Exploiting Hollywood 1980

  Chapter 963 Chapter 103 All-media copyright transaction

   What Ronald wants to buy are two types of films, including movies in which several female friends participated. One is a romance movie, and the other is a large-scale adventure action movie.

  Including "The Legend of Billie Jean" starring Helen Slater, "Streets of Fire" starring Diane, and "Some Kind of Wonderful" with Lea Thompson.

  The box office of these movies is very mediocre, but for a long time, when Diane, Helen and others are recognized on the street, there is a certain chance that their performances will be mentioned.

  So Ronald had to suspect that these films were not of poor quality, but that there were loopholes in the marketing work, and they could not find audiences who liked to watch such films.

   And bought the videotape copyrights of these films from the studios. It is estimated that because the box office is not good, it does not need a lot of money to achieve what it wants. Daydream just needed to test distribution director Michelle Cannold's theory that the video market wanted a romance, or an action movie that was more exciting than what was shown on TV.

Mitch Kent looked at the list given by Ronald. The film distributors include Paramount, Columbia/Samsung, and Universal, and said with a smile, "Don't expect too much. These people would rather let the copy lie in the warehouse. , is better than releasing a video and losing money. But once someone is willing to bid for it, it’s another matter. They will definitely raise the price as a performance of their work.”

"Then let me circle a few key points for you. I hope to get these movies. It doesn't matter even if the price is a little higher. The rest depends on whether the price is suitable." Ronald used his pen to circle the few key movies on the list. come out.

   “It’s good that they don’t know which ones we’re really buying.”

   Gray-eyed Mickey left with a new mission, and Michelle Cannold stayed with Ronald to continue the discussion.

"Tell me, why do you have such confidence in these two types of films." Ronald asked his fat assistant, "Hairspray" star Rich Lake to make a pot of black tea, and personally gave it to one of the most important subordinates under him. One poured a glass.

   This is when I went to the other side of the Pacific Ocean, where the officials of the Ministry of Culture gave me thin-bodied porcelain, and the white teacup was painted with red rose flowers.

"As I said, the viewers of the videotape are either teenagers or housewives. The ratings of TV dramas are very strict. If you increase the amount of ice cream they like to watch..." Kannold took a sip and listened It is said that this is a tea set exclusively for leaders, and it is impossible for ordinary people to buy it in the market.

"Don't talk about these superficial reasons, Michelle. I want to hear your real thoughts. We don't know what movies are popular in Hollywood. Why are you so confident?" Ronald refilled his glass in New York's Chinatown The best Wuyishan black tea I bought.

   "Hey, I'm actually because of the confidence brought by our company's 'sticky fingers'." Michelle Cannold put down her teacup with a smile. He explained his opinion. This comedy about two girls picking up cash from contraband dealers broke below the budget line in just a few weeks and was about to be pulled from theaters.

  But the sales figures of the videotape, which was only launched a few weeks later, were exceptionally good. He hired a survey company to conduct on-site surveys, and most of the buyers who came to buy were teenage women. Although it is still an order of magnitude away from the sales of long-running videotapes like "Dirty Dancing", it is already very close compared to some action movies.

  This is still only half of the power of teenage audiences (female audiences), what if it is a romantic drama? Then the other half of the teenage audience will also join the rental team. If you add some action scenes...

  So he deliberately selected these few movies that the audience has always cared about, to negotiate the copyright of the video tape. If this path works, then Daydream can adjust its focus to make these types of low-cost movies and directly supply the video tape market.

  Different from the movie theater distribution market where you have to pay expensive tickets to enter, video tape distribution does not require millions of marketing expenses. As long as you pay the channel fee, you can enter the video tape rental store and lie quietly on the shelf to be selected.

  This model is especially suitable for small companies like Daydream. It can be said that the profit of a single film is not as good as that of the successful ones in theatrical movies, but it is stable and steady.

This is why Daydream is very cautious about getting involved in theatrical distribution. If there is a box office bomb or a bad movie on the weekend of the theater, then in addition to the tens of millions of production costs, even the almost equally expensive marketing and publicity expenses will be lost. , also in vain.

   So when a bad movie comes across, basically the company will lose close to 20 million. Apart from relying on Ronald's unparalleled vision to make the decision himself, the other people who are daydreaming now have no right to decide on the project. Even if Ronald makes more money and loses two or three books a year, he must stop this kind of behavior that is equivalent to throwing cash into the Hudson River.

  …

  Mickey, the barrister with gray eyes, quickly sent good news. Now the major studios still think that only successful movies at the box office have the potential to earn excess profits in the video tape market. The movies that Ronald likes are all losers with a domestic box office of less than 20 to 30 million. Since this young director likes Roger Coleman-style B-movies so much, he should sell them to him. Indulge in an artist's eccentricities.

