new kung fu king

Chapter 624 "Wine Dried If Selling Nothing" breaks through the Taiwan market

For Wang Xiaohu, it is not a problem to win United Artists for [-] million US dollars. You must know that in the past ten years, except for the first two years when he was in a state of extreme poverty, he has been working hard to make money for the next eight years.

Starting from "Rocky", "Home Alone", "Jaws", "Star Wars", "First Blood", "Mythology", "ET", "Shaolin Temple" and other works have earned more than 7000 in the world. Among them, "Star Wars" and "Jaws" not only earned Wang Xiaohu 7.9 million after tax, but also earned a good reputation in Hollywood. As for the current power of "ET", it has not been shown yet. The recovery of [-] million US dollars is still early from the myth of [-] million US dollars in the world.

After careful calculation, Wang Xiaohu's current deposit in his Swiss bank account has just exceeded the [-] million mark.

For others, [-] million may be an amount that cannot be earned in a lifetime, but in Wang Xiaohu's opinion, this amount of money is still too little.Because the investment in future movies will be large-scale productions, which will cost hundreds of millions of dollars at every turn. In contrast, this amount of money will be used up if you invest less than a few movies.

Some people may say why not list the company?Why not pull money into it?
Wang Xiaohu can clearly tell you that going public is not what he wants, because he would have to take greater risks, and pulling in capital investment will reduce his ability to control the film. He does not want investors to dictate his film. He has a strong desire to control Concord, because this is the film company he founded with Bruce Lee.

If [-] million U.S. dollars were used to accept Lianmei, then the remaining funds in the account would only be [-] million U.S. dollars, which was not enough for the company's turnover.

"Lack of money!" Wang Xiaohu sighed immediately after realizing the problem.

Counting the movies that the company has not released yet, the only big production in Hollywood is probably the first part of "Raiders of the Lost Ark". According to the data reported by Winterdur every month, this movie will be in The Christmas schedule was released, and at the same time, half of the filming progress of the second part of "Star Wars" was completed.

Hong Kong Although the Hong Kong side looks very beautiful on the surface, it is still a bit horrible compared to the European and American markets. A movie is capped at 2000 million Hong Kong dollars, hey!
Wang Xiaohu is now very grateful that he chose the development route of Hollywood, because that is where the real money can be made. If there is no subsidy from the Hollywood market in the past few years, the companies in Hong Kong will definitely fall into financial difficulties, let alone the harmony of investment. The film and television city also has the money that the mainland has poured into it in the past few years.

But how to put it, Wang Xiaohu is quite satisfied with the current situation. After all, he has opened up a good situation. Once Xiehe acquires Lianmei, its overall strength will be consolidated. To subsidize its own consumption in Hong Kong and the mainland, Xiehe Company was still alive and kicking for a while.

As the saying goes, there is pressure to be motivated. Near the end of November 1981, New Art City's "Hitch the Wrong Car" began to be released. The city company has broken away from Xiehe's control, so "Hit the Wrong Car" was released simultaneously in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Run Run Shaw felt a little unreasonable, so this time he worked very hard to cooperate with the release of "The Wrong Car" in Taiwan, and almost used all the power of Shaw Brothers Taiwan Branch to help promote it. online synchronously.

As a literary film, "Hitch the Wrong Car" describes a retired veteran who became dumb due to injuries while fighting on the battlefield. He is known as the dumb uncle and makes a living by buying empty wine bottles and picking up junk. One early morning in the winter of 1957, Uncle Dumb picked up an abandoned baby girl in the alleyway of a high-end residential area. There was a note left by the person who abandoned the baby girl in the swaddle. The baby girl was named Gillian.For this reason, his wife clashed with him and left home.

The dumb uncle is both father and mother, and the father and daughter depend on each other for life, struggling in hard and poor days.In order to make Gillian have more fun in life, Uncle Dumb played beautiful music for her when he was tired.
The film was released in Taiwan, and immediately caused a sensation. This is the second high-quality literary film sent to Taiwan by Hong Kong film organizations after "A Hu" that year. People feel deeply, they feel the power of realism in the film from rationality to determination, and then from disobedience to rationality.In short, it should be the destiny and psychological conversion of an entire generation, and it is also a feeling, a retrospect, and an irresistible impulse that goes against modern concepts.

"Hit the Wrong Car" was screened in Taiwan for two weeks, earning NT$600 million. In the Taiwan market where literary films were sluggish at that time, this achievement deservedly became the top of the ranks of literary films.

And with the popularity of the film, Su Rui's song "Wine Dried If You Sell Nothing" quickly became popular in Taiwan.

