China Entertainment special effects started in 1997

When the Hong Kong film market was booming, the film copyright was sold before the film was shot.

That year, Wang Jing was on vacation, but the Xiang brothers called him and asked him to start shooting in seven days.

There was no script, but they gave him ten words: Stephen Chow, Andy Lau, Tricky Brains.

They said the copyright had been sold and the film would be released during the Spring Festival one and a half months later.

Wang Jing racked his brains, and with the help of Stephen Chow and Andy Lau, the overall effect of the film was not bad.

Although Hollywood was not as rushed as Hong Kong, many films also solved the distribution problem before shooting.

Jiang Heng was different, because he was too young and was not a Hollywood director, and the global distributors did not trust him that much.

If he went straight to "The Matrix 2", with the blessing of the previous work, everyone would naturally rush to distribute it.

But if you follow the trend to shoot monster movies, you have to wait and see the quality of the film before making a decision.

Fortunately, the mainland market performed very well, attracting film distributors from Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, and Taiwan to rush in, and sold a total of 9.85 million US dollars in copyright fees. Converted into RMB, it is almost 80 million, which completely covers the "book" cost of the film.

This result makes all the leaders of Beijing Film Studio, including Han Sanping, very happy.

The cost is recovered, and the rest is pure profit.

The box office performance in the mainland is estimated to be 200 million, and the shareable income is about 70 million.

If North America and Europe perform better at the box office, they will make double the profit.

However, the people in Beijing Film Studio have no idea how much these two places can sell, and Jiang Heng is also a little nervous.

After all, it is not a classic script circulated in film history, and it has been criticized by many netizens on Mop. Although the special effects scenes have been unanimously praised, only God knows whether it can be favored by European and American audiences.

Unexpectedly, before he set off, film producers from Britain, France and other countries came to him, and they still shared the distribution according to the conditions of "The Matrix 1".

These people obviously came after seeing the effect of the film and the market performance, which made Jiang Heng more confident.

After Christmas and before New Year's Day, the first Hollywood company finally arrived, and it was Universal Pictures.

The condition given was 8 million US dollars to buy out the North American distribution rights of "100 Million Years BC".

Jiang Heng was amused, 8 million US dollars, are you kidding!

Just for this subject matter, and it is a pure special effects blockbuster, it can always get 30 to 50 million US dollars if it is released casually in North America.

"Mr. Frank, you don't want to buy my film, take it back and put it in the warehouse, and wait for your "Jurassic Park 3" to be released before releasing it to the public!"

Larry Frank was stunned for a moment, then laughed: "How is it possible? If you put it for two or three years and then sell it, I'm afraid you won't even be able to get back the buyout fee!"

"The problem is that if you put it for that time, it won't affect the box office of "Jurassic Park 3"!"

Frank waved his hands quickly, "No, no, Mr. Jiang, you really think too much. Although too many dinosaur films released in a period of time will make the audience aesthetically fatigued. But don't forget that North America is the world's number one box office market. Even if there are two or three dinosaur-type films a year, there are still profits!"

Jiang Heng sneered: "Really? Then why do you have a few years between each movie?"

Frank thought, don't you just not know how to shoot? If the same routine is used too much, the audience will definitely get tired of it!

If it's innovative, I don't know if the audience will like it.

Speaking of innovation, Jiang Heng's new film "100 Million Years BC" is a different approach compared to "Jurassic Park", but I don't know whether the audience will buy it.

Universal Pictures' idea is that they can't stop your film from being released in North America anyway.

Why not try it yourself first? Eight million US dollars is a lot in the Chinese film market, but even Hollywood can't hire first-line stars.

Although the plot of "100 Million Years BC" is a bit worse, after all, Jiang Heng, Wu Yizu and Li Meiqi are the publicity gimmicks, and the special effects are not bad. If it can sell about 100 million box office results, it will be profitable.

Jiang Heng is young, but he is not easy to fool. After talking for an afternoon, there was no result and he could only return empty-handed.

Then came Columbia.

The two sides had a pleasant cooperation last year and had signed a distribution contract for the "Matrix" series of films. Vice President Pascal once had the idea of ​​signing Jiang Heng.

As a result, the two sides did not agree and did not reach an agreement.

If "10,000 BC" wants to be released, we have to renegotiate the cooperation.

The person who came this time is still the same person from last year, Douglas Wick.

"Director Jiang, you really gave me a difficult problem this time!"

"What do you mean?"

"The special effects of your film are really great, better than "Jurassic Park". The plot is a bit bad. I'm really afraid that it will be released on a large scale and the box office performance will be too poor!"

Jiang Heng smiled, "It's because of this expectation that we want to split the revenue for distribution! If we buy it out and the box office collapses in the end, wouldn't it be a pitfall for you? I will never do anything to pit my friends!"

"I understand, I believe in your character. It's just that this film is too entangled for us. If it was the sequel to "The Matrix", I wouldn't have such a headache!"

Jiang Heng thought, nonsense, the contract for the split distribution of the sequel to "The Matrix" has been signed, so why do you have to worry about it?

The two men argued fiercely for a whole morning, and finally signed the agency distribution contract according to the distribution conditions of "The Matrix".

The reason was, of course, that they were optimistic about the box office performance of this film.

Douglas Vick returned to the United States with the signed contract and the English version of the film source, and met with Amy Pascal, who had been promoted to president.

"Ms. President, Jiang Heng is really too difficult to deal with. No matter what I said, he refused to lower the conditions and insisted on calculating according to the profit-sharing ratio of "The Matrix", and even more so, he did not agree to a buyout. Seeing that he was determined and there were several other companies involved, I signed a contract with him."

Pascal recalled the last conversation with Jiang Heng, and still had some resentment, "He is a stubborn and greedy person. Sooner or later, he will fall into a big fall. This time, let him get some benefits!"

Pascal had just been promoted to president, and the performance pressure soared.

Originally, he thought that he would never distribute Jiang Heng's monster movie, but near the end of the year, he thought about it and agreed. If she hadn't explained it, Douglas Vick would never dare to sign such a profit-sharing contract easily.

"By the way, have you seen his new film? How was it?"

Douglas Wick hesitated for a moment, "I can only say that the special effects are far better than Jurassic Park!"

"Movies are a holistic art form. You can't make a lot of money just by having outstanding special effects!"

Wick thought of the scenes he saw when he secretly visited some theaters in Beijing. Countless boys and girls, parents and children gathered in the theaters!

He didn't know what these people really thought after watching it, but it was true that this movie was a big hit at the box office!