China Entertainment 1997

Beijing, New Picture Company

Boss Zhang looked at the report sent by the staff with mixed emotions.

It's as if I took a day off on New Year's Eve, celebrated the New Year happily, and then watched the shitty Spring Festival Gala; it's also like watching other people having fun on New Year's Day, forcing the author to hide aside and write.

Well, plus a national football team playing in Vietnam...

In one word, I feel tired!

The reason why Boss Zhang has this mentality is also very simple, it is a summer box office statistics table.

The above is a dense collection of statistics on the box office data of relevant theater chains and even specific theaters on August 3, and finally the total data is given.

Boss Zhang ignored the data of other movies and only had two movies in his eyes, which were also ranked first and second in the overall ranking.

① "Xiu Chun Knife": 12.8934 million box office

②"House of Flying Daggers": 2.9012 million box office

Just two days ago, the single-day box office of "House of Flying Daggers" was still in the range of 5 million to 6 million. Now, because of the release of "Spring Knife", the box office has been cut by nearly half. The single-day box office is only that of "Spring Knife". A fraction.

To be honest, before "Xiu Chun Knife" was released, Boss Zhang was still very optimistic.

"House of Flying Daggers" exceeded 100 million in half a month. Although it lacks stamina and is obviously inferior to "Hero" the year before, it is also a unique presence in the mainland market.

Boss Zhang felt that although the release of "Xiu Chun Dao" may affect the box office of "House of Flying Daggers", it will not hurt the basic market.

But when "Xiuchundao" was actually released, Boss Zhang realized that he had underestimated the box office appeal of this movie and Cao Xuan.

The box office of 9.6 million on the first day is far inferior to "House of Flying Daggers", but the potential of a blockbuster is already evident.

It ranked third in the first-day box office record of theatrical movies released in the Mainland, behind "House of Flying Daggers" and "Hero."

On the next day, with some word-of-mouth fermentation, the box office did not fall but increased, taking in nearly 13 million box office.

The box office in two days exceeded 20 million, judging from the momentum alone. Not inferior to the previous "House of Flying Daggers".

If no major accidents occur, if this box office trend continues, it will only be a matter of time before the box office of "Xiu Chun Knife" exceeds 100 million.

This result really exceeded many people's expectations.

The investment in "Xiu Chun Dao" is not low. Including the investment in publicity and distribution, the cost of 30 million is a real deal.

But this number is really not particularly high in the current film market.

One of the more popular movies this year, "A World Without Thieves" by Feng Pants, also cost around 30 million.

However, because it is an urban theme, a large number of product placements were sold, such as BMW cars, Carlsberg beer, etc. It is conservatively estimated that the cost of the advertising alone can be more than 10 million.

It is precisely because of this that "Xiu Chun Knife" did not have the smallest budget among this year's blockbusters.

But aside from the scrupulous Wang brothers and Feng Pants, the basic investment costs of the remaining blockbusters "New Police Story", "Kung Fu" and "House of Flying Daggers" this year have exceeded 100 million.

The highest one is "House of Flying Daggers", which is claimed to be US$30 million, which is converted into RMB 250 million.

Of course, it’s not clear how much this “claim” counts. Anyway, Cao Xuan himself estimated that the scenes and actors of “House of Flying Daggers” would definitely not cost 250 million.

As for Xing Ye's "Kung Fu", more money was spent on special effects. The exact cost varies, but it must be over 100 million.

As for "New Police Story", the cost was mainly the salary of the two superstars Cheng Long and Cao Xuan.

Cao Xuan is not sure how much the original time and space cost, but now, he estimates that the cost will not be less than 100 million.

Calculated in this way, the so-called 30 million cost of "Xiu Chun Knife" is really not that much, and part of it is Cao Xuan's salary.

After conversion, the actual cost of the movie is 20 million, which is a lot.

Under such circumstances, many people who only believe in "investment cost theory" are very conservative in their box office estimates of "Xiu Chun Knife".

In the mainland, the maximum is 80 million, basically 40 to 60 million. Including the overseas box office, the total is over 100 million, which is slightly better than "When Men Are in Love".

But now that "Xiu Chun Knife" has actually been released, it has only taken two days to get a good reputation.

The new combination of Xu Wei + Cao Xuan delivered an answer that surprised many people. Many film critics called "Xiu Chun Dao" a "new martial arts movie."

This so-called new martial arts movie is actually a very abstract evaluation.

