China Entertainment started from Nortel 96

Chapter 301 Negotiation of Cooperation

The cooperation on "New World" was temporarily put aside by Qi Wei.

Two days later, after Liu Tianwang finished filming his guest scene, Zhou Xingxing also rushed over from Hong Kong City.

Zhou Xingxing is also one of the guest stars in "My Sassy Girl".

When he met Zhou Xingxing on the set of "Sassy Girlfriend", although Liu Tianwang frowned, he still greeted Zhou Xingxing politely.

Zhou Xingxing's reaction was similar to that of Liu Tianwang.

In the early years, Zhou Xingxing and Liu Tianwang collaborated in two movies, "The Gambler" and "The Tricky Expert".

We have worked together before, but the relationship between the two is not as good as expected.

It's not even an exaggeration to describe it as a stranger.

Of course, Liu Tianwang is not the only actor who works with Zhou Xingxing. Most of the actors who work with Zhou Xingxing have a similar situation.

This has something to do with Zhou Xingxing's character and behavior.

Qi Wei understands this.

Having cooperated with Zhou Xingxing for so long, Zhou Xingxing did not regard Qi Wei as a true friend, only as a partner.

Liu Tianwang is more enthusiastic and knows how to behave.

Looking at Liu Tianwang who is still "Hua Zi" at this moment, and then looking at Zhou Xingxing who has become "Xingye", the two have different statuses in the Hong Kong film industry. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why their relationship is not so good.

After all, Liu Tianwang became famous earlier and had no shortage of film resources, but he was overtaken by Zhou Xingxing. It is impossible not to be jealous at all.

Putting away his slightly amused gaze, Qi Wei said to Liu Tianwang and Mai Zhaohui:
"You two want to talk to me about cooperating in "New World". I am indeed interested, but things must be done on a first-come, first-served basis. Director Jay Chou has already talked to me about cooperating in new movies before. I will discuss cooperation with him first before talking with him. You two can talk about cooperation."

"No problem." Liu Tianwang said very cheerfully, and then asked, "Do you want us to avoid it."

"Don't be so troublesome."

Qi Wei smiled and asked Zhou Xingxing: "Dr. Zhou, you don't mind either, right?"

Zhou Xingxing glanced at Qi Wei, then at Liu Tianwang and Mai Zhaohuai. He couldn't help but frowned, but he quickly relaxed.

He shook his head and replied: "No problem, please feel free to do whatever you want."

Then Liu Tianwang and Mai Zhaohui stayed, and Zhou Xingxing and Qi Wei began cooperation negotiations.

"The King of Comedy" is now in theaters.

After being released for a month and a half, the film finally grossed over 2000 million at the box office.

This ranks among the top ten in this year's mainland box office rankings.

You must know that Big Brother Long, who is also a "double Monday success", also released two movies in the mainland this year.

One "Glass Bottle" is about the same as "The King of Comedy", with a box office of just over 2000 million. The other "Rush Hour", which was a hit in Hollywood, is more influential, with a box office of 2500 million, which is only 500 million more.

If you look at it this way, the box office of "The King of Comedy" is still acceptable.

But this was not a box office result that satisfied both parties.

You must know that Qi Wei invested 500 million in "The King of Comedy" to obtain the mainland distribution rights for this film.

According to the original agreement, Qi Wei's company invested more than 700 million in publicity and distribution expenses (the publicity and distribution expenses were deliberately exaggerated, but in fact it was less than 400 million).

Based on one-third of the box office share, Qi Wei's company can only recover less than 700 million in costs.

The apparent loss exceeded 500 million!
The box office of "The King of Comedy" in the Mainland was only 2000 million, which was unexpected by Zhou Xingxing.

Zhou Xingxing also knows that rampant piracy has seriously affected this year's film market.

But now, the mainland's total film market has surpassed the Hong Kong market, and mainland audiences love the movie "The King of Comedy" more than Hong Kong audiences.

More people went to the cinema to watch "The King of Comedy".

"The King of Comedy" has achieved a box office of nearly 3000 million in Hong Kong, and it will not be lower than this number in the mainland.

Zhou Xingxing also sent people to conduct market research, and conservatively estimated that the movie could earn at least 4000 million yuan in box office in the mainland.

It is not impossible to exceed 5000 million.

This is why Zhou Xingxing promised Qi Wei to wait until "The King of Comedy" is released before discussing the cooperation in "Kung Fu Football".

Zhou Xingxing is very confident, but she ignores how serious the situation of box office fraud in the Mainland is at this time.

Especially this year, the rampant piracy has further reduced the number of moviegoers entering the cinema. In order to survive, they have begun to kill chickens more crazily to keep warm.

You must know that in the past few years, Brother Long introduced the movies "Red Zone", "Police Story", "A Good Man", "Who Am I", etc. to the mainland. None of these movies were less than 5000 million, and even "Red Zone" was over [-] million. Just one breath away.

