1979: The child's mother is a celestial being.

Chapter 152 Damn it, this woman is trying to get me! (Please subscribe!)
"Miss Karina, please have a seat."

"Thank you!"

After Gong Xue, who was temporarily acting as the negotiation assistant, poured a glass of water for the Warner Bros. film distributor, Chen Fusheng continued to ask:

"What does Miss Karina think of our movie?"

"Objectively speaking, apart from the somewhat bland beginning, it's very good after that, making it an excellent suspenseful detective film."

"Thank you for your recognition, Miss Karina."

With a foundation laid for negotiations, Chen Fusheng continued to steadily advance the process.

"So, let's talk about cooperation next?"

“Okay, Mr. Chen, I like your directness.”

At this point, Karina shifted her posture, indicating she was entering work mode, and then tentatively asked, "May I ask, Mr. Chen, what are your expectations for the overseas rights to your film in North America?"

“700 million US dollars,” Chen Fusheng blurted out, almost without thinking.

It's definitely too high, but this is a negotiation, not a negotiation. Why would someone come up and lay everything bare?

"I was only referring to North America, not global copyright."

Chen Fusheng didn't explain, but directly asked the question back: "So, Miss Karina, how much do you think you can offer? Or, how much are you willing to offer for the movie 'The Devotion of Suspect X'?"

"For the North American market, I can offer up to $300 million. If your film wins an award at this film festival, Mr. Chen, I can offer up to $400 million."

Chen Fusheng nodded almost imperceptibly. To be honest, this offer was more sincere than the offers from the American companies he had just negotiated with.

Yes, before Karina came in, Chen Fusheng had already talked to American film companies such as 20th Century Fox, MGM, and even Universal Pictures, with which he had previously worked. Even Universal Pictures did not offer $3 million upfront.

This also shows that Ms. Karina really thinks highly of his film.

At the same time, although Karina quoted a fairly sincere price right away, it was definitely not her limit, and she naturally left room for negotiation.

She was also prepared for Chen Fusheng to bargain.

To her utter surprise, the young and handsome Eastern man in front of her pondered seriously for a long time before agreeing immediately.

"Okay, I agree!"

After Chen Fusheng nodded, he noticed a fleeting look of surprise on Karina's face, and then said, "But I have a request!"

Call ~
Hearing that there were still requirements, Karina breathed a sigh of relief.

Otherwise, she would have suspected that this man had other motives...

"What are the requirements?" Karina composed herself and asked curiously.

At this point, Chen Fusheng naturally stopped beating around the bush and said directly, "I need your company's distribution channels."

This translates to "signing a box office revenue sharing agreement!"
Karina was slightly taken aback, not expecting this Chinese man to have such great ambitions.

Of course, she wasn't too surprised, because Chen Fusheng wasn't the first foreign director to want to conquer the American film market. In fact, many foreign directors and even many foreign film companies have wanted to enter the American film market to get a share of the pie, but in the end, few of them even got a taste of the soup, let alone the meat.

Therefore, at this time, Karina also did not think highly of Chen Fusheng, even though he did have some talent.

Thinking that the other person had left a good impression on her, Karina kindly advised:
“Mr. Chen, I know you have achieved such great success at your age and have high aspirations, but if you want to use Chinese-language films to enter our American film market, firstly, the risk is very high, and secondly, even if you achieve some box office success, it won't be very high. Rather than that, it would be more convenient and safer to directly conduct copyright transactions.”

Just as Chen Fusheng was about to speak, Karina continued, "Or, with Mr. Chen's talent, if you are willing to develop your career in the United States, I think many Hollywood companies would extend an olive branch to you, and I would even be very willing to recommend you to join Warner Bros."

Damn it, this woman is trying to get me killed!
Chen Fusheng's expression changed.
Of course, if the other party said this twenty years from now, it would be no big deal.

But not now.

Even after my country's reform and opening up, such remarks remain highly sensitive.

In other words, the other party is trying to turn him against them!

Moreover, Chen Fusheng noticed that the expressions of the two comrades from the Security Bureau and the Foreign Affairs Bureau inside the room had changed.

