Both sides are interested in working together, and the subsequent negotiations will undoubtedly go much smoother, starting the day after the meeting, Ronan officially began cooperation negotiations with Paul Anderson and Samuel Hadida on behalf of Shahai Pictures, and quickly reached a series of preliminary agreements.

Shahai Entertainment invested $25 million to shoot and produce the game adaptation of "Resident Evil", with Samuel Hadida as the second producer and Paul Anderson as the writer, producer, and director.

Ronan served as the first producer and had the final editing rights for the film.

As the most important investor, Tony Koch will also put the name of the co-producer on the crew.

According to the rules of the Hollywood industry, the copyright of the "Resident Evil" movie belongs to Shahai Entertainment, and since Ronan has a series of plans in the future, it is impossible to throw a large amount of money on this project from Relativity Entertainment, and Koch Films' direct investment of $20 million is undoubtedly the best choice.

The other $5 million was raised by Shahai Entertainment.

The project will also be handed over to Tony Koch to run the tax refund, which may not be successful, but as long as there is a chance of bringing in millions of dollars, it will be sought.

Before signing the formal investment agreement, Ronan spoke specifically to Tony Koch.

After all, the two sides are not a simple business partnership, there are some things in Hollywood that Tony Koch does not understand at all, and some things must be said in advance.

"Tony, I have to tell you about the future of this film. Ronan didn't want to make a conflict at the end: "Our friendship is friendship, but business cooperation must follow the rules of Hollywood's industry." ”

As the owner of a film company, Tony Koch is also quite serious, saying: "You just say it. ”

Ronan said bluntly: "Shahai Entertainment is the producer of this film, and your Koch Films is only an investor, there is no objection to this, right?"

This is something that has been agreed between the two sides for a long time, and Tony Koch said: "No. ”

Ronan continued: "In the future, when the film is produced, it will definitely be distributed by Embassy Pictures, and Embassy Pictures will take a distribution cut from the total revenue of the film, which is about 30% of the North American box office and 40% of the overseas box office. There are other peripheral copyright incomes, ranging from 15 to 40 percent. ”

"I've heard that. Tony Koch also knows about Hollywood: "Let's let the people below talk about the specific percentage of the commission?"

Ronan agreed: "You asked people to go to Los Angeles and have a three-way negotiation with Shahai Entertainment and Embassy Pictures. ”

The people below will not affect his relationship with Tony Koch too much.

Tony Koch sighed: "No wonder the distributor occupies the upper reaches of the Hollywood chain. ”

Ronan smiled, "That's why I've put so much effort into establishing distribution channels in North America and overseas. Without distribution channels, Shahai Entertainment will always have to accept the exploitation of the distributor. ”

Tony Koch said: "It's too high. ”

"The cost of distribution publicity is the responsibility of the issuer, which is also an input. Ronan said directly: "That is, to cooperate with you, if you change to another company, the commission will not include the publicity fee, I will calculate it separately." ”

Tony Koch was convinced: "You're really black! Luckily, I didn't think about investing in other Hollywood studios." ”

"I'm not done yet. Ronan said calmly: "Shahai Entertainment is the producer, and the part of the film revenue after the distributor takes a cut, the producer gives priority to taking 15% of it as an operation and management expense, and extracts 20% of the post-box office share, and also excludes the post-production share of the crew members and Capcom, and the remaining part is distributed according to the proportion of investment." ”

"I kind of get it. Tony Koch was almost out of words: "Hollywood is a bunch of vampires, and Wall Street is not as dark as you." ”

Ronan shook his head: "We have a lot more conscience than Wall Street." ”

Tony Koch asks, "Can investors make a profit?"

"Absolutely. Ronan said directly: "Foreign funds invest in Hollywood, and the profit margin is about 15% on average. ”

If there is no profit at all, it is just a pit, how can Hollywood continue to absorb foreign funds?

But the biggest profit of a film is undoubtedly intercepted by the film company by legal means, and smart companies will give investors a certain return appropriately to attract follow-up investment, as Ronan did in "Human Removal Plan".

Of course, if the investor doesn't want to cooperate anymore, that's a different way to calculate.

"What is the profit margin on this investment?" asked Tony Koch again.

Ronan shook his head: "I can't guarantee success, movies are high-risk investments, and no one can guarantee a movie to be 100% successful." I'd say an ideal estimate, the profit margin is about 20 percent. ”

Tony Koch laughed: "That's a lot. ”

Ronan said: "There are very few investments in normal business that can make 20 percent profit a year. He reminded, "Don't forget, Tony, you also belong to borrowing someone else's chicken and laying your own eggs." If you think about it, you should be able to withdraw the fee from it. ”

Tony Koch has been taken crooked by Ronan: "I'll talk to a professional. ”

Koch Films' investment, after all, is not its own funds, it is financed.

