In just two days, Ronan received a call from Hassan and others that they would once again cooperate with Shahai Entertainment to invest in the project "Fatal Bend", with a total investment of up to $20 million.

On the day of settling the investment income of "The Grim Reaper", the three Hassan also signed a formal investment agreement with Shahai Entertainment.

"It was a pleasure to work with. ”

"It was a pleasure to work with. ”

With applause, the two sides officially signed the contract.

Ronan shook hands with Hassan, Hussein and Aziz and said, "This will be as successful as the previous two." ”

Hassan smiled and said, "It must be." ”

In the past two days, he learned through various channels that Shahai Entertainment has not been affected by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and the scale has expanded rapidly in the past two years, and Ronan Anderson has also acquired another film company, which has developed very smoothly.

The Indians are also cooperating with Shahai Entertainment, and this is also confirmed.

He then went to an Arab lawyer in Los Angeles to consult on some legal issues and ask them to review the contract and settlement statements to make sure they were in compliance with the law.

The revenue of "The Grim Reaper" is much lower than that of "Human Eradication Project", but when you think about the average profit margin of Hollywood movies you know, coupled with years of business experience, the profit margin of 30% is not low.

The average profit margin of the import and export trade and processing industry done by the three of them is less than 10 percent.

With the signing of a formal investment contract between the two parties, Hassan and others invested $15 million in "The Grim Reaper", plus 30% of the profit of $4.5 million, a total of $19.5 million, all invested in the "Fatal Bend" project.

After signing the agreement and completing a series of formalities, the three returned to Abu Dhabi satisfied.

"Instead of taking $19.5 million, they left $500,000. In the office, George Clint smiled and said, "Ronan, it's better to think of this way." ”

Mary was calm: "It's not our money after all. ”

Ronan said calmly: "If "Fatal Bend" can be successful, their cooperation with us has been successful three times in a row, will they continue to cooperate in the future?"

George Clint thought for a moment and said, "If it were me, I would definitely continue to work together." ”

Mary understood what Ronan meant: "This money can stay on our account for a long time?"

"Yes. Ronan said slowly: "For investors, it's just numbers, but for us, it's a real financial boost, and if one day they don't want to work with us anymore, there will be a movie that is seriously losing money." ”

George Clint laughed, "Like Ace Agent?"

Ronan didn't speak, but the meaning was clear.

Mary is the financial director of Relativity Entertainment, and she knows very well what "Ace Agent" is all about, and the funds invested by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority in this project are actually all transferred into the legitimate income of Relativity Entertainment and its subsidiaries by reasonable and legal means in the process of film preparation, shooting, production, publicity and distribution.

This is not money laundering, but normal business operations.

"Didn't Fatal Bend originally have a budget of $10 million?" asked George Clint, "and now it's got $20 million in investment......

Ronan thought for a moment and said, "The production budget for this project has been raised to $25 million. We actually put in $10 million in production, and another $10 million...... When the film is released in the future, the publicity budget will be borne by Shahai Pictures, and the publicity expenses will be incorporated into the cost. ”

Mary and George Clint also endorsed this approach.

This is one of the costing methods often used in Hollywood, and the cost of some films to be made public, not only the cost of production, but also the cost of publicity and distribution.

For example, there are some films with huge foreign investment, and the prospects of the film are promising, such as the six major companies, which integrate production, publicity and distribution, can incorporate publicity and distribution expenses into costs, so as to increase their proportion of total investment and enjoy more revenue sharing.

Like the cost of publicity and integration, the cost of interest integration, the cost of over-budget fines, etc., the six major companies play very slippery, and all of them are legal means.

Ronan said: "Once the project is established, the operation and daily expenses of Shahai Entertainment will all follow the account of "Fatal Bend". ”

There is no third-party guarantee for this project, and there are no financial supervisors.

That's why Ronan is trying to continue working with the likes of Hassan, who are the best investors in Hollywood compared to Indians who know the industry.

After Mary and George Clint left, Ronan couldn't help but think of the unspeakable country on the other side of the Pacific, where it seemed that the coal bosses had already embarked on the road to riches, and these people knew less about Hollywood, right?

Then he forced himself to stop and not think about it anymore.

When it comes to things over there, the risks are too great.

Maybe we can set up an embassy film office there first? After all, the film market there has unlimited potential in the future.

