Wu Hehu sat on the chair and groaned for a while, picked up the phone and dialed Zhao Jun, the boss of China Film Southern Shinkansen, and when the phone was connected, he asked directly: "Lao Zhao, have you received a notice from China Film and Century Peak?"

China Film South is a cinema chain jointly run by China Film and Guangdong Film Company, which is mainly operated by Guangdong Film Company. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 There has always been a saying in the info film industry that "Gao Jun in the North, Zhao Jun in the South, and Wu Hehu in the Demon Capital", the three of them are known as the Three Musketeers of Chinese film distribution, and the general manager of China Film South is Zhao Jun.

At this time, Zhao Jun was also very angry about this matter, and when he received a call from Wu Hehu, he said: "I just saw that raising it by four percentage points is too much, but they directly issued a pass, like a court issuing a summons, what does this mean." ”

When Wu Hehu heard this, the fire in his heart also rose: "In the past, Zhang Weiping asked for an increase in the share, and he discussed it with us. I watched the film first in the morning, and after watching it for lunch, I discussed it while eating. Now they don't have to discuss it at all, they just send a notice, and they don't have a minimum of respect for us at all. Do they know how much the theaters have invested in digital projectors? Now that the theaters have changed to digital projectors, how much will it cost, do they know?"

Zhao Jun said angrily: "My idea is this, I will call the China Film Distribution and Projection Association in a while, and we will gather the heads of the domestic cinema chains in the name of the projection association, and everyone will have a meeting together to discuss how to deal with this matter, what do you think?"

Wu Hehu immediately said: "That's what I mean when I look for you, they can be an alliance, we can also be an alliance, let's have an alliance against an alliance." If we give in this time, in a few years, they will increase the share to 50%, then our cinema chain will not be alive? As long as we win this time, within five years, no one will dare to jump out and challenge us again!"

Zhao Jun thinks this is reasonable, China Film is the leader of the state-owned film company, and the peak of the century is the leader of the private film company, if the alliance between them is broken up, then who will dare to jump out next time to challenge the authority of the theater chain?

Just a few seconds after hanging up Zhao Jun's phone, the phone rang again, and Wu Hehu picked it up and saw that it was Zeng Maojun, the president of Wanda Cinema Line.

As soon as the phone was connected, I heard Zeng Maojun say angrily: "Mr. Wu, I'm Wanda Zeng Maojun, have you received a notice from Zhongying? They actually want to increase the share of four points, this is obviously to rob!"

There are more than 30 cinema chains in China, and they usually operate independently, fighting openly and secretly, and constantly using various small means to grab customers in order to grab the market, however, in this morning, they stand together unprecedentedly united in order to protect their own interests in the face of the notice of the five major issuers to increase the proportion of account sharing.

Soon after the notice was issued by the five major issuers, the matter was poked to the media, which immediately aroused serious public attention and caused an uproar in the industry.

Rao Xiaguang, deputy director of China Film Materials, said: "In the modern film industry chain, the proportion of producers should be 50% to be reasonable. In our country, the producers are now in a relatively weak position, and the proportion of producers getting is only 41%, and all the risks are borne by the producers. In the long run, it will inevitably lead to a vicious circle for the entire industry. ”

Professor Zheng Dongdong of Peking Film Academy said: "At that time, there were few domestic theaters, and the state in order to encourage the construction of more theaters, so the box office account sharing policy was tilted towards the theater chain, and the producer suffered a loss. Now that theaters have been saturated in many cities, the account sharing should be decided by the market, so it is a matter of time before the distribution and the theater chain fight. ”

Wang Fenglin, secretary-general of the China Film Producers Association, said: "Since last year, there has been a strong call in the industry to increase the proportion of distributors. In August this year, the China Film Producers Association held a board meeting, and everyone believed that the distributor's box office share ratio was only reasonable at about 50%, and they were ready to propose it at the right time, and the Chinese New Year file was an opportune time. ”

Of course, there are also those who are dissatisfied with the behavior of the distributor, Zhu Yulin, editor-in-chief of the film edition of "Variety", thinks: "The cost of film production has increased, but has the quality of the film improved? Now the quality of domestic films is vulnerable, you don't work quality, but want to make more money, which will end sooner or later." ”

The film directors have long been dissatisfied with the sharing, and they all feel that the sharing ratio of 41:59 is unreasonable, and the producer takes the biggest risk but only divides the small head, but the producer has always been in a weak position, and everyone dares to be angry but dare not speak.

Feng Xiaogang was the first to speak out: "Our current sharing ratio is too unreasonable, the proportion of foreign films is usually 50%: 50%, and we are now 41%: 59%;

This year, Zhang Yimou is busy with the Olympic Games, and there is nothing new to do, but Zhang Weiping, who has always been high-profile, is not lonely, and also jumped out: "I have already done it twice to increase the proportion of account sharing, and this time someone else finally stood up." Last year, "Golden Armor" was sold to North American distributors, and the proportion of account sharing negotiated with North America was 65% for us and 35% for them, and then as the box office of the film got better and better, I reduced the share ratio, which is benign. ”

Chen Kexin, the director of "Casting Names", the main force of this year's Chinese New Year file, said: "Increasing the account-sharing ratio will stimulate the improvement of the quality of the film, and at the same time, only by improving the quality of the film will make more audiences willing to pay for the cinema, and increasing the account-sharing ratio will be more meaningful." Because the total box office is high, production, distribution and theaters can share higher benefits. ”

The distributor thinks that the theater chain has made a lot of money and is clamoring for more money, but the theater side feels very aggrieved, our cost is also large, and we are under a lot of pressure, and they have also conveyed their voices through the media.

