Hollywood Road

Chapter 287 Investment Sharing

?

Recommended reading:

? In Hollywood, the dvd industry is becoming more and more important. It is not an exaggeration to say that dvd has saved some film companies.

Most Hollywood movies cannot recover their costs from the box office, and there are not many profitable ones. Failed movies like "Catwoman", as well as dolls, figures and peripheral licensing can bring in income, but this is an adaptation It is impossible for the patents of movies or super-large productions to appear on films with an investment of only a few million dollars or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Video tapes, DVDs, and TV broadcasts have become the way for these films to achieve profitability, and they are also the profit point for most Hollywood films.

DVD, a medium that is cheaper and easier to distribute than video tapes, has even saved some major Hollywood studios to a certain extent.

The most typical example is Sony Columbia Pictures. After "Spider-Man" was released from theaters, Sony Entertainment immediately released the DVD of the film. It sold more than 5 million sets, earning more than 120 million U.S. dollars, and the DVD sales in the year of its release were as high as 215.3 million U.S. dollars!

This is the sales volume in North America alone.

Movies with high box office, in this day and age, almost always bring super high DVD sales.

For example, last year's hit cartoon "Finding Nemo" sold more than 150 million US dollars in sales in the first week of DVD release, which far exceeded the box office of the first weekend in North America.

Murphy remembers clearly that the past few years are the best years for DVDs, and it won't take long. With the rapid development of online video-on-demand and downloads, DVDs will decline rapidly.

"Deadpool" undoubtedly caught up with a good era.

At the end of July, 20th Century Fox officially launched the DVD of "Deadpool" into the North American market, with Wal-Mart, n and other large institutions as the main sales vehicles, and at the same time, it started selling it on e-commerce companies such as eBay and Amazon.

As for the sales situation, it can only be described as hot.

Although due to the scale of "Deadpool", DVD discs are not as good as "Spiderman" and "Finding Nemo", but the sales figures for the week are equally gratifying, easily breaking through the 100 million US dollar mark, as high as 112 million US dollars .

Compared with box office numbers that need to be divided up layer by layer, the profits brought by dvd are actually higher.

Twentieth Century Fox can get the most profits,

The wholesale price of a dvd studio sold to the seller is not low, depending on the situation of the film, it ranges from 10 dollars to 20 dollars, "Deadpool" is 15 dollars, and the luxury package is 25 dollars, and the DVD pressing cost is low , often only one percent of the selling price.

Almost all of this money goes back to the studio, but generally the studio will provide the underwriter with a promotional fee of about 5%, not more than 10%.

This is just the short-term of DVD, and the long-term rental, Hollywood has an extremely mature way of operating in this regard.

Compared with simple and clear sales, the sharing of dvd rentals is more complicated.

First of all, the renter will set a reserve price for the studio, which means that no matter whether the film is rented or not, the studio can get a sum of money from the renter. About each dvd depends on the box office price of the film. 3-10 US dollars, the higher the box office, the higher the reserve price.

There are several different ways of leasing. The normal rental fee is the main source, as well as the membership fee. In addition, if the rented disc is not returned on time, the lessor will automatically sell it, that is, deduct the user’s money from the rented disc according to the sales price , in the current general way, the studio draws 0.5-2 US dollars from each rental income, and the price is determined according to the box office figure of the film. If it is sold, there is also a ratio for each piece drawn. In 5-10 dollars.

The rental fee is not always included. According to the contract, there is an effective time, which is about a week. The higher the box office, the longer the period.

When it expires, the leaser must destroy a certain percentage of the dvds and either return the rest to the studio or buy them for a dollar each.

In addition, all bad debts, bad credit, promotion and postage expenses will be deducted from the revenue share.

For a single movie, if it is a blockbuster movie like "Deadpool", the studio can earn tens of thousands of dollars from a single rental company. That is to say, for a box office hit movie, Hollywood can earn tens of millions of dollars in income from DVD rentals, and almost all of this income is net profit.

At the same time, Twentieth Century Fox also negotiated the first round of TV broadcast rights for "Deadpool", and sold the film's first round of TV broadcast rights for a period of five years at a high price of 25 million US dollars.

All these incomes are closely related to Murphy, and his director's contract stipulates that he can share dividends from it.

After negotiating the TV rights fee, 20th Century Fox first paid Murphy the last $1 million of the $3 million director's base salary.

Then, Murphy's lawyer Robert and accountant David began to urge 20th Century Fox to fulfill the sharing clause in the contract between the two parties on time.

