Chapter 249

Currently, the total box office for 'Supernatural 1' outside Neidi: $41.65 million in North America; $24.34 million in South Korea; $31.41 million combined in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong-Taiwan.

Totaling $97.4 million, or 680 million RMB! After accounting by Yutu Finance, the box office revenue is roughly 136 million RMB—only about 20% profit! There's no way around it; these regions can't take a higher share. Meanwhile, after one month of release, 'Supernatural 1''s total box office in Neidi reached 9.01 billion RMB—still below the re-release of 'Titanic' at 9.46 billion RMB, which is very regrettable.

Don't blame Liu Tianxian for not carrying the box office!

Mainly because the latter half-month was terrible—daily earnings didn't reach 5 million RMB, and total earnings didn't even hit 50 million RMB.

It's equivalent to sucking all the audience into the first half-month through ticket subsidies.

Meanwhile, 'Painted Skin 2' originally had only 224 million RMB, but grew to 296 million RMB, gaining over 70 million RMB in box office solely from the latter half-month.

If not for Fang Hong's first-half-month ticket subsidy crackdown, they wouldn't have stood a chance.

Regardless, this round is another win for Yutu! Huayi's market cap dropped from 9.8 billion to 9.1 billion, evaporating roughly 800 million RMB.

With 9.01 billion RMB in box office, Yutu earned about 213 million RMB! Add in other regions, 'Supernatural 1''s total box office revenue is around 350 million RMB.

This is before deducting investment costs and the 1% profit share due to the screenwriters, so it's not pure profit margin.

The screenwriters' share is limited to Neidi box office profits only, not including other regions—again, giving too much hurts motivation.

This rate of return is quite good; previously, the copyright fee alone brought in 239 million RMB, meaning this film has now earned roughly 589 million RMB total.

This film's recovery has been extremely strong!

"'Supernatural 1' global box office surpasses 1.5 billion! Sets new record for domestic film box office!"

This news appeared on the Movie Channel, and major domestic media followed with coverage, with other outlets jumping on the bandwagon.

This wave must be hyped—1.5 billion, with about 600 million from overseas, nearly half the total—encouraging further efforts, more glory, and going global!

Media hype aside, reactions from all sides were cold.

Ordinary people felt it had nothing to do with them; actors who didn't appear in the film felt it had nothing to do with them; major film studios felt it had nothing to do with them.

Only the actors involved in this film, Xie Miao and Song Jia, experienced a minor surge in popularity.

A massive hit is impossible—it's a female-led film anyway! Currently, Yutu can only rely on its Film Department to earn money and sustain itself.

Yutu's administrative costs are now very high—salaries, benefits, taxes, and such.

Gaming can still self-sustain profits with fewer staff and less oversight.

Production is always in motion; as long as it's running, their high incomes are guaranteed. When idle, only core technicians receive a base salary, keeping costs manageable.

All other bottom-level staff are temporary workers! Combined administrative costs for Animation and Best Special Effects departments alone amount to at least 10 million RMB per month—terrifying.

And these costs are still rising—it's a labor-intensive industry! But we can't not employ them; without them, we'll never rise.

'Now You See Me' began filming; Liu Tianxian and Fang Hong didn't go, pushing their visit to the afternoon.

This film isn't entirely Liu Tianxian's; it can be shot without her.

You say the two are getting special treatment? So what! Fang Hong's crew can still operate without him—every shooting plan, every storyboard, every animation simulation is already designed.

It's a product of team collaboration, just without the director's personal touch.

Like Lao Mouzi or Jiang Wen, who have strong personal styles.

Fang Hong didn't go because something came up—Lee Meijing, Chairwoman of South Korea's CJ Entertainment, came to discuss cooperation.

They wanted to co-produce South Korean local films! Liu Tianxian didn't go because she had agreed to go with Fang Hong; since he was delayed, she waited.

Same office—Liu Tianxian sat in the lounge area reading a script, red pen in hand making annotations, looking very serious.

Fang Hong sat across from Lee Meijing in the office area discussing matters.

She proposed: Yutu provides the project and script; CJ handles marketing and distribution; both parties co-invest and co-produce the film.

Lee Meijing had seen 'Big Man' and 'Supernatural 1' both become huge hits and rank on South Korea's box office charts, and felt Yutu's Principal understood the South Korean market well.

So she wanted to collaborate on film projects to test the results! This was exactly what Fang Hong wanted—he could expand business and secure orders for the Best Special Effects department.

Relying solely on Yutu, China alone isn't enough—we must ramp up production, especially big-budget, special-effects-heavy films.

Currently, Yutu's production volume can't rise—China isn't all special-effects films; we're only developing the South Korean market.

Of course, making money is the main goal.

They agreed: Yutu would register a company in South Korea—this company needs to do nothing but serve as a local entity.

South Korea isn't as open as Hollywood; the market environment requires cooperation with a local company.

Without cooperation, even if you shoot a local film, you can't even get it screened!

Yutu takes a 20% share but only needs to invest 10%—for example, for 'International Market', if the investment is 100 million RMB, Yutu only needs to contribute 10 million RMB to secure a 20% share.

In this arrangement, Yutu provides the script, market research, and determines the film's style and concept.

Everything after that is just talk—relying on Fang Hong's foresight.

Of course, there are points of contention: Fang Hong demands that all Best Special Effects production must use Yutu's team; and Chinese copyright must belong to Yutu.