When "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was released, it was also called a new style of martial arts, claiming to combine Chinese and Western elements to create a martial arts movie that foreigners could understand.

When "Hero" was released, it was also called a new type of martial arts blockbuster, combining history with grand scenes.

Now that "Xiu Chun Dao" is released, it still has not escaped this law. The characteristics of this film are that it is character-oriented, and the story is firmly focused on the three brothers, which is different from previous traditional martial arts movies that focus on plot.

At the same time, the martial arts style of "Xiu Chun Dao" is full of realism.

It has reduced the flying, elegant and unrestrained style of previous martial arts movies, and the fighting scenes have a real sense of punches and real swords and guns.

In terms of plot, "Xiuchundao" is not complicated. In short, it is the struggle of the ancient low-level people in the whirlpool.

Although similar routines are not new in martial arts movies, the mature and concise narrative style and rhythm still make the audience enjoy watching it.

Especially against the backdrop of the disappointing plot of "House of Flying Daggers".

There is a saying that the reason why "Xiu Chun Dao" is so highly rated is that it is almost overwhelmingly positive, and "House of Flying Daggers" helped a lot.

After watching a gorgeous landscape film with a messy storyline in Lao Mouzi, I saw "Xiu Chun Knife" which followed a plot line in a down-to-earth manner.

Even if the storyline is not amazing, the impression score is directly raised by several levels.

Another reason is that although Cao Xuan did well at the box office last year, he is still a newcomer to the film industry, and Mr. Xu has just hit the streets with "Shu Mountain".

Although later generations have spoken highly of the movie "Shu Mountain", at the moment, in addition to the special effects, Mr. Xu has been criticized miserably in terms of story.

In addition, Hu Jun and Gao Yuanyuan are both TV stars, so the outside world does not have high expectations for the quality of "Xiu Chun Dao".

Also because my expectations were too low, I actually felt a sense of unexpected joy when I actually watched a finished film that was above the level of "Xiu Chun Knife".

Therefore, "Xiu Chun Knife" received a lot of contrasting impression points and surprise points. In addition, the quality itself is not bad, resulting in quite good word-of-mouth evaluation.

Especially compared to "House of Flying Daggers" half a month ago, it was overwhelmingly crushed. It can be said that it stepped on Lao Mouzi's head and rose to the top.

This is also an important reason why the box office of "House of Flying Daggers" was cut in half. The audience went to "Xiu Chun Dao" at the box office...

The more Boss Zhang watched, the more he became suffocated. "Spider-Man 2" is about to be released, and I'm afraid it will hit the box office again.

If this continues, the total box office of "House of Flying Daggers" will be 10 to 20 million, or even more, less than expected.

Don't look at the global box office of "House of Flying Daggers", which now adds up to hundreds of millions of yuan. However, for many overseas box offices, the studios do not receive that much dividends, or even just receive copyright fees.

Even if the new picture can be divided a lot, the box office share of 10 to 20 million is still several million. No matter how small a fly is, it is still meat.

What's more, millions can't be said to be flies...

Boss Zhang couldn't help grinding his teeth at the thought of losing several villas or luxury cars.

At the same time, he also regretted his falling out with Cao Xuan before. He would not consider the advantages and disadvantages of "House of Flying Daggers" and "Embroidered Spring Knife". Boss Zhang's concept is very simple.

"Xiu Chun Dao" can sell money because of Cao Xuanhong, and "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers" are also popular because of Lao Mouzi + Jet Li, Liang Chaowei, Maggie Cheung/Liu Tianwang, International Chapter, and Jincheng Wu.

Boss Zhang couldn't help but imagine what if Cao Xuan could be so terrifying at the box office alone, and how high the box office would be if Lao Mouzi was added to it.

200000000?

300 million?

Or more?

But it's a pity that because of "House of Flying Daggers", he offended Cao Xuan, and the other party was not very willing to cooperate.

What's more, Cao Xuan himself is the boss of Fanxing and has a lot of projects on his hands. Even if he cooperates with New Picture, it's hard to say who will take the lead and who will take the lead.

Moreover, it is no secret in the industry that Fanxing wants to recruit leading directors like Huayi and New Picture. Boss Zhang is also afraid of cooperating with Cao Xuan and Lao Mouzi being poached.

Although he was crazy, he also knew that Cao Xuan at this time was stronger than him in terms of assets and connections, and Boss Zhang did not dare to gamble.

