Chapter 172 (1/2)
Simon returned from Cannes, and the media discussion and controversy about ”vulgar novel” winning the Palme d'Or became more and more rampant as the film neared its release, even overshadowing Ronald Reagan's upcoming state visit to the Soviet Union at the end of this month.
In the past two weeks, Simon has accumulated too much work. Before he could adjust the time difference completely, he quickly threw himself into the busy business of the company.
In addition to vulgar novel, instinct, which is scheduled for July 15, has entered the final cutting stage since its shooting in February. As the investor, screenwriter and the person most familiar with the selling point of the project, Simon naturally wants to participate in it.
Fox pictures, which is responsible for the distribution of instinct, has released the film's first TV Trailer during Simon's participation in Cannes Film Festival. The film will be submitted to MPAA for rating in early June.
During this period, Dustin Hoffman made some temporary changes to the script of rain man, so the shooting cycle of the film will inevitably be extended again, and it is expected to be completed by the end of June.
When Simon heard the news in Cannes, he could only expect that the project would not exceed the production budget of 25 million US dollars. He also realized that Tom Cruise's own writing team would make all his starring films into ”Tom Cruise films” no matter whether the ending was good or bad.
In addition to rain man, scream, steel Magnolia and death poetry club, the selection of Batman's hero has entered the third round, and Simon has also begun to participate in it.
On May 30, Simon flew to New York again to participate in the recording of NBC's ”Johnny Carson tonight show”, which promotes ”vulgar novel”. Because of several reality shows, Amy Pascal and Simon also rushed to the east coast together.
At the same time, the competition for summer jobs is becoming fierce.
Due to the weak reputation and box office of Lucas pictures and MGM's special effects blockbuster ”fortune fair”, paramount and Samsung chose to advance the release time of ”Crocodile Dundee 2” and ”first drop of blood 3” to Wednesday, May 25.
As the second best box office sequel to ”top gun” in 1986, ”Crocodile Dundee 2” has a total screen size of 2837. Sylvester Stallone's ”first drop of blood 3” also has 2562 screens.
During the week from May 20 to May 26, the cumulative box office of ”Fengyun Jihui” in seven days was 11.05 million US dollars, ranking first in the weekly box office list.
”Crocodile Dundee 2”, which ranked second, grossed $4.75 million in two days.
First drop of blood 3, third on the list, grossed $4.46 million in two days.
It is worth mentioning that the budget for the production of ”first drop of blood 3” has reached a runaway level of $63 million. In contrast, the production cost of Crocodile Dundee 2, which made $174 million in North America two years ago, is still well controlled at $14 million.
What's more, this summer program will be followed by another movie, who framed roger rabbit, whose budget is out of control.
Disney originally prepared a budget of $45 million for who framed roger the rabbit, which was a rare big production level in the 1980s. But Robert zemigs eventually pushed the production cost of this project up to $70 million.
Now Disney simply can't afford to fail a project with a budget level of $70 million. Although Simon knows that the final box office data of ”Who Framed Roger Rabbit” is very good, during this period of time, Disney is already in a panic because of this project, and several responsible persons are openly and secretly letting the wind ahead of time to help them shirk their responsibilities.
”Who Framed Roger Rabbit” will be released on June 24, not to mention.
Squeezed by three new films, when Harry meets Sally, whose box office curve has been very bright, dropped 33% this week, far exceeding the one week drop of only 1.20% since its release.
In the 11th week of release, ”when Harry meets Sally” received another $4.11 million, with a total box office of $94.23 million, a step closer to breaking 100 million.
While arriving in New York to record ”Johnny Carson tonight show,” Simon also needs to take care of westero's business.
James Leibold, Jennifer's father, has settled the loan issue during this period, westero's investment in Cisco and other companies, as well as some important affairs of many technology companies in which the company shares, and many related contract documents and memoranda need Simon to discuss with James Leibold face-to-face, review and sign.
On the other side.
Amy's negotiations with the TV network continue.
The four major TV networks are all interested in the four reality show plans proposed by danielis pictures, but things are not going well because danielis pictures wants to take the initiative as much as possible in order to share more profits later.
