Chapter 234: Box Office
Top floor office.
Wang Zhongjun handed Feng Xiaogang a cigarette, crossed his legs and said, "Tell me, what do you think of this movie?"
“The overall level is pretty good.”
Feng Xiaogang said: "It is a relatively mature commercial comedy. The jokes are quite dense. The part about the female liar is a bit deliberate, but fortunately the actress has good acting skills, so the overall flaws outweigh the merits."
After a pause, he continued, "It's just that this guy lacks experience and failed to control the cost. If I were to shoot this script, it would cost at most 5 million. An experienced person could control it to around 6 million. But this guy spent more than 9 million."
Upon hearing this, Wang Zhongjun made a two-fingered pinching gesture and said, "You mean, he..."
"That's not the case. After all, he invested 5 million. There's no need for him to mess around with himself. It's mainly because of my lack of experience. It took me a long time to polish it. I was also too picky about some things. In fact, there's no need to be too picky about this kind of film."
Feng Xiaogang said: "For a novice, this is not a big problem, but for a commercial film, it is a big problem - because the cost of 900 million means that it needs nearly 3000 million box office to break even."
"So how much do you value it?"
"If it's promoted normally, it'll be around 3000 million. I prefer a little over 3000 million."
"That means we can break even and still make a small profit?"
"It's good enough to make a small profit from my first film."
Feng Xiaogang said: "Moreover, this kind of waste can be completely avoided with experience. If he can reduce the cost to less than 600 million, this movie will be a successful commercial film - but..."
"But what?"
"But his method of combining filming with TV dramas has never been used before. If the TV drama is really popular, I estimate that it should be able to increase the box office a lot, perhaps up to 4000 million."
"4000?"
Wang Zhongjun stood up and paced back and forth for a few steps, then said resolutely: "Then let's work harder on publicity and promotion, and strive to make the box office exceed 4000 million!"
Feng Xiaogang frowned and said, "When it comes to publicity and promotion, you get what you pay for. If you want to ensure that the box office exceeds 4000 million, you have to put in a lot of effort and spend a lot of money. I'm afraid that in the end, it will be difficult to even break even."
"That's worth it!"
Wang Zhongjun waved his hand with great momentum and said: "You also know that the most important thing for Huayi right now is to regroup and then seize the time to complete the preparations for listing.
As long as the movie box office exceeds 4000 million, we can promote it as close to 5000 million, and then gradually remove the word "close to".
Finally, it was announced to the public: "The genius director who directed and starred in his first low-budget New Year comedy and achieved a box office of 5000 million has signed a contract with Huayi!"
After listening to Wang Zhongjun's words, Feng Xiaogang understood what he meant. For today's movies, box office revenues of 30 million and 50 million are two different concepts in terms of publicity.
The former can only be marketed with low cost and high sales, while the latter can be touted as sprinting towards the billion-dollar club; the former can only be said to have unlimited potential, while the latter is a future superstar rising in the director world.
What Huayi needs most now is a gimmick that can excite people. In order to achieve this goal, Wang Zhongjun can even lose money to subsidize Xu Kun's movie.
This made Feng Xiaogang feel a little complicated, because he was the only one who had received such strong promotion and support from Huayi in the past.
Now there is a new Xu Kun for no apparent reason...
However, thinking of the relationship between Xu Kun and Ge You, and the fact that they had always respected him, it was not an exaggeration to say that they were his own people with a good family background, so he suppressed his emotion.
Nodding, he said, "In that case, we'd better put some effort into post-production. The cameraman is okay, but the lighting and color grading are a little off. It would be best if we could make up for it in post-production."
Wang Zhongjun added: "You will be in charge of the post-production, and I will be responsible for convincing the theaters to schedule more screenings - Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi are more famous, but Memoirs of a Geisha is not suitable for screening on Valentine's Day. As long as we schedule Memoirs of a Geisha, it will be easy to break 4000 million!"
Feng Xiaogang nodded again, and then solemnly reminded: "After all, the ceiling of low-budget comedy films is so high. If you want to become bigger and stronger, you still have to make blockbusters, like Zhang Yimou's "Hero", and go overseas to earn money from foreigners!"
Zhang Yimou's "Hero" was said to have a total investment of million yuan. At that time, everyone thought he would lose everything. Later, the total box office of million yuan in China also made many people laugh.
But the subsequent performance of "Hero" after it was released overseas surprised many people. After three years of steady growth, the total overseas box office of "Hero" has exceeded 3 billion.
The million yuan investment turned out to be profitable! This is exactly why everyone wanted to make a blockbuster in 05.
"Director Feng, don't worry."
