As more and more Wall Street capital poured into Hollywood, major studios also reached co-financing agreements with Wall Street capital.
20th Century Fox Film Entertainment announced a cooperation agreement with Dune Entertainment, a subsidiary of Wall Street venture fund Dune Capital, involving 28 films and hundreds of millions of dollars in funding, while retaining the possibility of additional financing.
Warner Bros. also announced a cooperation agreement with Legendary Entertainment totaling $500 million, with both parties planning to co-invest in 25 films over 5 years.
Credit Suisse First Boston, which had just signed a credit loan agreement with Charles, established a fund of hundreds of millions of dollars to invest in 32 live-action films produced and distributed by Disney through its subsidiary, Kingdom Pictures.
"Legendary Entertainment and Warner Bros.'s development of films like batman begins and superman returns, I happened to encounter them," Charles said, putting down the newspaper in his hand.
He continued, "Even Warner Bros. didn't expect batman to achieve such great success with the reboot of Superman and batman, did they?"
After all, George Clooney's batman & Robin had such a poor reputation that it almost spelled the end for comic book superhero movies.
"Thomas Tull, he has several private equity funds supporting him," Donna Williams said, as she had been following this information.
"Another Relativity Media is currently negotiating co-financing matters with Sony and Universal."
"Adding Paramount, which collaborated with a Merrill Lynch fund last year, all The Big Six now have their own investment partners!"
Was Charles envious? Not really, because Capet Pictures' film revenues are too high now. Although direct loan development means he bears the risk, the profits are also his.
When Capet Pictures grows in the future, it will certainly introduce cooperative capital, as Charles alone cannot oversee all films.
"Marvel, Ike Perlmutter hasn't replied to us yet?" Charles inquired.
Donna Williams shook her head. Hundreds of millions of dollars is not a small sum. Ike Perlmutter should be considering the possibility of selling shares.
"That's fine. Anyway, I'm going back to Los Angeles soon. I'll put some more pressure on him at the shareholders' meeting," Charles said, lighting a cigarette, taking a puff, and continuing,
"Find more media outlets to publish news reports that are bearish on Marvel Company, especially since even Merrill Lynch is not optimistic about the remaining unknown heroes of Marvel Company."
Even the third installment of the earliest developed Marvel Comics character Blade, Blade: Trinity, released last year, saw a new low in both critical reception and box office, indicating another character to be shelved.
Donna Williams nodded. Fili Jones entered, handing Charles a list of awards and transactions from this year's Cannes Film Festival.
Charles took it and looked through it. no country for old men did not win any awards. He then glanced at some film transaction records.
He noticed the Chinese film The Promise, which claimed a production budget of $40 million, making it China's highest-budget film to date.
Even the $30 million budget for house of flying daggers had a lot of exaggeration, and as for The Promise, Charly didn't even bother to comment.
"The Weinstein Company signed a first-look distribution agreement for this Chinese film The Promise?" Charles asked Fili Jones, looking up.
Fili Jones nodded, "This Chinese film has a very large investment. After a twenty-minute preview was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, The Weinstein Company signed a first-look distribution agreement!"
"Last year's Hero grossed $55 million in North America. Harvey Weinstein wants to do it again?" Charles chuckled. Why didn't that fat guy just buy it outright? A first-look agreement can be broken. He could just break the contract closer to the film's release and pay the penalty.
This is Harvey Weinstein's usual trick to bully foreign filmmakers who don't understand market conditions.
"This time, The Promise is not comparable to the grand occasion of house of flying daggers at last year's Cannes Film Festival!" Fili Jones explained again.
Charles pouted, saying, "When house of flying daggers was looking for distributors at the Cannes Film Festival, the director's previous film, Hero, had just been released in North America and achieved excellent box office results."
"Look at how much house of flying daggers grossed in North America when it was released in January this year—only $11 million! Sony Pictures Classics lost a lot this time!"
At last year's Cannes Film Festival, Sony Pictures Classics bid for the North American rights to house of flying daggers, but unfortunately, house of flying daggers did not continue the commercial success of Hero.
"I prefer the Chinese kung fu film Kung Fu, which was released at the end of March this year and has grossed over $17 million in North America!" That's right, it was Stephen Chow's film Kung Fu, with over $17 million at the North American box office and $100 million globally.
The premiere of Kung Fu was held at Charles Pacific Dome Theatre on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.
Compared to house of flying daggers' North American box office of $11 million and global total box office of over $90 million, it was tens of millions of dollars higher.
However, the production cost of Kung Fu was $20 million, while house of flying daggers had a production cost of $30 million!
"Boss, should we also invest in Chinese films?" Fili Jones asked. Kung Fu was invested and developed by Sony Pictures' Columbia Pictures Asia, with Stephen Chow's Star Overseas responsible for production.
"Chinese films?" Charles sat on the sofa, frowning. In recent years, China's film market has been developing and growing, and this year, a law allowing foreign investment in cinema operations has been opened.
Investing in cinemas in Mainland China would definitely be a huge profit, but it can only be done in partnership with local companies, with cinema shares limited to a maximum of 49%. As for China's cinema chains, foreign investment is definitely not allowed.
Co-productions are not feasible. It would be better to follow Sony's example and directly invest in local Chinese films, entrusting local film companies with production.
"It's worth considering," Charles thought. He didn't believe anyone understood Chinese films better than him. Although the Chinese film market is small now, even a mosquito's leg is still meat.
Columbia Pictures Asia is operated by Sony Pictures Entertainment's distribution subsidiary, Columbia TriStar International Films. It had previously directly developed So Close, which was a remake of Sony Columbia's own film, Charlie's Angels.
However, investing in cinema construction in Mainland China is a must. Even just waiting for real estate appreciation, the future returns are unimaginable.