Chapter 3： Start-up capital

ask for collection, ask for recommendation ticket!

Including Ronan, Shahai Entertainment has only four employees left. Mary temporarily manages the company's daily and financial affairs. Robert Lee in the marketing department and George Clint in the propaganda department have nothing to do.

Ronan's next plan requires manpower, at least to stabilize these three people.

Salary must be paid on time, and the purpose of working out is to make money.

Nonsense like what I will create a broad development platform for you can only be used to fool students who have just graduated.

Besides the salary, there must be some hope.

To be precise, it means to get busy, and it is easy to think randomly when idle.

"George, you have worked in the media industry. You are an expert in propaganda and have a lot of connections in the media."

In the office, Roger held a company-wide employee meeting, "You take care of the relationship with them, and we need to use the media in the next step.

George Clint is in his thirties, but he is born old, frowning, and his face is full of folds like a sixty-year-old man: "Mr. Anderson..."

"Ronan! Call me Ronan." Ronan seemed very friendly.

"Are we going to run a new movie project?" George Clint asked.

Mary and Robert Lee also looked over with concern.

Ronan nodded: "Yes. We initiated a new project to help ourselves."

The three people's faces were all surprised. When someone wanted to ask questions, Ronan said first: "I will solve the funding. Starting from February, your salary will increase by 10%, and I promise to pay it on time."

These words worked, and the three of them felt a little relieved.

Ronan said to the forty-year-old man with curly hair: "Robert, do you know about Abu Dhabi Investment Authority?"

"They just set up an office in Los Angeles, mainly responsible for investigating investment projects." The curly-haired man replied.

"Is it just an investigation?" Ronan nodded when he saw the curly-haired man Robert, thought about it, and said: "You go to the office to get in touch with the people in the office and get their impressions of Hollywood. Collect some information about Abu Dhabi, such as investment. And the humanistic environment."

Robert-Lee thought for a while and said, "I have a friend who often does business with Arabs, so he can get in touch with him." He seemed to have guessed Ronan's thoughts: "Are you going to find Arabs to invest?"

Ronan nodded: "I have a classmate from Abu Dhabi in USC. I have communicated with him in the past two days. The Arab oil tycoons are very rich and are waving checks all over the world looking for investment."

George Clint interjected: "Can you attract Arabs to invest in the company? In terms of film investment... Ronan, we just messed up a project."

Ronan shook his head: "By directly letting Arab funds invest in the company, we may face great pressure."

The three people immediately understood the meaning of these words. Hollywood has an extremely powerful force that is incompatible with the Arabs.

Ronan continued: "We give priority to ensuring film projects. A single film project is not that sensitive." The plan requires manpower. He still fools the three people on the thief ship: "Three, you are the veterans of Shahai. Give up Shahai, Ronan Anderson, and I am very grateful."

"No need to do this, Ronan." Mary answered, "It should be."

Ronan is well aware of the importance of team cohesion. After talking about the feelings and discussing the actual situation, he vowed to say: "If you can get the investment this time, you can each get 1% of the total as a reward."

The plan behind needs to be executed by them. These three are veterans in the industry.

Robert Lee and George Clint glanced at each other, and the latter asked, "Ronan, how much do you plan to raise?"

"My goal is tentatively set to be the Arab rich." Ronan pretended to be relaxed: "It is not a big problem to raise several million dollars."

There are candidates such as Ah San.

These three people have been able to stay in the company until now, and they must have feelings for Shahai Entertainment. Coupled with the financial stimulation, their spirits are somewhat refreshed.

As soon as the impromptu meeting ended, Ronan took Mary to the Los Angeles branch of Blockbuster.

In the office, Robert Lee said to George Clint, "It feels like Ronan has changed."

"Hmm." George Clint sighed, "I have experienced painful failures, and changes are normal."

"I hope it won't be screwed up this time." Robert Lee lacks confidence in Ronan.

George Clint said: "Hollywood has come from failure. Ronan is talented, and what he lacks is experience."

There are some things that will not be told to Robert at all. He is also considering resigning and leaving, but now, let’s just look at the situation. What if he can get investment? Those Arabs who rely on oil to make their fortunes are said to never take money seriously.

Ronan took Mary to the Los Angeles branch of Blockbuster in Century City, and met copyright buyer Anthony in a reception room.

