Top of the Great Era

Chapter 1492 Family Carnival

From Los Angeles to London, the flight takes more than ten hours.

Several little secretaries went to rest in the bedroom.

Zhou Buqi and Bob Friedman chatted more and more speculatively. They had a kind of passion and boldness in the early days of a partner's business. They would talk about creativity and ideas all night long.

This time, the two of them seemed unlikely to sleep.

Zhou Buqi wants to implement his own production strategy in Ziwei Star Global, but he is an outsider, and it is not credible and persuasive for him to promote many things.

Bob Friedman is a veteran in the Hollywood industry, and he can get twice the result with half the effort.It just so happened that although this person was old, he was not conservative and had ideas that were different from the mainstream of Hollywood.

After talking about the three major concepts of "inertia", "special effects" and "popcorn", Zhou Buqi proposed the fourth concept: family carnival.

Investing in movies is risky.

Especially for big-budget movies, once they lose money, even the company may go bankrupt.

Why was DreamWorks sold that year?Because "Escape from Clone Island" failed; why did MGM go bankrupt and be sold?Because Wu Yusen's blockbuster "Windtalker" failed.

If you want to carry out risk control management on investment projects from a higher level, you must have a set of standardized processes with a high probability of success.

In the past, there were many theories in Hollywood, such as the high concept of creativity, such as the succession and transition of rhythm, such as the box office theory in the first week of the release period.

But those are a bit outdated.

Movie rating websites have stripped away the cloak of movies. All the mystique, curiosity-driven, and impulsive consumption in the past will become less and less effective in the future.

There must be a theory that even if the movie is stripped and exposed in front of the fans, the fans are willing to buy tickets to enter the theater!
If it is an excellent movie, such as "Avatar" and "The Dark Knight", it goes without saying that the super high quality can break through all obstacles.

The difficulty is that movies with low ratings are rated by rating websites.

How can a Hollywood blockbuster still sell well and make a lot of money even after a rating website gives it a low rating?

This is the most important thing!
It is only natural for good movies to make money. It is very simple to operate and does not require careful planning.He wants to come up with a set of theories so that Hollywood commercial blockbusters can break through the barriers of movie rating websites, even if they have low scores, they will still sell well!
This is the mainstay.

Making a good movie is a low-probability event, but making a bad movie is a high-probability event.

Small-probability events make a lot of money, and high-probability events make a small amount of money, so Ziwei Star Universal's film production strategy is a great success.

Just like Disney in the previous life, eight of the top ten box office movies of the year at most came from Disney.

why?
Because Disney has a close relationship with Silicon Valley and has a new understanding of the technological age.

Disney is the company with the most technological attributes in Hollywood and the closest to the Internet.Unlike other companies that invest in a bunch of mid- to low-cost films with production costs ranging from several million dollars to tens of millions of dollars, Disney is different. All of Disney’s films are blockbusters with an investment of more than 1 million dollars!

Why?

Because the times have changed, blockbuster special effects movies are just what fans need when they go to the cinema to buy tickets to watch movies.

For ordinary low-cost movies, how much difference can there be between watching them in cinemas and watching them at home?In the era of technological advancement, the logic of necessity to go to the cinema to watch movies no longer exists.

"The effect of inertia, under the brand effect of remakes, sequels, and remakes, can break through the problem of low scores on rating websites; the effect of special effects can form a rigid demand under the unique viewing experience of movie theaters, and shocking special effects can counteract Low score; the content of popcorn makes the movie an entertainment activity, the significance of the activity is greater than the meaning of the movie, it doesn’t matter if the score is low; family reunion is American culture.”

Zhou Buqi gave his own summary answer.

Inertia, special effects, popcorn, family fun.

Bob Friedman smiled, "That's right, parents accompany their children to the cinema, which is a necessary expense for family entertainment. This is a kind of culture. Children's film understanding may not be that deep, mainly to enjoy the process, even if the score It's lower... as long as it's suitable for children and teenagers, parents will accommodate the children."

Zhou Buqi said: "The emergence of movie rating websites has indeed caused a huge impact on Hollywood movies. It is actually good now, and the popularity of rating websites is not enough. In a few years, when entering the next Internet era, movie ratings will be It's going to be completely integrated into Hollywood. It's an inescapable reality."

Bob Friedman said very reassuringly: "I am very calm now. The strategy you gave allowed me to find the answer and the theoretical basis. "Twilight" has a low score and a high box office. The reason behind it is Inertia, special effects and popcorn. Although there is no family carnival factor, this is a love movie, and couples will go together, so it is logically connected."

Zhou Buqi said: "The most important thing is the inertial selection of materials. Adapt games into movies, comics into movies, novels into movies, remakes of classic old movies, and remakes of excellent foreign works. There are also adaptations of real events, and adaptations of animated movies. into live-action movies, even biographical ones."

"Biographical film?"

