Exploiting Hollywood 1980

The series of disputes between Menahan and Cannonball all date back to the time when he and Yoram spent money lavishly.

At that time, they raised more than $400 million in junk bonds through Wall Street bond tycoon Milken. But both of them spent money very quickly. Among them, Menahan invested lavishly in comic book adaptations, such as Superman IV and He-Man, the Unicron. Yoram didn't know how to produce, and his way of spending money was to buy theaters and acquired the British Starlight Theaters.

When the bullets ran out, the two's strategy changed from helping each other to undermining each other. Menahan's Superman IV failed due to insufficient budget, and Yoram didn't have enough money to acquire a theater under EMI.

From then on, the two had a rift, and Cannonball faced bankruptcy. At this time, Yoram's talent in business played a more important role than Menahan's production talent. He brought in EMI, which wanted to enter Hollywood, and facilitated a merger plan, so that EMI invested in Cannonball and temporarily solved the funding problem.

However, the interest rate of junk bonds was very high, and the new "Cannon-EMI" did not dare to give Minahan the right to shoot big productions, and the company's income was still not enough to fill the big hole. When the stock market crashed, Wall Street's financing channels were gone, and Cannon faced the biggest crisis and almost went bankrupt.

At the critical moment when the SEC launched an investigation into the fraud of Cannon's listed company's financial statements, Yoram found an Italian banker, Giancarlo Parretti. He brought a huge amount of funds from the French Lyon Bank and launched an acquisition of Cannon.

And one of his conditions was to kick Minahan out of Cannon and become the boss of Cannon himself.

"I anticipated Cannon's financial crisis in advance, so several of my confirmed new film projects used 21st Century Pictures, which Cannon signed a 20-part distribution agreement, so..."

Minahan told the truth, he looked at Ronald, looking forward to his reaction.

"This guy has a trick up his sleeve for his cousin. It seems that he had planned to run away long ago. It was just that Giancarlo Parretti's unexpected acquisition disrupted his plan."

"What about the exit clause you mentioned?" Ronald asked again without comment.

"That was a clause that Yoram and I signed when Cannon encountered a crisis. If someone else wants to acquire our Cannon, we must both agree to it before it can be implemented. If one party disagrees, then you can withdraw from Cannon and transfer the shares to the other party.

If you are not satisfied with the share price transferred by the other party, you can also automatically initiate a counter-acquisition and acquire the other party's shares at the same price. This clause is automatically effective."

"I don't understand. It seems that you have arranged it very well." Ronald was puzzled. This clause must have been designed by a lawyer. All kinds of conditions were taken into consideration. If it was implemented according to this clause, there should be no problems. Why hasn't Minahan figured out the conditions for his exit until now?

But thinking of the fact that the two brothers were so good that they could imitate each other's handwriting on each other's checks, and now they have to be on guard like this, Ronald still sighed a little.

"It's that bastard Yoram..." Minahan turned around and said, "Ah... Pah..." He spat on the ground again, "That bastard forged my signature on the withdrawal contract, damn Judas, Milik, Tobias..."

Minahan named several bad guys who betrayed in Jewish scriptures in one breath, and cursed indignantly.

"Don't spit, this is my office..." Ronald frowned. Minahan's behavior actually has some of the habits of his Russian Jewish ancestors. When he mentioned the name of a bad guy who betrayed him, he would spit on the ground to express his curse.

"I sympathize with you, Minahan. But in order to acquire 21st Century Pictures, I have already formed a team of lawyers, accountants, and my company's management to work together. I can't give up just because of your words. These people are very expensive." "I know, Ronald, I can make concessions. You just need to let me choose a few movies that 21st Century has the production rights to take away, and I can say anything else. You know my character. If I can't continue to make movies, my soul will disappear. This is an artist's request to an artist, Ronald... I didn't expect to end up like this today. It's all Minahan's fault... Ah... Bah..." Ronald stretched out his hand to stop the gesture. Minahan, who was still spitting, said, "Let me think about it. Give me the list of movies you want... I still need to have a meeting with the team to discuss..."

...

"Will Minahan be playing tricks on purpose? If we acquire 21st Century, the acquisition fee prepared by Cannonball can be used to pay Minahan severance. If he doesn't take away the movie project, he can get more cash. According to the average return rate of the movies he produced, it is more cost-effective to take the money."

