After the cost of any film is piled up to a certain stage, the review and investment of the production company will become extremely cautious, although James Cameron's two masterpieces really opened the era of Hollywood's 100 million yuan production, but such a huge investment as Duke shouted for "Day" can be described as rare.

Those small productions with an investment of only a few million dollars will be strictly reviewed by the film company, not to mention projects like "Day", and the birth of every film project with tens of millions of dollars is an extremely cumbersome process.

In Hollywood, the process of going from a script concept to being approved by the studio and deciding to shoot is called the "green light" (HT), and in addition to the necessary review by the review committee, there are many preliminary investigation processes.

First, there must be a script with quality and creativity that will interest the production company.

Second, the script must be systematically reviewed by the production department, which will analyze whether the script is novel, whether it has commercial value, and whether it conforms to the production company's product structure. If approved, the production department estimates the cost of the film, the cost of taxes, and so on.

Third, the project will be reviewed by the distribution department, who will work with the distributors they work with to investigate a lot of questions - what is the commercial value of the film? Who is its target audience? Is it based on a novel, and is there a regular fan base? Will the film fit into the studio's global distribution system? Can you get support for partner TV and video partners? What is the genre and release time of the film? Is there a possibility of product placement in the video? Is there a possibility that the film will impact the awards? How many films of the same genre have been released or are in the pipeline in the past and next 18 months? How are they tabled? What about ROI?

Fourth, the establishment of a team is a relatively simple problem for "Day".

Fifth, finalize the shooting details and cooperation intentions......

Sixth, the budget, shooting, location, and production team were finally approved, and finally received the "green light".

In fact, this is only a rough process, and it does not explain the completeness and refinement of the commercial laws in Hollywood film production, but there are a few numbers that may illustrate this.

For example, every year, Hollywood studios receive more than 15,000 scripts, and in the end, only about 300 films enter the production stage, and it is not known how many of them are scripts that have been pressed for several years.

Even if Duke had the success of "Life and Death" and "Death Island" as capital, companies like Warner Bros. would only have more confidence in him and would prioritize his projects, but would not give the green light casually, which would eventually involve more than $100 million in investment.

"Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox have done their initial review."

In the Duke's studio, Nancy Josephson sat across from Duke, tapping the humble desk in front of him with one hand, "Their production department, distribution department and marketing department have all given the project an A-grade evaluation for the time being, of course, provided that the film can achieve the effect described in the script after it is shot." ”

"As long as I have enough money, I don't think it's a difficult thing for me." Duke said.

Special effects can't save money at all, different prices, making zuò out is a completely different effect, if the project is smooth, Duke's first choice in terms of special effects must be Industrial Light & Magic!

"Have the tripartite talks been held?" Duke asked again.

"I've talked three times with Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox management."

As she spoke, Nancy gently rubbed her forehead, her face seemed to be tired, and she probably consumed a lot of energy, "Basically reached the intention of co-shooting, if the project can finally be reviewed by the two companies, they will each be responsible for half of the investment, and the distribution has also reached a consensus for the time being, Warner is responsible for overseas distribution, and Twentieth Century Fox is responsible for North American distribution." ”

Bringing in other companies to cooperate in filming is the most common way to reduce investment risk in large productions, Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox are extremely fierce in the summer, and now they can sit together and negotiate, which is enough to prove the normal survival between large Hollywood companies, competition and cooperation are always the theme.

To put it bluntly, in the face of profits, no business conflict is irreconcilable.

"Nancy, Warner and Fox ......"

Now that the preliminary review has been completed, the possibility of a project is generally very high, and Duke asked the agent opposite, "Do you plan to invest, or do you want to finance?" ”

"They're ready to start the pre-sale, and they'll get back to you as soon as the project review is over," Nancy said, leaning back in a high-backed chair, "to discuss the possibility of placing ads in the film." ”

This kind of commercial film with an investment of hundreds of millions of dollars and a theme of modern society is impossible without advertising, and Duke does not reject this, just like "Brave Island", he will try to arrange advertisements to appear in the right place at the right time.

"With pre-sales, there will definitely be third-party guarantees." Duke sighed, no director actually likes a third party to appear, that means more rip-off and censorship.

