Movie Master

Ian sorted out his thoughts, "I made a call to Gao Wen yesterday, and then made a simple calculation. Now we can mobilize no more than two million in cash at most." Ian succinctly and directly described the results, "If you convert all the parts that can be mobilized in the stock market and funds, it can be about 800."

Among the four brothers, Gao Wen is a professional player, and his salary is undoubtedly the highest. After the end of his rookie contract, he signed a five-year contract worth 30 million US dollars. However, as a professional athlete, Gao Wen also needs to bear the burden. A lot of expenses, including training, medical care, taxes, etc.; moreover, Gao Wen has also spent a lot in these years. He bought a villa in Green Bay. which provided.

Lance raised his eyebrows in surprise, "I thought the maximum would be five hundred." Although Lance had no idea about the stock market, he also knew that the four brothers were all working for others in the final analysis. so easy.

The filming of "City of God" had already consumed all their flexible cash; and this time, the investment in "Murder with a Borrower" emptied out Chaos Films' treasury that had just been slightly filled—"The Day After Tomorrow" The proceeds are coming in one after another, not all the dividends are coming in all at once. Now the investment in "Borrowing a Knife" comes from Paramount Pictures, and the salary of the actors, the salary of the crew and other parts , Chaos Shadow Industry has not paid for the time being, and is burdened with debts.

Therefore, when Ian told him that they could spend at least two million and a maximum of eight million, Lance was quite surprised.

Ian rolled his eyes and looked at Lance helplessly, "Are you questioning my ability?" Gao Wen has worked hard in the league for twelve years and still has a lot of savings, while Ian is A very good investor has naturally accumulated some capital over the years. "However, it's not enough."

Eight million and forty million, this is a huge difference. No wonder people say that movies are a rich man's game. It is Wall Street that really determines the direction of Hollywood. Without the support of high capital, if you want to become this The game for chess players is simply impossible. The predicament of DreamWorks in the past two years is the best proof.

"I have several plans here, but none of them are necessarily applicable." In fact, the stock market is the best way to win short-term profits, but this is a gamble. My opinion is, either go to the bank for a loan, in the name of Chaos Films, there should be no problem with 25 million funds." Ian simply suggested, "I originally wanted to say, continue to cooperate with Paramount, but After listening to your proposal, this is obviously not an option—or rather, it is the last option.”

Lance didn't speak, but fell into deep thought. Ian didn't mind, leaned back in the chair a little relaxed, and said with a smile, "Of course, if you want, go to Las Vegas to gamble Luck, that's also an option."

It was originally just a joke, but Lance's eyes suddenly lit up.

Why do people always say that Hollywood is Wall Street's game? Why DreamWorks, with the backing of Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey-Katzenberg, and David-Geffen, is still Stepping into a dead end? Why is it that after New Line Pictures and MGM Pictures have fallen one after another, none of the six major film companies in Hollywood is an independent film company?

The reason is simple, film is an industry that needs money to keep running. If you just become an independent film company, then DreamWorks, Miramax, New Line, and later Lions Gate, Summit Entertainment, etc., can all be called successful; but if you want to be at the top of the Hollywood pyramid, It is almost impossible to become a top player without huge financial support.

Take Universal Pictures, which is always at the bottom among the six major Hollywood film companies, as an example. It should release ten to fifteen works a year, and there will be some fluctuations depending on the year. Among these works, there may be four or five. The investment is more than 100 million, and the investment of other works varies according to the size, which also means that they have to invest more than 800 million US dollars in the film every year, and this is only the cost of the film. If you add company staff, publicity costs, public relations costs, venue management, and surrounding operating costs, the annual expenditure will at least double, or even more. Of course, this is just a rough calculation.

But are all of these works profitable? Are these profits enough to support the operations of the entire company? Obviously not, it is already very difficult to achieve a success rate of more than 50% in a year. If you want to hit every hit, it is almost a legend in the myth.

This has also led to Universal Pictures having to seek other profit margins, such as film copyrights, peripheral sales, overseas distribution, theme parks, and so on. Only by stretching out the branches can we seek more benefits-and spreading out the branches requires strong financial support.

For reference, Universal Pictures mainly started with low-cost comedies, and its investment is the least among the six major companies-Universal Pictures, which ushered in a full-scale explosion in 2015, is a special case.

