Chinese Entertainment: Starting from 1996

Chapter 548 The Future Pattern and the Role of Fame
As major film and television companies have announced their respective production plans, the domestic film market seems to have suddenly entered an era of flourishing.

In the past, blockbuster movies were almost exclusively produced by film and television giants, but now more and more new companies are investing in blockbuster movies.

This may be stimulated by the super high box office of blockbusters such as "Interstellar" and "Let the Bullets Fly" last year, but it is undeniable that the increasingly prosperous domestic film market has also stimulated foreign capital.

Otherwise, how could these medium-sized film and television companies have the courage to invest 100 million or 200 million to make a movie? There must be external capital support behind them.

However, the past two years may be the last days of relaxation for medium-sized and even large film and television companies.

In fact, whether in Hollywood or in China, the film industry is a relatively complicated industry, and people who don’t know the business can easily be cheated if they rush into it.

Because the domestic film industry carried out market-oriented reforms relatively late, for a long time domestic films were all invested by state-owned film studios.

It was not until the late 1990s that more and more private capital began to get involved in film investment. After the new century, with the annual growth of the domestic film market and the relaxation of policies, private capital became the main force in film investment.

However, these private capitals are all veterans in the industry, and many film and television resources are concentrated in the hands of those large companies.

The only gap is independent films and some TV series invested by coal bosses.

However, with the policy changes in the past two years, the coal industry has undergone adjustments, so those coal bosses no longer have time to invest in movies and TV series.

What replaced it were some other foreign capital investments in the past two years. However, these foreign capital investments require returns. They are not like those coal bosses who don’t care much about profits and only care about women.

The risk of film investment is very high. Although more and more films are now making 500 million, 600 million or even more than 1 billion yuan, most of them are losing money. There are not as many copyright operation channels in China as in North America to recover funds.

Even the big companies in China are reluctant to bear the entire investment of a blockbuster film alone in order to reduce risks. Only Golden Harvest, with Liu Zhou's golden fingers and perfect overseas channels, dares to invest in blockbusters alone.

Therefore, many of the movies invested by foreign capital in the past two years have suffered losses, just like many of the production plans announced by those companies have failed.

After suffering a few losses, those foreign investors realized that it was not easy to make money in the film industry and stopped investing.

Soon after, Internet giants such as BAT will enter the market.

These Internet capitals are not easy to fool. They are not as easy to fool as coal bosses and those foreign capitals. Not to mention that they already have tentacles in the entertainment industry, more importantly, they believe in big data more.

Fame may be deceiving, but statistics never lie.

Moreover, Internet capital is well-funded and generous in investing, but they are very strict in controlling the use of funds and often interfere in the filming of movies and TV series.

To a certain extent, those traffics were first promoted by Internet capital, because those traffic stars provide the best feedback data, and of course they are the most valued.

So you can often hear which popular star is acting like a big shot, changing the script, numbering the lines, and even driving the director away. The reason why they have such a big say is that they are favored by the capital behind them.

Of course, if you can bring benefits, you will be pampered, but once you have no traffic, you will be abandoned.

However, if Internet capital does this, it will make those filmmakers or directors and producers who have always dominated the market very uncomfortable.

Therefore, many people at that time publicly expressed their nostalgia for the former coal bosses.

These people miss the coal bosses not only for their money, but also for the relaxed filming environment at that time, when the coal bosses hardly interfered with the project production.

Although those foreign investors demand returns, in addition to strict supervision of funds, they also do not interfere much in the filming of the project.

Only Internet capital doesn’t care how deep your qualifications or how famous you are. Except for a limited few, everyone else can be said to be their tools.

However, Internet capital not only has strong financial resources, but also has great influence, and they cannot compete with it at all.

Otherwise, there would not be people jokingly saying that there are only two circles in the domestic entertainment industry, one is the Ali circle and the other is the Penguin circle. To a certain extent, this is a reflection of the influence of these two companies.

Internet capital has now begun to lay out in the entertainment industry, and it won’t be long before they enter in in a big way.

When foreign capital withdraws again, it will not be so easy for those medium-sized film and television companies to raise funds in the future. Even if they do raise funds, they can't expect to be as free as they are now.

However, this seemingly flourishing scene is not without its benefits. It is like a knockout tournament. It is estimated that more than half of these blockbusters will fail, but the remaining ones will be the winners.

