Chapter 22: Copyright Cooperation

Early the next morning, Cao Yang wanted to get up, but Li Xiaoran held onto him, refusing to let him rise, muttering groggily that this was abroad, no need to be afraid, and that his person back home wouldn't find out.

Find out my foot!

Which "her"?

Cao Yang was a bit confused for a moment; was she acting again? It wasn't until he noticed Li Xiaoran stifling a laugh that he realized he’d been tricked.

Well, what else was there to say? It was early in the morning, why was she rubbing against him like that!

Miss, do you know what a grave mistake you’ve made? Have you never heard that you must never provoke a man in the morning?

You have to hand it to a body in its twenties; forty minutes later, Cao Yang got up feeling refreshed and invigorated, while Li Xiaoran lay there listlessly with her eyes half-closed.

Regarding the award, although everyone back home who needed to know already knew, the calls still had to be made; it was a matter of social etiquette.

Cao Yang first called his parents; there was nothing else to it, just to share the good news and let them be happy.

What is the greatest hope parents have for their child? First, that they are safe and sound; if, on that foundation, they can achieve even a small success, that is a parent's greatest wish.

The second call went to Old Situ; he surely knew the news long ago, but saying it personally showed more sincerity.

The third call went to the school’s vice dean, Hou Keming, who also served as the head of the Qingying Studio; Cao Yang winning the award was something he likely knew even earlier and was even happier about.

The fourth call went to the veteran Xie Fei; nothing more to it than to express his gratitude.

The fifth call went to the Director Department head, Xie Xiaojing, who was a member of the Director Department’s Class of '78 and a student of Teacher Situ; privately, he could even call him "Senior Brother."

Cao Yang didn't call the coal boss, as all the contact in between was handled by Old Tian, so he just let Old Tian make the call to inform him.

Today, he had appointments with several capable and sincere distributors to discuss the film's distribution abroad.

In this regard, Cao Yang could make the decisions himself; the contracts signed with the school and the coal boss were all for domestic copyrights and revenue sharing, involving no foreign copyrights whatsoever.

In other words, the foreign copyrights for the film were entirely in Cao Yang’s hands.

The school probably never imagined that a student in his twenties, making his first film, could win an award in Berlin, right? So at the time, the school didn't even bring up the issue of foreign copyrights, only asking for the domestic shared copyright.

He had to marvel once again at how good the coal boss was—quick to pay and low-maintenance, neither interfering with the film nor barking orders; if possible, Cao Yang still hoped the domestic box office would perform well so the coal boss could earn more.

It wasn't that selling more foreign copyrights was always better; it mainly depended on the distributor. A capable distributor possessed many connections within film festivals, and these could be counted as intangible assets.

Given that the conditions offered were similar, one should definitely sell the copyrights to the distributor with the better network.

Currently, Cao Yang had shortlisted four film distributors.

One was the German UFA Film Company, which was the first to contact Cao Yang.

After the film's premiere, UFA had reached out, perhaps feeling the film was good and had a high chance of winning, especially since it was the closing screening; they offered a flat fee of 1 million USD for all rights outside the mainland.

To be honest, if the film hadn't won an award, this price would have been quite generous.

But the reason they dared to offer so much was that they were betting the film would win.

Cao Yang didn't agree.

After the film took home two Silver Bears, UFA reached out again last night, saying they could negotiate further. Meeting today, they raised the price directly to 2.9 million USD, still wanting to bundle global distribution outside the mainland.

This German film company was quite powerful; it was a cartel organization that united various major producers.

If Cao Yang only intended to hang around Berlin, selling the copyrights to UFA would be the best choice.

Another that entered Cao Yang’s radar was EuropaCorp, a company founded just last year, with one of its bosses being the famous French director Luc Besson.

As far as Cao Yang knew, this company focused mainly on producing and distributing commercial films; he didn't know why they had taken a liking to this art-house film—could it be they wanted to enter the domestic market?

They also wanted to bundle global distribution outside the mainland and offered a high price of 3.2 million USD. However, although their offer was higher than UFA's, after careful consideration, Cao Yang felt that selling to them wouldn't be as good as selling to UFA.

Luc Besson had great fame internationally and influence among ordinary people in France, but in the field of art-house films, even at the Cannes Film Festival in France, his influence was only average, and his networking power was limited.

In Europe, much like back home, art-house directors generally looked down on commercial directors; there was an invisible chain of contempt.

The third company was mk2, a company that primarily distributed art films. Don't look at their sphere of influence as limited to Europe; their influence in the art-house film field was immense, especially at Cannes.

mk2 only wanted the European copyrights and offered 1.6 million USD.

The last one was Sony Pictures Classics.

This was an American company founded in 1992, co-founded by former Orion Classics bosses M. Barker, T. Bernard, and M. Bloom, operating independently under the Sony Pictures Entertainment umbrella.

It mainly distributed or produced art-house films, documentaries, and independent films, and acted as a distribution agent for overseas films not produced in the United States.

Zhang Yimou’s "The Story of Qiu Ju" and Li An’s "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" were both distributed by them.

This company was extremely capable; the films it had distributed had won many Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film.

Like the 1993 Best Foreign Language Film "Indochine," the 1994 Best Foreign Language Film "Belle Époque," and the 1995 Best Foreign Language Film "Burnt by the Sun," all were handled by Sony Pictures Classics.

!

This year, they were mainly pushing Li An’s "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"; the fact that this film could get so many Oscar nominations was due to this company being the force behind the scenes.

Old Tian said that Sony Pictures Classics had immense influence in Venice and had a partnership with the Venice Film Festival.

Then he added mysteriously that several members of the Venice Film Festival organizing committee held shares in Sony Pictures Classics; if one wanted to win an award at the Venice Film Festival, having this company’s assistance would make the task twice as easy.

This made Cao Yang somewhat tempted; what is an "insider"? Those with shared interests are insiders.

Sony Pictures Classics initially wanted to bundle global rights outside the mainland.

Cao Yang felt that he had now established a foothold at the Berlin Film Festival; if he had a vested interest with mk2, plus the school’s connections, he could also try his luck at the Cannes Film Festival.

If he then had a business relationship with Sony Pictures Classics, combined with the school’s connections, participating in the Venice Film Festival wasn't impossible either.

And so, a decision was made.

Through negotiations with Sony Pictures Classics, they eventually gave up the European and Greater China rights, and the final offer reached 1.5 million USD.

Done.

Cao Yang ultimately chose to sell the European rights to mk2 for 1.6 million USD, and sold the rights outside of Europe and Greater China to Sony Pictures Classics for 1.5 million USD, totaling 3.1 million USD for the foreign copyrights.

At the time, the exchange rate to the USD was around 8.27, which converted to 25.637 million yuan, and that wasn't even counting the box office in Greater China.

Don't think this money is insignificant; last year, in 2000, the film that ranked second in the annual box office, Feng Xiaogang’s "Be There or Be Square," only had a box office of 30 million.

If you then deducted business taxes, the film special fund, and the share for the theater chains, about 60% would be taken off.

In other words, the money the producers of "Be There or Be Square" actually received was only a little over 10 million.

In this era, as long as you can win an award at the three major European festivals, when it comes to both fame and fortune, you still have to look to art-house films.

Thank you, brothers, for the monthly tickets and recommendation votes; thank you all.

(End of chapter)