On March 2nd, Lyman went to Paramount Pictures' headquarters to discuss the scheduling for "Effervescent".
Inside Sherry Lansing's office, the atmosphere was somewhat peculiar.
Now, everyone knew that Lyman's honeymoon period with Paramount had ended. With the creation of Firefly Films and Lyman's partnership with Warner Bros., their relationship was no longer the same. However, this did not affect the existing cooperation between the two.
As for the things that Miramax's people had said, Sherry simply ignored them. She wasn't foolish. Moreover, if they acquired DreamWorks, the issue of production capacity would be relatively resolved. So, why would she want to undermine Lyman?
Was it to retaliate for his independence?
This was business, not child's play. Perhaps Harvey and the others were overestimating themselves. Trying to collaborate with Paramount to suppress Firefly's projects, were they even qualified?
Though she was personally a bit upset, it didn't escalate to the level of a company strategy.
Sherry had her assistant bring in a cup of coffee, glanced at Lyman, and changed the topic. "Well, "Saw II" is about to finish shooting. Do you have any thoughts?"
"No rush, let's discuss it after post-production is done."
She nodded and suddenly brought up another topic. "Paramount would like to acquire the sequel rights to "Saw". Can we negotiate a price?"
After "Saw" was released, the offline DVD market had been hot, and Sherry had fully realized the potential of this project. She found that, compared to theatrical releases, horror films were also very popular in the rental market.
However, the development control of this project was not in Paramount's hands, and many of the planned promotional activities were not something they wanted to carry out. Otherwise, it would be too much of an advantage for Firefly Films. Therefore, after discussing it, they wanted to directly buy the rights to the sequel, fully controlling it in Paramount's hands.
But Lyman was clear about this. He had always known the value of the "Saw" series.
Needless to say, a project that could produce eight sequels was outstanding. He couldn't simply let it go; this was one of the company's trump cards. But he couldn't offend too heavily either. After all, Paramount was still a good business partner.
Lyman tactfully refused, "I can't make this decision alone; René is also a shareholder in the company, and we would need his approval."
Seeing her plan foiled, Sherry asked, "Lyman, about the project you are working on with Warner Bros., do you know how the profits will be split between you?"
Bringing up this topic, she still felt a bit uncomfortable. She was also somewhat dissatisfied with Lyman. How could such a big matter be kept from Paramount? In the end, their so-called partner only heard about it from Warner Bros.
Lyman replied, "It's roughly a 40-60 split, with Warner Bros. taking the lion's share. They also get 15% of the box office earnings as a distribution fee. How about it? Can the distribution contract be adjusted if "Saw II" is released?"
Sherry shook her head. "Fifteen percent is already quite good, and Paramount's promotional resources are also not bad, right?"
Unless it was a case of self-production and self-distribution, distribution terms would generally fluctuate between 10% and 25%. It depended on the negotiation skills of each party.
"Forget it; let's talk about "Effervescent" instead. How has Paramount arranged the schedule?"
Seeing that the other party couldn't offer a better deal, Lyman didn't want to continue the conversation. After all, he couldn't return to the way things used to be. There was no point in talking further.
...
"We have tentatively set it for March 16th."
In the conference room at Paramount, a group of executives from the distribution department gathered. One middle-aged white man spoke up, "This is the weekend after Valentine's Day, and there isn't any strong competition of the same genre at the same time. The few other scheduled films won't pose much of a threat to us."
"Why not choose Valentine's Day for release?" someone asked.
"Because of "The Passion of the Christ". It's too dominant, and we need to steer clear of it."
Indeed, this film, walking the line of religion, had just grossed over $33M in its first week, overtaking all others during the same period. In fact, it seemed that every Christian wanted to contribute to the box office.
And this was the well-known spring off-season, not summer or Christmas, so achieving this result was quite impressive.
"Are there any other films we need to be aware of?"
"Not too many. Columbia's "50 First Dates" is of a similar genre to ours. Warner Bros.' action film "Starsky & Hutch" doesn't have much relevance to our target audience. Then there's Warner Bros. Animation's "Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed", which doesn't pose much competition either. The only one left is Touchstone Pictures' "Hidalgo", and you can tell from the name what kind of film that is."
"So, if we schedule for March 16th, the only thing we need to be mindful of is "50 First Dates"?" one executive asked.
"That's correct. We deliberately avoided "The Passion of the Christ" and placed our film after Valentine's Day, but Columbia had the same idea. Now, the situation could evolve into a battle between our two companies, with the winner maximizing box office revenue and the loser settling for leftovers."
"What about the theater chains?"
"We are in contact with major theater chains, trying to secure as many screens and showtimes as possible. Due to the tremendous success of 'The Passion of the Christ,' there aren't many options available in the market right now. We'll have to wait for its hype to die down a bit to free up screens for us to have a large-scale release."
"The Passion of the Christ" premiered on February 25th, just over a week ago, and it was at the peak of its popularity. Naturally, theater chains favored it.
"What about Columbia?"
"Don't worry; we will definitely have no fewer screens than they do."
Competition between Hollywood's Big Six had long been balanced from the perspective of theater chains.
"Tomorrow, we're hosting a screening event and inviting representatives from the theater chains. By then, we can determine the number of screens and showtimes."
"Is there anything else?" Sherry, sitting in the front, looked around as the discussion was coming to an end.
Lyman had been sitting quietly on the side, listening. He had little involvement in distribution and didn't have much say in it. Besides, Paramount was an industry veteran, well-versed in the entire process. Lyman was no better than them, so he had no objections.
"Then let's adjourn."
Sherry stood up and turned to Lyman, saying, "I have other matters to attend to, so I won't accompany you. See you tomorrow."
"See you tomorrow," Lyman politely smiled and watched as Sherry left the conference room.
He didn't linger either and returned to his own company.