Hollywood Hunter

Los Angeles, a movie theater in downtown Beverly.

Around ten o'clock in the evening, Michael Eisner and Michael Ovitz each took their family out of a VIP hall in the theater.

The car was already waiting on the street at the back door of the theater.

The two Hollywood gangsters listened to the excitement of the wife and children beside them, and sat in a car together. After the car started, they looked at each other with some face to face.

The two family members have just watched "Wonder Woman", which is a large-scale painting today.

Unlike wives and children who just watched an excellent movie, the two Michaels were a bit worried at this time.

Three years ago, "Batman: Moment of War" relied on hot action design and advanced CG special effects to open up the situation of the DC movie universe. This time "Wonder Woman" is compared with the previous two "Batman" The big movies and "The Flash" are obviously a step further.

Ordinary viewers often find it difficult to appreciate the technical details contained in a film. Michael Eisner and Michael Ovitz are naturally different.

In this "Wonder Woman", the action design is still wonderful, and it seems to be full of a lot of real shot scenes, but the proportion of CG special effects is obviously more than the previous DC superhero movies, such as the magic in the film The mantra lasso, one of the important weapons of the heroine, is generated by CG in many shots.

At the end of the film, the decisive battle between Wonder Woman and Ares, the use of large-scale CG images, is even more breathtaking.

There have been many major movie productions in Hollywood. However, in the past, the endings have basically returned to rationality.

Jeffrey Kasenberg, head of Disney’s film business, also publicly issued a memo two years ago calling for Hollywood to return to low-budget movies. Michael Eisner originally agreed with this view.

Even the DC movie universe blockbuster series that has emerged in recent years is more of a special case.

The high-budget action blockbuster represented by Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger has failed repeatedly in recent years.

On the contrary, even for Daenerys Entertainment, apart from the DC Film Universe project, a series of blockbuster blockbusters from previous years, "The Ghost Story Is Gone", "Sixth Sense of Soul", "Wind Moon Beauty", "Bodyguard" , "Home Alone", etc., are all low-cost production films, and few of them have a production budget of more than 30 million US dollars.

However, after watching this "Wonder Woman" personally tonight, Michael Eisner found that the beliefs he insisted on were shaken again.

Blockbuster-level big production and big budget films may really be the future of Hollywood.

Michael Eisner was worried at this time because of the weak background of Disney's blockbuster movie production, or, more accurately, the huge gap between Disney and Daenerys in the production of blockbuster movies.

Through the accumulation of several DC movie universe films, Daenerys Entertainment has formed a very powerful film technology team, which includes everything from motion design to CG scene production.

Especially for CG technology, I just watched "Wonder Woman", Michael Eisner feels that the accumulation of Danielle’s special effects in CG technology may have exceeded that of other movie special effects teams in the same period for three to five years. The Lucas Industrial Light and Magic Studio, which created the "Star Wars" series, has been far removed from the special effects of Daenerys.

Although Daenerys special effects have always maintained an attitude of external cooperation, Disney's summer sci-fi family comedy "Dear, I made my child bigger", most of the special effects are responsible for Daenerys special effects.

However, it is conceivable that if Disney wants to compete with Daenerys Entertainment in a larger-scale special effects movie, and then depends on the other party's technical resources, it is impossible.

In addition to Daenerys special effects, whether it is industrial light magic or some other second-level special effects companies,

Three years later, Daenerys special effects will certainly not stay where they are.

Therefore, the Hollywood studio, the most convenient way to produce the top CG special effects scene, is to cooperate with Daenerys Entertainment.

but.As long as they are slightly visionary executives of the studio, they can feel that this cooperation is full of threats that may be threatened by Daenerys entertainment at any time.

To get rid of this threat, either do not get involved in the field of special effects movies, or you can only start from scratch.

The limousine shuttled through the streets of Los Angeles at night. Michael Eisner thought about the studio's breakthrough in the field of special effects movies. Michael Ovitz's inner worry was deeper than him.

This "Wonder Woman" has a production budget of up to 80 million US dollars, but the salaries of several core creators of the film, including directors, screenwriters, male and female protagonists, and several core supporting roles, which is the "online cost" of a movie. , The total is less than 10 million US dollars.

It can be said that Daenerys Entertainment has invested nearly 90% of the film's production budget into the shooting and post-production of Wonder Woman.

After CAA creatively proposed the project packaging mechanism, the'online fees' of Hollywood movies throughout the 1980s often reached 50% or more of a movie.

Now, DC movie universe projects such as "Wonder Woman" may still have their own superhero IP blessings, so there is no need to invite top stars.However, once this trend appears in other blockbuster projects, it is likely to have a subversive impact on the traditional compensation system of Hollywood stars.

If the blockbuster with special effects as a selling point does not need a big star to sell, there will probably be no other studios willing to invite stars, to endure all the requirements of the big star and even the high salary that is attached to the basic salary. Amount of profit sharing.

When this trend is formed, the current first-line stars, if they want to be not gradually marginalized, can only take the initiative to lower their value.

Michael Ovitz couldn't help but think of Daenerys Entertainment's recent "Forrest of Forrest Gump" which has just been finalized with two CAA filmmakers Robert Zemigis and Tom Hanks.

Because of the need to use a lot of special effects, the budget of Forrest Gump will reach about 50 million US dollars, which is undoubtedly a blockbuster level.At the same time, because of the high budget required for film production, neither Zegigis nor Hanks can ask for too high a salary.

Daenerys Entertainment has also offered to offer a salary reduction commission, but the production budget of 50 million US dollars, plus the announcement cost of even half of the production cost, "Forrest Gump" wants to be recovered through the local box office. The cost is also about 150 million US dollars at the box office.

