Due to the long length of the film, the box office of "The Fifth Sally" is actually congenitally limited, after all, the length of nearly three hours, almost twice the length of the average commercial film, so the ticket price is also set relatively high, which will screen out some price-sensitive fans, it can be said that in the box office, the major forecasting agencies are not very optimistic about it - although the special edition of the judges provided in Venice is also three hours, this is a special case of the film festival. M.LWxS520.com mobile network and for film companies in various countries, as long as they can buy the copyright, they can still edit out some 'garbage' time by themselves, or arrange it into two episodes for distribution, as long as the contract stipulates, Weinstein will not interfere, and even many film companies buy the copyright to sell the DVD of "Sally" in the country.

And after the domestic release version also chose the three-hour original film, the box office trend was a little confusing. It is not surprising that the premiere is strong, after all, with the popularity of the two leading actors, if the premiere - or the single theater - is not strong, then Weinstein will be a big heel (the industry sees this film as Weinstein's first work after establishing his own door, ignoring Jenny and Chris's production company). Even the audience's praise rating of up to 95% failed to raise the forecast of the box office prediction agency: it is difficult to hear anything bad from the mouth of fans, and a single hall on the first day does not mean anything.

But in any case, after getting a single theater of 150,000, the theater chain is also increasing its confidence in this film, and took the initiative to contact Weinstein, wanting to increase the number and width of screenings, but the Weinstein company's attitude is very cautious: At this stage, they pay more attention to the audience's reputation, and large-scale releases are bound to attract some bad comments from non-audiences after harvesting a round of box office, at least now that the nominee list has not yet been confirmed, word-of-mouth is much more important than a wave of box office from large-scale releases.

"In fact, this on-demand and carousel approach is cultivating hunger in the market, while also increasing the screening of audiences," Cesare said, pointing to the schedule on the slide with an infrared laser pointer. "We need to make sure that the majority of the audience who come to the cinema has an experience of the subject matter, the style of the film, and the low-income group who are price sensitive? Weekend movie groups that are removed with high ticket prices and appealed to family entertainment? Removing posters and inconvenient ticket-buying sessions, fan-type audiences who are too young will also use fewer screenings to slow down their ticket-buying pace and guide them to read reviews on the Internet, all for-"

"-- Make sure that the audience who goes to the movie deserves the film." Jenny said, "The necessary steps for award-winning films are the inducement and control of word-of-mouth for movie-watching. ”

"Indeed." Cesare nodded, "Film critics are very tolerant of actors in commercial films, you can act in bad movies, as long as you prove that you are a good actor." Maybe Pirates of the Caribbean 2 will be a bad movie, but as long as it makes money, you'll have a worth, critics will understand you, and you need to make a living. And the audience will understand you better, as long as you see the special effects and have laughter, even if the plot is vulgar and charmless, they won't care too much, as long as it's not very. When they are watching commercial films, the audience is best satisfied, giving some laughter, some exquisite special effects, and the love of some handsome men and beautiful women, they feel that it is worth the ticket price. Online fans may scold, but in reality they can get high box office revenues - and what we want to avoid is trying to confuse the audiences of the two films, and these moviegoers who go to the cinema for special effects and relaxation must not enter the screening room of "The Fifth Sally," at least not yet. ”

"Doesn't it matter when you get nominated?" Jenny asked. "By then will it be ready for a large-scale release?"

"Basically, with the number of votes you get at the time of nomination, there is almost no suspense about whether you will win the award." Cesare replied, "So, yes, once we get the nomination, we start to use the nomination to expand the release and continue to make money -- that's my way of thinking, so far, Weinstein seems to think the same way I do, but to know what he's going to do after that, we'll have to keep working on the screening schedule for the next week." ”

The contract signed between the theater chain and the distribution company was very fast and full of variables, and today the results were good, and even the person in charge of the theater chain was able to reach a verbal contract with the distributor on the phone and start expanding the screening. So how Weinstein Pictures will arrange the release next week, Jenny and Cesare can only wait until the weekend night to get the report, and there is not much room for beaks, after all, Weinstein is an expert in this area, and he must have his own ideas on how to arrange the most favorable release.

