The King of Huayu Science Fiction

Chapter 156 Strong Opposition
"8 billion RMB?"

"You mean the production cost of this movie will reach 8 million yuan?" Luo Yiming, the investment manager of Tianrun Films, interrupted Xu Sheng who was explaining, and asked in disbelief.

In fact, not only the representatives of Tianrun Pictures couldn't believe their ears, but United Cinemas, Huanshi.com and Penguin Video.com were also inexplicably surprised.

Only Qin Zhonghe of Guoying had a calm face, because he knew the production cost of "Gravity" long ago.

Chen Jingxing's expression remained normal, as if he didn't care about the impact of this astronomical figure on everyone present in the conference room.

"There is no doubt, it is 8 million yuan."

The representative sent by Huanshi.com is Chen Jingxing's old acquaintance, Zhang Jingyan.

This veteran with decades of ups and downs in the industry also looked at Chen Jingxing with surprise: "You said the real 8 million, not the so-called 8 million cost?"

It is a common phenomenon in the film and television industry to inject water into the investment cost during publicity. Normally, an injection of one-third of the investment is considered very honest, and it is not uncommon to double the amount of water.

And if it is a real investment of 8 million yuan, ordinary audiences will feel outrageous without water injection. If you ask 10 people, 9 people will say it is money laundering.

It's fine if it's really money laundering, but judging from this posture, Chen Jingxing is going to be serious about it.

Chen Jingxing seemed to have been prepared for a long time, and said gently: "Of course it's not a claim, it's a real production cost, and it will only be high or not low, and everyone has just seen the cg preview, and the entire movie, 90 minutes, is in such a space In the background, I can say without exaggeration that every frame and every second is a special effects shot.

We are all in the industry, I think you should have a little idea of ​​the number of such special effects shots, 8 million is already a very good price, we have contacted legacy, the top special effects studio in the United States, and the price quoted by this company is more than Industrial Light & Magic and Weta Digital are both lower. It is very difficult for us to find a special effects company that can produce such special effects and offer a lower price than him. I think the production cost has become incompressible. "

Luo Yiming of Tianrun Pictures did not intend to discuss with Chen Jingxing how to reduce the production cost of "Gravity", he asked incomprehensibly: "Sorry, this is not a matter of reducing costs, I just feel very happy about this project." confuse.

Director Chen, I admire your talent very much. I also admit that your box office performance is rarely matched by domestic directors, but I still want to say that this project can only be produced in Hollywood, and even if a major Hollywood company is capable of producing it, I bet they won't be willing to start a project either. I don't know if you have heard the famous saying in Hollywood: 'Investing in original scripts is doing charity', and this so-called space sci-fi movie is still an investment of hundreds of millions of dollars. original screenplay.

Let’s go back to the Huaguo movie market. Although we haven’t found our own comic-adapted movies and haven’t established many big IPs, we are willing to invest in original scripts, but it needs to be within a reasonable limit.

And this project called "Gravity" is obviously beyond the reasonable range. "

The representative of the United Cinemas also echoed: "Why doesn't DreamWorks continue to produce small and medium-budget films? Mr. Chen, the reason why DreamWorks has such a high valuation and has been able to raise money twice in a year is that the fundamental reason is that it is small and big. The business model is favored by the industry.

The profit margins of the three consecutive films produced by DreamWorks far exceed those of other film companies. This is the core competitiveness of DreamWorks. Mr. Chen, that’s not what you told us before the financing.

As a shareholder of DreamWorks, on behalf of United Cinemas, I must speak out my views.

The project of "Gravity" is a huge and completely unworthy risk. The cost and risk are far beyond the normal range. According to Mr. Xu's explanation just now, the special effects production cycle of this film may be as long as one year , then it means that it will not be released until at least 2016, and 8 million yuan will be spent on this project for two years. This is not a decision that a film company with a normal mind should make.

If you put 8 million in the bank for two years, you can get a good interest, and at least you can earn 8000 to [-] million! "

Regarding the fierce reaction from Tianrun Films and United Cinemas, Chen Jingxing secretly rejoiced in his heart, fortunately, he had obtained the second round of financing by relying on the big cake of the diversified development strategy - although this diversified development was not all deceitful.

If he spread out "Gravity" first, not to mention the financing amount of 3.7 million, 3700 million would be enough.

If DreamWorks was a listed company at this time, the stock would definitely plummet as soon as the news of the establishment of the project "Gravity" spread.

The so-called "blockbuster movie is good" has a certain limit. The main theme blockbuster Mekong River with an investment of 2 million yuan, and it is co-produced with China Film Group, is good.

At this moment, making a movie with an investment of 8 million yuan, and it is not a sequel to a successful big IP, would be a bad news. If it is a shareholder of a listed company, it is even possible to report the company to the Securities Regulatory Commission for money laundering.

Of course, after a few more years, 8 million should not be so shocking, but Chen Jingxing didn't want to wait any longer.

At this time, the old god of the national film Qin Zhonghe said: "There is no need to be so pessimistic. Xiao Chen's achievements in the past are obvious to all. The current global box office of "Signal" should exceed 15 billion. The eyes are only limited to the domestic market. Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia are all big-ticket warehouses, let alone the North American market.

Other directors couldn't get in, but "Signal" and "Fatal Identity" got in twice. What did the New Yorker say?Director Xiao Chen was the biggest discovery in the world film industry in 2014, which shows that the North American market can be expected.

And isn't "Gravity" a real heavy industry movie?For such blockbuster films with special effects, I think the film market in other countries and regions still has great potential. "

Although Qin Zhonghe fell into a short-term excitement when Chen Jingxing just launched the "Gravity" project, he did not think carefully about the production cost of the film. Even a film project with an investment of [-] to [-] million yuan does not surprise him.

But he has worked as a producer of countless commercial blockbusters, and soon realized how difficult it is to realize such a sci-fi movie that all takes place in outer space.

The production cost of special effects was probably astronomical, and then he called Chen Jingxing, and after repeated trials, he finally got the real budget figure.

Although he was also shocked by it, it did not dampen his enthusiasm, but made him even more excited, because he realized that this project might be an important milestone in the development of Huaguo's commercial film. Anyway, Chen Jingxing said it first, and DreamWorks could at least bear half of the project. As for the production cost, since the risk is not shared by anyone, Qin Zhonghe decided to take a gamble.

However, although he expressed his support for Chen Jingxing, he could only sell it in the overseas market. It is hard to believe that what Chen Jingxing once told him would be able to recover the cost, or even make a profit, just by relying on the domestic box office.

(End of this chapter)