China Entertainment: Director’s happiness is so simple

On August 25, a screening of "Source Code" was held at Nortel.

The Nortel school is extremely supportive of the works of its students, not only providing venues but also strengthening security.

When Lu Ping'an and Guorong arrived, many people were already arriving in the screening room.

Hu Qingquan and other producers each welcomed the connections they made.

"Source Code" is about to be released, and it's not time to get nervous about the Oscar short film, so Hu Qingquan will naturally come back to help handle it.

It's just that after these people came, they talked more about "Heroes" than "Source Code".

Just after the news about the "Source Code" screening was released, "Heroes" also released news that a preliminary press conference will be held the day after tomorrow. It is said that there may be a screening of the finished film.

"Heroes" is already more popular than "Source Code" and is very powerful.

From the start to the completion, we sang all the way.

With support from above, New Picture Zhang Weiping is also very good at marketing.

Every aspect of "Heroes" is highly hyped.

Now there is another press conference, and it is said that we can also watch movies.

This also caused the film producers who came today to discuss "Hero" at the beginning.

“Is ‘Heroes’ finally ready?”

"I have been making this film for more than a year. I really want to see how good it will be."

"Is there any comment on the overseas copyright of "Heroes"? Mr. Han, please ask. We are very willing to cooperate if there is an opportunity."

A group of film producers were talking about "Hero", which made the producers a little embarrassed.

Of course, everyone's interest in "Source Code" must be there, but it's just not that high in comparison.

When Wattsberg saw Lu Pingan, Guorong and others finally arriving at the scene, he was very happy to greet him, and then shared the good news with Lu Pingan:

"Lu, "Chainsaw" has been rated R."

"That's great, we can go to major theaters."

"Yeah, I'm going to participate in the Saint-Denis Film Festival in January, and I want it to be a hit."

"You can decide the distribution. The quality of the film depends on this, you know."

Lu Ping'an shrugged and said nothing.

Wattsberg naturally knew what he meant. He smiled and assured: "Unless the taste of the American audience changes, I can guarantee that it will be successful this time."

"Then wish us good luck!"

"certainly!"

The two chatted, and then started talking about "Source Code".

"Lu, this movie is a science fiction movie, right?"

"That's right."

"Sci-fi films with Asian faces are rare in North America, and they may not be very popular by then."

"I know that you Americans like to watch Chinese kung fu movies and martial arts movies."

"Yes, but I dare to believe that your film will definitely be good. When the time comes, remember to give me priority in adapting it."

"Let's wait until you watch the movie."

"Of course, I won't miss your film."

As Wattsberg spoke, he glanced around at the other film producers and said with a somewhat disdainful expression, "They don't think much of you. I think you'll probably give people another big surprise this time."

"Thank you, but then you will have to worry about whether you have enough money."

"Don't worry, I have the money!"

Generally speaking, film producers are still interested.

But with the pressure of "Hero", the level of interest will naturally not be as great as Lu Ping'an expected.

The time soon approached three o'clock in the afternoon, and guests from all walks of life began to take their seats.

The media, film producers, distributors, theaters and advertisers sat down one by one.

At a glance, excluding some student actors and teachers, there must be about a hundred people in total.

The scale is indeed worthy of the title of "second blockbuster".

Several producers such as Huayi and Enlight are also in place. In addition to them, several distributors such as Bona, Shanghai Film, and West Film are also in place at the same time.

Among them, Bona is very ambitious. In August, they successfully released "Legend of Tianmai" with a box office of nearly 30 million, which was also the highest box office for a Chinese film since the establishment of the theater chain.

With this successful release experience, they will naturally look further, and the only blockbuster "Source Code" is their next target.

Of course, their thoughts are the same, that is, "Source Code", is it really qualified?

The film boasted a lot, but there were also quite a few people who actually overturned.

Isn't this the case with "Legend of Tianmai", which is currently in theaters? It cost 160 million Hong Kong dollars, but the actual film is a bad one. It has a big reputation, and whoever buys it will lose!

Isn't this the case with Riku Taro's "Looking for the Gun" before? It was so hyped, but in fact the audience didn't buy it. This is especially important to the domestic distributors here because they rely on the box office to make a living!

The reporters have already picked up their pens.

Lu Ping'an is still a student and has always been successful since his debut. Will he have to suffer today?

Among them, Lu Ping'an's little brother Feng Ke also looked worried.

If Lu Ping'an didn't do it well, he wouldn't be easy to clean.

