Chapter 528: Marvel Animation's New Profit Growth Point
In the past few months, due to the antitrust investigation of HSBC and related hearing procedures in the Senate and House of Representatives, Wang Yaocheng, the chairman of the board of directors of HSBC, has to travel frequently between Washington and New York, so he lives in New York most of the time.
New York is also located on the East Coast, about 360 kilometers away from Washington. It takes about three and a half hours by car via the interstate highway via Philadelphia, and one hour by helicopter.
If we go back to the Mediterranean Estate in Los Angeles on the West Coast, the distance between the two is as high as 3,000 miles (about 5,000 kilometers). Traveling back and forth is really a waste of time and money, and people are very tired.
Time passed by in a hurry, and three months passed in the blink of an eye, and it was the time of spring and flowers blooming.
April 4, 2004
New York, Marvel Animation Headquarters.
Pan Shiyi, Xie Yi and other senior executives are accompanying Wang Yaocheng to visit the Marvel Animation Production Department. This department uses computer equipment to assist in the production of animated series for television broadcasts and is very popular on major television networks across the United States.
There are so many IPs in Marvel Animation's treasure trove that can be used to produce animated series, and now it has become a hugely profitable project for the company. The 52-episode Iron Man was only sold to Time Warner's HBO television network, and the first broadcast rights were recovered for US$8.5 million.
Compared with the production cost of the entire animated series of 16.5 million U.S. dollars, the first broadcast rights alone recovered half of the cost.
The second-round broadcast rights are sold to CBS, American broadcaster ABBC and FOX Fox Television Network, and more than 13 million US dollars can be obtained to realize the profitability of the animated series.
The remaining three-round broadcast rights can be sold to other small and medium-sized TV stations and pay TV networks, and of course the price is cheaper. Then there are four-round and five-round broadcast rights, which can be sold to European, American, Japanese and Korean TV networks, as well as Southeast Asia and other places.
After two years, it can be re-broadcast and cut again. As long as children grow up, there will always be a market for these animated series.
And so on, the cycle repeats.
After these animated series are produced, they can be sold over and over again for unlimited money. Just like Disney, they can sell the broadcast rights even 50 years later. It is really a good deal.
After Wang Yaocheng took a look around, he felt very satisfied with the entire operation of the company;
"It's very good. Marvel Animation cooperates with high-level domestic animation companies to adopt the outsourcing method of animated series to greatly reduce costs. This is a very good win-win strategy and helps to quickly build the company's copyrighted animation series library. Marvel Animation
There are many characters, and I think this kind of cooperation can be further expanded."
Hearing the BOSS's praise, Pan Shiyi felt as if he had eaten ginseng fruit, and all the 36,000 pores in his body were feeling refreshed.
This was an idea that came to him. It originated from the hope of cooperation raised by friends from Shanghai Art Studio at a banquet when he returned to China.
Pan Shiyi was astute enough, and he immediately realized the huge business opportunities contained in it.
Although China's domestic animation industry is now crumbling due to foreign impacts, the quality of its employees is quite high, with strong art skills and solid business capabilities.
The most attractive thing is that the salary level is low and the human resources are abundant. Students from the Academy of Fine Arts can get started with a little training. They are especially suitable for taking over the large-scale outsourcing business of hand-drawn animation series.
In 2004, a qualified hand-painting artist in Mingzhu City earned a monthly salary of 5,000 to 6,000 yuan, which was 1 to 2 times higher than the local average. It was considered a high-paying profession.
Compared with New York City, which is a very expensive city, animators are also a high-paying profession, with a monthly salary of 10,000 to 20,000 US dollars. The gap between the two is 20 to 30 times, but the animation production capabilities are almost the same.
As an animation boss in the United States and even the world, Pan Shiyi sensitively discovered that the animation outsourcing business has great potential.
As expected
This coup became a new profit growth point for Marvel Animation. After the overall arrangement of the American animation series director, a steady stream of outsourced animation series were produced in China, which greatly enriched the animation library.
"Iron Man", "The Incredible Hulk", "Captain America", "Thor" and the currently airing 60-episode "Spider-Man" animated series are widely loved by TV audiences across the United States and have become family-friendly programs suitable for all ages.
During the visit
Pointing to the animators who were busy, Pan Shiyi introduced him diligently and said;
"The high-quality animation produced in China is returned to the New York headquarters after acceptance, where it is produced into animated series through computer synthesis, character dubbing and post-rendering, and finally the addition of soundtrack. An assembly line production has now been formed.
Currently, Marvel Animation has more than 160 employees working in China, including nearly 100 people on the directing team, who work on different animation series production projects.
The company has formed long-term cooperative relationships with powerful art film studios and animation production companies in Mingzhu, Jinling, Huaizhou, Suzhou, Hankou, Yanjing and other places. It has thousands of animators who meet Marvel standards and can provide 380 animations per year.
The collection of animated series has effectively promoted the development of the domestic animation industry.
Next step
We are planning to select a powerful animation production company to provide equity support and increase cooperation in the field of 2D and 3D animation production.
From the current point of view, the domestic technical level is not enough to outsource the more difficult 3D animation production, and there is a huge gap in technology, funds, equipment, and experience levels.
Therefore, we plan to focus on selecting 5 to 8 companies and support them through equity participation.
Including exchanges and studies at the US headquarters, related computer software, hardware equipment support, director, screenwriter, planning and animation majors. Computer talent training, outsourcing training and other measures will promote their level to a new level."
Wang Yaocheng listened to the introduction carefully and felt quite satisfied.
Gold will always shine
No matter what Pan Shiyi's personality is, his ability is really strong. It is especially commendable that he has found a breakthrough and a foothold in his career in the new field of Marvel animation.
