With Jiang Zhiqiang's help, Kang Jianfei quickly got in touch with Martin Theater Company, and the two parties agreed to test the film in Georgia two days later.
Jiang Zhiqiang took care of the temporary theater chain alone, and Kang Jianfei made some preparations before heading to Georgia with Zeng Bolin.
Arriving at the headquarters of Martin Cinemas Company, they were greeted by Carl Patrick, the director and general manager of Martin Cinemas. In another time and space, this person would deliberately purchase cinema shares as a director of the company next year, and eventually control Martin.
theater company, and combined the names of his two sons and renamed Martin Theaters Carmichael Theaters.
Carl Patrick has a mustache and his clothes are ironed straight. This old guy was knighted in the UK and has the air of an old aristocrat in his movements.
If the negotiation can be settled, then this person in front of him is his noble man. Kang Jianfei shook hands with Carl Patrick enthusiastically and said: "Hello, Mr. Patrick, nice to meet you."
After Carl Patrick shook hands with Kang Jianfei, he laughed and said: "It is indeed you, Kang. I guessed it was you when Mr. Jiang mentioned your name."
Kang Jianfei was a little surprised and said, "Have we met before?"
Carl Patrick said: "I happened to be in Hollywood during Christmas to buy a movie. I heard that Maestro Bernstein was going to conduct the New Year's Day concert, so I stayed in Los Angeles for two more days."
Only then did Kang Jianfei understand and said with a smile: "It turns out that Mr. Padrick was also in the concert hall at that time. If I had known, I would have contacted you then."
Carl Patrick said: "I didn't expect at the time that you were not only a musician, but also the boss of a film company."
How could Kang Jianfei miss this opportunity to bring the two of them closer? He took out a pottery xun he carried with him and said, "It turns out that Mr. Patrick likes music. I made this pottery xun myself. If you don't mind it, please."
Accept this meeting gift."
Carl Patrick has a knighthood, so he naturally has to show his aristocratic style at any time - such as attending symphony concerts. He is not very fond of Kang Jianfei's Tao Xun, but he has a collection of ancient oriental instruments, which are handmade by Chinese musicians.
It’s made so you can still show it off later.
After accepting Tao Xun, Carl Patrick said: "Kang, let's watch the movie first?"
Kang Jianfei asked: "Don't you have to wait for someone from the publishing company?"
Karl Patrick smiled and said: "No, as long as I'm optimistic about it."
Martin Cinemas and the distribution company are both companies owned by Fuqua, and Carl Patrick is the vice chairman and president of Fuqua. Naturally, he has the final say on such matters.
Martin Cinemas is an old theater company. As early as 1912, Roy Martin founded the Martin Cinema chain.
35 years ago, the young Carl Patrick joined the Martin Theater Company as a novice. With his super ability and means, he became the general manager and director of the Martin Theater Company in only three years. After that, he
For more than 20 years, Carl Patrick gradually developed Martin Theater Company from a small theater chain into one of the top ten large theater chains in the United States.
Afterwards, Fuqua Company acquired Martin Cinemas, and Carl Patrick became a shareholder of Fuqua Company based on his shares in Martin Cinemas. It took more than ten years for Carl Patrick to climb up the ladder step by step, and actually became a shareholder of Fuqua Company.
Vice Chairman and President of Fuqua Corporation.
Judging from Carl Patrick's career experience, we know how powerful this old guy is.
This guy is not yet 60 years old. He obviously holds the position of president of Fuqua Industrial, but he still clings to the position of general manager of Martin Cinemas. He often even has to watch movies in person.
Perhaps in this old man's mind, Martin Cinemas is the most important, more important than its parent company, Fuqua Industries. Next year, he even deliberately bought out the cinema chain's shares from other shareholders and used his son to
Named the theater chain after, and gradually made it the fourth largest theater chain in the United States.
Kang Jianfei followed Carl Patrick to the screening room. In addition to the two of them, there was also Kang Jianfei's follower Zeng Bolin, and Carl's personal assistant. Before the movie started, Carl Patrick's youngest son Michael Patrick also came in
.
Michael is nominally the assistant general manager of Martin Cinemas, but in fact he is the real manager of Martin Cinemas. Because his father also manages Fuqua Industrial, Michael often handles the specific affairs of the cinemas.
Michael Patrick looks to be less than thirty years old. He is tall, thin and quite handsome. Unfortunately, a black mole on his nose ruins his overall image.
The lights of the movie projector were turned on. Michael pointed at the big screen and asked with a smile: "Is this the Chinese movie that Jiang was talking about?"
Carl Patrick said to his son: "This Mr. Kang is an Oriental musician. His performance at the Los Angeles Music Center was conducted by Master Bernstein himself."
"Really? It's really amazing." Michael said slightly surprised, obviously Bernstein's name can still scare people.
Kang Jianfei asked: "Do you know Mr. Patrick and Jiang Zhiqiang?"
