Huayu Entertainment: Tianxian really wants to improve

Chapter 402 Gu Bei, you've given yourself away, haven't you? You really are my hater!

"Then comes the artist's second window of opportunity."

This time, the biggest source of revenue wasn't DVDs, but copyright income.

Compared to the increasingly sluggish DVD market, cable channels were relatively wealthier, and with the support of the Oscars, they earned $6000 million in copyright revenue, while DVD revenue was only over $5000 million.

The two of us received a little less than $9000 million in total. The main reason for this was the copyright operation fees from Rose Pictures, so your income would be higher.

Gu Bei placed the artist's final bill in front of Liu Yifei. "Sign it!"

"So, our artists have earned nearly two hundred million dollars?"

Liu Yifei felt she couldn't bring herself to sign this!
How do we spend so much money?
"No, we still need to deduct the artist's production costs of $2800 million. You see, the loan and interest have already been paid off, and the remaining money is yours."

Gu Bei pointed to the details on the bill and said helplessly, "You'd better hurry up and file your taxes, your accountant is about to go crazy!"

Liu Yifei was also a little embarrassed.

Before Rose Pictures, her tax filing process was very simple.
Because most of her income is in China, and she has already paid the maximum personal income tax.

Even if North America is a global taxation system, it shouldn't warrant having her pay taxes again on her income after paying the maximum tax.

So in the past, during each tax season, she would simply hand over the documents to the accountant for a quick sorting out, and a day's work would be enough for the accountant to complete the task.

But with her current assets, she herself doesn't even know how much money she has.

Her income in China needs to be declared, her assets in Europe also need to be declared for tax deduction, and the income and expenses brought to her by Rose Film Studio are another large sum of money. Her accountant estimates that she will have to work overtime for several days.

Of course, her job alone is enough to support her family, so even overtime is a happy kind of overtime.

"Then let's look at The Fault in Our Stars. Its box office performance was even better than The Artist. With a production cost of only $1500 million, it grossed $1.8 million in North America and $4.5 million worldwide."

Gu Bei did not follow up on the box office performance of Starship.

As far as I remember, it grossed $1.55 million in North America in its first month, and after so long, it has only added $2500 million. Teen movies have a weaker staying power than superhero blockbusters!

He paused for a moment, then said with a smile, "Sissi, with the title of 'Kung Fu King,' 'Star Fortune,' and 'The Message,' you can be called a 4.5 billion yuan box office queen!"

"Don't……"

Liu Yifei was trying to tell Gu Bei not to say that.

However, The Forbidden Kingdom did indeed gross $1.3 million worldwide. At that time, the exchange rate was relatively high. With Starship Troubles' $30 billion, The Forbidden Kingdom's $10 billion, and The Message's $5 million, her personal cumulative box office has exceeded $45 billion.

This data is really a bit exaggerated!
Milo, unable to understand the two bosses' Chinese, simply stated, "The net box office share we received from Summit Entertainment for the film 'The Fault in Our Stars' is $1.7 million."
However, you'll need to pay Crystal your 5% actor share of $1000 million, and Bruce's writer and director shares together amount to $2000 million.
Of the remaining $1.4 million, your 80% investment share is $1.12 million.

Although Starship's net box office share was much higher than Artist's, with Gu Bei and Liu Yifei taking a cut of the box office revenue, after deductions, the actual box office income was about the same as Artist's.

This is also why some movies have higher box office returns but don't make much money.

"Didn't you used to dislike taking a cut?"

Liu Yifei looked at Gu Bei curiously.

She didn't pursue investment funds because those processes were far too complicated, and the money wasn't officially hers; accessing it would only create more trouble.
So she has always lived a simple life, and after paying taxes, everything belongs entirely to her.

But she knew that Gu Bei had set up a fund, and the money was being continuously reinvested. However, this time, the mistake in the star's destiny was to choose to split the profits between the writer and the director.

"It can be considered a form of protection money."

Gu Bei said lightly.

If he were to take no share of the profits like other projects and only accept the minimum director's fee, it would harm the interests of the Directors Guild and the IRS, making him more likely to be targeted by them. So this can be considered a form of protection money.

