Chapter 311: Changes in Two Years (Part )
Ma Weidu nodded. "No wonder you sent a lot of people to Pixar Animation. I heard they are making some 3D animation?"
Liu Hongmin nodded. "Yes, this is the animation form pioneered by Pixar. 3D animation is more three-dimensional than 2D animation, and the pictures are more gorgeous. Have you seen "The Story of Avanti"? "
Ma Weidu didn’t know much about animation, but he had seen “The Story of Avanti”. “Is this a stop-motion animation produced by Shanghai Animation Studio?”
"It is stop-motion animation, yes, but it is also puppet animation. 3D animation is puppet animation produced on a computer. Because all the movements are produced by the computer, the animation looks very smooth, even smoother than many 2D animations..."
Liu Hongmin briefly explained the principles of 3D animation production. "As long as Pixar succeeds, future animations will be dominated by 3D animations, and 2D animations will gradually withdraw from the market. Well... the Japanese will be an exception. They are very enthusiastic about 2D animations."
Ma Weidu shook his head and changed the subject, "Have you visited the animation company? They are also making an animated film."
Liu Hongmin was a little surprised. "It seems that Sun Lu and his team are doing quite well?"
Ma Weidu smiled and said, "Of course. They made so much money from Transformers and Detective Conan. If they still can't develop, then they are just eating for free, right?"
Liu Hongmin smiled and said, "Then I'll go over and take a look tomorrow."
"Okay!" Ma Weidu agreed, and then said: "The cinema chain we have established with China Film has now reached a certain scale. We have introduced a new cinema system from the United States, and we can now clearly count the box office."
"How big is it?"
"We have 542 cinemas in 15 cities across the country, 3 screens, and more than 5 seats. The current ticket price is 500 to yuan. If we have eight shows a day, we can get up to million yuan in box office revenue."
Liu Hongmin calculated that 500 million a day would be billion a year. Of course, this was the most ideal result.
“How much box office revenue did you get this year?”
Ma Weidu thought for a moment and said, "It seems to be a little over 4 million."
"Not bad!"
"That's pretty good. In recent years, domestic movie box office has been declining year after year, but our theater chain has been able to maintain its box office."
Liu Hongmin frowned. He had already urged the cinema industry to reform, so why was the box office still declining year after year? Could this trend really not be changed?
"Tell me the specific situation."
Ma Weidu smiled and said, "Actually, it still has something to do with our company."
"Huh?" Liu Hongmin was stunned. "What does this have to do with our company?"
"Since the emergence of co-productions, China Film has seen hope for reforming its cinema chains, so it has stepped up efforts to introduce Hong Kong films. The release of a large number of Hong Kong films has impacted the mainland film market. Those film studios that still cling to the previous system are gradually losing interest in their films. You should also know that once your horizons are broadened, you can no longer look back on things of the past."
This is true. For example, when adults see their own childhood essays or diaries, they dare not look directly at them, let alone let others see them. Unless they have a lot of experience and read them again in old age, they may feel the innocence in them.
The same is true for mainland audiences now. After watching Hong Kong movies that are more realistic and entertaining than mainland movies, they suddenly find mainland movies hard to watch. However, after the test of time, watching movies from this era again, they can see that they are good. Before Liu Hongmin traveled back in time, many people born in the 90s and 00s especially liked to watch clips of old movies, and lamented that people in that era had a good mental state.
History will repeat itself because people's vision will repeat itself. There is a popular saying in the fashion circle that fashion is a classic reincarnation, which is why retro is always popular in the fashion circle.
However, if the mainland film market is in crisis now because of Hong Kong films, it is better than a crisis after Hollywood films are introduced. Otherwise, mainland films will still have to go through a painful period of being dominated by Hollywood films.
Liu Hongmin thought for a moment and said, "In the future, the Beijing branch should increase investment in commercial films, especially comedies. Comedies are a symbol of small investment and high returns. If we can produce a few popular comedies every year, we may be able to stabilize the mainland market."
Ma Weidu suddenly realized, "Is this why you want to train Xiaogang?"
Liu Hongmin nodded. "Xiaogang is not a professional, so he is more receptive to commercial films. Therefore, we need to find more directors who are willing to shoot commercial films. If we can't find any, we can hire some frustrated directors from Hong Kong."
"Okay! I'll keep an eye on these people when I get back."
After Liu Hongmin gave his instructions, he let the horse go and went back.
After a night's rest, Liu Hongmin woke up and saw Gong Li at breakfast time.
She stayed in the courtyard next door last night and did not meet with Liu Hongmin to receive friends. Her identity was very embarrassing, and she was too embarrassed to appear in front of Liu Hongmin's friends.
Liu Hongmin also felt a little apologetic. "If you want to make a movie, I can ask Ma Weidu to arrange some auditions for you."
Gong Li nodded slightly. She hadn't made a movie for more than a year since she gave birth.
Li Lizhen said at this time: "Lao Ma and I will talk about this, so that others won't think too much."
Father Liu nodded, "Ah Zhen is very thoughtful."
Although he was very unhappy about his son's relationship with another woman, he didn't want to worry about it because Li Lizhen and Gong Li could live in peace. As long as there were no conflicts in the family because of this matter and there would be no disputes over the family property in the future, he didn't want to care. He is almost 60 years old. How many years can he live? Children and grandchildren have their own blessings, let them figure it out!
After breakfast, Ma Weidu had already arrived at Shichahai.
Liu Hongmin asked Chen Yu to drive straight to the animation company. Sun Lu knew that Liu Hongmin was coming, so he put down his brush and rushed over to greet him.
Although he has become the manager of an animation company, Sun Lu has not resigned from his position as the chief writer. However, he has given up the chief writer positions for Transformers and Detective Conan and is now concentrating on making new feature-length animations.
"Transformers" and "Detective Conan" have become two classic long-form animations of the animation company, and they have been produced until now. However, the animation has maintained the frequency of one per year, and they are now more focused on producing animated films, which can be produced almost every two years.
The profit point of cartoons is to buy broadcasting rights, which is a long-term business. If Liu Hongmin had not sold the broadcasting rights to the whole world, the animation company would probably have gone bankrupt relying on domestic TV stations. Most of these domestic TV stations still rely on funding from their superiors, so how can they have so much money to buy broadcasting rights?
Animated films are different. After they are produced, they are shown in theaters. Although they are not co-produced films, the box office share is only about 30%, but as long as they can sell tens of millions of box office, they can recover their costs.
(End of this chapter)
