Huayu 1992, my entertainment era

Chapter 175: Introducing Hollywood Movies

Zhou Ziheng regretted his decision to become a director again.

Since May, he has been stuck on the set because of crew matters and is almost completely unable to leave.

He didn't even have time to attend the Wanwan Golden Melody Awards.

Not only that, the director needs to be responsible for the crew and not let the tens of millions of dollars he invested go to waste.

He didn't even have time to record songs. Every day he was either in the editing room checking yesterday's shooting or on the set rotating between director and actor.

However, because he was a new director and was not familiar with many matters of the crew, the filming progress of "Tazza" became very slow.

Just like what Zhou Ziheng knew, when Jiang Wen was shooting his debut film "Sunny Days", in order to represent the quality of the film, he directly used a large amount of film to pile up.

So does he.

The shooting was completed in the originally planned month.

Because he didn't understand the position of director and he was the leading actor, the shooting progress became extremely slow.

It took him more than two months to finish filming the play "The Swindler".

There is no problem with the quality of the movie.

This is almost a play that was made with money.

The original budget was only eight million, and Zhou Ziheng later added another five million, bringing the total investment to more than thirteen million.

This does not include the remuneration of Tony Leung, Lizhi and others, they performed for free.

If they all received pay.

The investment will be greater.

Even though Tony Leung's film pay is only considered middle class in Hong Kong, it is still at least one or two million.

Li Zhi earns a little less, but she is actually also a famous top-paid actress in Hong Kong, and she can't get a film salary without a million.

Not to mention others like Wang Zhiwen and others.

If they were included, the investment would be even greater.

The original plan was just to make a small or medium-sized investment movie, but in the end it turned into a large investment with considerable costs. This really made Zhou Ziheng depressed for several days.

After this incident, Zhou Ziheng gave up the idea of ​​becoming a director.

It would be better for him to go back and release his records peacefully, and then he would have a better future as the boss of a film and television company or a record company.

It’s not busy yet, and I can take a few days off from time to time.

On July 10, the crew held a small-scale wrap-up party, and then the crew temporarily disbanded.

The next time we get together we will have to wait until the movie is released in late August.

However, Zhou Ziheng himself had no free time after the filming of the movie was completed.

First of all, he has to prepare for recording his next album this year.

Also, he had to go to the United States to negotiate the introduction of films to Hengyu Cinemas.

It’s actually not that difficult to introduce and release movies.

After all, he owns a fairly respectable cinema chain in Hong Kong, and as long as the Hollywood film companies are not against money, they will not refuse Hengyu's introduction.

However, you need to consider carefully who to cooperate with.

Zhou Ziheng not only intended to introduce movies for release, he also wanted to establish relationships with Hollywood film companies.

Just like Golden Harvest and New Line Cinema.

The two companies entered into a strategic partnership several years ago.

New Line Cinema's films will be distributed and released in Hong Kong by Golden Harvest, and some of Golden Harvest's successful films will be distributed by New Line Cinema.

The most commendable one among them is "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" produced by Golden Harvest.

This 1990 live-action animated film, invested by Golden Harvest and produced by New Line, earned Golden Harvest over HK$ billion in revenue in the United States.

Oh! It is worth mentioning that this Ninja Turtle is actually the first "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles".

Zhou Ziheng himself benefited from the European and American markets. His album "Zhou Ziheng" achieved exceptionally brilliant results in Europe and America, earning him a lot of money.

With this sweet taste, he is of course even more jealous of the European and American markets.

Therefore, reaching cooperation with European and American companies in film and television is actually something that is very worthwhile to do.

On July 12, Zhou Ziheng rushed to the United States and met with film and television companies under two Hollywood giants, Warner and Fox, to discuss cooperation.

Zhou Ziheng was quite satisfied with the final result.

Warner was very perfunctory towards Zhou Ziheng.

Because Golden Harvest and New Line are partners, and the relationship between Golden Harvest and Hengyu is very strained, Warner refused to cooperate with Hengyu without even much discussion.

However, 20th Century Fox is very interested in Hengyu.

The two parties signed an agreement that was OK for Hengyu.

First of all, Fox’s films in Hong Kong will be directly authorized to Hengyu Cinemas for release.

Then there is the issue of cooperation. If Hengyu comes up with a project that Fox is interested in, Fox is willing to cooperate with Hengyu.

In fact, this kind of cooperation is only a very shallow one.

It doesn’t mean that Hengyu’s films can be directly distributed by Fox and then the profits can be shared.

Hollywood is very domineering.

They will not allow outsiders to participate in the profit sharing and will only accept buyouts.

But this is enough for Zhou Ziheng for the time being.

Just like when he first looked for partners for his album "Sad Pacific", no record distribution company was willing to give him a share of the profits.

The same goes for movies.

If you can't offer something that impresses the other party, it is impossible for them to make concessions on profits.

Next, what Zhou Ziheng needs to do is to produce a project that will attract Fox and make Fox willing to give up its share of the profits.

Under the attack of interests, no matter how solid the defense is, it will collapse one day.

However, that day may still be some time away.

The project of "Tazza" did not excite Hollywood.

This movie is a standard Asian movie, and the starring structure has already determined that it is impossible for this movie to make a difference in Hollywood.

Most importantly, it's not an action movie.

To be honest, except for action movies, it seems to be really difficult for Asian movies to achieve good results in Hollywood.

On July 19, Zhou Ziheng returned to Hong Kong from the United States.

He did not return empty-handed, he brought back two movies, one of which was "Brave Heart", a co-production between Fox and Paramount, which was released in the United States in May.

This movie was released in the United States just a few days ago and has grossed a total of 750 million US dollars.

The other one is "Die Hard 3" produced and released by Fox itself. This movie performed better at the box office in the United States, with a total box office of million US dollars.

Both films have now begun to be released worldwide.

Well, the only places missing are Hong Kong, Taiwan and others.

This is not surprising.

It is actually still quite difficult to introduce it from Taiwan. Although the restrictions have been relaxed now, there are still quantity restrictions.

As for Hong Kong, Hong Kong films were still very strong during this period.

Unless it is a movie that has caused a lot of heated discussion around the world.

Otherwise, generally speaking, many Hollywood movies will not be introduced to Hong Kong.

This can be seen from the Hong Kong annual box office chart in previous years. Since the 1980s, only one or two films have occasionally made it into the top ten of Hong Kong's box office chart every year.

Hong Kong's own films can make money, so theaters will naturally not go to the trouble of introducing foreign films.

(End of this chapter)