1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Zhou Yan rested for about twenty minutes, and the phone on the desk rang.

He breathed a sigh of relief, stood up and answered the phone.

As soon as the call was connected, Zhang Youan's voice came from the microphone, "Did the concert go well?"

"Well, it went well."

"You're going back to the office right after this? Are you still planning to work in the evening?" Zhang Youan first called Zhou Yan's residence and then called his office.

"Come to the office and rest for a while. I'll go back to sleep soon. What did Fox say?" Zhou Yan asked.

Zhang Youan's call at this time must be about the negotiations with Fox.

"They are asking for too much." Zhang Youan took a deep breath. "They are insisting on 70 million US dollars now. After a whole day of negotiations yesterday, I'm afraid it will be difficult to lower the price any further."

Zhou Yan had said before that if the investment in this project was less than 50 million US dollars, it could still be considered, but if it exceeded 50 million, it would not be suitable.

Now Fox insists on 70 million US dollars, not a penny less, which obviously does not meet Zhou Yan's requirements.

There is a gap of 20 million, and it is in US dollars. It is not a question of willingness or not, but a question of whether it can be taken out.

Fox wants cash and needs it in the short term, which makes it quite difficult.

Zhou Yan was not anxious, and asked in a deep voice, "Besides the investment amount, what else did they talk about, such as copyright distribution and the proportion of box office revenue? What did they say?"

"We asked for 40 percent of the box office revenue, but they rejected it outright."

"Even if we don't want anything except a share of the box office revenue, is that okay?"

"No, I tried to lower the ratio, but they were not willing to cooperate in this way at all."

"So what form of cooperation are they willing to adopt? Are they willing to share the profits?"

The sharing of box office revenue and the sharing of profits are two completely different things. With the American financial calculation method, the box office of "Titanic" can be calculated as negative. In the end, it is considered good if people don't want you to take the money but give you change.

The safest way is to share the box office revenue directly.

Zhou Yan had already made plans before. Apart from the share of the box office revenue, he didn't want anything else.

Forty percent may seem like a lot, but the subsequent income from television rights, DVD products, etc. all belong to Fox, which is a considerable amount of income, and they should give in to the box office revenue.

And even if he asked for forty, it was impossible for him to really take forty.

“They want regional divisions.”

"By region?" Zhou Yan was a little confused. "How is it divided?"

"Fox wants to give us all the revenue from the United States, and keep all the overseas revenue for themselves."

"Give us all the box office revenue from the United States?" Zhou Yan narrowed his eyes.

The box office of "Titanic" in the United States was not low, reaching 600 million US dollars in the entire North American region, and more than 500 million US dollars in the United States.

If this time the United States can get more than 500 million US dollars like in the last life, according to the current distribution ratio of the United States, they can get 40 to 50 percent of it, which is more than 200 million US dollars.

With an investment of 70 million US dollars and a profit of more than 200 million US dollars, this deal is certainly possible.

"Not only the box office revenue, but also the DVD products are given to us. In addition, there are some other scattered rights, such as the income from the remake of the work..."

Hearing Zhang Youan's words, Zhou Yan raised his eyebrows.

Is Fox doing charity? Not only did they give the US box office revenue, but they also gave the US DVD copyright, and some other small rights.

If I can get these rights, then 70 million US dollars will be no problem at all.

Of course, Fox can do this because they don't have a very good estimate of the US box office. In their opinion, "Titanic" may only have a box office of 100 million or 200 million US dollars in the United States at most.

It has to be said that James Cameron's stubbornness really dampened the morale of everyone at Fox.

There is a saying now that "Titanic" is not just a question of whether it can achieve high box office, but a question of whether it can be successfully filmed and released.

Originally, the film was scheduled to be released in July this year.

But now the materials for the entire film have not been shot, and the editing has only begun a little bit, not to mention the work such as the soundtrack after the editing.

The first scheduled date of July was not possible, and now it seems that the second scheduled date of September is also not possible.

Fox has no idea whether this movie can be released this year.

