Chapter 933 Box Office Aftermath and New Changes in Film Salaries
In 2008, Robert Downey Jr.'s salary for starring in "Iron Man" was only $500,000. For "Avengers: Endgame," his salary was a base salary of $20 million plus 8% of the global box office revenue, which eventually reached about $75 million.
The most unique aspect of Lu Yanhe's compensation for "Godless 2" was that it included a 10% cut of the film's total revenue in the Chinese market.
Such profit-sharing terms can be said to be tailor-made for Lu Yanhe.
Apart from Lu Yanhe, no other foreign actor has received such a customized contract in a Hollywood film.
In addition, he can also enjoy a 5% share of the film's box office revenue in other regions.
Beyond that, there are the usual, basic revenues from DVDs that are common to main characters in blockbusters, as well as revenues from merchandise developed based on the character's image.
Of course, this part of the income should not be underestimated. Under Hollywood's well-established IP industrialization chain, for example, the main actors of "Harry Potter" can still earn millions of dollars every year from the film IP even though they have not starred in any new films in the series for many years. This comes from dividends from film copyright operation and other derivative income.
Just like the revenue that the two "Misty" films bring to Lu Yanhe each year, it still brings in millions of dollars every year. This comes from the film's preview screenings, DVD and other distribution channels, as well as dividends based on dolls, figurines, and commercial uses developed based on Lu Yanhe's character in the film.
Generally speaking, only actors who have reached a certain level and have real commercial value can initiate negotiations for these non-basic salaries.
To date, Lu Yanhe has essentially received the highest salary that foreign actors can earn in Hollywood.
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Darren Wilson told Lu Yanhe, "The box office of 'Godless' in China has exceeded 1.7 billion RMB and more than 200 million USD. It is the highest-grossing foreign film in China in the past five years. In addition, the price of 'Godless' on Chinese streaming platforms is very high. Therefore, I can negotiate with you for a 10% share of the total revenue of the sequel in the Chinese market."
Darren Wilson, in turn, receives a 20% commission from Lu Yanhe's earnings.
This is the market price that an agent of Darren Wilson's caliber receives, and of course, it's also the figure agreed upon in Darren Wilson's previous agency contract with Lu Yanhe.
As Lu Yanhe achieves further success in Hollywood, Darren Wilson's future commission percentage will inevitably decrease.
In fact, Darren Wilson came to discuss this matter with Lu Yanhe.
He himself suggested that the commission rate should be adjusted at this time, and the revenue of "Godless 2" should be calculated according to the new commission rate.
Lu Yanhe smiled.
He certainly understood that Darren Wilson still wanted to take a 20% commission.
If that's not the case, Darren Wilson should have negotiated a new commission rate with him first before discussing the terms of his role in Godless 2 with Midoriya.
Of course, Lu Yanhe didn't actually mind Darren Wilson's thoughts.
Without Darren, he himself wouldn't even have known that such a custom agreement could be reached with Midoriya.
Without Darren, he might not have been able to receive 5% of the global box office revenue from Godless 2.
Darren Wilson actually had a big project in mind: The Mist 3. He was waiting to negotiate a new commission rate with D19 before helping him with that.
With the example of "Godless 2", Darren can obviously raise the price based on the previous bid for D19 and help Lu Yanhe get higher rights.
Top celebrities do indeed earn a lot.
Tom Cruise for Top Gun: Maverick, Sandra Bullock for Gravity, and Bruce Wesley for The Sixth Sense are all examples of actors who earned hundreds of millions of dollars from a single film.
But actually—
To some extent, these figures are not his personal achievement, but rather the result of top agents managing the business like a project. Of course, Bruce Willis's success is different, as he relied on his own high-stakes gambles.
Lu Yanhe fully acknowledges Darren Wilson's role as an agent.
It's often said that once a celebrity reaches the top, it doesn't matter who their manager is.
But that's not actually the case at all.
An excellent, knowledgeable, and capable broker can accurately assess your value in the market and significantly increase your income.
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Of Lu Yanhe's earnings in Hollywood, Darren Wilson and his agency take 20%, and Chen Ziyan and Wang Biao each take an additional percentage as commission.
Of course, despite this, his income is still very high.
He has been among the top three on the Forbes list of billionaire entertainers for several consecutive years.
The income figures presented on this list are actually estimates. Lu Yanhe's actual income is far higher than the numbers on this list. After all, this list does not include his income from Jump Up Group and Shi Huo Company; it only calculates his annual income from starring and writing screenplays, and it is still a speculative estimate.
When Lu Yanhe first came to power, he caused some resentment towards the rich in China.
Now that we attend so many events, every year, everyone seems to have gotten used to it.
Furthermore, because his achievements are good enough and not inferior to other stars on the list, many people have the feeling that "since those European and American actors can earn such high incomes, why can't Lu Yanhe?"
However, those who used to "hate the rich" no longer do so, but have started to question why Lu Yanhe, with such a high income, rarely donates money to charity or public welfare.
