The Best Director

In the fifth week of screening of "Spiritual-Ghost Records", it continued to be the North American weekly box office champion with a single-week box office of 24.1583 million. This has been its top position for 4 consecutive weeks; As school started one after another, the box office of the film industry plummeted. "Ghost Story" only received 11.5017 million box office in a single week. Although the number of weekly box office champions ended in 4 weeks, it still ranked third this week.

According to this trend of box office decline, the potential of "Ghost Story" in North America is almost exhausted. With the gradual decrease in the number of theaters showing it, it will be able to collect another 10 million box office when it goes offline in North America. Not bad. But there is no doubt that this movie is already a miracle, a myth. With a production cost of 10,000 US dollars and a total of less than 1 million publicity costs, it has received a box office of 154.2 million US dollars in North America!

Lionsgate is already preparing for overseas distribution, because on the Internet, fans from many countries in Europe and Asia have expressed their expectations for this movie. It is certain that overseas distribution will be profitable, and popularity may not necessarily be high. It is popular in North America, but it seems that it is not difficult to collect tens of millions of box office, so that the global box office of "Ghost Story" exceeds 200 million US dollars.

This "supernatural phenomenon" made all the film companies and all analysts break their glasses. What kind of movie can achieve 15,000 times the revenue ratio? "Ghost Story" tells everyone. In this regard, a Wall Street financial analyst lamented to the media: "The most profitable movie in 1998 was not "Titanic", but "Ghost Story". The revenue ratio of the film may even reach 30,000 times. Lionsgate and Magic Young are simply a 'money grab couple'!"

Lionsgate is now the most "jealous" film company in the United States. This small company became famous in one fell swoop and appeared in newspapers frequently. They were called "commercial miracles"; People were so impressed that they couldn't believe that the "rumors" that appeared on the Internet at the beginning were not written by Lionsgate.

Naturally, there are also many film companies who don’t want Lionsgate to have an easy time. They told the media: “The promotion method of Ghost Story was the idea of ​​the Chinese director. He told us about it when he came to our company to seek distribution. Then The guy had a whole plan and he told us 'my plan can drive a lot, a lot of people into the theater, believe me!' But we don't want to use this kind of trickery, and Lionsgate did, they are shameless liar."

In fact, those film companies are just saying that grapes are sour because they can’t get grapes. The fact is that because they missed the delivery of "Ghost Story", there are several managers of the purchasing department who were fired, suspended, or demoted by the company, including Stephen Thomas of Artisans. The chairman of Artisan Company heard that his company was one of the "fifty-four" film companies that had rejected Wang Yang, so he called the CEO of Artisan to investigate responsibility, and then Stephen Thomas became a punching bag and he was fired .

And in the sixth week of the show, as some movie theaters ended the screening of "Ghost Story", Lionsgate also began to get the pre-tax rent paid by the movie theaters.

"Ghost Story" currently has a box office of 154.2 million in North America. Of course, the money has to be divided between Lionsgate and theaters. So how is a movie's box office revenue divided? This depends on what kind of cooperation contract the distribution company and the theater have signed.

There are several ways of cooperation. One is called guaranteed reserve price. This kind of cooperation means that the distribution company buys out the big screen of the movie theater for a period of time with money. For example, Lionsgate paid US$100,000 to the "Vitai Projector" cinema, and obtained the right to show a piece of screen from 0:00 to 6:00 for a period of one month. Then in the next month, no matter how many tickets "Ghost Story" sells, all the box office is yours,

Ultimately the movie theater won't take a dollar from you.

But this kind of cooperation is not popular. In North America, the mainstream method of cooperation between distribution companies and theaters is sharing. The proportion of sharing is generally negotiated and signed by the two parties before the film is released. After so many years, the proportion of the two parties has long been a practice, and now basically adopts a model called "90/10-with-floor-of-70%".

This model means that, on a weekly basis, the total weekly box office revenue of "Ghost Story" in a movie theater is subtracted from the necessary fixed expenses of the movie theater that were negotiated at the beginning, such as cleaning fees, electricity fees, etc., and then multiplied by Take 90%, and the figure that comes out is the rent that Lionsgate gets.

But this is only Plan A, and this model will also sign Plan B at the same time, that is, the total box office is not deducted from the screening expenses of the cinema, but directly multiplied by 70% (this ratio is generally agreed between 60-70%), and the result is The number issued is the share of the issuing company.

Therefore, the distributor will generally look at which number A or B is larger, and then choose the larger one as the commission income received from the movie theater this week.

