Huayu: From an ordinary person to a happy director

Chapter 37 Creating a Video Website
Half an hour later, Yang Mi walked out of Shi Lei's room, wiping the corners of her mouth with a tissue as she walked.

In the office, Shi Lei estimated how much money his company had. He didn't know how much tax he had to pay. The newly hired accountants were still calculating various accounts and were already overwhelmed. They said they would wait until the end of the year to file taxes.

All the proceeds from Empty Room were invested in The Matrix: Keepers, so there wasn't much left.

The share of revenue from domestic theaters has not yet arrived. Taolin Film and Television's main income comes from foreign copyrights of US$1750 million. The exchange rate is 8.2, so the income is 1.435 million RMB, of which Taolin Film and Television accounts for 5% and Shi Lei's personal studio accounts for 80%. Taolin Film and Television's income is 725 million RMB, and Shi Lei's personal studio is 1.148 million RMB.

However, Taolin Film and Television did not transfer all the money to the personal studio. The personal studio asked Taolin Film and Television to transfer whatever amount was needed.

So Taolin Film and Television owes money to Shi Lei's personal studio.

Now my personal studio has purchased some staff dormitories, courtyard houses, houses and villas, spending a total of 3000 million.

Taolin Film and Television spent a total of 5400 million yuan on investing in movies and TV series.

"Million Dollar Baby" requires an investment of 720 million US dollars, or 5904 million RMB.

There is still a gap of more than 2000 million!

By the way, for Million Dollar Baby he could offer himself a salary of $300 million, and the gap would be filled. It's a pity that it's not a commercial film, otherwise he could have offered himself a salary of $700 million.

However, he still had to urge the cinema to have some money in the account.

Shi Lei called Han Sanpin.

"Hey, have you finished your script? When will it be delivered?" Han Sanpin asked bluntly.

Shi Lei was stunned for a moment, then replied: "It's done, but the crossover shot is not finished yet. I called to ask because I saw you were anxious."

"Then have someone send it over quickly!" Han Sanpin said immediately.

"Okay, I'll personally deliver the script tomorrow and discuss the investment in another film." Since Han Sanpin wants the martial arts film script, he'll send "Million Dollar Baby" over as well.

"You really wouldn't call me if there was nothing wrong. This is the reason why you called me! Okay, come over tomorrow!" Han Sanping is an old hand. He knew Shi Lei's trick as soon as he heard it.

The next day, Shi Lei walked into Han Sanpin's office with two scripts. The last time he told Mike from Warner that China Film wanted to hold a 30% stake, it was actually just a trick to deceive Mike. He didn't have time to negotiate at all.

Han Sanpin took the script, threw "Million Dollar Baby" aside, and picked up "Sword Rain" to read first.

In the previous life, the reputation of the movie "Sword Rain" gradually rose from 5.9 to 7.7, which shows that it is still worth watching, but the box office was very low, only more than 6000 million. Such a low box office was actually the producer's own fault.

"Sword Rain" was released in 10, when martial arts films still had some market.

However, the producers of "Sword Rain" used a wrong promotional method. The early promotion was more like an art film, while the focus of the later promotion was actually Big S's "passionate scenes", which made the audience mistakenly believe that this was an unhealthy pornographic movie.

What audiences like now is martial arts. You can incorporate your own ideas into martial arts, but the publicity must promote martial arts!

Secondly, the Taiwanese director of "The Thing", Su Zhaobing, is not very famous in mainland China, the male lead, Jung Woo-sung, is Korean, and the female lead, Yang Ziqiong, does not have much box office appeal in mainland China.

The low box office is due to many factors.

Now he has brought forward the release date of this film to 05, which can be regarded as catching up with the last wave of traditional martial arts films, and he would not spend 2000 million to invite Yang Ziqiong to be the leading actress.

Yang Ziqiong is no longer at the peak of her beauty, and cannot attract box office attention either in mainland China or internationally.

Controlling costs is the key to making money.

As long as we control the costs, get the support of China Film Group, and do a good job of publicity, we can make money with the quality of "Sword Rain".

Due to the importance China Film Group places on blockbusters, both publicity and various resources will be tilted towards blockbusters, which is also the reason why some films can get high box office.

An hour later, Han Sanpin finished reading the script of "Sword Rain" and was quite satisfied. "How much are you going to invest?"

