Chapter 171: The Belt Is Crooked

? Both parties intend to cooperate, and the subsequent negotiations will undoubtedly be much smoother. From the second day after the meeting, Ronan officially started cooperation negotiations with Paul Anderson and Samuel Hadida on behalf of Shahai Films, and quickly reached an agreement. Series Preliminary Agreement.

Sandsea Entertainment invested 25 million US dollars to shoot and produce the film adaptation of the "Resident Evil" game, with Samuel Hadida as the second producer and Paul Anderson as the screenwriter, producer and director.

Ronan served as the first producer and has the final editing rights of the film.

As the most important investor, Tony Koch will also name the co-producer on the crew.

According to the rules of the Hollywood industry, the film copyright of "Resident Evil" belongs to Shahai Entertainment. Since Ronan still has a series of plans in the future, it is impossible to spend a large amount of money from Relativity Entertainment on this project. Koch Films 20 million US dollars Direct investment is undoubtedly the best choice.

Another $5 million was raised by Sandsea Entertainment.

The project will also be handed over to Tony Koch to operate tax rebates. Although it may not be successful, as long as there is a possibility of bringing millions of dollars in income, he must fight for it.

Before signing the formal investment agreement, Ronan had a special talk with Tony Koch.

After all, the two parties are not a simple business partnership. There are some things in Hollywood that Tony Koch doesn't understand at all, and some things must be said first.

"Tony, I have to tell you about the future operation of this film." Ronan didn't expect to have a conflict in the end: "The friendship between us is friendship, but business cooperation must follow Hollywood's industry rules."

As the boss of a film company, Tony Koch is also quite serious, saying: "Just say it."

Ronan bluntly said: "Sandsea Entertainment is the producer of this film, and your Koch Films is only the investor. Is there any objection to this?"

This was discussed by the two sides long ago, and Tony Koch said: "No."

Ronan continued: "In the future, when a film is produced, it will definitely be distributed by the Embassy Pictures. The Embassy Pictures will draw a distribution commission from the total income of the film, which is about 30% of the North American box office and 4% of the overseas box office. Ten. There are other peripheral copyright revenues, ranging from 15% to 40%."

"I've heard of these." Tony Koch also knew about Hollywood: "We'll ask the people below to discuss the specific ratio?"

Ronan agrees: "You send people to Los Angeles,

Tripartite negotiations with Sandsea Entertainment and Embassy Pictures. "

Talking to the people below will not affect his relationship with Tony Koch too much.

Tony Koch sighed: "No wonder the distribution side occupies the upper reaches of the Hollywood industry chain."

Ronan smiled: "I spent so much effort to establish North American and overseas distribution channels for this. Without distribution channels, Sandsea Entertainment will always be exploited by the publishers."

Tony Koch said: "The percentage is too high."

"Issuance and publicity expenses are the responsibility of the publisher, which is also an investment." Ronan said directly: "That is, to cooperate with you. If you switch to another company, the commission will not include the publicity and distribution expenses, and I will calculate it separately."

Tony Koch was convinced: "You guys are really dark! Fortunately, I didn't think about investing in films from other Hollywood film companies."

"I haven't finished yet." Ronan said calmly: "Sand Sea Entertainment is the producer, and the producer will give priority to taking 15% of the film income after the distributor's cut, as operating and management expenses." , take 20% of the later box office share, and also remove the later share of the crew and Capcom, and the remaining part will be distributed according to the investment ratio."

"I understand." Tony Koch was almost at a loss for words: "Hollywood is a bunch of vampires, and Wall Street is not as dark as you."

Ronan shook his head: "We have a lot more conscience than Wall Street."

Tony Koch asks: "Can the investor make a profit?"

"There must be." Ronan said directly: "Foreign funds invest in Hollywood, and the average profit margin is about 15%."

If there is no profit at all, and it is just a pit, how can Hollywood continue to absorb foreign funds?

But the biggest profit of a film is undoubtedly intercepted by the film company through legal means. Smart companies will do what Ronan did in "Human Purge Project" and give investors a certain amount of return in order to attract follow-up investment. .

Of course, if the investor does not want to cooperate any more, that is another calculation method.

"What is the profit margin of this investment?" Tony Koch asked again.

Ronan shook his head: "I can't guarantee success. Movies are high-risk investments, and no one can guarantee a 100% success of a movie. Let me say the most ideal estimate, the profit rate is about 20%."

Tony Koch laughed: "That's a lot."

Ronan said: "For normal business investment, it is very rare to have a profit of 20% a year." He reminded: "Tony, don't forget, you are also borrowing other people's chickens and laying your own eggs. You Think of a way, and you should be able to extract the handling fee from it.”

Tony Koch has been misled by Ronan: "I'll consult a professional."

