Although Li Mu is a businessman, he prefers partners who are more humane than those out-and-out businessmen in the West.
Li Mu usually rejects those whose calculations are particularly precise. This is not because he is petty, but because of his personal preference.
When you want to bring your friends together to do something mutually beneficial, but the other person is only thinking about their own little calculations, this feeling is really unpleasant.
Based on the foundation of "Kung Fu Panda", the profit margin and future derivative value will not be too high. However, if it can bring Panda Bear's fame into it, and add its own resources to it, DreamWorks' box office revenue and profits will Not only will the box office of a single movie skyrocket, but the entire movie will also have greater room for development in future sequels.
Many movies can no longer be made after two or three movies due to lack of stamina, but there are also many movies that can continue to be made like Fast and Furious, and the box office revenue is getting higher and higher.
Different from live-action movies, the cost of making live-action movies becomes higher as time goes by. For example, The Fast and the Furious, the leading actors were not well-known at the beginning, but with a salary of 1.8 million US dollars, they could not wait to sign the movie. They even used a joke in Guo Degang's cross talk, One person carried two bags of noodles and this was done.
However, as movies become more and more popular, there are more and more sequels, and the stars become more and more valuable, the cost of the movie naturally rises.
In the production of American dramas, for dramas that last more than three or five seasons, the salary of the leading actors usually has to be adjusted several times, and it is often the case that the leading actors threaten to go on strike to ask for an increase in salary.
For animated movies, the more sequels are made, the lower the cost becomes.
This is because the cost of character design, background, world view setting, art, visual element setting and model construction of animated movies is a one-time investment. As more and more sequels are made, the cost will become more and more diluted. .
This is like the mold opening fee in the industry. A set of molds costs tens of millions. If you only produce one product, it will definitely be expensive. The mold cost alone is tens of millions.
But if ten are produced, the mold cost will be as low as tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands.
If DreamWorks is willing to cooperate with them for mutual benefit, their profit margins will definitely be much stronger than working alone. Moreover, every good cooperation is paving the way for more and greater cooperation. In the future, we will also It will give them more resources and opportunities, but if it is calculated at once, it is better to let them get out as soon as possible.
Spielberg also realized the seriousness of this problem. After realizing that Li Mu was a little angry with him, he immediately chartered a flight to Yanjing and prepared to apologize to Li Mu in person. At the same time, he also brought the complete outline of Kung Fu Panda. , setting and script.
Li Mu really didn't send anyone to pick him up, and didn't even ask when he would arrive.
Spielberg flew all the way to China. The first thing he did after getting off the plane in the morning was to go straight to Makino Technology.
After all, Spielberg is also a world-renowned director and a billionaire. He came to China in despair, without daring to make any show. He just wore a peaked cap, took a car to Makino Technology, and... Instead of contacting Li Mu, he went directly to the front desk.
The front desk of Makino Technology usually has at least four people on duty at the same time, three of whom provide Chinese services, and one who provides English services.
When he saw an old white man, the front desk who provided English service smiled and asked: "Hello, is there anything I can do for you?"
Spielberg touched the brim of his peaked cap and said, "Hello, I'd like to meet Mr. Li."
The girl at the front desk didn't recognize him at first. When he said he wanted to see Li Mu, the girl at the front desk just asked as usual: "What is your name? Have you made an appointment in advance?"
Spielberg said: "My name is Steven Spielberg, and I made a verbal agreement with Mr. Lee before."
"Spielberg..." The girl at the front desk was stunned, and after looking carefully for a moment, she realized that the person standing in front of her was really the famous Hollywood director, Spielberg.
She was so surprised that she couldn't speak, but Spielberg was somewhat embarrassed. He coughed and said, "I wonder if you can inform me?"
The girl at the front desk finally came to her senses and said hurriedly: "I'm sorry, please wait a moment, I'll call and ask."
With that said, the girl at the front desk immediately picked up the phone and called Li Ziwei's office and said, "Sister Ziwei, Mr. Spielberg is at the front desk and he wants to see Mr. Li."
Li Ziwei said: "I understand, tell him to wait a moment and I will inform Mr. Li."
"OK."
Li Ziwei quickly came to Li Mu's office, knocked on the door and said to Li Mu: "Mr. Li, Director Spielberg is here."
Li Mu hummed and said, "Let him come up."
After a while, Spielberg was brought up by the staff.
The moment he saw Li Mu, Spielberg immediately stepped forward and said apologetically: "Mr. Li, I'm really sorry about what happened before. It was my lack of consideration."
Li Mu smiled slightly: "Stephen, we are all friends, why are you being so polite? Please sit down."
When Spielberg heard "We are all friends", his face became even hotter. He didn't know whether Li Mu said this intentionally or unintentionally, but when he heard this, he felt extremely ashamed.
He hurriedly said what he had been thinking about all the way, and said: "Mr. Li, after I thought about it carefully, I realized the importance of win-win cooperation. In fact, Makino Technology is willing to show us the image of Panda Bear. Making movies is something that is very beneficial to us.”
Li Mu nodded and said lazily: "Just think about it clearly, otherwise you will always feel that I am trying to trick you."
"How could it be!" Spielberg said hurriedly: "I was never worried about Mr. Li deceiving us in the beginning. It was just that I was too optimistic about the subsequent value of the copyright at the time. After thinking about it carefully, it was Mr. Li who gave me the money. The cooperation plan that came out was the most suitable.”
"Yes." Li Mu nodded lightly and asked, "Then what do you think now?"
Spielberg said hurriedly: “What I’m thinking about right now is very simple. I just hope to cooperate with Makino Technology to make the Panda Bear IP bigger and stronger.”
Li Mu hummed and asked, "Have you brought the script and other materials?"
Spielberg nodded, took out a printed document from his bag, handed it to Li Mu and said: "Mr. Li, this is information related to the story, please take a look.
Li Mu nodded slightly, turned to the first page, and saw a line of words: "The protagonist of the story is a panda named Po?"
Spielberg nodded: "Yes, it is the first protagonist."
Li Mu hummed and said, "Can you change your name to Panda?"
"Panda? What do you mean?"
(End of chapter)