Chapter 231: The Movie Merchant

After discussion, the shareholders all supported the ticket subsidy, and Enlight Media had no real complaints.

Because Fang Hong promised he could hold back the box-office receipts.

That is, if Tu Piao Piao suffered heavy losses and couldn't cover its debts, the box-office receipts from "Lucy 1" would be used first to fill the hole.

When the next round of financing came, the money would be returned to Jade Rabbit.

In other words, once the box-office money reached Tu Piao Piao, Tu Piao Piao's operations would be guaranteed first, and only then would the box-office money be guaranteed to the production side.

This way, the entire box-office receipts of "Lucy 1" would be pressed onto Tu Piao Piao; while it wouldn't come to not getting the money, the process could be very long.

Making money was essentially the same as not making money.

Fang Hong wanted to use the power of capital to crush Huayi—no fancy tricks needed, just absolute force碾压.

If I don't make money, don't you dare make money either!

Unless Huayi also played the ticket-subsidy game, but they'd need a ticketing platform to foot the bill—playing it on their own simply couldn't afford it.

Ticketing platforms exist for traffic and for the market; their needs are entirely different from those of film and television companies.

Huayi is a listed company and has to look at its performance—movies are their performance; if performance is bad, their stock price gets hammered.

Moreover, Tencent and Jack Ma both have investments in it and are both shareholders; Jack Ma holds personally, plainly put, he's just a speculator.

The year before last he was already cashing out—he cashed out 90.12 million, and last year he even transferred part of his equity to Tencent.

Tencent spent 450 million to buy the equity handed over by Jack Ma and Huayi's directors—what a sucker.

But Tencent's strategy is to raise poisonous bugs: whoever wins gets supported, whoever loses gets abandoned; in investment, how can you not lose? As long as the base is there, you can afford to lose.

And Jack Ma had long seen that the two Wangs were not the stuff to do great things.

The elder Wang was obsessed with art and painting; the younger Wang was obsessed with playing with female stars, and once bored, even played with male stars.

Not shooting a single film for an entire year last year is the best example—they were all damn playing around, doing finance, where would they find the time to be devoted to their careers?

Jack Ma had even publicly scolded those two: "These are the worst CEOs I've ever seen."

Tony Ma wouldn't bother looking at what the founders were like, because there's no need—the market changes in the blink of an eye; Jack Ma, on the other hand, likes to size people up and pass judgment.

The two had different styles of doing things.

These internet capital players nowadays are still pretty simple-minded—they just want to take a stake, grab a share of the pie, and haven't yet made any move to do it themselves.

Because the pie is too small, there's no desire to enter the arena—they only think about making money in the stock market, taking a stake to claim a spot.

Ali Pictures, the predecessor of Tao Piao Piao, wouldn't be established until the end of '14; Tencent Pictures wouldn't be established until '15.

At that time the entire market was over 40 billion, with ten films crossing the billion-yuan box-office mark, and 2-billion-yuan films had already appeared.

That was when capital felt it could make money.

Just like Fang Hong—working himself to the bone for over three years, building up some business and ending up damn in debt—and you expect to make money in this kind of market?

When domestic film and television companies truly started making money was at the end of this year, that is, next year, when the production side successfully resisted the theater chains and the revenue-sharing model was readjusted.

At this stage Fang Hong wasn't counting on the domestic market to make money, and "Lucy 1" wasn't counting on making money either.

Same old line—rely on external markets.

On July 1st, Fang Hong invited South Korea's CJ Entertainment chairman Li Meijing; Yindu Institution chairman Song Dai; Universal chairman Donna; China Film Group distribution general Manager Lei.

Also Jade Rabbit president Chen Zhixi, Tu Piao Piao executive president Zheng Zhihao—seven people in total for a screening.

Of course Fang Hong and Chen Zhixi were just there accompanying.

All these people were heads of distribution—didn't know until you saw it, Jade Rabbit's distribution already had this many institutions.