Of course, in general, "90/10" is only the ratio of the first three weeks of the screening, and then the fourth and fifth weeks are 60/40, the sixth week is 50/50, and the seventh week is 40/60... the specific changes will be Look at the contract. Whatever was decided when it was signed, it will be.

In any case, from the release to the next drawing of a movie, the total box office revenue, the distributor and the movie theater will generally share about 50/50, half to half.

Then someone asked, will movie theaters conceal the box office? First of all, the distribution company itself will hire a professional investigation company, sometimes openly and sometimes privately to the movie theater to spot check the situation; secondly, the United States itself has a strict judicial system, including the tax department, etc., so it conceals Box office, false box office behavior is very rare. Basically, no cinema company would engage in such stupid greed, damage its own reputation, and be punished by law.

The sharing model of "Ghost Story" is exactly "90/10-with-floor-of-70%". After six weeks of screening, the box office was 154.2 million. Lionsgate received 91.76 million, which is close to 60% of the pre-tax share. Subtracting the cost of nearly 3 million, which includes publicity fees, copying fees, shipping fees, printing fees, etc., the final six-week total box office profit before tax was more than 88.75 million.

There is no pre-tax profit of more than 100 million yuan in North America, and judging from the fact that there are only more than 500 movie theaters still showing "Ghost Story", and the share ratio has dropped to 40/60, when the movie is fully offline When painting, the pre-tax profit will not exceed 100 million. So Wang Yang agreed to implement a 40% dividend plan with Lionsgate.

Therefore, the financial department of Lions Gate Company began to pay various corporate taxes to the tax bureau after the accounting was completed. Fortunately, Lions Gate Company is only a small company, so it can enjoy some preferential policies, but it still pays nearly 20% of the tax After tax, there were only more than 71.58 million US dollars left, and Wang Yang received 28.632 million US dollars.

But the matter did not end like this, because Wang Yang still had to pay federal personal income tax, California personal income tax and other taxes to the tax bureau. There are so many taxes in the United States that an ordinary person can't even figure them out, let alone know how to avoid taxes reasonably. So Wang Yang went to the "Credit" law firm again, and consulted the lawyer Hebrew Karl for a long time before he understood that the 28.632 million taxes were paid, and there would only be about 21.4 million left.

Of course, Wang Yang will not go to the tax bureau to declare and pay taxes immediately, because American personal taxes are generally paid once a year, and the annual personal tax declaration deadline is April 15, and it is enough to declare before the end of that day. If you have not declared after that day, it is tax evasion, and what awaits you is an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service and heavy fines.

Wang Yang didn't want to drag taxes, but the movie dividends were still being credited one after another, and it would be most convenient to pay off all this year's taxes in one go next year. Anyway, he got more than 21 million available funds and became a multi-millionaire in one fell swoop.

Although Lionsgate did not disclose the specific dividend figure of Wang Yang to the media, the media still inquired about some details, and guessed that Wang Yang's dividend was more than 10 million yuan. This guess has also been acquiesced by Lionsgate. The distribution manager Jon Filtimer said: "He has obtained wealth that many people can't get in a lifetime, and he is only 18 years old, isn't he too young? I Hope he can cherish these, wish him good luck!"

"The youngest multimillionaire", this is the latest title given to Wang Yang by the "Los Angeles Times". Professional analysts were found in the article, and Wang Yang's worth has already exceeded 20 million. Memoir" is released overseas and through multiple channels, and his net worth will soon rise to more than 30 million.

Wang Yang has nothing to do with these media reports, neither denies nor responds, and he prefers the title of "youngest director" to "youngest multi-millionaire".

After receiving this huge sum of money, his life has not changed much. He still rents the original apartment, but replaced the shabby and unusable furniture in it, and then purchased a set of high-end He frantically scanned a lot of movie DVDs for collection and appreciation; in addition, he also bought a general-purpose coupe to facilitate his travel.

The media's attention to him has gradually faded, and his refusal to cooperate is one of the important reasons. For example, "Vanity Fair" magazine invited him to shoot a group of photos and do an exclusive interview, but he declined. He would rather read books or watch movies at home than take photos. First, he has no such interest for the time being; second, he wants to get out of these things early.

What magazine interviews, what celebrity parties... He can't indulge in these, can't let himself spend all his energy on them, he is still young, what he needs is to keep improving, instead of getting lost in the temptation of success until he is rejected by others. Kick out. He kept reminding himself: "Yan, you are just a rookie, you are nothing, read the follow-up report on the creators of "The Blair Witch", do you want to be them? Think about your original intention!? Become a Director, make a movie."

So Wang Yang rejected the interview of "Vanity Fair" and rejected some party invitations. He knew that what ultimately determines whether a movie is successful is not how many parties you go to or how many magazine covers you get on; it's the movie itself.

