Which business is the most profitable in the world? Arms, oil? No, monopoly businesses are the most profitable. If you are in a monopoly position in any industry, then just wait and count the money at home?
In a sense, Ye Ming has a monopoly in Hollywood, a video monopoly. He is still in litigation with the US government about this, but the funny thing is that the US government's video website is also technically supported by Ye Ming's Huihuang.com.
The United States is such a strange place. It will litigate with you on the one hand, but it will not delay cooperating with you on the other.
Of course, another area where Ye Ming has a monopoly in Hollywood is Harry Potter. Few people will notice this. Everyone pays more attention to Huihuang.com. Many scientists are working hard to break through Ye Ming.
patent, but few people pay attention to another thing, that is, Ye Ming is the copyright owner of Harry Potter, which means that if Warner Bros. wants to continue filming Harry Potter, it must be
It only took Ye Ming’s consent.
The production cost of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was 130 million US dollars, and the box office was 970 million US dollars. The box office was close to 1 billion, and it suddenly entered the top ten in history. This is like a big deal to Warner Brothers and Hollywood.
It was like a shot in the arm, and Hollywood capital suddenly discovered a glittering gold mine. Even if the Federal Reserve prints money at full capacity, it may not be able to make more money than Harry Potter.
Therefore, at this time, Warner Bros. began to pay attention to the Harry Potter series of movies. With a box office of nearly one billion, this is not even a peripheral product. Of course, all of this must be divided.
Half of Ye Ming's point is that he signed a good contract.
Things were so unhappy for the people at Warner Bros. How could they bypass Ye Ming? At this time, they contacted Rowling, hoping to sign a contract directly with Rowling. In fact, this is what they did.
Give Rowling a certain benefit and let Rowling personally authorize them to film the second episode of Harry Potter: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. This result was something Ye Ming never expected, and he didn't really care about the result.
After all, Ye Ming and Rowling have a contract. Therefore, Warner Bros.'s approach is problematic at this time. They should not bypass Ye Ming at this time.
Therefore, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets began filming, and just when it was about to be completed, the Writers Guild of America had already issued a lawyer's letter, directly warning Warner Bros. Don't play with fire, the copyright owner of Harry Potter is
Ye Ming, not Rowling, so without Ye Ming’s signature and authorization, the filming activities and even commercial activities related to Harry Potter are illegal, and illegal means not only cannot
It will be released in theaters, and it will not be able to develop peripherals anywhere. This suddenly puts Warner Bros. in a deadlock.
Originally, they thought that if they said they would not live together with Ye Ming, then they could cooperate with the author, which would also be able to bypass Ye Ming's authorization.
But I didn't expect that Ye Ming is also a member of the Screenwriters Guild. Now Warner Bros. is trying to get nothing out of a bamboo basket.
The only way now is to get Ye Ming's authorization to legalize their filming. Otherwise, the Screenwriters Guild will sanction them and apply to the court for compensation for Ye Ming. The amount of compensation is the same as that of Harry Potter and Harry Potter.
The box office of Philosopher's Stone is linked to its peripherals.
After all, under such a situation, the filming of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was not completed. Therefore, under such a situation, Warner Bros. was directly asked to compensate Ye Ming according to the amount of the previous movie. This
This is a method commonly used by judges in the United States to solve problems.
Therefore, in such a situation, no matter what it is, Warner Bros. must give Ye Ming permission. Otherwise, fines and lawsuits are inevitable. What is the box office of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets? If Harry
If Potter and the Chamber of Secrets can be released, then let’s talk about the box office.
Anyway, if you say you must be fined, it depends on the box office and peripheral performance of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
This is a very helpless result. Warner Bros. has asked many lawyers. At this time, there is only one way to solve the problem, which is to reach a settlement only with Ye Ming's authorization.
Ye Ming glanced at Columbus with interest and said: "You are not a very good lobbyist. However, I have thought about this issue. What Warner Brothers did is indeed a bit unreasonable. In such a situation,
You don't dare to act and film without my authorization. This is simply a violation of copyright."
At this time, Columbus said helplessly: "It's not just the high-level idiots at Warner Bros., this movie has already brought hundreds of millions of profits to Warner Bros., but in the end they were still dissatisfied and actually signed a contract with Rowling.
After signing the contract, I thought that was the end of the matter.
What’s the result? It’s obvious that the people from the union didn’t agree, right? By the way, Ye Ming, when did you join the Screenwriters Guild?”
After all, this identity is not the same for all stars. The Writers Guild is quite protective of shortcomings. Ye Ming is a member of them and has paid his dues on time. Things like this will naturally attract the attention of the Writers Guild.
of.
Under such a problem, in fact, the Screenwriters Guild wants to show its sense of existence. But the key is, do Chinese people know how to join the union to protect themselves?
This is very different from Columbus's understanding of Chinese people. But it turned out that Ye Ming joined the Screenwriters Guild early.
Ye Ming smiled and said very low-key: "Some time ago, a friend suggested that I join. I thought it was a good idea and it was very interesting, so I wrote an application form to the union.
But I didn't expect that it would be passed very quickly. So I became a member of the Screenwriters Guild.
The people from the Screenwriters Guild also really protected my interests. Otherwise, if I was not in the United States and the movie shot by Warner Bros. was released in post-production, I might not have known that such a thing was happening.
At this point, I think I have a very bad impression of Warner Bros."
This is natural. Under such a good situation, what Warner Brothers did was indeed a bit unreasonable, but it was also slapped in the face by the people from the Writers Guild.
If you dare to disobey, you will be fined directly. Such a matter is still decided by the Screenwriters Guild.