After all, the investment of Koch Films is not its own funds, but financing.

Ronan chatted with Tony Koch about other aspects of operations, and the two also reached an agreement on the investment and distribution plan.

Afterwards, Ronan called George Clint again and told him to ask someone to go to Japan after handling the matters with the Indian Mountain Foundation to see if he could take down the copyright of the follow-up film of "Resident Evil" .

Once this "Resident Evil" is successful, the cooperation with Paul Anderson and Samuel Hadidah will not be so simple. If Samuel Hadidah gets the follow-up copyright first, Shahai Entertainment will be passive behind up.

In addition to "Resident Evil", Ronan also thought of another dazzling wife and madman from Paul Anderson. It seems that the "Underworld" series is also very promising.

These two series may not be particularly popular at the box office, but they are big winners in the home entertainment market, and the offline disc rental and sales have achieved good results.

Thinking of "Underworld", the crew is quite chaotic, with a dazzling wife, a crazy wife, the heroine's wife, and the heroine's ex-husband...

Hollywood, this relationship is a real mess.

Perhaps thinking of the relationship between this series, Ronan recalled some related memories. It seems that this series has had an infringement lawsuit, and the crew as the defendant had to reach an out-of-court settlement with the plaintiff.

Judging from the thick-faced and dark-hearted handling of the Hollywood film company, it is estimated that plagiarism or copyright infringement is very likely to be involved.

Turn back and ask people to find related works. The copyright of such unpopular works should not be much expensive.

After nearly a week of negotiations, Ronan and Samuel Hadidah formally signed an investment copyright agreement, and the film copyright of "Resident Evil" belongs to Shahai Entertainment.

Of course, this is after production is complete.

Ronan also talked with Paul Anderson's agent who rushed to Berlin, and the two sides also reached an agreement on the salary.

Paul Anderson is not a new director, but has considerable qualifications. He has been an official director since 1994. "Magic House Illusion", which completed all production at the end of last year, will be released this year.

Such a director, of course, cannot be paid with hundreds of thousands of dollars. Paul Anderson, including the screenwriter, director and producer, has a total salary of 3 million U.S. dollars.

The most critical film remuneration and production concept reached a consensus. Ronan and Paul Anderson initially signed a contract. The specific director contract will not be signed until they return to Los Angeles, and the people from Sandsea Entertainment and Paul Anderson have negotiated other conditions. .

For Samuel Hadidah, the producer’s remuneration is 1.5 million US dollars, but similar to the situation where the producer brings a project to cooperate with the production company, the production company needs to pay the project start-up bonus and post-production share, which is a Hollywood industry practice.

Ronan will not break the practice that has been formed in the industry for decades, otherwise, if a producer brings a project to cooperate with Shahai Entertainment in the future, it will definitely be affected.

It's not a one-shot deal like "The Blair Witch," which has long-term consequences.

Sandsea Entertainment will give Samuel Hadida a project bonus of 1 million US dollars, and 2.5% of the net profit will be used as a later reward.

In addition, the film copyright agreement between Samuel Hadidah and Capcom has a post-sharing clause. If Shahai Entertainment wants to obtain the film copyright, it must abide by this agreement. Capcom has 5% Pure profit sharing.

For such a film, the profits from all aspects are added together, and the profit left to the producer is not high, but Hollywood has an advantage, the surrounding copyrights accumulated over time in the later stage can be separated, and do not need to be included in the pure profit share.

On the one hand, Ronan can obtain the copyright of "Resident Evil", and on the other hand, the film will be distributed by Embassy Pictures.

The profit margin of distribution is much higher than that of production.

At the same time, Ronan signed another agreement with Koch Films, and Shahai Entertainment bought back the copyrights of "Reaper" and "Kingsman" for $1.

The initial negotiation for "Resident Evil" was settled, and the tax refund application for "Bourne Bourne" was also approved. The total tax refund of 7 million US dollars will be paid in place soon, of which 10% belongs to the handling fee of Koch Films.

The remaining 6.3 million US dollars has become the legal tax refund income of Shahai Entertainment, which does not need to be included in the revenue of "The Bourne".

At the same time, Ronan is also asking people to contact Luc Besson's ex-wife, the actor for the role of Alice, of course she is the first choice.

The behavior of depriving the wife-showing madman of showing off his wife is really too cruel.

If I remember correctly, these two became friends because of the filming of "Resident Evil".

If these two hook up and get married, there are actually benefits. Ronan even thought of an eye-catching publicity method.

At that time, I will order a T-shirt for Paul Anderson, with the image of Alice on the left side, write "fe", and print the image of a generic woman on the right half, such as toilets and ladies only, and write "fe".

Definitely very topical.