However, Hollywood has a mature film system, and the completion guarantee system is the biggest guarantee for the interests of investors on the surface, and third-party guarantees are indispensable if the company wants to attract global distributors, video partners, TV stations, etc. to sell in advance, or publicly raise some funds to support the shooting.

"Duke ......," Nancy asked tentatively, "aren't you going to invest?" ”

"My dear, I have to repay my mother's loan, and the share of "Brave Island" will not arrive in a few months at the earliest."

Spread out his hands, Duke was a little helpless, he would not overestimate the consciousness of Warner Bros., the agreement between the two parties is to pay off within half a year, and the other party may not hold on to the end, "I only have $1 million in my hand now, even if I can borrow some money from the bank, it is too little for the huge investment in the film." ”

Speaking of this, the corners of Duke's mouth turned up slightly, "I believe that now I have the capital to make conditions to the producer, right?" ”

"Of course!" Nancy nodded without hesitation.

For any director, two consecutive movies have a box office of over 100 million in North America and more than 300 million worldwide, and they all have the capital of a lion's big mouth.

"Nancy, I want you to help me get a 1+2 salary contract!"

As soon as Duke finished speaking, Nancy asked knowingly, "$10 million base pay plus 20% film revenue share?" ”

"No, I don't want a net revenue share." Duke shook his head and said, "I want a share of the box office upfront!" ”

In order to stimulate the creative desire of the director or actor. Hopefully, Hollywood allows big-name directors and popular actors to share the box office and copyright income, and now the maximum share ratio can reach 25%, and the director's income and account sharing are directly related to the box office of his nearly three films.

And this part can be divided into two major items: online and offline.

Online is mainly the box office share of the film, which is divided into a percentage share of the full box office amount and a net revenue share of the box office after deducting all costs.

Offline is all peripheral income, including copyright, which has always been a forbidden area for distributors and production companies, and only a handful of directors and actors in Hollywood can participate in it.

For example, Spielberg, if "Jurassic Park", which is still hot, can be a big hit like it once was, he may earn at least $200 million from all the film's revenue!

Duke has always been sober-minded, and he is now qualified to shout online revenue sharing, and offline will forget it.

Of course, this is certainly not the case when negotiating, Nancy Josephson is experienced and should know how to deal with it.

This is not just based on the consideration of its own capital, there is another level of reason, in this era of relatively unfluent information, the global revenue of the film is far from being as easy to monitor as box office statistics.

Let's talk about the current partner, Warner Bros., the former Duke has seen a related report that although the movie "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" has achieved a total revenue of more than $700 million in North America, it has lost nearly $200 million on the books!

The reason for this is that Warner Bros. Pictures deducted up to $200 million in 3D copy and distribution costs — which it paid for its own expenses, and $140 million in advertising costs — mostly paid by Warner Bros. itself, as well as $77 million in interest, which Warner Bros. borrowed from his left hand and his right hand.

Warner Bros. had earned at least $400 million in revenue from these alone, but after deducting $200 million in production expenses and other expenses, it was a huge loss from an accounting perspective.

In this way, those creators who have signed a net revenue sharing agreement with the filmmaker will not get much money.

Most importantly, from a financial and legal point of view, Warner Bros. does not have any violations.

Therefore, all things considered, Duke wants a proportional share of the total box office, not an unreliable net revenue share, even in the future, he will not sign an inexplicable net revenue share with Hollywood companies!

If it weren't for the lack of capital now, Duke would even want to directly shout out the film's full revenue share.

In the future, there will be more Hollywood filmmakers, who are still counting on the big studios to find out their conscience and let them get a piece of the "profits".

In fact, capital will never have a conscience to find out.

After talking to Nancy Josephson, Duke got back to work, and not only did Sofia Coppola quickly return to his assistant job, but he also gathered Zack Schneider, John Schwartzman, Robin Grande, and Joss William, who had just returned from vacation, to make formal preparations for the upcoming "Day" project.

Later, Nancy came the news that Paramount Pictures was interested in joining the investment, but was rejected by both Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox, and the two companies completed the final review almost as quickly as the program allowed, and when the time entered September, when Duke and his team had drawn up a rough list of scripts, "Day" was finally ready for the project.

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