Ronan chatted with Tony Koch for a while about other aspects of the operation, and the two agreed on an investment and distribution plan.

Later, Ronan called George Clint again and asked him to take care of the matter with the Indian Mountain Foundation and ask someone to go to Japan to see if he could take the film rights for the follow-up of "Resident Evil".

Once this "Resident Evil" is successful, the cooperation with Paul Anderson and Samuel Hadida will no longer be so simple, if Samuel Hadida gets the follow-up rights first, Shahai Entertainment will be passive later.

In addition to "Resident Evil", Ronan also thought of another dazzling wife maniac by Paul Anderson, and it seems that the "Tales of the Night" series is also promising.

These two series may not be particularly popular at the box office, but they are the big winners in the home entertainment market, and the offline disc rental and sales have achieved a lot of results.

Thinking of "Legend of the Night", the crew is messy enough, showing off his wife and the heroine's wife, as well as the heroine's ex-husband......

Hollywood, this emotional relationship is a real mess.

Perhaps thinking of the relationship between this series, Ronan remembered some related memories, it seems that this series has had an infringement lawsuit, and the crew as the defendant finally had to reach an out-of-court settlement with the plaintiff.

According to the way Hollywood studios deal with it, it is estimated that it is very likely that plagiarism or copyright infringement is really involved.

Go back and let people look for related works, the copyright of such unpopular works should not be expensive.

After nearly a week of negotiations, Ronan and Samuel Hadida officially signed an investment rights agreement, and the film rights of "Resident Evil" belong to Shahai Entertainment.

Of course, this is after the production is completed.

Ronan also spoke with Paul Anderson's agent, who rushed to Berlin, and the two sides also agreed on a payroll.

Paul Anderson is not a rookie director, he has considerable qualifications, he has been an official director since 1994, and has directed films such as "Crazy Pursuit", "King of Fighting", "Black Hole Surface", "King of Soldiers", and a "Magic House Illusion" that completed all production at the end of last year will be released this year.

Such a director, of course, is not something that can be sent with hundreds of thousands of dollars, and Paul Anderson has three positions of screenwriter and director plus producer, with a total salary of $3 million.

The most critical salary and production concept were agreed, and Ronan initialed a contract with Paul Anderson, and the specific director contract could not be signed until he returned to Los Angeles, and the people of Shahai Entertainment negotiated other conditions with Paul Anderson.

Samuel Hadida, for his part, is paid $1.5 million for the film, but in a situation like this where the producer works with the production company with the project, the production company needs to pay the project start-up bonus and post-production sharing, which is an industry practice in Hollywood.

Ronan will not break the conventions formed in the industry for decades, otherwise there will be producers with projects to cooperate with Shahai Entertainment in the future, which will definitely be affected.

This is different from the one-shot deal of "Blair the Witch" and will have long-term consequences.

Shahai Entertainment will give Samuel Hadida a $1 million project bonus, and a 2.5% net profit share will be used as a later reward.

In addition, Samuel Hadida and Capcom's film copyright agreement has a post-sharing clause, and Shahai Entertainment must abide by this agreement if it wants to get the copyright of this film, and Capcom has a net profit share of 5%.

For such a film, the profits left to the producer are not high, but Hollywood has the advantage that the peripheral copyright share accumulated over time in the later stage can be independent and does not need to be included in the net profit share.

On the one hand, Ronan will be able to obtain the rights to "Resident Evil", and on the other hand, the film will be distributed by Embassy Pictures.

The profit margins of distribution are much higher than those of production.

At the same time, Ronan signed another deal with Koch Films, and Shahai Entertainment bought back the rights to "Here Comes the Death" and "Ace Agent" for $1.

After the initial negotiations for "Resident Evil" were completed, the tax refund application for "Spy Shadow" was also approved, and a total of $7 million in tax rebates will be paid soon, of which 10% is Koch Films' processing fee.

The remaining $6.3 million has become the legal tax refund income of Shahai Entertainment, which does not need to be included in the revenue of "Spy Shadow".

Ronan is also getting people to contact Luc Besson's ex-wife, the actor for the role of Alice, and of course she is the first choice.

The act of depriving the demon of showing off his wife is too cruel.

If memory serves, these two became acquainted with each other because of the filming of "Resident Evil".

If these two hook up and get married, it is actually beneficial, and Ronan has thought of a way to detonate eyeballs.

At that time, I ordered a T-shirt for Paul Anderson, with the image of Alice on the left and "fe" on the left, and a generic woman image such as the bathroom and for women on the right half, and "fe" on it.

It's definitely topical.