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Sending Gal Gadot away, Murphy basically stayed in his Stanton studio in the following days, and now this studio is already a standard shell company, except for "Saw 2" in cooperation with Fox Searchlight, there is no project that can be operated at all, and the biggest role is to use the government's preferential policies for the film industry to help Murphy reduce his tax burden.

Stanton Studio has not carried out any expansion so far, and after Murphy further saw this circle, he gradually broke off those unreliable ideas before, with his ability and financial strength, if he didn't consider the actual situation and rashly wanted to make Stanton Studio bigger, I am afraid that the bankruptcy crisis would not be far away.

After all, Hollywood is not a state prison, and most people and things can be handled with the fists of a few people and the careful thinking behind their backs, and the situations and rules in this circle will not be transferred by personal will.

There are many situations that don't exist if he doesn't think about it.

Continuing to keep Stanton Studios in the position of a leather bag company is actually good for Murphy, allowing him to focus as much on directing as possible.

The entire Stanton studio, including Murphy himself, is still only four people, a finance officer, a front desk plus a telephone operator, plus Paul Wilson, who doubles as Murphy's assistant.

In a short period of time, Murphy has no plans to expand Stanton Studios, and now his energy is mainly focused on his directing career, preparing for the next step.

The next step he aims for is Marvel Comics and DC Comics.

Marvel Comics has been in contact, and the situation is not optimistic, since 2000, Marvel Comics has been out of the bad situation of the nineties, although not as bright as the future, but it is not something that a person of Murphy's status and net worth can impress.

After being frustrated by his exposure to Marvel Comics, Murphy was naturally ready to switch to DC Comics.

Today's DC Comics and Marvel Comics are unexpectedly different, and the situation they face has even been reversed.

Before the arrival of the new century, DC Comics, which was included in Warner's ownership, developed smoothly, and when people mentioned superheroes, the first thing that came to mind was Superman and Batman, and when it came to superhero movies, they were exclusive to these two.

Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne on the big screen are not comparable to the Avengers under the Marvel Comics banner.

But now, DC Comics and Marvel Comics are not the same.

The former's "Superman 4" with Warner Bros. almost buried Superman's film franchise, and Joe Schumacher's two super drag shows also brought the "Batman" movie to a dead end, leaving Warner Bros. to refrigerate Master Bruce Wayne.

The latter has changed its decline, starting from "Blade", through "X-Men" and "Spider-Man", it has completely become the mainstream of comic book movies on the big screen, and "Spider-Man" has even become the first film in North America to grossing more than $100 million in its first weekend.

According to the information that Murphy received, they are preparing their own film department to shoot superhero movies that really belong to Marvel Comics.

Whether it is Murphy or other film companies, it is difficult to get the film adaptation rights of those first-tier or even second-tier comic book heroes from Marvel Comics, and the Marvel superheroes in the industry that can be adapted by other companies are all like "X-Men", "Spider-Man", "Daredevil" and "Fantastic Four" that got the copyright very early.

In order to get rid of the decline, DC Comics is not without actions, such as successfully digging the corner of "X-Men", making Brian Singa the director of "Superman Returns", and cooperating with Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry to create an extremely rare female superhero movie - "Catwoman".

Thinking of these two films, Murphy subconsciously feels that they may become an obstacle for himself, these two films have a huge investment, especially "Superman Returns", and it is rumored that the production cost will definitely exceed "Titanic", becoming the highest-invested film of all time, even if part of the funding problem can be solved through cooperation, financing and pre-sales, but for Warner Bros., it is still a heavy burden and pressure.

Sitting in the office on the second floor of Stanton Studios, before making a plan, Murphy must consider the current situation, the product or artistic situation of film is not divorced from social reality, whether it is the current social environment or the situation of the company, it may have a significant impact on a film.

Taking out a document from the filing cabinet, Murphy flipped through it and looked at it, which was sent by Bill Rothes after his investigation, which contained the latest situation of DC Comics and Warner Bros., as well as the introduction of the management staff, especially Warner Bros., who had just changed its CEO recently, and the new CEO was named Bruce Berman's Jew.

A name that looks somewhat familiar, Murphy thought about it for a while, but he didn't have an impression, and then gave up, although his head is relatively easy to use, but it is not a computer with automatic storage, and it is normal for some people who are not very important to not remember.

