Meiyu: I don’t care about the cost when making movies

Chapter 193 Alan Horn’s Sincerity

"Hi, Sarah, Ella~"

Wayne hugged Sarah Michelle Gellar and Isla Fisher, one in each hand, and kissed Sarah Michelle Gellar and Isla Fisher on the cheeks, completely ignoring the looks of the rest of the cast.

Anyway, his style preferences are pretty much known to everyone in Hollywood.

With his status and influence in Hollywood today, others will not think there is anything wrong, they will just take it for granted. After all, this is the rule of Hollywood.

However, when everyone saw Liv Tyler and other beauties surrounding her, they couldn't help but feel strong feelings of envy in their hearts.

For the last two Asian supporting actresses reserved, Wayne finally chose Han Jia and Son Ye-jin after extensive in-depth understanding.

Jun Ji-hyun starred as the 'ex-girlfriend' in "League of Assassins".

In this way, even excluding Sarah Michelle Gellar and Isla Fisher, who are the first and second female leads, there are seven women in the crew who have relationships with him.

Such blatant harem behavior is very rare even in Hollywood.

Mainly, ordinary actors, even those who can be called superstars like Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Cruise, cannot have such great power.

The idea is that in order to maintain their fame and status, they must try to avoid this happening and create a good image.

But Wayne had no such scruples.

This is the difference between capital and actors.

It is worth mentioning that the entertainment circles in various countries like to divide them into director-centered systems, producer-centered systems, screenwriter-centered systems, etc.

But looking at the essence through these appearances, all entertainment circles are essentially capital-centered.

If you have money and resources, you can really do whatever you want in the entertainment industry.

"Okay, I'm going to put on makeup and change clothes~"

It wasn't until he closed the door of the dressing room prepared for him by the crew that Wayne's ears finally became clear.

On the other side, at the "Dog Hotel" viewing party, representatives from the distribution company were smiling and saying hello to each other.

The atmosphere seemed friendly and harmonious, but in fact it was turbulent and tense.

After "The Notebook" opened for global screening on May 5.20, it was released ahead of schedule in just three days.

At present, it has only been a total of five days of screening and release, and it has already earned US$1.12 million in North America and US$1.59 million overseas, for a total global box office of US$2.71 million.

According to this data, the final box office is not just 5 million US dollars, but it is going to reach 7 million or even 8 million US dollars.

If it can achieve such box office results.

"The Notebook" will undoubtedly become the second highest-grossing romance film in global film history after "Titanic".

The influence of Wayne and Hemera Pictures will also increase to the next level.It has surpassed many large production companies such as DreamWorks and Silver Pictures, becoming the only one among the seven giants.

Even in terms of the production business alone, their influence is no less than that of the Big Seven.

In this case, every work of Hemera Pictures is their must-win goal.

Especially for large distribution companies under the Big Seven such as Harvey, DreamWorks, and Lionsgate, films such as "The Bourne Supremacy", "The Notebook", and the following "Resident Evil 1 and 1" And, as well as the "Assassin's League" that is still being prepared, even if they want to fight for it, they don't have the strength.

It is impossible for them to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars in cash.

They may not be able to win even "Taken", but they only have a chance with "low-budget", "non-Wayne starring" movies like "Dog Hotel".

Moreover, the profits of this kind of 'low-cost production' are not low. The previous "Girl Genius" and "Mean Girls" are examples.

Even if Harvey offered "Mean Girls" such a high share ratio, he could still make more than 2600 million US dollars through the box office.

Those LSPs who coveted the "Mean Girls Band" even achieved high sales as soon as the disc went on sale.

A conservative estimate is that this part of the profit is at least 5000 million US dollars.

And what about Harvey's actual investment?
Only 2500 million!This is a huge profit!

If the bulk of it hadn’t been turned over to Disney, Harvey would have laughed out of his dreams!

In addition, the "Dark Side" that Warner bought and is currently in theaters is also doing well.

So far, it has been screened for five days and released for three days, and has taken in a box office of US$5727 million in North America and US$4560 million overseas.

