Shadow Empire

Chapter 596: Nesting and Arrival

Funds have been continuously deposited into the company's project account in the past two days. The director looked at the increasing amount of money and couldn't help but smile.

The actual profit was much greater than he had imagined. After all the shares were transferred in, the total income had exceeded 1.3 million and was still increasing intermittently.

It's not like there is no chance of getting 1.5 million. According to the contract they signed with the cinema chain, the production company will get 70% of the film's revenue, while the cinema can only get 30%.

For cinema chains, they can still make money from this kind of revenue, but the amount is not much anymore.

In order to avoid the situation where theaters take most of the films away from theaters after they have shown them, the company will have a bundling requirement when signing an agreement with them.

In fact, they can only get the lion's share for one week, and then starting from the second week, the proportion will drop sharply and will be continuously adjusted at a certain ratio.

In the end, the share of the box office revenue that the production company gets will be higher than the share that the theaters can get.

At this point, if the theaters are still willing to continue showing the movies, the production companies will continue to make box office profits from them, but the proportion will no longer change.

If they don't want to continue playing it, then the movie will be completely removed from the theater.

Movies are private property of the production company and once they are taken off the screen, they are not allowed to be shown again unless a new agreement for re-screening is signed.

This is different from the buyout system. Under the buyout system, once a cinema buys out a film, they can play it whenever they want. This is actually a huge infringement on the interests of the production company.

But in the past, when a ticket cost five cents and was mainly made of film, not all cinema operators could make a profit on the film they spent hundreds of dollars on.

So this can be considered a kind of... benefit under special circumstances, but now, it has been terminated, at least on the part of Wanli Pictures.

The director was happily calculating these data. On his desk was a newspaper he had already read, which was also the newspaper with the largest circulation and the largest number of copies in the federal film industry, "Film News".

Film News is a bimonthly publication, but this one obviously does not belong to the first half of the month or the second half of the month, it is a supplement.

In consideration of the 20,000 yuan sponsored by Wanli Pictures, the newspaper directly issued a supplement, and the front-page headline was indeed worth the extra issue—

The first film in federal film history to earn over a million dollars, and its behind-the-scenes story

This report was written by the director at the instruction of Lance. Most of the descriptions in it are facts, and only a small part may be slightly exaggerated.

This report said that "Angel Lake" was deeply loved by movie fans and created a box office miracle because of its excellent quality and the new film genre it created.

At the same time, this movie adopted the box office sharing system. This system, which has always been unpopular, was a great success at Wanli Pictures and achieved huge success.

In the report, the director admitted that after deducting various expenses, their actual profit was over one million!

This is absolutely an astonishing number, with the published return rate being over 450 percent.

At this time, the investment in a movie is approximately between 200,000 and 300,000. The 450% return on investment has already made many people's eyes turn red.

In a Q&A session with reporters, the director believed that the high quality of the film was partly responsible for the gratifying revenue, but another reason, and the most important one, was that the film adopted a revenue-sharing system.

He cited the example of a film festival, where some theaters were very optimistic about their films and even offered single-theater prices of 900 or 1,000 yuan.

The cheapest movie theater offered a price of four hundred yuan.

Of course, those cinemas that offer low prices are located in relatively remote areas, in cities with small numbers of moviegoers. They cannot afford to pay too much, otherwise they may face losses.

If it were the buyout method of the past, they might only be able to earn 700,000 or 800,000 yuan from these buyouts, and this is the best case scenario.

Excluding costs, the rate of return may be only around 200%. This is because of its high quality and people are willing to give it a try.

But they changed their distribution strategy, making it a win-win situation for cinemas and production companies. Cinemas only need to bear the almost negligible costs of electricity, employee salaries, and venue losses during screening, and they can gain a huge advantage in box office revenue.

Production companies are not constrained by a one-time low buyout price; as long as they believe their movie is good enough, the more popular the movie is, the more money they will make.

It's a win-win.

He elaborated on these things here, giving people a clear understanding of box office sharing.

With the release of the supplement, he believes that the entire film industry will soon be shaken.

At around ten o'clock, he began to review the status of some recent film projects. Before he had reviewed a few, the phone rang.

The moment he picked up the phone, a hearty laugh came from the other side of the receiver, which made the director lean back in his chair and become very relaxed.

He knew this guy, a director and producer, a role that was almost everywhere these days.

Especially for those production companies that have grown from small investments in films, directors have to take on multiple roles.

