In a Disney screening room, Zhou Fangyuan and Cameron accompanied Eisner to watch the movie again.

To be honest, Zhou Fangyuan was about to vomit.

No matter how good a movie is, it can't stand watching it over and over again.

He was originally a film director, and he watched it again I don't know how many times when he was cutting, and then he watched the film himself, followed Cameron to watch it again, and showed it to Mike and them, and he had watched this movie at least ten times in just a few days, to be honest, he really couldn't stand it. But there is no way, the movie wants to be released to make money, and Disney now has the idea of cooperating with him, so he can only watch it again with the other party.

Dozens of minutes passed in a flash, and when the list of employees came out, Eisner's help opened the waiting room in the screening room.

Eisner stood up and clapped while smiling at Zhou Fangyuan, "It's really an excellent movie, I can see that my back is sweating." ”

Ghost Shadow Record This movie, the picture is average, the music is average, and the props are generally so-so, everything in this movie is very ordinary, but there is one thing that is very good, that is, the concept of this pseudo-documentary. And in the whole film, you have to say that there are no ghosts, and the supernatural events can't be solid, but if you want to say that there are ghosts, you can't see the so-called ghosts at all. There are still ghosts in the curse, but there is no ghost in the ghost record, but the more this is the case, the more it can often give the audience more room for imagination, the greater the imagination, the stronger the horror daring, coupled with the sense of substitution of the pseudo-documentary, the ghost shadow record does not look at the cost of this movie is very small, and all aspects are very average, but in fact, the quality is really good, and the director of the original film is also a talent.

No matter how many shortcomings Eisner has, he was able to bring Disney from precariousness to the point where it is today in one year of his reign, and he still has the ability to appreciate it, and he can certainly see the level of this movie.

To be honest, when he first invited Cameron over, it was also for Cameron's sake, purely with the mentality of giving it a try.

Anyway, Disney doesn't have any good movies at this time this year, and although Cameron only has the title of a producer in this movie, he is an international director after all, and his fame and level are there, it is worth a gamble on Eisner, anyway, if the movie is not good, he will not lose anything. But as a result, it was really beyond his expectations, and he even had the intention to change the cooperation plan, after all, the sharing method that was finalized on the phone before was really not profitable for Disney. After all, according to the normal box office share of North American films, in the first week, the producer 70%, the other 30%, the second week, the producer 60%, the other 40%, the third week, the producer 40%, the other 60%. North America encourages large investment, and the reason why the longer the movie theater commissions the higher the percentage, is to encourage the movie theater to show the film for a longer time.

The "other" part of the box office share generally includes the income of the theater, the tax on the box office of the movie, and the payment of the distributor.

This thing is not dead, it is flexible and negotiable.

As the distributor, Disney's share is counted in the "producer" part, about 10% of the whole film, but this time Disney is willing to give up half of its profits, that is to say, Disney is willing to only accept 5% of the box office revenue of the whole film, and give an extra 5% to Zhou Fangyuan for free, the purpose is to attract excellent films, in fact, Cameron can let the film be released through Disney. It's a trust in Cameron, and Eisner thinks Cameron is worth the price.

But after saying this, he regretted it a little, if it is a small movie, 5% and 10% are meaningless, and if the box office does not go up, it will not help Disney. But on the other hand, if the box office is really good, 5% of the revenue is not a small number, considering Disney's current difficult situation, it is a little unreasonable to give up this money in vain.

But now, Eisner feels like he's done the right thing.

Because he has realized that Zhou Fangyuan has "potential" as a "director", and his relationship with Cameron is still very close, Eisner feels that if he can take this opportunity to further promote Disney's reform, it will undoubtedly be a good thing for him.

