Vol 2 Chapter 603: DVD industry

ps: The new week has started. We will try our best to keep the third shift. If the code does not come out, we will notify you in advance.
As of the end of July, the number of North American screening theaters for "Iron Man" was less than 400, and the ticket real estate on the day fell below 200,000 US dollars. It is basically impossible for the North American market to make a big difference, but it will last 15 weeks. In the time, the North American box office of the film reached 381.24 million U.S. dollars, and all the summer films including "Pirates of the Caribbean: Gathering of Souls" were pressed below, and it was the well-deserved 2006 North American Summer Championship.
Two years after losing this position, Duke once again dominated the summer file.
However, the overseas performance of "Iron Man" was relatively inferior. In almost the same period of time, the film received US$312.66 million from nearly 100 countries and regions.
The global box office of "Iron Man" totaled US$693.9 million.
Although the total box office is infinitely close to 700 million US dollars, the global box office increase of "Iron Man" has been weak, and it is hard to say whether Duke and Warner Bros. can eventually exceed the 700 million dollar mark.
Some people definitely want to push the final box office number of "Iron Man" to more than 700 million U.S. dollars, especially in the long run, this will be beneficial and harmless to the plans of the Marvel series. Marvel's senior management has already prepared a sum of money , It is possible to vote at any time
In addition, the DVD release of "Iron Man" is also in preparation. Only when the film exhausts its final box office potential in North America, it will be listed to make money.
Since entering the new century, DVDs can be said to be one of the most important sources of revenue for Hollywood’s major production and distribution companies. It is even hard to say that Hollywood is relying on DVDs to make money. Some such as "Spider-Man" and "Lord of the Rings Trilogy" Hot movies, in North America alone, the first week of DVD sales can exceed 100 million US dollars. For those films that can enter the top ten of the annual box office rankings, except for very few examples, most of the final DVDs can sell for about 100 million US dollars.
The production cost of DVDs is much lower than the once-popular video tapes, and at most they will not exceed 1% to 3% of the wholesale price sold to distributors by the producer and distributor. Even if marketing and other costs are included, the profit margin is still terrifying. .
Generally speaking, the producer will provide the underwriters with a sum of about 5% and no more than 10% of the promotional expenses.
There are also leases. Lease sharing is more complicated.
First, the renter will give a reserve price, which means that no matter whether the film is rented or not, the producer can get a sum of money from the renter, which is about 3 to 10 dollars per piece.
Then there are several different ways of leasing. The normal leasing fee is the main source. In addition, if the rented disc is not returned on time, the lessor will automatically sell it, that is, deduct the user’s money according to the sale price. the way. The producer takes 1 to 2 dollars from each rental income, and the price is determined according to the box office number of the film.
That is to say, the higher the box office of the movie, the higher the ratio will be, so the box office is the basis for a movie to be profitable.
If it is for sale, there is also a percentage of each draw, which is relatively high, about 5 to 10 dollars.
The rental fee is not always included. According to the contract, there is a valid period of about 50 weeks. When it expires, the lessor must destroy a certain percentage of DVDs. Either return the rest to the studio or buy it at a certain price for each.
For a single movie, if it is a popular movie, the studio can make 5 to 8 million U.S. dollars from a single renter. This is only the rental part, and the proportion of the sales part is more than this. In other words, a popular movie Hollywood can get tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from DVDs, and this revenue is almost all net profit.
This is why Hollywood is making money from DVDs.
However, everyone who has paid attention to the relevant data is very clear that the heyday of DVDs is about to go away. A data from Warner Bros. statistics this year shows. Hollywood’s DVD sales in the first half of 2006 fell by 6.3% compared to the first half of 2005.
Although the Hollywood DVD industry still maintains a scale of nearly 2 billion US dollars, it is not difficult for people with a long-term vision to see that this glory will not last long, and even the next three to four years will decline sharply.
Why does this happen? Is the audience tired of Hollywood blockbusters?
The answer is of course no. The audience for Hollywood movies has not shrunk, but with the rise of Internet video sites, those teenagers who constitute the mainstream of the movie market have turned their attention to online on-demand and online downloads.
No one knows better than Duke that the rise of movies on the Internet has directly reduced the scale of Hollywood's DVD industry by two-thirds.
Hollywood will never lack elites, and many people have also discovered this.
On the one hand, filmmakers have also begun to look for ways to reduce costs to ensure that each disc can create more profits; on the other hand, while taking defensive measures, major studios are also pursuing film Preparing for the day when the silver disc disappeared.
