Chapter 1403 Collapse

With time difference and mileage, Simon arrived in Beijing at 7 o'clock in the morning on Tuesday, September 29.

Chen Qing came to pick up the plane as usual.

After getting in the car and leaving the airport, we chatted a few words about Simon's trip to Moscow, and then talked about the excitement of the movie circle in China.

It is mainly about "Jing Ke Assassins the King of Qin".

Just last Saturday, on the night of September 27th, when the Simons were in Ukraine, Director Chen’s "Jing Ke Assassins the King of Qin" held a grand premiere in the Great Hall, and it was scheduled to be released tomorrow, just in time for the National Day holiday.

Immediately there was controversy.

This is still to start from the beginning. Overseas, even if nothing was obtained at the previous Venice Film Festival, the media reputation of "Jing Ke Assassins the King of Qin" is not bad.

Then there is Japan.

The main investor of this film is Japan, and after all these years, it is clear at a glance whether a film can win awards in the West, and the possibility of being upset is very low. Therefore, when "Jing Ke Assassins the King of Qin" was fully completed, before the film could be shown in Venice, the Japanese investor, who basically had no expectation of awards, arranged for the project to be released in Japan in early May before the summer holiday.

The results can be said to be very good.

In the first week of its release, the film took the third place in the box office list of the week, and by the end of the next file, "Jing Ke Assassins the King of Qin" had accumulated a box office of 1.4 billion yen in Japan, equivalent to 83 million RMB at the current exchange rate. .

Because the market is mature, the box office share of Japanese theater producers is higher than that of China and South Korea, about 50%. It is estimated that there will be about 40 million more video tapes and TV broadcasting channels.

Then there is the European and American markets.

Although Venice was defeated in terms of impact on honor, but with the fame accumulated from the previous "Farewell My Concubine", coupled with the success of the previous "Hero", the copyright sales of the film in Europe and the United States also reached 7 million US dollars.

Converted into RMB, Japan received 80 million, Europe and the United States received 60 million, totaling 140 million. Even if Director Chen increased the project cost from 70 million to 100 million, this has achieved a fairly good profit.

Even Simon was a little surprised.

Because Jinshu also has investment here, Simon thought it was going to be a waste of money at first, but he didn't expect that he had already made a lot of money before it was released in China.

Of course, it is still incomparable with "Hero".

Even if the global distribution is still going on, "Hero" is expected to have a global box office of more than 200 million US dollars, converted into RMB, which is more than 10 times that of "Jing Ke Assassins the King of Qin".

Then there is China.

When "Hero" was released, Simon adopted a large-scale introduction of overseas public opinion to set the tone of the film's word-of-mouth in advance, avoiding the kind of controversy in history to the greatest extent, coupled with the film's excellent marketing and "Titanic". With the mobilization of national sentiment, "Hero" finally achieved a box office of 320 million in mainland China.

Big hit.

However, this time, "Jing Ke Assassins the King of Qin" did not have the luck of "Hero".

The domestic distributor of the film is China Film, which has a successful case of "Hero". Of course, China Film will not ignore the experience. The excellent box office in the Japanese market that has been released is 1.4 billion yen, equivalent to 83 million. For Chinese films, this is definitely a very good result.

It's a pity that the problem still lies in the plot of "Jing Ke Assassins the King of Qin".

Let's talk about "Heroes" first. This is basically a completely fictional story with the Qin Dynasty as the background. Since the story is largely fictional, there is actually not much to entangle in the plot.

However, "Jing Ke Assassins the King of Qin", the same assassination of Qin, this is what actually happened in history.

Here comes the problem.

The Japanese don't understand Chinese history, so they took "Jing Ke Assassins the King of Qin" over, just like the Three Kingdoms, and they can read it with gusto without delving into it. However, for the Chinese, who doesn't know that Jing Ke assassinated the Qin Dynasty, who doesn't know that "the wind is rustling, the water is cold, and the strong man will never return when he is gone"?

In the end, what everyone saw was Dao Chen's fancy modification of the history of Jing Ke's assassination of Qin Dynasty.

This is really unacceptable.

So, after the premiere in the bustling auditorium, the media immediately became agitated, mostly criticizing the film, accusing the film of "fabricating" and "far-fetched" blah-blah-blah.

In the car rushing from the Capital Airport to the city.

