Paramount Pictures Headquarters, Hollywood, Los Angeles.

Shirley Lansing looked at a document in her hand and asked her assistant, "What's the situation with this relativistic entertainment? From Halloween last year to now, there have been four blockbusters one after another?"

She flipped through the documents and frowned slightly: "The global box office of "Human Eradication Plan 2" is 135.89 million US dollars, and there are still regions overseas that are being released. "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" grossed $161.2 million in North America. "House of the Dead" grossed $46.87 million worldwide. "Spy" is about to surpass $150 million at the global box office......"

Among these films, except for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", which was bought by Relativity Entertainment's Embassy Pictures for the North American rights, the other three films are all produced and distributed by Relativity Entertainment itself, and overseas screenings have not yet ended.

"Relativity Entertainment was founded in 1999 by Ronan Anderson, and currently has two subsidiaries, Shahai Entertainment, which is the production company, and Embassy Pictures, which is the distribution company. ”

Shirley Lansing nodded lightly: "Ronan Anderson?"

This name may sound familiar.

The assistant reminded: "You once met Ronan Anderson at a party, from Tom Cruise's introduction. Ronan Anderson is now very close to Tom Cruise, and the two are said to have an excellent personal relationship. ”

"I remembered. A young face flashed in front of Shirley Lansing's eyes: "Blair the Witch was also released by Ronan Anderson's company, right?"

"Yes. The assistant replied.

Shirley Lansing frowned slightly: "This company is growing fast?"

The assistant said: "The development speed is very fast, since the establishment of Relativity Entertainment in 1999, according to incomplete statistics, the total revenue of film revenue is as high as 445.2 million US dollars. Of course, this figure is not accurate, the other party is not a listed company, and external appraisal agencies can only make rough estimates. ”

Shirley Lansing's wrinkled face was full of thought: "This is also the top performance in a second-tier film company." ”

The assistant chimed in: "In 2000, among Hollywood's second-tier studios, Relativity Entertainment's revenue was second only to DreamWorks and Summit Entertainment, but the latter's revenue came more from relying on a huge library to redistribute DVDs. ”

Shirley Lansing quickly made a judgment: Relativity Entertainment is a young company with great potential, and its strength is relatively not very strong compared to Summit Entertainment and DreamWorks, but its advantage lies in its multiple serialized movies.

The information is very clear, "Human Eradication Project" has been filmed twice, "The Grim Reaper is Coming" is preparing a sequel, "Spy" is a trilogy, and has also reached a long-term film adaptation cooperation with Japan's Capcom for the "Resident Evil" game.

Movies that can be serialized are all powerful tools for revenue.

Shirley Lansing instructed the assistant: "Let the people in the market research department pay more attention to this relatalistic entertainment, every quarter...... No, every six months, submit a report to me. ”

The assistant quickly took notes.

Shirley Lansing's energy quickly turned away, a film company that can't even compare to DreamWorks, it's not worth her time, Paramount Pictures won't invest too much energy in it, if Relativity Entertainment develops smoothly, just like it did with those small and medium-sized companies that have developed in the past, just find a suitable opportunity to buy it directly and become a subsidiary.

And not every studio is as ambitious as DreamWorks.

Although DreamWorks is not in a very good situation, and his good friend Spielberg is in a lot of trouble, no one can ignore the influence of the DreamWorks giants and the international consortium behind them.

The capacity of the North American film market is almost at its limit, and it is already very crowded for six companies to stand on the first floor to share the cake.

This layer really can't afford new companies to come and grab the cake.

At a gathering with Ron Mayer some time ago, the Universal Pictures giant was right, no matter how good they are with Spielberg, they must not show mercy where they should suppress DreamWorks, otherwise their current position will not be solid.

At the beginning of July, the North American box office of "Spy Shadow" officially exceeded the $100 million mark, and the global box office reached $168.9 million.

With a long runtime to follow, it can be said that the film has been a success.

Various negotiations for the sequel have also made key progress, especially Matt Damon as the leading actor, after changing agencies, Ronan and CAA conducted three rounds of negotiations, agreed on Matt Damon's salary, and handed over the follow-up details to the co-producer of the crew.

Matt Damon's sequel is paid a whopping $10 million, not including the post-production share.

This is also the result of Ronan's efforts to negotiate, and there is a third part later, and the later part can become an important bargaining chip in the negotiation of the next part.

