The King of Huayu Science Fiction

"Spike III" is the sequel of "Spike II" and the second-best box office sequel in film history. Not only does it have a large investment budget, but it also has a large number of distribution companies that underwrite the film.

Therefore, the production and distribution partners of "Spike III" did not dare to take the samples for review lightly. They paid as much attention to the films directed by Chen Jingxing himself, and even more. Those who came to see the samples were basically from the top of the company. Executives, or simply top leaders.

After all, although the domestic box office record created by "Spike II" has been broken by "Interstellar", there is a three-year gap between 20 and 17. The number of screens and the size of the film market have made great progress. The price has also increased a lot.

In terms of the number of movie viewers, "Spike II" is still the first in movie history since credible data is available.

So in fact, compared to Chen Jingxing's "[-]", "Spike III" is more important in the eyes of the partners.

But the result of watching the movie left everyone with mixed feelings.

Say there are surprises.

After all, the genre of "Spike III" has changed a lot compared to the previous one. It has become a spy war suspense action movie with disaster elements.

As a viewer, the movie-watching experience must be a pleasant surprise for this fairly novel action movie whose main scene takes place on a giant cruise ship in the ocean.

But as a practitioner in the film and television industry, the logic of thinking is naturally different from that of ordinary audiences.

That is, after such a big change in style and type, the market prospect will definitely become more unstable.

In other words, the audience must be reduced by [-]%.

The audience that "Spike II" can penetrate, can this sequel continue to cover?Can audience groups aged five or sixty or even farther away from movie consumption habits be brought into theaters?

This is closely related to their interests.

However, it is naturally impossible for Chen Jingxing to allow Wu Jing to bear this kind of questioning alone. When he noticed that there was such a trend, he made a decisive decision, took over the words of director Wu Jing, set the tone first, and directly said that "Spike III" is not right. Those who marked "Spike II" loved to cooperate but not to cooperate, and to fail to cooperate.

Of course, with Chen Jingxing's tough attitude, coupled with the support of President Jiang of Guoying, the production and distribution partners have nothing to say.

Since the capital of the film and television industry began to ebb in 19, everyone's life is a bit difficult.

After all, in the past, it was possible to draw big cakes casually, hot money and black money were everywhere, lying on the pile of money, everyone circled the money and it was over.

In fact, audiences are not the only ones who confuse money. The real culprits of money circling are hot money and black money.

It doesn't matter whether the audience buys it or not, as long as the TV data blows it up, even if the movie hits the street, there will still be a lot of hot money and black money to support these companies, directors, producers, and stars who are lying on money to start more projects.

This logic doesn't even require the audience's participation.

Whether you buy it or not, I can continue filming, even if I make ten attempts, I can still find money to invest in my project and continue to start.

Even if it is black money in transit, whether it comes from high-level officials or casinos, a thick layer of grease will remain after such a hand.

But when the tide recedes, this continuous money relay from the audience can no longer be played. It’s really hard to find the money next time and continue to hand it over to you, let alone those big void paintings. The pie is over, no one takes the plate, no one throws money.

Even if the size of the film market has not declined, the debts accumulated in the past have been exposed due to the ebb of capital.

This has led to funds becoming more and more conservative, and the number of film and television projects has dropped sharply.

Because the film and television industry itself, especially the film industry, is an industry with only a few people and a few projects making money, and even rarer ones who can make a lot of money.

Even for a film industry like Hollywood with a global market and mature peripheral development, is it possible to make one-tenth of the profits of hundreds of films produced a year?
There is almost no offline audiovisual distribution in China, and it is not a highland of English culture. It is difficult to universally export, and there are even fewer movies that can recover the cost.

In the past, the kind of cats and dogs that seemed unreliable at first glance could get investment, and the ecology itself was not normal in itself.

Prudence and conservatism in capital is the normal state of the film industry, which is based on the high-risk business model in which only one out of every ten theater films can recover the cost.

In this case, the value of DreamWorks is even higher.

"Spike III" is a high-quality project among high-quality projects. No one can refuse to participate in this feast just because of the name of the movie.

If you quit, you will be even more confused, and earning less is better than earning nothing.

"You are really brave."

After all the production and distribution partners left satisfied, Zhang Jingyan sighed with mixed emotions.

Fantasy World not only has a production share, but also an important publisher of "Spike III".

"It is estimated that the audience will be surprised when they see it. It is a bold attempt."

Facing Zhang Jingyan's exclamation, Chen Jingxing didn't look nervous, he was relaxed and relaxed: "If you can distinguish what is long-term benefit and what is long-term success, then you will make a decision similar to mine.

Both "Operation Red Sea" and "Spike II" have achieved unprecedented success. People's first instinct must be to continue this model and style, and they will feel safer.

