Rebirth of the Great Entertainment Empire

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The Lunar New Year holiday in 1993 passed.

The boycott of Hong Kong films that had been brewing for a long time finally appeared-in early April, the film industry in Taiwan held a meeting to discuss the issue of lowering the prices of Hong Kong films. Overseas Friendship Group, proposed to suppress production costs and resist rising actors' salaries.

Immediately afterwards, the Hong Kong and Taiwan film industry started negotiations with the Hong Kong Film Association.

Taiwanese filmmakers pointed out at the meeting that as of April 24, 1993, Xiangjiang has more than 250 Taiwan-funded Hong Kong films that have not been delivered on schedule, and they should be completed as soon as possible, Film practitioners The Association should make a list of Hong Kong's first-line actors receiving plays for reference by Taiwan businessmen, and form a monitoring group to negotiate the remuneration of Hong Kong stars and propose to use commissions to distribute Hong Kong films, such as 2% of the box office within 10 million. Ten, 15% commission for box office over 10 million three requirements.

actually--

It is said that the remuneration of Xiangjiang stars is ridiculously high, mainly referring to those blockbuster directors and popular movie stars.

For example, the films directed by Wang Jing are often hot sellers, and the director’s salary he gets is not only high, but also often has a share of the box office; another example is Andy Lau, although his reputation in Xiangjiang is not as good as that of Double Monday, he is very popular in Taiwan. market, so his current film salary is 8 million, catching up with Zhou Runfa, Zhou Xingchi, Cheng Long and others, and even surpassing Xu Guanwen, Xu Guanjie and Zhang Guorong. As for those second- and third-rate directors and actors, although their income is also lower than In the past, there was a significant increase, but that was because of the prosperity of Hong Kong films, so the remuneration these people get is actually quite reasonable.

Yang Dengkui (the chairman of the Taiwan Producers Association at the time) said: Nowadays, if you invest in a film with 20 million Hong Kong dollars, the salary for the leading role and director alone will be more than 10 million. If there are two or three popular supporting roles, it will only be The salary has already exceeded 15 million, what is the remaining 5 million, the director can only make bad movies to fool the audience, so the salary of stars, especially first-line stars, must be kept down.

Xu Guanwen, the president of the newly established Xiangjiang Performing Artists Association this year, said: If you control the world and the land, how much money do you make? Besides, this is Zhou Yu who is willing to beat Huang Gai and suffer.

Xu Anjin said: Now we don't want to suffer anymore. If we don't make money, we still lose money. Whoever wants to play will play, and we will specify not to play!

Cai Songlin followed closely and said: There are still films that have not been delivered on schedule, when will they be delivered?——When she said this, Cai Songlin looked at the pit king Wang Jiawei who was sitting in the corner without hesitation.

Xiang Huasheng said lightly: Stars are paid high salaries, and the film cannot be delivered on schedule. Everyone is responsible, and your investors are even more responsible. You want big stars, big casts, big directors, and you don't read the script but only recognize the face. , Hire whoever is popular, for the sake of the box office, there is nothing wrong with you doing this, but this actually raises the star's salary.

Xiang Huaqiang chimed in and said, Let's talk about Evil and West Poison that you invested in, Mr. Cai. Wang Jiawei can get 20 million Hong Kong dollars from you with film contracts from several stars and a plan to adapt Jin Yong's novels. Investment. Did you really think carefully before investing? I’m afraid you don’t even know what kind of movie he wants to make? What’s the result? The result is that Wang Jiawei didn’t make a movie for more than half a year. The budget of more than 20 million Hong Kong dollars has been used up. Can you blame the high salary of movie stars?

As soon as Xiang Huaqiang's words came out, Cai Songlin's old face immediately turned red—now, his investment in Wang Jiawei's The Legend of Xie Diao Heroes: East Evil and West Poison has become a joke in the movie circle!

And Wang Jiawei, who was sitting in the corner, was even more embarrassed - he only shot one opening title in half a year, which is indeed rare in Hong Kong films, especially when the production cost of more than 20 million yuan was spent!

but--

Wang Jiawei has his own insistence, he doesn't want to make those stereotyped follow-up films, he just shoots those films with depth!

Moreover, the current Wang Jiawei is holding back his energy and preparing to make a movie that will make everyone shut up!

Therefore, despite the embarrassment, Wang Jiawei still sat in the corner without saying a word like an old monk in meditation.

Seeing that Wang Jiawei did not intend to stand up and explain at all, the Taiwan authorities, especially Cai Songlin, were even more angry!

Cai Songlin stood up and said angrily: Hong Kong films made billions in Taiwan last year because we lobbied the government to promulgate a new local film protection law, which restricts films from Hollywood and other regions. If you can't give us If we get a satisfactory answer, we will lobby the government to change the local film protection law, in a word, if we can't make money, everyone will break up!

Cai Songlin's words were not aimless.

It is precisely because of the lobbying of Taiwanese filmmakers who participated in the investment and production of Hong Kong films that the Taiwan authorities promulgated that an American film can only be imported into Taiwan with a maximum of eight copies. Taiwan can only be screened in a maximum of eight cinemas. The new local film protection law.

As soon as this new local film protection law came out, it greatly restricted the competitiveness of Hollywood films in Taiwan. This is also a very important reason why non-DreamWorks Hong Kong films were not driven out of the Taiwan film market by Hollywood films.

If this new local film protection law is changed, it may be a disaster for non-Dreamworks Hong Kong films!

Hearing Cai Songlin's words, Xiang Huasheng stood up slowly, and said darkly, Are you threatening us?

Seeing Xiang Huasheng showing this expression, Xiang Huaqiang also stood up, and then glanced at the filmmakers around the corner!

Yang Dengkui stood up slowly and said in an ultimatum tone: If you can't give us a satisfactory answer today, we will suspend the purchase of Hong Kong films until you can give us a satisfactory answer. If we get a satisfactory answer, then we must lobby the government to relax the limit on the number of copies of Western and Japanese films released in Taiwan!

As soon as Yang Dengkui's words fell, Cai Songlin and others also stood up one after another, expressing their determination to advance and retreat together!

After all, Cai Songlin and Wang Yingxiang are one of the shareholders of New Era, and they have more entanglements with Xiangjiang. Therefore, they glanced at each other, and Wang Ying said: You won't do business that doesn't make money, and we won't do it either. Therefore, if this matter cannot be resolved, it must end in one film and two parts... In my opinion, we might as well ask Mr. Xu to come out and uphold justice.

As soon as Wang Yingxiang's words came out, the atmosphere of the confrontation between the two sides immediately eased, and then both sides said one after another:

Yes, please Mr. Xu to uphold justice!

Mr. Wang's suggestion is good. I'm afraid that only Mr. Xu can come out to solve this matter.

Then what are you waiting for, send someone to invite Mr. Xu now!

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