During my years at China Entertainment

Chapter 483: You and I use various tactics
The revenue-sharing battle launched by the distribution alliance is even bigger than last year's.

The producers and distributors joining forces means that the upstream and midstream of the film industry have joined forces to attack the downstream theater chains.

In addition, Lunar New Year directors such as Feng Dapao, Chen Kexin, Wang Jing, Lu Chuan, and Wong Kar-wai, as well as a large number of directors and producers in the industry, have spoken out in front of the media, hoping that theaters can make concessions to ease the increasing production costs.

Originally, according to the distribution alliance's idea, the theater chains should continue to give in and compromise, just like they did with Zhang Weiping in the beginning. Unfortunately, they were all wrong.

Perhaps due to repeated provocations, the theaters were also angered, so their attitude this time was very tough, and they directly rejected the distributor's notice.

As for the directors' remarks, the theaters simply ignored them because the identities of both parties were completely unequal, so what was there to respond to?
"Mr. Wei, your previous decision was wise. The attitude of the theater alliance is very clear. We will never back down again."

Listening to Zhao Feng's report, Wei Jin nodded. He was not surprised.

Although the cinema chains can guarantee a stable income regardless of market conditions, they keep withdrawing profits, and what they lose are both the cake and the meat.

Not every movie can make the entire industry's pie bigger and achieve a win-win situation like Shanhe Media's movies.

"Okay, just do your own thing and move forward and backward with the large theater chains."

To be honest, Wei Jin is also not optimistic about the cinema chains. There are more than 30 cinema chains, and they are not united internally. It is hard to say how exciting this will be.

The last imported co-production film of this year is Li An's "Life of Pi".

With only half a month left before the film was released, Li An came to Beijing specifically to hold a film press conference.

Many famous domestic directors were invited, and Wei Jin was no exception.

Although he didn't have much friendship with this Taiwanese director, after some consideration, Wei Jin still went to show his support.

Speaking of which, this famous director among Chinese filmmakers does have a somewhat mysterious experience.

Li An graduated from a regular directing school and started working in the film and television industry in the 80s. However, a series of short films did not make any splash, so he stayed at home unemployed.

It was not until the early 90s that he began to emerge with his feature film debut Pushing Hands, which won him nominations for the 28th Golden Horse Awards Special Jury Award and Best Director.

Since then, Li An seemed to have turned on a cheat code, constantly winning various awards and honors.

In 93, he won the Berlin Golden Bear Award for "The Wedding Banquet". In 94, he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film for "Eat Drink Man Woman".
To date, Li An has won two Golden Lions, two Golden Bears, two Oscars, three Golden Globe trophies, and six Golden Horse trophies.

In terms of awards and honors, Li An is in no way inferior to Wei Jin and Lao Mouzi, and in fact, he is even better in terms of quantity.

However, Wei Jin had to admit that Li An was indeed talented.

It was the first attempt at a 3D movie and it was done very well. After the 20-minute 3D clip was shown, it won a lot of applause from the audience.

After the press conference, Wei Jin, Zhang Yimou, Ning Hao and other directors from Shanhe Media gathered together to chat for a while and talked about the recent disputes between distributors and theaters.

This incident was indeed a big deal, and both sides were at a stalemate.

More than a dozen cinema chains, led by Wanda and Shanhe Cinemas, issued a joint statement:
"If the distributor forcibly demands an increase in the revenue sharing ratio, the theater alliance will no longer screen these eight films!"

The distribution alliance headed by China Film Group did not show any weakness and said bluntly that if the theaters did not agree, they would not supply the films to them.

Even when the Film Bureau called on both sides to sit down and negotiate, the call was rejected by both sides, who directly stated that they would not accept negotiations.

"Junior brother, what do you think we should do if we can't reach an agreement in the end?"

Ning Hao has no movies released this year, so he asked in the tone of a bystander. Others like Zhang Yimou, Xu Ke and others also expressed their concern.

“It’s unlikely.”

Wei Jin shook his head, set the tone, and then explained:

"To put it bluntly, both sides are being set up, but given the domestic way of doing things, it is impossible not to leave some room for maneuver. There is still more than half a month, and a solution will be found in the end."

Everyone nodded, agreeing with Wei Jin's opinion, except Ning Hao, who had a rather strange way of thinking.

