Lucas Ben is one of the largest film distributors in the United States, has cooperated with DreamWorks for many years, and has a very good personal relationship with Spielberg.

And Lucas himself, not only a loyal supporter of the Muying ticketing system, but also a loyal fan of Li Mu, has always had the idea of getting acquainted with Li Mu, but there is no suitable opportunity, what he didn't expect this time is that Li Mu actually asked Spielberg to help him introduce North American distributors, and Spielberg found himself again, which is really perfect.

Lucas's company itself is also trying to contact Makino Imaging, hoping to get the copyright of zombie films, and then take advantage of this off-season to make a small profit in North America, and Lucas also found copies of "Mr. Zombie" and several other zombie films for a small-scale test screening within the company, and everyone has a very good evaluation after watching this movie.

The reason for the high evaluation is mainly that the movie itself is more interesting and witty, especially for audiences who have not been exposed to zombie films, especially for audiences who have not been exposed to zombie films, you must know that "Mr. Zombie" opened up a precedent for zombie films and directly brought zombie films into the golden period, which shows that this movie has a very good effect on popularizing zombie films.

For these American filmmakers, the film itself is of good quality and already has the possibility of operation, not to mention that this movie is full of oriental mystery elements, every detail makes people feel novel, and the logic of the film itself is also very strict, and the formation of zombies, zombie attacks, propagation and restraint methods can be explained very satisfactorily, and no bugs can be found, which is even more interesting for them.

Finally, the new version of "Plants vs. Zombies Online" did plant the seeds of curiosity in everyone's psychology and the approximate embryonic impression of Chinese zombies, so I had a little more expectations for this movie.

Based on these facts, Lucas, with his keen sense of smell for many years, deduced that if "Mr. Zombie" was released in North America, it would not be a big problem to win $50 million at the box office with the current mass base.

Moreover, this is just one, Li Mu, the animal, has bought all the copyrights of zombie-themed movies and TV series accumulated in Hong Kong for so many years, if "Mr. Zombie" becomes an instant hit, the entire Chinese zombie theme will have at least tens of millions of dollars or even hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office space in the future.

For the sake of these box offices, I have to go to China and talk to Makino in person to prove my sincerity, if I have the opportunity to meet Li Mu, it would be great.

……

Spielberg told Li Mu the news of Lucas's decision to come to Beijing by phone, and Li Mu was not ready to follow up on the matter in person, but when he heard Spielberg say that Lucas was one of the largest film distributors in the United States, he decided to meet him in person.

Lucas hurried to Yanjing with two purposes, one was to discuss the North American distribution rights of zombie films, and the other was to meet Li Mu.

Although Lucas is very influential in the American film industry, but when he jumps out of the film industry, his influence is greatly reduced, especially in front of big entrepreneurs and top rich people, people in the film industry have no status at all, not to mention Lucas, even Harvey Weinstein, who is the dominant player in Hollywood, has to be an abstinent baby on Wall Street.

Because of this, Lucas especially pinned his hopes on this trip to China, hoping that under Spielberg's guidance, he could meet Li Mu.

And when he got a clear reply from Spielberg before getting on the plane, informing him that Li Mu was willing to meet him in Yanjing, he was excited all the way, and after more than ten hours of flying, not only did he not close his eyes, but he did not feel tired at all.

When the plane landed at Yanjing Airport, it was two o'clock in the afternoon of Yanjing time, Li Mu arranged for the driver of Makino Technology to meet him at the airport, and at the same time asked the driver to make two arrangements for him on his behalf: go to the hotel to rest first, and go to Makino Technology tomorrow morning to have an interview with Li Mu, or go directly to Makino Technology to meet Li Mu.

Lucas chose the latter almost without hesitation, even though he hadn't closed his eyes for more than 20 hours.

The driver drove Lucas to Makino Technology and handed it over to the administrative staff of Makino Technology, and after a while, Li Ziwei knocked on the door of Li Mu's office and said to him: "Mr. Li, Lucas Ben of the United States has already arrived, do you want to see him now?"

Li Mu nodded: "Let him come in." ”

After a while, Lucas followed Li Ziwei to Li Mu's office, and when Lucas saw Li Mu himself, he said excitedly: "Hello Mr. Li, it's a great honor to meet you!"

"It's also an honor to meet you. Li Mu replied in proficient English, then walked out of his desk, pointed to the sofa in the reception area, and said to him, "Have-a-seat-please, Mr. Ben." ”

Lucas heard Li Mu call himself Mr. Ben, and hurriedly said respectfully: "Mr. Li, please call me Lucas." ”

Li Mu nodded and said with a smile: "Okay, Lucas, please sit down, do you want to drink some coffee or some tea?"

