Return to Hong Kong Island for a Century

Chapter 306 The First Box Office Revenue Share

"Then let's celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival and the Spring Festival."

"Some overseas TV stations also want to obtain the rights to The Voice."

“We have connections in Japan, South Korea, Europe and the United States. In fact, some TV stations contacted us before, but we only applied for patents and they did not see the results. Now, the ratings of our TV station, The Voice, have already said everything.”

"You can decide for yourself. Taking the money directly is the most convenient." Li Song said this because some Western companies would offer various generous terms in exchange, such as helping you expand the market or contributing technology as equity.

However, Eastern and Western cultures are completely different, so it is very difficult to open up the Western market.

Take the simplest Superman series, or Captain America, for example; they seem quite normal in Europe and America.

However, this applies to countries in mainland China or other countries influenced by Eastern cultures.

These films were destined to flop.

The biggest problem with these movies is, where is the world government depicted in them?

Is it all over?

gone?
Was he forcibly made invisible by the screenwriter?

A rich kid wearing leather pants at night causes trouble, and even if someone else breaks the law, he can fight and kill on his own. Does he have any law enforcement power?
Does this social order still exist?

It would be easier to explain if there were no social order, but that's not how it is in the movies.

If this were filmed in the East, it would probably be heavily criticized.

This is because in the East, there have been unified regimes since ancient times, and even neighboring countries have been influenced by this culture.

Look at Asia, even in the war-torn Tocharian Kingdom, despite its many tribes, people still recognize one country.

In some Southeast Asian countries, there are numerous states within the country. Most of these states are not thinking about independence; instead, they are plotting when to overthrow the government and unify the country.

Looking at the West, which country doesn't have a desire for independence?

Therefore, deep-seated cultural influences create a natural divide between many things in the East and the West.

As for Temple Run, it was actually Ah Long's stage, and his teammates in mainland China were even criticized as "pig teammates".

But on America's side, people like movies that showcase personal charm.

Therefore, Li Song did not think about any long-term influence in the West.

Westerners aren't stupid; they won't let an Easterner have a long-term impact on them. It's just that Temple Run was in the spotlight, catching the Americans off guard.

"Boss, the first payout for Temple Run has arrived."

"It was about $5400 million, and at that time the box office cutoff date was over $4 million."

"The total box office was $6.7 million, after deducting the film turnaround fund and sales tax, as well as videotape licensing fees."

"In total, there will be about 5000 million US dollars left, because taxes have been paid overseas, so no taxes need to be paid in Hong Kong."

"This money?"

"Let's split up."

"Ahem, ahem, the boss is from Hong Kong Island, and this money is overseas profit, so the dividends don't need to be taxed." What Liu Jiale coughed about was that he owned 5% of the company's shares, which meant he could have 270 million US dollars.

"The TV station and the magazine are not short of money, but I happen to be short of money."

"Brother Le, you've worked hard too. Here's what's rightfully yours," Li Song continued.

Although Liu Jiale gets 5%, it's what he deserves. Even though he put in a lot of effort in Temple Run, Liu Jiale also worked very hard.

Moreover, the purpose of working together is to clarify things.

"Thank you, boss, thank you, boss." Although Liu Jiale already knew that the 5% stake was worth a lot of money, he didn't expect the first payment to be US$2.7 million, which is more than HK$10 million.

"This will go directly into your Bank of China account," Li Song continued.

"Okay, I'll have the finance department prepare a plan and get it to the boss for his signature later." Such a large expenditure requires Li Song's approval.

"Boss, Jurassic Park has finished filming and is currently in post-production. It will probably be released during the summer, but the exact date is still unclear."

"In addition, the boss's other overseas income will also be credited to his account one after another. At the end of last month, the novel National Treasure was translated into more than a dozen languages, and the total number of copies sold overseas has reached 2400 million. Among them, the market for small books is growing very fast."

"In addition, publishers are currently in talks regarding the novel 'Island Horror'," Liu Jiale continued.

Island Horror, also known as the third installment of the Treasure Hunt series, is about a man named Mustache who has built a submarine dock on a deserted island in Northern Europe. The dock contains a large amount of military equipment, copies of various industrial technology documents, gold, jewelry, antiques, and more.

The reason Li Song chose to locate the treasure in Northern Europe is because there are many islands there; the Nordic countries alone have approximately 500,000 islands.