But Boss Zhang was also greedy for Cao Xuan's popularity. After thinking about it, his eyes suddenly brightened.

Since Cao Xuan, the Asian King, cannot cooperate, isn't there another Asian Little King, Jay Chou...

It doesn't matter if his popularity is low. He doesn't expect to catch up with Cao Xuan. If he can achieve 2/3 of Cao Xuan's gain, then he will make a profit.

Thinking of this, Boss Zhang immediately picked up the phone and called Lao Mouzi, who was overseas preparing for the closing ceremony of the Athens Olympics.

"Yimou, can you add a character to your new script..."

………

Cao Xuan didn't know about his butterfly effect, which made Boss Zhang target Xiao Zhou earlier.

At this time, he was having a secret conversation with Mr. Xu and Mr. Shi in the hotel room.

Although "Xiu Chun Dao" has only been released for two days, the box office has already exceeded 20 million, and any fool can see that this movie has a bright future.

You can make a small profit in the mainland market alone, and the overseas box office is a net profit.

As a result, the project of the movie prequel "Xiu Chun Dao: Shura Battlefield" was naturally launched.

If nothing unexpected happens, filming will take place next year. Cao Xuan is willing to cooperate with Mr. Xu again, and Mr. Xu is naturally willing to do so.

"Xiu Chun Knife" became a hit and he is expected to become the first Hong Kong director to have a box office of over 100 million in mainland China.

Even before "Seven Swords", which had high hopes, was released, he made a wonderful turnaround and became a popular director in the film industry again. For the past two days, Mr. Xu could hardly sleep without laughing.

Xiangjiang film and television companies such as Yinghuang, Media Asia, and Anle have all extended an olive branch to him. It feels vaguely like the 1990s when he was killing everyone with the "Once Upon a Time" series.

At this time, Cao Xuan personally came to the door. In addition to finalizing the cooperation on "Xiu Chun Dao: Shura Battlefield", he also proposed another idea.

Fanxing wants to reach a long-term strategic cooperation with Mr. Xu!

After the cooperation is reached, Fanxing's projects will be given priority to director Xu. If Xu has any projects of his own, Fanxing will also invest based on the evaluation.

The two parties are bound to a certain extent, their interests are relatively consistent, and there are detailed rules for conflict avoidance and cooperation and sharing.

To put it bluntly, Fanxing "signed" Mr. Xu, but unlike other contracted directors, Mr. Xu has a high degree of freedom, and the two parties have more of a relatively equal cooperative relationship.

After Cao Xuan expressed his thoughts, he put down a letter of intent and then politely walked away, leaving Mr. Xu and his wife to discuss.

"The conditions are very generous."

Mr. Xu’s eyes sparkle, he has ample creative freedom and retains the independence of the studio. Such a big water pipe is not easy to find, let alone Cao Xuan personally agreed that once the two parties sign a contract, he will receive a large signing fee.

"Just listen to these words. Any big boss doesn't want to talk about recruiting talents, but if he really has any ideas and asks you to change the script and add actors, can you refuse?"

In contrast, Mr. Shi is much calmer and points out the reality behind it.

Yes, Old Monster Xu is talented and can make money for his bosses. He is a guest of many film and television bosses, but he is not the only guest of the bosses.

Unless you invest in yourself and become your own boss, if you take other people's money, you are bound to be unable to refuse certain things.

"Then I refuse?"

Mr. Xu asked hesitantly. Boy Shi shook his head, looked at his slightly confused husband, and explained patiently.

"Sir, haven't you noticed this summer release? The two movies "House of Flying Daggers" and "Spring Knife" have exceeded 100 million yuan.

In the summer season alone, the total box office is expected to exceed 300 million, which is almost comparable to the total box office in Hong Kong last year.

Yes, there was SARS last year, which affected the film market. This is undeniable.

But what about this year? There is no SARS this year, right? It’s already August. Is there a movie with a box office of over 30 million in Hong Kong?

Sir, whether you admit it or not, the mainland’s film market has just opened up, and it has already surpassed Hong Kong by a few blocks.

Zhou Xingchi and Cheng Long both started to go north, Fatty Wang came to the mainland to film TV series, Anle hooked up with Lao Mouzi, and Yinghuang hooked up with Cao Xuan.

All this shows that the future of the Hong Kong film industry and even Chinese-language films lies in mainland China. "

Speaking of this, Mr. Shi looked at Old Monster Xu with a shrewd smile on his face.