Polygram Pictures used to have a branch in Port City, and after Embassy Pictures accepted their distribution department, it also set up a branch office in Port City, where it could recruit people who really knew that there and go north to that indescribable city, and set up a branch office first.

Maybe the films released by Embassy Pictures can appear in the theaters over there.

There is no need to think about these series of horror films, and "Spy Shadow" should have some hope.

Although it only has a 13% share of the box office, no matter how little it is, it is meat.

And you can also prepare more for the future.

Ronan was not prepared to deal with the matter personally, so he called Robert Lee, and when he and Danny Donald arrived in Port City, they selected or recruited suitable people on the spot, and then relied on PolyGram's relationship with Port City for many years, went north to that indescribable city, established a branch office of Embassy Pictures, and then tried to have a good relationship with that indescribable scissors as much as possible.

There is also China Film Group.

In this era, most of the power to import foreign films is in the hands of this company, and Hollywood has a limited amount every year.

With funding in place, preparations for "Fatal Bend" have accelerated, with Ronan using George Clint's deputy, Sandro, as the production manager for the set, Dustin, who had previously worked with Sand Sea Entertainment on videotapes, as an associate producer, and meeting with Tom Cruise's CAA agent.

Later, Ronan met Guillermo del Toro, and after several talks, both parties were satisfied with each other and signed a formal directing contract.

CAA has also actively promoted this cooperation.

Anyone can see that today's Shahai Entertainment is developing rapidly and belongs to the new territory of Hollywood, and the brokerage company will naturally not let go of such a new resource.

Ronan will not refuse to cooperate with any brokerage company, and the best conditions are the most suitable business partners.

Guillermo del Toro has a knack for horror films, and his salary is not expensive, only $800,000, and there is no post-production share involved in addition to the standards set by the directors' union.

Today's gyro directors are far from being future Oscar winners.

Because the film needs some young actors and actresses with outstanding appearances, CAA recommended a group to Shahai Entertainment, Ronan did not refuse, these are all potential actors newly signed by CAA, their own conditions are guaranteed, and the salary is not high, as long as the audition is suitable, they can be used directly.

This will also reduce the heavy lifting of Shahai Entertainment and him as a producer.

The "Spy" project is working with William Morris, "Fatal Bend" is mainly working with CAA, and future projects may also be able to cooperate with other agencies.

Ronan's career is expanding step by step.

Relativity Entertainment and its two subsidiaries also settled their 1999 fiscal year revenues at this time.

During the year, Shahai Entertainment filmed two films, "Death is Coming" and "Ace Agent", Embassy Pictures released "Blair the Witch", "Ace Agent" and "Death is Coming", and Relativity Entertainment, as the holding company, mainly provided loan support for two subsidiaries.

Due to the temporary inability to distribute films overseas, the overseas rights of these three films were all sold out at one time, "Blair the Witch" for $50 million, "Death is Coming" and two other videotapes for $50 million, and "Ace Agent" for $10 million.

In North America, the distribution of Embassy Pictures has generated a diversified range of revenues for films, including theatrical screenings, videotape and DVD rentals, pay-TV revenues, free-to-air television revenues, Internet rights revenues, and a small amount of film derivative rights revenues.

In addition, some companies are talking with Shahai Entertainment about the possibility of gamification of "The Grim Reaper", and the film can also achieve game copyright income in the future.

There is also the sequel rights to "Blair the Witch", which was sold by Ronan to DreamWorks for $12 million.

Then there is the offline market income, whether it is TV copyrights, or video tapes and DVD rental and sales, there is a steady stream of funds in the account.

Although it can't be compared with the six major Hollywood companies, or even compared to DreamWorks, after two years of hard work by Ronan, the film company in his hands has developed from a video tape film company facing bankruptcy in debt to a small group company with a simple industrial chain.

Among them, the most important is to win the embassy film industry and establish its own distribution channel.

Distributors participate in the box office share of films, home entertainment shares represented by videotapes and DVDs, TV broadcast shares, and various other royalty shares.

Distributors are always the first to recoup their costs and the first to receive significant distribution fees before the box office and other revenues go into the hands of the producer or other agents.

More importantly, the distribution company provided Ronan with another possibility to give him plenty of room to operate the film, and even a commercially failed film like "Ace Agent" could actually bring in revenue.