Year: I had a good time when I was young

Chapter 459 Black income and box office explosion

The next day, when the preliminaries of the fighting competition were still in full swing, promotional posters were already hung in the stadium.

Then there were promotions for the movie on the radio.

And Universal actually changed the rules in order to earn more tickets.

Those who pass the preliminaries will select 32 more people to participate in the first championship of the Unlimited Fighting Competition.

In order to attract audiences and fighting masters, Mike also listened to Chu Xiangqian's suggestion and announced that the top three in the competition would have the opportunity to participate in Universal Pictures' movies.

The lure of becoming a movie star is more attractive than the top three prizes of $3, $2 and $1.

Three days later, outside the Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, before 5 o'clock, dozens of reporters, hundreds of people watching the excitement and audiences attracted by the advertisements were gathered.

At 6 o'clock sharp, celebrities who had received invitations from Universal began to enter the venue one by one. The car parked outside the Chinese Theater and suddenly there was a flash of lights.

The audience also started shouting when they saw their favorite stars.

For a time, the whole street was jammed.

Fortunately, there are police and security guards to maintain law and order, otherwise something would have happened.

Chu Xiangqian did not join in the fun, but asked Wrinkle Huai to follow Universal General Manager Mike Heideman, first to help and secondly to take the opportunity to make friends with some Hollywood stars and directors.

Oriental Daily also sent three reporters over this time, planning to take photos of tonight's grand event and send them back to Hong Kong Island for a series of reports.

From now on, 'Chu' Film Company will be an international film company that has entered Hollywood.

Just by hearing this name, it is several levels better than other counterparts in Hong Kong Island. In the future, Hong Kong Island audiences will be more willing to go to the Chu Cinema to watch films produced by Chu Cinema.

At 8 o'clock in the evening, the movie was officially played.

Chu Xiangqian, who had watched it many times, had no interest in the movie.

However, the English dialogue specially added this time is indeed very high-level.

Turning his head to Wrinkle Huai asked, "Where can I find the English dubbing?"

Wrinkle Huai had also seen the Snake-shaped Trickster countless times and said hurriedly, "Although there are not many people in Hong Kong who can speak English, there are quite a few teachers who are proficient in Chinese and English in several universities.

I asked them to translate it into English, and then found a few people who used to be announcers on the TV station to dub the main supporting characters and the leading actors.

And it's specifically American spoken. "

Chu Xiangqian gave a thumbs up to Wrinkle Huai when he heard it. Dubbing is indeed important, but translation is actually more important.

Otherwise, many funny dialogues in Cantonese are not translated accurately and cannot arouse the laughter of foreign audiences at all.

Looking at Wrinkle Huai, he said, "The person who translated this movie is indeed a talented person. If necessary, please ask him to be a consultant in the company.

The company will definitely have more movies released in English-speaking countries in the future. "

Wrinkle Huai naturally understands the importance of talents, “Don’t worry, boss, although university teachers have a high status and are respected by others, the income of teachers is not high.

With a consulting fee of 200 per month, even professors can be hired.Not to mention young lecturers who have wives and children to support. "

Chu Qianqian smiled and nodded. These days, educated people are actually distinguished from those who are famous or not.

Famous, a calligraphy and painting is worth thousands of gold.

If you are not famous, no matter how good your knowledge is, being able to become a university teacher is already considered a good background.

"By the way, how are you preparing to invite various Chinese communities to book a movie theater?"

Wrinkle Huai nodded hurriedly, thinking that the boss was going to invite Chinese people from Chinatown in Los Angeles and San Francisco to organize a group to watch the movie in order to boost the box office.

After all, we signed an agreement with Universal that the total box office is over 300 million, and Universal’s distribution fee is only 10%.

Otherwise, if the amount is less than 300 million, the issuance fee is 15%.It's normal for Chu Xiangqian to hit the box office in the first week.

Calculated according to the tiered box office share signed with the theater chain, I will get 8% of the box office split in the first week, and the theater chain will get 2%.

Get 6% in the second and third weeks.Get 2% in the fourth and fifth weeks.

How much box office the movie sells after that has nothing to do with you.

The total box office of this snake-shaped film in five weeks was 5 million US dollars, 300 in the first week, and 50 million after expanding the number of cinemas in the second and third weeks.

100 million for the fourth and fifth weeks.

He can get 40+90+20, which is a total income of 150 million US dollars.

But if the box office exceeds one million in the first week, the box office data in the next four weeks may double.

