Huayu: Director started with art films

Chapter 304-315 [Wu Yusen, who failed twice, plans to enter the Japanese animation market]

Columbia Pictures.

In the issuing department.

Max, the supervisor, spread his hands and said, "I'm sorry, Wu, your movie is doing so poorly at the overseas box office that I'm afraid it will be taken off the screen early."

"Mr. Max, you can't do this. That's not what you said when we signed the contract."

Wu Yusen's face changed drastically. He never expected that at this juncture, Columbia Pictures would give him a heavy blow.

"Yes, when we signed the contract, I did say that I would help you get as many distribution resources as possible overseas, but you should understand that the box office of "Inspector Gadget" in North America was only over 20 million US dollars, and..."

At this point, Max said with a headache: "Disney's "The Lion King" and Paramount's "Forrest Gump" are really amazing. The box office has grown by leaps and bounds. All major overseas theater chains have been won by these two companies."

"The Lion King", which was released on June 6, achieved a box office of over $15 million in North America in just over a month, reaching an astonishing $3 million, allowing the world to see the huge market in the field of animation.

"Forrest Gump", which was released on the 23rd of the same period, also reached a box office of 2.8 million US dollars.

Once these two movies were released, they completely blocked Wu Yusen's "Heroes" and "Speed". The former only earned more than 2000 million US dollars in the box office in one month, while the latter earned 1.1 million US dollars in North American box office due to its early release.

Moreover, "The Lion King" and "Forrest Gump" are still being released in North America. Even the latest movies cannot shake the increasingly high box office data of these two movies.

A large number of media outlets have estimated the future box office revenue for these two films to be approximately $4.1 million in North America and $3.2 million in North America.

These two movies almost monopolized the North American summer vacation schedule, and the remaining movies can only get some marginal shares. The shooting quality of Wu Yusen's "Heroes" is very good, but due to the competition from the same type of movie "Speed" and the erosion of other low-cost movies, the box office has dropped from the original estimated 5000 million US dollars to the current 2000 million US dollars.

Although Wu Yusen was very angry about this, he had no other choice but to hope for the overseas box office. After all, as long as the overseas box office was good, the movie would not lose money and might even make a profit.

However, the performance of "Glengarry Glen Ross" in North America was too poor. Although the six major Hollywood film studios all have huge overseas distribution capabilities, they cannot influence what films are shown in overseas theaters.

Now, anyone with a discerning eye can see that huge amounts of money can be made by distributing "The Lion King" and "Forrest Gump". So why would overseas cinema chains choose to allocate more screens to Wu Yusen's films?
This resulted in the overseas theaters directly withdrawing the film "Heroes of the Underworld" directed by Wu Yusen from theaters less than a week after its overseas release due to its dismal box office performance, leaving more screens for "The Lion and Forrest Gump".

"Is there no other way?"

Wu Yusen's face was extremely pale. If he was just a director, his reputation would be damaged at most if the box office performance was bad. However, not only did he invest all his assets in this movie, he also raised nearly 20 million US dollars in investment from Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Today's global box office is less than 30 million US dollars. After deducting the distributor's distribution fee and the theater's share, it would be great if the final box office could reach 6 or 7 million US dollars.

But compared with the production cost of nearly 30 million US dollars, it’s really a huge loss!
Wu Yusen didn't dare to think about what measures the investors in Hong Kong and Taiwan would take against him after they learned the news. You know, in order to attract investment, he contacted many film companies and investors with underworld backgrounds.

Assassination, being caught and taken back to make movies to pay off debts, and even signing a series of unequal contracts...

Wu Yusen was terrified at this moment.

Max shook his head. "I'm sorry, Wu. There's really no other way. But there may still be hope for the videotapes. It's just that the return on investment is too slow. If you have an idea, you can directly sell the film rights to us at Columbia. This way you can save a little money."

"Yes, how much can it be sold for?" Wu Yusen asked hurriedly. He no longer cared whether he could make money or not. As long as he could lose less, there would still be some hope of recovery.

Max held up a finger.

"Ten million?" Although Wu Yusen felt distressed, he thought the price was not bad. At least it was half of his investment.

"No, no, no, it's one million!"

"What?! Max, I invested nearly 30 million dollars in this movie!"