"Famous people are also brands, and they also have inertia."

"Are you making a drama?"

"Ah?" Zhou Buqi was taken aback for a moment, then laughed, "You misunderstood, it's not about serious figures like Hoover and Lincoln. The future is the era of entertainment, and entertainment-oriented brand characters are the best choice. For example, Chaplin , Monroe, such as Michael Jackson, Lennon, such as Audrey Hepburn and Vivien Leigh. This in itself is a disguised extension of Hollywood’s traditional big star strategy.”

Bob Friedman pondered: "You can divide the files according to the production fee."

Zhou Buqi waved his hand, "For the specific plan, after we have talked about it this time, you can make a complete proposal. In short, commercial blockbusters must meet these four requirements at the same time. Medium and low-cost projects can be released appropriately. open the limit."

"Hollywood cannot keep secrets."

Bob Friedman glanced at him warily.

Zhou Buqi didn't care, and said lightly: "Ziweixing Global should lead Hollywood and set an example. Whoever wants to learn, let them learn."

"But there is one more problem."

"What is it?"

"What about the screenwriter?"

"Ok?"

Zhou Buqi didn't quite understand.

Bob Friedman said: "Hollywood brings together the best screenwriters and producers in the world, and they have countless whimsical ideas every day. This is the source of Hollywood creativity in the past century. If we promote inertia What about the remakes, adaptations, and sequels, those screenwriters with original ideas?"

"Making the original script into a Hollywood blockbuster?" Zhou Buqi shook his head, "It's too risky. Under the super-visual effect of the giant screen and 3D, the production budget of a Hollywood blockbuster will reach 2 million US dollars. Including the cost of publicity and distribution, the total investment will be as high as 4 million US dollars! Who would dare to take such a big risk on an original project? I am afraid that there are only major directors at the level of Cameron and Spielberg."

Bob Friedman nodded, "So with original scripts, we can only make some medium-budget movies."

"Correct."

"However, many excellent scripts are all science fiction and fantasy themes, and it is difficult to support them without funds."

"Actually, there is another direction."

Zhou Buqi pointed out another bright way.

Bob Friedman asked, "What?"

Zhou Buqi said: "TV drama."

"TV drama?"

Bob Friedman was taken aback.

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "We all plan to make "The Hobbit" into a TV series. What kind of creativity can't be made into a TV series? Just look down on TV series like this? Times have changed. From now on, the status of TV series will become more and more important. High, even higher than medium and low-cost movies. In the past, audiences could only passively watch TV dramas through TV stations, but with the influence of the Internet in the future, audiences can actively choose and watch dramas uninterruptedly."

As technology evolves, that's the big deal.

If film companies want to make money and reduce investment risks, they can only focus on IP, and there will be a lot of homogeneous films on the market.

The top ten movies at the annual box office will all be inertial movies and special effects movies from various sequels, remakes, and adaptations.

The stock market where a hundred flowers bloomed in the past will never return.

But where to digest those excellent ideas in the past?
The answer is American drama.

Those excellent production teams, screenwriters, and even first-line actors who can't get big productions in Hollywood will devote themselves to the shooting of TV dramas.

Through TV series to complete their artistic creation.

One advantage of TV dramas is that they are very long and can tell a complete story.You don't have to do rhythm and paragraph design to cater to the audience like a movie. You can achieve a real screenwriter-centered system and make a truly great story.

Especially with the advent of streaming!
Streaming media platforms have to take the route of self-produced dramas, and they don't hesitate to spend huge sums of money to shoot popular TV dramas, which gives those talented artists a platform to show their talents.

Under the influence of technology, there will be serious differentiation in the categories of movies and TV series.

Zhou Buqi said: "Even if a feature film with an investment of 2000 million US dollars and a film length of 100 minutes is successful, how much money can it make? The future theater market will no longer welcome this type of film. The same funding and For the production team, if it is made into a 3-hour mini-drama or a 10-hour single-season drama, the story will be more complete and the viewability will be higher. Even if the theatrical distribution is abandoned, the income may not be reduced. TV series Business will be the key business of Ziwei Star Global in the future."

Bob Friedman took a deep breath, already acutely aware, "Streaming!"

If you want to do TV series, you'd better have a TV station in your home.

But Ziweixing Universal has spun off the TV station business.

This is obvious, the big boss has given up on the TV station on his own initiative, and focused on the Internet and the trendy streaming media industry.

"Let's talk about that," Zhou Buqi waved his hand, and made a request, "Go back and sort out our conversation just now, enrich the details, work out the theory, and submit it to the president's office."

"I understand."

"By the way, I checked the New York Times bestseller list, and there is a book called "The Hunger Games."

"I paid attention to it, and it is very popular among teenagers."

Bob Friedman blinked, and immediately connected with Boss Zhou's theory just now. Adapting this book into a movie really fits every one of them.

(End of this chapter)