China Entertainment 1997.

Chapter 259 This is a game, it's just a money printing machine
"Feng Shen Bang" is not Cao Xuan's imagination.

Fanxing wants to become a large-scale film and television company that stirs up the industry. It can't get ahead just by relying on a small production of 800 million yuan. The big production is the project that determines the status of the industry.

In terms of movies, the market has not yet risen, and the possibility of losing money is greater than making money, and the involvement is too wide, and the stars may not be able to enjoy themselves.

But TV shows can still be reckless.

The large-scale production of TV dramas in recent years has basically been based on martial arts dramas + historical dramas. In addition, there are also the four major masterpieces of CCTV and related themes.

"Feng Shen Bang" was filmed in the Mainland in the 90s and was banned. It was also filmed in Hong Kong and Taiwan. It was seriously modified, and it can even be said to be a semi-original mythological drama.

It was not until "Fengshen Bang: Fengming Qishan" in 05-06 that it could be regarded as the essence of the original "Fengshen Bang".

From the perspective of IP popularity, the popularity of "Fengshen Yanyi" is not inferior to the four great classics. Jiang Ziya, Nezha, and Yang Jian are all familiar characters to the public.

If it can be promoted smoothly, with sufficient investment, it will not be comparable to the previous "Water Margin", but it can also be close.

But the key difficulty lies in the special effects. "Feng Shen Bang" is a special effects drama, not to mention realistic, but at least there must be special effects.

It’s really hard to say about this technology in the mainland now. It’s too expensive to go to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea to do it. Hollywood doesn’t even have to think about it.

Calculated according to the price of ordinary special effects, the guaranteed cost of a TV series must be more than 2000 million. If the quality is to be better, it may be more than 5000 million.

"Fengshen Bang" is not short in length, and it needs to be more than 50 episodes if it is compact. In addition to the setting, clothing, actors' remuneration and other aspects, if you want to shoot well, you can't make do.

Adding up the odds and ends, it is possible to invest over [-] million yuan...

Whether Cao Xuan can eat such a drama is one thing, but how to sell it after eating is the key.

To be honest, according to the usual distribution model of TV dramas, "Feng Shen Bang" would be difficult to pay back, not to mention making money.

Cao Xuan pondered for a while. If this drama wants to make money, there is only one possibility——

Pull CCTV into the game and sell advertisements!

Cao Xuan didn't know how much the advertising fee for "Water Margin" was, but in 1998 it was absolutely unimaginably sky-high.

If we cooperate with CCTV to develop "Feng Shen Bang", stir up the popularity, attract advertisers, and use CCTV's channel to operate the advertising fees and various copyrights of this drama, the cost of over [-] million can definitely be easily earned back.

This is the only way Cao Xuan can think of to make money from "Feng Shen Bang".

At this stage, only the size of CCTV can support the commercial cash-out of this drama.

Of course, Beijing TV, Lu TV, Modu TV, Shonan TV and other popular TV stations can join forces, but if there are too many people, the sound will be chaotic, and this project can't be done reliably.

In contrast, although CCTV is domineering, its production pursuit is more consistent with Cao Xuan.

Cao Xuan asked someone to make a project proposal, and came to chat with the leader of CCTV who was familiar with it. When the other party saw that the investment had a high probability of exceeding [-] million, he waved his hand directly.

Just kidding, there are only a few TV series that CCTV has invested over [-] million yuan in total, and most of the cost is used to build film and television bases.

For example, "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom" is said to have an investment of nearly 3 million yuan, but in fact, it took almost half of the construction of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom film and television base, and it took tens of thousands of group performances, which took several years. The actual production cost here is only a few Ten million.

Just like this, "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom" disappeared without a trace after it was aired once, which can be said to be the most painful investment for CCTV

Now less than two years have passed since the lesson of "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom", and now seeing Cao Xuan's project with an investment of over [-] million yuan, the leaders of CCTV almost instinctively rejected it.

Can't afford it, find another home!
It would have been nice if he could find another home, Cao Xuan was not discouraged, so he pulled the leaders of CCTV to come here.

Although the investment in this drama is high, Fanxing promises to bear half, or even more than half, and will invite some popular stars accordingly.

For example, Fanxing's artists, including Cao Xuan, all starred, and Hong Kong and Taiwan-related artists can also be invited. Fanxing will formulate a series of promotional plans to increase the popularity of the TV series and prepare for attracting advertisers.

The stars are helping to bear the risk, and CCTV only needs to use its platform and channel advantages to attract advertisers.

I dare not say that I won’t lose any money, but even if this project goes cold, CCTV will only bear a small loss, and the big head and stars will bear it.

To put it bluntly, for earning two points, for losing it is mainly Cao Xuan's...

Now CCTV is a little tempted.

But things are not that simple. On the one hand, the investment is really not small. On the other hand, CCTV has never played with other private companies like this, and whether it complies with the rules still needs to be discussed.

Advertising space is the trump card of CCTV, and it will not be changed easily.

But since he hesitates, there is room for discussion, at least it is more hopeful than flatly refusing.

After all, "Feng Shen Bang" involves a lot, and Cao Xuan didn't expect to be able to launch it immediately. He expected that the project would be formally approved and filmed in 03-04.

