Chapter 1475 Competition and Change (Part 1)

The Shangmei Factory that Yin Jun and Miyazaki talked about is indeed completely different from what it was in its previous life.

In the previous life, Shangmei Factory had already passed their creative heyday by 1983.

Because of the development of the new era, the country has focused on economic construction, so there is a certain degree of contempt for these cultural departments and factories.

In other words, let it go.

Even the famous August 1st Film Studio gradually disappeared, let alone an art film studio like Shangmei Film Studio.

In fact, even in 2020, China does not pay much attention to animated movies.

Big Gray Wolf was banned within a few years.

Under the strong correction, the smelly bear also turned into a "little bear".

But it is much luckier than the Big Gray Wolf. You can still see it on TV and in movie theaters at least every year.

As for weird movies like "Big Head Son and Little Head Dad", if they can be considered cartoons and animated movies, then Yin Jun has nothing to say.

Look at Hollywood and Japan. They have turned animated films into a huge industry, affecting a market worth tens of billions. They have also conveyed their own country’s culture and values ​​through animation. How amazing is this? A big cultural achievement?

This is another kind of cultural output, and it is silent, and its coverage is even stronger than ordinary movies.

Because children will watch animated movies first, whether they can understand them or not.

Once the impression of "this country's cartoons are good" is established in the minds of children since childhood, when they grow up, do you think they have a good impression of this country's culture, or even this country?

Of course!

Otherwise, as of 2020, how could there be so many people who like the United States and so many people who speak for Americans?

Yin Jun saw this, so he did his best to do more cultural output in the fields he was familiar with, so as to contribute to the rise of China in the future.

If as our economic power and national power become stronger, and many people identify with and like Chinese culture, then their hostility will be greatly reduced and they will not be so directed against China.

Therefore, Shangmei Factory, a film factory with strong animation production capabilities, has always played a very important role in Yin Junzhong.

Otherwise, Yin Jun would not have worked hard with them from the beginning and actively used talent transfer and orders to make them stronger.

Unconsciously, Kirin Culture and Shangmei Factory have been cooperating for four and a half years since the recruitment began in March 1979.

From the initial employment of artists and animators from the art studio, to later commissioned animation production, the cooperation between the two companies has become closer and closer.

The real development of Shangmei Factory came after it started producing "Oolong Yuan".

Qilin Culture entrusted Shangmei Factory to help produce "Oolong Yuan", and the price was 40,000 yuan per episode. If 30 episodes were submitted every six months, an additional 500,000 yuan would be awarded.

Then, although the production of the second "Tomb Raider" was relatively slow at first, as the number of people continued to increase, the production process became smoother, and now it is almost guaranteed to produce one episode per week.

Last year, Shangmei Film Studio teamed up with Ke Film Studio to win "The Hilarious Life of the Tropical Rainforest", and also teamed up with Changying Film Studio to win "The Little Master of China".

Now these two cartoons have begun to be broadcast around the world.

Although they are sold at cabbage prices in Europe and the United States, they are still quite popular in Asia, especially in economically developed countries such as Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Therefore, the selling price of the cartoons they produced has naturally increased a lot.

Together with "Oolong Yuan", the price per episode has been increased to 100,000 yuan.

no way.

First, prices in the mainland have skyrocketed in the past two years. Compared with two years ago, ordinary wages have also increased by more than 30%. It would be too unkind if it remained at 40,000 an episode.

Another reason is that now Yin Jun can't get a penny out of his business money in the mainland, and Le Yiling has some objections to this.

Therefore, starting from the end of the previous year, the remuneration and dividends paid by Kirin Culture to Shangmei Factory and other partners were all settled directly in RMB.

Because I have a lot of RMB in hand, in order to avoid devaluation and to increase support for Shangmei Factory, it is not a big deal to increase it to 100,000 per episode.

In fact, for Shangmei Factory and others, there is nothing difficult to accept.

Anyway, the equipment they want to buy has been bought, and they can't use any foreign currency in the country. All the Hong Kong dollars used by Kirin Culture for settlement were taken away by the city, and what they got was actually RMB.

Not to mention that the price has now increased to 100,000 yuan per episode, and 30 production episodes are paid every six months, and the reward amount is as high as 1 million yuan. Their overall income has greatly increased.

Take last year in 1982 as an example. The overall revenue of Shangmei Factory with Kirin Culture reached 20 million yuan.

By September this year, their income has exceeded 20 million yuan, and it is expected to reach more than 30 million yuan in 1983!