Although it is far behind "The Notebook" and "The Bourne Supremacy", and even not as good as "Mean Girls", it comprehensively surpasses the same period data of "Girls".

This is already a very good result for a suspense film.

After all, "Girlfriend" has a global box office of 1.432 million U.S. dollars, and Warner only spent 4900 million to buy the rights to this movie.

From the box office alone, Warner estimates it will earn between 4000 and [-] million.

In addition, excellent suspense films have always performed well in the disc market. Warner's estimated revenue for this film is almost 8000 million US dollars.

The Big Seven would also be jealous of the nearly double return rate.

Therefore, the Big Seven are also determined to win the upcoming "Dog Hotel".

And it's different from the previous two "Mean Girls" and "The Notebook."

The popularity of "The Notebook" has exhausted all the favors Sony had accumulated by gifting girls twice, once to a concert, and by signing a supplementary agreement to buy Production IG and give it to Hemera Pictures.

Harvey also failed to deliver girls twice, so this time everyone is playing fair.

This made publishers such as Paramount, MGM, and DreamWorks, which had not been able to curry favor with Wayne, become more flexible.

However, what they didn't know was that someone had actually quietly taken Wayne's path.

That person is Alan Horn, who just replaced Terry Semel, who left to become president of Yahoo at the beginning of the month, and became the new president of Warner Bros.

The new president of Warner is a guy with good abilities and a great gambling habit.

At this time, all the major production companies like to cast a wide net to increase the probability of making profits, but that is not the case for him.

He believed very much in the vision of himself and his team, and chose to reduce the number of investment investments and concentrate all resources on a few projects that he was optimistic about.

It turns out that he has really good vision.

"Harry Potter" series, "Ocean's Eleven" series, "Batman" trilogy, and movies such as "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", "I Am Legend", "Inception" and so on.

These are all promoted by Alan Horn.

During the ten years he served as CEO, although Warner produced the fewest films among the Big Seven, its single-film investment and revenue were among the best among the Big Seven.

Among the ten highest-grossing movies in the world every year, Warner often has two or three among them.

At this time, he had just succeeded Terry Semel as CEO, and it was when he needed results to stabilize himself.So after temporarily unable to find a way to make friends with Wayne directly, he chose to save the country through a curveball and found DiCaprio, who had a good relationship with Wayne.

In fact, Adriana Lima and the other three were poached by Alan Horn and given to Wayne with the help of Time Warner behind them.

Of course, Wayne himself can do such small things. After all, the influence of Hearst Group in the fashion industry is far greater than that of Time Warner.

So Alan Horn came up with another 'sincerity' that Wayne simply couldn't refuse.

That is to combine the main characters in DC, Batman, Joker, Superman, Catwoman, Penguin, Two-Face, Harley Quinn, etc.

It was sold to the Wayne Group for an almost free price of US$1000 million.

Of course, it is impossible to give it away for free.

First of all, the copyright of every DC movie produced by Hemera Pictures in the future must be at the same price, and after a 5% discount, it will be sold to Warner first.

Take "The Notebook" and "The Bourne Supremacy" as examples. For this alone, Warner can save 1 to 2000 million US dollars in bidding for the copyright of each DC movie.

Coupled with the revenue generated after the film is released, Warner will actually make no less money.

After all, due to over-development in the 8s and 90s, Superman and Batman movies have long been scrapped. Even if the copyrights continue to be in the hands of Warner, they have no plans to restart them in the short term.

Even if it restarts, it's unclear whether it can make money.

Therefore, selling the character rights to Wayne, who has no previous success, in exchange for the movie rights, is a win-win situation.

Although it costs more than investing in filming yourself, the probability of making money from the film is also much higher.

It's true that Alan Horn likes to make big bets, but he also won't let go of this kind of 'stable income'.

In addition, Warner can also choose one of the films that Hemera Pictures will sell next with a production cost of no more than 4000 million US dollars and purchase it first.

The production costs of "Dog Hotel" and "Host" just now were 2000 million and 3500 million respectively, which are both within the range of options.

