Chapter 238: Reborn Even After Death

Just as the online discourse had been in a chaotic mess lately, another piece of news blew up the internet.

"Lucy 1 broke thirty million USD in North America."

"Lead actress Liu Tianxian ranks first globally on Hollywood's most authoritative IMDB film popularity chart, and is also the first Asian film actress to top that chart."

That's pure hype — in reality she ranked 107th, just first among Chinese actresses, with every other Chinese actress behind her; the ones ahead were European and American stars.

"Liu Tianxian has had her breakthrough, going global!"

News like this appeared on all the major domestic media outlets, even citing mainstream media and international media reports.

"Wen Wei Po: Lucy 1 is a big hit in North America; North American audiences still have tolerance for Chinese-language films."

"CNN review: China's Lucy 1 is too stunning! Even Thanos would be scared!"

"China Film News report: International stars review Liu Tianxian's Lucy 1, redefining the 'global idol'!"

Seeing Liu Tianxian's "big breakout" in North America, many fans and moviegoers were thrilled and rushed to her Weibo, some tossing flowers, others applauding.

Four years later, big sis is back on the international stage — the last time was The Forbidden Kingdom! Even Fang Long addressed the media from afar: "I've always believed Liu Tianxian would become a future international superstar."

Liu Tianxian's Weibo reply: "Thanks, big brother. Thanks, everyone!"

Nobody expected Lucy 1 to pull in tens of millions at the North American box office this time around.

Not only did the fans not expect it, the audience didn't expect it — even the Film Bureau didn't expect it.

The last time there was a result like this was The Forbidden Kingdom, and that was a Sino-American co-production; this one is a purely Chinese film.

And without stars like Fang Long or Jet Li who had already made names for themselves internationally, relying solely on Liu Tianxian as the female lead!

Seeing Lucy 1's results in North America, Zhang Hongsen made a statement: "Film has no borders; we should drop the unnecessary 'political correctness'!"

That comment told film and TV companies to all learn from Jade Rabbit and go out into the world — make movies without politics, without ideology, and worry about the rest after you've gone global.

But who could actually learn that?

If it were that easy to learn, everyone would just go copy Hollywood — but it's really not that easy.

The word "satisfying" sounds simple but is genuinely hard to pull off; if anyone could truly grasp that word inside and out,

then every novelist out there would be a Platinum Great God!

Fang Hong had been studying how to make audiences feel "satisfied" in his previous life, and combined with the works stored in his head, he'd managed to grasp a bit of the essence.

Still, that bit of essence was enough to be worth thirty to forty million USD, i. e., 200 to 300 million at the box office — not bad.

Seeing the big shots above speak up, the entertainment-circle folks who'd been smearing Liu Tianxian temporarily paused; they couldn't very well sing the opposite tune from the top brass — they needed to be aware of the situation and not run into the gun barrel!

Anyway, certain actresses were pretty glum — how did Liu Tianxian end up hooking up with the Principal? It was lively domestically, but North America was actually pretty cold; a few tens of millions at the box office was nothing to them, at most they'd just glanced at the person "Liu Tianxian."

They didn't even leave an impression — watched it and forgot!

When Lucy 1 first started screening in North America, the box office wasn't good — only a few tens of thousands.

Word of mouth slowly fermented out of the Chinese-concentrated areas, climbing to a few hundred thousand; Universal thought it was decent, so they expanded theaters, and only then did it gradually catch on.

Its best single day took in 6.39 million at the box office.

Actually, this was thanks to the film's structure copying Hollywood's superhero template, while previous heroes had all been male — even Black Widow was paired with men — so a female-led one was very novel.

And the fact that the female lead controlled the villain's rhythm throughout was quite unique.

By Western thinking, their superheroes all go through every kind of hardship at the start, getting beaten down by enemies over and over, before finally exploding into action.

But in this one, the villain is completely controlled by the female lead — whatever you do, I already know — which felt very fresh.

