The king of ghost horse comedy

Chapter 359 Looking Back at Qiqi

As for the filming of the sequel of "Star Wars", there is no news yet. Director George Lucas seems not in a hurry to prepare for the second film, and is currently focusing on the filming of "Raiders of the Lost Ark".

Xu Guanwu was not afraid that George Lucas would switch to other companies with the sequel of "Star Wars". When he invested in filming the year before last, he had already taken over the copyright.So not even George Lucas could make a sequel without his permission.

In the last life, when George Lucas cooperated with 20th Century Fox, 20th Century Fox was a little hesitant because the box office of many previous sci-fi films was dismal.For this reason, George Lucas voluntarily gave up the director's fee of 50 US dollars in exchange for the right to sell peripheral products of the film and the ownership of the sequel.

In this life, Xu Guanwu knows how popular "Star Wars" is, so naturally he will not give up the right to sell peripheral products and the ownership of the sequel.So he paid George Lucas the director's fee according to the price, and let him cry while holding 50 dollars.

But later, because "Star Wars" was really too popular, Xu Guanwu gave them each a red envelope of 1000 million US dollars.In the materialistic Vanity Fair of Hollywood, stars, screenwriters, directors, and producers have to fight to the death for millions. give more.So in comparison, Xu Guanwu is really kind.

Of course, because of this, David Brown, Richard Zanuk, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Redstone, Michael Douglas, etc. were attacked by other Hollywood filmmakers this year. Those who have worked together will jump out to speak for him.

And these people undoubtedly represent a powerful force in Hollywood, including famous producers and directors, as well as the second largest cinema operator in the United States and the eight major Hollywood film companies.So with so many manpower supporting Xu Guanwu, others have to be careful about what they say.

……

In addition to the three films fully invested by Xu Guanwu, there are also three films in which Xu Guanwu has a shareholding, which are also in the process of busy shooting.They are "Rocky 2", "Jaws 2" and "Superman".

Among them, "Rocky 2" and "Jaws 2" are both funded by Fox. Xu Guanwu only provided the right to shoot the sequel, and can get a part of the dividend.And "Superman" is jointly invested by Xu Guanwu and Fox.

Because the movie "Superman" shoots two movies at the same time, and requires an investment of at least 5000 million U.S. dollars, Fox alone can't afford it, so Darryl Zarnuk had to discuss with Xu Guanwu, and let him do it. 2000 million funds, and can get half of the box office proceeds, and [-]% of the follow-up proceeds.

It is not uncommon for this kind of fund-raising to shoot movies like this in the United States, because usually a blockbuster movie has an investment of more than tens of millions of dollars.It would be good if the movie sells well and the investment can be recovered, but in many cases, the way of movie tickets is unpredictable.

Many movies that were expected to sell well ended up in Waterloo.However, many films that were not watched beforehand became dark horses at the box office after they were released, and they were unexpected blockbusters.

Of course, for a film and television company, it is a good thing to run into a dark horse at the box office, but it is something that can be encountered but not sought after.The worst thing is to encounter Waterloo, and all the hard work and money of the company will be wasted.In order to avoid this situation as much as possible, it has become a common practice for Hollywood film companies to raise funds to shoot movies.

Raising funds to shoot a movie can diversify risks and share benefits evenly, although if the movie is a big hit at the box office, it will cause certain losses.But if the box office fails, many risks can be avoided.So except for the kind of movies that are 100% sure that they will make money, most other movies are shot through fundraising.

This has become a common practice for Hollywood film companies when the film investment of later generations can easily be hundreds of millions of dollars.

"Rocky 2", "Jaws 2" and "Superman" are expected to be released this year and next year, because the first ones are all big hits, so the box office of the sequels should not be too bad, unless the filming is really It sucks enough.Therefore, this year and next two years, Xu Guanwu will definitely earn hundreds of millions of dollars again. This kind of money is really easy to earn.

……

What is easier to earn than this kind of money is the investment in the high-tech industry. After Xu Guanwu's advice last year, Apple Computer has begun to work hard on graphical operating systems and document processing software.

The VISICALC chalk gray software, after many people participated in the development, has become quite mature now.It is sold together with the Apple APPLE II computer, making APPLE II the first choice for office computers. The shipment volume in the first year exceeded 20 units, and it is a very popular personal computer.

Apple Computer was selected as the most innovative company in 77 because of the APPLE II computer, which attracted the attention of many investors for a while.It's just that Apple Computer does not lack financial support at present, so we can only be grateful for these foreign investments.

And Microsoft, which obtained the distribution rights of VISICALC chalk gray software, also successfully transplanted this spreadsheet data software to other companies' computers, which did have some impact on the sales of Apple II computers.However, the Apple II computer is superior in its exquisite workmanship and complete production line, which can supply a large number of Apple II computers.So for a while, I don't worry that the market will be taken away by other companies.

Of course, Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak were also very dissatisfied with Xu Guanwu's similar practice of picking inside and outside, and believed that the distribution rights of VISICALC should not be transferred to Microsoft, which would damage the interests of their shareholders.

