Chapter 112: Looking for real cases

One month after entering theaters, the popularity of "Blair the Witch" has faded. Like all news events, it is impossible to occupy the public's attention forever. Most people love the new and dislike the old. Moreover, Hollywood and film industry eye-catching news has always appeared in endlessly. "It is becoming a thing of the past.
After drawing another US$5.21 million on the fifth weekend, the film’s daily output dropped to about US$1 million.
However, the North American box office accumulation of $138.9 million has also enabled Blair the Witch to move towards the $150 million mark step by step.
The box office is just the beginning of the film's revenue generation, and offline operations are preparing for it.
Disc suppression and video tape production have already begun. Ronan plans to launch it on the market during Halloween. The offline channel department has cooperated with chain stores such as Wal-Mart and Blockbuster for many years. The Embassy Pictures has been able to maintain for more than ten years. An extremely important guarantee.
Ronan is willing to spend huge sums of money on the acquisition of Embassy Pictures at this point in time, not only the cinema distribution capabilities, but also the complete offline channels of Embassy Pictures.
Since the birth of video tapes, film distribution no longer refers exclusively to theater screenings.
No one knows better than Ronan that the next decade is about to usher in the era of a DVD explosion in Hollywood, and it is not an exaggeration to say that DVD has supported the Hollywood company.
Ronan took the time to talk with Garcia and offline distribution director Terry for a day. The Embassy Pictures will make arrangements on DVD in advance and establish long-term cooperative relationships with several disc suppression factories.
Compared with the traditional video tape industry, DVD and related discs are undoubtedly more promising, and video tapes will soon be fully surpassed by DVD.
The most important factor is profit and cost. Even if an ordinary DVD is produced in a place with extremely high labor costs such as North America, the suppression cost is only 50 cents, and the cost of putting it on the terminal sales is only 3 to 5 US dollars.
The price of genuine DVDs is generally around US$20. For luxury sets, commemorative sets, limited editions, etc., a unit price of US$100 is also common.
Another point is that the picture quality of DVD is generally better than that of video tape.
Hollywood is about to enter a crazy era of blockbusters. The biggest selling point of those blockbusters is special effects. It is undoubtedly very difficult to show special effects with traditional video tapes.
For "Blair the Witch", derivatives have almost no operating space. In addition to video tapes and DVD discs, TV broadcasting is another major source of offline income.
Embassy Pictures also began initial contact with television stations to discuss the copyright issue of the premiere of "Blair the Witch".
There are two main ways to authorize the broadcasting of Hollywood movies to TV stations. One is to directly sell the copyright to the TV station for how many years, and the other is to charge according to the number of times played, and the first broadcast price is the highest.
For example, Tom Cruise's "Mission Impossible", the first broadcast license fee is as high as 8 million US dollars, and the cost of each subsequent broadcast is nearly 4 million US dollars.
It can also be packaged according to the number of broadcasts. The film company uses two or three popular movies as the core, and then combines some ordinary movies and bad movies to form a broadcast authorization package and sell it to the TV station.
This kind of situation is very common, not only can make money from the bad films that lose money as much as possible, but also effectively dilute the profits of the hot movies.
At the time of the acquisition, due to limited funds in his hands, Ronan divested the film library of Embassy Pictures, and was finally acquired by Lionsgate Pictures. Currently, Embassy Pictures does not have the copyright of other films. Ronan initially intends to let Shahai Films distribute several films. Videotape movies that have not sold the TV broadcast copyright are transferred to Embassy Pictures, and then form a broadcast authorization package with "Blair the Witch", and then sold to the TV station.
He is responsible for providing the plan, specifically, let the people in the offline distribution department of the Embassy Pictures operate it.
Fortunately, "Blair the Witch" does not involve the sharing of cast and crew or other aspects. Ronan's Relativity Entertainment is a one-time buyout of all copyrights. There is no need to worry about someone sharing the profit, and there is no need to deliberately dilute the net profit of the film.
Offline operations are on the right track, and all aspects of work are responsible for special personnel. Ronan's energy has also been transferred to other aspects. "Reaper is coming" has been transferred to the editing stage, and Jessica Felton has also entered the crew to be responsible for this film Clip.
The editing of "Ace Agent" was personally responsible for Paul Greengrass.
Of course, the final decision is all in Ronan's hands.
The release dates of the two films have also been determined. "Reaper is Coming" will be released in early December, and "Ace Agent" will start painting in mid-November, all of which will be distributed by Embassy Pictures.
"I plan to hold a premiere for "Reaper Is Coming."
In the not-so-large conference room, senior officials from Shahai Entertainment and Embassy Pictures gathered together. Ronan sat at the front end of the long conference table: "The embassy is responsible for making plans."
