Huayu started as a substitute director

Chapter 498 Call You Mom
"Honor of Kings" is currently in its infancy. While it is setting up its business, it is spending a lot of money on publicity and promotion, so don't think about making money for now.

Games also generate revenue, and this revenue needs to be invested again. Operation, optimization, development, etc. all require money.

In today's developed Internet age, it is very fast for a game to become popular. Many games are launched online quickly and the profits are quickly repaid.

So it is not like previous MMOs that rely on early word of mouth.

Time flies. "The Blade of the Assassin" has been taken off the screen with a total box office of around 2.77 million yuan.

The box office was pretty good, but Lu Yang was not very satisfied. He spent so much money on publicity, and Chen Zhixi was personally in charge of the production, but the box office was just this low, which seemed a bit not worth it.

He also called Fang Hong and sounded apologetic, probably saying that the movie was a flop.

However, Fang Hong didn't care and explained, "This box office is already very good. A few years ago, movies that made over 100 million yuan would be celebrated. How come this result is so low?"

This question left Lu Yang speechless.

It is true. A few years ago, a movie that could gross over 100 million yuan was considered a blockbuster. But after only a few years, do you think that grossing over 100 million yuan is not worth anything?
Is it that people's hearts have changed, or is it that the market has changed?

"Just focus on making the next movie. Your movie is a success, so don't think too much." Fang Hong said this and then hung up.

Later, a director whose movie grossed hundreds of millions at the box office pretended to be pitiful and apologized, and netizens complained about him: A box office of hundreds of millions is still low?

Anyway, those filmmakers seem to have forgotten the days when a movie could be made with just a few million or tens of millions.

It seems that if the box office doesn't exceed 100 million, it's a failure. I don't know where this idea comes from, even the audience, netizens and media think so.

Look, that movie only made 200 or 300 million, it was a flop!
In fact, since the movie didn't fail, it must have made some money. As for how much, you have to know that there is also money to be made from the copyright.

Lu Yang over there felt somewhat comforted, and stopped thinking about it, and just focused on filming the existing movie.

《鬼修女》9月7日在北美3728家影院上映，全球38个国家60个市场同步上映，华纳还是猛的。

The Latin American market opened at $2750 million, with Mexico opening at $1070 million and a market share of 87%; Brazil opened at $680 million and a market share of 68%.

The film set the record for Warner's highest opening for a horror film in America.

亚洲市场开画2400万美刀，其中印尼开画770万美刀；印度开画520万美刀；马来西亚开画280万美刀；菲律宾开画250万美刀。

It set the third-highest opening record in the market's history. The Southeast Asian market already has a large audience for horror films.

In fact, our horror films are also very popular there. In the past, Hong Kong often made horror films and sold them there, and they were quite popular.

And the cultures of these regions are also similar, but we, those who understand, only understand.

欧洲和中东市场开画2200万美刀，其中英国开画520万美刀；西班牙开画330美刀；德国开画270万美刀；澳大利亚开画270万美刀，恐怖片开画历史第二高。

It can be said that this horror film has set multiple opening records around the world.

The film grossed a total of US$60 million in 7750 overseas markets, setting a record for the highest overseas opening in the same period and market in the history of the Conjuring universe.

It earned 5350 million US dollars in North America in its first three days, and unsurprisingly won the North American weekend box office championship.

The global opening total box office was 1.31 million US dollars.

It won the championship in 54 markets and set the highest opening record in horror film history in 19 markets.

This result can be said to be a huge success. After all, there was not much investment and it is an IP movie.

This made Donna from Universal extremely envious, but there was nothing she could do because it was a film in the Conjuring series and could only be distributed by Warner.

This was the agreement Fang Hong had signed with the other party.

Warner's president, Zaslav, called and cordially expressed his condolences to Fang Hong.

The last time I wrote you a letter was several years ago. It’s only this year that I remembered to call you. That’s pretty realistic.

You still have to make achievements before people will pay attention to you. If you don’t make achievements, no one will even bother to pay attention to you.

In fact, when it comes to film distribution, Warner is more powerful than Universal. They have the "Harry Potter" series and the "Batman" series.

Disney has Marvel, Warner has DC!

Of course, in the field of music, Universal is better than Warner, and each has its own advantages.

On the phone, Fang Hong couldn't understand what Zaslav was saying, and Liu Tianxian happened to be there.

She translated, "He said, Dear Fang, I miss you so much after not seeing you for a long time. We have established a trusting friendship during our long-term cooperation. To commemorate this friendship, I bought a Chinese painting from the United States for you."

After Liu Tianxian finished speaking, he playfully touched Xia Hong's face and said with a joking smile, "Your friend gave you a painting."

"Be serious. How can you touch a man's face like that? It's disrespectful." Fang Hong said seriously.

"Just touch it, what's wrong with that?" Liu Tianxian touched his face again, appearing very happy, without any scruples at all.

Fang Hong was helpless and said, "Reply to him and say that you are very grateful for Mr. Slav's kindness. For the sake of our friendship, I accepted it."

Anyway, no matter what kind of Chinese painting it is, you’d better not refuse it if it’s given to you. Given the person’s status, you have to give him something good!

"His name is Zaslav." Liu Tianxian corrected, the man missed a word.

"No matter what his name is, just reply like this." Fang Hong didn't care and was not interested in this friendship at all.

If we can make money, then we have friendship. If we can’t, then I don’t care about you.

Liu Tianxian pressed the phone button and began to translate: "Thank you, Mr. Zaslav, thank you very much for your kindness."

