Hollywood Road

In Hollywood, the DVD industry is becoming more and more important, and it is not an exaggeration to say that DVD has saved some film companies.

Most Hollywood movies cannot recover the cost from the box office, and the profit-generating ones are even more boring. The failed movies like "Catwoman", as well as dolls, figures and peripheral licenses can bring income, but this is an adaptation. Movies, or super-production patents, are unlikely to appear in films with investment of only a few million or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Video tapes, DVDs, and TV broadcasts have become a way for these films to achieve profitability, and they are also the profit point for most Hollywood films.

DVD, a medium that is cheaper to produce and easier to circulate than video tapes, has even saved some major Hollywood studios to a certain extent.

The most typical is Sony Columbia Pictures. After "Spider-Man" was released from the theaters, Sony Entertainment immediately released a DVD of the film. The price of the regular version was as high as 19 US dollars, and the deluxe package was as high as 39 US dollars, just in the first week. More than 5 million sets have been sold, with a burst of more than 120 million U.S. dollars. The sales volume of DVDs that year was as high as 215.3 million U.S. dollars!

This is only the sales in North America.

High-grossing movies, in this era, almost all bring super high DVD sales.

For example, last year's popular cartoon "Finding Nemo", the first week of DVD discs on the market sold more than 150 million US dollars in sales, and its performance far exceeded the first weekend box office in North America.

Murphy remembers very clearly that the past few years have been the best years for DVD, and it won’t take long. With the rapid development of online video-on-demand and download, DVD will decline rapidly.

"Deadpool" undoubtedly encountered a good age.

At the end of July, 20th Century Fox officially put the DVD of "Deadpool" into the North American market, using Wal-Mart, Target, Amazon and other large institutions as the main sales vehicles, and at the same time, it was launched on e-commerce such as Ebay and Amazon.

As for the sales situation, it can only be described as hot.

Although DVD discs are not as good as "Spiderman" and "Finding Nemo" due to the scale of "Deadpool", the sales figures for a week are equally gratifying, easily breaking through the $100 million mark, reaching as much as $112 million. .

Compared with the box office numbers that need to be divided up layer by layer, the profits brought by DVD are actually higher.

In the twentieth century, Fox was able to get the most profit. The wholesale price of a DVD studio sold to distributors was not low. Depending on the situation of the film, it could range from $10 to $20, and "Deadpool" was at $15, a luxurious package. It’s $25, and DVD compression is cheap, often only one percent of the price.

Almost all of this money goes back to the studio, but the general studio will provide the underwriters with a sum of about 5%, not more than 10% of the promotional expenses.

This is only a short-term DVD, as well as a long-term lease. In this regard, Hollywood has an extremely mature operation method.

Compared to simple and straightforward sales, the sharing of DVD rentals is more complicated.

First, the renter will give the studio a reserve price, which means that regardless of whether the film is rented or not, the studio can get a sum of money from the renter. About each DVD depends on the film’s box office pricing. 3-10 dollars, the higher the box office, the higher the reserve price.

There are several different ways of leasing. The normal leasing fee is the main source, as well as the membership fee. In addition, if the rented disc is not returned on time, the lessor will automatically sell it, that is, the user’s money will be deducted according to the sale price. , Now the general way, the studio takes 0.5-2 US dollars from each rental income, and the price is determined according to the box office number of the film. If it is sold, there is also a ratio of each one. This number is higher, about At 5-10 dollars.

The rental fee is not always included. According to the contract, there is a valid period of about 25-80 weeks. The higher the box office, the longer the period.

After the expiration, the renter must destroy a certain percentage of the DVDs, and either return the rest to the studio, or buy it for one dollar each.

In addition, all bad and bad debts, bad credit, promotion and mailing expenses will be deducted from the income share.

For a single movie, if it is a big-selling movie like "Deadpool", the studio can make $5-8 million from a single rental company. This is only the rental part, and the sales part is even more proportionate than this. Many, that is to say, a movie that hits the box office, Hollywood can get tens of millions of dollars in income from DVD rental, and this income is almost all net profit.

At the same time, Twentieth Century Fox also negotiated the first round of television broadcast rights for "Deadpool" and sold the first round of television broadcast rights for the film at a high price of $25 million.

All these incomes are closely related to Murphy, and his director's contract stipulates that he can receive dividends from it.

After negotiating the cost of television rights, Twentieth Century Fox first paid Murphy the last one million dollars of the director’s basic remuneration of three million dollars.

Then, Murphy's lawyer Robert and accountant David began to urge Twentieth Century Fox to fulfill the sharing clause in the contract between the two parties on time.

