In the fifth week of the screening of "Artistic - Ghost Records", the film industry only received 11.5017 million yuan in a single week box office. Although the number of weekly box office champions ended in four consecutive weeks, it was still ranked third this week as schools in North America began to start schools one after another.

According to the momentum of a percentage drop in box office, "The Ghost Record" has almost been tapped out in North America. As the number of screening theaters gradually decreases, it would be good to be able to earn another 10 million box office when it was offline in North America. But there is no doubt that this movie is already a miracle and a myth. The production cost of 10,000 US dollars, and the promotional cost of less than 1 million yuan was added, it received a box office of 154.2 million US dollars in North America!

Lionsgate is already preparing for overseas distribution, because on the Internet, there are fans from many countries such as Europe and Asia who have expressed their expectations for this movie. It is certain that overseas distribution will make money or loss. Popularity may not necessarily be popular in North America, but it seems that it will be difficult to earn tens of millions of box offices, making "Ghost Records" more than 200 million US dollars globally.

This "supernatural phenomenon" made all film companies and analysts fall below their glasses. What kind of movie's revenue ratio can reach 15,000 times? "Ghost Record" tells everyone. In response, a Wall Street financial analyst sighed to the media: "The most profitable movie in 1998 was not "Titanic", but "Ghost Record". When it logs on to the big screen overseas and launches DVDs, the revenue ratio of this movie may even reach 30,000 times. Lionsgate and Fantasy Yang are simply 'money-grabbing couples'!"

Lionsgate is now the most "eyed" film company in the United States. This small company became famous in one fell swoop and frequently appeared in newspapers. They are called "business miracle"; and the viral publicity method of "Ghost Records" has also made professionals convinced them, and people do not believe that the "rumors" that appeared online at the beginning were not Lionsgate's hands.

Of course, there are also many film companies that don’t want to make the Lion Gate have a good time. They told the media: “The way the "Ghost Record" is promoted is the idea of ​​the Chinese director. When he went to our company to seek distribution, he told us. The guy had a complete plan. He told us, ‘My plan can drive a lot of audiences into the cinema, believe me!’ But we don’t want to use this method of pretending to be a ghost, and when the Lion Gate uses it, they are all shameless liars.”

In fact, those film companies just say that the grapes are sour. The fact is that because they missed the "Ghost Record" delivered to their door, they were fired, suspended and demoted by the company, including Stephen Thomas of Arts and Arts. The chairman of Arts and Arts and Arts and Arts and Arts and Arts and Arts and Arts and Arts and Arts and Arts and Arts and Arts and Arts and Arts and Arts and Arts and Arts and Arts and Arts and Arts and Arts and Arts and He was fired.

In the sixth week of the screening, as some cinemas ended the screening of "Ghost Records", Lionsgate also began to receive pre-tax rentals from cinemas.

"The Ghost Record" currently has a box office of 154.2 million in North America. Of course, this money needs to be divided, including Lionsgate and theaters. So how is the box office revenue of a movie divided? It depends on what kind of cooperation contract the distribution company and theaters have signed.

There are several ways to cooperate, one is called an agreed guaranteed price. This way of cooperation is that the distribution company uses money to buy out the big screen of the cinema for a period of time. For example, Lionsgate gave the "Vita Projector" cinema 100,000 US dollars and obtained the screening rights for 0:00-6:00 on a screen, which lasts for one month. Then in the next month, no matter how many tickets "Ghost Record" sold, all the box office will be yours, and the cinema will not take you one dollar in the end.

However, this kind of cooperation method is not popular. In North America, the mainstream cooperation method between distribution companies and theaters is to divide the share. The share ratio is generally negotiated and signed a contract before the film is released. Over the years, the share ratio between the two parties has long been formed, and now they basically adopt a model called "90/10-with-floor-of-70%".

This model means that in the unit of weekly units, the total weekly box office revenue of "Ghost Record" in a cinema is minus the necessary fixed expenses of the cinema that were negotiated at the beginning, such as cleaning fees, electricity bills, etc., and multiplying by 90%, the resulting figure is the rental obtained by Lionsgate.

However, this is just a plan a. This model will also sign a plan b at the same time. It means that the total box office does not minus the cinema's screening expenses, but is directly multiplied by 70% (this proportion is generally agreed between 60-70%), and the result is the one from the issuing company.

So publishers usually look at which number a and b is larger, and then choose the larger one as the commission income you receive from the cinema this week.

Of course, generally speaking, "90/10" is just the proportion of the first three weeks of the screening, and then the fourth and fifth weeks are 60/40, the sixth weeks are 50/50, and the seventh weeks are 40/60... The specific changes depend on the contract. Whatever the contract was decided when it was signed is done.

