Hollywood starts with animation

In fact, Zhuke himself was quite surprised to be able to obtain a series of copyrights for "300" so quickly.

Because the author of "300", that's the famous comic master Frank Miller!

He has created famous comics such as "Batman: The Dark Knight", "Superman and Batman" for DC;

During the Marvel era, he participated in the creation of many comics such as "The Amazing Spider-Man", "The Dare" series, "Elektra" series, "Fantastic Four" series, etc.;

His "Sin City" series of comics created by Dark Horse Comics pushed him to the altar in one fell swoop.

In the field of comics in the United States, he is a famous figure.

"The Frank Miller in my impression, he is a master of comics, that's right, but he is also notoriously difficult to do!"

"In terms of major Hollywood companies, its reputation is very bad!"

Zhuke couldn't help but recall.

Leaving aside others, it is just the "Sin City" series of movies starring Bruce Willis. In order to obtain the copyright, the film production company has repeatedly negotiated with Frank and the negotiation lasted for a year; and , The production company also paid a 15% North American box office share for this.

Yes, you read it right!

It is 15% North American box office share, not net profit share.

In other words, through the "Sin City" series of films, Frank Miller has received more than $50 million from the production company.

This price completely exceeds the film and television copyrights of many well-known comics!

"The film and television copyright of "Spider-Man", Lao Tzu won it, but it cost 10 million US dollars."

"Frank is really dark enough!"

Not only that, Frank, who tasted the sweetness of the "Sin City" movie, will intensify in the future.

"I want to be a film producer, I must be the first producer!"

"I want to be the director of a famous movie!"

"Box office share 15%?"

"No! There is no 20% North American box office share, please don't bother me!"

"Even if necessary, I will personally serve as the director of a film adapted from a comic!"

Well, Frank Miller is such a headache for major Hollywood studios.

He is a manga painter, does he know movie production?

Well, even if he understands, how does it compare to those senior Hollywood filmmakers?!

As for this time, Zhuke was able to obtain the copyright of "300" so quickly and successfully because Frank has not yet started the "vampire" mode.

Before 1997, Frank had many comics copyrights, and he was well-known for the film and television copyrights of Robocop. The others were either too niche, or he was still hiding and selling them.

"300"?

What it is?!

"300" is just a very humble one among the many comic copyrights in Frank Miller's hand.

Therefore, Zhuke only paid 1.2 million US dollars to win a series of copyrights for "300".

Well, of course, there is also a 3% share of North American box office net profit.

Divided, Zhu Ke really doesn't want to give it!

But Frank is not short of money!

If we can't agree, he won't sell it in a big deal.

Frank said at the time: "Without the box office share of the movie, I will never sell any comics copyright."

At first hearing these words, Zhuke wanted to slap his old face on the spot.

Your face is so big!

In fact, this result is already a blessing in misfortune.

He is rich

There are many copyrights in his hand;

He is not at all worried that he will not be able to sell the copyrights of many comics in his hand.

In the original time and space, Frank served as the producer of "Spartan 300 Warriors" with a tough stance. He was extremely amateurish in film production. He dragged the film for more than two years before shooting.

His various tough stances greatly harmed the interests of the production company.

.......

After a long discussion between Zhuke and Zhadao, Zach Schneider left Wald Pictures contentedly.

This time, although he was not able to start the film preparations for "300" immediately, he still took a screenplay from Wald Pictures.

Not "300"!

It's the script of "Human Removal Project"!

Well, of course the capitalist Zhu Ke will not let him wait for the 10-month window period, but will squeeze him severely.

"Human Removal Project" is among the many types of Hollywood movies, the one with lower cost, and it just so happens that Zhuke has watched its tetralogy in his last life.The production cost of the first part of the series was less than US$10 million. However, its global box office was close to US$100 million.

Although this profit ratio is not comparable to the famous "Chain Saw", it is not much worse.

"It's not that I didn't think about making "Saw Horror", but I just heard of it in my previous life, but I haven't seen it~!

I hate less when the book is used!

In his last life as a student, Zhuke liked all kinds of Lywood movies, whether it was high-cost popcorn blockbusters or low-cost genres.

However... after I started working, I rarely watched Hollywood niche movies.

When I go to the cinema to watch movies, most of the time I watch domestic comedies.Well, even if you watch Hollywood movies, you still watch various special effects blockbusters.

...

...

At the end of January 1997.

Zhuke left the Burbank area where he stayed for a long time and drove to Silicon Valley early in the morning.

Going to Silicon Valley today, but there is a big deal!

Today, icq will hold its first share expansion meeting, which is the Series A financing meeting.

None of the representatives of the parties invited to participate in the Series A financing meeting is weak, not the current Internet giants IBM, Microsoft, Cisco, or Wall Street investment banks such as ****, Goldman Sachs, and Citigroup.

In fact, icq has launched a round of financing at this stage, and Zhu Ke disagrees.

Well, it is firmly opposed!

Because today's icq users are worth more than 4 million, and they have not shown their potential in the future.Carrying out A round of financing now will only be underestimated by the market.

However, the founding team of icq such as Visger and Vardy held a firm financing attitude towards this.

"Icq's development has now reached a bottleneck and requires huge development funds."

In this regard, Zhuke, Weisge and others have a common attitude.

"If I want capital, I can make additional investments. Of course, I can even provide the company with interest-free loans of $10-20 million for the company's further expansion."

But the point of difference is that, as the founding team, they are unwilling to allow Zhu Ke to hold 45%, which is enough to threaten their holding, and continue to exist.

They are eager to bring in other shareholders as a way to counterbalance Zhu Ke, who owns a large amount of equity.

For this reason, they did not hesitate to kill a thousand enemies and hurt themselves eight hundred!

Well, even if Zhu Ke had signed a priority co-investment agreement with them, it was enough to ensure that the shares were not diluted, but it would inevitably be targeted by a large number of giants, even famous Wall Street investment banks!

Dude, no matter which one of them is, Zhu Ke can't afford to offend at this stage!

There is no doubt that it is inevitable that Zhu Ke's shares will be diluted.

Obviously, Zhu Ke, who is currently the largest individual shareholder of ICQ, is no longer as intimate with Wisker and others as they once were, and even began to be in an opposite position.

The two sides have irreconcilable contradictions.

Of course this is not uncommon.

For most companies, when they have reached a certain stage of development, the game between the company's management and shareholders is really a common practice.

"It seems it's time for Lao Tzu to start again."

Zhu Ke thought secretly in his heart: "The long-planned Internet company LinkedIn has finally reached its time to come out."

"" First update