Chapter 759: 3 Million USD! (8000-word update!)

"The distribution rights for *Dragon Inn* in North America were bought out by Green Valley for 10 million USD."

Before entering the *Burning Fire 2* crew, Chen Ziyan brought back this news.

Lu Yan He was slightly stunned, then laughed out loud.

Long Yan... really didn't "disappoint" him at all.

10 million USD, bought out.

Long Yan directly earned 10 million USD in one go. This should be the highest buyout distribution price for a Chinese film in recent years.

However, a buyout also means that all future revenue from *Dragon Inn* in North America has nothing to do with Long Yan.

Lu Yan He couldn't hold back his sneer at all.

Chen Ziyan asked: "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, nothing wrong," Lu Yan He said. "It's also a record-breaking buyout distribution price."

Chen Ziyan listened to the sarcasm in Lu Yan He's voice and shook her head helplessly.

"It doesn't matter. Since *Dragon Inn* was bought by Green Valley at such a high distribution price, they will definitely make a better screening plan," Chen Ziyan said. "I heard that Green Valley is preparing to give *Dragon Inn* a large-scale release, starting with 2,000 theaters."

Lu Yan He showed a look of surprise.

"So many?"

"Yes," Chen Ziyan nodded. "They watched this film and are relatively optimistic about its box office performance in North America."

Lu Yan He said: "Starting with 2,000 theaters, then their box office target for *Dragon Inn* is at least over 30 million USD."

"Yes," Chen Ziyan said. "I think Schmidt Lawley will contact you soon."

Lu Yan He: "10 million USD to buy the distribution rights for North America, he is also taking a gamble."

"Under the box office success of *Home Alone* and *Buried*, and the word-of-mouth explosion of *Dragon Inn* at the Hexi Film Festival, it's not surprising that it's valued so highly," Chen Ziyan said. "However, in the future, don't hand your own scripts to other directors to film. If the film copyright is not in your own hands, there will always be some people who can't see the true value."

"Yes," Lu Yan He nodded. "That was because Liu Bige opened his mouth, and I also felt he was suitable. It won't happen again in the future."

Chen Ziyan said: "At worst, the pace will be slower in the future, film fewer plays, and invest funds in such big productions. Linghe can also slowly transform. Trying to make one big production every year should be supported by the current financial situation."

"Hmm, it can be supported, but the company's team hasn't been trained yet," Lu Yan He said. "I still want the people in every department and trade of the company to be more familiar with the film industry before slowly entering the field of big productions."

"You are now sending many people to various big production crews to train and learn, just to accumulate relevant talent for later, right?"

"Hmm, yes," Lu Yan He nodded. "The real production industry is not at the same level as a crew of dozens of people; it requires very professional personnel."

Chen Ziyan nodded: "Okay, just follow your own pace. I read the plan that Chen Yin made that you forwarded to me. His ideas are good, but besides the thriller genre track, I also suggest that youth-themed films are also a brand series that Linghe can make one of every year, like *You Are the Apple of My Eye*. This is also an enduring series with a relatively stable box office market."

Lu Yan He said: "This involves the problem I just told you, Sister Ziyan. Now the film production team of Linghe is too small to support such a big plate. We are already filming several plays at the same time."

"Yan He, you have to change one of your concepts. It's not that every film of Linghe needs to be filmed by Linghe's own people," Chen Ziyan said. "Look at Chen Siqi doing Jump Up Theater. She is a media company that doesn't do film and television production, but she carries such a brand. What does she rely on? She relies on cooperating with various production companies, cooperating with various production teams, and hiring them to film these plays."

Lu Yan He: "But finding directors and production teams from outside is too uncontrollable."

"Don't forget what you cultivated Wan Qingqing, Song Jiang, and these people to do at the beginning," Chen Ziyan said. "Linghe signing directors and signing production talent is a good thing, but the most important thing is that Linghe needs a group of producers who can fight the world alone. Now Linghe is mainly played by Chen Yin, but a person's energy is limited after all."

Lu Yan He fell into deep thought.