  Just like Spielberg likes to collect copies of old Hollywood movies, he has a copy of the masters starting from silent films in his own warehouse. And Martin Scorsese likes old foreign films, especially European ones, and has a lot of them in his home. Coppola changed his interest and changed to collecting red wine, which he called as a reference for his own winery.

  Ronald, people in the industry will know in the future that this guy's quirk is to collect B-grade movies that don't sell well. Maybe he makes movies that are always hits, just to study why these losers fail?

The copyright holders of these films need the consent of the director and producer to sell the copyright of the video tapes. They quickly agreed to Ronald's bid. Anyway, it is better to slowly collect the hundreds of dividends generated after the TV station broadcasts once. Sell ​​it to Ronald who is willing to pay in one go.

   There is only one producer, who has doubts about what Ronald really thinks. He specifically called Ronald to ask about the situation.

   "Ronald, it's me, Joel", Joel Silver waited for half an hour, and then received a call back from Ronald, very happy.

"Why, what's the matter with the marketing of Die Hard, do you need mine?" Ronald thought it was because of the Die Hard thing. The movie will be released in summer in July. Fox has already finished the audience test screenings, and was satisfied with the response of these lucky early-seeing audiences, and decided to invest the greatest resources in promoting the film vigorously in the summer.

"Ah, it's okay. It's the premiere in Los Angeles and New York. You have to attend once. The test audience of our movie responded very well, and almost didn't go to the bathroom. But my familiarity with the stars is still limited. Can you tell me more? Get some?" Joel Silver wanted Ronald to bring some free traffic.

   "Let me ask... It's hard to hire celebrities' itineraries." Ronald thought about asking Harrison Ford and Tom Cruise if they were free. They are all popular action stars. If they can come to support them, the media will definitely publish news.

   "I can invite Stallone here. You have no problem with him, right? Well, anyway, it's just showing up to make money for us. Can you invite Schwarzenegger? Why don't you come, we have a pair of candidates."

  …

"I said, why did you buy the rights to such a blockbuster movie? That movie almost made me leave Hollywood." After Joel Silver and Ronald finished the list of invited stars, they seemed to mention it nonchalantly. Ronald bought the copyright of "Streets of Rage".

   This movie was financed and produced by him, and was directed by the popular director Walter Hill. The filming cost was close to 15 million, and the domestic box office was only in the early 8 million. At that time, Walter Hill was considered by Hollywood to be lucky, and he was reduced to a situation where he did not make a movie. Later, relying on being a script doctor for Alien 2, he barely left Hollywood. But there has never been a blockbuster to ask him to direct.

Producer Joel Silver was even worse. He spent a million on a lighting engineer, a million on Giorgio Armani as a costume director, and another million on remaking the dismantled film for the end credits. The set was built back intact, which was directly considered by the big studios to be making money.

  However, Joel Silver's luck was better than that of the director. He then regained his position as a top independent producer in Hollywood by relying on two blockbusters "Lethal Weapon" and "Predator" with a box office of over 100 million.

  He was so impressed with the movie that almost killed him that he didn't believe the reason Ronald gave when he bought the video rights. Today is a good time to try and test, to see if I can find something to learn from Ronald's clever head.

"It's nothing. My colleagues think that the subject matter of this movie may have a future in the video tape market, so I took a gamble." Ronald told the truth, Joel Silver did not entangle in the price, the relationship between the two Still very good.

"I said, Ronald. Don't talk about these superficial reasons, I want to hear your real thoughts. Anyway, I promised to sell the copyright to you. In Hollywood, we are not even aware of which movies are blockbusters and which are not. Guess, why are you so confident?"

   "Hey...", Ronald said in his heart that he paid for you to buy the bad movies that didn't do well at the box office before. Why do you still suspect that I have some secrets? "I really don't have much self-confidence. My company is not strong enough, and I don't have the production ability like yours, so I just get some cheap movies and gamble on the video tape market."

"Is there no other reason? I actually have a lot of bad movies here, such as John Hughes's 'Weird Science' and Walter Hill's 'Brewster's Millions'." ', there is no profit line, why don't you try it? ’ probed Joel Silver.

   "Modern Nanny" is a rare box office failure of John Hughes, who has made popular movies in the past few years. Tell the story of how a computer-generated artificial intelligence female nanny helps computer idiots to have a party at home.

   "Brewster's Million Dollar Windfall" tells the story of a lucky baseball player who suddenly got his uncle's will. If he can spend 30 million US dollars within a month, he can inherit a family property of 300 million US dollars.