Taiwan media said, "Her singing almost screaming is a kind of voice and power that has never been seen in the music world. And this power is not just the power of the voice, but the unyielding vitality of the singer himself."

Taiwan is so hot, but the Hong Kong market is a bit weak. It only earned 538 million Hong Kong dollars in two weeks of release, but this also made Huang Baiming very pleased. After all, the investment in the film was less than 150 million. It will be released in the mainland, and the mainland is the battlefield that Huang Baiming is most looking forward to.

"The genre of literary films really doesn't work in Hong Kong." Wang Xiaohu curled his lips. Before it was released in the mainland, the only thing he could count on was the Taiwan market. According to Huang Baiming's phone call, the filmmakers in Taiwan are very interested Pay attention, and plan to re-screen several times after the premiere, so as to earn more profit margins.

At the beginning of December, Winterdur called again, saying that United Artists had encountered some difficulties in the acquisition.

"Boss, representatives of MGM have also joined the acquisition plan these days. Do you still remember our old friend Warner? They are also preparing to intervene now. I am worried that if we delay for a day, it will be a long night."

Winterdur seemed very anxious on the phone, while Wang Xiaohu asked: "Even if MGM wants to acquire, I will find Kerkorian, and I will find a way to make him give up the acquisition plan. As for What are you talking about Warner?"

"I don't know, it may be that Victor felt that the price I had lowered these days was too low, so he secretly contacted Warner. They didn't know what to discuss these days." Winterdur cursed Said: "Warner's guys are really pervasive. They blocked the Oscar thing last time, and now even our acquisition of United Artists, they want to get involved, damn it!"

"Continue to procrastinate and see if they are deliberately acting for us. If United Artists and Warner deliberately raise the price, we will give up." Wang Xiaohu warned: "Remember, our bottom line is still the last time you Tell me the price."

Last time, Winterdur had talked about the price at 4.5 million. If United Artists did not play tricks, Wang Xiaohu was quite satisfied with this price. How can United Artists be the hometown of Hollywood superstar Chaplin, so it is worth the price.

"OK!" Winterdur hung up the phone after receiving the boss's instructions, and was full of motivation to get busy with the negotiation.

Not long after Wang Xiaohu made the phone call, Tsui Hark came to visit with the completed "New Shushan".

"Brother Hu, according to your request, the film has been partially modified, please help me to take a look." Tsui Hark's attitude is very respectful now. Since Wang Xiaohu made a few suggestions, he has made serious revisions. The deletion of the remake, the remake of the remake, especially the part of the purple and green double swords has been re-interpreted.

Not long ago, Industrial Light & Magic came to Hong Kong to help complete the special effects processing work. Tsui Hark wanted to take the opportunity to learn some skills secretly, but he didn’t learn anything after learning for a long time, because he directly copied the first cut version after he came. , and took it to the special effects editing room of Xiehe Company for processing.

Besides, even if Tsui Hark really learned something secretly, he didn't have the money to buy those expensive special effects equipment. Tsui Hark also became a frequent visitor in the special effects editing room of Xiehe Company.

"good."

An hour and a half later, Wang Xiaohu nodded his praise after watching the sample. After the revision, "New Shushan" has enough upgrades in the screen and plot. If you don't look at it from the perspective of future generations, the overall quality of "New Shushan" is still good. Yes, it's just that it can't reach the height of "Myth" in terms of scenes and cultural atmosphere. For a commercial film, it is already commendable.

"Ake, congratulations, this movie will become your masterpiece." Wang Xiaohu congratulated Tsui Hark first.

Tsui Hark shyly scratched his hair and said, "Without Brother Hu's guidance, this movie would probably still be in the embarrassing state of second-rate or third-rate films, and the box office would definitely be bad."

"Well, if it is released during the Spring Festival, the box office results should be very impressive." Wang Xiaohu said.

"The Spring Festival stalls, it seems difficult!" Tsui Hark said with a bitter face: "After all, Siyuan Company has not yet released a mature theater chain, and the few small theater chains in hand can bring in some income."

"It doesn't matter. We, Xiehe, can distribute it as an agent, and even distribute it in mainland China. You should know that the market there is still good." Wang Xiaohu said with a smile.

mainland!Tsui Hark's eyes lit up when he heard that, the mainland market is definitely a favorite, but soon Tsui Hark's excitement disappeared: "Brother Hu, there are some things I can't decide, and I have to go back and talk to the boss. discuss."

It was from this moment that Tsui Hark began to have the idea of ​​being a director alone.

(End of this chapter)