The entertainment empire began with Liu Yifei's premarital pregnancy.

November arrived in the blink of an eye.

On November 1st, news from Hollywood reached China that The Hunger Games, invested by Extraordinary Film Company, held its opening ceremony.

The film stars Josh Harbourson as the male lead, with important supporting roles played by Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, and others. Most importantly, this film is a female-centric movie, and the female lead is Liu Yifei.

At the press conference, Liu Yifei looked dashing and heroic. After the photos were sent back to China, they instantly became a hot topic online.

"There's no need to say anything more; Liu Yifei's casting as the female lead in 'The Hunger Games' is definitely related to Lin Bufan!"

"I heard that The Hunger Games, like Final Destination and Taken, is a series."

"Director Lin has really strong connections in Hollywood. For three consecutive films in a series, the leading lady is one of our own. Just for that reason, I support Director Lin."

"Are you kidding? Does Director Lin need your support?"

"Speaking of which, I wonder if Director Lin can actually cultivate a world-class male star. He can't be so biased towards female stars, can he?"

"Does anyone know why they suddenly stopped making a second 'Final Destination' movie? Are they going to change the female lead?"

"It's ridiculous that filming for 'Final Destination' Part 2 was suddenly halted because Yang Mi was pregnant, and they even replaced the female lead..."

Because of the press conference for the start of filming of "The Hunger Games", countless new threads were created on various domestic forums. Some were discussing Liu Yifei, some were discussing Yang Mi, and in short, anything related to Lin Bufan was being discussed.

"Take care of your health while filming, and don't get injured, okay?"

The internet was buzzing with discussion, while Lin Bufan was on the phone with Liu Yifei; he knew her too well.

Once they start filming, they act like they don't care about their lives, especially with the movie "The Hunger Games," which has so many fight scenes that it's very easy to get injured if you're not careful.

"Okay, don't worry, I'll be careful!"

After hanging up the phone, Liu Yifei's face was still full of smiles.

In the Hunger Games series, all the intimate scenes and sequences were modified by Lin Bufan.

What a joke! He supports his women acting, but on one condition: there can be absolutely no intimate scenes. Otherwise, he would rather not let them continue acting.

Moreover, the main focus of "The Hunger Games" is the arena and the life-or-death struggle. As long as these scenes are filmed well, there is absolutely no need for kissing scenes.

The original Hunger Games had a fatal flaw: because it was adapted from the original book, the plot had to follow the original story. As a result, after the second film, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, the third and fourth films saw a continuous decline in box office revenue.

The current "Hunger Games" was obtained by Lin Bufan from the system; there is no original work, so he can film it however he wants.

Lin Bufan had already obtained the scripts for the first two Hunger Games films and handed them over to the screenwriting department for the creation of subsequent installments.

To this end, Kyoto Entertainment's scriptwriting department established a separate scriptwriting department for "The Hunger Games".

The Hunger Games writing team consisted of 16 people. They didn't have to worry about anything; all they had to do was deduce the plot.

To allow these screenwriters to fully utilize their talents, Lin Bufan has signed contracts with them.

Starting with the next installment of "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire," which will be their third film, the entire department will receive a 5% bonus on the box office revenue if the film surpasses the previous one.

For example, the box office of "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" was $8.65 million. If the third film's box office surpasses that of the second film, even if it's only by a million dollars, they will receive 5% of the film's profits as a bonus.

Based on a figure of $8.65 million, the revenue sharing between Hollywood films and those in mainland China is somewhat different.

First, when a Hollywood movie is released globally, taxes and fees vary from country to country, and this can amount to a deduction of 2% to 5%.

The remaining 50%-55% is taken by the theater chain, but the specific percentage varies from country to country.

Ultimately, the profits fall between approximately 40% and 48% on the production and distribution companies.

After the money is received, issuance fees will be deducted, including various expenses such as transportation, warehousing, and insurance, and the issuer will take 10%.

Even if the company itself is responsible for the issuance, the issuance fee will be divided in the financial records. If it is issued by a third party, the money will be directly intercepted.

The remaining 30%-38% belongs to the production company, but marketing and production costs must be deducted before the final profit is calculated.

Using the $8.65 million box office of "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" as an example, let's calculate using the highest tax rate of 5%.

The films distributed by Extraordinary Film Company have already signed agreements with various countries, whereby the other party only receives a fixed 50%, and the remaining 45% belongs to the production company and the distributor.

Extraordinary Film Company handles its own distribution in North America, while global distribution is handled by Jingxing.

Therefore, in terms of distribution fees, Jingxing takes 7% of the distribution fees, while Extraordinary Film Company takes 3%.

Ultimately, the production company receives 35% of the film's box office revenue, while the remaining 3% goes to the distribution company, which is financially unrelated and cannot be counted together.

With a box office of $8.65 million, the producers only received $30,275 million.

Of these, the production cost was US$1.3 million and the publicity and marketing expenses were US$5500 million, bringing the actual cost to US$1.85 million.

After deducting costs, the final profit was US$11,775 million.

If it were a publicly traded company, a movie that grossed over $8 million could increase the company's market value by at least $20 billion.

This is why entertainment companies strive to go public; compared to the money earned in the stock market, the profits from movie box office revenue are negligible.

According to Lin Bufan's promise to the Hunger Games writing team, 5% of the profits would be US$588 million, which is about RMB 4700 million.

The Hunger Games writing team consisted of only 16 people, meaning each person could receive a prize of nearly 300 million.

Three million—let alone in 2007, even in later years, a screenwriter earning three million for a single film would be considered top-tier.

This shows how much Lin Bufan values ​​screenwriting. The most important thing in a movie is the plot; everything else can be replaced, whether it's the director or the actors.