America gains both fame and fortune

Chapter 366 Box Office Share
At the Four Seasons Hotel, Louise followed Martin into the suite. The floor was littered with crumpled waste paper, and the walls were covered with scary and weird pictures, which made people feel uneasy.

The protagonists in some portraits are obviously not human and have tentacles and other things.

One of them seems to be a self-portrait of Martin.

Martin's painting skills are very limited.

I cut out a poster of the leader of the Coca Cola Cult, used the portrait on the poster as the character’s portrait, and drew a picture like graffiti.

The body in the portrait is shrouded in smoke and disorder, making people feel dizzy and confused.

"I don't have time to clean it up." Martin has been concentrating on studying the role for more than a month and is used to speaking in a weird tone: "It's a little messy, but I like it."

Hearing the sound and looking at the images around her, Louise shuddered unconsciously and felt a bit eerie.

He quickly went to the floor-to-ceiling window and opened the curtains.

The bright sunshine shining in could not dispel the gloomy feeling in Louise's heart.

She turned her head and glanced at Martin, and understood where this feeling came from. As long as this person was here, he was constantly influencing the people around him with his gloomy and crazy temperament.

Louise adjusted her black-rimmed glasses and reminded him, "Be careful not to get too deep into it and be unable to get out."

Martin chuckled: "No, the disguise can be restored at any time."

Louise felt something was wrong: "What do you mean?"

Martin put it another way: "False pretenses can be discarded at any time."

Louise saw a thick notebook on the coffee table with "The Clown's Notes" written on the cover and asked, "Can I read it?"

Martin didn't care: "Whatever."

Louise opened it and found that it was full of Martin's records of character experiences and insights, as well as many crazy ideas, such as forming an army of beauties, going to Washington to attack the White House, forcing the president to grow mushrooms on American soil, and letting the flower of fire bloom on the North American continent.

She couldn't help laughing: "You have such a strange idea."

Martin patted the seat beside him on the sofa and said, "I don't like reading comics, and I don't understand the Joker in the comics. I figured out the character more from the Nolan brothers' script, combined with my own characteristics. A lot of ideas came to me unconsciously, so I wrote them down. Maybe they can be used someday."

After Louise sat down, she leaned against Martin and joked, "If you want to grow mushrooms for fun, go and become the commander-in-chief first."

"I will definitely be able to make this country a mess!" Martin laughed, "Then there will be many people who will come to assassinate me."

Louise glanced through the notebook and said, "I thought you were hiding in the hotel for fun, but I didn't expect you were really making preparations."

Martin grabbed Louise's chin and said, "What? Don't you believe that I'm a dedicated actor?" Without waiting for Louise to answer, he said, "How dare you not believe me? I must punish you!"

At the beginning, Louise had a natural psychological advantage over Martin, but now, there is little left.

"Wait, I'll call someone else over." Louise wasn't afraid of Martin, but she felt that Martin's gloom today was hiding madness, and she was worried that he couldn't handle it alone: ​​"Kelly is going to take the crew to Atlanta for filming, and she's also coming to Los Angeles."

Martin grinned and said, "Call Kelly over here quickly! Also, put your phone on speaker so she can listen carefully on the way."

Louise turned on her phone, dialed Kelly's number, took off her black-rimmed glasses, replaced them with gold-rimmed glasses, and said, "You can think of me as Harley Quinn."

Just as the Joker was fighting Harley Quinn and Catwoman in Atlanta, Thomas began difficult negotiations with the crew of "The Dark Knight".

Hollywood crews have mature mechanisms for all aspects, including insurance, food, clothing, housing and transportation, so it is not difficult to talk about it.

Martin's additional terms were not many. Bruce joined the crew as a gun prop master, and the crew also provided full salaries for two bodyguards.

The main disagreement between the two parties is still on the film remuneration.

The crew did not want to further increase the production budget and increase the risk, so they proposed a model of basic salary plus net profit sharing.

Martin is not opposed to similar payment methods, but later profits require more guaranteed payment methods.

The next morning, after hearing what Martin said, Louise said, "Just like you can't trust the ethics of Hollywood stars, you can't trust the ethics of Hollywood film companies either."

Kelly said, "A share of the North American box office net profits?"

Martin said coldly: "The North American box office is first shared with the theater chain. The remaining part is deducted by the distribution company for a distribution fee of no less than 25%, publicity costs and management costs. Then it goes to the producer. The producer deducts various expenses and the net profit is obtained. How much will be left at that time?"

Kelly replied: "It lost money at the North American box office."

Martin asked Louise, "What do you think?"

At other times, Louise, as one of the investors, would definitely not sit on Martin's side.

But at this moment, Louise's butt was in Martin's control, and she said naturally: "Nolan said that the role of the Joker must be you."

