Down Pictures' acquisition of Universal Pictures will inevitably cause turmoil in the other side's management, which Donn had anticipated many years ago.

So in the past few years, on the one hand, he has strengthened his personal relationship with Ron Meyer, as well as the cooperation between Towne Pictures and Universal Pictures, and on the other hand, he has worked hard to enhance his influence through box office, awards, contacts and other aspects, so that he can lead Universal Pictures with full prestige and reputation.

There will not be a situation like when Sony acquired Columbia Pictures and Panasonic acquired Universal Pictures, and the senior management resigned en masse.

The current situation is very favorable to Don, at least the pattern of Universal Pictures, which he controls.

Several senior executives, including Chairman Ron Meyer, President Adam Ferguson, and Vice President Donna Langley, expressed their support for Don and recognized his leadership.

However, there are always exceptions, and just yesterday, Peter Adi, the head of Universal Pictures' global marketing department, officially left his post.

MGM's $120 million war film "The Wind Whisperer" was released for three weeks and only got more than $33 million at the North American box office, which is simply miserable.

MGM Pictures' stock price, also affected by the heavy box office losses of "The Windwhisperer", has fallen sharply, and has fallen by more than 22% in the past two weeks.

Robert Levin, president of MGM World Marketing and Distribution, resigned, and the new executive was none other than Peter Adi, who had jumped from Universal.

Of course, MGM's stock price plummeted, in addition to the culprit of "The Wind Whisperer", there are also three accomplices of "The Great Thief Sleeps Overnight", "Bloody Rolling Court", and "Hart's Battle".

4 consecutive films have lost money, which makes MGM feel deeply stressed.

MGM's films have not been good in recent years, and last year only "Hannibal" starring Anthony Hopkins and "Legally Blonde" starring Reese Witherspoon made a profit, and this year ...... There are no profitable movies yet!

"The Wind Whisperer", which was given high hopes and directed by the popular director John Wu, failed even more miserably, with a box office of only 33 million three weeks later. You must know that "Mr. Fugui", which has only a quarter of the investment in "Wind Whisperer", has a box office of $37 million in its premiere.

Successive deficits and losses have plunged MGM into bankruptcy.

Now, there is only one film that may be able to save the crisis - "007 Died on Another Day"!

"007: Die Another Day" was released at the end of November.

However...... Half a month ago, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" was released, and half a month later, "Lord of the Rings 2: The Two Towers" was released.

Under the attack of these two annual masterpieces, how much living space can "007: Die on Another Day"?

With such a schedule arrangement, MGM is more auspicious!

It's the golden age of DVD sales, and MGM owns the rights to 4,200 films, 2,000 of which are exclusive to MGM and 2,200 are shared with other studios.

The annual disc sales of these films bring MGM nearly $500 million.

However, if the box office of "007 Died Another Day" is not as expected, then the $500 million fixed income may not be able to save MGM.

Donn has his own little abacus, and he is very interested in the rights to the content, especially the distribution rights of the "007" series, the "Hannibal" series, and the "Hobbit" movie owned by MGM.

If MGM falls into bankruptcy crisis and the stock price continues to fall, it will definitely be a good thing for him!

Don is secretly looking forward to the success of "Harry Potter 1" and "Lord of the Rings 2" in the box office market.

MGM's film library, although half of it was previously snatched away by Warner, is still huge and a treasure.

Not to mention the Christmas file, the summer file was completely occupied by Tangen Pictures.

After the popularity of "Spider-Man 2" ceased to be popular, "Pirate League: The Curse of the Black Pearl" rose rapidly, earning $82 million in the first three days and $80 million in the second week.

Of the $162 million at the box office, 75 IMAX theaters received $7 million.

"Pirate League: The Curse of the Black Pearl" has a total of 3,585 theaters and 13,951 screens in North America, while IMAX theaters only have 75 theaters and 75 screens, accounting for 0.5% of the total number of screens, but it gets 4% of the total box office!

As soon as this data came out, the potential of IMAX theaters was immediately reflected.

As the owner of IMAX, Don got a data, and 10 days after the release of "Pirate League: The Curse of the Black Pearl", he has received requests for cooperation from movie theaters around the world.

Among them, there are 150 new IMAX theaters in North America, and developed countries such as Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and South Korea have also sent plans for the construction and renovation of more than 120 new IMAX theaters.

The construction price of an IMAX theater is very expensive, not counting the cost of venue rent, seats, office supplies, sound insulation materials, air conditioning and other hard items, the equipment of IMAX alone is a huge amount of money.