In any case, from the release to the bottom of a movie, the total box office revenue, and the share of the publisher and the cinema will generally be about 50/50, half to half.

So someone asked, will cinemas conceal the box office be reported? First, the distribution company itself will hire professional investigation companies, and sometimes go to cinemas to randomly check the situation openly and sometimes undisclosedly; secondly, the United States itself has a rigorous judicial system, including the tax department, and is watching, so it is rare to conceal the box office and falsely report the box office. Basically, no theater company will have this stupid greed, destroy its credibility, and will be punished by law.

The share model of "Ghost Record" is "90/10-with-floor-of-70%". The screening ended with a box office of 154.2 million yuan. Lionsgate received a pre-tax share of 91.76 million yuan, which was nearly 60% lower than the cost of nearly 3 million yuan, including publicity fees, copy fees, shipping fees, printing fees, etc. The final pre-tax profit of the total box office in the six weeks was more than 88.75 million yuan.

North America does not have a pre-tax profit of more than 100 million yuan, and according to the fact that only more than 500 cinemas are still screening "Ghost Records" and the share ratio has dropped to 40/60, when the movie is fully drawn offline, the pre-tax profit will not exceed 100 million yuan. So Wang Yang agreed to implement a 40% dividend plan with Lions Gate.

So, after the accounting was completed, the financial department of Lionsgate Company began to pay various corporate taxes to the tax bureau. Fortunately, Lionsgate Company was only a small business, so it could enjoy some preferential policies, but it still paid nearly 20% of the tax, leaving only more than 71.58 million US dollars after tax, and Wang Yang scored 28.632 million.

But the matter was not over like this, because Wang Yang had to pay federal personal income tax, California personal income tax and other taxes to the tax bureau. There are too many taxes in the United States, and an ordinary person can't figure it out at all, let alone know how to avoid taxes reasonably. So Wang Yang went to the "integrity" law firm again and consulted with Hebrew Carr for a long time before he understood that the 28.632 million yuan tax payment would only be about 21.4 million yuan left.

Of course, Wang Yang will not go to the Taxation Bureau to declare and pay taxes immediately, because the personal income tax in the United States is generally paid once a year, and the annual personal income tax declaration deadline is April 15, which is enough to declare before the end of that day. If you have not declared that day, it is tax evasion. What awaits you is the investigation and heavy fines of the IRS.

Wang Yang did not want to delay taxes, but the dividends of the movie are still being recorded one after another. It is the most convenient to clear all the taxes this year in one go next year. Anyway, he received more than 21 million yuan in available funds and became a millionaire in one fell swoop.

Although Lionsgate did not disclose Wang Yang's specific dividend figures to the media, the media still found some details and guessed that Wang Yang's dividend was more than ten million. This speculation was also approved by Lionsgate. Distribution Department Manager Jon Filtimel said: "He has obtained wealth that many people will never get in their lifetime, and he is only 18 years old, too young, right? I hope he can cherish these and wish him good luck!"

"The Youngest Millionaire" is the latest title given to Wang Yang by the Los Angeles Times. The article found professional analysts and evaluated that Wang Yang's net worth has exceeded 20 million. With the overseas and multi-channel release of "Ghost Records", his net worth will soon rise to more than 30 million.

Wang Yang has nothing to say about these media reports, and he does not deny or respond. Compared with the "youngest millionaire", he prefers the title of "youngest director".

After receiving this huge sum of money, his life did not change much. He still rented his original apartment, but replaced the furniture that was so dilapidated that he could not use anymore. Then he bought a set of high-end home theater equipment and swept off many movie DVDs frantically to collect and enjoy them. In addition, he also bought a universal coupe to facilitate his own travel.

The media's attention to him gradually faded, and his refusal to cooperate was one of the important reasons. For example, Vanity Fair magazine invited him to shoot a set of photos and conduct exclusive interviews, but he refused. He would rather read books and movies at home than take photos. First, he did not have this interest for the time being; second, he would get out of these things as soon as possible.

What magazine interviews, what celebrity parties... He can't indulge in these things, can't let himself spend all his energy on them, he is still young, what he needs is to keep improving, not to get lost in the temptation brought by success until he is kicked out. He keeps reminding himself: "Yang, you are just a rookie, you are nothing, take a look at the follow-up reports about the main creators of "The Witch Blair". Do you want to be them? Think about your original intention!? Become a director and make a movie."

