Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 249 Negotiation
Marco Muller stayed in Beijing for a day and left with a copy of The Black Swan.

This year's Venice Film Festival will be held from August 31st to September 10th, which is a little over a month away. As the chairman of the Venice Film Festival, he still has a lot of things to deal with.

Moreover, Cao Yang gave him face and made an extremely outstanding movie to help him establish his authority, so he must also find ways to fulfill Cao Yang's "little" wish.

Cao Yang did not follow. With Lao Ma around, he no longer needed to go there in advance to make arrangements like he did before. Lao Ma might even take it more seriously than he did.

Several European film companies and those from the United States will definitely not leave in a hurry. The purpose of their coming is, first, to make friends with Cao Yang, and second, to obtain the foreign copyright of "Black Swan".

In the next few days, Cao Yang contacted several companies separately. Generally speaking, they all agreed that the film had a good chance of winning the Venice Golden Lion, otherwise the president of the Venice Film Festival would not have come to see the film in person.

However, winning a prize may be one thing, but the price you pay after actually winning the prize is definitely different.

Considering that this was Cao Yang's film, they raised the price almost to the copyright price of an award-winning art film.

For other domestic directors, this is definitely a sign of great sincerity, and the price quoted is also "sky-high".

But for Cao Yang, he was still a little dissatisfied.

Let me put it this way, even if this movie doesn't win the Golden Lion, as long as it can win that slightly more important award in Venice, with Cao Yang's fame, it can be sold at about the current highest price.

What's more, Cao Yang was still thinking, if he could win the Golden Lion, he could get Dong Xuan the Best Actress award at the Venice Film Festival. If that happened, the offer would definitely go up by one or two million, in US dollars, of course.

He also somewhat understood why those film companies did not dare to raise the price. After all, no one could guarantee that you would win the Golden Lion, and they did not know that this was a movie "customized" by Lao Ma.

Since we can't agree on the price, let's wait until after the film festival.

If they hadn't called and asked to come, Cao Yang had not planned to let these film companies come.

The deal has not been concluded yet, and President Han feels a little regretful. That's tens of millions of dollars in copyright fees. It's not about how much money it is, because China Film made a lot of money from the previous co-production "District 9".

But it means something different.

District 9 was a global hit and broke domestic box office records, which is a highlight on Mr. Han’s resume.

"Black Swan" is an art film with low investment, but it was able to sell its copyright at a sky-high price overseas before it was released. This is also a good highlight on its resume.

However, Mr. Han was only slightly regretful, as he believed in Cao Yang's decision.

What's more, President Han has another happy thing.

"Crazy Stone", which has a total investment of more than 1.3 million yuan including publicity and promotion, has achieved an astonishing box office of million yuan in days since its release.

This box office certainly cannot be compared with Cao Yang's "District 1.013", nor can it compare with the 1.007 million box office of "Nine-Tailed Demon Fox" in seven days, and it is also a little bit lower than Zhang Yimou's "Hero" which made million in seven days.

But how much was the investment in "Crazy Stone"?

It all depends on whether Xu Ke’s “Seven Swords” which is released tomorrow will be a hit.

Given the current market situation, if "Seven Swords" can sell well, it will definitely squeeze the box office of "Crazy Stone". It is still unknown whether it can finally get 1.5 million.

However, if the box office of "Seven Swords" is affected by "Crazy Stone" and is reversely blocked, with the reputation of "Crazy Stone", it may really be able to break through the 200 million box office.

Of course, no matter how you look at it, Ning Hao has made a big splash.

Although everyone says that he achieved success by standing on the shoulders of "giants", this does not affect the media's coverage and praise of him at all.

After all, these days, directors whose domestic box office revenue exceeds 100 million yuan are very rare.

Cao Yang is one, and Lao Mouzi is another.

Xiao Gangpao's "A World Without Thieves" was blocked by Cao Yang's "District 1.02". President Han told Cao Yang privately that the final box office was only a little over million, but the announcement released by Huayi stated that the box office was million.

Well, it can barely be considered a small steel cannon.

That's just three.

Plus two more special ones.

Zhang Xinyan directed "Shaolin Temple" in 82. This movie is really amazing. Ordinary people like us only paid 0.1 to 0.2 yuan for the ticket price, and the movie grossed 1.6 million yuan at the box office!

In fact, the situation at that time was somewhat special. Special reasons led to extreme scarcity of spiritual and material life for the people across the country. Not to mention televisions, many places in the country, especially in rural areas, did not have electricity.

Even in places where there is very little electricity, power outages occur frequently.

Kerosene lamps and candles are the main lighting equipment.

In addition, even if there are movies shown, they are all based on the main theme. Movies like "Shaolin Temple" are extremely fresh. Most people can't imagine that there are such movies and they are shocked.

