Hollywood Road

The sky was dark and the temperature dropped. In the small courtyard in front of Stanton's studio, there was a table in the center, Murphy, James Franco, Seth Logan and Jonah Hill. The four people sat around and said something loudly, and when Kerry Mulligan came over with a fruit plate, his voice fell quickly.

After that night, they gradually formed a small group.

"If I become a star in the future,"

Speaking of the news from Bill Rossis, the fat Jonah Hill was very angry, "I will definitely not cooperate with a junk company like Lionsgate!"

An empty beer glass fell heavily on the table with a bang. Seth Logan, a simple-looking guy with a fat face flushed red, "Count me!"

They just broke into this circle, they are not lacking in momentum at all.

Kerry Mulligan stood up, picked up his own glass, took a big sip, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and said proudly, "and me!"

She can't wait to blow up all the high-level eggs of Lionsgate!

Hearing these words, James Franco grabbed a grape and threw it into his mouth. Just about to say something, he suddenly found Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill and Carey Mulligan all staring at him. .

Avoiding Kerry Mulligan's eyes, he nodded to the other two, raised his glass and said loudly, "How can I not count this kind of thing?"

"Thank you!" Murphy raised his glass and gestured to several people one by one, "Thank you for your support."

He raised his head and drank the remaining wine in the glass, and the other four toasted.

After experiencing life in prison, Murphy's heart is hard enough to hear these words, still a little touched, this feeling of being supported and fighting side by side is much better than fighting alone.

Even if they are outside the words, they can't actually show any power.

On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, he was a lonely person. When he came here, he was in a place where the sun is not visible. Now he has a girlfriend and a few like-minded friends, his life is undoubtedly changing step by step towards a good .

Although there are countless difficulties ahead like Lionsgate and Miramax, Murphy believes that he will be able to go on until the top of the road of directors.

A glass of wine poured into his stomach, but Kerry Mulligan's small face twisted, reminding Murphy, "Bill said Lionsgate may be different from Miramax, and they are very interested in making a similar film. interest."

She looked at Murphy, then at the three people opposite Seth Rogen, "What should we do?"

It is impossible to say that she is not worried at all. She made two films and has a better understanding of the industry. In case "Chain Saw" hasn't found a suitable distributor, there will be Lionsgate. The film of the industry enters the theater first, and Murphy will definitely be greatly affected, and it is possible that the investment will not be recovered.

Kerry Mulligan glanced back, and the dark house was hiding behind the lights. If "Saw Cry" failed, you should not be able to rent this house. She and Murphy would probably end up in the park. Homeless...

Although this seems very romantic in the heart of the little girl, she feels distressed when she thinks of the financial and spiritual double blow that Murphy may have suffered.

Yes? What should I do?

Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, and James Franco looked at Murphy, and some words were easy to shout, but they didn't help solve the problem.

They know very well that it still depends on Murphy how to solve it in the end.

"Big companies in the upper reaches of the industry chain squeeze smaller companies in the downstream. This is a common phenomenon in any country and any industry in the world,"

Sitting on the back of the chair, with his left hand supporting the armrest to prop up his chin, Murphy's tone is gradually relaxing, "In fact, this matter is not difficult to solve, as long as our film can be the first to enter the theater."

He coughed, Kerry Mulligan quickly handed over a glass of water, Murphy took a sip, and continued, "Make an assumption, Lionsgate is determined to make a similar film, but such a How can it take more than 20 days for the film to be prepared and completed. We can enter the theater during this time, and even if they are released soon, they will become imitators."

James Franco understood Murphy's meaning and nodded, "Imitators are always inferior to their predecessors, regardless of word-of-mouth or box office."

"Bingo!" Murphy snapped his fingers. "As long as it can be released in front of Lionsgate, the impact of this incident on us will become infinitely small. And what about Lionsgate? For movies with similar themes, under the premise that we just released them, their risk will at least double!"

For Lionsgate, a company that specializes in operating horror films, the risk of doubling may not be too high. This is probably why they dared to discuss this project.

This is Murphy's own idea. Since Lionsgate has discussed it among the top management, it means that the project may become a reality.

As he said, the best way to avoid the influence of Lionsgate is to push "Chain Saw" into the theater as soon as possible.

Of course, he and Bill Rossis are not entirely sure what Lionsgate is really going to do, but these things must be prepared.

The reality is that it will not give him too long waiting time. Murphy has also accelerated the pace of the negotiation. On Miramax, he left 15 million US dollars plus an offer for two films, and the negotiation once again fell into a deadlock.

However, for the sake of retreat, he kept Bill Rossis in contact with Miramax.

