hunt hollywood

The highest single-day box office record, 1823 million US dollars.

Highest first three-day box office record: $4556 million.

Highest first four-day box office record: $6009 million.

Highest opening seven-day box office record: $8239 million.

In addition, the average box office of "Batman: Beginning of War" reached 31530 U.S. dollars in the first week, but the average box office figure of more than 3 U.S. dollars is not the highest in history.However, considering the large-scale opening scale of the film's 2613 screens, this achievement also makes it difficult for all previous films of the same opening scale to come close.

受到《蝙蝠侠：开战时刻》票房的刺激，12月22日到12月28日一周，北美单周总票房数字一举突破了1亿5000万美元大关，相比上周8000多万美元的总票房数字几乎翻了一倍。

However, because only "Batman: Beginning of War" took more than half of the box office, many old films that should have rebounded at the box office during the Christmas week have seen a considerable drop in box office.

Last week's box office champion "Flying Beyond Childhood", this week's box office fell by 22%, the box office figure fell to 1088 million US dollars, and the cumulative box office was 1 million US dollars.Because of this decline, some box office statistics agencies have lowered the North American total box office forecast of "Flying Beyond the Child" by more than US$2609 million from more than US$1.7 million to an expected US$1000 million.

Sylvester Stallone's "Furious Tiger and Mad Dragon" had a bad reputation. Under the strong impact of "Batman: Beginning", no audience bought tickets to enter the theater again, so the drop reached 36%. The weekly box office dropped to 781 million US dollars, and the cumulative box office in two weeks was only 2001 million US dollars, which can be called dismal.The film's total North American box office estimate has also been lowered to around $3500 million.

Although Stallone's films have always had a good overseas box office, considering the production budget of "Raging Tiger and Mad Dragon" of 5500 million US dollars and the equally not low 1500 million US dollars of publicity and distribution costs, it is difficult for Columbia to recover a total of 7000 US dollars even through all post-channel operations. million dollars in cost.

The two big box office hits suffered under the crushing of "Batman: Begins", and the situation of other films on this week's list can be imagined.

At the same time, on December 12th, Tom Cruise and Meg Ryan starred in the new movie "Rocketman" and Steven Spielberg's fantasy love movie "Forever", the box office prospects Also under the impact of "Batman: Beginning of War" cast a thick layer of haze.

On the other hand, while "Batman: Beginning of War" raked in a box office of 8239 million U.S. dollars in the first week, the peripheral sales of this phenomenal movie also exploded rapidly.

Thanks to the meticulous preparation in the early stage, various types of peripheral toys and original soundtrack records of "Batman: Beginning of War" have been distributed before the film is released. On the day of the release on December 12, the corresponding peripherals will start selling simultaneously.

Because of the high popularity of "Batman: Beginning", although the preliminary preparations were sufficient, several core toys such as the most popular Batman and Catwoman figurines and the very eye-catching Bat motorcycle in the film were sold out at one time, and retailed everywhere. Merchants have called to ask for replenishment.

In addition, although a variety of official movie posters have been developed for sale, due to the popularity of the Catwoman character, catwoman posters have been stolen in various places after the movie was released, and some people even tried to steal some super large posters. advertising poster.

Warner Bros.'s publicity department had to allocate manpower to reissue these stolen movie posters.

In the end, even the original soundtrack of pure music, which was not expected to be expected, unexpectedly sold 26 copies after it was released in the first week.

According to preliminary statistics, in the first week of "Batman: Beginning of War", compared with the record box office figure of 8239 million US dollars, the sales performance of the film's peripheral products is even more impressive, reaching an astonishing 1.3 million US dollars.

Chapter 323 Listing Plan (Revised)

After the first week, because New Year's Day on January 1990, 1 is the same Monday as the previous Christmas, a legal holiday in the United States, the weekend of the second week of "Batman" is also four days.

This week's new film, "Rocketman," starring Tom Cruise and Meg Ryan, cost $4500 million to make, a project that Paramount snatched from Daenerys in an ignominious way. , It can be said to be full of confidence, so it also invested 2000 million US dollars in publicity.

However, despite the obvious public relations component, the media score of "Rocketman" is still barely reaching a passing grade, and many mainstream paper media platforms such as "New York Times", "Entertainment Weekly" and "Washington Post" have also mercilessly given There is a bad review.

According to Simon's understanding, in order to make room for "Rocketman", Paramount also shifted "Born on the Fourth of July" directed by Oliver Stone, also starring Tom Cruise, to Easter next year.

