Chapter 728: Strategic mistake
"20 million dollars in pay and 15% of the North American box office share, oh, fireflies can not open such a quote," Eric smiled and shook his head, said Roland Emmerich sitting on the other side.
The time is July 7th, the two are having breakfast in a breakfast room in Beverly Hills. Roland Emmerich told Sony unreservedly to let him direct the conditions of Godzilla. Eric. Howard Stringer is also a smart person. He wants to dig Roland Emmerich to the Sony Pictures director, Godzilla. He did not directly choose to contact the fireflies, but for Roland Emmerich. A quote that he had a hard time rejecting, and then handed him the work of getting the firefly understanding.
If the future box office level of Godzilla can be equal to the release of "Dongli", reaching about $300 million in North America, then Roland Emmerich will be able to get $65 million from this project. Even if the box office is fiasco, Roland Emmerich’s income can be kept above $20 million, and in any case it is a drought. This kind of condition, fireflies will certainly not open.
Of course, the fireflies are not too embarrassing, "Deliver Day" box office explosion, in addition to the original 8 million US dollars fixed pay, according to the corresponding sharing agreement, Roland Emmerich can also gradually get from the follow-up income of "Dongli" More than 20 million US dollars, calculated, a "Don Li" can also bring him $ 30 million into the account. The director who can get $30 million in revenue in a movie, the whole Hollywood is also a hand to count.
This is also the cooperation mode that Eric has always advocated. It suppresses fixed pay and combines the main creative interests with the box office income through appropriate sharing to share risks. Like Sony, the movie has not yet opened a $20 million sky-high price, and the high box office share is simply a mess.
Roland Emmerich saw that Eric was not angry after hearing that he would film for Sony. His face still had a faint smile and he was slightly relieved.
Although he has never seen this young man angry. But he will not naively think that Eric is a temper. Roland Emmerich and Firefly have been very happy in "The Big Crash" and "Don Liri". He also knows that these two films have pushed him to his current position. He is not the kind of ungrateful person. Usually, even if he is not bound, he is very willing to continue to cooperate with the fireflies, but this time. The offer from Sony did make it difficult for him to refuse.
"In short, I am sorry, Eric, I am afraid I can't direct "The Day After Tomorrow"," Roland Emmerich, although relaxed in his heart, still has a regretful expression on the surface, although the fireflies have been in full swing, Eric is in The influence of Hollywood is still increasing, and it is not a last resort. Roland Emmerich definitely does not want to anger Eric. Thinking about it, Roland Emmerich said: "Eric, everyone is looking forward to your new work. Perhaps, you personally come to direct "The Day After Tomorrow" is also a good choice."
"Let's see the situation," Eric smiled and said no.
Sony is ambitious to make "Godzilla" at least a trilogy. In theory, Roland Emmerich will not be able to come back to direct the fireflies in the next few years.
Eric was still a little uncomfortable with this matter, and Roland Emmerich gave up the instruction of "The Day After Tomorrow." The firefly's filming plan will be adjusted accordingly.
However, when Roland Emmerich was instructed to direct "The Big Crash", Roland Emmerich signed only two films with Fireflies. Completed "Don Liri", the contract between the two parties was completed, and the firefly had the right to renew the contract. But it is absolutely impossible to open even the same price as Sony, and it is like killing a parent. In this case, it is difficult for fireflies to force Roland Emmerich.
Of course, Eric is so easy to put Roland? Emmerich left, but also laid out in advance for a few years later.
The representative of Lyon Credit has arrived in Los Angeles. The acquisition is being negotiated with Amy Pascal, who is in charge of the flower studio. Once the MGM platform is released, the flower studio will expand rapidly.
On the other hand, despite Sony's strong financial support, but because of the huge losses in the operation of Peter Cooper, it is absolutely impossible for Sony to continue to operate Colombia-Samsung with a loss. Once Sony’s ambitious “Godzilla” series fails again, Sony’s confidence in continuing to maintain its movie business will be devastating. At that time, Flower Pictures will be able to eat Colombia and complete Eric’s further expansion into Hollywood. The plan for the layout.
Roland Emmerich didn't know Eric's mind, and when he saw him so easy to let himself go, his heart was a little embarrassed.
Therefore, the atmosphere of the breakfast was inevitably started to pick up, the two were not salty and chatted, and hurriedly finished the breakfast, Roland Emmerich took the initiative to settle the bill and left the restaurant.