"I heard you say that this Mr. Cao is a bit strong, but which boss is easy to deal with? Unlike those who played with guns in the past few years, Mr. Cao is at least reasonable, respects the people below, and is generous with his actions.

More importantly, Fanxing is one of the top film and television companies in the mainland and has its own theater chain.

With such strength, even if he is not the giant Shaw Brothers in the early years, he is at least a Jiahe. If we want to come to the mainland to find food, why should we reject such thick legs? "

"..."

Old Monster Xu was deep in thought. Boy Shi didn't disturb him, but quietly watched him think about it, only adding one more sentence.

"Fat Wang and Chen Kexin, who worked with Cao Sheng before, are both smart people, and we now have an advantage because of "Xiu Chun Dao".

But if you don't seize the opportunity and wait for others to react, providing help in the snow and adding the icing on the cake are two different things. "

"But……"

Mr. Xu hesitated for a moment and whispered: "Cao Sheng doesn't seem to like people from Xiangjiang very much. I wanted to recommend actors from Xiangjiang to play several roles in "Xiu Chun Knife", but they were all rejected.

In addition, all the costumes and props prepared by my team were discarded, and the stage manager was kicked out of the crew because of trivial matters. I feel that Cao Sheng seems to be biased against the people of Xiangjiang. "

"Oh, are you biased or your people are unclean?"

Mr. Shi sneered: "If nothing else, I know about the drama manager A Biao. That bad boy reported false accounts to me in "Seven Swords", and he took 40% of it.

For the sake of him being your brother-in-law, I only asked him to spit out the money and didn't care about anything else. Cao Sheng was too lazy to take care of this. Thanks to the strict security in the mainland, at least one of his hands would be cut off in Xiangjiang. "

Old Monster Xu was a little embarrassed when he heard this. Ah Biao was indeed caught and kicked out. The costumes and props were discarded because they did not meet historical standards.

People from Xiangjiang are still not very familiar with history. The props needed firecrackers from the Ming Dynasty, so they got at least a continuous gun from the late Qing Dynasty.

If Wei Zhongxian had this thing under his command, even ten Ding Xiu would not be enough to die...

The same goes for clothing, which is a mixture of various dynasties and even adds a little modern fashion elements, which is called artistic beauty.

All the costumes and props of "Xiu Chun Knife" were specially researched from Ming history materials, and historical scholars were also invited to check them.

I dare not say that it is completely restored, but there is still no problem with 80 points, especially the costumes. In order to stay close to history, Cao Xuan even asked several leading actors to give up their handsome and exquisite flying fish suits.

After all, according to history, petty officials such as Jinyiwei Baihu and Zongqi are basically not qualified to wear Feiyu uniforms.

In order to stay close to history, Cao Xuan made such a big sacrifice, so why would he fall in love with those fancy clothes? If he didn't just kick them out, it would be to give face to Old Monster Xu.

Old Monster Xu more or less understood in his heart that what he said now was just an excuse to justify his hesitation.

Now that the man behind the scenes was exposed by Mr. Shi, he was a little embarrassed and mentioned the actors again.

Mr. Shi responded unceremoniously: "There are several Hong Kong movies that use mainland actors, so why should mainland movies use Hong Kong actors?"

If I were Cao Sheng, the boss of Fanxing, I would definitely use my own people that I am familiar with. How could this be about discrimination and prejudice? "

Seeing that Old Monster Xu was unable to say a word, Mr. Shi also softened his tone.

"Master, if you have an actor from Xiangjiang you want to use, why don't you talk to Cao Sheng? If you really insist, I believe they won't give you face. I can see that Cao Sheng loves talents and values ​​you very much."

When it comes to this matter, Old Monster Xu has actually been tempted for a long time, but he just talked too much and couldn't save face, so he could only talk harshly. Now that Mr. Shi has given him a step, he will immediately get off the road.

"I understand, Cao Sheng has a group of people, and he must be comforted and taken care of."

"That's right, everyone is considerate of each other."

The couple had a tacit understanding, and then they carefully studied the letter of intent and called a good lawyer for advice.

Early the next morning, when the crew of "Embroidered Spring Knife" went to Hangzhou for promotion, Old Monster Xu expressed his agreement to cooperate with Cao Xuan on the way.

Cao Xuan was not surprised by his choice.

