Hollywood Road

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Gail Gadot was sent away. In the following days, Murphy basically stayed in his Stanton studio. Now this studio is already a standard shell company, except for the "Chain Saw" cooperating with Fox Searchlight. "Fright 2", there is no project that can be operated at all. Instead, the biggest effect is to use the government's preferential policies for the film industry to help Murphy reduce or exempt taxes.

The Stanton Studio has not made any expansions so far. After Murphy has seen the circle more clearly, he has gradually cut off the previous unreliable ideas. With his ability and financial strength, if he does not consider the actual situation, he wants to rashly. As Stanton Studio grows larger, I am afraid that the bankruptcy crisis will not be far away.

After all, Hollywood is not a state prison. You can handle most people and things with the fists of a few people and secret thoughts. The situation and rules in this circle will not be changed by personal will.

There are many situations that don't exist without him thinking about it.

Continuing to maintain Stanton Studios' status as a leather bag company is actually good for Murphy, allowing him to concentrate as much as possible on the work of the director.

The entire Stanton studio, plus Murphy himself, still has only four people, a financial officer, a front desk and telephone operator, plus Paul Wilson, who is also Murphy's assistant.

In a short time, Murphy has no plans to expand Stanton's studio, and now his energy is mainly focused on the director career to prepare for the next step.

The next step he targets is Marvel Comics and DC Comics.

Marvel has been in contact, and the situation is not optimistic. Since 2000, Marvel has got rid of the bad situation in the 1990s. Although it is not as brilliant as the future, it is not a person of Murphy's status and wealth. Can be impressed.

After being frustrated with Marvel Comics, Murphy naturally prepared to turn to DC Comics.

Today's DC comics and Marvel comics are actually different, and the situation they are facing has even been reversed.

Before the arrival of the new century, DC Comics, which was owned by Warner, developed smoothly. When people think of superheroes, the first thing they think of is Superman and Batman. When it comes to superhero movies, these two are exclusive.

The scenes of Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne on the big screen are not comparable to those of Marvel's Avengers.

But now, DC Comics and Marvel Comics can't speak the same day.

The former “Superman 4” cooperating with Warner Bros. almost ruined the Superman movie series. Joe Schumacher’s two super drag shows also brought the “Batman” movie into a dead end, making Warner Bros. Bruce Way. En master refrigerate.

The latter changed its trend. Starting from "Blade Warrior", after "X-Men" and "Spider-Man", it completely became the mainstream comic movie on the big screen. "Spider-Man" even became the first ever in North America. A movie with a box office of over 100 million dollars on the weekend.

These make Marvel Comics full of confidence. According to the news Murphy got, they are preparing their own film department and preparing to shoot superhero movies that truly belong to Marvel Comics.

Whether it’s Murphy or other film companies, it’s already difficult to get the film adaptation rights of those first-line or even second-line comic heroes from Marvel Comics. The industry can also be adapted by other companies for the Marvel superheroes, all like "X "Men", "Spider-Man", "Dare Man" and "Fantastic Four" have been copyrighted very early.

In order to get rid of the decline, DC comics are not without actions. For example, they successfully dug the corner of "X-Men", made Brian Singular the director of "Superman Returns", and collaborated with Oscar actress Halle Berry. An extremely rare female superhero movie-"Catwoman" is being created.

Thinking of these two films, Murphy subconsciously feels that they may become his own obstacles. The investment in these two films is huge, especially "Superman Returns". It is rumored that the production cost will definitely exceed "Titanic" and become the highest investment in history. Even if some of the funding problems can be solved through cooperation, financing and pre-sales, it is still a heavy burden and pressure for Warner Bros.

Sitting in the office on the second floor of the Stanton Studio, Murphy must consider the current situation before making a plan. The product of film or the artistic situation does not exist in isolation from social reality, whether it is the current social environment or The situation of your company may have a significant impact on a movie.

Pulling out a file from the filing cabinet, Murphy turned it over and it looked like it was sent by Bill Rossis after the investigation. It contains the current status of DC Comics and Warner Bros., as well as the introduction of management personnel, especially Warner Bros. recently changed its CEO. The new CEO is called Bruce Berman's Jew.

Murphy thought for a somewhat familiar name, but he didn’t get the impression. Then he gave up. Although his head is easier to use, it is not a computer with automatic storage. Some people remember that it is not very important. It's normal to not get up.

