Chapter 226 Going to North America Again
Chapter 226 Going to North America Again
As early as when the box office of "Source Code" broke the 200 million mark, domestic film companies began to get restless.
Although in the eyes of everyone, there seem to be only a few film and television companies in China, the ones that can be named are only Huaying, Huayi, Bona, and Guangguang.
But in fact, there are actually quite a few film and television companies in China, especially some state-owned film production studios, but most of them are not very famous. However, this does not mean that these film and television companies have no strength.
Like Changchun Film Studio, Emei Film Studio, Bayi Film Studio, Xiying Group, etc., these film and television companies have achieved certain brilliant results in the past. Now under the impact of marketization, although they are not very popular, they still have certain ambitions.
It’s just that they didn’t have many opportunities in the past, and their reactions were always a beat slow.
But it's different now.
When Wang Hao held the "Galaxy Cinematic Universe" press conference at the Shanghai International Film Festival, the grand filming plan had actually attracted the attention of many interested people.
But the more ambitious the plan, the greater the investment and the greater the risk.
None of these film and television companies want to be the first to try something new, so they are all on the sidelines.
Now, with the success of the movie "Source Code", this wait-and-see attitude seems to be unnecessary.
The movie universe plan has been proven to be feasible. At least this time, the entire release process of "Source Code" has provided the most intuitive demonstration to all film companies at home and abroad that are paying attention to this plan.
Firstly, television and movies are interconnected, and fans of various movies in the movie universe can accumulate and transfer knowledge among each other.
This means that even a new movie can share the traffic in the movie universe traffic pool, greatly saving publicity costs and reducing risks.
Secondly, if we look closely at Wang Hao’s previous films, although they are all in the same movie universe, the style of each film is actually different.
This completely gets rid of the drawback of series movies that are prone to aesthetic fatigue, greatly expands the boundaries of series movies, and provides unlimited possibilities for a film series.
And since this [Galaxy Cinematic Universe] has the potential to succeed, has a very bright future, and also contains huge benefits, then those film and television companies that were previously on the sidelines naturally can't sit still, and have begun to try to get in touch with Wang Hao, the helmsman of the [Galaxy Cinematic Universe] through various relationships.
It’s a pity that you used to be indifferent, and now Wang Hao is too high for you.
When they wanted to get in touch with Wang Hao, they found out that the young director had already hurriedly flown to Hollywood after completing the early roadshow work for "Source Code".
As for why Wang Hao is so eager to go to Hollywood?
That's naturally because after more than three months of busy work, the preliminary preparations for the film "Taken", a collaboration between Galaxy Pictures and Columbia Pictures, are finally about to be completed.
As the nominal director of the film, Wang Hao of course had to go on set to communicate with the Hollywood team members of the crew and start auditioning the actors.
Once these final steps are completed, they can officially start filming and producing the film.
The script came out in March this year, and Columbia Pictures approved it in July. Then the general preliminary preparations were completed in October.
Such slow efficiency left Wang Hao and Galaxy Pictures speechless.
However, this was already a way for Columbia to speed up the process for Wang Hao's sake.
You have to know that in Hollywood, it may take one or two years for a project to go from project initiation to production start.
So after receiving the notice from Columbia, Wang Hao immediately flew to Hollywood.
After all, who knows what unexpected things will happen in Colombia if this continues.
And apart from the Taken project, it is already 2007, and next year is 2008.
Wang Hao knows that there will be a great opportunity to make a fortune next year. Although this opportunity needs to be planned from last year or even the year before, and signs have begun to show now, he himself has no plans to enter the market.
After all, this is America, and everything has to be done cautiously. It's already too late for him to enter the market, so why bother taking risks?
Just because he doesn't participate in short selling doesn't mean he doesn't have other opportunities.
Taking advantage of the opportunity when Apple released its first generation of smartphones, he had already slowly sold his Apple stocks.
Now that he has a large amount of cash, when the crisis comes in the future, he may be able to buy the bloody chips at the bottom, use the most ruthless price, and get the highest return. Of course, this also requires patience and finding a reliable trader to execute, so Wang Hao is not too anxious.
The flight from Beijing to Hollywood was naturally smooth sailing.
