331 The Prophet
Ian sorted out his thoughts, "I called Gao Wen yesterday and then simply counted it. Now we can transfer cash at most no more than two million." Ian briefly and clearly explained the results, "If we convert all the stock market and funds that can be transferred, it can be about 800."
Among the four brothers, Gao Wen is a professional player and his salary is undoubtedly the highest. After the rookie contract was over, he signed a five-year, $30 million contract. However, as a professional athlete, Gao Wen also had to bear a lot of expenses, including training, medical care, taxation, etc.; and Gao Wen has also spent a lot in recent years. He bought a villa in Green Bay, and the first fund for Lance to establish Diorama Film was also provided by Gao Wen.
Lance raised his eyebrows unexpectedly, "I thought it would be a maximum of 500." Although Lance had no idea about the stock market, he also knew that the four brothers were all working for people in the final analysis, and the original accumulation was not that easy to read;.
When filming "City of God", they had already consumed all their flexible cash; and this time, the investment of "borrowing a knife" emptied the funding pool that Chaos Pictures had just filled up - the "day-absence" income was gradually transferred in one after another, not all dividends were transferred in in one breath. Now, the investment of "borrowing a knife" comes from Paramount Pictures, and the actors' pay, the salary of crew members, etc. Chaos Pictures has not yet paid for it, and is burdened with debt.
So, when Ian told him that they could take out at least two million and up to eight million, Lance was quite surprised.
Ian rolled his eyes and looked at Lance helplessly, "Are you questioning my abilities?" Gao Wen has worked hard in the league for twelve years and still has a lot of savings. Ian is a very outstanding investor, so he naturally accumulated some capital over the years. "But it is still not enough."
Eight million and 40 million are a very different distance. No wonder others say that movies are games for rich people. Wall Street is always the one that determines the direction of Hollywood. Without the support of high capital, it is impossible to become a chess player in this game. DreamWorks' dilemma in the past two years is the best proof.
"I have several plans here, but none of them are applicable." In fact, the stock market is the best way to win short-term interests, but this is a big bet. Even the most wise trader dare not say that he is sure to win. "My personal opinion is to either go to a bank to borrow money. In the name of Chaos Pictures, there should be no problem with 25 million yuan in funds." Ian simply suggested, "I originally wanted to continue to cooperate with Paramount, but after listening to your plan, this is obviously not an option - or, in other words, this is the last option."
Lance did not speak, but fell into deep thought, and Ian didn't mind. He leaned to the back of the chair with a little relaxed relaxation and said with a smile, "Of course. If you want, go to Las Vegas to take a gamble on luck, which is also an option."
It was just a joke, but Lance's eyes suddenly lit up.
Why do people always say that Hollywood is a game on Wall Street? Why is DreamWorks gradually entering a dead end after ten years of rising with the support of the three giants Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Carsonberg and David Geffrey (david-)? Why, after New Line Film and MGM Pictures fell one after another, none of the six major Hollywood film companies are film companies?
The reason is simple. Movies are an industry that requires continuous operation of funds. If you just become a film company, then DreamWorks, Miramax, New Line, and later Lionsgate, Peak Entertainment, etc. can all be called successful; but it is almost impossible to reach the top of Hollywood's pyramid and become a top player without huge financial support.
Taking Universal Pictures, which is the last of Hollywood's six major film companies, as an example, it should launch ten to fifteen works a year. There will be some fluctuations depending on different years. Among these works, four or five may invest over 100 million yuan, and other works will vary according to the size of the scale. This also means that they must invest more than 800 million US dollars in movies every year, which is just the cost of the movie. If the company staff, publicity costs, public relations costs, venue management, and surrounding operating costs, the annual expenditure needs to be at least doubled, or even more. Of course, this is just a rough calculation.
But can all these works make profits? Are these profits enough to support the operation of the entire company? Obviously not. It is already very difficult to achieve success rate of works exceeding 50% in a year. If you want to hit every shot, it is almost a legend in myth.
This also leads to Universal Pictures having to seek other profit spaces, such as film copyright, peripheral sales, overseas distribution, theme parks, etc. Only by stretching the branches can we seek more benefits - and expanding the branches requires strong financial support.
For reference, Universal Pictures started out mainly with low-cost comedy, with the least investment among the six major companies - Universal Pictures, which ushered in a full-scale explosion in 2015, is a special case.
