Light and shadow player

Chapter 465
Remote video is too special.

Of course, Remote has also distributed bad films, such as several films made by Deyun Society, Remote has participated in the distribution.

There are also some unprofitable films for the main cast, such as Cheng Yu'an's two literary films, and "Frontier Wind and Cloud" released last month, and some independent director's films that he supported, all of which did not perform well at the box office.

But these are small-investment films, even if they lose all, it will not have any impact on a film and television company with a market value of 700 billion.

But other companies are different. They don't have a huge team of young directors. Although Cheng Yuan's biggest name is still Cheng Yu'an, Ning Hao, Wuershan, Han Yan, Su Lun and others are all well-known names now.

Other companies are often deeply bound to a director, such as Feng Xiaogang for Huayi, and Chen Jiashang for Bright.

The profitability of their company is too dependent on a single director.

Therefore, they will be hurt if they lose a big production.

That's why we chose to establish a distribution alliance this year to force theaters to make profit.

This year's New Year's Eve blockbusters are released together, and there is no competition from Hollywood, which is an excellent opportunity.

So on the 13th, China Film, Huayi, Bernard, Xingmei, Guangxian, and Long-distance announced the formation of an alliance, and notified each theater company in the form of a written "Notice on Adjusting the Proportion of Account Sharing for Domestic Films".

It is required to increase the share of accounts from the original 43% to 45%.

The flames of war were thus ignited.

The sudden move made the theater feel "menacing, very sudden, completely unexpected."

But the theaters are not easy to mess with. After being the boss for so many years, you say that if you increase the share, you will increase the share?

Wu Hehu, the boss of Shanghai Metropolis United Cinemas, is very firm: "If the film studio asks the theaters to make a profit, it should be resolved under a comprehensive negotiation mechanism, rather than a unilateral request like this."

He also revealed that the United Cinemas has teamed up with more than a dozen theaters to resist the unilateral "disrespectful request" of the film studio, and even said forcefully: "If the film studio insists repeatedly and the two sides fail to reach an agreement, the film will not be released."

Wu Hehu believes that the film studio unilaterally proposed to increase the proportion of the bill when the Lunar New Year holiday is approaching and many blockbuster films are about to be released, "the motive is not pure".

The attitude of the theater chain is extremely tough: If you threaten us with New Year's goods, we will not be able to survive this year.

On the afternoon of November 11, the Film Distribution and Projection Association and the theater chain held an emergency meeting in Pengcheng. Representatives at the meeting expressed their opinions and opposed the request of the six distributors to increase the proportion of accounts, and said that the distribution companies did not understand the rules, did not understand history, and were unreasonable , Don't grasp the opportunity, don't understand politics, don't understand methods, don't talk about friendship, and forget righteousness for profit.

How intense the wording can be.

After the meeting, the media contacted the representatives of the six publishers, but each of them said that they "do not accept interviews" and "inconvenient".

Cheng Yu'an did not see guests behind closed doors on the crew of "Old Father", and did not give the media any chance.

Jiang Wenli temporarily left the film crew to participate in the judging work for the Golden Horse Awards, and Cheng Yu'an was behind the single row of burnt scenes.

"Who do you think will win?" Xu Shan argued with Cheng Yu'an when the play was over and the crew got together.

"The theater chain will definitely win." Cheng Yu'an replied without thinking.

"Then you still participate in the 'Avengers'?" The outside world called the alliance of the six publishers the Avengers.

"If I don't participate, can they play?"

"That's right." Xu Shanzheng thought about it for a while, and there is such a reason. Yuanyuan is now the top producer in the Mainland, and Cheng Yu'an has an Oscar in his hand, just like the No. 1 in the Mainland. Either way, without remote participation, it seems that there is no persuasion and gold content.

"Actually, it's good to make a fuss like this." Cheng Yu'an took a bite of food, "It's so comfortable to make money lying in the cinema, if you don't make a fuss like this, the higher-ups might really want to raise the production and distribution as a stepmother."

Cheng Yu'an knew that this would not happen, because of the construction of theater chains, the screen target of 8 yuan was written in "Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of Cinemas to Promote the Prosperity and Development of the Film Market".

This shows that the above supports the theater chain.

But Cheng Yuan still wanted to try his best.

I hope that within the limited space, I can strive for more benefits for production and distribution.

On the 24th, "Avengers" unilaterally announced that it has signed new distribution contracts with 70% of theaters and theaters.

This is mainly due to the credit of China Film Digital. He crossed the theater line and talked directly with the theaters, which indeed achieved good results.

However, several major theater chains have not compromised so far, led by Wanda and New Film Federation, and vowed to defend the theater chains to the death.

Yuanqiu Golden Harvest Cinemas still didn't make a statement, so they just huddled.

The market share of Golden Harvest Cinemas is neither big nor small, outside the top 10, and within the top 20, just follow behind and watch the tigers fight.

At present, it seems that the advantage lies in the issuer, and maybe it can really change something.

These big theaters publicly said that if you want to increase the share, I will increase the ticket price.

The classic game of shifting contradictions is originally a conflict between distribution and theaters. When the theaters see that the situation is not right, they pull audiences off the stage to align with distribution.

