Chapter 72: The Ways Movies Make Money

The school's so-called "celebration party" was not a celebration in the traditional sense of eating, drinking, and having fun; it was actually a symposium, at least in name.

Many alumni who had already graduated were invited, from every department, totaling about forty or fifty people—and of course, those most famous big shots were not to be missed.

Then, in the Beijing Film Academy auditorium, a large banner was hung: "The Power of Inheritance—The Original Intention and Mission of BFA People."

Cao Yang was a bit dazed; wasn't this a bit too high-profile? This wasn't a celebration party, nor did it look like a normal symposium; it was clearly gang members networking!

Were they not afraid of being sanctioned?

What? You want me to greet them at the auditorium entrance and introduce them all to me?

Oh, never mind then.

What gang members networking, pfft, pfft.

This was clearly an alumni gathering, and a chance to once again spur the graduated alumni to not forget their original intention, keep their mission in mind, inherit the classics, be daring and innovative, and continue to contribute to the development of the Chinese film and television industry.

Tian Zhuangzhuang and Cao Yang stood at the auditorium entrance; every time someone came over, he would introduce them to Cao Yang, tirelessly saying, "This is Cao Yang, our BFA's Cao Yang."

In truth, there was no need for Old Tian to introduce him; as insiders, who wasn't shocked by the news that Cao Yang had won the Golden Lion? Who didn't know?

But Old Tian still emphasized it to every person who arrived.

Those who could come were all humble and kind; no one slighted Cao Yang because of his age. Even the notorious troublemakers in the film and television industry were all smiles at this moment, reaching out to enthusiastically shake Cao Yang's hand, congratulating the young Golden Lion director.

Cao Yang had his eyes opened; many famous cinematographers, screenwriters, and art directors—he had only heard their names on weekdays and didn't know their backgrounds—he hadn't expected so many to be BFA graduates.

Everyone chatted about movies, discussed anecdotes within the industry, jointly condemned chaotic and strange phenomena, and looked forward to the future of film.

Of course, there was another purpose: for everyone to get together and let everyone recognize the new talent our BFA has cultivated, which could be considered a display of teaching achievements.

It was a bit like the main headquarters producing a very capable newcomer, which naturally had to be introduced to all the branch halls.

After the meeting, there would certainly be a few articles in film magazines to shut the mouths of those with ulterior motives.

After finishing the so-called "celebration party," Cao Yang accepted a few more exclusive interviews; these were arranged by the school, all of the kind that looked very high-class.

Then, Hou Ke found Cao Yang and asked when the movie was planned to be released, and whether they still wanted to pull China Film Group in for distribution.

It was entirely a tone of consultation.

Han Zong had called two days ago, hoping to co-distribute the film. This was a film that had won the Golden Lion Award, naturally carrying its own publicity, not to mention the added bonus of a Venice Best Actress.

It wasn't looking down on the Youth Film Studio, but relying solely on the strength of the Youth Film Studio, small-scale distribution was fine, but large-scale distribution was beyond their reach.

Then what else was there to say? Since it was a mutually beneficial matter, they would just co-distribute it.

Jiang Zhiqiang from Xiangjiang also came specifically to discuss the distribution of the film in Xiangjiang and Taiwan.

As for the release date, Cao Yang specifically checked.

This year, the eleventh happened to be the Mid-Autumn Festival; although it was a Monday, it didn't matter much. Starting from 1999, the statutory holidays for the Spring Festival, Labor Day, and National Day were each 3 days.

At this time, there was no such thing as a "National Day slot"; it wouldn't be until the release of *Painted Skin* in 2008 that this period began to be valued.

Labor laws were not yet sound at this time; perhaps factories and the like didn't follow labor laws, but the current movie-going crowd was mainly personnel from government units and enterprises, white-collar workers in foreign-funded companies, and a small number of students in love.

Then let's set it for National Day.

Hou Ke had no objections; the school didn't attach much importance to the release and box office of films, but rather was tireless in applying for various awards and participating in film festivals. At night, before going to sleep, Cao Yang looked at the prestige in the system; he still couldn't fully understand the rules brought by winning awards, only having a vague guess.

Host: Cao Yang

Current Prestige: 1086785

Available Prestige: 686785

Role-Immersion Experience: +0

Films Filmed: None

……

Cao Yang remembered that the last time he checked was just when he arrived in Venice; it should have been because *On the Beach at Night Alone* was released in North America, which added over 130,000 points of prestige.

This time, winning the Golden Lion, Best Actress, and Best Newcomer added a total of over 540,000 points of prestige.

Comparing it with the prestige added after the first award, Cao Yang guessed that a Best Actress from the three major European film festivals should add 150,000 prestige.

Then how much was the Golden Lion? 300,000? Probably.

Of the 500,000-plus prestige, there were still 90,000-plus points left. Excluding the prestige brought by the film's release, was Liu Ye's Best Newcomer award not worth much? Maybe 50,000?

Then that would be a loss, as the role-immersion experience added for him cost 100,000 prestige points.

But it couldn't be calculated that way; without Liu Ye's brilliant performance, they might not have won the Golden Lion.

The harvest this time was not small; he could stack the role-immersion experience six times with some left over, enough for several films.

There was more good news: the companies that had previously signed tiered advertising contracts had already settled the final payments on time, and these were all in US dollars.

!

These revenues alone were much higher than the income from selling copyrights. It seemed that film revenue shouldn't just focus on the box office; there were other peripheral and comprehensive gains.

Although those companies paid out quite a bit more money, each of them felt that this advertising investment was truly worth it. The person in charge of the advertising department even felt that based on this performance, a promotion and salary increase were possible.

Just like the great poet Chen Kun, which of his commercial films later didn't have an investment of hundreds of millions, building cities and fortresses? It was hard to recover costs relying solely on the box office, but he was never short of investment.

Not only was he not short of it, but people were lining up to shove it into his hands.

Why?

Film cities make money; the investors were grinning from ear to ear.

And then there were Xiao Gangpao's films; it was said that the advertising placement revenue in his *A World Without Thieves* was 40 million yuan, and *If You Are the One* even reached 50 million yuan.

The most outrageous was *Personal Tailor*, which had nineteen advertisements placed; the advertising fees alone earned over 80 million, and this was pure profit, without needing to split with the distribution theaters.

The film hadn't even been released yet, and it had already made money; the box office split was all net profit.

So, do films make money?

For big directors, they certainly do; there are far more ways to make money than just one, and each has its own path to profit. This is the reason why they are so sought after by capital.

Of course, newcomer directors and unknown directors shouldn't think about this; advertisers are not fools either.

Just like the "little fresh meat" of later generations, why are they sought after?

It's the traffic economy; they can both harvest fans and bring traffic and attention. This is the value of their existence.

After a busy week, Cao Yang was temporarily free these past few days. After careful consideration, he decided to make another film with a greater possibility of winning Best Actor or Best Actress.

This required, like *On the Beach at Night Alone*, a heavy tilt in the plot to be more certain.

Yu Feihong could win Best Actress with *3-Iron*; acting was one aspect, but the other was that among the seven judges, there were three female judges, plus the topic stirred up at the time, political correctness had the advantage.

South Korea did have a film that was very suitable, but it involved a bit of "blasphemy" against the gods, so it probably wouldn't pass censorship easily.

(End of chapter)