In today's embassy films, the distribution business basically comes from relativity entertainment's internal movies or TV series, and only a small part of the resources will be invested in foreign films.

For example, this year's "Shrek 2".

The animated feature film produced by DreamWorks Animation Studios earned $457.89 million when it was released in North America, and is still being screened in many markets overseas, and the global box office has been infinitely close to $900 million.

In addition to theaters, "Shrek 2" DVDs, TV broadcasts, online rights and peripheral products, and licensing are all operated by Embassy Pictures.

Although more revenue has not yet been settled, the profit obtained by Embassy Pictures has been infinitely close to $100 million.

The profitability of popular Hollywood cartoons is generally higher than that of live-action films.

Because the first "Shrek" caused a sensation and continued to attract attention, the investment of Embassy Pictures in publicity and distribution is only more than half of the production cost of the film.

In Hollywood, the investment in publicity and distribution can only be said to be average.

The distribution rights of such a film, when there is an opportunity, Ronan naturally has to find a way to get it.

Embassy Pictures will also release "The Shark Gang" for DreamWorks Animation Studios this year, and an animated feature film called "Madagascar" next year.

Alien films work well, and the profits are just as amazing.

Whether it is the production project of Shahai Entertainment or the foreign purchase of films by Embassy Pictures, after the investment reaches 3 million US dollars, Ronan needs to complete the final approval.

In the past two years, with the increase in the fame of Relativity Entertainment, the number of film projects that have been invested in and the number of finished films that are trying to find distribution have all increased, and Ronan has a natural advantage in this regard, and of course he will not let it go.

That's stupid.

Embassy Pictures has also been purchasing and distributing films in recent years, but the effect can only be said to be average, and the competition within Hollywood is fierce.

Overseas works should be purchased with relative caution, especially with large investments.

Foreign films are seriously unsuitable in the North American film market, whether in East Asia or Europe, and there are very few films that can achieve commercial success in North America every year.

Ronan found a familiar name on the latest review project sent by Embassy Pictures.

This is a documentary that Alan Albert of the International Distribution Department of Embassy Pictures stumbled upon when he went on a business trip to France, which was invested by Bonn Piche and directed by French director Luc Jaguet, which depicts the arduous journey of emperor penguins to survive and reproduce in the extremely harsh conditions of the Antarctic climate, relying on strong willpower.

The title of the film is "The Emperor Penguin Diaries".

According to the report submitted by Embassy Pictures, the documentary had just completed post-production and had not yet entered the distribution stage, and when Bonn Piche was promoting in Paris to seek distribution channels, it happened to be discovered by Alan Albert, who was on a business trip to France, who summoned the viewing experts of the European branch of Embassy Pictures to investigate the documentary and determine that the documentary had a certain market value.

Due to the poor market response of French films in North America, Bonn Piche decided to sell the North American distribution rights of "Emperor Penguin Diaries" separately, and Alan Albert reached a preliminary intention with the other party to buy out the North American distribution rights of the documentary for only $1.5 million.

Documentaries never sell for a lot of money, unless there are successful sequels, or the work of well-known directors.

Luc Jaguet is a retired professional athlete who has not had any films or documentaries worth mentioning before, and his directing work certainly does not sell for a high price.

This is still the hot sale of "Fahrenheit 911", which has caused the documentary market to generally rise, otherwise it would not have cost $1 million at all.

Ronan doesn't remember the relevant data of "The Emperor Penguin Diary", but he knows that this documentary was once famous and sought after by countless people, and it belongs to the super popular genre in documentaries.

Winning the North American distribution rights for $1.5 million, even if it can't recover the cost from theaters, it is not difficult to make a profit in the offline market based on the popularity of the past.

Ronan looked at the project materials and determined that it was "The Emperor Penguin Diaries", and asked Connie to call Alan Albert, who was far away in Paris, France, to inform him to win the North American distribution rights of the documentary.

If possible, even the rights to the global distribution will be taken down.

Two days later, Alan Albert officially signed a contract with Bonn Piche on behalf of Embassy Pictures and obtained the North American distribution rights, but "The Emperor Penguin Diaries" has already initialed agreements with France's Sunset Sands Distribution Company and Argentina's Alfa Pictures Company except for the distribution rights outside North America.

It was good to get the North American distribution rights, and Ronan didn't force the rest of the market, and Embassy Pictures quickly arranged the release of "The Emperor Penguin Diaries", which will be screened in Los Angeles in December if it can.

This is, of course, to get a ticket to the Oscars, and the documentary will definitely take the route of rushing to the awards.