Yu Chao, deputy general manager of the Capital Cinema, complained to the media: "In the early days of the establishment of the Capital Cinema, the rent of the theater basically only included a minimum fee of 2 million to 3 million yuan, plus an annual box office share of about 10%, but in 2007, the rent of the Peking Cinema generally rose to twice that of 2006. In the past two years, it is also very common for theaters to take out 20% or even higher box office revenue as rent in order to fight for land, and we are really under pressure. ”

Zhao Jun also has the same view: "Now the rent of the cinema is rising, at least more than 3 times, the current monthly rent of the Southern Shinkansen of China Film is about 150 yuan to 160 yuan per square meter; the price of equipment and equipment is also rising, the film machine used to be about 180,000 yuan, now it costs 380,000 yuan to replace the digital projector, the xenon lamp of the digital projector can only be shown for 2000 hours, and it costs thousands of yuan to replace a xenon lamp." ”

Jiang Guangchao, chairman of the New Film Association Cinema Line, calculated an account for reporters: "There are not many cinemas with a box office income of 30 million yuan, and the box office income of medium-sized cinemas is only 10 million to 15 million yuan a year, excluding more than 3 million yuan of ground rent, more than 5 million yuan of equipment depreciation, more than 2 million yuan of labor costs, and more than 2 million yuan of water and electricity expenses, and the final profit is very little." ”

Netizens were originally gloating about the fight between the two sides, anyway, they were not afraid of the big thing when they watched the excitement, and felt that the two sides had the best fight, but soon some industry insiders said that the final result of the dispute between distribution and theaters may be passed on to the audience, and movie ticket prices may rise, and now netizens also feel the pressure.

Zhang Xiaobei said on Weibo: "No matter how you two fight, don't raise the price, if the movie theater takes this opportunity to increase the ticket price, I won't buy a ticket to watch any of the films in the Chinese New Year file!"

Netizens' favorite Stefanie Sun 1990 claimed: "As an audience, I don't care which of you is right and who is wrong, I just want to know if the ticket price of the movie will rise, and now the ticket price is really high!"

Netizen Wushuang 361 left a message saying: "Originally, I watched less domestic movies now, if you still increase the ticket price of domestic films, then I can only stop watching them!"

On the afternoon of November 29, the China Film Distribution and Projection Association and cinema chains held an emergency meeting in Shenzhen, where thirteen domestic cinema chains gathered to discuss how to deal with this imminent war.

Zhao Jun, as the leading brother, was the first to get up and speak: "Everyone, these four points are not only a matter of interests, but also a matter of principle. Now the time has come to test everyone's will, whether to retreat in the face of small profits, or to stand up in the face of medium- and long-term interests and principles, it is up to you to choose, this is a war!"

"To be honest, four percentage points is not unacceptable, but we Wanda resolutely does not accept their attitude!"

"To the end with them, we are losing, they are also losing, if we don't release the movies of the five of them, we can also release the films of other film companies, are we still afraid of them?"

"Those of them who make movies say that the cost of movies is getting higher and higher, this is because they themselves do not control the salaries of actors, and some even account for more than half of the production, this is your own business, why should it be passed on to our theater chain?"

"Mr. Zhao, just say what to do!"

Zhao Jun looked at Wu Hehu, and saw that he nodded at himself, so he said: "They issued an alliance to send us a notice, then our theater chain also made an alliance and sent them a declaration, but we still have to talk about it, but we must also try to break up their alliance while negotiating, each of them is broken, among the five distribution companies, we can't afford to mess with China Film, the peak of the century is too rich to be defeated, and the other three are relatively weak, among which Bona's "Casting the Name" The release time is the earliest, and Huayi and the peak of the century have a deep contradiction, they are our breakthrough, if the other party never lets go, we will stare at Bona and Huayi, as long as we win one, their alliance will fall apart!"

The boss of the theater chain thought that this plan was very good, and they all laughed and applauded in unison.

After the meeting, the participating theaters expressed their attitude through the media, and the demands put forward by the five major distribution companies were unacceptable, and pointed out the eight major mistakes of the distribution companies:

First, do not understand the rules, do not negotiate the attitude, but treat the market with a "notice" attitude;

Second, they do not understand cooperation, and the practice of modifying the proportion of account sharing has not passed through the distribution and projection association, and lacks the spirit of industry cooperation;

Third, I don't understand history, and the proportion of account sharing has been followed for a long time, which is already a realistic pattern;

Fourth, it is unreasonable, both the producer and the theater chain have difficulties, and they do not consider and emphasize their own interests for the theater chain;

Fifth, if you don't grasp the opportunity, most of the cinema investment is still in the loss period, and naturally you can't get the support of the cinema chain;

Sixth, he doesn't understand politics, and immediately after the "Seventeenth", he provoked a toss and created a large-scale national boycott, which was to add chaos to the government;

Seventh, if you don't understand the method, the theater chain understands the difficulties of production, but if you want to increase the account sharing ratio by 4 percentage points, you can appeal to the special fund for film;

Eighth, it is not emotional, the cinema cinema has always supported the five production companies, and what the distributor did this time is a profit-seeking.