Huayu started as a substitute director

Chapter 105 You Come to Pressure Me
Time flies, and it will soon be April. "Annabelle" has been completed and entered the post-production stage.

This movie is very simple, the scenes are also simple, and they were copied from the storyboard. The Hollywood team is mature, unlike Fang Hong's makeshift team, so it shouldn't have taken so long to shoot.

It’s just that Fang Hong and his team wasted some time in the early stages, but things got much better after Liu Tianxian came!
Liu Tianxian also has to return to China because she needs to promote "A Chinese Ghost Story" and cannot stay for long.

However, Fang Hong did not let her return to China, and asked her to help go to Warner to get the distribution done.

That crappy movie "A Chinese Ghost Story" is the same whether it is promoted or not. It has no future.

Warner was introduced by CAA. We chose them because this company started out distributing horror films and has a lot of experience in this area and they are connoisseurs.

So the two of them went to Warner with the rough cut of the film, which they edited as they shot it.

The distribution system in the United States is different from that in China. They are a complete separation of production and broadcasting.

That is the separation of powers among production, distribution and screening!
If you produce, you cannot distribute; if you distribute, you cannot produce. Even if you hold shares, they must be two independent brands with independent finances and different directors.

In order to establish this system, they split up Paramount and MGM.

For example, the whole world knows Disney, but few people know that Disney’s distribution company is Buena Vista Pictures.

Although the two companies are in a master-servant relationship, Buena Vista Pictures has its own directors and independent finances, and is still a separate brand.

This is to prevent the big fish from eating the small fish, the emergence of a powerful group and the development of a monopoly.

If that happens, it will be out of control!

However, the Big Eight can still circumvent the rules to control distribution and establish their own global distribution system.

Despite this, one thing is true, that is, whether it is the Big Eight or other distribution companies, they are completely open to all producers.

That is, accepting films from all producers for distribution. In this country, distribution is the most profitable, not production.

Some companies even make a ton of money just by doing one thing: issuing products!

They have many channels and a wide distribution, and so many countries around the world are their backyards for dumping content.

As long as the film produced in Hollywood is good and is a local film, there will be someone to distribute it for you.

Let’s put it this way, distribution is where the interests of these Hollywood companies lie, and it is also their core competitiveness. The reason why cultural products can be spread all over the world is that they have strong distribution capabilities.

In the back seat of the car, Fang Hong and Liu Tianxian stood shoulder to shoulder, head to head. Liu Tianxian whispered to him, popularizing the distribution model and profit-sharing model here.

"I know the profit-sharing model. I have registered a company and can get a minimum of 25%," said Fang Hong.

"Listen to me." Liu Tianxian glanced at him and signaled him to shut up.

Well, Fang Hong could only listen carefully.

"The box office revenue sharing calculation method in the United States is very flexible and not fixed.

If a movie is very popular and has a very high box office in the first two weeks of its release, the profit sharing ratio can reach 9 to 1.

That is, the film company takes 9 and the cinema takes 1.

If the box office is 1 million, the film company can take million.”

Fang Hong was secretly shocked when he heard this. This country makes money by exploiting cinemas. This is unimaginable in China. According to the rules, domestic cinema chains and cinemas must take 59% of the profits.

That means 7% for cinema chains and 52% for theaters!

This was also the reason why major domestic distribution companies later wanted to reduce the proportion of cinemas, and the two sides almost came to a fight.

The truth is that the cinemas took too much, while distribution and production took too little, so the capital chain was always insufficient. Later, they were invaded by capital and had no power to fight back.

That’s not the case in Hollywood!

"Then how do their cinemas make money?" Fang Hong asked.

"They don't have to pay a 5% film fund like in China. It's exempted. Also, cinemas need film sources and traffic, so that people will buy peripheral products and fast-moving consumer goods," Liu Tianxian explained.

Fang Hong thought about it and realized that it was no wonder that there were so many fat people in the United States. It turned out that it was because of the snacks and fast-moving consumer goods such as eating popcorn and drinking cola while watching movies.

In other words, consumption is high and does not depend on a single movie ticket. If you don't live in the United States, you will never notice these details.

Even some people in China like to think that cinemas are very powerful. No matter how powerful your movies are, if they don’t show your movies, what should you do?
Please, if you don't show movies and don't have any movie sources, where will your theater's customers come from? Do you need to spend money on operating turnover?

Staff salaries, rent, water and electricity are not cheap. Having such a large cinema there means expenses every day.

So they must have a source of films, and the more popular the movies are, the more they like them, for the sake of traffic and to make money.

Just like what happened to Xu Guangtou later, he had originally negotiated with the cinema, but changed his mind at the last minute. The cinema had no films and no customers, which violated the bottom line.

Fang Hongke has never offended any cinemas. How much of the share to get is entirely up to the distributors themselves. He does not get involved and only takes his own share.

Liu Tianxian reminded: "Don't aspire for a 9 to 1 algorithm ratio, because that has prerequisites."

"What are the prerequisites?"

