Chapter 363: Explosive Yield Rates and LeTV's Schemes

Although *Ex Machina* is a low-budget sci-fi film, the gimmick of having a script by Wei Jin still holds great appeal for artists within the industry.

Guo Fan has finally experienced the different treatment that Lu Yang told him about recently.

Teachers from the Beijing Film Academy and pretty junior schoolmates often come to the management department to offer their warmth.

Various talent agencies are also sending resumes his way, calling him "Director Guo" at every turn, which makes Guo Fan feel lightheaded and a bit carried away.

Although those Beijing Film Academy junior schoolmates who sent him little notes were pure and cute, as it is his first film, Guo Fan attaches immense importance to it and can only tearfully refuse.

There are many resumes submitted this time, with graduates or current students from the three major institutions—Beijing Film Academy, Central Academy of Drama, and Shanghai Theatre Academy—being the most numerous.

Looking at the thick stack of resumes in his hand, Guo Fan intends to select them carefully; he does not plan to consider anyone with a slightly higher salary requirement.

After all, a production budget of 10 million cannot support a luxurious cast. — In the film market, after *Thieves* finished its run, it was *Rise of the Planet of the Apes*' turn to harvest the market.

After all, it is the special effects team from *Avatar* that participated in the production, which still holds enough attraction for the audience.

The facts are indeed so; without the pressure of scheduling, *Rise of the Planet of the Apes* is declaring its box office dominance with over 20 million daily, heading straight for 200 million, or even 300 million.

This makes those films released at the beginning of the month, including Huayi's *Starry Sky* and Shanghai Film Group's *Mr. Tree*, feel immense pressure.

There is no help for it, because as the New Year Slot approaches, a large wave of small-to-medium budget Hong Kong films are all crowding into this November window to avoid those few highly anticipated blockbusters.

Films like *East Meets West 2011* and *Happy Magic* have already begun their promotions.

However, for these old-fashioned films that reheat leftovers, the audience's feedback is quite average, and they lack interest.

But for the new work from Shanhe Media, *Love is Not Blind*, the audience has shown great anticipation.

The promotion for this film quietly began several months ago.

For this distribution and promotion strategy, besides traditional variety show promotion, offline ground pushes, and trailer releases, the vast majority of resources and channels were placed on internet marketing.

They collected stories of heartbreak across the entire internet early on, guiding netizens to speak out and write down the heartbreak stories they knew.

At the same time, they used the Century Singles' Day as a topic to promote it vigorously.

The main focus is on a precise target group, managing to capture the 80s and 90s generations and some literary youth alike.

Therefore, as soon as the film's promotional trailer came out, the discussion on the internet was quite intense.

The cast and crew also started the final round of promotion before the film's release.

As the female lead, Yang Mi naturally cannot avoid running around with the crew.

She is very busy right now, because besides *Love is Not Blind*, she also has *White Vengeance* to be released on the 29th.

"Jia Jie, this is really close; I didn't expect the schedule to be so tight."

Yang Mi patted her ample bosom with lingering fear, immediately causing a surge of waves.

"Mm."

Ceng Jia also felt a bit fortunate; fortunately, the company's connections were strong enough, and Enlight Media gave their full support, coordinating Yang Mi's filming schedule for *Bronze Sparrow Terrace*, finally wrapping up before the roadshow began.

However, looking at Yang Mi's appearance, Ceng Jia could not help but tease her.

"Know you're busy now? Wasn't it you who wanted to go for *Ex Machina*?"

Yang Mi pouted upon hearing this and said, "I was just asking, besides, didn't you agree to it too?"

"Alright, stop bickering, Director Xue has already made arrangements, we should be heading out."

Speaking of this, Ceng Jia remembered the film's popularity on the internet and looked at Yang Mi with burning eyes.

"Mimi, we need to put in extra effort this time; this small-budget film might really become your representative work."

Hearing this, Yang Mi's face also shone with radiance.

"Mm, it definitely will, let's wait for the flowers to bloom."

Just as Yang Mi began the film's promotion, the auditions for *Ex Machina* also officially started.

In the reception room on the eighth floor of Shanhe Building, it was filled with actors who had come to audition.

As a company artist, Zhang Jiao—no, Zhang Tianai, who was given her stage name by Wei Jin—directly obtained the opportunity to audition.

But seeing the situation on site, Zhang Tianai's heart slowly sank.

Tang Yan, Jiang Yiyan, Wan Qian, Bai Bin... Compared to these female artists who already have some fame in the circle, her resume and strength are truly not enough to look at.

She also saw many classmates and alumni from the Beijing Film Academy, such as Yang Zi, Liu Mengmeng, and Li Meng... Many actresses from the Central Academy of Drama and Shanghai Theatre Academy also came, but she was not very familiar with them.