Wu Yusen didn't expect that Max would only give him one million dollars. Is this like giving away a beggar?
Max smiled and said, "Wu, you are an experienced director. Don't you understand that production costs and returns are completely different? If you think that your movie can recover or even make money with a cost of 1963 million US dollars, then the 4400 investment of million US dollars to produce Cleopatra would not have caused th Century Fox to go bankrupt."

Hearing this, Wu Yusen's face darkened.

Of course he understood what Max meant. Not to mention that "The Throat of Egypt" almost bankrupted 20th Century Fox, the heavy investment in "The Invisible Man" by Shaw Brothers suffered heavy losses, which directly led to Uncle Shaw's idea of ​​no longer investing in the film industry.

"Wu, think about it carefully. I know that this movie caused you a lot of losses, but this is the loss of the investors, and it has nothing to do with you. I am actually very optimistic about this movie. It's a pity that you met two powerful opponents."

Max looked at Wu Yusen with regret, "Glengarry Glen Ross" was indeed very well made, which was recognized by many people in Columbia Pictures, but sometimes you have to believe in fate, a good movie just didn't meet a good time.

Combined with the movie "The Last Target" that Wu Yusen shot before, perhaps he was not born to make movies in Hollywood. After all, the information is very clear that when Wu Yusen was in Hong Kong, his movies almost never lost money, and he also made many high-grossing movies.

"Max, you can't do this. You promised me, you can't do this."

"Okay Wu, I have something else to do so I'll leave first. You can think about it more."

Wu Yusen really wanted to fight for the movie, but Max left without looking back, and it was obvious that the other party didn't care about him.

A director who has failed twice in a row in Hollywood is no longer qualified to stay here.

There was only one option left for Wu Yusen, which was to sell the copyright and return to Hong Kong in disgrace to make movies to pay off his debts, or to run away with the money and ignore the investors in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

But Wu Yusen obviously didn't have the courage.

He walked out of Columbia Pictures feeling extremely lost, and looked back at the building where he had entered with such high spirits, his heart filled with mixed emotions.

Wu Yusen had made the movie "Hillbilly" with great care, and he thought he had fully understood Americans' viewing habits and Hollywood's operating model, but he still couldn't resist fate.

There have been a lot of blockbuster movies in the North American summer vacation season in the past, but this time there are two of them, "The Lion King" and "Forrest Gump", which are flanking each other, and there is also "Speed", a film with the same theme, competing.

Wu Yusen was filled with remorse.

"No, I can't do this. I can't leave like this!"

"Li Yishu, yes, find Li Yishu, only he can save me!" Wu Yusen knew very well that the news that "Heroes" was forced to be withdrawn due to its dismal overseas box office would soon spread back to Hong Kong and Taiwan. By that time, the investors who had invested in this film would definitely find ways to find him.

If he wants to avoid being killed or even becoming a filming machine in the future, he can only ask for help from Li Yishu.

The film shot by Li An based on the script provided by Li Yishu earned over 100 million US dollars at the box office in North America.

Wu Yusen believes that his directing ability is no worse than Li An's.

As long as they can make a movie that grosses over 100 million dollars, they will be able to completely wash away the previous humiliation, turn things around, and return to the top.

Japan.

Tokyo Henggu Building.

Li Yishu arrived early yesterday morning, coming with Izumi Sakai.

Since recruiting Ichiro Tanaka as the general manager of the Japanese branch of Art Entertainment Group, after several months of development, the company moved from its previous simple office to this Henggu building.

In terms of personnel, the team has grown from a dozen employees to the current size of forty to fifty people, and this number will increase in the future.

In the small conference room, Ichiro Tanaka talked incessantly about the current progress of the Japanese branch, including the projects that have already been launched, the most important of which is "Fireworks" which Lee Yi-su is preparing to direct.

Ichiro Tanaka said respectfully, "President Li, do you think there is anything that needs to be improved?"

"You've done a great job. The company has made great progress, but don't be too conservative in your business."

Li Yishu smiled and said, "You can try to produce movies, TV series and animation. I am still very optimistic about Japanese animation. Disney's "The Lion King" has been released for less than two months and has already taken in $600 million in box office worldwide. This shows that the market for animation is very large and exceeds the viewing restrictions of live-action movies due to politics."