The two sides then conducted a new round of negotiations on the way of cooperation, and the final result of the negotiation was that Disney would start the release of the film as soon as possible, and Zhou Fangyuan did not have to worry about the specific publicity and contact with the theater chain, and Disney would ensure the screening of at least 800 screens. To be honest, 800 screens is really not much, Hollywood's super blockbusters over the years, the number of screens is at least to be forward, those blockbusters that often box office more than a billion dollars, and some even reach 000 or even 3000 screens such horror figures. However, considering that the directors and actors of this ghost film are all newcomers, and Cameron is only a producer, so before it is tested by the market, even if Disney is willing to contact more theaters, the theaters may not be willing to give more screens.

To be honest, in the winter file, the second most important schedule of the year, it is already a conscience to be able to free up 800 screens. After all, this movie is a temporary release, unlike other films that have already set a release plan. It's also a shame that Disney really hasn't had any blockbusters recently, so he was able to free up such a number of screens for Zhou Fangyuan in his busy schedule.

It can be seen from here that cinemas are actually the most important, and Zhou Fangyuan wants to engage in commercial real estate in China, to a large extent, he actually wants to make cinemas by the way. Shopping malls are such things, the capital intensity is too great, and the efficiency of capital return is not enough, at most, there is an extra sales network, which can be coordinated with the digging treasure, but that's all, to say the value of the shopping mall itself, in Zhou Fangyuan's view, it can be big or small, but the investment is not small after all, so it is a headache. But if you add theaters, it's different, the domestic film market will develop like a blowout in the future, and there is a cinema line and no cinema line, which is completely different.

In addition, Zhou Fangyuan himself has a media company, and if he masters the producer, he will inevitably have to master the distributor, if he can't do this, he will inevitably be stuck in the future, and it will not be beautiful.

The same is true on the side of the United States, but the situation in the United States is still different from that of China.

The theater chain here in the United States is quite mature.

The period from 1905 to 1946 was a period of rapid expansion of theaters in the United States.

Beginning in 1905, the first nickelodeon theater in the United States was established in Pittsburgh. As the per capita disposable income of Americans continues to increase, the demand for movies continues to increase, and more and more people are entering the theater. By 1910, there were more than 10,000 nickelodeon theaters throughout the United States. And from the 10s of the 0th century, the American film projection industry entered the period of movie palaces with large-scale construction of luxury theaters. The increase in the number of theaters and the sinking of channels have made more people able to access movies, which together with the increase in income has driven the rapid growth of moviegoers. By 1946, the number of weekly moviegoers and theaters in the United States had reached an all-time high.

However, since 1946, the number of moviegoers in the United States has declined sharply, mainly for two reasons.

First of all, after World War II, the rise and popularization of television, home video recorders, DVDs and other alternatives, and the diversification of entertainment methods, directly led to the decrease in the number of audiences entering the theater; secondly, from 1946 to 1964, the United States experienced a round of the famous "4664" baby boom, and the fertility rate has always remained above 3. Home video recorders and other channels can provide leisure channels for the whole family, so that the number of TVs, DVDs, etc. in the family continues to increase.

In this context, the competitive pressure of the cinema industry has increased, the survival of small and medium-sized cinemas is difficult, the number of cinemas has been decreasing from nearly 1,000 at the peak, and the industry has entered a period of merger and integration. In 1963, Deward introduced the concept of multiplex cinema to the film projection market for the first time and built the first two-hall cinema, which was a huge response to the market, and since then multiplex cinema construction has become the mainstream of the North American film projection market. In 1995, AMC invented and built the first giant multiplex theater, AMC GRAND, with a total of 4 screens.

The emergence of giant multiplex cinemas has increased the cost of investing in cinemas, and the competitive advantage of cinemas with multiplexes has increased, which has directly led to a new wave of mergers and alliances in the cinema market.

After 09 years, by that time, the American cinema industry has entered a period of stock game, showing the characteristics of box office, moviegoers, and per capita moviegoers basically stable and fluctuating in a narrow range. After the total box office revenue in North America crossed the $10 billion mark in 009, the annual box office revenue has fluctuated in a narrow range of about $10.5 billion to $11 billion, while the total number of moviegoers has remained stable at around 1.3 billion people, and the average number of moviegoers per capita is about 4. From the experience of North America, there is an obvious ceiling effect on box office revenue, and after entering the stock game period, the increase in revenue and the sinking of channels have a limited effect on the improvement of movie-watching demand and box office revenue, and the quality of films has become a key factor affecting whether the audience enters the theater or not.

