The King of Huayu Science Fiction

Chapter 136 The Simultaneous Screening Plan Goes Bankrupt
Regarding the overseas distribution of "Signal", Chen Jingxing originally had some ideas, or fantasies.

Many of Hollywood's A-level blockbusters can be released globally, at least in major markets at the same time.

After "Signal" was finalized for National Day, DreamWorks discussed this matter with publishers in other major markets, especially those from North America.

The results were less promising.

First of all, distributors in North America are not willing to cooperate with Huaguo's schedule. Hollywood distributors have their own schedules and will not easily give a green light to a foreign film.

"Fatal Identity" won the Gold Award at the Orlando Film Festival, and Columbia had to wait more than two months for it to be launched in North American theaters after obtaining its copyright.

Then there is the distribution method. Dreamworks proposed to release it globally, or at least to release it in the two major markets of Huamei. In fact, it is to test whether the distribution method can be changed.

Because DreamWorks' copyright sale price for "Signal" is completely a lion's mouth, and it is 3500 million U.S. dollars, and it is only limited to North American copyrights.

There is no doubt that it is impossible for North American publishers to accept.

This price is enough to set a historical record. There has never been a copyright sale price of more than 3000 million US dollars for a foreign film entering North America.

The more than 2000 million US dollars of "Hero" was already the limit.

Of course, DreamWorks also knew that this asking price was unrealistic. If the copyright could not be traded, it would be impossible to talk about simultaneous release in China and the United States.

And this is exactly DreamWorks' negotiation strategy, just like Zhang Weiping once watched "Hero" earn a box office of 1.4 million US dollars in North America and other parts of the world, and said jealously that he regretted selling out the copyright.

Chen Jingxing is also an ordinary person, so it is impossible that he does not have such thoughts at all.

This is a test by DreamWorks to Hollywood distributors, wanting to abandon the way of copyright selling, but to use the form of box office split to release in North America.

However, this proposal was firmly rejected by several large North American publishers.

This makes Chen Jingxing very strange, because it is not uncommon for foreign films to enter the North American market by signing box office distribution agreements with North American distributors.

In the few years before Chen Jingxing's past life time travel, this was almost the mainstream operation.

When Dongying's animated films entered the mainstream theaters in North America, almost all of them signed box office sharing agreements.

For example, in the previous world, "Ghost Slayer", which broke the North American opening record of the foreign film "Hero", signed a distribution agreement with Funimation Animation, a North American publisher specializing in the distribution of Japanese animation works.

But now Columbia and Universal, the big North American distributors, are very resistant to this. For Chen Jingxing's confusion, fourth uncle Yang Dairong has some guesses.

He believes that these big publishers must have reached a py agreement against DreamWorks behind the scenes. They must have expected that DreamWorks would get rid of the passive distribution method of copyright sale, so they wanted to sign a split distribution agreement with DreamWorks. In this regard, a certain consensus was reached, which compressed the negotiating space of DreamWorks.

Of course, apart from a few big publishers who unanimously rejected it, many small publishers readily accepted DreamWorks' proposal, and some publishers even offered such generous terms that people thought they were fraudulent.

But Chen Jingxing didn't even bother to give them a look.

There are many films in Huaguo that claim to be "simultaneously released worldwide". Of course, from a certain perspective, they can indeed do it.

For example, Chen Sicheng once mentioned in front of him that "Northern Love" was released simultaneously in China and the United States.

This kind of screening is nothing more than a screening in a few Chinese theaters in a Chinese-inhabited area, and it can only be regarded as a "symbolic screening" at best.

And these small publishers that Chen Jingxing doesn't like can do better than the symbolic screening at most. Even with Chen Jingxing's previous works, the fame bonus of "Comet" and "Fatal Identity" can make up five Baijia Kaihua Theater is considered awesome.

Don’t look at Columbia’s ability to make “Fatal Identity” from 725 opening theaters to a peak of nearly 2500. That’s something that a distributor of Columbia’s level can do. Hollywood is not a fairy tale world, and not everyone can play counterattack son of a bitch.

Moreover, "Fatal Identity" is his first film released in North American theaters, so he can accept three-digit theater openings, and it would be really boring to repeat "Signal" again.

The counterattack of "Fatal Identity" was actually well-timed. It was because the competitors behind him were too hip, which made him come out.

If it encounters a film with a good reputation in the second week of its North American filming, or even a super-English film, the final box office results will be directly fractured.

North American theaters are very different from what they were ten years ago. There is basically no room for long-term development. Once there are not enough theaters to open movies, it will be too difficult for movies to counterattack.

Therefore, if "Signal" wants to achieve outstanding box office results in North American theaters, not to mention that it can not be lower than "Fatal Identity", then he must choose a big publisher to cooperate with.

On this basis, there is room to talk about whether to sell out the copyright or distribute the account separately.

Now that these big publishers seem to be linked together to lock the way of sub-account distribution, DreamWorks can only retreat.

Go ahead and sell the rights.

But now that the plan for simultaneous global release has been shattered, DreamWorks is not in a hurry to sell the copyright.

And it is a firm request to only sell North American copyrights, while insisting that the amount of 3500 million remains unchanged.

Since North American publishers insist on doing a one-shot business, DreamWorks is of course counting every penny.

In fact, Chen Jingxing didn't really plan to make a deal at this astronomical price, he just wanted to keep procrastinating, and let Huaguo's box office become his bargaining chip.

As for Edward Birch's constant statement that "North American audiences and Chinese audiences have different tastes, so the box office performance in Huaguo will not be a reference for them to purchase copyrights", Xu Wenshen who received him in the office dismissed him.

Universal and Lionsgate may have also seen the mentality of DreamWorks, so they no longer entangled, but went back and waited for the right time - the domestic box office performance of "Signal".

Columbia still did not give up, and sent an old acquaintance, Edward Birch, to try to use his friendship with Chen Jingxing and Xu Wenshen to see if he could soften DreamWorks' attitude.

Unfortunately, when Chen Jingxing went out for a road show, the only people who received him were Xu Wenshen and the company's legal counsel Yang Dairong. Both of them were stones in the latrine, so Edward Birch could only leave in a bad mood.

However, compared to Columbia's slight dissatisfaction, after hearing Xu Wenshen's phone call, Chen Jingxing felt even more angry.

This time Xu Wenshen tried again. He wanted to sign a distribution agreement with Columbia, and made a relatively large concession. Edward Birch still expressed his powerlessness with both hands.

It seems that these major Hollywood distributors really joined hands to fight him.

At this time, he felt quite a feeling of "30 years in Hedong, 30 years in Hexi, don't bully the young and poor".

To solve this problem, either a domestic company enters Hollywood and acquires a major studio or distributor; or there is a distributor like Funimation animation that specializes in the overseas distribution of movies from a certain country.

Neither of these two can be counted on, so the only way to go is to increase Chen Jingxing's appeal in the North American market.

It seems that the success story of "Fatal Identity" alone is not enough. If "Signal" once again achieves outstanding box office results in North America, the situation may be different.

In order for these major North American manufacturers to truly face themselves one day, it seems that it will take a while.

(End of this chapter)