Chapter 938 Talk

"Oh, dear Qian, hello, I'm your fan, loyal fan! And I'm also your movie fan, I firmly believe that Chinese kung fu movies will one day become popular all over the world!"

"Hi Mr. Anderson, thank you!"

…………

"Ah, Qian! Our great oriental musician and great oriental director! Nice to meet you!"

"Hi Mr. Smith, thank you, you've been honored."

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"Look who it is, my God, Qian, I have to say, you are my daughter's idol, please don't come to my house as a guest in the future, or my daughter will elope with you!"

"Mr. Oliver, you are exaggerating, but thank you! When you get home, please tell your daughter that Qian is indeed handsome, okay?"

"Oh my God, don't do that!"

…………

One, one, and another.

Meet, greet, exchange pleasantries, make a small joke, chat.

One person, another person.

In fact, as long as you let go of your thinking, you should no longer simply talk about the release of "Gourd Baby" as a separate matter, but treat the two-way publishing cooperation in the next few years as a big business. Here you can discuss cooperation, and there are many major distributors and major studios who are willing to discuss cooperation with Minghu Culture.

Today, Hollywood movies dominate the world. Except for a few countries’ self-produced movies that can barely support themselves in the local market, in most other places in the world, the local movie industry is already inferior to the powerful Hollywood movies. He was basically squeezed so that he could only linger on, with only a faint breath left.

Including the European literary and artistic films that once ruled the world's film industry for decades, as well as the unique Japanese films that were famous for being "full of oriental thinking and beautiful oriental style" in the 1980s and 1990s. , and now it is no longer beautiful.

Europe and Japan have become the most important ticket warehouses for Hollywood movies.

The so-called Hollywood, of course, is not just a few big studios. The entire Los Angeles area, that is, Hollywood in a narrow sense, has hundreds of production companies of various sizes, and the United States does not rely on these professional production companies. There are at least a few hundred independent films produced by independent film companies every year. However, it has to be said that what independent films provide is only the breadth of American films, which is a kind of exploration. It is the seven major film companies in Hollywood that truly represent American movies and represent Hollywood, which is well known to movie fans all over the world.

If Minghu Culture wants to talk about cooperation, of course it also needs to talk to these companies.

Disney is one of them, but only one of them.

Twentieth Century Fox and Paramount, which produced and distributed "Titanic", as well as Columbia, Universal Pictures, Warner Brothers, etc., each of them is strong enough, and they are the absolute powerhouses in the forest of world movies ——But no matter which one, they will be very interested in gaining the friendship of a company with strong distribution capabilities in China.

What's more, the condition is only to distribute a movie of China Qian as an agent.

And this movie is an animation movie that other major Hollywood production companies are extremely weak except for Disney-they are willing to compete with Disney's "Wig the Pooh"!

Of course, this attitude is very good and appreciated! But in actual operation, this is actually a not very beautiful distribution plan-our purpose is to make money, not to make people angry, isn't it?

However, this cooperation is of course exciting!

So, in the following period of time, under the leadership of John Days, Li Qian began to circle among several major Hollywood studios, meeting and greeting relevant people of major companies.

As for the real negotiating tasks, they are all handed over to John Days.

Then, following the meeting and talking along the way, the people from several major production companies that Li Qian and John Dyce met were getting higher and higher.

Until later, several companies whose opinions tended to be the same all dispatched executive presidents, at least people at the level of vice presidents and executive directors, to meet with John Dyce and Li Qian.

Suddenly, John Days seemed to be back to his most glorious time.

It's just that at that time, he had his back on James Cameron, but now, he has his back on Li Qian. Or it can be said that he is backed by the entire Chinese film market.

Finally, after such rounds of contacts, collisions, negotiations, and fighting for every inch of land, for about ten days, the situation began to gradually become clear.

After collecting a lot of information and having various cooperation plans in his mind, John Deiss drove straight to Liao after he came out of the 20th Century Fox film company he was most familiar with. Liao's mansion in Los Angeles - The negotiations in the past few days have gradually entered the substantive stage. In order to keep room for relaxation, Li Qian no longer directly participated in the negotiations, and stayed in Liao Liao's mansion.

When the electronically controlled gate slowly opened, John Dyce drove the car in, and from a distance, Li Qian was already standing on the steps in front of the house waiting.

John Dyce got out of the car and stepped up directly.

The two shook hands, and Li Qian smiled and said, "Thank you."

John Dyce laughed, and the two walked into the house side by side.

Is it hard?

Really hard work!

In the past ten days or so, he has seen the top brains in Hollywood every day. Everyone is quick in thinking and full of wit. To deal with it with energy, you can ensure that you will not be taken away by others.

However, after several years of troughs in life and career, this time wandering between several major Hollywood studios, meeting and discussing cooperation every day, are all big figures in charge of Hollywood, but it made him quickly I have returned to the peak of my life state and mental state!

After the two of them entered the room and sat down, before the servants brought drinks, John Deiss couldn't wait to say: "Boss, I feel that we have already talked about it. The general situation of each family is basically the same. After the negotiation, the next step is to determine one or two of them and conduct in-depth detailed negotiations.”

Seeing Li Qian nodded, he turned his head and thanked the servant who brought the drink, then opened his briefcase and said, "Except for the Disney Group, when the other six heard that we can reverse produce for them The distribution of films in China, and the negotiations are very active.”

"After repeated contact and selection, I think we can exclude MGM and Universal Pictures! They also agreed to distribute "Calabash Baby" as an agent, but they required us to sign an exclusive distribution agreement, that is, Once we reach a cooperation with them, in the next five years, we will only be able to represent their company's distribution business in China, and we will not be able to cooperate with any company. As you said, this is an impossible condition for us to accept, it is too great Harsh."

