Save the Bachelor of Heaven

After "Qiu Ju's Lawsuit" won the award in Cannes, the follow-up release was much easier.

The Cannes International Film Festival is essentially a film exhibition. Not only film companies from all over the world come to participate in the exhibition, but also distributors from all over the world come to select films.

"A Lawsuit by Qiu Ju" has been affirmed 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, and Kirin Films earned nearly 10 million US dollars.

Even if the box office in the Mainland is not counted, this ten million US dollars is enough for Kirin Pictures to recoup its capital. After all, its production cost is only 8 million RMB.

"Qiu Ju's Lawsuit" was also screened in the mainland. Because of the gimmick of the Cannes Palme d'Or, the attendance rate was still good.

But in the end, the box office allocated to Xiang Nan was less than three million. The rest of the money is probably squandered by the theaters and distributors.

Although Xiang Nan was angry, he was also helpless. With his connections, if he wanted to recover the money, he would definitely be able to recover it. However, the general environment is still difficult to change.

When Chen Peisi filmed "The Auspicious Queen Mother" and "Three and a Half Heroes", all the theaters were sold out, but the theaters insisted that the movie was not a hit, and they were talking nonsense with their eyes wide open.

As a result, the movie that was originally very profitable turned out to be a loss in the final calculation. Chen Peisi was so angry that she resolutely quit the film industry and stopped making movies. Later, it was changed to a drama, and a ticket was a piece of money. Although the scale is far less than that of movies, it is good to see money.

Xiang Nan is not as generous as Chen Peisi, so he will not quit the film industry. But this time he suffered a loss and taught him a lesson. If you want to invest in making movies in the future, you must either find a reliable distributor, or sell the distribution rights directly at a fixed price.

If it was still in the form of box office sharing, he would definitely pay for one film. Let alone earning a penny, you have to lose money.

...

In 1994, Xiang Nan began to fill in the pits and released "Ghost Blowing the Lantern: Longling Misty Cave".

In 1987, he published "Ghost Blowing Lamp: The Exquisite Ancient City", which really made many readers hooked.

However, it also attracted criticism from some literary critics. I think Xiang Nan's writing is too commercialized, entertaining, lacking in innovation and depth, and it is just spiritual fast food and literary garbage.

But times have changed. Now Xiang Nan, who produces fast food literature, earns a lot of money. On the contrary, those avant-garde writers who were once extremely popular died of poverty, starved to death, and changed careers.

In the countryside outside the third ring road of the capital city, a large number of such writers gathered, gnawing steamed buns and drinking cold water every day, bent on creating works comparable to Calvino (The Baron on the Tree), Marquez (One Hundred Years of Solitude), Milan Kundera ( The Unbearable Lightness of Being).

But in 1994, the environment for literary creation was quite different from that of ten years ago.

On the one hand, compared with serious literature and avant-garde literature, people prefer popular literature, such as the martial arts novels of Jin Yong and Gu Long, the ruffian novels of Wang Tong, the romance novels of Qiong Yao and Xi Juan, and so on.

On the one hand, piracy is rampant. Jin Yong's martial arts novels have sold less than 300,000 copies of the original triple series. But the number of Jin Yong's martial arts novels in existence in the country is probably hundreds of millions.

After Xiang Nan's "Longling Miku" was released, it only sold less than half a million copies. Compared with the previous sales of millions of dollars, it is really far behind.

...

In August, "Jade Guanyin" was officially completed.

While engaged in post-production, while discussing cooperation with the TV station.

Since the 1980s, mainland TV stations have begun to outsource programs.

Such as ATV's "Heroes Huo Yuanjia", TVB's "Shanghai Beach", China TV's "Last Night's Stars", TTV's "Legend of the New White Snake" and so on.

Xiang Nan is now going to sell this TV series to TV stations.

And how much each episode will sell, the ownership of the copyright after the broadcast, the ownership of the distribution rights, etc., have to be discussed carefully.

The reason for this is mainly because, in the 1980s and 1990s, the copyright awareness of TV stations was not strong.

In 1990, China promulgated the "Copyright Law"; in 1992, China joined the Universal Copyright Convention.

Before, it was extensive management. Therefore, the weak awareness of copyright protection is deeply rooted. Even in 2020, TV programs were repeatedly exposed to copyright infringement, let alone in 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 had copyright or not. It has become commonplace for county and city-level TV stations to openly broadcast pirated DVDs.

Therefore, if no restrictions are imposed, this "Jade Guanyin" may only be sold once. At that time, other TV stations will broadcast it for free, and Xiang Nan will suffer a lot. So it must be strictly limited.

In the end, Kirin Pictures and CCTV reached an agreement, and "Jade Guanyin" was sold to CCTV at a price of 80,000 per episode. Every time CCTV rebroadcasts, it has to pay another 20,000 yuan per episode. Moreover, the contract stipulates that CCTV is not allowed to resell, donate, or exchange broadcasting rights.

...

In October, "Jade Goddess of Mercy" officially landed in CCTV's Feitian Theater.

This is also Xiang Nan's TV series, which premiered on CCTV for the first time. Before, it was broadcast on Yanjing TV.

After the launch of "Jade Guanyin", the ratings immediately exploded.

Thrilling stories, lingering love, vivid and complex characters, and the combination of handsome men and beautiful women make the audience mesmerized and unable to stop.

As a result, Yu Feihong, Li Yapeng, Liu Yijun, etc. all began to quickly become popular and became well-known TV stars. Especially Yu Feihong, because of his good looks and good temperament, he has gained the love of a large number of audiences.

Among the ten favorite TV actors selected by "Popular TV", she and Zhu Lin are both among the best, second only to Zhao Yazhi who starred in "Shanghai Beach", "Joking about Qianlong" and "Legend of the New White Snake". The popularity can be seen.

After "Jade Guanyin" was broadcast on CCTV, it was bought by provincial and municipal TV stations immediately, and rebroadcasted for the second and third rounds. Although the price is quite a bit lower than the first broadcast, Kylin Pictures still made a lot of money because it bought more TV stations.

The total investment for this drama was 7 million RMB, and in the end, it earned 30 million RMB just by selling the broadcasting rights to the TV station.

Coupled with the distribution rights of audio-visual products, in the end, Kylin Pictures earned more than 30 million yuan just by relying on such a TV series. In the 1990s, it was already very good, at least earning more than movies.

Feng Xiaogang also received millions of dividends for this, and he was so happy that his big teeth leaked out.

"Master Cheng, you are so interesting." He said happily.

After working in Yanjing TV Art Center for ten years, the total cost of the company did not exceed 30,000 yuan. In less than a year since he came to Kirin Films, he has earned more than 1.2 million in salary plus bonus, which made him really feel that it was the right job-hopping.

"I said earlier that I am like this. I will treat anyone who treats me well." Xiang Nan said with a smile, "Gangzi, keep messing with me, I won't favor you."

"Okay." Feng Xiaogang said with a smile.