1982 Started from Hong Kong

Chapter 169 Fund Recovery
The release of America is done.

And it was done surprisingly easily. If it weren't for Peng Jiayan's clear and convincing explanation on the phone and Michelle Pfeiffer's testimony, Zhai Yuan would have thought that she, an innocent college girl, was being cheated.

Buena Vista and New Line were responsible for theatrical and video releases.

Roger Corman's independent company API is only responsible for distributing videotapes.

Walt Disney took away all the copyrights of "The Man from Earth", which was a trivial matter to Zhai Yuan.

The other party bought all the copyrights just to remake or shoot a sequel, which has no conflict of interest with Zhai Yuan.

The videotape of this film was previously sold to Disney for one million US dollars. Zhai Yuan felt that he had squeezed out all its value, but he didn't expect that it could still be used for good.

Good.

He felt that the share of the box office revenue from "A Better Tomorrow" was a bit low, with only 15%.

This kind of overseas profit sharing usually fluctuates between 15% and 25%. Bowen and New Line undoubtedly gave him the lowest profit sharing ratio.

"Fifteen is fine, at least we've found a channel, and we can get the production costs back locally, and then the rest of the money from overseas will be pure profit."

Not only did he find a channel, but he also found three distribution companies, including a large distribution company like Bowei that is backed by Disney. If Zhai Yuan's good luck were to get out, it would surely be envied by many film and television companies in Hong Kong.

Many film companies have to put in extra money to distribute their films overseas, but lose all their money if the overseas market turns cold.

After the millennium, Stephen Chow made a movie "Kung Fu", which became the box office champion in mainland China, and this also gave him the confidence to break into Hollywood.

Then Columbia Pictures was approached, and Sony distributed the film worldwide. It spent 2000 million U.S. dollars on publicity and promotion, and screened it in 1700 theaters in North America. However, in the end, it only earned million U.S. dollars at the box office, losing all its money and almost killing Columbia Pictures.

Part of the losses will need to be borne by Stephen Chow's production company, Star Overseas.

Now Zhai Yuan only used one movie, "This Man From Earth", to get Bovie to distribute the film, along with New Line and API. The share of the profits was a bit lower, but at least he didn't have to bear the loss.

Of course, he also doesn't believe that this movie will lose money. According to Hollywood's current distribution method, Hong Kong and Taiwan films must first be screened in Chinatown and other Chinese communities, and then the dubbing, reshoots or plot cuts can be adjusted based on feedback to arrange the screening schedule in other regions.

The possibility of "A Better Tomorrow" being a flop in the Chinese market is very low.

"You are worthy of being my Sister Yan. From now on, I will make you my lucky general!"

But Fu Jiang's tone on the phone seemed not very good, as if she had taken poison. When asked, she refused to say anything, which made Zhai Yuan puzzled.

That’s it for now, let’s eat first.

Zhai Yuan revised the script in the office, and seeing that it was getting late, he decided to call it a day.

Tell the HR staff that Wu Yusen might bring in new employees at any time, and ask them to interview them first and notify him later.

Zhai Yuan walked out of Jiuyi Entertainment and suddenly stopped when he reached the door.

Lan Juying hadn't left yet. She sat in the corner of the corridor with her back against the wall. Her eyes were red and swollen, and it was obvious that she had just cried.

After she was kicked out of the company by Jiuyi’s employees, she received two calls from her good friend and senior Qi Meizhen.

The first call was to quietly tell her that he had received news that the TV department was going to ban her performance and asked her what she had done.
Not long after, Qi Meizhen called her again to inform her that the ban was a misunderstanding.

Only then did Lan Juying realize that Zhai Yuan was not just the boss of a small film company as she thought, but he really had the capital to manipulate actors like them.

Then I felt wronged. Why could anyone in TVB just hide me, and outsiders could ban me with just one sentence?
I just don't want to be a supporting role, but it seems like the whole world is targeting me.

"Hey!" She stood up from the ground and blocked Zhai Yuan's way: "Am I really going too far?"

"First of all, I don't say hello..." Zhai Yuan shook his head: "Forget it, I'll bother to tell you, bye!"