Not wanting to escalate the situation, he quickly and decisively refused: "Ms. Karina, you are joking. I am a member of the Chinese system and it is impossible for me to develop my career in the United States. However, since our two countries established diplomatic relations in 79, we have been building connections and exchanges in various fields over the years. I think that the exchanges between our two countries in the film industry are still relatively few and should be increased. This is also one of the reasons why I want to strengthen cooperation with your company."

Karina is not so easily fooled, but strengthening film exchanges between the two countries is indeed a reason!
She didn't immediately refuse or agree, but thought for a moment and said, "How about this, I'll report to headquarters first. If headquarters agrees, then we can continue the discussion. What do you think, Mr. Chen?"

"No problem, I look forward to hearing good news from you, Miss Karina." Chen Fusheng stood up, shook hands with her, and then personally saw her out.

I had just taken a sip of water when I saw the next person to come in was a producer from Xiao Ri Zi.

"Hello Mr. Chen, I am Matsushita Haruno, representative of Dongbao International. Nice to meet you."

"Mr. Matsushita, let's get straight to the point. Before you, a representative from Toei Company of your country was willing to pay $130 million to acquire the film's Japanese rights. I wonder how much your company is willing to pay?"

"Didn't that guy from Toei say it was $80?"

“I don’t know about that, but you’re competitors. If it were me, I wouldn’t tell you the truth either,” Chen Fusheng said, stirring things up. In reality, Toei’s offer to him was $100 million.

“That makes sense.” Matsushita Haruno nodded, then thought for a moment before asking, “Mr. Chen, how much money would I need to acquire the overseas rights for my country and North America?”

Hearing this guy's boastful tone, Chen Fusheng replied without hesitation with two words: "Not for sale."

"Not selling?"

Matsushita Haruno was stunned for a while before she reacted, then stared at Chen Fusheng and said, "Mr. Chen, don't you believe in the strength of Dongbao International?"

Instead of answering, Chen Fusheng asked, "Do you have your own cinemas in the United States?"

"We have partnerships with many American companies."

Are there any cinemas there?

"No, but..."

"If you don't have it, then there's no need to say anything."

Matsushita Haruno thought to himself, "You're just selling the film rights, what does it matter if I have a theatrical release?"

However, he did not give up, but changed his approach.

"What about Asia?"

"How much can your Asian company contribute?"

“150… no, 160 million US dollars.”

Chen Fusheng thought for a moment and then asked, "If my film wins an award, what's the highest you can give me?"

"It depends on the award. If it's the Golden Bear, the maximum increase will be 50% on top of that."

"Okay, thank you, Mr. Matsushita. I'll think about it some more."

For the rest of the afternoon, Chen Fusheng dealt with film distributors from various countries, and even his lunch was brought to him by someone else.

In that case, Chen Huaikai's "The Broken Jade Gate" definitely won't be screened today.

"next."

After finishing a meeting with an Italian film distributor, Chen Fusheng subconsciously called out to the door.

But this time, he finally heard the words he most wanted to hear: "Director Chen, there's no one in the back."

Call ~
Chen Fusheng breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the talks were finally over.

I paused for two seconds, then looked down at the time; it was already 2:20 PM.

There were still ten minutes left before the scheduled screening time for "The Cotton Robe". When Chen Fusheng came out, he saw that there were less than a quarter of the audience in the theater. When he arrived at the door, he saw Ling Zi leading everyone to shout and attract people as hard as he had in the morning, but the effect was not significant.

He walked straight over and said, "Sister Ling, the method is wrong, and all your efforts will be in vain. This is just a film screening, and many film companies are not very interested, so you can't promote it like I did this morning."

"Then what should we do?" Lingzi wiped the sweat from her brow and looked at Chen Fusheng.

At the same time, everyone gathered around.

Chen Fusheng didn't mince words and said directly, "You have two martial arts champions. Wouldn't it be more effective for you to just demonstrate our Chinese Kung Fu right here at the entrance than to go through all that painstaking propaganda?"

Lingzi slapped her thigh: "Oh my, how come I didn't think of that!"

(End of this chapter)