Happy New Year, guys!
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Monday, October 3rd, 2022
The alarm vibrated at exactly eight o'clock, breaking the silence that filled the room.
Owen stretched his hand out from under the sheets and, with an automatic gesture, turned it off.
The room was still shrouded in darkness. The lowered blinds completely blocked the morning light.
He opened his eyes slowly, spending a few seconds staring up at the ceiling or rather, at the shadows above him.
'Another day…' Owen thought.
He sat up calmly, ran a hand through his messy hair, and walked toward the blinds. When he raised them, light flooded the room with almost violent clarity, forcing him to squint for a few seconds until he adjusted.
He began getting dressed without hurry. It was Monday, the start of a new week.
Although, luckily for him, he didn't have to follow any schedule anymore, he could now say he had financial freedom.
Not like in the past, or rather, in his past life, when he had to work part-time jobs as a waiter just to afford living in Los Angeles while going to auditions. Back then, especially at the beginning, he couldn't wake up at eight on a Monday. He had to wake up at six to get ready for work.
Not anymore.
He finished making the bed, left the bedroom, and walked to the kitchen. He opened the fridge, took out two eggs and some bread. While he placed the slices in the toaster, he couldn't resist the temptation.
He reached over, opened his laptop on the counter, and almost out of reflex went straight to Box Office Mojo.
The page took a few seconds to load. When the numbers appeared, Owen couldn't help the brief, almost imperceptible smile that formed on his lips.
Paranormal Activity - 50.6M total.
He'd already seen it last night before going to sleep, but it was still a nice feeling to see it again. In just 4-5 weeks, the film had surpassed fifty million. Much more than he had expected at first.
A24's projections were 10-20 million at best, which was already very positive. But Owen thought that was selling it short, even if he didn't say it out loud, after all, his justification was that he had seen the film succeed in his previous life with a $197M box office run in 2007.
Now it was 2022, social media, easier distribution, more advantages. Although, yes, the film had worked in that context, doing it again 15 years later would be difficult.
Which is why Owen had always hoped the movie would reach 50 million at the box office. But he had been wrong. It would be much more.
He didn't know how much, but 100 million now seemed almost guaranteed, considering it was about to open in more international markets and Halloween was approaching.
He took a sip of water as he opened Twitter, where notifications were piling up.
The first tweet he saw was from @DiscussingFilm, an account with more than 2 million followers:
[PARANORMAL ACTIVITY has officially surpassed 50M at the domestic and international box office.
It has multiplied its $20,000 budget more than 2,500 times.
We can now safely say it is the indie phenomenon of the year.]
Below, hundreds of replies were piling up.
Owen scrolled down slowly, reading a few, until he heard the sound of the toast popping.
While taking out the toast and spreading peanut butter on it, he couldn't help doing the math in his head.
Out of those 50M, about 5 million would end up in his account from his post-theatrical percentage. Well, a little less, considering taxes never forgave anyone.
According to Cristian, based on A24's internal data, Paranormal Activity still had around six more weeks in theaters. Projections were pointing to a final total of 105 to 110 million, though, of course, those numbers could always shift.
October's competition was strong, but Halloween played in their favor. Word of mouth was still solid.
Even so, Owen preferred to stay conservative.
Let's say 100 million final. With that, his 20% post-theatrical share would come out to around 10 million net, because it wasn't 20% of the total gross, but of the 50% that remained after theaters took their cut.
He had talked about this several nights ago with his father, who was an expert in finance, and also with the Ashford family's trusted accountant, an old friend of his dad who had practically watched him grow up. The numbers were the following:
From those 10 million, he'd have to pay approximately 39% in taxes, that is, around 3.9 million.
10,000,000 − 3,900,000 = 6,100,000
But that wasn't all.
Once the film left theaters, A24 would begin the negotiation for streaming rights. A horror movie that surpasses 100M is considered a clear commercial hit, which meant the studio could sell a 2-3 year exclusivity license for 20 to 25 million.
And from that, Owen received the full 20%, with no theater cuts involved. Between 4 and 5 million directly to him.
Then came physical sales.
The DVD and Blu-Ray market had dropped a lot, yes, but it still generated decent revenue, especially in horror. The most reasonable estimates talked about 11 to 15 million in physical sales. From that, Owen would receive between 2 and 3 million.
Adding everything up, the additional income would be around 6 to 8 million, which after taxes would leave him with roughly 4 to 5 million.
And if combined with the theatrical income:
6,100,000 + (4,000,000 to 5,000,000) = between 10.1 and 11.1 million dollars.
Owen bit into the freshly spread toast, frowning slightly. 'Taxes suck…' he thought.