He could be a producer, a screenwriter, a cameraman, or even an actor.

The guy across the street had made several fairly successful films and had achieved a certain level of success, becoming somewhat of a minor celebrity in this booming industry.

After a brief greeting, the other party asked a question, "...I read today's newspaper, which gave me a lot of inspiration, but also gave me a question."

"How do you ensure that the cinemas share the profits with you according to the contract you signed?"

"Some people have tried it before, but encountered many problems."

Refusing to pay box office revenue share, withholding and tampering with real box office data, and also including various private copying and the like.

It can be said that it is basically difficult to make money with this model.

The director laughed twice and said, "We have our own distribution channels, which can ensure that no one deceives us on these issues."

"And... the boss above said that the entire channel supervision system will be strengthened in the future to ensure that there will be no problems with every ticket for every show."

"We haven't actually shown this movie in too many theaters. As people become more aware of us and more theaters are built, I believe our revenue will only increase."

“The first million-dollar movie is just the starting point for us and the entire industry.”

"Two million, three million, five million, or even ten million, are our future goals!"

“I firmly believe that we can do this and it won’t be too far away!”

Listening to the director's passionate speech, the producer on the other end of the phone began breathing a little heavier.

They recently completed the filming of a movie and plan to release it in the fall.

After some internal discussion within the company, as the price of movie tickets increases, they can appropriately increase the average buyout price to more than 800 yuan.

In this way, as long as we can complete the sales in 500 cinemas, we will have a gross profit of 250,000.

After some simple operations, their net profit may be around 200,000.

With a total investment of 150,000 yuan, the 100% net profit is already far ahead of its peers.

But this is just their prediction. If they don’t sell to 500 units, or the average price doesn’t reach 800, then their net profit will not be that much.

Originally he didn't have many good ideas about this situation, after all, everyone has been doing this all along, until he saw the supplement of today's "Film News".

He suddenly realized that they actually had another chance.

If he just wanted to understand and test the waters before the call, then this call convinced him and moved him.

"If... I mean, we use your channels to get the movie released in major theaters, what do we have to pay?"

Hearing the other party say this, the director's face was full of smiles, but his tone did not seem that positive.

He said in a calm and emotionless tone, "We need to make money from the box office."

"The head office has already talked to me about it."

"If the total box office is less than one million, we charge 9 percent."

"For those above one million and below two million, it's eight percent."

"For every million increase in the box office, it will be reduced by 1%, with the upper limit being 5 million, which is 5%."

"If your box office can reach 10 million, then the share will be 4.5%, and 20 million will be 4%." "If you are confident in your movie, I think you can give it a try."

The producer wrote down the detailed data while listening. He was just a producer, and there were investors and shareholders behind him, and he still had to discuss with them.

But he has a hunch that the model will soon catch on.

"I am very willing to choose this distribution model, but I need to discuss it with them and call you when I have the result."

He paused and said, "Come over sometime so we can talk privately. We have two movies that need casting recently, and you can give us some references."

This was a typical hint, and the director did not refuse, "I'll call you when I have time."

The two chatted for a few more words about other things in the film industry and then hung up the phone in a hurry.

Not long after the phone was hung up, it rang again. The vice president of a film company called and asked the director how their box office share guaranteed their income.

Until three or four o'clock in the afternoon, almost all the calls were about these issues, and everyone wanted assistance with this method of distribution.

After all, they are so jealous. Who can refuse to make money, big money?
Capitalists have never been philanthropists. If they can make a lot of money by making people eat dirt, 95% of the people in the world will be sitting at the dining table and eating dirt tomorrow.

When an obviously more profitable offer came along, they couldn't refuse it.

Especially when they can't handle it themselves, they can only rely on Wanli Pictures.

The director plans to talk to Lance to see if they should split out a company to specifically handle this business.

At the same time, Jordan and his men had already entered Jingang City.

The Angels of Death are a large criminal group. They have their own logo, just like the red armband on the left sleeve of the Lance family.

The Angel of Death is characterized by a winged skull with a black flame in its eyes, each with a blue dot in the flame.

Death, angels, souls and evil flames, such patterns are extremely shocking to people of this era!
Instead of rushing to cause trouble for Wanli Pictures, they found a small restaurant and sat down to fill their stomachs.

"The food here is full of a country fishy smell, I really can't stand it!" Jordan ate something casually and didn't continue to enjoy the food.

