Chapter 80: The First Cinema in China
At the end of the year, the Pacific Rim crew finished filming in Toronto.

In terms of special effects, Jiang Heng entrusted about one-tenth of the special effects shots in the play to Weta Digital Company to complete.

The requirements are also simple. It must be completed within four months so that the film can be released on time during the summer vacation.

Weta Digital Studios is as famous as Industrial Light & Magic and is headquartered in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. It has just participated in the special effects production of "The Lord of the Rings". Although it is not well-known in the industry, its strength is already impressive.

He was also very pleased to receive Jiang Heng's special effects order and said that he would complete it with guaranteed quality and quantity.

Afterwards, Jiang Heng distributed orders for a small number of special effects lenses to his own Good Times Special Effects Company, and also gave some orders to two special effects companies in Japan and South Korea. The total amount accounted for about 30% of the special effects lenses in the entire film.

In other words, 70% of the special effects shots in the entire film were completed by Jiang Heng's "super microscopic computer".

This alone can bring in a profit of 50 million US dollars.

In Hollywood, for a blockbuster with good visual effects, the special effects costs account for at least 60% of the total production cost.

For example, Ready Player One cost $1.75 million, of which $1 million was spent on special effects. Transformers 2.17 cost $1.3 million, of which $3.42 million was spent on special effects. Pirates of the Caribbean 2 cost $ million, of which $ million was spent on special effects. These are all huge investments.

Why don’t some so-called domestic special effects blockbusters work? Young and handsome actors account for 90% of the cost, and most of them use stand-ins.

The remaining 9.99% is other people's expenses, and only the cheap fifty cents is left for special effects. It would be strange if a good film could be made.

On Jiang Heng's side, although the cost of real special effects is not high, the special effects shots of important scenes are all made with "super microscopic computers", and they are even made more refined to get "great value for money", by turning up the brightness of the film and making the details of the mechas and monsters clearer.

Don't underestimate these small changes. The brightness of the film is improved, which is entirely supported by the burning funds.

Why do many blockbuster movies always like to shoot night battle scenes? It really saves money!
Now that the post-production issues have been allocated, Jiang Heng’s time is finally less busy.

First, he joined the crew of "SPL" and played the cameo role of the police officer who was stabbed by Wu Jing.

It also cooperated with China Film Group to establish China Film Chihong Cinema Chain Company.

Jiang Heng originally planned to use iQiyi, Youku and Tencent Video to cooperate with China Film Group, but Old Han Fei said that the name sounded inappropriate.

Jiang Heng had no choice but to register another Chihong Film Company, invest 100 million yuan, and jointly establish the China Film Chihong Cinema Chain Company with China Film.

In terms of equity, it is naturally controlled by state-owned assets, with China Film Group holding 51% and Chihong holding 49%.

However, China Film Corporation could not come up with so much money and promised to help obtain a piece of land for Jiang Heng to build the building.

The land in the main urban area of ​​the capital before its expansion can only be described as extremely precious.

Not to mention being sold at market price, even at a premium it’s not something that ordinary people can get.

Thinking that in a few years I will have my own building in Beijing, I feel more and more motivated.

However, the establishment of China Film Red Cinema Company was, on the one hand, to attract cinemas from all over the country to join, and the biggest attraction was naturally Jiang Heng's special effects blockbusters.

After the reform of the cinema chain system, where the film is released becomes a game between distribution companies and cinema chains.

If Jiang Heng's special effects blockbuster is only released in the China Film Red Cinema Line, those who haven't joined can only watch others eat meat while they themselves starve.

At one time, cinemas across the country applied to join the China Film Red Cinema Line. Han Sanping was very happy and naturally "selected the best", only selecting cinemas with good locations, good decoration and good equipment.

The other cinemas saw this and couldn’t bear it.

Your China Film Group is a state-owned enterprise, and so are the others!

tell!
They appealed to the competent authorities, saying that China Film Red was engaging in unfair competition and undermining the reform of the cinema chain system.

If you absorb all the good cinemas, how can other cinema chains survive?
Why don’t you just unify the world, and you will be the only one in the country!
Upon seeing this, the competent department naturally asked China Film Red to consider the overall situation. It doesn't matter if you eat a few more bites of meat, but you can't take away the pot and not even give your brothers a sip of soup!
Han Sanping had no choice but to return some of the applications and allow those higher-value cinemas to join other theater chains.

Even so, China Film Red quickly became the largest cinema company in the country.

In addition to absorbing existing domestic cinemas, China Film Red Cinema Company is also actively building new cinemas. Led by Jiang Heng, it has cooperated with AMC, the second largest cinema chain in North America, to introduce the latest cinema equipment and build new cinemas in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

At the same time, we are also actively negotiating with IMAX Corporation to introduce the projection system to build the first IMAX cinema in China.

Historically, IMAX announced the IMAX DMR patented technology in March 2002, successfully converting Hollywood blockbusters into IMAX format. The first IMAX DMR movie "Apollo 3" was officially released in September of the same year.

Since then, IMAX has become synonymous with high-end cinemas and continues to this day.

IMAX entered the mainland very early, first appearing in the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum. Later, science and technology museums in BJ, Guangzhou, Chongqing and Nanjing also had their own IMAX theaters for showing high-definition science and education films.

By 2003, the first commercial IMAX equipment in China was installed in Shanghai Peace Cinema, marking the official establishment of IMAX cinemas in mainland China.

Calculating the time, this is the right time for negotiations.

Of course, Pacific Rim cannot be shown in IMAX theaters in China, but the next movie should be able to catch up.

As for the specific subject of the filming, Jiang Heng has already thought about it, which is to film Yang Jian splitting the mountain to save his mother.

It is said that the Second Master is wearing a helmet and armor, holding a three-pointed, double-edged sword, with his third eye opened, and there is a passionate background music, which is quite majestic.

The specific story line and villains need to be carefully considered. Even if there are no powerful opponents like the Three Demons of Lion Camel Ridge, we have to choose one with a certain degree of difficulty.

In addition to the post-production of "Pacific Rim", I started rewriting the script. After writing several drafts, I finally came up with a rough outline of the story.

In a blink of an eye, the post-production of "Pacific Rim" was completed. Han Sanping chose the best theater in a newly renovated cinema under China Film Group Red, and summoned senior executives of China Film Group, executives of several companies under Jiang Heng's name, and representatives of Columbia Pictures to watch the movie together.

After more than two hours of watching the movie, everyone in the theater was still in extreme shock.

It should be noted that according to the original history, "Transformers 1" did not appear until 2007.

However, "Pacific Rim 2013", which was released in 1, was still praised by countless movie fans for its explosive special effects and exciting plot.

If such a movie was brought forward to 2001, one can imagine the visual and auditory shock it would bring to the audience.

In the era when cars were not yet popular and Santana cars were everywhere on the streets, watching heavy mechas fighting monsters made many boys excited.

(End of this chapter)