As for the male actors, there were also many; several of the company's leading young actors, including Chen Xiao, Zhu Yilong, and Wang Kai, were all there.

Zhang Tianai walked towards Kan Qingzi and Gao Ye; after all, they were her seniors from the Beijing Film Academy and both were Starry Sky artists, so they had been in contact many times over the past two months and were considered quite familiar.

"Who is Jin Shijia?"

A staff member walked out of the small audition conference room and asked.

"I, I am."

A slightly shy big boy stood up from the crowd.

"It's your turn to audition."

"Oh, okay, thank you."

Under the gaze of a group of people, Jin Shijia walked in with a smile on his face.

"Isn't this Zhan Bo? So his name is Jin Shijia."

"Isn't it said that *iPartment 3* is currently filming? Why did he come too?"

"The filming time for sitcoms is very long, they should be able to come out to take on other roles in the middle."

Amidst the chatter of the crowd, the auditions began.

One after another went in, and one after another came out.

Guo Fan's efficiency was very high; he spent only one day going through everyone.

It was just that for the final character selection, he still had to deliberate carefully... For the celebration banquet of *Thieves*, Han Sanping made it quite grand, and the location was in the Great Hall.

As a celebration banquet for a film that refreshed the domestic film record and reclaimed the top of the box office list, there were far too many people who came to show their support.

When Wei Jin appeared at the scene with Yuanyuan, the venue could almost be described as People Mountain People Sea.

Major production companies, as well as first- and second-tier celebrities and artists, all came to show their support.

In such a setting, Wei Jin naturally would not steal the spotlight from Han Sanping, leaving the stage entirely to him.

Today, Han Sanping was in high spirits, standing on stage and speaking eloquently: "Everyone, the golden age of domestic films has arrived. With a box office of 1.386 billion, we have raised the record set by *Passengers* by over 300 million. Over 300 million! Without any extensions, domestic films are truly on the rise."

Watching Han Sanping on stage, Wei Jin had to admit that regardless of how the outside world slandered, insulted, or cursed him, this man was genuinely contributing to Chinese-language cinema.

Without Han Sanping's series of blockbuster plans, the rise of domestic films would have been delayed by at least three to five years.

Han Sanping on stage naturally could not hear Wei Jin's inner thoughts, and perhaps even if he had, he would only have laughed it off; he was still delivering his speech with great passion.

It was just that the content made the audience off-stage feel somewhat uncomfortable, because what Han Sanping was talking about was the detailed profit situation of *The Thieves*.

Wei Jin was somewhat impressed; for a leader as senior as Han, he actually knew the various data points of a film like the back of his hand, reciting them fluently.

The domestic box office for *The Thieves* was 1.386 billion, Hong Kong box office 52.8 million, Taiwan box office 68.6 million, Japan box office 38.6 million USD, and South Korea box office 42 million USD. The cumulative overseas box office was 153 million USD, with copyright revenue of 31.2 million USD.

This film had an investment of 180 million; the domestic distributable box office alone reached as high as 554 million. Adding 110 million in advertising revenue and deducting marketing costs, the domestic profit was also around 550 million.

With an overseas box office of 153 million USD, the distributable box office was 74 million USD. After deducting marketing expenses, the producers' share was 62 million USD, which converted to nearly 400 million RMB.

Adding in copyright revenue, the producers' cumulative profit reached over 1.15 billion. After deducting costs, the pre-tax net profit was nearly 1 billion, a return rate exceeding 500%.

This was no longer just profiteering; this was blatant money-grabbing!

Whether it was China Film Group or CJ Entertainment, both had made a fortune this time.

According to the agreement, what CJ Entertainment could get was merely 20% of the copyright revenue and 50% of the distributable box office in the South Korean region, which calculated to over 16 million USD.

Plus the exclusive distribution fees for the South Korean region, CJ recovered at least 18 million USD; compared to an investment cost of less than 6 million USD, the harvest was absolutely bountiful.

As for China Film Group, although they only enjoyed the box office and copyright revenue from the Huaxia region, it still amounted to a net profit of nearly 300 million.

This could definitely be called China Film Group's largest single profit in recent years, even exceeding *The Martian* and *Passengers*.

Wei Jin could imagine that at the year-end Film Bureau meeting, Han would take these data points out one by one to talk about them again, then watch the darkened expressions of the other major state-owned enterprise heads, lean back tactically, and show off—a long time later, amidst applause, Wei Jin led the main creators to raise small hammers and smash the ice sculpture symbolizing the box office of *The Thieves*, and the atmosphere at the scene reached a climax.