"Then I'll have to trouble you, Brother Le." Li Song nodded.

"Also, the movie 'Jinling' should be finished by the end of March. I wonder what the release date is?"

"Let's choose May 1st."

"Ok!"

"Golden Harvest's National Treasure should also be released in May."

"There's no conflict here. The English version of the film 'Nanling' must be translated well."

"Ok!"

"The Romance of the Three Kingdoms was probably finished filming by the end of February. The Journey to the West and Dream of the Red Chamber TV series are still in preparation. The quality of mainland TV series is very good, but the preparation speed is a bit slow."

"However, it is possible to film Water Margin, but there is some controversy about it in mainland China. Water Margin is originally a satire of the society at that time. In my personal opinion, the so-called heroes are not good people. They will do anything to recruit others to become outlaws."

“It’s easy to film here in Hong Kong, we can do whatever we want, but if we want it to be released in mainland China, I’m afraid it will be difficult to pass the censorship,” Liu Jiale said.

Upon hearing this, Li Song said, "This film mainly focuses on two aspects: brotherhood and Song Jiang's servility."

"The deeper the brotherhood shown in the beginning, the more hatred will follow later."

As for the criticism that some people will criticize this kind of filming, that's fine. A work that isn't criticized isn't a good work. Of course, some directors say it's not that their films are bad, but that the audience's level is too low, but that doesn't count.

"In the movies and TV series we invest in from now on, the villains must all have a tragic ending. The other brothers from Liangshan genuinely joined the rebellion, while the leaders only wanted to be granted amnesty and high-ranking positions, just like gangsters. They're brothers in public, but when they're in jail, their testimonies are all about being brothers." Li Song still remembers the first time he watched *Water Margin*, especially when Song Jiang was kneeling and begging for amnesty; the comments section was full of insults. What happened to the promise of brothers rebelling together?
Furthermore, Song Jiang used all sorts of methods to recruit people to his gang. He thought it would be a grand and successful undertaking, but unexpectedly, he ended up kneeling down.

Lin Chong spitting blood was enough to make anyone's blood boil.

Of course, Lin Chong is also very controversial in the novel. Whether it was Gao Yanei or Lu Zhishen who saved him, he betrayed others whether intentionally or unintentionally.

“Hmm.” Liu Jiale agreed with Li Song’s statement. He didn’t even give a second glance to the so-called gangsters in Hong Kong. He could make a phone call and get arrested.

Hong Kong's socialites are far inferior to those in Taiwan; Taiwan's socialites are active all over the world.

After all, Hong Kong Island is only so big; Causeway Bay is just one block.

In the mainland, this wouldn't even compare to village-level brawls, which at that time involved guns and cannons.

"Boss, Temple Run reportedly sold for 100 million yuan in mainland China."

“Some cinemas showed it for a whole month,” Liu Jiale added.

"A movie ticket costs only one cent!" Liu Jiale continued to exclaim.

“This is the market. Golden Harvest isn’t losing out either, considering the number of viewers.” Li Song nodded.

"And if you really calculate the box office revenue sharing, it's not much. After all, the mainland model can't calculate ticket prices. The cinema, the staff, a thousand seats, one cent per show is only a hundred yuan. How do you calculate that?" Li Song continued.

“That’s true. It’s hard to calculate the costs of the mainland model. If you really calculate it, you might even lose money.” Liu Jiale thought about how a movie only brought in 100 yuan, and suddenly felt that 100 million yuan wasn’t so easy to earn.

"The mainland currently lacks entertainment options, which is the perfect time for us to open up the market. Once there are more TV stations and more TVs available, it will be almost impossible for us to create such an influence."

"The Water Margin TV series also follows the model of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms TV series, and is sponsored by BMW."

"The other film, Jinling, is also following this path." Li Song originally wanted to offer it for free, but then thought better of it. Offering it for free is sometimes hard to say, because it involves the company's interests.

"Okay." Liu Jiale made a note of it.

"Amin, should we promote this? We're planning to start a standalone shonen manga next month, and the initial plans are to publish Ice Age, Asong's food stall, and Soccer Boy."

"Someone in the editorial department suggested making a horse racing game, but everyone objected because horse racing isn't something the average person can afford," Liu Jiale continued.

"Ah."

"You can insert some idioms and stories into it, make it into a comic book format, or incorporate some traditional culture."