"Coffee, thank you!" Although Lucas was very excited, his body was already feeling tired, and he was worried that he would not be in enough state when he interviewed Li Mu.

Li Mu said to Li Ziwei: "Arrange to pour a cup of coffee for Lucas, and make me a cup of tea by the way." ”

"Okay, Mr. Li. After Li Ziwei finished speaking, she turned around and left, and Li Mu sat opposite Lucas and said to him: "Welcome to Huaxia Lucas, especially when it is rumored that Huaxia is very dangerous in the outside world, it takes courage." ”

Lucas smiled: "Mr. Li, we have learned about the actual situation of the epidemic in Yanjing through your statement, and I think Yanjing is not as dangerous as many media portray. ”

Saying that, Lucas said again: "What's more, I came to Yanjing to meet you, even if it is dangerous, I must rush over." ”

Li Mu smiled slightly and said, "Lucas, I think Steven has already told you about my needs, right?"

"Yes. Lucas nodded again and again and said, "He told me that you wanted to distribute the Hong Kong 1985 "Mr. Zombie" in North America, and it just so happened that I was very interested in that movie and was very optimistic, so I hurried over by plane." ”

Li Mu asked him: "Do you also know about the movie "Mr. Zombie"?"

Lucas was busy: "Of course, since the update of the new version of "Plants vs. Zombies Online", some elements and backgrounds about Chinese zombies have been very popular with the public in North America, and most people want to know more details about the legend of Chinese zombies. The combat effectiveness and the way to deal with them, especially the character of the Taoist is very interesting, and the skills are also very interesting, so the audience is looking forward to this movie, in my opinion, this movie already has a good potential audience base, and if it can be released in North America, the box office will definitely be considerable. ”

Li Mu asked him: "What do you think if this movie is handed over to you to do the distribution of the entire North America, how much box office can you achieve?"

"50 million dollars, maybe more!" Lucas said, "The popularity of the people is very high right now, and if it can be released as soon as possible to avoid wasting or even missing the popularity, I don't think 60 or 70 million dollars is not a problem." ”

Li Mu nodded and asked him: "If we cooperate, according to your normal process and rules for introducing overseas film copyrights, how much can the copyright owner get at the actual box office?"

Lucas said: "Not necessarily, we've done everything without a penny at the box office, and we've done 30% or more. ”

Li Mu asked curiously: "And the copyright owner doesn't want to share?"

"Yes. Lucas said: "But those are some niche, small-production films, the copyright owner generally just wants to open up the situation, so I would rather not share a penny at the box office, and I hope we can help them open up their influence, but such movies are generally of poor quality, even if we don't want a penny, we may not be willing to operate, after all, if the movie is too bad, the theater chain will also refuse to schedule the film." ”

Speaking of this, Lucaston paused and said: "Normal commercial films, generally around 20-30%, if you are willing to hand over the North American distribution rights of "Mr. Zombie" to my company, then I can give you the highest share ratio within my ability, 35%!"

For Lucas, he went to China to make money, and taking Li Mu's line is the key, Li Mu's ticketing system will play an increasingly important and influential role in the North American box office in the future, in this case, he will have many opportunities to deal with Li Mu's enterprises and platforms in the future, if you have a good relationship with Li Mu in advance, it will be a very beneficial guarantee for yourself.

Li Mu listened to him say 35%. knows that the offer he gave is indeed very good, excluding the share and various taxes and fees for the theater, giving himself 35%, Lucas is equivalent to working for himself in this single transaction.

Lucas thought that Li Mu would be very satisfied with this sincere offer, but unexpectedly, the first sentence Li Mu opened his mouth was to ask: "If I only need 15%, and then take the extra 20% apart, give 10% to you, and give 10% to the theater, how much room do you think there is for the movie box office?"

"Give 10% more to the theaters?" Lucas blurted out.

Li Mu nodded: "That's right, you and the theater chain, 10% each, what I want is not how much money I can make, but how much box office this movie can achieve in North America in the end, you understand what I mean, right?"

Lucas nodded immediately.

Li Mu doesn't want to make more money, but he hopes that the box office will be as high as possible, and he must want to raise the influence of this movie to the highest.

Think about it, if it's just a matter of tens of millions of dollars at the box office, even if Li Mu's Muye image is 35%, it is only one or two million dollars of income, such a little money is not worth his energy at all, let alone his time to meet himself, what he wants is not money, but influence.

Thinking of this, Lucas immediately said: "Mr. Li, if you only need 15% of the box office, then I promise you that I will return the remaining 20% to the theater in various forms!"