"Eric, do you mean that we are going to use the distribution contracts of these films as bargaining chips in exchange for Southeast Asian studios settling the box office of Titanic in advance?" asked Robert Thompson, the president of the distribution department, as soon as Eric finished speaking. Pen Fun Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Eric nodded, but quickly shook his head, "You can do this, but it's not limited to that. What I mean is that we need to prepare for the worst for the Southeast Asian economy, and at the same time strive to recover the share of "Titanic" as soon as possible, and at the same time, the distribution rights of the film in the future period of time will be directly pre-sold to distributors in Southeast Asian countries at a buyout price. ”

The phenomenon of pre-sale and distribution rights of Hollywood films is very common, especially those second- and third-tier film companies with limited distribution capacity, even in the United States, in order to return funds as soon as possible, often adopt the means of pre-sale distribution rights.

However, after years of expansion of distribution channels, due to the strong film distribution network around the world, even some low-cost films under the Firefly Group have rarely adopted this low-yield pre-sale distribution strategy, after all, the truth is the same as farming, the same piece of land, primitive slash-and-burn cultivation and complex intensive farming, the harvested grain must be different.

Sure enough, as soon as Eric's words fell, he immediately attracted a wave of opposition.

Robert Thompson said: "Eric, the box office of "Titanic" is almost certain, and we will try to recoup our share in advance, and there will be nothing to lose. But if we sell out the distribution rights of films that have not yet been released, not only will it be difficult for us to get too high a price, but in the event that some films are a box office hit, the decisions we make at this time to avoid an economic crisis that will not necessarily happen could cause us even more losses, and Southeast Asia as a whole accounts for 30% of the total overseas box office, which I strongly discourage. ”

Eric recalled the box office data of "Titanic" that he saw last Friday night, and the entire Southeast Asia did account for about 30% of the film's total overseas box office, but Japan accounted for almost 20% of it. In my memory, Japan's currency depreciation during the economic crisis in Southeast Asia was only about 20%, far less than that of other Southeast Asian countries where their monetary systems were generally cut in half.

Moreover, Japan's economic recovery will obviously be faster than other Southeast Asian countries, and in this case, Firefly can still bear a 20% currency depreciation.

As for other Southeast Asian ticket warehouses, there is no need to insist on it at all. It is conceivable that when the economic crisis breaks out, the small box office in Southeast Asia, which originally only accounted for just over 10% of the overseas market share, will definitely fall to about 5% of the overseas box office share under the impact of currency depreciation, and there is no possibility of recovery in the short term.

Perhaps, in the next few years, Hong Kong films, which were already in a declining trend, will fall completely silent, which should be related to the sharp contraction of the Southeast Asian market.

After thinking for a moment, Eric said: "Then let's do it, in Southeast Asia, Japan will maintain the original issuance strategy unchanged, and other ticket warehouses such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, according to the plan I just said, will be decided." ”

If the Japanese market is removed, the remaining small ticket warehouses in Southeast Asia are not as good as Latin America, and a group of high-level executives will no longer insist, discuss some detailed implementation details, and start the next topic.

After the morning of the meeting, Eric had lunch at the Burbank headquarters and began to rush back to Sharp Corner Manor.

While still in New York, Madonna called several times to visit Eric when he returned to Los Angeles.

At this time, Madonna has already started a lawsuit with Warner Records over the issue of digital distribution rights, although the outcome is not yet certain, but this incident is a fuse, obviously attracting more musicians' attention to online music sales, coupled with the close cooperation between the two sides in the Yahoo Music Store, Eric will not hesitate to spare half a day to meet with each other, so he made an appointment this afternoon.

Of course, Eric also knew that Madonna's visit may still have the intention of urging him to write a song for himself, which Eric promised the other party more than a month ago.

Tomorrow is the celebration party for "Titanic" to break through $1.8 billion at the box office, and Katzenberg will rush from Burbank headquarters to Preavista Studios in the afternoon, so he will take the opportunity to take Eric's ride and talk about some official business by the way.