At the same time, "The Avengers" made a clear statement: "The adjustment of the accounting ratio will not cause movie ticket prices to rise. Please rest assured that the audience who loves and supports the Chinese film industry."

"29" and "The King's Feast" are both released on the 2th, and the production key needs at least 26 days, so the [-]th is the deadline. If the major theaters do not compromise, Huayi and Xingmei will really Films will be rejected.

Therefore, on the evening of the 25th, the General Administration organized a bureau and invited representatives of several major distributors and theaters to sit down and talk.

Cheng Yu'an and Zhong Lifang attended.

Bernard's Yu Fatty was a thief, so he went to participate in the Golden Horse Awards and sent a company vice president to the meeting.

"You just know that your rent, water and electricity have been artificially increased." Wang Zhonglei patted the table at Ye Ning, the general manager of Wanda Cinemas, "Why don't you take a look at how the production cost has risen in the past few years? The stars are one by one, at every turn. It’s just tens of millions of film remuneration, and now a movie can easily cost hundreds of millions. We’re under so much pressure to pay back.”

This kind of meeting is just such a quarrel, Tong Ju frowned: "Yu'an, tell me." Cheng Yu'an was sitting on the mountain watching the tigers fighting, and was in the middle of it, when Tong Ju suddenly called him by name.

"I don't have any objections. The theater chain has its difficulties, and the distributors also have their pain points..."

"Don't give me an official tone." Tong Ju stopped Cheng Yu'an, "I want to come up with a specific solution when I sit down with you. The increase in theater operating costs is a fact."

"Ju Tong, then we..."

Tong Ju waved his hand to stop Tan Hong: "I also know that the production cost is also rising rapidly now. So we have to find a balanced way now."

The film industry analysts participating in the meeting asked: "Can we try Hollywood's step-by-step accounting?"

"Oh? Tell me more about it." It's not that Tong Ju doesn't know Hollywood's step-by-step account sharing, and wants to hear how this model can be implemented in China.

"Cheng Dao has a very successful career in Hollywood, he should know the rules of Hollywood better than me. Please Cheng Dao tell us about it."

old fox.

Cheng Yu'an finally said: "Hollywood distributors and theaters have three kinds of account sharing models. One is to share accounts in a fixed proportion like us now; the second is to buy out movies by theaters, and the box office has nothing to do with distribution and production; It’s a step-by-step split.”

"The first two accounting models are not new, and we have them too. Let's just talk about their step-by-step account sharing. This model is currently the most popular way of sharing accounts in Hollywood. They are divided according to time. For example, in the first week, the production The party can collect 80% of the box office, while the theater can only collect 20%. In this way, the producer can take advantage of the popularity of the film to recover the cost as soon as possible. As the film’s release time becomes longer, the box office allocated to the producer will increase. Less. The second and third weeks are around 60%. In the fourth week, it may be only 30% or even 20%.”

"The advantage of this model is that the producer can recover the production cost of the blockbuster film as soon as possible, thereby effectively reducing the risk of a large-budget film. For theaters, if the blockbuster is attractive enough, even in the fourth week of the film's release If the fifth week can also attract movie fans, then the theaters can also get a good profit."

After Cheng Yu'an introduced Hollywood's account sharing model, the distribution representatives present were obviously moved, but Cheng Yu'an finally added: "But I don't think this model is suitable for us."

"Because there are 4 screens in the United States, a blockbuster film can grab 30 million US dollars in the box office in its first week; a hit Hollywood movie can usually be released for two months or even longer. In contrast, we have far more screens. Not enough, and the release cycle is usually only 40-[-] days. In this way, the distributor will pile up the films and release them on Thursday and Friday, just to grab the box office in the first week, which is actually not conducive to the development of the entire market.”

"Then what's your suggestion?" Tong Ju asked.

“好莱坞按时间阶梯分账，我觉得我们可以按票房阶梯分账。比如3亿票房及以内，就按现在的43：57来分，3亿-5亿的部分按45：55，5亿-8亿按47：53，8亿-10亿，影片上映时间应该不短了，就回落到43：57，10亿以上再降到41：59。”

"In this way, the pressure on the producers to pay back the cost is also reduced. If you can't afford to buy [-] million, don't take the risk of making a big cost. If you can sell more money, the theaters are willing to let your movie show for a few more days. After all, they Will take the lead."

This plan is actually quite good. Most of the domestic films are sold for less than 3 million yuan, and the theaters will not lose money.

And for those who can sell [-] billion or even [-] billion, there are only a few big directors, and the theater will extend the screening time, and the excess will not be less.

Several leaders of the General Administration nodded, and seemed to have some ideas about this account-sharing model.

Cheng Yu'an did not forget to add: "But this plan has a disadvantage. With the rapid expansion of the market, there will be no fewer movies with a box office of 20 billion or even 30 billion in the future. Even after three to five years, there will be 50 billion, [-] billion or even [-] billion [-] million movies, there will be no time for the step-by-step box office split account science.

"At that time, the account sharing model may be adjusted every year."

(End of this chapter)