future. If I establish a good relationship with Li Mu in advance, it will be a very beneficial guarantee for me.
Li Mu heard him say 35%. You know that the offer he made is indeed very good. Excluding the share for the theater chain and various taxes and fees, and giving himself 35%, Lucas is equivalent to working for himself in this transaction.
Lucas thought that Li Mu would be very satisfied with this sincere offer, but unexpectedly, the first sentence Li Mu spoke was to ask: "If I only need 15%, and then split the extra 20%, 10% Here you go, 10% goes to theaters, how much room for improvement do you think the movie box office can have?"
"Give theaters 10% more?" Lucas blurted out.
Li Mu nodded: "That's right, you and the theater chain each have 10%. What I want is not how much money I can make, but how much box office this movie can ultimately achieve in North America. Can you understand what I mean?" "
Lucas nodded immediately.
Giving more shares to theaters will provide incentives for theaters to arrange films. Li Mu does not want to make more money, but he hopes that the box office will be as high as possible. He must want to maximize the influence of this movie.
Think about it, if it is just a matter of tens of millions of dollars in box office, even if Li Mu's Makino Image is divided into 35%, it will only earn 10 to 20 million dollars. Such a small amount of money is not worth his investment at all, let alone his dedicated work. Taking time out to meet him, what he wanted was not money, but influence.
After thinking about this, Lucas immediately expressed his position: "Mr. Li, if you only want 15% of the box office share, then I promise you that the remaining 20% will be returned to the theaters in various forms! "
(End of chapter)