Ian gathered his thoughts, "I made a phone call to Gawain yesterday, and then briefly counted it, and now we can mobilize no more than two million in cash. Ian succinctly and directly described the results, "If you convert the stock market and the currently transferable part of the fund, it can be about 800." ”

Among the four brothers, Gawain is a professional player, the salary is undoubtedly the highest, after the end of the rookie contract, he signed a five-year contract of 30 million US dollars, but as a professional athlete, Gawain also needs to bear a lot of expenses, including training, medical care, taxes, etc.; Moreover, Gawain has also spent a lot over the years, he bought a villa in Green Bay, and Lance's first capital for founding Diorama Pictures was also provided by Gawain.

Lance raised an eyebrow in surprise, "I thought it would be capped at five hundred at most." Although Lance has no concept of the stock market, he also knows that the four brothers are all part-time workers in the final analysis, and primitive accumulation is not so easy.

When filming "City of God", they had already exhausted their flexible cash; And this time, the investment of "borrowing a knife to kill" has emptied the treasury that Chaos Pictures has just filled up slightly - the income of the "day after tomorrow" is coming in one after another, not all the dividends are paid in one go, and now the investment in "borrowing a knife to kill" comes from Paramount Pictures, and the actors' salaries, crew salaries and other parts, Chaos Pictures has not paid for the time being, and is burdened with debts.

So, when Ian told him that they could come up with at least two million and at most eight million, Lance was quite surprised.

Ian rolled his eyes and looked at Lance helplessly, "Are you questioning my abilities?" "Gawain has been working hard in the league for 12 years and still has a lot of savings, and Ian is a very good investor. Naturally, some capital has been accumulated over the years. "Still, it's not enough."

Eight million and forty million, this is a world of difference, no wonder others say that movies are a rich man's game, and it is always Wall Street that really determines the direction of Hollywood, without the support of high capital, it is impossible to become a chess player in this game. DreamWorks' two-year predicament is the best proof of this.

"I have a couple of options here, but none of them are necessarily applicable." In fact, the stock market is the best means to win short-term profits, but it is a big gamble, and even the most savvy traders dare not say that they are sure to win. "My personal opinion is that either you go to the bank for a loan, in the name of Chaos Pictures, there should be no problem with the 25 million funds." Ian simply replied, "Originally, I wanted to say that I would continue to work with Paramount, but after listening to your proposal, this is obviously not an option - or rather, this is the last option." ”

Lance didn't speak. Instead, he fell into deep thought, and Ian didn't mind, leaning back in his chair a little relaxed, and said with a smile. "Of course, if you want to, go to Las Vegas and gamble on your luck, that's also an option."

It was originally just a joke. But Lance's eyes lit up suddenly.

Why do people always say that Hollywood is Wall Street's game? Why is DreamWorks, backed by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen, a decade after its rise? Why is it that after the fall of New Line Pictures and MGM Pictures, none of the six major Hollywood studios are independent film companies?

The reason is simple. Film is an industry that needs money to keep running. If it just became an independent film company, then DreamWorks, Miramax, New Line, and later Lionsgate, Summit Entertainment, etc., could all be called successful; But getting to the top of Hollywood's pyramid and becoming a top player is almost impossible without huge financial support.

Take Universal Pictures, which is at the bottom of the six major Hollywood studios all year round, for example, it should release 10 to 15 works a year, and there will be some fluctuations according to different years, among these works, there may be four or five investments of more than 100 million, and the investment in other works varies according to the size, which also means that they must invest more than 800 million US dollars in movies every year, which is just the cost of the film. If you add the company's staff, publicity costs, public relations costs, venue management, and surrounding operating costs, the annual expenditure needs to be at least doubled, or even more. Of course, this is just a rough calculation.

But can all of these works be profitable? Are these earnings enough to sustain the entire company? Obviously not, it is already very difficult to achieve a success rate of more than 50% in a year, and if you want to hit 100 times, it is almost a legend in mythology.

This is why Universal Pictures must seek other profit margins, such as film rights, peripheral sales, overseas distribution, theme parks, and so on. Only by stretching out the branches can we seek more benefits - and the development of the branches requires strong financial support.

For reference, Universal Studios owners started with low-budget comedy, which invested the least of the six companies — with the exception of Universal Pictures, which saw a full-blown explosion in 2015.

