When Yin Jun received the news that Chen Qixian was negotiating Taohua Datong with Kirin Culture on behalf of Hang Lung Group, he was already in the United States. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

At this time, the place where Yin Jun arrived was still in the suburbs of Los Angeles, and the hotel where he brought Tian Jiachun to stay last time was not far from Tang Shuxuan's home.

This time, in addition to the two bodyguards, Yin Jun's assistant was Ding Linxiang, she shouted that she brought Chunchun last time, and this time it was time to come to the world by herself, Yin Jun had no choice but to bring her over.

All of a sudden, he came to the United States because something was in trouble, and then there was another thing for him to decide.

The troublesome thing is actually the release of "Raiders of the Lost Ark".

"Raiders of the Lost Ark" was all filmed as early as February, and when he returned to the Yankees in February, Spielberg began post-production.

While working on the side, Spielberg also cut out a rough version and prepared to show it to the managers of major theaters in order to seek the number of screens to be released.

As far as Spielberg and Lucas are concerned, they are very happy with "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and hope to get at least 1,000 screen premieres.

Since 1963, 17 years ago, AMC's predecessor company introduced multiplexes in cinemas for the first time, and the construction of multiplexes has become the mainstream of the cinema market in North America.

Oh, by the way, AMC is the second cinema company in North America that was bought by Wang Shoufu in the future.

In 1977, when the first part of "Star Wars" was released, there were less than 600 screens to be released, but it gradually improved, and more than 3,000 screens were released at its peak, accounting for almost 70% of the screens in medium and large movie theaters in the United States.

Now 3 years have passed, and the number of screens in American cinemas has increased a lot, plus this is Lucas's script and producer, Spielberg's director, and superstar Harrison Ford starring, such a cast is completely the most expected, and it is simply too easy to get the favor of theaters.

Unfortunately, things are not as simple as they seem.

After looking for the top three theater chains in North America, they all got the answer of "be cautious about this movie", with the most AMC giving 400 screens, while Emperor Entertainment Group and Joy Cinemark Group both said that they would not consider large-scale theater releases in their own theaters.

As for some small regional theater chains, they value the talents of Spielberg and Lucas, but the number of movie theater screens they give is not much, and it is very scattered, and only two of the top ten cities in the United States have more than 50 screens, so it has no effect at all!

As we all know, the top ten cities in the United States are the top ten cities in the United States, New York sometimes a city can occupy more than 10% of the box office, and Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, Boston, Atlanta, ...... and other cities, which add up to at least 70% of the source of the total box office.

There is another point, if these cities fail to form a word-of-mouth box office, then the release of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" abroad will definitely be hit hard, which is undoubtedly a huge blow to Lucas, who attaches great importance to foreign markets.

Raiders of the Lost Ark is definitely not bad, and it's an excellent movie, which everyone knows, and both Lucas and Spielberg believe in it.

But why can't these theaters see it?

They shouldn't be so low-minded.

Fortunately, Lucas and Spielberg have a large network in Hollywood, especially since Spielberg is still Jewish, so after some twists and turns, they finally found the reason.

It turns out that this is the ghost of Paramount.

Lucas was talking about cooperation with Paramount before, but Paramount was too greedy, so that Lucas had been hesitant, and after meeting Yin Jun, seeing the relaxed conditions given by Yin Jun, he immediately decided to put aside Paramount and cooperate with Yin Jun.

In Hollywood, this kind of thing actually happens all the time.

Whether it is the replacement of small production companies and theatrical distributors, or the deliberate squeezing of small companies by cinema chains in order to get more profits, this is the case.

Paramount didn't care at first, but with Spielberg's filming and feedback from all sides, they all told Paramount that "Raiders of the Lost Ark" was an extremely good movie, so Paramount immediately became greedy.

Now Hollywood is still nominally seven, but in the 20th century Fox has fallen into decline, and Colombia is also average, with only Warner Bros. being the strongest.

The second one is Paramount.

Now Paramount is in the stage of their revival, since the mid-70s, after Barry Dille became the owner of Paramount, he and his two assistants directly rejuvenated the aging Paramount, and gradually caught up, and in recent years it has been very beautiful.

