Hollywood Hunter

Ed Warren and Rowling Warren were born in the 1920s. The couple have been engaged in supernatural investigations and exorcism since the 1950s.

In the 1970s, influenced by the craze of "The Exorcist", spiritual events across North America began to receive frequent media attention. It was from that era that the Warrens became famous.

The material for the two horror films this time, "The Recall" and "The Mortuary Haunted Incident", are both adapted from the personal experiences of the Warrens. Both stories also took place in Connecticut in northern New York.

However, the copyright sources of the two projects are different.

After becoming famous, the Warrens accepted various interviews everywhere and authorized some writers to create books, so many true and false spiritual stories appeared.

In addition, the experience of the supernatural event itself will also be interviewed by the media.

For the two projects this time, the former is based on the Warrens' personal narration, and the latter is based on the novel adaptation of the incident experienced by the Snedek family after an interview.

After lunch, Simon took Danny Morris to his office, and the two continued their discussion.

"Regarding the creation of the script, I will take the time to draw up an idea for you," the two sat opposite each other at the desk, and Simon said: "The most important issue now is copyright. The Warrens should have received many interviews and Authorization. Next, I need you to investigate in detail the status of all external authorizations of the couple. Danny, I don’t want someone to suddenly come out and sue us for infringement and compensation for 100 million US dollars after the release of the film."

On the original timeline, after the "Call of Souls" was released and won an excellent box office, the Warrens once authorized an author to write about the bizarre investigation experience of the two men and asked Warner to claim 900 million US dollars.

There are countless similar lawsuits in Hollywood every year, and 900 million dollars is of course only a joke.

However, because of more ambitions for this series, Simon does not want to encounter these bad things that could avoid repeated wrangling.

Danny Morris is naturally clear about Hollywood’s frequent copyright disputes, but he is affirmative: "Simon, copyright should be okay. We retain the original recordings of the Warrens and signed a license agreement. Although "The Mortuary Haunted Incident" is also related to the Warrens, it is a novel written by the horror novelist Ray Catton after interviewing the Snedek family. We have also signed an agreement with Caton."

Simon nodded, then shook his head, and said, "In fact, Danny, I think the Warren couple’s experience is far more valuable than just this one. The material you gave me shows that Warren The couple has been engaged in spiritual investigations for 30 years, and they have stored a large number of cursed or spiritually disturbed items. Have you ever thought about turning these experiences of the couple into a long-term series."

The story of "The Recall" is just an extract of the Warren couple’s long career as a supernatural investigator. Danny Morris didn’t think too far. Hearing Simon’s words, he immediately opened up: "This is indeed a good one. Idea, Simon, I will have someone investigate what the Warrens may have authorized."

"Actually, you still don't quite understand," Simon said with a smile at the corner of his mouth, "I mean, since we have successfully created a DC movie universe, then, take the Warrens as a supernatural investigator for thirty years. With career as the material, we may also be able to create a universe of interlocking horror films."

The DC movie universe is definitely one of the biggest innovations since the birth of Hollywood.

For most Hollywood filmmakers, the only thing that can compete with the DC movie universe is probably the Marvel movie universe waiting to be developed by Daenerys Entertainment.

Danny Morris did not expect that Simon would attach so much importance to the Warrens, and he wanted to create a special movie universe.

This is the "Cinema Universe".

Although it is clear that with the market capacity of horror films, this movie universe cannot be compared with the DC movie universe, but if it succeeds, it will definitely become a classic Hollywood business case.

What's more, compared to DC Cinema Universe's current investment of 70 to 80 million US dollars, the biggest advantage of horror movies is the low cost, so the risk is also lower.

After his thoughts flew for a moment, Danny Morris couldn't help but subconsciously made a swallowing motion. Realizing his own situation, he laughed at himself, but quickly said seriously: "It seems that I will next There are many things to do."

"This is just one of my thoughts," Simon gave Danny Morris a little cooler, and said: "The key is still to see whether these two projects can be successful. If the box office of "The Convocation" and "The Haunted Morgue" The performance is too mediocre, so there is no way to talk about the idea of ​​the movie universe. So, before at least two films are released, you'd better not just talk about it with other people."