After finishing the post-promotion of "Ghost Story", he faded out of people's sight, reading books and watching movies at home every day, sometimes talking on the phone with Jessica and other good friends, and occasionally going out to play together, living a peaceful life. During this period, he joined the Directors Guild (DGA). Although the itinerary was very low-key, it was reported by a gossip tabloid, and then he reported it again until the end of September these two days.

The reason for the report was that Lionsgate announced a new filming plan to the media. They will film "Spiritual Ghost Story 2", and they have already purchased the copyright of a sequel from Wang Yang at a price of 5 million.

Yes, Wang Yang received another 5 million. At first, Lions Gate was only willing to pay 1 million, but Wang Yangli didn't want to talk to them. There was only one word "NO", and he revealed it to Jon Filtimer. The message "New Line, Artisan... and many other companies have contacted me. They know that my sequel copyright is still there, and they want to buy it." This is true, and now it is the turn of New Line, Artisan, Dimension, etc. He took the initiative to find him, and discussed with him sincerely, and Wang Yang gave them "NO" one by one.

However, he will not recognize Lionsgate. Although he is very grateful for the opportunity given to him by Lionsgate, "Ghost Story" has also brought tens of millions of profits to Lionsgate, and no one owes anyone else. For the sequel copyright of the movie, he will give it to whichever company meets his conditions.

Therefore, Lionsgate's asking price was raised all the way to 5 million, but Artisan seemed determined to buy it, so they raised the price to 7 million, plus a 20% dividend of the total box office. In the end, Wang Yang chose Lionsgate, with 5 million yuan and 20% of the total box office dividends. There are several reasons for his choice. First, he has a good relationship with Lionsgate; second, he is really worried that Artisan will default on dividends; third, , when it comes to shooting sequels of horror films, Lionsgate has been doing very well in the future. Although the market needs time to digest "Ghost Story", the second part will be released in a year, and the profit should be no problem, not 20%. How much dividends, the most important thing is to keep the signboard of "Ghost Story".

After spending such a large price, Lionsgate naturally attached great importance to "Spiritual Story 2", so as soon as they bought the copyright, they made a big publicity about it, and at the same time announced that "Ghost Story 2" will be released soon. It will not be directed by Wang Yang. Lionsgate celebrity Jon Filtimer told the media: "Wang Yang was not invited to direct because we wanted to change the style of the movie. The background of the second part will be put in the office. This is obviously not an 18-year-old young man. A scene that people are good at.”

Many movie fans have already expected this, except for a few people who said "wouldn't watch "Ghost Story" not directed by Wang Yang", most of them took a wait-and-see attitude. When the media reported this news, they also expressed their views on Wang Yang's future. The "Los Angeles Times" said: "Although this lucky young man's worth has increased by another 5 million, he has just been ruthlessly abandoned. He’s lost the director’s mic for Ghost Story, and now it seems like no studio is willing to hand him one.”

The "Chicago Sun-Times" found out what Wang Yang said to Oprah in "Oprah's Talk Show" before: "No, I don't think I will make horror movies again for a while." The "Chicago Sun-Times" The tone was quite unfriendly: "Could it be that Yang knew a long time ago that he would not be invited to be the director of "Ghost Story 2"? A colleague of mine asked why he didn't choose to invest in the sequel by himself, and make another 10,000 to 100 million I think this is his shrewdness, just get 5 million and enjoy life, isn't it good? Now the question is, if Yang doesn't make DV horror movies, what else can he make? Oh, he will still have A second movie?"

After reading the report, Wang Yang joked with Rachel on the phone: "He's right, I don't have to do anything, just sit at home and collect the money, which is fine." Rachel laughed and said, "Yes Ah, it just fits your retirement plan." Wang Yang laughed and said to her, "No, I don't want to retire anymore, I will have a second movie, as I told you, a musical." Rachel Asked: "Yang, have you really decided?" Wang Yang nodded and said seriously: "It's decided."

The lobby of the apartment has been changed, the sofa with several big holes is gone, and it is replaced by a rattan sofa; the computer has also been moved out of the bedroom and placed on a brand new wooden desk. There are also some books, camera models, and a pot of daffodils on it.

Wang Yang sat in front of the desk, looking at the blank document on the computer screen, frowning and thinking, what is his next movie going to be?

After musical films entered a shrinking period in the 1970s, they came to the 1990s. In fact, there were not no excellent works, such as Disney's "Pocahontas" in 1995, which was well received and sold well, but it was an animation; Well, the "Madame Peron" that can be obtained is only able to recover the cost, and the main reason is that the heroine of that movie is Madonna.

