China Entertainment Mythology 2004

Chapter 271 Copyright transaction records, let's get married, okay!
The popularity of "The Legend of Chu Qiao" made the value of the two new dramas still in Hua Shang's hands skyrocket. Before the first round of the former was broadcast, the competition for "A Thousand Bone of Flowers" and "Gongsuo Bead Curtain" was already heating up.

Li Mu's original plan was to sell "Flower Thousand Bone" first, wait for "Flower Thousand Bone" to become popular again, and finally sell "Gongsuo Bead Curtain". "Gongsuo Bead Curtain" is already extremely popular because of "Gongsuo Heart Jade".

Several video sites hope that Huashang will release two new dramas at once, so that each company will have more choices and the pressure of competition will be less.

So Li Mu decided to follow the example of kindness, and really took out the two new dramas he was holding in his hand.

The online copyright of "Gongsuo Heart Jade" is in the hands of Aiqiyi, so this time Gong Yu is obviously bound to win "Gongsuo Bead Curtain".With the existence of "A Thousand Bone of Flower", there is no need for Tencent Video to lose to iQiyi in this matter, so Sun Zhonghuai, the person in charge, quickly signed "A Thousand Bone of Flower".

The first broadcast rights of "Gongsuo Xinyu" were won by Dongfang and Beijing Satellite TV, and the first-round broadcast rights of "A Thousand Bone" were sold to Zhejiang Province and Lingnan Satellite TV. The transaction price was 340 million yuan per episode.

The online copyright is 350 million per episode, which has surpassed the first-round price of the TV station. It is a historic breakthrough. In this way, the price of a single episode of the two dramas has reached 830 million. The two dramas have a total of 87 episodes, and the total contract transaction price is 7.221 million yuan.

Li Mu did not directly participate in the negotiation process. After the contract was signed, Li Mu came forward to have dinner with the leaders of the TV station, Gong Yu from iQiyi, and Sun Zhonghuai, vice president of Tencent and general manager of the online video department.

During the dinner, Gong Yu and Sun Zhonghuai both mentioned the gorgeous drama "You Who Came From The Star" by coincidence. Everyone in the circle was deeply impressed by the popularity of this drama before. Now everyone hopes that the new drama they bought will have the unprecedented popularity of "My Love From The Star".

But obviously Li Mu disappointed them a little bit.

According to Li Mu, the TV series sold to the two of them are of course very good, and there is a high probability that the results will not be bad, but: "To tell you the truth, "The Legend of Zhen Huan" that Huashang just completed a while ago is the highest quality drama that our company has produced in recent years, and it is also a classic longevity drama that is most likely to continue to be popular for more than ten years according to our internal analysis."

Well, Huashang's best drama will always be the next one. Director Li Mu and Li Da have already said this, and you will see that when "The Legend of Zhen Huan" is officially on sale, you will not be able to spend your money!

The deals of "Palace Lock Bead Curtain" and "A Thousand Bone Flowers" made Huashang's TV drama department very proud. When Huashang Media was mentioned in the industry before, it was all about how powerful Huashang's movies are, with box office of hundreds of millions or billions, especially the boss Li Mu's movies, which can even earn more than a billion dollars. Compared with the film department, the performance of the TV drama department is a bit underwhelming.

But this year, Huashang has sold a total of four dramas, and the total transaction price of the four dramas is 14.9 billion yuan. How much did these four dramas cost?In fact, the profits have been extremely considerable.

Looking at the numbers alone, Huashang’s movie box office is of course even more amazing, but the producer can only share about [-]% of the box office, and the [-]% has to be deducted from the expensive shooting and publicity costs.

Speaking of Huashang’s TV drama production, two new dramas have been completed this year, that is, "Princess Concubine Promotion" that was confirmed to be sold to iQiyi at the beginning of project approval, and "Soul Ferry" customized by Tencent Video. In addition, "Si Teng" starring Jing Tian and "One Servant, Two Masters" starring Jiang Shuying were also officially launched a while ago.

The cast of "One Servant, Two Masters" has basically remained the same. The male protagonist Zhang Jiayi and the female protagonist Yan Ni are both Li Mu's hometown and old acquaintances, especially Zhang Jiayi. Before signing with Huashang, he had already cooperated with Huashang in the two films "Broken Love" and "Beijing Meets Seattle". It is logical that Huashang's new drama will continue to use Lao Zhang.

