The director starts by learning from the abilities of renowned directors.

Chapter 164 The Great North American Outbreak

On December 23, the film "The Great Wall" was simultaneously released on more than 7100 screens in 4023 theaters across the United States, including a record 198 IMAX theaters.

Warner Bros. president Jeff Robinoff has staked his entire future on this film.

To make a comparison, last year's "The Karate Kid," starring Jackie Chan, was released in 3663 theaters across 5400 screens, averaging 1.47 screens per theater.

"The Great Wall" occupied an average of 1.77 screens per theater. Whether it was the number of theaters where it was released, the total number of screens, or the average number of screens, it far surpassed "The Karate Kid". This shows that Shen Qing's data in the United States at this time was far superior to Cheng Long's.

Without supporting data, it would have been impossible for "The Great Wall" to achieve such a large opening scale.

By the way, "The Forbidden Kingdom" opened in 3151 theaters. Generally speaking, a film is considered to have a large-scale opening if it opens in more than 2000 theaters.

The Karate Kid ultimately grossed $3.59 million worldwide, indicating that Jeff Robinoff's expectations for The Great Wall were far higher than $3.59 million.

The Warner Bros. president is having a tough time right now, with intense infighting raging at Time Warner headquarters. Among the films he recently spearheaded, "Cats & Dogs 2: Cats vs. Dogs" suffered heavy losses, creating a huge financial black hole and impacting confidence in the emerging 3D film market.

Although "The Last Stand" and "The Lottery" did not result in huge losses due to excellent cost control, their mediocre box office performance and word-of-mouth still drew widespread criticism from Time Warner, the company's headquarters.

Jeff Robinoff strongly suspected that if he hadn't successfully bet on several of Shen Qing's films during his tenure, he would probably have been fired by Time Warner by now.

With over 4000 theaters showing the film, Jeff Robinoff has done his best. If "The Great Wall" doesn't perform well at the box office, he has a feeling he'll soon be fired by the head office.

So when the box office figures for "The Great Wall" arrived in his email on the morning of the 24th local time, his hands were trembling slightly.

$2821 million!

Jeff Robinoff's eyes lit up when he opened the email, and he quickly opened a data file on his computer to compare it.

The Karate Kid grossed $1881 million on its opening day, while The Great Wall grossed a full $1000 million more.

Based on this first-day data alone, it is enough to conclude that "The Great Wall" will make a huge profit.

Jeff Robinov instantly felt his back straighten up again.

Humph.

Kevin Suhara, who is in charge of home entertainment, and Bruce Rosenbaum, who is in charge of television, will no longer be criticizing me; instead, I will be criticizing you.

After thinking for a moment, he finally dialed Jeff Bex, president and CEO of Time Warner at headquarters, to report on the opening day data for the film "The Great Wall".

Warner Bros. Pictures is a core subsidiary of Time Warner, and Time Warner's president, Jeff Bex, can directly decide Jeff Robinoff's future.

Hollywood.

a hotel.

Dai Ying, CEO of Magical Films, Shen Cong, director and general manager of Magical Investment Group's Hong Kong subsidiary, and others got up to say goodbye. Jing Tian obediently saw them off on Shen Qing's behalf.

Liu Yifei, Hu Jun, and others have already returned to China ahead of schedule. December 23rd is also the date of the nationwide release of "The Great Wall". Although there have been large-scale previews in China for seven days and Shen Qing has led the team on a roadshow for several days in advance, it would be best if the main actors continued the roadshow in China when the film is officially released.

Jeff Robinoff of Warner Bros. and Thomas Tull of Legendary Pictures jointly invited Shen Qing to stay and discuss the transfer of the copyright for "Lucy".

Before Shen Qing departed for the United States, most of the post-production work for "Lucy" had already been completed. Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures had been keeping a close eye on the film and had even previewed the film's effects before the post-production work was completed.

The two sides had previously held one round of negotiations, but failed to reach a consensus due to significant differences.

The fact that the other party didn't bring up the secondary copyright negotiations earlier or later, but instead insisted on arranging them after the box office results for "The Great Wall" were released, makes their intentions all too clear.

They need to use "The Great Wall" to further verify the data of Shen Qing and Shen Qing's films.

After Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures jointly proposed a second round of negotiations, Shen Qing called in Dai Ying, CEO of Magic Pictures.

Shen Cong, director and general manager of Magic Investment's Hong Kong subsidiary, and a complete legal team.

Shen Cong was from the same village as Shen Qing and was someone Shen Qing trusted. However, the Hong Kong subsidiary still appointed a CFO to check and balance the company. Furthermore, the company's articles of association clearly stipulated that without the parent company's permission, the Hong Kong subsidiary could not sign contracts exceeding HKD 50 or the equivalent in USD or other currencies.

Since the Hong Kong subsidiary does not require decision-making, it does not have a CEO, but only a general manager.

Shen Qing started buying Tencent stock in 04 and Apple stock in 08, all through a Hong Kong subsidiary wholly owned by Magic Investment.

