The Wind of China Entertainment 2005

Chapter 585 Ghost blows out the lamp

"I appreciate Mr. Ye's kindness, but the overseas market is not within my consideration at the moment."

"Really."

Ye Ning laughed, but couldn't help muttering in his heart that this person was probably not satisfied with the conditions he offered.

Okay, he was thinking wrong. Lu Yuan really had no idea.

It was decided long before the filming of "New World" started that the overseas distribution of this drama would be handled by Galaxy Pictures, but it would be limited to Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia, and there was no plan to go to Europe and the United States.

The differences between Eastern and Western cultures are already huge, and there is also extremely serious discrimination based on skin color.

For example, "Infernal Affairs" and "The Departed", the latter won four awards at the 79th Academy Awards, while "Infernal Affairs" achieved nothing.

The judges really don’t understand, otherwise.

"The mutton is coming."

The waiter pushed in a small food cart with three layers filled with various ingredients.

"These are lamb hind legs, hand-cut beef eye, lamb rolls, vegetarian dishes, bean curd skin, and frozen tofu." Song Ge was busy filling the table.

He saw Lu Yuan looking into the dining car: "Is there anything missing?"

"Where's the sheep's tail oil? Let me lubricate the pot first."

"Mr. Lu is a regular customer." Song Ge smiled, turned around, took out a plate of white lamb tail oil from the dining car, and put it in the pot.

In a moment, the soup base boiled, and Lu Yuan picked up a piece of lamb loin meat, a thin piece with clear texture and alternating red and white colors.

Boil it in the pot for 10 seconds, then dip it into the seasoning bowl. It is soft, tender and easy to chew, without any mutton smell.

He praised with satisfaction: "The temperature happened to drop today, Mr. Song chose a good place."

Ye Ning smiled and said, "It is said that this hot pot originated from the time of Kublai Khan. It is said that Kublai Khan once led the Mongolian cavalry on an expedition. Halfway through the march, the troops were exhausted, and they had not eaten or slept well. They started to lose their temper and wanted to eat a hot hometown dish. They specifically asked for clear-boiled mutton."

"I know, I know." Song Ge introduced.

"Stew mutton is a big project. Everything takes time. And we are in wartime. If the enemy rushes in right after putting the pot on, it will be over. The cook thought of a clever idea. He cut the mutton into slices, dipped it in the pot, sprinkled a handful of salt, and quickly brought it to Kublai Khan."

"That's not all." Ye Ning continued, "When the soldiers saw this, they followed suit and filled their helmets with water, put them on the fire to boil, and then put the mutton in to rinse. Look, does this copper pot look like a helmet?"

Song Ge glanced at him and said, "Brother, is this appropriate? I'm feeling a bit unappetizing while eating."

Ye Ning was probably just excited, and now he reacted awkwardly.

Lu Yuan put down his chopsticks and said seriously, "Boss Ye, let's not beat around the bush and speak frankly. Wanda is one of the investors of New World, and Boss Song and I have a good relationship.

But I have to be clear about the distinction between public and private. This time, several major distributors of Huayi Film Group have joined forces to start a game with the cinema chain. If I switch sides at the last minute, not to mention the damage to my own interests, my reputation will be ruined and I will no longer be able to mix in the circle. You two are putting me in the middle of today's shabu-shabu dinner and making things difficult for me."

"No, no, I definitely don't mean that." Song Ge hurriedly filled his glass with wine.

Ye Ning remained silent, but he disagreed in his heart. This circle is all about profit, and reputation is worthless.

Last year, Bona’s Yu Dong stabbed Zhang Weiping in the back, and this year he shamelessly called on distributors to unite, completely forgetting his actions last year.

"Mr. Lu, I understand your concerns!"