】

In the acquisition team, Ed Bastian, an accountant at Pricewaterhouse, took the list of producers and read it over and over again, and then compared it with the list of Cannonball's films released over the years in the bankruptcy application materials received by the court. He always felt that there was something wrong with it.

"No, when all Hollywood companies lay off executives, they would rather give various preferential terms than cash. In this industry, out of ten people who have projects, only one has money." Lawyer Mickey Kanter has experienced many such clauses for laying off executives, and he understands it very well.

"But this Italian 'fancier', Giancarlo Parretti, undoubtedly came with a high credit line from Credit Lyonnais. Just for this acquisition of Cannon, he can use $200 million." Ed Bastian still didn't quite understand the logic of the entertainment industry.

"What does fancier mean?" Ronald asked Lindsay Doll, his private lawyer sitting next to him. There were many things he didn't understand about the professional M\u0026A team, and he needed Lindsay to help him figure it out.

"It means financier in English, but this title in Italian does not mean that this person has the qualifications to work in the financial industry. It just means that if he has the corresponding financial knowledge or makes money through the financial industry, he can be called a fancier, or in Italian, fanziere..."

Ronald said, "Oh," and sat up straight. He looked at the two professionals who were still discussing, and said, "Don't doubt Minahan's intention. I know this person. In order to make a movie, he once put his infant daughter in a cradle as an extra. When his daughter might fall off the prop, his first reaction was to let the camera continue, instead of catching her."

"Puff...", everyone laughed.

"All this person's passion comes from making movies. If there is no movie to make, he will not agree even if he is paid twice as much."

"So, most of the list of film projects he gave is true?" Lawyer Mickey Kanter turned around and looked at Ronald. This is where Hollywood people have a discerning eye, where artists gather together, and everything cannot be measured by money.

"I think it is consistent with his usual taste..." Ronald picked up a pencil and ticked off the names of several movies on the list.

"Spider-Man, Captain America, Fantastic Four, Phantom of the Opera, and the rights to seven or eight horror movies by Edgar Allan Poe..."

Everyone felt that it was impossible for Minahan to reveal all the film projects he wanted to bring to the new company. There must be some fakes in this list to mislead Daydream.

However, Ronald knew Minahan's taste very well. This is either a comic book adaptation movie, or an opera or musical adaptation movie. And horror movies were the type that Cannon focused on at the beginning. The credibility of this list should be very high.

"You should understand the copyright issues of these movies. I remember that Roger Corman sold New Century Pictures and acquired Marvel, which owned the copyrights of Fantastic Four and Captain America." Mickey Kanter saw the problem.

The production rights of movies are actually often complicated. Because of the difficulty of financing, they often go through several production companies, and the contracts are full of clauses that non-professional lawyers can't distinguish at all.

"Yes, I remember that when Roger Corman was still a director, he had made several horror films adapted from Edgar Allan Poe. Let's also find out if we can remake these films." Ronald added that although Edgar Allan Poe's copyright had long expired, film adaptations also have copyrights. If these scripts are adapted from Corman's films, then we have to ask him to buy the remake rights. "

Under the leadership of Ann, the M\u0026A team immediately began auditing and background checks.

Ronald called Roger Corman to invite him to a new popular creative restaurant for dinner and chat about movies.

"I'm glad you asked me in advance, Ronald." Corman looked a little better. He found a new videotape market and made money from more than a dozen low-cost films in a row. The impact of the stock market crash also began to improve slowly.

"I don't think it's necessary to turn filming into a cut-throat war like the Big Seven. Most of the films we make are low- and medium-cost films to entertain the public. They are not like the Big Seven making big productions, and they have to compete for less than seven top male stars and about twice as many top female stars.

Besides, we are all targeting the videotape market, and no one stipulates that you can only watch one videotape on the weekend. "

Ronald took a sip of the juice, which tasted like a mixture of carrots and tomatoes. Although it was a product of green agriculture, it was surprisingly delicious.

"Yes, I have always felt that spending 30 or 40 million US dollars to make a movie is unnecessary in most cases. There are other places in America that need money more, such as improving education in public schools and providing medical insurance to the lower-class people..."

Ronald smiled and agreed. Few people would have thought that Coleman, who always made violent, horror, science fiction, and erotic B-level movies, was actually a leftist who pursued social equality in his heart.