So as long as he wants it, the copyright of "Dog Hotel" is his.

This conservatively represents an income of tens of millions of dollars!
It's just that as a qualified CEO, his acting skills are also very good. Even if he already has a plan in mind, he doesn't let others see the flaws.

As the lights go out, the video begins to play.

Six or seventy people were seated, and the nearly full screening room quickly fell silent.

It involved an investment of tens of millions of dollars, and everyone was paying attention and looking at it very carefully.

But after reading it, many people couldn't help but show expressions of constipation.

This is of course not because the quality of the movie is bad. From the professional perspective of later generations of Wayne, the quality is considered to be good, surpassing the original version, not to mention the film viewing experts at this time.

The problem is that for such a family movie that is mainly aimed at children, the most suitable time for its release in the near future is undoubtedly Children's Day.

今天是 5月25号，距离6月1号不过6天。

Even if the time to purchase the copyright is reduced to one day, they will only have five days left to announce it.

Of course, with the current fame and reputation of Wayne and Hemera Pictures, as well as the energy of each of them, five days is enough.

Just a little nervous.

As for the option of giving up and not buying it, they never even considered it.

After all, who has trouble with money?

And if they don’t buy it, wouldn’t Hemera Pictures be able to distribute it themselves openly?
Although they appear friendly on the surface, major distribution companies are actually preventing Wayne and Hemera Pictures from entering the distribution business.

Therefore, whether it is from the perspective of their own profit or to curb potential competitors, they must capture the copyright of this film.

So after the movie viewing session ended, representatives from each company left in a hurry after saying hello.

Especially the film purchase experts, who didn't even have time for lunch, they all rushed back to the company as quickly as possible to make the evaluation report.

Then there is a meeting to discuss and give a quote.

"This is what Mia sent, the first round of quotations for "Dog Hotel" from various companies. You were filming earlier, so I printed them out for you."

At five o'clock in the afternoon, when Wayne had just finished shooting for the day, Hannah came over with the quotation sheet compiled by Mia.

"Hey, they are quite tall."

Wayne took the quotation form, glanced at it, and couldn't help showing a surprised expression.

Perhaps they knew the competition would be fierce and time was limited. Although it was only the first round of quotations, the conditions given by each company were very good.

Unsurprisingly, Disney offered the highest fixed price.

Disney, which has always been the overlord of children's movies, did not want anyone to adjust its position in this type of movies, so it directly made an offer of US$8000 million.

As a result, even if the publicity and distribution expenses are not included, the box office needs to reach 1.6 million US dollars before the money can be recovered through the box office.

Of course, as of now, the probability of "Dog Hotel" box office exceeding 1.6 million US dollars is still very high.

Coupled with the revenue from disc sales, it is basically impossible for Disney to lose money. It just depends on how much it makes.

If "Dog Hotel" can win an astonishing box office of 3 million like "Mean Girls", then Disney can earn at least hundreds of millions in profits.

Unfortunately, Wayne just chuckled and shook his head, and passed Disney in the first place.

After all, as the future overlord of Hollywood, Disney has always been his number one target.

Wayne then looked at several other fixed-price offers, the two highest of which were Sony's 7800 million and Universal's 7900 million.

Warner's offer is only 7500 million, which is not very high, but as a first-round offer, it is not very low either.

The quotation is given in the form of cash plus shares.

This time it was no longer Harvey who offered the highest conditions, but DreamWorks.

Several films produced by DreamWorks themselves need to be distributed by giants such as Disney because they have signed contracts long ago.

Therefore, if they want to maintain and develop their own distribution channels, they can only buy films from other production companies.

For now, it seems that DreamWorks’ idea of ​​becoming a new giant is still there.

They offered "Dog Hotel" 2800 million in cash, plus after the box office exceeds 6000 million, they will receive an instant share of 1000 million for every 405 million more.

Compared with the 2600 million cash offered by Harvey and the box office exceeding 6000 million, every additional 1000 million will get an instant share of 398 million, which is only a little higher.

(End of this chapter)