However, the total investment of 6500 million US dollars, the hottest Christmas schedule, Tom Cruise and Meg Ryan, all these positive factors failed to make "Rocketman" recognized by the market, and the audience did not like it. This kind of nondescript retro sci-fi style movie.

Coupled with the strong impact of "Batman: Beginning", from December 12th to January 29th, the box office of "Rocketman" in the first seven days was only US$1 million. Although it ranked No.4 in the weekly box office list, it was Get left behind by Batman: Begins.

Another new film, Steven Spielberg's "Forever," tells the story of a pilot who returns to his girlfriend in ghost form after a plane crash to start an alternate life with her.

Yes, this idea is very similar to "Ghost Love", of course, the plot is very different.

In the first week of filming, this fantasy comedy only got a box office of 718 million US dollars under the same tepid word of mouth, ranking No.4 on the weekly box office list.

No. 3 on the list is still occupied by "Flying Beyond Childhood" in the Easter schedule. The film fell another 11% this week, earning 968 million US dollars, with a cumulative box office of 1 million US dollars.

As for "Batman: Beginning of War", which topped the weekly box office list, due to the record-breaking box office of 8239 million US dollars created in the first week and the film itself being much wider than Simon's previous two works. Not only did it not fall, but there was an 8% rise against the trend, and another $8879 million was earned.

In two weeks, "Batman: Beginning of War" raked in a box office of 1 million US dollars at an unprecedented rate.

Such a two-week box office result means that "Batman: Beginning of War" will easily break through the local box office mark of 4 million US dollars.

Once-phenomenal films like "Star Wars" and "ET: The Extra-Terrestrial" haven't experienced repeated re-releases, so "Batman Begins" is expected to become the first film in North American history to break $4 million domestically. .

Accompanied by the amazement of the media and the cheers of movie fans, major Hollywood studios also reacted immediately and quickly turned their attention to superhero comics that may be adapted into movies.

Then, most people finally discovered that the two major comic book manufacturers in the United States, Marvel and DC, have no room for them to intervene.

What is even more disappointing is that almost all of these two major manufacturers are controlled by Daenerys Entertainment.

Marvel has long been a wholly-owned subsidiary of Daenerys Entertainment, and DC's core trio of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman have also been bought by Simon Westeros, which is tantamount to jamming DC's throat.

Not to mention the untapped gold mine of Marvel, according to the box office results of "Batman: Beginning of War", but the DC movie universe plan recently announced by Daenerys and Warner Bros. is probably enough for Daenerys' entertainment. Last ten years.

You know, not just the box office, but also the expected income from other channels such as videotapes and TV broadcasts. The sales of derivatives of "Batman: Beginning of War" continued to sell 1.3 million US dollars in the second week after the 1.5 million US dollars in the first week.

Industry statistics agencies predict that based on the sales data of the last two weeks, the sales of various types of derivatives of "Batman: Beginnings of War" may reach 20 billion US dollars in the next year.

Relying on the super high premium brought by the brand image, the terminal sales price of movie derivatives can usually reach about 10 times the production cost, and the gross profit is very high.

Even after multiple profit transfers by manufacturers, distributors and retailers, depending on the type of derivatives, the income obtained by the copyright owner can usually reach 10% to 20% of the sales.

"Batman: Beginning of War" is expected to generate US$20 billion in derivatives sales in the next year. Calculated according to the compromise percentage, it will bring about US$3 million to Daenerys Entertainment and Time Warner.Moreover, because this part of the income does not require much upfront investment, it basically belongs to the net income before tax.

Because of the expected huge profits in all aspects of "Batman: Beginning of War", Time Warner's management experienced short-term excitement after the film's box office hit, and soon began to regret it.

Even though it is understood that it was Simon Westero's personal control that created the box office miracle of "Batman: Beginning of War", Warner still had the opportunity to participate in the investment of this movie.

Now, according to the original contract, Warner Bros. Pictures can only draw a 15% commission from the distribution of the film through various channels.Huge amount of profits from derivatives, Time Warner, which has been merged, can only get 10% profit sharing in the name of its subsidiary DC Comics.

Although only these two parts of income may bring Time Warner no less than 2 million US dollars in the next few years, however, Time Warner simply dare not calculate how much Daenerys Entertainment will earn from this project .

The more you count, the more sad you are!

