The next day, John flew back to Los Angeles, and after a few hours of flying, the plane finally arrived at Los Angeles Airport smoothly, got off the plane and walked out of the airport, and John got into Sophia's car directly.

"Sophia, are you ready to arrange a meeting with your father?" John did when he returned to Los Angeles and asked Francis Ford Coppola to be the executive producer of Forrest Gump.

"I have already told my father, and I will take you to him tomorrow. Sophia replied as she drove the car. When she returned home in Los Angeles, she told Francis Ford Coppola everything about John.

"Good!" John nodded. "Send me back to Studio Crown!"

"Aren't you going home?" asked Sophia, confused.

"No return!" John shook his head. "There's something else to discuss with Nancy. ”

Once at Crown Studios, John enters Crown Studios alone, while Sophia drives back home.

"Nancy!" John saw Nancy waiting in the hall as soon as he entered the Crown Studios.

"You're here!" Nancy said, standing up and pouring John a cup of coffee.

"Thank you!" John took a sip of his coffee. "How's the casting invitation going?"

"That's it, auditions can start next Monday. Nancy replied. "That's right! the props team is running out of money, so you're getting the second money!"

"Okay! I got it!" John nodded.

The production funds for a film are spent in four main places.

One is the preparatory stage in the early stage, including script costs, props production and scene construction, and scene construction is the most expensive, a scene construction at least tens of thousands of dollars, more than hundreds of thousands of dollars to build, and many times a scene will only use a few shots, some even only use one shot, so this part of the cost will account for 20% of the entire production fund, if there are some movies with a lot of scenes, the funds have to increase.

The second is the salary of the actors and the salaries of the crew, which is the bulk of the cost, accounting for 40% of the production cost. So it's hard to see several top actors starring in a movie at the same time, because the cost is too expensive, an actor has a salary of 2000 million, if you invite 5, then the salary alone will be more than 100 million, and the production cost is not more than 200 million, so you can't afford it.

Of course, in order to have one or two more big names appear in the movie and increase the popularity of the movie, some crews will sometimes embezzle some funds from pre-preparation or post-production, so there will be funny scenes of top stars accompanying Wumao special effects, which is not uncommon in Chinese TV dramas.

The investment in TV dramas is originally small, and after adding a few high-paid actors to spread the money, how much money can be left to make special effects in the end?

The third is the cost of the shooting process and shooting equipment. This part is actually not very expensive, that is, the cost of some food, housing, transportation, and shooting equipment, accounting for up to 10%.

Fourth, post-production. If it is a commercial blockbuster, then this cost is expensive, accounting for 30% of the production cost, any special effects shot of a few minutes, if handed over to Industrial Light and Magic, don't even think about it. Of course, if there are no special effects in the movie, then this part of the money can be saved, which is why movies without special effects are cheaper to produce than those special effects movies.

The production cost of "Forrest Gump" was $55 million in the previous life, and in this life, John invited several top actors, and with the addition of Audrey Hepburn and some of their post-production special effects, the production cost will increase to about $80 million.

If the production cost is apportioned, the pre-production cost will be about $16 million, and as for the actors' salary, it can account for $32 million, while the filming process will need $8 million, and the post-production cost will need $24 million

Of course, this data is only approximate data, and there will definitely be some discrepancies in actual operation, for example, although "Forrest Gump" has special effects, it is not like a commercial blockbuster like "The Avengers" after all, so the post-production cost is not as much as 24 million US dollars, and the extra millions of dollars can be transferred to the actors.

As for the preparation cost of $16 million in the early stage, this figure should be about the same, John played the first $2.5 million to the props team after the end of "Stealing Love", so he can complete the preparation of "Forrest Gump" with $13 million.

Of course, he won't give all the money to the props team at once, he will divide it into several hits.

"Nancy, how are the sales of the soundtrack of the movie "Stealing Love" now?" John wants to pay the props team, so he has to withdraw it from Crown Studios, and at present, Crown Studios only earns the original soundtrack, and the rest of the overseas rights are all sold to New Line Films.

Nancy, who was on the side, heard John's inquiry and opened her notebook to look at it. With the overseas release of "Stealing Love", during this time, the original soundtrack of the movie sold 3.12 million copies overseas, 510,000 copies in North America, a total of 3.63 million copies were sold, and Crown Studios received $10.89 million, deducting taxes and some labor costs, a total of $8.83 million was received. ”

"Then you put $5 million out of Crown Studios' books and give it to the props crew. John was very happy to hear that he had another $8.83 million in his account, a movie soundtrack made him earn more than $30 million, and it was only a temporary income, as long as the copyright was in his hands, he would have it every year, it was just a matter of how much, so he was ready to continue on the road of the soundtrack.

"Okay, I'll do it later!" Nancy nodded. "By the way, John, you asked ICM Huaxia to buy "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" for you, and the copyright has been transferred to Crown Studios. ”

"Oh! how much did you buy it?" John was a little surprised, ICM was very efficient, and he had only returned to China not long before the copyright was taken down.

"$35,000!" Nancy replied.

John nodded, although the price was $5,000 more expensive than Li Pu, it was still the price of a cabbage.

At the same time, John also remembered the copyright of another movie. "Nancy, ask ICM to send someone to Hasbro and help me get the rights to their animated film Transformers. ”

"Do you want to put it on the big screen in the way of an anime movie?" Nancy knows that this cartoon, "Transformers" is currently being broadcast on TV in North America, and many children like it very much, if it is changed to an anime movie and moved into theaters, there will definitely be a market.

"Anime movie!" John shook his head. "No, I'm going to make a live-action movie. ”

"Transformers?" Nancy looked at John in surprise. "John, can 'Transformers' be made into a live-action movie?"

"I can't shoot it now, I can't do it in technology, fifteen years from now!" John replied.

In 1991, the Transformers were to be filmed, which was a fool's dream, and it was impossible to make it with the transformation of more than 1,000 parts of Optimus Prime alone. You must know that Optimus Prime is not the T-800 in "Terminator", make a model, and then use the decomposition technology to shoot it.

The progress of movie special effects must follow the computer, and in this era, the computer has only just started, Yahoo, Google, Amazon ....... The shadows of these companies are still invisible.

But if you have to shoot it, you can shoot it, but what you shoot is definitely not what John wants.

Nancy, who was on the side, heard John's words and nodded, who can tell the future, fifteen years is enough to change many things, and the level of technology at that time may not be able to really shoot.

And fifteen years later, these children who watched "Transformers" at the beginning were all adults at that time, and "Transformers" would not be a movie for them at that time, but a feeling.