So Wang Yang rejected the exclusive interview with Vanity Fair and rejected some party invitations. He knew that the final decision on whether a movie was successful was not based on how many parties you attended or how many magazine covers you were on; it was based on the movie itself.

After finishing the post-promotion of "Ghost Record", he faded out of people's sight, reading books and movies at home every day, sometimes chatting with good friends such as Jessica, and occasionally going out to play together, and his life was very peaceful. During this period, he joined the Directors' Union (DGA). Although his itinerary was very low-key, he was still published by a gossip tabloid. Then, he reported it again until the end of September.

The reason for the report was that Lionsgate announced a new shooting plan to the media, and they will shoot "Spiritual - Ghost Records 2", and have purchased the copyright of a sequel from Wang Yang for 5 million yuan.

Yes, Wang Yang earned another 5 million yuan. At first, Lions Gate Company was only willing to pay 1 million yuan, but Wang Yangli didn't want to pay attention to them. He only had a word "no", and revealed some information to Jon Filtimel, "New Line, Artists... Many companies have contacted me, they know that the copyright of my sequel is still there, and they want to buy it." This is the fact. Now it's the turn of New Line, Artists, Dimen and other companies take the initiative to find him, discussing with him sincerely, and Wang Yang also gave them "no" one by one.

However, he would not recognize the Lions Gate. Although he was very grateful to the opportunity given to him by Lions Gate, "The Ghost Record" also brought tens of millions of profits to Lions Gate, and no one owe anyone. The sequel copyright of the movie, he would give it to the company that meets his conditions.

So, the price of Lions Gate Company increased to 5 million, but Yijiang seemed determined to buy it. They raised the price to 7 million, and added 20% of the total box office dividend. In the end, Wang Yang chose Lions Gate Company, with 5 million, plus 20% of the total box office dividend. There are several reasons for him as this choice. First, he has a good relationship with Lions Gate Company; second, he is really worried that Yijiang will abdicate dividends; third, when it comes to shooting horror sequels, the future Lion Gate Company has always done a good job. Although the market needs time to digest "Ghost Record", the second part will be released a year later, and the profit should be fine. It is not the figure of how much 20% dividends there are. The important thing is to keep the signature "Ghost Record".

After spending such a large price, Lionsgate naturally attaches great importance to "The Legend of Ghost 2", so they promoted this matter as soon as they bought the copyright, and announced that "The Legend of Ghost 2" would not be directed by Wang Yang. Lionsgate celebrity Jon Filtimel told the media: "We are not invited to direct Wang Yang because we want to change the style of the movie. The story background of the second part will be placed in the office. This is obviously not a scene that 18-year-old young man is good at."

Many movie fans have long expected this. Except for a few people who say "I can't watch "The Legend of Ghost" which is not directed by Wang Yang", most of them are waiting and watching. When reporting this news, the media also expressed their views on Wang Yang's future. The Los Angeles Times said: "Although this lucky young man's net worth has increased by 5 million, he has just been ruthlessly abandoned. He lost the director's microphone for "The Legend of Ghost". Now it seems that no film company is willing to hand him a microphone."

The Chicago Sun found out what Wang Yang said before in "Opra's Talk Show": "No, I don't think I will not make horror movies again." The Chicago Sun's tone was quite bad: "Did Yang know that he would not be invited to be the director of "Ghost Records 2"? A colleague of mine asked, why didn't he choose to invest in sequels by himself, and make another 10,000 yuan to 100 million? I think this is his shrewdness, and get 5 million directly and enjoy life well, isn't it? The question now is, if Yang doesn't make dv horror movies, what else can he make? Oh, will he have a second movie?"

After reading this report, Wang Yang joked with Rachel on the phone, "He is right. I don't have to do anything. I just need to sit at home to collect money. This is great." Rachel smiled and said, "Yes, it just fits your retirement plan." Wang Yang laughed and said, "No, I don't want to retire again. I will have a second movie, the song and dance film I told you." Rachel asked, "Yang, are you really decided?" Wang Yang nodded and said seriously: "I've decided."

The lobby of the apartment has been changed. The sofa with several big holes is gone. The replacement is a rattan sofa. The computer has also been moved out of the bedroom and placed on a brand new wooden desk. There are some books, camera models, and a pot of daffodils on the table.

Wang Yang sat in front of the desk, looking at the blank documents on the computer screen, frowned and thought, what will he do for the next movie?

After the musical and dance film entered a shrinking period in the 1970s, it was actually not without its masterpieces. For example, Disney's "Poems of the Wind" launched in 1995, it was well received, but it was an animated film; while the live-action musical and dance film, Mrs. Veron, can only recover the cost, and the main reason is that the heroine of that movie was Madonna.

