Some people have ever wondered why Hollywood studios are so fond of high-investment productions that they shoot a large number of productions with an investment cost of more than 100 million, or even 200 million, almost every year? Isn't it more gratifying to be small and broad? For example, in the case of "Smart: Ghost Record", the investment of $15,000 swept the box office of $107 million in the United States, which is the real money.

The reason is simple: probability.

In 2015, a statistical report circulated among industry insiders, which showed that after 2000, films with production costs between 100 million and 150 million were still the safest, and more likely to earn 200 percent or more than any other level of cost; Anything outside of this range, whether above or below the range, will bear more risk of loss.

In other words, works with less than 100 million dollars of investment are not necessarily profitable - on the contrary, after 2008, low-budget or even medium-budget films have become a challenge. You must know that at the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century, low-cost film works can often create a box office miracle and are highly favored, but the times are changing, and the market is also changing.

Obviously, "Killing with a Knife" was lucky enough to catch the "last train", with a medium investment of only 60 million, but it achieved unimaginably outstanding results. With 240 million in North America and 370 million worldwide, the box office numbers for "Murder with a Knife" are enough to give any major studio a thumbs up – and even more so for Chaos Pictures.

Lance participated in the system of "killing people with a knife" in the form of dividends, taking huge risks while also winning huge returns, just one work, for Chaos Pictures to achieve 84 million in revenue - of course, this amount must also deduct the cost of film production, crew member expenses, publicity expenses and high taxes - has not yet been calculated in detail, and must wait for the major theaters to pay dividends to Paramount one after another, Chaos Pictures can get the final income, But after a rough estimate, "Killing with a Knife" has brought at least 40 million net profits to Chaos Pictures, even more than the profit of "The Day After Tomorrow", after all, "Killing with a Knife" has a higher dividend ratio and lower cost.

Just the dividends of one work have allowed Chaos Pictures to accumulate as much of its original capital as it has done in three years of independent films. This is the high return in exchange for high investment and high risk.

However, Chaos Pictures only participated in the dividends of the North American box office, and the overseas box office dividends did not have anything to do with Lance. So, compared to Chaos Pictures, Paramount is the real winner, and while they have no intention of disclosing their internal earnings figures, Ian estimates that Paramount has at least reaped more than $100 million in net profits by "killing people with a knife" - and that's after deducting costs and taxes.

What's more, the added value of "borrowing a knife to kill" has not been calculated, and the income from video tape rental and related copyrights is definitely not a small amount, which is the bulk of Paramount's profits; If "Killing with a Knife" can win the Golden Globe Awards and even the Oscars, even if it is only a nomination, Paramount's income will continue to rise, or even double.

Compared with Paramount, the little shrimp of Chaos Pictures is just a glimpse of a glimpse of heaven. This is also the reason why Lance insisted on participating in the big production at Diora Pictures in the first place, and the success of one film is enough to raise the company's status to a whole level, and the huge income will provide a steady stream of support for the company's next plan, forming a virtuous circle.

Imagine that Diorama Pictures may need to shoot five "Lost in Translation" to catch up with the proceeds of "killing with a knife" - but not all five films will become "Lost in Translation", and given the probability, then that number will continue to rise. Perhaps it can be safer, more solid, and more calm, but in the ever-changing Hollywood, it means being surpassed, submerged, and abandoned.

After leaving Diorama Pictures and creating Chaos Pictures, on the road to chasing the enemy, Lance has quietly and faintly taken the lead at this time, which is just the credit of two works, such an incredible result, but in Hollywood it seems so ordinary, just like an actor who became famous overnight, but in the blink of an eye, the world has changed.

Of course, high risk is not only faced with high returns, but also with high losses. "The Day After Tomorrow" and "Murder by the Sword" succeeded, but "Troy" and "Ocean's Twelve" failed.

For Warner Bros., 2004 was a really heavy loss, from "Troy" to "Alexander the Great" to "Ocean's Twelve", they had to retreat again and again, even if the wealthy Warner Bros. showed a decline after suffering successive blows, especially "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" did not reach the expected height at the box office in the summer file.

