Who are you calling "little fresh meat"? I'm the king.

Chapter 463 Investing in "Monkey King: Hero Is Back"

Hu Ge has always had a very good image…

It also enjoys high popularity among the general public!

In his early career, he became the leading man in period dramas thanks to his numerous roles in them.

Later, in order to change his career path, he continued to rehearse plays to hone his acting skills.

Although this thing is meaningless...

If rehearsing plays were effective, then the Four Great Masters of the Beijing People's Art Theatre would have been famous long ago!

In the original timeline, Hu Ge's resurgence in popularity was due to his two hit dramas, "Nirvana in Fire" and "The Disguiser"...

Later, without any new works to support him, his popularity immediately plummeted...

Ultimately, the acting profession relies on solid works. If an actor wants to reverse their reputation, they need to produce a continuous and stable output of works!

If he keeps living like this, he'll end up like Chen Kun.

They've been branded as marketing experts!

Well, this time, "Blind Witness" has become a huge hit, and Hu Ge's villainous role has also received a lot of attention.

Therefore, rehearsing a play becomes a bonus!

Many of his fans showered him with praise, and marketing accounts and social media platforms also jumped on the bandwagon...

Is it trending?

Hu Ge's own life story is indeed somewhat legendary—car accident, disfigurement…and then a comeback…

This interview…

Anyway, the fans of the Shen Yan and Shi Shi couple are having a blast!
Many marketing articles previously claimed that Shen Yan and Liu Shishi had broken up...

But Lao Hu's interview proved that it was all nonsense; the two of them are doing just fine!
Shen Yan did not comment on this...

He simply retweeted a Weibo post congratulating the box office success of "Blind," and many people joked that he had "great foresight!" or "keen vision"...

He didn't respond...

Oh, all of this is thanks to Shi Shi—what she herself calls 'blind acting'…

That's great, it's really boosted the popularity of "Blind Witness"!
The box office success of "Blind" had the biggest impact on two other films: "Drug War" and "A Wedding Invitation".

Drug War was already being suppressed by Seattle Meets Beijing. After 7 days of release, the box office barely reached 60 million yuan. It originally had a chance to break 100 million yuan, but now, it is basically out of the question - its last resort has been cut off!

By the way, a bunch of marketing accounts are raving about how daring "Drug War" is, calling it "the pinnacle of Hong Kong-style police and gangster films" and "a milestone in the development of mainland Chinese police and gangster films"...

As for the poor box office performance, they explained it as 'too real!'

Seriously?!

The main storyline of "Drug War" still retains some of the Hong Kong police and gangster mentality, that is, most of the time there is only a police team and they must pursue the Hong Kong style of catching "on-site transactions".

The movie opens with a scene about how to catch drug smugglers, but at the end, due to the Hong Kong-style approach of catching drug dealers in "on-site transactions," a grand escape scene involving Choi Tin-ming and the fake Uncle Lai is designed.

I don't understand how anti-drug police in mainland China work...

Even with the deployment of armed police, the police's firepower was completely outmatched by the drug traffickers throughout the entire operation!
Then, "Blind Witness" and "A Wedding Invitation" were released one after another...

By the way, "Drug War" failed to break 100 million yuan at the box office, and many people said that Sun Honglei was box office poison...

……

Tian Xiaopeng actually participated in many venture capital events with "Monkey King: Hero Is Back"...

He previously worked on "The Möbius Ring," a Sino-US co-production with an investment of 1.3 million yuan and a box office of over 400 million yuan!

In recent years, the market has been flooded with Japanese and American animation, while domestically produced animation is often childish and poorly made, leading audiences to ridicule original Chinese animation.

The "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" series is a prime example!
Frankly speaking, the gradual decline in the box office of the series of films is indeed related to the roast lamb incident, but the fundamental reason is the decline in production quality caused by the instability of the team and the turmoil of the company.

By the time of the fifth installment, "The Adventures of Pegasus," the box office had already dropped to over 8000 million, and by the time of "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Year of the Sheep," it was only over 6000 million... not even enough to break even!

However, after being acquired by Alpha Group, Original Force has become much more stable internally, and its TV series has been getting better and better. The latest trilogy, "Guardians of Sheep Village", "Time-Traveling Rescuers" and "Fun Alien Visitors", is quite interesting.

However, the current situation is that even the benchmark for domestic animated films, "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf," only reached a peak box office of 1.67 million yuan, and this year's "Happy Goat and Big Big Wolf: Year of the Snake" saw a decline in box office revenue, only earning 1.24 million yuan...

Will "Monkey King: Hero Is Back" break even?

Oh, the "Monkey King: Hero Is Back" project is currently in a very poor financial state...

Upon meeting Shen Yan, Tian Xiaopeng briefly explained the situation, then said, "Actually, there has been capital investment, but... they don't quite understand the production process of animated films..."

"That's true!"

Shen Yan nodded…

Unlike live-action films, animated films don't have a fixed quality once the actors and director are chosen.

And what about animation? You've filmed most of it, but you still don't know what the final result will be. It's like having dark clouds overhead and thunder rumbling beneath your feet.

Moreover, high-quality animated films have a very long production cycle…

A movie has been in production for so many years and has a huge investment of money. Whether the audience will accept it or not is unpredictable. It really is a matter of "crossing the river by feeling the stones".

In contrast, a typical live-action film usually takes one or two years to shoot, and some can even be completed in a year, immediately recouping the costs.

Animated films, however, are different. From modeling, character design, and visual rendering to music and voice acting, it's a long process...

Huayi Brothers have a lot to say about this – "Rock Dog"...

Director Ash Brannon, director of Toy Story 2, a film with a budget of 3.5 million…

The final result was a box office of 3420 million yuan in mainland China and only 2200 million US dollars worldwide!
The company suffered a loss of over 3 million yuan.

Shen Yan continued, "I'll take this project. You should refund all the money from the previous investors..."

"...You're investing the whole thing?"

"Hmm," Shen Yan nodded, "You can calculate roughly how much it will cost..."

"I've calculated it, it's around 3000 million..."

"53 million is enough?" Shen Yan asked doubtfully. "Modeling, character design, rendering... 30 million is enough? Are you sure? This is a 3D animated film!"

"That...5000 million..."

Shen Yan was speechless: "I'm optimistic about this story, and there are such detailed character design drawings... I'm not kidding you!"

When Tian Xiaopeng comes to solicit investment, he's bound to tell a story...

So they brought props—character designs, prop designs, and original story drafts.

There are strange monkeys, fierce Sha Wujing, clumsy pigs, handsome little monks, majestic Nezha, and long-faced Erlang Shen...

These sketches are irregular and fragmented, with portraits, weapons, mounts, palaces, and so on varying from one beginning to the next.

The only commonality is the passion and sincerity contained in the pen and paper.

Tian Xiaopeng was a little embarrassed…

"Does Brother Yan have a deep understanding of the animation market?"

Shen Yan explained, "...I'm about to make a science fiction film, and I've contacted 17 special effects companies in China. They also take on animation work...so I'm quite familiar with their pricing!"

"...I think 5000 million is about right..."

“Since we’ve started, we must do it well and make it a benchmark work… to pave a way for Chinese animation,” Shen Yan thought for a moment and said, “…I’ll give you 5000 million first. If you need more money, remember to contact me again! I only have one request!”

"You say!"

"To be released during next year's Lunar New Year holiday!"

(End of this chapter)