But the continuation of the style does not mean the continuation of the results. Secondly, if you don’t make changes now, you will suffer a loss when you wait until "Spike IV" or the sequel in the future.

Although "Spike Fang" is different from war movies dedicated to the Korean War and has a different era background, it is actually the same theme. There will be many war movies and similar action movies in the next few years.

Audiences will definitely have aesthetic fatigue for movies about war action. "Li Yannian" can get such a reputation, which is probably due to the audience's rebellious psychology, because "Li Yannian" is special and different from previous movies of this type.

Even if they still watch this kind of themes, they are more inclined to, or like more novel, non-routine military genre films.

"Li Yannian" is like this, my "[-]" is like this, and "Spike III" is also like this. To make something different from other similar movies, not to repeat the past, and try to provide the audience with a sense of freshness, this is in itself. The method of maintaining IP and word of mouth.

It can be an innovation in the story, it can be an innovation in the way of presentation, it can be an innovation in conception, this is the case in science fiction films, and I also think the same way in terms of war action themes.

"Spike" has a very malleable and malleable background. The "Spike Team" is not a single person, but a group of people. There are many teams below it, such as the Lone Wolf Special Commando, the Red Blood Cell Special Operations Team, and so on.

Story creation has very strong plasticity and extensibility, and it is a waste of its value to fix it on the story mode of "Spike II" and "Red Sea".

I don't want to use one routine, maybe I can still earn money for one or two movies, but in the end, it will only make the vitality of this IP wither early.

Of course, I am not the only one who understands this truth, I just put it into action. "

Zhang Jingyan nodded with a smile, and sighed inwardly.

It is true that Chen Jingxing is not the only one who knows this truth, but I am afraid that only Chen Jingxing has the courage and confidence to make such a choice.

The reason is simple, if Huanshiwang is the developer of the IP "Spike Fang".

After "Spike II" had already achieved such results, some executives suddenly said that we will not engage in the original model for the next sequel, such as evacuating overseas Chinese, and not playing with mercenaries or other KB elements in Africa or Southeast Asia. The battle is over, let's not fix these big bang bang bang scenes.

Let's engage in espionage.

Set the background on a cruise ship and play a spy and counter-spy game in a confined, limited and complex space and in a lonely sea.

Then add some disaster elements such as shipwreck.

Even if the president said so, he would be overwhelmed by powerful objections.

Shareholders will not accept it, and partners will not accept it.

Both "Red Sea" and "Spike II" are playing well, and the results are very good. You suddenly changed the track?Who can promise this?

How risky is it?

Do you have the ability to create an excellent script when changing to a new track?
It is very likely that such a golden hen will be played to death.

Even if you know that this set can't be played forever, the audience will be tired of looking at it, but which series can live a long life?Who can care about the long-term strategic development of IP?

As for Chen Jingxing's ability and willingness to make this kind of decision, apart from being the major shareholder and keeping promises in the company, it is also because DreamWorks has sufficient confidence.

Just like "Li Yannian", which is still in theaters and has a box office of 14.2 billion.

The production cost of this film is only 2 million. Although the final box office forecast is about 20 billion, it is quite shocking and envious of the industry.

The rate of return is too high, at least a three-fold return.

Just looking at the rate of return is even higher than the most dazzling star of the summer file, "Skyhawk Warrior".

It was movies like "Li Yannian" that gave Chen Jingxing the capital to gamble.

A heavyweight project like "Spike III" must be created in the direction of the safest, most box-office-absorbing, and able to cover as many movie-watching groups as possible. It is impossible to be unconventional, let alone take risks.

Because such a movie is related to whether a company can make a profit throughout the year, or even rise and fall.

Thinking of this, Zhang Jingyan couldn't help but feel a little bit sad: "Oh, you are very high-spirited here, and our Ren Zong is really worried. The stock just rose by less than 11% because of "Suspect Tracker III", and was beaten down by "King of the Sky". up.

Capital is too sensitive to Huanshi.com, and the pessimistic sentiment is too strong, and any adverse news will be reflected in the market. "

Huanshi.com is also the publisher of "The King of the Sky", which was completely killed by "Li Yannian".

In the film market, there are competitions like chickens pecking each other or heroes fighting for hegemony. Of course, the former is the most.

这种情况下，从No.1到No.3No.4的排片差距都不大，第一的可能有25%，No.4的也能有15%。

However, "Li Yannian" took the lead with its explosive high reputation and high attendance rate, rushing to line up films like a glutton.

The summer holidays are basically over again, and the leftovers will not get much box office at all.

The current box office of "The King of the Sky" is basically 500 million on weekdays, and will reach [-] million on weekends.

After a month of hard work, the box office has increased from 10 billion before the release of "Li Yannian" to just over 12 billion.

Without "Li Yannian", the box office of "The King of the Sky" would be at least [-] to [-] million more than it is now.