Why are only "fake song and dance films" like "The Legend of the Wind" so popular now?

The big reason is that the development of musical and dance films has already undergone qualitative changes compared to the "Golden Age". Musical and dance films have also begun to focus on the plot instead of making a simple content and then sing and dancing throughout the whole process. In the future, musical and dance can be revived by the integration of plot and song and dance, which makes people watch the story and song and dance at the same time, so that song and dance serve the plot, rather than being rigidly separated from the two.

How will the future musical and dance films be revived? In 2000, "Dancer in the Dark" amazed the film industry with a dark horse; then in 2001, a movie called "Mold Rouge" gave Nicole Kidman nomination for Best Actress; in 2002, "Chicago" won both fame and fortune, and while selling well at the box office, it won numerous awards, including the 75th Academy Awards (2002-2003). If you talk a little further, there will be a movie called "Black Swan" in the future.

In fact, these movies are not just musical and dance films. The most attractive thing about them is the plot and the words expressed by the movie itself. For example, "Chicago" and "Black Swan", they discuss the desires of human nature, and singing and dancing are just for this.

This type of musical and dance drama film is very literary and well-produced, and the candidates for actresses are even more important. Even if he offers a pay of 20 million yuan, no movie will be involved in his movie later. They are not short of money or film appointments, and they will not act in a movie that will win the "Rotten Tomato Best Movie Award".

Therefore, this type of movie is not his current choice; then it is the second type, youth and campus music and dance films. This type of music and dance film has a long history. "The Popular Son" in 1978 and "The Lightning Dance" in 1983 are all classic works. This type of music and dance film has no heavy theme, mainly telling the mentality of young people in that era; or their persistence in dreams; or their pursuit of love.

Once this kind of movie is well made, an unparalleled craze will burst out and instantly swept the student class around the world.

The next wave of craze was in 2006, when a TV movie "Singing and Dance" was fully detonated. In the same year, "Dance Out of My Life" unexpectedly encountered, and then youth and campus music and dance films were fully revived, and then the entire market was filled with the entire market. The famous ones include "Rock Summer Camp", "Beautiful Girl Cheerleader", etc., and countless movies with little fame are even more famous.

"Singing and dancing youth?" Wang Yang murmured softly. This movie is undoubtedly a good movie. It finds the lifeblood of youth campus song and dance films, that is, it has a positive and inspirational theme; it also has music and singing and dancing that suits the times; it attracts handsome men and beautiful actresses from the student class. If these aspects are done well, it is not surprising that they will receive a huge response from the student class.

Wang Yang carefully analyzed the difficulty of filming "Singing and Dance" and the shooting scenes are concentrated in high school campuses, which are familiar to him, so there is no problem; there are no complicated shots, no special effects, no problems during the shooting process; in terms of actors, Jessica, Rachel, and Zachary are all very suitable candidates, and Hollywood lacks actors, but there are no shortage of young handsome men and beautiful women with some acting skills.

The only problem he had in making musical and dance films was choreography and arrangement, but these tasks could be hired by professional dance directors and arrangers, and in fact there was no problem.

However, it is now 1998. If "Singing and Dance" is launched, will the market accept it? Wang Yang held his chin and frowned and thought about this issue, trying to make himself rationally analyze it.

He is also a young man. If there is an excellent and crazi campus musical film now, he would go to the cinema to watch it. The reason is very simple. He likes to dance and sing. There are many people like him. Look at the dance floors of the bars, people know that singing and dancing will never fall behind. No matter what era, young people hope to release their enthusiasm in singing and dancing!

But this is not enough, because he can go to the bar to dance directly instead of going to the cinema to watch movies; so the movie cannot be just singing and dancing, but also meets some of the needs of the audience.

Just like him, he misses high school life, he likes to be positive and dares to pursue the theme of his dreams, so he will watch "Singing and Dance Youth", which is the idea of ​​a college student who was expelled; and if he is a high school student, he will also watch it, because in real high school life, he will not have such a wonderful story. He longs for himself to be in the world in the movie, longs for himself to pursue and realize his dreams like the hero and heroine, and have a beautiful love.

In addition, the students all went to see it. Wouldn’t it be too late if he didn’t go to see it?

This is why "Singing and Dance" is so popular, and why "The Popular Son" with a production fee of 6 million yuan can receive nearly 400 million yuan worldwide. They carry young people's expectations for themselves and their pursuit of beauty, and they want to be such a person.

Therefore, campus music and dance films are always in time, and the current market demand in this area is about to overflow. Their generation of young people also want to have their own "The Popular Son".