Still, it'll cap out at a few tens of millions USD; even fifty million is tough! Liu Tianxian still has to work hard! Time moved into August; Lucy 1 had been out for half a month, with a total box office of 857 million, becoming the highest-grossing Chinese-language film currently in release.

Second only to this year's re-release of Titanic.

Still, there's a chance to surpass that film — isn't there still half a month left? Only in this second half did Tu Piaopiao stop its ticket subsidies.

Once the subsidies stopped, the box office was instantly knocked down, struggling around five or six million, while Painted Skin 2's box office actually rose again, climbing to ten million.

Those audiences are damn realistic!

All in all, Liu Tianxian still can't carry the box office — Young Master Zhou and Yan Zi are still more badass than her.

If it weren't for Fang Hong's capital-driven play this time, they really couldn't have beaten Painted Skin 2.

Even though that film was bad, the star power was right there.

But Painted Skin 2 is already at its limit — only 224 million so far, it'll run its course in about another week.

In this round, Tu Piaopiao actually burned through 257 million — that was in half a month.

But Tu Piaopiao is also the distributor, so there's still tens of millions coming back; in any case, the cash burn didn't meet expectations. Once the funds come in, there's no need to deduct Jade Rabbit's money.

Only a little over 200 million was burned, so they can delay the financing pace, pump up the valuation and raise later, and use the remaining money to consolidate the existing plate and refine the app.

This round of ticket subsidies revealed a lot of small loopholes!

Tu Piaopiao's development is constant adjustment, constantly absorbing experience, mastering audience viewing habits, and building a database.

Recently The Purge: Anarchy has also been out for two weeks, and far more people in North America were paying attention to that film than to Lucy 1.

Before this film even opened, Universal had already booked 2,536 theaters for it in North America.

And this film's production cost was only 3 million USD — even less than Lucy 1's production cost.

There's no helping it — imported films just can't be compared with United States domestic films.

The Purge: Anarchy debuted with 16.70 million USD leading the pack, and over the weekend topped the North American box office with 36.37 million USD, becoming one of the highest-grossing films of the summer in North America.

But on Cinemascore the film only got a C rating, and Rotten Tomatoes only gave it a 41% freshness score — clearly getting savaged by audiences!

This film is just a concept shot wildly with zero logic.

In its second week, the North American box office dropped to 28.37 million USD.

Globally it's already past eighty million! A film like this only rides the novelty of its first couple of weeks; after that it falls off, but breaking 100 million is no problem.

Just as good news was coming in from everywhere, all departments of Jade Rabbit, after a half-year of adjustments, had finished their adjustments.

However, the structure of each department was still being refined, and staff were still being added. The current problem was that each department had too many people, making things terribly cramped.

For example, the Best Special Effects, Animation Department, and Games departments were all placed on one floor, and there was no more room — staff had to squeeze together to work, which felt very oppressive! The Special Effects department now has over three hundred people; Animation has grown to over eight hundred — animation is a labor-intensive industry! Just those two departments total 1,300 people! The Games department, on the other hand, hasn't really grown — still just over a hundred people; that department is all technical positions and doesn't need that many.

This required more space for the staff to work in.

So Fang Hong rented out the entire 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th floors, with the 18th floor being the cheapest to rent, while the others were all relatively expensive.

One department per floor: Bilibili on the 13th; Games on the 14th; Animation Department on the 15th; Best Special Effects on the 16th; Film Industry on the 17th; Finance and Copyright Operations on the 19th.

Not a single department head wanted the 18th floor; even Chen Zhixi refused to stay on the 18th floor, feeling it was inauspicious.

Chen Zhixi was on the 17th floor, where film and television production, agency business, and screenwriting were also located.

Then Fang Hong had no choice but to hold down the 18th floor! No helping it—his fate was tough, he could be reborn even after death! And the 18th floor wasn't just Fang Hong's office alone; there was also a reception room, and meetings were held on this floor too.

In any case, when it was time for a meeting, those people still had to come up! And this floor wasn't just him alone either—his Assistant and secretary were also on this floor.

