Huayu: Director started with art films

Chapter 231 241 [Measure Dongbao's financial resources and win the favor of Director Li]

1 month 8 number.

Li Yishu flew back to Yanjing. As soon as he came back, he went straight to the Beijing Film Studio to discuss the matter with Han Sanping.

"You have to do this yourself."

Han Sanping smiled and said, "It's not easy for us to get involved as we are a state-owned enterprise, but don't worry, I have already communicated with the director of the Bayi Factory and the leaders of several radio and television departments, and they think it's okay."

"Of course. Who wouldn't be happy to get one-third of the movie profit without paying?"

Li Yishu didn't say much to Han Sanping in this regard. It was his business how to handle the follow-up. Anyway, it was all arranged for Dongbao. It would neither lose money nor make more money, which could be regarded as making up for the losses of his previous films.

Li Yishu is not the first one to cheat Japanese investors. He remembers that in his previous life, after Columbia (Sony) Pictures entered the Chinese market in the late 1990s, it collaborated with mainland film companies on many films and was also cheated out of a lot of money.

Among them, the more famous ones include "Kung Fu", "Big Shot", "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and so on.

The one that suffered the most was probably "Heroes of Heaven and Earth", a collaboration between Columbia Pictures and Huayi Brothers. This is a typical example of a big investment with low box office. The total investment was nearly 610 million RMB, but in the end the global box office totaled only 4800 million US dollars, which is equivalent to only million people.

It's a complete loss.

An important reason why Huayi Brothers Millennium was able to rise was largely because it sucked blood from Columbia Pictures.

There are all kinds of things, such as false reporting of expenses, taking advantage of the situation, and selling inferior goods as good ones... Colombia is suffering terribly.

By leveraging the gimmick of cooperating with the six major Hollywood film studios, the company expanded its visibility and used Columbia's money to enrich itself, successfully creating the first listed film company stock in the mainland.

After Columbia Pictures withdrew most of its business from the Chinese market, it basically did not bring back any fame or fortune, except for losing nearly $2 million in funds in the mainland.

It can only be said that when it comes to cheating the Japanese, Lee Yi-shu is still too kind, or his reputation as the No. 1 Chinese director is too famous now, and he can't cheat them to the end.

The Wang brothers were able to cheat people without paying for their lives because they never thought about running a good film company or introducing Chinese culture to the world. They were only focused on making money and then taking the opportunity to go public and develop their "film and television real estate" projects.

Lee Yi-su is different. He has ideas in this regard. "Red Cliff" is one of his attempts. Toho Co., Ltd. has cooperated with him several times, and they have also had some cooperation with Columbia (Sony) Pictures.

After the movie is made, it still needs to be distributed in Japan, Europe and the United States through Toho and Columbia.

If this fails miserably, it will be even more difficult for Chinese films to go global.

the next day.

Japan's Toho Corporation sent people to the mainland, and one of the team leaders was Ichiro Tanaka. Everyone in Toho knew that Ichiro Tanaka had a good relationship with Li Yishu, so naturally they wanted to send him over to fight for the interests of the company.

But they overlooked one factor: Ichiro Tanaka has a good relationship with Lee Yi-su because he needs Lee Yi-su's name to consolidate his position in the company, not because Lee Yi-su needs Ichiro Tanaka.

So in the subsequent investment negotiations, Ichiro Tanaka often put pressure on the Toho representative who was in charge of the negotiations, saying things like, "Your conditions are too harsh, Director Li will be unhappy," "It's normal to spend more money, we at Toho are vying for investment," "What's wrong with a 50% premium? Has Director Li's film project ever lost money so far?"...

At first, Li Yishu didn't understand Tanaka Ichiro's train of thought. Shouldn't he be trying to play the emotional card with her so that he could get a small investment and a large share for Toho?
But then I thought of Karl Lagerfeld, and suddenly I understood!

Making concessions in the name of the company to consolidate his position in Li Yishu's heart is really a bit like "measuring Dongbao's financial resources to win Director Li's favor"!
After realizing this, Li Yishu also returned the favor.

The next day, when Masao Morishita, the chief negotiator of the Toho delegation, was dissatisfied with Ichiro Tanaka and directly expelled Tanaka from the negotiation team, Li Yishu got up and left with his people after learning about it. Before leaving, he said, "Mr. Tanaka is not here, so we won't talk!"

Ichiro Tanaka was so moved when he heard the news, and felt that it was a wise move to follow Supervisor Li.

Toho had already decided to invest, and Masao Morishita's visit this time was just to gain greater benefits according to normal business practices. Seeing that Li Yishu had said so, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and invite Ichiro Tanaka back to the negotiation team.

The subsequent negotiations went much more smoothly. Masao Morishita thought that since he had Ichiro Tanaka in front of him, he would be able to come up with a way to defend himself even if the conditions were harsh.

Ichiro Tanaka is even less afraid. As long as Toho Co., Ltd. wants to continue cooperating with Lee Yi-su on the film industry, it is impossible for them to really fire him.

Finally, after some "friendly" negotiations, Toho Co., Ltd. invested 3000 million US dollars, accounting for 33% of the film's investment share, Li Yishu's Art Film Company accounted for 34%, and Beijing Film Studio + Bayi Film Studio accounted for 33%.

