China Entertainment started from Nortel 96

Chapter 185 Conditions of Investment

"Boss Jiang is able to take charge of Anle Films at a young age, and he is even more talented than blue. He really has outstanding abilities."

"It's just the shadow of my father's generation, not as good as Boss Qi who started from scratch."

While greeting each other, Qi Wei kept looking at Jiang Zhiqiang.

To talk about Jiang Zhiqiang, we must first start with his father Jiang Zuyi.

In Hong Kong City, there are quite a few chambers of commerce, but those who can be the leaders in the industry are by no means ordinary.

Jiang Zuyi used to be the president of the Hong Kong City Theater, and she is not weak. In the Hong Kong City film circle, it is not an exaggeration to say that she is an industry leader.

This kind of person usually doesn't show the mountains and dews, but they are really affecting the progress of the industry.

His Anle Film Industry is not well-known, but its strength is extremely strong.

The West Pian Market on Hong Kong Island is even more dominant.

Jiang Zuyi has been in contact with Western films since the 60s and 40s. As a "comprador", her personal connections have been intricate for [-] years.

When Golden Harvest supported Shaw Brothers to release a film in Hollywood, the Jiang family was there to help.

As the "big comprador" of Hong Kong Island and even Southeast Asia in the selection of films in the European and American film markets, the Jiang family is low-key but powerful in the Hong Kong Island film industry.

Like "Jurassic Park", which gave a heavy blow to Hong Kong films at its peak, and "Titanic", which broke a series of records before, these Hollywood films are all produced by Anle Films under the Chiang family. Issued in Hong Kong.

The introduction of Hollywood movies, many people think that they are one of the chief culprits for the decline of Hong Kong movies, and they are the "spies" of Hong Kong filmmakers, but the most fundamental reason for the decline of Hong Kong movies is that they themselves have brought the blame.

The prosperity of Hong Kong films back then was closely related to economic development and the needs of the times.

Coupled with the fact that the Bay Area, Japan and South Korea had all entered a period of cultural thawing at that time, and the public's demand for film and television entertainment increased, this created a grand occasion for Hong Kong films to dominate the Southeast Asian market.

But in fact, in the film markets of Wanwan, Japan and South Korea, the box office performance of Hollywood blockbusters is not worse than that of Hong Kong films. It is only due to cultural reasons. In addition, Hong Kong films have a larger scale and are too strong overall, which makes Western films weak. .

The fundamental reason is that imported Hong Kong films are more profitable, so Hong Kong films are more favored by those Bay Bay, Japanese and Korean filmmakers.

When one day, the profits of Hong Kong films are so low that Wanwan film producers cannot accept it, then the relevant departments will definitely be urged to relax the restrictions on Western films.

Hong Kong films that have lost the Wanwan and Southeast Asian markets must be alone.

For example, Zhou Xingxing's movie called "Jigong".

At that time, Zhou Xingxing had been promoted to "Star Master" because of the box office sales of many movies, and he had a super high box office appeal. Coupled with the high investment of this movie and the strength of Hong Kong movies at that time, the filmmakers of Wanwan had no choice but to Buy the distribution rights of the film in Wanwan for 3000 million.

As a result, the movie not only failed at the box office in Hong Kong City, but also at the Wanwan box office, which directly ruined the film studios in Wanwan.

From then on, Wanwan filmmakers began to be unwilling to pay for Hong Kong films, which made Hong Kong films gradually lose the Wanwan market.

Losing the Wanwan market, but relying on the local box office in Hong Kong City cannot support the prosperity of Hong Kong films.

Of course, Wanwan filmmakers are unwilling to pay for Hong Kong films, not only because of the movie "Jigong", but mainly because of the long-standing grudge against Hong Kong films.

In the early 90s, when Hong Kong films were booming, those filmmakers in Hong Kong began to lose their lives, and used methods such as selling film clips to pit Wanwan and Southeast Asian filmmakers.

Since then, the reputation and future of Hong Kong films have been overdrawn.

When meeting Jiang Zhiqiang, Qi Wei realized two things.

One is the decline of Hong Kong films, which made Hong Kong City's capital less willing to invest in movies. Li An's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" that he was preparing did not attract investment from Hong Kong City.

Another point is that, as the "comprador" of Western films in Hong Kong, the Jiang family has established intricate connections in Hollywood, and Jiang Zhiqiang inherited his father's business and inherited the Jiang family's relationship in Hollywood. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is very likely to receive Hollywood investment.

If there is real Hollywood investment, then investing in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" will not be as profitable as I imagined.