He focused more on the production strategies of Warner Bros. and DC Comics.

There is no doubt that since DC Comics was acquired by Warner, it has begun in-depth cooperation with Warner Bros., the "Superman" movie and the "Batman" series are the products of cooperation, and the two companies have a wordless tacit understanding, if DC Comics' first-line superheroes are adapted into movies, the dominant party must be Warner Bros.

While Warner Bros. sometimes brings in other partners to share the financial pressure and reduce the risk, the rights to Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne are always firmly in their hands.

This also determines that unlike Marvel Comics, which are just starting out and do not have an independent production and distribution company, Murphy will definitely not be able to buy the corresponding rights if he wants to cooperate with DC Comics.

Fortunately, the current DC Super Heroes are in the frozen period, not as popular as Marvel Comics, and there is still the possibility of moving them and restarting that super series.

What Murphy wants is very simple, to become the director of the series, and to get as much power as possible, so that he can rush into the ranks of the first-line directors.

In the past, he was not qualified enough, and he could only think about and couldn't do many things, and no one paid attention to what he did, but now the success of three consecutive films undoubtedly gives him a certain degree of persuasion, and it can be seen from being chased by paparazzi and entertainment reporters that he is no longer an obscure little director before.

In particular, the results of "Sin City" are even more eye-catching and have made him famous.

After nearly three months of screening in North America, the film got a brilliant box office figure of 91.54 million US dollars, although it did not break the 100 million US dollar mark and has been released, but the North American box office alone almost allowed Miramax to recover the total investment of 40 million US dollars in production costs and 15 million US dollars in publicity and marketing.

In the past three months, "Sin City" has also appeared in more theaters overseas, although the overall response is not as good as that in North America because of the subject matter, so far it has also taken more than $34 million from overseas, and the global box office has also added up to more than $125 million.

It's also Murphy's highest global box office figure to date.

Negotiations with DVD distributors and broadcasters were also concluded, and the results were not far from the practice of roughly 10 percent of the North American box office for the first round of television rights, but the film sold a whopping $8 million because of its size.

There is also a basic transfer fee of $5 million for DVDs, and there is naturally a corresponding commission for sales and leases.

There is also the emerging transfer of online on-demand, which is worth $2 million, if not as expensive as television rights.

Even if it had to pay dividends to Dark Horse Comics and Frank Miller, Miramax easily achieved a large profit income.

These are the capitals that Murphy can bargain with other companies on new projects.

Of course, for him, the more direct benefits come from the monetary side.

"Sin City" was largely taken off the production line in North America, and Miramax also sent a financial statement to Stanton Studios, which clearly marked the director's dividends that Murphy would enjoy.

According to the director's agreement signed by the two parties, Murphy will receive a base reward of $1 million each in two installments before the start of filming and after all production is completed, and if the North American box office of "Sin City" exceeds the established production cost line, he will receive a base reward of $1.5 million, and if the North American box office reaches $50 million, he will receive a $3 million share reward, $80 million is $4.5 million, and $100 million is $6 million.

The basic salary of two million US dollars, long before the release of the film, Miramax has been paid in place, and the rest is mainly the North American box office dividend, the North American box office of the film exceeded 80 million US dollars, but did not reach 100 million US dollars, and the North American box office dividend that Murphy can get is the 4.5 million US dollars stipulated in the agreement.

In addition, the agreement stipulates that Murphy will receive 1 percent of Sin City's North American television and DVD rights revenue, and he will receive $80,000 and $50,000 respectively from the first transfer fee.

As for the sales and leasing commissions that follow, that's long-term income.

This total of $130,000 in North American TV and DVD video rights revenue, which Miramax paid a few days ago, as a large part of the box office dividends, like the previous times, need to wait slowly.

But Murphy is not in a hurry, he is not short of money now.

In the next few days, Murphy began to develop project plans and plans for DC Comics and Warner Bros., and it was not easy to impress these guys, at least there had to be a passable plan.

After getting the project plan and proposal book, there was also good news from Bill Rothes's side, and he made an appointment to meet with several senior executives of DC Comics and Warner Bros. through the channels of CAA. (To be continued.) )