Hollywood starts with an agent

Chapter 49 Miramax Becomes Famous

With the arrival of February, the list of nominees for the 62nd Academy Awards was announced. Driving Miss Daisy won Best Picture and led the way with 9 nominations including Best Director.
Following closely behind is "Born on the Fourth of July" which received 8 nominations including Best Picture and Best Director!
The first Producers Guild Award for Best Picture went to Driving Miss Daisy;
The Directors Guild's Best Director award went to Oliver Stone for "Born on the Fourth of July."

As for "Sex, Lies, and Videotape", which is closely related to Aaron Anderson, it only received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay!

"Driving Miss Daisy" opened in a few theaters in Los Angeles at the end of last year. As word of mouth spread, the number of theaters has increased to more than 900. With the announcement of the Oscar nominations, the number has increased to more than 1300.

The box office of "Driving Miss Daisy" also exceeded 3000 million US dollars!
"Born on the Fourth of July," with the appeal of Tom Cruise, has now grossed $5300 million.

Every year, awards season is the busiest time in Los Angeles, with promotional cocktail parties, reception balls, and various celebrity and movie parties popping up one after another!

The American Film Independent Spirit Awards were being held at the Public Auditorium on Santa Monica Beach. Nicole Kidman was nominated for Best Actress for her role in "Over the Horizon."

Aaron Anderson specially accompanied the other party to attend the awards ceremony.

The Independent Spirit Awards were established by the American film industry to reward the hard work of small independent production companies, and are mainly aimed at independent films!

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the awards ceremony, and Steven Soderbergh's "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" is the biggest winner of this year's awards ceremony;
Won the Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress awards.

Distributor Miramax specially held a celebration party at the nearby Pier Hotel. "Sex, Lies and Videotape" really earned them both face and substance.

"All three Miramax films were nominated for Oscars, especially 'My Left Foot,' which won five awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It's amazing!"

Nicole Kidman and Aaron sat on the sofa in the banquet hall to rest and couldn't help sighing.

Aaron touched Nicole's arm and said, "This kind of biopic has always been one of Oscar's favorite film genres;"

"As long as it's not too bad, you can always get some nominations!"

From this point on, Miramax had a certain status in the independent film circle, and the Weinstein brothers began to emerge.

"Hi, Aaron, Nicole," Harvey Weinstein walked over and sat on the sofa next to him.

"Good evening, Mr. Weinstein!"

Nicole Kidman responded with a smile.

"Congratulations, Harvey," Aaron seemed calm.

"For 'Phone Booth', have you approached 20th Century Fox for a collaboration?" Harvey Weinstein asked Aaron.

"Yeah, it's going to be released next month, and they need a replacement for the spring season," Aaron smiled.

“Aaron, now you have your own film production company, and Miramax has also completed the domestic distribution channels;”

"I think we can strengthen our cooperation in the future, what do you think?" Harvey Weinstein was originally optimistic about the movie "Phone Booth", but Aaron had no confidence in the size of Miramax.

Aaron smiled and said, "Harvey, I'm not very interested in those independent art films. What I want is to develop commercial films;"

"The production budget for a movie is tens of millions of dollars. Can Miramax afford it?"

Harvey Weinstein shook his head. "We are an independent film company. The production and promotion costs of a commercial film are about 2200 million US dollars.

"Even if we could get back half of the film's budget with overseas distribution rights, this level of loss would be fatal to us;"

"Comparatively speaking, independent films and overseas art films are much cheaper. We only need to spend a few million dollars to buy an excellent work!"

Aaron pressed his forehead. "Last year, 235 films were released in North America, with a total box office of $40.8 billion, a 15.3% increase over the previous year. While this was due to the impact of the financial crisis, it also demonstrates the rapid development of the current film market."

"Last year, the average box office for a movie was $1700 million, and there were about 200 TV movies or videotape movies that couldn't get into theaters;"

"Of the $40.8 billion in box office revenue, over $36 billion came from the seven major film companies, accounting for over 90%. Outside of the seven major companies, the highest-grossing film was only one released by Orion, which ranked 31st and is the highest-grossing independent film!"

Although MGM is not so prestigious, it is still one of the seven official members of MPAA.

Harvey Weinstein sighed. "What on earth are you trying to say, Aaron?"

"What I want to say is that it is much better to concentrate resources on developing one influential commercial film than to produce a large number of mediocre films."

Aaron knew that Miramax's current strategy was to acquire art films from film festivals in large quantities. If they came across works like "Sex, Lies, and Videotape", "Cinema Paradiso" and "My Left Foot", it would be a big deal!
Unfortunately, can such a good movie be easily found?
Hollywood produces more than 450 movies every year, half of which cannot be released in theaters, and no more than 10% of the remaining half can make money. Does Miramax really think it is a messenger from God?

Harvey Weinstein laughed. "That's only if you can get this level of investment!"

Now Miramax will not just buy movies and edit them itself, but will also participate in the production of movies and get involved in investment and production.

After Harvey Weinstein left, Nicole Kidman frowned and said, "Aaron, he has a point. Your idea is too radical."

"Don't worry, Miramax has started to expand now. They are purchasing a lot of movies, and they don't have much cash flow," Aaron shook his head.

Otherwise, it wouldn't have been acquired by Disney because it was on the verge of bankruptcy. The loss ratio of independent art films is at least 90%;

In the future, Harvey Weinstein will also rely on Disney’s funds to produce several Oscar-winning best films to make him the king!
In the future, whether it is Miramax or Weinstein Company, most of their films will be loss-making, but they will always release a work that is both highly praised and highly praised at the box office at the critical moment;

Coupled with his public relations skills at the Oscars and the support of external funds in his efforts to enter Hollywood, how could he be so rampant?

With its own Dawn Pictures, as long as it can intercept those works with good reputation and high box office, it can directly crush Miramax!
(End of this chapter)