He focused more on the production strategies of Warner Bros. and DC Comics.

Undoubtedly, since DC Comics was acquired by Warner Bros., it has started in-depth cooperation with Warner Bros. The "Superman" movie and the "Batman" series are the products of cooperation, and the two companies have a silent understanding, DC Comics If one of its first-line superheroes is adapted into a movie, the dominant party must be Warner Bros.

Although Warner Bros. sometimes introduces other partners to share financial pressure and reduce risks, the film rights of Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne will always be firmly held in their hands.

This also determines that unlike Marvel Comics, which has just started and does not have an independent production and distribution company, Murphy will certainly not be able to buy the corresponding copyright if he wants to cooperate with DC Comics.

Fortunately, the current DC superheroes are in a freezing period and are not as popular as Marvel Comics. There is still the possibility of moving them and restarting the super series.

What Murphy wants is very simple, to become the director of the series, and get enough power as much as possible, so as to let himself into the ranks of the top directors.

In the past, he was not qualified enough. Many things could only be thought of and could not be done. No one paid attention to what he did. Now three consecutive films have been successful, which undoubtedly gives him a certain degree of persuasiveness, as can be seen from being chased by paparazzi and entertainment reporters , Is no longer the little director who was previously unknown.

In particular, the achievements of "Sin City" are more eye-catching and make him famous.

After being screened in North America for nearly three months, the film received an eye-catching box office data of US$91.54 million. Although it did not break through the US$100 million mark, it was already downgrade, but the North American box office alone allowed Miramax to recover almost 4,000. Ten thousand dollars in production costs and 15 million dollars in total investment in publicity and marketing.

In the past three months, "Sin City" has also appeared in more overseas theaters. Although the overall response is not as good as North America due to the subject matter, it has now taken more than 34 million US dollars from overseas. Canada also has more than 125 million U.S. dollars.

This is also Murphy's highest global box office number so far.

Moreover, the negotiations between Miramax and DVD distributors and TV stations have also ended. The results of the negotiations are similar to the practice of the first round of TV broadcasting rights of roughly 10% of the North American box office, only because the film scale is too large and slightly biased. Low, but also sold as much as $8 million.

The basic transfer fee of DVD is also 5 million U.S. dollars, and subsequent sales and leasing will naturally have corresponding commissions.

There is also the emerging network on-demand transfer, even if it is not as expensive as the television rights, it still has $2 million in the account.

Even if dividends were paid to Dark Horse Comics and Frank Miller, Miramax easily realized a large amount of profit income.

These are the capital that Murphy can bargain with other companies on new projects.

Of course, for him, the more direct benefit comes from money.

"Sin City" is basically offline from North America, and Miramax also sent a financial statement to Stanton Studio, which clearly and accurately marked the director's dividends that Murphy can enjoy.

According to the director agreement signed by the two parties, Murphy can receive a basic remuneration of one million dollars each before the film starts and after all production is completed. If the North American box office of "Sin City" exceeds the determined production cost in the future Line, he can get a basic reward of 1.5 million U.S. dollars. If the North American box office reaches 50 million U.S. dollars, he can get a share reward of 3 million U.S. dollars, and 80 million U.S. dollars is 4.5 million U.S. dollars. One hundred million dollars is six million dollars.

The basic remuneration of two million U.S. dollars was paid in place by Miramax before the film was released. The rest was mainly North American box office dividends. The film’s North American box office exceeded 80 million U.S. dollars, but it did not reach 100 million U.S. dollars. Murphy can The North American box office dividends received are the 4.5 million U.S. dollars stipulated in the agreement.

In addition, the agreement also stipulates that Murphy will receive 1% of the copyright income of "Sin City" North American TV and DVD video tapes as compensation, so he can receive 80,000 US dollars and 50,000 US dollars from the first transfer fee.

As for the subsequent sales and leasing commission, it is long-term income.

Miramax paid for this total of US$130,000 in North American television and DVD video tape copyright income a few days ago. As a big box office dividend, just like the previous few times, you need to wait slowly.

But Murphy is not in a hurry, he is not short of money now.

In the next few days, Murphy began to develop project planning books and plans for DC Comics and Warner Bros. It is not an easy task to impress these guys. At least there must be a decent plan.

After finishing the project planning book and plan, good news came from Bill Rossis. Through the channel of CAA, he invited DC Comics and Warner Bros. senior executives to meet.