Renly and Drake exited the hotel room; this was Harvey's room, located in the finest hotel in Park City.
Comparatively, with tight budgets, Renly and Drake were staying in Salt Lake City because the hotels in Park City during the Sundance Film Festival were exceptionally expensive. Salt Lake City, just a thirty-minute drive away, was more economical.
Standing outside the hotel room, Drake suddenly felt a rush of afterthought, his legs going weak. He almost fell to the ground in an undignified manner. Renly couldn't help but suppress a laugh at his sorry state. "Do you want to sit down and rest?"
Drake waved his hands repeatedly; he had already been sitting for twenty-five minutes, and his rear end was starting to ache. What he needed now wasn't to sit down and rest, but to confirm something. "Did we really turn down Weinstein?"
Renly nodded.
"Did we really turn down $4.5M?"
Renly nodded again.
Drake felt his blood sugar drop a bit, his head spinning. He quickly reached out and steadied himself against the wall, avoiding the danger of falling. "Then... what would have been more appropriate for us?"
"I don't know, $8M?" Renly shrugged, then saw Drake draw a sharp breath, almost choking. Renly burst out laughing, "If you're having regrets, we can go back now. I'm sure Harvey would be more than happy to renegotiate with us and sign the contract."
Drake took several deep breaths, finally catching his breath. "Uh, I need to digest this. Today's information was a lot to take in."
How exactly was the distribution rights of a film calculated? How should the price for a buyout be calculated? And how were the revenue-sharing proportions determined?
This was a highly intricate calculation process; even true insiders in the industry might not be able to explain it fully in a short time. Simplified, a rough analogy using numbers could be made.
In general, a movie's revenue could be divided into two main parts: box office revenue and ancillary revenue. The latter encompassed a myriad of sources like video rental, TV broadcasting, online streaming, merchandise sales, theme parks, and international rights. The former was the familiar box office income.
Ancillary revenue was the specialty of major film companies. To expect to profit solely from box office earnings was unrealistic. For companies like Disney and Warner Bros., ancillary revenue was where the real money came from.
Yet, for others, box office earnings constituted their primary income source. After a film earned at the box office, the profits would be divided among the theaters, distributors, and producers.
For any film shown in theaters, the theaters would establish two main ways to generate profits. One approach was to agree on a guaranteed minimum price. For example, if a film screened on several screens for four weeks, the producers and distributors would pay the theaters a fixed sum, say $100,000. This was fixed, and the more the producers and distributors earned, the more they kept; if they earned less, they suffered losses. However, the second approach, the more common one in North America, was revenue-sharing.
Revenue-sharing was a highly intricate calculation process that could be simplified to a basic comparison. After meticulous calculations, it could generally be summarized as follows: the theaters take forty percent of the box office earnings, while the remaining sixty percent is split between distributors and producers.
Usually, the distributors' share ranged from fifteen to twenty percent, while producers took the remaining forty to forty-five percent.
Within this context, the profits for the production company needed to be divided into two parts: one portion for the production company itself, and the other to be shared among the director, actors, screenwriters, producers, and other crew members. Typically, the production company retained around fifteen to twenty percent, with the rest going to the crew.
For instance, if after "Like Crazy" was released and garnered $10M in North American box office earnings, the theaters would take $4M, the distributor would take $1.5M, the production company would take $2.5M, leaving $2M to be divided among the crew.
In the case of major film companies that both produced and distributed, like Warner Bros., they would take $4M. If it was an independent film company where the production and crew members were the same team, like "Like Crazy", they would take all $4.5M.
Of course, these percentages were rough estimates; the specific figures would vary based on the circumstances of each project.
Especially for the portion belonging to the crew members, if someone like Tom Cruise was involved, the profit-sharing ratio would naturally be higher. If someone like Steven Spielberg was directing, just the crew's profit-sharing could be as high as forty or even fifty percent. This would require corresponding adjustments to the shares of the other three parties.
From this, it could be seen that the production company hardly made any profit. Their share needed to cover advertising costs, production expenses, and more. Not only did they not make money, they often had to subsidize.
Within the industry, it was often said that for a film to make money for the production company based solely on box office earnings, the box office would need to be three to four times the production cost. Comparatively, for the production company, ancillary revenue was the quickest way to recoup costs.
For the crew of "Like Crazy", since they were the production company, according to industry rules, they could divide forty to forty-five percent of the box office earnings among themselves. Although, in practice, for independent crews like theirs, the portion of box office earnings they received might not reach such a high percentage. It generally fluctuated between twenty-five and forty-five percent, depending on negotiations.
