Ron Bigelow had emptied Cameron's account and this time took away his jackpot. —The New York Post

""Bomb Disposal Unit" defeated "Avatar", and independent film companies rose strongly!" - "Variety"

"Summit Entertainment wins big with Best Picture and Best Director!" – Los Angeles Times

The next day, the United States carried out a large-scale report on "Bomb Disposal Unit" and Summit Entertainment, and many people who only knew Paramount and Universal Pictures knew about this independent film company called Summit Entertainment.

The Hollywood Reporter One of Hollywood's most authoritative media outlets, after the Oscars settled, The Hollywood Reporter published a long article analyzing the rise of Summit Entertainment.

The article, titled "New Players Disrupt Hollywood: Can Summit Entertainment Become the No. 7 Big," reads: "In January of this year, Rob Freman, CEO of Summit Entertainment, reported to Zhang Ran the exciting news that Summit Entertainment released a total of 15 films last year, grossing $892 million at the North American box office, accounting for 8.3% of the annual market share , surpassing the struggling Universal Pictures to come in sixth, and at the Oscars that ended yesterday, Summit Entertainment released three films with 18 nominations and seven awards, including the heaviest Best Picture and Best Director.

Since Zhang Ran's acquisition of Summit Entertainment in 2006, the small company founded in 1993 has finally come to work, and with the support of large sums of money, the company has not only established itself in the American market, but has become a major player in Hollywood, and may even change our established understanding of the Hollywood film market landscape.

In the history of Hollywood, there have been studios such as DreamWorks and New Line, but due to the unstable quality and profits of the films, the scenery will decline rapidly after a few years. Spielberg's DreamWorks was burdened by funding and distribution, sold its production business to Paramount at the end of '05, and after leaving Paramount in '08, it committed itself to Universal Pictures. The new line was first acquired by Warner, and in '08 it was downgraded by Warner to a small department of 50 people. So, will Summit Entertainment be like these studios, and then quickly decline? I don't think so.

Although Hollywood still relies on box office success or failure, the power of the box office is very small in the comparison of power between companies, and the real profitable businesses are theme parks, home audio-visual products and movie derivatives. The key to the decline of independent film companies such as DreamWorks and New Line is that they do not have an industrial chain like the six major film companies, and they can only make money from films. Film is a high-risk industry, and for independent film companies, if a film fails at the box office, the company is at risk of bankruptcy.

Except for Disney, which is the whole industry chain kingdom of freedom, the other five major Hollywood film companies are all dependent on large group companies. Summit Entertainment is the same as Paramount and other five companies in this regard, with the big group of Century Summit behind it. With the support of Summit of the Century, Summit Entertainment has received a large amount of development funds......"

The article concluded: "Now Summit Entertainment is sparing no effort to expand its industrial chain, and compared with traditional studios such as Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox, Summit Entertainment is worthy of being the seventh largest, and it can even be said that it is already the seventh largest in Hollywood." It's just that this title, which has been used to this day because of historical tradition, has other meanings, and it doesn't matter if it can get a similar title for the rising star Summit Entertainment. ”

Unlike the American media's focus on Summit Entertainment, the Chinese media's focus is almost entirely on the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, after all, this is the first time that a mainland director has won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. A few years ago, Zhang Yimou was blackened by the media, thinking that he was exhausted, but now that he has won the best foreign language film, the media instantly forgot about his criticism and began to frantically tout, making him the first person in Chinese films.

Meanwhile, in the café of the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles, Zhang Ran and Tom Cruise sat opposite each other, chatting eloquently.

Tom Cruise is quite polite to Zhang Ran, since he fell out with Paramount in 06, Tom Cruise's career has fallen into a trough, and "Sheep into the Sheep's Mouth" with Robert Redford has only achieved a box office of 63 million worldwide, and "Assassination of Hitler" is only 200 million. At that time, Summit Entertainment's "Edge of Tomorrow" found him, which undoubtedly pulled him.

Tom Cruise looked at Zhang Ran and said with a smile: "Summit Entertainment has won seven awards at the Oscars, beating "Avatar" and Cameron to win Best Picture and Best Director. Now a lot of media are saying that Summit Entertainment will become the seventh largest in Hollywood, and I think so too. You did what Spielberg and George Lucas didn't do, it's amazing!"

Zhang Ran was not modest, and said with a faint smile: "Thank you, Tom, I'm very happy to hear you say that." I've always loved your movies, my favorite is Mission: Impossible. You are a great actor and your films are very popular in China, so, I hope we will have more opportunities to work together. ”

Tom Cruise laughed, "I also love your movies very much, and I'm looking forward to the opportunity to work with you." ”

Zhang Ran gushed out: "The cooperation I am talking about is not only to invest in your films, or you to participate in our company's films, but to cooperate in many aspects, including derivatives. The movies you starred in are mainly science fiction and action movies, which have a leading role in fashion trends, and our company's derivatives are more in the area of clothing and accessories, so we have more possibilities for cooperation than others. I heard that Prada's bag has been implanted in Mission: Impossible 4, and this is a good example......"

