American fame and fortune.

Chapter 719 Lost money

Century City, WMA headquarters.

In the hall, which was rarely open to media reporters, a temporary podium was set up. Christopher Nolan and Ali Emmanuel sat at two tables, picked up signature pens, and signed their respective contracts.

At the entrance of a lounge diagonally behind, Martin and Thomas watched Nolan officially sign a contract with WMA and change his management company.

This popular Hollywood director left CAA at the end of last month.

Thomas looked at Nolan, who had signed the contract, and then at Martin, who was standing next to him, and raised his hand to touch his bald forehead.

Although he achieved a terrifying transformation from grassland to desert in just seven years, he has no regrets at all.

When he had a full head of hair, he was just one of many low-level agents at CAA.

When his hair fell out and turned into the Mediterranean, he was already a top agent in Hollywood, earning seven figures a year!

Who wouldn’t be envious?

Martin suddenly said: "CAA can't keep Nolan after all."

Nolan said with emotion: "I didn't expect that we would reach this point with Warner Bros."

Martin thought for a while and said: "In the same company, starting a business and becoming the number one in the industry have different mentality. CAA in the 1980s and 1990s regarded themselves as servants of their clients. Now some of CAA's senior agents may regard themselves as servants." The owner of the client.”

Speaking of this, there is a sense of familiarity, as if this kind of company has experienced it before.

Ali joined the two at the right time and said: "WMA fully supports you and safeguards its legitimate interests!"

Martin nodded: "Warner Brothers, I don't know what to say."

Thomas said: "That's right. In order to get the representation of Sean Connery and Spielberg, the founders of CAA sacrificed so much. They wanted to sell their butts to them. Michael Ovitz almost begged. I just got their agency contract, and now..."

"Yes." Thomas responded, but was suddenly surprised.

Martin said: "CAA suppressed his share of last year's share and didn't give it to him, and they are still delaying it."

Martin stepped forward to shake hands with Nolan and said with a smile: "Chris, welcome to WMA."

The signing ended, the media interviews were completed, and then Nolan, Ali, Emma Thomas and others came to the lounge.

Nolan said: "We are going to fight together soon."

The matter between CAA and Nolan is simply the best negative teaching material, and he must learn from it.

Thomas sighed: "CAA is no longer the CAA it was in the early days of its establishment. With so many top customers leaving, there must be something wrong with their internal management."

In recent years, CAA has lost a lot of its first-line customers. Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Leonardo, Halle Berry and Christopher Nolan, etc., have left CAA one after another.

As long as you don't get dizzy, this position is very stable.

Martin said: "Last year's share has been overdue for 40 days and has not been paid. My lawyer has sent a lawyer's letter, but Warner Bros. has been delaying and wants to continue to delay."

Thomas added: "I heard that Director Nolan is planning to sue CAA?"

Agents are only service providers for clients, especially when it comes to front-line clients. If Nolan is forced like CAA, he will only be abandoned mercilessly.

Martin recalled a little, wasn't this the case with many property management companies in previous lives?

Ali said: "The reason given by Warner is that the payment in the international market is overdue, so we should continue to wait."

Thomas glanced at Martin. Compared to other people in Hollywood, Martin was more friendly to his own family because of his possible background.

Nolan shook his head: "We have been waiting for more than forty days, and we cannot wait indefinitely."

Although Martin is no longer cooperating with Warner Bros., he has appeared in many films produced by Warner Pictures, and also enjoys a certain amount of post-production sharing in films such as "The Dark Knight".

Nolan has been cooperating with Warner since "White Nights" and has been involved in a larger number of films.

Warner Pictures has not yet paid the two people their 2011 post-production royalties.

Of course, it is not just them, but also involves many companies and individuals.

After the media reporters outside dispersed, the group went upstairs to discuss. ,

Soon, Martin's lawyer Hamlin and Nolan's lawyer rushed to WMA. After successively sending lawyer letters to no avail, Nolan and Martin simultaneously chose legal action.

Not only them, many famous celebrities and directors in the industry who have business dealings with Warner also made the same choice.

Warner Bros., Hollywood's number one performer in the past decade, seems to have run into some trouble after the coaching change.

…………

Warner Building, Chairman's Office.

Kevin Tsujihara told several subordinates: "I received a notice from the legal department that the company has received notices from Leonardo da Vinci, George Clooney, Daniel Radcliffe, Matt Damon, and Christian Bale. , Martin Davis, Christopher Nolan and many others have written letters demanding that we pay the arrears of late-stage royalties and the resulting interest.”

The first reaction of Jon Berg, the president of Warner Pictures, was to shirk the responsibility: "The distribution channels did not receive payment in a timely manner, and the payment collection for many projects exceeded the planned expectations, which led to difficulties in the working capital turnover of the film business. Without the money, I would not be able to do it." Misappropriate funds from other businesses and give these people a share later.”

