Chapter 22: Copyright Cooperation

Early the next morning, Cao Yang wanted to get up, but Li Xiaoran hugged him and wouldn't let him up, muttering in a daze, saying something about this being abroad, no need to be afraid, the one at your home won't find out.

Find out what!

Which "she"?

Cao Yang was also a bit confused for a moment; in the role again? Until he found Li Xiaoran trying to hold back laughter, he knew he had been tricked.

Then what else is there to say? Early in the morning, rubbing around while hugging!

Young lady, do you know what a big mistake you made? Have you ever heard that you must never provoke a boy in the morning?

To say it, it still has to be a twenty-year-old body; forty minutes later, Cao Yang got up refreshed, while Li Xiaoran half-closed her eyes, weak and powerless.

Although everyone who should know about the award in the country already knew, the calls still had to be made; this is the attitude of dealing with people.

Cao Yang first called his parents; nothing else, just to report the good news and make his parents happy.

What is the greatest expectation parents have for their children? First, safety and peace; if they can have a little achievement on this basis, that is the parents' greatest wish.

The second call was to Old Situ; he must have known the news long ago, but saying it in person shows more sincerity.

The third call was to the school's vice president, Hou Keming, who also served as the head of the Youth Film Studio; Cao Yang winning an award, he might have known even earlier and was even happier.

The fourth was to Old Man Xie Fei; nothing else, just gratitude.

The fifth was to the Directing Department head, Xie Xiaojing, who was a member of the Directing Department's Class of '78, a student of Teacher Situ; privately, he could also call him Senior Brother.

Cao Yang didn't call the coal boss because all the contacts in between were handled by Old Tian, so let Old Tian call to inform him.

Today, he had an appointment with several powerful and sincere distributors to discuss the film's distribution abroad.

Cao Yang could make the decision on this aspect himself; what he signed with the school and the coal boss were all domestic copyrights and profit-sharing, not involving any foreign copyrights.

That is to say, the foreign copyright of the film was entirely in Cao Yang's hands.

The school probably couldn't have imagined that a twenty-year-old student, filming a movie for the first time, could win an award in Berlin, right? So at the time, the school didn't mention the foreign copyright issue at all, only asking for the domestic shared copyright.

I have to sigh again at the goodness of the coal boss, giving money quickly and having few things to do, neither interfering with the filming nor directing blindly; if possible, Cao Yang still hopes that the domestic box office can be better, allowing the coal boss to make more money.

Foreign copyright isn't the more sold the better; it mainly depends on the distributor; powerful distributors possess quite a few connections in film festivals, and these can be counted as intangible assets.

Under the condition that the given terms are not much different, the copyright must be sold to a distributor with a better network.

Currently, four film distributors have been listed by Cao Yang as candidates.

One is the German UFA film company, which was the first to contact Cao Yang.

After the film's premiere, UFA contacted him, probably thinking the film was good and had a high chance of winning an award, after all, it was the finale screening; they directly offered a package price of 1 million US dollars, wanting all copyrights except for the mainland.

To be honest, if the film hadn't won an award, this price would be very conscientious.

But the reason they dared to offer so much money was to gamble that the film could win an award.

Cao Yang didn't agree.

After the film won two Silver Bears, UFA contacted him again last night, saying they could talk again. Meeting today, they directly raised the price to 2.9 million US dollars, still wanting to package the global distribution except for the mainland.

This German film company's power is still quite large; it is a cartel organization that unites major producers.

If Cao Yang only intends to mix in Berlin, selling the copyright to UFA is the best choice.

Another one that entered Cao Yang's field of vision is EuropaCorp, which was founded only last year; one of their bosses is the famous French director Lu Ke Besson.

According to what Cao Yang knows, this company mainly produces and distributes commercial films; I don't know why they took a fancy to this literary film; could it be that they want to enter the domestic market?

They also wanted to package the global distribution except for the mainland and offered a high price of 3.2 million US dollars. However, although their offer was higher than UFA's, Cao Yang thought carefully and felt that selling to them was not as good as selling to UFA.

Lu Ke Besson has a great reputation internationally and also has a lot of influence among ordinary people in France, but in the field of literary films, even at France's Cannes Film Festival, his influence is just average, and his connection role is not great.

In Europe, it's about the same as in China; literary film directors generally look down on commercial film directors, and there is an invisible chain of contempt.

The third one is mk2, which is a company that mainly distributes art films; don't look at their sphere of influence being limited to Europe, but they have great influence in the field of literary films, especially at Cannes.

mk2 only wanted the European copyright and offered 1.6 million US dollars.

The last one is Sony Pictures Classics.

This is an American company founded in 1992, co-founded by former Orion Classics bosses M. Barker, T. Bernard, and M. Bloom, affiliated with Sony Pictures Entertainment, and operating independently.

It mainly distributes or produces literary films, documentaries, and independent films, and acts as an agent for overseas films not produced in the United States.

The National Master Zhang Yimou's "The Story of Qiu Ju", Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", etc., were all distributed by it.

This company is very powerful; the films it has distributed have won many Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.

Like the 1993 Best Foreign Language Film "Indochine", the 1994 Best Foreign Language Film "Farinelli", the 1995 Best Foreign Language Film "Burnt by the Sun", were all operated by Sony Pictures Classics.

!

This year, they are mainly promoting Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"; this film can win so many Oscar nominations, and this company is the behind-the-scenes pusher.

Old Tian said that Sony Pictures Classics has great influence in Venice and has cooperation with the Venice Film Festival.

Then he mysteriously said that several members of the Venice Film Festival organizing committee have shares in Sony Pictures Classics; if you want to win an award at the Venice Film Festival, having this company's assistance can achieve twice the result with half the effort.

This made Cao Yang feel moved; what is one of their own? Those who have common interests are their own.

Sony Pictures Classics initially wanted to package the global copyright except for the mainland.

Cao Yang felt that he had now established a foothold at the Berlin Film Festival; if he had an interest relationship with mk2, plus the school's connections, he could also break into the Cannes Film Festival.

If he had interest dealings with Sony Pictures Classics, combined with the school's connections, he could also participate in the Venice Film Festival.

So he made a decision.

Through negotiations with Sony Pictures Classics, they finally gave up the European copyright and the Greater China copyright, and the final offer was 1.5 million US dollars.

Done.

Cao Yang finally chose to sell the European copyright to mk2 for 1.6 million US dollars, and sell the copyright outside Europe and Greater China to Sony Pictures Classics for 1.5 million US dollars; the foreign copyright sold for a total of 3.1 million US dollars.

At this time, the exchange rate to the US dollar is around 8.27, which converts to selling for 25.637 million yuan, and this doesn't count the box office in Greater China.

Don't think this money is inconspicuous; last year, which was 2000, the second place in the annual box office list, Xiao Gangpao's "Sorry Baby", had a box office of only 30 million.

If you deduct the business tax, film special fund, and the share given to the cinema line, these would deduct about 60%.

That is to say, the money the producer of "Sorry Baby" got was only a little over 10 million.

In this era, as long as you can win an award at the three major European film festivals, for fame and fortune, you still have to look at literary films.

Thank you to the brothers for the monthly tickets and recommendation tickets, thank you everyone.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 23 =====