Hollywood legendary director

The first part of "Thor", with a shooting budget of $150 million, first day revenue of $36.22 million (plus midnight shows), opening weekend of 82.45 million, to the final North American total of 294 million (accounting for about 60%), overseas 193 million (accounting for about 40%). The box office fell to 487 million, such a height, how to look at the second part is not to jump up too much.

It is true that the "Fate of the Fallen" can provide a considerable market increment for the characters appearing in the movie, but it cannot be inflated to the extent that the works of a single character background support can be compared to the viewing trend of hugging nodes and big events.

In other words, the 1.5 billion plus global box office is the result of viewers at home and abroad watching and watching, not the number of viewers going against the grain.

In other words, more than 1.5 billion at the global box office is the result of viewers at home and abroad, not the highest number of moviegoers. To make it clearer, comic book movies are not a "all ages" type of movie, and most of their success is supported by the audience under 35 years old.

According to the market conditions, the second part of the shooting, because of the change of the salary of the main creative team and the increase of the special effects shots, the cost budget has risen to 170 million RMB, and counting the future publicity expenses, it is normal that the cost will reach about 250 million RMB. Yes: the second part must be more than 600 million worldwide, and the North American market accounted for nearly half of the box office net profit, "Thor 2" to earn the first part of the box office net profit, if the landing point down, down by 12%, "Thor 2" can only rely on offline and copyright peripheral profit.

What does that mean?

In the eyes and experience of Liam and other distribution management, the addition brought by the "Fosun" to "Thor" will not be more than 20%, and this is after the second screening, the audience's performance is consistent with the first film, there is a sequel to the market addition.

From this point of view, Blue Butterfly set the pre-publicity spending at 60 million, fearing that the first week would be unfavorable, leaving a natural stop-loss room for maneuvering, and that it would be difficult to realize the investment if it was too much, and the investment would be disproportionate to the return.

This kind of proactive approach needs to be maintained at all times in an industry where there are many unknowns like film and television.

The program is set, and the time is drawing near.

The publicity for Thor 2 has entered a critical sprint, and the joint distribution team of Blue Butterfly Pictures and Fox has been holding small meetings almost all day and running around.

As the competition in the market was significantly fiercer this year than last year, and the studios had more average line projects popping up than last year, there was no room for slacking off and drowning in the past to ensure the mesh of the MCU in the second phase.

But just as the promotion of Thor 2 was being rolled out, fan enthusiasm was high, and the corresponding pre-sales processes were set, only to test the results of the waiting time, an old buddy who had taken over Lyman's assignment after months of absence, Comrade Johnson, knocked on the office door with a relaxed attitude.

When the assistant Mays first came in to remind him, Lyman thought there was something wrong with the announcement of Thor 2, but when he found out it was him, Lyman knew that after the high-profile operation of Avatar and Reunion, a long-anticipated project had the roots to get off the ground.

"I finally convinced him that I was back." Dressed in a well-crafted casual suit and carrying a briefcase, Johnson wore a hint of fatigue, but couldn't hide his face.

"Welcome back."

The two men touched shoulders and sat down opposite each other.

"Whew, those days made a big impression on me, though. Stubborn writers, passionate filmmakers, and that magnificent throne of power." Johnson patted his briefcase with some pride, "but I was able to impress him and get the rights to rewrite it. To be honest, your decision really surprised me. Speaking the word crazy, until now, Johnson couldn't help but raise an eyebrow in amazement.

"I thought you'd be used to it all by now. I've always believed that a director's and a crew's true intentions are going to be seen and felt by the audience, so I'm never afraid to commit as long as it's worth it." Lyman laughed, "There's no question that I need a television production that carries its frame, its script enough to play on the ramshackle ground of the upper echelon."

"Well, I thought you were pouring all your drive into the movie, even when you decided to invest in Avatar in the first place, but it didn't shock me as much as planning to execute the project. There's no precedent for high investment, but you've committed, haven't you, to going into production anyway." As Lyman's agent, Johnson knew his client well enough to just open his briefcase and grin, "So, I've brought you the rights to a series of adaptations you wanted, the rights to the film and television portions, and the right of first refusal on subsequent series. By the way, I've also negotiated the Hunger Games that you wanted, which was a lot easier than the hard work on the former."

