Chapter 1080 1080 Million Beauty
When it comes to Summit Entertainment, it is estimated that the first reaction of all movie lovers is the "Dance out of my life (Step. Up)" series and the "Twilight" series. They started out with distribution and then entered the field of production. After ten years of brewing and development, they have risen strongly by the opportunity of "Twilight" and become a leader among independent film companies. In 2012, after Lionsgate Pictures acquired Summit Entertainment, Hollywood also ushered in a new opportunity to change the pattern.
Hugo is naturally familiar with the name Summit Entertainment, but he did not expect that Summit Entertainment actually learned to "procure" at the Sundance Film Festival in 1995, which is much more prescient than many Hollywood companies. It's no wonder that Summit Entertainment was able to catch the "Twilight City", the egg-laying hen, after entering the 21st century.
But Hugo didn't ask too much, just nodded and expressed his understanding, "I will talk to Richard, but I guess he doesn't have much opinion. You can go and talk to Columbia first."
Seeing Hugo's "I'm done talking" attitude, Rick hurriedly said, "What about the new work?" This made Hugo stop, and Rick continued, "You know, Columbia Not only hope to get the distribution rights of 'Before Sunrise', but also to have further cooperation with you."
"Oh..." Hugo suddenly came to his senses, but he didn't immediately nod his head in agreement, but frowned slightly, "I haven't finished enjoying my vacation yet, won't the next month be very busy? I'm not too busy for the time being. I want to take the script."
Rick sat in the position, quite embarrassed.
Strictly speaking, after the "speed of life" was completed in January last year, Hugo did not receive a new script for a whole year, and after Rick took over Hugo's managerial work, he did not win a single contract for Hugo. . The only filming "Before Sunrise" was written by Hugo.
Taking a step back, it was four months ago that "Before Sunrise" was completed. In these months, Hugo did not participate in the promotion of "Pulp Fiction", nor did he participate in the follow-up promotion of the album "Bathing in the Morning Light". It's really embarrassing for Rick to be on vacation all the time. Although he didn't want to force Hugo to take over the script right away, at least Hugo could start looking at the script.
Rick was thinking about how he should talk to Hugo about this. He looked back at Joseph subconsciously. Joseph hesitated, but he took the initiative to help Rick, "You can at least read the script, maybe you like it. What? If not, let Rick keep looking, isn't that what Rick's job is all about?"
Rick nodded in agreement, and Joseph continued, "You know, you haven't taken the script since 'Life and Death' -- I mean, someone else's script."
In this case, Joseph can say it, and of course Rick can say it, but what Rick says will inevitably taste different. Therefore, Joseph came forward, which was regarded as a relief for Rick. From this perspective, the current cooperation between Rick, Joseph and Hugo is already on track.
Sure enough, Hugo did not reject too much, but raised his eyebrows in surprise, "Is that so?" He fell silent and thought about it carefully.
Since Hugo has been busy from the beginning of the year to the end of the year in the past year, although he has given himself a vacation after October, he has been busy in the first three quarters, which makes Hugo's memory a bit crowded. "But last summer..." Hugo remembered that he had read countless scripts, one after another, especially after the release of "Schindler's List" and after the box office success of "Life and Death", "Oh..." Without the need for an answer from anyone else, Hugo responded by himself: he refused all of them.
From this point of view, Hugo has indeed not taken on a new script since January last year. "Wow, a year has passed? I haven't taken a new script for a year? I didn't expect it." Hugo himself All were frightened, and time passed so quickly that he didn't feel it himself.
Joseph and Rick widened their eyes and nodded with an "or what about you" expression.
Seeing how his manager and agent nodded at the same time, Hugo laughed dumbly, he pursed his lips, "Okay, yes, I can start reading the script, Rick, you can find some... suitable script for me ."
"Don't worry, I'll take good care of it." Rick said with a smile, although he was very happy at this time, he didn't show it too obviously, and he was more restrained. However, Rick knew that he had been working with Hugo for more than half a year, and everything was going well so far, but in the first two times he recommended the script to Hugo and failed to satisfy Hugo. This is his dereliction of duty. So, this time the script selection work - even if Hugo didn't mention it, Rick knew that he had to perform well, which was the cornerstone of their continued cooperation in the future.
