Chapter 1067： General strike

Like all industrial strikes, Hollywood screenwriters hope to fight for more profits and rights, but strikes are only means, not ends.

Once strikes, it means that a large number of trade union screenwriters will be unemployed for a long time and have no source of income.

Therefore, after the producer union broke the union union by means of disintegration and disintegration, the screenwriters union also attacked everywhere, wanting to fight for more rights and interests for itself in a similar way.

Even the animation studio was lobbied by them.

"Some time ago, a deputy director of the screenwriters union found Pixar Studio."

Standing in front of the premiere theater, John Lasseter looked at the huge poster of the mouse not far away and said to Ronan: "I hope the screenwriters at Pixar Studios can participate in the upcoming strike."

This is the North American premiere of Ratatouille. Affected by the recent trend, the premiere is somewhat deserted, especially the number of guests.

Ronan asked, "How do you think about it?"

John Lasseter replied: "The employees of Pixar Studios currently have no screenwriters union members. Since we have enjoyed the rights of the screenwriters union, naturally we have no obligation to protect the screenwriters union."

He then asked, "Is this strike inevitable?"

Time has entered November, and the producer alliance has done what should be discussed and concession, but the conditions between the two sides are still as far away as the sky and the earth. Ronan understands this very well and directly said: " A strike is inevitable."

John Lasseter asked again: "The script work of Pixar Studio has been completed ahead of schedule under your instruction, and it will hardly be affected."

Ronan said: "Everything is business as usual, we will not be affected too much."

Relativity Entertainment, under his control, has made sufficient preparations, and the scripts of all the projects that are ongoing and to be promoted next year are finalized.

And for foreign-purchased scripts produced by Non-Relativistic Entertainment, the relevant authorization was obtained when the contract was signed. In the absence of the screenwriter, Relativity Entertainment has the right to modify the script.

This is also a common situation. After film companies buy the copyright of the script, they often make major changes.

The most typical, "Nationwide Superman Hancock" starring Will Smith and Charlize Theron, was originally a romance script, and later changed into a science fiction action movie by Sony Columbia.

Entering the VIP room of the theater, Jessica Felton, who was chatting with Ed Camel’s wife, walked over.

"I heard them say just these few days?" Jessica Felton asked.

Ronan nodded slightly: "Although the screenwriters union has not yet given the final notice, there is a high probability that the strike will be officially launched next Monday.

Jessica Felton is a pure producer after all. Although she refuses the persuasion of the screenwriters union, she sympathizes with the screenwriter somewhat. After all, sympathizing with the weak is a universal situation.

She whispered: "The two sides can't make any more compromises."

Ronan shook his head slowly and firmly: "Everything else can basically reach agreement, but DVD and new media revenue... The difference is too big. The screenwriters union also knows that 15% is absolutely impossible. In that negotiation, they reduced it to 5%, but this is still unacceptable to us."

Take "Transformers" as an example. Currently, DVDs are selling well all over the world. There are a total of two signed screenwriters. According to the new requirements of the screenwriters union, these two screenwriters have already received nearly $5 million in share.

This has not yet calculated the income of new media such as network on-demand.

Given the general conditions of Hollywood and the film and television industry, how is this possible?

Jessica Felton asked curiously: "The bottom line of the league..." She then realized that the question was wrong: "When I didn't ask."

Ronan did not answer either. In fact, the senior executives of these large and medium-sized companies have already reached a tacit understanding. They should try their best to reduce the share ratio required by the screenwriters’ union to less than 1.5%, and limit the income of the producers. Inside.

It is only natural that the negotiation broke down.

It is impossible for the producer alliance to make too much concession, because within the 20-year period of the big framework agreement, it will have to coordinate and negotiate with various trade union organizations every three years, and make certain adjustments based on the specific conditions of the previous three years. .

These unions, which are not mascots, are really too much trouble for the management.

The management does not want to make concessions. The laborers think they should get more, and even think that the importance is above the actors. The huge differences cannot be reconciled.

In Ronan's view, the strike is not entirely a bad thing. It may make some people in the screenwriters' union calmer and clearer.

A fact that cannot be ignored is that the average income of the screenwriters’ union is very high, because there are many well-known screenwriters who are paid well, but most of them do not earn much. Coupled with the common overdraft consumption habits of Americans, once the strike time is longer, the first thing to support It's certainly not the major Hollywood companies that can't help.

The screenwriters union may remember that they will face a bottom-up backlash and have to consider the conditions of the producer union.

