hunt hollywood

After merging MCA and controlling MGM, Simon has thousands of film and television copyright resources in name, but it has to be admitted that a large part of these film and television works are too old, unless it is "Gone with the Wind" , "The Wizard of Oz", otherwise, most people will not be very interested in watching an old movie decades ago.

Of course, if it turns out that this rhythm is not feasible, Simon will not be stubborn.

The key point for any company to prosper for a long time is to face up to its own mistakes and make timely changes instead of standing still.

Opening the report in his hand, the data of the 7 films in the previous two months appeared in front of him.

In the first two months of 1992, the seven films released by Daenerys Pictures, New World Pictures and Gaomen Pictures under Daenerys Entertainment were "Scream", "Heroes of Dancing Country", "New Lovers on the Bridge, Reservoir Dogs, Ghostbusters 4, Double Dragon and High Heels.

Among them, "Scream" and "Heroes of Dancing Country" are distributed by Daenerys Pictures, "Lovers on New Bridge", "Reservoir Dogs" and "High Heels" are distributed by Gaomen Films, "Hell Ghost 4" and "Double Dragon Will" is distributed by New World Pictures.

"The Scream" is a musical film starring John Travolta and Heather Graham, and it is also a project taken over from Universal Pictures. Genre, after participating in "Pulp Fiction", Travolta's popularity has also rebounded in recent years, so the budget of this film reached 1500 million US dollars.

However, after "Scream" opened on January 1 with a scale of 17 screens, this type of old-school musical, which has become somewhat outdated, only had a box office of 1107 million US dollars in its first week.

The sluggish opening results made "Scream" basically sold out in just two weeks, with a total box office of 351 million US dollars.

Lost money.

Fortunately, with a budget cost of 1500 million US dollars, the loss is not too tragic after all.

Hit by the film's failure, Travolta's next step is likely to be a complete 'transformation'.

After reading the information and data of the film, Simon casually circled the name of Heather Graham, the heroine of "Scream" with a pencil.

This sexy actress in her early twenties with a Barbie doll-like appearance has appeared in films such as "Magic Cowherd" and "Dragon Brothers" in recent years, and "Scream" is her first. A female lead movie, with John Travolta as her partner.

But it turns out that this beautiful vase that Simon remembers has always been very active in Hollywood does not have much commercial potential and can only be used as his own vase.

Turning over "Scream", Simon looked at the data of the next movie.

"Dance Heroes" is also a song and dance film, directed by a newcomer from Australia named Baz Luhrmann.

That's right, it was Baz Luhrmann who directed the "Moulin Rouge" in the original time and space.

Unlike "Scream", which is biased towards the old-school disco style, "Heroes of Dance Country" is more inclined to a dance film.

Moreover, this Baz Luhrmann's feature film debut has the director's strong personal style, which is passionate, gorgeous, and bright. At the same time, the film is not pretentious. It has a very direct commercial atmosphere.

Compared with "Scream" with a comprehensive media score of 4.6 points, "Dancing Heroes", which was released on February 2, achieved a very excellent comprehensive media score of 7 points.

Because of uncertainty about the film's box office prospects, the publicity team adopted a small-scale release model for "Dancing Heroes".

In the first week, 38 screens opened, and driven by excellent word-of-mouth, the box office of "Dancing Heroes" finally reached 2.8 US dollars in the first week.

In February's unpopular schedule, the average box office of 2 halls can be called a dark horse.

After quickly adjusting the distribution strategy, and experiencing another word-of-mouth ferment on 76 screens in the second week, the publicity and distribution team expanded the screening screen size of "Dancing Heroes" to 2 screens on February 21.

As of the past weekend, "Heroes of the Dance Country", which has been in production for three and a half weeks, has accumulated a box office of 931 million US dollars.

After all, the audience of musicals is limited. The main creators of "Dancing Heroes" are all Australians, and they lack sufficient popularity in North America.Therefore, the publicity team has no intention to further increase the scale of the screening.