"I'm just a reminder. This is a big difference I see between Linghe and other film and television companies," Chen Ziyan added. "In fact, Linghe can walk steadily to today, which is also related to Linghe's great emphasis on production talent and dealing directly with first-tier production talent. Many film companies don't deal with first-tier production talent at all, and all of them are handled by producers. To be honest, this is also very easy to derail."

"Hmm," Lu Yan He said. "Sister Ziyan, let me think about it. I understand what you mean, but if you ask me, who in Linghe is someone I relatively trust and can be a producer, besides Chen Yin, I really can't find anyone else."

Chen Ziyan: "This depends on your cultivation. Wan Qingqing was cultivated very well, wasn't she? She is now alone in the United States, leading her team, and making the film projects *Flypaper* and *Red Eye* in an orderly manner. My meaning is, on Linghe's side, don't just focus on cultivating first-tier production talent like directors. First-class management personnel and production managers are also what you need to pay attention to."

"Okay."

There are not a few capable people, but there are very few who can be trusted, can be placed in the position of producer, and can manage the flow of huge funds.

Just like the variety show *Chinese Good Songs*, ever since Xin Zixing left, the authority of the producer Deng Lu who took over is much smaller than Xin Zixing's.

She doesn't participate in the business cooperation of the program at all.

The coordination of artists is arranged by people from Shihu.

Li Zhenzhen also has a great say in the design of the program process and content production.

Although Deng Lu is in the position of producer, she knows her situation herself.

Trust needs time.

But precisely because it needs time, it needs to be laid out in advance.

This reminder from Chen Ziyan made Lu Yan He start to "check the accounts."

He has to check clearly how many people in Linghe company he can relatively trust.

Chen Qin counts as one. It's just that Chen Qin has been following Xu Tianming to do copyright derivative development, and is not very familiar with the production of film and television dramas.

And besides Chen Qin, there is basically no one else truly trusted by Lu Yan He.

Lu Yan He suddenly felt why many bosses, even knowing the drawbacks of "family-style enterprises," still arranged for many relatives to hold important positions.

Because compared to those drawbacks, the harm of being betrayed, stabbed in the back, or even having funds rolled away is greater.

However, Chen Ziyan is very right.

People need to be cultivated.

Whether a person is worth trusting needs to be verified by time.

Since the stall is going to be spread bigger and bigger, he must cultivate a group of people he can trust.

This summer is also a challenge for the people of Linghe.

An S+ level big drama *Chinese Paladin* is about to be broadcast, and promotion needs to be done well.

A film *There is a Strange Woman in the Building* is about to start filming, and three films are entering the preparation period.

*You Are the Apple of My Eye* and *Oh My Sea* are released one after another.

Whether it is the production link or the publicity link, it is a hard battle to fight.

Chen Yin specifically gathered everyone in the company to hold a mobilization meeting.

After a passionate incentive speech, Chen Yin specifically emphasized that in October, a special summer bonus would be issued to everyone based on their work performance.

With such a bonus as an incentive, everyone started to be serious and inject chicken blood, cheering.

People in the industry say that Linghe's staff are really happy.

Not to mention the high salary, there will also be "tough period" bonuses during such a concentrated "tough period." Absolutely not letting every effort go unrewarded.

In order to cope with such a workload, Chen Yin on the one hand injected chicken blood internally, and on the other hand began to recruit troops in the industry, especially recruiting troops around the three films entering the preparation period.

Many resumes were even sent to Lu Yan He.

For everyone Chen Yin thinks is good, worth cultivating, or wants to entrust with important tasks, Chen Yin will synchronize a copy of the resume to Lu Yan He and Chen Ziyan, asking them for their opinions.

This is also what Chen Yin has been insisting on.

His style is to do things solidly, and then do it very well in many details, not giving Lu Yan He room to doubt.

Of course, Lu Yan He will also show full trust in him.

Basically, for the plans, candidates, etc., submitted by Chen Yin, Lu Yan He will not have any objections.