Danny Morris nodded again, even if Simon didn't remind him, he would do so.

Not only to avoid becoming a joke after failure, if the outside world learns that Daenerys Entertainment plans to create a new movie universe, it will definitely attract a lot of troubles like imitating and wanting to share the pie. .

Danny Morris is already thinking fast about how to sign an exclusive agreement with the Warrens.

Seeing Danny Morris lost in thought, Simon opened a document and read it for a while. After waiting for the same time, he raised his head again: "There is also the matter of "Detective Plane Head", I think that person is named The actors of Kim Carey have their own performance characteristics. You can give each other the best possible space during the production process. Well, by the way, how is the contract signed?"

When Danny Morris heard Simon change the subject, he temporarily retracted his mind.

"Calling the Soul" and "Hunting Time in the Mortuary" are the earliest events of the summer next year, but "Detective Plane" is a scheduled movie for Easter next year.

Regarding Kim Carey, Danny Morris also didn't quite understand why Simon had taken a fancy to the performance of the unknown little actor.

Kim Carey is 30 years old this year. He has been playing small roles in various movies before. The more well-known one is a supporting role in the 1986 film "Peggy Sue Is Getting Married" directed by Coppola.

It wasn't until two years ago that Kim Carey's popularity barely reached the second tier, relying on a TV comedy "Vivid Colors" with a fairly good ratings.

Since Simon has appointed him to star in "Detective Plane", Danny Morris will not be polite to the inexplicably lucky little actor, saying: "According to the original Julia Roberts contract, there are a total of five. "Detective Plane." "Head" has a salary of US$200,000, and the next four films have a maximum cap of US$5 million and the contract period is 15 years."

If he could predict the future, Simon was certain that Kim Carey would not sign such a contract even if he was killed.

On the original timeline, 1994 was not only the year when Hollywood movies came out in large numbers, but also the most glorious year for Kim Carey. The comedy star released three movies in one breath that year, "Inspecting Airplane Head", "Dumb and Agua" and "Ghost in Disguise", the three movies not only sold at the box office, among them, "Dumb and Agua" and "Ghost in Disguise" also squeezed into the top ten of the annual box office list.

Ordinary people always talk about which Hollywood star has joined the 20 million remuneration club. What many people don’t know is that the first Hollywood star to reach 20 million US dollars without a fixed remuneration is the gold ·Kerry.

If the film participating in the film continues to sell at the box office, the highest salary can only get 5 million US dollars, although this is already the salary standard of the first-line superstar, but with Simon's understanding of Kim Carey, the star will definitely not be reconciled.

However, this world obviously has no regret medicine to take.

Of course, there is one more thing. Simon will also take a little control this time and will not give Kim Carrey the opportunity to make three big hits a year.

In the memory of the three films of Kim Carrey in 1994, the script of "The Detective Plane" has been in the hands of Daenerys Entertainment, and the "Ghost in Disguise" adapted from a comic work by Dark Horse Comics has also been taken down. A Dumb and Agua is a little troublesome.

In the original version of "Dumb and Agua", the director and screenwriter on the main creator list are all Ferrari brothers.

In fact, this is not the case.

The script of "Dumb and Agua" was originally written by John Hughes.

However, because the script is not complete, it is only similar to a story outline, and it is not valued by John Hughes. After New Line Pictures paid for the story, after negotiation between the two parties, John Hughes took the initiative to give up his signature. Therefore, the film became the work of the Ferrari brothers who took over the responsibility for perfecting the script.

After the success of the "Home Alone" series, John Hughes has completely given up his job as a director in recent years, focusing on operating his own Hughes Entertainment Company as a screenwriter and producer, and he has once again increased the requirements for his film creation. For profit sharing, Hughes directly offered an additional 10% gross revenue share for omni-channels in "The Kid Next Door," a recent collaboration with Warner Bros. Pictures.

Gross income and net profit are completely two concepts.

Take the box office as an example. The gross revenue is equivalent to the share of the studio's income in the box office of the movie, without deducting the production and distribution costs, and John Hughes directly draws 10% from it.