"The Fault in Our Stars is a teen fiction film similar to Twilight. It sold very well on DVD, earning $9000 million, and the first wave of copyright revenue was $7000 million, so we ended up with exactly $1.3 million."

Adding the previous box office revenue sharing of $1.1 million, and our combined $3000 million share, the total revenue is exactly $2.7 million.

Gu Bei placed the bill in front of Liu Yifei.

Liu Yifei is now somewhat numb.

She glanced at it briefly, then decisively signed her name, signifying her acceptance of all the figures on the bill.

However, she knew that the first two were just appetizers.
Rose Pictures' biggest project last year was still Twilight 2.

Twilight 2 broke a series of Hollywood opening weekend records. Its achievements were so remarkable that not only Liu Yifei couldn't understand it, but even the most senior theater managers in Hollywood couldn't comprehend it.

Of course, the subsequent dives were also of Hollywood historical significance!

"The Twilight Saga: The Final Chapter grossed $320 million in North America and $430 million overseas, for a total of $750 million."

Milo looked at the documents in his hand, and his tone couldn't help but rise slightly.

The previous two films, The Artist, were considered to have gone beyond the scope of ordinary art films, and Fault in Our Stars was a dark horse, but Twilight 2 completely subverted the imagination of Hollywood.

No one could have imagined that such a terrible movie could achieve such high box office returns!
"Are you ready?"

Gu Bei smiled and looked at Liu Yifei, "I've already seen this number. It's quite an outrageous number. You know, we got 85% of the box office revenue in the first week of Twilight 2."

Liu Yifei nodded: "I remember, wasn't this a privilege we fought for through our star power?"

Based on their qualifications, Summit Entertainment and Rose Pictures should not have been able to persuade cinemas to concede and increase their share of the first week's box office to 85%, the same as the Big Six.

But for two consecutive years...

Twilight gave the theater manager a slap in the face.

The mistake in the movie "Starry Night" is another slap in the face for the cinema manager.

As a result, almost no theater managers dared to miss Twilight 2.

In fact, their judgment was correct. Twilight grossed $2 million in its opening week and ultimately $3.2 million. If they had missed the first week, the box office for the second week would not have been much.

After a pause, Liu Yifei said, "I guess there will be at least $2.7 million in box office revenue sharing!"

"wrong!"

Gu Bei shook his head. "We received $3.5 million in box office revenue from Summit Entertainment, and the two of us got $2.8 million, which is more than the entire movie Starship!"

Liu Yifei felt she had overestimated herself.
But in the end, she greatly underestimated the madness of Twilight 2.
After all, this is the movie that came from behind and beat Harry Potter in last summer's box office. Although Twilight has never sold as well as Harry Potter in the book market, it still managed to surpass it in the movie market.

However, she still remembered that the Twilight series' greatest achievement was not at the box office, but in the DVD market.

So she asked, "So how many discs did it sell in the end? Did it sell more than the previous one?" "Of course!"

Gu Bei nodded, then shook his head in disappointment. "However, the DVD market is now visibly declining. In just one year, Twilight 2's box office increased by 50%, but its DVD sales were only tens of millions of dollars more than the first film."

"Disc revenue is only $300 million, but with copyright revenue of $100 million, we can get a total of $3.28 million from these two sources."

Liu Yifei: "..."

Only? Only?

When this number came out, even though Liu Yifei was relatively calm and felt that she didn't really crave anything, she was still disturbed by this exaggerated number.

Let's do a simple calculation.
They made $600 million from Twilight 2, plus $200 million from the artists and $270 million from The Fault in Our Stars.
The two of them earned more than a billion dollars!
But what is the cost?
The artist received $28 million, The Fault in Our Stars received $15 million, and Twilight 2 only received $50 million when divided among the other two, totaling over $90 million, but less than $100 million.

"Do you understand now?"

Gu Bei's words brought Liu Yifei back to her senses.

Liu Yifei instinctively asked, "Understand what?"

"Rose Pictures' three films released last year grossed a total of about $16 billion worldwide, which translates to over 10 billion yuan. In contrast, the total box office in mainland China last year was only over 6 billion yuan, which is only about half of Rose Pictures' total."