Let's take a look at "Glass Bottle" and "Rush Hour" introduced this year.

Even Hollywood movies, which have always been the "box office elixir", are not working this year, and their box office results are not satisfactory.

"The King of Comedy" is naturally unavoidable.

Originally, the box office performance of "The King of Comedy" was a bargaining chip for Zhou Xingxing to negotiate for cooperation, but now it belongs to Qi Wei.

After all, your movie made me lose millions.

Qi Wei was very strong in the cooperation negotiations with Zhou Xingxing, but Zhou Xingxing couldn't be strong if he wanted to be.

After all, when Qi Wei went to Hong Kong City with the crew of "Meteor Garden" some time ago, he negotiated an investment cooperation with the boss of Yongsheng Film Company, Xiang, for "Hero".

Now Zhou Xingxing is completely at odds with Boss Xiang, and even Boss Xiang privately refuses to let investors from Hong Kong City invest in Zhou Xingxing's movies.

So Zhou Xingxing is very worried that Qi Wei will not invest in his own movie because of his cooperation with Boss Xiang.

The previous "Westward Journey" and the current "The King of Comedy", none of Zhou Xingxing's movies introduced to the mainland have made mainland distributors profitable.

If even a generous water pipe like Qi Wei, no, a big boss is unwilling to invest in his own movies, then no mainland investors will be willing to cooperate with him.

After a little push, Qi Wei agreed to cooperate with Zhou Xingxing.

"Director Jay Chou, the movie "Kung Fu Football" has an investment of 6000 million, and I can help raise 2000 million in funds."

Zhou Xingxing was very satisfied with the 2000 investment he could get from Qi Wei.

After all, the actual investment of "Kung Fu Football" is 6000 million, and the production cost of filming the movie is only more than 4000 million. After all, where is Zhou Xingxing's salary?

Although "The King of Comedy" did not meet expectations at the box office, Zhou Xingxing's salary dropped a bit, but not by much.

The salary is still a thousand to a few hundred.

This means that "Kung Fu Football" only needs to raise an investment of more than 2000 million yuan.

With the golden name of Zhou Xingxing, it is possible to raise more than 2000 million yuan of investment with a little time.

Of course, Zhou Xingxing still wants to raise enough investment of 6000 million. After all, making movies is risky, and no one knows the prospects before the movie is released.

Wouldn’t it be nice to get a salary that guarantees income despite droughts and floods?

As a last resort, Zhou Xingxing would use the film remuneration to calculate the investment and negotiate the share. "I wonder what the conditions are for your investment?"

There is no such thing as a free lunch, and Qi Wei's investment must be conditional. Both parties know this.

Then Qi Wei stated his conditions.

"Since I invested in "Kung Fu Soccer", I hope that this film will not accept investment from the mainland without my permission."

"No problem." Zhou Xingxing agreed without much thought.

"I invested in "Kung Fu Football". In addition to enjoying all the revenue share of this movie, I hope to obtain the distribution rights in the mainland like "The King of Comedy"."

Obtaining the distribution rights in the Mainland means obtaining all the income from the Mainland. Qi Wei's words couldn't help but make Zhou Xingxing hesitate.

But he heard Qi Wei say: "Don't worry, the distribution rights in the mainland belong to me. I will spend no less than the promotion fee of "The King of Comedy" to promote "Kung Fu Football". In addition, I can contact you when the time comes. Publisher in Japan.”

Although Japan has introduced Zhou Xingxing's movies, the movie that really allowed Zhou Xingxing to break into the Japanese market was "Kung Fu Football".

With Zhou Xingxing's status in the industry and his many years of experience in filmmaking, it is indeed not difficult to find a distributor in Japan, but if someone can connect him, he will definitely be able to sell it at a better price.

So Qi Wei was willing to help contact Japanese publishers, which Zhou Xingxing would definitely like to hear.

In addition, "The King of Comedy" did not achieve satisfactory box office results in the mainland, which made Zhou Xingxing have some doubts about the prospects of "Kung Fu Football" in the mainland.

If Qi Wei spends more than the publicity and distribution expenses of "The King of Comedy", he may not be able to earn back the publicity and distribution expenses from the box office share.

In Zhou Xingxing's view, the current mainland box office is just useless, and he doesn't think it's a big problem.

Zhou Xingxing thought for a moment and nodded in agreement: "Okay, what about the other conditions?"

Qi Wei continued: "I will account for one-third of the 2000 million yuan invested in "Kung Fu Soccer". If there is an overrun in the filming of the film, I will not invest more, but I cannot reduce my share."

"This is not good. You also know that it is difficult to make a movie without overshooting the budget." Zhou Xingxing said with a frown.

"But I want to protect the interests of my investors."

Although Zhou Xingxing is more rigorous when making movies, Qi Wei also wants to take precautions to avoid being cheated.