“The New York headquarters has great potential in the field of animation. Americans are good at creativity and Chinese people are good at hard work. We can provide targeted support and encouragement.
The current circulation of paper animation books has dropped significantly, and the market has shrunk sharply. Especially the invasion of Japanese comics into the American market cannot be ignored.
We must encourage employees to use their creativity to form new flagship products.
For example, Paramount Pictures' "SpongeBob SquarePants" animated series is watched by nearly 60 million viewers in the United States every month, making it the most popular animated series in the United States for five consecutive years.
Clothing and toy peripheral products have brought a steady stream of huge profits to Paramount, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars. This is the power of the creative industry."
Wang Yaocheng said with emotion: "We must pay attention to the creative industry, encourage employees to innovate, and encourage their genius ideas so that they can enjoy the same generous returns as the company. We cannot be stingy in this regard."
over the years
The development of Marvel Animation Company is booming. While it has achieved great success in the field of live-action films, the production of two-dimensional and 3D animation series has become another important profit growth point, boosting the success of Marvel Animation.
Nowadays, its Marvel Entertainment Film Company continues to produce popular series of films that are popular across the United States, such as "The Rise of the Dead", "The Fast and the Furious", "The Lord of the Rings", "Iron Man", "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", etc., plus the upcoming production of the popular
The "Harry Potter" film series adapted from the global best-selling book of the same name has made Marvel Entertainment Film Company very popular in Hollywood, ranking first among the seven major film companies.
Which Hollywood A-list movie star can receive an A-level commercial blockbuster contract from Marvel Entertainment, it is almost certain that he will become famous again, which attracts many popular movie stars to flock to him.
According to the 2003 Hollywood movie box office statistics, of the total box office of 13.65 billion U.S. dollars, Marvel Entertainment Film Company exclusively accounted for 1/3, which shows that the scenery is unparalleled.
What’s especially scary is;
The massive comic book superhero IP stocked by the parent company Marvel Animation has given Marvel Entertainment Film Company a deep foundation, which can continue to produce hot-selling scripts that are both popular and popular, just like Doraemon's big pocket.
"Alliance", "X-Men", "Fantastic Four", "Guardians of the Galaxy", "The Defenders"...
It is difficult for other film companies to find a good script for a hit film. Marvel Entertainment Films does not have to worry at all, but it has a headache about which one to film?
The dazzling treasures of Marvel animation have allowed people in the entertainment industry and Hollywood to truly realize its horror. There is no need to worry about movie scripts for the next 30 years, and it can maintain a long-lasting prosperity.
This is the most mouth-watering place.
At the end of the inspection, Wang Yaocheng stayed with Xie Yi to talk alone.
Through his hard work during this period, Xie Yi finally won the recognition of Wang Yaocheng and was ready to officially launch the magical blockbuster "Harry Potter" movie series. The producer chose Xie Yi.
In this globally popular fantasy film series, Shay will participate through the newly established Shay Film Studio, charging only a nominal producer fee of ten US dollars, with the bulk of the investment being US$6 million, and accounting for 5% of the net box office income of the US film.
.
The key point here is not the global movie box office, but the net income from the U.S. movie box office, which is 5% of the net income after deducting the film production and promotion costs and dividing the accounts with theaters.
Even so, as a senior Hollywood film practitioner, Shay is well aware of the terrifying box office prospects of the "Harry Potter" series of movies.
As long as the film is faithful to the original work and is basically above the passing mark, it is foreseeable that this magical masterpiece that is popular all over the world and has its own fan traffic will be a box office hit.
According to the plan, the entire series of movies is divided into seven parts. The entire production process is expected to take more than ten years, and the global box office is optimistically expected to reach tens of billions of dollars.
Being able to get a piece of the pie is enough to drive Xie Yi crazy.
"How about...have all the funds been raised?"
"Thank you boss. I mortgaged my home property and the contract text of Marvel Entertainment Film Company to HSBC in exchange for a loan of 6.2 million US dollars. This is my last chance to turn around. I will definitely seize it tightly and do my best.
I will make the film a classic and live up to the trust my boss has placed in me."
"That's good."
Wang Yaocheng waved his hand nonchalantly and ended the topic, asking about something he had always cared about: "How is the contact between Spielberg and his gang and Universal Pictures? Is there any new progress?"
"Boss, I am now closely tracking the entire development through gay David Geffen's two little puppies. I have the entire secret negotiation process under control. They are now close to reaching an agreement. The only thing that is hindering the negotiations is the price issue.
Spielberg and his gang offered US$4.6 billion, but Universal Pictures was only willing to pay US$3.5 billion, and the two sides differed greatly on this point."
"Well, that means this deal includes my film distribution channels?"
"Yes, David Geffen's music department and Jeffrey Katzenberg's animation department are not included, and the complete cut is independent, but the deal includes DreamWorks' global film distribution channels."
Wang Yaocheng then sneered;
What a good plan. He actually betrayed my interests without telling the main shareholders. If the tiger doesn't show its power, it will really treat me as a sick cat.
Three years ago, Spielberg introduced strategic investors to invest in DreamWorks, diluting the equity of the largest shareholder Wang Yaocheng. Wang Yaocheng's shareholding dropped from the original 40% to 25%, but this transaction allowed him to recover his original investment.
, is a win-win result.
At DreamWorks, Wang Yaocheng's people tightly control the global distribution channels of films. All Marvel Entertainment Films' films are distributed through this global channel. This is his traditional sphere of influence.
The sale of DreamWorks' global film distribution channels has truly violated Wang Yaocheng's interests, and he will never tolerate it.