After a while, "Source Code" started to show.

An hour and a half later, applause echoed throughout the screening room.

After all the sound effects and dubbing have been polished, "Source Code" brings a movie-watching experience that even Han Sanpin, who has watched it twice, feels it is much better.

This is true for him, not to mention the people present.

Everyone's expressions changed from the beginning, and then followed the plot all the way to the end.

The quality of the video has been recognized by everyone, even amazing!

"The story is attractive enough and the script is so polished!"

“It’s really rare for Chinese science fiction to reach this level.”

"There are some Chinese symbols missing."

"Lu is really different from other Chinese directors."

"He's only 20, right?"

"Tsk tsk tsk"

The social score of 8.7 given by Goldfinger for "Source Code" is no joke.

At this time, film producers, distributors, theaters, and advertisers are gearing up.

What started out as a bit of doubt and contempt has now turned into a look of eagerness.

The atmosphere in the screening room has long since changed.

He formally turned his gaze to the film producers who had changed their faces, raised his chin with a smile, although he was not a real mountain eagle, but his momentum had already taken shape. He stood up and calmly greeted the guests: "Let's change places. Chat slowly."

. . . . . . . . .

After the film screening, distributors from all parties also started the first round of quotations.

In the first round of quotations, 16 film studios offered low prices, and most of the others were waiting to see "Hero."

Among the 16, South Korea issued a buyout price of US$300,000, Neon issued a buyout price of US$450,000, six European countries quoted a total of US$800,000, and the remaining small countries quoted a total of US$500,000.

North America, the largest market, has a maximum quotation of RMB 800,000 for distribution rights, plus an additional RMB 1.2 million for adaptation rights. Wattsberg still quoted Wattsberg for the adaptation rights, and his quotation was RMB 1.2 million for adaptation + RMB 500,000 for distribution.

In the first round of quotations, excluding Wattsberg, the total issuance rights amounted to US$2.85 million.

In addition, domestic disc dealers also quoted a copyright price of 1 million yuan. This price is hundreds of thousands higher than "Big Shot", which is very good.

This also makes the producers very happy.

After all, how much did this film cost?

The reported cost was about 6 million U.S. dollars, but in fact it only cost more than 4 million U.S. dollars. Subtracting advertising sponsorship, it was less than 2 million U.S. dollars.

If it were sold at this price, the distribution rights alone would have paid back the investment, and there would still be a lot of profit!

In the future, the box office accounts will be divided between the mainland and Hong Kong and other places, so you can make as much money as you can.

The sight of Qian makes people's hearts itch.

And this price is also the highest price among all Lu Ping An’s movies so far.

The previous highest value for "The Tuner" was US$2.05 million for distribution rights + adaptation rights, and "Comet" totaled about US$800,000.

"Source Code" alone can reach around 2.85 million US dollars upon release, which looks pretty good.

Even if the news is released now, the media will start to praise Lu Pingan's personal directing achievements.

Just judging from the "second blockbuster", this price is obviously not enough.

This is the "second blockbuster" after all, and the total distribution rights are less than 3 million US dollars. In conversion, excluding the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, the global box office of "Source Code" is expected to be less than 20 million US dollars!

This is seriously underrated!

The original "Source Code" has a global box office of 120 million U.S. dollars. Although now that the protagonist has been replaced by a yellow face, the box office may be greatly discounted, but even with a 30% discount, it still has a box office of 30 to 40 million U.S. dollars. If the distribution cost is less than If you sell it for 3 million, you can make a lot of money.

So Lu Pingan asked Han Sanpin and Hu Qingquan: "The price is too low. Are they lowering the price?"

Hu Qingquan explained: "The first round of consultations is like this. As for negotiations, just take your time."

The same goes for Han Sanpin and other producers. They didn't think there was anything wrong.

After all, the quoted price of 2.85 million for the issuance rights is not much different from what was expected.

This price can be higher after several more negotiations, and it has always been like this before.

So everyone is not in a hurry.

The movie viewing session ended that day, and Lu Pingan and Guorong said goodbye.

The next copyright negotiation will have nothing to do with Guorong. Yu Feihong will help take him around for a day, and then he will return to Hong Kong tomorrow.

Guorong's mood seemed much better tonight than at the beginning. Lu Ping'an knew that this was all brought about by the movie.

"Ping An, I'm really handsome in the movie."

Guorong smiled when he saw Lu Ping'an looking at him.

"That's right, choosing you as the protagonist is not a random choice."

