America achieves both fame and fortune

Chapter 366 Box Office Revenue Sharing

At the Four Seasons Hotel, Louise followed Martin into a suite. The floor was covered with crumpled pieces of paper, and the walls were covered with terrifying and eerie pictures, making one feel uneasy.

Some of the portraits depict subjects that are clearly not human, and even have tentacles or similar things.

One of them appears to be a self-portrait of Martin.

Martin's drawing skills are very limited.

I cut out a poster of the leader of the Cola Cult and used the poster's portrait as my own to draw a picture like a doodle.

The portrait's body was shrouded in smoke, chaotic and disorganized, making the viewer dizzy and confused.

"I haven't had time to tidy up." Martin had been immersed in studying the character for over a month and had developed a habit of speaking in an eerie tone. "It's a little messy, but I find it pleasing to the eye."

Hearing the sound and looking at the images around her, Louise couldn't help but shiver, feeling a sense of unease.

She quickly went to the French windows and drew back the curtains.

The bright sunlight shone in, but it couldn't dispel the gloom in Louise's heart.

She turned to look at Martin and understood where this feeling came from. As long as he was there, he would continuously influence those around him with his gloomy and mad temperament.

Louise adjusted her black-rimmed glasses and reminded her, "Be careful, don't get too deeply involved and lose your way."

Martin chuckled: "No, the disguise can always be put back."

Louise sensed something was off: "What do you mean?"

Martin put it another way: "A false pretense can be discarded at any time."

Louise noticed a thick notebook on the coffee table with the title "The Clown's Chronicles" on the cover and asked, "May I read it?"

Martin didn't care: "Whatever."

Louise opened the book and found it full of Martin's notes on his roles and his thoughts, as well as many crazy ideas, such as forming an army of beautiful women to attack the White House in Washington and force the president to plant mushrooms on American soil, so that the flames would bloom on the North American continent.

She couldn't help but laugh: "Your idea is really strange."

Martin, sitting on the sofa, patted the spot next to him and said, "I don't like reading comics, and I don't know much about the Joker in comics. I try to understand the character more by looking at the Nolan brothers' scripts and combining them with my own characteristics. A lot of ideas just pop into my head, so I write them down. Maybe I'll actually use them someday."

After Louise sat down, she leaned against Martin and joked, "If you want to grow mushrooms, go be the president first."

"I'm sure I'll make this country a spectacle!" Martin laughed. "There will definitely be a lot of people trying to assassinate me."

Louise glanced through the notebook and said, "I thought you were just hiding in the hotel having fun, but I didn't expect you to actually be making preparations."

Martin grabbed Louise's chin. "What? You don't believe I'm a dedicated actress?" Before Louise could answer, he said, "How dare you not believe me! I must punish you!"

At first, Louise had a natural psychological advantage over Martin, but now, that advantage has almost disappeared.

"Wait, let me call someone else over." Louise wasn't afraid of Martin, but she felt that Martin's gloomy demeanor today concealed a kind of madness, and she was worried that he couldn't handle it alone: ​​"Kelly is taking the crew to Atlanta for filming, so she's come to Los Angeles too."

Martin grinned maliciously, "Get Kelly over here right now! And put your phone on speakerphone so she can hear you on the way."

Louise took out her phone, dialed Kelly's number, took off her black-rimmed glasses and put on gold-rimmed glasses, and said, "You can think of me as Harley Quinn."

Just as the Joker was battling Harley Quinn and Atlanta Catwoman, Thomas began difficult negotiations with the Dark Knight production team.

Hollywood production teams have well-established mechanisms for all aspects, including insurance, food, clothing, housing, and transportation, so it's not difficult to negotiate.

Martin didn't ask for many additional terms. Bruce joined the crew as a gunsmith, and the crew also paid the full salaries of two bodyguards.

The main disagreement between the two sides is over the actor's salary.

The production team did not want to further increase the production budget and increase the risk, so they proposed a model of basic actor salaries plus a share of net profits.

Martin is not against similar payment methods, but he demands a more secure payment method for later revenue sharing.

The following morning, after hearing Martin's account, Louise said, "Just as you can't trust the integrity of Hollywood stars, you can't trust the integrity of Hollywood film studios either."

Kelly asked, "North American box office revenue split?"

Martin coldly stated, "In North America, the box office revenue is first split with theaters. The remaining portion is then deducted by the distribution company at least 25% as a distribution fee, along with advertising and administrative costs. Only after that does it reach the production company, which then deducts various expenses to arrive at the net profit. How much is left at that point?"

Kelly continued, "The box office in North America was a loss."

Martin asked Louise, "What do you think?"

Under other circumstances, Louise, as one of the investors, would certainly not be on Martin's side.

But at this moment, with her backside under Martin's control, Louise naturally said, "Nolan said that the Joker role can only be played by you."