If it were to move under his command, Mr. Xu might still hesitate to refuse, but with this slightly loose cooperation model, the chance that the couple would agree is over 90%.

This is also the method discussed by Cao Xuan and some of Fanxing's senior officials.

To be honest, except for new directors or directors with low ambitions, it is difficult for film and television companies to recruit directors with some qualifications and achievements, especially famous directors.

In order to cooperate with Lao Mouzi, the new picture almost served him alone, and it almost became Lao Mouzi's studio.

Huayi and Feng Pants also gave shares, made gambling contracts, and gave money in various ways, and finally managed to coax people, but there were still some disturbances every now and then.

Most of the other directors also started their own companies and then cooperated with major film and television companies.

There is a star shortage of directors, and without a famous director in charge, it is difficult to become a leader in the film and television industry.

But firstly, it was difficult to find a famous director, and secondly, Cao Xuan didn't want to have an ancestor come back to serve him.

So after thinking about it, I felt that I could learn from the studio system of later generations and form a relatively close strategic cooperative relationship with some famous directors.

In fact, this system cannot be said to be borrowed from later generations. It has already taken shape. Huayi and Feng Pants are almost the same model.

However, Feng Pants basically only cooperates with Huayi, and the project interests are highly aligned.

Fanxing and Mr. Xu are more relaxed. Whether or not to collaborate on a project still depends on their own considerations, but they are definitely closer to the director than other companies.

For example, in Mr. Xu’s project, Fanxing has the absolute priority to invest, and the guaranteed share must be above 50%.

Of course, Fanxing can only invest 10% or 5%, but if Fanxing is optimistic about the project and wants to invest more, Xu Laoguai will retain at least 50% of the share, and Fanxing will produce it independently at most.

Similarly, Old Monster Xu also has priority for some of Fanxing’s resources and projects.

Apart from other things, Xu's films will be treated like his own in Fanxing Cinemas. This alone is enough to make many directors and film crews envious and jealous.

The cooperation has been finalized, but the various details of the contract will have to be discussed later.

Anyway, the general intention is settled, those are just minor problems, and no one is in a hurry.

Cao Xuan has great ambitions. He is not only targeting Old Monster Xu, he also plans to get a few more directors.

Wait until Fanxing Building is completed next year, and then announce it together so that the entertainment industry can see the majesty of Boss Cao...

Although the contract has not been officially signed, Old Monster Xu has begun to get into the role. In his words and deeds, his attitude towards Cao Xuan is obviously much more respectful than before.

Such changes in details naturally cannot escape the eyes of the main creators of the "Xiu Chun Dao" crew.

Wu Jing was so bold and took advantage of his good relationship with Cao Xuan to get the matter out.

For a time, the entire crew of "Xiu Chun Knife" had mixed feelings.

Mr. Xu, a representative director in the Hong Kong film industry, is not among the top three directors in Hong Kong in terms of comprehensive index, but he is still in the top five.

After "Xiu Chun Dao", he is expected to return to the top, and even became the most popular director in Hong Kong for a time.

In the current environment where mainland actors are desperately trying to curry favor with the Hong Kong industry, Cao Xuan has taken this great actor under his wing, which will undoubtedly have a huge impact on everyone.

For a time, everyone had the illusion that they were fawning over Hong Kong circles, and Hong Kong circles were fawning over Cao Xuan.

Well, it can’t be considered an illusion.

After all, many big names in Hong Kong are indeed lowering their profile and want to cooperate with Cao Xuan and enter the mainland market.

Facing Huayi and New Picture, the Hong Kong circle still has funds on hand as the greatest confidence.

But facing Cao Xuan, Boss Cao has even more funds than them. The only card the Hong Kong circle can bring to the table is film talent.

These talents are not irreplaceable, and Cao Xuan can even take them for his own use. Therefore, in the cooperation between the two parties, Cao Xuan is the one who takes the initiative.

Based on the current background of mainland films, blindly attacking and contradicting Hong Kong circles will do more harm than good.

By recruiting and absorbing some of the other party's talents while cultivating our own talents, once we have accumulated sufficient foundation, the mainland will be completely self-sufficient in terms of talent, technology, resources and other aspects.

The rest is simple, either kneel down and be a dog, or flip the table and get out...

————

ps: Happy New Year to everyone on the first day of the Lunar New Year ▄██●, and I’d like to ask for a New Year’s ticket by the way.