"We're always going to have to build our own distribution channels," Cesare and Jenny emphasize, "of course, now we can leave it to Disney to do the distribution on our behalf, but without Weinstein, the litmus test's distribution strategy can only be described as average, and Weinstein is unlikely to continue this partnership with us, after all, this is a difficult year for them, and once they get through it, they can choose to eat the cake themselves." Sometimes we can test the waters of small comedy and release it, so that we can market and act completely on our own will, and of course, this is based on our great confidence in the quality of the film. ”

In this era, because digital copies have not yet replaced film copies, the cost of distribution is not low -- a film copy is a cost, and for a small-budget film, if you want to show more than 4,000 screens at most, you must prepare at least 4,000 copies, and on the premise of 1,000 dollars per copy, this is a distribution fee of more than 4 million yuan. In order to save distribution costs, the six major companies continue to advocate that digital cinema is the future, and require theaters to upgrade and replace cheap film projection equipment with digital projection equipment, which can save a huge amount of money. Although in the future, this trend will bankrupt the current film giant Kodak, but now in 2005, digital replacing film is still a joke for most people.

Therefore, in this era of high distribution costs, the world has not given you a good film, you take it and then make a fortune such a simple thing, the entire marketing work is almost all the field of distributors, especially the Olympic films, there is also a lot of knowledge on how to make a profit in distribution - even in the Venice Film Festival has paid off (this is not false publicity), and there are two popular stars in charge, the release of "The Fifth Sally" is indeed a very skillful work, such as the use of on-demand screenings at the beginning, Rotation can also effectively save the cost of copying, in addition to controlling word-of-mouth, there is another significance......

And these learnings are what Jenny and Cesare are trying to learn, "The Fifth Sally" is the best release period product of Big Dream Films now, and they can easily access the distribution materials of "Sally" in the name of their partners, and the meeting recordings, schedules, including the public relations expense schedule, are all the embodiment of Weinstein's wisdom in distributing and rushing to the Olympics. Even Cesare admits that "I've learned more about publishing in Weinstein over the past few weeks than I did in my internship at Disney." ”

"It's the fault of professional refinement." Jenny went through the slides again, rubbing her temples as she said, "It's been a long time since you interned at a film company and got the hang of it...... By the way, when are you going to do the recruitment of the distribution department? ”

Disney has been divesting its distribution business for some time, even though Cesare's mother is a senior producer, the elder Robert Brown. Iger is now the CEO of Disney, which doesn't mean they know everything, Hollywood is a sophisticated machine, which also means talent specialization, and Jenny and Cesare are not trying to negotiate contracts with theaters themselves when they learn this distribution knowledge - it's just that you must know more in order to recruit reliable talents to form a distribution department, right? Including some distribution strategies, if Da Meng does the distribution by himself, it will still be up to the two of them to make the decision in the end.

"Did you go for a follow-up appointment?" Cesare didn't answer Jeanne's words, but raised an eyebrow at her, "Mary's briefing didn't mention that you still have headaches. ”

"And we really need to talk about why you can order my assistant for private hire to send you a briefing on me." Jenny glared at Mary complainingly, "And I, the protagonist of the briefing, didn't know the facts of this until recently. ”

Cesare cesare clasped his hand and raised an eyebrow at her, and Jenny sighed, "Fine! I've been to the hospital, and the doctor said that this is a normal sequelae of concussion, and many people need three months to six months to recover gradually, of course, because Disney is paying, so she still gave me an MRI, and from the imaging, my brain is normal, so the vomiting and headache that comes from time to time should just be my body tormenting me, and it is not a sign of a malignant disease. ”

"I'm going to see your medical report next week," Cesare turned to Mary, "I'm going to see her medical report next week, and if you're not there, Jim—and she needs to eat and rest as she is told." ”

"Oh, Eon!" Jenny shouted, but soon stopped shouting and rubbed her forehead. "--Anyway, when are we going to do the distribution department recruitment?"

"It's okay to wait until "Unlucky Eros" and "Old Friends Are Rich" finish post-production, and "Unlucky Eros" may be handed over to other companies, but I want to buy out the distribution rights of "Old Friends Are Rich", and I am more optimistic about this film." "'Friends Are Rich' is almost finished, and I think it's a good fit for our first release film -- it's got more stars and more depth than 'Unlucky Eros.' and as long as there's no serious quality issues with the finished product, yes, I think we can start trying to release it." ”

If it is not a simple matter to build a film and television company from scratch, if it is not the son of the plane, with the anti-sky database level gold finger and the successful learning to draw the horse ** gold finger, then the growth of a film and television company can be divided into several stages: cooperative investment - distribution - sole proprietorship production - peripheral operation, each step has to invest more costs than before. For example, Big Dream takes a very typical entry method: jointly invest in "Old Friends Have Money" with other film and television companies, pay a total of 5 million to hire producers, and the producers spend money to invite stars and crews, contact prop masters, prepare for shooting, and finally give the finished film, the company does not interfere in the actual shooting, the director and producer, whoever is the creative owner has great power, and the risk is very small, even if "Old Friends Are Rich" is lost, Big Dream is a loss of more than one million, and there is 40 million for a start-up capital, And for companies that have a steady stream of money (follow-up revenues such as the Prada DVD), this is not an unaffordable figure.

