Hollywood Starts with Animation

In fact, it was quite unexpected for Zucker himself to be able to win a series of copyrights for "300" so quickly.

Because the author of "300", that is the famous comic master Frank Miller!

He has created well-known comics such as "Batman: The Dark Knight", "Superman and Batman" for DC;

During the Marvel period, he participated in the creation of many comics such as "The Amazing Spider-Man", "Dream Man" series, "Erica" ​​series, "Fantastic Four" series, etc.;

The "Sin City" series of comics he created for Dark Horse Comics pushed him to the altar in one fell swoop.

In the field of comics in the United States, he is a well-known figure.

"Frank Miller in my impression, he is a master of comics, that's right, but he is also notoriously difficult to deal with!"

"It's got a bad reputation with the big Hollywood companies!"

Zucker couldn't help but recall.

Not to mention other things, just for the "Sin City" series of movies starring Bruce Willis, the film production company has repeatedly negotiated with Frank for the copyright, and the negotiation time is as long as one year; and , the production company also paid 15% of the North American box office share.

Yes, you read that right!

It is 15% of the North American box office share, not the net profit share.

That is to say, through the "Sin City" series of films, Frank Miller received a share of more than 50 million US dollars from the production company.

This price completely exceeds the film and television copyrights of many well-known comics!

"The film and television copyright of "Spider-Man", I won it, but it only cost 10 million US dollars."

"Frank is so dark!"

Not only that, Frank, who tasted the sweetness in the "Sin City" movie, will intensify his efforts in the future.

"I want to be the producer of the movie, I must be the first producer!"

"I want to be the director of the movie!"

"15% of the box office?"

"No! There is no 20% North American box office share, please don't bother me!"

"If necessary, I will personally serve as the director of the manga adaptation movie!"

Well, Frank Miller is just such a headache for Hollywood studios.

He is a manga man, does he understand filmmaking?

Well, even if he understands, how does he compare to those veteran Hollywood filmmakers? !

As for this time, Zucker was able to win the relevant copyright of "300" so quickly and successfully, it was because Frank had not started the later "vampire" mode.

Before 1997, the copyrights of many comics owned by Frank, including one film and television copyright of "Robocop", were quite famous.

"300"?

What it is? !

"300" is just a very inconspicuous one among the many comic copyrights in Frank Miller's hands.

Therefore, Zucker paid only $1.2 million to win a series of rights to "300".

Well, of course, there is also a 3% share of the North American box office net profit.

Divided, Zu Ke really doesn't want to give it!

But Frank is not short of money!

If we can't talk about it, he won't sell it if it's a big deal.

Frank said at the time: "Without the box office share of the movie, I will never sell any comic rights."

At first hearing this sentence, Zucker wanted to slap his old face on the spot.

Your face is so big!

In fact, this result is already a fortunate in misfortune.

he has money

There are many copyrights in hand;

He is not at all worried about not being able to sell the many comic copyrights in his hand.

In the original time and space, Frank served as the producer of "Spartan 300 Warriors" with a tough stance. He was extremely amateur in film production, but he dragged the film for more than two years before the filming was completed.

His various tough stances have greatly damaged the interests of the production company.

......

After a long discussion between Zucker and Zach, Zach Snyder left Wald Pictures contentedly.

This time, although he was not able to start film preparations for "300" immediately, he still took a screenplay from Wald Pictures.

Not "300"!

It's the script of the "Human Clearance Project"!

Well, of course, the capitalist Zucker will not let him wait for a 10-month window, but will squeeze him hard.

"Human Removal Project" is one of the lower-cost movies among many types of Hollywood movies, and it just so happens that Zucker has seen its four parts in his last life. The first film in the series cost less than $10 million to make, however, it grossed close to $100 million worldwide.

Although this revenue ratio is not as good as the famous "Chainsaw", it is not much worse.

"It's not that I didn't think about making "The Chainsaw", but I just heard about it in my last life, but I haven't seen it~!"

When the book is used up, I hate it less!

Zucker was a student in his last life, and he liked all kinds of Hollywood movies, whether it was a high-cost popcorn blockbuster or a low-cost genre movie.

However...after I started working, I seldom watched niche Hollywood movies.

When I go to the cinema to watch a movie, most of the time I watch a domestic comedy. Well, even if you watch Hollywood movies, you watch all kinds of special effects blockbusters.

...

...

End of January 1997.

Zucker left the long-stayed Burbank area and drove to Silicon Valley early in the morning.

Heading to Silicon Valley today, but something big!

Today, icq will hold its first share expansion meeting, which is the Series A financing meeting.

None of the representatives invited to participate in the A round financing meeting are weak, not today's Internet giants IBM, Microsoft, Cisco, or large Wall Street investment banks such as ****, Goldman Sachs, and Citi.

In fact, icq has launched the A round of financing at this stage, and Zucker disagrees.

Well, it is firmly opposed!

Because today's icq users are worth more than 4 million, they have not shown their potential in the future. Launching a Series A financing now will only be underestimated by the market.

However, the founding teams of icq such as Visig and Vardy have a firm attitude towards financing.

"The development of Icq has now reached a bottleneck and requires huge development funds."

In this regard, Zucker and Wisger and others have a common attitude.

"If I need funds, I can make additional investments. Of course, I can even provide the company with an interest-free loan of $10-20 million for the company's further expansion."

But the point of difference is that, as the founding team, they are not willing to let Zucker hold 45% of the shares that are enough to threaten their holdings and continue to exist.

They are eager to bring in other shareholders as a counterweight to Zucker, who owns a large stake.

For this reason, they did not hesitate to kill a thousand enemies and lose eight hundred!

Well, even if Zucker had signed an agreement with them to give priority to co-investment, which was enough to ensure that the shares would not be diluted, it would inevitably be targeted by a number of giant companies, and even well-known investment banks on Wall Street!

Dude, no matter which one of them is, Zucker can't afford to offend him at this stage!

There is no doubt that the dilution of Zucker's shares is inevitable.

Obviously, Zucker, who is currently the largest individual shareholder of ICQ, and Wisger and others are no longer as close as they once were, and even began to be in opposite positions.

The two sides have irreconcilable contradictions.

Of course this is not unusual.

In the vast majority of companies, when they reach a certain stage of development, the game between the company's management and shareholders is really a normal behavior that is commonplace.

"Looks like it's time for Lao Tzu to start over."

Zu Ke thought to himself: "LinkedIn, the long-planned Internet company, has finally come out."

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