Best Movie Star

In the Hollywood area, in a conference room at Paramount Pictures, Matthew and Stephen Sommers each sat at the side of the conference table, and the lawyer next to the two opened the contract and indicated where their signatures were required.

Matthew signed his name on the actor's contract, then swapped the contract with Stephen Sommers, who represented the cast of "Special Forces: The Rise of the Cobra," and signed it again.

Putting down the pen, Matthew stood up and shook hands with Stephen Sommers.

"Happy cooperation!"

"Happy cooperation!"

The two laughed at the same time.

At the same time, people in the conference room, including their lawyers, agents, and representatives of the Actors Guild, all sent congratulatory applause.

Matthew and Stephen Sommers then signed the Screen Actors Guild back-up contract, and the signing was complete.

The lawyers and representatives of the Screen Actors Guild were still busy with the finishing touches. Stephen Sommers took the initiative to bypass the conference table, shook hands with Matthew again, and said, "I finally waited for you."

Matthew smiled, "I've been looking forward to working with you."

In fact, this is his third time working with Stephen Sommers and his second time starring in a Stephen Sommers film.

From the first contact between the two parties to the signing of the contract, it took more than half a year. The period included negotiations on the modification of the script, the remuneration of the male lead, the part-time producer, etc. It also involved the cooperation between Paramount Pictures and Hasbro. Negotiations between several parties have been tug-of-war for several months, and the current agreement has finally been reached.

In addition to the script factor, the reason why the negotiation was so long was that Helen Herman made a lot of demands for Matthew. Although some of them were abandoned during the negotiation, the most important ones were all reflected in the contract.

In terms of script, there is naturally only one male lead, Matthew, and the rest of the supporting roles will not exceed one-third of his character Duke at most. This is a rigid stipulation in the contract, and the final film must reflect this. a little.

In order to protect the rights and interests in this regard, Matthew also naturally got a producer quota, and has the right to suggest actors for other roles.

At present, the crew has only identified two male and female protagonists, namely him and the British actor Sienna Miller, who is a model, who will play the famous female villain in the animation, the Baroness.

For the other roles, suitable candidates have not been found for the time being. Matthew can put forward his own opinions on the actor candidates, and the crew must give priority to his suggestions.

It's no exaggeration to say that he's one of the most powerful people on the set, even matching the power of Stephen Sommers, the full director.

Stephen Sommers is director and producer on the set.

Hollywood implements the "producer-centered system", where the producer has more decision-making power than the director in the film, and he can even dismiss the director. The so-called "full director" is the producer and director.

Stephen Sommers is different from a half-hearted person like Matthew. He has quite a professional ability. Hollywood producers must have sufficient artistic level, vision and judgment. They can choose the theme, find a screenwriter to write the script, and hire a suitable one. The director, finds the investors, determines the appropriate cast and crew, forms the crew, and is responsible for the sales of the film after the film is finished.

The producer is responsible for the quality and marketing of the entire film.

Although the producer-centric system was only fully established in the late 1970s and early 1980s, it is deeply ingrained in Hollywood.

For example, in the famous "Gone with the Wind", the producer changed three directors during the filming process, even just because of small details such as costumes and props. Although such excessive neglect of the director's role is suspected of being "offside", it is also from one aspect. Illustrates the powerful position of Hollywood producers.

Matthew is a part-time producer, more to protect his own rights and interests.

Now, he already owns a production company. As long as the films he invested in and produced can be successfully released in theaters, he will have the corresponding qualifications to join the Producers Alliance. There are also more opportunities for the profession of producers and the industry of producer alliances. Learn more.

For example, the Producers Alliance divides the film production process into four stages: early planning, preliminary preparation, actual shooting and production, publicity and distribution, and post-operation, accounting for about 35%, 20%, and 30% respectively. Twenty or twenty-five percent, a producer must be deeply involved in no less than fifty percent of the work in order to be eligible to be nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture. If he is only involved in two stages of work and does not include the first stage, he will definitely not reach fifty percent.

This also reflects the importance that Hollywood film production attaches to the topic selection and planning stage.

In addition, in order to protect the rights and interests of real producers, the Producers Alliance is resisting the growing phenomenon of people who have nothing to do with production naming producers, such as investors and distributors who have nothing to do with the production process.