"The Edgar Allen Poe movies are the most popular among my directorial works, and they are also the first batch of color movies I directed. But I don't like them very much in my heart. Maybe it was because the big distributor AIP at the time urged me to continue to shoot Allen Poe and wanted to finish all of his movies, so I was a little rebellious.

If I had continued along this path at the time, maybe I could have made big productions for the eight major studios. ”

Roger Corman began to recall the past, “Poe’s films have long been in the public domain, and anyone can make them. I am glad that you asked me. So, I do have plans to remake the film from that year. If you want to make one, you can let me know in advance. There are many Poe’s films, and we should not collide with each other.”

"If you are willing to come back as a director, we can actually cooperate again and invest in filming together." Ronald felt that movies, especially movies adapted from famous writers, still needed to control the rhythm. If both companies filmed the same theme, it would undoubtedly drag down the box office.

It would be better for everyone to join forces, so the quality of filming would be better. Movies are for appreciation. There is no situation where you buy a movie ticket and I can't watch it. If everyone cooperates in filming, it is entirely possible that the overall box office will be many times higher than if the two companies filmed separately. One plus one is greater than two.

"Then it's settled..." Roger Corman stretched out his hand and shook hands with Ronald. The two of them could still maintain this gentlemanly demeanor of keeping their word.

The investigation of the merger and acquisition team proceeded quickly, and the results were placed on Ronald's desk three days later.

The results were subtle. Neither Menahan Golan nor New Century Pictures had the complete filming rights for "Spider-Man", "Captain America", and "Fantastic Four". Or to put it another way, both of them could film.

Marvel's comic adaptation rights were sold to Cannon Pictures for a period of five years. At that time, Marvel hoped that Cannonball could film Marvel comic characters like he did with DC's "Superman IV". In this way, the company could also acquire toy companies and make a fortune from derivative toy products.

But unexpectedly, Cannonball's "Superman IV" was very bad, and the dream of selling the film copyright and making money from toys was shattered before it even started.

At this time, the stock market crash occurred again, and many stock prices that relied on mergers and acquisitions and capital operations in the market fell badly. Marvel was even worse, as their income largely relied on the support of original comic books and collectible cards, and the bubble of these collectibles had shrunk severely before.

At this time, the company that acquired Marvel was New World Pictures sold by Roger Corman. Therefore, New World also naturally owned the copyright to adapt these comics.

The production rights changed hands several times before and after, and it may take a legal team a week of careful research to get a definite answer to who it belongs to. And Hollywood's way of dealing with these disputes is very simple, whoever attracts investment first, whoever shoots it will own it.

If the box office is good, then you can file a lawsuit afterwards and ask for compensation.

So, if you deduct the legal details, the filming rights of this movie will belong to Cannon in the next five years, and will be given to Minahan with his termination agreement. But after five years, it will automatically return to New World with the expiration of the production agreement.

But New World is now in trouble and has to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy, so it is unknown who will get the production rights. Maybe the next buyer will pay attention if he is interested. If not, it will just sleep in the warehouse with a bunch of contracts.

So the key to this problem is whether Minahan can operate enough funds to start this project within five years (actually less than five years).

"This is very dangerous. I don't think he can get enough money."

"But what if he gets the money? If we let such a big project go, will it become a joke? Just like Price who let the ET alien run away."

Inside Daydream, General Manager Eddie and Distribution Manager Michelle Cannold also had disputes.

Finally, they all looked at Ronald. Since his debut, Ronald has never made a mistake in judging the box office prospects of the project.

"Have you ever thought that even if he gets the money, he may not be able to make it."

"Huh?" Both of them were stunned.

"This kind of comic book adaptation movie requires a lot of special effects, and there is only one company in Hollywood that can do this."

Ronald knows the selling point of this type of movie better than them. Whether it is traditional special effects props, makeup, or the latest computer technology, the only Hollywood company that can operate such a large-scale and wide-ranging special effects movie is Industrial Light and Magic, which was founded by George Lucas for the filming of Star Wars.

And now the sequel of "Back to the Future" has also started. The production capacity of Industrial Light and Magic can only meet the needs of one large production at the same time.

In this way, at least in the next year and a half, Industrial Light and Magic's production line will give way to this movie. When Back to the Future is finished, who knows where the future has changed. It is not certain who will acquire New World Pictures.