Why are only "pseudo musicals" such as "Pocahontas" now selling well?

The main reason is that musical films have developed to the present, and compared with the "golden age", there have been qualitative changes. Musical films have also begun to focus on the plot, rather than a simple content, and then just sing and dance throughout the whole process. In the future, the renaissance of musicals will be due to the integration of the plot and the singing and dancing, so that people can watch the singing and dancing while watching the story, and let the singing and dancing serve the plot instead of a rigid separation of the two.

How will musicals be revived in the future? In 2000, "Dancer in the Dark" surprised the film industry with its dark horse attitude; then in 2001, "Moulin Rouge" made Nicole Kidman nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress; in 2002, "Chicago" gained both fame and fortune , while selling well at the box office, it has won numerous awards, including the 75th Oscar (2002-2003) for Best Picture. If we go further, there will be a "Black Swan" in the future.

In fact, these films are not pure musicals. Their most attractive feature lies in the plot and the words expressed in the film itself. Like "Chicago" and "Black Swan", they explore the desires of human nature, and singing and dancing are just for this purpose.

This type of song and dance drama has a great literary and artistic nature, and the production is also large. The selection of actresses is even more important, and the performance level of non-actresses can't be done. And with his current situation, even if he pays 20 million yuan, there will not be any movie stars who will participate in his movies later. They are not short of money and film contracts. Film Awards".

Therefore, this type of movie is not his current choice; then it is the second type, youth and campus musicals. This kind of musical has a long history. The 1978 "Hot Prodigal Son" and 1983 "Lightning Dance" are both classics. This kind of musical does not have any heavy themes. It mainly tells about the mentality of young people in that era. ; or the persistence of dreams; or the pursuit of love.

Once this kind of movie is made, it will explode into an unparalleled craze, instantly sweeping the student class all over the world.

And the next wave of upsurge was in 2006, which was fully detonated by a TV movie "High School Musical". In the same year, "Dancing Out of My Life" met unexpectedly. Flooding the entire market, famous ones include "Camp Rock", "Pretty Girl Cheerleading" and so on, and there are countless lesser-known films.

"High School Musical?" Wang Yang murmured softly. This movie is undoubtedly a good movie. It has identified the lifeblood of youth campus musicals, that is, it has a positive and inspirational theme; it also has music and singing and dancing in line with the times; it attracts handsome, male and female actors from the student class. All these aspects have been done well, and it is not surprising that it has received a huge response from the student class.

Wang Yang seriously analyzed the difficulty of filming "High School Musical" if he shot "High School Musical". The shooting scenes were concentrated on the high school campus, which was a place he was familiar with, so there was no problem; there were no complicated shots, no stunts, no special effects, no Question: In terms of actors, Jessica, Rachel, and Zachary are all very suitable candidates. Besides, after Hollywood lacks actors and actresses, there is no shortage of young, handsome men and women with some acting skills.

His only problem with filming musicals is the choreography and arrangement, but these jobs can be done by hiring professional dance directors and arrangers, and in fact there is no problem.

However, it is 1998, if "High School Musical" is released, will the market accept it? Wang Yang held his chin, frowned and thought about this question, trying to analyze rationally.

He is also a young man. If there is a good school musical movie that causes a hit, he will go to the cinema to see it. The reason is simple. He likes to dance and sing. There are many people like him. You can see that the dance floor in the bar is always full of people. Sing and dance, release your enthusiasm to the fullest!

But this reason alone is not enough, because he can go directly to the bar to dance instead of going to the cinema to watch a movie; so the movie can't just be singing and dancing, but also meet some needs of the audience,

Just like him, he misses his high school life, he likes the theme of being positive and daring to pursue his dreams, so he will watch "High School Musical", this is the idea of ​​a college student who was expelled; and if it is a high school student, He will also watch it, because in real high school life, he will not have such a wonderful story. He longs to be in the world in the movie, longing to pursue and realize his dreams like the hero and heroine, and to have wonderful love.

In addition, the students all went to see it, wouldn't it be outdated if he didn't go to see it?

This is why "High School Musical" is so popular, and why "Hot Prodigal Son" with a production cost of 6 million can receive nearly 400 million box office worldwide. They carry young people's expectations for themselves and their pursuit of beauty. Want to be that kind of person.

Therefore, campus musicals are timely at any time, and the current market is about to overflow with demand in this regard. The young people of their generation also want to have their own "Hot Prodigal Son".

And "High School Musical" in 2006, regardless of the content of the story or the shooting style, is also applicable in 1998.