However, in three and a half weeks, the box office of 931 million US dollars can already ensure the North American box office of at least 2000 million US dollars for this musical.

On the other hand, although "Dancing Heroes" is an Australian film, it is actually a project selected by Simon himself, so it is invested by the Australian branch of Daenerys Entertainment.

As a newcomer's new work, without any big stars, the budget cost of "Heroes of Dancing Country" is equivalent to only 300 million US dollars. It's just that, and it also enjoys a part of the tax rebate from the Australian government.

Simon invested in Baz Luhrmann based on his prophetic advantage, mainly for his other two blockbuster films, the modern version of "Romeo and Juliet", the famous work of Xiao Lizi, and later "Moulin Rouge".Simon doesn't have many memories of "Heroes of Dancing Country", so he has no expectations.

The result was no small surprise.

The film can earn 2000 million US dollars at the box office in North America alone, and it will not be a problem to double it globally.

After omni-channel operation, "Dancing Heroes", a film with a budget of only US$300 million, will bring Daenerys Entertainment no less than US$3000 million in net income.

Also marking a few strokes of Baz Luhrmann's name, Simon continued to look at the next movie.

"Lovers on the New Bridge", a romance film starring Juliette Binoche, this film gave Simon the impression that the hero and heroine embraced and stood on the bow of the boat and shouted. Later, this scene was used by Cameron in On the Titanic.

With a budget of 1.6 million francs, "Lovers on the New Bridge" can be described as the most expensive love movie ever produced in France, equivalent to 2800 million U.S. dollars.

The film's production process was bumpy, and when it was released in Europe, it turned out to be a disaster.

When Gaomen Pictures obtained the distribution rights of "Lovers in Xinqiao", their original expectations were not high. They just hoped to take advantage of the gimmick of 'the highest budget and cost', and signed a pure agency distribution contract with the French film company.

Facts have proved once again that this movie is a tragedy.

Gaomen Films arranged a small-scale opening of 1 screens for "Lovers in the New Bridge" on January 10. In the first seven days, only 103 US dollars were earned at the box office, and the average box office was less than 13 US dollars. It also grossed only $1300.

Calculated, Gaomen Pictures will lose about 60 US dollars in publicity and distribution expenses on this project, and can only hope that the later release of the video tape will make up for it.

"Reservoir Dogs" has a release date of Jan. 1, the second week after the end of the Sundance Film Festival.

Strike while the iron is hot.

This time, because of the appropriate publicity strategy, the market performance of "Reservoir Dogs" is very good.

With an opening scale of 336 screens, the first seven days earned 437 million U.S. dollars, with an average of 1.3 U.S. dollars for the museum.

Afterwards, the scale of the screening screen increased to about 500 yuan. In four and a half weeks, the cumulative box office of this low-cost feature film has reached 1173 million US dollars, and it is expected to hit 1500 million US dollars before it is released.

Compared to the budgeted cost of $250 million, the project was a huge hit.

Before Gaomen Pictures invested in "Reservoir Dogs", it signed the priority contract for Quentin's next two films. Simon also wondered what Quentin's next work would be without "Pulp Fiction".

Next.

"Love in High Heels", a drama film by Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, tells a tortuous story involving incest and murder between two generations.

Almodovar's "Tie Me, Tie Me" last year caused quite a bit of controversy. Daenerys Entertainment originally had the opportunity to get this movie, but finally gave up voluntarily because of the film's controversy.However, "Tie Me, Tie Me" did not fall into the hands of the original Miramax, but was won by Orion, and the box office was not sluggish.

For the current "Love in High Heels", Gaomen Pictures signed a distribution contract with an advance payment of 30 US dollars plus a [-]-[-] profit share, including the omni-channel copyright in North America.

After the small-scale opening on February 2th with 7 screens, in three and a half weeks, the cumulative box office of "Love in High Heels" was US$166 million, and the total box office is expected to reach US$137 million.

Overall it is a small profit.

