ps: The new week has begun. We will try our best to keep the third update. If we can’t code, we will also notify us in advance.

As of the end of July, the number of "Iron Man" in North America screening theaters was less than 400, and the box office output on that day fell below $200,000. The North American market basically could not have any big achievements. However, in the fifteen-week period, the film's North American box office reached $381.24 million, and all summer films, including "Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Soul Cave", were under the weight, and they were the well-deserved North American summer champion in 2006.

Two years after losing this position, Duke once again dominated the summer season.

However, "Iron Man"'s overseas performance is relatively inferior. In almost the same period, the film received US$312.66 million from nearly 100 countries and regions.

The global box office of "Iron Man" has increased by $693.9 million.

Although the total box office is infinitely close to $700 million, the global box office increase of "Iron Man" has been weak, and it is hard to say whether it can exceed the $700 million mark in the end.

Some people certainly want to push the final box office figure of "Iron Man" by $700 million, especially in the long run, which is beneficial to the Marvel series plans, and Marvel's top executives have prepared a sum of funds that can be invested at any time.

In addition, the DVD release of "Iron Man" is also in preparation. It will be launched and will make money when the film consumes North America's final box office potential.

Since the beginning of the new century, DVDs have been one of the main revenues of major Hollywood production and distribution companies. It is not even an exaggeration to say that Hollywood is relying on DVDs to make money. Some popular movies such as Spider-Man and Lord of the Rings Trilogy have sold more than $100 million in North America alone. In those films that can enter the top ten annual box office rankings, except for very few examples, most of the final DVDs can be sold for about $100 million.

The production cost of DVD is much lower than the once popular videotape, and will not exceed one to three percent of the wholesale price sold by the publisher to sellers. Even if marketing and other costs are included, the profit margin is still terrifying.

Generally speaking, the producer will provide the underwriter with a promotional fund of about 5% and no more than 10%.

There is also leasing, and the leasing share is relatively complicated.

First, the rental company will give a reserve price, which means that no matter whether the film is rented or not, the producer can get a sum of money from the rental company, about 3 to 10 US dollars each.

Then there are several different ways to rent. Normal rental fees are the main source. In addition, if the rental disc is not returned on time, the leaser will automatically sell it. That is, the money of the disc rental user is deducted according to the sales price. In the current general way, the producer will draw 1 to 2 US dollars from each rental income, and the price will be determined according to the box office figures of the film.

In other words, the higher the box office, the higher the commission ratio of a film, so the box office is the basis for a movie to make a profit.

If it is a salesperson, there is also a ratio of each ticket, which is higher, about 5 to 10 US dollars.

The rental fee is not always included. According to the contract, there is a valid time, which is about 50 weeks. After it expires, the leaser must destroy a certain proportion of the DVD and return the remaining ones to the studio, or buy them at a certain price per piece.

If a single movie is a popular movie, the studio can earn $5 million to $8 million from a single leaser. This is only the rental part, and the sales part is more than this. In other words, a popular movie Hollywood can obtain tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from DVDs, and this income is almost all net profit.

This is why Hollywood is making money on DVD.

However, everyone who has paid attention to the relevant data is very clear that the heyday of DVD is about to go away. A data counted by Warner Bros. this year showed that Hollywood DVD sales in the first half of 2006 fell by 6.3% compared with the first half of 2005.

Although Hollywood's DVD industry still maintains a scale of nearly $2 billion, it is not difficult for people with long-term vision to see that this glory cannot last for too long, and will even decline sharply in the next three to four years.

Why does this happen? Is the audience tired of Hollywood commercial blockbusters?

Of course, the answer is no. The audience of Hollywood movies has not shrunk, but with the rise of Internet video websites, those teenagers who constitute the mainstream of the film market have turned their attention to online on-demand and online downloads.

No one knows better than Duke that the rise of movies on the Internet has directly reduced the scale of Hollywood's DVD industry by two-thirds.

Hollywood is never short of elites, and many people have discovered this.

On the one hand, producers have also begun to find ways to reduce costs to ensure that each disc can create more profits; on the other hand, while taking defensive measures, major studios are also preparing for the day when the movie completely disappears from the silver disc.

