The literary era since 1979

Shangmei Factory, factory director’s office.

As usual, Yan Dingxian always arrives 10 minutes earlier than the factory's stipulated working hours, almost rain or shine.

The reason is simple. As a director who has personally directed animated films such as "Journey to the West: Conquering the Dragon King", "Nezha Conquers the Dragon King", "The Little Tadpole Looking for His Mother", and "The Ginseng Fruit", and as an old man who has witnessed the glory of China Animation, he has a deep love for Shanghai Animation Studio and the animation industry.

"Tsk, tsk," he watered the potted plants with the kettle in his hand, his whole face was full of worries and his brows were twisted into a knot.

After a while, the secretary knocked on the door and reminded Yan Dingxian that an important meeting would be held in the morning.

"understood."

Yan Dingxian picked up a series of meeting materials and walked quickly to the meeting room downstairs.

Small matters are dealt with in big meetings, and big matters are dealt with in small meetings. There were not many people sitting in the conference room at this moment, and all those present were senior leaders of the Shangmei Factory.

Yan Dingxian looked around, confirmed that everyone was in place, and cleared his throat:
"Ahem, let's start the meeting."

"For the first topic, Comrade Yu Dajin will report on the achievements of Shuke and Beta since its release."

"Clap clap clap."

Accompanied by applause, Yu Dajin, who was called, stood up and smiled and told the current ratings of each episode of "Shuke and Beta".

After Yu Dajin finished his report, Wu Long, with a serious expression, asked the first question, with a hint of doubt in his tone.

"Then, could you please tell us more about how much profit "Shuke and Beta" has brought to our Shangmei Factory?"

"Well...well, up to now, in addition to CCTV buying the first broadcast rights for "Shuke and Beta", other TV stations interested in purchasing the broadcast rights are still contacting us. It is estimated that there will be 10 to 15 of them, and each episode will be charged 6000 yuan..."

Yu Dajin answered seriously.

"Based on 15 companies, that would be 117 million, right?"

Wu Long stared at him straight.

Yu Dajin nodded, but when asked about the production cost of "Shuke and Beta", he choked up and was speechless for a moment.

"That is to say, we invested more than half a year and invested 117 or yuan, but the final income was only million yuan."

Wu Long's eyes were filled with disappointment. "I guess everyone will remember the Transformers that was broadcast on Shanghai TV two years ago, right?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the whole audience fell silent and everyone's face looked extremely ugly.

In 1987, Hasbro, an American company, gave the broadcasting rights of 98 episodes of "Transformers" to Shanghai Television for free.

As a result, this free cartoon triggered a viewing frenzy, and other TV stations heard the news, but Hasbro did not continue to give it away for free. Instead, it offered 5000 per episode. If calculated based on 95 episodes, Hasbro could earn at least nearly 50 yuan from each TV station. Later, more than 20 TV stations across the country bought the broadcasting rights. Hasbro's revenue this time exceeded 1000 million yuan, and the bulk of it did not just come from the distribution rights of the cartoon.

The popularity of Transformers set off a toy sales boom. At that time, the prices of some Transformers toys were 11 yuan for Mini Bumblebee, 48 yuan for Dinobot, 108 yuan for Megatron, 72 yuan for Soundwave, 54 yuan for Starscream, and 80 yuan for Alpha Trooper...

However, the high price did not affect sales. Wangfujing only exhibited a few Transformers toys, and the retail sales reached more than 80 yuan.

In terms of business model, Shanghai Animation Studio was defeated by foreign manufacturers such as Hasbro, and even the revenue of animation was affected.

"Director Wu, our factory can't compete with Hasbro. Their cartoons are completely free!"

A voice questioning Wu Long emerged from the crowd.

Yu Dajin then added that because competitors from the United States, Japan and other places often give away animations for free, or even pay for them, TV stations across the country are more willing to broadcast their cartoons. As a result, domestic cartoons have less and less market, and the losses of Shanghai Art Studio are getting more and more serious. After all, domestic art studios make money by selling cartoons, while Shanghai Art Studio purely uses cartoons as advertisements, selling toys, etc.

Everyone was helpless. In order to compete with these free overseas cartoons in the market, Shanghai Animation Studio had to lower the price of the cartoon broadcasting rights again and again. Otherwise, most TV stations would not be willing to purchase them, resulting in the profit of a single cartoon becoming less and less.

In fact, if it could achieve "small profits but quick turnover", Shangmei Factory would not have fallen to this point.

The key point is that due to the influence of the planned economy, the output of animation by Shanghai Animation Studio has always been low, with usually only three to five feature-length series.

Moreover, this long series is different from the 95-episode "Transformers". Usually, it has only a dozen episodes like "Shook and Beta".

It was basically impossible to expect animations like "Shuke and Beta" to make enough money for Shang Mei Factory this year or even the next year, so they had to borrow money from the bank. Over time, they were heavily in debt, and the days of Shang Mei Factory became worse and worse.

Precisely because of this, everyone present has been trying every possible means to find a new way out for Shangmei Factory!
"Then can we also follow this model and actively cooperate with toy manufacturers, such as "Shuke and Beta"? "

Yan Dingxian said seriously: "Since the cartoon is so popular, we can definitely launch corresponding toys..."

"Director, I'm afraid we are a step too late."

Yu Dajin couldn't help but feel embarrassed.

"what?"

Yan Dingxian frowned.

Yu Dajin said that the copyright of "Shuke and Beta" had long been bought from Zheng Yuanjie by a businessman named "Han Yuemin", who made toys, stationery, clothing and other peripheral products. Coincidentally, this Han Yuemin happened to be Fangyan's brother-in-law.

"Alas, the cooked duck flew away for nothing!"

Wu Long said with some regret.

"Don't feel sorry, we still have Calabash Brothers."

Yan Dingxian waved his hand.

"Yes, Director Wu."

Yu Dajin said that the second part of "Calabash Brothers", "Calabash Brothers Little King Kong" is already in production and is expected to be broadcast next year.

"Just one Calabash Brothers is not enough. In fact, I think we should focus on animated films..."

Wu Long said bluntly.

"Animated movies? Not many people want to watch movies now. They just watch TV series at home!"

"Yeah, movie theaters are already having a hard time doing business, let alone animated films that are mainly aimed at children?"

"In such a bad film environment, making animated films is too risky. If you can't sell a few copies, the loss will not be hundreds of thousands, but millions. This amount of money is enough to make three or five cartoons, so why make animated films?"

"........."

All of a sudden, many people present raised objections to the animated film, and clearly and firmly opposed the risk taken by the American animation studio.

Yan Dingxian looked left and right. The entire Shanghai Animation Studio was now divided into two camps. One was the animation film camp headed by Wu Long, and the other was the "TV animation" camp led by Yu Dajin, who advocated abandoning animation films. The two factions argued endlessly and no result has been reached until now.

Just as the atmosphere was becoming increasingly tense, a knock on the door suddenly sounded, interrupting the quarrel in the house. (End of this chapter)