China Entertainment Mythology 2004

Chapter 28
Two hours later, Yan Yiyun, director of Xiying Film Studio, also called Li Mu's cell phone.

"Li Mu, did Cheng Long call you just now?"

"beated."

"Can I ask what he said?"

"Cheng Long said that Columbia Pictures is willing to bid 2500 million US dollars to buy out all the copyrights of "Taken" in North America and parts of Europe."

"What did you say?"

"Of course I said yes. This time Columbia Films offered a very generous price. With this single transaction, we not only recovered the full cost of the film, but also made a fortune. The remaining domestic, Xiangjiang, Taiwan, South Korea, RB, The box office in Singapore and Southeast Asia is purely profitable, not to mention the DVD copyright and TV broadcast rights in these regions are income."

Yan Yiyun said: "That's right, the young man is quite clear-headed. This is indeed the truth. At the beginning, we Xiying and Cheng Longyinghuang agreed on this aspect. Seeing that the cooperation is about to be reached, Cheng Long said that you are a great contributor to this movie." , He wants to talk to Mr., but what I didn’t expect is that Cheng Long changed his mind after calling you, and now he has to sign a box office sharing agreement with Columbia, I thought it was you who said What about Cheng Long, but according to what you just said, this matter has nothing to do with you, and I don’t know who Cheng Long discussed with during those half an hour."

"what?"

Yan Yiyun said again: "Cheng Long has been in the film and television industry for most of his life, and he is not as thorough as a newcomer like you. With 2500 million US dollars, how much box office will it take in North America and Europe to get this amount? Not to mention that there are still movies. If you get a high box office, people may try their best to swallow your interests."

""Taken" is a good movie, and most filmmakers at the film festival also recognize this point, but before the movie is officially released, no one can say whether it will make money or lose money. If the price of Columbia Film is not high , Try to find a way to sign the share and sign it, and now the other party has already offered a bleeding price, and we only know about the share, then it is unclear."

"Director Yan..."

"Ah? Tell me!"

Li Mu then said: "Just now Cheng Long and I talked on the phone, I did say that, but in the end Cheng Long asked me another question, saying that if "Taken" was my movie alone, I would be the one to make the decision , Then should I choose a one-time sellout or a share."

"Then what did you say?"

"I said I would choose the box office share."

"Gone?"

"Gone!"

"Cheng Long didn't ask you why?"

"No."

Both ends of the phone were silent.

After a while, Yan Yiyun said: "Actually, I can't blame you for this matter. You just said something casually, and Cheng Long changed his mind. This only shows that Cheng Long originally had this idea. He called you for the purpose of It's just to make my choice more firm, but it doesn't matter, Xiying Film Studio and Cheng Longyinghuang have the same investment. In this matter, everyone has the same right to speak. Cheng Longyinghuang wants to sign a share agreement, there is no Xiying Film Studio Nodding is not easy."

……

The "Film Market" of the Cannes Film Festival exists in two places, one is the booth area on the basement floor of the Film Palace, and the other is in several big hotels opposite the Film Palace. The sales agent seals the "business" over coffee in the hotel.

The basement floor of the Palace of Films is also known as the "outside" market, where unconnected film companies or directors buy booths to sell films; while well-connected large-scale film transactions are mostly held in hotels, and in the circle of copyright transactions in Cannes According to local people, they like to call the luxury hotels opposite the Palace of Films the "lier" market of Cannes movies.

At this moment, in the La Majastic Hotel opposite the Cannes Film Palace, the two major investors of "Taken" - West Film Studio and Cheng Longyinghuang are fighting red-faced.

Cheng Long Yinghuang, mainly Cheng Long, seems to have decided to sign a box office sharing agreement at this time, while the West Film Studio side represented by Yan Yiyun thinks that the Columbia Film Company's bid is quite generous this time, and there is really no need for their own side to fight for nothingness and elegance. The possibility of high box office, throw away the 2500 million US dollars already in hand.

In the end, the two sides quarreled for more than two hours, but in the end no one could convince the other.

In the end, Cheng Long suggested that no one can convince anyone anyway, so you might as well listen to Li Mu's thoughts.

