Shadow of Chinese Entertainment

Chapter 303 Everything is ready
The novel "The Way Home" combines action, science fiction, and superpowers, set against the backdrop of a sudden zombie apocalypse.

The story revolves around the protagonist Cici's search for a way home in a post-apocalyptic world. It depicts her dangerous experiences encountering various survivors, her growth process, and her eventual return to her hometown.

On the surface, the female protagonist, Cici, is an ordinary Chinese student studying abroad. However, as the story unfolds, her true identity will be gradually revealed through flashbacks and memories.

Cici's father is a Chinese Taoist priest with a family tradition of Taoist practices. (PS: He could be a member of the Huoju sect or the Zhengyi sect, but not the Quanzhen sect, so marriage and having daughters are not a problem.)
From a young age, she learned martial arts, Taoist practices, and related knowledge under her father's guidance, which continued until junior high school.

Because these methods are not visible in real society and have no practical effect, they also cause students to suffer from strange looks from their classmates.

After junior high school, she gave up the useless study of Taoist practices and started living a normal life.

In an unexpected experience in the apocalypse, she suddenly discovered that one of the Taoist inheritances could actually be used and enhance the power of cold weapons.

More importantly, she discovered that since waking up in the apocalypse, she seemed to have awakened spatial abilities.

Starting with only ten cubic meters of storage space, the space has grown larger as her strength has increased.

Furthermore, they have gradually developed a series of spatial abilities such as spatial perception, spatial teleportation, spatial transfer, spatial shield, and spatial blade.

From then on, the female protagonist Cici travels through the post-apocalyptic world with a Tang sword, and in the process, she occasionally discovers the uses of various spatial abilities, Taoist techniques, and talismans.

The setting of superpowers in the world is a gradual process, with high consumption in the early stages, and only a few uses in a single battle.

Moreover, during that meteor shower that night, Cici wasn't the only one to gain superpowers, but there weren't many others either.

If it were made into a TV series, it would be possible to encounter one or two new superpowered individuals in almost every episode.

People can be good or bad, which leads to a lot of problems.

The female protagonist, Cici, possesses unique spatial abilities, which only become more powerful as the story progresses. By the end of the story, Cici's powerful spatial abilities will be fully revealed.

In the early stages, the focus is mainly on survival, finding resources, swordsmanship, and some talismans. In the mid-stage, Taoist magic is combined with some spatial abilities. In the late stage, spatial abilities become the main focus.

Apocalyptic zombies, the heroine's growth, thrilling action scenes, magical Eastern Taoist talismans, various novel superpowers, the main storyline of returning home, and various interwoven plots all combine to create this highly attractive post-apocalyptic science fiction superpower work.

It's difficult for a story to sell globally with just words, but when combined with the powerful audiovisual effects of film and television, it's a completely different story.

Leveraging the powerful platform resources of ABC, a Disney subsidiary, Hu Xiaobei chose to collaborate with Disney once again.

ABC, one of the three major commercial broadcasting companies in the United States, is headquartered in New York City. It not only operates television stations in many locations but also owns 220 affiliated television stations, covering a wide range of areas.

"The Way Home" will be developed in parallel with the novel.

The series consists of three seasons, each with twelve episodes, for a total of thirty-six episodes. Each season will air between July and September of each year.

The accompanying novel is also divided into three parts, which will be published in three installments over three years to match the broadcast schedule of the TV series.

The first volume of the novel was published globally earlier this year through its own channels and those of Disney.

After nearly half a year of development, the sales performance has been extremely impressive.

In the US market, thanks to Disney's resources, the novel's unique setting, and Hu Xiaobei's powerful writing skills, the novel gained popularity.

Sales exceeded 30 copies in the first month, and the strong momentum continued, with sales growing rapidly. In just four months, total sales have successfully surpassed one million copies.

Huaxia, as Hu Xiaobei's home base, boasts sales far exceeding those in the US market, thanks to its deep cultural resonance and large readership.

Leveraging local resources for promotion, 200 million copies were sold in just four months.

After its release in Europe, the novel quickly sparked a buying frenzy thanks to An Xiaoqian's influence, selling a total of 80 copies. In Asia, excluding China, combined sales in countries like South Korea and other Asian nations have exceeded one million copies.

Although the Australian and South American markets started a little later, they still achieved sales of 20 and 15 copies respectively through word of mouth.

With global sales exceeding 500 million copies, this achievement not only demonstrates the work's powerful appeal but also lays a solid audience foundation for the upcoming TV series adaptation of "The Way Home".

The first season of the TV series "Homecoming" had a total budget of $4000 million for its 12 episodes, averaging about $333 million per episode.

Relatively speaking, this budget is already quite high.

It's worth noting that the first season of "The Walking Dead," filmed in 2010, only had a production cost of $145 million per episode.

Of course, the production costs of The Walking Dead increased in the later seasons, with the average production budget for each episode reaching $600-700 million in the tenth season.

It is said that in the final seasons, the cost per episode reached as high as $1000 million.

Furthermore, the cost per episode of each of The Walking Dead's two spin-off series is as high as $1200 million to $1370 million.

Of course, prices can vary greatly depending on the time of year.

After all, money is becoming less and less valuable!
On the surface, the budget for the TV series "Homecoming" was $4000 million, but in reality it was only $2400 million.

Because Hu Xiaobei's director's fee, the novel's copyright fee, and An Xiaoqian's acting fee together already account for 40% of the investment.

And that's even with a discount.

As the show becomes more popular, the copyright fees will continue to rise.

Qianbeifeng Entertainment originally had 1500 million RMB in its account. With the addition of the profits from the past four months, it raised 400 million USD as an investment to acquire a 10% share.

With this $400 million investment, Northwind Entertainment holds a 50% stake in "Homecoming," while Disney, with its $2000 million investment, also holds a 50% stake.

At this point, Qianbeifeng Entertainment Company's account was basically left with only a few million yuan for miscellaneous expenses to cover company costs.

Hu Xiaobei's domestic royalties in April were approximately 10 million RMB, and her global royalties for the first three months of "The Way Home" were approximately 30 million RMB.

In other words, his personal company's account balance is currently 4000 million RMB.

Getting back to the main point, the preparatory work for the drama "The Return" has already been completed, including casting, finding filming locations, designing sets, and making props. It's just waiting for Hu Xiaobei and An Xiaoqian to join the crew for filming.

When it comes to casting, apart from An Xiaoxi, the other roles were basically handled by Disney.

Because this drama only has one main character, An Xiaoqian, and it adheres to the idea that most villains don't survive more than one episode, the other characters are just extras or minor bosses in a single episode.

Of course, if Hu Xiaobei wanted to insert a few characters, it wouldn't be a problem at all.

For example, Disney generously and proactively asked Hu Xiaobei if he needed roles for some of the Chinese characters in the show.

These kinds of minor roles are nothing special, but many young actors in China would love to have them.

Following the principle of prioritizing relationships, Hu Xiaobei made arrangements directly with a wave of his hand, just like when filming "Mulan".

In particular, Shu Chang was given a Chinese-American role that appeared in several episodes.

Hmm... it's the kind of character who doesn't die and disappear from the game, but can reappear later in the game.

(End of this chapter)