Chapter 97 Lu Chuan diss Zhang Chen
Chapter 97 Lu Chuan diss Zhang Chen
"30% of the box office share, forget about DVDs, and the copyright must be shared."
The executive's words were spoken with an unquestionable momentum, and then he looked at Zhang Chen.
Zhang Chen and Dai An looked at each other. The other party actually increased their share. Zhang Chen made some calculations in his mind.
According to the current trend, the final North American box office of "The Dark Knight" will be around 5000 million, and "Eden Lake" is expected to be slightly lower, at 3000-4000 million US dollars.
So 30% is about 1000-1300 million, which is not a small amount considering the 55% profit sharing ratio in North America, as this is in US dollars.
Then I saw Diane shaking her head slightly, then she leaned over and whispered, "The box office share can be reduced, but we must strive for the DVD copyright income."
Diane didn't give a reason, but Zhang Chen knew she was definitely right. She was a Hollywood native.
Zhang Chen spoke again: "We only want 20% of the box office share, but we must enjoy the same proportion of DVD share. I agree to share the copyright, but the choice of the leading actor must be decided by me."
When Pete heard this, he thought that this was Diane's idea for Zhang, and he couldn't help but look up to this woman. Such conditions were almost the limit of what they could accept.
But he still bargained as usual: "The ratio is still too high. Besides, you are not familiar with white actors, so it is better for us to decide..."
Zhang Chen insisted: "The proportion cannot change..."
After thinking for a while, he said, "I will make another concession in terms of actors. I will give up the choice of the male lead, but I must decide on the choice of the female lead. This is the basic right of the director."
Pete thought to himself, do you think I haven't read the script? The male lead is not the main actor, at best he is a supporting role. Strictly speaking, there is only one main actor in this movie, the female lead.
He was about to say something, but Zhang Chen spoke first: "Sorry, this is my final offer. If we can't reach an agreement, then I have no choice but to say sorry. Diane, help me arrange a meeting with the people from Lionsgate and Summit Pictures tomorrow."
Zhang Chen's words were clearly an attempt to force the emperor to abdicate.
If you don’t agree, I won’t play with you anymore.
The executive looked at Zhang Chen's expression, as if trying to figure out whether he was telling the truth or a lie. There was only suffocating silence in the office.
Zhang Chen didn't say anything, Diane didn't say anything either, the executive seemed to be thinking, leaving Pete looking around at a loss.
Finally, the executive stopped tapping his fingers on the table. It was time for him to make the final decision.
Sure enough, the other party looked at Zhang Chen, then stood up and stretched out his hand: "Zhang, I have to say that you do have something to be proud of. I wish us a pleasant cooperation. When can we sign the contract?"
"at any time."
"Then let's set it for tomorrow. I'll leave first, and Peter will take care of the rest with you."
The executive left after he finished speaking, and the atmosphere in the room became relaxed again, without the tension from before.
"Just now I thought you guys were going to break down the discussion."
"That's what I thought."
“But it turned out pretty good, didn’t it?”
Zhang Chen's words successfully made the other two smile.
"You took down the female lead role. Do you have any actresses to recommend?"
Zhang Chen nodded, "I guess so."
"Chinese?"
"Correct."
……
Diane was excited to come out of the new line.
"Boss, do I have another bonus coming into my account?"
"Yes, congratulations. Also, I want to ask, what about the DVD copyright that you just reminded me about?"
"Boss, you are a foreigner, so you may not understand this. In North American film projects, the box office profit ratio is not the biggest part, not even half. The real big part is DVDs and peripherals.
New Line is a small company, and its peripheral development capabilities are a little weaker, but DVD still accounts for a large proportion. Moreover, this is a long-term income. As long as there are people renting DVDs, this money will continue to be generated. In contrast, the box office is only a one-time income, which will disappear after the movie is taken off the screen. "
"So New Line would rather give in at the box office than have us share its DVD profits."
"Yes."
Zhang Chen sighed: "It's all thanks to you today. If it weren't for you, I might have agreed."
"Isn't this the value of my existence? Haha, next we just need to find a good lawyer to avoid falling into the contract trap."
"you're right."
……
In China, on October 10th, the film "Kekexili" was taken off the screen.
During the seven-day National Day holiday, "Kekexili" earned a total box office of 608 million.
Even if news came during this period that "Kekexili" won the Tokyo Film Festival Jury Prize, it was useless and had no effect on the box office.
This thing might have some effect on overseas copyright, but the overseas copyright already belonged to Colombia before filming began.
It’s okay, what Director Lu wants is personal expression.
Then, a question from the reporter made him very unhappy.
"2046 has been taken off the screen, and the final box office was 3000 million. Director Lu, why did the similar film Kekexili only have a box office of 608 million? What do you have to say to the audience?"
What? Your sister?
Director Lu Chuan even wanted to hit someone.
How can it be so close to the face?
Lu Chuan was furious: "How can "Kekexili" and "2046" be of the same genre? They are completely different, okay? One is a documentary, and the other is an art film, how can they be the same? Do you understand?"
"For the audience, they are all non-commercial films."
"Uh……"
The reporter was not used to Director Lu, which made the director choke and he left with a sullen face.
Although he left, Director Lu actually still had some resentment in his heart.
"New Police Story" has been released for more than ten days and the box office is close to 3000 million.
It's fine that a commercial film has higher box office than "Kekexili", after all, it's a commercial film starring Jackie Chan, so it's normal for it to have a high box office.
But 2046…
It's too unethical. Why do you want such a high box office for an art film?
