There are eight major film companies in Hollywood, which have monopolized the entire Hollywood film business for decades.
Although they have encountered numerous people who wanted to challenge or even replace them over the decades, no one has ever succeeded, and their status remains rock solid.
Unless, of course, you commit suicide!
Even on a global scale, Hollywood giants have always been invincible, turning Southeast Asia and Europe into their back gardens.
However, only in the increasingly fertile land of China, Hollywood blockbusters have repeatedly been defeated by local films.
At the beginning of this century, the films of Zhang Yimou, Ma Xiaogang, and Zhou Xingchi frequently exceeded 100 million yuan, and they pushed Hollywood blockbusters to the ground and rubbed them fiercely.
In recent years, the "Transformers" series has been a hit, and Nolan's "Inception", "Kung Fu Panda 2" and "Avatar" have sold 1.3 billion, which has made all Hollywood film companies extremely excited, and they are aggressively attacking China.
The market opportunity has come.
However, I never expected that just one year later, the record of "Avatar" would be broken by the Chinese, and its box office of 1.6 billion would exceed hundreds of millions of yuan. It would even surpass "Transformers 3" in the same period.
It was ravaged so hard that it almost didn’t even reach a billion dollars.
This was unacceptable to the major Hollywood giants. As the vice president of distribution at Warner Bros., Thomas Gerwick had no choice but to propose a plan to the top management to use Chinese people to conquer the Chinese film market!
This is also the reason why he came to China in person.
In the hotel suite, Thomas, Fan Nan, president of Warner China, and Mary Parent, production executive of Legendary Pictures, were quietly waiting for Li Qian's arrival.
Seeing the leader of the head office occupying his president's office as soon as he arrived, Fan Nan was really in trouble.
"Mr. Thomas, I think your plan is still a little imperfect." After struggling for a while, Fan Nan spoke in a low voice.
Asking Li Qian to help them promote Hollywood movies and completely open the door to the domestic market is unreliable no matter how you look at it. He is not stupid, and he will definitely give the other party a lot of benefits.
"Fan."
Thomas glanced at him quietly, "For so many years, the China Branch has not made any achievements in China. It has not even discovered a series like "Jaws" that is so popular in North America. It was picked up by Columbia. You have done a lot.
Unqualified!"
He slapped himself with a big hat when he opened his mouth. Fan Nan was choked up and said weakly, "It's because I didn't do my job carefully enough."
"As a Chinese, you should know the difficulty in conquering this land. The government of this country can never get around it. As long as the import quota is not relaxed, we will never be able to eat this growing piece of cake.
!" Thomas said to himself.
In terms of the deepest resentment towards the domestic market, apart from Colombia, which has been cheated, Warner has been saved.
Thomas still remembers that many years ago, Warner worked hard to develop all the technologies and advanced management experience to help Wanda build the modern Warner Wanda Cinema Line from scratch.
As a result, when the results were just released, Warner received a piece of paper from the General Administration of Optoelectronics, which made all Warner's efforts in vain and forced it to withdraw.
From then on, Warner Wanda Cinemas became Wanda Cinemas, making wedding dresses for others.
After several years of hard work, Optoelectronics came to nothing, but it gave Warner a deep understanding of how powerful the government of this country is.
What's more, Optoelectronics firmly controls the quota and share ratio of imported films. Without enough films, how can it occupy this market?
What makes them even more helpless is that if imported films, or even purchased films, want to be released in China, they have to get approval from China Film Company.
Co-productions require China Film to go through import customs clearance procedures. If it really stumps you, there is nothing you can do.
The quota for imported films is in the hands of China Film Group. Films that are destined to be big hits will not be given a quota, and you can only accept a low-price buyout.
Even if it's a buyout, even if you sign a contract with another domestic company, if China Film doesn't let you join, you still won't be able to join.
It can be said that imported movies are tightly controlled by China Film.
The low profit margin and buyout also make Hollywood companies reluctant to increase their investment in the country. There is no solution!
In the past, imported films, with the exception of "Avatar", were considered big hits for 200 to 300 million yuan, and they didn't pay much attention to them, after all, the share was so low.
However, "Transformers 3" exceeded 1 billion, "Kung Fu Panda 2" reached 600 million, and the domestic movie "I Am Not the God of Medicine" grossed 1.6 billion, exceeding 250 million US dollars, which makes people more and more jealous.
There were many obstacles, and they couldn't solve them at all, so Thomas came up with a way.