Zhou Yan was silent for a long time on the other end of the phone. Zhang Youan smiled and said, "Why don't we just forget it? 70 million US dollars is indeed a high amount. As for the box office revenue in the United States, it won't be too high. Even if we can make some money, it may depend on the operation, and we have to find ways to avoid taxes."

"What about the TV broadcasting rights? Will they give it to us?" Zhou Yan asked.

"They are unwilling to release this, including the ones in the United States, which they also hold in their hands."

"What about streaming rights? What do they say?"

“Streaming?”

"Streaming media, they actually mentioned it, and they also keep the copyright for it themselves."

Streaming media is actually a new concept that only emerged in the 1990s, and people don’t have a specific understanding of it. They only know that it is related to computers and the Internet.

As for the streaming media copyrights of film and television works, it seems that it is still very far away from the present era, but large companies are still relatively cautious, and they hold things in their hands that can easily dig holes for themselves.

Zhou Yan was not discouraged when he heard that Fox had the streaming copyright in its hands. He smiled and said, "We can strive to get some of the streaming copyright, but not too much, 30 to 40 percent will be enough."

Zhang Youan didn't know much about streaming media, but since Zhou Yan said so, he smiled and said, "Okay, we'll talk about it this afternoon. I'll try my best... Hey, from what you said, do you think 70 million US dollars is also acceptable?"

"Well, we can talk about it. If they are willing to give us some of the streaming rights, we can directly close the deal at 70 million US dollars. However, when you negotiate, don't take the streaming rights too seriously."

"Don't worry about that. During a negotiation, one cannot easily reveal one's purpose." Zhang Youan smiled. "In that case, I will have a good talk with them this afternoon."

After hearing Zhou Yan say that the deal could be done with 70 million US dollars, Zhang Youan became more excited. He originally thought that this deal was doomed to fail.

After all, I have followed him for such a long time, and he would be disappointed if the deal failed.

In addition, Zhou Yan would not let him work in vain. If the deal was successful, he would get a lot of money. Of course, even if the deal was unsuccessful, Zhou Yan would give him a reward for his hard work.

"In that case, thank you for your hard work. For the rest, you can negotiate based on 70 million US dollars."

"What if we can't get the streaming copyright?" Zhang Youan asked.

As a veteran negotiator, he must of course determine his bottom line first, so as to avoid being confused about how to respond when the time comes.

"Try to get it. If you can't get it, you can still sign it. If you get it, I will give you a bonus in the same proportion as Fox gives you."

"What I mean is, if I get 50 percent of the streaming rights, can you give me a bonus of $500,000?"

Zhou Yan laughed, "If you can get 50% of the streaming rights, I'll give you an extra one million dollars."

"It seems that I have to work harder."

Zhang Youan has made a lot of money in the past few years, but one million US dollars is still not a small sum for him, and Zhou Yan said that he would add one million US dollars to his salary, so his original salary would not be reduced.

"Okay, I'll wait for your good news."

The two of them didn't chat any more and just hung up the phone.

After Zhou Yan hung up the phone, he prepared to go back to his residence to rest, and after Zhang Youan hung up the phone, he began to prepare for the afternoon negotiations.

……

In a suite at the Five Hundred Mile Hotel in Los Angeles, Zhang Youan and his three-member negotiation team sat face to face with Fox's five-member negotiation team.

Lindeman, the team leader on Fox's side, picked up the coffee and took a sip, trying his best to appear relaxed. During the negotiation, one must not show an anxious expression.

"Mr. Zhang, our attitude is very clear. As long as you agree to the amount of 70 million US dollars, we can reach a cooperation agreement. If you don't agree, there is no need to waste time later. There are still many people who are eager to talk to us."

Zhang Youan smiled secretly. He already knew Fox's background basically. What Lindemann said was just a pretentious way of trying to get him to agree to the conditions as soon as possible.

