China Entertainment Mythology 2004

Chapter 257 Frozen, 10 billion investment!
"I heard that two new animation film projects are about to start?"

China Film, Han Sanping office.

Han Dong asked quite meaningfully.

Li Mu nodded: "After the global release of "Frozen" next month, it will officially start!"

Han Sanping lightly tapped on the table and said, "Is there a big problem with the production budget? If it's big, I'll make some more. If it's not enough, I'll talk to a few other companies."

Li Mu said with a smile: "There is pressure. Of course it's good for Director Han to donate generously. Other companies forget it. Everyone wants to make money."

Han Sanping said: "Then China Film will add another 1000 million."

Li Mu smiled and said, "Thank you Director Han."

Han Sanping said again: "I'm talking about US dollars."

Li Mu: "Thank you very much."

Han Sanping: "An additional 1000 million yuan will be added for each animation film."

……

In fact, well-known domestic film companies are desperately investing in Li Mu's movies. The network is not strong enough, and you can't find a channel to invest in with money. Even every A-level production of Huashang, who will be left The number of investment places in the company is particular.

For example, Huayi Brothers invested a large proportion in Huashang Films in the first two years, but then it gradually decreased.

Another example is Xiying. Although it has been going downhill these years, it can live a very nourishing life just by investing in the dividends of Huashang Films.

For example, China Film and Huaxia, these two companies have relatively large real power, and many of Huashang’s films are co-produced by Chinese and foreign countries. The specific operation is inseparable from the support of these two companies, so the proportion of their investment in Huashang’s films has increased in recent years. .

But the above mentioned are all live-action movies made by Li Mu, such as "Inception", such as "Gravity", or "The Martian".

Scripts written by Li Mu, sci-fi blockbusters, A-level productions, directed by Li Mu himself—basically, the more films that meet the above conditions, the more people rush to invest.

But there are some movies that are different. Although these are also A-level big productions, although Li Mu wrote the script and directed it himself, the domestic cooperative companies are more or less afraid to vote.

This is "Frozen" filmed by Huashang Media, which suddenly entered an unfamiliar field.

You said that you are not a good international director, you don't want to make the best sci-fi live-action movies, but you want to make animated movies?

It was said that you directed it yourself, but I heard that you would go to inspect it occasionally. Two of the assistant directors, one named Tian Xiaopeng and the other Yang Yu, were ordinary animation talents in China, but they were poached by Li Mu to host the show. Big projects go.

An animated film, I heard that the total investment is over 1.5 million US dollars?Isn't this pure madness? !
With this scale of investment, how can you make money if you don’t earn more than 6 million US dollars at the global box office?

"Kung Fu Panda" is a top-notch animated film, right?Produced by DreamWorks, the result?The global box office is more than 6 million US dollars.

We all admit that you, Li Mu, are good enough, but no matter how good you are, can you just invest in an animated film and catch up with the level of "Kung Fu Panda"?

Isn't this funny?
But if you fail to meet this standard, you are very likely to lose money.

In short, almost no one in the circle is optimistic about Li Mu's hastily entering the animation film field, especially the first animation film, which is a crazy operation with an investment of 1.5 million US dollars.

Good guy, it has exceeded 10 billion RMB in conversion!
But it’s not good if you don’t vote for Li Mu’s movie. If you don’t vote for Li Mu’s animated movie this time, will you have a chance to vote for Li Mu’s live-action movie next time?

There will probably still be opportunities, but it is hard to say how much share will be allocated by then.

But throwing real money and silver in it is really painful, so a rather abnormal phenomenon appeared.

On the one hand, Li Mu's live-action movie has almost all the investment, and almost all companies want to grab it; on the other hand, everyone wants to make a symbolic investment in the animation movie that Li Mu wants to make.

With the current strength of Huashang Media, it is not a problem to invest in an animated film worth 1.5 million US dollars with its own investment.

The cash flow of Huashang Media, not to mention domestic, is not bad even compared with the Hollywood Big Six.

But this year, Hua Shang has gone crazy. The company's first animated film "Frozen" has not yet been released, and three more animated films have been prepared and launched one after another!

Xu Chengyi served as the co-director of "Despicable Me", with an investment of 7000 million US dollars.

"Zootopia", co-directed by Yang Yu, has an investment of 1.5 million US dollars.

Coco, co-directed by Tian Xiaopeng, has an investment of US$1.5 million.

The investment in these three animation films alone has gone straight to 3.7 million U.S. dollars. Besides, Hua Shang has also made a lot of live-action films this year?
Such as "The Hunger Games 2", "Monster Hunt" and so on?

In addition to this, there are a large number of live-action movies that will be launched.