But after these medium-sized film and television companies withdraw, the film market will become even more lively.

Because BAT and Wanda will fill the position later.

BTA, needless to say, Wanda is already a big player in the film industry, but they are more involved in distribution and theaters, and their production business has just begun.

However, Wanda has already invested heavily in this. Not only has it gathered relevant talents in China, but it has also acquired MGM overseas in one go, opening up production and distribution business in North America.

They are now in the stage of sorting out the company's integration business. Once completed, they will also focus on the production field. In terms of financial strength, Wanda will be no less than Ali and Penguin in the next ten years.

Wanda has huge ambitions in the film industry. The success of Golden Harvest has allowed Lao Wang to clearly see the potential of the film and television industry, so his investment in the film and television industry is even greater than in the original time and space.

Wanda not only acquired MGM, but also invested much more in Wanda Film Company in China. In Lao Wang’s plan, Wanda Film will target Golden Harvest and then go public.

It is foreseeable that in the next few years, the film market will be formed into four giants: Golden Harvest, Wanda, Penguin and Ali, and then there will be several small giants such as Huayi, Guangguang, Bona and Emperor Entertainment Group.

As for the capital led by Baidu, more energy will be focused on video websites and relatively less investment will be made in movies.

However, this is still a long way off. It will take two years for BAT and Wanda to start making efforts. Now is the time for those medium-sized film and television companies to come to the fore.

But even if they are in the spotlight, they are not as prominent as Golden Harvest.

Just like the production plans announced by major companies, the investment, cast and cast of the blockbusters they invested in and shot are all okay, but they are much inferior compared to Golden Harvest's projects.

"Mojin: The Lost Legend" is directed by Tsui Hark, written by Liu Zhou, and stars Liu Ye, Liu Yifei and Huang Bo. It has an investment of 1.5 million yuan, an absolutely huge cast, and top resources in the industry.

"Painted Skin 2" is directed by Wuershan, starring Huang Xiaoming, Zhou Gongzi and Zhang Tong, and the investment is also 1.5 million yuan. Except for the director's lack of fame, everything else is not bad. But don't forget that this movie also has a huge fan base accumulated from the previous work.

Therefore, the discussion of these two movies is also very high. Not to mention that there are also "The Flowers of War" and "Flying Swords of Dragon Gate", which are even more popular.

"The Flowers of War" has attracted much attention because of the director Zhang Yimou, not to mention the presence of a Hollywood superstar, Christian Bale.

In the original time and space, Zhang Weiping had high hopes for "The Flowers of War", and he even fell out with Jiang Zhiqiang of Emperor Entertainment Group.

Historically, starting from "Hero", all of Zhang Yimou's subsequent films have been invested by Emperor Entertainment Group, because the overseas distribution of films requires the reliance on Jiang Zhiqiang.

Therefore, the cooperation between New Picture and Emperor Entertainment Group is quite pleasant. One takes the domestic share and the other takes the overseas share. The specific investment will be discussed later.

However, because Bale was invited to star in "The Flowers of War", Zhang Weiping had greater confidence in the overseas box office of the film, and at the beginning of the project he announced the slogan of a $100 million overseas box office.

So he hoped that Emperor Entertainment Group could invest more, but Jiang Zhiqiang refused. Then the confident or arrogant Zhang Weiping kicked Jiang Zhiqiang away, and New Picture had to bear all the investment in the film alone.

Moreover, Zhang Weiping had an unknown amount of self-confidence that led him to not buy out the overseas copyright of the film, but to directly and boldly ask for a model of minimum guarantee plus profit sharing.

As a result, due to Sony's intervention in the overseas market and the fact that the film did not really suit the tastes of overseas audiences, even with the invitation of Bale, the film's overseas box office was a big flop.

If The Flowers of War had not earned more than 600 million yuan at the domestic box office, Zhang Weiping was barely able to get a loan, otherwise he would have almost gone bankrupt.

In fact, at this time, Zhang Weiping had already put all his career into New Picture, and he sold all his other businesses because of poor development.

Although the failure of "The Flowers of War" overseas did not cause Zhang Weiping to go bankrupt, it did cause serious damage to New Picture.

With the falling out between Zhang Yimou and Zhang Weiping and their departure from New Picture, the film and television company that relied solely on Zhang Yimou withdrew from the competition in the domestic film market.