Chen Qing leaned on her boss and talked about this matter: "Based on the current trend of public opinion, it will be released tomorrow, let alone break 100 million at the box office, 50 million is very low, and it may be lower. Moreover, although this time it made money, everyone I understand that what is consumed is actually the word-of-mouth accumulated by the last "Farewell My Concubine", and even the popularity that "Hero" has just accumulated for Chinese films. The Japanese investors in charge of overseas distribution probably also see this. Overseas markets are basically Selling out, recently it was released in some European countries, the box office is completely incomparable with "Hero", and the distributors want to return it, and Director Chen's reputation has collapsed."

Simon couldn't say anything about that either.

In my memory, after "Jing Ke Assassins the King of Qin", Director Chen was indeed silent for a few years, and could only film TV series and the like.

My boss didn't speak, but Chen Qing thought of another thing: "Boss, Daenerys should have obtained the distribution rights of "Jing Ke Assassins the King of Qin", wouldn't it also be a buyout?"

Simon shook his head and said, "Divide."

Ella Deutschman also specifically discussed this project with Simon, because after seeing the finished film, he was really not confident. The Gaomen Films team was only willing to pay a maximum of 300,000 US dollars to win the North American omni-channel copyright of the film. The Japanese film studio operating the project overseas naturally disagreed, and finally signed a sharing agreement.

Probably also want to fight.

The film is scheduled to be released on a small scale next month, and the number of opening screens is only about 50 yuan, so there will be no splashes, so there will be no aftermath.

Simon actually didn't want the film to enter North American theaters at all.

As Chen Qing said just now, it is easy to consume the popularity accumulated by Chinese films. But there is no way, many things cannot be considered purely for commercial interests, and when the impact is not large, human relations must be taken into account.

Chen Qing was relieved to hear that her boss said that it was a share, and then said: "Also, because of the media's accusations of 'making up and making up' of "Jing Ke Assassination of the King of Qin" these days, China Film has criticized the three parts of "Chu Han" Qu is a little hesitant again, this project is also based on historical facts, and has been adapted to a large extent?"

Simon wasn't worried, he covered Chen Qing's small hand with his big hands, and said, "It's different, "Jing Ke Assassinates the King of Qin" is positioned as a historical drama, and it is more serious and biased towards historical facts." , at least the audience subconsciously think so. When the result is not as expected, criticism is inevitable. The positioning of the "Chu Han" trilogy is similar to "Hero". Similarly, the audience will subconsciously recognize the fictional elements in it. Moreover, the most important thing is that the movie is made for the audience after all. I have seen the finished film of "Jing Ke Assassins the King of Qin", and most of the audience should not like it too much. For the "Chu and Han" trilogy, it is still the same as "Heroes", or it will be better than "Heroes". For standard commercial films, as long as the finished film is not much different from our original concept, the result will be the same as "Heroes". It won't be much different."

After Chen Qing listened carefully, she nodded with a smile and said, "I'll tell them what the boss said later, and see who is still talking."

Simon just smiled and said no more.

It was just after eight o'clock in the morning when we arrived at the mansion in Mao'er Hutong in the city center.

Although it was a nine-hour flight, the Boeing 767 was comfortable enough, and Simon didn't need much rest, so he started his schedule after a short rest.

Three hours in the morning, I went to the construction site of Levison International Center first, and had a small meeting with the responsible team here while checking the construction progress of the project. With Chen Qing watching, Simon had nothing to worry about, mainly to see on the spot , be aware of it.

Then go to Zhongguancun.

Here is a meeting with several new technology teams, mainly Xiangshan Network, which is in charge of the game business, and Huanyu Online, which focuses on e-commerce.

Both company teams officially launched their products this summer.

Among them, Xiangshan Network, which is responsible for the operation of "StarCraft", is not as popular as "Counter-Strike OL" obtained by Suzhou Jiangnan Interactive Entertainment, but it is also a good start. On the contrary, Huanyu Online, Huanyu Mall started operation in July, and it is still in a state of burning money to explore, and the market scope is limited to the Beijing area.

At present, Chinese residents still attach great importance to the purchase of large-scale household appliances, and online shopping is a relatively virtual channel, so it is inevitable to worry about it. Therefore, the start of Huanyu Online is not as good as expected, and there is still a long way to go.

Simon wasn't in a hurry either.

Now that we have seen the future, China has built a bunch of teams, direct and collateral, how many will succeed in the end.