The global box office of "The Lion King" has exceeded 6 million US dollars. Li Yishu only learned about this after she went to Hong Kong. The mainland's reception of external information is still too closed, and the update speed is also quite slow.

"President Li, I don't know much about cartoons."

Ichiro Tanaka was a little embarrassed. He had always been in charge of live-action movies at Toho Co., Ltd. and didn't know much about animation.

"If you don't understand, go learn it. If you can't learn it, hire someone. The Japanese film market is huge, but it is influenced by American films. It is difficult for live-action films to develop. But animated films are different. Hayao Miyazaki's animated films are very popular with Japanese audiences."

Li Yishu thought for a moment and said, "In the future, you can buy a publishing house in the name of the company and publish a weekly comic book for the company. Start with serialization and take it step by step. I will give you two years. I don't ask you to come up with any hot-selling works, but at least you need to have a certain degree of market recognition."

Japanese animation is still in its development stage, far from the booming stage it will reach in a few years. There is no sign of "One Piece" and "Naruto" yet. Li Yishu doesn't mind looking back and giving some pointers.

Although he had not watched much Japanese cartoons in his previous life, he still knew a little about these well-known animations. If he gave them a little creativity and asked a cartoonist to draw them, it might not be as successful as before, but it would definitely attract readers.

Moreover, with the great success of Disney's "The Lion King", Li Yishu also recalled several animated films that would stir up the domestic box office in the future, "Big Fish and Begonia", "The Return of the Great Sage", "Nezha: The Devil Child Comes into the World"...

The domestic animation market may not be very clear now, but the overseas market is already mature, especially the Japanese market. Comics, cartoons, and animated movies will be very popular in the future.

"Okay, President Li, I will focus on building the company's animation department in the second half of the year."

Ichiro Tanaka nodded. What Japan lacks the most right now is cartoonists. Since he doesn't understand this field, he can just hire someone to take charge.

"咚咚-"

Suddenly there was a knock on the door, and Ichiro Tanaka looked up and said, "Come in!"

The door opened and a female clerk walked in and reported in English: "President Li, Chairman Tanaka, Mr. Kitano Takeshi is here."

Hearing this, Ichiro Tanaka looked at Li Yishu.

"Let him in."

Li Yishu said, "I just happened to talk to Kitano about the filming of "Fireworks."

After a while, Kitano Takeshi came with the script. He had already written the preparation plan for the "Fireworks" crew during this period of time. Now that Li Yishu arrived, he naturally had to give it to the other party for review.

Kitano Takeshi specially asked someone to translate the plan into Chinese. Li Yishu read it quickly and said with satisfaction: "Not bad, Kitano, your plan is very good. Let's form the crew according to your idea."

"Thank you for your approval, Director Li. When do you think we can officially start filming?"

Kitano Takeshi was extremely excited. He couldn't wait to make this movie to tell all those who laughed at him that he, Kitano Takeshi, did not collapse because of the car accident!
"It is tentatively scheduled for early November. Kitano, you can start preparing the crew now."

Li Yishu silently calculated that he would go to the United States to shoot "Chicago" next. If everything went well, it would be completed in about a month. Early September was Qingxia's due date, and after spending the confinement period with her, it would be almost mid-October.

"Fireworks" started filming in November and took a month to shoot. It was finished around December, which was just in time for Li Yishu to return to China to prepare for Yu Feihong's "Black Coal, Thin Ice". It took a month to shoot and it was finished before the New Year. Li Yishu could return to the United States to spend the New Year with Qingxia.

"As for the actors..."

Just as Kitano Takeshi was about to ask, he was interrupted by Li Yishu, "The main role of this movie is played by you, the male lead. You can discuss the other roles with President Tanaka. When the time comes, make a list for me. I believe you and Tanaka can handle it."

"I understand, Director Li. Don't worry, I will definitely select the most suitable actors!"

Kitano Takeshi is full of confidence. He is a director himself. His previous film "Sonata" was shortlisted for the main competition unit of the Cannes Film Festival last year. He does have the ability to choose actors.

Izumi Sakai didn't say a word from beginning to end, but just looked at Li Yishu silently. His dominating look made Izumi admire him very much.

　There is only one update today

　　
　
(End of this chapter)