Top of the big era

The flight from Los Angeles to London takes more than ten hours.

Several little secretaries went to the bedroom to rest.

However, Zhou Buqi and Bob Friedman became more and more speculative as they chatted. They had the passion and boldness of partners in the early stages of starting a business, and they would stay up all night talking about creativity and ideas.

This time, it seems that the two of them will not sleep.

Zhou Buqi wants to implement his own production strategy at Ziweixing Global, but he is an outsider, and he has no credibility and persuasiveness to promote many things.

Bob Friedman is a veteran in the Hollywood industry. By using him to promote the project, you can get twice the result with half the effort. It just so happens that although this man is old, he is not conservative and has ideas that are different from the mainstream thinking in Hollywood.

After talking about the three big concepts of "inertia", "special effects" and "popcorn", Zhou Buqi proposed a fourth concept: family fun.

Investing in movies is risky.

Especially for big-budget movies, if they lose money, the company may go bankrupt.

Why was DreamWorks sold? Because "Escape from Clone Island" failed; why did MGM go bankrupt and be sold? Because Wu Yusen's blockbuster "Windtalker" failed.

If you want to conduct risk control management of investment projects from a higher level, you must have a standardized process with a high probability of success.

In the past, there were many theories in Hollywood, such as high-concept creativity, the ups and downs in rhythm, and the theory of box office in the first week of the release period.

But those are a bit outdated.

Movie rating websites have taken away the cloak of movies. All the mystery, curiosity-driven, and impulsive consumption in the past will have worse and worse effects in the future.

There must be a theory that even if the movie is stripped naked and exposed in front of the fans, the fans will still be willing to buy tickets to enter the movie!

If it is an excellent movie, such as "Avatar" and "The Dark Knight", it goes without saying that the super high quality can break through all obstacles.

The difficult part is the movies that are rated low by rating websites.

How can a Hollywood blockbuster still sell well and make a lot of money even after it is given a low rating by a rating website?

This is the most important thing!

It is only natural that good movies make money. The operation is very simple and does not require careful planning. He wants to come up with a theory that allows Hollywood commercial blockbusters to break through the barriers of movie rating websites. Even if they have low scores, they will still sell well!

This is the mainstay.

Making a good movie is a small probability event, but making a bad movie is a high probability event.

If small-probability events make big money, and high-probability events make small money, then Ziweixing Global will be considered a great success in its film production strategy.

Just like Disney in the previous life, at most eight of the top ten box office movies of the year were from Disney.

Why?

Because Disney has a close relationship with Silicon Valley, it has a new understanding of the technological era.

Disney is the company with the most technological attributes in Hollywood and the closest to the Internet. Other companies invest in a bunch of mid- to low-cost movies with production costs of several million to tens of millions of dollars. Disney is different. All of Disney's movies are blockbusters with an investment of more than 100 million US dollars!

Why?

Because times have changed, special effects blockbusters are what movie fans just need to buy tickets to watch movies in theaters.

How big a difference can there be between watching a mid-to-low-cost ordinary movie in a cinema and watching it at home? In the era of technological advancement, the logic of necessity to go to movie theaters no longer exists.

"The inertial effect, under the influence of the brand of remakes, sequels, and remakes, can break through the trouble of low scores on rating websites; the special effects effect can form a rigid need in the unique viewing experience of the cinema, and the shocking special effects can counteract Low score; the content of popcorn turns the movie into an entertainment event, and the meaning of the activity is greater than the meaning of the movie. It doesn’t matter if the score is low; family fun is American culture."

Zhou Buqi gave his own concluding answer.

Inertia, special effects, popcorn, family fun.

Bob Friedman smiled, "Yes, parents accompanying their children to the cinema is a necessary expense for family entertainment. This is a culture. Children's understanding of movies may not be that deep. The main thing is to enjoy the process, even if the score is It's a little lower... As long as it's suitable for children and teenagers, parents will accommodate their children."

Zhou Buqi said: "The emergence of movie rating websites has indeed had a huge impact on Hollywood movies. It's actually okay now, but the popularity of rating websites is not enough. In a few years, when we enter the next Internet era, movie ratings will Will be completely integrated into Hollywood. This is an inevitable reality."

Bob Friedman said reassuringly: "I am very calm now. The strategy you gave has allowed me to find the answer and theoretical basis. "Twilight" has low ratings and high box office. The reason behind it is Inertia, special effects and popcorn. Although there is no family fun factor, this is a love movie and couples will go together, so the logic is the same."

Zhou Buqi said: "The most important thing is the inertial selection of materials. Adapt games into movies, comics into movies, novels into movies, remakes of classic old movies, remakes of excellent foreign works. There are also adaptations of real events, and adaptation of animated movies into live-action movies, even biopics.”

"Biographical movie?"

