Chapter Six Hundred and Forty First Pawns
"Eric, of course I'm aware that star pay is a bit inflated, but I recently heard that Firefly Pictures has just approved James Cameron's new film Titanic, which has a production budget of $150 million. Ah, since Firefly can make a $150 million budget for such a very risky disaster film, why are they unwilling to make some concessions on the sequel to "Men in Black", you know, even if we are satisfied with the main creator now Their request, the final production budget will not exceed 150 million US dollars?"
Eric glanced at Peter Cooper and said, "Peter, let's not mention "Men in Black", do you know why I am willing to let James overrun the film again and again?"
Peter Cooper shrugged.
Eric didn't expect Peter Cooper to answer, and said, "Because I'm pretty sure every penny James spends is to make the movie as good as possible, not a lot of dollars. Invite stars who are overpaid."
Peter Cooper tried to retort: "But we invite stars, isn't it also to make the film more box-office appeal?"
"Of course, I don't deny it," Eric said. "But a lot of times, it's not worth it, like with the recent Beverly Detectives 3 and Law Enforcement, Paramount and Warners spent a lot of their budget on the main characters' remuneration. Eddie Murphy and Kevin Costner not only received a fixed salary of more than 15 million US dollars at the same time, but also enjoyed a high profit sharing agreement, but the result, You must have seen it."
Peter Cooper said: "Eric, this is just an accident, and the salary that Miss Kidman got from "The Mummy" is even more appalling."
"Nicole completely gave up the fixed salary and got the corresponding profit sharing agreement. If "The Mummy" fails at the box office, Nicole will not get a penny." Eric said: "And James, every time he When film production overruns, they will take the initiative to ask to give up their director’s remuneration to ease the budget burden of the film company. But what about those stars. Not only do they have to get tens of millions of dollars in high remuneration, they also ask for more profit sharing, but Enjoying so much benefit, they don't take any risk for the studio. Like the two films I just mentioned, they both brought huge losses to the studio, but the two leading actors got a More than ten million dollars in revenue. I don’t care what other film companies offer to attract those stars with any sky-high pay, but in Firefly, and the film company associated with Firefly. They must not think about such a good thing in the future.”
Seeing Eric's unwillingness to make concessions on the remuneration, Peter Cooper said: "In this case, Eric, I think it is necessary for Firefly and Columbia to renegotiate the copyright distribution agreement. The copyright of "Men in Black" originally belonged to Colombia completely, and after five years of development of the sequel is blocked, it automatically belongs to Firefly, this agreement is too unfair for Colombia."
The original agreement, Eric, was completely drawn up with reference to the Marvel Comics character authorization for a five-year automatic return without a sequel.
After hearing Peter Cooper's entanglement, he finally stated the purpose of his trip. Eric simply waved his hand to let the people next to him leave, leaned against the workbench and looked at Peter Cooper with a smile, and said, "Peter, everyone knows that this is an unfair agreement from the very beginning, and the Japanese must also I know. Besides, what everyone is doing in private is even more unfair, but since the Japanese have the idea of entering Hollywood, they should have the consciousness of paying tuition."
"But, Eric..."
Eric waved his hand. Interrupting Peter Cooper's words, he still had a smile on his face and said, "I know you were kicked out of the office by Katzenberg yesterday, you must feel relative to Jeffrey Katzenberg. I You have a good temper, at least I won't kick you out of the office like Jeffrey, but I have a good temper, it doesn't mean I have a good temper, there is no room for negotiation. As for your reason, it is not tenable at all, "Men in Black" "The copyright includes the copyright of "Jumanji" released at the end of the year. Columbia has bought it for many years, but there is no action. Similar film and television rights are many for every film company. If there is no Firefly, maybe these two films I can't wait for the day to start shooting. In the end, it is Fireflies that give them enough commercial value. Compared with Sony, everyone should be regarded as their own people. The Japanese don't understand some things, but we all know that you have How much was taken from Colombia, so let’s stop it in moderation, I think what you should do in the next period of time is to try to wipe away some traces, and don’t leave any chance for the Japanese to find fault.”
When Peter Cooper heard Eric's straightforward words, his old face flushed a little, but he couldn't think of any words to refute.
