The Best Entertainment Era

With a restless heart, Robert once again set foot on the land of the United Arab Emirates, but this time it was not Abu Dhabi, but another city full of local tyrants - Dubai!

The Middle East is an area not covered by the distribution department of the former Polygram Films. If Embassy Pictures wants to establish a distribution channel here, the Arab countries cannot bypass it anyway.

The film industry is a small industry in Arabia, but it has an annual production value of more than one billion U.S. dollars, and no distribution company can easily give up.

After the manpower recruited by the Embassy Films was in place, they immediately rushed to the Middle East to establish the Middle East branch of the Embassy Films.

But it is not easy to open up a market where there is nothing. For example, it is impossible for a branch office to cover every country in the Middle East, and it is necessary to have the most suitable fixed location.

The matter ended up in the hands of Robert Lee and Danny Donald.

Robert Lee chose the United Arab Emirates.

He and Danny Donald did a lot of preliminary work and found that one of the largest audiences for Hollywood movies in Arab countries is the Saudis, but sadly, the public screening of movies is prohibited in Saudi Arabia, and the Saudis can only choose to watch movies. Enter the UAE to watch.

For Saudi Arabia, which is generally rich, this expenditure can only be considered a drizzle.

The UAE is the country with the most lenient policy on the film industry in the entire Arab world, and there are also a large number of movie fans who like to watch movies in theaters.

Coupled with the Saudis, the UAE is truly the number one film market in the Arab world.

Dubai and Abu Dhabi are not the same emirate, and there is a very large distribution company that can distribute movies throughout the UAE, and even radiates to Bahrain and Qatar.

Through the window, looking at the sailing hotel not far away, Danny-Donald said: This is an unfamiliar market. The embassy film industry is here, and it belongs to the pioneers. We should avoid radical approaches and take a steady and steady approach. strategy.

Anthony is the director of the Middle East Region of the Embassy Pictures. He is not only proficient in Arabic, but also has a quarter of Arab blood. He then said: There are too many things in the Arab world that we need to be familiar with one by one. The Arabs are offended and we're going to be in a lot of trouble.

Robert sat back in his chair and said, I agree with you.

Danny Donald said: Film is currently the largest film distributor in the Arab world.

At the same time, it owns the largest theater company in the United Arab Emirates. As long as we can sign an agency distribution contract with them, Embassy Pictures can initially establish a theater distribution business in the Arab world.

He added: At present, among the six major Hollywood companies, except for Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros., other companies also adopt the distribution agency method. It is temporarily impossible for us to draw a large number of manpower and funds to use in the Arab market. It's a very good choice.

Robert asked, How much do their agents take?

Anthony replied: Film Company integrates theaters and distribution. For example, in the UAE market, we can probably take about 30% of the box office.

Okay. Robert nodded.

Danny Donald said: This is quite good. In some markets, we can only get a quarter or even a tenth. Even if it is the Western European market that can be directly handed over to theater companies for distribution, we can get a share of the box office. It's only one-third of the total box office.

Robert said: Let's talk about theatrical distribution first, and then we will talk about offline distribution.

You and Anthony go to the film company to discuss cooperation. Danny-Donald suggested: I will investigate the offline business and try to find potential partners as soon as possible.

Robert glanced at Anthony, saw that he had no objection, and said, Okay, that's the decision.

After two days of preparation, Robert and Anthony made an appointment with Zahad, the person in charge of the film company.

Embassy Pictures is part of Relativity Entertainment and we have a great relationship with the UAE.

This time, facing not the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, but a company affiliated to the Dubai Consortium, Robert tried his best: Since 1998, we have cooperated with Abu Dhabi in your country for three consecutive films. is our best friend...

Compared with ordinary Western film companies, Zahad has a better impression of Relativity Entertainment. Although they belong to two emirates, Dubai and Abu Dhabi are one country after all, and the relationship between the two parties is also close. I have heard about The Abu Dhabi consortium's collaboration with Hollywood.

That Sandsea Entertainment is a subsidiary of Relativity Entertainment.

Have you been to Abu Dhabi? Zahad asked.

Robert said with a smile: I have been there, and I have also talked with His Excellency Mansour from the Investment Bureau.

He thought he was right. Even though the interviewer was Ronan, he was also a member of the team.

Do you know Mansour? Zahad said: My company has also cooperated with him. The Human Purge Project was issued by Abu Dhabi Investment Authority to Film Company.

Robert smiled even brighter: The Purge is the first film we have collaborated with Abu Dhabi.

