Hollywood Road

The sky was already dark and the temperature had dropped. In the small yard in front of Stanton's studio, a table was placed in the center. Murphy, James Franco, Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill Four people sat around, talking loudly, and when Carey Mulligan came over with a fruit plate, the voice quickly dropped again.

After that night, they gradually formed a small group.

"If I become a star in the future,"

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

An empty beer glass fell heavily on the table with a bang, Seth Rogen, a simple-looking fellow, blushed with fat face, "Count me in!"

They just broke into this circle, and they don't lack momentum at all.

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

She can't wait to kick the balls of all the senior executives of Lionsgate!

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

Avoiding Carey Mulligan's eyes, he nodded to the other two, raised his glass and said loudly, "How can this kind of thing count as my share?"

"Thank you!" Murphy held up his wine 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 also toasted.

Having experienced life in prison, Murphy's heart is hard enough. Hearing these words, he was still a little moved. This feeling of being supported and fighting side by side is much better than fighting alone.

Even if they are outside of words, they can't actually exert any power.

On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, he was a lonely person. When he came here, he went to a place like a prison. Now that he has a girlfriend and a few friends with similar interests, his life is undoubtedly changing for the better step by step. .

Although there are still countless difficulties like Lionsgate and Miramax ahead, Murphy believes that he will be able to go on and reach the pinnacle of the director's road.

A glass of wine was poured into his stomach, but Carey Mulligan's little face twisted,

Reminds Murphy, "Bill said Lionsgate might be different than Miramax, and they'd be very interested in making a similar film."

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

It is impossible to say that she is not worried at all. She has made two films and has a deeper understanding of this industry. In case "Saw" has not found a suitable distributor, Lionsgate Murphy will definitely be greatly affected if the industry's films enter the theaters first, and it is possible that the investment may not be recovered.

Carey Mulligan glanced back, the dark house was hiding behind the lights, if "Saw" failed, she probably wouldn't be able to rent this house, and she and Murphy might end up in the park homeless...

Although it seemed romantic in the little girl's heart, she felt distressed when she thought of the double blow that Murphy might suffer in terms of money and spirit.

yes? What should I do?

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

They knew very well that the final solution was still up to Murphy.

"Big companies in the upstream of the industry chain oppress small 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 and his chin propped up, Murphy's tone was gradually relaxing, "In fact, this matter is not difficult to solve, as long as our film can enter the theater first."

He coughed, Carey Mulligan quickly handed over a glass of water, Murphy took a sip, and continued, "Make a hypothesis, Lionsgate is determined to make a similar film, but such a film It takes more than 20 days for a film to be completed from preparation to production, and if we can enter theaters during this period, even if they are released immediately, they will become imitators.”

James Franco understood what Murphy meant 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 ahead of Lionsgate, the impact of this incident on us will be infinitely small. And what about Lionsgate? If it really produces For films with similar themes, under the premise that we have just released them, their risk will at least double!"

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

This is Murphy's own idea. Since Lionsgate has discussed it among high-level officials, it means that the project may become a reality.

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

Of course, he and Bill Rossis aren't entirely sure what Lionsgate is actually going to do, but these things always have to be prepared.

The reality is that there is no longer a long waiting time for him, and Murphy has also accelerated the pace of negotiations. On the Miramax side, he left 15 million US dollars plus an offer for two film contracts, and the negotiations reached a deadlock again.

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

Several companies, such as DreamWorks and Morris Entertainment, kicked Murphy out or were kicked out by Murphy because of too many differences.

The only thing making some progress is the Fox Searchlight.

Perhaps it was the company's business strategy, or perhaps it was affected by the poor performance in the first quarter. They paid a lot of attention to this film that they estimated that the North American market could reach tens of millions of dollars.

As the owner of Stanton Studios and the copyright owner of the film, Murphy had five rounds of negotiations with Godin Clyde of Fox Searchlight. It is with a smile that makes people feel refreshed, but when it comes to interests, he does not give an inch.

Such negotiations are destined to be arduous, and with no hope of progress, Murphy even wants to accept the price offered by Miramax.

However, considering Harvey Weinstein's face and Miramax's demeanor, he still regarded him as a candidate, even if Miramax spread the news that a horror film project was about to be approved...

The biggest disagreement between Murphy and Fox Searchlight is undoubtedly on the distribution fee. He negotiated with Godin Clyde. All expenses are classified into this 30% commission.

Like some companies, if the distribution fee is calculated separately, and the publicity fee is deducted from the box office, he might as well sign a sell-out contract with Miramax.

Site fee, transportation fee, labor fee, insurance fee... These seemingly inconspicuous, but in fact expensive expenses are all tug-of-war points in negotiations.

The time was getting closer to the end of June. After several rounds of extremely difficult negotiations, and the news of Lionsgate's intention to change to the script, Murphy finally reached an agreement with Fox Searchlight.

In terms of the North American release commission, which is the most fierce competition between the two sides, Murphy almost broke his lip, and knocked it from 30% to 25%. That is to say, if "Saw" gets 10 million in North America At the dollar box office, Fox Searchlight could rake in $2.5 million.

This condition seems quite harsh, but it is actually quite good. The most successful thing Murphy has done is that not only the publicity and distribution channel costs of Fox Searchlight are all included in the 25%, but also storage fees, transportation fees, etc. Some complicated and small expenses such as labor costs, public relations fees and insurance costs are also included in it.

The Stanton studio has not much to bear, the biggest one is the cost of making copies. Murphy has less than 100,000 US dollars in his hands, so he can't afford the funds. According to the supplementary agreement between the two parties, Fox Searchlight will pay in advance. Finally, it will be deducted separately from the box office share.

The cost of making copies may not seem to attract much attention, but the actual cost is extremely high.

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

A film with an ordinary screening of about 4.5 minutes is about 150 US dollars, and it costs at least 3,000 US dollars for 90 minutes, and 100 copies is 300,000 US dollars...

Even though a large number of prints will be much cheaper, no distribution company will afford such a fee casually.

A trade union filing project like "Chain Saw" must also pay a fee to several trade union organizations, which will naturally be borne by Stanton Studio independently.

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

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

This is already the best condition that Murphy can negotiate with all distribution companies.

All the conditions have been negotiated. Under the notarization of the labor union, Murphy officially signed a distribution contract with Fox Searchlight on behalf of Stanton Studio. Fox Searchlight has already made market estimates and plans to push "Saw" into the theater market as soon as possible. .

For commercial companies, time costs are also costs.

During this period of time, the hottest summer season in North America is not over yet, but after the beginning of July, those major mainstream productions with huge investment have basically passed the hottest premiere period, and the second-tier productions that think they can get a piece of the pie are even some small ones. Production, at this time will enter the theater to share the leftovers of the summer file.

Fox Searchlight intends to push "Saw" into theaters in mid-July. Before that, there was a two-week promotion period. For such a small production film, such a long promotion time is already very rare.

They made a publicity plan and a publicity budget for this, and passed a copy to Murphy, so it's hard to tell if it's true or not.

This plan will definitely have water, but such an investment scale is limited even if it exists. When Murphy saw the figures on the promotional budget, he really wanted to call Fox Searchlight and simply kill him! (To be continued.)