"Mr. Lindeman, 70 million US dollars is not a small amount. We have consulted experts to estimate that even if Titanic can be successfully released this year, the ticket sales will probably be difficult to exceed 150 million US dollars. We invested 70 million US dollars, and there is a high probability that we will not be able to recover the cost."

Lindemann's eyelids twitched. He knew that Zhang Youan was not lying to them. The evaluation results within their company were similar to this result. "Titanic" would basically not get 150 million US dollars at the box office in the United States.

"Mr. Zhang, if you didn't believe in the commercial value of Titanic, you certainly wouldn't have kept talking to us. The predictions given by some so-called professionals are inaccurate. Titanic's box office in the United States is very likely to exceed 300 million US dollars. And we also know that you are taking risks, so in addition to the box office, we will also give you the US DVD production income and other rights."

"The copyright of the DVD product is okay, but that's all we have. The other so-called rights are completely dispensable. If you are really sincere, you might as well give us some other copyrights."

Lindeman rolled his eyes and asked, "What copyright do you want?"

"For example, the sales rights of peripheral derivative products, the copyrights of movie remakes, re-screenings, and adaptations, and also, the TV broadcasting copyrights should also be given to us."

Facing Zhang Youan's big request, Lindman frowned and said, "We can't give you these copyrights."

Zhang Youan knew that Lindeman would say this. He smiled and said, "Mr. Lindeman, you don't have to worry. We can discuss the copyright issue slowly. I don't want all the copyrights I mentioned just now. You just need to give us a little, such as 40 to 50 percent of the TV broadcast rights..."

"Television rights are out of the question," Lindemann said decisively.

"As for the sales rights for movie-related products, we don't want much either, thirty to forty will be enough."

"This won't work either."

"That……"

Afterwards, Zhang Youan asked about a lot of copyrights in one go.

Lindman was either unwilling to give anything at all, or only willing to give about 10 or 20 percent.

After about seven or eight minutes, Zhang Youan asked, "What about the streaming copyright?"

"Well, I can give you a little bit, about 10 percent."

In Lindman’s negotiation framework, streaming media copyrights belong to the third category of products, and 10% to 30% can be directly transferred.

"Ten percent... How about this: give us ten percent of the streaming rights, and fifteen percent of the TV broadcast rights."

Hearing Zhang Youan's words, Lindeman's eyebrows moved.

Zhang Youan talked for a long time, but finally came back to the television broadcasting rights, which made Lindman guess that his ultimate goal was actually the television broadcasting rights.

However, it is impossible to give up the television broadcasting rights. Even if we want to give them up, it can only be given to about 10 to 20 percent of certain countries.

"Mr. Zhang, I can tell you clearly that it is impossible to give you the TV broadcast rights. As for the streaming copyright, I can give you 30%."

In order to make Zhang Youan give up the idea of ​​asking for the TV broadcasting rights, Lindman directly raised the authority to the highest level and gave him 30% of the streaming media copyright.

Zhang Youan was delighted, thinking that this might be a promising idea.

Thirty percent would already earn him an extra $300,000 in bonus.

But people are never satisfied, and he still wants one million dollars.

"Mr. Lindeman, how about this? I don't want the 30% streaming rights, you just need to give us the 15% TV broadcast rights."

As expected, Zhang Youan came for the television broadcasting rights, and Lindman was sure that his guess was correct.

If Zhang Youan was interested in other copyrights, he could help to get them, but television copyrights were impossible.

"How about this, 30% of the streaming rights, plus 20% of the adaptation rights, this is already very sincere."

Zhang Youan fell silent, and it seemed as if he was very dissatisfied with this condition.

The more he did this, the more Lindemann became convinced that he wanted the TV rights.

“You can add another 15 percent for the re-screening rights,” Lindman added.

Zhang Youan shook his head and said, "Otherwise, you can give us all the streaming rights, and then give us 20% of the adaptation rights. We don't want the re-screening rights."

Hearing Zhang Youan say this, Lindeman was relieved. Although he could not directly agree to all the streaming rights, this was still negotiable. (End of this chapter)