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Germany provides for tax breaks for investment in the film industry, and does not require film projects to be produced locally or to employ local creative personnel, and the tax deductions can be lied. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

This tax loophole was quickly exploited by German investors and Hollywood, which could sell the rights to a film to a German company and then "lease" the film back for about 10 percent less than the selling price, with both parties profiting from the tax benefits.

In the 1990s, Hollywood film projects could get up to 60 percent of their budget through overseas pre-sales, and by 2005, they could only get 30 percent or less.

At this time, because of the recession of the stock market and the low interest rate of banks, Wall Street is very rich in funds, and even some super private equity funds with a fundraising scale of more than $10 billion have appeared, and Wall Street's financial capital urgently needs to seek new profit points.

Hollywood, which has a stable market, came into their sights, and they found that Hollywood movies had a good future, with the total box office in the United States growing by nearly 60 percent between 1990 and 2000, and the overseas market experiencing a terrifying explosion of growth, and with the development of technology, Hollywood films have a wide range of revenue sources and can have a considerable return on investment.

Plus an analytical method based on probability and statistical theory 'Monte? The Carlow simulation method began to be embraced and widely adopted by investment institutions, who found that the portfolio theory applied in the stock market could also be applied to the film industry, and when the investment reached 20 to 25 film projects, the volatility of investment returns was relatively small.

Thereupon. Wall Street capital's "platter investment" in Hollywood films came into being.

Two companies are the most typical.

One is Paramount Pictures, the infamous 'Melrose' platter program.

In 2003, at Paramount's Vice President of Commercial Operations, Esak? Under Pammer's leadership, Merrill Lynch and others reached a cooperation with Paramount to establish a private equity fund called 'Melrose'. It is planned to invest huge sums of money in the films that Paramount plans to produce in 2004 and 2005.

But Hollywood has a lot of ways to deal with foreign money, and this platter plan Paramount succeeded, but it also failed.

Paramount used a variety of industry operations to wipe out most of the profits of the Platter project's investment projects, which directly led to the breakdown of the cooperation. A number of Wall Street investors, including Merrill Lynch, also sued Paramount Pictures to the Delaware Court of Chancery this year, and the lawsuit is bound to drag on for a long time.

Although in the short term, Paramount has made a lot of profits and is the winning side. But he lost an important source of funding, which can also be said to be a turning point for Paramount Pictures from prosperity to decline.

The other is Relativity, Inc.

In 2004, young Wall Street investor Ryan ? Kavalaug founded the Relativity Management Company, which aims to provide access for Wall Street money to Hollywood.

From 2005 to the present, Relativity Management has raised more than $2 billion to invest in platter investments at major studios such as Warner, Sony, and Universal, bringing Hollywood's platter investment to a climax.

A major source of funding for Transformers. It's Relativity, Duke and Ryan, who flew to Los Angeles? Mr. Kavalaug met with someone who could invest as much as $100 million in the project.

After the film earns revenue. Warner Bros. will first deduct about 10 percent of the distribution agency fee, then the copy and advertising expenses, and Duke's share of profits with Hasbro, and the rest of the revenue will be split between the fund's investment proportions.

According to the agreement between the two parties, the revenue to be distributed will not be limited to box office revenue, but also includes the income of the film from audiovisual distribution, television distribution, new media rights and even franchising.

However, because the fund generally has a limited duration, it takes five or even ten years for a Hollywood film to complete its distribution cycle. Therefore, the parties will not wait until all the income has been accounted for before making the distribution.

When "Transformers" is released after the film, the two parties will make an estimate of the revenue of other profit channels in the future based on the box office revenue. Allocation is then made based on the estimated numbers.

In order to retain ownership of the copyright of the film, it also ensures that the investment fund will withdraw in time. Major studios like Warner Bros. would use the film's future revenues as collateral to obtain loans from banks to pay the managers of investment funds, which would take a percentage of the dividends and distribute the proceeds to investors.

Although the investment involved is more troublesome, with Duke's current position, the leadership of the entire project is firmly in hand.

And he is also following the trend and setting up a film foundation through the Cayman Islands, the difference is that this film foundation has not invested in any films until now.

Duke's purpose in setting up this foundation is not to invest directly in films, but to prepare to be a pick-up man.