  Both of these two movies don’t have much love between men and women, nor do they have any ice cream content that TV stations can’t broadcast, Ronald doesn’t really want it.

   "Why, don't you want it? Or is there something special about the streets of anger?" Joel Silver smiled, and today he wanted to learn from Ronald.

"Hey, let me tell you the truth. It's actually because this movie is Diane's first adult leading role, and I want to buy it for her to make her happy." Ronald didn't want to put Michelle The secret that El Cannold had come up with was leaked just like that, and he was quick to move out Diane Lane in an attempt to prevaricate it.

   "Huh?" Joel Silver looked at Ronald strangely, is this serious? In order to please women, this amount of money is big enough, and it's not that gifting a house can make women get benefits. This kind of copyright transaction is just to make beauties smile.

   "Then I still have the copyright of the sequel and adaptation, do you want to buy it together?" Joel Silver still didn't quite believe it, so he tried again.

"Sequels and adaptations? Do you have all the production rights?" Ronald suddenly remembered that when he watched this movie, several video games he dreamed of were based on the movie's visual style and characters. of.

"Do you really want it?" Joel Silver was taken aback, letting go of his suspicions. It seemed that it was really a business venture and pleasing a woman. Looking at Ronald's handsome figure, he was stunned, "Ronald It will really please women, it can't be compared, it can't be compared..."

  He turned around and picked up the pager to call the secretary, and took out the paperwork from "Street of Rage". I dug out the document of production rights from the box and handed it to Ronald, "I have full production rights here. You can use it to make sequels, TV adaptations, or Broadway plays. It's cheaper for you." .”

   "This, I want my lawyer to look over it." Ronald put away the documents, and continued to taste red wine with Silver.

   "I said, what is director Walter Hill doing now? Didn't he have **** with you later?" Ronald thought of the director who made Diane, who was less than 20 years old, so mature and charming. It was on the set that I discovered Diane's charm of becoming a woman. In the movies she made afterwards, no director could make her so charming and turn her into a young **** the screen.

"He just finished filming Schwarzenegger's new film 'Red Heat'. He actually went to Moscow's Red Square to take the location. After General Secretary Mikhail came to power, they also began to learn from their neighbors in the south. It opens the door to this kind of artistic creation.”

   "That's rare...", Ronald thought, don't be greedy after watching Hua Guo make two Hollywood blockbusters and earn a lot of dollars.

   "Didn't you invest in that movie? You and Walter Hill didn't work together again?" Ronald remembered that Joel Silver and the director used to be the best partner.

"If the ups and downs of Hollywood have taught me anything..." Joel Silver greeted Ronald, raising his glass, "it's to work with capable people, not the unlucky ones who are eliminated by the market. Eggs. I hope they can return to the top, this kind of thing happened, but the probability is too small, many people died at the level of expecting a director to remake a masterpiece."

   "Well, I'll keep that in mind..." Ronald also raised his glass.

  …

   "Then what, I need to add one here...", Ronald received the visiting gray-eyed Mickey, the copyright transfer contract that the barrister asked his Harvard top students to revise, put it on the desk, and was browsed by Ronald.

   "Where?" Mitch Kanter raised his eyebrows, did he overlook something?

   "Here, I want to add a sentence, sequels, TV dramas, stage plays, adaptation rights, and a clause... and any other form of entertainment adaptation copyright, as well as the copyright of all derivative products."

   "It's very interesting, it seems that you have a new direction?" Mitch Kanter knows that this kind of legal document requires rigor, and Ronald added it specially, because he must have already had an idea.

   "Yeah, I might find someone to draw comics, or rewrite it as a novel and publish it." Ronald laughed.

   "Or the Japanese video game that is popular all over the world?" Mitch Kanter is also one of the few barristers in Hollywood who has inside knowledge of Nintendo and Universal's Donkey Kong game copyright case. He smiled and said to Ronald.

   "Or video game copyright." Ronald sealed the contract.

   "Cheers!" In the afternoon, Ronald handed over the contract to Joel Silver, and asked his lawyer to check that it was correct. He wrote a check and bought the rights to adapt it across the media.

"I have someone prepare ribbons and wax seals for you to give away." Joel Silver waved his secretary to take out the official version of the contract. There is also a rectangular box as the outer packaging, which is indeed suitable for female friends .

  In the future, for this movie, all the rights to adapt it will not belong to me. When Ronald is successful, he can only receive a small percentage of dividends from the original producer under the rules stipulated by the Producers Union.

   "Cheers!" Joel Silver also raised his glass and touched Ronald. Why did he always feel that this was a disadvantage compared to the trade.

  (end of this chapter)