In another time and space, 1993 is considered to be the turning point in the decline of Hong Kong films.
Around 1992, a large number of production companies emerged in Hong Kong, such as Liu Dehua's Sky, Wang Jing's Jingyi, Wong Kar-wai's Zetung, Li Lianjie's Zhengdong, etc. The behind-the-scenes funders of these companies are all Taiwanese film merchants.
Taiwanese filmmakers are very generous. As long as Hong Kong producers propose a story theme and list a star lineup, they can first take out millions of cash to buy this plan (commonly known as "buying flower flowers"). This approach will naturally benefit Hong Kong filmmakers. For example, Wong Kar-wai relied on Leslie Cheung and Lin Qingxia's all-star lineup and the "plan" to adapt Jin Yong's martial arts martial arts to trick scholars into investing tens of millions of dollars, and successfully started filming "East Evil and West Poison". After the budget was used up in the middle, it continued to fool Taiwanese businessmen to pay.
It is precisely because it is too easy to make money that most Hong Kong filmmakers have unprecedented confidence, and they have made up their minds to make a fortune before the return of 97.
Unexpectedly, before the year of return, Hong Kong movies have already suffered the consequences.
Around 1993, Hong Kong films followed the trend and were rampant, with single themes and box offices plummeted, but the cost of shooting continued to increase due to the surge in celebrity pay. After this vicious cycle, even if Taiwanese businessmen have sufficient funds, they cannot withstand that their income is not proportional to their investment for a long time.
Taiwanese businessmen became increasingly dissatisfied with Hong Kong producers, and even the "Jigong" starring Zhou Xingchi sold to Taiwanese filmmakers at a high price of more than 30 million yuan, resulting in the loss of Taiwanese filmmakers. This incident triggered the eight major filmmakers in Taiwan to negotiate with the Hong Kong Film Practitioners Association on "how to suppress the cost of Hong Kong films and reduce the remuneration of Hong Kong films", and the negotiations eventually broke down.
Taiwanese filmmakers then reduced their investment in Hong Kong films and joined forces to boycott Hong Kong films that exceeded a certain budget. Instead, they asked the Taiwanese authorities to relax restrictions on Hollywood films.
By 1995, the Taiwanese authorities lifted restrictions on Hollywood films at the request of film manufacturers. Hong Kong films gradually lost the Taiwanese market.
Due to the butterfly effect brought by Kang Jianfei, Hong Kong films have flourished for at least two or three years in advance. Shaw Yifu also announced that he would no longer invest in movies, so "Jigong" produced by Shaw will naturally not appear again.
Although there was no collective rebound of "Jigong" incident in Taiwan films, the deterioration of Hong Kong films was even worse than that of the original time and space, with shoddy production, single type, blind follow-up, and inflated costs... All of these made Taiwanese films suffer.
Finally, "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" released in Taiwan during the Spring Festival this year was a sprint.
This movie is a kung fu comedy film that Taiwan Longxiang Film Company found Hon Jinbao and invested 20 million Hong Kong dollars to co-produce with the Shuanglian Cinema. Longxiang Film Company only owns the distribution rights and box office revenue in Taiwan and Nanyang. As a result, when the film was released in Taiwan, it only received a box office of more than NT$8 million. This data made Longxiang Film Company unable to cry.
Longxiang Film was originally the leader among the eight major filmmakers in Taiwan. After the investment failure, he immediately contacted his peers to discuss this. It happened that Changhong invested in "New Meteor Butterfly Sword" and "Urban Heroes" invested by scholars also failed at the box office. In the end, the heads of the eight major filmmakers gathered in Hong Kong to talk about the negotiations with the Taiwan Hong Kong Film Practitioners Association.
The so-called eight major Taiwanese film manufacturers, namely China Film, Scholars, Sci, Long Xiang, Judeng, Changhong, Xiongwei and Fugui, are the Taiwanese film investment publishers that invest and purchase the most Hong Kong films every year.
...
Hilton Hong Kong.
Eight major film dealers in Taiwan stayed here, and the location for the negotiations between filmmakers from Hong Kong and Taiwan was naturally chosen in the hotel.
It was only nine o'clock in the morning. Representatives of the eight major film producers had gathered in the conference room and recently communicated before the meeting. Their purpose was to force Hong Kong producers to reduce costs and reduce celebrity pay. If the negotiations collapsed, they had to go back to Taiwan and prepare to turn the table over.
At 9:14, Huang Baiming, the representative of Xincheng Cinema, came, entered the conference room and greeted the eight major film dealers, and then sat there waiting. Then, Roger Cheng (Yonggao Cinema), Chen Rongmei (Shuanglian Cinema), He Guanchang (Jiahe Cinema), Jiang Zhiqiang (Oriental Cinema) and others also attended the event. In addition, some producers such as Xiang Huaqiang, Li Xiuxian, and Madon Xiong were also present.
(Note: The glorious Golden Princess Cinema has closed. Its cinema was acquired by Chen Rongmei, the boss of Xinbao Cinema, and reorganized into Jinsheng Cinema. Jinsheng and Xinbao are collectively called "Shuanglian Cinema")
Taiwan is headed by Yang Dengkui, who is the chairman of the Taiwan Producers Association. Those who come with him include Wang Yingxiang, Cai Songlin, Xu Anjin, Qiu Fusheng, Gong Xiangquan, Wu Dun and others.
After the two sides exchanged greetings and shook hands, Yang Dengkui glanced at the Hong Kong representative and asked, "Didn't Mr. Kang and Boss Zou come?"
He Guanchang said: "It's enough to have me to talk about it."
