Chapter 38

After a night of revelry, the crew officially disbanded, and not many people were needed for the next steps, as just a few members of the crew were enough.

This is the case for most independent films, as once filming ends, it's time for the crew to disband.

However, for Ryan, Sofia, and Helen, they didn't relax at all. In fact, they were even busier than during filming.

Sofia had to negotiate with Skywalker Sound and also contact other music scoring teams, while Ryan rented out an entire professional editing room and dived in with editor Chris-Paul without coming out.

It's estimated that the two of them won't leave the editing room for at least a week, eating and sleeping there.

Chris-Paul's skills might not be top-notch, but they are sufficient for editing a horror film.

As everything progressed smoothly, "The Blair Witch" had been released for over a month and finally began to be widely released.

The cumulative box office in North America reached $160 million, with a global box office of $258 million.

Compared to the past life, the North American box office was slightly higher, while the overseas box office was slightly lower, but overall, it was considered a great success.

As the film's distribution company and sole copyright owner, 20th Century Fox made a killing, counting money until their hands hurt.

Apart from the $800,000 he paid to buy the rights, Ryan, as the film's sole investor, producer, director, screenwriter, etc., also had a box office ladder sharing agreement. When the North American box office of the film reached $50 million, he would start receiving a 0.5% share of the North American box office for every additional $10 million, capped at 5%.

In other words, with "The Blair Witch" grossing $160 million in North America, he could receive a share of 5% of the box office, which would exceed $8 million.

Even for 20th Century Fox, this was not a small figure, and the distribution department of 20th Century Fox had some complaints about it.

Fortunately, "The Blair Witch" was too dazzling, and with Helen overseeing it, 20th Century Fox didn't play any tricks with payments.

On May 22nd, in the second week of "The Blair Witch" being widely released in North America, 20th Century Fox transferred a whopping $8 million or more to Ryan's account.

This money wasn't just for him; it included Helen's share, repayment of the community bank loan, etc., leaving him with only about $6 million.

However, it still made Ryan a millionaire.

As for the upcoming awards, including the Cannes Film Festival and the Saturn Awards, he wouldn't choose to attend any of them.

However, Helen would take Jessica-Chastain to some of the awards ceremonies to get some exposure and avoid being forgotten by the North American media.

That's Hollywood for you; as long as you're not completely forgotten by the media, there's always a chance for a comeback.

Speaking of which, Ryan hadn't seen Jessica-Chastain for a while.

He was currently focused on the post-production editing of "Saw", having completely forgotten about her.

After more than a week, the rough cut of "Saw" was finally edited. Sofia specifically rented a small screening room and invited a few of the film's main actors to watch it together.

There weren't many people present, just Ryan, Sofia, Helen, Monica-Bellucci, Nicholas-Cage, Edward-Norton, and a few others. Chris-Paul, the editor, operated the projector himself.

Apart from that, even the agents of the main actors were kept out by Sofia.

"How does it feel?" Ryan asked nervously.

After all, he wasn't familiar with American horror films, and the film was released ten years earlier, so the market environment in North America was different from his previous life.

One shouldn't underestimate changes in external factors; many excellent films fail because of changes in external factors.

Before Sofia could finish her sentence, Ryan interrupted her, saying, "This is a horror film, or rather, a commercial film. Don't care about film critics."

Evaluating a horror film from an artistic perspective?

What a joke.

Besides, he had never thought of pleasing film critics. Compared to the audience, film critics meant nothing.

"I felt terrified, anyway." Sofia Coppola said bluntly, then closed her mouth and stopped talking.

She knew in her heart that Ryan didn't care about "art" at all, so it was better not to say too much.

"It's a great horror film. Even though I'm familiar with the plot, I still couldn't help feeling terrified." Nicholas Cage exclaimed.

He had to admit that Ryan handled the plot of the film perfectly, especially the bloody and thrilling aspects.

Helen poured some cold water, saying, "The film overall is indeed good, but it's too bloody. The rating will be a challenge, and it's very likely to be classified as NC-17, strictly prohibiting viewers under 17 from watching it without an adult present and requiring ticket buyers to show their ID."

"Unless the film's distributor is a member of the MPAA."

The MPAA only has seven members, which are the seven major Hollywood studios, overseeing the classification of all films in North America.

If the distributor is one of the seven major studios, then the film's rating will definitely change from NC-17 to R: Recommended for viewers aged 17 and over, and requiring viewers under 17 to be accompanied by an adult.

If the bloody scenes were toned down a bit, or even became PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned, some material may be inappropriate for children under 13, then it would be easier.

In the past life, the distributor of "Saw" was Lionsgate Films, which was the leader of the second-tier film companies in Hollywood and also one of the most successful independent film companies. Therefore, the film's final rating was only R.

If it had been DreamWorks, it would have been NC-17.

Ryan understood what Helen meant and would try to cooperate with the seven major studios as much as possible to avoid many troubles.

"Distribution of the film is indeed a problem."

He was somewhat headache-inducing.

If he were to sell all the rights like the previous "The Blair Witch", 20th Century Fox would definitely be interested and might even offer a high price.

If he wanted to negotiate a share of the distribution, 20th Century Fox would immediately become difficult to deal with. Even if they eventually agreed, they would still formulate a very stringent distribution agreement.

In the past life, "Saw" didn't encounter so many problems because the investor of the film, Lionsgate Films, had its own North American distribution channels.

"Let's just contact 20th Century Fox first." Ryan whispered to Helen, telling her not to dwell on this issue.

In other words, if they couldn't reach an agreement with 20th Century Fox, they would immediately look for a new distributor.

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