Given more development, it could easily have a dozen or so institutions doing distribution in a row.

Universal chairman Donna's coming wasn't purely for "Lucy 1"—it was for "Fifty Shades of Grey."

Zhonghua Jia had already greenlit this film, which the outside world didn't yet know, and the novel had extremely high popularity worldwide.

How to ride the heat and make big money, and full copyright development—all needed to be discussed.

Anyway, Fang Hong remembered that in his previous life, after this film came out, Fifty Shades of Grey-inspired adult toys sold like crazy worldwide.

A Fifty Shades of Grey adult-products brand even emerged.

Even the necklaces, suits, and lingerie inside sold like hotcakes.

In short, this film made money not only at the box office but also on merchandise.

Merchandise wasn't just dolls—adult toys, clothing, brand licensing all counted as merchandise; foreigners' merchandise came in all kinds.

This wouldn't fly in China—too embarrassing to bring up.

A small screening room, the lights dim, with only a single beam shining on the big screen up front.

The bigwigs sat in various postures—some with legs crossed, some with one leg propped up, some curled into the sofa—all eyes fixed forward, watching the film.

Their expressions differed, but none showed much.

No matter how thrilling the film, they watched with poker faces—having seen too many thrill rides, they were only assessing commercial viability.

Soon, the brilliant film ended and the lights came on! "Although this film's investment isn't high, it's our Jade Rabbit's flagship work of the year," Fang Hong introduced.

"Not bad, pretty good," Yindu's Song Dai nodded.

Anyway, he'd found the film very satisfying; in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, there should be an opening.

"Lucy 1" wasn't like the original "The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion," which had very little fighting and only a bit of thrill at the end.

This film had its runtime compressed, and the segment where the female lead brutally beats up Xie Miao was added, so the early suppression and late-stage thrill were quite sufficient.

"Then I'll have to trouble Chairman Song to handle it," Fang Hong said.

Yindu acquired it by buying the rights; Southeast Asian distributors also bought the rights for import, then released it—not revenue-sharing.

But this time the rights fee would definitely be higher than the previous "Bad Genius"; before "Bad Genius" was released in Southeast Asia, piracy was already rampant.

This time "Lucy 1" had no piracy—at least not in the early stage; if there was any, it would only appear a few days after release.

Just those few days were worth a lot!

And the previous "Bad Genius" rights had been sold at rock bottom; no one expected that even with piracy, it could still pull in such high box office. Fang Hong looked past the person beside him toward Li Meijing: "And Chairman Li, what's your thinking on your end?"

Li Meijing paused for a moment before saying, "The ratio stays the same?"

Asking that question meant she agreed to the South Korea distribution.

"Stays the same," Fang Hong said.

"Then it's a deal!" Li Meijing nodded.

The South Korea distribution matters were settled very simply — after all, they'd worked together once before.

And they all had yellow skin, their cultures had common ground, and the female lead was beautiful, right in line with South Korean aesthetics.

Fang Hong, Li Meijing, and Song Dai did not discuss specific profits or ratios — that was a trade secret; having the intention to take it for distribution was enough.

The specifics were settled; anything not settled could be discussed privately.

"I'm just here to watch the movie."

Manager Lei looked at Fang Hong, and the two shook hands.

This needed no discussion — everything had already been negotiated, and the two had known each other for so long that everything went without saying.

Actually, Manager Lei was quite感慨 — he still vividly remembered how Fang Hong had looked when he first emerged from the nest, and in just a few short years he could sit down with international distributors to discuss film releases.

And just like before, no matter how high the other party's status, he could remain neither servile nor overbearing, conversing perfectly normally.

Fang Hong looked at Universal Chairman Donna — her full name should be Tang Na Lan Li — this woman had a head of explosive curls, deep-set eyes, a high nose bridge, a typical European-American.

She smiled at Fang Hong: "Let's chat one-on-one."

"Sure!"

Fang Hong stood up, patted Chen Zhixi's arm: "You take care of the various bosses."

