China Entertainment King of Science Fiction

Chapter 262 Global Synchronization

Years later, DreamWorks has not been immersed in the unprecedented success of "Mekong". Of course, marketing still needs to be maintained, because the inspirational counterattack of "Mekong" during the Spring Festival holiday has made countless netizens become spiritual shareholders of this movie. Then it is even more important to take advantage of netizens and audiences’ discussion of the film’s content and attention to its performance, and try to convert it into box office.

As the boss of DreamWorks, Chen Jingxing also needs to be aware of the progress of the company's various completed and unfinished works.

The only films that have been filmed, are in post-production, or even completed are "The Signal: Mirage" and "Gravity."

For these two movies, DreamWorks has already started publicity and distribution work. "Mirage" is still in post-production, but it is expected to be released in May, so the time is still relatively tight.

Because it has the title of the second part of the movie "The Signal", it is easier to promote it. You must know that after the blessing of a movie version of "The Signal" and the TV series "The Signal", the word "Signal" is now a word that can mobilize people. A brand that audiences expect.

Of course, in fact, the three "Signal" movies have independent content and stories. If they were placed on other film and television drama IPs, the audience would have started to cry fraud, such as "Manslaughter" and "Manslaughter 2" in Chen Jingxing's previous life.

However, when faced with the IP "Signal", the audience did not feel cheated.

First of all, it created the movie version of the "Signal" IP. The story is very complete, leaving no buttons or suspense, and there is not much room for expansion.

That’s why when DreamWorks launched the TV series with the same name as “The Signal”, so many people, including Chen Jingxing’s fans, were confused. They even thought it was similar to making TV series with the same name after other popular movies, and making movies with the same name after the TV series became popular. , Chen Jingxing wants to make quick money and squeeze out the commercial value of the "Signal" movie.

The completeness of the story of "Signal" itself and the release of the TV series of the same name made the audience not think that the name "Signal: Mirage" was a sequel to the first "Signal".

The stories in this season are basically small but beautiful science fiction fables, and do not involve big scenes. Therefore, not only are the costs low, but they are also easy to shoot. Even the post-production visual effects were completed a year ago, and they are waiting to be released. The video website aired it.

Now most viewers' first reaction when they hear DreamWorks' new film "The Signal: Mirage" is that it is another film that uses a communication tool to achieve communication across time and space, thereby triggering the butterfly effect, timeline changes, and mutual redemption.

And Chen Jingxing wants to take this opportunity to achieve simultaneous release in multiple countries and regions, or at least back-to-back releases. This is not only to save publicity funds, but also to build momentum.

The effect Chen Jingxing wants is to achieve simultaneous release in at least China and the United States, as well as several important markets in East Asia, and other major markets will also be released one after another.

But "Gravity" is different. Although "Gravity" is scheduled to be released in the summer, after discussions between Chen Jingxing and Qin Zhonghe, the initial consideration is mid-July.

Whether you like it or not, you are definitely curious about this movie. Who doesn’t want to see China’s first space disaster-themed movie? Who can’t be curious about this movie, which is known as the “most expensive in history”? Even if he is bad, you still want to see how bad he is.

The remuneration cost of "Black Mirror" is almost only one-tenth of the production cost. There are basically no well-known stars in the show. They are either 18th-tier actors or not-well-known drama actors. There are even Beijing Film and Chinese Operas.

School students are willing to participate in DreamWorks dramas even if they don’t get paid. The exposure and discussion brought by DreamWorks film and television dramas are the biggest benefits in themselves.

The release of "Gravity" will also become an important task that DreamWorks will spend the most resources to promote in the first half of the year.

Of course, the low cost is only compared to other film and television drama projects of DreamWorks. The production cost of the first season of "Black Mirror" exceeded 20 million, which is equivalent to an average of 4 million per episode. This amount is already considered the highest level for domestic TV dramas.

And this is the advantage of Xuanfa.

Although many small companies have begun to ride on the popularity of "The Signal", and some video platforms have even produced online movies with the names "The Signal" and "The Signal XX", DreamWorks' "The Signal" is unique and recognized by the audience.

It is a brand of DreamWorks + science fiction, and the perception of "Mirage" will not be affected by these popular Internet celebrities.

In addition, "Gravity" is the biggest deal for Universal's special effects studio in recent years. In this sense, Universal has participated in the production of "Gravity" and is relatively familiar with and optimistic about the film.

"Source Code" did well at the overseas box office last year. Coupled with the accumulation of previous films, Chen Jingxing's brand still has a certain influence overseas, which makes the global synchronization plan of "Gravity" feasible.

Many Hollywood super blockbusters have a huge fanfare before they are released, with media reports in dozens of countries and advertisements everywhere. Could it be that the publicity and distribution expenses of Hollywood studios can create such a publicity momentum in dozens of countries?

After watching one movie and one TV series, the audience has almost established unconditional trust in science fiction movies like "The Signal". Many fans who follow the dynamics of DreamWorks and movie projects are very much looking forward to this movie.

I want to see what other new tricks DreamWorks can play with this setting.

Chen Jingxing's bottom line is that when "Gravity" is released in North America this time, it will need to be opened in at least 3,000 theaters. Such a large-scale release is already treated as an A-level blockbuster, and I am afraid it will require Universal and other major Hollywood studios.