With such a powerful Paramount, it is relatively easy to get stuck with Lucasfilm.

At the beginning, Lucas planned to settle the matter and simply hand over the distribution rights of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" to Paramount, anyway, the big companies would negotiate and operate, and he could save a lot of effort.

But the conditions given by Paramount made Lucas laugh angrily.

They offered a 15% share of the box office, but they were only responsible for contacting and guaranteeing a minimum of 1,000 screens, and the rest was responsible for publicity, copy processing, insurance, warehousing, transportation, labor, public relations, etc., all of which were paid by Lucasfilm.

It's completely out of order!

If only the number of screens is contacted, the distributor will take 5% at most, and if they get 15%, basically they will pay for the above expenses, and the producer will not have to pay a penny at all.

If you can get 20%, in addition to the above-mentioned costs that the publisher has to bear, it is also because the producer is very weak, and it cannot be compared with the distributor at all.

But even the weakest producer will never give the distributor such a high distribution fee and bear such a cost at the same time.

Because of this calculation, at least 30% of the box office is removed, plus about 45% of the theater chain, and the producer will take 25% at most!

The 25% share does not include taxes and other expenses.

Lucasfilm's "Raiders of the Lost Ark" cost $25 million in production costs, plus Lucas's technology, personnel and team shares, occupying a share of 5 million, which is a total investment of $30 million.

Because of such an unjust boss as Yin Jun, Spielberg is more refined than in his previous life, and he spends it cleanly.

If according to this ratio, the box office of 120 million US dollars is the profit and loss line excluding tax, at least 150 million to ensure that there is no loss, and if you want to make money, you can get at least 200 million US dollars at the box office.

How many movies can reach 200 million at the box office?

I've been tired for more than half a year to get such a result?

This is only in the North American market, where Paramount's distribution fees have skyrocketed to 30% overseas, and Lucasfilm can only get a 20% share of the box office, which is even more exploitative of profits.

So, they didn't negotiate.

In late March, Lucas approached 20th Century Fox, Columbia, and even Warner Bros., but the results were not very satisfactory.

Lucas and Spielberg know that this is because of the pressure exerted by Paramount, these movie giants often advance and retreat together, and it is really impossible to offend Paramount for the sake of a Lucasfilm.

Therefore, Lucas had no choice but to call Yin Jun and wanted to discuss with him what to do.

Yin Jun pondered for a while and decided to come to the United States to deal with this matter in person.

On the one hand, he wants to express his importance to this cooperation, and secondly, he has thought of a good solution, if it can be solved smoothly, it will have a lot of benefits for himself to gain the friendship of the two great directors, and even the development of Hollywood.

And if you want to solve this matter, if Yin Jun doesn't come in person, I'm afraid it's not so easy.

"It's Michael Eisner!"

Sitting in the hotel's restaurant, Huo Jianning said angrily while eating steak.

At this time, he is far from being an old fox 40 years later, just a young man who is full of energy for the future.

After more than half a year of training under Spielberg, Huo Jianning is a lot more talkative, "Since the end of last year, he has actually been paying attention to this movie, and sent two groups of people to Europe and North Africa to participate in it, but we already have plenty of funds, so neither Lucas nor Spielberg agreed." As soon as the edited film came out, Paramount came to see it in person, and he didn't say anything at the time, but after he left, these things happened, and it was disgusting to think about!"

"Wouldn't it be okay if you didn't agree to him?" Ding Linxiang, who already knew the whole story, asked unconsciously, "Although the Hollywood side of Paramount and the other seven are very powerful, I heard that the theater chain has nothing to do with them, and the law stipulates that film companies cannot own theaters! So wouldn't it be good for us to go directly to find a few more theater companies? The small ones are not afraid, the fragments are not afraid, as long as they are united, they can have enough screens!"

This year's 30-year-old Ding Linxiang has a hot figure and a well-behaved appearance, but she is definitely not a vase, she is an authentic high-achieving student who graduated from Xiangjiang University, and she is good at all kinds of negotiations and public relations.