For the general film and television production company, such an investment is very in line with their appetite, a few to a dozen a year, millions to 10 million investments, unless it is so bad that no one wants to buy DVD, otherwise the worst case, in the assumption that all the investment is all on the street, there will still be about 20% of the investment will be returned through successive box office, DVD sales, overseas copyright sales, TV station copyright purchases, etc., and as long as a small half of the film achieves box office return, Then the funds that will be withdrawn in the next few years can be used to maintain the company's operation and reinvest. So there are so many small film companies like Hollywood, and it's also because this model is really comfortable.

However, for Jenny and Cesare, this model does not make them feel comfortable, although the purpose is different, they come to dream big in order to make it big, otherwise Cesare might as well concentrate on sprinting for the position of CAA agent, and Jenny does not need to take the time to make up for this business knowledge. Therefore, after initially grasping the company's operation and recruiting a group of good professionals for the company through his connections, Cesare discussed with Jenny about the possibility of entering the field of TV drama production, and at the same time proposed the next development plan: using the cheaper "Old Friends Are Rich" as the starting point, spending 6 million to buy out the copyright of the whole film, and testing the waters to establish a national distribution system in the United States.

Six million relative to the initial investment of five million, which is equivalent to making one million, for a film company where cash is king, the investment of more than one million and two million can be fully recovered in more than half a year, and then earn hundreds of thousands, this profit is enough for independent films to be satisfied, after all, if you release it yourself, you can't get back 20 million at the box office, and the profit of DVD can only be a trickle, and now you can get back a large amount of cash at one time, and the other two investment companies have nothing to be picky about. Therefore, it should not be very difficult to negotiate, and Big Dream does have plenty of cash on his account now - apart from investing in "Unlucky Eros" and "Old Friends Are Rich", Cesare has not been able to find a good script suitable for investment. After all, big dreams are not very attractive to good scripts, and more screenwriters and producers still hope to give priority to cooperating with the Big Four. Therefore, the company has been buying some short-term low-profit guaranteed money market funds for a while, not letting the money sit idle in the bank, and now it is not a pressure on the company's finances to draw 6 million to buy out the copyright.

Jenny thought about it: she hadn't watched "Friends Are Rich", and she didn't know if it made money, but because she liked "Friends", she knew that Aniston was still the number one female movie star in Hollywood in 2014, and she often talked to Angelina on the annual money-making list. Julie has formed a PK trend, and she seems to be often on the cost-effective list, and she seems to be the actress who can make the most money for investors. Looking at it this way, the probability of "Old Friends Are Rich" making a profit should be very high.

"No problem," said Jenny, "let's go to the negotiations, but I don't think we'll be able to negotiate before the end of the year." January is Sundance, and they're definitely hoping to make "Friends Rich" a big price at Sundance. ”

"If that's the case, then we're not going to compete – that's good news for us, and being able to sell for more than six million means it's a successful investment." Cesare pursed his lips, "But I do have to give you a compliment, considering that Sundance is a good indication that you have a basic business mindset, Jefferson, your judgment is consistent with my predictions." ”

"Wow," Jenny put down the papers, "-Wow, do you hear me?" Mary, I'm not deaf, am I? Is Mr. Vijeri really complimenting me on my progress? ”

Mary and Jim snickered, and Cesare gave her a pointed-looking look, "Also, what do you think about the fifth item on the agenda, the rights to film and television adaptation of the Marley and Me photo book, which is your proposal?" ”

"I had a gut feeling that it was going to be a good movie," Jenny said, "and of course, it didn't have a storyline, it was a good book, but it seemed to have a weak adaptation — but I think if we got a good screenwriter for it, it would be solved." I even think we can find Jennifer again for the heroine - I mean Aniston, she's probably the best Rachel-type character in the last decade, you know what I mean? Sweetheart, a little bit of comedy, homely, affectionate, and so on. ”

"Intuitive choice." Cesare glanced at her from above the file, "You don't happen to have a producer and screenwriter in mind, do you?" ”

"You know what? In fact, I have. Jenny meditated for a moment, took out a pen and paper and wrote two names, "Try to talk to them, and ask Aniston about the schedule, I think it would be a good project, maybe one of the Big Six will be interested in co-producing with us, and if we can't find a partner, then we can do it ourselves, and it will be distributed by Weinstein or Disney - or ideally, we will publish it ourselves." ”