In fact, the food itself is no different from the food in Xinjin City, but he just feels that the food here is not as delicious as the food in Xinjin City.

He could also find many problems, such as not fresh enough, not tender enough, not enough... He had many reasons.

As long as his prejudices remain, he will have endless reasons.

Others weren't too picky, as long as it was meat and tasted good, they didn't care.

Jordan walked over to the restaurant owner, who was holding a large cigar, "How much?"

There were four tables in total, with more than twenty people. The boss did a simple calculation and said, "Sixty-seven dollars, sir."

Jordan pulled his wallet from his pocket, counted out ten dollars, and put it on the counter.

The boss looked at him in confusion. He bit his cigar and said with a smile, "I want to find out something. You see, we are all from other places."

The boss glanced at the people behind him who obviously didn't look like locals, nodded slightly, and then put the money on the counter into the cash box, "No problem, as long as I know it."

Who wouldn’t want to do a good deed for free?
Jordan had a smile on his face. His years of gangster career had taught him to be cautious when necessary.

“Do you know Wanli Pictures?”, he asked.

The boss nodded and said, "I know. I really like the movie 'Mystery of Angel Lake' that they filmed. It's also very realistic. Everyone says that there is indeed an oil barrel named Jason at the bottom of Angel Lake."

The smile on his face puzzled Jordan a little. Looking at the confusion on his face, the boss realized that this hellish joke was too unpopular for outsiders.

He quickly explained, "This is a joke only locals know. Sorry, I forgot you are from outside."

"Anyway...I know this company."

Jordan nodded. "Is it owned by a local gang?"

Thinking of the cut-off little finger of his old friend Mr. Serre, this was obviously a gangster method.

It is definitely not an easy task to link Wanli Pictures with the Lance family.

In fact, he could completely infer that Wanli Pictures and Wanli Labor Agency might have the same boss, but it is difficult to look at the issue this way in the federal government without definite evidence.

Maybe there is no connection between them?

So the boss shook his head and said, “I don’t know much about this company. I’ve only seen their movies.”

Jordan did not continue to ask this question, but changed it to another question, "How many powerful gangs are there in your area now?"

"I heard that the five major families are finished?"

This was a topic that the boss liked, and he nodded, "Yes, four of the five major families are almost finished, and only the Pasletto family still exists."

Jordan nodded again, "So who is the most powerful person in the city right now?"

The boss looked up and down at the man in front of him who was holding a cigar and did not look so "honest".

He thought for a while and said, "It should be the Lance Family. They are undoubtedly the most powerful gang here, bar none."

"There are actually some small gangs besides them, but those gangs only control a certain block and do not have much influence."

"Do you want to cause trouble for them?"

"Or should we cooperate with them?"

"If it's the former, I advise you to be careful. Provoking the Lance family will be a big trouble for you."

Jordan said "Ahaha" and looked nonchalant. "I haven't really met anybody who can be a big problem for me. I hope this gang can give me some fun!"

"But I still want to thank you for your information. You helped me a lot."

At this time, he has basically locked on to two organizations: Wanli Pictures and the Lans Family.

The former is the film company that injured his good brother, and the latter is most likely the person who went to Xinjin City this time.

Jordan is not actually very interested in gangs in such remote areas, even though people say that Jingang City is the engine of the federal economy.

But for those who have lived in Jinzhou for decades and most of their lives, Jingang City is still a new city and is not considered anything special.

Whether it is true or not, you will know when you go to their door.

Soon the boss watched the men leave and saw the winged skull pattern on their vehicle, then he called his uncle.

His uncle lived in the Imperial District. The first generation of residents in the Imperial District were actually all locals. However, as more and more imperial people lived there, they gradually squeezed out the living space of the locals, and eventually made that place a place where imperial people and immigrants gathered.

However, his uncle did not move out. He had lived there for decades and had long been accustomed to it.

Last time he heard, his uncle was now working for Mr. Lans. If he got any information, he should tell Mr. Bolton.

If the information is valuable, he will receive rewards of varying amounts.

It is said that the minimum is five or ten yuan, and there is no upper limit to the highest!

The call was quickly connected. "Some people were eating in my store just now. One of them asked me about the situation of Wanli Pictures and the Lans family. I didn't say anything."

"I think this is a bit strange. They all look like outsiders, and there's another skull with wings printed on the car. They might be here to cause trouble."

"Do you think this news is useful to you?"

The old man's excited voice came from the receiver, "It's damn useful!"

(End of this chapter)