Chapter 508： MGM is going bankrupt

The acquisition of Universal Pictures by Dunn Pictures will definitely cause turmoil in the management of the other party, which is what Dunn expected many years ago.

So in recent years, on the one hand, he has strengthened his personal relationship with Ron Mayer, as well as the cooperation between Dunn Pictures and Universal Pictures; on the other hand, he has worked hard to enhance his influence through box office, awards, contacts, etc. When he was able to lead Universal Pictures, he was justifiable and full of prestige.

There will be no situation like when Sony acquired Columbia Pictures and Panasonic acquired Universal Pictures, the senior management collectively resigned.

The current situation is very beneficial to Dunn, at least the pattern of Universal Pictures, he has controlled.

Several senior executives, including Chairman Ron Mayer, President Adam Ferguson, Vice President Donna Langley, all expressed support for Dunn and recognized his leadership.

But there are always exceptions. Just yesterday, Peter Addy, the head of Universal Pictures' global marketing department, officially resigned.

MGM's $120 million war film "The Wind Whisperer" was released for three weeks and only received more than $33 million at the North American box office, which is simply miserable.

The stock price of MGM Pictures, also affected by the heavy losses at the box office of "Wind Whisperer", has plummeted continuously. In the past two weeks, the decline has exceeded 22%.

MGM World Marketing and Distribution President Robert Levin resigned, and the newly appointed executive is Peter Addy, who jumped from Universal.

Of course, MGM's stock price has plummeted. In addition to the culprit "Wind Whisperer", there are also three accomplices in "The Thief's Sleepover", "Blood Bowl" and "Battle of Hart".

Losing money for 4 films in a row made MGM feel the pressure.

MGM's movies have not been good in recent years. Last year, only "Hannibal" starring Anthony Hopkins and "Legal Blonde" starring Reese Witherspoon achieved profitability. This year... There are no profitable movies yet!

The "Wind Whisperer", which was given high expectations and directed by the popular director John Wu, was an even worse failure, with a box office of only 33 million after three weeks. You know, "Mr. Rich" has only a quarter of the investment of "Wind Whisperer", and its premiere has a box office of 37 million US dollars.

Continuous deficits and losses have put MGM in a bankruptcy crisis.

Now, only one film may be able to save the crisis - "007 Die Another Day"!

"007 Die Another Day" was released at the end of November.

However... Half a month ago, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" was released, and half a month later, "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" was released.

Under the attack of these two annual masterpieces, how much living space can "007 Die Another Day"?

With such a schedule arrangement, MGM is more fortunate than fortune!

Now is the golden age of DVD sales, MGM owns 4,200 movie rights, of which 2,000 are exclusive to MGM and 2,200 are shared with other studios.

The annual disc sales of these films can bring MGM nearly half a billion dollars in revenue.

However, if the box office of "007 Die Another Day" falls short of expectations, then the $500 million in fixed income may not save MGM.

Dunn has his own little abacus, and he is very interested in the content copyright, especially the distribution rights of the "007" series, "Hannibal" series and "The Hobbit" film owned by MGM, which are very important .

If MGM falls into bankruptcy and the stock price continues to fall, it will definitely be a good thing for him!

Dunn is secretly looking forward to the "Harry Potter 1" and "The Lord of the Rings 2" in the box office market.

MGM's film library, although half of it was snatched by Warner, is still huge and a treasure.

Not to mention the Christmas season, the summer season was completely occupied by Tang En Pictures.

After the popularity of "Spider-Man 2" died down, "Pirates: The Curse of the Black Pearl" rose rapidly, taking $82 million at the box office in the first three days and $80 million in the next week.

Of the $162 million at the box office, 75 imax theaters received $7 million.

"Pirate League: The Curse of the Black Pearl" has a total of 3,585 theaters and 13,951 screens in North America. There are only 75 imax theaters with 75 screens, accounting for 0.5% of the total number of screens, but 4% of the total box office!

As soon as this data came out, the potential of imax theaters was immediately reflected.

As the boss of imax company, Dunn got a piece of data. 10 days after the release of "Pirate Alliance: The Curse of the Black Pearl", he has received requests for cooperation with cinema chains from all over the world one after another.

Among them, there are 150 new imax theaters in North America, and developed countries such as Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and South Korea have also sent more than 120 new imax theater construction and renovation plans.

The construction price of an imax theater is very expensive, not including the venue rent, seats, office supplies, sound insulation materials, air conditioners and other hard items, the imax equipment alone is a huge sum of money.

