Chapter 278 Losing money and making a profit

On Douban, "Investiture of the Gods" has a score of 6.9.

This score is not high, but it has not fallen into the category of bad movies. It is only 0.2 points lower than Liu Weiqiang’s previous special effects blockbuster "Feng Yun Xiong Ba Tian Xia".

Many fans also praised the film from various angles, saying that Liu Weiqiang's acting skills are still as good as before.

Unfortunately, as the film continued to be popular, negative reviews increased and the score continued to decline, almost reaching the same level as "Chinese Hero".

But what Wang Zhonglei cares about is not the film ratings, but the box office performance.

It should be noted that the total investment of this film is said to be 100 million US dollars.

Of course, they didn't dare to invest so much, but they still had 50 or 60 million US dollars.

It would be terrible if the box office performance was too bad.

Fortunately, the box office performance on the first day was still strong, with more than 4100 million. If the subsequent trend does not fall too much, the box office in the mainland market will still reach or million.

Thinking of this, all the senior executives of Huayi were excited.

In the current mainland market, in terms of the box office performance of individual films, apart from Jiang Heng’s films, there has been no work that has been able to exceed 500 million!

If "Investiture of the Gods" can be achieved, it will be of great significance.

Huayi Company, conference room.

Upon hearing that the cumulative box office had exceeded 200 million, everyone showed joy on their faces.

An executive said: "It's a pity that Jiang Heng only released "The Kingdom of Women". If "Investiture of the Gods" had dominated the summer alone, it might have made 700 million to 800 million yuan at the box office."

Everyone listened and thought deeply.

Because until last National Day, they all thought that there was only one special effects blockbuster in the summer of 07: "Investiture of the Gods".

No one would have expected that Jiang Heng would improvise a film called "The Monkey King 9: Kingdom of Women", which not only made it to theaters during the summer vacation, but also grossed over 9.15 million yuan in the mainland, reaching a staggering million yuan.

Although the film has not been released yet, the box office growth has been very slow and it is not expected to exceed 1 billion.

The problem is that, in the eyes of many people, the quality of "The Monkey King 3: Kingdom of Women" is far inferior to Jiang Heng's previous works, but its box office in mainland China is the highest ever.

All I can say is that it’s outrageous that a “bad movie” can have a high box office.

Wang Zhonglei was very envious of this, but it was a pity that "The Investiture of the Gods" could not achieve such an achievement.

He currently hopes that the box office in mainland China can be higher, and that the box office in Japan and South Korea can be higher.

Considering that this film is more popular in the Asian market, the overseas distribution of "Investiture of the Gods" directly sold the copyrights in North America, South America, Europe, and Australia.

In order to recover costs as much as possible, Huayi accepts all offers, no matter how small the country is or how low the copyright fee is, even if it is only tens of thousands of US dollars.

However, in the two important box office markets of Japan and South Korea, a profit-sharing agreement was signed.

Judging from the current box office performance, it’s still acceptable.

Adding in the copyright fees from other Southeast Asian countries, "Investiture of the Gods" can still make a profit.

The subsequent release of discs and selling of on-demand film and television rights can bring the company a steady stream of continuous income.

Unfortunately, the film's investment is mainly from three companies: Huayi, Shanghai Film Group, and Ningxia Film and Television, with several other small investors.

When it is distributed to each family, there is not much money left.

It's totally incomparable to someone like Jiang Heng who can earn hundreds of millions of dollars from just one film.

But it’s not all in vain. As long as the first one doesn’t lose money, we can develop the second one, and maybe the next one will make a huge profit.

Unfortunately, the film did not perform as planned. With the film's score on Douban continuing to drop, coupled with criticism from film critics, the box office performance of "Investiture of the Gods" was obviously lacking stamina, and the single-day box office fell sharply. In just a few days, the film's mainland box office estimate dropped from 500-600 million to more than 400 million.

The Wang brothers were so angry that they could not hold on any longer. If the stock price continued to drop like this, they would have no hope of making a profit and could only make a loss!
Shanghai Film Group and Ningxia Film and Television were also quite regretful about this and were preparing to hold a celebration party, but they never expected this result.

"It's all Jiang Heng's fault. If he hadn't made 'The Women Kingdom', our 'Investiture of the Gods' would have made at least an extra 100 million!" said an executive of Shanghai Film Group angrily.

"Well, that's true. The summer season doesn't belong to any one company. It all depends on one's own ability!" said the leader of Ningxia Film and Television.

"What do you mean?"

"It's not interesting. I just think that there are so many themes to watch. There's no need to make movies like Investiture of the Gods or Journey to the West!"

Wang Zhonglei asked: "Chairman Yang, do you have any ideas?"

Yang Hongtao chuckled. He did have some ideas.

Recently, he has been wondering why the box office of "Investiture of the Gods" cannot be as big a hit as Jiang Heng's films.

First of all, the quality is naturally incomparable.

Especially in terms of special effects, it is not even a little bit bad.

Furthermore, Yang Hongtao believes that the themes are too similar, and the audience will subconsciously compare "Investiture of the Gods" with "Splitting the Mountain to Save Mother", "Lion Camel Ridge", and "Pingdingshan".

It’s like the golden age of Hong Kong movies, when Xu Ke and Jet Li’s “Once Upon a Time in China” series was already very successful, if you don’t try hard to find someone else to shoot Jet Li’s series of movies, who else would?

If you want to succeed, you have to find another way.

His idea is to change the subject matter, such as "Painted Skin" and "Nie Xiaoqian" from "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio". In addition, it would be fine to create some myths that combine Eastern and Western cultures!

He had just recently reached an agreement with Hong Kong director Chen Jiashang to prepare for the filming of "Painted Skin", and the script has been almost written.

I just can't stand the idea of ​​"losing money to gain publicity" in "Investiture of the Gods"!

"Nothing much, I'm just preparing to invest in the filming of 'Painted Skin' from 'Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio'. The script is almost ready and I've also filed it with the Film Bureau. If you want to invest, I'd love to welcome you!"

The rest of the people present were stunned when they heard this.

Painted skin?
The original work is quite scary. According to the current domestic policies, can it pass the review?

However, in terms of the story content, it would still be worth watching if it could be presented with excellent special effects.

"Chairman Yang, how much is the total investment in this film? How much do you still need?" asked an investor.

Yang Hongtao laughed, "This play won't require too much investment, currently it's tentatively set at 100 million...!"

Wang Zhonglei looked very unhappy when he heard this. This gathering was to discuss the preparations for the second part of "Fengshen".

However, Yang Hongtao talked about the preparations for "Painted Skin", which was obviously an attempt to undermine him!
However, Ningxia Film and Television is a state-owned enterprise. Even though he was angry, he couldn't vent his anger and could only end the meeting angrily.

Afterwards, he called Chen Guofu to his office and asked him what he thought.

"Well, Chairman Yang's words do make sense. In the field of special effects blockbusters, Jiang Heng is unique. If the subject matter is too similar, the audience will naturally have the idea of ​​comparison. But in terms of special effects, he is indeed inferior.

Apart from anything else, Jiang Heng has a special effects company under his name, the price is low and the quality is good. We spent a lot more money to find Japanese and Korean special effects companies!"

Wang Zhonglei frowned slightly when he heard this. What Chen Guofu said was indeed true.

The problem is that after choosing the theme of "Fengshen", they did not dare to subcontract the special effects shots to Jiang Heng's company.

"So what do you think is the best way?"

"Let's change the subject!"

(End of this chapter)