Since its establishment ten years ago, DreamWorks has made countless brilliant achievements, such as "Shrek" series, "Gladiator", "Saving Private Ryan", "A Beautiful Mind", "American Beauty", "Madagascar" series, etc. It reached the pinnacle that an independent film company could reach, and even became the "seventh largest film company" at one time. However, why did DreamWorks end in bankruptcy and was split up and sold?

It's very simple. DreamWorks releases seven or eight films every year, but only one or two are profitable, and the success of these two works cannot make up for the losses of other works, and they have no peripheral profit means. Because there is no distribution department, the interests are further divided. Most importantly, at the critical moment, without the support of backup resources, the capital chain was broken, and the fate of bankruptcy and splitting was inevitable.

Chaos Films hasn't reached the heights of Dreamworks yet, but they've run into this problem now: When Lance wanted to speed up the company's growth, he was tied up with money, and now they want to make two low-level movies at the same time. Cost films are all but impossible. What Lance lacks is not the talent to create movies, nor the ability to create successful works, but the funds to support his ambitious blueprint.

The lack of capital chain will become more and more obvious in the future, not just a "Sin City". What's more, Chaos Films is not DreamWorks yet, and the Strelo brothers don't have the abundant funds and huge people of the three giants. In other words, Chaos Films has a weaker foundation than DreamWorks, and its development is more difficult .

In the last life, Diorama Films had to proceed step by step, because the original accumulation process was arduous and long; but in this life, Lance may be able to slightly speed up the original accumulation process of Chaos Films, which is the advantage brought by rebirth one. However, Lance knew that too much was too much, how to grasp the scale and measure would be very important.

To give a simple example, it is normal for a person to win the lottery once, it is amazing to win twice, and it is not impossible to win three times, but three times in a row are the big lottery of more than 100 million US dollars... Then something is wrong, that is, Using "luck" to explain is not convincing. Perhaps the next step is the investigation of the state apparatus and the attention of the society, and the accompanying troubles will be endless.

Lance looked at Ian in front of him, he hesitated, because he had never shown his rebirth power to others, and he didn't know how to show it. Ian seemed to be aware of his hesitation, and raised his head, "I'm just joking, don't take it seriously. In Las Vegas, it's okay to win small money, and the dealer can't let you really win the big one." Ian suddenly laughed out loud, which made Lance a little confused, and then Ian chuckled, "Do you remember? Gawain's 21st birthday wish?"

Lance recalled it carefully, and then he didn't hold back, and laughed outright. Gao Wen's 21-year-old wish was to go to Las Vegas, so the four brothers went to Las Vegas once that year. In the end, Gao Wen lost all the three hundred dollars he had on him, but he still refused to admit defeat and borrowed another hundred dollars from Ian and Lance. If he didn't come back, the price would be to jump into the fountain at the entrance of the casino.

"When he ran out of the water, the security guards chased him over, and he started running around barefoot, causing the whole scene to be in chaos." Ian couldn't help laughing when he thought of Gao Wen's funny appearance that day, and then he He paused for a moment, looked at Lance, and the two of them met each other, with similar expressions in their eyes, "Finally..." Before they had time to say the following words, they both burst into laughter.

In the end, Gao Wen was not reconciled, and jumped into the fountain with Theo in his arms. That was the only time Theo was beaten by Gawain. Gawain was so frightened that he ran away on the spot, while Ian and Lance stood beside him dumbfounded.

Lance clenched his fist secretly. He didn't know if other people would treat him as a different kind if they knew that he could "foresee the future"—limited to everything that happened before 2015, and he didn't intend to take the risk; but he Knowing that Theo, Ian and Gao Wen are people he can trust unconditionally.

"Ian, have you ever considered that maybe gambling is indeed the fastest way to make money?" After Lance said this, Ian was stunned, and looked at Lance incredulously, as if he couldn't believe this at all. The sentence came out of Lance's mouth, and Lance laughed dumbly, "I'm not talking about Las Vegas, I'm talking about gambling."

"Illegal gambling?" Ian frowned slightly.

Lance shook his head, "No, legal." Lance had never tried it, he didn't know how it should work, he didn't even know how to place a bet; but Ian knew, and he could trust Ian, "I'm Say, Las Vegas will open every year when it comes to a big game, isn't it? For example, the European Cup that will kick off next week?"