In the simple but classy-looking chairman's office in the headquarters building of Haina Film and Television, Yang Dongxu raised his eyebrows as he looked at the list of artists leaving the company in his hand: "Someone is taking the lead."
It would be normal if there were only one or two artists, even if it was a pillar, after all, everyone always says that when people go up, water flows down.
Even though Haina is now the number one mountain in the film and television industry, what can you do if people don’t want to chant sutras on your mountain but prefer to become a monk on another mountain?
But when it's not just a few well-known movie stars who are leaving, but also some celebrities, and even a few newcomers with great potential, this matter seems a bit wrong.
Famous, even slightly famous celebrities have money in their pockets and are willing to pay liquidated damages. In other words, it is understandable that they are willing to fly solo when their wings are strong, but these unknown and talented people have money to pay liquidated damages, so they are obviously being poached.
"I asked around and found out that several companies in the industry poached them. I called you before and mentioned it to you. You..."
"Just leave. Does our company make money from artists?" Yang Dongxu interrupted Liu Zongsheng.
I was just a little confused after seeing the detailed list just now. It was nothing too important. Not to mention just leaving these people, even if all the artists of Haina are gone, Haina will not go bankrupt and will still be the largest film and television company in the country.
At present, the main business model of domestic film and television companies is still to suck blood from artists. It seems that the more big stars they have, the more money the company will make.
If it is said that the more big stars there are, the more famous the film and television company will be. Yang Dongxu admits this. After all, big stars have a powerful eye-catching effect.
But it is not necessarily the most profitable. At least Hainer is also running a brokerage company, and has even been working hard to cultivate new artist successors in the past two years.
But the bulk of Haina's money does not come from artists at all. There are undoubtedly two ways to make money from artists, the artist's remuneration, and the artist's commercial endorsements. There is no other way.
But Heiner is different. Heiner's signature is made from TV series and movies. Artists only get high salaries because the movies and TV series they film are popular.
Capital is willing to pay high prices to find artists to film movies and TV series, because it can make more money through these investment capital.
So in summary, artists' remuneration is only a small amount, and the market generated by the operation of movies and TV series is the bulk of the money.
Haina is undoubtedly a very mature company in the peripheral market for movies and TV series. 60% of the profits generated by every movie and TV series are in the hands of Haina.
Other related industries account for more than 30% of part-time jobs, while artist remuneration is less than 10%. This shows what share of artist income occupies in Haina Company.
As for if you don’t have an artist on hand, what should you do if you can’t find someone to shoot the movie?
Want to know more about shooting celebrity auditions?
I’ve only heard of celebrities failing to get roles, but I’ve never heard of celebrities failing to find actors to play roles when capital is invested in large-scale productions.
And Heiner's works are so well-known that not only the older generation of talented artists want to participate, but also the first- and second-tier popular stars are breaking their heads for some roles.
After all, as an artist, this is not the era of traffic. You must at least have one or two decent works to support it, right? Otherwise, you will look like a dwarf when walking around with other artists.
So Heiner doesn't have to worry about finding actors for his films.
In addition to film and television works, there are also copyright taxes from remakes of some songs, movies, and TV series, plus investments from Hengdian and other related film and television industries.
They are also an important part of Haina's income, and these incomes are simply not comparable to the artist's salary and advertising endorsements. So Yang Dongxu doesn't care at all whether the artist leaves or stays.
Because he is already one step ahead of other domestic peers, standing in the ranks of top film and television giants such as Disney and Marvel who manage IP and use their works to speak for themselves.
And Haina's business model even surpasses these companies, just because one is a Chinese company and the other is a Hollywood company, which has less global influence than others.
But now Heiner has taken root in Hollywood. Yang Dongxu has been promoting Chinese culture for so many years, as well as promoting comics wrapped in a layer of Japanese skin.
It has also sown germination seeds all over the world. In a few years, these seeds will be harvested and one IP after another can be hatched.
Therefore, even if we don’t make movies and TV series in the future, just operating these popular IPs will be enough for Haina to make a lot of money.
With these as a basis, it became a matter of course that he behaved very calmly about the artist's departure. So he wasn't pretending to be cool, nor was he pretending to be calm. He was really calm and had no disturbance in his heart.
"More than half a year has passed, how is Haina's performance this year?" Yang Dongxu asked.
"Other industries are making steady progress. The total revenue in the first half of the quarter increased by 21% compared with last year, which is quite good. This is the added value of the Asian market, excluding the few movies that made huge profits in Hollywood in the first half of the year.
However, here in the Mainland, we have invested in several good TV series this year, but the number of movies has dropped by more than 60% compared to last year. Many movie projects have not received investment approval after your review. "
Liu Zongsheng looked at his big boss helplessly. Although the big boss rarely came to the company, he seemed to have delegated a lot of power. But in fact, Yang Dongxu has always had strong control over the company. For example, in this year's film investment market, he stopped it.
