Nearly 20 people sat in the huge conference room of the Embassy Pictures, each staring at the whiteboard in front of them, on which was written the name of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", the Oscar-winning foreign language film.

These people come from all over the United States, both cable and wireless.

Came to Embassy Pictures for only one purpose, to win the North American TV premiere rights of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

"The reserve price for the premiere rights is $3 million. García Rodriguez, who presided over the bidding, said: "Each bid must not be less than $100,000. ”

"$4 million!" was the first to speak from ABC TV.

The middle-aged woman who came on behalf of MTV immediately shouted, "$4.5 million!"

The NBC person next to him directly raised the price: "$6 million!"

The conference room fell silent for a while, and even García Rodriguez didn't expect that after only three rounds of price increases, the premiere copyright of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" doubled from the reserve price!

Garcia's gaze swept over the tags or other nameplates on these people's chests again, ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, the four major television networks in the United States, HBO, MTV, AMC, C, PBS and other medium-sized television stations or large cable stations, all of which were also absent.

A movie, there is no need to negotiate from house to house, but to let many TV stations bid for it, where has Embassy Pictures ever engaged in such a high-level event before?

Since Ronan completed the acquisition, Embassy Pictures has really completed a sea change.

In the past, the films distributed by the embassy film industry asked the TV station to buy them, but now the TV station not only took the initiative to contact them, but also was willing to participate in the bidding meeting.

Is this what ordinary companies can do when they premiere TV premieres? Only films that have exploded at the box office and word-of-mouth can they hold a bidding meeting.

"$6 million!" Garcia asked aloud, "Is there any more?"

At DreamWorks' bid for "Gladiator" yesterday, the North American premiere rights were sold for $10 million.

Only the Oscar-winning Golden Man can't do this, and "Gladiator" grossed more than $180 million at the North American box office.

"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is not bad, the best foreign language film The Golden Man, with a North American box office of nearly $160 million.

A middle-aged man representing Fox TV slowly raised his hand and shouted, "$6.5 million!"

HBO has a lot of money and directly raises the price: "$8 million!"

The room was completely silent, and after a few rounds of routine questioning by Garcia, HBO won the bid for $8 million.

The first round of TV broadcast rights in North America alone sold for a high price of $8 million, and Garcia can imagine that "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", which has both box office and awards, will inevitably earn huge offline income.

The people from Fox TV followed the staff of the embassy film industry to go through the relevant procedures, and the people from other TV stations dispersed one after another.

Ronan quickly got the news in his office that the high price of $8 million was indeed something to celebrate.

The first round of TV broadcast rights alone is enough to recover the funds for the acquisition of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

After the first round of television broadcasts, there were also home entertainment channels such as DVDs and videotapes, and in this regard, Embassy Pictures had a distribution network, partnered with companies such as Wal-Mart and Pepsi, and could distribute independently without licensing to other companies.

However, Walmart and Pepsi have a cut of the channel, and Ronan intends to have a good talk with them.

The proportion of channel commission in the industry is generally 20% of sales, and we will see if we can lower it a little more.

In addition, Ronan has asked people to make a super luxurious DVD set for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

It's not the $39.9 genre with tidbits, but a DVD set with a golden figure and a scaled-down sword for the best foreign language film, and it's a whopping $599.

This is for audiophiles.

There are many such movie enthusiasts in North America, and many people even break the bank to buy limited-edition luxury goods for "Star Wars".

The Oscars are over, but the Oscar effect is still affecting all of North America.

The most notable is the film market, "Gladiator", which won the best film, was dragged out of the film library and whipped in theaters to start the second round of screenings, and it also received a lot of box office.

Originally, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" had entered the final stages of screening, and with the arrival of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and other golden figures, the corpse was defrauded before death, expanding from less than 200 theaters to nearly 600, and then lasted for a week, pushing the film's North American box office over $160 million.

When the film was released, the North American box office totaled $161.2 million.

"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" raised the North American box office record for a foreign-language film to a height that is difficult for latecomers to achieve.

Ronan remembers very well that even in his last memory, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is still the No. 1 grossing foreign language film in North America.

Foreign language films such as "Angel Amelie", "Lola Run", and "Eavesdropping", when it comes to revenue, are weakly exploded in front of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

To be precise, except for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", no foreign language film has grossed more than 100 million in the North American market.

The vast majority of foreign language films only have one result in the North American market. Others, too, are as much as they can be harvested.

