Chapter 177: The Sluggish Art Film Market, Building a Cinema Brand

Chapter 177 The sluggish art film market, to become a cinema brand?

Fortunately, Cheng Long is not a person without sense of propriety.

He brought his son with him, just to let Wu Yuan know him and make him familiar.

At least during the dinner, he did not express any hope that Wu Yuan would help Prince Fang.

To be honest, Prince Fang has a good character. Perhaps because Wu Yuan is indeed too high-ranking, Prince Fang dare not be presumptuous in front of him and will only cater to him blindly.

A delicious Cantonese meal, the guests and the host enjoyed it.

After the meeting, Cheng Long began his busy promotional activities, and will be a frequent flyer in the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and other countries.

And Wu Yuan, also continued his vacation.

Of course, he will also pay attention to some things in the company.

For example, "Fated to Love You" was finally sold to Mango TV, and Li Xiaoping and Mango TV negotiated a contract to pay according to the ratings ladder.

Simply put, if the average ratings of this TV series do not exceed 2%, Mango TV only needs to pay 300,000 per episode.

But if the average ratings of this TV series can exceed 3%, the price will increase to 400,000 per episode.

If the final average ratings can exceed 4% and the highest ratings can exceed 6%, then you can get a price of 500,000 per episode.

What is the level of average ratings exceeding 4% and highest ratings exceeding 6%?

Liu Yifei's version of "The Return of the Condor Heroes" had a highest rating of 8.87% after it was broadcast, and the average ratings of the first round exceeded 5.1%, and this result did not even rank in the top ten TV series ratings in 2006.

So it seems that this result is not high, not even in the top ten, and it seems easy to achieve?

I think too much again.

Before 2010, the top ten TV series ratings were basically dominated by CCTV. The lowest ratings of TV series on CCTV-1 were 4%-5%, and the highest ratings were 8.7% like last year's "Moment in Peking".

This is the average rating, not the highest rating, which has exceeded 10.

The highest rating of Mango TV in 2006 was only 2.3% of "Golden Branches Desire", and the gap is very obvious.

For Mango TV, a TV series that can break 2% ratings is considered to be the annual hit of the station, and breaking 4% is an unimaginable achievement.

If "Fated to Love You" can really break 4% average ratings, then even if it is given 8 million more, it is not a big deal!

After the final negotiation of this clause, it can be said that both parties are very satisfied and hope to fulfill the highest clause in the end.

Wu Yuan also handed over the script outline and outline of "The Star of Sheep" to the company's screenwriter department.

Well, now Guangying Times has a TV series screenwriter department, and the employees are all poached from the Department of Literature of Beijing Film Academy. Their main job is to fill in the content according to the script outline given by the company.

"Fated to Love You" was made by them, and they will be named as screenwriters when the TV series is broadcast.

There will be a series of idol drama scripts waiting for them to perfect.

They are all young people who have been exposed to idol dramas in Hong Kong and Taiwan. With a complete script outline and even a detailed outline of important plot points, they can still complete their work well.

Next year, the company's screenwriter and TV drama departments will mainly produce the drama "The Star of Sheep" and strive to broadcast it in 2006.

October 1st, National Day.

On this day when the whole country is celebrating the birthday of the motherland, Wu Yuan's art film "Love", which won the Cannes Jury Grand Prix, was released simultaneously in more than 2,000 cinemas across the country.

There was no premiere and no reporters were invited.

The movie "Love" has long been famous and does not need to spend any extra publicity costs.

It just posted the release posters on the Internet and major cinemas to inform fans.

Wu Yuan really didn't have much expectation for the box office of this movie.

The tide of the times is really fast.

Since "Hero" swept the country, the domestic art film market has been shrinking rapidly.

When "Departures" was released, it could still have a box office of more than 50 million, but when the ticket price doubled, Zhang Guorong's "If Love" only earned more than 50 million in the mainland.

Up to now, the ticket price has risen to 35 yuan per ticket, and Wu Yuan's box office expectation for the movie "Love" is only 30 to 50 million.

This is still considering that the movie won a big prize in Cannes and the expectations of movie fans are very high.

There is no way, art films are really declining now, and are less and less interested in the younger generation of audiences.

In 2002, five of the top ten movies in the mainland box office were art films.

By this year 2005, if "A Thousand Miles Alone" is not counted, there is no place for art films in the top ten movies in the mainland box office.

