Originally the first packaging model was created by CAA and was intended to promote TV programs in their hand.
In the 70s, the newly established CAA was not only suppressed by WMA but also had a pitiful number of artists under their hands. To find jobs for their artists soon as possible, and to avoid the disintegration of the newly established small company, CAA President Michael Ovitz took a different approach, they packaged all the suitable artists with the excellent scripts they had and then sold them to the major TV stations as a whole.
This packaging model that breaks the tradition of selecting actors first and then customizing scripts for them, was unexpectedly successful, and then they gradually branched into film production.
In 1982, CAA film package project "Tootsie" hit it big in the box office, and achieved second place in the North American box office rankings that year (the first place was taken by "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial"), completely making the packaging mechanism the core operating model of CAA.
With the development of CAA, they had more and more top stars under their umbrella, and this brokerage company has also become more and more powerful in Hollywood.
Not only did they demand higher and higher remuneration for their stars, but they also started drawing commissions from the overall project budget, in disguise to bypass Hollywood regulatory restrictions that prohibit brokerage companies from entering the field of production, further pushing the production cost of film and television programs higher and higher.
As a result, Hollywood's major film and television production companies have started to dread this kind of project operation model that continuously divide their original powers and interests.
As an established brokerage company established nearly 100 years ago, WMA had already realized the threat of this new operating model years ago.
However, due to the company's deep-rooted conservative ideology, and the lack of synergy between internal brokers, WMA did not follow up in time.
With the death of the two core executives of WMA in the first half of this year, the turmoil within the company caused a large number of top stars to leave, finally causing WMA to wake up from sleep.
Then, Simon's "The Butterfly Effect" script, with the help of Jonathan Friedman, coincidentally became the first packaging project launched by WMA to Hollywood studios.
Although a large number of top stars have left in recent months, the overall scale of WMA is still far beyond CAA.
As the fastest-growing Hollywood talent agency company in recent years, CAA still only have 50 brokers in the company, and the number of clients has just reached 600. In comparison, WMA has more than 180 agents and has more than 3,000 artists.
CAA's packaging mechanism has already made studios feel threatened. If Hollywood's largest talent also turns to this project operation model, it's not difficult to imagine that the major film companies will become more and more passive in the future.
Due to this concern, although "The Butterfly Effect" has been favoured by many studio executives, the heads of several major studios did not give a clear reply, after a week had passed.
In the blink of an eye, it was already mid-July.
The headquarters of Paramount is in downtown Hollywood on a Tuesday afternoon.
Due to the success of the two films "Top Gun" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" released this summer, Paramount President Sid Ganis has been very high-spirited recently. Because over the past two years the company has completely swept away the haze left by Barry Diller, Michael Eisner, and Jeffrey Katzenberg.
Affected by the frequent departures of the company's top executives, last year Paramount's best film "Witness" had a box office of only $68 million. Many newspapers started mocking Paramount's parent company, saying that Martin Davis the chairman of the company had made a stupid mistake by driving away Barry Diller and the other top executives, and also predicted that Paramount will never recover.
Now that Paramount has recovered, the grumpy chairman Martin Davis has stopped staring at executives like a Hawk, and everyone will have a much easier time in the future.
Enthusiastically welcoming Jonathan Friedman into his office, Sid Ganis asked his secretary to serve them coffee, after a few greetings, they entered the topic: "Joe, to be fair, Paramount want "The Butterfly Effect" script. However, it is difficult for us to accept the overall plan proposed by WMA."
This is not the first film company Jonathan Friedman visited today, he had just been to Warner Studios this morning and heard almost the same remarks from Warner Pictures President Ed Molly. Jonathan Friedman has already determined that the major Hollywood studios have decided as a group to reject the packaging of "The Butterfly Effect" project in advance.
However, on the surface, Jonathan Friedman still said calmly: "Sid, you should see that this is a very good project, and WMA has also come up with the best lineup we can provide."
"No, I don't think so," Sid Ganis shook his head. "Like Brian De Palma, he has already messed up two big productions with an investment of over 10 million dollars, it is difficult for Paramount to let him direct this film with confidence."
Jonathan retorted: "Sid, Bryan's box office for the last two films is indeed not good enough, but it can't be regarded as a mess. Moreover, the responsibility for the film's box office failure is not entirely on him.
Just like the film "Wise Guys" at the beginning of this year. MGM not only arranged the film in the unpopular April period but also only gave more than 300 screens. Even so, the film still got $8.5 million at the box office, which is enough to prove Brian's strength. Moreover, "The Butterfly Effect" happens to be the type of movie that Brian is best at."
Sid Ganis took a sip from his coffee cup and shrugged: "Well, even then, WMA's $2 million director's pay is too high. Paramount can only pay up to $1 million. Also, that screenwriter..."
With that said, Sid Ganis put down the coffee cup, got up and took a document from his desk, then sat back on the sofa in the reception area, and handed the document to Jonathan: "Simon Westeros, right? This is a newcomer without any qualifications. Therefore, we also cannot accept a script offer of 200,000 dollars, it's too high, we can only offer up to 100,000 US dollars for two scripts, 80,000 US dollars for "The Butterfly Effect", and 20,000 US dollars as a priority option for "Final Destination". Oh, it took a lot of effort to find out the script of this screenwriter from the screenwriters union.
There is another script, but the quality is too bad, it is not a story at all. As for "Final Destination", although there is only an outline, the idea is really good. In addition, these are all one-time buyout prices, Simon Westeros is not a union member, and Paramount does not need to divide his video and television broadcasting rights according to the basic agreement of the union.
Jonathan Friedman silently flipped through the documents in his hand, but in his heart, he could feel some obvious malice in the conditions given by Sid Ganis.
However, when Sid Ganis's stopped, Jonathan Friedman still reluctantly asked: "So, Sid, what about the actor, what do you think of Matthew?"
With an inexplicable smile on his face, Sid Ganis's nodded almost without hesitation and said: "The box office of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" is so good, of course, we are very willing to continue working with Matthew. although the $5 million salaries are a bit high, Matthew is also worth the price."
Listening to Sid Ganis's words, Jonathan Friedman finally determined that Paramount was clearly targeting himself, the initiator of the WMA's first package project, and even wanted to use such small means. to mess up the whole project.
After all, Brian De Palma and Simon Westeros are both artists in his hands, and the sum of their compensation was less than half that of Matthew Broderick. Paramount cares about the salary of the two of them, but decisively agreed to Matthew's offer of up to 5 million dollars, they are trying to provoke discord within WMA.