In the end, the two films released by New World Pictures, "Horse Ghost 4" and "Double Dragon", were both successful.

"A Nightmare on Elm Street 4" belongs to a long-term horror film series of New World Pictures. The project's box office volume cannot be compared with New Line's "A Nightmare on Elm Street" series, but its revenue has been very stable.

This time, "Ghost Hunt 4" has a budget of 500 million US dollars, a Valentine's Day schedule on February 2, a screen size of 14 yuan, and a seven-day box office of 1217 million US dollars in the first week.

As of yesterday's March 3, in two and a half weeks, "Ghost Hunt 1" had a cumulative box office of 4 million, and it is expected to reach 1269 million before the release. Only relying on the box office can recover all production and publicity costs and generate profits. As we all know, horror films have always been a genre that is very popular in the video tape market.

"Double Dragon Club" is a Hong Kong film starring Jack Cheng, who is popular across the ocean, and is scheduled for February 2th.

Because Jack Cheng tried several times to hit the North American market but was not successful. Although the budget cost of "Double Dragon" reached 1000 million US dollars, New World Pictures bought out the film's North American omni-channel copyright for only 150 million US dollars.

After investing another US$100 million in publicity and distribution costs, "Double Dragon Club" opened on a scale of 761 screens, earning US$287 million in three days in the first weekend.

In February's unpopular schedule, the average price of the movie was more than 2 US dollars, which is already a small miracle for a Hong Kong film that has never had a strong sense of existence.

The box office of $287 million in the first three days of painting means that the total box office of "Double Dragon" is expected to hit the $1000 million mark.

The omni-channel copyright bought for US$150 million earned US$1000 million at the North American box office alone.It can be predicted that Hong Kong films will receive a lot of attention from major Hollywood studios in the future.

Simon especially left some comments on the back of this film. Now that he has taken the lead, Daenerys Entertainment must of course keep this advantage as much as possible.

Chapter 467 Online Leasing Platform (Revised)

In two months, there were 7 movies, and only one "Scream" really brought a big loss to Daenerys Entertainment.

Moreover, "Scream" is still a project taken over from Universal Pictures. The film was completed last year, and it has been delayed until this year's unpopular schedule in January. This is because Daenerys Entertainment is not optimistic about the box office prospects of this film. The outcome of the loss was completely expected.

In addition, apart from Xiaokui's "Lovers in New Bridge", the other five films, "Heroes of Dancing Country", "Reservoir Dogs", "Ghost Hunt 4", "Double Dragon Club", and "Love in High Heels", have all been confirmed to be able to achieve profit.

Such an opening is enough to prove the feasibility of the parallel operation strategy of Daenerys Entertainment's three labels.

After roughly browsing the box office report in her hand, the female assistant knocked on the door to remind her.

Simon came to a small conference room next to the office. Daenerys Entertainment CEO Amy Pascal, group president in charge of distribution business Mark Belford, and the specific heads of the three studios Tom Pollack, Dan Ni Morris and Ella Deutschmann have both arrived.

Everyone has seen the corresponding box office data, and the release results of 7 movies in the first two months of this year have completely let go of their initial scruples.

This meeting is mainly to make a summary of the results of the previous two months of issuance.

7 films, three labels, and further down, in fact, each film project has a dedicated publicity team.

Such a distribution model allows each team to complete the announcement and release of a movie more focused and accurately.

At the same time, this model can easily lead to internal competition among distribution teams.

To put it simply, different film projects are definitely not the same in terms of film quality, box office size, media reputation, etc.

Therefore, various publicity and distribution teams will inevitably be more inclined to take over excellent movies with promising box office prospects, and reject inferior projects that lack box office potential.

In addition, there are only a few popular movie schedules each year, which will also cause competition in this area.

These are very difficult questions.

Movies are a very expensive business, and even a bad movie can cost millions.

In Simon's view, what the publicity team should do is to find ways to make each film get better box office results, instead of being "picky eaters" to pursue films with more potential.

