In a conference room at Paramount Pictures in the Hollywood area, Matthew and Stephen Sommers each sat on one side of the conference table, and the lawyer next to them flipped through the contract and pointed out where they needed to sign.

Matthew signed his name on the actor's contract and then swapped contracts with Stephen Sommers, who represented the crew of "Special Ops: Cobra Rise," to sign it again.

Putting down the pen, Matthew stood up and shook hands with Stephen Sommers.

"Happy working together!"

"Happy working together!"

Both laughed at the same time.

At the same time, the conference room, including their respective lawyers, agents, and representatives of the actors' union, gave congratulatory applause.

Subsequently, Matthew and Stephen Sommers signed the screen actors guild's contract backup, and this time the signing was completed.

While lawyers and representatives from the Screen Actors Guild were still busy putting the finishing touches on the rest of the process, Stephen Sommers took the initiative to go around the conference table, shake hands with Matthew again, and said, "I've finally got you." ”

Matthew smiled, "I've been looking forward to working with you. ”

In fact, this is his third time working with Stephen Sommers and his second appearance in a film directed by Stephen Sommers.

From the first contact between the two parties to the signing of the contract now, it took more than half a year, during which the negotiations included the revision of the script, the remuneration of the actor, the part-time producer, etc., and also involved the cooperation between Paramount Pictures and Hasbro, the negotiations between the several parties have been tug-of-war for several months, and finally reached the current agreement.

In addition to the script factor, Helen Herman made a huge number of demands for Matthew, some of which were abandoned during the negotiations, but the main ones were all reflected in the contract.

In terms of script, there is naturally only one male lead, Matthew, and the rest of the supporting roles will not exceed one-third of his character Duke, which is a hard and fast rule in the contract, and the final film must reflect this.

In order to protect the rights and interests in this regard, Matthew also naturally got a place as a producer, and has the right to advise actors on other roles.

At present, the crew has only identified two male and female protagonists, namely him and model-turned-British actor Sienna Miller, who will play the famous villain female character Baroness in the animation.

For the other roles, the right candidate has not yet been found, Matthew can put forward his own opinion on the actor, and the crew must give priority to his suggestions.

It's no exaggeration to say that he is one of the most powerful people in the entire crew, even on a par with the power of Stephen Sommers, a complete director.

Stephen Sommers' role on the set is that of director and producer.

Hollywood implements a "producer-centric system", and the producer has more decision-making power than the director in the film, and he can even fire the director. The so-called "complete director" is the producer and director.

Stephen Sommers is different from Matthew's half-, he has quite professional ability, and Hollywood producers must have enough artistic standards, vision and judgment, they can choose the subject matter, find a screenwriter to write the script, hire the right director, find investors, determine the right cast and crew, form a crew, and after the film is finished, they must be responsible for the sales of the film.

The producer is responsible for the quality and market of the entire film.

Although the producer-centric system was only fully established in the late '70s and early 80s, it is deeply entrenched in Hollywood.

For example, in the famous "Gone with the Wind", the producer changed three directors during the filming process, even just because of small details such as costumes and props, although it is suspected of "offside" to ignore the role of the director too much, but it also shows the strong position of Hollywood producers from one side.

Matthew works part-time as a producer, more to protect his own rights and interests.

Now, he already owns a production company, and as long as the films he invests in and produce can be released in theaters, he has the corresponding qualifications to join the producer alliance, and he has a better understanding of the profession of producer and the producer alliance industry.

For example, the Producers Alliance divides the film production process into four stages: early planning, preliminary preparation, actual shooting and production, publicity and distribution, and post-operation, accounting for about 35 percent, 20 percent, 20 percent, and 25 percent respectively. If he only participates in the two phases of work, and does not include the first, he will not be able to reach 50 percent.

This also reflects the importance that Hollywood filmmaking attaches to the topic selection and planning stage.

In addition, in order to protect the rights and interests of real producers, the Producers Alliance is resisting the growing phenomenon of people who have nothing to do with the producer and name the producer, such as investors and distributors who have nothing to do with the production process.

Ma Xian is developing in the direction of actor and producer, but he knows very well that when it comes to professional quality, he is much worse.

