Xu Wangqiu held the teacup, sat on the chair, looked at the scenery outside the window, and waited slowly. It didn't take long for Xu Wangqiu to see Yuan Heping walking in with a man who looked a little like him, who should be Yuan Heping's brother. Xu Wangqiu waved at Yuan Heping and them, signaling that he was here.

Yuan Heping was looking up at the store, and when he saw Xu Wangqiu, he said a word to the man next to him, and walked towards the table where Xu Wangqiu was. He pulled out a stool and sat down opposite Xu Wangqiu, and said with a smile: "Wangqiu, it's not long since I see you." Let me introduce, this is my brother Yuan Xiangren, who came to give me but the driver. ”

Xu Wangqiu knew who it was when he heard Yuan Xiangren, it was the old beggar in "Kung Fu" who sold it for ten yuan to Stephen Chow's "Rulai Divine Palm", he smiled at Yuan Xiangren and nodded: "I heard Big Eyes say that among your five brothers, he has the best relationship with you, and you are very good at kung fu, you are a famous fighting king, and you have been a stand-in for many big stars." ”

Yuan Xiangren said very modestly: "I will also order three-legged cat kung fu, and I can't get on the stage." ”

Yuan Heping laughed and said: "When I was filming "Falcon", I knew that this film would definitely be a big hit in Xiangjiang, but I didn't expect it to explode to this extent, and the box office reached 6.12 million in the first week of release. ”

Xu Wangqiu smiled and waved his hand: "There is also your credit here, the fight you designed for Yan Shuangying and Ruan Xiong was so exciting, the audience was addicted after watching it." I see that some Xiangjiang media compared this fight with the fight in the Colosseum in Bruce Lee's "Raptors Across the River", and some film critics exclaimed that the mainland martial arts dramas have not only caught up, but also surpassed the trend of Xiangjiang. ”

Yuan Heping laughed when he heard this, his expression was full of pride, but he still said modestly: "If it weren't for cooperating with you, I wouldn't have been able to design such an action." Designing movements for others, basically just designing one set of movements, working with you, I have to design several sets of movements, and during that time I was dreaming about how to design movements at night. ”

At this moment, the waiter came over and asked Xu Wangqiu to order, Xu Wangqiu picked up the menu and handed it to Yuan Heping and asked him to order. Yuan Heping was shocked when he saw the menu, the dishes on the menu were basically hundreds of yuan a piece, abalone and shark fin cost thousands of yuan, and even ordinary vegetarian dishes cost dozens of yuan. He shook his head and said, "I have heard that Fulinmen is a place where the rich come to eat, and this price is really expensive." Everyone is their own person, there is no need to be so spread, just order some ordinary dishes. ”

Yuan Heping ordered two dishes, gave the menu to Xu Wangqiu, and asked him to order. Xu Wangqiu gave the menu to Yuan Xiangren again and asked him to order. Yuan Xiangren didn't take the menu, waved his hand, and asked Xu Wangqiu to order. Xu Wangqiu didn't insist, took the menu and ordered a few more dishes.

After the waiter left, Xu Wangqiu asked Yuan Heping about his situation in the past year or so. After knowing that Yuan Heping finished designing the action for "Falcon", he returned to Xiangjiang to shoot "The Brave and Fearless", a kung fu film with a hard bridge and a hard horse, which achieved a box office of 5.61 million after its release and achieved great success. Recently, he is filming a new film "Huo Yuanjia", which is a story about how Huo Yuanjia grew from a weak scholar to a generation of grandmasters.

Xu Wangqiu didn't know what the level of Yuan Heping's "Huo Yuanjia" was, but it didn't matter, he asked these questions just to lead to his own questions: "Big eyes, I heard people in Yindu say that you set up your own Peace Pictures, and the few movies you made are very popular, you should have made a lot of money, right?"