"It's no big deal. You should also wish us a pleasant cooperation." Zaslav said.

Liu Tianxian translated it, and Fang Hong said, "That's right. I have a favor to ask Mr. Lav for help. Is it convenient for you?"

"What's the favor?" asked Zaslav.

"We have a film and television company called Huayi. You should have heard of it. I want to teach it a lesson." Fang Hong said. Liu Tianxian looked at the man in surprise, but she still translated it.

"Huayi?" Zaslav repeated the two words, as if searching his memory.

"Yes, Huayi is a leading film and television company here. I would like to ask you to come up with a film project to lock in the company's funds." Fang Hong said.

Warner Bros. comes out with a super movie project, and then goes to Huayi and says, "I'll take you around the world"?

How could Hua Yi not be tempted?

Today's Chinese investors and film and television companies are very interested in Hollywood and the global market.

Even if I get cheated countless times, I never get tired of it.

Fang Hong still remembered the previous grudge. If he didn't get back at the grudge and bring down this company, his life would have been in vain.

Huayi can only fall down in his hands and cannot weaken naturally. This is a record of battle.

"I can help you with this, but I don't know to what extent you want to do it. There's no problem with coming up with a film project, but should the film project be produced and released? What if it loses money after the release? Should it be made up?" Zaslav raised a series of questions.

There is nothing wrong with film projects, but if someone pays you, do you want to make the film? If you don't, it's fraud.

What if Warner Bros. loses money after the film is released? Production costs money, and cooperation is a two-way thing.

"I'm just curious, how did you guys make Harry Potter?" Fang Hong asked back.

They were able to make a loss even though the global box office of "Harry Potter" was over 1 billion US dollars, so the entire Huayi movie is no big deal.

Just release some blockbuster or DC superhero movie. It doesn’t matter what kind of movie it is, a blockbuster or a piece of junk will do.

As long as we find Huayi and tell them we want the Chinese market, we will cooperate and get Huayi to invest.

After the movie was released, they recorded the movie as losing money, saying that it did not make any money and that Huayi could not get a share of the money. Isn’t this a basic operation? Is it that complicated?

Liu Tianxian translated it in a gentle tone. The man spoke a little stiffly.

"Hahaha."

Zaslav smiled and said, "The whole world knows about this kind of operation, and everyone is on guard now. If you think Huayi is stupid, I can help you try, but I can't guarantee that they won't take the bait."

What he meant was that the other party probably wouldn't take the bait.

These words made Fang Hong ponder.

Indeed, when he first approached Warner for cooperation, he was also on guard against this. If Warner had approached Huayi, Huayi would probably have also been on guard against this. They are not fools.

"What he said makes sense." Liu Tianxian said.

Everyone knows that this will definitely be included in the cooperation terms. If you want to get the other party's funds, you can only think of new ways and methods.

"You guys have played a lot, do you have any good suggestions?" Fang Hong said, and Liu Tianxian translated it.

"Yes, but like I said just now, it depends on how far you want to go. Should we make the movie if we cooperate with them? What if the box office is not ideal after it is released? What should we do about the losses? We have to think about all the issues." Zaslav was quite rigorous.

To put it bluntly, they don't want to lose money. If it involves the release of the film, then the production costs and the loss costs of the release, will your principal make up for it?

In fact, this is what I mean. It is not so easy to cheat people.

"My request is very simple. I want to use the simplest method to lock up the other party's large sum of funds. It would be best if the movie is not made." Fang Hong didn't want to make up for the loss, nor did he want to lose money.

"If that's the case, it's actually quite simple. We can come up with a film project, seek their cooperation, defraud their funds, and then use various reasons not to shoot the film. This process may involve wrangling and lawsuits," Zaslav said.

"Go ahead and talk! You guys are so big, if you argue with them, you will just be bullying them," Fang Hong said.

This made Zaslav smile. It was indeed true. Whether it was arguing or filing a lawsuit, it was all bullying Huayi.

In fact, the best thing is to make a movie and let it lose money after it is released. If the box office is not ideal, no one will say anything and Huayi will have to admit it.

This would involve production costs and publicity and promotion costs, and Warner certainly doesn't want to spend that money.

Fang Hong didn't want to fill this hole even more.

So arguing is the easiest way. It's not that they won't let you shoot with Huayi's money, but they are in the preparation stage. It's not that easy to shoot a movie.

That's it, the money won't be returned anyway.

"You need to get more money from them and find a way to make them suffer serious injuries." Fang Hong was afraid that if he didn't get enough money, it would not have an impact on Huayi.

"We can only try our best, but the money is nominally theirs, you have to understand that," Zaslav said.

It doesn't involve film production, so even if they act rogue, they still have to abide by the law.

"I understand this. Let's delay their funding first and let them feel the pain. That's all I ask for. Lao Zha, thank you for your help." Fang Hong said.

If Huayi is still not honest, he can just put in some money and treat it as a movie production. It doesn't matter how much loss it makes after the release, it can afford it.

If Huayi is honest, let them call him dad.

Liu Tianxian looked at him speechlessly. He was just shouting "Slav" and now he was shouting "Lao Zha".

But she was still quite polite when translating and called the man Mr. Zaslav.

"OK! OK!" Lao Zha was willing to help, because the other person could help him make money. He had made a lot in the past few years.

And it's a small matter to them.

After the three of them finished chatting and hung up the phone, Liu Tianxian asked, "What do you want to do?"

"Let Huayi call you mom!" Fang Hong touched her face.

(End of this chapter)