"Speaking of which, Li An's Life of Pi is still the best. It's an imported film with split revenue, so don't worry about this. Maybe the bigger the fuss, the higher his screening schedule will be."

"That's impossible. The closer it gets to the Lunar New Year holiday, the less room for maneuver between the two sides, and the easier it will be to reach a consensus."

Everyone nodded again: "That's the truth."

"Tiny Times", which has attracted much controversy and attention since its inception, has started filming.

Although Guo Xiaosi is a new director, the producers are obviously very optimistic about this series of films adapted from the best-selling book, and the launch conference was very grand.

However, what is embarrassing is that some media directly asked Guo Xiaosi how to explain the plagiarism. He was so angry that his face turned black and he forcibly explained that he was just borrowing.

But the media remained unyielding. After all, the court's ruling was that "How Many Flowers Fall in Dreams" plagiarized "Inside and Outside the Circle".

In the end, the host came out to smooth things over and redirected the topic to "Tiny Times".

Among all the actors in this drama, Yang Mi has the highest status, so she is also the most beautiful one in the eyes of the media today.

"Mi Mi, there was news earlier that you took this role yourself and it was not arranged by the company. Is this true?"

"Indeed."

Yang Mi admitted it immediately, and then added with a smile: "But I still have to thank the company for its cultivation, otherwise Director Guo would not have designated me to play the leading female role, hehe."

Yang Mi said this without any regard for the other actors. After all, their status was there. Even the other so-called main actors didn't care at all, they just had envy in their eyes.

"Then there is news that you missed out on New Police Story 2013 because you took on this drama. Is that true?"

The smile on Yang Mi's face froze for a moment, then returned to normal.

"I can't say I missed it. As an actor, I have to be responsible for the movie. Now that the release date has been set, the rest is not within my consideration."

"Mi Mi, the Golden Horse Awards will be held in a few days. Your film Love Is Not Blind has been nominated for Best Actress. Do you think you have a good chance of winning the award, competing with Jing Tian?"

Hearing this question, Yang Mi forced himself to suppress his dissatisfaction.

"This is my first time to be nominated. Regardless of whether I win or not, I feel it is a great improvement and recognition. As for the final result, I will leave it to the judges. Thank you."

After answering this question, Yang Mi stopped talking and the media shifted the topic to the producers and other actors.

At this time, Zeng Jia took Yang Mi to a quiet place.

"Is everything settled with Director Guo?"

"Well, we've already discussed it. My role will be adjusted, and I'll only attend the awards ceremony. I hope there will be a good result."

In front of the media, Yang Mi behaved very modestly, but at this moment his eyes were burning with fighting spirit.

"Well, relax." Zeng Jia could understand Yang Mi's attitude. As an actor who graduated from the Beijing Film Academy, no matter how ambitious he was, he would always desire awards.

What's more, the Golden Horse Award is of great value. If Yang Mi can really win it, it will greatly enhance his commercial value, and Zeng Jia is also happy to see it happen.

It is mid-February.

In the film market, the reputation of Huayi's "Tai Chi 2" has completely collapsed, and its box office performance is even worse than the first one.

After ten days of release, the box office is less than 5000 million, which is a huge loss.

The performance of the rest of the films, whether domestic or imported, was extremely poor.

There was not a single decent movie in the entire film market, which made Wei Jin regretful for missing this window of opportunity.

On the other hand, theaters and distributors are still arguing fiercely, but it has not affected the promotion of the Lunar New Year movies at all. After all, these are procedures that have been set long ago.

However, the theater chain's uncompromising attitude still makes people in the industry panic.

In this situation, the Film Bureau could no longer sit still and urgently introduced a new policy.

The core content of the file is also very simple, namely:
For theaters whose total box office revenue from domestic films reaches more than 50% this year, the Special Fund Committee will return 45% of the special funds paid by these films. For theaters whose box office revenue reaches more than %, % will be returned.

To be honest, the original intention of this policy is good. It supports domestic films and compensates theaters, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

According to data released in the third quarter, domestic film box office accounted for 39% of the market. With the release of nearly ten films during the Lunar New Year holiday, it is entirely possible to increase the proportion to 45% or even above 50%.

Unfortunately, theater chains are not buying it, because the policy only brings short-term benefits after all, and the distributors' demands are damaging their long-term interests.