When Daniel, who is in charge of the distribution business, heard this, he felt angry from the bottom of his heart: "Why is the film business not getting paid in time? Because many films failed last year, and the North American box office did not meet expectations, which led to the postponement of releases in many overseas markets, and even in some overseas markets. Withdrew from the publishing ranks, which caused a series of chain reactions!"

"That's enough!" Kevin Tsujihara interrupted Daniel: "Are you just going to blame each other and shirk responsibility?"

Jon Berg turned to look at Daniel, where is the promised alliance? Did we agree to shoulder the responsibility together?

Daniel softened his tone slightly and continued: "If there is a problem with payment collection from the distribution channel for a movie released last year, I will be responsible! But why do such problems also occur with old movies? I remember very clearly, the payment for old movies There is no problem, the issuing company transfers all accounts on time."

The movie business is only a part of Warner Bros., but the movie business is also one of the basic businesses that Warner Bros. is based on, so Kevin Tsujihara handed over Warner Pictures to his brother-in-law Jon Berg, hoping that he would be in charge of it as quickly as possible. Speed ​​up.

Kevin Tsujihara rarely directly intervenes in the film business. After hearing Daniel's words, his eyes fell on Jon Berg and asked him to give a reasonable explanation.

Jon Berg said calmly: "The post-production of "Jack the Giant Catcher" has reached a critical stage, and some additional investments have been temporarily added. Because of the tight schedule and heavy tasks, in order not to affect the company's daily operations, I temporarily transferred the repayments from some old films. invested in the post-production of this film.”

Daniel stopped talking, because this kind of thing is not uncommon within Warner.

This was within Jon Berg's normal purview, and Kevin Tsujihara did not comment.

Jon Berg continued: "The arrears of the share will not be a problem when the repayments from the channels are gradually received. We will give them a little interest at most, and we will not even need to pay interest after negotiation."

Kevin Tsujihara and Daniel both think this is okay, because similar situations happen in the industry from time to time, and because Warner Bros. is one of the top companies in Hollywood.

Celebrities and directors have mailed legal letters or even taken legal action. As long as Warner delays for a while and reaches a settlement with them, the matter will be resolved easily.

However, there were a lot of people and funds involved, so Kevin Tsujihara still paid attention: "Don't be in arrears for too long. Find a way to solve part of it first."

Jon Berg is a genius who can not only launch epic reforms in the production model, but also use the inherent rules of Hollywood to innovate: "With Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert The actor group of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" headed by Tregret will receive a huge amount of share in the later stage..."

He glanced at Kevin Tsujihara and expressed it in another way: "If they follow the box office and profit sharing contract, they will share hundreds of millions of dollars."

Kevin Tsujihara understood what Jon Berg meant as soon as he heard it: "Is this project really profitable?"

Jon Berg shook his head: ""Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" suffered serious losses."

In the past, Warner Bros. wanted to coax the cast of Harry Potter, and even spoiled some of them, such as Emma Watson, into princess syndrome.

But the Harry Potter series is over, and the value of these fixedly described actors has changed from infinite in the past to infinitesimally small in the future. There is no need for Warner Bros. to pamper them anymore.

Jon Berg looked at Daniel: "You should have paid a lot in terms of promotion and distribution expenses..."

In this matter, Daniel could not hold back the group and said, "Don't worry, the publicity and distribution costs are much higher than the production costs."

The distribution is done by the Warner Bros. label, and most of the promotion is through Warner's media. When the box office is divided into Warner Bros., the publicity and distribution expenses and management expenses must first be deducted.

Needless to say, it is a basic operation that global publicity and distribution expenses exceed production costs.

Jon Berg added: "The crew has a production fee of US$1.5 million, which comes from loans from the distribution company. Don't forget to calculate the interest."

Daniel waved his hand casually. There was no need to talk about this kind of thing. He had already made a calculation in his heart. The income from "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" fell into the hands of the production company, and it would be a loss no matter how it was calculated.

As for the profit sharing in the contract signed by the actors, they will definitely not enjoy it.

A film with a global box office of 13.56 billion US dollars and DVD sales ranking first in 2011 has a negative net profit, which is both reasonable and legal.

Without this large share of the Harry Potter crew, the other people's parts are not much for Warner Pictures, and they can be solved smoothly with a little delay.

Coming out of the chairman's office, Jon Berg and Daniel, the producers and distributors who love and kill each other, got together to chat for a while.

Professionals from both parties will soon go out to prepare the revenue statement for "Harry Potter 9" according to Hollywood-style accounting methods, and tell the world gloriously and responsibly that this movie lost money!

(End of this chapter)