After saying this, he was about to leave, but was stopped again by Lan Juying with open arms.

Lan Juying still acted as if someone owed her money: "If I really went too far, you can tell me what I did wrong and why you are all so cold and indifferent."

Zhai Yuan said: "Because we are all normal people." "Okay, even if I did something wrong, I will apologize to you. I'm sorry, okay? This is the second time I apologize to you. I haven't held a grudge against you for hitting me."

Even if Lan Juying apologized, she had to find some excuses to save herself.

Then he said, "Now let's go back to the time when we first met, okay? I'm applying for a job at your company, can you let me be the leading actress like you do with those actresses promoted by TVB?"

Zhai Yuan rubbed his face and said seriously: "If you don't leave, I will call the police."

Lan Juying stared at him for a few seconds and silently retracted her hand: "Then I'll come for the interview tomorrow."

Zhai Yuan ignored her, brushed past her, and slipped into the elevator.

…………

A week later, the first wave of overseas box office revenue for "A Better Tomorrow" was released.

The film received rave reviews in Southeast Asia, and Zhao's distribution network only scheduled it in 20 theaters in the early stages. Later, the number was increased to 40, 60, and then 90 theaters.

After being released for a month, the total box office of "A Better Tomorrow" broke the records of Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand this year.

After the final statistics came out, the film grossed over 27 million in the Southeast Asian market.

Of this money, Zhao's cinema chains and theaters took 46% of the cinema share and 20% of the promotional copies.

In the end, it fell into Zhai Yuan's hands, with more than 9 million left.

At the same time, foreign distributors such as Pioneer in the East, Film in South Korea, and Gorky in the Soviet Union also began to screen A Better Tomorrow in their respective regions.

The distribution manager hired by Wu Yusen took the box office results in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, and after bargaining with these theaters, he asked for an average share of 21%.

While waiting for statistics from the Japanese and Korean markets, news also came from North America.

After a week, Peng Jiayan's tone when she called had improved a lot.

She said excitedly on the phone: "Bowei and New Line selected Chinese communities in two states for comparison. They each used 20 theaters for trial screenings. They just calculated the box office revenue for the premiere. Guess how much it was?"

In the 3s, the average ticket price in North America was about $.

Zhai Yuan said, "I don't know much about the situation in North America. Please tell me about it."

Pang Chia-yan's voice came over: "The theater over at Bo Wei had an attendance rate of 62%, and the box office for the premiere was over 5 US dollars! The New Line data was a little lower, but it was also over US dollars!"

Zhai Yuan asked: "Can you be more specific?"

Peng Jiayan snorted, showing off the news she had just heard: "How come you don't understand anything? Anyway, if this trend is maintained, the North American box office will hopefully break through the 10 million US dollar mark. Is that specific enough?"

Ten million US dollars, seventy-eight million Hong Kong dollars, and a 15% share can get more than eleven million.

Zhai Yuan squinted his eyes and calculated, then sighed inwardly. Sure enough, the profit sharing ratio was still too low.

Besides, it is not easy to earn 10 million US dollars at the box office. If it is not well distributed in North America, the profit may not be as good as that in Southeast Asia.

In addition to North America, Buena Vista and New Line also took over the distribution of a number of small federal countries.

This involves too wide a range of countries, at least thirty or forty countries, but the box office usually doesn't get very high, and the data is not transparent. What others say is the number, which can only be regarded as a small addition to the box office.

The global box office statistics will be available by the end of next month at the latest.

Zhai Yuan was thinking about how to make his investment back. After a round of screenings was over, he could release the videotapes. The profit from the videotapes was not lower than the box office, and he would then earn another large sum of money.

"A Better Tomorrow movie should be able to offset the losses from renting theaters this year. Wu Yusen's The Invincible and Xu Jiaqiang's God of Gamblers can almost start filming. As for Xu Qi, I think I have figured out what script to give him first."

　There was supposed to be one more update, but today I chatted with the leader of Miss Lan's fan club about a bunch of gossip from the past, which slowed down the update. It was the author's stupid behavior of inserting personal opinions into the novel, which made all the masters and ladies unhappy. I was wrong, I will punish myself by kowtow, and I won't write this kind of thing next time.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)