From potentially having 18 million to being left with 11. Seven million gone to taxes. A number that would've hurt anyone else, but for him it was concerning for a different reason.
Not because he wanted to hoard money like an obsessive miser, nor because he wanted to evade anything.
In his first life, being just an actor, he didn't care much about money, especially since he had plenty. What the hell was he even supposed to spend it on?
But now his outlook was different. Owen wanted to produce films. And he wanted to finance them himself to have absolute control. No partners. No investors.
So every dollar mattered. Especially considering he had already decided on his next film, and it wasn't cheap.
The film was: Good Will Hunting.
In his past life, Owen had seen that movie when he was young. A simple, brilliant drama written by two not-so-known faces who would later become stars: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.
Directed by Gus Van Sant. With an unforgettable cast. And with a Robin Williams performance that would go on to win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
The film premiered in 1997. It had a budget of barely 10 million dollars and grossed 225 million worldwide.
An absolute phenomenon. A perfect example of emotional, intimate, and at the same time universal cinema. But here, in this alternate reality, Good Will Hunting didn't exist. No one had written it.
The script was already finished.
It had taken him more work than the previous ones, even more than The Spectacular Now. It was much more complex than anything he had written so far.
Still, with that perfect memory of every movie he had seen in his past life, plus the experience he already had, he moved quickly and got it done.
The real challenge was financing it. The original 1997 version had cost 10 million.
But in 2023, with over two decades of inflation, new technical standards, updated salaries, insurance, unions, and modern filming protocols, the figure could be higher.
Maybe not drastically, since the project didn't rely on visual effects, complex scenes, or large locations, but it still wouldn't be cheap.
With luck, he estimated the film could stay around 10 million, because there were natural savings:
-He would play the lead role himself, so he wouldn't need to pay an actor.
-He already had a decent amount of filmmaking equipment, though he still needed more pieces.
-The script was his, he didn't have to pay for it. And having the movie fully recorded in his head, scene by scene, would speed up pre-production and shooting tremendously. That was where he would save the most.
So the movie would probably cost between 10 and 15 million. But there was one area where he couldn't cut corners: the mentor role.
In the original film, Robin Williams had turned that character into something legendary. He probably earned at least 5 million dollars, and that was in 1997.
Owen couldn't spend that much, but he did need a strong veteran actor with presence. He couldn't afford a mediocre casting choice just to save money.
Even so, even if he managed to keep the budget at 11 million, that would amount to practically his entire future fortune after taxes.
Everything he would earn thanks to the Paranormal Activity phenomenon, streaming, physical sales, backend…
Investing it all into a single movie would be insane. Taking that kind of risk made even him nervous. It was 11 million. And it was 2023, not 1997.
Intimate dramas no longer dominated the box office. Betting his entire net worth on a film like that meant taking on a massive risk, even with a perfect script and a story he knew worked.
So he needed more money before diving headfirst into investing 10 or 11 million. He needed a solid financial base that would allow him to put that money down without fear.
The fastest solution was obvious: selling the Paranormal Activity IP.
Obviously after its theatrical run, streaming deals, and everything else.
Only once he had squeezed everything the first installment could offer. Since he owned 100% of the intellectual property, no partners, no reduced percentages, no studio involvement, the sale could be enormous.
If the film reached 100 million, the IP would not be cheap. The problem was determining the franchise's exact value.
He had done a bit of research and it was a complete mess: projection models, brand value, sequel potential, comparisons with other horror franchises, and more.
But that would be a matter for another time. Probably December. When Paranormal Activity was no longer in theaters and when the streaming and physical windows were defined.
Only then could he sit down, evaluate the IP calmly, talk with his father, with his brother who was a lawyer, and decide who to sell it to. And with that money, he could devote himself to Good Will Hunting without fear of going bankrupt.
For now, Owen stopped thinking about that future. There was still time before reaching that point. What mattered immediately was something else. In a few hours, at eleven, he had an interview with Variety via Zoom.
And once that was done, he needed to be at A24's offices at 1:30 p.m. They were officially beginning rehearsals for The Spectacular Now.
Before traveling to Georgia for the start of filming, he and his co-star, Jenna Ortega, would go through a series of intensive rehearsals. The natural chemistry between the leads was essential in an intimate drama like this, especially for a studio like A24, which prioritized authenticity above everything else.
They would have around ten days of rehearsals, with four- to five-hour sessions each day, enough to build rhythm, trust, and the right emotional tone.
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Author's note:
What do you think about the movie Owen chose? Have you seen it? And it won't be the only one he releases in 2023, I'm planning for him to release at least two or three, trying to stay realistic since the filmmaking process is complicated, especially post-production and the marketing that comes afterward.
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Link: https://[email protected]/Nathe07