Gu Bei asked the finance director, Milo, to leave first. After closing the door, he turned back to Liu Yifei and said, "Moreover, even if we don't compare it with Chinese films, compared with our Hollywood counterparts, our global box office of $16 billion is half of Sony Pictures' and second only to Universal Pictures, one of the Big Six."

Rose Pictures' North American box office last year was $6.6 million, which is actually quite close to Universal Pictures' less than $9 million!

After a pause,

Gu Bei continued in a slightly low voice, "And your two films last year, Star Fortune and The Message, grossed more than $500 million worldwide, which is roughly equivalent to half of the Chinese film market!"
At the same time, Your Fault in Our Stars has become the highest-grossing film with an Asian female lead, proving to Hollywood that Asian actresses can also play leading roles and achieve great box office success!
Having accomplished all of this, how could it not be truly fitting for you to be called Empress Qian?

Liu Yifei turned to look at Gu Bei.

She felt that Gu Bei was whispering like Gollum from Lord of the Rings, and she had the illusion that he was about to put a dragon robe on her.

"Come on!"

Liu Yifei suddenly leaned in and kissed Gu Bei on the cheek.

Suddenly, the atmosphere in the room vanished.

Gu Bei was slightly taken aback.

This is the perfect time to get into the mood!

Subsequently,

The way he looked at Liu Yifei

He noticed that Liu Yifei was earnestly telling him, "It's not a matter of whether I think I deserve the title or not, but rather that I don't think I'm a special person, nor do I need such a special title."

"Fine!"

Seeing that Liu Yifei had said this, what could Gu Bei do but let her have her way? "How about I have someone control the public opinion?"

Liu Yifei shook her head: "If everyone likes to call me that, then let them call me that. Anyway, I already have more than one or two nicknames."

"Yes, a celestial being!"

Gu Bei thought of the nickname that left the deepest impression on him.

"What did you say?"

Liu Yifei was immediately furious.

Gu Bei, you've given yourself away! You really are my hater!

"broken!"

Only then did Gu Bei remember.

"Fairy" is probably still one of Liu Yifei's derogatory nicknames.

However, she later turned this derogatory nickname into a compliment and firmly held the title of "celestial beauty" for decades.

Gu Bei and Liu Yifei played around for a while.

Liu Yifei went back and continued to discuss the next steps with her team.

Gu Bei watched Liu Yifei's retreating figure as she walked out of the conference room, then began tidying up the documents on the table, while also starting to ponder things.

Rose Pictures has developed to its current state.
In fact, independent studios have already begun to face their own bottlenecks.

After all, a film studio's output is limited. The Big Six studios only release 20 to 30 films a year, most of which are distribution rights acquired from other studios.

Therefore, Rose Pictures' next step is distribution channels, a very complex area.

Gu Bei was actually reluctant to take this step.

Because the water inside is a bit deep.

But Rose Pictures has now reached a point where it has no choice but to take the next step.

Otherwise, the outcome would be selling Rose Pictures a few years later and betting everything on the domestic film market.

But... can the domestic film market support its ambitions?

Gu Bei has begun to transform the domestic film market, attempting to use his influence to make the future of the domestic film market better.

However, he was unsure of how far he could go, so preserving Rose Pictures and pursuing a two-pronged approach was crucial.

If Rose Pictures wants distribution channels, the best way is still through acquisition.

Just like Harvey Weinstein Company, which was established a year earlier than Rose Films, it initially followed the same model as Rose Films, retaining the copyright and entrusting MGM with distribution.

But Harvey had deep roots in Hollywood, and within a year of its founding, it acquired a small distributor and began to venture into distribution channels.

Gu Bei now wants to learn from Harvey's approach of acquiring distribution channels.

We would need to find a larger distribution channel for the acquisition.
His best acquisition target was actually Summit Entertainment, with which he had been cooperating for a long time. Especially after Summit Entertainment was acquired by Lionsgate a few years later, the price was not high.

The problem now is that Summit Entertainment is thriving and seems ready to make a big splash, unlike a company that will be acquired in a few years.

(End of this chapter)