For people at Duke's level, coupled with some preconceived opinions, although it is impossible to guess the specific time of the outbreak, it is not difficult to find that the financial turmoil has already shown signs.

The storm will have a deep impact on Hollywood and the platter of schemes, which are largely made up of Wall Street money.

In this era, Duke had already mixed up a bit of status in the crew on the other side, and his eyes also rose, and he paid attention to this aspect of the content.

After the financial turmoil in 2008, Wall Street's platter investment in Hollywood fell into a crisis, coupled with the fact that Hollywood companies did not pay much attention to the rules of foreign investors, Wall Street capital gradually moved away from Hollywood, and even Spielberg looked for Indians several times for DreamWorks' capital injection plan of more than 200 million US dollars.

And those investment banks have sold their stakes in film investment plans at a three- to five-percent discount, and have even spawned several companies that specialize in acquiring such assets.

That's all the Duke Foundation is ready to do.

He had this information specifically investigated, and among the films financed through the platter program, there were some high-profile projects.

For example, in the platter plan of Twentieth Century Fox and Dune Capital, there are "Avatar" and "New X-Men".

Among Walt Disney's projects are "Alice in Wonderland" and "Pirates of the Caribbean 4".

If the financial turmoil breaks out, his foundation can buy the shares of Wall Street funds at a three- to five-percent discount, and the profit figures can be imagined.

Of course, Duke and his team have been working in Hollywood for more than 15 years, and they are important figures in major studios, and it is not so easy for Hollywood to deal with him the way it does Wall Street.

And all of the projects Duke is aiming at are not just a platter plan with box office revenue sharing.

As early as 2005, Warner Bros. counted that the box office revenue of the movies it produces and distributes makes less than 15 percent of their total revenue, but they make 85 percent of the total revenue from home entertainment projects such as television, cable TV, DVDs, videos, and various peripheral products.

It has long been a consensus in the industry that Hollywood does not make money at the box office, and today's Hollywood is no longer a "dream factory", but essentially a kind of service organization - a clearinghouse based on copyright and money.

Duke has been keeping people on the lookout, and he knows the opportunity is fleeting.

When the economic crisis passes, it won't be long before capital from emerging markets such as India, the United Arab Emirates, and the Pacific Coast will turn their attention to Hollywood, and Hollywood's platter investment projects will begin to increase again.

In fact, there are already funds from across the Pacific that are targeting Duke's new project, after all, his films are almost a guarantee of super-grossing there.

"Duke, this is Mr. Wang from China Film Group."

In the 'Transformers' studio that Warner Studios has just set up, Jamie? Johnson introduced to Duke, "I visited Warner Studios with a group last year. ”

"Hello, Director Rosenberg."

The other party took the initiative to stretch out his hand, Duke shook his hand lightly, and beckoned, "Hello, Mr. Wang, sit casually." ”

This is his director's office, which is a little messy with all kinds of Transformers-related materials.

An assistant quickly cleaned up and brought coffee as Duke sat down on the couch.

"First of all, on behalf of China Film Group, I would like to congratulate director Rosenberg that the global box office of "The Dark Knight" has exceeded $1.1 billion."

The middle-aged man surnamed Wang looked at this side and said in fluent English, "The Dark Knight also has a very good box office in China, reaching 385 million RMB, and you are the most popular director. ”

Duke smiled politely, "Thank you." ”

As he spoke, his eyes turned to Jamie? Johnson, he would not be stupid enough to believe that the other party came to Los Angeles just to say a few words of congratulations and express the love of China Film Group and fans on the other side of the river.

Mr. Wang seems to want to say a few words in circles, Duke is not used to this way of talking about business, but he is not good at saying much, after all, every country and region always has its own characteristics.

Jamie? Johnson understood Duke's work habits and took the initiative to say, "The China Film Group represented by Mr. Wang is interested in investing in "Transformers". ”

"I have no opinion." Duke himself was not involved in investing in the film, so he said, "It's still up to your opinions. ”

Mr. Wang had a smile on his face, and it was clear that he had reached a basic agreement with Warner Bros., but if Duke didn't nod, the investment would definitely create a lot of uncertainty.

Did he look at Jamie? Johnson glanced at it, and then said, "China Film Group wants to cooperate with director Rosenberg for more ......" (to be continued)

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