Chapter 71： Copyright can't be ignored!

Inside Marvel Entertainment, the atmosphere is very serious.

If the first week of "Blade Runner" was a disappointment with $15 million, then the next week's $6.8 million was a cliffhanger. With such a huge investment, the movie that was given high hopes by Marvel, was released in 10 days, and the box office was only 21.8 million US dollars, which is really unreasonable.

According to the current trend, the North American box office is unlikely to exceed 40 million US dollars.

In fact, in terms of word of mouth, "Blade Runner" is not bad, at least it can't be said to be a bad movie. But encountering a wrong opponent at such a wrong time is doomed to failure of the film.

The water in Hollywood is very deep, and success is by no means a passion.

Avi Allard and Ike Patum were both shareholders of toy companies before, not billionaires. In order to acquire Marvel, they almost did everything they could, hoping to lead Marvel to a new voyage.

However, a film they worked so hard for suffered a Waterloo-like rout.

What was the North American box office of "My Big Greek Wedding" released at the same time?

$86.4 million!

Looking at the investment quota of the two movies, it makes people vomit blood with jealousy.

There is no doubt that this big gamble by Marvel Entertainment has failed!

The punishment that follows is also justified.

Originally, Marvel only invested 5 million US dollars in "Blade Warrior", and New Line Pictures invested the remaining 40 million US dollars, but due to various changes, Marvel borrowed an additional 15 million US dollars, and the total investment reached 20 million US dollars.

This is desperately trying to take the future of Marvel!

But as a result, many of Marvel's older generation seem to have seen that Marvel couldn't repay its debts and was forced to go bankrupt and restructure a few years ago.

"We have to solve the debt problem!" On the board of directors, Avi Arad's face was ashen.

Dan Buckley, who was in charge of the distribution, smiled coldly, "How to solve it? I said it at the beginning, we are a comics company, and movies can't work!"

"Now is not the time to be held accountable!" Avi Arad slapped the table angrily.

Dan Buckley is a veteran of Marvel and is not afraid of this foreign chairman, especially when he made such a big mistake, "The end of the year will soon be coming, and the company will lose at least 30 million US dollars this year, so Big hole, I don't know how to fix it."

"Okay, Dan!" The veteran cartoonist Brian Bendis sighed, "It's really not good, let's continue to sell hero copyrights, that's how we came here back then."

"No!" Ike Patum categorically vetoed. He bought Marvel in order to make the company grow and develop, rather than embark on a dark old road. "The copyright of superheroes cannot be sold!"

"This is the only chance for Marvel to survive. Our comic sales are declining year by year, and we have no source of profit." Another executive, Alan Vann, said helplessly.

Stan Lee frowned and pondered, "Anyway, we have to get over the current difficulties first, Marvel is not finished yet. Columbia Pictures' "Men in Black" was a great success, so they are very confident in our comics, maybe ...they'll charge a premium."

Dan Buckley said indifferently: "Men in Black? That's our comics. In the final analysis, it's more like science fiction than superheroes."

"Enough!" Ike Patum's face was gloomy, "I said, I will never sell any superheroes! Avi, how about you?"

Avi Arad chose silence.

He suddenly remembered an incident last year, when Dunn Walker brought the monstrous momentum of "Titanic" and wanted to buy Marvel Entertainment. As a result, Marvel decisively refused.

Now that "Blade Runner" was sniped by Dunn's movie "My Great Greek Wedding", did he do it on purpose?

Avi Allard is unknown, but he has a feeling that with the blood of a young man like Dunn Walker, he will never give up easily.

……

Finally, in September, Dunn Pictures and Warner Pictures had an important meeting.

The location is the conference room of Dunn Films. There are as many as 20 or 30 people from both sides.

For Dunn Films, Dunn, Reese Witherspoon, George Paxton, Glenn Fierro, Andrew O'Hare and others all participated.

In terms of Warner Bros. (a subsidiary of Warner Bros.), many big names also attended, including Warner Bros. executive Alan Horn.

