Huayu: From an ordinary person to a happy director

Chapter 102 Peach Films Profits

The entire film was shot mainly with green screen, and the special effects team followed the whole process. Although some problems occurred during the shooting process, they were all solved smoothly. The only flaw was that those muscular men were too dazzling.

As the company grew, he had more and more things to focus on, and he exercised less often.

How can this be possible? I must pick it up, otherwise how can I conquer so many female stars?

So Shi Lei shot during the day, discussed special effects issues with the special effects team at night, and finally made some time for fitness, which was also the first thing he did when he got up in the morning.

As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together. He has to shoot a group of muscular men every day, and his passion for exercise is gradually increasing.

The filming went smoothly and was completed after two months. The next step was editing and special effects production.

With the original film as a reference, Shi Lei knew exactly how to edit it, but he did not finish editing it in one step. Instead, he first edited a rough cut version and then gave it to the special effects team to do the special effects.

"300" is not under my control, so there are some processes that need to be followed. If I just edit the final version directly, Warner will be confused.

Three months passed from shooting to editing, and it was already November. Before he could even take a break, Hans from Columbia came to him.

"Director Shi, the crew of 'The Pursuit of Happyness' is ready. Do you want to take a look?" Hans urged Shi Lei directly.

The crew was already ready and were just waiting for Shi Lei.

"I'll go check again in a week." Shi Lei still managed to find a week of rest for himself.

According to the plan, the shooting was to start in a month. "The Pursuit of Happyness" was an urban film, shot on location in San Francisco, so the preparations were not difficult. He didn't know why Hans was in such a hurry.

"Okay, I'll ask them to prepare it." Hans was quite satisfied.

"Wait, why are you a little anxious?" Shi Lei couldn't help but ask.

"Director Shi, I'm sorry. I'm not in a hurry, but there can't be any accidents during this shoot. You and Will's schedules are very tight, and it's rare to make an appointment. I need to confirm if you have any problems."

Shi Lei waved his hand and said, "Okay, I will finish filming "The Pursuit of Happyness" before returning to China."

After seeing Hans off, he finally had time to check on Peach's condition.

First up is the movie shot under the name of Ying Huang. The Hong Kong circle is best at police and gangster, and action movies, and Shui Mi Tao is famous for horror movies, so Ying Huang came with a hodgepodge. Several Asian policemen were ordered to investigate a missing person case in a certain place. The atmosphere of horror was full, and in the end they found that it was a monster that did it. Several people first shot with guns, and then used fists, kicks and cold weapons.

The film is titled "Forest Blood Beast".

He took some time to watch the finished film, which was quite violent and bloody.

After watching the entire film, Shi Lei still admires Ying Huang. Except for a few Asian characters that may make North American audiences face-blind, the whole film is still watchable. It is a qualified monster horror film.

There are quite a few similar films in North America. The protagonists who kill monsters range from civilians to soldiers, and the monsters range from water monsters to flying monsters, and include all kinds of amphibious monsters, including land, sea and air monsters. In the end, monsters are even fabricated out of thin air, including ice cream monsters, mud monsters, and sand monsters. Among them, the more famous ones are "Alien" and "Predator".

Of course, this is a test work of Ying Huang, with a production cost of only 1500 million US dollars, which is quite limited. The monsters are all played by actors wearing masks, and there are no special effects at all. Naturally, it cannot compare with "Alien" and "Predator". With a cost of 1500 million US dollars, he doesn't know how much the box office of such a film will be in theaters, but he knows that the film can make a profit just by relying on the disc market.

Compared to the monster horror movies in North America, this movie "Blood Beast in the Forest" that he had never heard of has very good action scenes. The monsters are hit hard with fists and blood flies everywhere. It is more impressive than the North American protagonists using guns. The producer is Shuimitao Film and Television, so the DVD sales will not be low.

The sales of Shuimitao Film and Television's movie DVDs have always been good.

Driven by "Saw 2", the DVD sales of "Saw" exceeded 84 million US dollars. The profit of the studio in the North American DVD market is %, so Peach Films can get more than million US dollars (before tax) from the DVD sales of "Saw" alone.

The DVD sales of "Insidious" and "The Purge" were 4000 million US dollars and 6000 million US dollars respectively, and the DVD sales of "Million Dollar Baby" were 7500 million US dollars. However, the profits of Million Dollar Baby had to be shared by China Film and Columbia, so Shuimitao could only get more than million.

Shuimitao Films earned nearly $2 million from DVD sales alone, which can be said to be a huge profit. In addition, it also received box office shares from "Saw ", "The Invisible Man" and "Paranormal Activity".

"Saw 2" grossed $8900 million in North America and $1.4 million worldwide.

"The Invisible Man" grossed $8400 million in North America and $1.23 million worldwide.

Because of the lack of marketing ability of Peach, the box office of "Paranormal Activity" was not as high as that of the previous life, but with the support of screenwriter Wan Zairen and Peach Film and Television, the North American box office was 1.1 million US dollars and the global box office was 1.5 million US dollars.

As the status of Shuimitao Pictures increases, Shuimitao Pictures can get about 48% of the North American box office after deducting the theaters and distributors.

Peach received $1.36 million in North American box office revenue alone (the international box office revenue takes a long time to recover), and the profit from DVD sales was nearly $2 million. Combined with the previous balance in the account, Peach Films made a profit of $3.6 million this year (before tax).

It seems like a lot, but $2.5 million of it needs to be transferred to domestic film and television special effects companies, leaving $1.1 million in liquid funds.

He wants to keep tens of millions of this money for emergencies. Peach Films has already purchased the copyright of "Iron Man" from New Line.

The copyright period is very tight, only three years, which means that if "Iron Man" cannot be produced within three years, the copyright will automatically return to Marvel.

This kind of contract is just like a big-name author selling film and television copyrights. After purchasing the copyright, the film or TV series must be produced within a specified time, otherwise the author has the right to take back the copyright.

Now the only way for Shuimitao Films to continue to own the copyright is to produce the "Iron Man" movie.

So he saved some money to shoot "Iron Man", but he was still hesitating whether to shoot a low-quality version or a high-quality version.

Now his intervention has changed Marvel's rise plan. Marvel has a rescue plan, planning to sell everything it has to make two films in a fight for survival.

The two superhero movies that Marvel is preparing to shoot are "The Incredible Hulk" and "Iron Man". The copyright of "Iron Man" is now in the hands of Peach Films, and it is not ready to be sold.

Marvel had no choice but to change its plan and change "Iron Man" to "Captain America".

Marvel's main film is "The Incredible Hulk".

(End of this chapter)