She took a breath and then reminded him, "Don't go too far. When it comes to DC superheroes, Warner Bros. executives sometimes have a brain fart."

Martin agreed, then asked, "What are Warner Bros.' box office expectations?"

Louise, now an inside agent, says: "Warner Bros.' most optimistic estimate is $3 million in North American box office and $7.5 million worldwide, considering the first film only grossed $3.7 million worldwide."

During the break, Martin called Thomas: "My bottom line is either $1400 million in salary or $500 million plus a percentage of the box office revenue above the benchmark."

Now that Nolan has his eye on him, the negotiations are unlikely to fall apart easily.

Martin already has four films that grossed over $100 million at the North American box office as capital, and he is qualified to ask for such a price.

In addition to his salary, Thomas also had to negotiate with the production team about the revenue sharing of related film merchandise after licensing his personal image, which also involved the copyright of Lily's statue.

A prime example of this is Johnny Depp, who earned tens of millions of dollars just from figure and toy portraits of Jack Sparrow.

Of course, the 45% image rights revenue clause that Depp signed in the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels is something Martin Scorsese can't even dream of at this stage; it's simply impossible.

Martin vaguely remembered reading in his previous life that Johnny Depp had made a net profit of $3 million from the Pirates series, a large portion of which came from image licensing revenue.

This part of the negotiation is also a difficult point.

Lily's agent also joined in, believing that even securing just one more percentage point for Lily, a newcomer, would be a victory, in addition to her regular salary.

Before the actor negotiations were even completed, Nolan was already meeting privately with Martin to discuss the role.

When Martin walked into the coffee shop, he noticed Nolan looking him over.

Nolan felt that Martin's every move resembled the Joker he had created.

Then, he rejected the idea, because the person opposite him was the Joker!

Nolan said, "Apart from the face paint, you look no different from when you auditioned."

Martin's smile was eerie, and his tone was strange: "There is a difference. At least I don't have any crazy ideas right now."

Nolan knew that some outstanding actors, once they got into character, would maintain that state at all times, so he immediately got down to business: "For this role, I not only want him to become Gotham's nightmare, but also to bring nightmares to everyone."

Martin slammed his fist on the table and laughed, "I love it! I love it most, and I'm best at it most, causing trouble wherever I want..."

"Do whatever you want?" Nolan nodded. "Exactly!"

Martin continued, "Bad people always have reasons and motives for doing bad things, but I don't. I have no purpose, no motive. I'm not after money or power. I just like chaos and want to turn the world into a place of joy."

Nolan thought for a moment and asked, "You have unique insights into the character, very good! How do you plan to portray a duel between you and Batman?"

Martin said, "Batman, who prides himself on being righteous, always resorts to violence. I'm different. I'm not as vulgar and boring as Batman. I'll reason with people, reason properly, and give them a choice..."

This aligns perfectly with Nolan's thinking: "Batman maintains order through violence, while the Joker incites chaos through reasoning!"

"Director, you're a genius," Martin invited. "How about we go to Buckingham Palace to set off fireworks sometime?"

Seeing the genuinely wicked smile on Martin's face, Nolan's eyelids suddenly twitched, and he said, "When the film becomes a big hit, we can screen it together in the square in front of Buckingham Palace."

Martin asked, "Could we invite the old lady to join us? And by the way, are there any crown princes in the world who have reigned for 50 years?"

Nolan decisively ended the meeting, saying, "Go back and continue your preparations, make sure you're in good shape, the crew will be heading to Atlanta soon for filming."

Martin swayed to his feet: "Goodbye, Director."

Nolan was a little worried that Martin Davis might be getting too into character.

He then thought, "This is a good thing! He's practically a real-life clown!"

As for an actor's mental health issues, they are not as important as his work.

Martin's joining the film crew is a done deal.

Thomas quickly reached an agreement with the production team regarding Martin's salary.

When a star has enough star power and their previous works have performed well enough, they naturally have more leverage when negotiating with new production teams.

This salary consists of a base salary of $500 million, plus a tiered share of the North American box office revenue.

The base share is $2.5 million.

If the film's North American box office reaches $2.5 million, Martin will receive a base share of 2%.

Starting at $2.5 million, for every $5000 million increase in box office revenue, Martin automatically receives 1% of the increase; for every $1 million increase, the percentage increases to 2%; for $1.5 million, it's 3%...

And so on, with a maximum cap of no more than 6%.

The risks are shared with the production team, and the better the film's commercial performance, the higher the lead actor's income.

In addition, Thomas also agreed to a revenue share from offline DVD sales, the same as Christian Bell, at 2% of the North American DVD profits.

Hollywood salaries and box office revenue sharing are too complicated, involving project approval bonuses, distribution bonuses, net profit sharing, gross profit sharing, etc. I've written the simplest one, which gives you the gist of it.

(End of this chapter)