At the same time, after a period of mergers and acquisitions, the cinema industry has entered an oligopoly stage, with Regal, AMC and Cinemar becoming the three major cinema oligopolies in North America, with market shares of 183%, 17% and 1586% respectively in 015. Even after entering the stock game period, mergers and acquisitions are still an important strategy for cinema operations, and the total concentration of the three oligopolies has reached more than 50% and is continuously improving. And in the more distant 016 year, AMC will also announce that it will acquire Carmie, the fourth largest cinema chain in the United States, for $1.1 billion, and the large-scale cinema chain will further build competitive barriers and form a large-scale effect.

In this case, it is unlikely that they want to continue to build new theaters.

So don't say that Zhou Fangyuan has no money now, even if Zhou Fangyuan has money, this matter is completely impossible. Because it is not only necessary to consider the size of the market, but also the most realistic point, that is, the famous Paramount clause in the antitrust law.

What is Paramount Clause? To put it simply, the producer and distributor can be one company, but the theater chain must be another company, and it cannot form a one-stop form. The reason for this is because from 1938 to 1948, it was involved in the big lawsuits of the Hollywood Big Eight at that time.

At that time, the five giants of Hollywood, Paramount, MGM, Warner Bros., 0th Century Fox, and Raiden Hua, accounted for 17% of the total number of movie theaters in the United States at that time, but the profit accounted for 45%. Together with the three giants, Universal Pictures, Columbia, and United States, these eight studios controlled the most important distribution channels in the United States at the time, and Hollywood's most well-known stars gathered under their command.

In order to further maximize profits, the owner of Paramount at that time came up with a bundled pre-order distribution method, forcing movie theaters to pre-order multiple films at once from 13 to 5, or even 104, otherwise they would not be sold. Among the many movies booked, in addition to big productions starring big stars, more are B-grade films. In addition, many of the films pre-ordered were unseen by the buyer, and some of them had not even started filming yet. The buyer didn't know anything about the more detailed content other than the genre of the movie, the male and female leads, and the short plot introduction. In the early days of the Golden Age, big studios like Paramount Pictures, as well as the rising Warner Bros. Pictures, relied heavily on bundled pre-orders.

The advantage of bundling pre-orders for giant studios is that they can find a market for even the worst films they produce. This effectively shifts a large part of the risk of investing in film shooting to independent exhibitors. Coupled with the joint manipulation of the distribution channels by the Big Eight, the distribution of independent films has been set up with various unreasonable barriers to entry. In the long run, this competitive environment is extremely unfavorable, exacerbating the survival difficulties of independent producers and independent exhibitors, and directly or indirectly leading to the closure of many independent cinemas. So in July 1938, during Roosevelt's New Deal, the U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against the Big Eight.

The end result is the way it is now, large companies can make efforts in distribution and production, and they can also contact the theater chain privately, but the theater company must remain "independent" and must not have any equity connection with the producer and distributor.

So if you want to engage in a theater in the United States, it's not impossible, but first, the market is limited, and now the three major theaters have stolen half of the market, and other theaters can't do the three; But a fool also knows that Disney is better than the theater chain, after all, Disney is also one of the eight major film companies today, and there is no need to worry about being deliberately stuck by the other party, so in the end, investing in Disney is the best way Well, if you have money.

After discussing the cooperation agreement, Zhou Fangyuan finally put his mind at ease, chatted with Eisner for a while, and then left Disney with Cameron.

On the way, the two discussed some things again, and after determining the direction of future cooperation, the next day, Zhou Fangyuan got on the plane back to China, he still had a lot of things to do, and it had been delayed here for a long time, and he had to go back quickly.