Garcia told the truth: "We haven't held a premiere, we have no experience at all."
Embassy Pictures has bought some independent small productions from overseas for distribution in North America in the past ten years. The premiere has never played such a high-level publicity.
Ronan had never engaged in a premiere, and worried that the first one would mess up, and said, "Find an agency to be responsible."
There are many similar agencies in Hollywood, which can provide a full set of services for movies, not only the premiere, but even the editing of promotional trailers.
The most typical case in this regard is the "Suicide Squad" released by Warner Bros. The film was very bad. Warner Bros. realized this early and hired a professional company to do publicity. This company does not have many films. The essence of was condensed into the trailer, and the trailer caused a sensation, and the box office broke out in the first week.
Although viewers who have watched the film find that the trailer is the only thing to watch, causing scolding, it does not prevent "Suicide Squad" from achieving great commercial success.
Theatrical distribution director Thomas asked at this time: "Is "Ace Agent" still premiering?"
"No need." Ronan directly vetoed: "The cast of this film has no influence, and there won't be much attention to the premiere."
The real cost of this film is only 10 million US dollars, including director Paul Greengrass, all Hollywood actors, spending hundreds of thousands of US dollars for the premiere, it is really not worthwhile.
Ronan said to David Villa, the propaganda director:
The propaganda of "Ace Agents" should be targeted, with minorities as the main group, and the initial promotion cost is controlled within 3 million US dollars. The focus of the promotion is "Reaper". Coming", I will give you a $8 million promotional budget."
With the great success of "Blair the Witch", the Embassy Pictures has a lot of trust in Ronan's ability. David Villa said: "I will give you a detailed plan next week."
Ronan thought for a while, then said, "I think more of a way to promote "Reaper Is Here", I have an idea."
Everyone in the meeting room turned their eyes to Ronan's side.
"Spread rumors on the Internet, saying that "The God of Death" is based on real events." Ronan said that these are still not beyond the scope of "viral marketing", but they are definitely conscientious compared to the plan of "Blair the Witch": A plane crash..."
Having said that, he feels inappropriate. After all, "Blair the Witch" has caused a lot of trouble, and using similar methods to stimulate the audience's sensitive nerves might be counterproductive.
Ronan soon had an idea and said, "Robert, this job is entrusted to you. You can find a way to collect some cases of escaped disasters, especially air crashes, and accidental deaths later, and hand them to the Propaganda Department for hype.
Robert propped his chin: "I seem to have seen such a case in the newspaper of which year."
George Clint, who used to work in the media industry, said: "There was a case in the 1970s when a male basketball player from the University of Evansville was killed in an air crash. Only one player did not participate in the trip because of illness. He was hit and killed by a drunk driver two weeks later."
Hearing this, the people in the meeting room suddenly felt creepy.
Ronan was not affected much, and said: "Look carefully, there must be other cases."
I saw a post on the Internet in my previous life, and it said the real "Reaper is coming". I just browsed it roughly, and the specific content has long been forgotten.
Ronan turned his head and asked George Clint: "When will "Ace Agent" finish post-production?"
George replied: "At the latest in early October~EbookFREE.me~ Paul Greengrass, you are more concerned." Ronan asked his financial director: "Mary, what about the financial situation?"
Mary looked at her notebook and said: "When the North American box office share of "Blair the Witch" arrives, our financial situation will improve significantly, and we have sufficient funds to complete the promotion and distribution of "Reaper Is Coming" and "Ace Agent"."
Ronan made a decision: "The funds for the promotion and distribution of these two films will still be borrowed by Embassy Pictures from Relativity Entertainment, and the distribution will be 30%, no! 40%!"
The general distribution rate in North America is 30%, but for production companies and distribution companies under the same group, even the North American distribution rate can be set to 40%.
This is a typical left-handed-right-handed game.
Originally, the profit on the left hand had to pay dividends to investors, but the rake drawn by the right hand was higher, and the profit on the left hand would naturally be less.
"Does it only count the box office rake?" Garcia asked tentatively: "Should we calculate the promotion and distribution costs separately?"
It turns out that everyone’s hearts are very dark.
Ronan is considering the pros and cons, especially the possible impact from Abu Dhabi.
If it is just a private foundation, the black will be black. After all, the Investment Bureau belongs to the official institution of the UAE, and he still has some concerns.
A country, even if it is an Arab country, is very powerful.
After all, the theory of relativity is not Warner Bros. A huge company like Warner Bros. who has the strength and foundation, dare to make a loss from the box office to the surrounding "Harry Potter"...
"Tentative 40% of the issuance rake." Ronan did not make a decision immediately.
It’s too early for the film to be released, so let’s look at the details later.