Chapter 143: Made a Lot but Spent Even More

[Chapter 143: Made a Lot but Spent Even More]

Not far from Walt Disney Studios in Burbank's southwest, in the Breno district, Patrick's Ford sedan slowly stopped in front of a garden fountain plaza outside a three-story red and white shopping mall building.

After opening the car door, Patrick instructed his assistant, "Send Richards' invitation to Spike, and tell Richards that if he really wants to convince us to invest in the Chicago film project, it would be best to have the studio executives involved."

In fact, Charlie had already discussed with Patrick that when the timing was right, Spike would take over, serving as producer and overseer for these kinds of art film projects.

...

"Hello, Mr. Patrick Whitesell!" a group approached, smiling warmly.

"Hi!" Patrick replied quickly.

The building here was originally a supermarket. Corola Foundation, Frank Giustra, Jason Trumm, and others had teamed up to acquire it as equity for Lions Corleone.

Currently, a construction company and a communications company were remodeling the space.

For the foreseeable future, this would be Lions Corleone's headquarters. While it wasn't as massive as the big six studios with tens of thousands of square feet, it boasted a strong presence.

Additionally, there was a sound stage near Park City, the filming location of Wrong Turn. All these pointed to the strength of Lion Corleone Film and Entertainment Group!

Renovating the headquarters was not difficult. The main square shape of the building wouldn't change, only interior communications lines and some house modifications were needed. Through companies introduced by Corola Foundation, the whole project would cost about $3 million.

Work had already begun, and Charlie invited Patrick to supervise and coordinate finances.

Following the site manager around, Patrick inspected and discussed relevant matters before rushing back to Haas Building at 4 p.m.

...

Meanwhile, Charlie was busy holding company meetings. Besides clarifying treaty details with dozens of companies and designating personnel to manage future cooperation, he was also preparing the year-end summary for Corleone.

There was also a crucial task to finalize several major projects planned for next year.

Recently, all paperwork for Lions Corleone Entertainment and Film Group had been successfully registered. Etto Romano, Kevin Feige, and others had signed new contracts with the company.

Everyone was in high spirits, full of expectations for the future.

Within a few days, many matters were rapidly and efficiently settled.

...

Now, Chief Financial Officer Melche's team reported the financial status.

Fifty Shades of Gray was still showing, but according to theater distribution agreements, the producing and distributing side would no longer share box office revenue afterwards.

The film had ups and downs; the current box office was about $76 million, expected to reach $80 million by the end of its run.

[T/N: Fifty Shades of Gray's original first weekend box office was $85 million.]

Theaters gave over 80% of the revenue to Mafia Distribution Company initially. But the actual net revenue was about 50% of the gross box office, often less.

Fifty Shades of Gray's distribution was shared with Miramax and The Weinstein Company channels. Therefore, Corleone earned a total of 38% of the share.

Other channels, including planes, cruise ships, cars, videotapes, and TV rights, were handled by several Disney distribution subsidiaries, which returned $6 million to Corleone.

Compared with the massive box office, the share was pitifully small. Even this was partly due to professional courtesy within the industry. Otherwise, Charlie wouldn't have received nothing; it was already generous of them.

International distribution was handled by 20th Century Fox, which had advanced funds to Charlie through interest-free bank loans.

As for merchandise licensing, such as greeting cards, stationery, and snack stores, revenues were negligible.

After subtracting investor shares and company costs, Fifty Shades of Gray brought Corleone about $55 million.

Charlie personally earned over $6 million from the project in various roles, separate from company earnings.

Through some financial maneuvers, these funds were under Pillow Health Trust.

Corleone Pictures now had a steady source for project budgets, so Charlie ceased including that $6 million in the Pillow Health Partnership agreement, instead investing personally.

...

Next, Melche reported earnings from Wrong Turn.

Although Disney was involved in North American distribution, overall returns would be larger.

International rights were similarly bought out by 20th Century Fox, earning over $34 million.

North American box office revenue share was $48 million; Disney's pay TV arm would pay $12 million licensing fees next June, with ongoing annual income if renewed, though not huge.

Other channels like videotape were expected to bring in over $100 million, though cash would take 2-3 years.

Those were earnings for distributors; the production company's account would only see around $20 million.

Charlie, quite conscientious, planned to make this film profitable by sharing several hundred thousand with Frank from Pillow Health partners, and another $1 million with the cast and crew as promised!

...

"So next year, we have a budget of over $100 million to make movies?" Charlie said joyfully.

"My God, Charlie! Our company was founded just recently, yet we're sharing such huge profits from successful projects."

Melche shrugged helplessly, "Sorry, Charlie, maybe not that much. Our staff has grown, monthly salary budget alone is about $800,000. Plus operational costs -- my finance department pays basic union shares to dozens of actors, directors, prop and camera crew, with hundreds or thousands of checks and processing fees," she added.

Pierza blinked, "And us -- poster design, advertising print partners, FedEx annual fees, all add up. The good news is, we can recycle silver backing from our film prints via professional processing.

This revenue, we keep entirely. The bad news: we only have two films, so fewer prints than the big six, meaning silver mine profits are low -- maybe tens of thousands."

"Ha ha ha..." Kevin and others laughed cheerfully.

Charlie chuckled too, "Great, folks, looks like we need to expand our silver mine."

Patrick Whitesell knocked and entered, scanning everyone then blending into the upbeat mood, "Hello, boss. With you here, we won't lack projects. You just started another space saga, and everyone knows it."

*****

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