The success and influence of the Harry Potter series is undoubted, and with the end of the screening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the series has also come to an end temporarily. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Although it has not yet been fully released in the overseas market, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" has already earned nearly $1.4 billion at the global box office and nearly $400 million at the North American box office, and if the box office of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" is counted at more than $1 billion, the finale alone has received $2.4 billion at the global box office.

This is undoubtedly a huge amount, and anyone would think that the box office of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" will inevitably produce huge profits when the box office of the two parts combined.

However, how much does the film cost to make? How much does it cost to advertise? How much does it cost?

The exact number is not known, and only executives at Duke and Warner Bros. know exactly how much the two-part film will cost.

Is the film profitable at the box office?

"Of course it's profitable,"

In one of Warner Bros. offices, Jamie, who is in charge of the company's publicity and distribution business? Johnson, bluntly to Duke and the others, said, "And it's a huge amount of profit." ”

Duke sat on the couch, frowning and thinking, barely speaking.

Robin, who is actually in charge of the series? Grande opened his mouth to remind, "Follow us with Daniel? Radcliffe and Emma? Watson and other actors signed contracts, and they can enjoy the film's box office revenue share. ”

Because of the split of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" into two parts, and the relationship between the two films being filmed and produced together, Harry Potter Studios has not paid the actors any box office share, but has to wait until "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" is screened together to account for it.

Warner Bros. CEO Doug? Walter's face was not very good-looking, "If you do it according to the contract." We're losing more than $150 million in revenue. ”

Anyone who sees their company being carved up with such a large amount of profits will not look good.

"We do what we contract,"

Breach of contract is a violation of the law. Duke said as he tapped on the armrest of the couch. "But how to do it ...... exactly"

He didn't continue, just looked at Doug? Walter, Robin? Grande and Jamie? Johnson, several people nodded tacitly at the same time.

As early as when they signed the box office revenue sharing contract, they had a strategy in place.

A film has a lot of revenue sources, and the box office share is only a small part, but when you put it on the two movies of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", this number is also amazing enough.

Actually, according to Warner Bros. budgets and estimates. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" would have been recouped by the box office if it had exceeded $526 million worldwide.

It can be said that $526 million is the break-even point for "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" or "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows".

The break-even point is an important indicator for large Hollywood studios when formulating budgets, they will estimate the possible income range of the film according to the investment, type, lineup and other factors of the film, and then reverse the release of the film to what extent the investment should be controlled, but if the investment is limited, many stars and marketing resources may not be available, which will directly affect the income.

As a result, studios need to double-check between budgets and estimated revenues. Find the best break-even point.

In fact, among the two films "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", the biggest investment is publicity and marketing expenses.

In Hollywood now, the distribution of mainstream films has shifted to a broad and intensive model. Often spread on thousands of screens at the same time, but usually only a dozen weeks to be released, in order to match this distribution model, distributors have to carry out a fierce advertising campaign to "rush" audiences to the theater in a short period of time.

According to a report by the Motion Picture Association of America, in 2010, the average advertising cost of each movie of Hollywood studios was as high as $35 million, and television commercials, newspapers and magazines, billboards and the Internet have all become the publicity front for Hollywood films.

Production costs are another major expense of Hollywood films, which are usually divided into offline costs (mainly the remuneration paid to technical personnel and the logistics, equipment and maintenance costs required for production) and online costs (mainly refers to the remuneration paid by the film's management and creative staff, including producers, screenwriters, directors and actors).

In the two films "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", director David ? Yates and the main cast are paid in the form of "advance payment + box office revenue share". Each person can receive a large amount of advance payment, and then receive a share according to the profitability of the film at the box office.

Take director David? Yates, for example. As a director, he gets an advance payment of $10 million. And get a 4% to 8% share of the film's profits, depending on the film's profitability, just like Duke's contract, he signed a stepped share contract.

The difference is that Duke's contract involves all the income from the film, David? Yates is just a box office revenue share.