Jiang Zhiqiang also smiled and said, "Mr. Kang has other important matters. I am fully responsible for representing Oriental Cinemas, Oriental Entertainment Distribution Company and Oriental Dream Factory."
"Cough," Yang Dengkui coughed and said, "All of you are representatives of the Hong Kong and Taiwan film industry. First of all, I want to admit that everyone has worked together happily over the years. I also hope that everyone can continue to make a fortune together in the future... However, the cost of Hong Kong films is getting higher and higher, and the pay for celebrities is getting more and more. There are also many Hong Kong films invested by Taiwan that cannot be delivered as scheduled. All of these have caused us Taiwanese film manufacturers to suffer heavy losses. Today, I hope everyone can sit together and solve these problems properly."
On the Hong Kong filmmaker side, Xiang Huaqiang first said: "How do you want to solve it?"
Wang Yingxiang, the boss of Longxiang Film, said: "Standard the pay for celebrities, urge Hong Kong films to be delivered as scheduled, and instead issue Hong Kong films by commissions."
He Guanchang narrowed his eyes and asked, "How to draw commissions?"
Cai Songlin, the CEO of Scholar Pictures, explained: "The films with a box office of less than 10 million will be charged a 20% commission, and the films with a box office of more than 10 million will be charged a 15% commission."
The commissions of 20% and 15% are just to pay the distribution fee for Taiwanese film manufacturers, not the box office share of the theaters.
Jiang Zhiqiang directly rejected: "I don't agree with this distribution method."
Wu Dun said: "Why did we change to commission-issuing? It is because Hong Kong films are now shoddy, with regular box office less than 10 million, and the cost of purchasing films is inflated. This is very unfriendly to our Taiwanese film merchants. It is fair to everyone when changing to commission-issuing.
Jiang Zhiqiang smiled disdainfully and said, "With the box office of "Jurassic Park" of more than NT$200 million, will you have to pay 30 million in the issuance fee?"
"Uh..." Wu Dun choked and said, "Mr. Kang's film is just an exception. Apart from him, which Hong Kong film has a box office of over 100 million in Taiwan?"
Jiang Zhiqiang said unreasonably: "So, your commission issuance method is loopholes!"
Eight major film producers in Taiwan looked at each other, then whispered for a while, saying: "We just discussed that movies with a box office of 50 million or above will be 13%. For every 10 million or above, the commission will be reduced by 1%, and the lowest will be reduced to 6%.
Jiang Zhiqiang did some calculations and found that this way of issuing commissions is beneficial to DreamWorks. He nodded and said, "On behalf of Oriental DreamWorks, I agree to besuing commissions."
Xiang Huaqiang strongly opposed it: "No, you are passing the distribution risk onto the producer."
Yang Dengkui is now a big boss of the Tiandao League. He is not afraid of Xiang Huaqiang and sneered: "Why do people agree with DreamWorks, but you Yongsheng disagree? You are not following the trend and shoddy, and are afraid that Taiwan's box office will be less than 10 million."
Wu Dun also refused to say to Huaqiang, saying, "We Taiwanese film merchants are not fools. We buy bad movies and pay for the distribution fee for the purchase of films. Can this business continue?"
Xiang Huaqiang sneered: "Will you lose money? Apart from the people from Zhongying, who are here, you didn't start by publishing Hong Kong films!"
Qiu Fusheng coughed and said, "That was the past. Now it's no longer profitable to release Hong Kong films. All the money has been earned by your Hong Kong producers, directors and celebrities."
Qiu Fusheng didn't say anything, that is, Taiwanese cinema merchants also made a lot of money, but the cinema merchants were not in the negotiations today.
The two sides fought back and forth, but after a long time of argument, they still couldn't reach an agreement. Except for DreamWorks and Jiahe agreed to issue commissions, all other Hong Kong representatives refused.
In the past, Taiwanese filmmakers had to pay for films that they had to pay for the Taiwan distribution rights of Hong Kong films, and then they were distributed and released in Taiwan. This transaction method has two benefits for Hong Kong producers. One is that they can get the money quickly and the film purchase fee before the movie was released in Taiwan; the other is that they don’t need to be used but the risk is that even if they were shot, they had already obtained the money when they were sold. Whether they could make a box office is something that Taiwanese filmmakers need to worry about.
Once the commission is issued, the Hong Kong producers will only be able to recover funds until the film is released. If the box office is too bad, they will have to pay high distribution fees. This plan is a good thing for large companies like DreamWorks and Jiahe. Although there are some minor troubles in fund recovery and distribution, it can better highlight the financial and quality advantages of large companies.
For companies that want to rely on shoddy production and blindly follow the trend to make money, it is tantamount to bad news from the sky. Their money-making speed is at least several times slower than before.
With this alone, the conflict between the two sides is simply irreconcilable.
Jiang Zhiqiang and He Guanchang sat firmly on Diaoyutai, laughing at the people from other companies fighting with Taiwanese film merchants.
This negotiation is an opportunity for Jiahe and DreamWorks to play their own advantages. Regardless of whether other companies agree or not, Jiahe and DreamWorks will definitely contact Taiwanese film manufacturers in private, and there is no psychological burden to sell their peers.
The issue of commission issuance cannot be agreed, so Yang Dengkui had to raise the second issue. He threw out a form and said: "As of April 1 this year, there have been more than 250 Taiwanese-funded Hong Kong films that have not been delivered as scheduled. I hope your association can urge relevant producers and directors to complete the work as soon as possible with quality and quantity!"
Jiang Zhiqiang smiled and said, "Dreamworks never accepts investment in Taiwan. You can talk slowly, I'll smoke a cigarette first."
Chapter completed!