章節 137: Chapter 137: The Huffington Post
New York, Manhattan. Charles Capet walked out of the Merrill Lynch headquarters building and took a deep breath. Another 100-million-dollar credit loan was secured.
Previously, Capet Pictures had also signed a $200 million credit loan with the First Boston Bank of Switzerland, bringing the total credit limit to 300 million dollars.
"Annie, well done!" Charles was very satisfied with his CFO standing beside him.
Annie Depp shook her head and said, "Charles, it's mainly because your track record is just too impressive. They also see a bright future for Capet Pictures!"
"I just heard that Marvel also secured a mortgage loan from Merrill Lynch and got some funding," Charles asked with a frown.
"It seems so. Marvel's COO, David Maisel, has been lobbying for this for the past six months. The specifics are still unknown, as Marvel hasn't officially announced anything," Annie Depp shook her head, indicating she didn't know the details.
Charles nodded and returned to the headquarters in Greenwich with Annie Depp.
...
Meanwhile, in Miami, Florida, at the luxurious home of Marvel's chairman, Ike Perlmutter.
Ike Perlmutter was hosting David Maisel and Avi Arad.
Holding a document, Ike Perlmutter remarked that Merrill Lynch would invest 150 million dollars in Marvel Entertainment, with the rights to over 30 superhero characters as collateral. Marvel was allowed to shoot any PG-13 rated comic adaptation movie with a budget of up to a 100 million dollars each.
Marvel could extract 5% profit from the copyrights revenue of the movies. At the same time, Marvel Entertainment would retain all consumer goods rights and 100% of the toy sales income.
Marvel Entertainment would have creative control, could build its own film library, and freely use its superhero characters!
The most critical clause was that Marvel had to bear 13% of the production budget for each movie.
"David, I need Marvel to not have to invest any money or take any risks. The board will absolutely not use Marvel's money to take the gamble on making movies!" Ike Perlmutter firmly stated his point of view.
David Maisel shook his head, "I also wished there wasn't the last clause, but Merrill Lynch isn't willing to take on the risk alone after finding out the superheroes we have are relatively unknown. In fact, we can solve a third of the production budget."
Avi Arad also spoke, "We can finance by pre-selling distribution rights, just like other Hollywood studios!"
"Have you decided which superhero's movie to shoot? Can you successfully finance it? And after financing, how likely is the movie to succeed?" Ike Perlmutter's three consecutive questions left them speechless.
David Maisel thought for a moment and reminded, "We were prepared to shoot an Iron Man solo movie, but now the rights are in the hands of Capet Pictures.
If we cooperate with Capet Pictures, the movie rights would surely belong to them, which means Marvel wouldn't get much, just like how we get minimal revenue from Sony and 20th Century Fox."
Avi Arad shook his head, "Charles doesn't seem to have plans to develop any superhero movies right now."
"Failures of 20th Century Fox's Daredevil, Lionsgate's The Punisher, and Man-Thing have made him cautious. DC's female superhero movie Catwoman's failure also made Lionsgate give up plans to develop a Black Widow solo movie!"
Starting this year, except for the already developed The Punisher and Man-Thing, all the other characters received from Artisan Entertainment would automatically revert to Marvel.
Of course, characters like Thor would directly fall under the contract between Marvel and Capet Pictures.
Ike Perlmutter shook his head, "Let's still stick to our established strategy: support other studios in developing our characters; Marvel doesn't need to take any risks and only needs to promote our comics and toys based on the movie releases!"
Avi Arad was thoroughly disheartened, and David Maisel was also lost in thought. After working so hard for so long, would this be the result?
...
At the end of March, Charles met a 55-year-old Greek-American woman at the Grand Hotel in SoHo, Lower Manhattan.
Arianna Huffington was attempting to establish the political blog website The Huffington Post and needed a substantial amount of funding.
"We're all part of the liberal team. Capet Pictures can support the creation of The Huffington Post and can continuously provide funds for expansions in the future," said Charles, straightforwardly extending a hand.
"$5 million in startup funds, Capet Pictures invests $4 million for a 70% stake. You and your partners only need to invest $1 million for a 30% stake. Although The Huffington Post would belong to Capet Entertainment, it will operate independently, and I won't interfere.
If more funding is needed in the future, external funds can be introduced, but Capet Pictures must continue to invest to hold onto the original shares!"
Back in late 2003, Arianna Huffington participated in the California governor recall election and even competed against Arnold Schwarzenegger but dropped out due to low voting rates.
Arianna Huffington looked into Charles's eyes, "Really won't interfere with the operation of the site?"
Charles shook his head, "You'll be in charge. I'm a neutral liberal, not one of those corrupt politicians!"
*****
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