In contrast, the supporting actress, that is, the role of the heroine Gu Jingjing's best friend Lily, found Zhu Rui. It is a bit surprising that Huashang Media's signed artists are not only the five golden flowers. It stands to reason that this kind of more important supporting role should use their own talents, but after hearing that it was Mr. Li's opinion, no one dared to have any opinions.

Maybe Mr. Li is optimistic about this Zhu Rui, and he will dig him like Liu Shishi in the future!

In fact, Li Mu really didn't have the idea of ​​poaching people. He just thought that Zhu Rui's Lily was very good. She was obviously a mistress, but it was rare not to be annoying. In terms of her performance in the play, she seemed to be even better than the heroine played by Jiang Shuying.

Guan Xiaotong was still looking for the role of Yang Shu’s daughter. For Guan Xiaotong’s team, the role of Yang Shumiao itself is already extremely valuable. What’s even more rare is that Mr. Li personally appointed this role.

In April, "Wolf Warrior", directed by Lin Chaoxian and starring Wu Jing, has officially announced its completion. Li Mu also had a special talk with the two of them. During the conversation, he confirmed the next film that the two will continue to collaborate on, which is "John Wick 2".

In addition, "Passengers in Space", which director Guo Fan has been preparing for more than half a year, is finally about to start officially. For this reason, Director Guo Fan suddenly feels Alexander on his shoulders.

He is a little-known director who has not joined Huashang Media for a long time, but he was entrusted with such an important task when he came up, which made Guo Fan worried that he would live up to Mr. Li's high expectations.

The filming budget of "Passengers in Space" has been adjusted to 8000 million US dollars. There are only a handful of Chinese directors who have invested in such a large scale, and there is a high probability that they can be counted on one hand. Guo Fan started with such a big production. Guo Fan asked himself, if he stood in the perspective of President Li, he must not have the courage of President Li.

For this reason, he really asked Mr. Li, and Mr. Li replied:

"There are two reasons. The first is of course optimistic about your potential."

"What about the second?"

"Secondly, Hua Shang's filmmaking concept is a bit Hollywood-oriented. In fact, the director does not have much room for free play,"

Well, it seems that Mr. Li really appreciates him, but it's not so unreasonable.

In April, Huashang Media still has two films to be released, namely "The Fault in Our Stars" on April 4 and "Send You A Little Red Flower" on April 19. Both the American distributor and Huashang Media have some opinions on the schedule of April 4, but in the end Li Mu tried his best to resist all opinions and insisted that it will be on that day.

The publisher and Huashang Media have an opinion because Universal Pictures' "Oblivion" will also be released globally on April 4th. The total investment of "The Fault in Our Stars" is 19 million US dollars. Of course, Li Mu only charged a symbolic director fee this time. Otherwise, the cost of 700 million US dollars and Li Mu's personal director fee of 2700 million US dollars is outrageous.

So what about Oblivion?It cost $1.2 million to make!It is 17 times that of "The Fault in Our Stars"!
Looking at the cast of the two films, the two young actors in "The Fault in Our Stars" are all unknown, while the leading actor in "Oblivion" is the famous Tom Cruise. In addition, Morgan Freeman, Olga Kurylenko, etc. are also well-known actors, and the latter is also a famous Bond girl.

No matter how you look at the two films, "Oblivion" is a complete success, but Li Mu, who is familiar with history, knows that although "Oblivion" has a good reputation, its box office is extremely bleak compared to the cost. With an investment of 1.2 million US dollars, the North American box office is only 8900 million US dollars, and its global box office also did not meet the film's expectations, with a total of only 2.86 million US dollars.

On the other hand, "The Fault in Our Stars" in the previous life, with a production cost of just a few million dollars, it won a box office of 1.24 million US dollars in North America, far surpassing "Oblivion", with a global box office of 3.07 million US dollars, also a complete victory.

The gap between the two films was ridiculously large, but the results were completely opposite to everyone's expectations. In the end, it turned out that "The Fault in Our Stars", which cost US$700 million, defeated "Oblivion", which was invested by Tom Cruise for US$1.2 million.

So why avoid it on purpose?In order to avoid "Oblivion" which is not actually a big threat, wouldn't it be a loss if it ended up meeting an opponent who is not well-known but has a stronger box office than "Oblivion"?

So the matter is settled, "The Fault in Our Stars" will be released worldwide on April 4!
Of course, the global release this time does not include mainland China. The plot of "The Fault in Our Stars" is almost exactly the same as "Send You A Little Red Flower". Since two versions were filmed, naturally both versions will not be screened in China.