All China-based revenue must also belong to Yutu.

Meaning: if the film screens in China, on TV, or on streaming platforms, CJ gets nothing—all revenue stays with Yutu.

"Director Fang, your demands are completely unreasonable!" said Lee Meijing.

"How exactly is it unreasonable?" Fang Hong asked.

"If you take the Best Special Effects, what happens to our own special effects industry? If you take all the China revenue, what's the point of this cooperation?" Lee Meijing fired back. She entered this partnership hoping for big box office success in both markets.

She wanted Yutu to plan film projects like 'Big Man' and 'Supernatural 1'—both markets booming.

To suddenly abandon the China market feels like a huge loss.

"Of course, the Best Special Effects work must go to my side—if not for that, why would I even propose a project and invest to negotiate with you?

You're taking the lion's share, making the profits—you can't expect me to make any real money from this market."

Fang Hong spoke firmly.

Indeed, even with 'Supernatural 1''s massive success, Yutu only received 34.07 million RMB total.

'Big Man' earned more, but South Korea hasn't produced a film like this in years—the market is simply too small.

And the bulk of the profits went to CJ—yet with this tiny market, they're still picky.

"Not to put it too harshly, I can casually take on other projects outside and make tens of millions. A single film takes a year and a half to hit theaters — what would I be doing this for?" Fang Hong added.

This left Li Meijing speechless. Indeed, if Jade Rabbit wasn't doing this for that reason, she could simply not cooperate with her and shoot just about anything in China to make tens of millions.

China's market now keeps growing bigger and bigger, and even South Korea is eyeing it greedily.

Their tiny little market of small-timers — only girl groups are worth money. They can hop around abroad, shaking it to sultry dances for shut-ins to watch.

Films are a lost cause. Even if they shoot something good-looking, it's just talk fodder, clips for the audience — very hard to break out. This is the sorrow of a small country.

"Your own special effects industry — you go find other film and TV projects on your own, don't lump them in with ours. It's that simple."

Fang Hong tapped the table, his tone sharpening: "For the film projects I put out, the special effects must use my team."

Many big-name Chinese directors making films use Korean special effects teams — for example, Feng Kuzi's "Assembly" and "Aftershock" both used Korean VFX teams.

Xu Laoguai's films are basically the same. Later on, "Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy" also used a Korean VFX team, and Lao Mouzi used them too on the side.

Fang Hong naturally had to turn this around — use someone else's market to train his own VFX team.

The table got knocked pretty hard, and Liu Tianxian couldn't help but look up.

"Fine then, let's cooperate and give it a try first."

Li Meijing had no choice but to compromise. There was no room to fight on this — she was the one who had come to Fang Hong in the first place, so of course he had the right to make demands.

Besides, this wasn't something she absolutely had to have.

"It's just that all the China earnings going to Jade Rabbit — I can't accept that," she said.

This really was a bit excessive. The other party was putting up the bulk of the investment, and she still wouldn't let them take a cut.

"Actually you're misunderstanding something. Your films won't have a market in China. Take this time's 'The Thieves' — it was a huge hit in South Korea, pulling in 600 million, with Hong Kong stars making it all the rage. But when it released in China, it went cold — box office was only three million dollars."

Fang Hong added, "Not to put it too harshly, but our people won't spend money watching Korean films."

That one stung! "Director Fang, you're really breaking my heart here," Li Meijing said, shaking her head.

Doing business with this man really stabbed right at the soft spot — not an ounce of face given, just straight up telling you you're no good.

"Sorry, President Li, I do talk pretty bluntly, but this really is the fact — you've got to face it." Fang Hong began soothing her again.

One press, one pull — he used it very skillfully!

"There's an exception to everything, isn't there? Maybe if we cooperate, both sides can get high box office," Li Meijing said.

"Fine, then let's sign an agreement. Set the bar low — if the box office passes twenty million we split the revenue; if it doesn't, no split. That little bit of money would just waste both our time." Fang Hong was very easygoing and unrestrained.

Twenty million wouldn't even cover production costs — split what! He had never seen a Korean film sell big in China, not a single one. Even the much-hyped "The Thieves" had flopped.

The films coming later had even less hope.

Of course, Korean girl groups and TV dramas really are awesome — that much is admitted.

Li Meijing thought it over and figured it was fair enough. If they couldn't even crack twenty million at the Chinese box office, it really wasn't worth splitting.

You have to realize that over forty Chinese films now have crossed the hundred-million mark at the box office, and those crossing fifty million are countless — basically any random film pulled out can clear a hundred million.

If their co-produced film couldn't cross a hundred million in China, it was the same as making nothing.

"Then let's cooperate on one film first and see how it goes," Li Meijing said.

"Deal!"

The two shook hands — the deal was done.

After Li Meijing left, Liu Tianxian tucked the script into her bag and asked casually, "Why do you want to cooperate with them? We shoot it, they import it — isn't that fine?"

"There are a lot of films on our side that we can't shoot, or that aren't suitable to shoot. They can only be made over there. We make their money to fill in my gaps," Fang Hong explained.

"What's there that can't be shot? Tweak it a bit and you can film it. Are you insisting on shooting that shady stuff again?" Liu Tianxian figured this man was about to copy the United States again, making horror films and the like.

"You womenfolk just don't get it — I can't explain it to you." Fang Hong waved her off.

"Get lost!"

Liu Tianxian flew into a rage and kicked him in the butt.

(End of chapter)