"Eric, of course I know that the salaries of celebrities are a little inflated, but I recently heard that Firefly Pictures has just set up a project for James Cameron's new film "Titanic", and the production budget of this movie is 150 million US dollars. What about a sequel that makes some concessions, knowing that even if we meet the demands of the creators now, the final production budget will not exceed $150 million?"

Eric looked at Peter Cooper and said, "Peter, let's not mention "Men in Black", do you know why I'm willing to let James overspend on filming again and again?"

Peter Cooper shrugged.

Eric didn't expect an answer from Peter Cooper either, saying, "Because I'm pretty sure that every penny James spends is to make the film as good as possible, not to spend a lot of dollars on overpaid stars." ”

Peter Cooper tried to retort: "But aren't we inviting stars to make the film more appealing at the box office?"

"Of course, I don't deny that," Eric said, "but a lot of times, it's not worth it, like the recent 'Beverly Detective 3' and 'Law Enforcement,' where Paramount and Warner spent a lot of their budget on the main characters, and Eddie Murphy and Kevin Costner both got more than $15 million in fixed pay, and they also enjoyed a high profit-sharing agreement, but the result, you must have seen." ”

Peter Cooper said, "Eric, it was just an accident. And Miss Kidman's salary from "The Mummy" is even more appalling. ”

Nicole gave up on fixed pay altogether. to obtain the corresponding profit-sharing agreement. If "The Mummy" fails at the box office, Nicole won't get a penny. "And James, who offered to give up his director's salary every time he overspent on a film to ease the budget burden on the studio," Eric said. But what about those stars, they not only have to get a high salary of tens of millions of dollars, but also ask for more profit sharing, but they enjoy so many benefits. They don't take any risks for the studio, like the two films I just mentioned, both of which caused huge losses for the studio, but the two lead actors made more than $10 million. I don't care if other film companies offer any sky-high salaries to win over those stars, but in Firefly, and the film companies associated with Firefly, they must not think about such a good thing in the future. ”

Peter Cooper saw that Eric would not compromise on the payment of the salary, so he had to say, "In that case, Eric, about the copyright distribution agreement. I think it is necessary for Firefly and Colombia to renegotiate, knowing that the copyright of "Men in Black" was completely owned by Colombia in the first place. With the sequel's development stalled and automatically vesting Firefly after five years, this agreement is too unfair for Colombia. ”

The original agreement Eric was completely based on the Marvel Comics character authorization for a five-year period without a sequel automatic return, after hearing Peter Cooper entangle, and finally said the purpose of his trip, Eric simply waved his hand to let the person next to him leave, leaned on the workbench and looked at Peter Cooper with a smile, and said: "Peter, everyone knows that this is an unfair agreement from the beginning, and the Japanese must know it." Also, it's even more unfair to do what people do in private, but since Japanese people want to enter Hollywood, they should be aware of paying tuition. ”

"But, Eric......"

Eric interrupted Peter Cooper with a wave of his hand, still with a smile on his face, and said, "I know you were kicked out of the office by Katzenberg yesterday, and you must think that I have a better temper than Jeffrey Katzenberg, at least I won't kick you out of the office like Jeffrey did, but my good temper doesn't mean I'm good at talking, and this matter is non-negotiable." As for your reason, it is not valid at all, the copyright of "Men in Black" includes the copyright of "Jumanji", which will be released at the end of the year, Columbia has been buying it for many years, but there is no action, and there are many similar film and television copyrights in every film company. If there were no fireflies, maybe these two films would not have been able to wait for the day when filming would have started, in the final analysis, it was the fireflies that gave them enough commercial value. Compared to Sony, everyone should be considered their own people, and the Japanese don't understand some things, but we all know very well how much you have taken from Colombia in recent years, so, in moderation, I think what you should do in the next period of time is to try to wipe some traces clean and not leave the Japanese a chance to find fault. ”

Peter Cooper's face flushed a little when he heard Eric's words, but he couldn't think of any words to refute it.

Noticing the change in Peter Cooper's expression, Eric didn't want to embarrass the helm of Colombia like Katzenberg, after all, the Firefly was able to sign the 'Unequal Treaty' with Colombia smoothly, and Peter Cooper still contributed a lot.

