"Exclusive broadcast?"

When Lu Ban heard the suggestion made by Thomas Lee, he subconsciously asked a question in return.

"Yes, we can lower the cinema chain's commission and give you a larger share, as well as schedule more films and provide more publicity and promotion support. The exchange condition is that in the North American market, our company will exclusively broadcast your three films, The Tide of Devil, The Wailing, and In the Mouth of a Madman. In terms of specific figures, we can accept a commission rate of 30%, which means you can get nearly 70% of the film's box office revenue."

Thomas Lee looked at the young director in front of him and spoke sincerely.

He received a call from his immediate superior two days ago, asking him to negotiate the exclusive license for "The Magic Tide" as soon as possible and make it his top priority, which made Thomas Lee a little confused.

Although he had seen "The Devil's Tide" and thought it was a very good movie, he was extremely skeptical about his company being able to negotiate for exclusive broadcasting authorization.

First of all, although it is the cinema chain with the largest market share in North America, it is not a 90:1 split with other cinema chains. It only occupies about 50% of the market share. Choosing to broadcast the film exclusively through it means losing almost 40% of the revenue from other theaters. If it has confidence in its own work, it will not lose the big picture for the small.

Secondly, judging from Thomas Lee’s contact with Lu Ban, this person is not that conservative and is more likely to choose a radical strategy. For Lu Ban, covering the entire market may be more important.

"Mr. Li, I'm sorry, I don't have the idea of ​​choosing to broadcast it alone."

Lu Ban answered immediately without even thinking.

"My goal for this movie is to earn 5 billion in revenue from royalties, or 800 million U.S. dollars. If I choose to broadcast it exclusively in your theaters, I think it may make it more difficult to achieve this goal."

He speaks the truth.

"...800 million US dollars???"

For a moment Thomas Lee thought he had misheard.

If Lu Ban had mentioned the box office of 800 million US dollars, he might have thought that director Lu Ban was very ambitious and had big goals.

But $800 million in box office revenue sharing, what does that mean?

According to the normal profit sharing, the producer gets 40%, so $800 million requires $2 billion in box office revenue, which is the basis.

So far, there are only five films in global film history that have grossed over $2 billion.

Does Lu Ban want to make it into the top five in the global box office with this movie?

This is even more wishful thinking than wishful thinking.

Thomas Lee felt that Lu Ban might really be a little mentally ill.

"Director Lu, if you don't want to accept our exclusive broadcast invitation, you can just say so. There's no need to joke about this."

Thomas Lee gave an awkward but polite smile.

"No, I'm dead serious."

Lu Ban replied.

"In fact, during this period of time, I have reached agreements with several other theaters to schedule the film for Christmas. At the same time, I have also purchased a huge advertisement in Times Square. By next week at the latest, you can see the entire Times Square flashing for "The Tides of Devil"."

"???"

Thomas Lee couldn't stop asking questions.

There is no problem in scheduling the film together with other cinema chains. In fact, any serious producer would do so. But the huge advertisement in Times Square?

There are many advertising screens in Times Square, the more famous ones are the Nasdaq advertising screen and the Reuters advertising screen. The most expensive Nasdaq advertising screen costs about $60,000 for a 30-second video rotation for a day. The prices of other advertising screens vary. If you want to light them up, the total cost will be hundreds of thousands, close to a million.

Moreover, these ads are not run for just one day, but for at least a week. If you want to do it like Lu Ban, it will cost at least millions.

What's more, it's still August, and there are still four months until the Christmas release date. Lu Ban will definitely need to release it at least once a month during these four months.

If you calculate this, the publicity and promotion here alone would cost tens of millions, and this is just the most basic.

Combined with offline promotions, promotion on screens in other shopping malls, newspapers, etc., these publicity and promotion funds are enough for some low-budget teams to shoot an entire movie in North America alone.

Previously, a movie invested more than 200 million US dollars in global promotion and marketing, which earned a global box office of nearly 2.8 billion, ranking second in the world's historical box office. However, that was the finale of a well-known superhero collection, and the popularity was already high enough. It is really hard to guess whether Lu Ban, a director who is entering the European and American markets for the first time, can have such a high box office appeal.

After finishing the discussion with Lu Ban, Thomas Lee reported Lu Ban's reply to his superiors, and inevitably was scolded.

After the formalities were finalized, Thomas Lee applied for a vacation, wanting to relax himself.

He returned to North America and strolled through the streets of New York, which gave him a sense of unreality.

The North American version of "The Wailing" will be released in September, and "In the Mouth of Madness" in October. There has been a lot of discussion about these two films in related forums in North America, and pirated resources have also been leaked. However, due to language problems, many foreigners cannot understand them, and they need to rely on some translators who work out of love to translate Chinese into English subtitles. People who have seen these two films have all praised Lu Ban. After all, films of this theme are rare even in Europe and the United States recently.

Early in the morning, Thomas Lee arrived at Times Square.

People come and go here in an endless stream. As the most bustling intersection in the world, it often appears in various news and movies. It is almost the landmark with the highest presence besides the Statue of Liberty.

He looked up and saw that the screen with the Nasdaq logo was still playing advertisements for cosmetics and clothing. The other advertising screens were also showing their own advertisements, with a dazzling array of products and flashing neon lights.

Suddenly, all the screens went black.

If it was just one or two, passers-by might just think it was a brief black screen switching advertisements, but in an instant, all the screens in Times Square fell into darkness, the noisy sounds disappeared, and the streets were silent.

Thomas Lee looked at the Nasdaq big screen.

The Silent Media logo emerged from the darkness, and then a vast forest emerged.

This was a 30-second promotional video that perfectly displayed the cold, solemn, yet exciting atmosphere of the entire film. Thomas Lee looked around and found that most of the passers-by were stopping to watch, as if attracted by the images in the trailer.

Just as the screen went black again, it seemed as if it had come to an end.

But suddenly, a roar was heard, just like the giant wolf in the movie. Thomas Lee saw that on the screen, a giant gray wolf was about to appear, and its entire head even popped out of the screen!