Also, when the film reaches the break-even point, David? Yates can also receive a $500,000 reward, a tiered revenue sharing method for core creators that has become a common practice in Hollywood blockbusters, because it encourages more commitment from the creators and avoids excessive upfront investment.

However, Harry Potter Studios signed such a contract with them, more to avoid excessive upfront investment.

In addition to these, there is another part that will also be calculated into the total cost of the film, and that is the union bonus.

According to the agreements reached between the Producers Alliance and the major Hollywood guilds, the filmmakers need to pay a certain fee and share to the actors' unions, directors' unions, screenwriters' unions and other relevant associations every time they use the film work and obtain income from it.

This is not only in terms of the box office, but also in terms of all the revenue from the re-release of the film, TV broadcasts, etc.

In the history of Hollywood, at first, the average filmmaker was not allowed to receive a share of the film's subsequent revenue, although by the 1950s, the re-release of the film on television had created considerable economic benefits.

Hollywood can have such a situation, actors and people in other industries have to thank one person, Ronald, who was the president of the screen actors union at the time? Under Reagan's leadership, Hollywood actors were given the right to share in the revenue from film re-releases, which in turn expanded to other unions.

In the years that followed, with the emergence of new distribution channels, peripheral dividends repeatedly became the focus of controversy between union organizations and producers' alliances representing the interests of Hollywood's major studios, and Hollywood unions even went so far as to launch strikes in order to increase the proportion of dividends.

For example, the famous 2008 screenwriters' strike.

Contracts signed with Hollywood distributors vary from region to region of the world, but in general, Warner Bros. as distributor gets about $800 million of the $2.4 billion generated by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

This is certainly not the entire revenue of the two films "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", but only a small part.

Hollywood movies are huge, and production costs of hundreds of millions of dollars are commonplace, but multiple recycling channels can effectively mitigate the risk.

Today's Hollywood has a very mature film operation mechanism, and has developed a set of "expanded window distribution" model, that is, films are distributed in turn along different theaters, audio-visual and television, new media and overseas markets, so that the leading windows can enjoy a certain period of exclusivity.

A typical Hollywood movie will be released in the theater market for a few months first, and although box office revenue is no longer the biggest source of revenue for Hollywood films, it plays a pivotal and even critical role, and the higher the box office, the greater the value of the film when it is released in the subsequent window.

As early as 1986, the revenue from the rental and sale of film and audio and video by major Hollywood studios surpassed box office revenue and became the most important source of income.

Last year, Hollywood's six major studios earned $37.7 billion in revenue by licensing films and TV series to television stations.

According to the profit margin from high to low, the TV window can be subdivided into several levels.

First there is pay-per-view on-demand, then there is pay-per-view cable, such as Z, which begins airing about nine months after theatrical release, and studios charge channels a licensing fee based on the film's box office revenue, which averages about $7 million for a movie and can be as high as $20 million to $35 million for blockbusters.

The film is then licensed to television networks for a window of several years, typically between $3 million and $15 million for a commercial film, depending on the size of the film's investment, box office performance and the number of reruns.

Eventually, the film will enter the syndicate market, licensed to local television channels, and in the largest local television market, a blockbuster can earn up to $5 million over a five-year licensing period.

The overseas distribution of Hollywood films is also roughly carried out along such a window, and it is precisely by relying on such a mature window expansion system that a film can generate huge broadcast revenue.

This also allows many high-grossing films to regain their investment through other channels.

The income in this area is huge, so Duke and Warner Bros. have always refused to sign a box office sharing agreement with the cast of the Harry Potter crew, and in the actual contract, except for the proportion stipulated in the agreement between the Producers Union and the union, the actors and even David? Yates, the director, does not enjoy this profit share.

And the price paid by Harry Potter Studios for this is to significantly increase their box office revenue share ratio.

However, Harry Potter Studios has long since become an independent company with separate financial accounting, and has also prepared a special accounting loss assessment method. (To be continued.) )

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