When Wei Dongling came back, Xiao Ran was completely happy, because news had just come from Cannes that his new work "True Colors" had been qualified to participate in the competition. This was something that made Xiao Ran really happy, because it was completely dependent on himself.
He has the ability to direct, and now he can qualify for competition in global works, which is enough to prove his ability.
For Xiao Ran, who has always hoped to get his own works, this is definitely a huge affirmation. Now he thinks he can really understand why those filmmakers desperately want to win the film award.
Awarded.
In fact, "The Spy" and "The Legend of Cars" are completely his personal creations. However, because those two films have too commercial elements, Xiao Ran cannot regard them as personal works. What he wants is actually
It is a platform that can fully express oneself, and it is also a completely stylized personal work.
He is not busy with this matter at the moment. He is enjoying the reports from the mainland at home. Theaters in the mainland are currently being built one after another, but the renovated theaters have been completed. I have to admit that those theaters are incompatible with the equipment and aspects.
Compared to before the transformation, there is absolutely a world of difference.
Equipment from Dolby Laboratories and DTS controlled by Phantom, comfortable seats and multi-functional screening rooms, all of which cost the studio a lot of money. Although Dolby and DTS are both Phantom's holding companies, they still have
Buy according to price, right?
Then again, there is no comparison with the mainland theaters before the renovation. One is still in its infancy and the other is in adulthood. There is no comparison. Compared with American theaters, the Phantom has done a better job in this aspect.
Well, all the theaters under the control of Movie Theater have invested a lot of money in renovation in recent years. It would not be an exaggeration to say that it is the most comfortable and enjoyable theater in the world.
Xiao Ran has always believed that the reason why mainland films have been unable to keep up is largely due to state support and control, which has led to the failure to market, that is, commercialization. For example, the current Hong Kong film industry is under the leadership of Phantom
, it is already a very mature business empire.
In addition, the theater factors are undoubtedly very important, which is why he spent so much effort to renovate and build theaters. The second reason is the ticket price. After a series of investigations, the film company finally classified the theaters in the mainland
The ticket price is set at two yuan. Although it seems too low on the surface, the most important thing is to train the audience to enter the theater. When they develop this habit, piracy can be strangled to a large extent.
Due to the return of exchange students last year, mainland film studios have produced a total of 30 films so far, with an average investment of less than 10 million. The largest investments are two summer blockbusters invested by China Film Group, with investments of 50 million and 60 million respectively.
Ten million. If you lose money, you will definitely lose everything.
What’s interesting is that according to these records, these exchange students were very unaccustomed to the mainland’s production system within half a month of returning to work. First of all, the first point is to establish the project. The script approval alone is almost killing people.
It’s even more funny when it comes to equipment. The film studios can’t even meet the two most basic items of film and photographic equipment that exchange students want.
Huang Qun originally planned to borrow it from Xiao Ran after receiving the news, but Xiao Ran told him in a very simple sentence: "The best equipment in Hong Kong is at Siwei Company. Although it is a subsidiary company, what kind of film does Phantom want to make?
You still have to pay to rent it. You can rent it, and at most I’ll give you a slight discount on the price!”
When Xiao Ran said this, Huang Qun was extremely embarrassed. In the end, the mainland film studio was reluctant to rent the equipment at a price that even exceeded the production fee. However, China Film Company was very determined to die until the end, so it gritted its teeth and paid for it.
The moneybags rented equipment from the mainland branch of Siwei to those two blockbusters.
However, a problem arose. When the script was released after being reviewed by the film studio and film bureau, it was completely changed. This made many screenwriters who were exchange students almost vomit blood. Under the influence of Phantom, these screenwriters have become accustomed to it.
I wanted to create freely, but I didn’t expect that what I sent back after I sent it was completely different from what I wrote.
A funny thing happened. There were about a hundred exchange students who returned last year, and after less than a month, the screenwriters resigned one after another. The director and other filmmakers were even more angry. During the filming, the head of the film studio actually dared to
There were many people who pointed fingers and resigned.
The filmmakers who barely managed to finish filming couldn't help but vomit blood when it came to post-production. What is post-production? There is space, but the equipment is completely inferior. It is simply too far behind. However, the film studio is also reluctant to spend money.
Too much money was used to think about the later stage, so I had to make do.