Wang Zhongjun nodded heavily and said, "Even if we lose money at first to gain publicity, we at Huayi will work hard to pave this road! The investment in The Banquet will only be more than expected, not less!"
Only then did Feng Xiaogang smile with satisfaction.
Thinking of what he had seen before, he reminded: "Don't forget to find someone to promote that skit."
“Don’t worry, how could I forget the trouble I caused to The Promise?” Wang Zhongjun said, and couldn’t help but sigh: “The online trolls created by Jia Yueting are really a double-edged sword. I’m afraid that the major film and television companies will use more and more methods to trip each other up in the future.”
…………
Xiong Naijin was unable to accompany Xu Kun on the tour, so she returned to her own exclusive lounge - originally she was not entitled to such treatment given her status, but who could blame the fact that there are too few monks and too much porridge now?
She opened her laptop and started chatting in the group.
Jinn [熊乃瑾]: I just watched the movie directed by Brother Kun and was deeply shocked!
Jinn [熊乃瑾]: If it wasn’t in front of the company’s top management, I would have laughed my ass off!
I am not a fox~ [Yang Mi]: Really? I don’t believe it——Lu .
Yan Nantian [Jiang Yiyan]: You stinky girl, you've been very free lately, right?!
Yan Nantian [Jiang Yiyan]: Of course Brother Kun’s movie is good. I have seen it in advance and it is very funny - especially the part where Teacher Fan Wei catches a cheating couple.
Wei Wei Yi Xiao [Gan Wei]: Isn't the box office going to be a big hit? I'll call and congratulate Brother Kun in advance!
Lei Hao Ah [Hao Lei]: What do you think the final box office will be? Can it break 3000 million?
Harry Lulu [Li Xiaolu]: Break through the billion, break through the billion, break through the billion!
Dancing Butterfly [Liu Shishi]: If the quality is really good, it should be more than 3000 million. When Brother Kun was filming the TV series, he was already trying to promote the movie. As long as the TV series has good ratings, there will definitely be people who will go to see the movie because of the TV series.
Harry Lulu [Li Xiaolu]: Break through the billion, break through the billion, break through the billion!
Lei Hao Ah [Hao Lei]: So what do you think the box office will be?
Butterfly Dancing [Liu Shishi]: It should be around 3500 to 4000 million - I'm just guessing, don't take it seriously.
Thriving [Jiang Xin]: Be bold, I bet 5000 million!
I am Xu Kun [Li Xiaolu]: It must exceed 100 million, it must exceed 100 million, if it doesn’t exceed 100 million, I, Xu Kun, will castrate myself - and I will do it live on TV!
Yu Fan [Huo Siyan]: Has been transferred to Brother Kun himself.
Lanlan [Qin Lan]: Transferred +1.
I am Xu Kun [Li Xiaolu]: Would I be afraid of him? On a full moon night, on the top of the water tower, a sword came from the west, a fairy from the sky!
Thriving [Jiang Xin]: Talk about water towers in detail.
Lei Haoah [Hao Lei]: Talk about the water tower in detail +1.
Weiwei's smile [Ganwei]: Detailed description of water tower +2.
The girls laughed and made noises in the group for a while, and suddenly realized that someone seemed to be missing.
Thriving [Jiang Xin]: Huh? Where's Mimi? Why is she offline?
Lei Hao Ah [Hao Lei]: Probably because I was in class, after all, I’m a freshman.
On campus of Beijing Film Academy.
Yang Mi was holding her cell phone in a depressed mood. She was not in class, but Jiang Yiyan's words "Are you very free?" touched her heart.
She is really free recently!
I thought that after being admitted to the Beijing Film Academy, Rong Xinda would be eager to give himself a lot of work and make himself an overnight sensation like Liu Yifei.
Who knew that Rong Xinda would ask her to study hard and make progress every day!
If I had known earlier, I would not have listened to Li Shaohong and insisted on participating in "The Overbearing CEO Falls in Love with Me". Now this drama has become popular before it is even aired, but I...
At this time, a classmate suddenly asked: "Mengmeng, I heard that a film crew came to the school for an open audition. Do you want to try?"
"What crew?"
"It seems to be about the story of Wang Zhaojun. The name is "Wang Zhaojun"."
Upon hearing this, Yang Mi gritted his teeth and said firmly: "Go, you must go!"
Since Rong Xinda doesn't allocate resources to me, I'll have to fight for it on my own ability!
[Note: According to the information, this "Wang Zhaojun" was filmed in the second half of 05, but it will not be broadcast until the end of September 07. For the sake of the plot, I postponed it to the first half of 9, but it will not affect the subsequent broadcast time. ]
(End of this chapter)
