Huayu: Director started with art films

Chapter 49 [Dongbao has made a fortune, so we must make a killing] Please read
Toho Co., Ltd.

"Director Li, this is the showroom of our Dongbao Film Company. All the films here are those that Dongbao has participated in investing in and producing."

Ichiro Tanaka raised his chin with pride, because this film exhibition hall could be said to be the greatest achievement of Toho in the decades since its establishment.

Since Toho was founded in the 40s, it has produced films every year and has shot hundreds of films to date.

Li Yishu walked and watched as he went along. He was definitely not familiar with the early movies, but when he arrived at the exhibition hall of the 50s, he was surprised to find that "Godzilla" was already there.

"You guys, Toho, filmed Godzilla in the 50s?"

"Yeah, Godzilla has been around for a long time, but I didn't expect it to be so popular at the time."

Ichiro Tanaka smiled and said, "We have already made more than a dozen films so far, and this year we also filmed Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, which did very well at the box office. The company plans to film one every year for the next few years."

After hearing this, Li Yishu was also filled with emotion. This Godzilla is really enduring. After the millennium, not only was Godzilla filmed again, but a brand new Godzilla universe was created. Before his rebirth, it was said that the fourth film "Godzilla vs. Kong 2" was ready to be released.

"Seven Samurai is pretty good, I like it very much." Li Yishu pointed to the poster of Seven Samurai.

"The works shot by Master Akira Kurosawa have always been very classic."

After touring the film exhibition hall, Li Yishu followed Ichiro Tanaka to visit some creative departments of Toho, and also visited the special effects film department.

I have to say that the Japanese are really good at special effects films, and they are willing to spend money. Many of the props in special effects films are scrapped after just one shot.

After visiting several important departments of Toho Corporation, the two returned to the small conference room upstairs.

"Director Li, this is Kyo Mikami, the head of our Toho Company's distribution department, and this is Yoshio Murakami, the head of the live-action production department."

"Hello, Director Mikami and Director Murakami."

"Hello, Director Li."

Film companies here in Japan attach great importance to supervision (directors), not to mention that Lee Yi-su also won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival.

After exchanging pleasantries and getting to know each other, Mikami, the head of the distribution department, began to report on the pre-sales of That Mountain, That Man, That Dog: "Director Li, the number of people who have pre-sold the movie has reached 23. I estimate that after the premiere tomorrow, at least more than 150 million people will enter the cinema to watch your work."

Li Yishu glanced at Ichiro Tanaka. He knew that Japan and South Korea both evaluated movie box office based on the number of people, but he didn't know how much box office this one person converted into.

"Director Li, the movie ticket prices in Japan haven't increased in many years. They are almost all the same at 1500 yen, so counting the number of people is the best way to reflect whether a movie is popular."

At this point, Ichiro Tanaka hesitated and said, "But I heard that the company, other producers and theaters intend to increase movie ticket prices, but I'm afraid we won't be able to catch up this time."

1500 yen!

Before coming to Japan, Li Yishu specifically checked the exchange rate here. The current ratio is about 0.043:1 between Chinese yuan and Japanese yen.

That is to say, 1500 yen is equivalent to about 65 yuan.

The ticket price is really expensive. Even in mainland China decades later, except for some high-priced movies, the ticket prices are basically around 4 to 50.

However, Li Yishu didn't think there was anything wrong with earning yen and spending yen. She just regretted not knowing about the Japanese economic bubble at the time, otherwise she could have made a little money.

150 million*1500=22.5 billion yen.

That translates to more than 5000 million RMB.

Currently, the floating exchange rate between USD and JPY is around 1:134, which means you can get about 1700 million US dollars.

According to the 45% share given to the producers, not only can the cost of purchasing the film copyright be recovered, but also a huge profit can be made.

Thinking of this, Li Yishu felt that he had suffered a great loss.

Li Yishu was very upset, but still asked, "150 million people, is it considered a lot or a little in Japan?" Tanaka Ichiro recalled, "The Chinese film with the highest number of viewers in Japan was Enter the Dragon, directed by the martial arts saint Bruce Lee. I remember it had about 470 million viewers."

"Then it seems my movie is pretty good."

After hearing this, Li Yishu felt much more comfortable. Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon" is a kung fu film, so it is normal to have a high number of viewers. However, his film is an art film, and it is already very good to achieve about one-third of the predicted number of viewers.

In this case, if we cooperate with Toho again in the future, we will have to pay a heavy price no matter what.

Ichiro Tanaka nodded and said, "Yes, Director Li, your work is predicted to have 150 million viewers, which is very high among Chinese-language films. Even some European and American films rarely have such a prediction."

"It hasn't been released yet, so the exact number of viewers is still unknown."

Li Yishu doesn't like to pop champagne at halftime, not to mention that the show hasn't even started yet. In addition to the 23 pre-orders, the remaining 130 million are all estimates by Toho's distribution department. The actual number is still unknown.

Director Mikami said quickly, "Don't worry, Director Li. Our distribution department has done a detailed calculation and can basically confirm that it will be around 150 million. We have estimated many films in the past, and the maximum error is no more than 10%."

"Well, I hope your estimate is accurate, or at least underestimated."

Li Yishu smiled. Although the copyright had been sold, the box office performance in Japan had little to do with him.

But at least it can improve his reputation and lay the foundation for future cooperation.

Ichiro Tanaka said: "Yes, we all hope that the number of moviegoers will be as large as possible."

At this time, Yoshio Murakami from the production department suddenly said, "Director Li, I wonder if you have any new supervisory production plans recently."

Ok?
Li Yishu looked at the other party. He was just wondering why the people from the production department came. It turned out that they saw that the box office forecast was good and wanted to continue the cooperation with him.

"There are two..."

"Then I wonder if our Toho Corporation has any investment opportunities?"

"I'm sorry, Director Murakami, the investors for these two films have been confirmed, and the crews are already preparing, and filming will begin next spring."

"That's such a pity!"

Yoshio Murakami said with regret: "We at Dongbao value Director Li's talent very much and are eager to work with him again. If Director Li has any new production plans in the future, please be sure to inform us. No matter what the subject of the film is, Dongbao will invest in it."

Any movie is fine? How about anti-Japanese movies?
Li Yishu originally wanted to say a few perfunctory words. Most of the films he is making now are for exhibitions. Regardless of whether they can win awards, selling the copyrights will definitely make money.

Considering the current domestic prices and actors' salaries, even if the investment cost is 100 million, if he goes to the European Film Festival, with his reputation as a Golden Lion director, as long as the quality of the film is not too bad, it will not be a problem for him to make more than ten times the money.

So why should we help the Japanese to make money?

But just as he was about to politely decline, he suddenly remembered the pure romance novel "Love Letter" that he had copied before.

After this book was published in Mengya magazine, it caused quite a stir in the country.

However, it is different from the current melodramatic romance genre. People who like it will love it very much, while people who don’t like it think it is not tortuous enough.

Most women these days prefer Qiong Yao a little more, just because the male lead, the second male lead, the third male lead... all only love the female lead, and it is not an exaggeration to call them the ultimate bootlickers.

"Director Murakami, I do have a production plan that should be quite suitable for the Japanese market."

Damn it, "That Mountain" suffered a great loss. This time, I will get it back with interest no matter what.

Moreover, it was Toho Film Company that begged them for cooperation, so it would be unreasonable not to rip them off.

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(End of this chapter)