“Hmmm。” Cesare said, looking at Jenny silently for a moment, and Jenny looked back at him calmly—

As Mary and Jim exchanged apprehensive glances, Cesare snapped the folder shut and made a clean decision, "OK, then we'll do it." ”

A pleasant smile escaped Jenny's lips, and she glanced at Jim and Mary (both of whom behaved in unison, as if they had just swallowed a boiled egg) with a smile—and exchanged a look with Cesare, "It looks like we've let some people down." ”

Cesare didn't look at her and smile—he hadn't been so amiable—but there was something close to a smile in his eyes," he did. ”

In fact, Jenny really doesn't know how much the production cost of "Marley and Me" is, but Chen Zhen did watch this movie in her previous life, and liked it quite much, she remembered that when she inquired about the relevant information, she saw the news that the North American box office of "Marley and Me" exceeded 100 million, and from the film itself, the production cost should not exceed 30 million - this is still a wide estimate. However, memory is like a stone in water, she never thought that Big Dream could make "Marley and Me", after all, it seemed to be a film several years later, until this time on the plane back to Los Angeles, she saw a traveler reading this photo book, only to notice that the original book of "Marley and Me" happened to be published this year, and also appeared on the New York Times list.

Although it also appeared on the New York Times list at the same time as the "Twilight" series, which will be popular all over the world in the future, and even "Twilight" was published earlier and became popular earlier than it, Jenny can't catch up with this wave of craze. The slightly inferior bestseller of Potter is unlikely to sell the adaptation rights to Big Dream, who doesn't have a successful work yet. For the original author, what she needs to see is the novel series being brought to the big screen by powerful big companies as soon as possible, and the power to share in the big cake of future box office revenues. This is not a simple problem that can be solved by throwing money or sincerity, besides, even if it is money, Big Dream can't smash others now, the "Twilight" series is a fantasy movie, and the production cost required is unlikely to be low, plus copyright fees and other expenses, even if it can solve the problem of the author's will, Jenny can't take care of the purchase and production of "Twilight" while investing in other fields. ――In addition, in the first round of contact negotiations around "Twilight", there was no shortage of shadows of the Big Six, including Summit Entertainment, which finally won the bid, and the strength of each company was stronger than that of Big Dream, and the offer was not lower than the best conditions that Big Dream could come up with, so Jenny just asked Jim to collect information, and simply gave up the competition for "Twilight", in her expectation, what she must win should be "The Hunger Games" in a few years.

is also a bestseller, "Marley and Me" is much less difficult, because it is a photo book, and it tells the bits and pieces of family life, although the book has achieved good sales results, but the film and television rights have not been paid much attention, and the price of the copyright agent is not high, which is a very reasonable figure, and hundreds of thousands of dollars can buy out the adaptation rights of the book within five years - because there is no one competing with Big Dream, Fox, who originally made this movie, does not seem to have noticed the book now. After just a few days of negotiations, Big Dream easily won the contract for the adaptation of "Marley and Me", but it was Cesare who signed the contract, and by this time, Jenny had already ended her short vacation, took her large bag of pills, and flew back to the filming base of "Pirates of the Caribbean".

In the busy work, the time has entered December, the work of Big Dream is being carried out in an orderly manner, and Jenny's filming work is gradually coming to an end, she and Christopher, who ended filming and returned to Los Angeles from London, once again invested in the Oscar public relations activities of "The Fifth Sally", and "The Fifth Sally" also ended the fourth round of small-scale screenings, with a maximum of 500 theaters, in the United States States received rave reviews from fans and film critics for the two leading actors.

-- After two months of small screenings, the film also grossed a real $27 million, and it can be said that "The Fifth Sally" has already achieved a lot of commercial success, and whether it can go to the next level depends on whether it can get at least one major Oscar nomination......

The author has something to say: Note: 1 The distribution mentioned here is very important and true...... Some people say that distribution is more difficult than making a movie, and this is really a science. I don't know how to cite specific examples, but in general novels, I formed my own company to make a good movie, and then magically, the distribution department that had just been formed for a short time could do a good job of national distribution quickly and economically, this kind of thing is even more bizarre than successfully learning to draw horses**

2. Successfully learn to draw horses**, you can successfully learn to draw horses in Baidu. There is no malice, but I think the success model of the protagonist of many novels is more than this kind of painting horse**...... Especially the kind of directing, acting, writing scripts, opening a company and making investments......

3 By the way, the current distribution cost has been reduced a lot, in the past, a copy was at least RMB 1W4-2W, now a copy is a hard disk money, and the hard disk can also be reused, so the cost savings in this piece are very amazing.

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