Since Jiang Zhiqiang only wanted to rent the theater for one month, the rent of the theater could not be reduced in the end. He could only rent a total of 25 Chinese community theaters at prices ranging from US$30,000 to US$60,000 per month to form a temporary theater chain.
The lease fee alone cost more than $1.3 million.
The operating costs of a theater include copy rental, employee wages, venue rental, advertising expenses, etc.
Since temporary cinemas are leased directly from cinema operators, venue rent does not need to be included in the cost of showing a single movie. As for employee wages, those cinema operators have promised to pay their employees' wages themselves while not lowering the rent.
Kang Jianfei and Jiang Zhiqiang only need to pay the wages of some temporary employees.
In addition, in addition to movie ticket income, theaters also have franchise income (from selling popcorn, beer, etc.). Don’t underestimate this income. When the franchise income is good, it can account for almost one-eighth of the box office revenue.
In this way, even if the attendance rate of each show is only 50%, the temporary theater chain and theaters will still have a lot of income. After one month of screening, Kang Jianfei and Jiang Zhiqiang can each receive hundreds of thousands of dollars.
A few hundred thousand dollars is quite a lot, which can be converted into several million Hong Kong dollars. Under normal circumstances, Jiang Zhiqiang would have to buy a dozen Western films and show them in Hong Kong to earn several million Hong Kong dollars.
The biggest expense for theaters is copy rental, which accounts for almost half of theater expenses.
The film copy should have been produced by the distribution company, but due to the special circumstances this time, Kang Jianfei discussed it with the old guy Carl, and finally Kang Jianfei contacted the copy production company himself and spent US$150,000 to produce 150 copies, with an average of 150 copies.
A copy costs around $1,000.
If all 150 copies are released, Kang Jianfei will be able to collect at least US$30,000 in rent from the copies every day. In one month, no matter how good or bad the box office is, as long as these copies are still shown in theaters, he can earn nearly US$1 million in rent alone.
Of course, there are currently only more than 120 theaters that have decided to release "The Royal Sister". If the screening situation is not good, then the theaters will reduce the number of screenings or simply drop the film early, and more than half of the more than 100,000 copies Kang Jianfei made will be wasted.
In addition, the temporary theater chain does not charge any distribution fees, so Kang Jianfei, as the producer, has to bear part of the publicity fees.
When the temporary Oriental Cinema Line was established, it was already the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, and the Chinese New Year was just around the corner.
As the general manager of the temporary theater chain, Jiang Zhiqiang has to make at least hundreds of phone calls every day to direct the specific operations of the 25 rented theaters. On the 26th of the twelfth lunar month, posters of "The Royal Sister" were put up at the entrances of all major theaters.
, because Lin Qingxia is also well-known overseas, Lin Qingxia’s name and portrait are particularly prominent on the poster.
Kang Jianfei was not at ease either. He contacted a Chinese TV station with better ratings and shamelessly used Lin Qingxia to hype him up again. He said that in order to make this movie, he went to the United States and spent a month before inviting Lin Qingxia to Hong Kong.
.Although there was no explicit speculation about the scandal between him and Lin Qingxia, the program team still inserted reports on their scandal at a later stage.
In addition to appearing on TV shows, Kang Jianfei also contacted several Chinese-language newspapers in the United States, and only spent a small amount of money to get these newspapers to cooperate with him in promoting him.
What is the most important thing to increase sales of Chinese-language newspapers in the United States?
Naturally, it is to report rare news about the Chinese.
Kang Jianfei is one of the few Chinese who can appear on the stage of the Los Angeles Music Center. He plays traditional Chinese instruments, and is personally arranged and conducted by the famous American musician Bernstein. These contents are excellent for Chinese newspapers.
news material.
In addition, the news about Kang Jianfei's battle with Indian Asan in the TV show also appeared in Chinese newspapers again.
After three consecutive days of reports, Kang Jianfei has become somewhat famous in Chinese circles in many areas of the United States, and "Royal Sister" has gradually gained popularity.
Anyway, he will sell movies to the United States in the future. Even if it is to pave the way for the future, Kang Jianfei reluctantly spent more than 100,000 US dollars (nearly 1 million Hong Kong dollars) to have Chinese newspapers report on him in the name of the producer.
The miraculous rise of Oriental DreamWorks, the box office success of "The Royal Sisters" in Japan, Kang Jianfei's real kung fu skills to defeat Vietnamese robbers, and the fact that he became a young millionaire within a year of traveling from the mainland, etc., have all become news content in Chinese newspapers.
In addition, Philp Publishing Company, a subsidiary of Fuqua Industries, has also begun to promote "Royal Senior Sister". In addition to producing poster advertisements, the distribution company also broadcast "Royal Senior Sister" on a southern TV station.
Trailer advertisement. The trailer content is very short, only five seconds before and after, but it is the five most visually impactful scenes in the entire edited movie, each of which lasts only one second.
Most of the theaters owned by Martin Cinemas are concentrated in some states and counties in the southern United States, with a few in the central and eastern parts of the United States. The western and northern parts are beyond reach.
