On the evening of April 23, Huayi held a premiere ceremony for the release of "Kung Fu King".
This is the premiere ceremony in the Mainland. It was released in North America last Friday. It grossed 21 million yuan in box office in three days, which is quite good among Chinese-language films over the years.
In order not to affect the release of "The King of Kung Fu", Wang Zhongjun and Tang An discussed it and started shooting the work body tomorrow night.
Now "Now You See Me" is in the spotlight, and at this juncture "The Kung Fu King" is going to be released, so it will definitely be affected a little bit.
Tang An also agreed, not to worry about these two days, and after all, Huayi invested more than 100 million in this film, which was all money borrowed from the bank.
As for the other two movies in April, "Three Kingdoms: Seeing the Dragon Disarms" has been released for more than 20 days, and the box office is close to 68 million. Now it can only get 7.8 million at the box office every day, and it is estimated to exceed 70 million.
It's all hopeless.
And "Children of Yellowstone", a tripartite joint venture between China, Germany and Australia starring Fa Ge, only received 13 million at the box office. This is a real loss-making movie blockbuster.
"Mr. Wang, how is the overseas copyright negotiation going?"
In a tent in Chaoyang Park, Wang Zhongjun was accompanying several big guys in the industry, and Wang Zhonglei was accompanying Tang An.
"The King of Kung Fu" has currently only sold North American and Southeast Asian rights, and is still negotiating with dozens of other countries around the world.
It’s not that investors don’t want to sell. With the combination of Cheng Long + Li Lianlian, there is no film that cannot be sold.
It's just that Wang Zhongjun was so confident that he waited until the North American box office was released before he could sell it at a higher price.
"To be honest with Mr. Tang, the negotiations have been suspended. We are planning to restart negotiations at the Cannes Film Festival in May. It is estimated that film studios from all over the world can offer a high price!"
Wang Zhonglei seemed very happy, with a smile on his face.
Huayi has three major projects this year. "If You Are the One" is a comedy that Feng Xiaogang is good at, and Tang An's "Now You See Me" basically doesn't have to worry about losses.
And this "Kung Fu King" with an investment of 400 million has become the only uncertainty.
However, the copyrights in North America and Southeast Asia have recovered more than half of the cost, and profits are already certain.
"The investment of 400 million yuan is bigger than "Red Cliff". Director Wang is so courageous!" Tang An sighed.
After all, the 600 million yuan for "Red Cliff" was divided into two parts. One part would cost 300 million yuan if it was taken down, which is not as good as "The King of Kung Fu."
Although this film is a joint venture between China and the United States, and Cheng Long and Li Lian jointly established a "J&J Film and Television Company" with a salary of 8,000 yuan each, in fact, Huayi, Huaguo Film Co-production Company and the United States only paid 240 million yuan.
, Huayi only paid out more than 100 million.
It won’t work if they don’t let people invest in it. This film must rely on the two of them’s global box office appeal.
Let Cheng Long travel to Southeast Asia and hold a commercial show in each country. The distribution company there will see that the fans in his country like Cheng Long so much, then the copyright will be easy to sell.
"My brother is much more courageous than me, but not like me. I'm not afraid of Mr. Tang's jokes, but I'm not that bold." Wang Zhonglei also told the truth, and he didn't mind trying to lower himself at all.
"Mr. Wang is being humble. Everyone's position is different. The chairman is the decision-maker and must be decisive and courageous. We can just follow the instructions and do the work!" Tang An waved his hand and said with a smile.
Wang Zhonglei laughed and said, "That's true."
"This film has made money. Mr. Wang must not be stingy with the promotional expenses for "Now You See Me". Without huge promotional expenses, if the summer release of "Red Cliff" fails, both parties will suffer."
"Mr. Tang, look at what you said. If 50 million is not enough, then 100 million will be used to smash "Red Cliff" to death." Wang Zhonglei said generously, taking out what his brother had said.
"That's right, even if you throw money at it, you will smash it to death. With Mr. Wang's words, I will ask people to mortgage all the houses later." Tang An said quite proudly.
None of the giants that have been able to stand in the entertainment industry for 20 years are simple. In any industry, they can start from scratch and build the company to the top of the industry. Their helmsmen are not ordinary people. Wang Zhongjun and Yu Dong are not necessarily better than those in other industries.
How different is the difference between the best?
Let’s just say that in “The King of Kung Fu”, Wang Zhongjun is not just doing it to make money.
In addition to overseas, Huayi has begun to distribute movies in Baodao and Hong Kong for the first time.
In the past, films would be handed over to local film companies for distribution. After all, they are local snakes, and Huayi has nothing to do with the theater chain there.
But this time with Cheng Long and Li Lianlian here, no one can stop the theaters from showing the film. No matter what little tricks the film companies in the two places do, the theaters will ignore it.
After all, these two are enough to guarantee the box office, and theater chains also have to make money. In the face of absolute money, if the film companies in the two places want the theater chains not to show the movie, they will have to spend a lot of cash or in the future
Reduce the box office share of the studio.
But that's impossible!
However, Wang Zhongjun was not in a hurry to get it right at once, co-distributing it with Yinghuang in Xiangjiang, and co-distributing it with Disney in Baodao.
With "The King of Kung Fu", it can be said that it has opened the door to the film market in both places. Although it is only a gap, the gap will get bigger and bigger until Huayi is able to distribute movies in Baodao and Xiangjiang alone.
What if I had replaced myself?
Tang An couldn't help but ask himself.
Without knowing the prospects of "The King of Kung Fu", I might not necessarily have the courage to invest in a movie worth 400 million yuan.
That's right, it's such a big bad movie. Whenever bad movies are mentioned or listed on the list of losses, it will have its share.
In fact, they didn't lose a dime at all, but made huge profits.
The cost was 400 million yuan, and the full rights in North America were sold for 25 million yuan, and the full rights in Southeast Asia were sold for 8 million yuan.
Although it is much cheaper than "The Golden Armor", it is still very good among the blockbusters of the past years.
"City of Golden Armor" has sold for 30 million US dollars in North America, and more than 10 million US dollars in Asia. Coupled with the copyright in Europe, the cost has been recovered.
A domestic box office of RMB 290 million is a sure profit. Otherwise, investors would dare to invest RMB 360 million for a movie in 2006?
Ten years from now, there won’t be many movies that have reached this level of investment!
However, "The Golden Jacket" still failed globally. Sony's US$30 million cost only earned US$6.56 million at the box office, and it was difficult to recoup the money by relying on video tapes and other copyrights.
However, the Lions made a lot of money by buying "Kung Fu King" for 25 million this year. The box office alone in North America was 52 million, and they can make back their money with the box office.
North American accounts are different from those in the Mainland. Movie companies are stronger than theater chains because theater chains generate most of their revenue from popcorn, drinks, and various peripheral toys in theaters.
Like the later "Star Wars 7", Disney opened up a 65% or even 70% split.
The share ratio of these super big IPs is frighteningly high. Ordinary movies generally have a ratio of 40-55%, depending on the situation.
Because the North American box office split is in a stepped manner, such as 70% in the first week, 60% in the second week, and then gradually decreases.
"King of Kung Fu" has a box office of 52 million in North America, and the bulk of the box office is concentrated in the first two weeks, which can get almost 50%. It can make back its money from the box office alone.
There are also video tapes and other TV copyrights. In North America, the video tapes of costume action movies are still selling well, especially the action movies of Cheng Long and Li Lianhe.
However, the box office in North America was high, but Wang Zhongjun was not necessarily happy. Sometimes he complained that he had lost money.