This is the benefit of joining the Screenwriters Guild. Most of the membership fees paid are actually used to handle members' copyright lawsuits.
Warner Brothers didn't expect this. Ye Ming's copyrights are so complete. Not only the movies, but also the surrounding copyrights are in Ye Ming's hands. This is not something that an ordinary young artist can do.
It's hard to say whether there is such a master among the old fried dough sticks.
Columbus was stunned for a moment and said curiously: "Didn't Ai Qiuhua tell you about this? It seems that the higher-ups have asked Ai Qiuhua to contact you."
Ai Qiuhua is the president of Warner Bros. Asia. Under normal circumstances, Ai Qiuhua and Ye Ming will contact him if there is any problem. This is a common practice in Warner Bros.
This time Ye Ming didn't even think about it and wanted to say: "I met Ai Qiuhua once, but she didn't mention this matter, as if she was deliberately hiding something from me. This is a bit unkind. No matter how it is, I don't think so either.
Copyright holders of Harry Potter, you used Roland for me last time, and you still do it like this this time. Who is paying attention? Don't say that Mayer doesn't know about such a thing. I
I dare say that if Mayer hadn’t nodded, no one would have had the guts to play this trick.”
Hearing this, Columbus relaxed. He said with a smile: "This is the intrigue among the top management. Maybe there is a communication problem. In fact, Ai Qiuhua should contact you directly to tell you about such a matter.
I did it, I didn't expect that she wouldn't do it like this.
It is estimated that there are some problems with the higher-ups. I will report this to the company when I get back, but don't worry. The suspicion should be resolved smoothly. Now the people on the board of directors are worried. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is about to be filmed.
It’s done, and more than half of the post-production is going on. We’re doing special effects while filming. This only requires your authorization. So the people from the company asked me to see what you mean.”
Ye Ming thought for a while, why did he feel that Warner Bros. has been very quiet during this period? Normally, the second Harry Potter film would have to be in touch with him. The relationship is that Rowling and I want to bypass me.
.But if this is a direct rejection, it would be inappropriate. After all, everyone makes money together.
It would be bad to offend Warner Bros. Therefore, Ye Ming thought for a while and said: "Follow the contract. In fact, when we signed the first authorized contract with you, there was a breach of contract clause in it.
, if you want to continue to cooperate with me and not invalidate the movie you shot, then follow the contract, and the breach of contract will be in accordance with the provisions of the contract, and I can authorize you to have the distribution rights of the movie."
Columbus was stunned for a moment. He didn't know the news very well, so he hesitated before saying: "Then I will communicate with the people in the company first. It seems that Ai Qiuhua should know about this." As He Ye
Ai Qiuhua is the direct contact person for Ming cooperation. Under such a situation, Ai Qiuhua actually has enough reason to know the contents of the contract.
Columbus is a director who doesn't care about the contract issue at all. When Ye Ming went to England to audition actors, Columbus only cared about it. As for after Ye Ming left, Columbus couldn't think of this person.
It was even said that when Rowling signed the licensing contract for the second part with Warner Bros., Columbus didn't know whether he should ask Ye Ming.
Ai Qiuhua quickly gave the answer. There was indeed a penalty clause in the contract. If both parties said that either party breached the contract, they would be punished to a certain extent.
If it is said that Ye Ming breaches the contract, Time Warner will automatically own the filming rights for the second Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. And if it is said that Warner Bros. breaches the contract, then on such an issue, at this time, Ye Ming will own
The copyright of Harry Potter in the Chinese region, please note that this Chinese region refers to the Hong Kong City and Treasure Island. At this point, it seems that Ye Ming is definitely a Han nationalist.
Columbus said with some regret at this time: "Mr. Ye, in fact, Ai Qiuhua has no way to decide such an issue. She has to report such a situation to the board of directors and see what kind of reply the board of directors will get.
It is estimated that it will take two or three days to get the results."
The board of directors coordinates everyone's interests. If you go along with your wrangling, big brother, then it would be normal for a week to deal with such a matter. The last big wrangling was during the filming of The Matrix, and we almost didn't let this person go.
A classic science fiction film series died midway.
Anyway, the more critical time Warner Brothers reaches, the more serious the wrangling may be. After all, they have to take care of the interests of all parties, so being able to give them two or three days this time is pretty good.
Ye Ming did not pursue anything on this issue, but waved his hand and said: "I'm not anxious about this. In fact, if you don't agree, then this may be better for me. Paramount, Fox, Disney, etc. are all
I have been in contact with them, and if you want to cooperate with them and purchase the films that your company is about to shoot, I think Rothman and the others will definitely be interested."
Rothman, the CEO and boss of Fox, is also a very decisive and insidious guy. He is definitely a smiling tiger type of person in Hollywood. If the matter has something to do with him, then in a person like this
As for the matter, no one is sure what the outcome will be.
Columbus suddenly started sweating on his forehead. He wiped the sweat and said, "This matter is no longer something I can care about. I am just a director. They really think I am Greenspan. Stop talking nonsense. I am just a director."
Just make a good movie safely, no matter whose movie it is. Emmerich, you bastard, you are waiting to see if my joke is on you, now you are satisfied."
At this time, Emmerich said thoughtfully: "It's not about your jokes, it's about Warner Brothers' jokes, or even Hollywood's jokes. How many people in Warner Brothers and even Hollywood can really look at yellow people?"
Yes, how are Xianza and the others? They are dumbfounded. If your company doesn't suffer a big hemorrhage this time, then I think it will be impossible to end this matter."
It seems, it seems, it is indeed the case, and Columbus was quite frustrated with this result.