This time for the promotion of "The Royal Sisters", Martin Cinemas and Kang Jianfei's temporary cinemas are separate. The temporary cinemas are highly targeted at the Chinese community, while the Martin Cinemas mainly target southern states and counties.
, both parties try to reduce publicity expenses as much as possible.
It was not until February 14th that the official screenings of "The Royal Sisters" began at Martin Cinemas. By this time, it was already the tenth day of the first lunar month.
As for the temporary theater chain, after less than a week of publicity, it was released as quickly as possible on the 28th of the twelfth lunar month, nearly two weeks earlier than the Martin Theater chain.
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New York Chinatown.
This is the largest Chinese community in the United States. Thirty years later, it has grown to four Chinatowns and 10 Chinese communities. The Chinese population is close to 800,000.
However, at this time, mainland Chinese have not yet left the country on a large scale, and there are less than 400,000 Chinese in New York.
The temporary theater chain established by Kang Jianfei and Jiang Zhiqiang has a total of 25 theaters. There are only two theaters in New York's Chinatown. They are also the two largest theaters here, with more than 1,000 seats.
There isn't much else in Chinatown, but there are restaurants one after another.
As the Lunar New Year approaches, many restaurants and shops have hung up red lanterns or tied up in red silk, which makes them look happy at first glance.
In a restaurant called Fulongji, two Chinese people, a man and a woman, took a table and sat down.
Since the Chinese New Year is coming, the waiters and chefs have already gone home for the holidays. The boss personally came over to say hello: "What do you two want to eat?"
The man said to the boss: "Fry some of your local specialties, not the ones for foreigners."
"Then, four dishes and one soup?" The boss took a look at the two of them and found that they were all dressed simply, and they didn't look like rich people. But the festival was coming soon, and most people wouldn't worry about ordering food. He guessed
The two of them had enough appetite to go to the kitchen to cook authentic Chinese dishes.
This man and woman are the future great director Li Eu and his girlfriend Lin Huijia.
The two are former alumni of the University of Illinois. After graduating from Illinois University, Ang Lee transferred to New York University to study for a master's degree in film, while Lin Huijia continued to study at Illinois University.
Seeing that the Lunar New Year was approaching, Lin Huijia rushed from Champagne to New York to celebrate the New Year with her boyfriend.
While the two were waiting for their food, Ang Lee picked up a Chinese newspaper lying next to it. The newspaper was from yesterday, and the page facing up was the news about the Hong Kong film "The Royal Sisters" being a hit in Japan, and there was a line at the end,
What we are talking about is that "The Royal Sisters" will be released in the United States soon.
Li An read it over and asked, "Huijia, you went back to Taiwan last year. Have you ever heard of Kang Jianfei?"
Lin Huijia said: "When I went back, "Mr. Zombie" happened to be very popular in Taiwan. That film seemed to have been made by Kang Jianfei."
Ang Lee said: "Let's go watch a movie together after dinner."
Lin Huijia said with a smile: "Other couples watch movies just for romance, but watching movies with you seems like they are studying academics."
Li An also smiled after hearing this and changed the subject to talk about other things.
After the two finished eating, they walked hand in hand in Chinatown for a while before walking towards the cinema.
Maybe it's because the New Year is approaching, maybe Kang Jianfei's publicity is effective, or maybe Lin Qingxia is still somewhat famous in the Chinese American community, there are quite a few people watching the movie today.
Of course, this is because compared to normal times, it is still impossible to queue up to buy tickets.
After buying a ticket and entering the screening room, others were chatting or guessing about the plot of the movie, but Ang Lee was thinking about other things. He looked at the screening room with many empty seats and said: "This "Royal Sister" will only be shown in the Chinese community.
, probably because no big American company is willing to buy the film, it is really difficult for Chinese-language films to be sold in the United States."
Lin Huijia said: "The movie "Mr. Zombie" was quite good. When I returned to Taiwan, my younger brother took me to watch it. Since Kang Jianfei chose to move "The Royal Sister" to the United States, the quality of this movie should also be good."
Ang Lee said: "You can't make much money by selling it. If a Chinese-language film is sold in the United States, the distribution company will charge 30% of the box office share as distribution fee, the theater company will get 7% of the share, and the cinema will share more than 40%.
After deducting various taxes, the producer is left with just over 10%. A typical Chinese-language film has a box office of up to 2 million in the United States, and the producer can get at most 300,000 US dollars in the end. The United States
It's pretty good. Movie distribution fees in Canada and the UK are 35% of the box office, and in France it's 40%... It's different in Asia, especially in Southeast Asia. The tanneries in Hong Kong and Taiwan generally get 35% of the box office share.
, even Japan can get close to 30%.”
Lin Huijia studied biology and pharmacy and was confused about this. She asked: "Why are the distribution fees so different?"
Ang Lee explained: "The differences between Eastern and Western cultures make it difficult for Chinese-language films to be accepted by Western audiences, which greatly increases the distribution company's publicity expenses and distribution risks."
The two chatted for a while, with Ang Lee talking about film majors, while Lin Huijia just kept nodding and asking questions.
When the movie started, the attendance rate of this theater with over 1,000 seats actually reached 70.8%.