Embassy Pictures, as distributor, received a total of $75.4 million in box office revenue from theaters.

Since it is a copyright buyout, these do not need to make any settlement with Ang Lee and Xu Ligong's Zongheng International.

From copyright buyouts to various promotions to theatrical releases, Embassy Pictures has invested a total of $18.2 million in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

Today, the investment has paid off handsomely.

Excluding company shares and other income, Ronan alone received a total of $2.26 million in rewards as a rights buyer of Embassy Pictures.

Ronan serves as the president of Embassy Pictures and is also a member of the company, so he naturally enjoys various bonus incentives from Embassy Pictures.

As 2000 passed and a new fiscal year began, Ronan earned $14.5 million in income and incentives for various positions alone.

Although he has full control of Relativity Entertainment, Ronan has always been very clear when the company and the individual should be separated.

Ronan has a large amount of money in his hands, and originally wanted to invest in the stock market, but the stock market has been falling since the crash in March last year, and there is no sign of stopping until now.

Just like a layman, Ronan also deduced that this stock market crash and plunge is expected to be connected with September, and then continue to fall.

It's already 2001, and September is not far away, and Ronan plans to wait.

In contrast, the affected real estate market has a bit of a sense of stabilization, and the real estate agent also contacted Ronan twice, as if he has several suitable houses in his hands, all of which are the kind of homeowners who can't afford to cash out fixed assets under the deteriorating economic situation.

In many states in the United States, such as New York or Los Angeles, if you have too many luxury properties, if there is a problem with the money in your hand, the property tax can drag people to death.

The evil old beauty tax is said to scrape off the skin when people die.

When you think of taxes, you vomit blood.

Ronan made an appointment with the real estate agent and would take the weekend to look at the house.

At the same time, various Oscar-related statistics came out, and Ronan and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" left a lot of records for this Oscar.

This year's Oscars are the most watched by the Asian American community in 73 years, with more than 8 million Asian American viewers.

At the same time, it is also the largest number of Chinese entertainers invited to attend the event.

Due to the numerous nominations for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", not only were the Chinese representatives sitting in the nomination seats waiting to receive the award, but also various delegations from the East and Chinese audiences who tried their best to enter the venue in order to witness the historical footage.

It is very obvious that Chinese and Asians are pulling the Oscar market.

Of course, it's not just Hollywood that's the winner, it's also the merchants.

According to statistics, during this year's Oscars, merchants sold and leased vehicles, fashion, jewelry and accessories, with a total revenue of more than US$75 million, which was also the best profit in the past year.

There are so many celebrities, audiences, and fans, and all kinds of looks are piled up with real money.

There's also ABC TV, which is the broadcaster, and they earn more than $50 million in advertising.

The Oscars, among all the galas in the United States, are ranked in the top three basically every year, and most of the time they are in second place.

There is no need to think about the first place, for more than ten years before and more than ten years after, the Oscars have no possibility of surpassing.

After all, the "American Spring Festival Gala", which always ranks first, is not in vain.

The Super Bowl's influence and commercial value in North America is simply too great.

The North American market alone, even the World Cup final in football, is far from the same.

As a member of the Producers' League and as a producer of several successful films, Ronan submitted an application to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, waiting for a formal invitation from the Academy to prepare to join the Academy and be part of the many Oscar jury members next year.

The Academy accepts new members on an invitation-only basis in three ways: by obtaining an Oscar nomination, by applying for membership and being recommended by two members in a chapter, or by gaining support from a membership committee or academy council such as the Producers' Union or the Directors Guild.

The committee of members then votes, and those who receive a majority of votes are invited to join.

It is not difficult for producers to join the academy, and the basic invitation condition is that they need to produce more than two films separately to be considered.

On Ronan's terms, it is not a problem at all to be invited at the end of this year, through voting.

And the members of the Academy, that is, the Oscar judges, are for life and do not have a term.

This is also one of the reasons why the average age of the Oscar judges is getting older and older, and you don't have to go out to enter, and the old men grab a handful.

In particular, many old men are in a state of retirement, and have not participated in the filming of any movies in the past few decades, and their understanding of movies is far behind the times.

Then, a lot of nostalgic films won the Oscars.

For those who specialize in the Oscars, the age of the judges is the factor available for exploitation.

The awards season is completely over, and Ronan hears the news that Universal Pictures is in contact with Ang Lee.