"Has Brother Le ever thought about getting involved in football?"

“I think we could start a football team and even sponsor football matches on Hong Kong Island,” Li Song continued.

"No problem, I'll find someone to make a plan right away." Liu Jiale now treats Li Song's suggestion as an order, because he can't match his boss's vision. He just needs to focus on doing his job well and doing what Li Song asks him to do.

"Well, I think we don't need to hold any formal competitions, just focus on entertainment. We don't need professional teams, since there's no future in having professional teams in Hong Kong."

“It’s more interesting to see these amateur entertainers pecking at each other. In that case, a society could organize a team, and a factory could too,” Li Song continued.

"Our TV station will sponsor the live broadcast at that time."

"We can also divide them into groups, such as a youth group and an adult group."

"Boss, this is a good idea." Liu Jiale had just been thinking that it would be difficult to develop professional football in Hong Kong because the population is only a few million, and there are only a few professional teams.

But recreational competitions are different.

"Also, you can contact the Hong Kong Island government and we can donate some money to build sports facilities, such as football fields and tennis courts."

"As for Amin, it depends on her personal opinion. If she's willing to show her face in public, then let her promote it; that would be an extremely positive thing," Li Song concluded.

Liu Jiale noted it down and then left. The financial reports from the TV station and the magazine wouldn't be released until mid-March because of the many payment terms involved.

On Tuesday, February 17, 1981, the thirteenth day of the first lunar month, Li Song drove out in his car in the morning. He took out the follow-up technical data of the Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) chip, including wafer fabs, lithography machines, and separate optical materials.

Then there was a planning document for the home appliance research laboratory, which detailed the departmental plan for the laboratory and its future development direction.

Li Song drove a minivan, drove around outside, and then returned to the Federal Garden to hand it over to his bodyguard, who then contacted people in the mainland.

Then Li Song returned to Guangzhou at noon.

The 15th day of the first lunar month is the day of the motocross finals, followed by the awards ceremony.

"Rockets?" Upon returning to Guangzhou, Ma Shengli inquired about rocket-related matters.

"It is indeed a reusable rocket, but the ground control system and the rocket's control system are the latest generation. Because some experiments have not yet been completed, we cannot provide them for the time being."

"We brought out our rocket technology ahead of time because we wanted to get the mainland to cooperate on these technologies, including various materials and manufacturing technologies, so that once our launch site is built, our commercial rockets can launch faster. After all, for private companies like ours, time is money."

"Of course, if the technology isn't ready by then, we can still carry out commercial launch missions without using reusable technology, it'll just be more expensive," Li Song said directly.

"Hmm." Ma Shengli could only make a note of it.

"I will also attend the closing ceremony this time. I'm going to Taihu Lake tomorrow."

"In addition, Hong Kong Island will send some materials over, including a project plan for a home appliance laboratory. The laboratory will be built according to this plan."

"Okay, I've written it down."

"In addition, there are some other technologies involved, such as wafer fab technology data for chip manufacturing and lithography machine technology data. Lithography machines are the future direction." Currently, chip manufacturing can also be done using etching.

"In addition, there are some top-notch optical materials technologies, which are all classified. We are providing these technologies to the mainland in the hope that the mainland will continue to develop in this area. Of course, we will also use them later."

"As for wafer fabs and lithography machines, it depends on the higher authorities' decision. Anyway, we can't send any personnel here. Also, I will soon have tens of millions of US dollars entering the Bank of China in Hong Kong. I plan to use this money for investment, whether it's rocket launch sites or rocket manufacturing plants. Of course, wafer fabs and lithography machines are also fine, but first, the relevant departments on the mainland need to tackle the technical challenges. Of course, we can also entrust them to do so."

“I know the research institute is short of funds, and it’s troublesome to allocate funds from higher authorities. In short, we’ll see how this sum of money is distributed here on the mainland, and more funds will come in soon.” Li Song said a lot.

How much does this cost?

"Over 50 million US dollars, that's the first box office revenue share for Temple Run. Temple Run grossed a total of 670 million US dollars. According to the agreement, the magazine will get 15%, and there will be about another 50 million US dollars. In addition, there's the published novel, which has sold over 20 million copies overseas. I don't lack funds, so get the lithography machines and wafer fabs as soon as possible!"

"Furthermore, we can have long-term cooperation with these research institutes in the future," Li Song said in one breath.

(End of this chapter)