That kind of madness is hard to imagine for those who have not experienced it.

There is also Yu Benzheng, the director of "Life and Death Choice" released in 00. The final box office of this movie was 1.2 million.

The reason why this movie is special is that it is a mainstream anti-corruption drama, and it was sold out nationwide, so the box office was so high. In short, Ning Hao has become famous.

According to Cao Yang's observation, among the three film companies from the United States, Sony Classics is the most sincere, and Miramax wants to take advantage of the opportunity and see if it can "buy" the copyrights of other movies in China.

Fox Searchlight had other intentions.

As the president of Fox Searchlight, Jason Simmons came in person for two purposes. One was to see if he could buy the copyright of Cao Yang's "Black Swan", and the other was to discuss the release of "Juno" with Cao Yang.

Fox Searchlight is a subsidiary of 20th Century Fox, specializing in the production and distribution of low-cost art films and independent films, with a positioning similar to that of Sony Classics.

After the production of "Juno" was completed, there were disagreements within Fox Searchlight about the release date.

Some people think that they should take advantage of the hit of Cao Yang's "District 9" and the popularity of "Inception" to invest heavily in increasing publicity and allow "Juno" to be released during the summer vacation.

Some people think that the content of this movie is somewhat controversial, but precisely because of this, it is considered politically correct and has great potential to win awards.

Instead of spending a lot of money on publicity, it is better to spend the money on the Oscars and make a plan for the Oscars. By then, as long as you can win any award at the Oscars, it is very likely to detonate the box office.

Jason Simmons wanted to win an Oscar, so he kept suppressing the release of "Juno".

However, if he wants to compete for an Oscar, it would be best to get Cao Yang's support so that he can play a role at the critical moment, so Jason Simmons came in person.

In addition, as long as Cao Yang supports "Juno" in its attempt to win an Oscar, even if it is just verbal support, Jason Simmons' pressure will be greatly reduced.

"Simmons, do you want an Oscar nomination, or do you run the awards?"

Cao Yang asked the Fox Searchlight helmsman about his determination.

He asked this because Oscar nominations are one thing and awards are another.

That is to say, winning an award may cost more than getting nominated, sometimes even two or three times as much.

If Fox Searchlight only wants nominations, there is actually not much difference between spending the money on publicity and promotion. The effect will be similar, or even not necessarily better than spending it on publicity and promotion.

If you want to spend more money to run the Oscars, one thing is certain: you can't win the award just by spending the money.

You might spend several times the money and just get nominated but not win any award in the end.

Jason Simmons spread his hands and smiled, and replied: "Of course we want the award, and we are ready for it."

"Well, since you have made up your mind, I can stand up for Juno when the time is right."

Cao Yang agreed to Jason Simmons.

The film was shot completely according to the script, and Cao Yang also enjoyed 20% of the global box office and subsequent profits. Fox Searchlight was willing to operate the Oscars, so he had no reason not to support it.

Jason Simmons laughed and shook hands with Cao Yang, then asked, "The copyright of Black Swan?"

Damn, they haven’t paid the copyright fee yet, but they still want to buy the copyright. These capitalists really want to get something for nothing.

"Simmons, I need sincerity."

"Okay, okay, my dear director Cao Yang, the searchlight is already very sincere. You have to understand that the Golden Lion is not so easy to get." Jason Simmons said with a smile.

"That's for other people."

Cao Yang shrugged his shoulders like the foreigner and spoke bluntly.

You cannot be too humble and polite to foreigners, because they will take your humbleness and politeness as a lack of confidence.

This is completely different from Eastern philosophy, which is determined by different values.

After Cao Yang said this, Jason Simmons became more serious. He thought about it carefully and said:

"Searchlight can add another 500,000. This is already a very sincere price from us. After all, Black Swan hasn't won an award yet, so we are also taking a gamble."

"Don't stress mate, and don't be too hard on yourself."

Cao Yang stood up and patted the old white man on the shoulder. "Maybe after the Venice Film Festival, I will be willing to reduce the price by one million. You can wait a little longer. Good luck."

Jason Simmons thought about it and nodded. "You're right. Instead of taking a risk, why not wait another month? Good luck to you."

At the end of July, the 62nd Venice International Film Festival announced the list of films entering the main competition unit.

In addition to Cao Yang's "Black Swan", another Chinese-language film from Hong Kong has also entered the main competition unit, that is Guan Jinpeng's "Song of Everlasting Regret".

This movie is said to be a Hong Kong movie, but in fact the production company is the Shanghai Film Studio. It’s just that the director, behind-the-scenes staff, and the main male and female actors are all from Hong Kong.

(End of this chapter)