A spreading of documents, copyright filings, along with the "harsh" adaptation conditions, is a sorry iron throne of thorns "Song of Ice and Fire".

And Johnson's lament is justified.

In the past few years, he has negotiated almost all of Lyman's sudden rights acquisitions, from "The Queen in Prada" to "Twilight" to the $13 million signing of the fledgling "Hunger Games" to George Martin's fantasy book "A Song of Ice and Fire", which was rumored to be "too greasy for its own good".

Of all these, Lyman was not the first to float the idea of adapting A Song of Ice and Fire, but he was definitely the most proactive and soft-spoken financier.

The first volume, published in early 1996 by Shorty's Chicken Books, has been translated into more than thirty languages in a series that has accumulated a solid reputation in Western fantasy circles, and since the explosion of the Lord of the Rings series, countless money-minded businessmen have searched for a homogeneous product to find George Martin, all to no avail.

At the beginning of the new millennium, at the age of 52, a man in the prime of life, a writer who idolized Tolkien, knew exactly what he wanted.

In later years, all fans of the play and the book will know that the writers of "Journey to Power", D. B. Weiss and David Benioff, were the creative souls of the play, controlling the direction of the adaptation.

But perhaps few people know that these two had no credentials prior to adapting A Song of Ice and Fire, and that they almost convinced George Sr. to do so with a mouthful.

A very real question is: How can a newcomer with far less seniority and resources than an old man in the industry win over a big client to get a chance to develop his talents?

2DB's most informative answer to this question is: I can put my heart and soul into it without any distractions, and that's all I have.

That's why so many of the best industry producers and writers have fought for the rights to adapt A Song of Ice and Fire, only to be negotiated by the weakest party.

Do they have the money? No, they didn't even know how much they would be able to negotiate for the budget once the project was finalized, and the first producer they sought was not HBO.

In other words, there was no guarantee that they would be able to secure a high budget for such a fantasy epic, just as the executives at showtime threw the script in the trash when they learned that they wanted to shoot an episode for at least 3 million.

As a platform, they took it for granted that the risk was too high, because the environment of American drama was not the same as it was in the days before the Internet and the movie industry, when visual effects technology was not yet developed. Can you guarantee that a 4 or 50 million dollar investment in a TV series will be profitable? It was also an uncontrollable fantasy epic that was constantly facing budget increases.

After seeing 2DB's detailed character analysis diagram and annotation plan, HBO took the attitude of "affordability" and increased the single-season budget all the way up to 6 million, and that's how HBO was able to hold the bull stock.

HBO didn't hesitate during this period? Yes, otherwise they wouldn't have spent 1.5 years from the start of the project to the official shooting of the first few episodes of the material.

The real reason for the delay was that HBO was not so firm and sure about the budget, and there were arguments about the rising budget, and at one point they wanted to give up - mainly because it was too expensive to shoot in Iceland and Malta, and Iceland was cold, and the HBO production team was overwhelmed by the cost of supplies outside of shooting.

If it weren't for the fact that the concept episodes were embraced by avid fans, HBO would have had more confidence, and the short-lived "Power Trip" might have been aborted.

In other words.

There's no doubt that Lyman was interested in the rights to adapt A Song of Ice and Fire, and he wanted to take care of the original author, Master Georges.

After all, unlike the average utilitarian pop author, George was not short of money before he wrote his book - he quit his job at the age of 30 to pursue his literary dream full-time.

George himself said in an interview and when asked by the press what motivated you to create: "I think I was trying to create because I had nothing to consume."

To put it in human terms, you're full of food and looking for fun.

To put it bluntly, many cultural masterpieces are the product of "full-bodied" pleasure.

In this context, how did Johnson persuade George Martin, who, like Stephen King, was notorious for not creating for money and was always afraid that the "businessman" would sully his efforts?

Not to mention that in '10 2DB had already approached George and launched an enthusiastic campaign.

These two die-hard fans came to ...... with the hope that their masterpiece would be seen by more people through television.