Vol 2 Chapter 269: Batman and the Little Wizard

The summer vacation of 1997 has come to an end. The biggest winner must be Universal Pictures’ Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World. What about the losers?
As in recent years, most summer films cannot recover their costs by relying on the box office. However, video tapes and increasingly prosperous discs will undoubtedly enable many films to profit from offline income, but some box office and audience reputations are too miserable. Movies, even with offline income, are destined to suffer huge losses.
The most typical is Warner Bros' latest Batman masterpiece "Batman and Robin"!
"The production cost of the film is 125 million U.S. dollars, and the publicity cost is 40 million U.S. dollars."
In the conference room of Warner Bros., the director of the distribution department, Ge Walter, looked dignified, not as relaxed as when he was at the Fox Studios in Sydney. "The film has been released in North America for ten weeks, and the North American box office has accumulated US$16.13 million; it was released overseas in the same period In 45 countries and regions, the box office generated 35.21 million US dollars!"
He paused, and then said, "The audience rating of "Batman and Robin" has dropped to 61%. The box office in North America on weekends is only $153. Although we have done a lot of work, the film may be possible at any time. Forced to downgrade by the theater alliance."
With such a single library] 7, the box office results, the film can still be shown in North America, it can only be said that Warner Bros. did enough work to save Batman.
However, the senior executives on both sides of the conference table are serious. They are not young people full of fantasy. They know that the film has actually reached the end. With such a single library performance, it will continue to be shown in North America. In the end, the box office number will not increase much, and the film is in the audience. China’s reputation is extremely poor, and subsequent sales of discs, video tapes and TV copyrights all face huge difficulties.
Doug Walter was silent for a few seconds. He added, "According to estimates, the final North American box office of the film will not exceed 110 million U.S. dollars, and the global box office will not exceed 250 million U.S. dollars, and the audience's expectations for Batman have been reduced to the lowest. If we continue to produce a sequel. May face even worse failures..."
Although DC was acquired by Warner Brothers a long time ago, there is no need to worry about copyright disputes caused by the poor box office of the film, but the complete failure of such a famous series is definitely not the situation Warner Bros wants to see.
Superman failed in the fourth episode, Batman failed in the fourth episode... It seems that the heroes of DC cannot escape this fate on the big screen.
Everyone turned their eyes to Jeff Robinoff. The fiasco of "Batman and Robin" put this ceo under tremendous pressure. Recently, there are rumors that the group company is preparing to transfer him to Time Warner. Then choose a new ceo...
Jeff Robinoff is also aware of these rumors, and there are also people within Time Warner who are pushing them. Although the transfer to the head office seems to be promoted, in fact there is not much real power. How can an ordinary Time Warner executive compare The position of the CEO of Warner Bros.
To keep the position of CEO, he has to prove himself with Warner Bros.'s performance.
In the past few years, there are two thighs that have supported the performance of Warner Bros. One is the Batman series, and the other is Duke Rosenberg’s movie...
Although Duke Rosenberg is closer to Warner Bros. than ever before. But the other party is not a small director from a few years ago. Any film company that wants to cooperate with a super director will have to pay a high price.
Cooperation with Duke Rosenberg alone is not enough to support Warner's performance, and Jeff Robinoff knows this very well.
And the Batman series must not rot, adopting the same strategy as the Superman series. It is undoubtedly the wisest choice.
"My suggestion is to end Batman temporarily."
Surrounded by everyone's eyes, Jeff Robinoff finally spoke, "Seal this series and wait for the right director and timing."
Executive Vice President Robert Solomon also agreed. "I agree with Jeff's suggestion that superheroes have never become the main force in the North American film market. This short superhero movie era is over. I don't think superhero movies will change significantly in the next ten years."
Others basically agreed with what Robert Solomon and Jeff Robinoff said.
After all, since the birth of superheroes, comics have belonged to them. Until now, the superheroes that have really succeeded on the big screen are only Superman and Batman. In recent years, the rival Marvel comics of dc comics have also changed. Its superheroes were adapted into movies, but they failed miserably without exception. Coupled with the cold winter of comic sales, Marvel is ready to file for bankruptcy protection.
The discussion about Batman quickly reached a consensus, and the topic of the meeting gradually shifted to other aspects.
"Now Universal Pictures has the Jurassic Park series, Twentieth Century Fox has the Star Wars series cooperating with Lucasfilm, MGM has the 07 series, and Sony Columbia is starting to build the Godzilla series... …"
Jeff Robinoff knows very well that if you want to keep a firm position, you must find new profit points. "I think you all understand the benefits that a successful series of movies can bring. Warner Bros. needs a new series of projects. The new Batman!"