Including four imax screens, surround sound, projectors and servers, the total price exceeds 2.2 million US dollars!

In other words, with the release of "Pirate League: The Curse of the Black Pearl", imax immediately got an order worth about 600 million US dollars!

What horrible income is this?

Of course, in fact, in order to reduce investment risks, the theater chain party will not adopt a buyout situation, but will cooperate with imax theaters in the form of dividends.

That is to say, the box office revenue of the cinema chain should be shared with imax in addition to the movie company, and the rest of the box office will belong to the movie theater.

And imax company, to provide the corresponding equipment, services and technical support.

Usually, the share of imax companies is between 3%-10% of the total box office, and most of them are maintained between 7%-10%.

If the theater chain does not give a penny of equipment money and needs to be provided by imax for free, then 10% of the box office will be split; if the theater chain has invested part of the equipment money in the early stage, the proportion of future payments will be reduced. .

If the theater chain spends 2.2 million US dollars to buy out the imax equipment at one time, it usually also needs to provide 3% of the box office to the imax theater, because it needs the technical support and brand name of imax company.

No way, in a country with a very high intellectual property status, the patent side is so tyrannical!

The merger of Dunn Pictures and imax is definitely a business that benefits both!

The imax company welcomes the order, and Dunn Pictures is also happy.

In addition to this good news, Dunn also got a good news.

The cooperation between Dunn Films and George Miller on the project of "Mad Max" has made a breakthrough under the operation of Mel Gibson, a big man in the Australian film industry.

George Miller has finally agreed to cooperate with Dunn Films to film "Mad Max 4".

It's just the specific details that gave Dunn a headache.

"Boss, your request is impossible to achieve." Producer Grant Hill was in charge of running the project, and he bluntly rejected Dunn's idea, "Mad Max's effect on George Miller's film production The company is what Star Wars is to Lucasfilm. You can’t buy out the franchise.”

Dunn said in disapproval: "Star Wars can't be played anymore, it's going to auction soon, can't you buy "Mad Max"?"

Grant Hill said: "You give me a billion dollars and I can do it."

Dunn's face turned black directly.

Grant Hill said sternly: "George Miller's career has been very bad in recent years. He can only go to make cartoons and count on "Mad Max" to turn around. He must not be able to shoot easily."

Dunn frowned, "What does he mean?"

Grant Hill said: "He's going to invest and take the rights to Mad Max."

"Um?"

"He has already written the script for the fourth part, but Mel Gibson's salary is too high, and his personal requirements are very demanding, so the sequel project is not easy to start."

"Harsh?" Tang En raised his eyebrows, "What are his requirements?"

Grant Hill said: "George Miller estimates that the production cost of "Mad Max 4" will reach at least 100 million US dollars, and he will participate in the investment of 10 million and get 20% of the profit."

"This is impossible!"

Dunn categorically rejected.

20% profit distribution, including box office, CD, TV and other peripheral profits ~ www.novelhall.com ~ invest 10%, want to get 20%, the appetite is too big!

George Miller is not Tom Cruise.

"Mad Max" is far less famous than "Mission Impossible".

Grant Hill immediately said: "I'm only in preliminary contact with him. There should be room for negotiation. The dividend... is reduced to 15%, which should be no problem."

Dunn said solemnly: "This project is not only about George Miller, but also Mel Gibson. Mel has acted in the three films "Unsinkable", "Mrs. He didn't get box office dividends, but he will definitely ask for box office dividends for the "Mad Max" project."

Grant Hill nodded, "There's nothing I can do about it. The market is like this. After all, this is a sequel."

Dunn thought for a while and said, "George Miller said he was willing to invest 10 million? Tell him, I don't need it, the movies I invested in, don't need others to share the risk. Correspondingly, his dividend requirements must be reduced. , umm...better pack up with Mel Gibson."

"Let George Miller's production company withdraw from the investment?" Grant Hill was slightly surprised.

After all, in Hollywood, it is the mainstream and the trend for multiple companies to cooperate in filming.

Mad Max is famous, but it's an Australian franchise, and in the US...a bit dated, Mad Max 3 **** at the box office.

Also, this is an R-rated film.

It's too risky to spend $100 million on an R-rated film, which is why other studios are reluctant to work with George Miller.

Dunn said: "The series of films can be retained by George Miller, but the copyright of a single film, I hope to keep it in Dunn Films."

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(Sanqi Chinese)