Hainer's investment in movies fell by 60%.
"If there is no film investment, there will be no film investment. As long as the basic performance grows, if you make less money from movies, you will make less money. Anyway, you have already made up for it exponentially from those Hollywood blockbusters.
You also know the reasons for stopping investment in those movies, and you have read those scripts yourself. Except for a few that are pretty good, each one is worse than the other. How to invest in this one?
Hainer is rich, but he can't just throw the money into the cesspool, right? If you collect some more scripts, I will find time to agree to take a look. If there are good scripts, we will still invest in them. It’s not like we won’t make movies in the future. "Yang Dongxu comforted him.
The entire year of 2005 can be said to be the worst year for the film market. This worst does not mean that the overall box office of the film industry has declined this year.
In fact, with the continuous development of domestic cinemas and film and television industries, the total box office of the Chinese film industry is setting new records every year. Even when there are a lot of bad movies, the total box office is still rising steadily.
Saying that this year is the worst year for blockbusters means that every step of film investment has obviously increased a lot compared to the previous year, and the total box office of this year's movies is also expected to continue to grow compared to last year.
The quality of the films that can be produced, especially those so-called blockbusters, is simply not worthy of such a high-quality and ever-developing film market in China.
Throughout 2005, except for "Myth", there were a few movies that made a lot of money. The others are all bad movies, and the total box office continues to rise not because of classic movies, but because of the number of bad movies.
The worst among them is undoubtedly the so-called "The Promise" which took three years of hard work and cost more than 300 million to create. It is simply a new level of badness for domestic movies.
Although it hasn't been released yet, the box office won't be calculated until next year. In the end, it seems that the total box office in the mainland alone will be around 180 million.
But compared to its investment, the expectations of movie fans, and the attention of peers, there is no dispute that this is one of the epic bad movies.
Although it was the last movie released at the end of 2005, it still led the entire bad movie market in 2005.
Compared with the various bad films in the film industry that leave people speechless, the film and television drama market in 2005 still satisfied audiences and investors.
First of all, "Bright Sword" supported by CCTV can be said to have broken the barriers of many previous anti-Japanese dramas and presented war scenes relatively realistically.
It can be said that the quality must be high and the reputation must be good. Once it is broadcast, it will directly start to impact CCTV's broadcast records. It set a benchmark for future anti-Japanese war dramas.
It was followed closely by "Legend of Sword and Fairy Part 1", "Lotus Lantern", "The Best in the World", and "Little Fish and Flowers". Even the youth idol drama "The Prince Turns into a Frog", co-produced by Haina and Wanwan, has become a hit in the ratings and has become popular all over the country.
So compared to the glut of bad movies, this year’s TV drama market can be said to be a fight between gods and goddesses. Even if a TV series has a bad reputation, it can at least win ratings.
Some TV series are classics that cannot be surpassed in the future.
So I looked at the movie scripts that Hainer was going to invest in, and then looked at the scripts for the TV series. Yang Dongxu didn't drink too much at that time, so he naturally spent the money invested in movies on these TV series.
"What about next year? Will we still increase investment in TV dramas to develop peripheral markets and reduce investment in movies?" Liu Zongsheng couldn't help but ask.
As a leader in the film and television industry, Heiner has been reducing investment in movies this year. Heiner has attracted the attention of many people in the industry.
It would be okay if the film market is sluggish this year. If an epic blockbuster breaks out, it might become an opportunity for other peers to surpass Heiner, although this opportunity is only a tiny gap. But a thousand-mile hole collapses in an ant nest, so we have to take precautions in advance.
So after Yang Dongxu ordered to reduce film investment this year, investment can only be made if there is a script that he agrees with. Liu Zongsheng has reservations about Haina not investing in "The Promise", a movie that has been highly hyped.
“Are there any blockbusters worth investing in?”
Although it is only the second half of 2005, there is nothing wrong with planning to invest in movies in 2006. After all, shooting movies takes time.
Start planning now. It’s a bit late to invest in movies that will be released early next year, so you need to plan early.
"Director Zhang has made it known that he is planning to shoot a blockbuster. He said that the total investment may exceed 350 million yuan." Liu Zongsheng said.
"Lao Mouzi's movie, what's the name of the movie, is there a script?" Yang Dongxu is still looking forward to Guoshi's work.
Although from the perspective of commercial blockbusters, Guo Shi's works are not super hit, from the perspective of classics, Guo Shi has filmed many classic works.
"It seems to be called Golden Armor. If you are still in Yanjing these days, I and the others will send you the script for you to read."
Yang Dongxu: "..."
Could it be that the Chinese film market will still be full of bad movies next year?
This year Director Chen Da won the reputation as the king of bad movies. Next year, Guo Shi will take over and reach a new level of bad movies?
