Chapter 25 Who Made the Most Money? Pirates!
"Come, Director Wu, have some tea.
In the office of the vice chairman of China Film Group, Mr. Han poured a cup of tea for Wu Yuan with a smile.
The team that went to Sitges for "The Night the Comet Came" has returned home with the trophy.
When Wu Yuan returned to China, Mr. Han personally picked him up.
It’s not possible if you don’t come in person!
"The Night the Comet Came" sold the copyright for US$2.55 million abroad, and the domestic box office has exceeded 10 million in one week of release. Although the stamina is a bit weak, there is still hope for a box office of 20 million.
Taken together, this movie, which cost only 300,000 yuan, created 40 million yuan in revenue!
Although 20 million of it has to be shared with theaters, the rate of return is already terrifyingly high!
Before going abroad, Wu Yuan was still Xiao Wu in Mr. Han's mouth, but now he has become "Director Wu".
We can’t say that Mr. Han is too realistic, I can only say that Wu Yuan showed his abilities, which made Mr. Han have to look at him with admiration!
"Director Wu, your film is really good!"
Holding a cup of tea and taking a sip, Mr. Han clicked his tongue and said, "Except for Feng Xiaogang, among domestic directors, your films are now the most popular."
"It's a pity that you don't have as much appeal as Director Feng, otherwise I believe the box office would be even higher now!"
Wu Yuan smiled, held up the tea and did not answer.
He understood what Mr. Han meant.
After the release of "The Night the Comet Came", who made the most money?
Theater chain?
China Film?
neither!
The ones who make the most money are the various pirate dealers all over the country!
On the fourth day of the movie's release, just when the news came back that Wu Yuan had won the award, pirated discs of "The Night the Comet Came" had already appeared across the country!
Moreover, this kind of pirated disc is not the kind of stolen disc, and the resolution is not much different from that of genuine DVD discs!
You want to ask them where they got the resources?
It’s so funny, all the major movie theaters across the country are now partners behind various pirate dealers!
The copy arrives on the first day, you can start burning the pirated disc the next day, and it will be shipped on the third day!
There are no mature movie theater lines yet, and the state will only approve private capital to enter the movie theater industry next year!
On June 1, 2002, the first batch of 30 private theater chains in the country were officially established! Only then will cross-city and cross-provincial theater chains be born!
Only in 2005 did private capital invest and settle in!
It can be said that the reform of the theater chain system is an important part of the development of China's film industry, and it is also a window for the reform of China's film industrialization!
Before this reform was implemented, mainland movie theaters didn’t really care much about the box office of released movies.
Because all cinemas before this were non-privately owned.
Whether they make more money from movie screenings has little to do with them. They won't get more money if the movie box office is high. The movie theater industry is a stagnant water!
So now smart people in movie theaters have set their sights on the pirated disc industry!
As long as movie theater employees in various places cooperate with local merchants who deal in pirated discs, they can get a considerable share of the sales and rentals of pirated discs!
So much so that from the 1990s until about 2008, the pirated disc market was very rampant!
Usually it is released in cinemas, but before it is released, pirated discs are already flying all over the place.
Naturally, Wu Yuan's "The Night When the Comet Came" could not escape its clutches.
He does not have the appeal of Feng Xiaogang, who can make audiences willing to go into the cinema and pay for his movies in an era when pirated discs are everywhere.
You know, the ticket price of a movie now is about 30-50 yuan, while a pirated disc can be bought for only 10-20 yuan, and the price is even lower if you rent it!
When you go to the cinema to watch a movie, you can't pause the playback, and it's gone after watching it once. perform
When you buy a disc and watch it at home, you can watch it up, down, left, right, and back, as long as you want, and as many times as you want!
The traditional virtues of the Chinese people include frugality.
Not to mention now, even 20 years later, there will be a lot of people who choose to wait for the movie to be released on the online platform before watching it!
There are high-quality and cheap pirated discs to watch. Unless there is a real reason to go to the cinema to watch it, most people will choose to buy the pirated disc and watch it back.
Not to mention "The Night the Comet Came" is a brain-burning movie!
Watching it hurriedly in the cinema once is not enough to understand and see all the foreshadowing details. It is destined to take two or three viewings of this movie to fully understand it!
Such movies are more suitable for the pirated disc market!
Now pirated disc vendors all over the country love Wu Yuan to death. Even after reporters revealed that Wu Yuan also sold pirated discs, many pirated disc vendors even praised him as their ancestor!