After finishing it in the later stage and enjoying the pornographic film, the creators all hid their faces and left. It was extremely shameful. What they were thinking about at that time was that if their colleagues in Hong Kong saw it, they would be laughed at to death. Action movie
Because there was no good post-production, the result became mushy.
In fact, these are just the experiences of a small number of people. The country attaches great importance to this return, and has spent a lot of money for this purpose, hoping to provide a glimmer of hope. Just to invest in the films of the returning students, the country has borrowed the help of China Film to invest.
Hundreds of millions.
Those film studios have indeed responded to the country's call and tried hard to make Chinese films popular. However, they have not been able to write down much in terms of scripts alone. Moreover, what is interesting is that some of these film studios are very stubborn and have not
The film was sent to Phantom for post-production. However, most of it was still produced, but some things were not technically sufficient.
There are too many restrictions on film production in mainland China. Many filmmakers who resigned and rushed back to Hong Kong told Xiao Ran that they couldn't stand the feeling of being dictated by irrelevant people.
Xiao Ran has no fear at all about China Film's two summer blockbusters. The fundamental atmosphere of the film market cannot be improved. Even if all the filmmakers of Phantom are brought over, it will be useless. The film studio is controlled by the state, and the film studio is no longer under the control of the state.
If you control the filmmakers, you will never get market-oriented improvements.
As for the box office of these films? This is actually something that can be imagined. At least forty Hong Kong films continue to flow to the mainland market every year. Hong Kong films, which have always been known for their entertainment, have completely dominated the market in an overwhelming manner. Of course,
Later, Huang Qun still called Xiao Ran in a very tactful manner, hoping that the Hong Kong film industry could stagger the schedule and not deliberately compete with mainland films.
They all implemented it, but the box office performance of the film was also not good. The heads of the film studios didn't understand why the same group of people were able to produce films with excellent reputation and box office in Hong Kong, but all failed in the mainland?
Xiao Ran still felt a little sorry, because the country's investment of hundreds of millions was destined to lose money. In fact, Xiao Ran knew very well that all this would always happen. What should mainland films do now to compete with Hong Kong films? Especially let returning filmmakers do it.
.Don’t forget that those returning filmmakers, such as Wei Changqing and other first-class directors, receive at least two million yuan in salary in Hong Kong.
In the mainland, two million is enough to make a movie. Especially for Wei Changqing, his director's remuneration is already as high as four million. Let them film in the mainland? How much is the remuneration? Where does the remuneration come from? It's basically a salary system
, and the combined annual salary is not as high as Wei Changqing's remuneration for filming a fifteen-minute short film in Hong Kong.
Those filmmakers are worth hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars. How can the movie studio pay for this money? Without commercialization of movies, there will be no box office. Without box office, it means basically no income. If there is no income, what will be used to pay for it?
Filmmakers have no space to show their talents, and they can't even support themselves. Why are they filming any movies? They just buy a piece of tofu and kill them. What makes filmmakers like Wei Changqing depressed is that under the leadership of Phantom, the Hong Kong film industry has once again set off a revolution.
Due to the rising price trend, Fa Ge, the most valuable person, has exceeded 20 million. This trend is fierce enough, but they are not here, and they have to re-film to prove themselves.
After all, the mainland could not stop this wave of returning. After filming, the filmmakers returned to Hong Kong one after another, and each found their own studio, either Phantom or Debao. Last year's wave of returning finally ended with a farce-like
The curtain gradually came to an end.
This is the reason why Xiao Ran stopped worrying about it after thinking about it at the time. This is also the reason why he tried so hard to raise the remuneration of filmmakers. If you haven’t seen the history, Wu Yusen complained that Hollywood basically treats directors as wage earners rather than creators.
, but for the sake of making money, I am still reluctant to come back.
What has worried Xiao Ran for a while is where to stop this remuneration. At present, Asia, excluding the mainland, has a market of more than 3 billion U.S. dollars each year, and Europe has a market of 2 billion U.S. dollars. In Asia, Hong Kong films have
Nearly 40% of the market, and nearly 30% of the market in Europe.
The average investment in the first round of Hong Kong films is currently as high as 40 million, and the remaining profits are far less than before. Based on the price comparison with the United States, the remuneration of filmmakers has basically reached the level of Hollywood.
After investigation and calculation, it was finally determined that the current salary base would be maintained for the time being, at least until there is no further expansion in the mainland market.