After landing, in addition to the Columbia staff, another old acquaintance of Wang Hao, Zhuang Wenqiang, came to the airport to pick him up.
"Brother Qiang!"
As soon as Wang Hao saw Zhuang Wenqiang wearing black-framed glasses, he greeted him with a smile, patted his arm, and said in a slightly apologetic voice:
"I'm sorry, Columbia is very determined. This is the first time we work together, so the director issue..."
"It's okay, Mr. Wang. I understand."
Zhuang Wenqiang smiled and waved his hand. Looking at the expression on his face, it seemed that he really didn't take what Wang Hao said to heart and didn't feel forced at all.
In fact, Wang Hao didn't want to be the director of "Taken" at the beginning.
On the one hand, it is because "Taken" is just a derivative film of "Warriors", similar to the relationship between "Lost on Journey" and "The Call", and belongs to the branch content of the "Galaxy Cinematic Universe", which is not very important compared to the main line.
On the other hand, the plot of this movie is basically the same as the original story, with no difference, so Wang Hao naturally has no interest in it.
Moreover, Galaxy Film and Television has also begun to implement an industrialized film management system, and has gradually gotten the hang of the pre-shooting process. The same model is used in Hollywood, and the shooting plan has been designed in advance after the script comes out. It doesn't matter who can be the director, he's just a tool.
Therefore, Wang Hao originally planned to give the opportunity to direct a Hollywood movie to one of the few contracted directors of Xingdou Culture, Zhuang Wenqiang, and he himself chose to serve as the producer of "Taken".
Previously, Zhuang Wenqiang was busy in Hollywood discussing matters concerning "Taken" with Columbia, while also preparing for the early stages of the film.
Unfortunately, after hearing about Wang Hao's plan, Columbia Pictures were not very confident about Zhuang Wenqiang, a new director they had never heard of before, and repeatedly demanded that Wang Hao must be the director of this film.
The two sides negotiated for a long time, but ultimately there was no way out and they had to take a step back and Wang Hao himself would be the director of "Taken".
Of course, the prerequisite is that the editing of the film must also be handed over to Wang Hao. After all, Wang Hao is already well-known in Hollywood, and it is naturally impossible for him to be a tool director like Zhuang Wenqiang.
In addition to the fixed US$500 million director's fee, the director's fee must also be supplemented by a share of the film's profits.
Because of this condition, Galaxy Pictures and Columbia were in a tug of war for a long time.
After all, only the top directors in Hollywood can enjoy the share of profits.
Although Wang Hao's films have achieved remarkable results in China, and the "Galaxy Cinematic Universe" project does look very attractive, as a large company, Columbia does not have the courage to break the rules.
In the end, it was the head of Sony Pictures behind Columbia who made the final decision and agreed to a tiered profit distribution based on the film's final box office performance.
If the global box office of "Taken" can exceed 1.5 million US dollars, Wang Hao will be able to enjoy 1% of the profit share. If the movie can exceed 2 million US dollars, he will get 2%. If the movie can exceed 3 million, it will be 5%.
This profit share is actually not that much. Even if the global box office really exceeds 3 million, the estimated profit will only be 1 million, and Wang Hao can only get 500 million US dollars.
Moreover, there are many ways to manipulate movie profits. A hit movie like "Harry Potter" can make some profit, so it's not that Columbia Pictures is not incapable of using some tricks.
However, one must eat one bite at a time. Wang Hao strived for these conditions not for profit, but to make a breakthrough.
This is how the film and television industry works: a successful actor or director's worth must follow the old rules and increase gradually.
As a Chinese director, Wang Hao has just entered Hollywood, so his value needs to have an anchor.
This time, through negotiations with Columbia Pictures, we were able to come to an agreement on profit sharing, which opened a door for us. Next time, when we cooperate with other large film and television companies, we will be able to propose box office sharing again.
As long as he continues to be successful, the hole will become bigger and bigger, and he can eat more delicious food.
Of course, the reason why Columbia Pictures, or Sony Pictures behind them, agreed to this condition may be that they wanted to get closer to him through the project "Taken" and keep him in Hollywood temporarily to discuss matters related to the movie universe.
Wang Hao is well aware of this, and he is not opposed to cooperating with Sony Pictures. Instead, he is happy to see it happen.
(End of this chapter)