Eric mentioned the intention to return to Sharp Corner Manor, and Katzenberg said: "Speaking of Yahoo Music Store, although Warner Records and Universal Music are not involved in this lawsuit, Barry Weiss from Firefly Records called a few days ago, and Warner Records secretly intended to poach the Backstreet Boys from us. ”

Eric asked, "If I'm not mistaken, they should be on five-year contracts, right?"

"Yes, around the year 2000, Barry said that they were a little excited, but Warner Records might not be willing to pay the full amount of the liquidated damages, so it didn't work out, but if the contract expires," Katzenberg paused, looked at Eric, and then added, "I'm afraid they won't stay at Firefly Records anymore." ”

Eric knew that Firefly Records' close collaboration with Yahoo Music would certainly cause some scruples among its artists.

Due to the hype of other record companies, most singers subconsciously feel that Firefly Records' cooperation with Yahoo Music Store is carried out at the expense of their interests, and under the manipulation of several major record giants, the American Music Association is not even willing to admit the sales of digital music albums, which will undoubtedly cause the sales of Firefly Records' singers to be much lower than the actual number.

Eric doesn't think so, and the impact of the Internet makes it almost inevitable that the physical record industry will decline.

Firefly Records' cooperation with Yahoo Music Store to open up the online music sales market in advance can greatly reduce the damage of online music piracy to Firefly Records' artists, and at the same time, Firefly's singers will definitely be able to enjoy more media promotion resources on Yahoo's online platform.

Eric believes that this advantage will soon become apparent in the coming years as the Fireflyer is further rolled out.

"What do they want to do, we can see the move. ”

Eric said, looking out the window of the car as the car shuttled down the Venetian Boulevard, and Eric happened to see a huge movie poster of Godzilla flash past him.

If you don't consider the information in your memory at all, the upcoming summer file will still be heavy.

In addition to the three animated movies "Finding Nemo", "The Lion King 2" and "Ice Age", there are also three super live-action masterpieces in this summer file.

"007: Casino Royale" directed by Eric, "Batman and Robin" by Warner Bros., and "Godzilla" by Sony Pictures.

The cost of these three live-action blockbuster films is more than 100 million US dollars, and the production cost of "007: Casino Royale" eventually reached 110 million US dollars, which is the lowest of the three films, "Batman and Robin" cost 120 million, and the production cost of "Godzilla" even reached 150 million.

At the same time, as the only blockbuster film focusing on CG special effects in this summer, perhaps stimulated by the just-successful "Titanic", Sony also seems to be full of confidence in "Godzilla", although the production cost has reached 150 million, Sony still did not hesitate to invest a $70 million publicity budget, raising the total cost of "Godzilla" to 220 million, so that this monster blockbuster needs to recover $600 million worldwide in order to recover its cost at the box office.

Eric doesn't remember what the global box office of "Godzilla" was in his previous life, but according to the bad reputation that has been scolded for more than ten years, it is certainly far less than 600 million US dollars.

Although "Godzilla" was produced by Sony, since the special effects were entirely in charge of the digital realm, it was very easy for Eric to see the material for the film. Just this version of Godzilla's Tyrannosaurus Rex looks similar to his previous life, Eric doesn't think there is much chance of success in this film.

As for "Batman and Robin", don't mention it.

However, Warner and Sony are obviously full of confidence, perhaps noticing that Firefly does not have a special effects blockbuster released this summer, so they learned from Universal's strategy last year, and also set the release date in June, which Firefly is used to, and is obviously not simple-minded.

This can be seen from the specific schedules of the two blockbusters.

