Chapter 30: Divide the cake

Seeking recommendation! Seeking collection!
Today’s movies in this era, the North American box office of 130.02 million US dollars can be said to be a very good result, but this huge sum of money will not fall into the pockets of any one person or company, from the theater to the release, and then from From production to investment, many aspects will share this cake.
In the last few days of June, the accounting firm representing Duke and Mrs. Leah started close business dealings with Twentieth Century Fox and Lucasfilm, checking large and small dense accounts and sharing.
This kind of thing does not require Duke to come forward. His coming forward will have no effect except to add chaos. Although the professional accountants of PwC are expensive, they are trustworthy in terms of business ability and reputation.
Besides, the lawyers representing Duke and them will also supervise the whole process.
The 20th Century Fox signed the most conventional split account with the theaters. After the theaters subtracted fixed expenses, they were divided into different proportions with the issuer during different periods of the screening, and taxes and fees were deducted. Get a share of just over 62 million US dollars.
Lucas Pictures has no power to move this part of the money. As the distributor, Twentieth Century Fox can get a 15% commission from the North American box office—19.5 million US dollars ∨, yuan!
Taking the distribution commission, Fox also deducted the public relations and other expenses paid in advance. "Life and Death Hour" printed more than 5,100 copies, the unit price is about 600 US dollars, the cost of large-scale printing will be reduced, and the total cost is 3 million US dollars. In addition, Fox invested a total of 8.5 million US dollars in the film’s trial public relations, warehousing and transportation, capital recovery costs, employment survey companies, unannounced inspections of theater box office, various promotional expenses, etc.
In other words, in the 20th century, Fox will take $11.5 million from it, and they can share half of the $62 million in total.
Excluding the $11.5 million expenditure, the remaining $19.5 million is almost all Fox's gross profit.
Distribution companies have broad publicity channels and strong distribution capabilities. It is not without reason that they can stand at the top of the industry. Hollywood does not mean that by randomly acquiring a company with distribution rights, it can achieve six or even second-tier distributions in publicity. Quotient level.
If this is the case, Lucasfilm will not rely so much on the distribution channels of Twentieth Century Fox and Paramount on projects such as Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Doesn't George Lucas have any money? Not enough contacts? Poor ability?
If the issue of distribution was really easy to solve, later Pixar Studios and DreamWorks Animation Studios would not look for publishers everywhere. The former was so embarrassed under the Disney banner, and the latter even wanted to sell itself to the publisher.
After Fox took away their money in the 20th century, of the remaining more than 31 million U.S. dollars, more than 1 million U.S. dollars was used to pay the remaining one-third of the remuneration of the actors and crew members, as well as various actors including the actors’ union. Industry association expenses, and then the money goes to Lucasfilm's account. According to the agreement signed with Leah and other investors, Lucasfilm will definitely not choose the $2 million guarantee, but preferentially draw North America from it. The box office was divided into 10%, and they took 13 million dollars of it.
The remaining 17 million U.S. dollars, it’s the turn of investors including Duke to share. Mrs. Leah’s 10 million U.S. dollars accounted for two-thirds of the production cost, and she could get more than 10 million U.S. dollars. You have to make a profit, but don’t forget that you have to pay taxes. After paying the taxes, the money will definitely be a loss.
If you look at this situation, investors who invested in Hollywood should cry.
However, this is only the North American box office that occupies a portion of the film's revenue. "Life and Death" can also get a large amount of revenue in other areas.
The first is the television copyright and video tape copyright in North America. Because in the 20th century Fox has the right to draw 50%. They dominated the negotiation team composed of Lucasfilm, Duke’s agent and other parties. Fox Last year, they sold the peripheral rights of "Ultimate 2" at a high price in collaboration with Carlock Pictures-North American video tapes with a 7-year copyright of US$10 million and TV copyrights of US$7 million-they have rich experience in this area.
Duke also did not participate in the negotiations. He would not have the right to speak in the negotiations completely dominated by Fox in the twentieth century, and it would be useless to go. As the biggest profiter, Fox in the twentieth century would definitely want to sell at a high price.
After several seesaw negotiations, the North American video tape copyright of "Life and Death" was sold for $7 million, and the television copyright received $5 million. Twentieth Century Fox took away $6 million from it.
Although there is some jealousy, Duke knows that this is the rule of Hollywood, and it is impossible for newcomers to break the rule, otherwise all Hollywood will be your enemy.
Hollywood is not a place where you can make good enough movies.
Of course, as the director who has taken the first step towards success, Duke will not let go when it is time to fight.
In the meeting room on the top floor of the Fox Building, Duke was sitting on a chair. The morning was about to pass. He basically did not speak, but watched Nancy Josephson's mouth fly up and down, talking to Fox negotiators. Conflict between words.