"If you think about it, you guys are at least a lot better than Jiang He. Jiang He has set a record of six consecutive days of daily limit."

Chen Jingxing "comforted" his old friend.

Zhang Jingyan snorted: "Thank you, it really made me feel a little bit of comfort."

Jianghe Culture has been in constant decline since the release of "Li Yannian", from the previous market value of 380 billion to less than 190 billion, which is close to half.

Of course, the logic here is naturally not that "King of the Sky" is losing money.

The actual production cost of this air combat film, known as the Chinese version of "Top Gun", is about the same as that of "Li Yannian", and the current box office of 12 billion can be regarded as a lot of money.

But it doesn't make sense to just look at the profitability of a single movie.

Jianghe's profit from a certain film is not the same concept as DreamWorks' profit from a certain film.

Jiang He was already squeezed to the end of the Sixth National Congress, and after the tide of hot money ebbed, it became even worse. The accumulated debts were also exposed. Previously drawn movie projects were put on hold, and the projects that had already been produced were also profiting less and losing more.

"The King of the Sky" is one of the few gift films undertaken by Jianghe, and it has placed high hopes on it. The money earned from "The King of the Sky" can help it relieve its debts and fill in the loss-making projects.

Jangho's revenue was 11.4 billion last year, but it did not make a profit. Instead, it lost more than 8000 million. This year, there is no improvement.

Therefore, "The King of the Sky" did not meet the expected box office results. As a result, Jianghe did not make enough money from this movie to make up for the losses in other projects, and may lose money for the second consecutive fiscal year.

That is to say, the profit of "King of the Sky" did not meet expectations, which means that Jianghe Culture is likely to continue to lose money this year.

This is the dilemma that most film and television companies face after the wave of capital fades.

Movies that make money must first consider whether they can fill in the pits dug by money-losing projects and alleviate debts.

Jangho is not an Internet company, and the capital has no tolerance for losses, even losses for the second consecutive year. That's why a movie didn't make the money it expected to make, and its stock was cut in half.

It is precisely because of a reference group like Jiang He that DreamWorks is even more valuable.

The money that DreamWorks made on "Li Yannian" was real corporate profits, at least until DreamWorks' first loss-making film appeared.

"Seeing how tired you are, why don't you come to DreamWorks, and you don't have to worry about the stock price and losses. You and Lao Xu are old colleagues again."

Zhang Jingyan waved her hand: "I just worry about working hard, and besides, I was his superior when I was at Donghai Satellite TV. When we come to your DreamWorks, Xu Wenshen can still give me his position as president? I don't want to work under him .”

Chen Jingxing smiled and did not continue to persuade.

In fact, inviting Zhang Jingyan was just out of politeness. Of course, if Zhang Jingyan really came, DreamWorks also had a place for her.

But of course she couldn't come.

Difficulties in the development of the company and unsatisfactory experience of the company's executives are two different things.

No matter how bad Huanshiwang is, it is still a domestic streaming media giant, so what if it loses money every year?The money thrown out every year is still astronomical.

In Zhang Jingyan's position, I don't know how many film and television drama production companies, producers, directors, and celebrities fawn on her.

Although Huanshi.com is in trouble, the executives of Huanshi.com are top-notch in the industry. Zhang Jingyan's existing resources, power and income, including black income of course, can definitely beat Xu Wenshen, the president of DreamWorks.

Of course, Zhang Jingyan is also very happy in this position, otherwise, how could the three dramas of DreamWorks sell one billion?Relying on the domestic network copyright alone has recovered the production cost, and Netflix has made a pure profit.

In the existing domestic film and television drama market, no matter how good-looking a short drama with more than a dozen episodes is, it will not get much advertising revenue.

Regardless of the fact that it can stimulate the number of members to increase in the short term, it is very difficult to recover the sky-high purchase costs by relying on this short-term conversion of members.

Zhang Jingyan tactfully changed the topic: "Don't talk about these annoying things, can "Elysium" be completed on time in December?

We have already written it up when we were attracting investment in the fourth quarter, and the rumors have been released. I have also overcome a lot of pressure and adjusted the schedule to make room. The fourth quarter and annual financial report data are pretty good. "

Chen Jingxing nodded: "Don't worry, there's no problem. It just so happens that "11" will be released in November, and "Elysium" will have a relatively good end to the year in December."

"In such a rush? Did you break the pot before the National Day stall? I thought you wanted to wait for the Spring Festival stall."

Zhang Jingyan was a little surprised, but of course also excited, Huanshiwang will participate in the release of "[-]".

It seems that I can get some blood back from "The King of the Sky".

Chen Jingxing pointedly said: "It's going to start before the end of the year, so there is hope for the Spring Festival."

Zhang Jingyan was a little stunned, forgetting that "[-]" was divided into two parts.