Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Two days later, Ronald, Gail Hurd, and Jim Cameron visited Roger Corman, who had sold New World Productions and was preparing to retire.

In the president's office that was about to no longer belong to Corman, there were several large cardboard boxes filled with photos, recording the many memories he had accumulated in the twelve years at New World.

In addition to some photos of his family, there were photos of him with many directors and actors, and posters of some movies he directed and produced.

"Is this Stallone?" Ronald asked when he saw a photo. Stallone in the photo was still very young, holding a submachine gun with a crooked mouth, looking very cool. Next to him was a blond actor.

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"Ah yes, next to him is David Carradine, this is when they were filming 'Death Race 2000'." Corman replied.

"Is this when Ron Howard was filming Crazy Love Runs the World (grao)?" Gail took another photo. The above is the famous actor and director Ron Howard, who still had a lot of hair at that time. .

"Oh, yes, when Mr. Coleman went to New York CBS to sell the copyright, I was still driving him." Ronald still remembers Coleman's hearty laughter when he was talking to Ron Howard on the phone in his apartment.

"These movies are all very good, do the new buyers really not want them?" Ronald thinks that the movies in these film libraries are all well-made, and there are some early works of now famous actors, which are worth some money anyway. I don't know why the buyer doesn't want them.

"Hey, if these are not all my beautiful memories, I don't want them either." Roger Corman said, "Although the climate in California is okay, the humidity is high, and the negatives are not well preserved, and they are easy to mold and deteriorate. I rent a constant temperature and humidity film library to preserve them, and I have to pay a lot of money every year."

"You don't know that movie film is very easy to spontaneously combust. When the film industry was not doing well a few years ago, Warner once destroyed early films on a large scale to recover the silver ions in the film." Cameron knows more about technology.

"Come on, help me move these photos to my new office." Roger Corman directed the three people to hold his baby and walked out of the New World building.

"I'll go get the car." Ronald stood at the door of the office and said to everyone.

"No, let's walk." Roger Corman led everyone across the street at the door to a newly built office area next to the theater named after the late actor Henry Fonda.

"Dangdang, welcome to my new office." Roger Corman opened the door of an office. Inside was a large room with second-hand office furniture. His secretary was already cleaning and preparing inside.

"Mr. Coleman, is your office ready?" Ronald looked at his former boss.

"Put these photos here for me..." Coleman directed three former subordinates to set up his office.

"Mr. Coleman, when did you find a good office and register a new company?" After putting the photos, Ronald looked around. It was more spacious than the original New World office, but there was no small projection room.

"Hahaha, after you left that day, I took the check and had fun in the office for a long time. But the next day, after I ate the breakfast prepared by Julie, I went to drive. Julie asked me what I was doing, and then I realized that I was unemployed.

I stayed at home for a morning and found that I couldn't help but work. That morning of doing nothing was more painful than the movie "Invaders" that I made that lost money.

So I found a lawyer in the afternoon and set up a production company. Anyway, the distribution business can be handed over to the new owner of the new world. I will focus on production in the future, and maybe I can find the passion of director again."

"What is the name of the new company, boss?" Cameron asked.

"It's called Millennium (illenniu)."

"What?" Ronald didn't hear clearly.

"The millennium means one thousand years after the birth of Christ." Coleman explained, and then asked his secretary to bring coffee. "Tell me, what's the matter with you coming to see me?"

"I am the producer of Jim's new film. Now I have found the investment and distribution commitment of Orion. Now I still need 3 to 3.5 million dollars for filming."

Gail Hurd began to take out the plan and introduce it to his former boss Coleman. Cameron unfolded the characters and storyboards and showed them to Coleman.

"What about your TV broadcast rights?" Coleman asked directly after listening to the introduction.

"It's in the hands of Orion now, and it hasn't been sold yet."

"Gail, I'm afraid I can't invest. You know, all my film projects are based on the pre-sale income of the distributor and the advance payment of the TV station. If I invest in a movie and wait for the final box office share, I'm afraid I would have gone bankrupt long ago."

"But this is..." Gail still wanted to fight for it.

"Your script is indeed good and it is also in line with the low-cost filming method, but I can't violate my business principles. Sorry, Gail, Jim."

"It's hard to change one's nature." Gail complained in a low voice.

"Mr. Coleman, why do you say that those who share the box office revenue will go bankrupt?" Ronald didn't quite understand this sentence. He still shared the box office revenue for the movies he made for Universal.