In fact, there is absolutely no room for improvement in film remuneration. At present, Hong Kong invests about 6 billion in film production every year. And if you add in the North American market that has gradually entered the North American market, Hong Kong films can earn at least two billion at the global box office for the whole year.
Tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars, of which there is still a considerable proportion of profits.
And don’t forget that movies don’t only rely on box office revenue. With the promotion of VCD in Asia, the revenue from video tapes has gradually caught up with the latter. And in terms of TV broadcast rights, it sold like crazy. Last Christmas alone
"Jurassic Park", which was released successively in North America, sold the North American TV broadcast rights for US$60 million. The broadcast rights in Asia and Europe were purchased by Shuxiang Media for HK$400 million.
Therefore, there is still room for development in remuneration. However, Xiao Ran believes that the current situation is not clear enough. As long as the mainland relaxes the censorship, prices can be increased anytime and anywhere. After going around and around, the key to the problem finally comes back to this point.
superior.
This gave Xiao Ran a headache, and he couldn't help but angrily left the desk. He cursed a few words bitterly, thinking that he was not the person in charge of a Hong Kong movie, so why did he have to do this mess by himself?
?
After being depressed for a long time, Xiao Ran walked to the balcony, looked at the sky and screamed a few times, finally calming down. He couldn't blame him for being depressed anymore, Phantom's own affairs were enough to bother him, but he actually
We also need to plan for the future of Chinese-language films. What has happened!
Xiao Ran smiled bitterly, didn't he ask for all this? For his ideal, he must pay a lot of price. Facing the strong wind, Xiao Ran felt like a bird in the sky, no matter how strong the wind was, he had to pay a price.
Move forward in your intended direction.
Xiao Ran is not a bird, he has no wings. However, Wei Dongling is Xiao Ran's wings. Can Chinese-language movies fly to their intended goals? Can Phantom achieve a global monopoly? This is still unknown.
In the afternoon, Phantom Group will convene a meeting with the heads of its film-related subsidiaries, which is really interesting. On the surface, Phantom Group is only one of the seven flagship companies controlled by Xiao Ran, but in fact, Phantom Group controls
The equity of the other six major flagships. Of course, the equity of Phantom is still the same as the three directors: Xiao Ran, Wei Dongling and Fang Xiaoqiang. The company's distribution stocks are given to other companies.
"A Dong, have you chosen the acquisition target?" This was Xiao Ran's question to Wei Dongling. Xiao Ran didn't know much about business history, but he still vaguely knew that starting from last year, the global electronics industry, network industry, computer industry, etc.
It has developed by leaps and bounds. Therefore, this is obviously a good opportunity to make money.
"Screw you, what else can't be done if I take action?" Wei Dongling stared at Xiao Ran with great contempt and retorted: "What I want to ask is, are you ready with the money?"
Xiao Ran chuckled. During the period when Wei Dongling left, he deliberately sold some stocks of companies controlled by Phantom Group in order to raise funds in exchange for acquisition funds. A considerable part of the stocks and real estate controlled by Phantom Group were obviously sold.
Not a bad thing.
It is undoubtedly efficient to cash out profitable investments and then use the funds to make other investments. At least Xiao Ran remembers that this is how Li Ka-shing did the business that made a profit of HK$70 billion.
It is no exaggeration to say that except for a few very important company shares that were not sold, Xiao Ran sold almost all other shares. Phantom Company, which has invested more than 8 billion in this area over the years, has made a profit through this sale.
Nearly 30 billion Hong Kong dollars were earned, and some of Hathaway’s stocks alone earned more than 10 billion.
However, selling is also very helpless. Xiao Ran doesn't want to add more debt to the company, so he has no choice but to sell these to raise funds. Think about it when he took over Hutchison Whampoa, which has a market value of nearly 200 billion, he was saddled with Hutchison Whampoa itself.
The debt is US$6 billion, and Phantom has only managed to bring this figure down by working hard to pay off the debt in the past few years.
Phantom has passed the tragic state of capital shortage caused by multiple large-scale acquisitions last year, but Phantom still does not have as large a cash reserve as before. Although there are still one or two billion Hong Kong dollars on weekdays, this is easy for the current situation.
The Phantom Group, which uses billions of dollars to do things, is obviously far from enough.
*****
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