In the Hollywood area, in a conference room at Paramount Pictures, Matthew and Stephen Somos each sat on the side of the conference table, and the lawyer next to the two opened the contract and pointed out where they needed their signature.

Matthew signed his name on the actor contract, and then exchanged a contract with Stephen Somos, who represented the crew of "Special Forces: The Rise of Cobras", and signed it again.

Putting down the signing pen, Matthew stood up and shook hands with Stephen Somos.

“Happy cooperation!”

“Happy cooperation!”

The two of them laughed at the same time.

At the same time, people in the conference room, including their respective lawyers, agents, representatives of the Actors Union, etc., all sent congratulations and applause.

Subsequently, Matthew and Stephen Somos signed the contract backup of the Actors Union, and the signing of this contract was completed.

The lawyers and the acting staff union representatives were still busy with the final work. Stephen Somos took the initiative to bypass the conference table, shook hands with Matthew again, and said, "I finally waited for you."

Matthew smiled, "I have always hoped to work with you."

In fact, this is his third collaboration with Stephen Somos and his second appearance in a movie directed by Stephen Somos.

From the first contact between the two parties to signing the contract, it took more than half a year. During this period, negotiations including revision of the script, compensation for the hero, part-time producer, etc., it also involved the cooperation between Paramount Pictures and Hasbro. The negotiations between the parties took several months to reach the current agreement.

In addition to the script factor, Helen Hermann also made a huge demand for Matthew. Although some of them were given up in the negotiation, the most important ones were reflected in the contract.

In terms of scripts, there is naturally only Matthew, and the other supporting roles will not exceed one-third of his role Duke. This is a rigid rule in the contract, and the final film must reflect this.

In order to protect this rights, Matthew naturally obtained a producer quota and had the right to recommend actors for other characters.

At present, the crew has only identified two male and female protagonists, namely him and British actor Sienna Miller, who is a model. The other party will play the famous villain female character in the animation.

For the other characters, there has not been a suitable candidate yet. Matthew can express his own opinions on the cast, and the crew must give priority to his suggestions.

It is no exaggeration to say that he is one of the most powerful people in the entire crew, even comparable to the power of Stephen Somos, a complete director.

Stephen Somos is a director and producer on the crew.

Hollywood implements a "producer-centered system", and producers have higher decision-making power in movies than directors, so he can even dismiss the director. The so-called "complete director" is the producer and director.

Stephen Somos is different from Matthew's half-baked guys. He has quite professional abilities. Hollywood producers must have sufficient artistic standards, vision and judgment. They can choose topics, find screenwriters to write scripts, hire suitable directors, find investors, determine the right cast and crew, form crew, and after filming the film, they will be responsible for the sales of the film.

The producer is responsible for the quality and market of the entire film.

Although the producer-centric system was fully established in the late 1970s and early 1980s, it is deeply rooted in Hollywood.

For example, in the famous "Gone with the Wind", the producer changed three directors during the filming process, and even just because of small details such as costumes and props. Although excessive ignoring the role of the director is suspected of being "offside", it also shows the strong position of Hollywood producers from one aspect.

Matthew works as a producer part-time to protect his own rights and interests.

Now, he already owns a production company. As long as the films he invests in can be released successfully in the theater, he will be qualified to join the producer league and have a better understanding of the producer profession and the producer league industry.

For example, the Producers Alliance divides the film production process into four stages: early planning, early preparation, actual shooting and production, publicity and distribution, and post-operation, respectively, accounting for about 35%, 20%, 20%, and 25%, respectively. A producer is eligible to be nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture Award only if he participates in the work of no less than 50%. If he only participates in two stages of work without including the first stage, he will definitely not reach 50%.

This also reflects the importance that Hollywood film production attaches to the topic planning stage.

In addition, in order to protect the rights and interests of real producers, the Producers Alliance is resisting the increasingly fierce phenomenon of people not related to producers named producers, such as investors and issuers who are not related to production programs.

Matthew is moving towards an actor and producer, but he is very clear that he is much worse when it comes to professional qualities.

Fortunately, he can hire highly professional producers like other film companies to serve himself.