The "Ocean's Twelve", which had high hopes, finally earned 290 million at the global box office, and after careful calculation, Warner Bros. narrowly avoided the danger of loss, and also made a small profit of 10 million US dollars. The main thing is the good performance of the overseas box office, as well as the risk-sharing of the star cast, plus the responsibility of Plan B Pictures and Diorama Pictures, which also avoids the possibility of Warner Bros. getting into trouble. Considering the huge potential of the videotape market, Warner Bros. may still be able to make a small profit, which is even more relieved for Barry Meyer.

Even so, "Ocean's Twelve" is still a huge failure for Warner Bros., after all, from the star cast to the publicity strategy, the production did not reach $100 million, which is disappointing - even the profit of "borrowing a knife to kill" has reached!

What's worse is that the collapse of "Ocean's Twelve" has caused both Diorama Pictures and Plan B Pictures to lose a lot, and Project B Pictures is better, although Brad is now in prison, but as long as his connections and prestige are still there, the comeback is just a matter of a movie, but considering the current bad situation of "Operation Smith", their life is bound to be not easy; Relatively speaking, Diorama Pictures is already irreversible.

The "Twelve Arhats," who were supposed to succeed, are now struggling to catch their breath, and the losses suffered by "Troy" have not had time to stop the bleeding before they have been hit hard again. Since Warner Bros. can carve up the guaranteed revenue of the overseas box office, but Diora Pictures is only eligible for the North American box office dividends, which also means that the heavy consequences of the bad performance of "Ocean's Twelve" in North America are all borne by Diora Pictures.

There are no specific statistics yet, but the "12 Arhats" are costly and overspent on publicity, and it is very likely that Diorama Pictures will suffer losses of about 20 million to 25 million. This cannot be said to be fatal for a medium-sized production company, but it is indeed a heavy blow.

Not long ago, the fiasco of "Troy" put the capital chain of Diorama Pictures under tremendous pressure, and now the loss of "Ocean's Twelve" has directly caused a temporary fault in the company's capital chain; Considering that the box office of the awards season is difficult to make a difference, the "Rwanda Hotel" is more to maintain the reputation of Diora Pictures, unless the film can win the Oscars, the profit is really limited. This also means that if you don't want to get caught up in a terrible vicious circle, Diorama Pictures has to ask for help. The alarm bell has quietly sounded.

In order to create new profits and realize new possibilities, Diorama Pictures must rely on the credibility of the past six years, look for investment from venture capital companies or bank loans, and then invest in the production of new films, and expect the new works to be successful - not only during the awards season, but also to be able to make a certain amount of financial profit; More realistically, even though they were able to find new sources of funding and ensure the quality and profitability of new productions, the production cycle of films was not so fast - in other words, the "Sahara Cavalry", which was about to complete the post-production process, had become the key to the success or failure of Diorama.

If the "Sahara Cavalry" can achieve a box office success, then Diorama Pictures can not only solve the problem of capital chain, but even allow the company to return to a virtuous circle; But on the contrary, once the movie fails at the box office, it may be the last straw that crushes Diorama Pictures, and they will not even have time to wait for the release of new works, they will face the distrust of investors, the black hole of the capital chain and the chain reaction caused by the continuous loss of works.

Before they knew it, Diorama Pictures had retreated to the edge of the cliff step by step, and the gusts of wind made them feel the danger of crumbling. This qiē is like a roller coaster, up and down, with almost no respite, one day heaven and one night hell, things change so quickly that people are caught off guard and even more powerless.

This is always the case with small and medium-sized film companies in Hollywood, where new people join every year, and old people quit every year, bankruptcy and resale are often just a matter of breathing, a "Cut Throat Island" is enough to make a medium-sized film company go bankrupt, and an "Ice Age" is enough to make an unknown independent studio Zuò in the first line.

Ryan only felt a tingling sensation slowly grow from the soles of his feet, and then jumped to his head with lightning speed, and his muscles shivered uncontrollably three times in a row, and the chill that rose from the depths of his heart almost overwhelmed him, so much so that he forgot to breathe. "Ryan!" The shouting next to him made his muscles twitch for a moment, and he suddenly raised his head, and then he saw Jason standing at the door with a beard on his face, "What's the matter?" Jason didn't walk into the office, just stood in the doorway, politely and politely asked.

Without waiting for Ryan to answer, a voice came faintly from the corner couch, "You say, is this qiē all manipulated by Lance behind his back?" The voice was Tucker, and the trembling voice full of doubt, fright, fear, and hesitation made Ryan shiver again. (To be continued.) )