The Producers Union dared to put forward such a condition, so that the negotiations between the two sides broke down, and watched the screenwriters union launch a strike. Of course, there was a certain degree of confidence.

As for the actors’ union and director’s union, they will definitely support the screenwriters’ union mentally and verbally, and how to make money physically or physically.

Of course, it is not ruled out that directors and actors will really stand with the screenwriters’ union.

After all, this is Hollywood, the largest concentration of liberals in the United States.

But Ronan has made preparations in advance, and the film and drama projects under Relativity Entertainment will not be affected much.

Jessica Felton did not ask Ronan about the screenwriters' union, and took him into the theater.

Pixar Studios became a subsidiary of Relativity Entertainment's third animated feature film, and officially entered the North American theater.

Even a trivial person has the power to dream, even if he is just a mouse living in the gutter.

This film breaks people’s inertial thinking. It takes the mouse millet as the core character of the film, and hopes to end the life of picking up trash to eat. He can become the chef of the top restaurants in Paris and personally make the most delicious dishes.

From a toy with life ("Toy Story") to a monster that was frightened by a little girl who wandered into their world ("Monster Electric Company"), and then turned into a little fish lost in the ocean ("Finding Nemo"), a family of superheroes who want to live a normal life ("The Incredibles"), and a young and vigorous race car running wild on "Route 66" ("Cars").

Pixar, which represents the world's top animation technology, consistently presents unique stories full of emotion and visual stimulation one after another.

The technology demonstrated by the Pixar studio is still at the open level for this industry.

The complexity of Ratatouille is no longer comparable to that of Toy Story more than a decade ago.

Most of the toys back then were of various regular shapes, and the material was just plastic. The various foods in Ratatouille already had a variety of different textures, soft and hard, and they had to be combined with computer animation. The difficulty of making things feel edible.

The reputation of this film is very good, but the subject matter and themes are somewhat cold, and the market response is not much better than the previous animated feature films.

Three days after the opening of the first weekend in North America, "Ratuitouille" got $51.17 million in box office in 4,211 theaters.

This is also the worst box office of the animated feature films produced by Pixar Studios since entering the new world.

Art is always elegant and belongs to a small number of people.

Pixar Studios has been successful in a number of animated feature films before, and in the praise of the critics, it is inevitable that it is somewhat artistic. Even if it has always adhered to the original concept, it has been somewhat influenced by high art in the creative process.

There is one thing that is undeniable in the entire world film market today. Once you pursue elegant film art, you will always gradually get away from the market.

In some ways, this is not a bad thing. Pixar Studio will also look at its own problems.

The ability and mind of these people can't be underestimated.

On the day when the box office data for the first week of "Ratuitou" in North America was released, a strike that swept Hollywood took place.

In order to fight the Producers League, the two major screenwriters unions in the United States called on their members to strike at the same time. On November 5th, nearly 12,000 screenwriters gathered in the Hollywood area and began a strike parade along the Walk of Fame and Hollywood Boulevard.

This massive strike parade immediately attracted the attention of the United States.

The last collective strike by the screenwriters’ union was in 1988 which lasted for 22 weeks and caused more than US$500 million in losses to the entire industry. This strike will inevitably bring greater suffering because of the entertainment industry. Now it has grown into a behemoth. According to statistics from many institutions on Wall Street, the entertainment industry can account for about 10% of the U.S. economy, including the surrounding chains.

From the perspective of the overall strategy of the future, Hollywood manufacturers with the six major companies as the main body will not easily compromise.

A batch of film and television dramas inevitably become temporary victims.

On the day the strike started, all talk shows had to be suspended immediately because there was no screenwriter.

In the following days, some film and television projects that lacked sufficient preparation had to be suspended.

"Twenty-Four Hours" announced the cancellation of this season, becoming the first unlucky TV series; Tom Hanks invested in the "Da Vinci Code" sequel "Angel and the Devil" because the script could not be completed on time. The second postponed, it became the first A bad movie.

Then, the screenwriter of "007: Quantum Crisis" launched the crew, and the project was temporarily suspended and joined the ranks.

DreamWorks was also affected. Spielberg and Peter Jackson’s major drama "The Adventures of Tintin" was temporarily shelved...

Even so, the Producers League still showed a tough attitude.

Because of the intervention and matchmaking between the Washington authorities and the Labor Association, even if the Producers Union sits back at the negotiating table again, it has not made any concessions and the strike continues.

The continuous strike did not affect the Relativity entertainment too much, and "Thor" was released as planned.