In fact, the investment budget of any movie, in a formal film and television investment company, is approved by the budget reviewer after a comprehensive analysis based on the shooting budget table submitted by the project applicant and the market sales forecast of the project.
Take the film "Ancient and Modern Battle of Qin Terracotta Warriors" as an example. Marketing personnel from Youlian predicted that the sales potential of this film when the project was launched was only C, and the results were relatively low.
For comparison, when Wang Sanri submitted the project for "God of Gamblers", the market prediction score was B+. Although "Autumn Fairy Tale" was predicted to be B-, this is an art film, and the score of B- is not bad. Unexpectedly
But it became a big dark horse at the box office.
This year, Liu Zhenwei's "The Gambler" was predicted to have an A grade when it submitted its budget, while John Woo's "The King" was predicted to have a B grade.
Of course, this result is just an initial prediction based on the script. After the film is completed, internal staff will be organized to review the film and evaluate it, and a market prediction will be made. This time the prediction will be relatively more accurate.
The reason for the low sales potential of "Ancient and Modern War" is very simple. As a co-production between Mainland China and Hong Kong, it will definitely not be able to enter the Wanwan film market.
Normally, for an above-average Xiangjiang movie, the local box office share accounts for about 40% of the total revenue, and the Wanwan box office share can account for between 20 and 30%.
The remaining income basically comes from Japan, South Korea, and sales fees in Southeast Asian countries, which is about 20% to 30%.
This income ratio is rough and depends on factors such as film type, plot content, director and main actors.
The box office in Hong Kong and Wanwan is the most important source of income for the producer.
Therefore, the reputation a film has formed in these two places and the degree of audience recognition are the most important indicators of whether the film can recover its costs or become a hit.
At this time, the film market in mainland China does not yet have the conditions to implement box office sharing. Moreover, due to the country's shortage of foreign exchange in the past few years, overseas films imported into the country are directly bought out at extremely low prices.
This entry and exit immediately brought down the market prediction score of "Ancient and Modern Battle of Qin Terracotta Warriors", so it is reasonable to only get a C in the end.
According to the regulations of the Alliance of Friendship, projects below level B cannot be directly approved. The project applicant needs to submit special application reasons for review, and must be approved by the majority of reviewers during the review.
"Ancient and Modern War" is a co-production project launched by Sun Dahai between the two places. Its purpose is not only to cultivate the mainland film market and audiences, but also to try new film types and train its actors and staff.
There are re-examinations, but they are basically just a formality. Several reviewers who participated in the re-examinations asked Cheng Xiaodong a few questions and then approved the project.
This is not entirely because the boss Sun Dahai is behind this movie, but several reviewers let it go. The key is that the reasons for applying for review are really convincing.
It’s not that Hong Kong’s film companies cannot see the vast mainland market, but the profit-seeking nature of capital makes it difficult for them to give up more than 30% of a project’s income just to cultivate the mainland market.
In addition, there are differences in customs, languages, tastes, and ideologies between mainland China and Hong Kong.
Therefore, since the mainland has gradually relaxed restrictions on co-production (collaboration) films, although there are co-production films from the two places, the number is very small, and the themes of the films and the participating Hong Kong filmmakers are mostly non-mainstream.
However, Xiangjiang's return is irreversible.
As 1997 approaches, the Hong Kong film community is conducting more and more research on mainland China's co-production cooperation policies and the mainland film market.
The co-production movie "Ancient and Modern Battles between Qin Terracotta Warriors" produced by Youlian this time is tantamount to paving the way for everyone.
Therefore, while ordinary filmmakers and audiences are focusing on the movie itself, the bosses of film and television companies and those at the top of the entertainment industry are using this movie as a starting point to weigh the consequences of movie co-production from a macro perspective.
gains and losses.
After Cheng Xiaodong was interviewed, the media in Hong Kong started a big debate on the issue of special effects in the movie.
For a time, there was a lot of hustle and bustle, various arguments emerged one after another, and people from all walks of life appeared on stage. This topic actually became a popular social hot spot.
Those participants, while talking loudly and promoting their own ideas, secretly counted the royalties or appearance fees, wishing that such debates could go on forever.
The direct benefits obtained by various news media are the biggest, and they are naturally happy. However, on the surface, no one will show it, but they will pretend that they only provide a communication platform, but do not
As a calm bystander who participated, he secretly added fuel to the flames.
In fact, there is another beneficiary of this, and that is Youlian.
The League of Friendship did not expect that an interview received by Cheng Xiaodong as a routine matter would actually trigger a big debate and even spread to neighboring countries and regions.
This is a great thing for Youlian. The film has not yet been officially released, and almost everyone in Hong Kong and surrounding areas is aware of the commotion.
The fact that things have developed to this point is not just a matter of hyping up negative news to attract the attention of the audience. The joint hype of various media has made the movie "Ancient and Modern War between Qin Terracotta Warriors" famous.
Countless people who have no desire to watch the movie will most likely buy tickets after the film is released to see what is so special about the film's highly hyped special effects.
The department responsible for the publicity and distribution work of Youlian was extremely happy.
The company has not spent much of the large amount of publicity and distribution funds it has prepared for "Ancient and Modern War", but the film's expectations among the audience are already so high.
No one expected in advance that the five million Hong Kong dollars spent on post-production special effects by the crew could actually have such an additional effect. It was a surprise.
When the Friendship League noticed that the situation had changed, it urgently revised the original publicity plan. Now that the mass base had been established, the Friendship League spent money to invite some well-connected filmmakers to participate in the debate.
Although they cannot completely grasp the direction of the debate, they can provide some guidance that is beneficial to them.
At the same time, filmmakers under Youlian have also stepped forward to promote their own films, while also bringing leading film and television special effects studios to everyone's attention.
For a time, the name of the leading film and television special effects studio also became a hot topic in Hong Kong.
This studio, which was established just one year ago, is like "Goldlion" in the eyes of mainlanders in the 1980s and "Pierre Cardin" in the 1990s. It has almost become synonymous with Hollywood film and television special effects teams in the eyes of most people in Hong Kong.