"Got it!" Chen Zhixi nodded.

"Please excuse me, everyone. If you need anything, just find General Manager Chen. Sorry about that," Fang Hong offered his apologies.

Everyone present nodded, not taking it to heart. Manager Lei said, "You go ahead with your business, don't mind us."

Hollywood was a big client — being able to screen globally was a kind of elevation in status, and naturally they couldn't compare.

He also wanted Chinese films to go global.

Fang Hong and Donna came to a small meeting room, sitting opposite each other in the sofa area.

"This is our China Longjing tea, Chairman Donna may try it." Fang Hong poured her a cup.

"Thank you!"

Donna picked up the teacup and took a sip: "This is my first time meeting General Manager Fang, it's not quite what I imagined."

"What's different?" Fang Hong asked casually.

"I thought you'd be a middle-aged man, I didn't expect you to be so young — in your Chinese way of putting it, young and accomplished." Donna said.

Fang Hong smiled, picked up a cup of tea and took a sip: "Chairman Donna, your Chinese is quite good — do you come to China often?"

"I often come to China for exchanges, and there are also projects cooperating with companies here — for example, that 'Tai Chi Hero' is cooperating with China Film Group, and I know China Film Group's Zuoshandiao." Donna talked about her past and her business in China.

Indeed, many Hollywood film companies cooperated with Chinese capital.

'The Expendables 2', 'Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk', 'Gemini Man'... too many.

Put it this way — Paramount was saved by Chinese capital; they had originally wanted to sell the company.

Seeing Chinese capitalists as foolish money bags, they used their money to shoulder the risk — of course the quality projects had no share for Chinese capital.

The slate they pulled out was those film projects where it was uncertain whether they could make money; the good projects wouldn't be put out.

Otherwise, after investing in a pile, the ones that made money could be counted on one hand, and some had never even been heard of — that was the reason.

For example, 'Seventh Son', 'Ad Astra' and so on were all invested in by Chinese capital — who has heard of them? They all lost money.

Until after '24, after several waves of retreat, there were still people unwilling to give up wanting to invest in Hollywood films, like 'Meg 2'.

The two exchanged pleasantries for a while, getting acquainted, and Donna began to discuss business: "General Manager Fang, to tell you the truth, 'Lucy 1' was shot very well and met market expectations, but I'm not interested in it — European and American audiences don't like films with Chinese faces."

It wasn't a story problem, wasn't a structure problem — it was simply that audiences over there didn't like films with Chinese faces.

"I know. My suggestion is to first screen it in places where Chinese are concentrated. If the results are good, then expand; if not, forget it," Fang Hong proposed.

The United States has many Chinatowns, and Canada has them too.

"Not a bad suggestion." Donna thought for a moment, then said: "It's just that the film needs some changes."

"What kind of changes?" Fang Hong was puzzled.

He hadn't shot any ideological issues, hadn't shot any cultural attributes — it was just the female lead getting revenge, just satisfying.

"If I remember correctly, in it the United States is the big villain — you need to change that, otherwise it won't be easy to bring in," Donna said.

Who says the United States is free? Imported films have to be reviewed just the same — it's just that when they shoot their own, they're more lenient.

In other words, they can trash-talk themselves, but others can't trash-talk them!

Just like 'Crazy Alien' — it trashed-talked the United States to death, and got banned.

"Then how about changing the big villain to Japan?" Fang Hong试探 asked.

"That works, but if it's to screen in Japan—"

"Then change it to South Korea — multiple versions for different markets! Satisfy the needs of global audiences, and we can also do a good job with the translation work." Fang Hong was very open-minded.

For the film to screen globally, to satisfy global audiences — if you want their market, don't trash-talk them.

Your own country can trash-talk others all it wants! "Don't you have any artist's principles?" Donna was surprised — those directors, if you wanted to change their films, it was like asking for their lives.

"Films were originally made to serve global audiences."

"You're a qualified film businessman!"

(End of chapter)