At that time, Fanxing will be more confident, more famous, and able to carry out commercial operations to a greater extent, and the special effects technology will be correspondingly more mature.

But the corresponding investment may also be higher. Of course, the advertising fee will definitely increase accordingly.

But even so, some leaders of CCTV are still very curious, how can Cao Xuan have the confidence to support such a big project, look at what he means, even Fan Xing can shoot independently.

That's hundreds of millions. Is this how much you earn from singing now?
Cao Xuan didn't know what the leaders of CCTV were thinking, otherwise they would have told him that of course singing wasn't that profitable, but games weren't necessarily so.

After two months of public testing, "Legend of Hot Blood" officially started charging at the end of November, and then the wasted money flowed into Cao Xuan's pocket.

By the end of 2001, the average online users of "Legend of Hot Blood" approached one million.

It is one of the hottest online games nowadays, and one of them can even be removed.

Find any Internet cafe at random, I dare not say that 50% of them are "Legend of Blood" players, but at least 70%~[-]% of them yell "PK", "warrior", "mage", "kill chicken" and other words.

It is no exaggeration to say that "Hot Blood Legend" now has an average daily turnover of more than 50.

Remember, it is 50 per day!
And this is just the beginning. As "Legend of Hot Blood" becomes more and more popular, the turnover will also increase crazily.

At the peak of "Legend of Hot Blood" in the original time and space, Shanda's monthly turnover was hundreds of millions, and it was only in 02-03.

This is not a game, it is simply a money printing machine...

Therefore, the investment of over [-] million in "Feng Shen Bang" may be too crazy for the current Cao Xuan, and it is barely medium.

If it wasn't for the consideration of profit, 2 million Cao Xuan would be able to afford it!
To be honest, the madness of "Legend of Hot Blood" once made Cao Xuan almost have the idea of ​​lying down.

There is no way, Fan Xing spends tens of millions of dollars in a year of exhaustion. Compared with the money-grabbing style of "Legend of Blood" here, it really hits the ambition of career.

However, Cao Xuan quickly let go of this idea.

"Legend of Hot Blood" is crazy, but it is destined not to last long.

Even though Cao Xuan had sent people to South Korea before, before he could react there, he bought the parent company of "Legend of Hot Blood", Yumeide, and the parent company behind it, Artos.

But he knew that it would be difficult to fully acquire these two companies, and he didn't rush to take them down, but wanted to hold a certain amount of equity.

In the original time and space, after "Legend of Hot Blood" became popular, Shanda fought countless copyright lawsuits with these two companies like plaster, and the three companies jumped left and right, arguing wildly.

Even though Cao Xuan allowed Box Games to obtain the copyright of "Legend of Hot Blood" in the first place, which not only extended the time limit but also blocked some loopholes, Cao Xuan still did not believe in the integrity of the two Korean companies.

To put it bluntly, most people can't resist the transactions involving billions of dollars, and there is no perfect contract in the world, as long as you look for loopholes, you will definitely be able to pick out the thorns.

Therefore, the purpose of Cao Xuan's acquisition of the shares of the two companies is very simple, to go straight into the enemy's camp, and then make trouble for him from the inside, delaying time.

At that time, there were Shanda and Box Games on the outside, and some people held back inside, so they could get a lot of leeway.

In addition, Cao Xuan was also wary of Shanda, if Shanda dared to play any tricks, Box Games would join the two companies to kick Chen Tianqiao out.

Cao Xuan didn't care whether he went to court or not, he just wanted to make money from "Legend of Hot Blood", and all he did was to gain the initiative.

When the time comes, Cao Xuan feels that it is almost time, and he will choose to transfer the shares of "Legend of Blood" and the two companies.

Whether it is Shanda or other companies, whoever pays more will give it to him, and then cash out.

At that time, whatever the successor can do, Cao Xuan and Box Game will accept it as soon as they are good, and go to operate other games.

This kind of pure commercial operation earns a lot, but the time limit is short, while Fanxing is a real long-term business. The profit may be low now, but it has enough stability.

And when the market booms in the later stage, the profit will not be much worse than that of "Legend of Hot Blood", and it can continue to make money.

Cao Xuan thought about the grand occasion of a TV series with billions of dollars and a movie with billions of dollars in the future, and temporarily forgot the impact of "Legend of Hot Blood" and continued to invest in the construction of Fanxing.

The massive blood transfusion of "Legend of Hot Blood" will make Cao Xuan's cash reserves for the next 2~3 years unparalleled.

Cao Xuan felt that the film and television base and theater chain plan that had been considered before could enter the stage of preparation and implementation.

And this time "Feng Shen Bang" also reminded Cao Xuan that he could acquire and train his own special effects team.

This is likely to be a thankless task, but if it is done, the lifeblood will not be pinched by others. Based on this, Cao Xuan feels that even if it costs money, he must support it.

Moreover, although the special effects team will definitely lose money in the early stage, with the rise of the domestic film and television market in the future, the overall industry prospects are still very promising.

Some things have to be done by someone. Cao Xuan has the ability and capital, so he can't be too concerned about gains and losses.

In the past, with insufficient capital, Cao Xuan had no choice but to follow the general trend. Now that he has become the leader of the wave, he should also try to stir up some disturbances, and it is not in vain to mess around...

(End of this chapter)