The reason for such a breakthrough lies in their improved efficiency and the increase in production staff.

Including retired employees, the total number of employees at Shangmei Factory was 416 in 1980 and 475 in 1981.

As a result, in 1982, their number of employees increased sharply to 650!

So far, the number of employees in Shangmei Factory has exceeded 900! !

With so many manpower, they can certainly concentrate their advantages to try their best to complete the production of four comics - you read that right, although two of them are cooperating with Keying Studio and Changying Studio, they all sent people there. , everyone worked together to produce cartoons at Shangmei Factory.

There are more than 700 people on the front line, and a large number of elite backbones have been trained.

So in August, Shangmei Factory specifically applied to Qilin Culture to take over the production of the fifth comic-adapted animation work.

They chose "Dragon Ball"!

It goes without saying what status "Dragon Ball" has in Qilin culture.

Although its peripheral products are definitely not as popular as Transformers and Saint Seiya, "Dragon Ball" itself, its plot content, and its global popularity are definitely the first in the world.

"Dragon Ball" is a stand-alone book that is released every two months, and its worldwide sales have exceeded 100 million copies! !

The other most sold ones are only about 50 million copies of "Conan".

With such great influence and so many people liking it, the major cooperative TV stations have already been urging Qilin Culture to quickly produce the animation and broadcast it on TV stations, which will definitely attract countless viewers.

The Korean partners paid US$60,000 per episode, setting a record for their purchase of cartoons.

Japan's TV Asahi offered an astonishing price of US$120,000 per episode, and asked Kirin Culture to animate it as soon as possible.

Even the Disney TV Channel has priced an episode at US$100,000, which shows the popularity of "Dragon Ball".

Therefore, everyone knows that the production of "Dragon Ball" will definitely make a lot of money, and the price will definitely be higher than those of previous animations.

And the length of "Dragon Ball" is enough.

From September 1981 to now, 2 years have passed.

The length of "Dragon Ball" has passed the length of Piccolo Demon King, and has entered the more passionate Saiyan stage. If it were made into an animation, it would be at least 200 episodes in length.

Don't doubt it.

This is what "Dragon Ball" did in the previous life.

It took 150 episodes of the cartoon to write about the marriage of Goku and Chi-Chi, which happened to be when Piccolo the Great Demon King ended.

Fighting cartoons are different from ordinary plot cartoons. The fights in the book are fleeting, but in cartoons, they often last for two or three minutes without any problems.

In addition, the Japanese are good at creating atmosphere, so even if it drags on for such a long time, there is no embarrassment at all. Instead, children and young people can watch it with gusto.

Shangmei Factory already has a very market-oriented vision and planning. They believe that they can produce at least 150 episodes of cartoons with the current length.

If we produce at this speed and broadcast two episodes a week, we will be able to pick up new plots after almost a year and a half, and we won’t have to worry about interruptions for at least five years.

Five years of production time, at least about 400 episodes, even if Qilin Culture only paid 120,000 yuan for one episode, it would bring more than 50 million yuan in revenue to Shangmei Factory.

In this era when the per capita monthly income in Shanghai is only 80 yuan, what is the concept of increasing income by 10 million yuan every year?

With an income of 50 million, almost 200 people can achieve it. How scary is this output-value ratio?

How much profit and effect will it bring to Shangmei Factory?

Therefore, "Dragon Ball" is something they must strive for.

Unfortunately, unlike the previous comics, Shangmei Factory encountered an extremely powerful opponent this time.

It is the Asahi Group.

Asahi Group is Yin Jun's largest partner in Japan, and it has more extensive cooperation than Tokuma Bookstore.

Because all the comic derivatives of Qilin Culture are exclusively distributed by them, and Japan happens to be a country of comics, so in recent years they have relied on this comic derivatives, such as toys, clothes, dolls, licensed products, etc. , making a lot of money.

Moreover, the Asahi Group is also producing animations of Kirin Culture.

"Saint Seiya", "Conan", "Chibi Maruko-chan", "Prince of Tennis" and "Inuyasha" are all produced by them, and they are no worse than Shangmi.

But which company would dislike that it has developed too well?

Under the call of thousands of animation fans, it just so happened that Asahi Group also took a fancy to "Dragon Ball" and was ready to actively take over the production list of this super classic.

If successful, the Asahi Group's reputation will reach a higher level and become one of the holy places in the hearts of all animation fans.

It would be of great benefit to their reputation.

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