The King of Huayu Science Fiction

Chapter 262 Global Synchronization
Years later, DreamWorks has not been immersed in the unprecedented success of "The Mekong". Of course, the marketing has to be maintained, because the inspirational counterattack of "The Mekong" during the Spring Festival holiday has made countless netizens become the spiritual shareholders of this movie. Then it is even more necessary to take advantage of the discussion of the movie content and the attention of the audience by netizens to convert it into box office as much as possible.

As the boss of DreamWorks, Chen Jingxing also needs to be sure about the progress of the company's current completed and unfinished works.

The films that have been filmed, are in post-production or even completed in post-production are currently only "Signal: Mirage" and "Gravity".

For these two films, DreamWorks has already started the publicity and release work, and "Mirage" is still in post-production, but it is expected to be released in May, and the time is still relatively tight.

Because of the title of the second part of the movie "Signal", the publicity is relatively easy. You must know that after the blessing of a movie version of "Signal" and the TV series "Signal", the word "Signal" is now a word that can mobilize people. The brand that the audience expects.

Of course, the three "Signals" are all independent content and stories. If they were placed on the IP of other film and television dramas, the audience would probably start screaming scams, such as "Manslaughter" and "Manslaughter 2" in Chen Jingxing's previous life.

But the audience didn't have any feeling of being cheated on the ip of "Signal".

First of all, it created the movie version of "Signal" ip. The story is very complete, without leaving any buttons and suspense, and there is not much room for expansion at all.

That’s why when DreamWorks launched a TV series of the same name as “Signal”, so many people, including fans of Chen Jingxing, felt confused, and even thought that it was similar to other movies and TV series with the same name. , Chen Jingxing wanted to make quick money, and wanted to squeeze out the commercial value of the "Signal" movie.

The completeness of the story of "Signal" itself and the appearance of the TV series of the same name made the audience not think that the name "Signal: Mirage" is a sequel to the first "Signal".

In addition, the more important thing is the quality of the work. Both the movie version and the TV series have a strong reputation. The movie version has a score of 8.5, and the TV series has been aired for several months, and the score is still at 9.6 points. The box office ratings are very successful.

The excellent quality will naturally win the audience's tolerance for the repeated use of an IP name of DreamWorks.

Now most audiences’ first reaction when they hear DreamWorks’ new film “Signal: Mirage” is another film that achieves cross-time and space communication through a communication tool, which triggers the butterfly effect, timeline changes, and mutual redemption.

Under the management of DreamWorks, the word "signal" has become a label for the science fiction setting of "signal across time and space".

After a movie and a TV series, the audience has almost established unconditional trust in a sci-fi movie like "Signal". Many fans who pay attention to DreamWorks news and movie projects are looking forward to this movie. I want to see what new tricks DreamWorks can play with this setting.

Although many small companies have begun to take advantage of the popularity of "Signal", and some video platforms have even appeared online movies named "XX Signal" and "Signal XX", but DreamWorks' "Signal" is the only one, and the audience recognizes it The most important thing is the brand of DreamWorks + science fiction, and the perception of "Mirage" will not be affected by these hype.

These favorable conditions make the pressure on the announcement of "Mirage" relatively small.

But "Gravity" is different. Although "Gravity" is scheduled for the summer vacation, after discussions between Chen Jingxing and Qin Zhonghe, the initial consideration is mid-July.

And just after the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, DreamWorks announced the finalization of "Gravity", which made many fans of Chen Jingxing, netizens who followed this movie, and the media very excited.

The domestic publicity work of "Gravity" is not too difficult, let alone the investment of large resources from the national film industry-although the investment in "Gravity" from Chinese film is not high, only a quarter, but the amount is sufficient With 2 million yuan, it can be regarded as the film with the highest investment in the country in recent years-the expectations of the media and audience are already very high.

Although "Gravity" has been in production for more than a year, it has almost never left the public eye. Chen Jingxing's film is the first space disaster film in Huaguo, and it is also the most expensive movie ever produced in Huaguo. These labels are very attractive. It's also what the media will bring up when they mention DreamWorks or Chen Jingxing every now and then.

Whether you like it or not, there is definitely some curiosity about this movie. Who doesn't want to watch Huaguo's first space disaster movie?Who is not curious about this so-called "most expensive movie in history"?Even if he is bad, you want to see how bad he is.

And this is the advantage of Xuanfa.

But the size of "Gravity" determines that he doesn't only look at the domestic market. The production cost of 8 million, and even directly supported Universal's special effects studio for a year, plus the cost of publicity, even if it is right No matter how confident the domestic film market is, people dare not put all their hopes of getting back their money on the domestic market.

And Chen Jingxing wants to take this opportunity to realize simultaneous releases in multiple countries and regions, or at least back-to-back releases. This is not only for saving publicity and distribution funds, but also to increase the popularity.

Don't underestimate the role of momentum. For blockbuster movies released internationally, audiences in many countries will eat this set. When they see foreign popularity, domestic theaters will also increase the number of movies, and audiences will prefer to watch blockbuster movies with higher popularity. Even Can form an echo effect.