The publicity and distribution team releases a film, the better the box office performance, the higher the salary will definitely be.

This cannot be changed.

However, if you want to reverse the "picky eaters" phenomenon of the distribution team, it is definitely not appropriate to simply determine the salary based on the movie's box office performance.

Otherwise, the team responsible for the promotion of "Reservoir Dogs" would not be able to compare with the promotion team of "Wonder Woman", which will be released in the summer. The box office volume of the two films is very different.

This requires a more reasonable performance evaluation system.

Now Simon is more inclined to ask questions. As for solutions, the company has so many people, so naturally he doesn't need to do everything himself.

However, this meeting generally discussed a solution.

In the final analysis, it is still necessary to ensure the integrity of Daenerys Entertainment's publicity team, and not to confirm the performance of an employee or a team simply by the market performance of a certain film.

After all, for a movie to sell well at the box office, the contribution of the publicity team cannot be ignored, but the success of the film is definitely not just the result of the publicity team, it can be said that it is the result of the joint promotion of all departments of the company.

Therefore, team factors may be taken into consideration when judging the performance of employees in the publicity department in the future, but it is more likely that the entire department is responsible for the overall performance of all projects throughout the year.

In order to avoid various small hills within the publicity and distribution department, the specific publicity and distribution team members will not remain fixed for a long time.

Of course, there are also some disadvantages in doing so.

For example, if some people who cooperate tacitly with each other cannot be assigned to a group, it will inevitably reduce work efficiency to a certain extent.

However, this drawback is nothing compared to the overall interests of Daenerys entertainment.

The entire Daenerys Entertainment should be integrated. This integration means that any group of people under the company should be able to achieve good cooperation with each other. It is impossible to change a company just to accommodate a few people. core culture.

In addition to the problem of the distribution team, there is also a problem of cost control.

Simon thought of it because of Reservoir Dogs.

Daenerys Entertainment has always paid great attention to cost control, and Simon himself has set an example.

However, after all, it is impossible for a big film company to be as fussy as a small second- and third-tier studio. The same project often requires more expenses due to various reasons.

Reservoir Dogs, as I remember it, cost only $120 million to make.

However, this time, the new version of "Reservoir Dogs" cost $250 million without much change in the production specifications of actors and cafes. Simon actually understands the problem, such as the original version of "Reservoir Dogs". ", Harvey Keitel starred in a self-reduced salary. This time it is produced by Daenerys Entertainment, and Keitel naturally does not need to self-reduce the salary.

In addition, there is the issue of trade unions.

If a project like "Reservoir Dogs" is produced by other independent film companies, because the cost is low enough, it is not restricted by the proportion of labor unions, so it is enough to save a lot of budget.However, for a major studio like Daenerys Entertainment, it is difficult to avoid hiring more union members because of the agreement with the union.

For the same position, the salary standard may sometimes be doubled between union members and non-union members.

In Simon's view, some budgets cannot be avoided, but equally, there are many expenses that can be completely avoided.

In many cases, these funds that could have been avoided but were spent casually are all because the main creative team is trying to save trouble and be lazy.

This kind of thinking is easy to understand.

Daenerys Entertainment is so rich now, it doesn't matter if they spend more.

The discussion lasted for an hour, and finally closed the document in front of him, but Simon did not announce the end of the meeting, but said to Amy Pascal and others: "I recently saw an article about Wal-Mart, you said, in retail With such fierce competition in the industry, why can Wal-Mart stand out?"

Everyone couldn't help exchanging glances at Simon's abrupt question.

However, the boss's question cannot be ignored.

Mark Belford was the first to say: "Cost control is a big aspect. Wal-Mart bypasses middlemen and purchases products directly from manufacturers. This will not only save costs, but also maximize profits to consumers."

"That's right, that's one point," Simon nodded, and said, "However, since you know something, do you think other retailers will not imitate it? But in the end, Wal-Mart is still the best one."

Mark Belford opened his mouth, but couldn't refute.