No matter how abundant the cash flow is, Huashang Media will encounter certain difficulties if it invests in so many movies with such a huge cost at the same time, right?
That's why Han Sanping said that he wanted to invest more.

Of course, China Film Investment also values ​​economic returns, but it does not only value economic returns.

For example, several other companies that have cooperated with Huashang all the year round pay more attention to economic returns, so they are not too enthusiastic about investing in these animated films.

If it weren't for the fear that Li Mu would have opinions on them, they probably wouldn't want to invest a penny.

In fact, Han Sanping is not very optimistic about Li Mu's animation film project, but Li Mu has never been defeated in so many years, so he is really not easy to persuade.

However, "Frozen" will be released next month. If the box office is poor, Li Mu should adjust the next investment, right?
It is not impossible for the two new animated film projects to be postponed or even cancelled.

"For "Interstellar" after "Now You See Me", the investment scale of those companies that should be controlled must be controlled. If there is a benefit, it will be used, and if there is a risk, it will be avoided. There is such a good thing." Han Sanping said.

Li Mudao: "We are all acquaintances, and sometimes I really can't save face."

"Animated movies are risky. When everyone tried to invest as little as possible, they didn't feel that they couldn't save face."

Li Mu nodded: "That's right, I'll ask Liu Siying to sing bad faces about this matter."

Han Sanping said: "Your movie is different from others. Others are trying their best to attract investment. Your movie is not short of investment. On the contrary, whoever invests is to send money to whoever makes money. They are there when they make money. When you take risks, you should have them."

After that, the two naturally chatted about "Huaxia Partner", which is currently being screened.

After the film won 1.25 million yuan at the box office on the third day of its release, it fell back to 7900 million on the fourth day, 7100 million on the fifth day, and 6900 million on the sixth day.

In the next few days, it will be around 5000 million.

In the second week, the box office rebounded significantly on Saturday, reaching 1.04 million yuan again. On Sunday, it dropped to 8700 million yuan, and then dropped significantly on Monday, only 5800 million yuan.

At this time, the total box office of the film has officially exceeded the 9 million yuan mark.

The box office of "Huaxia Partners" in this time and space has far surpassed that of the previous life. Although it is only 2012, the scale of China's movie market is far greater than that of 2013 in the original world.

Secondly, the title of "produced by Huashang" is really bluffing.

As time entered October, on the one hand, "Huaxia Partners" was still being screened nationwide, and on the other hand, "Frozen", with a total investment of 1.5 million US dollars, also officially launched a large-scale publicity campaign.

It may be unbelievable to say it, but after the publicity was officially launched, the company discovered that it might be the most wise decision for the boss to incorporate the image of his girlfriend Liu Yifei into the character modeling of the heroine Aisha.

The film "Frozen", according to the story introduction, is very western in color, which is right, because it is adapted from Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales, but the prince and princess set does not have a strong sense of substitution for Chinese audiences.

When the publicity team collected market feedback, they collected a lot of people who said they were not very interested in the subject matter.

However, after seeing the image of the heroine Aisha, a considerable number of movie fans immediately brightened their eyes.

"Isn't this... Isn't this... Isn't this Liu Yifei? It's very expressive. Did it use Liu Yifei's image?"

"I'll go! Li Mu really knows how to play. Not only is he looking for his girlfriend Liu Yifei to act in a live-action movie, but he's even looking for an animated movie!"

"Damn, I have to go to the theater to see it! To be honest, I like Liu Qianqian very much, but her acting skills—how should I put it, she has improved a lot over the years, but I can't say how good it is. This is a big achievement." It’s a pity. But guess what? The image of Sissy is going to be made into an animated movie! Besides, the animated characters are so beautiful, they are different from real people, and the most important thing is that everyone can finally see Liu Yifei, who is a top-notch actress!”

"The angle upstairs is very strange. The level of the cartoon filmed at 1.5 million dollars should be guaranteed. The animation character is holding Sissi's face, and the acting skills of the animation character become Sissy's acting skills. Hahahaha, Killing me!"

This topic suddenly became popular.

"Do you want to see Liu Yifei with perfect acting skills? He is here! 10 billion investment, director Li Mu's three-year-old work, "Frozen", see you on November 11!"

Liu Yifei's popularity in both time and space is extremely high, but Liu Yifei's popularity in this life is obviously more than that of the previous life.

So this is an animated movie based on Liu Yifei?
MUST SEE AFTER THE RELEASE!
Who was right, maybe this movie is really Liu Yifei's best acting!
Of course, some netizens said that Li Mu was desperate for training Liu Yifei's acting skills, so he found another way to let his girlfriend contribute memorable acting skills in animated films.