In Murphy's director contract, there is a step-by-step incentive clause.

The agreement is based on the film's production cost of US$60 million. If "Deadpool" can reach the US$60 million North American box office cost line in the future, he, the director, can get 1% of the North American box office as a reward. Once the North American box office rises to 100 million US dollars, this ratio will increase to 1.5%, 150 million US dollars will increase to 2%, 200 million US dollars will rise to 2.5%, and 250 million US dollars will be 100%. three thirds.

There is also a remark clause at the back. Once the North American box office of the film exceeds the 300 million US dollar mark, director Murphy will receive 5% of the total North American box office as a reward.

At the beginning, no one would have imagined that the North American box office of "Deadpool" would break through the $300 million mark.

Twentieth Century Fox signed such an agreement not to bet against Murphy, but as an incentive to encourage the creative team with the director as the core to go all out. Although Hollywood films have many sources of income, the box office is everything. Just like the sales and rental of DVDs, there is no high box office to drive down the price, and there is no way to raise the price.

Moreover, the North American box office of "Deadpool" was 300 million U.S. dollars and 250 million U.S. dollars, and the income that 20th Century Fox can bring to all aspects is also very different.

Murphy gets five percent of the North American box office, or $15 million, plus a base salary of $3 million, bringing his directing pay for Deadpool to $18 million.

This is a rather high number, and only first-line directors can get it for a single round of income.

On the other hand, he can also get a 2% dividend from the various North American copyrights of "Deadpool", which are long-term income.

After 20th Century Fox received the North American box office share of "Deadpool", Murphy not only asked the other party to pay personal remuneration on time, but also demanded that Stanton be paid in full during the two months of the film's release as stipulated in the contract. Return on studio investment.

The production cost of "Deadpool" was US$60 million, and Stanton Studios invested US$15 million of it, which means that it can get a quarter of the profit of the film after deducting various costs.

Twentieth Century Fox still wants to continue to cooperate with Murphy, and with Kara Firth, Stanton Studios has not encountered much obstruction. It treats investors in the industry, and Hollywood companies will not be as blatant as they treat foreign funds. Do too much hands and feet.

What's more, everyone can see now that Murphy is a great potential stock, and continued cooperation may bring more profits.

After deducting various taxes and fees, 20th Century Fox received a total of US$150 million in North American box office share from theaters.

As we all know, this part of the money is not profit.

Twentieth Century Fox first took its own distribution commission from it, 10% of the North American box office, more than 30.7 million US dollars, and then advanced promotion and marketing expenses, as high as nearly 40 million US dollars, and then up to 15 million US dollars for the copy As for the production cost, the digital projection technology has not been popularized, and the cost of copy production is still high.

In this way, 20th Century Fox will take away 85 million US dollars first.

The box office share of the main creators like Murphy also needs to be included in the calculation. At the beginning, almost all the main creators signed the remuneration agreement of basic film salary plus share. It also exceeded tens of millions of dollars.

In addition, warehousing, travel, insurance, legal and accounting expenses incurred during the screening process must also be included in the cost. The film is a trade union filing project, and a certain percentage of fees needs to be paid to the union. Although it is not too much, it cannot be in arrears. Otherwise it will be a big trouble.

These odds and ends add up to nearly five million dollars.

The total cost of a film is quite expensive, far from being as simple as the production cost. Excluding 20th Century Fox's 85 million US dollars, the others add up to as much as 30 million US dollars.

The remaining $35 million will be shared between Stanton Studios and 20th Century Fox in proportion to their investment.

The distribution company has an absolute advantage. Even for a super-best-selling film like "Deadpool", Stanton Studios cannot recover the investment cost only through the North American box office, but the North American box office is only a part of the film's many sources of income.

Today, Deadpool has grossed nearly $560 million worldwide and more than $250 million overseas.

Although different countries and regions have different sharing policies and taxation conditions, the share ratio that 20th Century Fox can get is also different, but in general, the distribution company can get about a quarter of the overseas box office. Stanton Studios can also participate in this revenue share.

The box office is only a part of the film’s revenue, and there are peripheral revenues. In North America alone, the DVD and TV rights of “Deadpool” have sold a terrifying number. Excluding the fees paid to Marvel Comics and other costs, Stanton Studios Also take a quarter.

In early August, 20th Century Fox paid the first investment share to Stanton Studios according to the contract. (To be continued.)

People who read The Road to Hollywood also like

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like