Chapter 184

After the bidding for the broadcast rights of "Chinese Paladin" ended, the people from the local stations didn't leave; instead, they started inquiring about the sales situation of the broadcast rights of "Great Feng Night Watchman".

For some people, coming to bid on "Chinese Paladin" was just a side matter; their real goal was to buy "Great Feng Night Watchman".

Although no one knows what the show's content is, from Jiang Heng personally selecting a bunch of handsome actors and beautiful actresses and being responsible for the series' special effects, there is a great possibility it will become a hit.

In 2004, the Neidi TV station market was still dominated solely by CCTV.

But the local stations already had the ambition to rise and develop.

To achieve overwhelmingly high ratings, it is necessary to have a super-popular TV program.

At this moment, the local stations also don't know how to produce a hit variety show, and their focus remains on TV dramas.

Such a commercial-film big director Jiang Heng producing and also responsible for the special effects of this xianxia drama, in the eyes of the local station leaders, is highly likely to become a hit.

Of course, the three words "big director" are not a guarantee either.

Such a price is definitely not something the Purchasing Director and Deputy Director can decide on; a few who decided to go back and strongly push this matter are not mentioned.

Unless a local station can offer an astronomical price that makes Jiang Heng disregard CCTV's face, otherwise there's no chance.

Everyone naturally doesn't believe that Jiang Heng, who made commercial blockbusters take off, could fail on a TV drama; at this point they only worry about how much money it will take to secure it.

If it succeeds, that's fine; but if it fails, who can bear this responsibility?

For a while, the representatives of the local stations all had mixed feelings.

What price must be paid to snatch food from CCTV's mouth?

But in the eyes of the local station representatives, they probably already regard this drama as a hit.

Unfortunately, CCTV attached more importance to it; Station Chief Zhao Huayong had already called early on and settled the matter of broadcasting "Great Feng Night Watchman".

Something like Jiang Heng personally producing it could possibly fetch as high as six hundred thousand per episode.

After asking Li Xiaoping, who hosted the bidding meeting, everyone learned that CCTV had purchase intent, and many turned glum.

Because CCTV is rich and powerful, a costume epic starts at five hundred thousand per episode.

However, after Hebei, Mango TV, Chongqing, and Shandong—the four local stations—acquired the first-round broadcast rights of "Chinese Paladin Legend", they first coordinated among themselves, worked out a broadcast schedule, and then reported it to the State Administration.

Jiang Heng did not personally direct "Great Feng Night Watchman"; he merely provided the script, confirmed the cast, and was responsible for post-production special effects.

However, Director Jiang Heng's reputation is still far stronger than Thus output: Chen Kaige's.

Li Xiaoping watched silently, secretly marveling, truly a person's fame casts a shadow like a tree's shade.

If one wants to snatch this drama away, they'd probably have to offer a price of thirty million.

By the time the plan is approved, it will be around New Year.

If CCTV buys at 550,000 per episode, that totals 22 million.

However, the Deputy Director of Mango TV inquired and found that the first season of "Great Feng" probably has about forty episodes.

At that rate, the per-episode price would exceed seven hundred thousand—absolutely an astronomical price!

Actually, the broadcast time finally coordinated by the four local stations was precisely Lunar New Year's Day 2005, preparing to meet nationwide audiences during the joyous and harmonious holiday.

Previously, Thus output: Chen Kaige, serving as Yi Zuo Mei Zuo, had "Lu Bu and Diao Chan" which was a real pitfall—after only a few episodes it was banned, truly a loss for the TV station.

……

For Jiang Heng, TV dramas ultimately mattered less to him.

Recently, he only spent a little time handling matters of "Chinese Paladin" and "Great Feng Night Watchman"; most of his time was busy with films—nothing more than special effects, music, editing, subtitles, dubbing, etc., plus film distribution.

Given the super-high reputation earned over years of shooting special-effects blockbusters, Jiang Heng's films now have a mature global distribution channel network, basically just signing contracts directly.

If nothing changes, it basically won't be changed.

What really gives Jiang Heng a headache is the film's Chinese title, since it combines the roles of the three monsters Gold Horn King, Silver Horn King, and Green Bull Spirit; Jiang Heng has never come up with a fully satisfactory Chinese title.

He merely uses an unsatisfactory name as a placeholder; if after submitting for review there is still nothing better, he'll have to keep using that one.

As for the film's foreign release title, it's easy to come up with—just a casual translation will do.

However, in the blink of an eye it was November, and the film's publicity work had already been put on the agenda.

Jiang Heng first screened the final cut of the film internally within the company, with only a small number of executives watching.

Upon seeing it, it truly left everyone dumbfounded.

They had always thought that the visual effects of mythological special-effects blockbusters were just about that.

Unexpectedly, the effect of the film Jiang Heng shot still exceeded everyone's imagination.

Du Huan, General Manager of Faction: Outstanding Rising Film Company, said: "Director Jiang, this new film of yours will definitely break 800 million!"

Everyone hearing this chimed in: "Right, the subject matter is already popular; looking at this effect, breaking 800 million is absolutely no problem."

Jiang Heng waved his hand, laughing: "We're all our own people; there's no need to overpraise. Besides, for me, whether the box office is a bit more or a bit less isn't that important!"

Upon hearing that, everyone felt even more astonished.

Only Jiang Heng could say something so Versailles; if another director said that, everyone would surely mock them.

But Jiang Heng saying that is fine.

As of now, there are two box-office records ahead of Jiang Heng: one is the 800 million in the Neidi market, the other is ten billion US dollars in the global market.

Because of factors like subject matter and release window, it always falls just a little short.

For example, mythological special-effects blockbusters are very popular in the Neidi market, but in the global market their box-office potential slightly declines.

After all, such things as mythology have cultural barriers.

Meanwhile, films like The Matrix and Inception, which lean toward sci-fi, are very popular in the global market, but for mainland audiences they're actually somewhat lacking.

The reason they can achieve such high box-office results is due to marketing factors and Jiang Heng's fame.

Therefore, for the time being, Jiang Heng hasn't been too obsessed with whether the film can break the 800 million Neidi box-office record or the ten billion US dollars global box-office record.

Anyway, in a few years it will definitely be broken.

However, the executives of Faction: Outstanding Rising Film Company place great importance on the film's box-office performance, because the company has already completed shareholding reform and is preparing for listing.

Once the company goes public, the various box-office records broken by its films will be reflected in its stock price.

And those who received stock rewards have their net worth directly tied to it—how could they not take it seriously!

Du Huan was very proactive, submitting a publicity plan that was actually just standard publicity methods, with a little extra creativity added.

Deputy General Manager Li Xiaoping raised a few suggestions; Jiang Heng thought there was no major problem, so he ordered everyone to carry it out accordingly.

After the meeting dispersed, Li Xiaoping came over and said, "Um, General Manager Cai of Tang Benevolent is here again!"

Jiang Heng blinked, "Again?"

"Well, to split the money!"

After the first-round broadcasting rights of "Immortal Sword" were sold, the money wasn't paid off immediately.

If it were changed to a small company producing it, wanting to receive the full payment would be even harder; dragging it out for half a year is standard procedure.

But Ai You Teng is the domestic industry leader; the various local stations dare not offend it, so this is already the fastest speed.

This time, Cai Yiner came firstly to split the money, and secondly to bring Hu Ji over to meet Jiang Heng.

Hearing Li Xiaoping say that, Jiang Heng still intended to let Hu Ji participate in the film, which made Cai Yiner very excited; if this could happen, she would stand to make a fortune!

(End of chapter)