1RomanceEB Chapter 112 Following the Trend
Chapter 112 Following the Trend
According to media reports, there are reportedly twenty to thirty commercial romance films that have been approved for production this year.
It's foreseeable that once so many similar films are released next year, the fierce competition will cause most of them to fail!
In the end, probably only a few will be able to make a profit!
Following trends has always been a persistent problem in the film industry!
This wasn't just a problem in mainland China; Hong Kong cinema also ruined itself in the same way back then.
Once a genre becomes popular, dozens of films immediately follow suit, ruining the genre, and then they start chasing the next genre!
Actually, Hollywood is similar; it also suffers from rampant copycatting. However, their sheer size and diverse range of genres allow them to sustain themselves more effectively.
However, in the previous life, when all that remained in Hollywood were superhero movies, Hollywood was almost finished!
However, by 2006, Hollywood seemed to have recovered somewhat, producing several excellent films of different styles.
The domestic film market, on the other hand, is almost completely stagnant.
This led to the saying, "There are no good films in China, so Han Han is the pioneer!"
Wang Xiaohao began to feel fortunate that he had started filming "Love Letter," thus avoiding a fierce battle between commercial romance films!
Although Wang Xiaohao believes that if he continues to make commercial romance films, no one else can beat him.
But...
Knowing full well that this is a narrow path, a pit of fire, why would I close my eyes and jump in?
Wang Xiaohao had a premonition: "After filming 'Love Letter,' it's about time for me to make a career change!"
Fortunately, they signed with Wenhua Xingyu, so they can use Gong Yanchang's money to try and transform their business!
Of course, it's too early to talk about this now. Let's finish filming "Love Letter" first!
His collaboration with Jin Ningxin was probably the most worry-free one he's ever had.
The main reason is that Jin Ningxin's side cooperated very well!
The other party agreed to Wang Xiaohao's demand for 30 million yuan in directing fees without any discount.
They're also willing to give us 30% of the box office revenue!
What can Wang Xiaohao say about this?
All I can say is that these nouveau riche are really damn rich!
When Wang Xiaohao collaborated with Magic Cube Company to film "Love Letter," the 20 million yuan director's fee plus 20% of the box office revenue was already quite generous.
I never expected that there would be such a nouveau riche company like Starlight Entertainment behind this!
Wang Xiaohao even suspected that Starlight Company was working for him for nothing this time!
No matter what, Love Letter is just an art film. How much will it ultimately earn?
It's possible that after all the hard work Starlight Entertainment put into this movie, they'll find they haven't even made as much money as Wang Xiaohao!
However, the main purpose of Starlight Company's existence was to serve Jin Ningxin.
However, the owner of Starlight Company was not Jin Ningxin and Lü Xuan, but a middle-aged man named Gong Yanchang.
Qiansheng Hotel belongs to this group company!
This bigwig is very busy; he's a powerful figure within the Qiansheng Group, responsible for many of the group's internal operations.
He only became the CEO of this insignificant Starlight Company to protect Jin Ningxin.
In fact, Wang Xiaohao's initial budget was only 18 million.
After all, Love Letter is just an art film, without any grand scenes.
The technical difficulty shouldn't be higher than that of "My Sassy Girl" or "My Love from the Star".
In any case, "My Love from the Star" still has several large-scale scenes, which will greatly test the director's ability to manage large-scale scenes.
Therefore, Wang Xiaohao believes that filming "Love Letter" actually doesn't cost too much money!
However, on the other hand, the cost of filming has increased in the past two years.
In addition, as it was his first time filming an art film, Wang Xiaohao wasn't very confident.
So we made the budget a bit more generous, and set a budget of 18 million.
As soon as the results were handed to Jin Ningxin, Lü Xuan raised questions.
She believes that the quality of a film must be guaranteed, and an extra ten or twenty million in investment is nothing! So she plans to increase the film's budget to sixty million in one go.
Such a high budget really startled Wang Xiaohao.
With a budget of 60 million, it would take at least 180 million to break even!
This will greatly increase the pressure to break even.
Love Letter is a slow-paced art film, not a fast-paced commercial film.
It's hard to guarantee that Wang Xiaohao's box office will break 100 million!
Besides, with a budget of 60 million, who knows how much of it they might embezzle!
Wang Xiaohao wants to have a long career in the film industry, so he naturally needs to cherish his reputation.
I don't want to get that kind of reputation!
So Wang Xiaohao did a lot of persuasion and finally managed to reduce the film's budget to 25 million!
Even so, if we add his directing fee of 30 million...
So the production cost of this movie reached 55 million.
This made Wang Xiaohao very uneasy!
He even felt that his 30 million yuan director's fee was a bit too high. Not to mention, there was also a 30% share of the box office revenue!
To be honest, if it were a commercial film like "My Sassy Girl" or "My Love from the Star",...
Wang Xiaohao felt that the compensation he received was acceptable.
After all, a commercial film can earn the production company tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.
It's no big deal for Wang Xiaohao to take a little more!
However, it seems really inappropriate for Wang Xiaohao to receive so much money for an art film that is clearly unlikely to be a box office hit!
With a production cost of 55 million, the pressure to break even is 165 million.
Wang Xiaohao felt that, given his box office appeal after starring in "My Sassy Girl" and "My Love from the Star," there was a good chance that "Love Letter" would gross around 100 million yuan!
Wang Xiaohao was really unsure about the amount of 160-170 million!
Moreover, this is without taking into account the cost of publicity and marketing.
The 55 million is just the production cost; the marketing and distribution costs may require another 5 to 8 million.
That's between 60 million and 63 million.
The final box office return pressure is still between 180 million and 190 million!
Wang Xiaohao was genuinely worried that he wouldn't be able to recoup his losses!
Besides, Wang Xiaohao also receives 30% of the box office revenue from this film.
He even suspected that in the end, Wenhua Starlight Company would not only have worked for nothing, but might even lose tens of millions of yuan.
Wang Xiaohao made all the money!
At this point, Gong Yanchang wanted to increase production costs, how could Wang Xiaohao dare to agree?
Mr. Gong, of course, had no idea what Wang Xiaohao was thinking. He said seriously, "If you don't have enough money, you can call to add more investment."
But the film's quality must be guaranteed!
Wang Xiaohao said, "Twenty-five million in filming funds is more than enough!"
Any more and we'll be under pressure to break even!
Actually, based on the current investment, I need around 170 million in box office revenue to break even.
Mr. Gong, this is an art film.
"I'm fairly confident it will gross around 100 million; anything more and I'm worried it won't break even!"
That's very clear!
Gong Yanchang was naturally able to understand.