With a nervous heart, Robert once again set foot on the soil of the UAE, but this time not Abu Dhabi, but another city full of local tycoons - Dubai!

The Middle East is an area not covered by the former PolyGram Pictures distribution department, and if Embassy Pictures wants to establish a distribution channel here, Arab countries cannot avoid it anyway.

The film industry is a small industry in Arabia, but it also has a cumulative output value of more than a billion dollars a year, and no distribution company can easily give it up.

After the recruitment of Embassy Pictures was in place, they immediately rushed to the Middle East to establish the Middle East branch of Embassy Pictures.

However, it is not easy to open up the situation in a market where there is nothing, for example, it is impossible for the branch office to cover every country in the Middle East, and it is necessary to have a suitable fixed station.

The matter ended up in the hands of Robert Lee and Danny Donald.

Robert Lee chose the UAE.

He did a lot of preliminary work with Danny Donald and found that one of the largest audiences for Hollywood movies in Arab countries is the Saudis, but sadly, Saudi Arabia has banned public screenings of films, and Saudis who want to watch movies can only choose to enter the UAE to watch them.

For the overall affluent Saudi Arabia, this expenditure can only be regarded as a drizzle.

The UAE is the country with the most relaxed policy on the film industry in the entire Arab world, and there are also a large number of movie fans who like to go to the theater.

Together with the Saudis, the UAE is truly the number one film market in the Arab world.

Dubai is not an emirate with Abu Dhabi, and there is a very large distribution company that can distribute films throughout the UAE, even as far as Bahrain and Qatar.

Looking through the window at the newly opened Burj Al Arab not far away, Danny Donald said: "This is a strange market, Embassy Pictures is here as a pioneer, and we should avoid radical approaches and adopt a steady strategy." ”

Anthony, who is the head of the Middle East region at Embassy Pictures, is fluent in Arabic and has a quarter of Arabic ancestry, then he added: "There are so many things in the Arab world that we need to get familiar with, and if we offend Arabs, we will get into a lot of trouble." ”

Robert leaned back in his chair and said, "I agree with you. ”

Danny Donald added: "Film is currently the largest film distributor in the Arab world, and it also owns the largest cinema company in the UAE, and as long as we can sign a distribution contract with them, Embassy Pictures will be able to initially establish a cinema distribution business in the Arab world. ”

He added: "At present, among the six major Hollywood companies, except for Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros., other companies also use agency distribution, and we cannot draw a large number of people and funds to use in the Arab market for the time being, and agency distribution is a very good choice." ”

Robert asked, "How much does their agent take a cut?"

Anthony replied: "Film is a combination of cinema and distribution, for example, in the UAE, and we can take about 30 percent of the box office. ”

"That's it. Rob nodded.

"That's pretty good, there are markets where we can only take a quarter or even a tenth, and even in Western Europe, where we can go directly to theatrical companies, we can get a third of the box office," said Danny Donald. ”

Robert said: "Let's talk about theatrical distribution first, and then let's talk about offline distribution. ”

"You and Anthony went to the film company to talk about cooperation. Danny Donald advises: "I'm going to look at the offline business and try to find potential partners as soon as possible. ”

Robert glanced at Anthony, saw that he had no objection, and said, "Okay, so decide." ”

After two days of preparation, Robert and Anthony made an appointment with Zahad, the head of the film company.

"Embassy Pictures is part of Relativity Entertainment, and we have a good relationship with the UAE. ”

This time it was not the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, but a company affiliated with the Dubai consortium, and Robert pulled out all the tricks: "Since 1998, we have collaborated on three films in a row with Abu Dhabi in your country, and the Emiratis have always been our best friend......"

Zahad has a better affection for relativistic entertainment than ordinary Western studios, and although they belong to two emirates, Dubai and Abu Dhabi are one country after all, and the ties between the two sides are relatively close, and I have heard about the Abu Dhabi consortium working with Hollywood.

That Shahai Entertainment is a subsidiary of Relativity Entertainment.

"Have you been to Abu Dhabi?" Zahad asked.

Robert smiled and said, "Yes, I also interviewed His Excellency Mansour from the Investment Bureau. ”

He didn't think he was wrong, and even though the person he was interviewing was Ronan, he was also part of the team.