After chatting about the possibility of cooperation for a while, Zhang Ran returned to the topic: "Tom, please come over today, in addition to talking to you about cooperation, there is another thing that is the question of the movie "The Flower of War", I don't know if you have finished reading the script, what do you think of this play?"

Tom Cruise didn't expect Zhang Ran to come to talk to him about this in person, he pondered for a while, and explained his thoughts and thoughts: "The movie script is good, but there are two places that make me hesitate, the first is that the theme of the movie is very serious, it is about war and massacres, will there be a market for such a movie." You also know that in the last two years, I've had some trouble, and I don't want my film to lose money, and that's important to me. The second question is that Dongying has always been my most important overseas market, and whether making such a movie will cause disgust among Dongying audiences. ”

Zhang Ran nodded, and the question Tom Cruise said was very practical. Hollywood is very cruel, only people don't recognize people, no matter how famous you were in the past, as long as your box office data in the last three years is not good, then he won't recognize it. Kevin Costner was very popular in the 90s, but after the dismal "Future Water World", it has been in a slump ever since. Tom Cruise's career has been going downhill in recent years, and it is this time to come to a film with serious losses, which will be a heavy blow to his entire career. At this time, it is completely understandable that he is more cautious in taking movies.

Zhang Ran likes to spread out what problems everyone has, talk about it if you can talk about it, forget it if you can't talk about it, everyone wastes time for free. However, he is still confident in convincing Tom: "First of all, our budget for this film is 50 million US dollars. According to the size of the Chinese market, the cast, and the appeal of the director, I believe that the box office in China will not be less than 100 million US dollars, and with your appeal, the global box office should be able to exceed 200 million. With an investment of 50 million and a final box office of 200 million, it will definitely not lose money. ”

In the previous life, the domestic box office of "Jinling Thirteen Hairpins" was 600 million, almost 90 million US dollars, plus Zhang Weiping wanted to increase the share, and when the movie was released, it was overshadowed by the theaters.

In this life, the Chinese film market has developed better, with more screens, a larger market size, and with the addition of Tom Cruise, there is no problem with a box office of more than $100 million.

Zhang Ran paused, and saw Tom Cruise continue: "Regarding the question of the Dongying market, there will definitely be a loss of a part of the Dongying audience, but this proportion is very small. Spielberg once made "Empire of the Sun", did his movies do well at the box office in Dongying? Bruce Lee beat up the people in "Jingwumen", and his movies are still very popular in Dongying. After making our film, you will win more Chinese audiences while losing a small number of Dongying fans. With a population of only 100 million, Dongying has a very mature market and is unlikely to expand further, while China has a population of 1.3 billion, which is 13 times that of Dongying. China's film market is growing at a rate of 30% per year, with China's total box office reaching $2.2 billion last year, and this year it will certainly surpass Dongying to become the world's second largest market. At this rate of development, China's market size will surpass that of the United States in five years. Chinese audiences love sci-fi and action movies, and these two genres happen to be what you do best, and I believe that within three to five years, China will become your biggest overseas market. You also know that Chinese films have a quota system, with only 20 places. It is the government that has the final say on who to bring in and who not to introduce. If you participate in this movie, then you are a friend of the Chinese people, and you will get a lot of convenience by introducing your film in the future. Isn't it worth it to win the hearts of tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions, of Chinese viewers while losing a small part of the Dongying audience?"

After listening to Zhang Ran's words, Tom Cruise was a little moved, just like Zhang Ran said, China has a population of 1.3 billion, and no one dares to despise this market. The growth rate of China's film market in recent years has shocked the whole world, and Hollywood is at a standstill, so almost all companies are looking at how to enter China.

It's just that China has a lot of restrictions on Hollywood films, and only 20 films can enter China. Who these 20 places are given to and who are not given to whom, a relationship is needed. It is said that Disney is offending Zhang Ran, making it very difficult for its films to enter China. If you take this film and your own film can enter China smoothly from now on, it is definitely worth a try.

Thinking about it this way, Tom Cruise made a decision, and there was no hesitation at the moment: "I can agree, but taking this film is too risky for me, I want a salary of 15 million, plus 5.25% of the film's global audiovisual distribution revenue, and 15% of other income, including box office revenue, pay TV, pay-per-view, cable TV broadcast and other channels to obtain income." ”

If it is only a salary of 15 million, the risk of "Jinling Thirteen Hairpins" is very small, but the risk of adding 15% of the share is relatively large. Why did Tom Cruise fall out with Paramount? It's because "Mission Impossible 3" made Paramount lose. The film Tom Cruise made tens of millions of dollars, but Paramount made $800,000. Paramount invested more than $100 million and worked hard for several years, but as a result, Tom made all the money, so he naturally quit.

15 million plus 15% of the share is really expensive, but Tom Cruise is worth, a few years ago, it was more expensive, $20 million plus 20% of the share. Zhang Ran nodded and said, "Okay, then let's settle things first!"