Just like Mr. Guan, he has to bow before doing business every day and pray for good fortune and prosperity!
No wonder Wu Yuan can make a movie so suitable for the piracy industry!
It turns out that he is one of our own, and he comes from the pirated disc business. He knows that the pirated disc market is not easy, so he has come to be the savior!
No kidding!
The movie "The Night the Comet Came" is the most suitable for the DVD rental market in the United States, otherwise Fox Searchlight would not have paid more than one million US dollars to buy the rights!
In China, the box office of this movie exceeded 10 million, but in the pirated disc market, it has created at least 20 million sales!
Wu Yuan doesn't have Feng Xiaogang's ability and charm to make everyone willing to go to the cinema to watch his movies just by his name!
Even if the newspapers are praising him and "The Night the Comet Comes", most ordinary people still prefer to buy a disc to watch it, rather than spending money to go to the cinema to enjoy a one-time service!
Now the 10 million box office is mostly contributed by young people. They generally watch it more than once, and go to the cinema for two or three times, which contributes so much box office!
This is also why "The Night the Comet Comes" has a box office of 10 million in one week, and the gap with Feng's 15 million in ten days is not big, but the estimated total box office is only 20 million.
This movie inherently lacks a basic base of the masses, and the box office is concentrated in the early stage of the screening, so the stamina will be insufficient!
Han Sanye didn't think there was anything wrong, and smiled and said: "It's good to have a box office of 15 million in the end."
"Except for the movie directed by Zhang Yimou at the end of the year, this movie is estimated to be the second or third highest box office this year."
The problem of the piracy industry these days cannot be changed by one or two people, and it is even difficult to eliminate it with the administrative power of the state!
This is a problem of the times!
A series of reforms must be carried out to increase national income and curb industry collusion before there is hope to improve the environment.
This is also the reason why the pirated disc market slowly withered after 2010.
Private cinemas have emerged in various places, and people have developed the habit of watching movies.
Private cinemas rely entirely on box office revenue, so they will pay close attention to internal leaks. In addition, film technology has evolved from film to digital, which is controlled by keys, reducing the risk of leaks from the source.
This is what led to the destruction of the movie piracy market.
Now, even though Han Sanye is the vice chairman of China Film Group, he is powerless in the face of the rampant piracy market.
Of course, Wu Yuan couldn't do that either, as he even sold pirated copies himself.
Not wanting to dwell on this topic any longer, Han Sanye changed the subject and said, "Director Wu, Xiao Chen said that a film company in Hollywood wants to invite you to make a movie?"
"This is a rare opportunity!"
"We Chinese directors should go out more. Hollywood is now the most powerful place in the world for making movies. Young talents like you should go out and give it a try. Even if you fail, it doesn't matter. You can learn a lot of knowledge that you can't learn in China!"
"I know that your Beijing Film Academy's directing department is relatively good at managing students on campus. Strict, but I believe Professor Xie will also support you to go to Hollywood! "
"Of course, if you have any other difficulties and doubts, you can come to me and I will help you solve them!"
Wu Yuan smiled, put down the teacup and coughed lightly: "Director Han, I am already preparing the next script."
"But it is not certain whether Fox Searchlight is willing to cooperate. I will tell you when there is definite news."
"Okay!" Han Sanye smiled like a chrysanthemum, and said happily: "I said, how can a director refuse Hollywood's invitation?"
Really!
Wu Yuan rolled his eyes secretly.
It means that the domestic film market lacks opportunities to make big money now!
Otherwise, no matter how much money Hollywood throws at him, he is too lazy to go!
In Hollywood, where the class has been solidified, he is a Chinese director without any background, not even Chinese. No matter how well he does, there is a ceiling above his head.
The next Ang Lee?
No matter how powerful Li An is, he is just an insignificant Chinese director in Hollywood.
Hollywood is not short of good directors, and Hollywood will not change without Li An.
Going to Hollywood to be a big chess piece is not as good as cultivating the domestic market that will take off in the future?
At least Wu Yuan, who has a good family background, works hard in China and has the opportunity to become one of the chess players in the mainland film industry, rather than just being a chess piece.
The main line is still to make movies, but a person who has the memory of the next 20 years should not be satisfied with being a director only, but will definitely participate in the transformation of the entire industry chain and do something to change the industry.