In the ten years since its establishment, DreamWorks has achieved countless brilliant achievements, including the "Monster Shrek" series, "Gladiator", "Save Private Ryan", "Beautiful Heart", "American Beauty", "Madagascar" series, etc., which has reached the peak that a film company can reach, and has even become the "seventh largest film company". However, why did DreamWorks eventually go bankrupt and lead to being split and sold?
It's very simple. DreamWorks launches seven or eight movies every year, but only one or two movies make a profit. The success of these two works cannot make up for the losses of other works. They have no peripheral profit methods, and the interests are further divided because there is no distribution department. The most important thing is that at critical moments, there is no support from reserve resources, which leads to a fault in the capital chain and the fate of bankruptcy and splitting is inevitable.
Chaos Pictures has not reached the height of DreamWorks, but now they have encountered this problem: when Lance wants to speed up the company's development, he is bound by funds, and it is almost impossible for them to produce two low-cost films at the same time. What Lance lacks is not the talent to create movies, nor the ability to create successful works, but the funds to support his grand blueprint.
The lack of capital chain will become more and more obvious in the future, not just a "city of sin". What's more, Chaos Pictures is not a DreamWorks, and the Strello brothers do not have the strong capital and huge people of the three giants. In other words, Chaos Pictures' foundation is weaker than DreamWorks and the development difficulty is even more difficult.
In the last life, Diorama Film had to follow the steps because the process of primitive accumulation was difficult and long; but in this life, Lance might be able to speed up the original accumulation process of Chaos Film, which is one of the advantages brought by rebirth. However, Lance knew that too much is not enough, and how to grasp the scale and grasp the degree will be crucial.
To give a simple example, it is normal for a person to win a lottery once, and it is also worthy of surprise when two times are not without it, but three times in a row are large lottery more than 100 million US dollars... Then things are wrong, and even using "luck" to explain it cannot convince people. Perhaps the next step is the investigation of the state machine and the attention of society, and the accompanying troubles will be endless.
Lance looked at Ian in front of him, he hesitated because he had never shown his power of rebirth to others, and he didn't know how to show it. Ian seemed to notice his hesitation and looked up, "I'm just a joke, don't take it seriously. In Las Vegas, there is no problem to win small money, and the dealer can't let you really win the big head." Ian suddenly laughed, making Lance a little confused, and then Ian chuckled, "Do you still remember? Gao Wen's 21st birthday wish?"
Lance recalled carefully, and then couldn't help but laughed. Gao Wen's 21-year-old wish was to go to Las Vegas for a trip, so that year the four brothers went to the casino. As a result, Gao Wen lost all the three hundred dollars on his body, but he still refused to admit defeat and borrowed another hundred dollars from Ian and Lance each. If he didn't come back, the price would be to jump into the fountain at the entrance of the casino.
"When he ran out of the water, the security guard chased after him. He started running around barefoot, causing chaos in the scene." Ian couldn't help laughing when he thought of Gao Wen's humiliating and funny look that day. Then he paused and looked at Lance. The two of them met with each other, and similar expressions appeared in their eyes. "Finally..." Before they could say anything afterwards, they both laughed out loud.
In the end, Gao Wen was unwilling to give up and jumped into the fountain with Theo in his arms. That was the only time Theo was defeated by Gao Wen. Gao Wen was so scared that he ran away on the spot, while Ian and Lance stood beside him and were stunned.
Lance clenched his fists secretly. He didn't know if others knew that he could "premonition" - limited to everything that happened before 2015, he would treat him as an alien, and he didn't intend to take this risk; but he knew that Theo, Ian and Gowen were people he could believe unconditionally.
"Ian, have you ever thought about it? Maybe gambling is indeed the fastest way to make money?" Lance said this, and Ian was stunned and looked at Lance incredible, as if he couldn't believe that the sentence was said from Lance. Lance laughed in silence, "I'm not talking about Las Vegas, I'm talking about gambling."
"Illegal betting on football?" Ian frowned slightly.
Lance shook his head, "No, legal." Lance never tried it, he didn't know how it should work, or even how to bet; but Ian knew, and he could believe Ian, "I mean, every year when Las Vegas is coming, it will open, right? For example, the European Cup that will kick off next week?"
ps: Today's seventh update, thanks to the Demon Realm Elves for becoming the leader of this book! Add additional updates! Enthusiastic hugs!
Chapter completed!