The contract with the crew also stipulates that he must join the crew as soon as possible, because filming will start until October at most. The schedule of "Special Forces: The Rise of Cobra" is scheduled for next summer, so there is really not much time to waste.

Fortunately, Stephen Somos has been preparing for this project since last year. Early planning and preliminary preparations have been completed. The main actors are in place and the preparations are completed, and they can immediately be put into the filming.

Hollywood movies are highly commercial and process-based products. Starting from the story creativity, every decision of the producer is aimed at maximizing profits: the polishing of the script should cater to the audience's preferences, and the character setting should have selling points. If it is an animation, the development of peripheral products must be considered at the beginning of the character setting.

The importance of schedule locking is to put pressure on directors and crew funds from the start of filming, forcing them to complete the task at a certain node, because all subsequent marketing plans will revolve around the release date.

Once a video is determined, it will not be easily modified.

"Special Forces: The Rise of Cobra" is a production budget of $180 million, and publicity and marketing are already ahead.

The most important reason why the production budget is so high is the inevitable result of Matthew's high pay surcharge.

Pay is also the most core content in this contract.

According to Hollywood convention, Matthew held two positions in the crew, and he could get corresponding remuneration. However, in order to protect other rights and interests, Helen Hermann made concessions in this regard. Matthew only received a symbolic reward of one dollar for the position of producer.

His male lead pay is already very high!

As the absolute protagonist of this project, Matthew received the highest pay for the crew. The starring actors consist of three parts, namely the basic pay paid in the early stage, the North American box office share of the film and the revenue share of the related peripheral products of the male lead Duke.

Among them, the basic salary is US$20 million, and the North American box office share will be 10% of the box office share regardless of the box office.

The reason why the share was limited to the North American box office was mainly because Helen Hermann won another share for him.

In the future, all the profits created by the peripheral products of Duke, the male protagonist who uses his image, will belong to his dividends.

This is also a treatment that only top stars in the circle can receive.

For example, Johnny Depp, half of all the goods that are directly related to Captain Jack Sparrow belongs to him.

If this is an independent film, the income in this area is better than nothing. Not to mention zero, it is not much better. But it is no secret that a large-scale film can earn terrifying peripheral income if it sells at the box office.

The real value of the film industry does not lie in how much profit or box office the film itself can generate, but in how many opportunities it provides for companies to cooperate with other fields.

These areas include TV products, theme parks, consumer goods, soundtrack CDs, books, computer games and interactive entertainment, and even the erotic industry, and movies just provide the key to this magical kingdom.

After signing the contract, Matthew then joined Stephen Somos' crew. On the one hand, he received military training to prepare for the next shooting, and on the other hand, he was appropriately involved in the work of some producers, learning and accumulating experience.

In the future, there will be many films to be filmed in No. 13 Film Studio, and he will inevitably be more professional in production.

This also allows him to learn a lot.

For example, the promotion and marketing of "Special Forces: The Rise of Cobra".

Most of the promotional and distribution expenditures of this film are spent on North America, and are relatively less overseas.

If a film fails in the box office in the United States and sells well around the world, is this considered a box office success for film companies? In fact, it depends on the situation. But generally speaking, the local market of Hollywood movies is relatively important, because film companies often account for a larger proportion of local box office revenue.

For a Hollywood movie, the production company receives about 30% of the share of overseas box offices, and due to the constant changes in the exchange rate of the US dollar, collecting overseas box office share has become a seemingly simple but actually difficult thing.

At the same time, the government imposing tariffs will also reduce the share of film companies.

Therefore, compared with overseas box office revenue, North American box office is more reliable.

Moreover, the most important peripheral income of a film is always the big one, and then Europe, and other markets are much worse.

No one can expect to get a lot of copyright-related income from Latin America, the Far East, Africa and other regions, which is not realistic.

But this does not mean that overseas box office is not worth paying attention to, especially when the box office of the movie fails in North America, it is particularly necessary to rely on overseas box office.

Just as Ma Xiu was preparing for this project, he saw an acquaintance in the crew.
Chapter completed!