Fortunately, he was able to hire highly specialized producers to serve him, as other studios do.

In the contract with the crew, it is also stipulated that he must join the crew as soon as possible, because filming will start in October at most, and "Special Forces: The Rise of the Cobra" is scheduled for next summer, so there is really not much time to waste.

Thankfully, Stephen Sommers has been preparing for this project since last year, and the early planning and pre-production work has been completed, and the main actors are in place and ready, and they are ready to start filming immediately.

Hollywood films are highly commercial and process-oriented products, starting from the story idea, every decision made by the producer is aimed at maximizing profits: the script should be polished to cater to the audience's preferences, the character setting should have a selling point, and in the case of animation, the development of peripheral products should be taken into account at the beginning of the character setting.

The importance of schedule lock-in lies in the financial pressure on the director and crew from the start of filming, forcing them to complete the task at a certain point, because all subsequent marketing plans must revolve around the release date.

Once a film is scheduled, it will not be easily modified.

With a budget of $180 million, "Special Forces: Cobra Rise" is already ahead of its game.

One of the most important aspects of the production budget is the inevitable result of Matthew's high salary.

Remuneration is also the most important element of this contract.

According to Hollywood convention, Matthew holds two positions in the crew, the actor and the producer, and can get the corresponding remuneration, but in order to protect the rights and interests of other parties, Helen Herman has made concessions in this regard, and Matthew only receives a symbolic dollar for the position of producer.

His actor's salary is already very high!

As the absolute protagonist of this project, Matthew is, of course, the highest salary for the crew, and this salary is composed of three parts, namely the basic salary paid in the early stage, the North American box office share of the film, and the revenue share of the actor's Duke's related peripheral products.

Among them, the basic salary is 20 million US dollars, and the North American box office share directly enjoys a 10% box office share regardless of the box office.

The reason why the share is limited to the North American box office is mainly because Helen Herman has won another share for him.

In the future, 50% of the income generated by the peripheral products of the actor Duke who uses his image will belong to him.

This is also the treatment that only top stars in the circle can have.

For example, Johnny Depp, half of all the proceeds of all goods directly related to Captain Jack Sparrow go to him.

If this is an independent film, the income in this area is better than nothing, and it is not much better if it is zero, but it is no secret that if a big-budget film sells well at the box office, it can get a terrifying peripheral income.

The real value of the film industry is not how much profit the film itself can generate, how much box office, but how many opportunities it provides for companies to cooperate with other fields.

These fields include television products, theme parks, consumer goods, soundtrack CDs, books, computer games and interactive entertainment, and even the erotic industry, where movies only provide the keys to this magical kingdom.

After signing the contract, Matthew then joined the crew of Stephen Sommers, on the one hand, receiving military training to prepare for the next filming, and on the other hand, he was properly involved in the work of some producers, learning and gaining experience.

In the future, Studio 13 still has a number of films to shoot, and he will inevitably be more professional in production.

It also allows him to learn a lot.

For example, the promotional marketing of "Special Forces: The Rise of the Cobra".

Most of the film's publicity and distribution expenses will be spent in North America, and overseas is relatively small.

If a film fails at the box office in the U.S. and becomes a global hit, is that a box office success for the studio? Generally speaking, however, the home market for Hollywood films is relatively important, as studios tend to make a larger share of domestic box office revenue.

For a Hollywood movie, the production company gets about 30% of the share from the overseas box office, and because the exchange rate of the US dollar is constantly changing, it has become a seemingly simple, but actually difficult thing to collect.

At the same time, the tariffs imposed by the government will also cut the share of film companies.

Therefore, compared with overseas box office revenue, the North American box office is more reliable.

And the most important peripheral income of a film, North America will always be the majority, then Europe, and other markets are much worse.

No one can expect to get a lot of revenue from regions such as Latin America, the Far East and Africa, and that is unrealistic.

But that's not to say that the overseas box office isn't worth paying attention to, especially when the movie loses at the box office in North America, so you need to rely on the overseas box office.

Just as Matthew was preparing for the project, he saw an acquaintance in the crew.

A man who once made him vomit blood.