He waved his hand behind him, and an assistant immediately walked to the conference table and distributed a book to the hands of many senior leaders present.
Robert Solomon looked through it, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone? Jeff, is this the new project you are talking about? Why have I never heard of it?"
Several independent directors also looked at Jeff Robinoff with questioning eyes.
"Everyone, this is a magical novel for all ages." Jeff Robinoff didn't let them wait, and said directly, "Duke recommended this book to me a few months ago. For two months, our marketing department has been doing targeted research."
Hearing Duke's name, several disapproving directors immediately bowed their heads solemnly and looked through the book in their hands.
If they don’t even pay attention to the work recommended by such a successful director, they will not sit in their current position. That is a shareholder of Warner Bros. and has been increasing its shareholding ratio since last year. Now it is the largest of Warner Bros. One of the individual shareholders.
There are too many common interests between Warner Bros. and him.
"Up to now, we have done a lot of surveys and statistics on this novel in Britain and the United States."
Jamie Johnson from the market research department took the message. He asked his assistant to send out a statistical report, and then said, "The sales of the novel are not good. Since its launch this year, only less than 30,000 copies have been sold."
Less than 30,000 copies?
Although many people frowned, they were all veterans in the media industry. They understood that books and movies actually have many similar operating rules, for example, they also need to be hyped.
Jamie Johnson added,
The novel is just written by an ordinary middle-aged British lady. She herself and the book publisher have little reputation and strength. Basically, her work has not been promoted or recommended. These are severely restricted. Book sales."
"However, we have conducted a large number of return visits to the group of children who have bought books." He looked at the statistical report and said confidently. "The market research department spent two months, through phone calls, letters and door-to-door visits. In this way, a total of nearly 10,000 buyers’ reactions to books have been counted."
"Ninety-five percent of readers over ten years old think this is an incredible book, which opened their eyes. Their parents claim that it is the best children's book. According to the author’s feedback, the novel The second part of has been completed. This will be a whole series..."
Listening to the statistics read out by Jamie Johnson, the management of Warner Bros. looks more and more serious. Duke Rosenberg may look away, but the statistics will not lie.
"I want to ask." Robert Solomon withdrew his gaze from the book and raised his head. "Have we got the right to adapt this series?"
This is the focus of many senior leaders at Warner Bros.
Jeff Robinoff continued, "The right to adapt is temporarily in the hands of the Duke's studio, but Duke is willing to share the copyright with Warner to create this series."
He looked at the subordinates in the conference room, "No one can ensure the success of a series, just like we cooperate with other companies to share risks on Batman. If the group company decides to vigorously promote this series, we will join hands with Duke Studios. , Not only can use Duke’s influence to promote the popularity and adaptation of the work, but also minimize the early risks..."
The conference is gradually coming to an end, and the fate of the Harry Potter series has not yet been fully decided. Warner Bros. not only has to conduct relevant market surveys, but also conduct preliminary negotiations with Duke. Both parties must also reach preliminary opinions on the proportion of future investments and returns. .
There is no capital that only invests and does not care about income!
"Doug..." Jeff Robinoff said, "Keep in touch with Duke and contact Nancy Josephson as soon as possible. If the group company can pass this project, I will go to Australia to talk with Duke in person. ."
As soon as the Warner Bros. meeting broke up, Duke, who was as far away as Sydney, received a call from Jeff Robinoff. Although the other party didn’t say anything clearly, the implied attitude has become more obvious. The special series is also recommended by others. The company of the producer whose name he does not remember also shares the interests with Warner Bros....
The only difference now is that he wants to get as many pieces as possible on this big cake. It depends on the outcome of the negotiations between the two parties.
Duke knew very well that the failure of the Batman series caused Warner Bros. to temporarily lose its most important performance pillar, and he, a director who has been cooperating with Warner Bros. more and more deeply, will inevitably increase his weight, so that he will be able to negotiate in the future. Increase your own chips.
In this respect, Duke has always maintained a very clear head. With the strength of the Duke’s studio, it is impossible to stimulate the full potential of the little wizard. Independent production and promotion will definitely reduce the income significantly. It is a miracle to create one-tenth of the $100 billion industrial chain.
If the negotiation goes well, in terms of the final actual benefits, independent production is far less cost-effective than cooperation with Warner Bros. (To be continued...)