And during the official promotion period of "The Fault in Our Stars" and "Send You A Little Red Flower", the location was at the Ziyu Villa where Li Mu and Liu Yifei lived together. Li Mu and Liu Yifei first mentioned the "Let's Get Married" project, and Zhang Jingying and Tang Yan were also present at the time.

Li Mu didn't quite know when Liu Yifei and Tang Yan became best friends. Anyway, Tang Yan and Liu Yifei suddenly got so close that they could come to Ziyu Villa for a visit.

During the period, everyone naturally mentioned Li Mu's next work, and Li Mu didn't hide it. He first mentioned "Interstellar" and then "Let's Get Married".

"After that? There will be a TV series after Interstellar."

"TV drama?"

"That's right, and I'm also preparing myself and Yifei to star in this new drama." Looking at Liu Yifei, he continued, "By the way, Yifei, I haven't mentioned this matter to you yet. I'll bring you the script in a few days. You can't refuse me."

"Okay."

Zhang Liangying turned to Liu Yifei and said, "It's strange that your famous international director, Mr. Li, wants to make a TV series, and he writes and directs himself. I really don't know what kind of script your old Li values ​​so much."

It was said that Liu Yifei, Tang Yan, and Zhang Jingying all looked at Li Mu, and Li Mu looked at Liu Yifei.

"Of course it's a very good script, and I believe Yifei will also like this story very much. The name of the script is "Let's Get Married". In fact, this story I started from—"

"Okay!"

"what?"

Everyone in the living room was stunned for a moment, especially Zhang Jingying and Tang Yan, all looked at Liu Yifei in unison.

"Did you hear me wrong?"

"Probably not? Mr. Li just said very clearly that the name of the script is "Let's Get Married"! It's not Mr. Li who said 'Let's Get Married'!"

"Or is it because Yifei was in a daze just now and only heard those five words?"

Zhang Jingying and Tang Yan started brainstorming there, and Li Mu's brain was not idle at the moment, he instinctively took out his pockets, and then thought about what he should say next.

Looking at the expressions of Zhang Jingying and Tang Yan, it was clear that they knew what Liu Yifei's "Okay" just meant. Regardless of whether Liu Yifei really misheard or what the situation was, she had already expressed her thoughts clearly. It seems that it is not good for Li Mu to continue to play dumb at this time.

But he was clearly ready to propose at the "Let's Get Married" wrap-up banquet, so he couldn't suddenly bring it up to now, right?

And now he has nothing ready.

The air in the living room seemed to be a little condensed, at this time Liu Yifei finally spoke again.

"Okay, didn't you just say that you were afraid that I wouldn't want to act in TV dramas? Actually, no, I still like making TV dramas, so that's it. After "Interstellar", we will make this one——"Let's Get Married."

Li Mu reacted again, and then responded with a smile: "Okay, then let's talk about this matter."

"Uh-huh."

Li Mu said to the three of them again: "You talk, I'll go out later, there is a very important meeting over there."

Tang Yan and Zhang Jingying hurriedly said: "Mr. Li, you are busy with your work, don't worry about us, don't worry, we will take care of Yifei for you."

Li Mu smiled and said, "Then I would like to thank you both."

After speaking, Li Mu turned and left.

After Li Mu left, Zhang Jingying and Tang Yan immediately still hugged Liu Yifei's arm.

Tang Yan: "Yifei, you scared us to death. I thought I was going to witness the top celebrity in the entertainment industry tonight."

Liu Yifei: "What big stuff, it's an anise."

Zhang Jingying: "Do you still know aniseed and star anise?"

Liu Yifei: "Of course, I'm not indiscriminate."

Zhang Jingying said again: "But didn't you find out? When you said 'OK' just now, he unconsciously put his hands in his pockets."

Liu Yifei: "Ah? I really promised him to star in that new drama just now. Seeing how strange your expressions are, you probably misunderstood that meaning, right?"

Zhang Jingying: "Don't worry about whether we misunderstood, just say if you want to hear my analysis for you!"

"Tell me." Liu Yifei said.

Zhang Liangying: "I think he put his hand into his pocket unconsciously. It looks like he is looking for something. What is he looking for? Could it be that he was instinctively looking for a diamond ring? Because he didn't find it, that's why he didn't respond?"

"Huh? Really?"

"It's not that you're telling the truth, did you do it on purpose just now?"

"what?!"

……

(End of this chapter)