"Do you know Mansour?" Zahad said, "and my company has worked with him, and the Human Eradication Project was given to the film company by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. ”

Robert smiled even brighter: "The Human Erasure Project is our first film with Abu Dhabi. ”

The two sides had an indirect cooperation, and there were people who knew each other together, and Robert was not limited to one style, and under the influence of Ronan, he was not prejudiced against the Arabs no matter how he looked at it, and the cooperation was discussed smoothly.

Later, Anthony, an American with Arab roots, joined in.

After five week-long negotiations, the two sides finally finalized the cooperation, with Embassy Pictures responsible for the online distribution of the films launched by Embassy Pictures in the Arab world, and Embassy Pictures could take 32 percent of the total box office receipts.

The signing of this agreement has made the Embassy Pictures very satisfied.

The overseas distribution arm of Embassy Pictures has also opened up a situation in the previously blank Arab market.

Robert signed a theatrical distribution deal, Danny Donald contacted the UAE's largest television station and video producer and distributor, and disc technology flowed into the country.

In the second half of the month, Robert, Anthony and Danny Donald not only signed a number of offline distribution agreements, but even established a relationship with Al Jazeera, the most influential TV station in the Middle East.

The work in the Arab region of the Middle East market has finally opened up, and the rest of the work can be handed over to Anthony and his subordinates, and Robert and Danny Donald rush to Israel to prepare for the battle again.

The best friends of the Arabs turned into close friends of the Jews in an instant, and Robert and Danny Donald did not say a word about the cooperation with Abu Dhabi, and talked about the outstanding contributions of Jewish descendants to the development of Hollywood and the art of world cinema.

In order to establish overseas distribution channels, these are not at all.

Robert was well aware that they were in the core business of Hollywood films.

The core of Hollywood movies has long been transformed into distribution and promotion, which is expressed in English as Distribution.

The term is not limited to media products, but is also called channels in other industries.

Overseas markets are becoming more and more important to Hollywood, and even some high-investment films can no longer recoup their costs by relying on the North American market alone.

There are also some movies that hit the North American box office, but they can sell overseas and make a profit.

Ronan has been in Los Angeles to take charge of the overall situation, and at this stage when the whole Relativity Entertainment is still fragile, he needs to make major decisions himself.

Getting the news that Robert and Danny Donald have taken over the Middle East market was a big incentive for Ronan.

Although many difficulties have been encountered, overseas channels are becoming more and more perfect.

Embassy Pictures will soon have the ability to independently distribute films overseas.

As far as Ronan knows, Lionsgate has just put the establishment of an overseas distribution channel on the agenda, setting a decade-long plan to establish and expand overseas distribution.

The manpower and material resources consumed far exceeded that of Embassy Pictures' acquisition of Polygram's distribution department.

Embassy Pictures is also recruiting, and more suitable candidates will be sent around the world to familiarize themselves with the film distribution business.

In addition, Embassy Pictures, which does not need to distribute films directly in theaters for the time being, has launched three small productions bought from overseas, all of which have directly entered the offline market with discs and videotapes.

The three films cost a total of $260,000, and they paid off in just over a month after they were released.

During this period, Ronan also hired a professional company to do detailed market research, and from the data obtained, it is not difficult to analyze that the proportion of most people over 35 in the United States who go to the theater to watch movies is very small, accounting for less than 20%.

These people don't like to watch movies? Of course not.

Rather than cinemas full of teenagers, these older groups prefer to hide at home and watch videos or DVDs.

Limited by equipment and movie genres, they rarely choose visual effects films, feature films are often the first choice, and even some of them prefer niche films.

For example, B-grade movies like the Mill movie or horror plasma films.

This has also led to the fact that some films that do not even get $10,000 at the box office in theaters can earn millions of dollars in the offline rental and sales market.

For example, some Hong Kong-made action movies have a group of hardcore audiences all over the United States, and the communication channel is mainly the offline rental and sales market, and Quentin Tarantino can be regarded as a representative figure in this group.

There are also Hollywood films, which cannot be screened in theaters, but can achieve a lot of results in the rental and sales market.

Ronan had a film "This Man from Earth" in his previous life, which had never been released in North America, but it was rumored on the Internet over there that it had a box office of more than 100 million US dollars, and it was once popular, and as a result, many people who touted how good the North American box office of this film was, and finally made jokes.

But there is one point, this film can be called a winner in the offline market relative to the cost.

Embassy Pictures' strategy of buying and distributing films will not change, and it will earn a lot of millions of dollars a year.

After the 2000 Oscars, Ronan welcomed a team of Abu Dhabi tycoons, who came to Los Angeles in person.