This is also the trust gained by Chen Yin through his work performance over the past many years—

In terms of internal company management, Chen Yin is much stronger than him.

Since the second wave of promotion for *Chinese Paladin* officially started, the show has entered the official promotion period.

Yan Liang is filming, but early promotion doesn't need star participation.

Lu Yan He has always told the company that for the promotion of any play, stars are always just a starter and cannot be everything.

Promotion must reduce dependence on stars.

Therefore, there were promotional short films of Jiang Zhi filmed by internationally famous photographers to warm up for *Chinese Paladin* before, and now, the promotion done by Linghe is still starting from the content.

At the end of May, at the largest comic con in the country, Linghe invited the most famous cosers in the country to play the leads in the play, and performed the second version of the trailer on stage.

It was completely in the form of a stage play, with the highest specifications for stage art and lighting.

The live performance was broadcast live, and Linghe also specifically arranged photography.

After the live performance, this version of the trailer was officially launched and released on the whole network.

This version of the trailer directly hit the core viewership group of *Chinese Paladin*—students.

Never underestimate the power of the two-dimensional.

Although the playback volume of this version of the trailer is not as good as the first version, the discussion degree, number of comments, barrage, etc., completely exploded the first version.

With two versions of the trailer released, the heat of *Chinese Paladin* remained high.

Then, Lu Yan He arrived at the time to enter the *Burning Fire* second part crew.

*Burning Fire* second part held a grand opening ceremony.

After Lu Yan He arrived at the scene, he met Huang Zhongjing and Huang Tai.

Huang Zhongjing and Huang Tai both took the initiative to step forward and welcome Lu Yan He.

Lu Yan He smiled and congratulated them on *Dragon Inn*'s North American distribution rights selling for 10 million USD, creating a record.

Both sides looked harmonious.

This scene fully interpreted what is called "hearts not together, faces can be together."

The film *Burning Fire 2*, besides still being starred in by Shang Yongzhou and Lu Yan He, also added another main character, special lead, Jia Long.

Jia Long and Lu Yan He are already old acquaintances.

As a big name in domestic comedy films and now a member of the super first-tier actor echelon, adding a top big name in such a successful series work is a very common operation.

Lu Yan He had no opinion on the script of *Burning Fire 2*.

Long Yan understands production and will put in the effort. Lu Yan He has cooperated with Long Yan so many times, and there has been almost no conflict in content and production. The problems are all in the downstream links, such as promotion, sales, derivative works, etc.

This is probably the reason why Long Yan can rank in the first tier of domestic film companies.

The overall tone of *Burning Fire 2* is slightly more relaxed and happy than the first part.

The tone of the first part was the protagonist's revenge, and the tone of the second part became the exploration of this fantasy world.

Therefore, Jia Long was specifically pulled to join this film to take on a relatively humorous, unconstrained, and funny role.

This is also the reason why Lu Yan He accepted the sequel script.

After all, after experiencing the revenge story of the first part, if he or Shang Yongzhou's character were suddenly asked to take on this part of the content, it would be more or less disjointed. Using a newly added character to dilute the heavy atmosphere at the end of the first part at this time is a very good way.

Lu Yan He found Jia Long and said with a smile: "Brother Long, we have known each other for so long, and finally we are cooperating."

Jia Long also said with a smile: "Yes, I just said that too. We have cooperated so many times, and this is the first time we are acting in a play as actors. Please give me more advice. I am a new addition, you old actor have to lead me."

Lu Yan He immediately made a gesture of pinching his own philtrum, "Save me, how can you, an old actor, be embarrassed to say this."

Jia Long: "How can I be embarrassed to say this? I didn't say anything wrong."

Lu Yan He: "Please."

The people around followed suit and laughed.

Jia Long: "By the way—"

He pulled Lu Yan He aside, lowered his voice, and asked: "Do you really not write the script for the *Lost on Journey* series anymore?"

Last year's Spring Festival file, although the word-of-mouth of *Lost on Journey: Thailand* fell a lot compared to the first part, it took 1.1 billion box office, and the results were still outstanding.