Negotiate carefully.

In addition, the more important thing is the quality of the work. Both the movie version and the TV series version have a strong reputation. The movie version has a score of 8.5. The TV series has been aired for several months, and the score is still strong at 9.6. The box office ratings are very successful.

Although the external single-episode cost of some domestic TV series that are currently so-called S-level productions has exceeded 4 million, the salary ratio is very large. A-list stars who can resist ratings or have appeal generally earn more than 100 yuan per episode.

It cost 1 million, but the cost of hiring two such stars for a single episode would have exceeded 2 million.

Don’t underestimate the role of momentum. Audiences in many countries will follow this strategy for blockbusters released across the country. Once they become popular abroad, domestic theaters will also increase their film schedules, and audiences will prefer to watch blockbusters that are more popular, and even

Can form an echo effect.

The reason why I chose Universal was that, first of all, the person in charge of Firefly was recommended by Universal and had working experience in major North American theater chains and Universal. Secondly, the cooperation between the two companies was quite pleasant on the release of "Source Code".

"Gravity" has been so hyped by domestic media as "the most expensive in history" and "space disaster movie", but DreamWorks actually did not spend a penny. The media and marketing accounts will spontaneously find gimmicks to attract traffic.

After all, "Gravity" was not released in North America like other domestic movies, which were randomly released in dozens or even a few movie theaters in the Bay Area and several big cities where Chinese people live in large numbers.

And just after the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, DreamWorks announced the scheduled release of "Gravity", which made many Chen Jingxing fans, netizens who follow the movie, and the media very excited.

However, since it is a summer release in China, in order to achieve a simultaneous release in China and the United States, the North American market will naturally also be a summer release. This is still difficult in North America, where competition is far more intense than in the Chinese market.

Instead, there are only five episodes. Each episode is an independent story and requires different actors. A-list actors come to you to shoot one episode. The producers have high requirements. They are basically movie-level requirements. It takes so much effort and you get a salary of one hundred.

Wan, to be honest, the price/performance ratio is very low for A-list celebrities.

Among the three dramas, "Black Mirror" has already been filmed, because the first season only has five episodes, each episode is almost fifty minutes, which is equivalent to a mini-series.

But the size of "Gravity" determines that he is not just focusing on the domestic market. The production cost is 800 million, and he even directly supported Universal's special effects studio for a year. Plus the publicity and distribution costs, even if it is for

No matter how confident you are in the domestic film market, no one would dare to put all their hopes of making a return on the domestic film market.

Under the management of DreamWorks, the two words "Signal" have become the label for the science fiction setting of "signal across time and space".

Although "Gravity" was produced for more than a year, it has almost never left the public eye. Chen Jingxing's film is China's first space disaster film, and it is also the most expensive film in China's history. These labels are very eye-catching.

, which is what the media will talk about when they mention DreamWorks or Chen Jingxing every now and then.

In the North American market, Firefly Publishing Company also quickly discussed the distribution and promotion arrangements for "Gravity" with Universal.

Of course it’s impossible, and that’s not how money is spent. Most of the popularity is spontaneously promoted by the media in these countries. After a Hollywood blockbuster builds momentum, the media in various countries will take advantage of the popularity and report on it, which is equivalent to free publicity.

Therefore, DreamWorks quickly began to follow up the distribution work in Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asian countries after the year, and coordinated and negotiated with local distributors and theaters in each country.

It’s not that DreamWorks is aloof and disdains hiring big stars, or that Chen Jingxing is stingy and reluctant to spend money.

Excellent quality will naturally win the audience's tolerance for repeated use of the IP name of DreamWorks.

The domestic publicity work of "Gravity" is not too difficult, not to mention the huge investment of resources from the national film industry - although the investment proportion of "Gravity" from Chinese films is not high, only a quarter, the amount is sufficient

With a total of 200 million, it is already considered the highest-invested film by National Film Group in recent years - the expectations of the media and the audience are actually very high.

In addition to movies, DreamWorks also has three TV series that have been approved.

The more countries it is released simultaneously, the easier it will be to establish the image of an international special effects blockbuster. Once the momentum is built up, a virtuous cycle will be achieved, allowing DreamWorks to achieve maximum publicity effects with minimal resources and costs.

These favorable conditions make the publicity and distribution pressure of "Mirage" relatively small.

It makes no sense to invite second- and third-tier stars. There are only five episodes of the TV series and there is no big IP at the bottom. It is impossible for video websites to spend a lot of money to purchase them. The remuneration of the stars is not cost-effective for DreamWorks.

Simply give up the market appeal of the cast, rely on the brand established by DreamWorks itself, sell it to the online platform at a low price, and collect the pay-on-demand account and the advertising account.

Once the first season becomes famous, the second season will naturally be sold at a high price, and better conditions for on-demand revenue sharing can be negotiated.

Chen Jingxing believes that with the DreamWorks brand and excellent quality, the market prospect of "Black Mirror" is still very bright. Even if each episode is regarded as a major online movie, it will be much better than most major online movies on the market. Although online movies

Big names don't have a good reputation, but now the revenue of some online big movies is even higher than that of many theatrical movies, and the money scene of "Black Mirror" will not be bad.

(End of chapter)