In 1978, Yuan Heping successively filmed two popular movies "Serpentine Trickster" and "Drunken Fist", which was not only a turning point in Cheng Long's career, but also of great significance to Yuan Heping. As a result, he became the third Xiangjiang director after Lau Kar-leung and Sammo Hung to successfully transform from martial arts, and his career became more broad-based;

In fact, when Yuan Heping invited Xu Wangqiu to Xiangjiang for development, he valued Xu Wangqiu's talent, felt that he was very promising, and wanted him to join his Peace Film Industry and make films for himself. However, as soon as his invitation was sent, he was rejected by Xu Wangqiu, and he did not talk about the development of Heping Pictures. Now hearing Xu Wangqiu take the initiative to ask Heping Pictures, Yuan Heping's heart moved, and he couldn't help but say: "Actually, I don't make much money, Wangqiu, why are you asking this, do you want to come to Xiangjiang to develop?"

Xu Wangqiu didn't answer, and pretended to be surprised and said: "The movie you made is very popular among Xiangjiang stars, and it is a kung fu movie, and it has a very good market overseas, how can you not make much money?"

Yuan Heping sighed slightly when he heard this: "The way we cooperate with Golden Harvest is that Golden Harvest pays for it, we are responsible for the production, and we make money in addition to the remuneration by the production fee. To be honest, the biggest amount of money I've made since I was in the film was working as a martial arts instructor for "Falcon". ”

Xu Wangqiu said in surprise: "The movies you make are very popular, and there are no dividends?"

Yuan Heping smiled bitterly and shook his head: "Take "The Brave and Fearless" we filmed last year as an example, the box office is 5.61 million, and after sharing the account with the theater, Golden Harvest can share 2.8 million, excluding the cost of the film, as well as the cost of publicity and distribution, there is not much money left, and there is no money." "The Brave and Fearless" is not good in the sale of foreign goods, and it has made a lot of money, and we should be able to share a lot of money, but Golden Harvest sells the copyright to subsidiaries abroad, and the subsidiaries sell it to European and American companies, and we can't get a penny. ”

Xu Wangqiu doesn't know much about the Hong Kong film industry, but he has heard a little about Golden Harvest's satellite company system. The martial arts instructor he filmed "Wang Xuance" was from Xiangjiang, who came from the Hong family class, and told him about Jiahe when he chatted.

In the early 70s, Golden Harvest had just been established, and in order to compete with the giant Shaw Brothers, a satellite company contract system was developed to fund film companies with box office guarantees to make films, Bruce Lee's "Concord", Xu Guanwen's "Hui's", Sammo Hung's "Baohe", Jackie Chan's "Weihe", and Yuan Heping's "Peace" are all Golden Harvest's satellite companies. Relying on the strategy of the satellite company, Golden Harvest successfully surpassed Shaw Brothers and established the leading film company in Hong Kong.

Golden Harvest's satellite company system sounds very good, the film is invested by Golden Harvest, shot by the satellite company, in addition to the remuneration and production fees, the profit of the film blockbuster can be distributed according to a certain proportion, and the sharing objects also include individual actors and cooperative companies, etc., which belong to the money to earn together, but in fact, the so-called dividends are just a big pie drawn, and it is difficult for cooperative companies to get dividends from Golden Harvest.

In the 80s, Sammo Hung Baohe was the satellite company that provided Golden Harvest with the most blockbuster films, even in the face of Xinyicheng, but Sammo Hung did not make any money at all. Later, he said in an interview: "Baohe is a company established by myself, and He is Jiahe. I made a lot of movies and made a lot of money, but I still lost money in the end, and I couldn't make any money. Why? If my movie can be sold for 5 million yuan in my hands, but they only sell it for 1 yuan, and you only earn 1 yuan, do you understand? At that time, "Ghost Fight" made a lot of money? Mexico sold money, Hong Kong sold money, Singapore sold money, Taiwan sold money, I couldn't get a dime. ”

Wang Jin's experience is almost the same as Sammo Hung , he made a lot of blockbuster movies under Golden Harvest, and when he finally left Golden Harvest, not only did he not get dividends, but after accounting, he owed Golden Harvest nearly 10 million. Golden Harvest was kind to Sammo Hung and Sammo Hung was pitted and endured it. Wang Jin was different, he couldn't swallow this breath.