During the banquet, Wei Jin was naturally the darling of the event.

A crowd of industry companies all swirled around him; the data Han Sanping had just shared was truly enough to make people jealous.

A 500% return rate—it was simply unimaginable! The heads of industry companies that had collaborated before, such as Fiber, Bona, Huayi, Wanda, and Emperor, all hoped to get on board again and eat meat with Wei Jin.

Especially Boss Yang from Emperor, who had specifically rushed over from Hong Kong just to have a face-to-face talk with Wei Jin.

"President Wei, is the *Ip Man* series really stopping just like that?"

"Let's leave it at that for now; we'll talk if there's an opportunity later."

Seeing that Wei Jin had no intention of engaging, Boss Yang sighed and immediately switched to other topics.

"President Wei, for the Mainland China distribution of the film *The Viral Factor*, I hope to entrust it to your company and China Film Group. What do you think?"

"No problem, joint distribution—everyone makes money together."

Wei Jin did not hesitate and agreed directly.

This film was a project Boss Yang had put together with Lin Chao-xian after *The Raid* finished; the main purpose was to promote his godson Xie Feng, even going so far as to get Zhou Dong to play a supporting role for him. It had just wrapped up filming a few days ago.

Although Wei Jin was not optimistic about the box office, for a film with a 200 million investment and a marketing budget of at least 60 million, it was a business that would make money without losing—why would he refuse?

"Has the release window been set?"

"Yes, post-production will take about another month or two. I want to release it during the Spring Festival Film Season. What do you think?"

"Fine, I have no problem with that."

Not long after Boss Yang left, Ning Hao came over, also chatting about film release windows.

"Junior brother, I plan to schedule *The Great Robbery* for May Day next year. What do you think?"

Hearing this, Wei Jin was momentarily stunned.

From the script to now, this film had been in the works for nearly two years; if Ning Hao hadn't mentioned it, Wei Jin would have almost forgotten that he had invested 15 million into it.

"No problem, just set it as you like."

Speaking of this, Wei Jin suddenly thought that the number of films Shanhe Media would participate in investing in next year would likely be close to ten; the issue of release windows really needed to be considered.

It was just that he didn't know who would jump out to challenge him next year. The banquet continued, and someone unexpected appeared before Wei Jin.

"Hello, President Wei. Long time no see, you are as impressive as ever."

Looking at the high-spirited and glowing Zhang Zhao before him, Wei Jin found it hard to associate him with the person who had once fought for power with Li Xiaoping at Enlight.

Then again, after Zhang Zhao resigned from Enlight and became the CEO of LeTV Pictures, with great power in his hands and being highly valued by Boss Jia, he was naturally in high spirits.

Wei Jin had no friendship with Zhang Zhao; they had only met a few times at dinners organized by Old Wang over the years, so he replied indifferently.

"Hello, President Zhang. Thank you for coming."

Wei Jin also had a rough idea of Zhang Zhao's intentions.

Perhaps because the film and television industry was developing too well, people from all walks of life were coming to the entertainment industry to grab money.

After LeTV went public, its performance was quite spectacular.

Boss Jia was wealthy and bold, making constant moves. At the end of August, he newly established LeTV Film and Television, inviting people from the circle to attend their "LeTV Ceremony," as if it were a declaration of a new power base being established.

The heads of major companies in the film and television industry, famous directors, producers, and celebrities were all on the invitation list, and the scale was quite grand.

Judging from the photos exposed by the media, there were quite a lot of people who went to show support, some of whom hadn't even received invitations and had come forward on their own initiative.

At that time, Wei Jin did not attend this grand event because he had gone to the Venice Film Festival in advance.

However, Zhang Zhao appearing here was mostly to seek cooperation.

After all, whether in terms of films or television dramas, Shanhe Media was definitely LeTV's most high-quality target for cooperation.

It was just that the waters around Boss Jia were too deep; Wei Jin couldn't be bothered to get involved with him. After exchanging a few polite, indifferent words with Zhang Zhao, he apologized and left under a pretext.

Watching Wei Jin's departing back, Zhang Zhao's eyes narrowed slightly.

Although he knew in his heart that in terms of personal wealth or industry status, perhaps only Boss Jia could be treated as an equal by Wei Jin within the entire LeTV Group.

But as the head of LeTV Pictures, being slighted like this, he still inevitably felt some resentment.

More importantly, judging from the attitude Wei Jin had displayed, Zhang Zhao could basically determine that it would be very difficult for LeTV and Shanhe Media to reach a cooperation.

In this way, many of the group's plans will have to be reconsidered.

"Just as President Ma of Hangzhou said, completely impervious to reason. Hmph, there is still plenty of time, let's just wait and see."

(End of this chapter)