After that, things went very smoothly, first Richard agreed to Columbia Pictures without any doubt, and then Rick, David and Columbia Pictures confronted.
The Sundance Film Festival continues and is coming to an end soon. However, the Sundance Film Festival did not hold an award ceremony, but only held a closing ceremony, and announced the attribution of each award at the ceremony, plain and simple. At the most high-profile jury award, "Before Sunrise" was ultimately limited by its own subject matter and failed to make further breakthroughs. In the end, Edward Burns' "McMullan Brothers" defeated a group of strong players , won the Grand Jury Prize at the 11th Sundance Film Festival.
When all the fuss was over and the McMullen brothers took all the limelight, the news media was a little bit less interested because people don't care about the jury prize, they don't care about the "McMullan brothers," people care about "sunrise" "Before" can I win the award. As a result, the headlines of major media reports have become "'Before Sunrise' Missing the Grand Jury Prize". This reporting method makes people laugh and cry, but it is also the reality of the press.
However, the media reporters soon laughed, because just the day after the Sundance Film Festival closed, Columbia Pictures officially announced that they had purchased the global distribution rights of "Before Sunrise" at a high price of one million US dollars. , and has been busy arranging the release of the film, trying to make the work available to American audiences before February.
You know, it was already January 26th when the Sundance Film Festival ended. It can be seen that the deal was completed very early, and Columbia Pictures’ preparations were already underway. Arranging theatrical lines - even for art theaters, is not that easy.
In an instant, all the news media became lively, not only because "Before Sunrise" was going to officially meet the audience, but also because the transaction amount of the distribution rights was really terrifying.
Since the establishment of the Sundance Film Festival 11 years ago, only a handful of works have successfully completed the distribution rights transaction at the film festival, and the highest distribution rights transaction amount cannot be verified, but it will never exceed $500,000. Taking this year's Sundance as an example, before "before sunrise", the highest issuance rights transaction amount came from "unspoken love words".
This work, directed by James Mangold, was also dealt with by Columbia Pictures for the distribution rights, and the final transaction amount was $350,000.
Now, Columbia Pictures directly dumped one million dollars to buy the distribution rights of "Before Sunrise", which is almost a seismic deal, not only setting a new record for the transaction since the establishment of the Sundance Film Festival, but also Far throws other works a few streets away.
Especially when "Before Sunrise" cost only $2.5 million to make, Columbia Pictures paid $1 million for the distribution rights, which is all the more appalling.
From another perspective, Hugo doesn't remember the box office of "Before Sunrise", because no one cared about the box office of this movie at all. To be precise, the impact of "Before Sunrise" this year The power is very limited, and more is only circulated among specific audiences. In other words, the video tape market is endless. It was not until "Before Sunset" came out in 2004 that this beautiful romantic love attracted more attention, thus forming a trend.
As for the box office of "Before Sunrise" when it was released in 1995, Hugo only knew that the cost was recovered, but it was definitely not high, because it really did not cause widespread discussion.
Now, Columbia Pictures is willing to buy the distribution rights with one million dollars, which shows their determination and courage. This really surprised Hugo.
Even Hugo, who is familiar with the future, is like this, not to mention the American media who are confused about the current situation?
As a result, overnight, "Before Sunrise", which had not completely dissipated the craze, once again became the focus of major media attention. Even those media who did not go to the Sundance Film Festival were relieved of the burden of the Golden Globe Awards. After that, they also focused on "Before Sunrise".
It's an unexpected situation—or a situation that Columbia Pictures has carefully crafted. But in any case, "Before Sundance", an almost unheard-of film, became an instant hit after the Sundance Film Festival, coupled with the excellent word of mouth the film earned during its opening at Sundance , many viewers have begun to express their anticipation for this film.
Who would have thought that "Before Sunrise", which could almost be called a workshop work, would actually sell for $1 million in distribution rights? No one, not even David Geffen, expected it.
When Columbia Pictures announced the deal, everyone was on fire, not only because "Before Sunrise" became the highest number of distribution rights deals in the Sundance Film Festival's 11-year history, but also because it wasn't just before that. "Before the Sunrise" is so popular, it's really an unpopular one.
After the movie is released, in the face of people's curiosity and high expectations, will the box office of "Before Sunrise" show a situation again? Hugo was even more curious than Columbia Pictures.