The two sides had an indirect cooperation once, and there were people they knew in common. Robert was not stick to one style, influenced by Ronan, no matter how he looked at it, he had no prejudice against Arabs, and the cooperation talks went smoothly.

Anthony, an American of Arab descent, also joined in later.

After five rounds of negotiations for a week, the two sides finally finalized the cooperation matters. The film company is responsible for the online distribution of the films launched by the Embassy Pictures in the Arab world, and the Embassy Pictures can take 32% of the total box office revenue.

The signing of this agreement made the embassy film industry very satisfied.

The overseas distribution department of Embassy Pictures has also opened up the situation in the originally blank Arab market.

Robert signed a theatrical distribution agreement here, and Danny Donald also contacted the largest TV station and video tape production and distribution company in the United Arab Emirates, and disc technology also flowed into this country.

In the next half month, Robert, Anthony and Danny Donald not only signed multiple offline distribution agreements, but even established a relationship with the most influential Al Jazeera TV station in the Middle East. In the future, as long as the film is suitable, it will enter Al Jazeera's affiliated channel is not a problem at all.

The work in the Arab region of the Middle East market has finally opened up, and the subsequent work can be handed over to Anthony and his subordinates. Robert and Danny-Donald went to Israel to prepare for the tough battle again.

A good friend of the Arabs became a close friend of the Jews in an instant. Robert and Danny Donald didn't mention the cooperation with Abu Dhabi, but talked about the excellence of Jewish descendants for the development of Hollywood and world film art contribute.

In order to establish overseas distribution channels, these are nothing at all.

It was clear to Robert that what they were doing was the core business of Hollywood movies.

The core of Hollywood movies has long been transformed into distribution and promotion, which is expressed in English.

This term is not limited to media products, it is also called channels in other industries.

Overseas markets are becoming more and more important to Hollywood, and some high-investment films can no longer pay back their costs only by relying on the North American market.

There are also some movies that hit the box office in North America, but they can be sold overseas, thus realizing profits.

Ronan has been staying in Los Angeles to control the overall situation, and at this stage of Relativity Entertainment is still very fragile, he also needs to make major decisions himself.

Getting the news that Robert and Danny Donald had nailed the Middle East market was a major boost for Ronan.

Although many difficulties have been encountered, overseas channels are improving day by day.

Embassy Pictures will soon have the ability to independently distribute films overseas.

As far as Ronan knows, Lionsgate has just put the establishment of overseas distribution channels on the agenda and set a ten-year overseas distribution establishment and expansion plan.

The manpower and material resources consumed are far more than that of the distribution department of Polygram Pictures that Embassy Pictures won.

The embassy film industry is also recruiting, and more suitable candidates will be sent to all over the world to be familiar with the film distribution business.

In addition, Embassy Pictures, which does not need to release films directly in theaters for the time being, has released three small productions bought from overseas, all of which entered the offline market directly on discs and video tapes.

The total cost of the three films was 260,000 US dollars, and it was paid back in less than a month after it was released.

During this period, Ronan also hired a professional company to do a detailed market survey. From the obtained data, it is not difficult to analyze that most people over thirty-five in the United States go to theaters to watch movies. 20/20.

These people don't like watching movies? of course not.

Compared to theaters full of teenagers, these older groups prefer to hide at home and watch videos or DVDs.

Limited by equipment and movie types, they seldom choose visual effects movies, and feature movies are often the first choice, and some of them even like niche movies.

Like a B-movie like Grind Mill or a blood-horror flick.

This has also led to some films that can't even get a box office of 10,000 US dollars in theaters, and the offline rental market can earn millions of dollars in revenue.

For example, some Hong Kong-produced action movies have a group of hard-core audiences all over the United States, and the main distribution channel is the offline rental market. Quentin Tarantino can be regarded as a representative figure of this group.

There are also Hollywood films that cannot be screened in theaters, but can achieve good results in the rental market.

In Ronan's previous life, there was a film This Man Came From Earth, which had never been released in North America, but it was rumored on the Internet over there that it had a box office of more than 100 million US dollars. It was once popular, and as a result, many people praised this film Those who are so good at the box office in North America ended up making a joke.

But there is one thing, this film can be called the winner in the offline market relative to the cost.

The film buying and distribution strategy of Embassy Pictures will not change, and the income of several million dollars a year is also quite a lot.

After the Oscars in 2000, Ronan ushered in Abu Dhabi's rich team, and these collaborators came to Los Angeles in person.