Jia Long has been wanting to operate the third part, but he has many projects on hand, plus Lu Yan He has always said that he doesn't plan to write the script for the later parts, so the third part was shelved.

Now, Jia Long still brought up the third part.

Lu Yan He said: "Brother Long, I really don't have any ideas for the later scripts. If you want to do it, I will authorize you to do it. It's all easy to talk about."

The copyright and development rights of the story *Lost on Journey* are in Lu Yan He's hands.

If Jia Long wants to film the third part, he does need Lu Yan He's authorization and consent.

But Lu Yan He will definitely agree.

He doesn't want to do this series himself, which doesn't mean he doesn't want others to do it.

Jia Long is willing to continue doing it, so he authorizes others to do it.

Especially since his cooperation with Jia Long has always been very pleasant.

During the first *Lost on Journey*, it was Jia Long who fought for profit sharing for him, allowing him to get the treatment that many senior screenwriters could enjoy in his first film screenwriter work.

Moreover, Lu Yan He also remembers very clearly that if it weren't for Jia Long's insistence, perhaps *Lost on Journey* could not have been filmed normally.

At that time, no film company was willing to give satisfactory conditions.

Jia Long nodded.

"If you really don't intend to write it, I will find other screenwriters to create the script," he asked. "Would you mind?"

"I don't mind," Lu Yan He shook his head. "Really, Brother Long, if I really had ideas for this series, I would definitely do it myself. I just feel that, at least for me, I have exhausted my ideas for this story, and I can't write a story I'm satisfied with under this theme."

Jia Long nodded.

"Okay, then I will make an appointment with you later to see how to authorize me to do the third part," he said actively.

Lu Yan He waved his hand, "Don't be so troublesome. You find someone to draft an authorization agreement, and I will authorize you or your company to produce three *Lost on Journey* series films. You can give some authorization fee as you see fit, just to show meaning. I don't need anything else. Later, when you really put the production on the agenda, you leave a few technical positions for me, and I will send Linghe's people over to learn and grow their skills."

Jia Long looked at Lu Yan He in shock.

"You're messing around, how can you do this," Jia Long said. "Don't mess up the market. I'm too lazy to listen to you. I'll go to your company later. You call Ziyan and the people in your company, and we'll talk properly. This involves so many things."

Lu Yan He: "... To tell the truth, Brother Long, for these two films, I seriously didn't do anything besides providing the script. Finding investment, filming, screening... this is all you organized. The success of the film is mainly on you. I just did sesame-sized things."

"The sesame-sized things in your eyes are gold buns in the market," Jia Long waved his hand. "I won't talk to you. You don't understand anything. We'll talk later. Just make sure you don't want to continue writing the later scripts."

Lu Yan He shook his head.

"Not writing, not writing."

What Lu Yan He didn't expect was that after the opening ceremony, on the first day of filming, Schmidt Lawley actually came to the filming site to visit the crew.

He was invited by Huang Zhongjing.

The North American distribution of the first *Burning Fire* was handled by Green Valley, and it finally took a box office of over 5 million USD.

For Green Valley, they definitely made money, but for this kind of Chinese film, they didn't earn much, which can only be said to be a relatively stable source of income (because the purchase price was low enough).

Schmidt Lawley came to see *Burning Fire 2* this time because he also intended to take down the distribution rights for all regions except mainland China.

That, of course, is a big client for Huang Zhongjing.

Lu Yan He didn't know how they talked.

Anyway, the copyright of *Burning Fire 2* has nothing to do with him.

Only one point, Lu Yan He can enjoy 5% of the overseas revenue sharing of *Burning Fire 2*.

If *Burning Fire 2* is still sold in the form of a buyout, Lu Yan He's income from this film will be much less than expected.

Because, generally, this number of 5% refers to box office revenue sharing.

And if Long Yan cannot enjoy the box office revenue sharing overseas—of course, it doesn't mean that if they can enjoy it, this part of the income will definitely be higher—then Lu Yan He will naturally not be able to enjoy it.

