Super Zoo-Chapter 737 - 721: The Grand Bet

Blizzard Entertainment is a genuine American company, having launched several classic series such as Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo. With its headquarters in the United States and consisting of American executives and staff, it has almost no intersection with the Xiangjiang film market.

Even if they wanted to sell movie adaptation rights, Blizzard's choices would lean more towards Hollywood and European movie companies, such as Saulerenz Company, which produced The Lord of the Rings series, or perhaps Disney Studios or Legendary Pictures, well-known companies with rich experience in fantasy films.

In terms of overall strength and company reputation, Long Wu and even Huaxia Star are far from competitors for the companies mentioned above.

Long Wu's 'influence' is huge in the Xiangjiang Film and Television Circle, meaning if there's a screenplay or rights he wants, there's nothing he can't get his hands on. But in the United States, it's just not possible for him to wield that much power.

At this point, even the reserved Long Wu couldn't help but reveal a smug expression: "My family has a deep connection with a key person within Blizzard, and it just so happened Blizzard was looking to invest in a World of Warcraft movie and seeking partnership."

"What are the terms they offered?" Suming asked, slightly frowning, his curiosity piqued.

The East is a society built on personal connections, the West, a contract-based society. No matter how good the relationship or how big the favor, Long Wu wouldn't get the movie rights for free.

It's not only improbable for them to give it away for free, but handing over a purely Western fantasy title to an Eastern movie company might entail even more stringent conditions than if given to a Western company.

Of course, Long Wu's 'connections' played a decisive role. Without it, the other party would probably not even consider partnering with him.

Blizzard Entertainment's proposed partnership for making the film mainly meant: They would provide the movie IP rights, participate in the film's direction and supervision without interfering in the shooting process and casting, and finally, they would take 20% from the distributor's entitled share, as a fee for the rights.

For instance, if a film grossed one hundred million at the box office, the distributor could get about forty to fifty million, and without any expenses, Blizzard would take eight to ten million.

The above terms are for Western companies, standard industry practice and not excessive.

Furthermore, as Suming expected, for Eastern film companies, there was an additional condition: no matter what the final box office takings are, the distributor must prepay thirty million US dollars as a guaranteed minimum deposit.

Regardless of whether the final profit share reaches thirty million US Dollars or not, Blizzard would keep these thirty million.

That is to say, Blizzard's final share would be thirty million US dollars, plus roughly 8% of the total box office.

The one hundred million US dollars investment Long Wu spoke of included this prepayment of thirty million US dollars.

That's why he was looking for investors everywhere; even the cash he could access was tight, just to make the thirty million US dollars advance payment, unless he was willing to sell Huaxia Star's shares.

Huaxia Star's equity is the foundation of his livelihood, he certainly wouldn't liquidate it unless it was absolutely necessary.

"What do you think, are you interested in joining?" Long Wu asked with a smile.

Suming pondered, holding his glass of wine, gently swirling it, yet not responding right away, seemingly considering.

This investment wasn't a matter of one or two million; even the advance payment to the other party reached nearly two hundred million Huaxia currency. To partake in this game, the starting point would be no less than fifty million, and a hundred million wouldn't be too much.

Long Wu had budgeted one hundred million US dollars as the total cost, but for such a blockbuster, additional budgets were likely to be needed, and increases of 10% to 20% would be within reason, with potential further investments later on.