Once Upon a Time In Hollywood

  Chapter 236 Greedy Sony

  Sony went too far?

  Could it be that they invited those two idiots back to harass them again?

   As soon as this idea came to Roland's mind, Spielberg on the other end of the phone had already said goodbye.

The beeping busy tone made him raise his eyebrows. He dropped his phone and glanced at the wall clock. Seeing that the time was still early, he pushed the door and went to the next door to ask David for the Sony, Amblin and Warcraft alliance. Issue the company's financial statements.

   "Wow~Wow~Wow~"

   "Roland, why did you suddenly remember to ask me for this?"

  David took Roland into the study, opened the safe, and took out all the stacks of reports belonging to this year.

   "According to the past practice, every year I bring the report to you before Christmas to ask you to reimburse, why this year..."

   "Did you take the initiative to come?"

   "Do you want to see how much money is left on the company's books, and plan to hold a large-scale celebration banquet for "Titanic"? Or are you going to be eighteen in a few days, and plan to take care of the company yourself?"

   "If it's the latter, then I'd be so happy!"

   "You don't know, in order to help you take care of the company, I'm a real estate guy, and I'm about to become a property management guy~"

  When David complained in a joking tone, he had already emptied the first safe, and then he opened the second safe, took out the plastic-enclosed documents, and continued to take out.

  The action of squatting down to pick it up coupled with the chattering words made Roland, who wanted to make fun of it, shut up.

  What the fuck?

  He only has five shell companies, why are there so many annual reports?

  If he manages this by himself, wouldn't it kill him?

  Thinking that if he agrees, he will be overwhelmed by the information all over the sky like snowflakes, and he shrinks back in an instant because of the joy that rises from the fact that he is about to win an Oscar.

Roland shivered, looked at David with one hand on his hips and one hand pressing the data mountain, and said shamelessly: "David, I will leave the company to you to take care of it... and you won't bear to watch I, a guy who hasn't even read a book, should I lose my hard-earned family fortune?"

   "Besides, you are not helping me manage the company for nothing, right?"

   "Didn't I still help you take care of the children..."

   "If Ganetti knows that you, a guy who always talks about 'family is the most important', will leave Liqi to me..."

   "Okay, okay, okay..."

   "Sit down sit down sit down..."

David, who wanted to take advantage of Roland's abnormality to tease him casually, raised his hand and put Roland on his seat after hearing Roland's revealing trading behavior, "It seems that you are in a good mood... "

   "Is it because of the hit Titanic?"

"It's a pity, I also know that the big sales of "Titanic" can make you, a record-breaking guy, happy, so I thought about moving this year's year-end settlement back, but unexpectedly, you took the initiative to find I'm talking about this..."

  Hearing these words, Roland raised his legs and put his arms around his chest.

  If it wasn't for that guy Spielberg who left half of what he said, how could he find it boring to talk about this?

Just as Roland was secretly complaining about Spielberg's actions, David, who was also seated, slowly touched his index finger along the side of the document binding. Following his movements, Roland's gaze also slipped down. After he saw the document marked Warcraft Movies and TV, David took it out, opened it and spread it between the two of them.

   "See for yourself."

  In the past 97 years, Roland has not released any new movies, so the entire company only has copyright income from the film library.

   All of them add up to 47 million.

   In addition, the video disc share of "Spider-Man" has also come down.

Unlike the 18% box office commission, the video disc commission is 6% from the copyright owner and 5% from Roland himself. Sony sold 150 million last year, and it was distributed to Roland. That's 16.5 million.

   That is to say, although Warcraft Film and Television produced zero output last year, its income was 63.5 million.

  Seeing this number, Roland was quite satisfied.

  Although the number of movies in the Warcraft film and television library is small, the quality is high.

  If it wasn't because "The Shawshank Redemption" was given away by Roland as a bargaining chip, then this movie alone could provide him with an income of 100 million a year, which belongs to the type that can collect money lying down.

  Unfortunately, the satisfaction of picking up money for nothing did not last long, and Roland was stunned by the numbers on the second page.

  Sony, Amblin and Warcraft jointly issued companies, and the entire year of 1997 turned out to be a loss!

  A company that only distributes overseas, in the case of a film distribution, can it still lose money?

   Isn't this just lying to a three-year-old child!

   Feeling something was wrong, Roland picked up the report and turned to the attachment. The series of detailed explanations made him curl his lips, "Tsk tsk tsk, Sony is playing us for fools!"