With this adjustment, every department of Yutu Yiren had much more room and no longer had to crowd together. Mainly because there was no big building, so this would have to do for now.

"General Manager Fang, the hundred million you previously allocated to the Animation Department is almost used up. We need more investment now." Shi Zhimao ran up to ask Fang Hong for money.

"A hundred million, and you spent it all in just one year?" Fang Hong held up one finger.

The Games Department had a budget of three hundred million and hadn't spent much of it to this day; the Best Special Effects Department still had two hundred million unspent; only the Animation Department had spent it all—they really spent it too fast.

"I'm actually spending on the low side. In Hollywood, the standard for producing one minute of animation is around two million." Shi Zhimao directly offered a comparison.

"RMB?" Fang Hong asked.

"US dollars!"

That remark left Fang Hong momentarily speechless. Shi Zhimao tossed him a document to look over the expenses himself.

Calculated this way, a 90-minute animated film would cost 180 million, in US dollars—that's 1.26 billion in RMB! Even more outrageous than damn movies! To get every detail of an animated film perfect, following Hollywood's standards really does burn through money.

Technology had to break through, talent had to be cultivated, because the people in this field all had high qualifications, and high qualifications meant high salaries.

Even if these 800 people were paid ten thousand each per month, that would be eight million a month, or 96 million a year.

But a monthly salary over ten thousand was for management and those with real skills. Mid- and low-level technicians only earned a few thousand. If salaries were really that high, Fang Hong truly couldn't afford to keep them on.

And that didn't even count the venue, equipment, and so on!

"Nezha" had over 1,600 people involved in production, and the production cost only just exceeded a hundred million, meaning a large number of bottom-level workers earned just a few thousand a month, or were temporary workers.

This was also why Hollywood animation was so badass and couldn't be copied—because their production budgets were truly outrageously absurd!

But Fang Hong couldn't follow the domestic approach. If he wanted his animation production level benchmarked against Hollywood, he had to invest in both talent and technology.

When high salaries were warranted, pay them; when technology needed to be broken through, break through; when details mattered, sweat the details.

Any technology was practiced through the production process; technical accumulation came from practice!

Without being willing to invest, there was no way to accumulate!

"I'll allocate another hundred million to you. Spend it first." Fang Hong was just stubborn—he was determined to copy Hollywood!

Currently, "Lucy 1" had been released, which also brought back a wave of funds from overseas, simply because the copyrights had all been sold off.

Netflix spent 25 million US dollars to buy the streaming media rights outside of China.

The agreement signed required waiting until it finished its theatrical run before putting it on the platform! Back then, Universal hadn't wanted the full rights to "Lucy 1"; Chairman Donna simply hadn't expected this film to catch fire.

He was only giving it a try at Fang Hong's request!

This move was admittedly a bit of a misstep, but Universal still took the DVDs, television rights, and merchandise. How much they earned was unknown—run with it and see.

Domestic platforms like iQiyi, Youku, Tencent Video, Tudou, PPS, and various television outlets and the like bought the rights for prices ranging from two to fifteen million.

Each platform had different traffic, so copyright fees varied, but the big-spending iQiyi, Youku, and Tencent naturally paid more.

Now the authorities were constantly tightening regulations on copyrights, and with these video platforms competing fiercely, copyright fees naturally rose.

But it wasn't exclusive—Fang Hong wanted to give it to Bilibili for free to draw traffic.

Domestic copyrights sold for a total of 64 million! Just from copyright fees on this film, Yutu had taken in 239 million—truly raking it in by the bucketful.

It still came down to making money overseas. Overseas, copyright fees alone brought in 175 million, even more than "Bad Genius" had earned back then.

US dollars really were easy money—no wonder so many big directors wanted to break into overseas markets!

Fang Hong first took out 100 million to continue investing in animation, and put the rest into hedging against risk, mainly to keep the whole operation stable.

Yutu had too many people, too many projects—administrative expenses alone were a fortune!

The money from the United States had other uses.

(End of this chapter)