I am a historical film director in the entertainment industry.

Chapter 33 Selling Overseas Copyrights for an Exorbitant Price

Dig!

That slapped his face so hard it was swollen.

Huang Lei looked up at the banner hanging at the entrance of the Central Academy of Drama, which read: "Warm congratulations to Cheng Sheng, a student from our school's Directing Department, for winning the Golden Lion."

No matter how you look at it, the words on the banner seem glaringly offensive.

Huang Lei pinched his thigh hard; it hurt, it wasn't a dream.

Damn it, what did I do?

If I had known Cheng Sheng was so amazing, why would I have posted those comments online?

The director of the Venice Golden Lion Award has offended himself!

No, I have to save myself.

Thinking of this, Huang Lei quickly took out his phone and deleted all the comments he had posted.

After the deletion was complete, Huang Lei finally breathed a sigh of relief.

As long as the other party doesn't see it, you haven't offended them.

Only after doing all this did Huang Lei have time to check the news online.

He discovered that entertainment websites like Xinlang were all filled with news about "The Great Tang Dynasty - Origins" and news about Cheng Sheng and others winning awards in Venice.

The news report also included many high-resolution photos of Cheng Sheng, Zheng Guolin, Fu Dalong, and Su Chang holding the trophy.

The photos also include pictures of the business owners from Xishan and crew members who participated in the Venice Film Festival.

Suddenly, Huang Lei noticed that there were also Zhang Yang's photos among them.

He knows Zhang Yang! In fact, he's had meals with him a few times.

After all, the Central Academy of Drama and the Beijing Film Academy are so close, and the teachers are familiar with each other.

Although he wasn't a teacher in the directing department, Huang Lei was incredibly envious of Zhang Yang, after all, Cheng Sheng was Zhang Yang's student.

With such a talented student, Zhang Yang's career is bound to rise. In the future, when he refers to himself as Teacher Cheng Sheng in the entertainment industry, everyone in the circle will give him face.

Hey!
Why doesn't my school produce a Cheng Sheng?

Huang Lei shook his head. The Central Academy of Drama really showed its power this time. The Beijing Film Academy is probably going to get a severe humiliation.

He was very clear about the grudges and feuds between the two schools.

Although we don't have any major grudges, whenever something big happens at our respective schools, both schools will do something – either I'll mock you or I'll belittle you.

Anyway, they're all vying to be the best of the two schools.

When the faculty and students of Beijing Film Academy heard that the entire Central Academy of Drama supported Cheng Sheng's filmmaking,

Many people at the Beijing Film Academy are secretly mocking the Central Academy of Drama.

They poured the entire school into this for an unreliable directing student.

If the movie flops, the reputation of the Central Academy of Drama will be ruined.

But this time, Beijing Film Academy completely misjudged the situation.

Cheng Sheng's film not only didn't flop, but it also became famous overseas even before its release.

"Hurry back, the school must be going crazy." Huang Lei muttered to himself and hurriedly ran towards Beijing Film Academy.

……

Venice.

Although the news of the award was already known in China, and Cheng Sheng received many phone calls from there, he still did not return to China immediately.

After seeing the crew and the coal mine owner off at the airport, he and Joe Shan remained alone in Venice.

Because he also needs to sell the overseas distribution rights of the film.

After the film won the award, many powerful and sincere distributors contacted Cheng Sheng to discuss the film's distribution overseas.

Regarding the issuance, as investors, the bosses of Xishan were originally qualified to stay here and negotiate together, but they trusted Cheng Sheng too much and handed over the negotiations to him.

They returned home in high spirits to show off. Although the film's investment came from the coal mine owners of Xishan, the overseas copyrights were actually controlled by Cheng Sheng.

Cheng Sheng had already made this point clear in the contract when it was signed.

The only returns that Xishan coal mine owners can receive are their share of the profits within China.

This doesn't mean Cheng Sheng was scheming against the Xishan coal bosses. Cheng Sheng had already explained the overseas distribution rights to them long ago, but those Xishan coal bosses didn't take it seriously at all and didn't believe the film could make any money overseas.

The coal mine owner from Xishan probably never imagined that a student in his early twenties could win an award at Venice for his directorial debut of a big-budget film.

That's why they gave all the overseas copyright benefits to Cheng Sheng.

Overseas distribution rights are usually purchased outright.

Cheng Sheng agreed with this point, since if the movie didn't do well after the buyout, there would be no risk to him.

However, if the movie is a big hit, then even if we lose money, we can't blame ourselves.

Currently, Cheng Sheng has been contacted by seven publishers, all of which are very powerful.

However, after being advised by Scarlett, Cheng Sheng ultimately chose four companies.

That's right, Scarlett didn't leave Venice, but instead helped Cheng Sheng negotiate the overseas distribution issue.

One is the Japanese publisher, Nikkatsu.

Nikkatsu, also known as Nikkatsu Corporation, is one of Japan's five major film studios.

Although its performance in the international market is not as good as some other companies, its works have been distributed in many countries and regions around the world.

After the release of the movie "The Great Tang Dynasty", several Japanese distributors contacted Cheng Sheng, but only Nikkatsu was the most sincere and offered the fairest price.

Cheng Sheng didn't agree at the time, wanting to wait until after the awards ceremony to negotiate with the publisher.

The film has now won major awards, including two Best Actor awards and a Best Newcomer award.

The price has increased several times over.

Japan is a very strange nation.

They worship the strong and treat the weak with burning, killing, and looting.

In ancient times, Japan was a vassal state of China, and they most admired the Tang Dynasty.

During the Tang Dynasty, Japan's enthusiasm for admiring and learning from China reached an unprecedented level.

Now that Cheng Sheng has produced such a classic film about the Tang Dynasty, it's no wonder that Japanese distributors are going crazy trying to acquire the distribution rights in Japan.

Japanese distributors are all too aware of their national sentiments; if they watch Cheng Sheng's film, it will definitely break box office records.

The price offered by publishers for daily active users has tripled compared to before.

Cheng Sheng was shocked when he saw the price; it was twice as high as he had expected!

It would be foolish not to take advantage of a good deal, especially when it's taking advantage of the Japanese.

Cheng Sheng directly handed over the Japanese distribution rights to Nikkatsu.

The price is $500 million.

After signing the contract, the daily active users kept bowing to express their gratitude to Cheng Sheng.

The second distribution company was in Europe, called EuropaCorp.

Not many people may know about this publishing company, but many will know about one of its members.

French director Luc Besson founded the company in 2000 with another person, aiming to produce and distribute high-quality feature films.

The company had an initial capital of €5236000 and was located in the "Cinema City" in the Seine-Saint-Denis department, a northern suburb of Paris.

EuropaCorp is known for its action films and is the only film company in the European commercial film industry that can rival Hollywood.

Luc Besson is very famous internationally, and has a huge influence in France.

This is also why Cheng Sheng chose this company.

Ultimately, Cheng Sheng transferred the European distribution rights to EuropaCorp for a hefty $850 million.

(End of this chapter)