Compared with Daenerys Entertainment’s only 10% of the local box office share, John Hughes’s 10% at the local box office is only half of Daenery’s Entertainment’s share, but it includes global box office and video tapes. Sales, TV broadcast revenue and even movie peripheral sales and other channels.

Under such conditions, if the box office of the movie is not good enough, the studio may lose money even if it is not paying attention, but Hughes makes a steady profit and does not take any risks.

Simon roughly knows that the "Home Alone" series is basically the pinnacle of John Hughes. After the nineties, with the rise of blockbuster, Hughes' movie style was quickly eliminated by Hollywood.

Therefore, "Home Alone 2" can be regarded as the last project of Daenerys Entertainment and John Hughes.

In the original time and space, the new line can spend a lot of money from Hughes, who is still hot after making two consecutive "Home Alone", just buy a script idea, and finally succeed in missing it. It is obviously impossible for Daenerys Entertainment to do so now.

Moreover, now Simon is not interested in taking the risk of creative crashes and tossing "Dumb and Agua" out.

Not surprisingly, this vulgar comedy is likely to be completely fanned out.

Continue to discuss with Danny Morris for half an hour, basically finalizing the two projects of "Detective Plane" and "Ghost in Disguise" will be produced continuously, and the protagonist will naturally be Kim Carrey.

"Detective Airplane Head" will be produced in the second half of the year and will be set for next Easter. The shooting of "Ghost in Disguise" will start early next year and will be set for the end of next year. By doing so, it will save a lot of money at least. "Detective Plane" was not released, and Kim Carey's pay for participating in "The Transformers" can still be controlled at the level of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

After Danny Morris left, the female assistant came to remind that Daenerys Entertainment's regular meeting on the recent annual financial review.

The 1992 financial report will not be released until February, this time it is only a weekly periodic report.

In the plan, Daenerys Entertainment will start preparing for the IPO from the end of this year. Not surprisingly, it went public in the summer of 1994.

Therefore, the financial data of 1992 is very important to promote Daenerys Entertainment's IPO process.

In 1992, the most important business of Daenerys Entertainment was still film.

The top ten movies in the North American box office rankings in 1992, calculated according to the deadline of December 31, 1992, are roughly as follows:

First place: "Wonder Woman", $371 million

Second place: "Aladdin", $176 million

Third place: "Jurassic Park", 163 million US dollars (in theaters)

Fourth place: "Lethal Weapon 3", $143 million

Fifth place: "Home Alone 2", $142 million (in theater)

Sixth place: "The Ring of Midnight", US$131 million (in theater)

Seventh place: "Moment of Killing", 114 million US dollars

Eighth: "Teenage Ninja Turtles", $113 million

Ninth place: "Nuns Are Crazy", 108 million US dollars

Tenth place: "Peachy Transaction", US$93.11 million

Just this list is not difficult to find, in addition to "Aladdin", "Deadly Weapon 3" and "Nun Crazy", the other seven movies are related to Daenerys Entertainment.

This ratio is basically the same as last year.

However, compared to 1991, after Daenerys Entertainment merged with MCA, the increase in distribution strength of the three film labels in 1992 once again greatly increased, which also brought more market share to the rapidly rising Hollywood giant.

Throughout 1992, the total box office of the North American film market reached $5.36 billion.

Among them, all 41 movies directly released by Daenerys Entertainment are calculated in the period from January 1 to December 31, 1992 (including the 1992 box office part of the movies released in 1991, and not counting the 1992 movies The 1993 box office part), the total box office figure reached 2.13 billion US dollars, and the market accounted for 39.7%.

If you count the US$294 million at the box office of the three foreign cooperation films "Killing Hour", "Peachy Deal" and "The Last Mohican", the proportion will be further increased to 45.1%.

The annual box office market share of other major studios can exceed 20%, which is enough to celebrate with champagne. In a fiercely competitive market where the seven major coexistences and a large number of second and third-tier film companies compete for me, Hollywood suddenly appears a giant with a market share of nearly 40%. This is an oligarch level that people look up to.