Chapter 131: It's so crazy
Chapter 131: It's so crazy
Germany.
The temperature in Berlin in February is only around zero degrees, so cold that it makes people shiver.
With the opening of the 55th Berlin International Film Festival, a total of more than related practitioners flocked to the city from all over the world, including two to three thousand journalists.
In addition, there are many tourists attracted by the film festival, and hotel room prices throughout Berlin have risen significantly in recent times, so there is no need to worry about lack of guests staying there.
This is the happiest day of the year for all hotel owners in Berlin, and it is also the day when hotel waiters most want to change jobs and beat up customers.
Agents Jiang Shixi and Ji Qiao had arranged for passports and visas for their business trips in advance.
They arrived in Berlin on the 9th and hired a Chinese student from the mainland to act as an interpreter.
Until May 2th.
Jiang Shixi arrived at the airport, picked up Fan Wumian, Zhuang Muxi and Lu Hao, and took two taxis to a hotel near Potsdam Square.
There were no rooms at the regular hotel, so we booked the Ritz-Carlton, Berlin, which had just opened last year.
With so many people staying, four rooms were booked in total. Pu Jiajing and Ji Qiao stayed in one room, and Jiang Shixi and Lu Hao stayed in another.
Fan Wumian and the heroine Zhuang Muxi each lived in a room. Although they could sleep in the same bed given their current relationship, they had to hide it from others.
This includes two luxury one-bedroom suites, and the total accommodation cost is approximately 2800 euros per day.
Including the round-trip airfare, production of promotional materials, travel, meal expenses, etc., Fan Wumian spent a lot of money this time, which is equivalent to throwing away a 100-square-meter commercial apartment in Shenzhen or Yanjing in order to attend the Berlin Film Festival.
On the way to the hotel.
Jiang Shixi smiled and said:
"Finally you're here. Today, many domestic media outlets have been looking for Ji Qiao and asking when you will arrive."
"Yesterday, at the opening red carpet of the film festival, the reporters didn't see you, boss. They thought something happened to A Quiet Place and you stood them up."
"Even several well-known directors and actors have asked about you. You are quite popular."
Fan Wumian sighed.
replied:
"I saw the news. It's not my fault. There were some mistakes in the special effects production. The most important scene of the monster smashing the car had some problems. Not only did it take two days to revise it, but I also had to pay an extra 10,000 yuan in expedited fees."
"The time was really too tight. Ma Yingjie was so tired that he slept all the way and didn't wake up until the plane landed."
"Is everything in the exhibition hall ready? Is the poster I want hung up?"
Jiang Shixi told:
"It has been posted, attracting many reporters to take pictures, and some publishers have come to inquire about the situation. Ji Qiao is guarding over there."
The so-called poster.
It only says -
"The most commercially promising sci-fi thriller of 2005 - A Quiet Place"
Selling overseas broadcast rights for $350 million
If the box office exceeds 5000 million US dollars, an additional 5% box office dividend will be paid
If the box office exceeds 8000 million US dollars, an additional 6% box office dividend will be paid
If the box office exceeds US$1 million, an additional 2000% box office dividend will be paid
If the box office exceeds US$1 million, an additional 5000% box office dividend will be paid
Sincerely selling, looking for the most powerful global distributor
The biggest box office dark horse of the year, if you miss it, you will regret it forever"
The manuscript was written by Fan Wumian himself.
It was translated into several languages and a huge poster was made and hung in the rented exhibition area.
Some directors come to the exhibition in order to win awards and become famous.
Fan Wumian is already very famous and doesn't care much about those false reputations.
I just hope that all the efforts of the past month will not be in vain, and that the overseas distribution rights of "A Quiet Place" can be sold for a good price.
He plans to retain only the distribution rights in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and the mainland market.
After all, he has a large number of fans in these markets, and he has the opportunity to maximize profits by finding distributors to screen his films himself.
have to say.
The film festival just started yesterday, and as soon as Fan Wumian’s poster was hung up, it instantly attracted attention from all parties.
Today, Chinese-language films have no status at all in the international market.
Even the much-hyped "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" only sold overseas distribution rights for US$230 million, and received no overseas box office dividends.
Later, the distributor Sony earned more than 1 million US dollars in box office in overseas markets with this movie. A rough calculation shows that the net profit was at least to million US dollars, which does not include peripheral income such as DVD rentals.
With a big-name director and top actors, it was sold for only $230 million.
As a new director, Fan Wumian dared to ask for 350 million US dollars, plus a share of the box office revenue.
This behavior was seen as extremely crazy by many colleagues in Hong Kong, the mainland and Taiwan.
"A Quiet Place" is originally a Hollywood movie, and its plot is also popular with overseas audiences. Even the language has been specially dubbed in English.
There are only about twenty lines of dialogue, so the workload is very small. Knowing that this movie may be very suitable for overseas distributors and has the potential to become a box office dark horse, Fan Wumian certainly will not sell it at a low price.
He even considered keeping the film for a few years if it couldn't be sold, and then releasing it when the mainland market was developed.
Anyway, the total investment is only about HK$210 million. Taking into account the HK$50 budget for the exhibition in Berlin, the total cost is only about HK$260 million.
If he keeps the movie for a few years and it can get 300 to 400 million RMB at the box office, he will have the opportunity to make hundreds of millions of yuan, which is actually more profitable than speculating in real estate or stocks.