   "Hollywood movies have overseas distribution standards. Not every movie can be distributed globally!"

  "If the box office in North America doesn't exceed 50 million, then basically it won't enter the overseas distribution link, and what about Sony, they released a movie called "Prosecuting Larry Frant" this year?"

  "As a film with an investment of 36 million and a box office of 20 million in North America, how did it pass the overseas distribution review? Is it because the starring role is Woody Harrelson and the producer is Oliver Stone?"

   "The point is, it doesn't matter if you don't follow the rules for overseas distribution!"

   "For a film with an investment of 36 million yuan, the cost of global publicity is 12 million?"

   "But the box office recovered is zero?"

   "This project alone has a net loss of 12 million?"

   "If there is no problem with this project, then I will eat shit!"

   "And then, Sony also released "Honey?"

   "As a film with a box office of over 150 million in North America, it naturally has the right to distribute overseas, but..."

   "The cost of overseas publicity is 31 million?"

   "The point is, the total overseas box office is only 120 million. After deducting the theater fees, only 47 million cash was recovered..."

"Isn't this figure normal? However, after deducting the cost of publicity and distribution and the share of the production company, the total profit of this project is only 2.2 million? It's a counterbalance to the previous "Prosecution of Larry Frante" , the company still loses 9.8 million?"

   "Are you kidding us?"

  Roland flipped through the notes, the more he looked at it, the more he wanted to laugh.

If "Indictment of Larry Frante" was released in violation of regulations at all, and the distribution income of "Mr. "Air Force One", after its overseas distribution, took in a box office of 14.3 billion, but the project revenue was only 4.5 million, which is even more outrageous!

In addition, what made Roland laugh the most was that with an investment of 90 million yuan, the North American box office of 250 million and overseas box office of 339 million "Men in Black" only brought 28 million to the company. 650,000 issuance proceeds.

  Of course, if things stop here, then the entire company will still be profitable throughout 1997.

but! Shortly after the release of "Men in Black", the money earned by the company was invested by 93 million yuan, 63.8 million in North America, and 200 million overseas in "The Fifth Element". Lose…

To put it bluntly, in 1997, Sony, Amblin and Warcraft jointly released "Men in Black" worth 589 million yuan, "Air Force One" worth 315 million yuan, and "Air Force One" worth 273 million yuan. In the case of "Mr. Sweetheart", the net loss was more than one million!

  This kind of thing is simply unimaginable in the industry!

  An overseas distribution company that only earns a commission has lost money after releasing three films that topped the annual box office charts?

  The six majors don’t need to make movies, go home, wash and sleep!

   Isn’t this a good person?

   After briefly looking at the reports of the seven movies, Roland threw away the information in his hand.

  Ah, that’s not right, it’s said that the materials are exalting it, and the content on these papers is no different from rubbish.

   "Very angry?" Looking at the guy in front of him who was smiling anxiously, David sighed and asked, "Do you want to ask for an audit?"

   "Please audit? Please what audit? KPMG, Deloitte, Ernst & Young... Who among these guys can audit Hollywood's account?"

   Roland leaned back, put his hands in front of him, and said in a rambling voice, "Which Hollywood company has no problem with its account?"

   "But no one can audit clearly."

   "Disneyland has been losing money for decades, and the SEC has come forward to check, but is it useful?"

   "What's more, Sony's account, I know how it is done."

"In the case that the production company is their own, when they release, they can use the name of Columbia Pictures to distribute those films that have a chance of making money first. If the local box office is good, they can sign a distribution contract with an overseas distribution company. At that time, they can sign a distribution contract with a fixed commission, and after deducting the fixed fee, all the money can be returned to their production company. This is a reasonable and legal method, and no one can find out the fault!"

   "However, even if a fixed commission distribution contract is signed, the overseas distribution company will still make a profit."

"Therefore, they selected some projects that they knew could not be released overseas just by looking at the investment. Before the release, they directly signed a joint distribution contract with the local distribution company and the overseas distribution company. Then, the local box office lost money, triggering the linkage clause and overseas distribution. The company must carry out overseas publicity according to the distribution cost agreed in the contract, and then..."

   "These money can be legally drawn by other overseas companies in the form of commission."

"The movie "Indictment of Larry Frante" is what they used to wipe out the income of "Mr. Sweetheart", and the movie "The Fifth Element" is used to wipe out the income of "Men in Black"... "

"so…"

   "It's useless to ask for more audits."