She took a breath and reminded him, "Don't go too far. When it comes to DC superheroes, Warner executives sometimes get cramped."

Martin agreed, asking, "What are Warner's box office expectations?"

Louise was a traitor at this time: "Warner Bros.' most optimistic estimate is that the North American box office will be $3 million and the global box office will be $7.5 million. After all, the global box office of the first film was only $3.7 million." During the break, Martin called Thomas: "My bottom line is either $1400 million in salary or $500 million plus a share of the box office above the benchmark."

Since Nolan has chosen him, the negotiations will not fall apart easily.

Martin already has four movies with box office revenue of over 100 million in North America as capital, so he is qualified to ask for such a price.

In addition to the film remuneration, Thomas also had to negotiate with the crew about the share of profits from related film products and peripheral products after the authorization of his personal portrait, which also involved the copyright of Lily's statue.

A typical example in this regard is Johnny Depp. With the role of Jack Sparrow, Johnny Depp earned tens of millions of dollars just from the revenue from his likeness in figures and toys.

Of course, at this stage, Martin doesn't even need to think about the 45% portrait rights profit clause that Depp signed in the sequel to the Pirates series. It is simply impossible.

Martin had a vague impression that a report he had read in his previous life said that Johnny Depp made a net profit of $3 million from the Pirates series, a large part of which came from the share of portrait licensing.

This part of the negotiation is also difficult.

Lily's agent also joined in. In addition to the normal salary, being able to get an extra 1 percentage point for Lily, a newcomer, would be a victory.

The actor negotiations have not yet been completed, but Nolan can't wait to meet with Martin privately to discuss the role.

When Martin walked into the cafe, he noticed Nolan looking at him.

Nolan felt that Martin's every move was like the Joker he set.

Then, he rejected this idea because the person opposite him was the clown!

Nolan said, “Aside from the paint on your face, you’re the same person you were when you auditioned.”

Martin smiled strangely and said in a weird tone: "There is still a difference. At least I don't have any crazy ideas now."

Nolan knows that some outstanding actors will maintain their state once they get into it, so he immediately got down to business: "For this character, I not only want him to become Gotham's nightmare, but also bring nightmares to everyone."

Martin slapped the table and laughed: "I like it! I like and am best at doing things as I please..."

"Whatever you want?" Nolan nodded: "That's right!"

Martin continued his words, "Bad people always have reasons and motives to do bad things, but I don't have any. I don't have any purpose or motive. I don't do it for money or power. I just simply like chaos and want to turn the world into a playground."

Nolan thought for a moment and asked, "You have a unique insight into the character. Very good! How do you plan to interpret the duel between you and Batman?"

Martin said: "Batman, who claims to be righteous, always uses violence against people. I am different. I will not be as vulgar and boring as Batman. I will reason with people, and give them the right to choose..."

This is completely consistent with Nolan's idea: "Batman maintains order through violence, and the Joker promotes chaos in a reasonable way!"

"Director, you're a genius." Martin invited, "Let's go to Buckingham Palace to set off fireworks someday?"

Seeing the truly evil smile on Martin's face, Nolan's eyelids suddenly jumped, and he said, "When the film becomes a big hit, we can show it together in the square in front of Buckingham Palace."

Martin asked, "Can we invite the old lady to come and play with us? By the way, is there a crown prince in the world who has lived for 50 years?"

Nolan decisively ended the meeting and said, "Go back and continue your preparations. Make sure you are in good shape. The crew will be leaving for Atlanta to shoot soon."

Martin stood up unsteadily: "Goodbye, Director."

Nolan was a little worried, was Martin Davis getting too immersed in the role?
He changed his mind and thought, this is a good thing, he is just like a real-life clown!

As for an actor’s mental problems, they are not as important as his works.

It was a done deal for Martin to join the crew.

Soon, Thomas negotiated Martin's salary with the crew.

When the star status is big enough and the previous works have performed well enough, they will naturally have the confidence to negotiate with new crews.

The pay consists of a base salary of $500 million plus a tiered share of the North American box office.

The basic profit margin is US$2.5 million.

In the future, as long as the film's North American box office can reach 2.5 million US dollars, Martin will receive a basic share of 2%.

Starting from $2.5 million, if the box office increases by $5000 million, Martin will automatically receive 1% of the increase. If the increase is $1 million, the ratio will increase to 2%, and 1.5% for $3 million...

And so on, the maximum cap shall not exceed 6%.

The risks are shared with the crew; the better the film's commercial performance, the higher the income of the leading actor.

In addition, Thomas also negotiated a share of the offline DVD revenue, the same as Christian Bale, 2% of the North American DVD profits.

Hollywood's pay and box office revenue sharing are too complicated, involving project bonuses, distribution bonuses, net profit sharing, gross profit sharing, etc. The simplest one I wrote is this:

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(End of this chapter)