Based on the 10 million USD buyout price of *Dragon Inn*, Lu Yan He takes 5%, which is 500,000 USD.

To say it's little, it's certainly not little. But compared to expectations, it's much less.

Moreover, based on the box office performance of the first *Burning Fire* in the United States, *Burning Fire 2* has no possibility of getting the same distribution price as *Dragon Inn*.

Schmidt Lawley watched Lu Yan He film a scene on site.

This was just a very ordinary transition scene, with a few people bickering with each other.

Lu Yan He acted very relaxed, it can be said to be more than enough.

After this scene was filmed, Schmidt Lawley applauded seriously, and the people around looked at him with some surprise.

Schmidt Lawley didn't care at all what the environment around him was like.

He waited for Lu Yan He to walk out of the shooting position, laughed, opened his hands, walked up, and said: "Lu, you are amazing, amazing."

Lu Yan He smiled, shook his head, and asked: "Schmidt, don't praise me so exaggeratedly, I still can't stand your style of praising people."

Schmidt Lawley immediately said: "You must accept this point. You have to know that you will definitely hear such praise from many people's mouths."

Lu Yan He was a bit helpless.

These foreigners, when they praise people, are really as exaggerated as they can be.

Especially when encountering someone with Schmidt Lawley's personality, that goes without saying.

Accompanying Schmidt Lawley was Huang Zhongjing.

The boss of *Burning Fire 2*.

But at this moment, Schmidt Lawley's attention was all on Lu Yan He, and Huang Zhongjing stood behind him like a follower.

Lu Yan He asked: "Schmidt, are you here to visit the crew today?"

Schmidt Lawley nodded and said: "The distribution of *Burning Fire* in North America was also done by me. The box office performance of this film globally was quite good. Now that the second part is being filmed, and you are still continuing to star, so I came to see."

"You have done quite a few Chinese films in North America now," Lu Yan He said with a smile. "It feels like they have all been contracted by you."

Schmidt Lawley said: "I am in the film business. I found that Chinese films can also make money, so of course I came."

He admitted it very frankly.

Lu Yan He smiled.

"Actually, I have another business I want to talk to you about," Schmidt Lawley said. "To be precise, I want to talk to your girlfriend Chen Siqi."

"Hmm?" Lu Yan He was stunned.

"Schmidt is interested in the short plays of Jump Up Theater," Lu Yan He said to Chen Siqi on the phone. "He seems to think that these plays can be re-edited, made into TV movies, played on-demand on their American TV stations, and then directly enter the DVD and streaming market."

Chen Siqi: "How would he know about Jump Up Theater?"

She was very surprised.

Lu Yan He said: "I don't know where he found out, and he also seems to want to buy the adaptation rights of a few of the stories and turn them into English films."

Chen Siqi: "That's of course good."

Now, under normal circumstances, a Jump Up play can bring in about 1 million in revenue within a year of broadcast, after deducting production and promotion costs. Forty-some plays a year bring in about 50 million.

In Jump Up's revenue sector, it doesn't account for the bulk. However, the value of Jump Up Theater to the Jump Up brand far exceeds this figure of 50 million.

Just like the sales of *Jump Up* magazine, the net profit that the magazine can bring in a year is over 20 million.

However, without *Jump Up* magazine, there would be no Jump Up Theater.

Similarly, without these two existences, other business sectors such as copyright operation, self-media matrix, cultural product management, and advertising marketing would not be able to expand rapidly.

In fact, the net profit of *Jump Up* magazine and Jump Up Theater can be increased by a large margin.

For example, the magazine compresses production costs, reduces high manuscript fees, increases sales unit prices, and adds some advertising slots. For example, requiring platforms like Yuehu TV to increase the purchase price of these plays from Jump Up Theater, or compressing production costs.

But Jump Up didn't do these things.

Now, Green Valley wants to buy the distribution rights of these plays from Jump Up Theater in the United States, and even wants to buy the adaptation rights, which naturally became a new profit growth point for Jump Up.