  "They can see the problem, but these operations are all legal."

   "As for those who go overseas to track down the kind, don't even think about it..."

"I can assure you that most of the publicity expenses for "Prosecuting Larry Frante" went into the pockets of Japanese companies. A huge amount of publicity expenses were spent, but the movie could not be released as scheduled, so it caused a lot of losses..."

In fact, after seeing the negative income of the overseas distribution company, Roland knew what Spielberg was referring to because the overseas distribution company in Hollywood would lose money only under two circumstances. money!

   One is that when there were no films suitable for overseas distribution, the entire distribution company was there to eat nothing.

  The other one is that the films that I invest in and produce face huge losses locally and have to be distributed overseas.

  Besides, as long as overseas distribution companies skip the establishment period of offices in various countries, start normal operation, and continue to issue, then they will not be able to suffer losses! Because the overseas distribution company does not need to invest in the film itself, the cost of publicity and distribution is also passed on to the box office, and then has the right to commission first! In this case, if the tied pig is there, it won't lose money!

  If it loses money, it will be impossible for the Sixth National Congress to set up any overseas offices!

   No capitalist will do business that does not make money!

What now?

  After releasing three big-money movies, the company is still losing money?

  Then there is no other possibility except Sony stealing money!

  Of course, Roland wasn't too angry when he found out that Sony was doing the accounting.

  Because in his eyes, if Sony doesn’t keep accounts, that’s not normal.

   Roland in his previous life knew that Sony may not have the biggest fist among the six, but they are the most thieves.

   Chicken thieves are losing money every year!

  No matter what movie they release, they are losing money!

  After launching "The Da Vinci Code" with a global box office of 758 million, hey, the company is losing money!

  After launching "National Superman Hancock" with a global box office of 624 million, hey, the company is still losing money!

  After launching "007: Skyfall" with a global box office of 1.1 billion and "The Amazing Spider-Man" with a global box office of 757 million in one year, eh, the company's profit is only about one million...

  Seeing this kind of financial statement, a bunch of people are shouting, Sony is going to die! Sony is selling the property! Sony is going bankrupt!

hehe…

  If after launching these movies one after another, the company is still losing money...

  Then Sony would have left the scene long ago!

  The Lions Gate and Dingfeng are already dead!

  Sony that does not keep accounts is an abnormal Sony.

   And Sony who does the accounting...

   Well, if it was before, Roland would feel uncomfortable because of it, but now...

  He quietly watched Sony make a fuss.

  The more noisy Sony is, the more greedy it is, the more people want to kill it.

   "Okay, what do you mean, don't check?"

   "What are you looking for? As long as Sony doesn't let us pay to make up for the loss, Steven won't look into it either."

   "Okay, then this matter is over." David got up and threw the file into the shredder.

When the confetti fell into the transparent case like goose feathers, David sat down again and said: "I can't get involved in this kind of Hollywood matter, you can solve it yourself, but I will handle other things for you." Alright..."

   "Next, let's talk about something happy."

   "The Thai baht investment, they have settled with us."

   Note: ① Theoretically speaking, after all the overseas offices of the overseas distribution company have been established, it is impossible for the commission-only overseas distribution company to lose money in any case. ②The loss of Sony International Publishing Company in 1997 was not made up by me, but it was true. Compared with the loss caused by the establishment of overseas offices in the previous year, Sony International in 1997 was purely making losses. A lot of movies don't meet the standards of overseas release, like "Indictment Larry Frante", and then they are released overseas, the point is that the box office has not recovered, and, like "My Best Friend's Wedding" , because of balance accounts, they did not do overseas distribution. And Sony has been doing accounts for this kind of thing, I don’t know how many years it has been doing, and the cost of the production of "National Superman Hancock" could not be recovered, and then the blame was passed on to Will Smith. ③The joint distribution company loses profits, which is also a very common thing in the industry. The United International, which is run by Paramount and Universal, makes accounts every year, because it is impossible to do without accounts. The profits from "Romance World" go to Paramount, and Paramount doesn't want to give Universal the profits from "Mission: Impossible" and "Transformers." Speaking of obligations, the reason why they didn’t play Beng is entirely because the two joined forces to transfer the obligations to small companies that want to go through channels. Small companies ask them to issue, and the overseas commissions will stay with the company as operating costs. As for themselves? What they do is the work of empty-handed white wolves.

  (end of this chapter)