This is about the negotiation on the overseas copyright of "Life and Death Hour". It started after the film was down-grade in North America. Now it is the fifth round, but the two sides have been unable to reach a consensus.
As Lucasfilm did not have a chance to win, George Lucas sent a CEO to sit here and faintly show his support attitude, and gave the lead of the negotiation to Leah, the largest investor. And Mrs. Leah threw it directly to Duke, and Duke naturally chose his new agent as his plenipotentiary representative.
"The movie we negotiated is not a bad movie like "Alien 3"!"
Standing up from the chair, Nancy walked a few steps back and forth in the conference room, and walked behind the Fox negotiators, almost roaring, "This is "Life and Death", Duke Rosenberg's "Life and Death" "Speed"! A super hit movie with more than $130 million at the box office in North America! You paid $65 million for the overseas copyright of "Terminator 2". What is its North American box office?"
Nancy speaks extremely fast, and she doesn’t give the other party a chance to interrupt,
It’s just a little bit more than 200 million US dollars! Speed ​​of Life and Death is a package sale of all overseas copyrights and sequel shooting rights to you, and only asks for 50 million US dollars. Is this price high?"
After playing the Lion’s Roar, Nancy sat back on the chair and put on a factual and reasonable tone,
With the dramatic changes in Eastern Europe and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, our films have a broader market, and now most mainstream Hollywood commercial films The profits made overseas can exceed the profits made in North America..."
Like a professional from a data analysis company, Nancy talked about a few examples of Hollywood movies making overseas profits, "Don't say "Life and Death" will be an exception! This movie will definitely make it into the top ten of the annual box office charts in North America. If such films cannot be profitable overseas, Fox will not attack overseas markets."
She is a typical and capable agent! This is Duke's evaluation of Nancy's work.
This shrewd woman will never give anyone a good color when she should be arrogant; her face is thick enough to block the Mississippi River when she should be shy; her voice can match when she should be high-pitched. The lion in the Disney World of Animals; and when it is time to speak slowly, she will be gentler than .
Such a highly professional agent is also the agent Duke needs.
As long as she doesn't tear her skin apart, Nancy can fight Fox. With her presence, Duke can avoid direct contact with Fox on sensitive issues, and there is a buffer between the two sides.
Although $50 million is the package price for all copyrights, Duke is not James Cameron after all, and Keanu Reeves is not Arnold Schwarzenegger. This price is not realistic.
Of course, the US$25 million that Fox offered in the 20th century is also unrealistic. They are clearly robbing!
It was another long day of negotiations. Both parties made a certain degree of concessions. In the afternoon, they were arguing almost at the base price of US$10,000. Finally an agreement was reached. Twentieth Century Fox bought it at a package price of US$37 million. Download the overseas copyright and sequel copyright of "Speed ​​of Life".
The price is so low that there is part of the reason for Duke. He confessed that Nancy must ask Twentieth Century Fox to pay this amount within a month. The one-year mortgage purchased by Mrs. Leah will expire. If At that time, there is no money to repay the bill. Not only will it use Santa Fe’s working capital, but even the house may have to be taken away by the bank. At that time, Rosenberg’s house will be a joke for the upper class of Los Angeles.
As for the method of sharing overseas distribution with Fox, Duke basically did not consider it. Not to mention the mother’s accounting issues. Lucasfilm clearly will not participate in it, and he can monitor Fox without sufficient preparation. There are very few measures in place, and publishers have false reports, tax deductions, and other methods, only unexpected, they can't do it without them, especially long-term revenue video tapes and TV copyrights, there are more places to do.
Yes, there are various laws and regulations in the United States, but even in North America, where the regulation is strict, Hollywood giants dare to pit Wall Street funds, let alone in overseas markets all over the world.
This is not the future era of smooth information. It is too difficult to supervise. Instead of placing hopes on Fox's moral standards, it is better to sell it.
This is also the consensus of all investors in the film.
In this way, the benefits that investors can share are clear, with the North American box office balance of US$17 million, the remaining US$6 million of North American video tape television rights, plus the US$37 million that has just been negotiated, for a total of US$60 million.
Duke enjoys one-and-fifth of the share, which is US$400,000. Although he has to pay a lot of personal income, it is still very cost-effective compared to the US$100,000 in director’s remuneration. .
His mother was able to divide the 40 million U.S. dollars, and even if he had to pay taxes, the return on the investment for a year was terrifying.
(Even the citizens of the United States and the United States can’t figure out the tax issue, and we don’t understand it. Most of them simply raise taxes. The box office tax on the theaters is very low, it seems to be about 3%. According to my colleagues, no It must be accurate. In short, this is a more idealized pie-sharing model. In fact, investors often get less money. Hollywood dares to pit money from Wall Street vampires)