The sky was already dark, the temperature had dropped, and in the small courtyard in front of Stanton's studio, a table was set up in the center, and Murphy, James Franco, Seth Rogen, and Jonah Hill sat around them, talking loudly, and when Carey Mulligan came over with a fruit bowl, his voice quickly lowered again.

From that night onwards, they gradually formed a small group.

"If I become a star in the future,"

Speaking of the news from Bill Rossis, Jonah Hill's fat man was very angry, "I definitely won't work with a garbage company like Lionsgate!" ”

An empty beer mug slammed down on the table, and Seth Rogen, a very honest-looking guy, had a chubby face flushed, "Count me in!" ”

Having just broken into this circle, they are not lacking in momentum at all.

Carey Mulligan stood up, picked up his glass, took a big sip, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and said proudly, "And me!" ”

She can't wait to kick the balls of all the high-level people at Lionsgate!

Hearing these words, James Franco grabbed a grape and threw it into his mouth, and was about to say something when he suddenly found Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, and Carey Mulligan all glaring at him.

Avoiding Kerry Mulligan's eyes, he nodded to the other two, picked up his glass and said loudly, "How can this kind of thing not be my share?" ”

"Thank you!" Murphy picked up his glass and motioned to a few people one by one, "Thank you for your support." ”

He threw his head back and drank the rest of the wine from his glass, and the other four toasted as well.

Having experienced prison life, Murphy's heart is hard enough, and when he hears these words, he is still a little moved, and this feeling of having someone to support and fight side by side is much better than fighting alone.

Even if they don't have any power outside of words.

On the other side of the Pacific, he was a lonely man, and when he came here, he went to the prison and saw the light of day, and now that he has a girlfriend and a few like-minded fox friends, his life is undoubtedly changing in a good direction step by step.

Despite the many difficulties ahead, like Lionsgate and Miramax, Murphy believes he will make it all the way to the pinnacle of his directorial career.

A glass of wine poured into his stomach, but Carey Mulligan's small face twisted, reminding Murphy, "Bill said that Lionsgate may be different from Miramax, and they are very interested in making a similar film. ”

She looked at Murphy and then at the three Seth Rogan opposite, "What are we going to do?" ”

If you want to say that she is not worried at all, it is impossible, she has made two movies, and she knows the industry a little deeper, in case "Chainsaw" has not found a suitable distributor, Lionsgate's films will enter the theaters first, Murphy will definitely be greatly affected, and it is possible that he will not be able to recover his investment.

Carey Mulligan glanced back, the dark house was hiding behind the lights, and if "Saw Horror" failed, she should not be able to rent this house, and she and Murphy would probably end up in the park homeless......

Although it seemed romantic to the little girl's heart, she felt distressed when she thought of the double blow that Murphy might suffer, both financially and mentally.

Oh, yes? What to do?

Seth Rogan, Jonah Hill and James Franco looked at Murphy and said something that was easy to shout but didn't help solve the problem.

They know very well that how to solve it in the end depends on Murphy.

"The exploitation of small companies by large companies in the upstream of the industrial chain is a common phenomenon in any country and any industry in the world."

Leaning back in the chair, his left hand supporting the armrest and supporting his chin, Murphy's tone was gradually relaxed, "Actually, this matter is not difficult to solve, as long as our film can enter the theater first." ”

He coughed, Carey Mulligan hurriedly handed over a glass of water, Murphy took a sip, and continued, "Make an assumption, Lionsgate is determined to make a similar film, but it will take more than twenty days from preparation to production of such a film, and we can enter theaters during this time, and they will become imitators even if they are released soon." ”

James Franco understood what Murphy meant and nodded, "Copycats are always inferior to their predecessors, both by word of mouth and at the box office. ”

"Bingo!" Murphy snapped his fingers, "As long as we can get ahead of Lionsgate, the impact of this incident on us will be infinitely smaller." And what about Lionsgate? If we really make a film with a similar theme, their risk will at least double if we just release it! ”

For a company like Lionsgate, which specializes in horror films, doubling the risk isn't necessarily that high, which is probably why they dared to discuss the project.

This was Murphy's own idea, and since Lionsgate had discussed it at the top, it meant that the project could become a reality.

As he said, the best way to avoid the influence of Lionsgate is to push "Chainsaw" into theaters as much as possible.

Of course, he and Bill Rothes aren't entirely sure if Lionsgate is really going to do it, but they have to be prepared.

The reality of the situation is that he will not be given too long to wait, and Murphy has also accelerated the pace of negotiations, and on Miramax's side, he left an offer of $15 million plus two film contracts, and the negotiations are at an impasse again.

