"So, do you agree or not?" Tom thought about it briefly and felt this was feasible.
The TV series hired all newcomers. The most famous star among them was just a third or fourth-tier Hollywood celebrity, with the total remuneration not exceeding three million US dollars.
The filming cost of the entire TV series was not high. 70% of the scenes were shot in one building, and the remaining 30% were everyday urban scenes. There was no need to build special sets, nor any need for strange costumes or special effects. The most expensive item was the cameras, so the overall filming cost was quite cheap, with the entire TV series completed for just over 20 million US dollars.
Of course, during publicity, the filming cost of this TV series was claimed to be over a hundred million dollars. Everyone bragged like that anyway.
Exchanging a TV series with a cost of merely over 20 million US dollars for a net profit of 100 million US dollars seemed like a very worthwhile deal.
Not to mention, this TV series was not actually filmed by Tom's subordinates. It was strongly pushed for filming by a deputy director of the company. Tom didn't particularly like this TV series anyway, so it was a good opportunity to sell it off and bring tangible revenue to the company, which was better than anything else.
As for whether this TV series would become a hit, Tom had researched it. He thought it should be popular. The first episode of this TV series had already been completely filmed, and Tom had also watched all 22 episodes.
The script of this TV series was very impressive, the overall pacing was very perfect, the plot was even more brain-burning, and the actors' performances were also excellent. In short, Tom himself couldn't find any problems. In fact, Tom even found rare time to finish watching the entire TV series, which had never happened with his company's TV series before.
Therefore, Tom knew that this TV series would be popular, which was determined by the quality of the TV series itself. However, the possibility of it becoming a massive hit was not high. Firstly, the subject matter of the TV series was problematic. The title of the TV series alone could deter many people.
Moreover, for a TV series to become a massive hit in the United States, it had to be a family-friendly TV series that both adults and children were willing to watch. And the subject matter of this TV series... let alone whether children would be willing to watch it, adults would probably not let their children watch it at all, because it was an R14 rated TV series, meaning viewers under 14 were not recommended to watch it.
As a result, the market for this TV series was directly cut by more than half. In addition, many adults probably disliked this kind of subject matter, and the overall atmosphere of the TV series was rather dark, with many protagonist-suffering plots. If this were on Qidian web novels, it would definitely be a complete failure.
These were not just Tom's wild guesses, but the results of an entire afternoon's meeting and discussion among the senior management of the TV station, combined with historical data from the entire TV industry over the past few decades.
According to their predictions, this TV series would be a minor hit in the United States, with viewership numbers maintained at around 10 to 12 million people, and a peak of around 16 million people.
Well, in the United States, the standard for collecting viewership data is not by percentage of ratings like in China.
Instead, they directly count the highest concurrent viewership of a TV series.
So, what level is 10 to 12 million concurrent viewership?
Let's put it this way, the peak viewership data in the history of American TV series was created by "Friends," with a peak of 52 million people. At that time, the total population of the United States was 260 million people, which was equivalent to one-fifth of the entire American population watching "Friends" simultaneously.
The next highest data dropped directly to 40 million, and it wasn't a TV series, but a reality show called "Survivor."
The tenth-ranked TV series had a viewership of 32.6 million.
An average of 10 to 12 million, with a peak of 16 million, would place it around 100th in the entire history of American TV series, likely making it a top 10 show for the year.
And for a TV series like this, for HBO to break out and help NBC Television directly climb from the fourth-largest TV station in the United States to the second-largest in the United States... this was absolutely impossible. Historically, only "Friends" had achieved this.
It was even unlikely that this TV series would even slightly affect HBO's ranking, because most TV stations would have one or two TV series with average viewership around 12 million each year; everyone was on par, at an average level.
The only thing that could be hoped for was advertising revenue. If lucky, a TV series with such viewership could bring in about 50 to 80 million US dollars in advertising revenue.
Looking at it this way, selling it for a hundred million seemed a bit cheap.
But the problem was, as mentioned earlier, the target audience of this TV series was problematic.
What products are most likely to invest in advertising for TV series?
It would definitely be various daily consumer products, which are aimed at family viewing opportunities. Many of them are even children's products, intended to encourage parents to buy them for their children.
