Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 72 How Movies Make Money

The so-called celebration party at school was not a happy celebration with eating and drinking in the traditional sense, but was actually a symposium, at least in name only.

We invited many alumni from all departments, about forty or fifty people in total, including of course the most famous leaders.

Then in the auditorium of Beijing Film Academy, a large banner was hung: The power of inheritance - the original intention and mission of Beijing Film Academy people.

Cao Yang was a little confused. Isn't this a bit too high-profile? This is not a celebration party, nor is it an ordinary symposium. It is clearly a gang building relationship!

Aren't you afraid of being sanctioned?

What? You want me to meet them at the entrance of the auditorium and introduce them all to me?
Oh, that's okay.

What kind of gang members are trying to keep in touch with each other? Bah.

This is clearly an alumni gathering, and it also serves as an opportunity to urge the graduated alumni to stay true to their original aspirations, keep their mission in mind, inherit the classics, dare to innovate and continue to contribute to the development of China's film and television industry.

Tian Zhuangzhuang and Cao Yang stood at the door of the auditorium. Every time someone came, he introduced them to Cao Yang, saying patiently: "This is Cao Yang, Cao Yang from Beijing Film Academy."

In fact, there was no need for Lao Tian to introduce it. As an insider, who wouldn’t be shocked by the news that Cao Yang won the Golden Lion? Who didn’t know?

But Lao Tian still emphasized it to the visitors again and again.

Everyone who could come was very humble and kind. No one neglected Cao Yang because of his age. Even the well-known troublemakers in the film and television industry were all smiling at this time. They would first reach out and shake Cao Yang's hand warmly, congratulating the young Golden Lion director.

Cao Yang's horizons were broadened. There were many famous photographers, screenwriters, and artists whose names he had only heard of but whose origins he was not sure. He did not expect that so many of them were graduates of the Beijing Film Academy.

We chatted about movies together, talked about interesting things in the industry, condemned the chaos and strange phenomena together, and looked forward to the future of movies.

Of course, there is another purpose. We all get together to let everyone know the talents recently trained by our Beijing Film Academy and to showcase our teaching results.

It's a bit like when a new and capable fighter emerges from the main hall, of course he has to be introduced to all the other incense halls.

After the meeting, we will definitely publish a few articles in film magazines to shut up those who have ulterior motives.

After finishing the so-called "celebration party", Cao Yang accepted several interviews arranged by the school, all of which looked very impressive.

Then, Hou Keming found Cao Yang and asked him when the movie was going to be released and whether he wanted to get China Film Corporation to distribute it together.

It was a completely negotiating tone.

President Han called me a few days ago, hoping to jointly distribute a movie. This is a movie that won the Golden Lion Award, so it naturally comes with its own publicity, not to mention the blessing of a Venice Film Festival winner.

It's not that I look down on Qingying Studio. It's just that Qingying Studio's strength alone is enough for small-scale distribution, but it is not capable of large-scale distribution.

What else is there to say? It’s a win-win situation for both sides, so let’s just issue it together.

Jiang Zhiqiang from Hong Kong also came over to discuss the distribution of the film in Hong Kong.

As for the release time, Cao Yang specifically checked it.

This year, October 1999st happens to be the Mid-Autumn Festival. Although it falls on a Monday, it doesn’t matter much. Since 3, the legal holidays for the Spring Festival, Labor Day and National Day have all been three days each year.

There was no such thing as the National Day period at that time. It was not until the release of "Painted Skin" in 08 that people began to pay attention to this period.

The labor law at that time was not yet perfect, and factories might not abide by the labor law. However, the current audience is mainly staff from government units, enterprises, institutions and foreign-funded white-collar workers, as well as a small number of students in love.

Then let’s schedule it for National Day.

Hou Keming had no objection. The school did not pay much attention to the release and box office of the film, but was happy to apply for various awards and participate in film festivals. Before going to bed at night, Cao Yang looked at the reputation in the system, but still could not fully understand the rules brought by the award, and only had a vague guess.

Host: Cao Yang

Current reputation: 1086785
Available reputation: 686785
Play experience: +0
Filming: No
……

Cao Yang remembered that the last time he checked was when he just arrived in Venice. It should be because of the release of "On the Beach at Night Alone" in North America, which increased the reputation by more than 130,000 points.

This time, she won the Golden Lion, Best Actress and Best Newcomer awards, which increased her reputation by more than 540,000 points in total.

After comparing the reputation gained after winning the award for the first time, Cao Yang guessed that the reputation of the three major European film queens should be increased by 150,000.

So how much is the Golden Lion? Three hundred thousand? Probably.

There are still more than 90,000 reputation points left out of the more than 500,000 reputation points. Excluding the reputation points gained after the movie was released, Liu Ye's Best New Actor award is not worth much? About 50,000?
That would be a loss, as the added immersion experience for him would cost 100,000 reputation points.

But that's not the case. Without Liu Ye's wonderful performance, we might not have won the Golden Lion.

The gains this time were not small. I could stack up to six immersive experiences with some left over, enough for a few movies.

The good news is that the companies that had previously signed the ladder advertising contract have paid the balance on time, all in US dollars.

These revenues alone are much higher than those from selling copyrights. It seems that the revenue from a movie cannot just focus on the box office, but also includes other peripheral and comprehensive revenues.

Although those companies spent a lot more money, they all felt that the advertising investment was well worth it. The head of the advertising department even felt that they could get a promotion and a raise based on this performance.

Just like the great poet Kai Ge, every commercial film he made later required investments of hundreds of millions, including building cities and villages. It was difficult to recover the costs relying solely on box office sales, but he never lacked investment.

Not only is there no shortage of them, people are lining up to stuff them into his hands.

why?
The cinema is making money, and the investors are smiling from ear to ear.

There are also Xiao Gangpao's movies. It is said that the advertising placement income of his "A World Without Thieves" was 4000 million yuan, and "If You Are the One" reached 5000 million yuan.

The most outrageous one is "Personal Tailor", which embedded 19 advertisements and earned more than 80 million yuan in advertising fees alone. This is pure profit and there is no need to share the profits with the distributing theaters.

The movie hasn't even been released yet, but it's already making money. All the box office revenue is net profit.

So did the movie make money?

For big directors, they definitely make money, and there is far from just one way to make money. Everyone has his or her own way of making money, which is why they are so popular with capital.

Of course, new and unknown directors should not even think about this, and advertisers are not fools.

Just like the young and handsome guys in later generations, why are they so popular?

As for the traffic economy, they can not only make money from fans, but also bring in traffic and attention. This is the value of their existence.

After a busy week, Cao Yang has had some free time these days. After careful consideration, he decided to make another movie that has a greater chance of winning the Best Actor or Best Actress award.

This requires a lot of plot tilt like "A Night Alone on the Beach" to be more secure.

Yu Feihong was able to win the Best Actress award for her role in Empty Room, partly because of her acting skills, but also because three of the seven judges were women. In addition, given the topic at the time, political correctness was more dominant.

There is a movie in South Korea that is very suitable, but it involves some "blasphemy" to the gods, so it may not pass the review.

(End of this chapter)