In her own words, "This girl is a person who can write and martial arts."

What she said just now shows that she has studied the American film industry.

Because in the past few decades, American film companies owned both production companies and theaters, and acted as athletes and referees, so the U.S. Fair Competition Commission ruled that they had formed a monopoly and demanded that they be broken up.

Since then, the film company is a film company, and the theater chain is the theater chain, which has nothing to do with each other.

Therefore, Ding Linxiang feels that although the film company has a great influence on the theater chain, it is impossible to control all the theater chains, as long as the small and medium-sized theater chains can be combined, in large and medium-sized cities, there are enough 1,000 screens to be released, it is a victory.

"If you think so, it's because you don't know about the American film market. Huo Jianning shook his head, "Although on the surface, it seems that the Hollywood Seven and the three major theater chains have little to do with each other, but everyone knows that only the seven major movies are the most profitable, so the relationship between supply and demand is a very delicate balance, and it is impossible for the theater chain not to consider their ideas."

And those small and medium-sized theaters, they don't mind betraying the Seven, but the key is that their power is usually very weak, only 20% of the movie theaters in the top ten cities in the United States do not belong to the three major theater chains, and these 20% are usually in black enclaves, relatively remote communities, etc., not in the downtown area at all, and many fans usually do not choose to go there to watch blockbusters.

If we don't have any pursuits and just want to make some money, then it's not impossible to unite them. But both Lucas and Spielberg felt that it had the perfect expressiveness and should conquer the Americans and conquer the world, so they really wanted it to be released in a big city, rather than being crammed into a small city and struggling. ”

"Michael Eisner still grabbed the 15% issuance fee and didn't let go?" Yin Jun asked.

"yes, I don't know where he got those superiority feelings. Don't look at him as the CEO of Paramount's film studio now, but he's nothing compared to Lucas and Spielberg!" Huo Jianning said disdainfully.

Yin Jun nodded and smiled.

Oh, yes.

The current Michael Eisner is nothing, but in 4 years, this man will usher in the beginning of his most brilliant career.

At that time, he was appointed to become the president of an animation and theme park company on the verge of bankruptcy, and then spent 21 years trying his best to build it into one of the top three entertainment empires in the world!

The name of this animation and theme park company

Called

Disney.

Although Michael Eisner left Disney for whom he had fought for half his life, no one can deny his contribution to Disney!

Everyone knows that if it weren't for the foundation laid by Michael Eisner, Disney would not have been able to soar in the future and become Hollywood's No. 1 super entertainment group!

Not only Michael Eisner, but now Paramount's three giants are all Hollywood's pivotal supergiants in the next two decades.

President Barry Diller single-handedly brought Paramount back to the top, and then turned around to join Murdoch's 20th Century Fox, building the fourth largest news television network in the United States for 20th Century Fox in one go, which can be called an absolute genius in the field of television networks.

And this Barry Diller, who is also interested in emerging things, and has a keen sense of smell, in the Internet era, he is also doing a good job as an online business platform, which is extremely brilliant.

The other vice president is Jeffrey Katzenberg, who will be the founder of DreamWorks, a new Hollywood giant, and will single-handedly build industry supergiants like DreamWorks Animation Studios.

Pixar, which was acquired by Disney, plus Disney's own animation department, should have been invincible in the world, but only DreamWorks Animation was their biggest rival, and they were strong enough to produce their own style of films, which belonged to an animation company that was very respected by the industry.

Katzenberg has a lot to do with this.

Now Michael Eisner is out and wants to snatch the fruits of "Raiders of the Lost Ark", but the two remaining giants must also know about it.

Their non-opposition, or even support, allowed Michael Eisner to mobilize Paramount's vast resources to suppress Lucasfilm.

Otherwise, who would recognize you who Michael Eisner is?

Giving face is not for any private person, you are a high-level part-time worker, and face is for the whole Paramount!

Thinking about facing three future Hollywood giants, Yin Jun feels that this time the release of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is indeed not easy.

……

(Two chapters of nearly 9000 words!