More precisely, it was Magic Investment Group that made the purchases through a BVI offshore company controlled by its wholly-owned Hong Kong subsidiary. Only A-share stocks such as Kweichow Moutai and mainland banks are directly held by Magic Investment Group.

Shen Qing's base salary for directing and starring in the Sino-US co-production is his personal income, paid in US dollars. However, this money cannot be remitted to China, as his annual foreign exchange settlement quota is only equivalent to US$5. Income from copyright transactions in US dollars can only be forcibly converted into RMB, but the process is extremely cumbersome.

Shen Qing then registered a personal account at HSBC in Hong Kong, and Magic Investment Company set up a wholly-owned subsidiary in Hong Kong. The personal portion of the US dollar income was deposited into his HSBC personal account, while the company portion was deposited into the account of Magic Investment's wholly-owned subsidiary in Hong Kong. In addition to purchasing copyrights for film and television production such as background music, the wholly-owned subsidiary also purchased shares of Tencent and Apple through a BVI offshore company.

The value of the shares held by Shen Qing and his wholly-owned subsidiaries is now close to 200 billion yuan, and this figure is expected to grow to over 3000 billion yuan in the next ten years.

Shen Qing's director and lead actor fees, often amounting to tens of millions of US dollars, were deposited into his HSBC bank account in Hong Kong. Some of these funds were used by him to directly hold shares in Tencent and Apple.

Now that Shen Qing is determined to incubate Douyin, this Hong Kong subsidiary will undoubtedly play a greater role in the future. Developing Douyin requires a large amount of music copyrights, and purchasing music copyrights from companies such as Sony and Rolling Stone also requires the Hong Kong subsidiary's US dollar deposits.

After everyone left, Jing Tian closed the door and sat directly on Shen Qing's lap.

"I just checked online, and the first day's revenue of over $2800 million is an extremely high figure. Congratulations, you've succeeded again."

"Jing Tian hooked his arm around Shen Qing's neck and said.

After accompanying Shen Qing to the US for a movie premiere, and witnessing firsthand how much American movie fans idolized Shen Qing, and how they screamed, were excited, and were at a loss just like movie fans in China, Jing Tian's admiration and infatuation for Shen Qing grew even stronger.

But when Liu Yifei was around, she had to suppress any love surging in her heart. Now that Liu Yifei had gone back to China to promote her movie, she could snuggle into Shen Qing's arms whenever she wanted and act coquettishly whenever she wanted. She was very happy, especially since she could have Shen Qing all to herself at night during this period.

"Why say five 'very'?"

"This means I admire you to the point of complete awe."

"Really?"

"real."

"Let's begin."

"Start with what?"

I'm completely in awe!

"what?"

Jing Tian was a little confused. She only knew that prostrating oneself meant admiring someone very much, but she didn't know what the prostration posture actually was. So Shen Qing personally arranged her into the prostration posture.

"This idiom is not proper."

She buried her head in the blanket and said.

On Saturday the 24th, "The Great Wall" grossed over $30 million in a single day, reaching an astonishing $3159 million.

I'll get another $2367 on Sunday the 25th.

That is to say, The Great Wall grossed $8347 million in its opening weekend in North America.

With an IMDb rating of 8.4, it's safe to say that The Great Wall achieved both box office and critical success in North America.

On the morning of the 26th local time, Warner Bros. President Jeff Robinoff and Legendary Pictures President Thomas Tull each led a team to the hotel where Shen Qing and his entourage were staying.

"A minimum guarantee of $5000 million, plus 10% of the initial global box office, 10% of DVD revenue, and 10% of TV/VOD revenue."

Jeff Robinov started by asking for an extremely high price.

The total production cost of "Lucy" was only $3000 million, so the fact that the other party offered a $5000 million guarantee right away shows that they are much more sincere than in the first negotiation.

But Shen Qing still shook his head.

"Shen, with a $5000 million copyright guarantee and $8000-1 million in marketing and distribution, this means the film needs to gross $3 million worldwide to break even. If you were the lead actress, that wouldn't be a problem, but Ms. Fan Bingbing—forgive my bluntness—she basically doesn't have any box office appeal in North America," Jeff Robinoff said.

Shen Qing laughed upon hearing this. Did this Warner president really think he was ignorant? Hollywood's break-even point (B/E) was a joke. It was so inflated that it could flood the gold mine. Believing in it would leave Hollywood with nothing but scraps.

The 2019 film "Alita: Battle Angel" had a production cost of $1.7 million, which is $2000 million more expensive than Shen Qing's "The Great Wall". So what is the break-even point (B/E) of this film?

The deadline was set at $550 million, but the film's producer, 20th Century Fox, stated that the company would be profitable if the film grossed over $340 million worldwide.

"Valkyrie" had a production cost of $7500 million, a marketing budget of $1.2628 million, and distribution costs of $6269 million. Its final North American box office was only $8300 million, and its global box office was only $2 million, yet the film still made a profit. Fox's break-even point for this film was $4.51 million, a figure that's not even close, but given its global box office of only $2 million, it still managed to turn a profit.

This is even with Tom Cruise and the other two male leads receiving a combined 29% of the initial total box office revenue, 75% of the DVD revenue, and 15% of the TV/VOD revenue.