Firefly summer is still a 'trilogy' strategy, however, unlike in the past, due to the absence of "Jurassic Park 3", Firefly only two films will be released in June, namely "Prison in the Sky" starring Cage and Pixar's latest animated film "Finding Nemo", and the other is "Tarzan Forest" produced by Disney Studios, however, this medium-cost animated adaptation live-action film is scheduled for mid-July in order not to directly confront "007: Casino Royale" at the end of June.

The other two films, "Prison in the Air" are scheduled for May 30, and "Finding Nemo" is scheduled for June 13.

Perhaps, Sony and Warner still have some scruples about "Prison in the Air" produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and starring Nicolas Cage, so they cleverly set the schedule of "Godzilla" on June 6, and the schedule of "Batman and Robin" was set on June 20, which is the week before and the week after "Finding Nemo", obviously, Sony and Warner want to bully "Finding Nemo" by the way with their blockbuster "sweeping the box office" at the same time.

For the first time, Eric saw the detailed schedule of this year's summer file, and almost had an urge to mourn for the two colleagues.

Two big hits on the street to stir up a billion box office seeds.

Maybe who's bullying whom.

In addition to the major studios in the main department, New Line Pictures will also release two films in this summer file, namely "Jedi Men 2" on July 4 and "Death is Coming 2" on July 18, which also increased the total number of films in the Firefly Group's summer file to 5.

In previous years, in order to concentrate publicity resources as much as possible, the new line usually did not make much of a fuss to join the excitement of the summer file. But after the outbreak last year, the new line has also begun to officially exert its strength, obviously, it can be seen from the schedules of the two films that the new line will focus on operating the summer schedule in July in the future, so as to achieve a seamless connection with the headquarters in June.

The fact that Fireflies are dominant at this time has been thoroughly debunked since Forbes magazine used the word 'oligarchs' at the beginning of the year.

As a result, Eric doesn't mind making the fireflies look a little sharper.

At this time, Firefly's film business has steadily dominated about 30% of the annual box office, but if this proportion can be increased to 40%, Eric will definitely not have much to spare.

Along the way, he chats with Katzenberg about trivial matters, and Eric drops them off at Firefly Studios and then back to Malibu.

It was already two o'clock in the afternoon when I returned to Jianjiao Manor.

Madonna had arrived early, sitting on the sofa by the glass curtain wall and chatting with Drew familiarly, which was specially arranged by Eric, and he didn't really want to be alone with this bold music queen.

Seeing Eric walk in, Madonna and the girl got up at the same time to greet her.

Eric hugged the two girls before he smiled and asked, "What are you talking about?"

The girl affectionately took Eric's arm and sat down on the sofa, leaned over softly, and said, "Just speaking of "Scream 2", Maggie is curious about who will be killed at the beginning of the movie this time. ”

"Scream 2" will also be released this summer, although it is not as big as a few blockbusters, but it has also attracted a lot of attention.

The girl herself played the girl who was killed at the beginning in the first part, and because she has a completely different level of influence from her previous life, this has also become a topic of conversation among many fans. As is customary, MGM will definitely not let go of this hype gimmick, and it is very likely that other powerful stars will be invited to guest roles in similar roles in the sequel.

Eric reached out and took the coffee cup from Natasha, and asked curiously, "Oh, I don't know yet, who is it?"

"Guess first. ”

Eric looked at Madonna and shook his head with a smile: "I can't guess this, it can't be that you came back to life in the film and were killed again, right?"

"Hehe, how could I be so bored," the girl shook Eric's arm coquettishly, "It's Rachel." ”

Before Eric could react, Madonna was already surprised: "Rachel Weisz?"

The girl nodded.

"Titanic" was a box office hit, and Xiao Li and Rachel, who are the heroes and heroines, can also be said to have soared, even Julia and Nicole, it is impossible to compare with Rachel's strong popularity in recent times.

It is conceivable that if fans knew that 'Rose' was suddenly 'killed' in a horror movie, it would be a shocking thing.

Eric was genuinely curious, and asked the girl, "How did you coax her over?" (To be continued.) )