Seeing Zhou Xingxing's somewhat reluctant look, Qi Wei asked: "How much do you think the budget for "Kung Fu Soccer" will exceed?"

"It's estimated to be several million, no more than 1000 million anyway."

"Then let's each take a step back. I'll invest 300 million more in "Kung Fu Soccer". If there are still overspending, it's none of my business."

"no problem."

"If this movie is not completed, you and your company must compensate me for double the liquidated damages of my investment."

"Okay." Zhou Xingxing agreed immediately.

Although Hong Kong movies are in decline now, there are fewer people selling movies to get investment, but it doesn't mean there are none. Zhou Xingxing can also understand Qi Wei's caution.

"Also, the release of this film requires my consent. If it is released without my consent, it will be regarded as a breach of contract, and I have the right to pursue the breach of contract."

The later "Kung Fu Soccer" was also a co-production with mainland investment. However, this film was not released in the mainland in the end. One of the reasons was that it was agreed to be released simultaneously. In the end, "Kung Fu Soccer" was released first in Hong Kong for some reasons. , and eventually made some leaders dissatisfied, so it was not released in the mainland.

This is a piece of news that Qi Wei has read. Regardless of whether it is true or not, this situation must be avoided.

Of course, Qi Wei never thought about releasing it simultaneously. After all, he would have to cooperate with Han Sanping in the film market reform.

Although some overstepping infringed on his own rights, after all, he was asking for something from someone, so Zhou Xingxing agreed after thinking for a while.

After chatting in some more details, Zhou Xingxing finally asked:
"Then the heroine of this drama"

When he came to the set of "Sassy Girlfriend", when he saw Qi Wei and Yan Danchen so close, Zhou Xingxing thought Qi Wei had moved on.

Anyway, in Zhou Xingxing's opinion, the heroine of "Kung Fu Soccer" is just a vase of green leaves, and it doesn't matter if she is Gao Yuanyuan or Yan Danchen.

"Just follow what we agreed before." Qi Wei said directly.

Hearing this, Liu Tianwang and Mai Zhaohui looked at each other.

They thought that one of the reasons why Zhou Xingxing could so easily attract investment from Qi Wei was because Qi Wei wanted to arrange resources for his girlfriend.

After experiencing the cooperation negotiations between Qi Wei and Zhou Xingxing, Liu Tianwang also understood that although Qi Wei was generous, he had his own logic.

It is not easy to attract investment from Qi Wei.

If we can get investment from Qi Wei.

He doesn't mind handing over the heroine of "New World" to Yan Danchen.

After discussing cooperation with Zhou Xingxing, Zhou Xingxing was not interested in listening to the cooperation negotiations between Qi Wei, Liu Tianwang and others, so he left.

Qi Wei calmed down a little, and then said to Liu Tianwang: "Brother Hua, I am very grateful that you have always taken care of me. Although we are friends, business is business. I hope you can understand."

"I understand." Liu Tianwang nodded, and then said: "I really like being able to cooperate with you on "New World". I wonder what your conditions are?"

"The investment conditions I just discussed with Zhou Xingxing are the conditions for me to cooperate with you on "New World". If you agree, we will continue to talk."

Hearing this, King Liu Tian couldn't help but hesitate for a moment and asked, "Are there any other conditions?"

"Yes, I still have two conditions." Qi Wei said.

"I don't know what the two conditions are?" Liu Tianwang asked.

"The first one is that I want to have the right to decide on the casting of "New World". Actors with whom I disagree cannot participate in this drama."

"No problem." King Liu Tian agreed immediately.

Liu Tianwang had talked with Zhang Guorong before. Qi Wei also had the right to decide on the casting of the movie "Suspect", but apart from inserting a heroine, Qi Wei did not participate too much in the casting of the movie.

He also thought that Qi Wei also wanted to insert his woman into the movie "New World", and he planned to ask Yan Danchen for it.

So I agreed without even thinking about it.

But Qi Wei wanted the decision-making power on this movie. Apart from this reason, the most important reason was that Qi Wei didn't want actors he hated to participate in this movie.

Among the actors in Hong Kong City, there were some that Qi Wei hated.

"What's the other condition?" Liu Tianwang asked again.

Qi Wei looked at Mai Zhaohui, who was beside Liu Tianwang, and said, "Although the script you wrote for "New World" is very good, your resume makes me question your ability to direct."

Then Qi Wei said to Liu Tianwang: "I hope you can hire a capable director to direct this play."

These words made Mai Zhaohui feel a little embarrassed.

Seeing his friend's appearance, Liu Tianwang wanted to fight for him, so he said: "I still hope you can give Director Mai a chance. He is still very capable. He has written a script before and he really likes it."

"What script?" Qi Wei asked quickly.

"Infernal Affairs!"

(End of this chapter)