Chapter 492: Disband your own company and join Tongji Entertainment?
The popularity of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" was indeed what many people expected from the beginning.
Both viewers and practitioners in the film and television industry are almost certain that this drama will be a hit drama.
After all, with the original novel as the basis, and Tongji's reputation advantage, the number of viewers who follow the drama must be quite large.
But after the first 24 hours of playback came out, many people were surprised.
The first-day viewing volume of over 300 million almost broke the current record for Chinese TV dramas.
Of course, the previous highest record was actually a work produced by Tongji, the second part of "Ghost Blowing the Lantern".
Tongji's previous "The Legend of Zhen Huan" and "Wulin Gaiden" actually performed quite well in total playback data, even breaking records twice.
However, due to the limitation of the subject matter, the number of views was still relatively low when it first started broadcasting.
Unlike "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", long before the show is aired, because of the large number of readers of the novel, there will be so many people actively paying attention to the show and waiting to follow it.
...
"I can't help it, it still has an impact."
"After "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" was aired, the data of several of our new dramas have declined significantly."
At the Kiwi headquarters, Cong Zhu looked at the TV series data of the same period on the computer and said helplessly.
"General Manager, are we really no longer investing in the promotion of these new dramas?"
The assistant couldn't help but ask.
According to past experience, for new dramas that are aired online, publicity and distribution are definitely more important.
But although it was announced this time, the overall investment was much less, not even one-third of the original budget.
"It's not necessary."
"To save costs, based on the current performance of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", it is obviously a waste of money to spend more on publicity and distribution."
Congzhu directly gave his judgment.
In fact, Congzhu had anticipated this situation a long time ago.
Not even just their Kiwi, Penguin and Potato videos, they all made the same decision.
Although the new drama will still be broadcast according to the planned upper limit, the investment in publicity and distribution is obviously much smaller.
In other words, everyone knows that given the current popularity of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", their increased investment in promotion and distribution is obviously not worthwhile.
"Oh, what a pity."
"If it weren't for "Legend of the Condor Heroes" being broadcast on Station G, then "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" would probably be broadcast exclusively on our platform."
Congzhu said with some regret.
In her opinion, after all, Tongji's last film "Wulin Gaiden" was only broadcast on G station.
After all, this year’s second drama should be broadcast exclusively on their platform.
However, "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" is indeed quite special. Although it is not a sequel, it is still very closely related to "The Legend of the Condor Heroes".
It is obviously impossible for Tongji to let the copyrights of the two dramas be spread across two platforms.
What Congzhu is looking forward to now is that the follow-up drama of Tongji will be broadcast on their Kiwi.
Congzhu attaches great importance to the cooperation negotiated with Tongji.
Even though the film and television companies that Kiwi cooperates with are far more than Tongji, the film and television copyright resources are much richer than G Station.
But Congzhu still hopes that Tongji’s new drama will be broadcast on Kiwi.
It’s almost becoming Congzhu’s obsession.
After all, Kiwi has not yet successfully obtained the exclusive copyright of Tongji.
Song Lili's two dramas are not included in Congzhu's opinion.
After all, for the two dramas directed by Song Lili, they never had any contact with anyone from Tongji. They negotiated the copyright with Song Lili's company.
...
It is worth mentioning that among the recently aired dramas, there happens to be a new drama directed by Song Lili.
For Song Ideal's company, this drama obviously suffered a loss in terms of copyright.
The price offered for kiwi fruits was far lower than Song Lili expected.
Not to mention the TV stations. Although the three major TV stations also have quotations, the prices are obviously not high.
Moreover, it was originally planned for his new drama to be broadcast in prime time at 7 o'clock, but due to the appearance of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", it was directly postponed to the late night time slot.
As for the ratings, of course there was nothing to think about. Compared with what he expected, it was simply ridiculously low.
The most important thing is that other TV stations in the late night slot are rebroadcasting another TV series "Bright Sword" for which he was the director.
