Hollywood Immortal

[Chapter 358: More Money Than You Could Spend, New Projects]

After the release of The Man from Nowhere, the distribution department spent over two weeks settling accounts with theaters and related stores. The TV rights, VHS rights, and overseas rights were all sold at high prices.

First, from the North American box office, the company received $133 million in revenue sharing from theaters. According to Linton Anderson's contract, as both director and lead actor, he was entitled to 15% of the North American box office, totaling $20 million in earnings.

Second, the TV rights for seven years were sold for $28 million, with UPN TV Network paying $15 million for the wireless network rights. Following Linton's request, all future films produced by the studio were to have UPN acquire the TV broadcast rights at market prices -- it wasn't like UPN was hurting for cash.

But UPN wasn't losing out either. Their first airing of the movie brought in $8 million from commercial ads inserted during the opening, ending, and the middle of the film. Over the seven years, the movie could be broadcast over thirty times. Even as the value of ads declined over time, it was still a solid profit.

No wonder Hollywood later switched to auctioning off TV broadcast rights based on the number of airings. The pioneer was Mission: Impossible -- regardless of whether it was a cable TV network or a wireless TV network, the first broadcast price was 4 million US dollars. It was sold 8 times in the first year, with an average single broadcast price of 3 million US dollars. The revenue was several times higher than the traditional package sale of 7-year TV broadcast rights.

Maybe Independence Day should try this approach next; a good negotiation with Universal could change things.

Third, the VHS rental and sale rights for seven years were sold to Blockbuster for a base fee of $29 million plus 30% of rental and sales revenue.

Fourth, merchandise sales totaled $76 million with a 40% profit margin, netting the company approximately $30.4 million. Among this, sales of Linton Anderson's personal character figurines reached $50 million, bringing him $10 million from personal image royalties.

Fifth, the overseas rights were acquired by Universal Studios for $120 million, at the highest rate of 47% of the North American box office. When selling the overseas rights, Linton also sold merchandise rights overseas based on the North American image royalty rates, earning another $10 million.

Adding these up, after deducting Linton's box office share, the company made total revenue of $320.4 million, plus ongoing quarterly income from VHS rental and sales revenue sharing.

It's worth noting that revenue from VHS rentals and sales in the later stages is a major chunk of income. Last year, from the second half alone, the VHS rental and sales revenue from The Rock brought in over $90 million jointly for Linton and Universal.

As the hottest action movie, The Man from Nowhere's 1995 VHS revenue was expected to exceed $150 million.

The movie's original soundtrack also performed well, with worldwide sales surpassing 3.5 million copies and continuing strong sales. It had not yet settled final payments with Universal Records, but the final revenue share was expected to exceed $20 million.

Additionally, product placement advertising had generated $6 million, and trailer ad placements brought in $12 million. Truly a massive windfall, with enormous profits.

To put this in perspective, apart from Universal, Disney, and Paramount, the other four major Hollywood studios didn't even make $500 million in annual profit last year.

More than 60% of Universal's profits came from collaborations with Linton's studio.

Linton personally earned $40 million in revenue shares, plus the $28 million guaranteed base pay. His total income from this film reached an astonishing $68 million -- the highest ever for any Hollywood star.

Even compared to directors, he ranked just behind Steven Spielberg, who made over $150 million directing Jurassic Park.

With the company's massive revenue influx, generous bonuses were distributed to key contributors, leaving nearly $600 million in cash on the books -- far more money than they could spend.

Having so much cash sitting idle was unacceptable. Linton instructed Mary, the finance manager, to transfer $250 million to Winnie, who was to convert it quickly into communications and computer stocks.

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At the time, the company only had Pulp Fiction in theaters. Good Will Hunting and Final Destination had finished post-production, with Independence Day still in post-production. Most of the production team was idle.

Also, with tax season approaching, starting new projects became a necessity to minimize tax liabilities.

Linton pulled out five scripts he had outlined and refined by the writing team: Mission: Impossible, The Sixth Sense, As Good as It Gets, Scream, and The Long Kiss Goodnight.

Mission: Impossible's film rights were purchased from CBS for $1.5 million plus 5% of the North American box office profit. The other four were treated as original works.

After a week of closed-door meetings with Robert, Bob, Harvey, Klinsmann, Mary, and others, the studio officially greenlit these five films.

The quick decision-making was due to Linton's absolute control over the company and the blind faith his success had inspired. In other studios, it would take at least two months -- not one week -- to make such big decisions.

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Mission: Impossible was to be directed and starred in by Linton, produced by Robert. Former assistant Bella, who had skillfully managed Linton's fan club, would be promoted to executive producer as a reward for her efforts. The film's preliminary budget was $90 million.

Linton gave himself a $2 million script fee, a $10 million director's fee plus 10% of the North American box office, and $20 million plus 15% of the North American box office as lead actor.

According to agreements with Universal, for investments over $50 million, the studio had no less than 30% priority investment rights. Regardless of whether Universal invested, it didn't matter much to Linton.

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The Long Kiss Goodnight was to be produced by Kenneth and directed by Anne, with a preliminary budget of $45 million.

Anne had directed two blockbuster successes, Step Up 2 and The Fault in Our Stars, and had recently been nominated for Best Director at the Oscars, qualifying her as a top-tier director. Linton offered her a $6 million fee with no revenue share.

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As Good as It Gets was produced by Blake and directed by Ryan, with a preliminary budget of $28 million.

Ryan had also found success with Happy Death Day and Get Out, boosting his stature. Without an Oscar boost, Linton gave him a $5 million fee.

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Scream was produced by Bob Weinstein and directed by Zack, with a preliminary budget of $16 million.

Bob strongly advocated for this producer. He had proven himself with Pulp Fiction, adept at managing commercial films. With the studio short on producers, Linton agreed.

Zack's director fee was modest, only $500,000. Since his second film had flopped, he had to be grateful for this opportunity from Linton.

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The Sixth Sense was produced by Frank, directed by M. Night Shyamalan himself. Linton hadn't had time to develop his own director for this.

M. Night Shyamalan's fee was $1 million with no backend revenue share; the preliminary budget was $45 million.

*****

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