In 1998, the Busan Road studio rented by Golden Harvest was repossessed by the government due to the expiration of the contract, and in the same year, the Hong Kong government allocated a piece of land in Tseung Kwan O to build a cinema. Wang Jin waited for many years for the opportunity to revenge, he first found Shaw Brothers, and then pulled China Star, Media Asia and other companies to form a group bidding, and finally won the land with 78 million Hong Kong dollars several times higher than Golden Harvest's bid. For a film company, losing the set is losing the base from which it depends. Golden Harvest has been in a slump since then, and finally quit the film industry.

Xu Wangqiu knew that Zou Wenhuai's left-handed and right-handed technique was learned from Hollywood, so he shook his head and said: "In Hollywood, I think of a small company like yours, the film is invested by other people or other companies, and the small company is responsible for the production, and when the movie is sold, the small company can get 30% of the profits." Golden Harvest's way of cooperation is completely sucking your blood. ”

Yuan Heping sighed and said, "Who said it wasn't, but we didn't have a better choice." Cooperating with Golden Harvest is at least better than cooperating with Shaw Brothers, and cooperating with Shaw Brothers can only get a fixed salary, and the salary is very low. It is more profitable to cooperate with Golden Harvest, and you can live the addiction of being your own boss. ”

Xu Wangqiu said lightly: "Forget it, don't talk about Jiahe, let's talk about "Falcon". Big eyes, do you know what the box office of "Falcon" is in the mainland now?"

Yuan Heping shook his head with a smile and said: "I don't know, with the quality of "Falcon", it must be a big hit at the box office." ”

Xu Wangqiu chuckled: "Up to now, the box office of the movie has reached 21.37 million in four weeks after its release. According to the normal trend, the final box office of "Falcon" will definitely exceed 100 million yuan, which is 200 million yuan when converted into Hong Kong dollars. ”

Yuan Heping stayed in the crew of "Falcon" for two or three months, and he has a good understanding of the mainland film market, so he was not surprised by the performance of "Falcon's".

However, Yuan Xiangren was taken aback when he heard this figure, the total box office of Xiangjiang movies in 1980 was 400 million Hong Kong dollars, and the box office income of a movie "Falcon" was equivalent to half of the total box office of Xiangjiang. He was stunned and said: "The box office of a movie is 200 million Hong Kong dollars, which is too exaggerated!"

Xu Wangqiu smiled and continued: ""Falcon is a joint investment between our export company and Xiuying Studio, and the theater chain and the distribution company share 65%, and we share 35%. Then we can divide 35 million, half of one person is 17.5 million yuan, and when converted into Hong Kong dollars, it is 35 million. Of course, this is only the domestic box office, the rights to "Falcon" sold for $4 million, and $3.73 million in Cannes, plus the income from other regions, in the end, we and the show studio can earn more than 70 million Hong Kong dollars. ”

Yuan Xiangren's hand shook slightly when he heard this number, and the chopsticks fell onto the table with the meat bar. This is too damn powerful, a movie will earn 70 million, and it's not a company that makes so much! 70 million, even if it's Golden Harvest, I'm afraid it won't make so much money in a year, right?

Yuan Heping's heart also jumped twice, other people's companies earn 70 million yuan for a movie, but his own company can't earn 700,000 yuan a year, the gap is too big. He sighed and said: "The mainland market is very large, but it's a pity that our films can't enter." ”

Xu Wangqiu grinned: "It is really difficult for Xiangjiang films to enter the mainland, but it is not that they can't enter, for example, Changfengxin, which is now the Yindu institution, their films can enter." Xu Wangqiu stared at Yuan Heping and said slowly: "Now that the situation has changed, the state has introduced a new policy, as long as you cooperate with our export company, then your films can also enter the mainland." How about it, are you interested in cooperating with our export company?"