Moreover, if it is other second- and third-tier film companies in Hollywood, Warner Bros. Pictures, which holds omni-channel distribution rights, can also use the usual Hollywood financial methods to squeeze the due profit share of its partners as much as possible, and to be more extreme, even directly tear it up. contract to recover the copyrights of "Batman" and others.

However, with Daenerys Entertainment, Warner couldn't do that.

From the start of the release of "Batman: Beginning of War", Daenerys Entertainment sent a dedicated accounting team to follow up the entire project, which made it difficult for Warner to manipulate financially.

Of course, it may not be impossible, but Warner did not dare to do so.

Daenerys Entertainment's handling of the "Bodyguard" original record split dispute is deeply remembered by the entire Hollywood.

Alistar Records tried to engulf Daenerys Entertainment's due share of record sales, and Simon Westero completely ignored the huge loss that a phenomenal record might cause, and directly stopped the sales of this record.

In the end, Alista Records not only failed, but paid a fine of twice the embezzlement amount, and the president of Alista Records lost his job because of this.

If Warner Bros. did the same, Terry Semel felt that Simon Westeros might not hesitate to stop the follow-up development of the entire DC movie universe until Warner spit out everything he swallowed.

Perhaps, in the end, someone has to take responsibility, and he, the CEO of Warner Bros. Pictures, is obviously the perfect scapegoat.

Now that it has become an established fact, Time Warner's goal now is to promote the follow-up development of the DC movie universe as soon as possible.

Santa Monica.

In the meeting room of Daenerys Entertainment Headquarters, it was Friday, January 1990, 1.

Throughout the day of the meeting, the two company teams headed by Amy Pascal and Terry Semel were discussing the follow-up cooperation between the two parties and the DC movie universe plan.

The terms of the original contract determined that the two parties could renegotiate many details after the first "Batman", such as Warner's distribution commission ratio for the follow-up film.

The 15% commission for all channels is actually very high.

Because the entire DC movie universe project involved too many interests, for the whole day, except for a list of ten movies in the next five to seven years, the two parties only initially determined the subsequent distribution commission ratio.

Terry Semel did not make too many concessions in this regard, but made some concessions after subdividing local, overseas, video and TV broadcasting platforms.

After negotiation, for the follow-up film that the two parties cooperated and released by Warner Bros. Pictures, the local distribution commission rate was reduced to 12.5%, and the overseas distribution commission rate was reduced to 10%.

Of course, the publicity and distribution costs of each channel must be included in the cost and deducted separately.However, because of Daenerys Entertainment's strict financial supervision in this area, it is also difficult for Warner to manipulate it.

In addition, some projects that will be distributed by Daenerys Entertainment in the future will also be drawn according to this distribution ratio.

At five o'clock in the afternoon, the meeting ends.

Terry Semel walked out of the conference room with Amy Pascal and asked his biggest concern: "When will Simon be back?"

Amy handed the folder in her hand to her assistant Vanessa, and said, "I don't know either. I called him after the film's first week of box office came out. He said he would take Jenny to the South Pole."

Terry Semel raised his eyebrows: "Antarctic?"

Amy smiled and said: "Yes, the South Pole. Melbourne is relatively close to the South Pole, I don't know. However, it is summer in the southern hemisphere, and the South Pole is the warmest time of the year. Oh, it seems to be still Extreme day, very suitable for traveling in the past."

"and then?"

Amy shrugged: "I haven't been able to contact him in person in the past few days. He didn't say when he would come back, probably until the end of the month."

Terry Semel smiled wryly, and said, "Then, he will definitely not attend the celebration party on the weekend."

"Well," Amy nodded, and said, "There is another thing. The box office of "Time to War" is very good. Simon asked me to draw up a reward plan. About 300 million US dollars for the two protagonists, and a few supporting roles The total expenditure is about 100 million US dollars. I still need to tell you about this. Warner does not need to share this part of the expenditure this time, but for subsequent projects, rewards will be It’s going to be included in the ledger.”

Terry Semel nodded and said: "2000 million, compared to Daenerys' income this time, it's not much at all."

Amy smiled, knowing that Terry Semel must be struggling these days, so she won't mention it any more.

After sending off Warner and others, Amy came to her office.

Nancy Brill had arrived early and was sitting on the sofa in the reception area of ​​Amy's office, flipping through a document.

Seeing Amy come in, Nancy got up and hugged her, and asked, "How is the meeting with Warner going?"

"It will definitely take a while, there are too many things that need to be discussed," Amy said, and then asked: "What about you, has the matter over Rhodes Island been settled?"

Nancy just came back from Rhode Island in the afternoon, so Daenerys was entertaining about the toy factory over there.