And the ratings of "Bright Sword" over the same period were more than double that of Song Lili's new drama.
You must know that "Bright Sword" has been re-run countless times, but it is still much better than this new drama that he was originally full of confidence in.
Song Lili thought about his original pretentiousness and suddenly felt a little ridiculous.
For this new drama, his company spent a huge amount of energy and time.
In the end, not to mention how much money I made, I actually lost nearly 50 million.
This was the result of his choosing to stop losses in time during the subsequent announcement.
As for the broadcast data of the new drama on Kiwi, although it was released a few days earlier than "The Legend of the Condor Heroes".
But after nearly a week of broadcasting, the number of views was less than 100 million.
This is equivalent to less than one-third of the first-day viewing volume of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes".
Such a gap is still very shocking.
And Song Lili could also notice it, if it weren't for the huge success of the two dramas he collaborated with Tong Ji on.
It is estimated that his new drama this time will not be able to sell the copyright price at the current price.
...
"Tongji declined our request for cooperation."
Song Lili's company is actually not that big, but since he cooperated with Tong Ji, Song Lili has almost always been on par with Tong Ji.
It's just that the gap between the two has not narrowed, but is getting wider.
Especially after breaking away from the cooperation with Tongji, Song Lili's new drama once again greatly reduced his company's commercial value and reputation.
The rating of his new drama on Huaban.com just passed, with a score of 6.6.
And most of the audience expressed disappointment with Song Lili.
The thing that gets the most complaints is the script.
Although it is also a war-themed drama, without traces of the script, everything seems to be wrong.
"Have you contacted Xu Ji?"
The assistant director who just spoke shook his head.
"No, the manager surnamed You from Tongji has been in contact with us."
"Xu Ji doesn't seem to care much about the company's affairs."
Song Lili felt helpless.
In fact, he could feel that Xu Ji didn't seem to care about this.
Including cooperation with their company, the employees of Tongji Company are responsible for the entire process.
As for whether Xu Ji is willing to continue to cooperate with their company, Xu Ji may not care, but the people at Tongji have already expressed their dissatisfaction.
Especially after Song Lili decisively ditched Tong Ji in this new drama, they are no longer willing to continue to cooperate.
Although Song Lili didn't say it explicitly, he was actually dissatisfied with the previous cooperation model.
After all, Tongji's side is just a script written by Xu Ji, but he will get the majority of the investment income from the entire drama.
Several assistant directors in the company complained about this.
Tongji just gave him a script, and almost no longer took care of anything else, just waiting for the money. This was a bit too much.
But now it seems that Xu Ji's script is indeed worth the price.
Song Lili has wanted to prove himself for a long time.
In other words, it is not to prove his own ability, but to prove the ability of his company and team.
So this time, the company chose to invest in the new drama alone, and their own screenwriters were responsible for the scripts.
He got involved and had noticed some problems before.
But there is nothing we can do about it. There is only one trace in the whole of China.
As a screenwriter, the quality of scripts written by Xu Ji is indeed rare.
...
"Director Song, what are your plans for the future?"
At this time, Song Lili's right-hand man and one of the assistant directors of the crew took the initiative to ask.
Apart from some necessary operations, most of the people in Song Ideal's company are actually some of his original crew members.
It is equivalent to a team-based company.
During this period, some independent film crews were separated, but because most of them suffered serious losses, Song Lili chose to reduce the company's staff size.
Re-control the personnel composition of the entire company to the size of a crew he is responsible for.
"What else can we do? Let's rest for a while."
"Tongji is unwilling to cooperate, so we can only continue to rely on ourselves in the future."
Song Lili opened his mouth and replied.
Although the loss was close to 50 million this time, Song Lili's company can still survive due to the income brought by the previous "Bright Sword".
At the very least, we can invest in another film and television series worth more than 200 million.
If losses continue, it may be difficult for subsequent investments to exceed 100 million.