It includes four IMAX screens, surround sound, projectors and servers, with a total price of more than $2.2 million!

In other words, with the release of "Pirate League: The Curse of the Black Pearl", IMAX immediately got an order worth about $600 million!

What a horrible income is this?

Of course, in fact, in order to reduce investment risks, the cinema chain will not adopt the buyout situation, but will cooperate with IMAX theaters in the form of dividends.

In other words, the box office income of the theater chain must be divided into IMAX companies in addition to the film company, and the remaining box office belongs to the movie theater.

IMAX provides the corresponding equipment, services and technical support.

Typically, IMAX companies share between 3% and 10% of the total box office, and most companies maintain between 7% and 10%.

If the cinema party does not give a penny of equipment money, and needs to be provided by IMAX for free, then it will have to take out 10% of the box office account; if the theater party invests part of the equipment in the early stage, the proportion of future payment will be reduced.

If the theater company spends $2.2 million to buy out the IMAX equipment at one time, it usually needs to provide 3% of the box office revenue to the IMAX theater, because it requires the technical support and brand naming of IMAX.

There is no way, in countries with extremely high intellectual property status, the patent party is so strong!

The merger of Down Pictures and IMAX is definitely a mutually beneficial deal!

IMAX welcomes the order, and the whole of Tangen Pictures is also happy.

In addition to this good news, Donn also got a piece of good news.

The collaboration between Down Pictures and George Miller on the project of "Mad Max" has made a breakthrough under the operation of Mel Gibson, a big man in the Australian film industry.

George Miller finally agreed to work with Down Pictures to shoot "Mad Max 4".

It's just that the specific details give Don a headache.

"Boss, your request, impossible to achieve. Producer Grant Hill, who ran the project, bluntly rejected Donn's idea, "Mad Max is to George Miller what Star Wars is to Lucasfilm." If you want to buy out the rights to the series, it's simply impossible. ”

Don said disapprovingly: "Star Wars can't be played and will be auctioned soon, and Mad Max can't be bought?"

Grant Hill said, "If you give me a billion dollars, I can do it." ”

Tang En's face turned black directly.

Grant Hill said: "George Miller's career has been very bad in recent years, and he can only make cartoons, and he is counting on "Mad Max" to turn over, he definitely can't do it easily." ”

Don frowned, "What does he mean?"

Grant Hill said: "He's going to be involved in the investment and take a stake in the rights to Mad Max. ”

"Huh?"

He had already written the script for the fourth part, but Mel Gibson's salary was too high, and his personal requirements were also very demanding, and the sequel project was not easy to start. ”

"Demanding?" Donn raised an eyebrow, "What's his request?"

Grant Hill: "George Miller's estimate that the production budget of "Mad Max 4" will reach at least $100 million, and he will participate in investing 10 million and get a 20% profit share. ”

"It can't be!"

Don vetoed it flatly.

20% of the profit dividend, including box office, discs, TV and other peripheral profits.

Invest 10%, want to get 20%, appetite is too great!

George Miller is not Tom Cruise.

The fame of "Mad Max" is far less than that of "Mission Impossible".

Grant Hill immediately said: "I am only in initial contact with him, there should be room for negotiation, dividends...... Reduced to 15% and it should be fine. ”

Donn said in a deep voice: "This project, not only George Miller, but also Mel Gibson. Mel acted in three films, "Unsinkable", "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", and "Tianzhao", but he did not get box office dividends, but for the project "Mad Max", he will definitely ask for box office dividends. ”

Grant Hill nodded, "This is also something that can't be helped, the market is like this, this is a sequel after all." ”

Donn thought for a moment and said, "George Miller said he was willing to invest 10 million? Tell him, I don't need it, the movie I invest in doesn't need others to share the risk." Correspondingly, his dividend requirements must be reduced, hmm...... It's best to pack up with Mel Gibson. ”

"Get George Miller's production company out of investment?" Grant Hill was slightly surprised.

After all, in Hollywood, it is the mainstream and trend for multiple companies to cooperate in filming.

"Mad Max" is very famous, but this is an Australian film series, and it is ...... in the United States Somewhat outdated, "Mad Max 3" is terrible at the box office.

Moreover, this is an R-rated film.

Spending $100 million on an R-rated film is too risky, which is why other studios are reluctant to work with George Miller.

Don said: "The series of films can be retained by George Miller, but the copyright of a single film, I hope to keep it at Dunn Pictures." ”

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