After "Qiu Ju's Lawsuit" won the award at Cannes, subsequent releases became much easier to handle.
The Cannes International Film Festival is essentially a film exhibition. Not only film producers from all over the world come to participate in the exhibition, but also distributors from all over the world select films.
"Qiu Ju's Lawsuit" has been recognized by the Cannes Palme d'Or, so it will naturally sell for a high price. In the end, distributors in more than 20 countries and regions introduced the film, allowing Qilin Pictures to earn nearly 10 million US dollars.
Even excluding the mainland box office, this US$10 million is enough for Kirin Pictures to recoup its capital. After all, its production cost was only 8 million yuan.
"Qiu Ju's Lawsuit" was subsequently released in mainland China. Because of the gimmick of being awarded the Palme d'Or in Cannes, the attendance rate was pretty good.
But in the end, the box office allocated to Xiang Nan was less than 3 million. The rest of the money is probably squandered by theaters and distributors.
Although Xiang Nan was angry, he was also helpless. Based on his connections, if he wanted to recover the money, he would definitely be able to get it back. However, the general environment is still difficult to change.
When Chen Peisi was filming "The Queen Mother" and "Two and a Half Men", every theater was full, but the theater company insisted that the movie was not a hit, and they were telling lies with their eyes wide open.
As a result, the movie, which was originally very profitable, ended up losing money in the end. Chen Peisi was so angry that he resolutely quit the film industry and never made another movie. Later, I switched to drama, and a ticket was a price. Although the scale is far less than that of movies, it is good to see money.
Xiang Nan is not as grand as Chen Peisi and will not quit the film industry. But this time he suffered a loss and taught him a lesson. If you invest in making movies in the future, you will either find a reliable distributor or sell the distribution rights directly at a fixed price.
If it were still in the form of box office sharing, he would definitely have to pay for one film. Not only can't make a penny, but you still have to lose money.
…
In 1994, Xiang Nan began to fill in the gaps and released "Ghost Blowing the Lantern: Longling Mysterious Cave".
In 1987, he published "The Ghost Blowing the Lantern: The Ancient City", which really made many readers hooked.
However, it also attracted criticism from some literary critics at the time. I think Xiang Nan's writing is too commercial, entertainment-oriented, lacks innovation and depth, and is just a piece of spiritual fast food and literary garbage.
But times have changed. Today, Xiang Nan, who produces fast food literature, is making a lot of money. On the contrary, those avant-garde writers who were once very popular died of poverty, starvation, and career changes.
A large number of such writers gather in the rural areas outside the Third Ring Road of Beijing. They eat steamed buns and drink cold water every day, and they want to create works comparable to Calvino (The Baron in the Trees), Marquez (One Hundred Years of Solitude), Milan Kundera ( The unbearable lightness of life).
But in 1994, the literary creation environment was completely different from that of ten years ago.
On the one hand, people prefer popular literature to serious literature and avant-garde literature, such as martial arts by Jin Yong and Gu Long, scoundrels by Wang Jie, romances by Qiong Yao and Xi Juan, etc.
On the one hand, piracy is rampant. Jin Yong’s martial arts series has sold less than 300,000 copies of the official Sanlian edition. But there are probably hundreds of millions of copies of Jin Yong's martial arts in existence across the country.
After Xiang Nan's "The Mystery of Longling" was released, it sold less than half a million copies. Compared with the previous sales of millions, it is really far behind.
…
In August, "Jade Guanyin" was officially completed.
While doing post-production, I was also discussing cooperation with the TV station.
Since the 1980s, mainland television stations have begun to outsource programs.
For example, ATV's "Fearless", TVB's "Shanghai", China Central Television's "Last Night", Taiwan Television's "The Legend of White Snake" and so on.
Xiang Nan is now preparing to sell this TV series to a TV station for broadcast.
And how much each episode will be sold for, the copyright ownership after broadcast, the ownership of distribution rights, etc., all need to be carefully discussed.
The main reason for this is that in the 1980s and 1990s, TV stations did not have a strong copyright awareness.
In 1990, China introduced the Copyright Law; in 1992, China only joined the Universal Copyright Convention.
Before, it had always been extensive management. Therefore, the lack of awareness of copyright protection is deeply ingrained. Even in 2020, television programs have been repeatedly exposed for copyright infringement, let alone the 1990s.
At that time, after a TV station bought a copy, it could exchange programs with other TV stations at will, regardless of whether it owned the copyright. It has become commonplace for county and city-level TV stations to even openly broadcast pirated DVDs.
Therefore, if there are no restrictions, this "Jade Guanyin" may only be sold once. At that time, other TV stations will use it to broadcast it for free, and the loss will be huge. So it must be strictly limited.
In the end, Kirin Pictures reached an agreement with CCTV, and "Jade Guanyin" was sold to CCTV for 80,000 yuan per episode. Every time CCTV rebroadcasts the episode, it has to pay another 20,000 yuan per episode. Moreover, the contract stipulates that CCTV is not allowed to resell, donate, or exchange broadcast rights.
…
In October, "Jade Guanyin" officially landed in CCTV's Feitian Theater.
This is also the first time that Xiang Nan's TV series premiered on CCTV. Previously, it was broadcast on Yanjing TV Station.
After "Jade Guanyin" was released, the ratings immediately exploded.
The thrilling story, the lingering love, the vivid and complex characters, and the combination of handsome men and beautiful women made the audience fascinated and unable to stop watching.
From this, Yu Feihong, Li Anpeng, Liu Yijun, etc. began to quickly become popular and became household names on TV. Especially Yu Feihong, because of his good looks and good temperament, he has won the love of a large number of audiences.
Among the top ten favorite TV actors selected by "Popular TV", she and Zhu Lin are among the best, second only to Zhao Yazhi who starred in "Shanghai Beach", "A Joke about Qianlong" and "The Legend of White Snake". The popularity is evident.
After "Jade Guanyin" was broadcast on CCTV, it was immediately purchased by provincial and municipal TV stations for second and third rounds of rebroadcasts. Although the price is much lower than the first broadcast, Kirin Pictures still made a lot of money because it bought more TV stations.
The entire investment for this drama was RMB 7 million. In the end, it earned RMB 30 million just from the broadcast rights sold to the TV station.
Coupled with the distribution rights of audio and video products, in the end, Kirin Pictures earned more than 30 million from this TV series alone. In the 1990s, it was already very good, at least it made more money than the movie.
Feng Xiaogang also received a million-cent bonus, and he was so happy that his teeth leaked out.
"Master Cheng, you are so interesting." He said happily.
After working at the Yanjing Television Art Center for ten years, the company's total income did not exceed 30,000 yuan. In less than a year after joining Qilin Pictures, he earned more than 1.2 million in salary and dividends, which made him feel that he had made the right move to another job.
"I've told you before that this is how I am. I will be nice to anyone who is nice to me." Xiang Nan smiled and said, "Gangzi, you can continue to hang out with me. I won't favor you."
"Okay." Feng Xiaogang smiled.
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