Ma Xiu is developing in the direction of actor and producer, but he is very clear that when it comes to professional quality, he is much worse.

Fortunately, he can, like other studios, hire highly specialized producers to serve him.

The contract with the crew also stipulates that he must join the crew as soon as possible, because the shooting will start in October at most, and the schedule of "Special Forces: The Rise of the Cobra" is scheduled for the summer of next year, so there is really not much time to waste.

Fortunately, Stephen Sommers has been preparing for this project since last year. The early planning and preparatory work have been completed. The main actors are in place and ready, and they can immediately start shooting.

Hollywood movies are highly commercialized and process-oriented products. From the idea of ​​the story, every decision of the producer is aimed at maximizing profits: the polishing of the script must meet the audience's preferences, and the character setting must have selling points. It is a cartoon, and the development of peripheral products should be considered at the beginning of character setting.

The importance of schedule locking lies in the pressure on the director and the crew from the start of filming, forcing them to complete the task at a certain point, because all follow-up marketing plans must be carried out around the release date.

Once a film is scheduled, it will not be easily modified.

"Special Forces: The Rise of the Cobra" has a production budget of $80 million, and its promotion and marketing have already gone ahead.

The most important aspect of the reason why the production budget is so high is the inevitable result of Matthew's high salary.

Remuneration is also the core content of this contract.

According to Hollywood practice, Matthew holds the two positions of actor and producer in the crew, and can get corresponding remuneration, but in order to protect other rights and interests, Helen Herman has made concessions in this regard. Xiu was only paid a nominal dollar for the position of producer.

His male lead's salary is already very high!

As the absolute protagonist of this project, Matthew got the highest salary of the crew of course. This salary is composed of three parts, namely the basic salary paid in the early stage, the North American box office share of the film and the related peripheral products of the male protagonist Duke. revenue share.

Among them, the basic remuneration is 20 million US dollars, and the North American box office share directly enjoys 10% of the box office share regardless of the box office.

The reason why the share is limited to the North American box office is mainly because Helen Herman won another share for him.

In the future, 50% of the profits created by Duke's peripheral products using his image will belong to him as dividends.

This is also the treatment that the top stars in the circle can only have.

Take Johnny Depp, for example, who owns half of the proceeds from all the merchandise directly related to Captain Jack Sparrow.

If this is an independent film, the income in this area is better than nothing, and it is not much better if it is zero, but it is no secret that if a big-budget film is a hit at the box office, it can get terrifying peripheral income.

The real value of the film industry is not how much profit the film itself can generate, how much box office it can generate, but how many opportunities it provides for cooperation between enterprises and other fields.

These areas include TV products, theme parks, consumer goods, soundtrack D, books, computer games and interactive entertainment, and even the **** industry, and movies just provide the key to this magical kingdom.

After signing the contract, Matthew then joined Stephen Sommers' crew~www.readwn.com~ On the one hand, he received military training to prepare for the next shooting, and on the other hand, he was properly involved in some productions. People work, learn and accumulate experience.

In the future, there are still many more films to be shot at No. 13 Film Studio, so he must be more professional in production.

It also allowed him to learn a lot.

For example, the promotion and marketing of "Special Forces: The Rise of the Cobra".

Most of the publicity expenses for this film will be spent in North America, and overseas is relatively much less.

If a film fails at the box office in the United States, but sells well in the world, is this a box office success for the film company? Actually it depends on the situation. But generally speaking, the local market for Hollywood films is relatively important, because the film companies tend to take a larger share of the revenue from the local box office.

For a Hollywood movie, the production company gets about 30% of the overseas box office, and due to the constant changes in the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar, collecting overseas box office revenue has become a seemingly simple but actually difficult task. .

At the same time, the government's imposition of tariffs will also reduce the share of film companies.

Therefore, compared with overseas box office revenue, the North American box office is more reliable.

And the most important peripheral income of a film, North America will always be the largest, then Europe, and other markets are much worse.

No one can expect to get a lot of copyright peripheral income from regions such as Latin America, the Far East and Africa, and that is unrealistic.

But this is not to say that overseas box office is not worthy of attention, especially when the movie box office fails in North America, it is particularly necessary to rely on overseas box office. ..

Just as Matthew was preparing for the project, he saw an acquaintance in the crew.

A man who once made him vomit blood.