But Xu Guanwu told them that the graphical operating system, document processing files, etc. he instructed them to do are more important and potential than VISICALC software.One sentence made Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak lose their temper.

Microsoft made a lot of money by selling VISICALC software and BASIC language, and Xu Guanwu also got a part of the dividends.The future money scene is even more objective.

There is such a big gain just by moving your mouth, and it is easier to earn money than making a movie.

……

In addition to investing in movies and high technology in the United States, CAA also continued to create a large amount of wealth for Xu Guanwu.

Xu Guanwu is not interested in how much the company makes, but he is very interested in how many stars it has signed.For Brokers, these stars mean wealth.Last year, newcomers to CAA's agency included the rising star Harrison Ford, the screenwriter and director of "Moonlight Panic" John Carpenter, the lead actor Jamie Lee Curtis, and the director of "Alien" Ridley Scott, starring Sigourney Weaver and more.All of them are cast and crew in the films invested by Xu Guanwu.

In addition to these cast members, they also discovered a lot of new stars, but Xu Guanwu is not very familiar with these names, so he didn't take them too much to heart.

For Xu Guanwu, the CAA agency company has not developed enough and there are not enough artists.Compared with the established William Morris brokerage company, CAA still has a long way to go.And when it really grows into the number one agency company in Hollywood, the whole Hollywood will tremble for it.

Xu Guanwu is looking forward to the early arrival of that day.

In addition to the CAA agency, Redstone's National Entertainment also made a huge profit because of the release of three blockbuster movies, "Star Wars", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "Saturday Night Madness". Pen.

In particular, "Saturday Night Crazy", a small-budget song and dance film, had no theaters interested in showing it at the time, so Lei Shidong took advantage of it for no reason.After its release, it earned nearly 77 million US dollars, and it can be said to be a dark horse that shines in the dark in [-].

The huge sales of this movie also made Lei Shidong trust Xu Guanwu's vision more and more. If he hadn't chosen it at the beginning, Lei Shidong would not have released this movie at all.

Another movie that Xu Guanwu chose, "007: Underwater City", was robbed by other theaters because there were too many theaters competing for it, and Lei Shidong was reluctant to give more box office revenue.Although the box office of "007: Underwater City" is also tens of millions of dollars, Lei Shidong has no regrets at all.

He is not short of money like other theater companies. The seven works he released the year before last achieved great success at the box office.Four films released last year also made him big money.Therefore, since he was not short of money, he naturally didn't want to give too much profit to the distributor, so he had to take advantage of other cinema companies.

However, Lei Shidong guessed that according to the sharing plan given by these theater companies, even if they will make some money, it will definitely not be much more.It is very likely that it is not as good as the income of a small-budget film.

Like the "007" series, because the box office has always been guaranteed, the producers and distributors are very confident.The box office share is also heavily suppressed, accounting for almost [-]% of all box office revenue, while only [-]% or even less is left to the theaters.

Compared to low-budget movies that are released in theaters, because the movie itself is not considered a blockbuster movie, and there are no stars to support it, and there is no decent distribution plan, the box office share that the movie theaters ask for is more, probably accounting for [-]%. Even more than [-]%.

And if the box office of this low-cost film is good after its release, then the theaters will still make more money.And such low-cost dark horse films are also the dream of theater companies.It's just that it's not easy to come across, unless you can be like Lei Shidong, with Xu Guanwu pointing the way behind.

……

Last year, the United States gave Xu Guanwu more than [-] million U.S. dollars in dividends, and there were other incomes that were not included in the calculation.The [-] million US dollars Xu Guanwu gave all to Stanley Angel Investment Fund, allowing Paul to continue to help him invest in high-tech industries.

At present, things like personal computers, software, and hardware R&D are still in the ascendant, so the U.S. government has few restrictions on them.And if in the next 90s, it is impossible to imagine such a large-scale shareholding as it is now.The first FBI will come to you for a chat.

In addition to investing in two software and hardware companies, Microsoft and Apple, the Stanley Angel Investment Fund also acquired a large number of shares in companies such as AMD, Intel, IBM, Xerox, and Hewlett-Packard.

In addition to these companies that have created performance, Stanley Angel Investment Fund also supports many personal projects, such as some software programming, game development, etc., and uses itself as an intermediary to link these personal projects with the company. Let them also be commercially operational as soon as possible.

This model can make these geniuses with wisdom no longer live alone in a corner, and let their talents get more recognition and more commercial benefits.

People always hope that their work will be recognized, even if he is a technical geek, he also longs for everyone's welcome and recognition.The Stanley Angel Investment Fund just met their wish.

The funds invested allow them to work as much as they want without worrying about livelihood issues.And through their link with the company, their wisdom can also be appreciated and used by the general public, which is the greatest affirmation after hard work for them.

And the company can take the opportunity to recruit a large number of talents, enrich its software library, or make its own computers have more functions, which is more conducive to attracting customers.This is a win-win situation for geniuses and companies, and angel investors will share huge profits in it.

(End of this chapter)