Moreover, spending US$5 to invite tens of thousands of Chinese into the cinema to watch Hong Kong movies is also cultivating the habit of watching movies among Chinese in the United States.

You can get back an income of 5 times 0.73, so you pay the minimum price by doing it in the first week.

But in addition to ensuring that the box office exceeds the bottom line of US$300 million, Chu Xiangqian is also thinking of doing an experiment.

Before the film was released in the United States, he had already used two funds to do something.

First, Hong Kong Island's "Chu" Films sold the rights to Snakehead to a fund established on an offshore island for US$100 million.

This fund then bought it to an American fund for US$150 million.

In other words, even if Snake Man sells high box office, the fund income in the United States will be greatly reduced, if the final income is only 150 million US dollars.

It seems that the fund is not losing money, but in fact, after deducting the fund's labor, operating expenses, etc., it is still losing money.

Not to mention paying taxes, state governments in the United States may have to subsidize this fund.

Even if the box office exceeds 300 million, or the box office explodes in the first, second, and third weeks, the overall revenue will exceed 150 million US dollars.

The taxes that need to be paid will also be very small.

But by doing this, Chu Xiangqian was worried that the U.S. tax would go crazy.

It is clear that they are making a fuss about the system, taking advantage of legal loopholes, and getting nothing.

If a large American company, or a company whose boss is an American, does this, the U.S. tax department may not say anything.

After all, many wealthy people and companies in the United States are taking advantage of this loophole.

But if a foreign company does this, Americans may not let it go easily.

At the same time, if you pay 10 at the box office in the first week, you will get 8.

After deducting Global's 10% issuance fee, I finally got 7.3.

If you don't have to pay taxes, you can definitely cooperate with the American mafia.

A movie only grossed RMB 100 million at the box office in the first week, giving the mafia RMB 60 and earning RMB 17. This RMB 60 becomes legal and compliant income.

Moreover, only big cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and New York are targeted. It is too simple for the mafia, which has a large number of people, many legitimate and shady businesses, and many employees.

You can also invite employees to watch movies as a bonus to win over people.

Over the course of a year, the millions of dirty money will become clean money that can be used at will.

However, the specific operation is definitely not that simple, but in fact, Chu Xiangqian has heard of this method many times in later generations, and it is roughly this model.

And in the United States, it has long been a way for Hollywood to make money.If you don’t make any money yourself, Global World might already be operating in this way secretly.

At the same time, using this method to win over the mafia is often equivalent to paying protection fees in the United States.

In addition to offending the U.S. tax department, you can ask the mafia for help in solving other problems.

In 30 or [-] years, Chu Xiangqian would definitely not do this or seek cooperation with the mafia.

But in the 5 years of 6, 7, and 30, the Teamsters Union, the Actors Union, the Directors Union, etc. were all more or less infiltrated by the Mafia.

If you want to find trouble, you must first find trouble with the mafia.

If you are afraid of being investigated, then cooperate with funds outside the United States.

This money entering the United States is a good thing for the United States.

Of course, the premise is that taxation in the United States will not really cause trouble for the fund.Otherwise, forget it.

After the movie ended, there was silence for dozens of seconds in the Chinese theater. Just when Wrinkle-Huai, He Guanchang and others thought that Americans did not like the movie.

Suddenly bursts of applause came from the theater, and Chu Xiangqian couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.

It seems that even if I don't hit the box office, it should still be a hit.

But whether it is possible or not, Chu Xiangqian himself is not absolutely sure whether it will exceed US$5 million in five weeks.

Therefore, the means must be used. The higher the box office, the higher the cohesion of "Chu" movies in the future.

What if the romantic films of Lard Boy and White Rice Fish were also introduced to the United States?

No matter how much the final box office is, earning 3% of the distribution fee is still money.

For other film companies in Hong Kong, even if they only earn US$10 or US$20, it is still additional income.

After all, no Hong Kong film company has ever had the ability to distribute movies to the US market.

After seeing off the guests and reporters who came today, Mike Hedman immediately found Chu Xiangqian.

"Stark, I think we should sign an exclusive distribution contract. Also, the romantic film you mentioned should be shown to theater people in the company's small theater as soon as possible."

Americans are so realistic. I have told Mike about this before, but when this guy heard that the movie was not produced by the Chu family, his words were all procrastination and perfunctory.

Chu Xiangqian himself planned to invite some small theater chains, that is, those specially established in small cities and towns in the United States, to come and watch movies.