So, taking a rough middle value of thirty percent and doing a simple calculation, if "Like Crazy" garnered $10M in North American box office earnings, the crew could receive $3M.
Harvey first proposed a buyout price of $1.5M, then raised it to $4.5M, increasing by $3M. In fact, this was roughly the profit the crew should have received when "Like Crazy" reached $10M in box office earnings. In other words, this was just a different approach to the same result. Harvey merely spat out the portion the crew was entitled to. He managed to put on a show of apparent heartache while doing it, earning full marks for his acting skills.
More importantly, Harvey used the buyout price model. Meaning, if "Like Crazy" exceeded $10M in North American box office earnings, the crew wouldn't receive any profits. Their supposed "thirty percent" would all go into Harvey's pocket.
But if "Like Crazy" earned less than $10M in North American box office earnings?
Harvey wouldn't suffer any losses either, as he had only paid $4.5M. In return, he could earn sixty percent of box office earnings from "Like Crazy", which meant as long as the North American box office exceeded $7.5M, he wouldn't be at a loss. Even if it didn't reach that amount, his loss wouldn't be substantial.
All in all, this was practically a foolproof deal.
Harvey was indeed shrewd and cunning, maintaining his advantage from start to finish. Even when faced with Renly's sudden challenge, he didn't relinquish control. This was the true demeanor of a "godfather".
However, Renly wasn't privy to these behind-the-scenes intricacies; his judgment was straightforward.
Andy had presented two sets of numbers: a buyout price of $7M or a share price of $4M plus a percentage. But how were these numbers derived?
Suppose "Like Crazy" only earned $10M in North American box office earnings. That would mean their profit-sharing percentage should be around thirty percent. In that case, the box office share would be $3M. Adding the $4M from the initial fixed sum, it would total $7M, precisely matching the buyout price.
Although Harvey had just sternly proposed a buyout price of $4.5M, Renly knew that since Harvey was willing to put forth this price, Andy's judgment must be accurate. The profit-sharing distribution for "Like Crazy" was indeed hovering around $4M for distribution rights. So, if Harvey wanted to buy out, $7M would be the most suitable price.
Of course, all these discussions hinged on the premise that "Like Crazy" would earn $10M in North American box office earnings. Whether they could reach this standard was beyond Renly's ability to answer. Everything was just speculative guesswork. It could be higher or lower; anything was possible. Andy estimated, Harvey estimated, and other distribution companies were naturally estimating as well.
Furthermore, Renly firmly believed that cunning individuals like Harvey wouldn't immediately offer their top price, leaving no room for themselves. Harvey was a businessman, not an artist or a philanthropist. He was an unabashed businessman who prioritized profits above all else. At any given time, he would leave an escape route for himself.
So, even if Renly's judgment on the figures wasn't entirely accurate, he wouldn't easily fall for Harvey's tricks.
As for the $8M he had joked about earlier with Drake, it was just a jest.
"What should we do now?" Drake had finally caught his breath, looking up at Renly. His expression carried traces of lingering fear, prompting a faint smile from Renly.
"Wait?" Renly shrugged, offering the simplest yet most truthful answer. Drake hesitated for a moment, then burst into laughter.
For "Like Crazy", the wisest course of action was to wait. Because they were in a seller's market, waiting for buyers to come to them. Currently, Paramount Pictures and The Weinstein Company, two well-established names, had already come knocking. As the film's word-of-mouth continued to spread, more competitors were bound to enter the fray.
What they needed to do was to be patient and wait for the right price.
This year's Sundance seemed to lack a bit of explosive power, failing to recreate the geyser-like eruptions of the past three years. The highly anticipated "Another Earth" and "Martha Marcy May Marlene" had failed to ignite public fervor. The only film comparable to "Like Crazy" was "Take Shelter".
Starring Jessica Chastain and Michael Shannon, directed by Jeff Nichols, this film had earned a score of ninety in the official program, surpassing "Like Crazy" and currently ranking first in the program's ratings. However, "Take Shelter" hadn't sparked a chain reaction among the audience, and its overall momentum was slightly subdued.
Sure enough, shortly after Renly and Drake left the hotel, within less than an hour, their phones began to ring once more. It seemed that word had leaked about The Weinstein Company's involvement, prompting other big players to start making their moves. This time, it was Focus Features that had come knocking.