In addition to the three lead actors, the director, assistant directors, and others also received a share of the profits.

The fact that they can make a profit shows just how inflated Hollywood's so-called break-even point really is.

Taking DVD revenue sharing as an example, the three main actors in "Valkyrie" received as much as 75% of the revenue. Does that mean that most of the DVD revenue went to the actors' accounts?

Absolutely not!

Among the six major Hollywood studios, DVD revenue primarily belongs to the home entertainment division. Currently, Kevin Suhara is the president of Time Warner's home entertainment division, and he is locked in a fierce battle with Jeff Robinoff, who is in charge of the film division and is currently complaining about being broke to Shen Qing.

In other words, whether it's the current "The Great Wall" or the future "Lucy," the DVD revenue will first go into the Home Entertainment division's account. The Home Entertainment division will then allocate 20% of that as a royalty pool to the film division, which is Warner Bros. The percentage of DVD revenue that the lead actors receive will be based on this 20%.

Regardless of the percentage of DVD revenue an actor secures, Time Warner will receive at least 80% of the total revenue, and in most cases, over 90%.

In Hollywood, generally speaking, if a film's box office revenue in North America exceeds its production costs, the chances of it losing money are very small.

Jeff Robinoff wanted to buy the global rights to "Lucy" (excluding Greater China) for $5000 million. In theory, Warner Bros. would make a profit if the film grossed more than $5000 million in North America.

In Shen Qing's prediction, "Lucy" would not have only grossed this much at the North American box office.

「8000万美元保底，20%先期总票房分红、20%DVD碟片收入分红、20%TV/V0D收入分红。」沈青开价道。

Jeff Robinov and Thomas Toure exchanged glances, neither of them too surprised.

Normally, they wouldn't pay such a high price for a movie starring a foreign woman, but Shen Qing's exorbitant price only boosted their confidence.

Not all of Shen Qing's films are suitable for the European and American markets, but any film for which Shen Qing asks for exorbitant fees has never failed in the European and American markets.

Shen Qing's exorbitant demands for the copyright of "Lucy" indicate that he has extremely high hopes for the film.

"A minimum of $5500 million, and the profit-sharing ratio will be as you said," Jeff Robinoff said.

"A minimum of $7500 million is guaranteed, and the revenue sharing ratio remains unchanged," Shen Qing said.

"A minimum of $6000 million, all other conditions remain unchanged."

"A minimum guarantee of $7000 million —"

An agreement will not be reached immediately, but the differences between the two sides are indeed becoming smaller and smaller.

Meanwhile, within China...

After the nationwide release of "The Great Wall" on the 23rd, its screening share was 58%, which is in stark contrast to the 33% screening share of Zhang Yimou's "The Flowers of War".

On the 23rd, 24th and 25th of the month, "The Great Wall" grossed 1.744 million, 2.2309 million and 2.1335 million yuan respectively in mainland China.

The daily box office for both Saturday and Sunday exceeded 2 million yuan.

Moreover, including the 5.78 million yuan box office from the previous preview screenings, the domestic box office of "The Great Wall" has officially exceeded 10 billion yuan, specifically 11.888 billion yuan.

"Wow, that's amazing! Seven days of previews and three days of theatrical release, and the cumulative box office has exceeded 11 billion. Shen Qing has really defied the odds this time."

"Believe it or not, if Shen Qing hadn't gone back to China to continue the promotional tour, the box office would have been even higher?"

"When it comes to space sci-fi, Gravity came out of nowhere; when it comes to monster movies, The Great Wall stands out. Shen Qing's moves are too clever."

"The Great Wall is indeed awesome. The fully-formed Qiongqi looks even cooler than the Alien. I just don't know if foreigners can understand The Great Wall. It's a box office failure abroad."

"It shouldn't be that bad. The plot of The Great Wall is actually quite simple, and it provides plenty of grand scenes. Moreover, Westerners understand the westward migration of the Northern Xiongnu at the beginning. The Huns, the scourge of God in the Western world, were very likely a remnant of the Northern Xiongnu. These people significantly accelerated the demise of the Western Roman Empire."

It was already the fourth day since "The Great Wall" was released on a large scale across the United States, but its box office performance in North America had not yet been reported.

Generally speaking, the box office data for the previous three days (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) will only be transmitted back to China as a weekend box office chart on Monday.

The box office data from last weekend should be back in China by today.

"Why is Jing Tian staying abroad too?"

"Let her stay if she wants. Anyway, not many viewers in China went to the cinema specifically for her, although many viewers came out as fans of her."

"The key is that it's useless for her to stay in the US, because American audiences don't know who she is."

"Hehehe—Just because American audiences don't recognize her doesn't mean she's useless in America."

97

"Then what's the point of her staying abroad?"

"Hehehehe, Shen Qing must know what use Jing Tian would have left behind?"

"What's the use of Shen Qing knowing? He's the one who wants to use it, isn't he?!"

"Hehehe, here it comes! Last week's North American weekend box office rankings are out!"

"Really? How much?"

"Link! Link!"

Suddenly, chaos erupted on the internet.