Moreover, because it has basically monopolized the current domestic traffic portal channels in China, Simon is not even too worried about Cheng Yaojin who will be killed halfway this time. No traffic, no customers, no online payment channels like Yifubao, what can be done, Simon will...well, of course he doesn't.

Just kill it.

At noon, we arrived at the Human World Society headquarters on the north shore of Houhai.

Chen Qing selected a group of guests who came from all over the country in advance, mainly the heads of the key investment enterprises of the Westeros system in China. Everyone ate and chatted together, and then drank tea and listened to music until three o'clock in the afternoon. .

Later in the afternoon, I went with Chen Qing to see the decoration status of the two apartment buildings in the Guanchengyuan Community that I bought last time. In the evening, I returned to Maoer Hutong for simple preparations. As usual, I went to Huangchenggen to participate in a routine reception dinner.

Didn't return again until ten o'clock in the evening.

Nothing to say all night.

The next day is Wednesday, September 30th.

Tomorrow is National Day, apart from "Jing Ke Assassinates the King of Qin", which is on a large scale today, Simon only found out during breakfast that another small project of Jin Shu will be released at the same time, called "It's Okay to Have Fun".

That's right, it's "It's Okay to Have Fun" starring Uncle Feng.

At the beginning, Simon was planning to let Uncle Feng act in "Love Call Transfer", but of course he failed in the end. Unexpectedly, he still hooked up with Jin Shu later.

The project was brought in by Zhang Guoshi. The script came from Zhang Guoshi's queen screenwriter. A well-known domestic celebrity, not only participated in Zhang Guoshi's early films such as "Ju Dou" and "Qiu Ju's Lawsuit", the original timeline, Later, he also directed major productions such as "Assembly Number" and "Jinling Thirteen Hairpins".

This time the urban comedy "It's Nothing to Steal Fun" is also the lead writer of the other party. Depending on the genre, it can be said to be an absolute all-rounder.

Compared with the large investment of "Jing Ke Assassins the King of Qin", "It's All Right" has a budget of only 6 million. As long as the theater box office can break through 10 million and follow up with a little more, it can enter the profit cycle. Therefore, compared with "Jing Ke Assassins the King of Qin" where all parties are concerned about gains and losses, Jin Ke's assassination of the King of Qin

The book's attitude towards "It's Nothing to Steal Joy" is very relaxed.

Now that we talked about "It's Nothing to Steal Music", it is inevitable to talk about the development of Jinshu Department in China in the past half a year.

Simon really let go before, and ignored many things, so he didn't know.

As of September this year, Jinshu is still a bumper year. This year's "Private Interview with Kangxi Weifu" and the second season of "Super Girl" are still phenomenal. There are also several key TV projects such as "The Mansion Gate" waiting to be released. , In terms of movies, "Party A and Party B" and "Flash Girl" co-operated with China Film Group are already in the final stage of production, and both are targeting next year's Lunar New Year.

Another "To Our Perishing Youth", although it was planned at the same time as "Flash Girl", was postponed for one year because it couldn't catch up with this year's summer vacation. Since there is enough time, Jinshu also strives for perfection, planning to shoot in stages, gathering shots from all seasons of the year, so as to give the story a sense of time passing.

After completing the first phase of filming in the summer, the next step is to wait for the winter vacation at the end of the year.

The schedule is next summer.

Then there is the "Chu Han" trilogy, which is also a multi-party cooperation project. Even with all kinds of ups and downs, Zhang Guoshi has already formed a team and is in the early stages of scene scouting and casting. Of course, the development progress of the project that Simon originally expected to launch the first part at the end of 1999 is definitely not going to happen. To be on the safe side, the first part may not be launched until the end of 2000.

The two-year cycle undoubtedly means greater risks, not to mention the continuous shooting of the trilogy, which is why China Film has always been scrupulous.

At the same time, I can't stop.

In case of success, the same sentence, political achievements.

Now that he is determined to let go, Simon has no plan to visit Jinshu this time. After continuing to form a day in the capital, he is about to fly to Hangzhou in the evening. After all, tomorrow is the little guy's 1st birthday. Okay, but unexpectedly, Ren Jingxi who heard the news came to the door.

It is said that "Legend of Sword and Fairy" is basically completed, and I want Simon to help me take a look.

No time.

However, the woman persevered, and said that she could follow her on the plane, or watch a movie and discuss it on the way.

Simon had no choice but to agree.

I didn't discuss it on the plane, but arranged it in Suzhou. After celebrating the little guy's birthday, I have to go there.