After exchanging a few pleasantries with each other, after everyone got to know each other well, they quickly entered the topic.

As the director of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", Li An took the lead in saying: "My film has been planned for several years, and it was supposed to attract enough investment. There is an investment gap."

Those Wanwan investors withdrew their capital because they had no money or were not optimistic about the project. Qi Wei didn't ask about the specific situation to avoid embarrassment for the other party.

"Director Li, what is your total investment for this film, and how much investment is still missing?" Qi Wei asked with a serious face.

Li An took out the project proposal for the movie from his briefcase, handed it to Qi Wei, and replied:
"For this movie of mine, I plan to invite Li Lianjie to be the leading actor, and I will also invite famous domestic stars for other roles. The salary of the actors alone is not low. My plan needs to raise at least 1500 million yuan to complete the production. "

Converted from 1500 million meters, it is over [-] million.

When Qi Wei carefully read the project proposal of this movie, Jiang Zhiqiang helped to explain: "I like this movie very much, and I am also optimistic about its prospects. I have helped Director Li An raise 750 million dollars from Hollywood. "

Hearing this, Qi Wei put down the plan in his hand, and looked up at Jiang Zhiqiang.

Sure enough, as Qi Wei expected, the participation of Jiang Zhiqiang really helped Li An get money from Hollywood.

With Hollywood money involved, it's not necessarily a good project.

Qi Wei asked Li An: "Director Li, I don't know if you have brought the script or not, I want to make a decision after reading the script."

"I've brought it." Li An said quickly, and then took out the script from his briefcase, "You read it first, we can wait, and it's not too late to make a decision after reading it."

Li Yu learned from Lao Mouzi that Qi Wei wanted to prepare a martial arts commercial blockbuster with them and was willing to invest 5000 million.

Then I learned from the news that Qi Wei is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, so he has the ability to help him make up the rest of his investment.

This is a big water hose, and it just so happens that my project is also a blockbuster martial arts movie, as long as I can convince him.

Li An is still very confident in his script.

But it seemed that things were not going in the direction he wanted, and Qi Wei, who was flipping through the script quickly, began to frown.

This script is not the final script, and it is a bit different from the movie that Qi Wei's later generations watched, but the general framework and tone have been set, and it may be changed, but basically it will not be changed too much.

Qi Wei, who closed the script, frowned, glanced at Jiang Zhiqiang and Li An respectively, and kept silent while thinking.

Qi Wei's appearance made Li An a little confused. The funds Jiang Zhiqiang promised to help him get from Hollywood have not yet come down, and he very much hopes to get funds from Qi Wei to make this movie project approved first.

He asked anxiously, "Is there something wrong with my script?"

Qi Wei nodded first, then shook his head and said: "The script is very good, I still appreciate it, but from the audience's point of view, I don't like this script very much, I feel that after this movie is released in China, domestic And the audience won't like it too much."

Qi Wei opened the script and casually pointed out a few lines in it, "Time and space do not exist, the sorrow of extinction, I have always loved you deeply. These lines are lines that Chinese people are not very good at saying. It is absolutely necessary, or it can be expressed in the implicit lines of the Chinese people. The whole script, in many places, is quite straightforward like these lines, which is somewhat westernized.
Director Li should have done this on purpose. If this is the case, then this movie is not about domestic audiences, but foreign and Western audiences. "

As soon as Qi Wei's words came out, Jiang Zhiqiang and Li An looked at each other, and were at a loss for words for a while.

They didn't expect that Qi Wei could see so many things after reading the script for less than 10 minutes.

Qi Wei is smarter than they believe, and it may not be so easy to fool around with investment.

Li An organized his language and explained: "You also know the domestic film market. With such a high investment in my film, it is impossible to recover the cost of the box office in the mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Taiwan, and Taiwan. I handle it this way. , is also a last resort.”

Qi Wei nodded, but he didn't answer, but asked Jiang Zhiqiang: "Hollywood's investment in this movie is conditional. If I'm not wrong, it's probably in exchange for this movie. distribution rights in North America”

Jiang Zhiqiang glanced at Li An, nodded and replied truthfully: "That's true."

"Director Li An just said that there is still a gap of about 4000 million yuan in this movie. If Mr. Zhang and I fill this gap, but only obtain the domestic distribution rights, in my opinion, it is definitely not a good deal. buy and sell"

Qi Wei, who has the memory of later generations, knows the answer.

The movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" has a global box office of nearly 2000 million yuan at a production cost of less than 2.3 million yuan. On the surface, it seems that it is indeed a very profitable project.