But "High School Musical" is a TV movie. It was only broadcast on Disney's TV channel at the beginning. Disney just wanted to test the water, and didn't even invest much in publicity. As a result, this film sparked a "singing and dancing" craze in campuses across the United States, and then swept the world, attracting more than 170 million viewers, making young people around the world re-acquainted with musicals and driving them crazy. The hot popularity caught Disney by surprise, so they filmed "High School Musical 2" and continued to broadcast it on TV channels, and the popularity continued to be hot; then "High School Musical 3" was put on the big screen and received 252 million box office worldwide.

So if "High School Musical 1" is screened in cinemas directly, will this film still be successful? Wang Yang is not sure, but the probability of success is very high. Because the response of "High School Musical 1" is actually the biggest in the trilogy; "High School Musical 2" made a new attempt, the background of the story was moved to a resort village, and the structure of the plot became complicated. Although it broke the ratings record, movie fans They didn't buy it, and expressed their disappointment; "High School Musical 3" returned to the campus background, and the story structure was adjusted to a simple style, but it was still dismissed by some film critics and fans as a money-making film with no new ideas.

It can be said that the last two parts of the trilogy are largely supported by the popularity of "High School Musical 1", and they are just living on their laurels. This is to go all out, then decline, and exhaust three times. And the audience will have a mentality, the first two can be seen on TV, why should I go to the cinema for the third? If the big screen is the goal from the beginning, the audience will not think so. But "High School Musical 3" still received 252 million box office.

Besides, the success of the "High School Musical" series is not just breaking the ratings, not just the 252 million box office; there are also big sales of the film DVD, the soundtrack music CD of the film became the annual sales champion, and the tour stage theaters are full... This is "High School Musical" 1", so as long as the publicity is proper, "High School Musical 1" will be directly on the big screen, and it may not become the second "Hot Prodigal Son".

Of course, if you're going to shoot, you'll need to make a lot of changes. Because TV movies are based on the feeling of watching movies on a small screen, whether it is the way of performance or the form of expression, there are many differences from screen movies. This is not limited by production costs, but TV movies are TV movies. has its own set. If "High School Musical" is aimed at the big screen, it needs to change, and it needs to follow the set of big-screen movies.

Wang Yang was fascinated, thinking about how to change the rhythm of the movie and other issues, when suddenly his phone rang. He shook his head, took the mobile phone on the desk, saw that it belonged to Jessica, and pressed the connection, while looking at the pot of daffodils, he said, "Hi, Jessica, what can I do for you?" ?"

"Hi, Jan." Jessica over there said with a sweet smile, "It's nothing, I just want to chat with you. Oh!" She said shyly, "Are you busy, did I disturb you?"

"No, I was just thinking about something." Wang Yang laughed indifferently, and suddenly asked, "Jessica, can you dance?" In the inspirational song and dance film "Sweetheart Dance", in that movie, her dancing posture is of course very charming, but it was directed by a dancer, but I don't know if she can dance now.

Jessica was stunned, and said "uh", she couldn't figure out what Wang Yang meant by asking this, did she want to invite her to dance? Her heart skipped a beat, but... She shook her head and said, "No, I don't know how to, I haven't learned to dance." Wang Yang said with a little disappointment, "Oh, that's it!" Hearing his disappointed tone, Jessica couldn't help frowning She raised her eyebrows and asked tentatively, "Yang, do you want to go dancing?"

"No, not now." Wang Yang smiled and told her his thoughts: "I want to make a campus musical."

Jessica's heart tightened suddenly, and she couldn't help being surprised: "Oh, God! Really? You want to make a campus musical?" Then she reacted, and Yang asked her if she could dance, maybe she was asked to participate Do you mean acting? God, look what I said! Oh God! Jessica patted her forehead anxiously.

Wang Yang let out a "hmm", stretched out his hand to fiddle with the camera model on the table, and said with a smile, "You know, I like making movies, and I happen to get a lot of money, why not make it? The campus song and dance movie is what I have ordered now. The plan may cost several million, and I will pay for it myself."

Oh my god! School musicals, but she can't dance... Jessica didn't know what to do, she frowned and asked, "Yan, is there a role that suits me?"

"I haven't finalized the script yet, but for a campus film, there are always roles that are suitable for you to play." Wang Yang stood up, went to the kitchen to pour water, and said with a smile: "But I need someone who can dance..." He Before he could finish talking, Jessica interrupted his voice nervously: "Jan, I can learn it!"

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PS: canvassing, canvassing, wow continue canvassing! Come on everyone! In addition, I am very grateful to everyone for their rewards, especially "Canglan" and "Donghai". Suddenly there are two more deacons. I am so happy, thank you for your support!