In his opinion, "2046" is nothing more than a defective product disguised as exquisite, a poor sequel to "In the Mood for Love", and an absolute bad movie.
The whole film is filled with the word "pretentious", the pretentiousness of the weak story content, the pretentiousness of the actors, the pretentiousness of the forced music, and the pretentiousness of the pictures with a ostentatious attitude.
But it is such a terrible movie, and the box office reached 3000 million.
Why?
Is it just because it was nominated for the Cannes Palme d'Or?
It's just a nomination, not a real award.
I am also the winner of the Tokyo Film Festival Jury Grand Prix, a well-deserved winner.
But the reality is so slapping, "Kekexili" just can't beat "2046".
What kind of magic medicine did Wong Kar-wai take? "In the Mood for Love" only had a box office of 1000 million, while "2046" actually reached 3000 million.
This is unscientific.
I should have reported him earlier.
Lu Chuan was filled with indignation.
At this moment, upon learning the final box office of "2046", Jackie Chan was even more indignant than him.
Although "New Police Story" has not yet been released, the box office can be predicted. It will not exceed 5000 million, and is estimated to be just over 4000 million.
The budget of this film was 1.2 million, but due to overspending, the cost reached 2046 million, but the box office was only 1000 million more than "".
Cheng Long didn't know what went wrong.
This movie has a good story and good scenes.
"New Police Story" was not originally called this name. The script was originally written for Leslie Cheung, but unexpectedly, Brother Cheung jumped off.
Finally, the script went through many twists and turns and landed in the hands of Emperor Entertainment Group.
Emperor Entertainment Group collaborated with Jackie Chan, and in order to commemorate his brother, the protagonist's name was set to Leslie Chan.
This is a story that is interesting enough, but there is more to it.
Cheng Long returned to Hong Kong from Hollywood. In order to make a good start after returning to Hong Kong, he deliberately changed the title of the film to "New Police Story".
In fact, they are just being a hooligan. They want to take advantage of the popularity of "Police Story" but don't want to pay the copyright fees.
Each of the four films in the "Police Stories" series has achieved huge success in Hong Kong, but the copyright is in the hands of Golden Harvest.
Golden Harvest and Emperor Entertainment Group were competitors. Emperor Entertainment Group also teamed up with China Star, TVB and others to plot against Golden Harvest, causing Golden Harvest to lose even its studios, which directly led to its decline.
So Golden Harvest will definitely not cooperate with Emperor Entertainment Group.
So Cheng Long played this edge ball.
Unfortunately, his first collaboration with Emperor Entertainment Group did not achieve the expected success.
Cheng Long really couldn't understand why. If you were to talk about big scenes, there was none missing.
In the film, Cheng Long is tracking a gangster, who in a rage hits the bus driver, causing the bus to run rampant on the street.
This scene was shot live, the entire street was built with real scenery, and three large buses were damaged one after another. Isn't this a big scene?
There is also the scene at the beginning where Cheng Long's team is wiped out, and he rushes out pushing the bodies of his brothers in the explosion, which was also a real shot.
From the behind-the-scenes footage at the end of the film, we can see that there was an explosion behind Cheng Long during the filming. The nervousness and fear he felt was not acted; he was really scared.
Finally, the crew used two groups of people to put out the fire.
The crew went over budget because of these big scenes. It is said that Chen Ziqiang was so angry that he ignored Cheng Long for a week.
Just like that, although this movie was very Jackie Chan's in every aspect, the box office did not meet his expectations.
He originally thought it could exceed 100 million.
But in the end it may be less than half.
……
The next day, Zhang Chen and others came to the New Line headquarters as scheduled to sign the contract.
Pitt had previously agreed to invite the media to the signing ceremony to promote the event.
"The Darkness" is currently in theaters, and they certainly won't miss such a good opportunity to ride on the popularity.
The head of New Line said: "Director Zhang Chen is the best director of the Saturn Awards. The popular film "Dark Invasion" is written and directed by him. He will use the director's fee, screenwriter's fee and copyright of "Eden Lake" as investment, accounting for 20% of all the profits of this film, and will establish a long-term cooperative relationship with New Line..."
The person in charge was talking eloquently, with flashing lights flashing nearby.
Zhang Chen is a rising star in the horror film industry. His second work, which he wrote and directed, is sure to attract the attention of horror film fans.
New Line has found a treasure again this time.
The lawyer that Zhang Chen hired at great expense was no freeloader. The elite-looking lawyer went through the contract prepared by Xinxian in detail and found out several areas where there might be disputes.
Of course, the signing was just a show, and the real contract had been signed long before the reporters took pictures.
After the signing, New Line also prepared a celebratory dinner, at which the latter met many Hollywood independent producers, film companies, and actors.
Dai An knew many people and introduced Zhang Chen to everyone one by one.
"This is my new boss, Steve Chang, the director of Darkness."
Steve is the new English name Zhang Chen gave himself. It is really inconvenient here without an English name.
After a cocktail party, Zhang Chen received a lot of contact information and business cards.
Then, Dong Jianqiang called.
Zhang Chen was still wondering how the news spread so quickly. Wasn’t there a time difference?
"Brother Dong, how do you know I signed the contract?"
"Huh? Have you signed the contract? I don't know. I called to tell you that Lu Chuan has gone crazy these past two days. He's been dissing you like crazy."
Diss is a new term he learned from Zhang Chen, and it is quite convenient for him to use.
Zhang Chen was completely confused.
Lu Chuan? Diss me?
why?
I didn't provoke him.
……
Asking for monthly ticket
(End of this chapter)