The new month has begun, and there are two updates every day, one update at 9:00 in the morning and evening!

For Duke, the main task at this stage is to complete the finale of "Return of the King", and then pay attention to the progress of several negotiations. The most important one is undoubtedly the copyright negotiation between Harry Potter Studio and Joanna Rowling on the last few movies of the series.

As Duke expected, it was a long and difficult negotiation full of arguing and disagreement.

Especially for Joanna Rowling's share, the two sides basically competed for one ten thousand as the basis point, and companies such as Walt Disneyland interfered with it. The negotiations started from the release of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" and continued until now. It took more than half a year. After making some compromises, a new agreement was finally reached.

Starting with "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", Joanna Rowling will enjoy a 9.5% profit share of all peripheral revenues, including the box office of the movie, and Harry Potter Studios will pay a base fee of $60 million for the adaptation rights of the last four novels at one time.

This is a matter of no way. Hollywood has never had the benefits gained without giving. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone has achieved great success. Joanna Rowling and her agency team are not fools. How could they give up their worthy benefits?

At the same time, the crew signed new contracts with all actors. The remuneration of most permanent actors has been increased to a certain extent, especially the main young actors. Not only did the remuneration of the new contracts have increased to one million, but they also received partial compensation after the big sale of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone".

Without touching on profit sharing, substitution is only the last choice, and the crew will try their best to use the original personnel.

However, the progress of the entire series will be paused slightly. There are two main reasons: one is that Chris Columbus does not want to continue and Duke intends to change the director; the other is that the voice change period and rapid development period of the young actors have arrived, and the project will be paused for one year.

Moreover, these young actors also have to take acting classes as Duke's requirements. By the same token, if the crew pays them a high salary, they have to show corresponding performances. The former players performed really badly in the later stages, especially the Gryffindor Golden Triangle. If it were not for the fixed image formed by the series, their acting skills would not be much better than Hollywood's temporary actors who were mixed at the bottom.

In fact, Duke and Warner are very clear that compared to Joanna Rowling, these young actors are the real trouble, and at most two movies are released. Their agents and parents will inevitably come to negotiate again, and even ask for profit sharing.

But after staying in Hollywood for so many years and with Warner Bros., Duke has prepared the means to deal with it and sign a box office profit sharing with the young actors.

Harry Potter Studios is a separate company that can raise funds from Duke Studios and Warner Bros. through loans...

As time goes by, the popularity of "Twin Towers" has been declining, and North America only received a box office of $500,000 in August. Although the original soundtrack album and DVD set have not yet been launched, the promotion of "Return of the King" has been officially put on the agenda.

Because it is still far from being released, especially the popularity of the first two plots, the market is full of expectations for the final chapter. Warner Bros. is still focusing on "The Twin Towers" in terms of publicity. After "Return of the King" completes the later work, Duke will temporarily reveal some news.

"Director Rosenberg, is it convenient to reveal the news about "Return of the King"?"

At the door of the Lord of the Rings Studio, Duke was stopped by several entertainment reporters. When they heard their questions, the rare answered a few words, "I will use my instant sharing account to announce the latest posters, trailers and release news. You can follow them at any time, and you are welcome to reprint them."

"Instant sharing of account?"

One reporter was stunned, and another reporter reminded him, "It is the social networking website where "Return of the King" released its first poster."

Duke smiled, walked into the studio under the protection of two bodyguards, greeted the publicity department first, and used his instant sharing account to publish some latest news about the video every few days.

Although the energy invested in this website is extremely limited, Duke will also help promote it within his ability, especially after the first few times, the website took advantage of the popularity of the Lord of the Rings and the number of registered people exceeded 500,000 in one fell swoop.

This is already an amazing number for a website that is still in its infancy.

“Hi, Duke.”

As soon as he entered the office, Wallace Lee knocked on the door and walked in, as if he had something to talk about.

"Li, is there anything?" Duke sat down and pointed to the chair opposite the desk.

Wallace Lee sat down, he knew Duke's work style and asked directly, "How do you think I've been doing recently, Boss?"

He has struggled in the independent film industry for many years, and he knows that opportunities must be achieved by himself and will also promote himself in a timely manner.

"It's not bad." Duke nodded in agreement, "It's done better than I expected."