He has carefully studied the domestic films of the past few years. In addition to Li Qian's sudden emergence, his films have also been hits every time.
After some investigation, it was found that the first few movies were all produced by Li Qian. Even a movie without a big director, a big star, or a big investment could get huge attention and even a box office hit.
Sell.
The word Li Qian has become a golden sign.
Since this golden brand can be placed on domestic movies, why can’t it be placed on Hollywood movies?
Hollywood movies produced by Li Qian have continued to sell well in China with the help of this name, thus opening the door to the Chinese film market.
Thinking of this, Thomas couldn't help but feel proud of his wit. He spoke in a poor manner and said to Fan Nan in an educational tone, "I heard that there is a saying in your country, which is to learn from the foreigners and develop their skills to defeat the foreigners. So we can also
Follow the example of the gourd and draw the scoop!"
"Yes, Mr. Thomas is right."
Fan Nan promised repeatedly, but he cursed in his heart. He didn't like the leader who bossed him around and occupied his office!
Foreign devils can still speak human language!
At this time, there was a knock on the door, and Li Qian and Du Yang pushed the door open and came in.
"I'm sorry everyone has to wait."
Thomas immediately put away his stinky face, put on a smile, stood up and shook hands with Li Qian, "Hello, Director Li."
"Director Li, Mr. Du." Fan Nan also said hello to the two of them. This was the first time he saw Li Qian.
So young!
"This is Mr. Thomas, Vice President of Distribution of Warner Bros., Ms. Mary, Production Director of Legendary Pictures, and Mr. Fan, President of Warner China." Du Yang also accepted them one by one for Li Qian.
"Welcome Mr. Thomas and Ms. Mary to China." Li Qian smiled, sat down on the sofa, and got down to business without any ink.
"I heard from Mr. Du that your company wants to co-produce a film with us?"
"That's right." Thomas said with a kind face, "With Director Li's fame and box office appeal in China, our movies will definitely sell more in China. This is a win-win situation."
Thomas then explained the cooperation plan in detail, which was to follow the normal process of a co-production, with Li Qian investing a small portion and adding one or two small characters with a few lines each day, and it became a co-production.
Then Li Qian will be given the title of producer, and the domestic promotion will be done by Li Qian, who needs to use his name to promote the film.
It's probably the same as what Du Yang said before.
Although Li Qian didn't know what they had in mind, he didn't mind asking, "What's the specific ratio?"
"Director Li only needs to provide 10% of the investment, plus a nominal producer, and promote the movie, he can get 50% of China's box office revenue, and he can randomly arrange two characters with no less than five lines." Thomas is confident.
Said fully.
Two characters with more than five lines of dialogue are enough to drive actors in this country crazy, especially for big productions that invest thousands or even hundreds of millions!
He knows that Chinese actors are particularly keen on going global. Even spending more than ten seconds on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival is worthy of special mention, as if this can increase their fame.
Li Qian quickly made a calculation in his mind. If a Hollywood movie sells 100 million yuan in China, it is a big hit. 50% of the domestic box office revenue is more than 16 million yuan.
Converted into US dollars, it is 2.7 million. If you calculate it this way, unless the film investment is within 27 million, and the publicity income is thrown out, Li Qian will make money.
If the box office is 200 million, an investment of less than 55 million US dollars is required to make money.
A movie with an investment of less than $27 million?
Don't be ridiculous, this kind of movie is either a comedy or a horror movie.
These two types are not popular in the country.
Most domestic audiences only like Hollywood blockbusters, even high-quality comedies and horror films. It is very difficult to sell 100 million, and there are almost none.
Is this looking for someone to take advantage of?
"Mr. Thomas, let's talk about the overseas distribution of "Jaws 3"." Li Qian refused without even thinking about bargaining.
Thomas was a little surprised by such a straightforward refusal.
According to his understanding, Li Qian's film company has an artist management business. If an actor can get a role with five lines in a Hollywood blockbuster, his net worth will increase significantly, and he can make a lot of money just through endorsements.
Thomas said, "Director Li, with your reputation in China, you can easily produce a movie that sells 300 to 400 million yuan at the box office."
What about the fool?
Li Qian was not interested in listening to this little foreigner's ramblings and interrupted him directly, "Last year, the only two movies that had a box office of over 300 million were "Avatar" and "Inception." Mr. Thomas thinks that Hollywood movies are so easy to sell.
Three to four billion box office?”
"With Director Li's reputation, I think it's very possible!" Thomas said firmly and seriously.