Yan Yiyun also agreed with this. He and Li Mu had just finished talking on the phone, and Li Mu was still in favor of signing a one-time sale agreement on the whole.

Then Cheng Long dialed Li Mu's phone, and after explaining the situation, he pressed the speaker and put the phone on the conference table.

Now that the matter has froze, Li Mu no longer refuses.

"Uncle Long, Director Yan, whether to sign a sharing agreement or a one-time sale agreement, I think it mainly depends on two issues-one is whether "Taken" can win high box office in North America and Europe; two If "Taken" can win a high box office in North America and Europe, then whether Columbia can obediently distribute the money to us according to the contract."

"After all, Hollywood has a lot of dark history in this regard."

"Now let's talk about the first question, whether "Taken" can win a high box office in North America and Europe. I personally think it can. Of course, this is just my personal opinion."

"Let's talk about the second question. If the box office sharing model is adopted, will Columbia Pictures cheat our money? I think it is possible, and the possibility is very high. Is there any way for us to overcome this risk? I think so too."

"In 2001, in order to adapt to the new situation of China's accession to the WTO, the state established an export credit insurance company to provide foreign exchange risk protection for enterprises to explore overseas markets through policy-based export credit insurance."

"Relevant statistics show that the copyright trade deficit of my country's books and film and television products is [-] times or even more than [-] times. In [-], my country exported [-] types of copyrights to the United States, and imported [-] types of copyrights from the United States."

"In the face of this situation, the country encourages the export of Chinese films, so can we seek the support of the National Credit Insurance Corporation?"

"If we can reach a cooperation with the National Credit Insurance Corporation, it means that we will transfer the possible risks of entering the overseas market to the Credit Insurance Corporation. The National Export Credit Insurance will allow the buyer to delay payment or not pay, underreport box office revenue, exceed the It provides us with a guarantee of income in the case of using copyright in a wide range. What we need to pay is nothing more than a premium compared with box office revenue.”

"So my opinion is that if we want to adopt the box office sharing model, we might as well talk to the National Credit Insurance Corporation first to see if the two parties can reach a similar cooperation."

After Li Mu finished speaking, neither the West Film Studio nor Cheng Long's party responded, because they lacked understanding of what Li Mu said, they were very unfamiliar, and they didn't know how to operate this thing.

It's normal not to know, because so far no film company in China has done this kind of operation, and it will have to wait until next year, when Huayi Brothers Pictures has suffered losses in foreign markets, and will gain wisdom from the pitfalls. In "The Banquet" When it was released, it tried to seek to formally sign an insurance policy with the State Export and Credit Insurance Corporation, and the credit insurance company would provide foreign exchange risk protection for the overseas distribution of "The Banquet".

However, although everyone didn't quite understand what Li Mu said, the prospects seemed to be good, so the dispute was temporarily put on hold. Everyone first contacted the National Credit Insurance Company to see if the National Credit Insurance Company had such a business.

Two days later, I got an accurate reply from the National Credit Insurance Corporation. In response to the national policy, the credit insurance company is willing to provide foreign exchange risk protection for "Hurricane Rescue", and only charges 3% of the market price for the insurance premium.

At this point, Cheng Longyinghuang's idea of ​​signing a box office sharing agreement with Columbia began to gain the upper hand. Everyone understands the market potential of "Taken", even if you don't understand it, you will understand after seeing how Columbia is willing to pay such a high price. Many, now that the national credit insurance company is willing to provide foreign exchange collection risk protection, it is tantamount to resolving the biggest risk of signing a sharing agreement, so Yan Yiyun is not blindly insisting on signing an overseas copyright one-time sale agreement.

In the end, "Taken" signed two agreements with Columbia Film Corporation of the United States. One is the copyright buyout agreement for DVD and home video products in Europe and the United States, with a buyout price of 700 million US dollars.

The second is the European and American movie distribution agreement. Columbia Pictures will be responsible for the distribution of the movie "Taken" in the European and American regions, and the producer will receive 30% of the film's box office revenue.

(End of this chapter)