"That's the ratio after deducting taxes and the theater's fixed expenses. It's equivalent to you paying for the theater's expenses. If you do this, the movie won't be a hit, and the theater's expenses will remain fixed, and you'll lose a lot of money." Liu Tianxian said.

"In other words, this model is limited to big movies and big companies, who can guarantee that their movies will be a hit, especially those IP movies."

"Correct!"

Liu Tianxian nodded and continued, "And this model is not static. It is a step-down model. If the box office declines in the next few weeks, it will not be 9 to 1, because the theater will suffer losses due to fewer people, so the ratio will drop to 7 to 3, or 6 to 4, to ensure that the theater does not lose money."

That is, the longer a movie is released, the more share the theater gets, because it cannot generate too many customers.

Fang Hong roughly understood what it meant, that is, in addition to the fund exemption and the mature method of calculating the profit-sharing ratio, customer flow is also a major source of income for others.

Today's passenger flow is equivalent to traffic, and you can make money from advertising, consumption, etc.

These alone ensure the cinema's profits.

Don't underestimate the 5% exemption of the fund. It is equivalent to a box office of 1 million US dollars. The extra 500 million US dollars means 3500 million US dollars in China, which is a huge amount of money.

The total annual box office in North America is 5 billion US dollars, which means an increase of 35 million US dollars each year, equivalent to billion distributed.

Combined with other mature advertising and consumption, this profit ratio can be increased to 20%.

"According to what you said, even if we follow the normal ratio, the cinema can only get 40% at most, and the film company can get 60%." Fang Hong thought about it.

“Yes, but don’t think about it. There will be distribution in the middle. Their distribution ratio could be anywhere from 10% to 50%.” Liu Tianxian said.

That is to say, if the cinema takes 10%, the distributor may take 90% of the remaining 50%.

The theaters get 40%, and of the remaining 60%, the distributor may take 50%, leaving only 10% for the producer.

In this country, distribution is the most profitable business, and the more than 600 film and television companies here work for distribution.

There's nothing we can do about this, their channels are so awesome, North America, South America, Europe, Australia, Japan and South Korea. It's such a huge market, it's their turn to make money!
"What about the 25% guaranteed minimum for the producer?" Fang Hong felt that the calculation was too complicated, and the domestic method was simple and clear.

"The original intention is to protect the producers from making losses, so a minimum of 25% of the profits must be given to the producers. Do you think you can really generate profits?" Liu Tianxian asked back.

Fang Hong's face changed. In his previous life, he heard that a Hollywood distribution company had miscalculated the accounting of a particularly popular movie and made it appear to be in the red, and even went back to the producer to ask for money.

The movie seems to be "Harry Potter" and the company seems to be Warner.

And now they are on their way to Warner. Isn't this like a sheep walking into a tiger's mouth? How can he, at his level, compete with the big capitals in Hollywood?

Rebirth is not an option, Hollywood was very far away from him in his previous life!

Thinking of this, Fang Hong grabbed Liu Tianxian's hand and said seriously: "Yifei, you have to help me!"

"It's okay, I'll definitely protect you."

Liu Tianxian patted his shoulder and comforted him: "If I didn't help you, you wouldn't stay, don't you think?"

"That's right." Fang Hong nodded.

This is indeed true. Liu Tianxian was originally going to leave, but the domestic creative team of "A Chinese Ghost Story" was urging her to leave.

But in order to prevent the man from being cheated, she took the initiative to stay.

This man had been with her for so long before, telling her life philosophy every day and relieving her psychological pressure, and she kept it all in her heart.

This companionship experience warms her heart!

Besides, starting a business is not easy. He has experienced so many setbacks in China. I still hope he will have more success here.

Liu Tianxian did not pull her hand away, but let him hold it and told him a lot of random details.

It can be said that she really understands the twists and turns of Hollywood.

Fang Hong only had a general idea of ​​it, and these were all things he had heard from the information he had looked up, but he didn't understand the specific situation or the details.

After all, our understanding of past and present lives is very one-sided.

The two chatted for a while, and Fang Hong remembered something: "How about you do me a favor?"

"What's the deal?"

"I have opened a company here. We require the creation of 5 to 10 jobs and the applicant must be a US citizen. How about you work in my company, which is equivalent to a job, and then I won't have to worry about it." Fang Hong said.

"Then what position will you give me?" Liu Tianxian asked with interest.

"It must be the president!" Fang Hong said.

"You mean, as the chairman, you want to suppress me." Liu Tianxian's eyes were sharp.

Fang Hong spread his hands: "Isn't it normal for me to suppress you?"

"Go away!"

Liu Tianxian glared at him and said, "You still want to suppress me. I'm lucky I don't suppress you."

"Then come and press me, I'll let you press me!"

Fang Hong smiled, and his smile was very ambiguous, something that only adults could understand.

Liu Tianxian couldn't help laughing and hit him twice for being so frivolous.

As for taking up a position, there is no problem. It doesn't do anything special. It just means recruiting one less person.

Unemployment in the United States is none of their business!
The driver in front couldn't understand their conversation, and through the rearview mirror he could only see the two of them talking and laughing, which looked quite loving.

(End of this chapter)