The total investment amount of "Red Cliff" is as high as 6200 million US dollars, of which Li Yishu contributed 1700 million US dollars and Beijing Film Studio + Bayi Film Studio contributed 1500 million US dollars.

Of course, since Toho paid so much money, the subsequent distribution rights in Japan and Southeast Asia + videotape distribution rights were also given to them.

To be honest, we have to hand it over to them. Although the Art Group is also building its own distribution channels, it cannot be achieved overnight. Currently, it only has some distribution channels in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and it has to cooperate with local distribution companies. Even if it is forced to participate in the distribution, the effect will not be as good as that of old film companies like Toho.

The same is true for Beijing Film Studio and Bayi Film Studio. They have rarely released films overseas in the past. Dongbao also wanted to obtain the distribution rights in Europe and the United States, but Li Yishu refused because he had to talk to Hisao Morishima of Columbia.

Compared with Toho's distribution channels in Europe and the United States, Li Yishu trusts Columbia, one of the six major Hollywood studios.

The Toho negotiation team was sent away.

The only people left at the scene were Han Sanping, Li Yishu and the director of the Bayi Film Studio, Wang Xiaotang.

"Ha ha!!"

Han Sanping smiled and said, "Director Li, you played this move beautifully! I didn't expect that Ichiro Tanaka was so enthusiastic."

"Yes, Director Li, I was surprised that I only got 3000% of the $33 million."

Wang Xiaotang is not only the factory director, but also a well-known actress in the past. She started making movies in the 50s and starred in many popular mainstream movies. She did not expect that there would be traitors in the delegation of Japan's Toho Film Company.

"That's normal. Even if the negotiations fail and Toho doesn't invest, can't we still shoot the film ourselves? But if Ichiro Tanaka fails to make this cooperation happen, I and Toho will never treat him well in the future."

Li Yishu said with a smile, "Director Han, Director Wang, you can think of this Tanaka Ichiro as the boss of Dongbao Company."

Han Sanping and Wang Xiaotang were stunned. What does this have to do with Karl Lagerfeld?
"Measure Dongbao's financial strength and win our favor~"

As soon as these words were spoken, the two of them understood instantly and burst into laughter.

You know what, this Ichiro Tanaka really has some charm.

After some laughter, Director Wang Xiaotang asked, "Director Li, when does our movie start?"

"Once the funds from Dongbao arrive in China, we can officially start the publicity."

Li Yishu thought for a moment and said, "I'm going to the United States on January 1th to attend the Golden Globe Awards, and I'm going to Berlin at the end of February to attend the Berlin International Film Festival. How about we schedule it in early February?"

"No problem!" Han Sanping nodded in agreement. "It just so happens that February 2th is the Spring Festival. Announcing this good news before the New Year, I believe that the news of a domestic blockbuster with an investment of 10 million RMB will definitely help boost our domestic film market."

This is hard to say!

Li Yishu knew better than anyone how sluggish the domestic film market would be in 1994. The most fatal thing was that imported blockbusters entered the domestic market, which was fatal news.

In today's domestic market dominated by art films, dramas, and martial arts films, it is almost impossible for audiences to resist those thrilling Hollywood blockbusters.

If I remember correctly, the Hollywood movie introduced this year is "The Fugitive" which was made with an investment of 4400 million US dollars by Warner Bros. This movie was released in North America and Europe last year, that is, in 1993. The box office in North America reached 1.83 million US dollars, and the overseas box office also reached 1.8 million US dollars.

A true action blockbuster.

Although Li Yishu thinks this movie is an extremely old-fashioned Hollywood film about personal heroism, it is still dazzling in this era.

This also led to "The Fugitive" achieving a box office of 2580 million RMB in mainland China. This number may not seem large, but it became the annual box office champion in 1994.

After "Farewell My Concubine" was released in mainland China last year, the total box office was less than 2000 million. This was only after it won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and was widely promoted by major newspapers and television stations. Otherwise, it would probably not have been able to break the million mark.

The main reason is that this movie doesn't have much to attract the audience. It's good to watch, but it's more suitable for watching slowly at home. Movies shown in theaters are actually more suitable for popcorn movies.

Moreover, with the film studios becoming self-sufficient starting last year, movie theaters have also undergone a number of reforms, movie ticket prices have skyrocketed, and the popularity of television, videotapes, and video halls has also led to a decrease in the number of moviegoers in China.

According to inaccurate data, the total box office of all movies released last year seemed to be only 14 billion.

As for why it is inaccurate, the reason is very simple. The major film studios had just implemented the policy of being responsible for their own profits and losses last year, and the cinemas were also bloated. Naturally, the box office calculation was not as formal as it was later, not to mention the existence of box office theft.

The box office theft was not caused by the movies themselves, but rather by some cinema employees abusing their power for personal gain.

Maybe I can make a film of the same type to compete this year?
We can't let a foreign film like "The Fugitive" take the title of the first recorded box office champion in China, right?

And it would be best if it has mainland actors and mainland crew, so that the box office records will be more meaningful.

But what movie should I watch?
Li Yishu was also lost in thought. It was not that he had no ideas, but he was struggling over which card he should play first among his good cards.
(End of this chapter)