"Famous figures are also brands, and they also have an inertia effect."

"Making a feature film?"

"Ah?" Zhou Buqi was stunned for a moment, then laughed, "You misunderstood, we are not photographing serious figures like Hoover and Lincoln. The future is an era of entertainment, and entertaining brand characters are the best choice. For example, Chaplin , Monroe, such as Michael Jackson, Lennon, such as Audrey Hepburn and Vivien Leigh. This itself is a disguised extension of Hollywood’s traditional big star strategy.”

Bob Friedman mused: "It can be divided according to the production cost."

Zhou Buqi waved his hand and said, "As for the specific plan, after we have talked about it this time, you can make a complete proposal. In short, commercial blockbusters must meet these four requirements at the same time. Medium and low-cost projects can be appropriately placed Open restrictions.”

"It's impossible to keep a secret in Hollywood."

Bob Friedman glanced at him warily.

Zhou Buqi didn't care and said calmly: "Ziweixing Universal should lead Hollywood and set an example. Whoever wants to learn, let them learn."

"But there's another problem."

"What is it?"

"What about the screenwriter?"

"Um?"

Zhou Buqi didn't quite understand.

Bob Friedman said: "Hollywood brings together the best screenwriters and producers in the world, and they have countless fantastic ideas every day. This is the source of Hollywood creativity in the past hundred years. If we promote inertia What about the screenwriters with original creative ideas in the remake, adaptation, and sequel series?"

"Making an original script into a Hollywood blockbuster?" Zhou Buqi shook his head, "This is too risky. With the giant screen and 3D super vision, the production budget of a Hollywood blockbuster will reach 200 million US dollars. Including publicity and distribution costs, the total investment will be as high as 400 million US dollars! Who dares to take such a big risk on an original project? I am afraid that only great directors like Cameron and Spielberg are the only ones."

Bob Friedman nodded, "So original scripts can only be used to make some low- and medium-cost movies."

"right."

"But many excellent scripts are about science fiction and fantasy, and it is difficult to support them if the funds are small."

"Actually, there is another direction."

Zhou Buqi pointed out another clear path.

Bob Friedman asked, "What is it?"

Zhou Buqi said: "TV series."

"TV drama?"

Bob Friedman was stunned.

Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "We all plan to make "The Hobbit" into a TV series. What kind of creativity can't be made into a TV series? Are you just looking down on TV series? Times have changed. In the future, the status of TV series will become more and more important. High, even exceeding that of mid- to low-cost movies. In the past, audiences could only passively watch TV series through TV stations. In the future, with the influence of the Internet, viewers can actively choose to binge-watch TV series without interruption."

As technology evolves, this is a big deal.

If film companies want to make money and reduce investment risks, they can only engage in IP-based films. There will be a lot of homogeneous movies on the market.

The top ten movies at the box office of the year will all be sequels, remakes, adaptations, and special effects movies.

The past situation of a hundred flowers blooming will never return.

But where are those excellent ideas from the past going to be digested?

The answer is American TV series.

Those outstanding production teams, screenwriters, and even first-line actors who cannot receive big productions in Hollywood will devote themselves to the filming of TV series.

Complete their artistic creation through TV series.

One advantage of TV dramas is that they are very long and can tell a complete story. There is no need to do rhythm and paragraph design to cater to the audience like a movie. It can achieve a truly screenwriter-centered system and create a truly great story.

Especially with the advent of streaming media!

Streaming media platforms all follow the route of self-produced dramas and spend huge sums of money to produce hit TV series, which gives talented artists a platform to show off their skills.

Under the influence of technology, movies and TV series will undergo serious category differentiation.

Zhou Buqi said: "A 100-minute feature film with an investment of 20 million US dollars, even if it succeeds, how much money can it make? The theater market in the future will no longer welcome this type of film. The same funding and The production team, if it can be made into a 3-hour mini-drama or a 10-hour single-season drama, the story will be more complete and more watchable. Even if theatrical distribution is abandoned, the revenue will not necessarily be reduced. TV series Business will be the key business of Ziweixing Global in the future."

Bob Friedman took a deep breath, already acutely aware, "Streaming!"

If you want to make a TV series, you'd better have a TV station at home.

But Ziweixing Global has divested itself of its TV station business.

It is obvious that the big boss has voluntarily given up on TV stations and is focusing on the Internet and the trendy streaming media industry.

"Let's talk about this separately," Zhou Buqi waved his hand and made a request, "Go back and sort out the conversation we just had, enrich the details, work out the theory, and submit it to the president's office."

"I see."

"By the way, I looked at the New York Times bestseller list, and there was a book called "The Hunger Games."

"I followed it, and it's very popular among teenagers."

Bob Friedman blinked and immediately connected with Boss Zhou's theory just now. Adapting this book into a movie really conforms to every clause.