Even in the 90s, or the first decade of the new millennium, theater chains composed of small towns like the United States were still showing some illegal movies.

Moreover, many small Hollywood film companies only make low-cost movies like this, which cost only 10,000+, 30 to [-] yuan.

Even if that movie becomes a hit, they will follow suit.

Spider-Man became popular, and the new version of Spider-Woman appeared in just 15 days.

Avatar is popular, and there is also a fancy version of "This is not Avatar".

When Jurassic Park became popular, there were Jurassic Amusement Park and Jurassic Survival.

Anyway, there is no way to register the copyright for the word Jurassic, so there is no way to prevent others from using it.

But what was actually produced were all bad movies, but there is a huge market for this kind of bad movies with color in small towns in the United States.

And to put it bluntly, the theaters in these small towns are not selling box office tickets, but a way to launder money.

Coupled with the colorful midnight show, it can always attract some young people or young couples to enter the cinema.

Whether it's watching movies or doing other things, the theater chain doesn't care.

Anyway, after the movie is released, whether 10 tickets or 100 tickets are sold per show is up to the theater chain.

Not only will the local tax department in the small town not investigate, but they are also eager to collect more taxes.

The police department also hopes that young people will go to the movies instead of hanging out in the streets.

Young people in small towns can also have a private place to enhance relationships and even play friendly matches without spending a lot of money.

Fortunately, Mike Hedman saw the popularity of the snake-shaped trickster and immediately changed his previous attitude.

Chu Xiangqian was also happy to save some energy, and the box office of large theaters was naturally higher than that of small theaters.

Besides, once the negotiations with the big theater chains are completed, you can continue to negotiate with the small theater chains, and the negotiations will be much easier.

The next day there were 80 movie theaters in Los Angeles and 100 in San Francisco.

There are also 79 movie theaters in 320 major West Coast cities, including Oakland, San Diego, Seattle, Las Vegas, San Diego, Honolulu, Hawaii, and Portland.

After playing "Snake Man" together, news came that afternoon that the online attendance rate of each theater was at least 5%.

By evening, the attendance rate had increased to an average of 7%.

In Mike's office, the executives of Universal and Decca Records were all excited after hearing the news.

But these guys then decided to focus on Chu Xiangqian and Hong Kong movies, or action movies.

Chu Xiangqian had already predicted that the Americans wanted to make action movies and even co-produce Hong Kong movies with Hong Kong Film Company.

The benefits are right in front of you, and you would be a fool not to participate.

Moreover, he only earns distribution fees. Chu Xiangqian himself also knows that the people of Universal and Decca will never be satisfied with this cooperation model.

"After Roman Holiday and Tom and Jerry are released, we'll make a decision on the box office, lest I get acclimated too."

Five or six senior executives thought about it and couldn't help but nodded. As for Chu Xiangxian, they didn't even mention the co-production of a Hong Kong film.

Everyone present knew very well that Universal would not cooperate with Chu Xiangqian on its own projects.

Hong Kong films are the foundation of Chu Xiangqian. Unless there is an exchange of interests, Chu Xiangqian will definitely not share the benefits with Universal.

Moreover, at this time, Universal is suffering huge losses due to Spark, and future shooting plans will definitely be reduced.

In other words, in the next one or two years, Universal will need films from outside the company to maintain the company's profits and to maintain cooperative relationships with theater chains.

Otherwise, if too few movies are released, the theater chain will make less money from Universal, and the relationship with Universal will naturally become cold.

Besides, occupying the broadcast time of theaters also reduces the profits and influence of other major Hollywood companies.

So at this time, Universal needs Chu Xiangqian or other producers.

At 7 o'clock in the morning the next day, Chu Xiangqian was boxing in the pasture when a phone call came.

Kumiko and Olivia, who had already returned from the Santa Monica seafood restaurant, hurriedly separated themselves to answer the phone.

Three minutes later, Olivia excitedly ran over with a note and said, "Boss, yesterday's box office is out. It's a full 3 US dollars."

Chu Qianqian was stunned, where could he still think about practicing boxing.

Taking the note that Olivia used to write down the data, I saw that yesterday, 500 movie theaters broadcast 6 shows from morning to evening, with an average daily attendance of 5% and an average of 300 seats.

The average movie ticket on the West Coast is US$0.69, which works out to a box office of US$31.05.

Damn, it was only then that Chu Xiangqian truly realized why Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon had a global box office of US$2.3 million.

(End of this chapter)