For Wu Yuan, the main income of the art film "Love" is still from selling copyrights in Europe.

After the end of Cannes, "Love" sold the distribution rights to more than 30 countries and regions around the world, earning a total of nearly 8 million US dollars, an average of more than 200,000 US dollars per country.

If converted into RMB, it is about 60 million.

Can the box office of the film in China be 60 million RMB?

Wu Yuan dared not think about it.

In other words, the cost of "Love" was low, and the total cost of making this film was less than 10 million.

It is estimated that it will be impossible to make a literary film like "The Embalmer" that costs tens of millions again in the future.

Sighing with some melancholy for the Chinese-language literary film market, Wu Yuan calmly waited for the mainland box office results of "Love".

Six million on the day of the premiere, five million on the second day, three million on the third day, and then dropped to only one or two million a day...

A result that was no surprise and could be said to be very reasonable was quickly delivered to his desk.

In contrast, "Myth" from the same period still topped the box office this week even though it has been released for a week.

"Love" tells the love elegy of a 70- or 80-year-old couple before their death. Its heavy and cold story is really not as interesting as "The Myth", which is romantic and grand.

Even if the director of this movie is Wu Yuan, and even if this movie is praised to the heavens in China and is hailed as the most artistically valuable movie of this year, it is still not applauded.

If you ask me to praise this movie and praise this movie a few words like everyone else on the Internet, that's no problem.

Do you want me to actually spend money to go to the cinema?

Then forget it

Wu Yuan had also been mentally prepared for this. The so-called film that combines both commercial and artistic aspects, could win the top three movies in Europe and win the box office championship at the same time was impossible to exist.

The commercial blockbuster he is really preparing for is "Painted Skin" which will be released during the Lunar New Year holiday. This movie is the box office bomb he is preparing for!

"Director Wu, the release of "Painted Skin" has been coordinated."

"On December 28, it will be released simultaneously in China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Malaysia."

"In January, the Philippines, Russia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Myanmar will also be released one after another."

"Among them, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia are negotiating to share the box office accounts, while other countries are buying out the distribution."

"In addition to Asia, "Painted Skin" also sold the distribution rights to more than ten countries in Europe and the United States at the Toronto Film Festival. The money is not much, only more than two million US dollars, but it is better than nothing."

In mid-October, Director Han, who was responsible for the distribution of "Painted Skin", personally called Wu Yuan to inform him of the distribution status of "Painted Skin".

The situation is quite gratifying, with "Your Name" Yuzhu in the lead, and oriental fantasy movies like "Painted Skin" being well accepted by the Asian market, so the Asian distribution of this movie went very smoothly.

The three major ticket warehouses, China, South Korea, and Japan, will release the film separately and will be released together on December 28.

If this movie wants to make a lot of money, it must seize these three markets.

"For the release of "Painted Skin" in South Korea, SHOWBOX promises to release it on a large scale, covering at least 80% of the cinemas in South Korea!"

"This time it will definitely not be a small fight!"

On the phone, Director Han was looking forward to the success of "Painted Skin" in the Korean market.

No way, Wu Yuan's previous films had a relatively average response in the Korean market.

Although he is well-known in South Korea and is a major Hollywood director after all, both "The Embalmer" and "Your Name" were only released on a small scale in South Korea, with only a few hundred thousand moviegoers.

It seems that hundreds of thousands of people went to the cinema to watch Wu Yuan's movie, which is already a lot.

After all, South Korea only has a population of over 40 million. Compared to China, with 1.2 billion people, there are only 10 to 20 million moviegoers.

But this is the wrong idea.

In fact, watching movies is a very popular thing in Korea.

"The Flying Taigeuk Flag" released in 2004, has received a total of 11.75 million moviegoers, which is equivalent to a quarter of the people in South Korea going to the cinema to watch this movie.

And this is not an isolated case. In fact, when the Korean movie market is good, there are movies with over 10 million moviegoers every year, and when the market is bad, there are eight to nine million moviegoers.

The average price of a Korean movie ticket is around 40 yuan, and 10 million moviegoers can bring in a box office of 400 million yuan!

Even if there are only 5 million moviegoers, that’s still a box office of 200 million!

Although South Korea's box office potential is not as big as Japan's, it should not be underestimated!

However, the previous Korean partners of "The Embalmer" and "Your Name" did not discuss much about the arrangement of Korean theaters for these two films. As a result, the results of these two films in South Korea were very average.

