Chapter 685 Documentary

Today's Embassy Pictures, the distribution business basically comes from the movies or TV series within Relativity Entertainment, and only a small amount of resources will be invested in foreign films.

For example, this year's "Shrek 2".

This animated feature film produced by DreamWorks Animation Studios earned US$457.89 million when it was released in North America. It is still being screened in many overseas markets, and the global box office has infinitely approached US$900 million.

Apart from theaters, the DVD, TV broadcast, online copyright, peripheral products and authorization of "Shrek 2" are all operated by Embassy Pictures.

Although more income has not yet been settled, the profit obtained by the embassy film industry has infinitely approached 100 million US dollars.

The profitability of popular Hollywood cartoons is generally higher than that of live-action movies.

Because the first "Shrek" caused a sensation and continued to attract attention, the investment of Embassy Pictures in publicity and distribution was only more than half of the production cost of the film.

In Hollywood, the publicity and investment ratio can only be said to be average.

When the opportunity arises, Ronan will naturally find a way to obtain the distribution copyright of such a film.

Embassy Pictures will also release "Shark Gang" for DreamWorks Animation this year and an animated feature called "Madagascar" next year.

Foreign films have worked well, and the profits are equally astonishing.

Regardless of whether it is a production project of Shahai Entertainment or an external purchase of the Embassy Pictures, after the investment reaches 3 million US dollars, Ronan needs to complete the final approval.

In the past two years, as The Theory of Relativity's entertainment reputation has increased, the number of film projects attracting investment and the finished films trying to find distribution have all increased. Ronan has a natural advantage in this regard, and of course he will not let his advantage go unused.

That would be too silly.

Embassy Pictures has also purchased outsourced films for distribution in the past few years, but the effect can only be said to be mediocre. The internal competition in Hollywood is fierce. Films that can really make a big difference with a small amount and cannot find a distributor after production are, after all, a minority among the few. .

The purchase of overseas works should be relatively cautious, especially the large investment.

Foreign films are seriously unaccustomed to the North American film market. No matter whether it is from East Asia or Europe, there are very few films that can achieve commercial success in North America every year.

Ronan found a familiar name on the latest audit project sent by the embassy film industry.

This is a documentary that Alan Albert of the International Distribution Department of the Embassy Pictures stumbled across when he was on a business trip to France. It was invested by Bonn Piche Company and directed by French director Luc Jaquet. A documentary about the arduous journey of survival and reproduction under harsh conditions, relying on strong willpower.

The title of the film is "The Emperor Penguin Diaries".

According to the report submitted by the embassy film industry, the documentary has just completed the post-production and has not yet entered the distribution stage. When Bonn Piche Company was promoting and seeking distribution channels in Paris, it happened to be discovered by Alan Albert who was on a business trip to France. The film-watching experts from the European branch of the embassy film industry were convened to investigate this documentary and determined that the documentary has a certain market value.

Due to the poor market response of French films in North America, Bonn Piche Company decided to sell the North American distribution rights of "Emperor Penguin Diaries" separately. Alan Albert reached a preliminary intention with the other party to buy out the North American distribution of this documentary Rights only cost $1.5 million.

Documentaries have never been sold at high prices, unless there is a successful sequel, or the work of a well-known director.

Luc Jaguet is a retired professional athlete. He hasn't made any films or documentaries worth mentioning before. Of course, the works he directed cannot be sold at high prices.

This is because the popularity of "Fahrenheit 9/11" has led to a general increase in the market for documentaries, otherwise it would not have cost $1 million.

Ronan didn't remember the relevant data of "Diary of the Emperor Penguin", but he knew that this documentary was once famous and sought after by countless people, and it was a super popular type of documentary.

Won the North American distribution rights for US$1.5 million, even if the cost cannot be recovered from theaters, it is not difficult to realize profitability in the offline market based on the previous popularity.

After reading the project materials, Ronan was sure that it was "The Emperor Penguin Diaries", so he asked Connie to call Alan Albert in Paris, France, and inform him that he had won the North American distribution rights of this documentary.

If possible, even the global distribution rights will be taken down.

Two days later, Alan Albert officially signed a contract with Bonn Piche Company on behalf of Embassy Pictures, and obtained the distribution rights in North America. Sofa and Argentina's Alpha Films initialed the agreement.

It is already good to be able to get the distribution rights in North America, and Ronan did not force other markets. Embassy Pictures quickly arranged for the distribution of "Emperor Penguin Diaries", and now if possible, it will be screened in Los Angeles in December.

Of course, this is to get tickets to the Oscars, and documentaries must go the route of winning awards.