TV networks generally classify these reality shows as traditional variety show types. This type of program is usually put forward by the production companies or producers in the industry. TV networks buy the ideas, invest in them and own the copyright. Even if it's outsourcing, the production company in charge of the program often only earns a simple service fee. If the audience rating of the program is high, it may get an extra bonus, that's all.Simon will not accept this condition for any reason.
”Who will be a millionaire” and ”Survivor” are phenomenal reality shows that can support the ratings of a TV network in the original time and space. In my memory, only the annual advertising revenue can bring hundreds of millions of dollars of net profits to the TV network, and the boosting effect of the program on the ratings of the whole TV network is inestimable.
Moreover, once this kind of reality show is successful, the future overseas production license fee will also be a very considerable income. Just like ”who will be a millionaire”, this reality show at its peak had copies in dozens of countries all over the world, all of which had to pay royalties.
If the copyright is handed over to the television network, the profits that danilisi pictures can share in the future will certainly shrink significantly, and the overseas licensing fees that can continue to generate revenue will have nothing to do with the company.
On the upper east side, the rybold apartment.
It's June 1. Last night, the ”Johnny Carson tonight show” broadcast a special interview with the creator of ”vulgar novel”, and the film is further away from the release. All the pre promotion and marketing work has been completed. The next step is to see the market performance of the film.
Tonight is an invitation to dinner for the rebalders. Besides Simon and Amy, the rebalders' best friend Robert egger and his wife are also here.
After this time of tug of war, Denise pictures and ABC finally reached the first agreement on ”who will be a millionaire” yesterday.
ABC TV network will obtain the North American copyright of who will be a millionaire. Denise pictures reserves the copyright of the project outside North America and is fully responsible for the production of the program. According to the terms of the contract, ABC TV network can't get rid of Denise pictures producing the program alone, and Denise pictures can't transfer the program to other local TV networks in the United States.
It can be said that this is a contract that neither party can kick out.
In addition, the production budget and competition bonus of the project are borne by Denise pictures, and ABC pays the subscription fee of each season according to the audience. Denise pictures will then pre produce a week-long trial to test the program's effectiveness, and set to broadcast it in the following week starting June 20.
If the program meets the viewing standard, both parties will negotiate the order price for the first quarter.
This year's autumn show has been seriously affected by the writers' strike. Once the trial broadcast of who will be a millionaire is approved, ABC plans to order 69 episodes at one time and broadcast three episodes a week, just to fill the traditional 23 week schedule from autumn to spring.
As an indoor question answering reality show, the budget for each issue of who will be a millionaire is not high. The basic venue recording costs only about $200000, and the $1 million bonus is not so easy to get. The total bonus of $100000 per issue is more than enough.
However, even according to the expenditure of $300000 per issue, the cumulative production cost of 69 issues of the whole season will exceed $20 million, which is obviously a huge expense.
ABC's breakeven line is 10 million viewers in autumn.
If the audience size is less than 10 million, ABC will be able to provide program subscription price of less than 20 million US dollars. Within the tolerable viewing range of the television network, if danielis pictures wants to keep the program, it can only rely on its own sponsorship to make up for the production budget.
In this era when cable TV is not popular, the threshold of 10 million viewers is not low, but it can never be high. This also shows that ABC doesn't have much expectation for who will be a millionaire.
In addition, because the trial time is the most unpopular summer program for the TV network, ABC's standard for the number of viewers of the trial set is 6.5 million.
In the dining room, everyone enjoyed the food and naturally discussed the reality shows.
Robert egger happened to be arranged opposite Simon to talk about who will be a millionaire. The ABC executive turned to survivor: ”Simon, I think survivor is more interesting than who will be a millionaire. However, the risk of this program is too great. Because of the continuity of the plot, it must be produced one season at a time. It is impossible to arrange trial episodes, and it can not be cut off immediately in case of poor ratings. So, I think it's better to arrange it to be played in the summer. In this way, if you succeed, you can go back to autumn, and if you fail, it won't have a big impact on the TV network. ”