Such a feature film about a fool's "rampage" in the modern history of the United States, let alone 150 million, even at the $50 million box office, people are worried about whether they can get it.

Give up voluntarily?

This is the same way.

The current coffee positions of Ezemigis and Hanks really have enough confidence to abandon this project, and both of them do not lack film appointments.

However, considering that this is a film that Simon Westero personally wrote the script, both of them have some concerns.

Rather than worrying about Westero's anger at the rejection of the project, once the two of them give up and the project will succeed again in the future, it is likely that two competitors will appear in Hollywood.

Especially Hanks, the actor who is approaching middle age, does not want Hollywood to have another actor of the same type to compete with him.

This is an example of Hollywood's first-line actresses that have clearly been'surplus' in recent years.

Simon Westero was born and turned out a huge number of Hollywood newcomers.

In terms of actresses, in just a few years, there are different generations of Sandra Bullock, Meg Ryan, Valerie Galino, Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman, Demi · A large number of actresses such as Moore have quickly risen and advanced through a series of blockbuster blockbuster movies.

The "Wonder Woman" that has just been released obviously will launch another Famique Jensen.

However, Hollywood can give this large number of first-line actress opportunities, in fact, not so many.

As the number increases, the relative value naturally decreases.

After relying on "Wind Moon Beauty" to become famous in one fell swoop, it is reasonable to say that Julia Roberts starred in a movie, which should be able to shout to a high price of 5 million US dollars. However, last year's "Captain Hawke" played Tinker Baier Julia Roberts actually got only 2 million US dollars.

$2 million is not much, but if Julia Roberts does not play, then there may be Nicole Kidman, Valerie Gallino, or Meg Ryan may also want Try it.

It is conceivable that if the actresses Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, who initially cooperated with Simon Westeros, could firmly'monopolize' the sales projects under Daenerys Entertainment, then, simply There will not be so many'latecomers'.

This is the situation that Tom Hanks is facing at this time.

Simon Westero likes to use different actresses on different projects. However, in terms of actor, Daenerys Entertainment seems to be quite special.

Not to mention the actor of the DC movie universe project, in recent years, Robert De Niro, Tom Hanks, Keanu Reeves and others have almost become the reserved actor under Daenerys Entertainment.In addition, Ovitz also inquired that Westeros was deliberately cultivating Coppola's nephew Nicholas Cage, and the other party would obviously become the descendant of Daenerys Entertainment in the future.

However, based on Michael Ovitz's understanding of the young man, he is very clear that if De Niro and Hanks and others are too demanding on some projects, Westeros will not hesitate to replace him.

Daenerys Entertainment has done this more than once.

Therefore, after several contacts, the relatively conservative Robert Zemigis finally decided to accept the $6 million one-time director's remuneration from Daenerys Entertainment. This price is comparable to the value of Zemigis and is not high or low.

Tom Hanks chose a base salary plus share contract, a base salary of $3 million, plus a 5% North American box office share.

Last year's "Captain Hawke", Sony gave Steven Spielberg, Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams a total of 40% of the omni-channel net profit share, of which Spielberg 20%, Hoffman and Williams each 10%.

Because of the huge cost of "Captain Hawke" and the tepidness at the box office, Spielberg's total 40% net profit sharing plan is actually a pile of waste paper.

Although the public often hears that certain stars have received huge salaries of tens of millions of dollars for the sharing contract of a certain movie, in reality, Hollywood stars are not as willing to accept the sharing plan as the outside world imagines.

Within the circle, everyone prefers to refer to the follow-up share plan as "back pay share", because this model is often used by studios when they want to lower the project budget and reduce risks.In Hollywood, only four or five hundred movies are registered each year, and the box office sells out only ten or twenty movies.

Therefore, the model that Daenerys Entertainment directly gives to the box office is actually very kind.

Even if "Forrest Gump" lost at the box office and only took back $10 million or $20 million at the North American box office, Hanks would still be able to extract from it.

Because of several previous selling projects such as "Flying Over the Future" and "Few Good People", Hanks' current salary has been able to call for 8 million to 10 million US dollars.

Before the movie Forrest Gump, which was about to start shooting in Seattle in the second half of the night, Hanks received a one-time pay of $8 million.

This time, "Forrest Gump", because Westeros personally participated in the screenwriter and led the project, Michael Ovitz knew that Daenerys Entertainment would never get this movie on budget, even if it was really smashed. Out of $60-70 million, the box office will fail in the future, and Daenerys Entertainment is fully affordable.

However, Daenerys Entertainment still very carefully controls the budget of Forrest Gump.

Regarding Hanks' compensation plan, even if it is a "wage arrears share", there is still no omni-channel profit share plan.

Counting it out, if Forrest Gump's North American box office can reach 100 million US dollars, Daenerys Entertainment can ensure profitability through follow-up operations. Hanks' 5% local box office share is a base fee of 3 million US dollars. , And can only reach the equivalent of 8 million US dollars in Sleepless in Seattle.

All in all, Daenerys Entertainment, on the whole, is suppressing the unrestricted remuneration of Hollywood's top stars.

Michael Ovitz clearly discovered this phenomenon, and many Hollywood stars clearly felt this trend, but they were somewhat helpless.

Unless, Daenerys Entertainment planted a few big heels in succession, and since then has been stagnant.

Only then will Hollywood stars be able to regain their initiative and gain the same power in Hollywood as they used to for many years.

Only, is this possible?

Judging from the development of Daenerys Entertainment in recent years, this Hollywood giant that has annexed MCA has evolved into a comprehensive media group. Even if there are a few big players in the movie, there is no decline in the short term. Possibility.