It's different now. Director Han specifically found a powerful and ambitious partner, and it was written in the contract that this time "Painted Skin" will be released simultaneously in 80% of theaters in South Korea.

Although there is still no way to guarantee the film scheduling rate, as long as the theater channels are opened, the specific number of films to be scheduled will depend on whether the movie can live up to its expectations when it is released.

Just like when "Your Name" was released in Japan, if the audience likes and wants to watch it, then of course the theaters will take the initiative to add more shows and increase the number of films.

But if the theater channels are not opened up, and the theaters are not even showing the movie, then even if the audience wants to watch it, they can only stare.

"Director Han is professional in distribution. I can rest assured that I will leave this matter to you!" Wu Yuan said cheerfully on the phone.

Light and Shadow Times is currently not involved in the distribution market, and Wu Yuan doesn't want to do distribution.

Although distribution guarantees revenue during droughts and floods, regardless of whether the movie ultimately loses money or makes a profit at the box office, the distributor remains firmly on the Diaoyutai.

But for distribution, relationships and connections are still the most important part.

You need to have a strong relationship with major theater chains across the country to be able to distribute the films you are responsible for in theaters across the country and ensure the film scheduling rate.

Wu Yuan didn't have any connections in this area. He didn't know any CEOs of private theaters.

Rather than distribution, he is quite interested in the theatrical market.

This year is the year when the national cinema chain market enters the fast lane. New cinemas in every province and city have entered a period of explosive growth. Thousands of new cinemas can be built a year.

Wu Yuan, who has a vision for the future, knows that in the next ten years, China's cinema market will be prosperous. It can be said that as long as you open a cinema, you can make money.

Well, it wasn’t until the outbreak of the epidemic that the hot theater market was brought to a halt.

Before, Wu Yuan did not pay much attention to the theater market. That was because he worked in a movie theater for the first two years and joined the National Army in 1949, which was not very cost-effective.

Why do you say that?

Because if we were to build a theater in the first two years, the screening hall would still be a film screening hall, because mainstream movies are still based on film movies.

But what is depressing is that since 2006, China or the global film industry has entered the digital film era.

Since 2006, when most theaters are newly built, they no longer purchase film projection equipment and directly install digital equipment.

When "Avatar" was released in 2009, it triggered an upsurge in the construction of digital cinemas around the world and in my country, especially 3D cinemas.

By 2012, the digitization rate of domestic screens reached 97.4%, and film projection was basically completely eliminated.

If you entered the cinema market in the past two years, you may have just built a cinema and had to upgrade it and build a new digital cinema.

The cost of investing in an ordinary cinema is between 500,000 yuan and 2 million yuan, and upgrading equipment will cost another 50 to 1 million yuan, which is equivalent to building half an extra cinema.

Rather than spending more money, it would be better to wait another year or two and go directly to digital cinema.

Anyway, in a big country like China, one or two companies cannot dominate the theater market. There is actually not much difference between entering the theater market earlier or later.

The reason why Wu Yuan wants to start a cinema chain is just to add some industrial assets to the company, and to open up the upstream and downstream industrial chain, so as to increase the voice in the industry in the light and shadow era.

Why did Wanda later become the largest film company in China, even more dominant than Internet companies such as Alibaba and Tencent?

Isn't it because they have the entire industry chain from production to distribution to theaters covered? They don't care about threats from other companies and can even choke other film companies in turn.

Although Wu Yuan does not expect that the Light and Shadow Era can become a behemoth like Wanda, after all, it is backed by a real estate parent company.

But he also wants to create his own film ecosystem and open up the upstream and downstream channels of the film industry, so that at least he is not controlled by others and can circulate within himself.

They control the production at the top and the hospitalization line at the bottom. Only such film companies have excellent risk resistance capabilities. They can do whatever they want in the industry without worrying about being controlled by others, and they have a decisive influence!

Next year at the latest, that is, 2006, Light and Shadow Era’s own cinema brand should be established!

Wu Yuan does not intend to be greedy for big things. If he can build a total of ten theaters in major first-tier cities across the country in the first year, he will be considered a successful first step!

As for whether the theater chain can become bigger and stronger in the future, it depends on whether he can continue to make money to support the expansion of the theater chain.

money! This is the core problem that limits the development of all enterprises!

"We must make more money!" Wu Yuan kept thinking silently in his heart.

There is another chapter in the early morning, but it will be relatively late. Let’s get up and read it tomorrow.