Li Qian shook his head and proposed a plan, "5% investment, 50% domestic box office revenue. Mr. Thomas also knows that investment in Hollywood blockbusters can easily reach hundreds of millions of dollars. 5% is already more than 30 million yuan. If you want to reach 60 million yuan,
The revenue means that the box office is at least 180 million, and there are not many imported movies with this number in a year."
Thomas frowned and cut off half of it.
Based on a cost of US$100 million and a box office of US$200 million, the domestic box office revenue of the co-production is 66 million, half of which is 33 million.
If calculated based on imported films, it would be 50 million.
There was a difference of 17 million yuan, and the 5 million US dollars that Li Qian paid was already 30 million yuan.
Even if they exchanged 17 million yuan in revenue for 30 million yuan in costs, they still made a profit.
Thomas made a quick calculation in his mind and found that it was still a good deal, and it also served the purpose of promoting Hollywood movies.
However, he still looked like he had suffered a big loss. After arguing with Li Qian for more than ten minutes, he reluctantly agreed.
"Then go by what Director Li said, we are willing to suffer a little loss for the sake of long-term cooperation in the future."
Although Thomas said it so reluctantly, Li Qian still saw a hint of excitement in his eyes.
Moreover, Mary from Legendary Pictures and Fan Nan, the boss of the Chinese branch, were not surprised at all.
Fan Nan, forget it, Mary's expression is strange.
Legendary Pictures is a production company that has been cooperating with Warner Bros. for several years. They have always produced films and Warner Bros. has distributed them.
They have a share of the domestic box office, so it stands to reason that it is impossible to keep silent about this kind of thing.
After all, Hollywood production companies are severely exploited by distributors. They can make losses on their books even if they make big sales.
There are many examples of distribution companies making huge profits while production companies make huge sales but lose money.
The domestic market is a rare place that can be considered transparent. For production companies, this part of the income will never be hacked by the distributor.
After all, it is distributed in China by domestic companies, and Warner has no involvement or handling, let alone accounting.
The only transparent piece of revenue is what Warner says. People at Legendary Pictures have no objection at all, which is a bit strange.
However, Li Qian still said happily, "Thank you so much, Mr. Thomas."
Thomas felt relieved, as long as the conversation was over.
Du Yang also feels that this ratio is beneficial to them. Even if they don't make money at the box office, they still have a distribution income.
What's more, the two supporting characters with 5 lines of dialogue are also a piece of wealth. Even if they don't use it themselves, it is still very valuable to take it out.
Fan Binbin, who spends all her time in hype and walking on the red carpet, would jump for joy if she got a role like this in a big Hollywood production, and she would be willing to pay millions for it.
Just when Thomas was about to celebrate the cooperation between the two parties, Li Qian suddenly seemed to remember something and said with some embarrassment, "I'm sorry, Mr. Thomas, I just remembered something. I got a message from China Film Group a few days ago. The movie will be released soon."
The bureau will re-formulate the requirements for co-productions."
"What's the request?" Thomas had a bad feeling.
Li Qian laughed and said, "The Chinese investment ratio is generally not less than one-third, and Chinese actors must play the main roles, and the filming must be done domestically. There are three conditions, one is at least, otherwise it will not meet the conditions for co-production!"
"
"?????"
Thomas was stunned when he heard this condition.
"Is what Director Li said true?"
"Of course, this is the news we learned from China Film and Television, and it will be announced soon," Li Qian said.
Based on this calculation, most co-productions are out of compliance.
Okay, this happened suddenly.
Thomas thought for a moment, then met Li Qian's smiling eyes and suddenly came to his senses.
He had been dealing with the price negotiation for more than ten minutes before, planning to delay it for some time and then deal with it reluctantly.
But looking back now, it seems that Li Qian was negotiating perfunctorily.
It was as if two people were scolding each other, constantly pointing at each other and shouting "Come here!" with an arrogant look on their faces.
He looked quite fierce, but in fact he didn't intend to fight, he just cursed.
In that case, this so-called sudden change in co-production regulations is definitely not a sudden thought.
But I didn't forget it from the beginning, so I negotiated casually, because I knew that no matter how good the negotiation was, it would be useless under the regulations.
Thomas' mind was spinning rapidly, analyzing Li Qian's purpose.
Suddenly, I was full of confidence, but now I have become passive, and I may not be able to let the other party see my urgency for cooperation.
His eyes met Li Qian's slightly smiling gaze again, and Thomas felt as if Li Qian had seen through his plans.