For the development of derivative products of "Batman: Beginning of War" this time, Daenerys Entertainment undertook the production of the most lucrative batch of protagonist figures in the toy factory in Rhode Island.In the end, due to lack of experience in this area, all the toys produced by the factory in Rhode Island were sold out in the first week of release.

Nancy went this time to re-coordinate the factory's toy production, and at the same time contact her old relationship in Hasbro to entrust some toy orders that her own factory could not complete.

Hasbro is also headquartered in Rhode Island.

"It's settled," Nancy said, "Actually, I think it was a good result to sell out of stock last time. After the restocking, the sales of those toys became even hotter. Simon told us several times before, Hunger marketing is really useful. By the way, I brought back some limited edition toys, do you want to send someone?"

"Of course, leave some for me. My nephew asked me for it at Christmas, but he couldn't get it out, and was scolded by his parents."

The two talked and laughed, and Amy signaled Nancy to continue to sit down. She turned back to her desk, opened the safe, took out an envelope, walked over again, handed it to Nancy, and said, "Simon asked me to hand it over to you."

Nancy opened the envelope, and inside was a check for $500 million: "This is it?"

"Bonus," Amy sat down next to Nancy, and Vanessa brought coffee in at this time, Amy took the coffee and held it in her hand, and continued to say to Nancy: "You know Simon's temper, your contract is short-term There is no way to change the inside, this is an extra compensation."

Nancy put the check in her satchel unceremoniously, and asked Amy, "Did he offer it, or did you ask for it for me?"

"I mentioned it a little bit, and it was his initiative," Amy said, "He actually cares about you."

Knowing that Amy's 'care' here has no other meaning, Nancy pretended to be dissatisfied and said, "This sentence is really ambiguous."

"Well, I forgot that you are single," Amy said with a smile: "Actually, it's better not to rush to revise the contract now. When the three-year period expires, the company will probably go public, and it will happen to be able to get a contract at that time." A new contract with options."

Nancy became interested and asked, "Simon talked with you about the listing plan?"

Chapter 324 Cancellation of Rewards (Revised)

Amy said: "Yes, but this year and next year will definitely not work. If everything goes well, the company will probably be able to conduct an IPO in 1992 at the earliest."

With the continuous broadening of business horizons, Simon gradually no longer resists the issue of the company's IPO.He also understands that if Daenerys Entertainment wants to continue to grow and develop in the future, a public listing is a must regardless of various considerations.

The reason why Simon talked about this topic with Amy was because of her salary contract.

The contract that Amy signed with Simon when she joined the company included corresponding cash dividends and the same amount of equity rewards. Although the outside world has various valuations for Daenerys Entertainment, the company has not been listed after all. Amy It is difficult to quantify the equity reward.

Amy's contract will expire at the beginning of next year, and Simon hopes to postpone the cash reward to her until the company goes public, and Amy agrees.

When Nancy heard Amy say this, she keenly grasped another layer of meaning in her words, and tentatively repeated: "If everything goes well?"

"Don't make wild guesses," Amy interrupted with a smile, and said, "Speaking of which, the main building of Daenerys Studios Studios in Malibu has been completed, do you want to go and have a look together tomorrow and choose an office building Design and decorate yourself?"

"Of course, I won't save money for our boss."

As Nancy said, she still couldn't help thinking about what happened just now.

Cersei Capital has accumulated a large amount of money overseas. As long as you are not too stupid, you should know that this money can only reflect its value if it is spent as soon as possible. If it is hoarded, it will only depreciate in the continuous inflation.

Among the companies in the Westeros system, Daenerys Entertainment is the most suitable and needs to use this fund for large-scale expansion. Obviously, the expansion target will only be the Big Seven in Hollywood.

Nancy even locked the merger target in a blink of an eye.

The current Hollywood Seven, Columbia and MGM have just changed hands, and it is impossible to sell them again in a short period of time. Simon should also look down on these two companies.

Rupert Murdoch is ambitiously building his own global media empire and will not sell Fox.

Although Paramount has just experienced the failure of "Rocketman", the company's film business in the past two years has been very good, and its stock price is relatively high.Martin Davis, chairman of Paramount, has rejected several merger invitations in recent years and is not a very good acquisition target.

Time Warner is too big for Daenerys Entertainment.

Disney has been in a state of rapid recovery in recent years, and its stock price has grown rapidly. The Bass family and the Disney family, which hold a large number of shares in this company, will not sell it easily.