In the ten years since its establishment, DreamWorks has made countless brilliant achievements, such as the "Shrek" series, "Gladiator", "Saving Private Ryan", "A Beautiful Mind", "American Beauty", "Madagascar" series, etc., reaching the pinnacle that an independent film company can reach, and even became the "seventh largest film company" for a time, but why did DreamWorks eventually go bankrupt and the director was split and sold?

Quite simply, DreamWorks releases seven or eight films a year, but only one or two are profitable, and the success of these two works cannot make up for the losses of other works, and they have no means to make a profit around them, and at the same time, because they don't have a distribution department, the profits are further divided. The most important thing is that at the critical moment, without the support of reserve resources, there is a fault in the capital chain, and the fate of bankruptcy and split is inevitable.

Chaos Pictures hadn't reached the heights of DreamWorks yet, but now they had the problem that when Lance wanted to speed up the company's growth, he was tied down by money, and it was now almost impossible for them to make two low-budget films at the same time. What Lance lacked was not the talent to create a film or the ability to create a successful work, but the money to support his grand vision.

The lack of capital chain will become more and more obvious in the future, and it will not just be a "sin city". What's more, Chaos Pictures is not DreamWorks yet, and the Strello brothers do not have the deep funds and huge people of the Big Three, in other words, the foundation of Chaos Pictures is weaker than DreamWorks, and the development is more difficult.

In the last life, Diorama Pictures had to follow the steps step by step, because the process of primitive accumulation was arduous and long; But in this life, Lance may be able to slightly accelerate the original accumulation process of Chaos Pictures, which is one of the advantages brought by rebirth. However, Lance knows that if it is too much, how to grasp the scale and grasp the proportion will be crucial.

To give a simple example, it is normal for a person to win one lotto, two times is also worth marveling, and three times is not nothing, but three times in a row are more than $100 million in the lotto...... Then something is wrong, and even the use of "luck" to explain it is not convincing. Perhaps the next step is the investigation of the state and the attention of society, and the accompanying troubles will be endless.

Lance looked at Ian in front of him, he hesitated, because he had never shown his reborn power to others, and he didn't know how to show it. Ian seemed to sense his hesitation and looked up, "I'm just kidding, don't take it seriously." In Las Vegas, it's no problem to win a small amount of money, and the dealer can't really let you win big. Ian suddenly laughed, making Lance a little baffled, and then Ian chuckled, "Do you remember?" Gawain's twenty-first birthday wish? ”

Lance recalled it carefully, and then he didn't hold back, and just laughed. At the age of twenty-one, Gawain's wish was to go to Las Vegas, so the four brothers went to Las Vegas that year. As a result, Gawain lost all the three hundred dollars he had, but he still refused to admit defeat, and borrowed another hundred dollars from Ian and Lance, and if he didn't come back, the price would be to jump into the fountain in front of the casino.

"When he ran out of the water, the security guards chased him, and he started running around barefoot, causing chaos in the whole scene." Ian couldn't help but laugh when he thought of Gawain's comical appearance that day, and then he paused and looked at Lance, and the two of them looked at each other, and both of them showed similar expressions in their eyes, and they both laughed out loud before they could say the words behind "Last ......".

In the end, Gawain was unwilling and jumped into the fountain directly with Theo in his arms. That was the only time Theo was deflated at Gawain's hands, and Gawain was so frightened that he fled on the spot, while Ian and Lance stood next to him and were dumbfounded.

Lance clenched his fists secretly, he didn't know if anyone else knew that he could be a "prophet of the unknown", limited to a qiē that happened before 2015, would treat him as an anomaly, and he wasn't going to take the risk; But he knew that Theo, Ian, and Gawain were people he could trust unconditionally.

"Ian, have you ever considered that maybe gambling is indeed the fastest way to get money?" When Lance said this, Ian was directly stunned, and looked at Lance incredulously, as if he couldn't believe that this sentence came from Lance's mouth, Lance smiled dumbly, "I don't mean Las Vegas, I mean the gambling market." ”

"Illegal gambling?" Ian's brow furrowed slightly.

Lance shook his head, "No, legally. "Lance never tried, and he didn't know how it was supposed to work, or even how to place bets; But Ian knows, and he can trust Ian, "I mean, every year in Las Vegas when it comes to the big game, it opens, doesn't it?" For example, the European Championships, which will kick off next week? (To be continued.) )

ps: Today's seventh update, thank you to the Demon Elves for becoming the leader of this book! Plus more presented! Warm hugs!