In Murphy's director contract, there is a step-by-step incentive clause.

The agreement is based on the film’s production cost of US$60 million. If "Deadpool" can reach a cost line of US$60 million in the North American box office in the future, his director can get 1% of the North American box office as a reward. Once the North American box office rises to 100 million U.S. dollars, this ratio will increase to 1.5%, 150 million U.S. dollars to 2%, 200 million U.S. dollars to 2.5%, and 250 million U.S. dollars to 100%. Three-thirds.

There is also a remark clause at the back. Once the North American box office of the film exceeds the 300 million US dollar mark, the director Murphy will receive 5% of the total North American box office as a reward.

No one would have imagined that "Deadpool" could break the $300 million mark at the North American box office.

Twentieth Century Fox signed such an agreement, not to bet against Murphy, but an incentive to encourage the director-centric creative team to go all out. Although Hollywood films have many sources of income, the box office is all of this. The basis of the DVD, just like the sales and leasing of DVDs, there is no high box office to drive down, and there is no way to raise the price.

Moreover, "Deadpool" North American box office of 300 million U.S. dollars and 250 million U.S. dollars, the income that can be brought to the 20th century Fox in all aspects is also very different.

Murphy can get 5 percent of the North American box office, or 15 million U.S. dollars, plus a basic salary of 3 million U.S. dollars, and his director income in "Deadpool" is as high as 18 million U.S. dollars.

This is a very high number. For a single round of income, only the first-line directors can get it.

On the other hand, he can also get a 2% dividend from the various North American copyrights of "Deadpool", which are long-term income.

After Twentieth Century Fox received the North American box office share of "Deadpool", Murphy not only asked the other party to pay personal remuneration on time, but also required that Stanton be paid in two months after the film was released, as stipulated in the contract. The return on studio investment.

The production cost of "Deadpool" is US$60 million, and Stanton Studios invested US$15 million of it, which is a quarter of the profit of the film after removing various costs.

Twentieth Century Fox also wants to continue cooperating with Murphy, and with Carla Fess in, Stanton Studios did not encounter much obstruction. It treats investors in the industry and Hollywood companies will not be as blatant as foreign funds. Too much hands and feet.

What's more, now everyone can see that Murphy is a huge potential stock, and continued cooperation may bring more profits.

After deducting various taxes and fees, 20th Century Fox received a total of 150 million US dollars in North American box office shares from the theaters.

As we all know, this part of the money is not profit.

Twentieth Century Fox first took away its own distribution commission, 10% of the North American box office, more than 30.7 million U.S. dollars, and then advanced promotional and marketing expenses, up to nearly 40 million U.S. dollars, and then up to 15 million U.S. dollars for copies Production costs, digital projection technology has not been promoted, and the cost of copy production is still high.

In this way, Twentieth Century Fox must first take away 85 million U.S. dollars.

The box office share of Murphy's main creators also needs to be calculated. At the beginning, almost all the main creators signed a basic remuneration plus share remuneration agreement. Although others are not as high as Murphy’s share ratio, they are added together. It also exceeded tens of millions of dollars.

In addition, storage, travel, insurance, legal, and accounting expenses incurred during the screening process should also be included in the cost. The film is a trade union filing project and requires a certain percentage of fees to be paid to the union. Although it is not a large amount, it cannot be in arrears. Otherwise it will be a big trouble.

These pieces and pieces add up to nearly five million US dollars.

The total cost of a film is quite expensive, far from being as simple as the production cost. Excluding the $85 million of Twentieth Century Fox, the others add up to $30 million.

The remaining US$35 million will be shared by Stanton Studio and Twentieth Century Fox in proportion to their investment.

The distribution company occupies an absolute dominant position. Even for a movie like "Deadpool", Stanton Studios cannot recover the investment cost through the North American box office alone, but the North American box office is only part of the film's many sources of income.

Today, the global box office of "Deadpool" is close to 560 million U.S. dollars, and the overseas box office has exceeded 250 million U.S. dollars.

Although different countries and regions have different share policies and taxation, the share ratio that Fox can get in the 20th century is also different, but in general, the issuing company can probably get about a quarter of the overseas box office. Stanton The studio can also participate in this revenue sharing.

Box office is only part of the film’s revenue, as well as peripheral revenue. Only in North America, the DVD and TV copyrights of "Deadpool" have sold horrible figures. Excluding the fees paid to Marvel Comics and other costs, Stanton Studios The same can take away a quarter.

In early August, Twentieth Century Fox paid the first investment share to Stanton Studios in accordance with the contract.