Matt Damon is also quite satisfied with the salary that has crossed the 10 million dollar line.

Both sides are very sincere in continuing to cooperate, and they can also feel each other's sincerity.

In addition, director Paul Greengrass's salary has risen to $5 million, which is also in line with the value of a director at the box office of 100 million yuan.

Ronan is still very tight in salary negotiations, and business negotiations are basically like this, especially in the face of stars whose self-confidence has almost exploded, if the price is not appropriately lowered, these guys will definitely dare to rebound to a jaw-dropping level.

For example, a certain crew of Warner Bros. wanted to invite a star to play a cameo role in a role with few scenes, because the director particularly admired him, so he was a little relieved in terms of salary, and the actor directly asked for nearly twice the actual net worth of $13 million.

And this is not a leading role or a supporting role, but a cameo role, which is more classified as a friendship price in Hollywood.

The cooperation naturally fell apart, and I'm afraid the crew is also regretting the invitation strategy adopted.

Most importantly, there is a very scary continuity to this kind of thing, especially for production companies.

Today, you don't care about hiring a male protagonist with a little salary, but what about the heroine and the director?

It's not a question of a little money, it's a question of a very large amount of money.

"Spy 2", that is, "Bourne's Hegemony", will begin preparations in August, start filming around the beginning of next year, and be released in the summer of 2003.

A year apart can leave more space for the development of the offline market for "Spy Shadow".

According to Ronan's judgment, the film's revenue in the offline market may be much higher than the box office in theaters.

The videotape and DVD of "Spy Shot" are in the works, and will be available in August and are expected to be released in November or December.

During this time period, the impact of socio-political changes will definitely be reduced a lot.

And unlike the public places where people are afraid of terrorist attacks, such as movie theaters, when people are traumatized, they can hide at home, sit in front of the TV, and watch interesting DVDs and videos to heal their wounds.

Having said that, will the art blockbusters produced in the San Fernando Valley sell particularly well during this special time period? This kind of film consumes anger, consumes energy, exercises, is good for physical and mental health, and can also give the people of the United States nowhere to vent their anger, and have a suitable outlet for the anger......

It's a pity that Ronan only studied the film itself in his previous life, and did not carefully study the manufacturer behind the film.

Like Woodpecker, ART, AVN, O, DP, Black Factory and the like, he really doesn't know what he does.

It seems that this industry is very profitable, and it is said that the overall market value even exceeds that of Hollywood.

But I heard that the shareholders behind the big art factories in the San Fernando Valley are all star companies or groups like General Electric.

If it's true, that's not unusual.

As long as it can make money, capital will not let go of every industry.

Also at the end of July, Ronan met Uwe Ball, who had rushed back to Los Angeles from Irvine.

"They don't look like people too much!"

I don't know why, Uwe Ball's face was full of meat, and he faintly revealed an emotion called grievance: "No matter how I am, I am also a director who has successfully adapted a game into a movie!"

Ronan knew that Uwe Ball was talking about his contact with Blizzard and asked, "What's going on?"

Uwe Bauer's voice was a little hoarse: "They don't sell me the game rights to Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo, and they say they'd rather never adapt a movie than sell the rights to these games to a director like me." ”

"What's wrong with a director like me?" Uwe Bauer unconsciously raised her voice: "My first film sold nearly $50 million at the box office worldwide!"

Ronan didn't have any special feelings for Blizzard, and asked, "No hope at all?"

Uwe Bauer shook his head: "There is no normal way, unless we find a way to set Blizzard down." ”

"Forget it. Ronan thinks it's not worth putting so much effort into Blizzard's game adaptations, and leaving it to Blizzard's future operations to hit the streets, and said to Uwe Ball: "The game industry is growing fast, there are countless electronic movies, and there are many suitable film adaptations, so you can continue to look for other projects, especially those that have just been launched." ”

Some game projects are in a hurry to recycle capital after launch, and it should be easy to sell movie rights for money.

Uwe Bauer nodded and said, "I have a friend who played the inner version of a role-playing game, which is said to be very interesting, and this game will be released soon, so I will contact the game company first." ”

Ronan encouraged, "Uwe, I believe in your abilities. ”

Even if he can't find a new project, Uwe Ball can come back and continue directing the sequel to House of the Dead.