Chapter 600 Joining Hands with Marvel and Returning to China.

$25 million alone is the top salary for Hollywood's top commercial directors.

Just like those top superstars, $20 million is almost a threshold that distinguishes first-line actors from top superstars.

Before Marvel appeared, Hollywood's top salary was basically $20 million. If it was increased, it would be for the box office share, and no more salary would be given.

But the emergence of Marvel broke this convention.

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, among the top actors' salaries, $20 million can only be regarded as the base salary.

Take Robert Downey Jr. as an example. When Robert Downey Jr. first played Tony Stark in the first Marvel Universe movie "Iron Man", his salary was only $500,000.

By the time of "Iron Man 2", his salary had risen to $10 million, and by the time of "The Avengers", he officially entered the top salary stage of $20 million.

By the time of "Iron Man 3", $20 million was just the base salary, and he also had a 5% share of the box office, plus various bonus incentives, such as a certain amount of dollars for a North American box office of 300 million, a certain amount of dollars for a global box office of 500 million, and so on.

In the movie "Avengers 2", Robert Downey Jr. received a total of 80 million US dollars in base salary + share + bonus!

This is definitely an exaggerated number, a number that no other film company can offer except Marvel.

For other movies, $20 million is already the top salary, but in Marvel it is just the base salary.

So much so that by the time of "Avengers 3", Marvel couldn't afford to pay the salaries of these old members of the Avengers. Several people together could share one-third of the box office, so the Avengers had to write all the old members to death, leaving only the cheapest Thor.

It can be said that the inflation of Hollywood pay was led by Marvel.

No wonder the Oscar winner had to play a supporting role in a Marvel movie, because Marvel really gave too much.

Wu Yuan is enjoying this treatment now, and he is enjoying it ahead of time.

His base salary has directly broken through 20 million US dollars and reached 25 million US dollars, and he also enjoys 5% of the box office share.

In addition, Marvel has designed a very complicated bonus mechanism. Simply put, if the global box office of "Doctor Strange" can exceed 1 billion US dollars, Wu Yuan can get a bonus of about 50 million.

The reason why Marvel is so generous is mainly because "Doctor Strange" is a new IP, and the actors do not have the burden of the Avengers. No matter who Wu Yuan finds to play, the total salary will not exceed 30 million US dollars. Marvel is willing to pay Wu Yuan a high price, which is equivalent to placing a bet on him.

It is a bet that with Wu Yuan's participation, "Doctor Strange" can be a big hit, and there is no need to worry that no one will buy this story independent of "Avengers".

The higher the box office, the more Marvel earns, and the more Wu Yuan earns, which is a win-win situation.

Moreover, since only Wu Yuan was given bonus and box office share, the share was not much, at least much better than the situation in "Avengers" where the five leading actors and the director were all given share.

In summary, this is why Wu Yuan got such generous conditions.

Even so, Marvel still felt that it had made a profit. It is not easy to find a top commercial film director in Hollywood to take over Marvel's movies now. Any director with a little status is not willing to make Marvel's superhero movies, thinking that this thing is too boring.

Do you think Marvel asked directors such as Scott Derrickson, James Gunn, and Alan Taylor to direct the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies because they are high-level?

Doesn't Marvel want science fiction and fantasy directors such as Christopher Nolan, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, Tim Burton, and Roland Emmerich to take over Marvel's movies?

It's because they can't do it!

These famous first-line directors simply disdain to make Marvel's superhero movies.

It's not that Marvel doesn't want to hire him, it's that Marvel can't hire him.

Marvel is a bit like Manchester City, which was just acquired by Saudi tycoons. It has a lot of money, but superstars and top coaches don't like this upstart and are unwilling to work for it.

Now Wu Yuan, the most cutting-edge Hollywood science fiction director, is willing to contact Marvel, which makes Marvel very happy. There is a sense of excitement like Tom licking the cat in his dream.

In this case, Marvel will naturally offer the highest benefits it can give, for fear that Wu Yuan will feel that he has been neglected and will not want to cooperate with Marvel again.

Wu Yuan, who received this treatment, actually didn't think as much as Marvel thought. He really thought this treatment was pretty good.

If he remembered correctly, the global box office of "Doctor Strange 1" seemed to be more than 600 million US dollars, without his popularity.

If he had his popularity and his influence in Asia in this life, it should be possible for the global box office of "Doctor Strange 1" to break 800 million.

According to the contract given by Marvel, if the global box office reaches 800 million US dollars, Wu Yuan should be able to get a total of nearly 80 million US dollars in salary + dividends + bonuses.

This is not a small amount of money.

Even if he makes a movie himself, he has to make a movie with a box office of 300 million US dollars to make a net profit of 80 million US dollars.

There is no reason for Wu Yuan to refuse such a good treatment.

Soon, he reached an agreement with Marvel and joined hands with Marvel to become the director of "Doctor Strange".

However, the project is expected to be officially launched in 2015. For the time being, it is still at the level of project plan, and Wu Yuan does not need to rush to work for Marvel.

In addition to signing a letter of intent, Wu Yuan's daily life is still the same, and he is still busy with the post-production of "The Martian".

Under the unremitting efforts of him and the large post-production team, in mid-September 2012, the post-production of "The Martian" was declared completed, the feature film editing was completed, and digital transcription work could be carried out.

And Wu Yuan also completely relaxed and could prepare to return to China to participate in the premiere of "The Legend of Shushan Xianxia".

"John, this is the last movie produced by my Light Era."

"As before, the distribution work will be handed over to Warner, and the early publicity and promotion will depend on you and Warner to negotiate."

At Los Angeles International Airport, John personally sent Wu Yuan to the boarding gate.

Looking at John, whose hair has turned a little gray, Wu Yuan hugged him with emotion and said with some sadness: "This should be our last cooperation."

John is also the nominal producer of "The Martian".

"I will do my best to complete the publicity and promotion of "The Martian". John nodded heavily and said confidently: "Daniel, fans have been looking forward to your new movie for a long time."

"As long as the news is released, it will definitely cause a great turmoil on the Internet."

"Don't underestimate your influence in North America. Now you are one of the most famous science fiction directors in North America. Your science fiction films will be known to everyone without any publicity."

"Don't worry!"

"Okay, then I'm leaving." Wu Yuan waved to John casually, turned around and boarded the flight back to China.

Twelve hours later, the transoceanic flight landed smoothly at Beijing International Airport.

Wu Yuan set foot on the land of his motherland again. (End of this chapter)