However, before the release in North America, Embassy Pictures will hand over "The Emperor Penguin Diaries" to Shahai Entertainment, which will reconvene the actors for dubbing.

The documentary is narrated in French, which is certainly not suitable for the North American film market.

At the same time that Embassy Pictures won the North American distribution rights of "Emperor Penguin's Diary", the first feature documentary released by Embassy Pictures after joining Relativity Entertainment officially landed in North American theaters.

Filmed and produced by James Cameron, the highly experimental 3D documentary "Alien of the Deep" was screened in 30 theaters in North America.

This is a fully 3D documentary, some of which were also shot and produced using IMAX3D technology, and is very much the work of James Cameron in preparation for the technical preparation of his next feature film.

At present, the number of commercial screens in North America that can support 3D projection is not very large, and even fewer are willing to choose a 3D documentary, even if the director's name is James Cameron, Embassy Pictures has only managed to win 30 3D screens.

Unexpectedly, the market response of "Deep Sea Alien" was not bad, and in the case of almost no publicity from Embassy Pictures, thanks to James Cameron's appeal among fans and the attraction of 3D films, the documentary received $550,000 from 30 theaters in the first weekend of its release in North America, with an average score of more than $18,000 per theater.

However, due to the number of 3D screens, it is not easy to expand the scope of screening.

Fortunately, neither Ronan nor James Cameron expected this film to make much money.

The documentary's three major funders are IMAX, Sony Electronics and James Cameron himself, all of whom have said that they should reduce their losses as much as they can get from their money.

What they really gained was the new 3D shooting and production technology that they experimented with and improved through the filming of "Deep Sea Alien", which is a high-value product with an infinitely wide market in the future.

It's no exaggeration to say that Alien Deep is just an adjunct to the new 3D technology.

For Ronan and Relativity Entertainment, "Deep Sea Alien" is a bridge to open up the communication channels between the two sides.

It was through this documentary feature film that a business connection was established between Relativity Entertainment and James Cameron.

"Alien of the Deep" has a good reputation, although the scope of the release is not large, but the trend is quite stable, the next weekend still received $410,000, plus the weekday income, the North American box office also exceeded $1 million.

This also means that "Alien of the Deep" can stay in theaters for a long time.

Seeing that the market response was good, and commercial cinema screenings could not expand the scope of screenings due to various objective conditions, the Embassy Pictures simply changed their thinking and turned to other aspects, and after the opening of the film in the first week, with the help of the good market response of the film, signed contracts with a number of aquariums, science and education museums and natural history museums.

In many similar pavilions in North America, there are theaters that support 3D projection, and 3D and IMAX technology are also the most widely used before the new century.

There are very few 3D theaters, and it is even rarer to use 3D technology to shoot and produce natural science and education documentaries, and these pavilions have signed long-term lease contracts with Embassy Pictures for "Deep Sea Alien".

The longest, Washington Museum of Natural History, even signed a three-year contract worth $3 million directly with Embassy Pictures.

With the help of IMAX3D technology, those species that live on the deep seabed and rarely have the opportunity to be witnessed by the viewer are vivid, so close that the viewer seems to be able to touch them with their hands.

Wearing stereoscopic glasses, the viewer can follow the camera up close to the deepest part of the seabed.

Many people, even most of the Hollywood industry, only regard "Alien of the Deep" as a natural science and education documentary shot by James Cameron purely out of interest, and do not pay attention to the industrial changes that may be brought about by film technology.

The new IMAX3D technology has begun to show its charm.

But there are also huge flaws.

For example, it is not suitable for very intense action scenes, the large movement of the lens and characters can easily cause the audience to be dizzy, it is easy to cause visual fatigue after watching for a long time, and it is not suitable for young children, and the 3D effect must be achieved through glasses, which is extremely unfriendly to people who wear glasses such as myopia, etc.

These technologies also need to be solved by the technologists of the film industry.

One of the reasons why James Cameron, who once turned the sequel to "Avatar" into a lifetime series for fans, is that the technology does not meet the requirements of him as a director.

James Cameron has claimed more than once that he is developing glasses-free 3D technology at United Technologies.

After the release of "Alien of the Deep", Ronan received a notice from Tony Koch, who was attending the Toronto Film Festival in Canada, that "Eavesdropping Storm" was hoping to win the award in the competition section of the film festival, and if Ronan had time, he could go to Toronto.

The Toronto Film Festival is now an extremely important stop for Hollywood award-winning films, not only "Eavesdropping Storm", but also "When Happiness Knocks" starring Will Smith, which is also exhibited at the Toronto Film Festival.