However, before it is released in North America, Embassy Pictures will hand over "Diary of the Emperor Penguin" to Shahai Entertainment, who will reconvene actors for dubbing.

The documentary uses French narration, which is certainly not suitable for the North American film market.

At the same time that Embassy Pictures won the North American distribution copyright of "Emperor Penguin Diaries", the first documentary feature released after Embassy Pictures joined Relativity Entertainment officially landed in North American theaters.

Filmed and produced by James Cameron, the highly experimental 3D documentary "Alien in the Deep" was screened in 30 theaters in North America.

This is a full 3D documentary, some of which are shot and produced using IMAX3D technology. To a large extent, it is James Cameron's technical preparation for the next feature film.

At present, the number of commercial screens that can support 3D projection in North America is not very large, and even fewer of them are willing to choose a 3D documentary. Even if the director’s name is James Cameron, the embassy film industry worked hard to get 30 3D screens. .

Unexpectedly, the market response of "Alien in the Deep Sea" was not bad. With little publicity from the Embassy Pictures, thanks to James Cameron's appeal among movie fans and the appeal of 3D movies, this movie In the first weekend of the documentary's release in North America, it even got $550,000 from 30 theaters, with an average score of more than $18,000 per theater.

However, limited by the number of 3D screens, it is not easy to expand the scope of the screening.

Fortunately, neither Ronan nor James Cameron expected the film to make much money.

The three major funders of this documentary are IMAX Corporation, Sony Electronics, and James Cameron himself. They all said that they should reduce losses as much as they can get.

What they really gained was the brand-new 3D shooting and production technology experimented and improved through the shooting of "Alien in the Deep Sea". This is a high-value product, and the future market will be infinitely broad.

It is no exaggeration to say that "Alien in the Deep" is just a subsidiary product of the new 3D technology.

For Ronan and Relativity Entertainment, "Alien in the Deep" is a bridge to open up communication channels between the two parties.

It was through this feature-length documentary that the business relationship between Relativity Entertainment and James Cameron was established.

The word-of-mouth of "Alien in the Deep Sea" is not bad. Although the scope of release is not large, the trend is quite stable. It still earned 410,000 US dollars in the next weekend, and the North American box office also exceeded 1 million US dollars including the income on weekdays.

This also means that "Alien in the Deep" can stay in theaters for a long time.

The embassy pictures saw a good response from the market. Due to various objective conditions, the commercial theaters could not expand the scope of the screenings, so they simply changed their thinking and turned to other areas. The Science and Education Museum and the Natural History Museum signed a contract.

Many similar exhibition halls in North America have movie theaters that support 3D projections. Before the new century, 3D and IMAX technologies were most used in these exhibition halls.

Originally, there are few 3D theaters nowadays, and natural science and education documentaries that are all shot and produced with 3D technology are even rarer. These exhibition halls have signed long-term lease contracts with Embassy Pictures for "Alien in the Deep Sea".

The longest Washington Museum of Natural History even directly signed a three-year contract worth $3 million with Embassy Pictures.

With the help of IMAX3D technology, those species that live in the deep seabed that audiences rarely have the opportunity to witness are vividly seen, so close that audiences seem to be able to touch them with their hands.

The audience can follow the camera closely and enter the deepest part of the seabed by wearing stereoscopic glasses.

Many people, even most people in the Hollywood industry, only regard "Alien in the Deep" as a natural science documentary filmed by James Cameron purely for interest, and they do not pay attention to the industrial changes that may be brought about by film technology. .

The new IMAX3D technology has begun to show its charm.

But there are also huge flaws.

For example, it is not suitable for very intense action scenes, and the large-scale movement of the camera and characters can easily cause dizziness to the audience; watching for a long time can easily cause visual fatigue, so it is not suitable for young children; 3D effects must be achieved through glasses. The crowd was extremely unfriendly etc.

These technologies also need to be solved by technology experts in the film industry.

The former James Cameron almost turned the sequel of "Avatar" into a series for fans in his lifetime. One of the reasons is that the technology cannot meet the requirements of his director.

James Cameron has claimed more than once that he is developing glasses-free 3D technology at United Technologies Corporation.

After "Alien in the Deep" was released, Ronan received a notice from Tony Koch who was in Canada to participate in the Toronto Film Festival. trip.

The Toronto Film Festival is now an extremely important promotional stop for Hollywood's award-winning films, not only "Eavesdropping Storm", but "When Happiness Knocks on the Door" starring Will Smith is also exhibiting at the Toronto Film Festival.