Although Howard Stringer also hopes that he can communicate with Eric to entrust the digital domain with the "Godzilla" special effects, but Roland Emmerich is already quite embarrassed, this kind of thing is hard to say. I made up my mind to throw this headache into Sony’s own disposal.
After Roland Emmerich left, Eric was not in a hurry to go to the company. The waiter was ordered to remove the cutlery, asked for a cup of coffee, and read the newspaper today.
"Los Angeles Times" entertainment version of the weekly box office notice, the first is "Lonely Day" a ride of $ 85 million, followed by a new film of Universal Pictures, the famous "Apollo 13", although the actor It is no longer Tom Hanks, but with the excellent quality and reputation of the film, it still has more than $43 million in the first week of the box office, ranking second.
After all, despite the acquisition turmoil at the beginning of the year, Universal Studios still maintains a good box office score at the end of May, and the cost of the two films is not the same as the "Ghost Horse Elf" and the "Apollo 13" at the end of May. It's too high, although the results are far from being comparable to fireflies, but it is enough to make the global summer box office performance very good. Michael Eisner’s strong and fickle personality is not pleasing, but after the start of the global re-start, it seems to have been inspired by the spirit of running Disney in the 1980s. Eric remembers that in the next ten years, Universal Pictures will In the process of repeated change of ownership, there is continuous turmoil, that is, he does not know that he can afford to change several times in the world.
After "Apollo 13", it was the second week of "Forever Batman", with a box office of $42 million, ranking third. Next, "Forrest Gump" is still a very stable box office of more than 28 million US dollars, a weak 20% box office decline, ranking fourth, the total box office total of nearly 150 million US dollars. "Toy Story 2" has just reached $28.02 million at the box office, ranking fifth, with a total box office total of $130 million. It has also started a long line, but certainly not as strong as "Forrest Gump", the total box office is expected to be 200 million dollars up and down.
In addition, "Jurassic Park 2" has a total of more than 14 million box office in the fifth week after the cumulative box office reached 280 million US dollars. It is expected that the total box office will exceed 300 million US dollars next week, but at the same time, the weekly box office will also slide down to the million level. , enter the sweeping stage.
In just one month, the weekly box office slipped from 140 million to 14 million US dollars. In the newspaper, it was inevitable that there would be mistakes in the firefly distribution strategy. It was believed that the firefly opened 3,500 screens in the first week of painting, and excessively consumed the Jurassic Park 2 The box office potential, if the firefly's platter strategy can be conservative, the box office curve will definitely look better.
For this kind of comment, Eric just laughed, and everyone with a discerning eye could find out that in recent years, fireflies have almost occupied the entire June schedule. In order to avoid confrontation with the movies released by fireflies, other major film companies have taken early or The delayed distribution strategy, if not because the fireflies need to let "Dongli" cater to the US independence day on July 4, this film will definitely be a week ahead, and because of this, Warner dared to put "Forever Batman" On June 6th, this is the last 'box office bomb' of the firefly summer file.
It is precisely because of the fireflies that dominated the June schedule, so that other film companies have put the main film in July, starting from June 30th, "Apollo 13" and "Dongli", the whole of July Almost every week, there are two major new releases, such as "The King of the King" starring Foxkin? Carey on July 7 and Time Warner's "Future Water World", "The Museum's Wonderful Night" and "July 14" Evaporation Secret Order, "The Golden Eye of 007" and "The Pirates of Fire" on July 21. Under this intensive new film bombing, if the fireflies do not dig as much as possible in June at the box office of Jurassic Park 2, entering July, they will still be quickly occupied by a lot of new films.
Eric swept through several of today's major newspapers and noticed that Kevin Costner's "Future Water World" will be released today, so he picked up his mobile phone and dialed Amy Pascal's call to remind him. The other party pays attention to the trend of "Future Water World", and chooses the right time to open the "Real 2 Mission" negotiation with Kevin Costner. Although not seen in the film, Warner's $175 million water wasteland movie ticket is destined to end in disappointment. Counting the more popular Western film "Law Enforcement" last summer, Kevin Costner has failed two big productions. In this case, the flower film industry in "Mission Impossible 2" The remuneration negotiation will have a very large initiative.
Although there is strong support from Eric, in the process of acquiring MGM, the flower studio must still solve some of its financing, and finalize the contract of the sequel to the "Mission Impossible", which will undoubtedly increase the financing for the flower studio. Chips. (To be continued.)