Lucas Ben was one of the biggest movie distributors in America. He had worked with DreamWorks for many years, and had a good personal relationship with Spielberg. Spielberg and Li Mu had joined forces to transfer the Mu's Shadow ticketing system to American cinemas. Due to the convenience of the online ticketing system, the entire box office market had been greatly improved. Because of his relationship with Spielberg, Lucas had benefited the most from it.
As for Lucas himself, not only was he a loyal supporter of the Mu's Shadow ticketing system, but he was also a loyal fan of Li Mu. He had always wanted to get to know Li Mu, but never had the right opportunity. To his surprise, Li Mu had asked Spielberg to introduce him to a distributor in North America, and Spielberg had found him. It was perfect.
Lucas's company was also trying to get in touch with Makino Image, hoping to get the rights to the zombie movies, so that they could make a small profit in North America during the off-season. Furthermore, Lucas had specifically found copies of Mr. Zombie and a few other zombie movies for a small internal screening. After everyone saw the movie, they all had good reviews.
The main reason for the high ratings was that the movie itself was funny and humorous, especially to the audience who had never seen a zombie movie before. Mr. Zombie was the pioneer of zombie movies, and it brought them to their golden age. From this, it could be seen that the movie had a very good effect on popularizing zombie movies.
For the American filmmakers, the quality of the movie itself was enough to make it work. Not to mention that the movie was full of oriental mystical elements. Every detail was novel, and the logic of the movie itself was very rigorous. It explained the formation of zombies, their attacks, their spread, and how to restrain them perfectly. There were no bugs in the movie, which made it even more interesting for them.
Finally, the new version of Plants vs Zombies Online had planted a seed of curiosity in everyone's hearts, as well as a general impression of Hua Xia's zombies. Therefore, there was a lot of anticipation for the movie. When they saw that the content of the movie matched up with the characters in the game, the movie's viewing experience was greatly improved.
Based on his years of experience in the industry, Lucas deduced that if "Mr. Zombie" were to be screened in North America, it wouldn't be a problem for it to earn US $50 million at the box office.
Moreover, this was only one movie. Li Mu had bought all of the zombie movies and TV series that Hong Kong had accumulated over the years. If "Mr. Zombie" were to become an instant hit, the entire Hua Xia zombie-themed movie would have tens of millions of US dollars, or even hundreds of millions of US dollars in the future.
For the sake of the box office, he had to go to Hua Xia and talk to Makino Image in person to prove his sincerity. If he had the opportunity to meet Li Mu, that would be the best.
…
Spielberg told Li Mu over the phone that Lucas had decided to come to Beijing. Initially, Li Mu didn't plan to follow up on the matter, but when he heard from Spielberg that Lucas was one of the biggest movie distributors in America, he decided to meet him in person.
Lucas had two reasons for rushing to Yanjing. One was to talk about the North American distribution rights for the zombie movie, and the other was to meet Li Mu.
Although Lucas was very influential in the American film industry, his influence was greatly reduced outside of the film industry, especially in front of the big entrepreneurs and the top tycoons. People in the film industry didn't have much of a status. Not to mention Lucas, even the all-powerful Harvey Weinstein in Hollywood had to be a good boy on Wall Street.
Because of this, Lucas put his hopes on this trip to Hua Xia, hoping that with Spielberg's help, he could meet Li Mu.
And when he got a clear reply from Spielberg before he boarded the plane, telling him that Li Mu was willing to meet him in Yanjing, he was excited the whole way. Not only did he not sleep during the ten-hour flight, but he also didn't feel tired at all.
The plane landed at Yanjing Airport at two o 'clock in the afternoon. Li Mu arranged for Makino Technology's driver to meet him at the airport, and at the same time asked the driver to make two arrangements for him: go to the hotel to rest first, and meet Li Mu at Makino Technology the next morning, or go directly to Makino Technology to meet Li Mu.
Lucas almost chose the latter without thinking, although he hadn't slept for more than 20 hours.
The driver took Lucas to Makino Technology and handed him over to the administrative staff of Makino Technology. A moment later, Li Ziwei knocked on the door of Li Mu's office and said to him, "Li Zong, Lucas Ben from the United States is here. Do you want to meet him now?"
Li Mu nodded. "Let him in."
A moment later, Lucas followed Li Ziwei to Li Mu's office. When Lucas saw Li Mu in person, he said excitedly, "Hello, Mr. Li, it's an honor to meet you!"
"It's an honor to meet you too." Then, he walked out of his desk, pointed to the sofa in the reception area, and said to him, "Mr. Li, please call me Lucas." Hearing Li Mu calling him, Lucas hurriedly said respectfully, "Mr. Li, please call me Lucas."