Spending millions of dollars now to buy a very uncertain future. After Ronald said this, everyone felt that it was not cost-effective, at least it was too early.

"How good is your friend Cameron's special effects? Can he help?" Cannold was still unwilling.

"He has his own studio, which can only meet his needs. Let's wait until he finishes shooting The Abyss and see how it turns out. And we can't say for sure whether comic book adaptations will be popular in the market. Why don't we wait and see how the upcoming Batman movie does at the box office."

Ronald decided to be conservative. Since the Superman series failed, a series of comic book adaptations have continued to have poor box office performance. No one knows whether this type of movie has lost the audience's favor or because the recent ones are too bad.

Ronald has never dreamed of a finished movie, so after some calculations, he decided to be conservative.

"However, we can get the copyrights of these movies." Ronald pointed to the names of several other movie projects on Minahan's movie list.

These are some very distinctive horror films, the first of which is called "George Romero's Night of the Living Dead", which is the orthodox sequel to George Romero's classic film "Dawn of the Dead".

After "Dawn of the Living Dead" became popular, the original director shot a series of sequels named "Return of the Living Dead", but they have not been box office successful. George Romero, the original screenwriter, also got back the copyright of the sequel after the contract expired. He cooperated with Cannonball and prepared to shoot the genuine sequel.

Ronald is going to take the production rights of this film and the distribution rights of those old Chinese kung fu films of 21st Century Pictures.

…

"Aha, I know your name, Ronald. Ronald Lee. Dino (De Laurentiis) said a lot of bad things about you to me. But I don't believe a word of it. I firmly believe that people who can make movies like Top Gun are real men! Not sissy like Dino"

Giancarlo Paretti, the new boss of Cannonball, was very enthusiastic when he saw Ronald. He belittled Ronald's enemy, Dino De Laurentiis, the boss of Naples. In the eyes of this northern man, the men in southern Italy are either gangsters or liars, and the movies still need us industrialists, artists, and "fanciers" to run them.

"Nice to meet you." Ronald shook hands with him. This Giancarlo Paretti hugged a little female star signed by Cannon, looking like a playboy. Before taking over the company, he started to pick up the beauties in the company.

"It seems that this man is more interested in enjoying the Hollywood lifestyle than being the boss of a Hollywood production company." Ronald thought.

There is nothing wrong with this. If it weren't for these rich people from other parts of the world who continued to invest in Hollywood, I'm afraid that the production volume of Hollywood would drop by more than one third.

To outsiders, Hollywood is always a golden signboard. Many people invest just to go out with female stars, as if their social status will also be improved a lot because of having a celebrity girlfriend.

Everyone gets what they need.

"Minahan, I've said it before, let's sort out the property rights and still cooperate, right?" Giancarlo Parretti greeted Minahan who also came to sign the contract.

"Hehe..." The Jew twisted his thick neck and said nothing.

After a lot of work by the team, the three parties finally reached a common agreement. Minahan still got the comics and opera adaptations he wanted to shoot the most, a large amount of cash compensation, and a five-year distribution contract signed with Cannon Pictures. Every year, 21st Century Pictures, which will soon belong to him, can let Cannon unconditionally release five movies, and the rest will be negotiated separately.

Ronald used much less money to get a bunch of early Hong Kong old action movies in 21st Century's film library. And the production rights of some low-cost horror movies in the shooting plan.

Cannon, run by Giancarlo Parretti and Yoram, saved some money and also got the property rights problem resolved as soon as possible.

The three quickly signed the contract, and Yoram also came over. As the new CEO, he also had to sign part of the agreement.

"Minahan..." Yoram came over and greeted his cousin. Business is business, and forcing him out was a last resort.

"Ah... puff..." Minahan ignored him and spit on the ground.

"Cheers..." Fortunately, Giancarlo Paretti opened the celebratory champagne of the United States, which resolved the embarrassment of the two.

"Cheers..." Ronald also raised his glass.

This time, it was considered to have achieved the effect with very little money. It was a victory of some size.

However, the original acquisition funds and the money used to reorganize the company after the acquisition had no place to spend now. He had to discuss money with his personal accountant Lawrence again.

"Well, buy me some Coca-Cola, as much as you can."