The future offline distribution of movies will inevitably rely more on the on-demand on-demand services of the Internet or cable satellite TV companies. Data from media survey companies show that the current market size has reached US$800 million, and it has surged by nearly 20% last year alone.

Warner Bros. and Duke Studios are both preparing for the future, planning to not wait for the movie's DVD to be released a few weeks before it is released on the Internet or paid TV version, but instead launch them simultaneously.

In this way, it can attract young people who don’t want to buy DVDs.

Another brewing shift is to allow viewers to download online versions after the movie is released, and this can also be an additional fee for viewing HD versions from customers before the DVD is released.

It can be said that how movies are offline from theaters and how to make profits using the Internet is the focus of research by major companies at present.

Some people even looked at the online income of the video.

As we all know, Hollywood has never been a kind place for mutual love. It can be said that good people and soft-hearted people have basically no room for survival here. This industry has attracted countless people and companies to fight continuously with capital, fame and interests. This struggle is also reflected in the major Hollywood associations.

The most famous associations in Hollywood are nothing more than the producers’ union, the director’s union, the editor’s union and the two actor’s union. There are also contradictions and interests between these four associations.

Of course, it is basically a conflict between the producers' league and other associations.

At present, the contract between the Producers Alliance and the Screenwriters Association is about to expire at the end of 2007. The Producers Alliance, which represents the interests of the studio, has begun preliminary negotiations with the Screenwriters Association, but the negotiations are not going smoothly, and the Producers Alliance does not want to easily meet the conditions of the Screenwriters Association.

In 1988, the Screenwriters Association called on screenwriters to hold a 22-week strike, and obtained a fixed share of videotape and TV broadcast revenue from the producers. Now they are eyeing the Internet income of the film.

Not only the Screenwriters Association, but also the Directors and the Actors Association also demand to share this benefit, but they encountered a completely different treatment from the Screenwriters Association. Although there were major differences with the Producers Alliance, there was room for talks, rather than being directly rejected by the Producers Alliance like the Screenwriters Association.

This also indirectly reflects the screenwriter's status in Hollywood.

Scripts are one of the basis for making videos, but in quite a few projects, they are not that important.

Duke knew very well that the Producers League would make some concessions to the Directors and the Actors League, but would not easily give in to the Screenwriters Association.

Future strikes are simply inevitable.

He knew that the strike would definitely happen, and knew that the strike would affect his profits, but he was powerless. This conflict of interests could not be resolved by one person or a small group.

In fact, even if the strikes achieve results, the status of Hollywood screenwriters will not improve much.

Nowadays, everyone, including those in production companies, thinks that the biggest weakness of Hollywood movies is the lack of originality. It can also be said that the Hollywood system is trying its best to crack down on innovation. Producers are afraid of the risks brought by innovation, so they would rather shoot sequels or adapt a bestseller and comic than support the so-called new script full of creativity.

For example, if Duke is asked to choose, someone recommends scripts to him. One is a novel story and structure book, which only requires an investment of $50 million; the other is a script adapted from popular comics that seems vulgar, which costs $80 million, and he will definitely choose the latter without hesitation.

Ninety-nine percent of Hollywood producers will make the same choice.

The remaining 1% will usually be left behind after receiving a creative script. Some people may feel interesting, get the so-called Hollywood script blacklist, and then put it on for many years, slowly waiting for someone to invest...

In Hollywood, a big film factory, most of the films, even art films, must comply with the rules of assembly line, and the script is no exception. Even if it is a script like "The Dark Knight", after Duke finished the outline and character design, he handed it over to the screenwriter team below. A total of 22 screenwriters participated in the writing of the script.

These screenwriters have a clear division of labor, and they have distinguished the political dramas, love dramas, and action dramas in which the films are written... Even dialogues are divided into threats, love, humor, and action.

A movie of such a scale of "The Dark Knight" must be a product of Hollywood assembly line. If such a large-scale investment is not produced in the assembly line model, Warner Bros. will have to go crazy.

With August approaching, the preparations for "The Dark Knight" became more and more busy, and Duke also ran several times between Warner Studios, Hughes Aircraft Factory and Chicago to inspect the preparation progress on the field.

Perhaps the success of "Batman: The Moment of War" brought some publicity effects. The Chicago government gave "The Dark Knight" strong support, and the mayor also met Duke twice.
Chapter completed!