Michael smiled and said: "Of course we know each other, we have known each other for more than five years. Martin Cinema sometimes needs to go to Europe to buy movies, and Jiang often appears at major European film festivals to buy movies. He and I were at the Venice Film Festival
Whatever you encounter, you will become familiar with it as soon as you go back and forth.”
While the two were talking, the opening animation of Oriental DreamWorks had started on the screen. As soon as the music came to mind, Patrick and his son were attracted by the opening.
Carl Patrick whispered: "DreamWorks, DreamWorks...Old Tom, play the opening title again."
"Yes, sir," the projectionist responded.
Michael asked his father curiously: "What happened?"
"Nothing, I just remembered something." Carl Patrick smiled.
Seeing the English letters of DreamWorks on the screen, this old man obviously remembered the past of his youth.
Thirty-five years ago, Carl Patrick was still a young man. With his passion for movies, he entered the Martin Cinemas, which was in a downturn, and became a small projectionist.
From an ordinary projectionist, he gradually grew into a film purchaser, traveling to major film companies in the United States all year round. Later, he became the manager of a theater, and then the general manager of the entire theater chain.
Carl Patrick paid a lot for Martin Cinemas, and he got a lot from it. All of this was just a movie dream in his youth.
Carl Patrick has always believed that the time when he worked as a projectionist in a theater was the happiest time in his life. He could watch a variety of different movies every day without paying any money. That kind of work was simply enjoyable.
Carl Patrick turned to Kang Jianfei and said, "Young man, your company's name is great."
Kang Jianfei smiled and said, "Thank you for the compliment."
The feature film was quickly released. This copy of "Royal Senior Sister" was specially made by Kang Jianfei with English subtitles, but the dialogue is still in Cantonese and Japanese.
After the movie was screened, Michael, who was originally quite disdainful of Hong Kong films, had completely given up the idea of disdain.
Judging purely from the speeding and explosion scenes in this movie, they are top-notch even in Hollywood. The plot of the movie is also very good, and the action scenes are even more popular in today's Hollywood action movies.
The only thing I need to worry about is that the actors in this film are all Asian and the story takes place in Asia, which may reduce the enthusiasm of American audiences for watching the film.
"Pa bang bang..."
Carl Patrick was the first to applaud and praised: "A very exciting action movie. It is rare even in Hollywood. Mr. Kang, Martin Cinemas decided to show it."
Kang Jianfei asked: "How does Mr. Patrick plan to operate?"
Carl Patrick said: "I will take care of the promotion and distribution, Mr. Kang, don't worry. Now that Christmas has passed nearly a month, it happens to be the off-season for movies. There are no good movies to show, so I decided to allocate 100 screens to this film."
"Royal Warrior"."
Kang Jianfei sighed in his heart: The United States is different. Every outlet has 100 screens. The three major theater chains in Hong Kong are so lively. Golden Harvest Cinemas, which has the largest number of theaters, only has 19 theaters in total.
Kang Jianfei asked: "How to divide the box office?"
Carl Patrick thought for a while and said: "If the box office is less than 2 million US dollars, I can only give you 15% of the box office share. On this basis, for every additional 1 million US dollars of box office, I will give you an increase of 1%."
Divide.”
Kang Jianfei did a rough calculation. Although 100 screens is a lot, Martin Cinemas are all small community theaters, and there are few theaters with more than 1,000 seats. Based on an average of 800 seats per screen, there are three screenings every day.
, even if every venue is full, the box office will only be 480,000 per day.
However, the attendance rate of this kind of small community theater has always been very low. Even if it is a blockbuster movie with a box office of 240,000 yuan a day, it will only be 2.4 million in ten days. After ten days, the attendance rate may be even lower, and the movie will not even sell 4 million.
In other words, Carl Patrick only gave him 17% of the box office share at most.
Kang Jianfei asked with a smile: "How about calculating the box office share from 18%? As Mr. Patrick said, it is the off-season of the American film market, and there are no good films for release. If it were not for my "Royal Sister", Martin Cinema would have
You can only find other bad movies to make up for it. Not only will you not be able to make money, but you will lose a lot of money if you show one."
Michael next to him said: "Mr. Kang, since Martin Cinema is a small community cinema, its profits are generally very low. If we give you a little more share, we will lose money."
Kang Jianfei shrugged and said: "If the share is so low, then I might as well go find those first-run screenings in mainstream theaters. Mr. Patrick, don't you think so?"
Karl Patrick thought about it and said, "Then start from 16%."
Kang Jianfei bargained: "17%."
Although Carl Patrick is the vice chairman and president of a large industrial group, he is still so fussy about it that he actually revealed the decimal point: "16.5%."
"Okay." Kang Jianfei was convinced. He could only hope that "Royal Senior Sister" would cause a sensation after it was released, otherwise he would not be able to get more than 20% of the share. 8