Most of the charity work that Lu Yanhe and Chen Ziyan have done over the years has been undisclosed and anonymous.
The main reason is that the numbers are quite large, and once they are made public, they will become a tool for them to "morally blackmail" other artists.
Therefore, Lu Yanhe completely ignored it.
Just do what you're supposed to do.
In these matters, all you can really do is be true to your conscience.
It's impossible to please everyone.
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After finishing the promotional tour for "Godless" in July, Lu Yanhe was able to rest for two weeks before starting the promotional tour for "Cloud 3" in August.
When he took on the role in "The Clouds 3," his sole aim was to achieve global box office success.
For Lu Yanhe, his biggest weakness at the time was that he did not have a screen image that was well-known worldwide.
The most popular show, "Home Alone," he was the screenwriter, but he didn't appear in front of the public as his character.
Beyond that, there is actually "The Mist".
The weakness of "The Mist" lies in its genre, which makes it unfamiliar to a large portion of the audience who do not watch thriller or horror films.
Lu Yanhe's cameo appearance in the movie "Hurricane 2" demonstrated his enormous influence and appeal to Hollywood.
Because both box office data analysis and other aspects show that a significant proportion of the Asian audience for "Hurricane 2" came for Lu Yanhe.
The script for "Cloudy in the Sky 3" was approached after the release of "Hurricane 2". At the time, Hollywood wanted to replicate Lu Yanhe's "Asian appeal" as an Asian actor in a big-budget commercial production.
Now, Cloudfall 3 has clearly gotten a great deal.
Lu Yanhe's influence extends far beyond the Asian community.
Lu Yanhe did not ignore "Cloudy 3" despite his rising status in Hollywood.
Darren Wilson said that "Cloudy 3" is likely to be Lu Yanhe's last time playing a supporting role in such a big production.
Many famous actors don't seem strange when they take on supporting roles in big-budget productions. However, for top actors, unless it's a cameo—and a very explicit one at that, like Sandra Bullock in "Bullet Train"—a supporting role is often seen as a decline in their status or commercial value.
Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Tom Cruise… would any of these superstars ever play a supporting role in someone else's movie? Absolutely not. They are always the absolute main characters in any film, and after achieving fame, they almost never make cameo appearances.
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The Cloud series is a top Hollywood IP.
The first film grossed $820 million worldwide, and the second film grossed $650 million.
It is also Paula's most lucrative film series to date.
In "Cloud of the Clouds 3", Lu Yanhe played a character with only about ten minutes of screen time.
Because "Cloudfall" is also a fantasy blockbuster, Lu Yanhe was initially worried that it would clash with the theme of "Godless". People had just seen "Godless" and might feel that his character in "Cloudfall" was somewhat similar.
Lu Yanhe's character designs in "Cloud 3" and "Godless" are quite different, with significant visual differences.
Paula's publicity manager hopes that Lu Yanhe can participate in all the promotional activities for this film.
This far exceeds the tasks stipulated in the contract.
Darren Wilson insisted that the contract must be followed, and any requests exceeding the contractual stipulations should be discussed separately.
We will resolutely prevent capitalism from taking a single penny from Lu Yanhe.
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Chen Ziyan sighed and said, "Actually, it would be better if these two movies could be released at different times, so that the time between them could be longer, instead of being released at the same time."
While it's true that concentrated bursts also have their advantages.
But for Lu Yanhe at this stage, it would certainly be better to extend the release date.
Lu Yanhe himself didn't care. He still had several films coming up, including "The Boat," "The Original Father," and "Men in Black," plus "Friends," which he did every year, so he already had a lot in the pipeline. Lu Yanhe genuinely intended to slow down his pace, preferring to write more scripts or produce and supervise more films, and to have less on-screen exposure.
Too much of a good thing is bad; extreme prosperity inevitably leads to decline.
Even Leonardo DiCaprio, the world's number one movie star, is intentionally keeping his public appearances from becoming too frequent.
Otherwise, people will eventually get tired of it.
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Unexpectedly, just as Lu Yanhe made up his mind, Liu Bige brought news.
Bolai has provided feedback on Liu Bige's previous idea of "The Lunar Legion".
Liu Bige wants to create a planet with Chinese history and culture as the background for his film "Moon Legion," which he is directing. This is acceptable, but only if Liu Bige can persuade Lu Yanhe to star in "Moon Legion" as a representative character of this planet, co-starring with the main cast.
That's why Liu Bige sought out Lu Yanhe.
Lu Yanhe was speechless.
This speechlessness was not directed at Liu Bige, but at Bolai.
Borai is playing a completely open and aboveboard game.
—Didn't you want to showcase your culture in the movie "Lunar Legion"? Sure, let's bring Lu Yanhe, a box office superstar, as a guarantee to help "Lunar Legion" achieve even greater success at the box office.
Liu Bige asked, "What do you think? If you don't want to act, I'll just refuse them directly. Let them do whatever they want. If it really doesn't work out, they can find another director to direct it."
(End of this chapter)
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