"Singing and Dance" in 2006, whether in the story content or shooting style, is also applicable in 1998.

But "Singing and Dance Youth" is a TV movie. It was only broadcast on Disney's TV channel at first. Disney just wanted to try it out and didn't even invest much in publicity. As a result, this movie started a "singing and dancing" craze on campuses across the United States, and then swept the world, attracting more than 170 million viewers, making young people around the world re-recognize the song and dance films, making them crazy. The popularity of Disney was unexpected, so they filmed "Singing and Dance Youth 2" again and continued to be broadcast on the TV channel, and their popularity continued to be popular; then "Singing and Dance Youth 3" was moved to the big screen and received a box office of 252 million yuan worldwide.

So if "Singing and Dance Youth 1" is directly screened in the cinema, will the film still succeed? Wang Yang is not sure, but the chance of success is very high. Because the response of "Singing and Dance Youth 1" is actually the biggest in the trilogy; "Singing and Dance Youth 2" has made a new attempt, and the story background has moved to the resort, and the plot structure has become complex. Although it has broken the ratings record, the fans do not buy it and express their disappointment. "Singing and Dance Youth 3" returns to the campus background, and the story structure is adjusted to a simple style, but it is still criticized by some film critics and fans as uninnovative money-making movies.

It can be said that the last two parts of the trilogy are largely supported by the popularity of "Singing and Dance Youth 1" and are just relying on their old capital. This is just a one-time effort, and then declines, and then exhausts. Moreover, the audience will have a mentality. The first two parts can be seen on TV. Why did the third part ask me to go to the cinema? If I had targeted the big screen at the beginning, the audience would not have thought so. But "Singing and Dance Youth 3" still received a box office of 252 million yuan.

Besides, the success of the "Singing and Dance Youth" series is not only breaking the ratings, but also the 252 million box office; it also has the big sales of the film DVD, the original soundtrack of the movie has become the annual sales champion, and the touring stage theaters are full... These are the huge influence of "Singing and Dance Youth 1", so as long as the publicity is properly, "Singing and Dance Youth 1" is directly brought to the big screen, and it may not be the second "Found Prodigal Son".

Of course, if you want to shoot, then a lot of changes need to be made. Because TV movies are considered to be viewing on a small screen, whether in the performance or the form of expression, there are many differences from screen movies. This is not limited by the production cost, but rather that TV movies are TV movies, which have their own set. If "Singing and Dance" is based on the big screen as the playback goal, it needs to change and needs to follow the set of big screen movies.

Wang Yang was so stunning that he thought about how to change the rhythm of the movie and other questions. Suddenly his phone rang. He shook his head, took the phone on the desk, and saw that it was Jessica's, so he pressed it to connect. While looking at the pot of daffodils, he said, "Hi, Jessica, is there anything you need to ask me for?"

"Hi, Yang." Jessica over there smiled sweetly, "It's nothing, I just want to chat with you. Oh!" She said embarrassedly, "Are you busy? I've disturbed you?"

"No, I'm just thinking about something." Wang Yang laughed without any problem. He suddenly asked, "Jessica, can you dance?" He knew that Jessica would have filmed a youthful and inspirational musical "Sweetheart Dance" in 2002. In that movie, her dancing posture was of course very charming, but it was directed by a dancer, so I don't know if she would dance now.

Jessica was stunned for a moment, "Hmm", and couldn't guess what Wang Yang asked what this meant. Did she want to invite her to dance? Her heart blew, but... she shook her head and said, "No, I can't, I haven't learned to dance." Wang Yang said, a little disappointed, "Oh, that's it!" Hearing his tone disappointed, Jessica couldn't help but frown and asked tentatively, "Yang, do you want to dance?"

"No, not now." Wang Yang smiled and told her his thoughts: "I want to make a campus song and dance film."

Jessica's heart suddenly tightened, and she couldn't help but say in surprise: "Oh, God! Really? Are you going to shoot a campus song and dance film?" Then she reacted and Yang asked her if she could dance. Isn't it just that she wanted to participate in the show? Oh my God, see what she said! Oh my God! Jessica patted her forehead in a hurry.

Wang Yang said "um" and reached out to fiddle with the camera model on the table, and smiled: "You know, I like to shoot movies, and I happened to get a lot of money, why not shoot? Campus song and dance films are my plan now. Maybe it will cost several million, and I will pay the bill myself."

Oh my god! Campus musical movies, but she can't dance... Jessica's face is full of doubts, and she frowned and asked, "Yang, is there a role that suits me?"
Chapter completed!