Chapter 117

The sky was dark and the temperature had dropped. In the small courtyard in front of Stanton studio, a table was placed in the middle. Murphy, James Franco, Seth Logan and Jonah Hill sat around and said something loudly. When Kerry Mulligan came with a fruit tray, his voice dropped rapidly.

After that night, they gradually formed a small group.

"If I become a star in the future,"

when it comes to the news from Bill rosis, Jonah hill is very angry, "I will not cooperate with a garbage company like lion gate!"

An empty beer glass fell back on the table, and there was a bang. Seth Logan, who looked very simple and honest, blushed with fat face, "count me in!"

They just broke into this circle, and they didn't lack the momentum at all.

Kerry Mulligan stood up, took his glass, took a big drink, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and said gallantly, "and me!"

She wants to kick all the high-level eggs of Lion Gate!

Hearing these words, James Franco grabbed a grape and threw it into his mouth. Just as he was about to say something, he suddenly found Seth Logan, Jonah hill and Kerry Mulligan staring at him.

Avoiding Kerry Mulligan's eyes, he nodded to the other two, lifted his glass and said aloud, "how can this not be my part?"

"Thank you Murphy picked up his glass and motioned to several people one by one, "thank you for your support."

He looked up and drank the rest of the wine in the glass, and the other four drank one after another.

After living in prison, Murphy's heart is hard enough. After hearing these words, he is still moved. The feeling of being supported and fighting side by side is much better than fighting alone.

Even if they are beyond words, they can't do anything.

On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, he was a lonely man. When he came here, he went to prison. Now he has a girlfriend and some like-minded friends. Undoubtedly, his life is changing step by step in a good direction.

Although there are countless difficulties ahead like lion gate and Miramax, Murphy believes that he can go on to the top of the directing road.

A glass of wine poured into his stomach, but Kerry Mulligan's small face twisted, reminding Murphy, "Bill said that lion gate might be different from Miramax, they are very interested in making a similar film."

She looked at Murphy, then at Seth Logan, the other three. "What are we going to do?"

If you don't worry about it at all, it's impossible. She has made two films and has a deeper understanding of the industry. In case the movie "electric saw" hasn't found a suitable distributor, the movie of Lion Gate will be advanced in the hospital line. Murphy will be greatly affected. It's possible that she can't recover the investment.

Kerry Mulligan looks back. The dark house hides behind the lights. If the movie fails, she and Murphy will be homeless in the park

Although it seemed romantic in the little girl's heart, she was distressed to think that Murphy might suffer from the double blow of money and spirit.

Yeah? What should we do?

Seth Logan, Jonah hill, and James Franco look at Murphy and say something easy but not helpful.

They know very well that it's up to Murphy to solve the problem in the end.

"It's a common phenomenon in any country and any industry in the world that large companies in the upstream of the industrial chain crush small companies in the downstream."

sitting on the back of a chair, with his left hand supporting the armrest and chin, Murphy's tone is gradually relaxed. "In fact, it's not difficult to solve this problem, as long as our films are advanced."

He coughed, and Kerry Mulligan quickly handed him a glass of water. Murphy took a sip and continued, "let's assume that lion gate is determined to make a similar film, but it will take more than 20 days from the preparation to the completion of such a film. We can enter the cinema during this period, and even if they are released immediately, they will become imitations "I'm not the one who is

James - Franco understood Murphy's meaning, nodded, "imitators, whether word of mouth or box office, are always not as good as before."

Bingo Murphy snapped his fingers. "As long as we can get ahead of Lion Gate, the impact on us will be infinitely small. What about Lion Gate? If we really make movies with similar themes, their risks will at least double under the premise that we have just released them! "

For a company like lion gate, which specializes in horror films, the risk of doubling it may not be high. I'm afraid that's why they dare to discuss this project.

This is Murphy's own idea. Since Lion Gate has had a discussion among the senior management, it means that the project may become a reality.

As he said, the best way to avoid the influence of lion gate is to push the movie into theaters as soon as possible.Of course, he and bill rossis are not sure exactly what Lions Gate is really going to do, but they have to be prepared.

With miramurphy's offer of $15 million, it's not going to take long for him to get involved in the negotiation.

However, for the sake of retreat, he always let bill - rosis continue to contact Miramax.

DreamWorks, Morris entertainment and other companies, because of their big differences, have kicked Murphy out, or been kicked out by Murphy.