After thinking about it, Eric said: "Well, I'll let the Fireflies make some negotiation moves, and I will also publicly support your side in the media, so that at least until next year, Sony won't risk everyone breaking up and kicking you out, I don't think you will continue to stay in Colombia next year, right?"

Peter Cooper nodded immediately, in fact, what he wanted was such a guarantee, and as for the interests of the Japanese, he really didn't care at all in his heart. Now that he had received a personal promise from Eric, Peter Cooper no longer dwelled on what had just happened, and said, "Eric, many people will be present at the celebration party of "Men in Black" tonight, why don't you come too?"

Eric shook his head and said, "I have something very important to do in the evening, so forget it this time." ”

Peter Cooper leaves Firefly Studios satisfied, but Eric is still thinking about Men in Black.

In the original time and space, compared with other popular Hollywood series of movies, the "Men in Black" series can be said to be the most ill-fated, and the production interval between the trilogy and the front and back reaches 15 years. And whether it is word-of-mouth or box office, it is not as good as one, but the production budget has increased exponentially, and, similar to the "Mission Impossible" series, most of the profits of the "Men in Black" series have been divided by Will Smith and other main creators, relatively speaking, Sony Pictures can only be regarded as making a lot of hard money.

The reason for this situation is mainly because of the downturn in Sony's film business, among several major film companies, Sony's performance has been at the bottom for most years, which has also caused its weak position in front of first-line superstars. Paramount can also have a fight with Tom after the box office failure of "Mission Impossible 3", but Sony Pictures doesn't even have the confidence to maintain decent operations, so it can only use the high-salary strategy to recruit stars and projects again and again. In the original time and space, Hollywood's first $20 million salary was offered by Sony Columbia for Jim Carrey.

Compared to Sony Columbia, Firefly has no such concerns at all, and if the salary of "Men in Black" cannot be negotiated, Eric would rather put the project on hold for a long time, after all, he has a lot of projects with higher profit margins to develop, and he doesn't have to compromise like Sony.

Thinking of these, Eric couldn't help but look forward to the next Marvel battle, as long as the current superhero copyright is not scattered Marvel, even if there is nothing else, Firefly can maintain its strong position in Hollywood in the next twenty years or even longer.

……

"Men in Black" is the last film related to the Firefly Group in the summer of 1994, after the release of this movie, most of the summer file has passed, and when several other major film companies will release several films one after another at the end of the summer file, Firefly has begun to count the harvest of this hot summer file.

In July, Firefly's financial department came up with a preliminary financial report for the first half of 1994, although the first half of the year experienced a short period of chaos caused by the ABC merger and acquisition, but after the merger of ABC, the Firefly Group's operating income in the first half of the year still reached 7.3 billion US dollars, but because of the restructuring of the department, layoffs and other compensation expenses, the group's net profit margin fell slightly, only 9%, and the group achieved a total net profit of 657 million US dollars in the first six months. This figure did not come out of expectations within the group, and was even higher than the data of most Wall Street analysts.

At the same time, after a series of fierce bidding and negotiations, the famous Condé Nast Group in North America finally decided to buy the paper media assets spun off by Firefly at a price of $1.52 billion.

Stimulated by a series of good news such as the summer box office, the $8 billion bond issued by Firefly Pictures for the acquisition of ABC was sold out on July 20.

Subsequently, all kinds of people inside and outside the fireflies who were making their own calculations became restless.

First of all, with the excellent box office of "The Lion King" accumulated $215 million in five weeks, Disney's animation department directors Peter Schneider and Roy Disney, who had been waiting for the right time, jumped out as "pawns" and confidently began to fight for the interests of Disney's animation employees who had been "squeezed for a long time".

The layout of Marvel Entertainment is still in the final stages of completion, and Ron Perelman is still hidden in the dark, in order to show his 'attention' to Disney's animation department, Eric is also very cooperative to personally come forward to negotiate the conditions with Peter Schneider and Roy Disney.

Eric's deliberately tangled gesture of not mentioning the elimination of Disney's hand-drawn animation division, but clearly not wanting to compromise anytime soon, smoothly sent some of the wrong signals to some people. (To be continued.) )