But it's only on the surface.

Qi Wei said: "This movie has Chinese elements that foreign audiences are looking for, and it caters to their tastes. It may have a very good market prospect abroad, but in China, this is not a movie style that domestic audiences like. The movie is a big hit abroad, and it is impossible for it to bloom outside the wall and become popular inside the wall."

"I feel that this movie will repeat the mistakes of Director Chen's "Jing Ke Assassination of the King of Qin"." When Qi Qiang said this, he looked at Zhang Weiping and Lao Mouzi, and he was giving them a suggestion. Awake.

In fact, the movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is very similar to "Jing Ke Assassins the King of Qin".

The film "Jing Ke Assassinates the King of Qin" has Japanese investment, and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" has Hollywood investment. These foreign capitals did not invest in these films for free, but obtained the distribution rights and profits of these films abroad.

But now the foreign film market is more mature than the domestic one, and it is easy for them to make a profit by operating these films.

No matter how much profit there is, it has nothing to do with domestic investors.

Domestic investors can only obtain domestic benefits.

"Jing Ke Assassinates the King of Qin" earned more than 1000 million at the domestic box office, which made Huayi Brothers' investors miserable, and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was not much better.

The later film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" only earned more than 1000 million domestic box office in the mainland. This box office performance caused several mainland film companies that had no investment at that time to lose several million just for distribution.

Yes, blockbuster films with hundreds of millions of investment like this have a lot of distribution fees, at least several million.

If Qi Wei and Zhang Weiping invest in this movie together, they will definitely be responsible for the distribution later, and it will be as much as the investment.

"Are you not optimistic about the prospects of this movie in China?" Jiang Zhiqiang asked.

Qi Wei replied: "Well, this movie won't get too high a box office in China."

If you don't like it, it means that you don't want to invest. Li An was a little anxious and said, "If you are willing to invest in my movie, I can arrange a role for you. There will definitely be a lot of roles. Let you and Li Lianjie be on the same stage. play"

In Li An's view, Qi Wei's records sold so well, he didn't want to produce more records to make more money, but he was always thankless for filming.

He also thought that Qi Wei was a major student in the performance department of Nortel, so doing so must be an obsession with acting.

It is definitely an irresistible temptation to assign him an important role in this commercial blockbuster, and let him act with Li Lianjie.

But his wishful thinking was wrong.

Qi Wei shook his head lightly and said: "Director Li, Mr. Zhang, Director Zhang and I also have a plan to make a blockbuster martial arts commercial, and we also have the idea of ​​inviting Li Lianjie. I believe that as long as Director Zhang can see my efforts, I will also to be in his movie.”

"So I'm sorry."

"Is there no room for maneuver?" Li An said unwillingly.

"I believe in Mr. Jiang's strength in Hollywood, he will help you get enough investment"

Jiang Zhiqiang shook his head with a wry smile. In fact, the 750 million yuan investment that Jiang Zhiqiang helped Li Yu get from Hollywood has already taken a lot of effort. As for the rest, it is a big problem.

Looking at them like this, Qi Wei felt that it was almost done, and then said: "I can help Dao La Li invest, but I have conditions."

"Oh, what's the condition?" Li An suddenly asked in a sudden turn of events.

"If our investment is only to obtain domestic income, no one is willing to do this obviously loss-making business. Movies are a high-risk thing, as the so-called high-risk high-reward. If our investment can obtain foreign shares, we can bet a handful."

"It seems to be against the rules." As a "comprador" in Hollywood, Jiang Zhiqiang needs to protect their interests.

"Hollywood funds invested in this film and obtained distribution rights in North America. We have no objection to this. I'm talking about the interests of foreign countries except the United States. If we are willing to share according to the investment ratio, we can invest."

The later generation "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" has a global box office minus the North American box office, and there is still a box office of almost [-] million meters.

No matter how low the box office share is or if it is bought out, the cost can still be easily recovered.

It just might not have much profit.

But as long as the investment in this movie does not lose money, it will make money.

Investing in this movie and earning a reputation can also make my film and television company a qualitative leap in the industry.

However, most of the releases outside the United States are actually handled by Hollywood.

Qi Wei wants to participate in this part of the share, in fact, he is grabbing profits from Hollywood.

But without that part of the share, the investment would lose too much, and Qi Wei would definitely not want to invest.

Besides, the way to earn fame can also be earned back through Lao Mouzi's "Hero".

Qi Wei is not the one in a hurry.

The investment conditions are here, so it's up to Jiang Zhiqiang to negotiate with Hollywood.

(End of this chapter)