Blockbuster is the largest video tape chain company in the United States. It is mainly engaged in the production, sale and leasing of video tapes. It was acquired by Viacom of Summer Redstone in the early 1990s and has a vague monopoly in the video tape market.

Anthony, who hosted Ronan, was just a very ordinary copyright buyer, but he didn't really look at Shahai Entertainment.

Small production companies like Shahai are numerous in Hollywood.

"It's absolutely impossible to pay 200,000 dollars in copyright fees!" Anthony's voice was very calm, but his tone was vaguely arrogant: "The box office of "Jedi" is not worth the price.

Of course Ronan knew that he had overcharged, and he still tried to fight for it as much as possible: ""Jedi" is a unique action film that incorporates the **** elements of B-level films. This type of film has always been the darling of the video tape market. Moreover, there are many precedents for films that have failed at the box office to succeed in the video tape market, such as "Shawshank's Redemption", which has responded very well in the video tape rental market in recent years."

Anthony said with a slight disdain: "The film has not yet recovered its cost. It may be profitable in five years. Isn't time a cost?"

Ronan asked directly: "How much do you bid?"

Anthony said coldly, "Eighty thousand dollars."

"It's impossible!" Ronan put on an unbelievable appearance: "The production cost of "The Jedi" is as high as six million dollars!"

In fact, this is a normal bid. In most cases, the basic license fee for a film is 10-20% of the North American box office.

The more popular the box office of the movie, the higher the copyright transfer fee, and the sale or rental share.

Shahai Entertainment is an old customer of Anthony, but in the face of commercial interests, it is basically useless.

Especially Shahai Entertainment is about to go bankrupt.

Anthony shrugged, his tone of disdain again: "Remind you, "Jedi" is only 800,000 US dollars at the North American box office."

Such a bad film that completely failed at the box office can't give Ronan any confidence.

But 80,000 dollars is really too little.

Ronan added: "Except for the standards set by the industry association, Shahai Entertainment does not want to share it later."

Anthony frowned and thought, just as B-level films are an important category in the video tape industry, **** action films have a certain market in video tape rental.

"One-time sale!" he raised his eyebrows and said, "including TV rights."

Ronan gritted his teeth deliberately: "I want 300,000 US dollars!"

Anthony laughed, and his smile was full of mockery: "Young man, Shahai Entertainment is about to go bankrupt. It is impossible for you to go to any company to charge you a high price."

"Shahai Entertainment hasn't gone bankrupt yet." Ronan replied nonchalantly.

Anthony shrugged, as if listening to a joke, and said directly: "US$150,000! Video tape and TV rights are bought out at one time! Don't waste your time."

Ronan groaned slightly, and said slowly: "Well, $150,000." He emphasized: "You need to pay in full when you sign the copyright transfer contract. UU read "

Anthony doesn't care: "Yes."

After the negotiation is over, the two parties initialed an agreement, and signed a formal contract after the approval of Blockbuster.

According to Mary, this kind of small business of hundreds of thousands of dollars will hardly be unexpected.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars is naturally a small business for such a behemoth as Blockbuster.

After leaving the Blockbuster branch, Ronan looked back at the nameplate. The attitude of the Blockbuster buyer made him feel angry, but he could not vent it. Not to mention that Shahai Entertainment was facing bankruptcy, even the most prosperous one. At that time, it was not regarded by the people of Blockbuster.

The wealth and status of the two parties are not equal at all.

Ronan further strengthened his determination to instigate the plan.

Mary asked at this time: "This money is start-up capital, right?"

Ronan smiled and said, "Without funding for this activity, how can we attract investment?"

Mary reminded: "According to the contract we signed with the distributor, New Line Pictures enjoys 15% of the copyright transfer fee."

Ronan looked at the contract and naturally knew this. He thought about it and said: "Take the formal procedures to notify the new line of film industry, and delay the payment of the share as much as possible."

Mary nodded, "It should be no problem to delay for two months."

Ronan sighed, the distribution is just the top of the Hollywood food chain.

Issuing companies don’t just draw money from the box office, they also generally draw money from peripheral copyright income, generally ranging from 10% to 40%.

"Are you ready for the script?" Mary asked concerned.

Ronan nodded: "Ready."

Now that he has the start-up funds, he needs to come up with a convincing project. The basis of the project is the script.