[Chapter 209: Movie Merchandising]
After seeing off Levitt and his party, Linton stayed behind with Kenneth, Ryan, Harvey, and Clinsman. "How are you planning the merchandise for the movie Happy Death Day?"
"Boss, the key to merchandising horror movies usually lies in video rentals and sales. Other merchandise typically sells poorly. Our plan is to produce $1 million worth of ghost face masks."
"That's true for most horror movies, but you overlooked the biggest selling point of this film. Cristiana and Monica are absolutely stunning beauties. Considering their looks, do you think no one would buy action figures of their characters in the movie?"
"Yeah, they're so gorgeous. Definitely someone would buy action figures of their characters. Why didn't we think of this before? How many should we prepare?" Harvey seemed to have just had a lightbulb moment.
"Let me share two sets of data with you. When Speed was about to be released, Universal initially prepared $20 million worth of action figures of me in the movie and $2 million worth of Catherine's action figures.
Three days after the movie's release, they urgently ordered an additional $20 million and $6 million of our figures respectively. Now all have sold out.
Step Up 2 has been out for three weeks. Universal prepared $20 million worth of figures each for Jennifer and Leonardo. Currently, they have sold $14.3 million and $13.8 million worth respectively. They will definitely sell out before the movie leaves theaters."
"Wow, such high sales, that must mean huge profits. What's their profit margin?"
"According to Universal's standards, after subtracting all costs, ordinary merchandise yields a 40% profit margin, and character figures earn about 60%. However, 20% of the profit has to be shared with the movie stars who licensed their likeness. So, the company's actual profit margin is 40%."
"Amazing. I think with Cristiana and Monica's image, their figures will definitely have a market. If not $20 million each, I think $10 million wouldn't be a problem.
Also, Noriko Sakai's figure should be popular too. We can prepare some, starting with $1 million." Clinsman said with shining eyes.
"Since this is our first time doing distribution, let's control risks. Prepare $8 million worth of Cristiana's figures, $5 million worth of Monica's, and $500,000 for Noriko Sakai's. Once the movie is out, we will add orders based on sales."
"Yes, boss, your way is safest."
"One more crucial thing. To achieve success in movie merchandise sales, your distribution team must quickly negotiate with the merchandise shops next to theaters.
We're still rookies on this front and haven't established cooperative credit. If necessary, for the first cooperation, we can adopt consignment stocking but with limited quantities to control risk. After selling out the initial stock, the second stock will transition into standard cooperation."
"We'll ensure the task is fulfilled."
---
Since the movie was completed, the distribution department had already been doing preliminary promotion per Linton's instructions.
Based on the movie's selling points, the focus was to arrange media interviews for Cristiana and Monica, getting them on TV talk shows and variety programs, consistently mentioning Happy Death Day.
Of course, the hype about two breathtaking beauties started from Hollywood Gossip Daily and spread to many entertainment newspapers.
During this period, Cristiana and Monica had been staying at the Linton Estate. When they found out Linton had returned, they quietly came to the mansion at night.
Along with Izumi Sakai, who finished recording the song but hadn't left yet, the three formed a trio ready to stage a girl-power night battle against a demon scene.
As for Noriko Sakai, because she was not a major role in the movie and had no promotional duties yet, she returned to Tokyo due to her busy work schedule.
---
When Linton finished reviewing Happy Death Day internally and the evening fell as he was about to return to the estate, Bob stopped him.
"Boss, you have a moment? I have something urgent to report."
"Alright, come to my office."
"Bob, what's going on?"
"Boss, the budget for Pulp Fiction is insufficient. Here's the detailed project budget. Please take a look."
"Why is it not enough? I remember you were given sufficient funds according to your budget. I even added $500,000 extra for my co-producer fee. Now you tell me the budget isn't enough? What's going on?"
"Boss, it's mainly about salaries. During planning, the actors' salaries budgets were low because the script was good and had some art film characteristics. Most actors agreed to lower pay. Bruce Willis, the second male lead, reduced his salary to $2 million.
The budgets for the two leading actresses were even lower: originally, female lead $500,000 and second female role $100,000.
But with your recommended Winona Ryder and Heidi Klum, both very popular and excellent, their salaries couldn't be lowered."
"Give me specifics."
"Winona is a rising star. Her commercial film salary is never less than $3 million. Considering Pulp Fiction's nature, she's willing to lower it to $2 million. Heidi Klum has no big issue and agreed to reduce salary to $300,000.
But together, that's $2.3 million, far exceeding the previous $600,000 budget.
Even counting the extra $500,000 you added, there's still a $1.2 million shortfall."
'I see, the salaries I arranged for the two actresses were too high, beyond the production's budget capacity. The crew doesn't dare to replace them, which explains why Bob came to me. Well, since it was my arrangement that caused the over-budget, I'll deal with it myself.'
"Bob, rashly increasing the budget isn't appropriate, but the issue must be resolved.
Pulp Fiction is a great project. To support your crew, I'll reduce my fee to $500,000 and cover the shortfall for the actors' salaries."
"Your fee reduced that much? Isn't that bad for you?"
"No problem. Think of it as supporting a good script and a great movie."
"Thank you so much. Don't worry, we'll make a great movie."
"How's the movie preparation? When can filming start?"
"Preparation is going smoothly. Now the funds are settled. Filming can begin by early October at the latest. It won't delay attending next year's Cannes Film Festival."
*****
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