After a pause, he waved his hand, "They are too arrogant, they don't regard us as an equal and mutually beneficial partner at all, they just want to develop us into their agency distribution company in the East!"

Li Qian nodded slowly. This is one of the two rules they set up early in the morning before they contacted the major film companies: First, we will not be a company's offline, and we will not sign an exclusive agreement. It is an equal cooperative relationship; second, since "Calabash Baby", Minghu Culture will bring several films from China every year to request to be launched in North America, but it will never accept the buyout agreement, and it is the same as the first one What's more, exclusive agreements are not accepted either!

In Li Qian's view, these two items are the basis of all cooperation.

Because once the exclusive agreement is signed, as the Chinese issuer, Minghu Culture will lose the right to choose, and as the publisher in the United States, Minghu Culture will also lose the right to choose.

As we all know, once you lose the right to choose, you can only be slaughtered at critical moments!

At this time, John Dess has continued: "Although Paramount and Warner Bros. are very strong, they agree to our precondition, which is to establish a cooperation mechanism for both parties, and I will negotiate with them separately. A series of cooperation agreements were also negotiated based on this point. However, for the subsequent release in the United States, they gave very harsh conditions, and I am not very satisfied."

"Paramount promised to introduce three to five Chinese films recommended by Minghu Culture every year and release them publicly in North America, but they only promised to ensure that each film can be distributed to a maximum of 800 theaters, and promised One of the films will be distributed in more than 1,000 theaters."

"Warner Brothers' conditions are a little more relaxed. They require Minghu Culture to introduce at least five films produced by them every year, and they will open their own film source library for Minghu Culture to choose at any time. However, they require the five films produced by them each year. Movies must all be distributed at the box office, and buyouts and film approvals are not accepted. As a response, they agreed to arrange three Chinese movies recommended by us every year to be distributed by them in the entire North American region , is also a bill-sharing model, and they promised that these three films will have a distribution scale of no less than 1,000 theaters, and one of them can be determined by ourselves, and they will do their best to meet our needs. Issue requirements."

While he was talking, Li Qian nodded. When he finished speaking, he paused for a long time. Li Qian looked up and saw that he was looking at him expectantly. He didn't seem to want to continue talking. Surprised, said: "Go on, there are two more?"

John Dess shrugged and said: "I thought you would be satisfied with the result of my negotiation, because in my opinion, these two companies are good partners, Paramount and Warner Bros. are now in the limelight. It is a better choice to choose them as a partner. And the conditions I have discussed have basically guaranteed that we will not suffer in this two-way publishing cooperation!"

Li Qian shrugged, noncommittal.

Compared with other companies, this condition seems to be good, but it is still not completely fair for five to three—of course, this is not unacceptable.

After all, as long as many Hollywood movies are brought to China, it is often easier to make a profit. However, it is hard to say whether Chinese movies will be accepted and make money if they are brought to North America.

So at this time, he just smiled and said, "So, in other words, in your opinion, neither 20th Century Fox nor Columbia are suitable? Are their conditions more stringent than MGM and Universal Pictures?"

John Dess said immediately after hearing the words: "That's not true! But you know, I talked to you after the negotiation was over a few days ago. Twentieth Century Fox proposed to hold shares in Minghu Culture. You can’t accept it! And once this condition is stripped away, the other party is only interested in the distribution of their films by Minghu Culture, and has been reluctant to discuss with me deeply about the distribution of Chinese films by them. Let's discuss! So in my opinion, their sincerity for this cooperation negotiation is questionable."

Li Qian nodded slowly when he heard the words, "Understood!"

Then he sighed again and said, "Twentieth Century Fox is rich and powerful now!"

John Dyce shrugged helplessly upon hearing this.

At that time, James Cameron's "Titanic" almost brought down 20th Century Fox. At the critical moment, John Dice helped James Cameron get Paramount's capital injection. It was finally guaranteed that the production of "Titanic" would be completed on schedule, and then it would be released on schedule.

The combination of the two major Hollywood studios made the film almost the largest release and publicity effort, which contributed to the super sales of "Titanic".

Since then, although Paramount has made a lot of money from the production and distribution of this film, it has developed smoothly since then. Twentieth Century Fox also seems to have shaken off the old decadence and suddenly found a way to rise , In recent years, they have been able to produce several movies that sell well in the United States and around the world every year. Even Fox Searchlight, their sub-label, has been able to make a lot of money almost every year in recent years.

As a result, 20th Century Fox, after experiencing a trough for nearly a decade, suddenly re-emerged and became a powerful presence among the seven major Hollywood studios that could compete with Disney and Warner Bros.

So, it's pretty strong.

After thinking about it, Li Qian had no choice but to give up this company completely in his heart, so he asked, "So, what about Columbia? Isn't it suitable? They shouldn't be so strong, right?"

John Dess laughed when he heard this, "Of course they cannot be as strong as other companies! On the contrary, they are most interested in being able to cooperate with us and carry out two-way distribution negotiations, and they are most willing to participate in various compromised on these conditions. But..."

Speaking of this, John Dess laughed again, "You know, this company has been going from bad to worse in the past ten years, and now I even suspect that maybe one day, they will go bankrupt!"

"Comments on them in the industry believe that they missed the acquisition of Sony Corporation of Japan ten years ago, which made them miss the last chance to come back to life! Therefore, even if we have reached a particularly favorable agreement with them, in case a year later they If it goes bankrupt, what's the use of the agreement?"