"Be prepared to invest 20 million." Shi Lei didn't plan to do anything outrageous this time, because he knew that next year's "Night Banquet" would be a rip-off, and the year after's "The Promise" would scare people so much that they wouldn't even want a deposit.

His goal is just to maintain his popularity in the country, but martial arts films are not sustainable after all, so he needs to explore other fields.

"Only 20 million? This is too low. Let's raise it to 50 million!" Han Sanpin was not very satisfied with this investment amount.

"Mr. Han, I'm not Zhang Yimou, who can make films that fit the budget. No matter how much money you give me, the films I make will still be about the same. It's better to reduce costs and make money." He is not a gifted genius, and his current ability is limited to shooting small scenes with dozens of people.

He is still unable to control large scenes with hundreds or thousands of people, and he still needs to accumulate experience.

"You... forget it, take your time!" Han Sanpin also knew that not everyone was Zhang Yimou.

Shi Lei nodded, pointed to the script beside him, and said, "Boss Han, please take a look at Million Dollar Baby. The cost of this film is 1800 million US dollars. I plan to take 40% of the profit, China Film Group will take 30%, and Warner will take 30%.

Don't worry, this film will definitely not lose money. If it does, Taolin Films will give all the profits to China Film Group to make up for its losses."

Han Sanpin was unhappy: "What are you talking about? China Film can still come up with 540 million US dollars. China Film can afford the loss."

"Thank you for your support, Mr. Han, but you should still submit it first. If it doesn't work, China Film's investment can be reduced." He insisted on involving China Film because he was afraid that Warner would cook the books. If China Film didn't want to invest that much, 10% would be fine.

"Okay, don't worry about it. With your reputation and my support, we can still come up with an investment of more than 4000 million." Director Han waved his hand, very confidently.

"Thank you Mr. Han for your strong support. There is one last thing. Can you urge the theaters to settle the bill quickly?" Shi Lei did not continue to dwell on it, but changed the subject.

"No problem. We can ask the theater to pay half first. It will be credited to your account within a month. The rest will probably take several months."

"Thank you, Mr. Han." It's September now, so just a few months!

If half of the box office is settled, it will be more than 5000 million, and he will get about 1900 million, so he feels confident again.

After saying goodbye and returning to the company, he immediately set up an IT department in the company and recruited employees from outside.

Lured by his high salary, the IT department was officially established a month later. He generously allocated 1000 million yuan to let them create a video website. He did not publicize the news, but it still spread in the industry.

Everyone thinks Shi Lei is a fool. Not many people can afford to buy a computer. The average household internet speed is 1M, and the domestic internet speed is not very smooth. It is estimated that watching a video requires buffering. It is a completely losing business.

"Boss, why don't we just forget it? It would be better to create a music website instead of a video website!" Deng Hongxu walked into Shi Lei's office and tried to persuade him.

"This reminds me to allocate 100 million yuan to build a music website." Shi Lei slapped his head and suddenly realized.

After a pause, he added: "Set up a copyright purchasing department and have them go around buying all kinds of music copyrights, film and television drama copyrights, and novel and film adaptation copyrights at low prices."

Nowadays, due to the rampant piracy, these copyrights are very cheap.

The rights to adapt novels into films and TV shows are very cheap, ranging from a few thousand to tens of thousands. The music copyrights are only for songs that are somewhat popular, and the upper limit of the copyright fee may be hundreds of thousands. The upper limit of the rights to broadcast TV series and TV shows on the Internet is also hundreds of thousands. This price really cannot be high. In the previous life, "Wulin Waijia" was only sold for 10, not to mention other TV series.

When Deng Hongxu heard this, his expression suddenly changed. Is his boss crazy?

"Boss, everything is free online now, so you don't have to spend money to buy copyrights."

Shi Lei stared at Deng Hongxu with a serious expression and said solemnly: "We, Taolin Film and Television, are one of the best film and television production companies in the industry. We must set a good example and cannot take the lead in piracy."

Deng Hongxu looked at Shi Lei's serious expression, his heart skipped a beat, and he nodded, "Yes, boss, I understand."

However, he still had some other thoughts in mind. He wanted to keep the price as low as possible, and he would use it anyway even if he couldn't buy the copyright, and he would deal with it later if he was sued.

(End of this chapter)