However, for the sake of retreat, he has kept Bill Rothes in contact with Miramax.

And several companies such as DreamWorks and Morris Entertainment have kicked Murphy out of the game or been kicked out by Murphy because of too many differences.

The only thing that has made some progress is the Fox searchlight.

Perhaps because of the company's business strategy, or perhaps because of the poor performance in the first quarter, they paid a lot of attention to their estimate that the North American market could reach the tens of millions of dollars in the film.

As the owner of Stanton Studios and the copyright owner of the film, Murphy has had five rounds of negotiations with Godin Clyde of Fox Searchlight, just like the initial negotiation process, Godin Clyde has a relatively mild style, always with a smile that makes people feel like a spring breeze, but when it comes to interests, he does not give an inch.

Such negotiations were destined to be difficult, and with no hope of progress, Murphy even wanted to accept the price offered by Miramax.

However, thinking of Harvey Weinstein's face and Miramax's style, he still regarded the other party as an alternative, even if Miramax broke the news that a horror movie was about to be established......

The biggest disagreement between Murphy and Fox Searchlight is undoubtedly on the cost of distribution, and the negotiation with Godin Clyde, he is completely 0.1% down, and he has to classify all the expenses incurred at the time of publicity as much as possible into this 30% commission.

Like some companies, the distribution commission is calculated separately, and the publicity and distribution costs have to be deducted from the box office, he might as well sign a sellout contract with Miramax.

venue fees, transportation costs, labor costs, insurance costs, ...... These seemingly inconspicuous, but in fact not a lot of expenses, are all tug-of-war points in the negotiations.

As we approached the end of June, after several rounds of unusually difficult negotiations and news of Lionsgate's intention to shift to the script, Murphy finally reached an agreement with Fox Searchlight.

In terms of the most fiercely contested North American distribution commission, Murphy almost wore out his tongue, from 30 percent to 25 percent, which means that if "Chainsaw" gets $10 million at the North American box office, Fox Searchlight can take $2.5 million from it.

This condition seems quite harsh, but it is actually quite good, and Murphy's most successful thing is that not only the publicity and distribution channel costs of the Fox searchlight are all calculated in this 25%, but also some complicated small expenses such as storage fees, transportation costs, labor costs, public relations fees and insurance costs are also included.

Stanton Studios didn't have much to bear, the biggest was the cost of making the copies, Murphy had less than $100,000 in his hand, and he couldn't afford the funds, and according to the supplementary agreement between the two parties, Fox Searchlight would pay in advance and then deduct it separately from the box office share.

The money for making a copy of zuò seems to be of little interest, but in fact it costs a lot.

A film like "Chainsaw", even if it is compressed by Murphy to about 90 minutes, the production of one copy is expensive.

A 4.5-minute film is about $150, a 90-minute film is at least $3,000, and 100 copies are $300,000......

Even though it would be cheaper to print a lot, no single issuing company would afford to do so.

For a union filing project like "Chainsaw", a fee must also be paid to several union organizations, which naturally has to be borne by Stanton Studios independently.

There is also copyright, like half of the copyright required by Fox Searchlight, of course, it is impossible, both sides have made certain concessions, Stanton Studio retains 70% of the copyright, and the remaining 30% belongs to the distributor Fox Searchlight, that is to say, in addition to the box office income of the film, the income from other peripheral copyrights will be shared according to this proportion.

Originally, Murphy would rather make some concessions in terms of distribution and want to keep all the rights to the film, but Fox Searchlight is not stupid, and it can be said that it is customary for Hollywood distribution companies to get certain copyrights in the cooperation with small production companies.

This is already the best that Murphy can negotiate with all the distribution companies.

All the conditions were negotiated, and under the notarization of the union, Murphy officially signed a distribution contract with Fox Searchlight on behalf of Stanton Studios, which has already made market estimates and intends to push "Chainsaw" into the theater market as much as possible.

For commercial companies, the cost of time is also a cost.

During this time period, the hottest summer file in North America every year has not ended, but after the beginning of July, those mainstream large-scale zuò with huge investment have basically passed the hottest premiere period, and the second-tier zuò and even some small zuò that they think can get a piece of the pie will enter the theater to share the leftovers of the summer file.

Fox Searchlight plans to push "Chainsaw" into theaters in mid-July, after a two-week promotional period, which is very rare for such a small film.

They developed a publicity plan and a publicity budget for this purpose, and passed it on to Murphy, and it is difficult to say whether it is true or not.

This plan will definitely have water, but even if there is, the scale of such investment is limited, and when Murphy saw the figures on the publicity budget, he really wanted to shout that Fox Searchlight would simply kill him! (To be continued.) )