For example, the movie "No Man's Land" directed by Lu Hao in his previous life.
Because the plot did not pass the review, it was shelved for four years before being released. With a cost of 1600 million, it achieved a box office of 2 million. In the end, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, and the investors were grinning from ear to ear.
He is indeed very wealthy.
Fan Wumian was very calm about this trip to the Berlin Film Festival.
Be prepared in advance not to sell at a low price, and be mentally prepared that you may end up with a temporary loss.
But they ask for a high price and then pay a low price.
If he meets an agent who really wants to buy overseas distribution rights and can offer a good price, he will be happy to sell it.
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Different from the low-key and modest style popular in the Chinese-speaking world.
Seeing Fan Wumian's arrogant tone, he directly wrote advertisements such as "The most commercially promising science fiction thriller in 2005" and "The biggest box office dark horse of the year, you will regret it for the rest of your life" on the oversized poster.
Many European and American distribution agents were successfully attracted by this poster and were deeply impressed by "A Quiet Place".
Fan Wumian and his friends went to the hotel to check in.
at the same time.
The main venue of the Film Market, Martin Gropius Exhibition Center.
This is the booth.
Ji Qiao was approached by a foreigner with a Mediterranean hairstyle, who asked her in English:
"Look at your ad. Is this an English movie shot in Hong Kong? How much did it cost to make? Are the actors famous?"
Take the business card handed to you by the other party.
Ji Qiao took a look and found that it was actually a representative of the famous Universal Pictures. She immediately smiled and introduced him in barely fluent English:
"It's an English movie, yes. It's different from other science fiction movies. It's very exciting and has fascinating features. The director and actor Fan is very famous in China. He is a talented singer who has sold 1500 million albums."
I added silently in my mind: "Including the sales of knock-off albums, there may be more than 1500 million copies."
Ji Qiao deliberately ignored the production costs and added:
"If you're interested, we'll be holding a preview tomorrow. The location is listed in this brochure. Are two movie tickets enough for you?"
"Okay, two will be enough. Maybe I'll go take a look if my schedule doesn't conflict."
Last year's Berlin Film Festival attracted a total of 3117 entries, including more than 400 feature films with a duration of more than 60 minutes, which were divided into several units.
This year is similar.
The judges are overwhelmed with watching so sometimes they only choose some popular movies to watch and discuss and evaluate whether to shortlist them.
The venues of the Berlin Film Festival are relatively scattered, covering more than a dozen cinemas in the surrounding area, with a total of thousands of large and small theaters. Because it was uncertain when we could make it, "A Quiet Place" has not yet started selling tickets to the public.
After seeing off the representative from Universal Pictures, I soon met a representative from Disney.
Due to certain barriers in language communication, the other party was not very interested. Ji Qiaozhen regretted that she did not practice English seriously after she started working, and also blamed Jiang Shixi for forcing the company to hire only a German translator.
After working for so many years, Fan Wumian has only been working on the edge of the circle.
He was similar to Zhuang Muxi and the others. It was his first time to go abroad to attend a large-scale film festival. As soon as he put his luggage in the hotel, he couldn't wait to go out for the tour.
Originally, my girlfriend Zuo Ziyan also wanted to come and join in the fun.
Unfortunately, in order to avoid trouble, she hid the fact from her parents and did not tell them that she was in a relationship.
She had just returned to Hong Kong from the UK and couldn't find a suitable reason to go out, so she just asked Fan Wumian to bring her some local specialties.
With an agent who had an excellent sense of direction leading the way, Fan Wumian saved himself a lot of trouble.
Walking and looking along the way, when he arrived at the main venue of the film trading market, he found that the 3m x 3m square poster was several sizes larger than he had imagined.
With black text on a yellow background, the poster is particularly eye-catching.
After seeing the boss, Ji Qiao couldn't help but said:
"It was really embarrassing. Reporters from the mainland lined up to take pictures. Foreigners at other stalls even gave me a thumbs-up. Other people's advertising was not so straightforward."
I wanted to say "shameless".
For the sake of her job, Ji Qiao chose to be more reserved.
Fan Wumian didn't care. After all, he didn't have to stand on the stage in person. He smiled and said:
"Very good. The 600 euros I spent on the poster production was not wasted. This is exactly the effect I wanted. There are so many films participating in the exhibition, and there are two or three hundred works competing in the main competition unit. If the advertisement is not eye-catching enough, how can we sell the overseas distribution rights?"
Ji Qiao told:
"Since I put up this poster this morning, more than a dozen distribution agents have come to consult me. I just don't know if they will go to the cinema to watch it. Boss, as a newcomer, you are at a disadvantage at this kind of film festival. I heard that a well-known European director has sold the overseas distribution rights of his work to a Hollywood company for $600 million."
Fan Wumian asked:
"Six million dollars? Is it too late for me to change the price now?"
"Boss, it's already hard to sell at $350 million. The heroine of that movie is Sophie Marceau, the dream girl of all French men."
After Jiang Shixi finished speaking, he felt that he had accidentally hurt Zhuang Muxi, who was also the heroine, and added decisively:
"Ms. Zhuang, that's not what I meant. You are also the dream lover of many people."
Zhuang Muxi quickly waved her hand and replied with a smile:
"It doesn't matter, she is really beautiful, I dare not compare with her."
(End of this chapter)