The offline distribution of movies in the future will inevitably rely more on the Internet or on-demand services of cable and satellite TV companies. According to data from the media survey company, the current market size has reached 800 million US dollars, and it has surged by nearly 100% last year alone. Of twenty.
Both Warner Bros. and Duke Studios are planning ahead, and plan to release online or pay-TV versions instead of waiting a few weeks after the movie’s DVDs are released, but to launch them simultaneously.
In this way, it can attract young people who don't want to buy DVDs.
Another change in the making is to allow viewers to download the online version after the movie is released, and this can also be before the DVD is released. This attempt can charge customers an extra fee for watching the high-definition movie early.
It can be said that how to use the Internet to make money when movies are offline from theaters is the focus of research by major companies.
Even some people have set their sights on the network revenue of the film.
As we all know, Hollywood has never been a good place for mutual love and love. It can be said that good people and soft-hearted people basically have no living space here. This industry attracts countless people and companies, constantly relying on capital, fame and interests. Struggle, this kind of struggle is also reflected in the major Hollywood associations.
The most famous associations in Hollywood are nothing more than the Producers' Union, the Directors' Union, the Editors' Association and the two actors' unions. There are also contradictions and conflicts of interest between these four associations.
Of course, it is basically a conflict between the producer league and other associations.
At present, the contract between the Producers Union and the Screenwriters Association is about to expire at the end of 2007. The Producers Alliance, which represents the interests of studios, has begun preliminary negotiations with the Screenwriters Association, but the negotiations are not going well, and the Producers Alliance does not want to Easily meet the conditions of the Screenwriters Association.
In 1988, the Screenwriters Association called for a 22-week general strike for screenwriters to obtain a fixed proportion of the video tape and TV broadcast revenue from the producers. Now they are focusing on the Internet revenue of the film.
Not only the screenwriters’ association, the director’s union and the actors’ union also demanded to share this income, but they encountered a completely different treatment from the screenwriters’ association. Although there were also major differences with the producers’ union, there was room for discussion instead of Like the Screenwriters Association, it was directly rejected by the Producers League.
This also reflects the position of screenwriters in Hollywood from the side.
Script is one of the foundations of making movies, but in quite a lot of projects, it seems not so important.
Duke knew very well that the Producers Union would make certain concessions to the Directors’ Guild and the Screen Actors’ Guild, but would not easily give up to the Screenwriters Guild.
Future strikes are simply inevitable.
He knows that a strike will definitely happen. He knows that the strike will affect his income, but he is powerless. This kind of conflict of interests cannot be resolved by one person or a small group.
In fact, even if the strike is effective, the status of Hollywood screenwriters will not improve much.
Nowadays, everyone, including those in production companies, believe that the biggest weakness of Hollywood movies is the lack of originality. It can also be said that the Hollywood system is trying its best to combat innovation. Producers are afraid of the risks brought by innovation, so they would rather make a sequel or adapt one. This bestseller and comics will not support the so-called new script full of creativity.
For example, let Duke choose and someone recommended him a script. One is a novel with a novel story and structure, which only requires an investment of 50 million US dollars; the other is a script adapted from a popular comic, which requires an investment of 80 million US dollars. He is sure Will choose the latter without hesitation.
Ninety-nine percent of Hollywood producers make the same choice.
The remaining one percent, after accepting creative scripts, will generally be put on the shelf. Some people may find it a bit interesting to get on the so-called Hollywood script blacklist, and then hang on for many years, slowly waiting for someone to invest. ...
In the big movie factory of Hollywood, most films must comply with the rules of the assembly line even if they are literary films, and the scripts are no exception. Even if it is a book like "The Dark Knight", Duke will finish the outline and character design. , It was handed over to the following screenwriter team, a total of 22 screenwriters participated in the writing of this script.
These screenwriters have a clear division of labor, distinguishing the political dramas, love dramas, and action dramas that wrote the film. Even the dialogues are divided into threats, love, humor, and action.
A movie of the scale of "The Dark Knight" must be a product of the Hollywood pipeline. If such a large-scale investment is not produced in an assembly line, Warner Bros. must go crazy.
With the arrival of August, the preparations for "The Dark Knight" became more and more busy. Duke also ran several times between Warner Studios, Hughes Aircraft Factory and Chicago to investigate the progress of preparations.
Perhaps it was the success of "Batman: Hour of War" that brought a certain publicity effect. The Chicago government gave "Dark Knight" strong support, and the mayor also met with Duke.
When Duke returned to Los Angeles from Chicago in mid-August, he saw Heath Ledger who had disappeared for more than a month. (To be continued...)