The only thing that's making progress is the Fox Searchlight.

Maybe it's the company's business strategy, or maybe it's affected by the super poor performance in the first quarter. They have paid a lot of attention to the film that their estimated volume in the North American market can reach tens of millions of dollars.

As the owner of Stanton studio and the film copyright owner, Murphy has held five rounds of negotiations with Godin Clyde of Fox Searchlight. Just like the initial negotiation process, Godin Clyde's style is relatively mild, always with a pleasant smile, but when it comes to interests, he never gives up.

This kind of negotiation is doomed to be difficult. In the case of hopeless progress, Murphy even wants to accept Miramax's offer.

However, considering Harvey Weinstein's face and Miramax's style, he still takes the other side as an alternative, even if Miramax hears that a horror movie is about to be launched

The biggest difference between Murphy and Fox Searchlight is undoubtedly in the issue cost. In the negotiation with Godin Clyde, he knocked down 0.1% of the issue cost. He also tried to classify all the expenses incurred in the announcement into the 30% of the Commission.

Like some companies, if the distribution Commission is calculated separately and the publicity expenses are deducted from the box office, he might as well sign a sale out contract with Miramax.

Venue fee, transportation fee, labor fee, insurance fee These seemingly unimportant, but actually not small expenses, are the seesaw points of the negotiation.

It's getting closer to the end of June. After several rounds of extremely difficult negotiations and the news that Lion Gate's intention is changing to the script, Murphy finally reached an agreement with Fox Searchlight.

In terms of the most fierce competition between the two sides for the North American distribution percentage, Murphy almost broke his tongue, from 30% to 25%. That is to say, if "electric saw" gets $10 million at the box office in North America, Fox Searchlight can get $2.5 million out of it.

This condition seems rather harsh, but it's actually quite good. What Murphy has done most successfully is that not only the publicity and distribution channel expenses of Fox Searchlight are included in this 25%, but also some miscellaneous small expenses such as storage expenses, transportation expenses, labor expenses, public relations expenses and insurance expenses.

Stanton studio doesn't have much to bear. The most important thing is the cost of making copies. Murphy has less than $100000 in hand and can't afford the money. According to the supplementary agreement between the two sides, Fox Searchlight will pay in advance and then deduct it from the box office share.

The money for making copies doesn't seem to get much attention, but it's actually very expensive.

Even if a movie like "electric saw" is compressed to about 90 minutes by Murphy, the production cost of a copy is not cheap.

A normal 4.5-minute film is about $150, 90 minutes is at least $3000, 100 copies is $300000

Even if a large number of printing will be cheaper, but any one of the issuing companies will not casually bear such a fee.

For a trade union filing project like electric saw, a fee has to be paid to several trade union organizations, which should be borne by Stanton studio independently.

There is also copyright. For example, half of the copyright required by Fox Searchlight is of course impossible. Both sides have made a certain concession. Stanton studio retains 70% of the copyright, and the remaining 30% belongs to the distributor Fox Searchlight. That is to say, except for the box office revenue, the revenue of other surrounding copyright will be divided according to this proportion.

Originally, Murphy would rather make some concessions in terms of distribution, and also want to retain the full copyright of the film, but Fox Searchlight is not stupid, and in the cooperation between Hollywood distribution company and small production company, it can be said that it is a convention to get certain copyright.

This is the best condition Murphy can get in the negotiation with all the issuing companies.

All the conditions have been agreed. With the notarization of the trade union, Murphy has signed a distribution contract with Fox Searchlight on behalf of Stanton studio. Fox Searchlight has made a market forecast and plans to push the "electric saw" into the cinema market as soon as possible.

For commercial companies, time cost is also cost.

During this period, the hottest summer season in North America is not over yet. However, after the beginning of July, major productions with huge investment have basically passed the hottest premiere period. Second line productions or even small productions that think they can get a share of the summer season will enter theaters to share the leftovers.Fox Searchlight plans to push the movie into the cinema in the middle of July. Before that, there was a two-week publicity period. For such a small film, such a long publicity period is very rare.

They made a publicity plan and budget for this, and passed it to Murphy. It's hard to tell whether it's true or not.

This plan will certainly have water, but the scale of investment is limited. When Murphy sees the figures on the publicity budget, he really wants to call Fox Searchlight and cut it to death! (to be continued). )