And several companies, such as DreamWorks and Morris Entertainment, have kicked Murphy out or were kicked out by Murphy because of too much disagreement.

The only thing that has progressed a bit is the Fox searchlight.

Perhaps it is the company's business strategy, or it may be affected by the out-of-poor performance in the first quarter. They have invested a lot of attention on their estimated North American market volume of tens of millions of dollars.

As the owner of Stanton Studios and the copyright owner of the film, Murphy has had five rounds of negotiations with Godin Clyde of Fox Searchlight. Just like the initial negotiation process, Godin Clyde has a relatively mild style. It is with a smile that makes people feel like a spring breeze, but when it comes to interests, it doesn't give up.

Such negotiations are destined to be arduous, and when progress is hopeless, Murphy even wants to accept the price offered by Miramax.

However, thinking of Harvey Weinstein's face and Miramax's affiliation, he still considered the other party as a candidate, even if Miramax came out again, saying that a horror film is about to be established...

The biggest disagreement between Murphy and Fox Searchlight is undoubtedly the issue of the cost of the negotiations with Godin Clyde, he is completely 0.1% knock down, but also as far as possible when the announcement was made. All expenses are classified into this 30% rake.

Like some companies, if the issuance rake is calculated separately, and the announcement fee is also deducted from the box office, he might as well sign a sale contract with Miramax.

Site fees, transportation fees, labor costs, insurance costs... these seem inconspicuous, but in fact they are expensive, and they are all a see-saw point for negotiations.

As the time was approaching the end of June, after several rounds of extremely difficult negotiations, plus news of Lionsgate’s intention to change to the script, Murphy finally reached an agreement with Fox Searchlight.

In terms of the fiercest North American distribution rake between the two parties, Murphy almost broke his mouth, from 30% to 25%, which means that if "Chain Saw" gets 10 million in North America At the US dollar box office, Fox Searchlight can draw 2.5 million dollars from it.

This condition seems quite harsh, but in fact it is pretty good. What Murphy has done most successfully is that not only the publicity and distribution channel costs of Fox Searchlight are all calculated in this 25%, there are also storage fees and transportation fees. , Labor costs, public relations costs and insurance costs and other complicated small expenditures are also included.

Stanton Studio has not to bear much. The biggest burden is the cost of making copies. Murphy has less than one hundred thousand dollars in his hand and cannot afford the funds. According to the supplementary agreement between the two parties, Fox Searchlight will advance the payment. Finally, it is deducted separately from the box office share.

The money for making copies does not seem to attract much attention, but the actual cost is extremely high.

For a movie like "Chain Saw", even if it is compressed to about 90 minutes by Murphy, the production cost of a copy is not cheap.

An ordinary film for about 4.5 minutes is about 150 US dollars, 90 minutes at least 3,000 US dollars, 100 copies are 300,000 US dollars...

Even if a large number of prints will be cheaper, any issuing company will not arbitrarily bear such a cost.

For trade union filing projects such as "Chain Saw Cry", a fee must be paid to several trade union organizations, which will naturally be borne by the Stanton Studio independently.

There is also copyright. Of course, half of the copyright required by Fox Searchlight is impossible. Both parties have made a certain concession. Stanton Studio retains 70% of the copyright, and the remaining 30% belongs to the publisher Fox Searchlight. All, that is to say, excluding the box office income of the film, the income of other peripheral copyrights will be divided according to this proportion.

Originally, Murphy would rather make some concessions in distribution, and also wanted to retain all the copyrights of the film, but Fox Searchlight is not stupid, and it can be said that it is common practice for Hollywood distribution companies to obtain certain copyrights in the cooperation with small production companies.

This is already the best condition Murphy can obtain in negotiations with all issuing companies.

All conditions were negotiated. Under the notarization of the union, Murphy officially signed a distribution contract with Fox Searchlight on behalf of Stanton Studios. Fox Searchlight has already conducted market estimates and plans to introduce "Chain Saw" into the theater market as soon as possible. .

For commercial companies, time costs are also costs.

The hottest summer season in North America during this time period has not yet ended, but after the beginning of July, the major major productions with huge investment have basically passed the hottest premiere period, and the second-line productions that they think can get a share of the pie are even some small ones. Production, then you will enter the theater to share the leftovers of the summer file.

Fox Searchlight intends to put "Saw Cry" into theaters in mid-July. Before that, it had a two-week publicity period. For such a small production film, such a long publicity period is already very rare.

They worked out a propaganda plan and propaganda budget for this, and passed it to Murphy. It's hard to tell if it's true or not.

There will definitely be water in this plan, but the scale of such investment is limited if there is one. When Murphy saw the figures on the propaganda budget, he really wanted to call the Fox searchlight and just kill it!