After the initial simple chat, Dunn finally understood the reason why "Harry Potter" would enter Warner's attention.

It started with a British producer named David Heyman.

One day his assistant bought a book in the bookstore as a gift for the children at home. But after reading it, the assistant liked the story so much that he recommended it to David Heyman.

David Heyman has worked with Warners many times, and his childhood playmate Lionel Wigram worked at Warners, so he recommended this book to Warners executives, and strongly persuaded him Warner bought the copyright.

After Alan Horn learned about this, he immediately made a decision and won the copyright!

At the same time, he also contacted DreamWorks, intending to invite DreamWorks to jointly develop the "Harry Potter" series of movies, because such a large-scale production series, throughout Hollywood, only Steven Spielberg is reassuring .

His "Jurassic Park" series and "Raiders of the Lost Ark" series are both powerful tools.

However, DreamWorks refused.

At the same time, the assistant Alan Horn sent to acquire the copyright went too far in order to show his ability, which directly led to the gap between Dunn Pictures and Warner Bros.

Of course, Dunn couldn't fully believe these words, but in any case, Warner Bros. led the negotiating team to personally come to the door this time, and it was led by a big man like Alan Horn, which can be said to be sincere.

Moreover, Dunn keenly noticed several names.

The first one is Alan Horn. This guy is a big man. In the ten years when Warner Bros. was in power, he won the title of the North American annual box office champion seven times!

Especially his "Harry Potter" series, "The Dark Knight" trilogy, "Inception" and other works are well-known and memorable.

Because of his straightforward personality, he didn't like to please his immediate boss, Time Warner's big boss Jeff Bickers. He was forced to leave, but he was valued by Disney. In 2012, he became the chairman of Disney Studios, and then... Disney sweeps Hollywood.

Needless to say, David Heyman, as a famous British producer, naturally has the right of first refusal for the British adaptation copyright. That's true of Harry Potter, and so is Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

And his childhood playmate, Lionel Wigram, who was working at Warner Bros. at this time, was also a prominent figure.

In addition to helping the company complete the production work, this guy likes to draw comics, and his brain is wide open, so that Sherlock Holmes learns fighting skills.

Later, this set of comics was adapted by Warner, which is the well-known movie series "Sherlock Holmes" starring Robert Downey Jr.

These three people are in the negotiating team today.

Tang En's eyes flashed a little, and he had a "love for talent". Of course, it was more about love for money.

"In this way, let me tell a story at the beginning of the negotiation."

This is Tang En Pictures, the home court of Tang En, he will never give up the initiative easily.

"Everyone at Marvel Entertainment knows it In the past ten years, their lives have been miserable. After all, they are not DC comics, and they are backed by a Big Mac."

In Tang En's serious narration, he made a gag, which caused bursts of laughter from the other side.

"In 1980, in order to repay the debt, Marvel sold the film rights of "Fantastic Four" to the German film company, Constantine Pictures. According to the agreement, Constantine Pictures must complete the film within 12 years. Otherwise, Marvel has the right to unconditionally withdraw the copyright of "Fantastic Four"."

Dunn's words sounded boundless, but the people present were either negotiating experts or well-known producers. When it comes to copyright issues, they must be inseparable from "Harry Potter".

"In 1992, when the copyright period was about to come, Constantine Pictures was in a hurry. In order to keep the copyright of "Fantastic Four", they invited B-movie director Oli Sassoon from Hollywood to start immediately. At that time, the crew had to work 20 hours a day, and it only took 25 days, and the first "Fantastic Four" movie in history officially appeared."

David Heyman, as an Englishman, despises the German way, and sneered: "25 days, it must be a super bad movie!"

Dunn nodded, "Yes, in fact, this movie has never been released at all, but so what? Constantine fulfilled the agreement, and until today, the copyright of "Fantastic Four" is still in Constantine's hands in the hands of the film industry.”

After Dunn's story was finished, everyone present understood what he meant.

Now, the copyright of "Harry Potter" is in Dunn's hands. Although there is a time limit on the agreement, as long as he wants, he can own the copyright of "Harry Potter" forever!