However, the distributors seem to be full of confidence, because the chips in their hands are all popular films during the Lunar New Year period. The closer the release date is, the more passive the theaters become.

Han Sanping was even in the mood to call Wei Jin and tease him.

"Wei Jin, I have the advantage this time. If Zhang Weiping can accomplish something, there's no reason why we, the publishers, will lose if we join forces. Just wait for the arrival of a new era."

"Well, I hope that Mr. Han gets what he wants, and I will win with him."

"Hahaha, just watch."

Wei Jin soon saw through Han Sanping's methods.

The five major distribution companies jointly issued the "Notice on the Progress of Negotiations on Box Office Sharing Ratios."

According to the information published in the notice, more than 28 cinema chains have signed new screening contracts with the five major distributors.

In addition, hundreds of cinemas bypassed their respective theater chains and negotiated new profit-sharing ratios directly with distributors.

According to the data published in the notice, the combined market share of these cinema chains and theaters has exceeded 70%.

"Fuck, this really looks like a done deal. Old Han has something. Tsk tsk."

After sighing, Wei Jin looked through the emails from North America.

"Taken 3" has been released in North America for a month and has now entered routine processing.

Sometimes we have to admit that word of mouth does have a huge impact on box office.

The first and second films both grossed over 1.5 million in North America, but the third film only grossed 9680 million U.S. dollars.

Fortunately, Summit Entertainment has hyped up the concept of "The Final Chapter" so much that its performance in overseas markets is quite good.

The cumulative box office in Europe, Australia, Japan, South Korea and other regions reached 1.68 million US dollars, and the global total box office reached 2.64 million US dollars.

When it is released in China as an imported film next year, it is estimated to earn 300 to 500 million US dollars.

By then, with a global box office of 3 million US dollars, it will be a perfect end to this series.

The distributor’s attitude was forceful and the theater’s counterattack was timely.

The next day, 27 industry giants including Wanda, New Film Association, Shanhe, and Dadi Cinemas held a press conference in Beijing.

In front of hundreds of media reporters, a paper version of the "Joint Declaration" with the official seal was directly announced to the public.

"We will never accept the distributor's tough and rude demands. Our 27 major cinema chains have reached a consensus. We refuse to be threatened, will never compromise, and will definitely not screen those 8 movies!"

This is where the fun part lies, because the combined market share of these 27 cinema chains that issued the joint declaration has reached 80%.

The entire entertainment industry, media, and even netizens began to talk about it.

"Here they say they've taken over 70% of the cinemas, and over there they say they've formed an alliance of 27 cinema chains, taking up 8% of the market share. What the hell is going on? Has the market doubled?"

"Hehe, I guess there are two possibilities. Either both sides are bluffing, or there are fence-sitters who are involved in both sides."

"Fuck, there's something here, a mix of real and fake, all's fair in war, it looks like there's still a fight to be had."

The increasingly strong attitudes of both sides caused the situation to escalate instantly, and even Zeng Li, who usually doesn't pay much attention to industry news, expressed curiosity.

"Xiao Jin, what do you think is going on?"

Seeing the curiosity on the beautiful woman's face, Wei Jin did not hide it.

"There are indeed fence-sitters, and both sides are trying to divide and win over each other."

Although he did not participate this time, Wei Jin knew some inside information because Zhao Feng leaked some information from time to time.

However, this time, the distribution company of China Film Group used some despicable means and directly bypassed the theater chain to contact the cinemas under the theater chain individually, which is why it got a 70% market share.

After listening to Wei Jin's explanation, Zeng Li frowned.

"By doing this, Mr. Han, aren't you afraid of completely offending the theater chain?"

"Haha, I've already offended you."

To be honest, Han Sanping's behavior is equivalent to bypassing Shanhe Media and directly letting companies such as Star Sky Culture or Shanhe Ink to follow him. It will definitely make people hate him.

According to Zhao Feng's report, many state-owned cinema chains are already boycotting distributors led by China Film Group, and it is unclear how big a mess this will cause.

"Director Han has been dragged into this battle by Huayi, but given his personality, he might have wanted to do this a long time ago."

Wei Jin admitted that Han Sanping was indeed wholeheartedly committed to the development of the industry, but the issue of profit sharing was too complicated, and it would be impossible to reach an agreement unless a direct document was issued from above.

This time, Han Sanping is likely to be used as a gun.
(End of this chapter)