Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 177 European Copyright
Cao Yang was busy with post-production at Qingying Studio for a week. The post-production of "Nine-Tailed Demon Fox" has actually been almost completed. He has been mainly checking for omissions and filling in the gaps these days.

While he was away, the staff who helped him with the post-production were not idle either. He wanted to see if it was in line with his ideas.

On March 3, "Despicable Milk" will be released in the country.

There is no need to mention the popularity of this movie in China, but after China Film Corporation introduced it, it still spent a lot of money on publicity and promotion - you have to let people know when this movie will be released.

These publicity and promotion expenses are not for promoting the movie, but for letting people know the release time.

Today's publicity and promotion does not rely on the Internet as much as it did later. Television, newspapers and print advertisements are still the mainstream.

So a few days before the movie was released, whether it was television, newspapers, or billboards on the streets, they all started bombarding the screen with ads.

The only meaning is to tell potential audiences that "Despicable Milk" will be released on March 3th.

The film will also be released in North America on March 3, but due to the time difference, it will be released one day later than in China.

However, Europe is different.

When making this film, Cao Yang considered that he was a "newcomer" to Hollywood and was afraid of being ripped off by Hollywood, so he did not ask for a share of the box office profits and only asked for the European copyright.

"Meanwhile Milk" not only won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in Europe, but also won the Best Picture at the Oscars. Cao Yang has not sold the European copyright because he is waiting for the Oscars. Who wouldn't want to make more money?

The art film market and commercial film market in Europe are two different things. Why do they value art films and form a small circle?

Because the commercial film market has long been defeated by Hollywood and has become a backyard.

With the support of the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Actor, "Milk" will not only be able to make it in the European art film market, but also make money in the mainstream commercial film field.

MK2 is an art theater chain and certainly couldn't handle "Milk" on its own, so they teamed up with Luc Besson's Europa Films, which mainly deals with commercial films and distribution, to buy the copyright.

1300 million dollars!
Distribution rights throughout Europe.

It's different with the support of the Oscars. It can be released on a large scale throughout Europe, instead of being shown for a long time in relatively few art theaters like art films.

Referring to previous Oscar-winning films, Cao Yang felt that "Despicable Milk" would have no problem selling 300 to 400 million in Europe.

Traditional European powers such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Russia have relatively high domestic box office revenues, which is also the largest source of box office revenue in Europe.

Therefore, 1300 million is a relatively fair figure, and it can still leave a good profit for both companies.

Cao Yang could refer to the estimated box office of previous movies. The two film companies operating in Europe must have more reference data. After discussion, they accepted this price.

But there was a condition.

They think the gimmick of simultaneous global releases is a good one, and since now is the time when the Oscars are being discussed the most, they are also willing to release the film simultaneously in Europe on March 3.

However, they wanted Depp, who won the Oscar for Best Actor, to come to Europe for promotion.

There is definitely no problem with this. When actors sign their contracts, there are clauses that require them to cooperate with film promotions.

Although Cao Yang did not get any share of the box office revenue from the movie "Meanwhile Milk", the European copyright alone was sold for $1300 million. This was his personal property and he did not need to share the profits with the film company.

In addition to the $200 million he received as the initiator and producer of the project, as well as director and screenwriter, Cao Yang received a total of $1500 million in pre-tax income.

Actually, it’s not that little.

The time in Europe is ahead of that in China.

The movie was released in Europe first, so those who were interested could know the general plot of "Despicable Milk" in advance. The senior executives of Baidu and Tieba were such people.

"Caoyang Bar" is very popular now, with more than one million members. It has grown rapidly after the Oscars, attracting more people to pay attention to the forum.

Of course, this is also inseparable from Baidu's investment in operations, which complement each other.

Although money is still being spent these two days, the momentum of membership growth has slowed down.

How can we become more popular again?

After the movie was released in Europe, the top management of Baidu and Tieba quickly came up with an idea.

Leaving aside the plot of the movie, some of the scenes, when posted in the "Caoyang Bar", are absolutely explosive!

The person in charge of operating the forum tried to contact China Film Group to reach some private agreement.

In his opinion, I am helping you, China Film Group, to promote your movie, and it’s free promotion. “Caoyang Bar” is so popular and will become even more popular. You should be happy...

However, he was disappointed.

What kind of company is China Film Group?
A giant in the film industry.

Although they have also begun to try to promote movies online, they are mostly cooperating with portal websites and issuing some interviews and press releases, but this is not the mainstream promotion.

What was Baidu at that time?
At the beginning of 04, Baidu was already very popular and was considered a large emerging Internet company, but it had not yet gone public.

In the end, in the eyes of the top management of China Film Group, even if you are a new Internet giant, you are still a private enterprise.

Want pictures of movies that haven't been released yet?
What are you thinking about? Why are you so shameless? What if the picture gets leaked and your boss blames you?
What should I do if Director Cao is unhappy?
Besides, who doesn't know what Baidu does? Isn't it a company that steals files, pictures, and videos without authorization?

Before his words even reached Mr. Han, they were rejected without hesitation.

The person in charge of operating the forum had no choice but to report it to Mr. Li.

Although China Film Corporation did not give him face, Mr. Li did not think there was anything wrong with it. State-owned enterprises are like this these days, especially giants like these with the Chinese character "Zhong" in their names, which are even more difficult to deal with.

Mr. Li did not give up. His network of contacts was much stronger than that of the person in charge of operating the forum, and he easily contacted Mr. Han through his connections.

If this matter was an ordinary movie, it would be normal to post some pictures to promote the movie. But since it involves Cao Yang, and this movie that won the Oscar for Best Picture, it is difficult for him to make a decision.

So, he speaks vaguely and ambiguously, just to let you guess.

Mr. Li was also puzzled. He explained to Mr. Han that the pictures would definitely not be posted in the official form of Tieba at that time. They would be posted in personal form, and would be deleted by the official after a while.

But what does Mr. Han mean?
Can you please give me a straight answer?

If it weren't for the special nature of this movie, if it weren't for the fact that it was Cao Yang's movie, if it weren't for the purpose of promoting the "Cao Yang Bar"... the forum would have secretly gotten some pictures from Europe and done it themselves.

Mr. Li was afraid of angering Cao Yang. Not only would his superiors be unhappy, but he was also afraid that Cao Yang would stand up in front of the media to boycott the "Cao Yang Bar". Then the "Cao Yang Bar" would be finished, and accordingly, the forum would also be in a slump.

Baidu plans to go public in the U.S. next year, and any strategic mistakes at this time would be extremely undesirable.

Mr. Li thought for a while and suddenly an idea came to him. He didn't want to offend Cao Yang. Did Mr. Han have the same concern?

Then why not try contacting him?
(End of this chapter)