In its second weekend, "Fatal Bend," like most American horror films, experienced a huge box office decline, but the second-weekend box office of $8.91 million was enough to ensure that the film reached $32.16 million in North America ten days after its release.

The development of the sequel script is also included in the schedule of the screenwriting department of Shahai Entertainment.

After the writing of several scripts, the screenwriting department of Shahai Entertainment has established a mature script assembly line creation model, just like the production of standard industrial products, producing movie scripts.

These low-level Hollywood screenwriters, through close cooperation and a more standardized model, sell their talents and ideas to the audience.

In Hollywood, ideas that can't evolve into movies, no matter how fanciful, have basically zero value.

This is a circle that has never lacked talent and creativity, and the ideas that die on desk plans every day are too many to count.

The screenwriting department is still expanding, and Ronan requires the screenwriting department to have the ability to create three or four large-scale scripts at the same time, and there is no need to worry about the cost of manpower.

The entry threshold for the Hollywood Screenwriters Guild is very high, there are too many screenwriters who are non-union members, and there are countless literary young people like Lindsay Beale who come to Hollywood with their dreams, which make up the bottom of the screenwriters' circle.

Even, as long as you offer a salary of three or four hundred dollars a week, you can hire a lot of screenwriters with creative experience.

Not only screenwriters, but the low income of the entire Hollywood bottom is shocking.

Just like human society, the scenery of a few people is always based on the painful struggle of the general public.

Before the arrival of August, Ronan completed the expansion of Shahai Entertainment's screenwriting department, and then, accompanied by Terry, director of offline distribution at Embassy Pictures, checked the marketing channels of several major cities in the west.

Including DVD rental and sales channels led by Pepsi and Wal-Mart, as well as some movie peripheral product sales stores.

During this period, I also went to Disneyland in California and Disneytown to have a look.

"The profit margins of peripheral products are really high. ”

In the car returning from Disneytown, Terry said with emotion: "Disney can still have a 50% gross profit on products such as toys and dolls at such a high cost. ”

Ronan nodded lightly: "These are the essence of Disney." ”

Terry rummaged through the Mickey Mouse figure in his hand and said, "We're so far off, and there's still a long way to go." ”

Ronan advised: "The development of offline channels cannot be relaxed. ”

Terry said solemnly: "Our films, in terms of peripheral development and copyright licensing, are not enough, I will gather capable people to make a more detailed plan." ”

"It's also related to the movies we're focusing on at the moment. Ronan does not deny the fact that "the ones we have full copyright at this stage are basically R-rated horror films, and such films are subject to a lot of restrictions in terms of peripheral openness and copyright authorization, so it is difficult for you to do your job." ”

He accentuated: "In the next stage, Shahai Entertainment will increase the production ratio of PG and PG-13 rated films, and you will have more room to play." ”

Terry kept nodding, "I understand. ”

Ronan added: "The next phase is focused on Pirates of the Caribbean, and you guys have to think of more ways to develop and license the perimeter. ”

"No problem. Terry added: "I'm going to go to the East next month to actually inspect the two manufacturers around the OEM production of "Shrek" to see if they can lower the cost." ”

Ronan reminded: "When dealing with people over there, you have to pay attention to the ways and means. ”

In terms of peripheral distribution, Embassy Pictures can only be said to be a newcomer, and there is still a long way to go.

But the expansion of channels in this area is necessary, because the benefits are too great.

Hollywood's merchandise and copyright licensing, in the North American market alone, is worth up to 100 billion dollars a year.

With the opportunity of distributing "Shrek", Embassy Pictures has initially entered this special film distribution industry.

For example, "Spy Shadow" and "Fatal Bend" also have related products on the market, but limited by the type of film, the sales are not good, it can only be said that it is better than nothing, and it is more for Embassy Pictures to accumulate relevant channel expansion and product sales experience.

Although it is a novice, Embassy Pictures does not adopt the strategy of small and medium-sized companies to sell copyrights, but adopts the mainstream Hollywood operation model.

In the marketing of film peripherals, Embassy Pictures is divided into two ways: physical and authorized.

These two have formed a huge and mature industry in Hollywood, which has developed in parallel with the film industry.

Commercial products based on movie content are physical objects, including dolls and daily necessities of movie characters, etc., and these peripheral products will be put on the shelves whenever a movie is launched, and some will be released earlier than the movie.