Many Hollywood super blockbusters are hugely popular before their release, and the media in dozens of countries are frantically reporting them, and the advertisements are everywhere. Could it be that the Hollywood film studios’ publicity expenses can create such a publicity array in dozens of countries?

Of course it’s impossible, and money is not spent like this. Most of the popularity is spontaneously promoted by the media in these countries. After a Hollywood blockbuster has gained momentum, the media of various countries will report on it by themselves, which is equivalent to free publicity.

"Gravity"'s "Most Expensive in History" and "Space Disaster Movie" were so hyped up by the domestic media. DreamWorks actually didn't spend a penny, and the media and marketing accounts would spontaneously find gimmicks to attract traffic.

The effect that Chen Jingxing wants is to achieve simultaneous releases in at least China and the United States, as well as several important markets in East Asia, and releases in other major markets one after another.

The more countries that are released simultaneously, the easier it is to establish the image of an international special effects blockbuster. After the momentum is built, a virtuous circle can be achieved, allowing DreamWorks to achieve the greatest publicity effect with the smallest resources and costs.

The overseas box office of "Source Code" last year was good, and with the accumulation of previous films, Chen Jingxing's brand still has a certain influence overseas, which makes the global synchronization plan of "Gravity" feasible.

Therefore, DreamWorks quickly began to follow up the distribution work in Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asian countries after the year, and coordinated and negotiated with local distributors and theaters in each country.

In the North American market, Firefly Publishing Company also quickly discussed with Universal about the distribution and promotion of "Gravity".

The reason for choosing Universal was firstly that the person in charge of Firefly was recommended by Universal. He has work experience in North American theaters and Universal, and secondly, in the release of "Source Code", the cooperation between the two is quite pleasant.

In addition, "Gravity" is the largest single of Universal's special effects studio in recent years. In this sense, Universal can be regarded as participating in the production of "Gravity", and also has a good understanding of this movie and is optimistic about it.

However, since it is a summer release in China, to achieve simultaneous release in China and the United States, the North American market is naturally also a summer release, which is still difficult for North America, where competition is far more intense than that of the Chinese market.

After all, the release of "Gravity" in North America is not like other domestic movies, just find dozens or even a few movie theaters in the Bay Area and a few big cities with a large number of Chinese populations.

Chen Jingxing's bottom line is that "Gravity" will be released in North America this time, and at least more than [-] theaters will be able to gather for it to open. Such a large-scale release is already the treatment of an A-level blockbuster. Negotiate well.

The release of "Gravity" will also become an important task that DreamWorks will spend the most resources on in the first half of the year.

In addition to movies, DreamWorks also has three TV series that have already been approved.

Among the three dramas, "Black Mirror" has already been filmed, because the first season has only five episodes, and each episode is about 50 minutes long, which is equivalent to a mini-series.

And the stories in this season are basically small and beautiful sci-fi fables, without involving big scenes, so not only is the cost small, but it is also easy to shoot. Even the post-production visual effects have been completed a few years ago. The video site was broadcast.

Of course, the low cost is only compared to other film and television drama projects of DreamWorks. The production cost of the first season of "Black Mirror" exceeded 2000 million, which is equivalent to an average of 400 million yuan per episode. This amount is already considered the highest level of domestic TV dramas.

Although the cost of a single episode of certain S-level TV series in China has already exceeded 400 million, the salary ratio is very large. A-list stars who can resist the ratings or have appeal generally have a single episode salary of more than 100 million. 200 million, and the cost of inviting two such stars for a single episode will exceed [-] million.

The remuneration cost of "Black Mirror" is almost only one-tenth of the production cost. There are basically no well-known stars in the play, either [-]th-tier young actors, or unknown drama actors, and even Beijing Film and Chinese opera. For the students in the school, they are willing to participate in the dramas of DreamWorks even if they don't need a salary. The exposure and discussion brought by DreamWorks' film and television dramas are the biggest benefits in themselves.

It wasn't that DreamWorks was so lofty and disdainful of hiring big stars, or that Chen Jingxing was stingy and was reluctant to spend money.

It’s just five episodes, each episode is still an independent story, you need to use different actors, first-line actors come to your place to shoot an episode, the producer also has high requirements, basically the requirements of the film level, it takes so much energy, and then the salary is 100 million , to be honest, the price/performance ratio is very low for first-line stars.

It doesn't make sense to invite second- and third-tier stars. There are only five episodes of TV series, and there is no big IP at the bottom. It is impossible for video websites to spend a lot of money to purchase. The remuneration of celebrities is not cost-effective for DreamWorks.

Simply give up the market appeal of the cast, rely on the brand established by DreamWorks itself, sell it to the network platform at a low price, and collect pay-on-demand and advertising.

When the first season becomes famous, the second season will naturally be sold at a high price, and better conditions for on-demand account sharing can be negotiated.

Chen Jingxing believes that with the DreamWorks brand and excellent quality, the market prospect of "Black Mirror" is still very bright. Even if each episode is regarded as an online movie, it is much better than most Internet movies on the market. Big names don’t have a good reputation, but now some Internet big names even earn more than many theater movies. The money scene of “Black Mirror” will not be bad.

(End of this chapter)