Schmidt Lawley arrived at Chen Siqi's place the next day.

After talking twice, the two sides reached a preliminary direction of cooperation—framework cooperation.

In the first round of framework cooperation, Jump Up sold the overseas distribution of 12 Jump Up Theater plays (some of which have already been bought by Maxine and HP for streaming rights, so they are excluded) to Green Valley for 3 million USD for 5 years.

In the 5 years, Green Valley will have the distribution rights and derivative development rights of these 12 plays outside of China.

This derivative development right can only be done by Jump Up.

Because the source copyright of these plays is also in Jump Up's hands, and they can coordinate negotiations.

Because it is the first round of framework cooperation, Chen Siqi did not put the price first.

She hopes that Green Valley can find the overseas market space for these 12 plays through the first round of framework cooperation. If the first round of cooperation achieves commercial success, then negotiations can be conducted later.

For such cooperation, Chen Siqi only made one request:

Retain the name Jump Up Theater.

In this regard, Green Valley also made a request: within two years, Jump Up cannot conduct similar authorization cooperation with other companies. In other words, Green Valley is the exclusive partner.

Chen Siqi agreed readily.

Thus, after the two sides reached a strategic cooperation agreement, the two companies spent about 20 days to align the details of the cooperation. On June 19, Jump Up specifically held a signing ceremony in Yuming and signed with Schmidt Lawley on site.

Lu Yan He, who had been filming for nearly a month on the *Burning Fire 2* set, breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the news photos of the signing ceremony on his phone.

Over the past 20 days, Chen Siqi called him several times almost every day to consult his opinions on some detailed issues.

Because it was the first time for such cooperation, Chen Siqi was also afraid of being pitted.

3 million USD, earned nearly 20 million RMB in one go.

Just at this time, I don't know where a marketing account came from, and suddenly launched a topic: #The money in the entertainment industry is about to be earned by this couple Lu Yan He and Chen Siqi#

The key is that this topic was brushed to a very high heat.

Many people are calculating how much money Lu Yan He and Chen Siqi have earned in recent years.

Chen Siqi is not Lu Yan He. She has sprayed on Weibo no less than a few times. Yu Jiang is a witness.

She didn't hold back this time either, and posted an update:

This topic name is taken... it sounds like someone could earn this money before? Isn't it that there was no way to earn money before, and now it has been walked out by us? -

Indeed, in recent years, the only one in the domestic film and television industry who can earn USD from overseas again and again is Lu Yan He.

Of course, now because of Jump Up Theater, there is one more Chen Siqi.

The path is different.

In fact, someone soon stood up and said that ever since Lu Yan He started stable cooperation with Hollywood, even Long Yan has borrowed several projects cooperated with Lu Yan He to get on Green Valley's line. Several films in a row were distributed by Green Valley in North America.

Not only Long Yan company, how many Chinese actors have borrowed Lu Yan He's line to earn salaries overseas these years?

Once such a statement came out, it aroused the agreement of many people.

It wasn't stolen or robbed, what are you sour about.

Lu Yan He, anyway, followed his consistent practice, ignoring and not responding.

A day later, the third Jump Up Film Critics International Film Festival opened.

Overseas famous film critics from more than 30 countries came to Yuming. Among them, the figures of Hexi Film Festival Artistic Director Wu Yang and *Hexi Film* editor-in-chief appeared.

Wen Shengming, as a representative of the China Film Association and the principal of this Jump Up Film Critics International Film Festival, welcomed their arrival.

It was still a small-scale film festival of a non-official nature.

Originally, this was nothing, until this film festival suddenly appeared on the *News Broadcast* as a piece of news.

Everyone knows that *News Broadcast* is actually the highest-level signal light.

If this film festival's activity was reported on the movie channel, it would be very normal, but *News Broadcast*?

Those who are slightly sensitive noticed that there might be a wind direction behind this that they don't know specifically what it is.

Lu Yan He pretended he didn't know anything and stayed honestly in the crew, filming his *Burning Fire 2*. (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 760 =====