In order to reduce risks, Song Lili began to consider reducing investment costs at this time, and made some small investment productions worth tens of millions.
"Director Song, I have been with you for almost ten to twenty years."
"What I say today may offend you, but I'm going to say it anyway."
The assistant director suddenly spoke at this time, with a serious look on his face.
Song Lili was stunned for a moment, but still motioned for the other party to speak.
"Director Song, you have been running this company for almost seven or eight years, right?"
The assistant director asked.
Song Lili nodded.
"How much money did you make during this period?"
The assistant director asked directly and bluntly.
"In other words, has this company really brought benefits to you since its establishment?"
The assistant director's words stunned Song Lili for a moment.
Immediately I understood what the other party meant.
His film and television company has made almost no money since its establishment.
Most of the time it's a loss.
Even his current savings have not changed much compared to many years ago.
The only time I made money was when "Bright Sword" was a hit, and I got pretty good royalties and revenue shares.
But even the money earned from "Bright Sword" is still placed on the company's account.
At present, it seems that although he is unwilling to admit it, it is only a matter of time before he runs out of money.
The only good news is that the funds he borrowed from the bank have been repaid.
...
"you mean?"
Song Lili looked seriously at his assistant director, who was also an old friend he had known for twenty years.
"Director Song, why don't we close the company?"
"The money on the books is safe."
"We no longer need to bear the investment risks of new projects."
Although Song Lili had expected it, he was still stunned when he heard this.
Song Lili really had such an idea about closing the company.
But at that time, the company was already in serious debt, and it was almost impossible to continue to maintain it.
The current situation is obviously not enough to cause the company to go bankrupt.
Song Lili was caught in a dilemma.
He has put a lot of effort into his film and television company.
It can even be said that it is dragged along all the way.
I said it was off, but no matter how much I said it, I was still a little bit reluctant to let it go.
"Director Song, don't blame me for speaking harshly."
"But in fact, many people in our team are just fishing in troubled waters, and their abilities have long been unable to keep up."
"It is you who have always insisted on not firing anyone, which has led to many problems in our entire team."
"These people should have left long ago."
The assistant director spoke again, and this time his words struck a point that Song Lili least wanted to mention.
It is true that many of Song Lili’s team never left after they came in.
And even when the crew is on break, they are still receiving wages as usual.
This also resulted in some budget overruns for the crew itself.
Many people have actually regarded the job given by Song Lili as picking up money.
Because everyone knows that as long as Song Lili does not do too much, it is impossible to fire him.
...
"But I actually want to continue filming."
Song Lili sighed. Although he knew what the assistant director meant, he still couldn't help but say.
Although at his current age, even retirement seems to be nothing.
As a top-notch director, I actually get enough of the honors I deserve.
Although the money I earn is not as good as some people who start a company, I have already achieved wealth and freedom.
But these are not the problems. The key is that he still wants to continue to be a director and film.
"The dissolution of the company does not mean that we will stop filming in the future."
"So my suggestion is that if the company is dissolved, you can take some people from our company and join Tongji directly!"
Song Lili did not expect that the other party would give such advice.
"Join Tongji?"
The assistant director nodded.
"In fact, we can also join the three major entertainment companies, but we will definitely be subject to many restrictions."
"In Tongji, there is almost no need to worry. Their management system should be quite liberal."
"And you don't have to worry about the cost of new dramas. There are many traces, and the quality of the scripts is also highly guaranteed."
Song Lili had never thought of this possibility before.
But now, after the other party mentioned it, I suddenly started to feel a little excited.
His current company does have many problems.
Keep going, the failure of this new drama has almost foreshadowed the future.
If it were Tongji Entertainment or Xu Ji's company, it doesn't seem to be unacceptable.
"But will Tongji agree?"
Song Lili asked.
He was already a little moved at this time.
"You are also a top-tier director after all, and you have worked with Tongji before."
"I think Xu Ji won't give it any thought, right?"
Seeing that Song Lili had been impressed, the assistant director said with a smile.