Duke knows a little about some of the habits of people who have emerged from the independent film circle. Perhaps his old classmate has encountered too many walls in the independent circle and has a not strong literary atmosphere. In the post-production of "The Twin Towers" and "Return of the King", he can indeed be described as excellent.

Duke understood what he wanted to say, raised his hand to stop Wallace? Lee wanted to say something, and thought about it for a moment, and said, "But these are not enough. Lee, I have already taken the right to adapt. You must prove to me in the next time that you have enough ability and prove that you have the value to invest in me."

If it was just the post-production work of two films, he could invest tens of millions of dollars, that would be too ridiculous.

Like all Hollywood companies, investing in movies is never an easy task, nor is it a decision to make just a browse. Any investment or any project is established, it is relatively cautious.

"Li, I need a trailer of one and a half minutes." Duke still gave the other party a chance to prove himself. "You are responsible for cutting out the first trailer of "Return of the King", if I am satisfied..."

Wallace Lee's eyes lit up immediately, but Duke changed his voice, "I will have a new project next year. As long as the trailer can meet my basic requirements, you can help me prepare this video with Anna next year. This is your opportunity to prove yourself up close."

"Is it the new script to go to Paris to shoot?" asked Wallace Lee.

Duke nodded, "It's the script I gave to Anna last week. You two can communicate first."

After completing the script outline and character setting, Duke handed over the script to the editorial department of the Duke Studio, which was filled and improved by other screenwriters. The plot of this script is nothing surprising. From creativity to the development of the storyline, it is all things used in Hollywood. Even the most touching father-daughter relationship in it has nothing to do with strangeness and innovation.

As he said, those popular videos are basically half a Pacific distance from brand new ideas.

Regardless of the rest, take this project, which has been named "Hurricane Rescue" as an example. If a newcomer is submitted to the film company, a 99.9% chance of this script is sent to the script library after being browsed slightly, and slowly accumulates dust in the corner. I don’t know when it will be released.

But in the hands of directors and producers who have had successful experience, their treatment will be completely different.

Although the script of "Hurricane Rescue" has been completed, Duke is not ready to start production immediately. There is still a lot to do in "Return of the King". This is just a small investment and a short time-consuming project, so there is no need to worry at all.

Since September, Duke's instant sharing account has successively released some posters and character styling of "Return of the King". As a major shareholder, he has communicated with Google. As long as someone uses Google to search for "Return of the King" or social networking websites, the instant sharing website will inevitably appear at the forefront of searches.

Moreover, under his suggestion, the company's newly launched websites and social software have simplified the functions, making it easier for users to get started. These are also considered that Duke has not helped his girlfriend much.

After all, he is not a professional, and he can only use his own and his works to help Ivanka promote his website.

What's more, Duke has always held forty-five percent of the shares. If the website can really be bigger, it will be a good thing for him.

By late October, thanks to the vigorous promotion in all aspects, the number of registrations for instant sharing websites finally exceeded the 1 million mark, with an average daily visit volume of nearly 300,000 times. Although it is far less than that of blogs or software, it is also one of the same type with very good development momentum.

At the same time, after a slow screening, the North American box office of "Twin Towers" finally broke through the $500 million mark on October 25. This is the second film in history to have a box office of more than $500 million in North America, and it is also Duke's first work in North America to have a box office of more than $500 million. In terms of global box office, it also achieved the surpassing of "The Rings Expedition", crossing the $1.2 billion mark in one fell swoop, reaching $1.215.77 million!

But unlike "The Ring Expedition" when it exceeded one billion US dollars, media and movie fans across the United States were very calm. This result was seen by everyone two months ago. After waiting for a long time, seeing Duke more often, the media and the public no longer felt novelty.

"If "Two Towers Shock" cannot exceed $500 million in North America and its global box office is not as good as "The Rings Expedition", that's the news!"

The Los Angeles Times comments undoubtedly represent the opinions of most people.

However, this is indeed a gratifying achievement. Since mid-October, the Duke Manor has been busy decorating the banquet hall and preparing for a grand party. This is not only for the success of "The Twin Towers", but more to celebrate Ivanka's 21st birthday. (To be continued...)
Chapter completed!