Li Mu nodded and said with a smile, "Alright, Lucas, please take a seat. Would you like some coffee or tea?"
"Coffee, thank you!" Although Lucas was very excited, his body was already feeling tired, and he was worried that he wouldn't be in a good state when he talked to Li Mu.
Li Mu said to Li Ziwei, "Arrange for a cup of coffee for Lucas and a cup of tea for me."
"Alright, Li Zong." Li Ziwei turned around and left. Li Mu sat across Lucas and said to him, "Welcome to Hua Xia, Lucas. It takes a lot of courage to come here, especially when there are rumors that Hua Xia is in danger."
Lucas smiled and said, "Mr. Li, we've learned about the actual situation of the epidemic in Beijing through your statement. I don't think Beijing is as dangerous as the media has made it out to be."
Lucas said, "What's more, I came to Beijing to meet you. No matter how dangerous it is, I had to come here."
Li Mu smiled and said, "Lucas, I think Steven has told you about my request, right?"
"Yes." Lucas nodded and said, "He told me that you wanted to distribute the 1985 Hong Kong film 'Mr. Zombie' in North America. It just so happened that I was particularly interested in that film and had high hopes for it, so I rushed here by plane."
Li Mu asked him, "You know about 'Mr. Zombie' as well?"
Lucas quickly said, "Of course, ever since the new version of 'Plants vs Zombies Online' was updated, elements and background of Hua Xia's zombies have become very popular in North America. Most people want to know more details about the legend of Hua Xia's zombies. There are many articles and content on the internet that use the source material of the movie to explain it. In the movie 'Mr. Zombie', the background of Hua Xia's zombies, the reasons for their formation, their fighting capabilities, and how to deal with them. The character of the Taoist priest is very interesting, and his skills are also very interesting, so the audience is looking forward to this movie. In my opinion, this movie already has a very good potential audience. If it's released in North America, the box office will definitely be quite good."
Li Mu asked him, "If you were to distribute this movie in North America, how much box office do you think you could get?"
"Fifty million USD, maybe more!" Lucas said, "Right now, the public is very excited about it. If we can release it as soon as possible to avoid wasting or missing out on the hype, I think sixty to seventy million USD shouldn't be a problem."
Li Mu nodded, then asked him, "If we cooperate, according to the normal process and rules of importing overseas movie rights, how much of the box office will the copyright owner get?"
Lucas said, "Not necessarily. We've done movies where we don't want a single cent of the box office, and we've also done movies where we get 30% or even more."
Li Mu asked curiously, "And the copyright owner doesn't want a share?"
"Yes." Lucas said, "But those are all niche and small productions. The copyright owner usually wants to expand their market, so they'd rather not take a cent of the box office in hopes that we can help them expand their influence. However, these kinds of movies are usually of low quality. Even if they don't take a cent of the box office, we might not be willing to do it. After all, if the movie is too bad, the theaters will refuse to show it."
Lucas paused, then said, "Normal commercial movies usually get around 20-30% of the box office. If you're willing to hand over the North American distribution rights of 'Mr. Zombie' to my company, I can give you the highest percentage within my ability, 35%!"
For Lucas, making money was secondary to making a trip to Hua Xia. The key was to build a relationship with Li Mu. The Mu's Shadow ticketing system in Li Mu's hands would play an increasingly important and influential role in the North American box office in the future. In this case, he would definitely have many opportunities to deal with companies and platforms under Li Mu. If he could build a good relationship with Li Mu in advance, it would be very beneficial for him.
When Li Mu heard him say 35%, he knew that the offer was indeed very good. He knew that Lucas's offer was indeed very good. After deducting the share of the cinema chain's profits and various taxes, 35% was equivalent to Lucas working for him in this deal.
Lucas thought that Li Mu would be very satisfied with the sincere offer, but he didn't expect that the first thing Li Mu said was, "If I only want 15%, then split the remaining 20% and give 10% to you and 10% to the theaters, how much do you think the box office will increase?"
"Give 10% more to the theaters?" Lucas blurted out.
Li Mu nodded, "That's right. You and the theaters, 10% each. What I want is not how much money I can make, but how much box office this movie can achieve in North America. Do you understand what I mean?"
Lucas nodded at once.
Li Mu didn't want to make a lot of money, but he wanted the box office to be as high as possible. Of course, he wanted to make the movie as influential as possible.
Come to think of it, if it was only a matter of tens of millions of US dollars, even if Li Mu's Makino Image took 35%, it would only be ten to twenty million US dollars. Such a small amount of money wasn't worth Li Mu's effort, let alone taking the time to see him. What he wanted was not money, but influence.
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