With such a problematic target audience and a dark, deep, and tragic TV series, there are no child viewers. It would be a miracle if those advertisers were willing to place ads for this TV series.
Based on Tom's years of experience, he felt that if the advertising revenue for this TV series could at least break even, it would be a blessing from God.
In summary, Tom had completely agreed with the deal in his heart. Of course, he still had to put up a fight verbally. He said that this TV series was a masterpiece in terms of quality, and selling it for only a hundred million was a huge loss.
If they insisted on buying it, they could only buy the first season. All subsequent film and television adaptation rights, as well as contract renewals for actors and screenwriters, would not be sold.
Upon hearing this, Little John realized that the matter was already half done, and it was now just a matter of price. Finally, after rounds of intense negotiations, Tom and Little John agreed that Los Gatos Television would purchase the twenty-year broadcasting license for HBO Television's total of 181 TV series for 320 million US dollars, as well as all copyrights for a yet-to-be-aired TV series, including but not limited to future sequel rights and more. They even bought the contracts signed by the screenwriter and actors for sequels.
"When do we sign?" Tom asked impatiently after the negotiation was successful.
"Soon, within a week. The company still needs to go through some procedures!" Little John said. Tom nodded without suspicion, as Little John was not the boss, and these things definitely required procedures.
But Tom didn't know that he wasn't the most difficult part of this negotiation. The most difficult part was yet to come, which was for Little John to find a way to persuade Huang He to agree to sign this contract!
That's right, all of this was Little John's own initiative, and it hadn't been approved by Boss Huang yet. So, he had to persuade Huang He to agree next.
This was the most difficult task.
Because, just as Tom thought, the professional insiders in the industry generally had the same opinion about this TV series: the peak viewership would not exceed 16 million, and the advertising revenue might even be insufficient to cover costs.
If they bought this TV series for 20 million dollars, it would be considered reasonable. But if they had to pay an additional 120 million dollars to buy this TV series, it would be an act of utter stupidity, something even an idiot wouldn't do.
And now, Little John had to convince Huang He to be that "idiot," which was naturally a very difficult thing to do. However, Little John felt that he had to challenge it. Because if he successfully persuaded Huang He, the reward would be enormous.
This was because, unlike others, Little John believed that this TV series would not only become popular but also a massive hit, even a globally massive hit.
Why did he say that?
Because this TV series was very unique. Since the 1990s, American TV series had basically revolved around family-friendly themes, romantic themes, urban themes, medical themes, women's themes, and so on. They were basically themes that appealed to all audiences.
To be fair, audiences were completely tired of the same old themes. And at this moment, a TV series with an unprecedented theme would inevitably trigger a different trend.
Secondly, Little John was also one of the people who had watched this entire TV series. This was because the director of this TV series was a good friend of Little John. This director constantly boasted to Little John about how great his TV series was, and even secretly played it for Little John at his home.
Of course, he originally just wanted Little John to watch the beginning of the first episode. But Little John ended up watching all 22 episodes at his friend's place.
It should be noted that Little John was the head of the program department of CNN Television. He had to review over a hundred various TV series every year. Of course, the vast majority of these were scripts, and they were cut in the script review stage.
However, there were also about a hundred TV series that had been produced into TV series. It was impossible to watch all of them, so Little John basically watched the first episode, then skipped through the second and third episodes, and then decided whether to introduce this TV series.
In fact, many TV series were set aside by Little John without even finishing the first episode. These TV series clearly would not pass.
Over the years, there were three TV series that allowed Little John to watch all episodes in one sitting during the review: the first was "Friends," the second was "The Travels of Immortal," and the third was the TV series in front of him.
Whether you call this personal analysis or personal premonition, Little John believed that this TV series could become a huge hit, with viewership exceeding 30 million, and it could even create a massive wave globally.
If Los Gatos Television bought this TV series, it could perfectly follow "The Travels of Immortal." Two consecutive hit-level TV series would allow Los Gatos Television to establish a firm foothold in the United States and aim for a user base of tens of millions.
By buying this TV series, Little John could also make his abilities recognized by Huang He, thus truly becoming an indispensable member of Los Gatos Media. This was what Little John wanted.
However, Little John himself didn't know how to persuade Huang He to agree.
"I hope I can succeed, just like your name!" Little John looked at the name of the TV series on the contract: "Prison Break."