The King of Huayu Science Fiction

Chapter 154 Billion
Chen Jingxing used the visual effects production order of "Gravity" and the expensive entrance fee to break through Hollywood's distribution barriers through Universal. Under the leadership of local snake Jeff Miller, Chen Jingxing almost recognized several major theaters and different Senior executives of few film companies.

Of course, he has met many people before. For example, the premiere of "Signal" invited many company executives and well-known filmmakers to attend, but at that time he was just a director of foreign films and a "tourist" in Hollywood.

And through the introduction of Jeff Miller, he has officially become a player in the Hollywood game. His status has not improved, but his position has changed, and he has obtained the label of "half of himself".

This means that the film works after DreamWorks can be directly distributed in North America through the Firefly distribution company he acquired, without having to sell the copyright to a certain film company, and then have nothing to do with the North American box office.

Of course, Firefly is just a shell company, and naturally does not have any distribution capabilities, but the distribution network can be gradually constructed, and even if it cannot do it by itself, it can also jointly distribute with other film companies.

In any case, the channel between DreamWorks and the North American market has been completely unblocked. In the long run, the entrance fee of 800 million US dollars is worth it.

As for the special effects order for "Gravity", in Chen Jingxing's opinion, it is not a price to pay. Legacy itself is a world-class special effects studio, and because of its reputation, it is not as famous as industrial light and magic, Captain T, and Weta Digital. , and the asking price will be a little cheaper.

Of course, it is Chen Jingxing who is extremely ambitious and in urgent need of film talents who will spend a lot of money trying to bypass the "toll booths" such as Columbia, Lions Gate, and New Line.

If you do not have the ability to continuously import works to the North American market, there is absolutely no need to establish such a channel. The 800 million US dollars is also a waste. There is no continuous film work that can be released on a large scale in North American theaters. The cultivation of distribution capabilities and Naturally, there is no way to talk about it. Instead, it is the best choice to directly sell off the copyright and guarantee the income without taking risks.

While Chen Jingxing was carrying out the "diplomatic shuttle", the box office of "Signal" was also rising.

The box office of 2800 million in the first weekend has laid an extremely solid foundation for the film, and it also gave Columbia and Lionsgate a long sigh of relief.

That means a lot less box office pressure to follow—their bottom-line goal for The Signal is $5000 million.

Because the Halloween schedule entered in the second week, five or six thriller and horror films were released together.

Fortunately, Columbia and Lionsgate's announcement of "Signal" is also a Halloween movie that focuses on suspense and horror. In theory, these two labels are not wrong, but the degree of horror is far from the average level of Halloween movies. .

It can be seen that Columbia and Lionsgate are relatively well prepared for the announcement of the film.

Although there is a little bit of suspicion of selling sheep's tricks, "Signal" really squeezed into the atmosphere of the Halloween schedule without any sense of disobedience.

The hot "Signal" gave up the crown to the thriller crime movie "Nightcrawler" in the second week, and it was reported to be 1700 million, but it still overwhelmed the originally high-expected Halloween movie " Divination of Death.

Although the drop in the box office seems a bit alarming, there is no way around it. The North American film market is so crowded. Columbia bought out "Fatal Identity" at the beginning of the year and waited two full months for a suitable schedule.

After the Halloween schedule, there will be two single-player hero movies coming out one after another, and there will be more blockbuster movies in December.

It can be said that Columbia and Lionsgate decided to release it before Halloween in the lesser of two evils. At least the movies in the Halloween schedule do not seem to be very effective.

However, even if it hits the Halloween schedule, "Signal" has a cumulative box office of 10 million in 4500 days, and there is no problem in reaching the bottom line goal of 5000 million.

In this way, although Columbia and Lionsgate cannot recover their costs by box office alone, the profit channels for Hollywood movies are already well established. Coupled with TV rights and DVD distribution, Columbia and Lionsgate will definitely make some money.

And if the box office of "Signal" can reach 6000 million US dollars, the copyright cost can also be directly recovered.

In any case, there is only a difference between making a small profit and making a big profit, but this has nothing to do with Chen Jingxing directly. After exchanging feelings with the Hollywood bosses, Chen Jingxing quickly flew back to China.

The main reason is to participate in the domestic celebration banquet. After 40 days of its domestic release, the box office of Signal finally passed 10 billion. National Film Group applied for a key extension for "Signal".

In this way, "Signal" became the third domestic film with a box office of over 2014 billion in 10, temporarily ranking third in the box office list of domestic films since records began.

In addition to the domestic box office, the overseas box office other than the two major markets of China and the United States has also exceeded 5000 million US dollars. Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia contributed most of the box office. There are also markets in Europe that are scheduled to be released, because this time it is DreamWorks and other producers. Fang personally led the release in Europe, so neither the speed nor the intensity can compare to Colombia's release of Deadly Identity.

After attending the celebration banquet, Chen Jingxing met the director of "Signal" TV series, or the director candidate, Tian Xinye at the company.

Tian Xinye was born in 84, exactly 30, he is definitely a new generation in the field of directors, Chen Jingxing is completely a special case.

It stands to reason that even if you have graduated from a major, you have to start working in the film and television industry first, let alone master a film and television drama project, even if you shoot commercials, it will not be your turn.

If you don't have more than ten or 20 years of qualifications, you will generally not be able to get ahead.

Moreover, directors often don't look at majors. Compared with graduates trained by the director departments of major art schools, other professions in the crew are more likely to change careers as directors.

Photography, art, actors, and screenwriters are easier to be directors.

However, with the development of the Internet, it has given more opportunities to many directors who have struggled after graduating from majors.

Tian Xinye is such a lucky one. He became popular on the Internet by filming a horror short film on the Internet. He was favored by Penguin Video Network and directed two low-cost online dramas. Although the market response was mediocre, the industry still recognized him.

Because it's not his director who is holding back, it's purely the script and the actors who are holding back. Among these two low-cost works, the only thing worthy of praise is the director's lens language, and the composition is also quite good.

The most important reason why Tian Xinye was selected by Chen Jingxing, who was still in the United States among the five or six candidates provided by Xu Wenshen, was that in Xu Wenshen's data, Tian Xinye often drew storyboards when filming.

This made Chen Jingxing very interested. Not everyone can draw storyboards for movie directors, let alone directors of TV dramas. The content of dozens of episodes, two or three months of shooting time, how can you think about the shots.

(End of this chapter)