The second way is to delegate. For example, the image of "Star Wars Prequel: Attack of the Clones", which will be released next year, has now appeared in some well-known fast food restaurants.

The concept of cinematic peripherals originated from Peter Rabbit, which dates back a century to the publication of the original book in the United Kingdom in 1903, and the publisher first launched a merchandise product, the Peter Rabbit plush toy, which was the beginning of the merchandise industry.

Then in the thirties of the last century, an animated character called Mickey Mouse was born under the pen of Disney.

In the 40s and 50s, in the United States, production of peripherals began, fast-food companies collaborated with food packaging, and movie characters were printed on breakfast boxes and sold in stores in large quantities.

Merchandise connects movies and audiences, and the film industry itself wants to be more appealing to audiences, and audiences want to be closer to movie idols, who want to be the heroes of their favorite movie characters or superhero films – this has always worked.

Today, the output value of peripheral products has become so large that it is difficult to calculate, and the annual valuation of the film ancillary industry has reached hundreds of billions of dollars, including licensing and peripheral products have become the pillar industry of Hollywood.

As we all know, many Hollywood commercial blockbusters are increasingly relying on the sales of peripheral products due to their huge investment and want to recover their costs and ultimately make a profit.

By the last year of Ronan's previous life, global sales of movie merchandise reached more than $300 billion, while the global box office was less than $40 billion.

The best in this regard is undoubtedly Walt Disney.

In the past, Disney could provide fans with a wide range of merchandise and related services, including dolls based on movie prototypes, games based on movies, various apps, and service products, such as themed cruises.

Fans can also book Disney-themed weddings, such as Disney princess-themed weddings, Disney-themed villas, and various other lifestyle products.

If Embassy Pictures can have one-third of Disney's peripheral operation capacity in the future, Ronan will laugh in his dreams.

Of course, the premise of all this is that there must be content suitable for operation, so the filming and production aspect is very important.

With the most basic content, excellent channel marketing capabilities can turn goods into actual revenue.

For example, in "Frozen", Disney sold Elsa's skirt alone, and earned three or four billion dollars.

Ronan has discovered that if he wants to develop in the future, it is inevitable and necessary to dig into the corners of Walt Disney.

Having said that, according to the development of his previous life, he has dug into the corner of Disney, after all, the copyright of those superheroes in Marvel Comics is already in the hands of Shahai Entertainment.

There is also the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series, as long as there are no big accidents, it can be transferred to the official preparation and filming stage next year.

These are all extremely important projects in the previous life, which are not only driven by movies and peripherals, but also by many projects such as Di Baobao's park tour and theme hotel.

Now, before the impact of these effects is yet to be felt, Ronan and Relativity Entertainment can still maintain a low-key development momentum.

Anyway, there are high-profile dream factories in front of it.

Ronan knows very well that before Relativity Entertainment has a certain strength, it must not be wasted.

The most waves were all shot dead on the beach.

Relativity Entertainment's performance in the first half of the year is a bit scary, but it will enter the dormant stage from August, and in the next nearly half a year, there will actually be no real film launched, which will inevitably make people feel that Relativity Entertainment's strength is insufficient, and it can only be tossed in the market for a few months.

Ronan specifically inquired that "A Beautiful Mind" on the DreamWorks side has already been filmed and produced, and if everything goes well, it will achieve three consecutive Oscar awards for Best Picture.

At that time, the momentum of DreamWorks will reach its highest level since its establishment, and it will be difficult not to attract attention.

Steven Spielberg's ambition seems to be within reach at any moment.

In August, Embassy Pictures released two more small-budget films bought from overseas, an Albanian drama and a Swedish film.

Both films were released in theaters, but at most they did not exceed 50 theaters combined, and each film only grossed a little over $100,000 before entering the offline videotape and DVD rental market.

Embassy Pictures didn't spend much on these two films, and it was not a problem to recover costs through offline operations, and if they were lucky enough, they might be able to make a six-figure profit.

"Fatal Bend" faded quite quickly, and three weekends after its release in North America, the weekend box office plummeted to $3 million, although the North American box office is steadily moving towards $50 million.

After the North American box office of "Spy Shadow" exceeded $160 million, the box office harvest rate has gradually slowed down, and now the attendance rate and film scheduling rate are declining rapidly.

Ronan is busy when he receives a call from Amanda Seyfried, who is ready to be treated.