"Hey, my new world... isn't mine anymore. It's not a big company. The managers of those theater chains will always delay you as long as they can. In all likelihood, they will delay you for a year. It's not like they don't have money. Give it to me, I just like dragging it.

Several times, I threatened to sue them and they always gave me the check a few days before the court date. My lawyers always say to me, Mr. Coleman, just support the film industry.

Those movie theater operators are also having a hard time. With one year's interest on this money, they can also renovate the seats and upgrade the popcorn machine.

But I always want to get the interest myself. A big production worth six million is actually quite risky, and I won’t play this kind of game. A small company like mine cannot take the risk without an advance payment guarantee. "

"But you've always made movies and you've always been paid beforehand?" Ronald asked.

"It's a long story. When I was making films for American International Pictures, I got a fixed income. I would give me a movie idea, and American International Pictures would give me a price, such as 50,000 yuan. If I could If it costs 30,000 yuan to shoot, you can make a net profit of 20,000 yuan.

This way I have a quick turnaround, I get money to buy film and rent equipment, pay actors and photographers. The distributor then makes money and orders the movie from me.

It doesn’t take a year to recover the investment of those big studios. I can get the money before filming starts, so in the time it takes them to make one movie, I can make twelve.

Later, American International Pictures didn't tell me and edited my movie randomly, so I set up a new world to do the distribution work myself. I was looking for drive-in theaters and theaters with relatively poor facilities. I could use the old method to collect their copy rental fees in advance. This money also turns over much faster than the accounting method. "Coleman talked about his business model.

"But Mr. Coleman, your method is already lagging behind. Today's blockbusters and theaters must rely on box office share, otherwise they would not be able to pay expensive rental fees for copies before screening.

There are many theaters that cannot afford to rent copies, so they can only secretly show pirated copies, or wait until a year later to rent second-run copies released by others. "Gail retorted after hearing this.

"You're right, Gail. But I invest my own money, not like those big studio executives who use other people's money. So I can't take too big a risk. With an average mid-level production in Hollywood At eight million dollars, I only have three chances to fail.”

Coleman said this, raising three fingers, "Last year, there were less than twenty movies that successfully exceeded 30 million in box office."

"Hey, it's hard to change this nature, but it's all due to the limitations of the sluggish film market." Ronald sighed in his heart. Big productions have the same difficulties as big productions. Although small productions don't make much money, they are much safer.

Roger Corman was able to accumulate so much wealth by never taking risks and accumulating slowly. It is impossible for him to change his mind and suddenly start taking risks in big-budget projects.

…

"What? Is the news accurate?"

In the Shinsegae office opposite. The three new bosses sat in the conference room. They received a surprising news and began to discuss countermeasures.

"Coleman, this old cunning guy, does he know something?" a lawyer asked.

"It's impossible. Our legal community is well-informed, so I knew in advance that Justice John Paul Stevens's minority opinion was written in the tone of the majority opinion. It seems that these liberals have expected that someone will The rebellion is over."

The other lawyer untied his tie forcefully and banged it on the table.

"What are our legal chances of canceling this deal? Seventeen million is not a small number."

"The check has already been given to Coleman, and he has already credited it. It will take a long time to sue to invalidate the contract, and do you think those in Hollywood know that we regret it? Then we will be even less likely to sell. We must operate slowly and confidently It took a while before I had the opportunity to sell.”

"Then what should we do? Nowadays, the operators of those theater chains are having a hard time. They often deduct the box office share and renovate the seats just to earn some interest."

"It seems that the original plan did not take this accident into consideration. The operation of cinemas will definitely become more and more difficult. We have to find a master who not only knows how to make movies that meet the market's taste, but also knows how to collect money from the management of cinemas. to manage the company.”

"Then we must find an executive from the seven major studios. The original candidates either only know production or only know theatrical distribution."

The three lawyers seemed to regret borrowing money to buy Coleman's New World Company. But the deal was done, and they had no choice but to find an executive with experience in cost control of production and distribution to serve as CEO.

"Let's find headhunters and send invitations to those executives who were fired by Universal and 20th Century Fox. We have to get this done as soon as possible so that the market will report our good news, otherwise the Supreme Court's new ruling will come out. , the capital market has insufficient confidence in the film industry, and we will be in big trouble with interest rates.”

"Coleman, you are such a lucky man." The lawyer who made the final decision looked at the portrait of Roger Coleman on the public relations release for the acquisition of New World by the three of them and let out a sigh.