Ye Ning was firm in his attitude and said, "But this time our dozen or so theaters will definitely not withdraw. At least Wanda will not withdraw. Starting with Hero, the revenue sharing ratio was increased to 40%, followed by 41% for House of Flying Daggers, 42% for Curse of the Golden Flower, and 45% for Flowers of War. The appetites of the film producers and distributors are getting bigger and bigger. If they withdraw again, we might as well just close down the theater chain."

The final profit distribution of "The Flowers of War" was a step-by-step process, with 45% in the first week, 43% in the second week, and so on.

Lu Yuan picked up a piece of meat with an expressionless face. Other cinema chains can say this, but Wanda is not qualified. After a domestic movie is released, the majority of the revenue share goes to the cinema, and the cinema chain can only take about 7%.

To put it bluntly, a cinema chain is just an organization that is responsible for bringing together many small cinemas, unifying the brand, scheduling, operation, and management, and increasing the industry's voice.

This means that cinemas can freely choose theater chains.

Cinemas that have signed contracts with a cinema chain might switch to someone else one day, directly weakening the overall strength of the entire cinema chain.

Therefore, in order to compete for high-quality theaters, theater chains will make substantial concessions to theaters.

This time, the cinema chain and the distributor negotiated, and the profit sharing rate increased from 43% to 45%. The cinema did not want to pay for the 2% increase, and the reason was still the high electricity and rental costs, so the cinema chain had to pay for it.

The cinema chains naturally exploded because they didn’t get much in the first place.

But Wanda is different from ordinary cinema chains. Its cinemas are not franchised, so there is no need to worry about the loss of cinemas.

Frankly speaking, Lu Yuan is not optimistic about the game between the major distributors and the cinema chains this time, because as long as the cinema chains give some sweet treats, someone will definitely turn against them. In the face of personal interests, who cares about the collective life and death?

But this person must not be yourself.

Seeing that he was oblivious to the game and only focused on eating the meat, Ye Ning looked at Song Ge helplessly.

Song Ge cleared his throat and said, "Boss Lu, our request is very simple. We just want the release date of New World to be postponed from the beginning of December to the end of December. With this buffer period, if the matter has not been settled by then, then we will not stop you from doing whatever you want."

Lu Yuan frowned. This is a method, but
He said: "What you two may not know is that during the release of Lost in Thailand, many obstacles were set up secretly, so New World was only released in early December."

Ye Ning sniffed and the first thing he thought of was "1942". This movie was released at the end of November, so it was Huayi?

He was skeptical. He couldn't ask Wang Zhonglei in person. Maybe the other party felt that Wanda was not sincere enough.

Thinking of this, he winked at Song Ge.

Song Ge understood and took out a document from behind: "Mr. Lu, take a look at this."

Lu Yuan had just picked up the chopsticks, but stopped when he saw this and took the document in his hand. The cover read "Ghost Blows Out the Light".

"IP is the next track for the film and television industry. At the beginning of the year, the company bought the film and television adaptation rights for the last four parts of "Ghost Blows Out the Light", and China Film Group got the first four parts. The company will start this project next year.

This is the first commercial blockbuster led by Wanda. We plan to make it into China's "National Treasure" and "Indiana Jones", creating a series of fantasy adventure films and even a tomb-raiding universe."

Having said that, Song Ge paused and looked at Ye Ning again.

Ye Ning nodded.

Song Ge continued, "We are in contact with Chen Guofu of Huayi. He will be in charge of this project. Our goal is 20 billion+. Is Mr. Lu interested in cooperating?"

Chen Guofu was about to leave Huayi. Lu Yuan understood what he meant.

He realized the potential of IP very early on, and Lu Jing also bought a lot of novels, but that girl had a strong taste, and coupled with various problems, it was not easy to adapt them into film and television.

Now that Wanda is going to operate this project, whether it will be successful or not is not the point, he keenly feels that the IP value of "Ghost Blows Out the Light" will definitely soar, and he can't help but think of PPS.

"Mr. Song, do you have the rights to both the film and TV series adaptations?"

"Correct!"

"We can talk."

(End of this chapter)