The Bevy of Wheels are just like the Transformers.
The cultural derivative industry is huge in scale, with low investment and high returns, but the profit cycle is too long. When you have spare money one day, you can indeed make an investment and gather a batch of copyrights in your hands.
Toys like Transformers and Iron Man can make money by selling them. As more people buy them, more people will be influenced. In the future, animations and movies will have a broad market base, and the two will influence each other.
What a great business that can satisfy your own interests and make money at the same time.
Looking at it this way, Han Chudong became somewhat interested in Hollywood. He had seen many low-budget, high-grossing movies and still remembered the main plots, but he was not sure whether today's movie fans would be interested in the future stuff.
Thomas loves his career and got into animation production out of interest.
As a fan of Marvel Comics, he established a good relationship with Matthew Russell, the head of Marvel Burbank, at a party early on, and the two have a very good relationship.
This time, he just needed help, so he found Mr. Matthew Russell to introduce him to Han Chudong and discuss the possibility of cooperating to customize and publish a new comic.
Don’t think that the current Marvel comics are so high-end.
It has a small market value and has successfully created several characters, such as Captain America, Spider-Man, Iron Man, and the Hulk, but they are only famous in a small circle.
After introducing each other, we found a small lounge to discuss business.
Han Chudong couldn't help but connect this Marvel comic to the cool Marvel of the future. After finally calming down his thoughts, he began to talk to Mr. Russell about his needs and told him his general creative ideas.
Marvel has people and channels, while Han Chudong just has money, and the two sides hit it off immediately.
The company has a precedent of customizing comics for others, and the opportunity to make money is right in front of it, so why miss it? Marvel Comics' performance is not very good right now, and it is all supported by selling comics.
After listening to Han Chudong, Mr. Matthew Russell nodded seriously with a smile on his face: "We can definitely make it satisfy you. After we write the animation script and design the characters, we will let you review it. We will start creating it only after we confirm that there are no problems.
A comic strip is about 20 pages long, and it takes a lot of time and effort to prepare and complete it. In addition, the advertisement can be customized according to your needs. You are Thomas' friend, and you are also my new friend. The price is absolutely fair. I have to ask the New York headquarters to give you an accurate answer. "
"Thank you very much... But if I choose to cooperate with you, how will the fees be charged? How will the money earned from selling comics be distributed?" Han Chudong was more concerned about this issue. The copyright has been negotiated, and it is considered a buyout customization and does not belong to Marvel.
This type of custom business is rare. Mr. Russell thought for a moment and replied, "How do you feel about this? We will charge a certain creation fee for each copy published. If you are responsible for the printing costs, we will only charge half of the sales profit as the distribution fee."
Han Chudong thought this was not a good idea.
After doing the math, I found out that I had to pay for the creation and printing costs myself, and Marvel Comics was only responsible for selling, but they wanted to charge 50% of the profits?
It means that you don't take any risk and make money out of nothing.
It's too early to talk about profit sharing now since we don't even know how much the so-called single-copy creation fee is. Han Chudong also knows that he needs help from others now. If he doesn't make money, then why would this company help with customization?
What he cares most about is selling more toy racing cars at high prices. It is hard to say whether he can make money by publishing comics.
Therefore, even though I felt I was at a disadvantage, I didn't really take it to heart. I couldn't ask others to help me customize comics and let them bear the risk of losses.
"Mr. Russell, please ask the head office first how much it costs to issue a single copy, and we can discuss the rest of the details later, okay?"
"Okay, Thomas, lend me a phone. I need to discuss the customization fee with my boss."
Thomas didn't help either side and didn't interrupt the whole process.
It was not until this time that he took Russell to his office to borrow the phone and signaled Han Chudong with his eyes, probably to indicate that he would help lower the price.
Han Chudong didn’t have the ability to see through other people’s minds, so he didn’t know if this was what Thomas meant.
Anyway, if you think the price is high, just give up. The worst thing about doing business is to care too much about face. You should put your interests first and pursue a win-win situation.
I went to a newspaper to ask about the price of advertising space. I learned that advertising on TV is more expensive. Advertising in the form of comics or animation is more targeted and may also help to recover advertising costs.
He is already considering giving comic books away with every purchase of toys, allowing young customers to pass them around among themselves. This should have a pretty good promotional effect.
Stay in the lounge with Kiko Mochizuki.
Hot coffee tastes good, and iced coffee tastes good too, but the cup in front of him has already reached room temperature and is almost impossible to swallow.
An idea suddenly popped into his head, and Han Chudong said to Mochizuki Kiko:
"When you have time recently, please help me check whether a movie called Jaws has started filming. I remember it was adapted from a novel.
There is no wrong version in the 1619 book forum!
If it is released, forget it. If it is not released, check which company owns the copyright. "
He remembered that this great drama was released in the 1970s, but he couldn't remember the exact time. The great director Steven Spielberg achieved success with this movie.
"...I'll help you check when I get back."
The young boss often does some things that would make Kyoko Mochizuki feel strange, but looking for movies is not something out of the ordinary by comparison.
Take the inspection in Silicon Valley for example. For some unknown reason, I set my eyes on someone else's project, and without even thinking about it, I wanted to get involved on the spot, saying that we wanted to do it together.
In her eyes, Han Chudong was a rather magical being. His thoughts were too jumpy and he was obsessed with making money. As a result, Kyoko Mochizuki would occasionally think about it and wonder if this was the difference between herself and a business genius?
I still remember when we first met, he was just a small boss who had just started a business and made some money. Before I knew it, he already had four companies. Kyoko Mochizuki herself had only saved more than 2,000 US dollars during this period.
There are such huge differences between people, no wonder she admires him from the bottom of her heart.
Wait a moment.
When Mr. Matthew Russell came back, he said that the asking price for a single copy was US$3,000, which was roughly equivalent to half a year's salary for an ordinary comics practitioner.
It's a little expensive, but Marvel will be responsible for the script, distribution and other aspects. Small companies don't have such resources, so the price is not too outrageous.
After Han Chudong thought about it, he agreed immediately and promised to bear the printing costs and give him 50% of the profits.
Before leaving, he asked Mr. Russell how much it would cost to buy all of Marvel Comics. Although he was confused, Mr. Russell still told Han Chudong an estimated number.
It’s only seven figures, the price is touching…