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

Chapter 745 Bragging (15)

This year's Shanghai International Film Festival... is still full of stars!
Various film crews took turns appearing, but the most eye-catching was undoubtedly the "League of Gods" crew, led by Xiang Huaqiang, with Li Lianjie, Fan Xiaopang, Louis Koo, Huang Xiaoming, and Yang Tianbao all in attendance!
Bona's Yu Dong was also there...

I heard that Bona Film Group has secured the mainland China rights to "League of Gods" with a minimum guarantee of 1 billion yuan!

Actually, this project initially started as a collaboration between China Star and Huayi Brothers. At the time, Huayi Brothers also announced a partnership with 360: 360 Games acquired the mobile game adaptation rights to the "Legend of the Gods" IP and would allocate over 1 million yuan in resources for cross-industry collaborations and IP game adaptations with "Legend of the Gods"...

We don't know what happened, but anyway, Huayi withdrew...

The investors behind it have changed to Bona Film Group, Alibaba, and iQiyi Pictures!

Bona Film Group is still the main distributor…

Yu Dong confidently stated, "I hope 'League of Gods' can break 25 billion yuan! Break the summer box office record of 'Monster Hunt'."

Besides "League of Gods", "Skiptrace", "Bounty Hunters" and Jackie Chan's "Ordinary People" (later renamed "The Foreigner") have also attracted much attention!

Of course, none of them can compare to Shen Yan's team's "Zhou Chu Eliminates the Three Evils"...

"Zhou Chu Eliminates the Three Evils" will be released on July 22nd, starring Shen Yan, Yang Mi, Xie Miao, Liang Jiahui, Wu Zhenyu, and Kara Hui...

"Zhou Chu is a modern martial arts film. You've probably already read the synopsis. This story isn't really suitable for mainland China, so we discussed it with the people at Sil-Metropole and decided to film it in Hong Kong, with Shaw Brothers providing co-production support..."

"Directed by Lu Yang...95 minutes, not a single bit of dragging, the pace is incredibly fast..."

"Box office... around 15 billion, considering the subject matter is quite novel..."

"Overseas... How can I predict overseas markets? You should let the overseas distribution companies make the predictions..."

"The overseas rights were handled by A24 and MK2, they have experience... The Big Shot 2 grossed over $4000 million at the overseas box office!"

"The script for 'Ove' featured Asian characters, so I sent invitations to director Chen and actress Kara Hui, and they agreed... You know, there aren't many companies in North America making independent films and original feature films these days... We were willing to do it, the script was good, and Tom Hanks agreed. It wasn't that complicated..."

Shen Yan answered a few questions casually, then went inside…

The others were also answering reporters' questions.

……

The Shanghai International Film Festival serves more as a publicity event!
To reiterate: it's less of an international film festival and more of a marketplace for Chinese-language films.

For a film festival, especially an international film festival, the main competition section, which is of paramount importance, is completely ignored by the media and audiences…

Even though this year's screenings include a number of classic films, such as *Swallowtail Butterfly*, *Intolerance*, and *Purple Rain*, as well as the Masters section—a retrospective of Andrei Tarkovsky's 30th anniversary, a Woody Allen film festival, a retrospective of Zuo Lin, Sang Hu, Ling Zifeng, and Shui Hua, and a retrospective of Leslie Cheung's 60th anniversary…

It also cannot be accessed in the entertainment section.

Because the front page is already dominated by a bunch of celebrity gossip and red carpet photos!
Especially the pairing of Liu Yifei and Wu Fan – "So Young 2" dominated the trending searches…

Including Yang Mi and Liu Yifei greeting...

No way, even a simple greeting can trend on social media? Reporters have also abandoned entries that lacked visual appeal, focusing mainly on celebrities' posts, especially those related to online traffic…

Which movie has the highest viewership this year?
So Young 2?
"Zhou Chu Eliminates the Three Evils"?
NO, NO, NO!

It's Legend of Ravaging Dynasties!
Guo Jingming led the team, which included Fan Xiaopang, Wu Fan, Chen Xuedong, William Chan, Amber Kuo, Lin Yun, Yan Kuan, and Aarif Rahman…

Front-page headline: 'Guo Jingming appears on the Shanghai International Film Festival red carpet for "L.O.R.D.: Legend of Ravaging Dynasties"; the "L.O.R.D." family members display their divine looks'...

Goodness, hundreds of media outlets are scrambling to report on it…

Shen Yan went straight to the forum section. The first forum was called "Film and Capital: Love Without Hate"...

The heads of Alibaba Pictures, Bona Film Group, Huayi Brothers and Wanda Cinemas, as well as Huang Jianxin, all came. Of course, the most important person was Shen Yan!

The first thing everyone discussed was IP…

"The IP bubble comes from so-called literary IP, game IP, and internet IP. Many people believe that by controlling a large number of IPs, they can become the biggest film company, which is a joke. The IP we are talking about is not the IP of a movie; first and foremost, it is a good movie."

“I remember a company boss saying he wanted to make a movie called ‘The Thirty-Six Stratagems.’ I said you’d never finish making it in your lifetime. One movie a year and you’d be making it for 36 years! Seven ‘Weapons’ movies, is that what you call an IP?”

Then Yu Dong talked about minimum guarantee distribution: "What has minimum guarantee distribution become recently? It's become a premium. From the investment stage, the cost keeps increasing, and even the director has to share in the profits, invest, and take a stake. It has become a kind of shareholding project cooperation, which is not good for the film."

We also talked about "Ip Man 3": "Another issue is that it was securitized by capital. The 'Ip Man 3' incident was actually securitized by capital. They used this product to openly and secretly guarantee it, raising a lot of money from outside the market or from financial capital. This caused social unrest and triggered a Ponzi scheme."

Host Yin Hong passed the question to Shen Yan: "It seems that Shen Yan has never guaranteed a minimum release for any film?"

“Yes, I don’t think it makes much sense… Your distribution channels are definitely not as good as mine. You can cooperate with portal websites, you can sign rebate agreements with cinemas, and so can I… Also, the minimum guarantee they offered was much lower than I expected…” Shen Yan gave an example: “Take ‘Detective Chinatown’ for example. Kuailu approached me before, saying they had a minimum guarantee of 30 billion yuan in box office revenue. 30 billion yuan in box office revenue, do I need your minimum guarantee? I would have guaranteed it myself!”

"So, how much do you mean?"

"At least a minimum guarantee of 80 billion yuan in box office revenue should be provided..."

Yu Dong interjected, "Eight billion in box office revenue...that's a bit outrageous!"

Shen Yan said with a serious face: "For a film produced by our Spark Studio, the price you're paying for distribution is appropriate. If you think it's inappropriate, then you're looking down on us content creators. You don't even dare to ask for a premium, yet you dare to call yourself capital. I despise people like that!"

Uh, Shen Yan was obviously joking...

This is treating capital like fools!

However, Shen Yan generally doesn't deal with capital; he himself is capital…

Previously, Spark Studio occupied the upstream of the industry chain, and Shen Yan, as a content supplier, was already flush with cash. Now, with Maoyan as a distribution channel, the industry chain is complete...

"So, what's Director Shen's view on IP?"

Shen Yan answered seriously: "Actually, in recent years, there have been basically no original big-budget films released in North America. This is because original content is too risky. It's difficult to accurately grasp the audience's preferences and the aesthetics of the times, and it's hard to find the greatest common denominator... For capital, having an IP foundation, plus a large fan base, can guarantee a basic box office... Therefore, we see many so-called big IP + traffic movies..."

(End of this chapter)