With a total investment of over 10 billion RMB, based on Liu Yifei, directed by Li Mu, after three years of hard work, plus a lot of promotional funds, the popularity of "Frozen" was finally fired. up.

Huayi Brothers.

The Wang brothers talked privately with company executives about the Frozen project.

Wang Zhonglei: "An animated film with an investment of 1.5 million US dollars. Li Mu is the best. After all, he has never made an animated film. The risk of this film is self-evident. We only invested a little money. It’s really not very good-looking, after all, I made a lot of money with Li Mu in the past, but friendship is friendship, investment is investment, and public and private are not distinguished, which is a taboo for entrepreneurs.”

Wang Zhongjun said with emotion: "If it's just an animated film, it's fine. It's not a big problem for Li Mu to make an animated film like "Kung Fu Panda". The risk of adapting Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales is too high. How many people in China will like to watch these?"

Wang Zhonglei: "Before I heard that the heroine of the cartoon adopted Liu Yifei's look, I thought Li Mu was just trying to please his girlfriend, but today, it seems that it is not the same thing at all. At least in the Chinese market, many movie fans are regarded by the heroine and Liu Yifei's contact has attracted him, the topic has become hotter, maybe he can really get a good box office."

Wang Zhongjun: "How much can it be? With an investment of 10 billion, it is almost doomed to lose money, unless Li Mu's first animated film is as popular as "Kung Fu Panda."

Wang Zhonglei shook his head: "Hua Shang is preparing three more animation films, and the investment of two of them is expected to reach 1.5 million US dollars. Li Mu has lost his rationality now."

Wang Zhonglei: "It seems that Huashang Media's downhill road is inevitable."

……

Ziyu Villa.

"The filming of "The Hunger Games 2" was late." Li Mu said to Liu Yifei.

"Why do you say that?"

"Look at the schedule on November 11, the biggest competitor of "Frozen" is "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn (Part 16)", "Twilight Saga" and "The Hunger Games" are completely the same type of film , I think it would be interesting if the two series could be released on the same day."

Liu Yifei curled his lips and said, "What's so interesting? You just want to win the box office in North America! I remember that "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn" seems to have a very high opening weekend in North America, right? You have said many times that animated films take a long-term path, that is, short-term box office." Certainly not Twilight High."

Li Mu generously admitted: ""Frozen" will definitely surpass "Twilight" in the final box office, but the box office in the first week is definitely not as high as Twilight. You said that I invested 1.5 million U.S. dollars to make a big production. If you can’t win the box office championship, it’s really not good to say it.”

Liu Yifei said: "What are you talking about? What do netizens say about me? They say that "Frozen" may be my best acting movie. How can they say that? It's so irritating!"

She didn't even participate in the performance, how could she contribute the best acting skills?

Isn't this bullshit?

Li Mu smiled and said, "Do you think that 800 million dollars was taken for nothing?"

Elsa used the image of Liu Yifei in "Frozen", so the crew would naturally not go whoring for nothing, and they couldn't just refuse to give the money that should be paid just because Liu Yifei is her girlfriend.

Not only must it be given, but the figure is not low, a full $800 million.

Liu Yifei smiled and said: "You're right, it's really easy to make money, you don't have to worry about anything, and no one will accuse you of bad acting skills."

Li Mu smiled and said: "Of course, you will be one of the two most famous cartoon prototype characters in the future."

Liu Yifei really became curious: "One of the two? Who is the other?"

Li Mu said: "The bald head is strong!"

"Bald Strong?"

"Well, the prototype is Wu Yaohan, and the name of the animation is "Bear Infested". From now on, you will be one of the two major animation prototype characters in Huaxia, and you will be as famous as Bald Qiang."

Liu Yifei couldn't help being curious, and immediately went to check it on the computer, and then he was so aggressive that he wanted to settle accounts with Li Mu.

"I will not allow you to compare me with Bald Qiang in the future!"

……

"Frozen" is scheduled for November 11. In addition to "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn (Part 16)", the main competitor is "4: Skyfall", which was released the previous week. Both films are very Strong opponent.

In the previous life, the box office of the former reached 1.39 million US dollars in the first weekend, while the global box office of the latter was as high as 11.38 billion US dollars.

Both competitors are very powerful.

Li Mu still has confidence in the total box office of "Frozen", but will it compete with "Twilight" for the first week?

Hardly any possibility.

It seems a pity that a blockbuster film that cost 1.5 million U.S. dollars and took three years to shoot couldn't even win the box office champion in the first weekend.

How many low-budget films has Hua Shang won the North American Weekend Championship?

(End of this chapter)