Lu Ping'an also smiled easily.

Before entering the airport, Guorong sent an invitation to Lu Pingan alone: ​​"September 12th is my birthday, Pingan, can you come?"

"OK!"

Naturally, he would not refuse such an invitation.

Guorong was also very happy, but then added: "Don't bring gifts, bring cash, I will use it to donate money."

"Haha, of course that's no problem."

"You don't need to bring too much, just make up a lucky number."

"Eight hundred and eighty-eight thousand?"

"That's too much, just twenty-eight thousand."

"Okay, I'll be ready."

"Then I'm leaving. Don't be late then."

"Watching "Source Code" will amaze insiders"

"Lu Ping An breaks doubts, the quality of his new film is excellent, and copyright negotiations may hit a new high"

"The second domestic blockbuster "Source Code" is scheduled to be released on November this year"

""Source Code" may be Jackie Chan's highest-grossing film"

"..."

After the movie screening, the news about the "Source Code" movie screening was also posted on the portal website.

Early publicity has already begun.

Fans' expectations and doubts will continue in the future, and the final decision will only be made when the film is finally screened.

Two days later, the "Hero" advance press conference began.

This time there are more film producers, and the scale is several times that of "Source Code", because it is said that "Heroes" will be released as a film, and there may be movie viewing parties.

However, there will be no final viewing of the film, but a 30-second clip was also released.

But even this 30-second clip shocked everyone present.

The Qin Army's cavalry gallops and the Qin Army's formation is filled with darkness.

There is also a momentum that tears the screen: wind, wind, strong wind!

Now it's good, the film producers can't sit still at all.

"It's difficult to handle, Ping An, it may not be easy to sell here."

After watching the press conference, Hu Qingquan immediately called Lu Ping'an.

And what happened next was exactly as Hu Qingquan expected. The copyright negotiations for "Source Code" encountered considerable obstacles.

. . . . . . .

“Lu, the film is indeed very good, the plot creativity and rhythm are excellent, but the problem is that this film does not have many Chinese elements, and the stars are not well-known to Americans. In addition, Americans are not used to Chinese films other than kung fu films and martial arts films. There are no precedents for off-film themes, especially science fiction films, at least at the moment, so I think the prospects for "Source Code" to be released in North America may not be great."

"Director Lu, it's not that I don't like "Source Code", it's that my ability is limited and I can't give a higher price."

"Lu, to be honest, if I were really rich, I would definitely give priority to "Hero". That film will definitely make money, but who makes me just a small film producer."

"Director Lu, your "Source Code" is really good, but we can't add more to it. If your film is a Kung Fu movie, I will definitely double it. If it's Chinese science fiction, we don't dare to take this risk."

The second round of negotiations begins.

Theoretically, in the first round of negotiations, everyone makes a tentative offer, which is considered a minimum price, and the price will be slowly raised in the second round.

But because "Hero" produced a segment, film producers flocked to it.

Although it is not a finished film, "Source Code" is so great. Isn't "Heroes" even more powerful?

As a result, there are many fewer film producers on the "Source Code" side.

The strong ones went to fight for "Heroes", but the ones who stayed to talk about "Source Code" were not that strong and couldn't offer too high a price.

Furthermore, even if a small film producer cannot buy the distribution rights of "Heroes" first-hand, he will have to ask a major film producer to buy the distribution rights when the time comes.

So I have to keep my money, unless I give up "Hero".

This is still one reason.

On the other hand, although the film quality of "Source Code" is very high, because it is Chinese science fiction, it cannot compare with martial arts, kung fu and other films. There is no particularly successful precedent abroad, so the risk of paying a high price is inherently high.

So the overall price failed to go up much after the first round of negotiations.

After chatting for a while, Lu Pingan and Hu Qingquan concluded that in general, the distribution rights have indeed increased a lot.

There are 400,000 in South Korea, 600,000 in Neon, a total of 1.5 million in Europe and other regions, and 1.5 million in North America.

It increased from 2.85 million to about 4 million.

The price actually looks pretty good.

At least it will allow "Source Code" to make about double the profit on the basis of repayment.

But Lu Ping'an is still not satisfied.

Take South Korea as an example. Guorong is very popular in South Korea. They only quoted 300,000 in the first round, and only increased by 100,000 in the second round.

"Alien Space" failed at the box office, and someone bought it for US$200,000. "Source Code" is only that much better than "Alien Space"?

This is obviously impossible.

So in the third round, Lu Ping'an simply went on his own.