One of the main reasons for the falling out between the two was that Zhang Weiping had been holding back on the money that should have been given to Lao Mouzi. Of course, he also felt that Lao Mouzi was easy to talk to and was not willing to pay it, but in fact, he had no money to give at that time.

The once-powerful New Picture went out of business, while other companies such as Huayi, Enlight and Bona have continued to improve and become industry giants.

Wang Zhongjun, Yu Dong and Wang Changtian all thought that Zhang Weiping was out of his mind. No one would bet all their assets on something like he did.

If you lose, you lose everything.

So even if they become giants, they rarely invest in a blockbuster on their own. The risk is too great. Even Zhang Yimou is not guaranteed to succeed.

Even Feng Kuazi, which was at the peak of its popularity at the time, suffered losses from big productions such as "1942".

Therefore, unless it is a Feng-style comedy, Huayi would not dare to invest solely in other types of films directed by Feng Pants.

This is also why they were so surprised that many of Golden Harvest's big-budget films were almost all solely produced, except for a limited number of collaborations with China Film.

On the one hand, they envy and hate that all the blockbusters invested and produced by Golden Harvest are successful and they pocket all the profits. On the other hand, they also look forward to seeing Golden Harvest fail a few more times so that they can feel the pain.

Being the only one who eats the food is certainly hated by others, but the gap in strength between them and Jiahe is too big, so even if they hate them, they can only hate them secretly.

In addition to "The Flowers of War", "Flying Daggers of Dragon Gate" is also equally popular.

The former includes Zhang Yimou and Gareth Bale, while the latter includes Xu Ke and Jet Li, not to mention a number of well-known mainland actors such as Zhou Xun and Chen Kun.

The project of "Flying Daggers of Dragon Gate" was completely led by Xu Ke, and Golden Harvest was only responsible for investment and distribution, so the choice of actors was decided by Xu Ke himself.

Therefore, when Xu was selecting actors, he looked at all domestic actors instead of just those under Golden Harvest, and that's how Chen Kun caught his eye.

The role of Yu Huatian is indeed very suitable for Chen Kun. Although his popularity at this time is much lower than that in the original time and space, Xu Ke still gave the role of Yu Huatian to him without hesitation.

After all, the title of factory beauty still belongs to him.

Therefore, the appeal of the two films in China is comparable. Overseas, "The Flowers of War" may have a stronger appeal, but not by much.

Jet Li's fame may not be comparable to that of Christian Bale, who has become very popular in the past two years, but he is still a well-known kung fu superstar overseas.

Although the box office of Jet Li's movies shot overseas is not very good and cannot be compared with Jackie Chan's, the movie discs in which he starred sell very well.

This is mainly because the overseas movies he starred in were relatively bloody and violent, and would be considered restricted even if released overseas.

For example, Jet Li's first work in Hollywood, "Romeo Must Die", which was released in 1.2, only grossed million in North America, but the disc revenue was as high as million.

There was also "Kiss of the Dragon" at the beginning of the century, which had an investment of 1.1 million, but the global box office was only million US dollars, while the discs sold million.

Finally, there is "The Ranger", which was produced by Jet Li three years ago and was the box office hit alone. The investment was also 25 million, and the North American box office was 28 million. If the movie was based solely on box office, it would definitely have been a complete flop.

However, the film's global sales from digital and physical media markets totaled more than $8000 million.

According to statistics from relevant agencies, Jet Li's personal global DVD and videotape sales have reached a terrifying 15 billion US dollars. These are all genuine data, and the statistics have not yet been completed.

Therefore, Jet Li's title as an international Kung Fu superstar is not the result of marketing, but the result of real achievements. Those who spread rumors that he is just a supporting role in Hollywood are either stupid or evil.

Therefore, the film remuneration that Jackie Chan and Jet Li receive in overseas markets is 10 million or even 15 million US dollars, and in China it is 70 or 80 million or even 100 million US dollars, all of which are supported by their overseas fame.

Although there are many so-called international superstars and directors in China, the most famous artists in the country are Jackie Chan and Jet Li. Other actors are far inferior to these two.

As for directors, it's almost the same. Even the most famous Zhang Yimou is not as well-known as them, not to mention poet Chen.

In fact, he is not that famous overseas. Although he won the Palme d'Or, which pleased domestic audiences, it was nothing in Europe.

The three major European awards have limited impact on the movie box office, and even the local European bonus is not that big, so it can only be of great help in buying out the copyright.

(End of this chapter)