Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 558 We can talk

The trick is not new, it just works.

This isn't the first time Autumn Pictures has brought Hollywood projects to China to profit from them. They did the same with the first Pacific Rim movie, and followed the same approach with Pacific Rim 2, bringing in China Film Group and Kimi Pictures.

It wouldn't be surprising if they used "The Meg" to make money again now.

It's quite simple: as long as you can bring projects from Hollywood and tell a good story in China, you can attract partners and make money off them.

Many domestic film companies are now going overseas. While overseas channels are not unique to autumn, it seems that only autumn can reap the benefits.

The reason is equally simple: other companies cannot gain the upper hand against Hollywood companies.

Wanda acquired Legendary, but Legendary continues to operate independently. However, Tian Tian was eventually included in the two major projects, "The Great Wall" and "Kong: Skull Island".

Huace acquired a 15% stake in NEW, one of South Korea's four major film companies, but Huace's strategy is to produce two films in one go. Besides, they can't really profit from South Korean films in China.

Perfect World invested in "Jason Bourne 5", but Perfect World has no say in the Bourne IP compared to Universal. Universal is more likely to exploit Perfect World than to leverage its foreign resources.

Autumn is different, or more precisely, Li Qiutang is different. To put it bluntly, Li Qiutang carries some weight with foreigners, because he owns a publicly traded company in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, with a market value of $40 billion, second only to Lionsgate in size, and for several years its performance has been among the top 10 in North America.

Li Qiutang can negotiate the same treatment that others can't, and she can secure projects that others can't get.

After he brought the abandoned project "The Meg" to China, it was packaged by Autumn Pictures as a "tribute to Steven Spielberg" masterpiece.

What's wrong with what I'm saying?
After Jaws, all shark movies pay homage to Steven Spielberg.

If Steven Spielberg hadn't been so closely tied to Universal, and if "The Meg" hadn't been a Warner Bros. project, Li Qiutang would have had a much better chance of bringing Steven Spielberg in as a nominal producer and using him as a figurehead, since the old man is after all willing to make money.

But this project has been stalled for 20 years, and Americans have long since used Steven Spielberg as a figurehead. It won't be easy for this movie to make money in China.

Of course, one can also exploit information asymmetry in the fall to fleece those rich but foolishly wealthy nouveau riche bosses.

Just as Qiu Tian was struggling with how to introduce the "Meg" project to domestic film company bosses, good news came from across the ocean.

Hollywood still thought "The Meg" would be canceled, but director Jon Turteltaub suddenly announced that Jason Statham had been confirmed to join "The Meg" as the male lead, and the film was scheduled to start shooting this October!
To make an imperfect analogy, Jason Statham in Hollywood is roughly equivalent to Donnie Yen before his rise to fame with "Ip Man": above second-tier but below first-tier, he consistently makes films and is one of the leading figures in action movies.

Although Jason Statham didn't receive a share of the profits from the films like Tom Cruise, he still has a loyal fan base around the world, and American audiences also enjoy watching him. Jason Statham enjoys considerable popularity in the United States.

Jason Statham's involvement almost gave "The Meg" a huge boost of confidence—the film will definitely start shooting!
Jason Statham also has many fans in China, thanks to his friendly attitude towards China. He established good relationships with many Chinese filmmakers at the beginning of the century, and in recent years he has released many films in China, most of which were imported films, but most of them made money for the importing companies. Therefore, domestic film and television investors have a good impression of him.

This gives autumn a lot of convenience. Before, it was difficult to tell the story to the leeks, but now it's great. There's no need to tell a story. With Jason Statham around, they can just sell.

"The Meg" is a Sino-US co-production with an estimated budget of $1.3 million. Autumn Films invested $4000 million, becoming the second-largest investor after Warner Bros. Despite being a way to offload a burden, Warner Bros. did not allow Autumn Films to buy out the revenue from mainland China, demanding that the global risk be shared.

This is actually detrimental to Fall Films. Warner Bros. even considered turning the Harry Potter project into a loss, as Fall Films simply can't compete with Warner Bros. in the global market. But there's nothing they can do; these are Warner Bros.' terms. Fortunately, Fall Films has extensive experience in co-productions, even managing mega-projects like Pacific Rim. With a little extra care, they should be able to complete it smoothly.

The first person to come to the door was none other than Hua Yi, or more precisely, Ye Ning.

Last year's Lunar New Year blockbuster "Mr. Six" was canceled four hours before its release, and Huayi Brothers is still recovering from the loss.

Huayi suspects that Li Qiutang was behind it, but they have no evidence.

Even if there is evidence, so what? Huayi smeared Autumn Pictures' financial fraud and its core executives during the quiet period of its IPO. This is an attempt to destroy Autumn Pictures. Li Qiutang is being lenient by only ruining one of your films.

But no wonder they've stood strong in the Chinese film industry for twenty years. Even with the relationship between the two companies in this state, the Wang brothers still had the nerve to send Ye Ning to Autumn Films to discuss "The Meg".

This matter has nothing to do with Ye Ning, but since Ye Ning is representing Huayi at this time, it's not appropriate to discuss it.

Ye Ning wanted to talk to Li Qiutang directly, since he was the one who brought the project back from Warner Bros., but he couldn't find Li Qiutang at all. He knew that Li Qiutang was preparing "The Wandering Earth" in Huairou, but he couldn't see him. Li Qiutang might be in Yanjing today, Hengdian tomorrow, Chengdu the day after tomorrow, Liangxi the day after that, and he might go abroad in two days.

Talking to Zhang Zhao is an option, but Ye Ning can't even see him. Zhang Zhao is even busier than Li Qiutang; he has already left the country and is probably having afternoon tea with the chairman of some film festival in some other country right now.

Looking for Chen Zhixi? Sorry, Chen Zhixi is only responsible for domestic film production management in the fall. Co-productions are handled by the overseas business department and are not within her scope of responsibility. Chen Zhixi also refused to speak up for Ye Ning.

The only option was to talk to the overseas business manager in the autumn. They were friends, and the manager couldn't give Ye Ning a hard time, but his attitude wasn't good. He implied that he felt it was a waste for Ye Ning to switch jobs.

Ye Ning was unwilling to elaborate on the reasons, but her purpose was still to talk about "The Meg".

Huayi really needs projects, especially international projects like these.

But the manager in the autumn spoke very frankly: "We're all friends, so I won't hide it from you. We'll sell this film to whoever we want, but we won't sell it to Huayi. You should know the reason, Mr. Ye."

Ye Ning knew this, of course, but "The Meg" was the most likely achievement he could make since taking over Huayi Brothers, so he still wanted to try: "Business is business, let bygones be bygones, don't ruin the current harmony. The price is negotiable."

The last four characters indicate that Huayi is willing to be ripped off.

It's easy to say "business is business," but difficult to do.

Huayi is willing to be fleeced, but Qiutian is unwilling to wield the knife.

(End of this chapter)