Noticing the change in Peter Cooper's expression, Eric didn't want to embarrass the leader of Colombia like Katzenberg. Still made a great contribution.
After thinking about it, Eric said: "Well, I will let Firefly make some negotiation actions, and I will publicly support your side in the media, so that at least before next year, Sony will not risk everyone to take a shot. The risk of separation will kick you out, I think you will definitely not stay in Colombia next year, right?"
Peter Cooper nodded immediately. In fact, what he wanted was such a guarantee. As for the interests of the Japanese, he really didn't care at all. Now that he got a personal promise from Eric, Peter Cooper no longer bothered about what happened just now, saying: "Eric, many people will attend the celebration party of "Men in Black" tonight, why don't you come too? ?"
Eric shook his head and said, "I still have important things to do at night, so forget it this time."
Peter Cooper left Firefly Studios satisfied, but Eric was still thinking about "Men in Black".
In the original time and space, compared to other popular Hollywood series, the "Men in Black" series is the most ill-fated series. The production interval of the trilogy reached 15 years. And neither the word of mouth nor the box office is as good as the first, but the production budget has doubled, and, similar to the "Mission: Impossible" series, most of the profits of the "Men in Black" series are made by Will Smith and other main creators. Dividing, relatively speaking, Sony Pictures can only be regarded as making a fortune.
The main reason for this situation is the sluggishness of Sony's film business. Among the major film companies, Sony's performance has been at the bottom for most of the years, which has also resulted in its weak position in front of first-line superstars. Paramount can also have a fight with Tom after the box office failure of "Mission Impossible 3", but Sony Pictures, in order to maintain a decent operation, does not even have this confidence, and can only use high-paying strategies to attract stars and celebrities again and again. project. In the original time and space, the first Hollywood salary of 20 million US dollars was offered by Sony Columbia for Jim Carrey.
Compared with Sony Columbia, Firefly has no concerns in this regard. If the remuneration of "Men in Black" cannot be negotiated, Eric would rather stranded this project for a long time. After all, he has a lot of projects with higher profit margins waiting to be developed. There is no need to compromise like Sony.
Thinking of these, Eric couldn't help but look forward to the next Marvel battle. As long as he grabs Marvel, whose superhero copyright has not yet been scattered, even if there is nothing else, Firefly can be in the next 20 years. Even longer to maintain its strong position in Hollywood.
...
"Men in Black" was the last film related to the Firefly Group in the summer of 1994. After the film was released, the summer period has passed most of the time, and several other major film companies will continue to release several films at the end of the summer period. When the film was released, Firefly had already begun to count the harvest of this hot summer vacation.
In the low July, Firefly's financial department came up with the preliminary financial report for the first half of 1994. Although the first half of the year experienced short-term chaos caused by mergers and acquisitions, the operating income of Firefly Group in the first half of the year after the merger still reached 7.3 billion US dollars. However, due to the compensation expenses caused by departmental restructuring and layoffs, the group's net profit margin dropped slightly to only 9%, and the group achieved a total net profit of US$657 million in the first six months. This figure did not exceed expectations within the group, and was even higher than most Wall Street analysts' data.
At the same time, after intense bidding and negotiation, the famous North American Condé Nast Group finally decided to buy the paper media assets spun off by Firefly at a price of 1.52 billion US dollars.
Stimulated by a series of good news such as the summer box office, the $8 billion bond issued by Firefly Pictures for the acquisition was sold out on July 20.
Afterwards, all kinds of people inside and outside Firefly with their own calculations became restless.
First of all, with the outstanding five-week box office of "The Lion King" of 215 million US dollars, Disney's animation department heads Peter Schneider and Roy Disney, who have been waiting for the opportunity, jumped out first as 'pawns' and started confidently. Fight for their own benefit for 'exhausted' Disney animation staff.
The layout of Marvel Entertainment is still in the final stage. In addition, Ron Perelman is still hiding in the dark. In order to express his 'importance' to the Disney animation department, Eric also cooperated with him in person. Peter Schneider and Roy Disney talked about terms.
Eric's tangled gesture of no longer mentioning the abolition of Disney's hand-drawn animation department on purpose, but he obviously didn't want to compromise soon, successfully conveyed some wrong signals to some people. (To be continued.)
...
... ()