Early February 1981. Because it is close to the traditional Chinese New Year, the streets of Hong Kong are more lively than Christmas. Especially in some of the more traditional Chinese-inhabited areas, lanterns, firecrackers, lion dances, dragon dances, gongs and drums, and street singing have also appeared.

For Zhang Shaojie, the best news he received before the Chinese New Year was that the crew of "The Legend of Double Dragons of the Tang Dynasty" was officially completed, and the post-production of the film's special effects shots has also entered the final stage.

"Happy New Year!"

In order to encourage the company's employees for their hard work in the past few months, Zhang Shaojie and Gu Long personally distributed red envelopes to each employee of the company and sent holiday blessings.

Although there are not many red envelopes, everyone has 1,000 Hong Kong dollars, regardless of their position.

Not only the employees of Baolong Film Company and the crew members of "Datang" felt the warmth of the company, but even the American technicians also felt that the Chinese New Year was a good festival

"You've worked hard these past few months, Brother Gulong!" Zhang Shaojie said embarrassedly, "The company and the crew, it's mainly you who are busy, I'm lazy!" ”

Gu Long shook his head and said: "Actually, you are the busiest, if it is not for the manuscript fee you have worked hard to earn to support the investment of the film, how can Baolong Film Company be as prosperous as it is now." Even many big directors and big stars of Golden Harvest Company showed envy when they saw our employees and crew! ”

In fact, just in the past few months of work, even if the crew is a miscellaneous worker, they can earn 3,000 yuan a month. And the salaries of people like Tsui Hark, Cheng Xiaodong, Yuan Heping, Lin Qingxia and others, looking at the whole of Hong Kong, are already among the best. It can be said that their salary is at the same level as Jackie Chan, Xu Guanwen, and Sammo Hung!

In less than 5 months, the entire crew "The Legend of Double Dragons of the Tang Dynasty" can be regarded as wealthy, spending 7.3 million! To use a joke from Tsui Hark: "7 million is already challenging my limit of spending money, and I don't know how to spend it effectively if I give me more money." Those people who are still industrial light and magic are powerful, they have spent more than 30 million in a few months, and they don't even blink an eye! ”

If "The Legend of Double Dragons of the Tang Dynasty" is successful, its significance is to bring the Chinese film industry into the era of high-cost and high-output commercial blockbusters in advance.

The standard of this blockbuster is not the standard of small family style in Asia, but the standard of Hollywood blockbusters!

Generally speaking, an investment of 43 million requires at least 80 million at the box office to recover the cost, and in the Asian film box office market, there will be no more than 30 films a year that can sell more than 30 million Hong Kong dollars.

And films that can reach a box office of 80 million Hong Kong dollars are often available but not sought after in the Asian market in this era.

As for the 80s, "Shaolin Temple" sold more than 100 million box office tickets for 1 cent a movie ticket in China, which is already an irreproducible myth and legend!

Gu Long worried: "According to the current investment cost of "The Legend of Double Dragons of the Tang Dynasty", it will take at least 100 million Hong Kong dollars at the box office to recover the cost. Judging from the current Hong Kong film market, except for "Modern Bodyguard", there is no movie with a local box office of more than 10 million! In the total box office in Asia, only the movies of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Xu Guanwen can have a global total box office of 100 million Hong Kong dollars! Moreover, even if it is a Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan movie, not all of them can achieve a total box office of more than 100 million"

Zhang Shaojie said with a smile: "Brother Gulong, you don't have to worry!" Actually, even if the movie loses, it's really not a big deal! ”

Gu Long was stunned: "This is not a small amount, Shaojie, although your manuscript fee is amazing." But according to your remuneration, it will only be 20 million Hong Kong dollars a year, you must know that you have even smashed the profits on the stock and the movie dividends of "Modern Bodyguard"! ”

Zhang Shaojie shook his head and said: "What I calculate is not the gains and losses of one city or one place, but the reputation and brand of the entire "Legend of Double Dragons of the Tang Dynasty"!" With the launch of this movie, even if it is a loss, as long as it has a box office of 20 million in Asia, it also means that 4 million people have watched the movie. With so many people paying attention, it will definitely attract people who didn't originally watch "Datang" to watch the original work! At that time, the sales driven by it were enough to make up for my loss! What's more, in the future, if "The Legend of Double Dragons of the Tang Dynasty" is managed as a cultural brand, written with a surname, adapted and used many times, and operated like an evergreen tree every year, this is the king! ”

For cultural products, the more popular the work, the greater the value.

If a work is only selling well, it is generally difficult to sell if you want to develop toys, cards, stationery and other state-related products. But if a work has a huge fame in the movie, it can promote the sales of peripheral commercial products.

The most awesome thing is the peripheral products of the animation industry!

If the animation industry, animation, games and other cultural products themselves can sell a market share of 10 million US dollars, then the peripheral school bags, toys, cards, clothing, and various animation-related commercial products can sell at least 150 million US dollars.

Therefore, the animation industry is the pillar industry! The entire anime game itself may have average performance, but the market for peripheral products is 15 times that of anime itself! This means that if you sell $10 billion in the animation market, you can sell $150 billion in peripheral products.

If an enterprise is willing to draw tens of millions of huge assets to advertise, it is better to invest in a movie or animation related to its own company's brand, and then sell the company's main products in the form of peripheral goods of movies and animation. This not only prospers the culture, but also promotes the sale of products.

That's much more meaningful than just shooting commercials!

Hearing Zhang Shaojie's words, Gu Long couldn't help but be excited by his arrogance, and said with a smile: "That's good! My vision was still narrow before, if I could be like Shaojie you, I would see it as a cultural brand, and I wouldn't be slack! ”

Zhang Shaojie couldn't help but laugh when he heard Gu Long say that he was slack.

Slack? Gu Long, that's stealing and slippery, okay!

In the history of martial arts, there are only authors like Gu Long, often when a book has a feeling, he writes desperately, submits a beginning, and cheats the manuscript fee at the publishing house, and after the publishing house advances the manuscript fee to him, Gu Long admits to the publishing house that "I can't write it anymore", so the publishing house can only helplessly ask for a gun to write Gu Long.

In the whole of Hong Kong and Taiwan, there are at least 50 or 60 famous people who have served as gunmen for Gu Long. Sometimes, it is common for Gu Long to write a book in the later stage with three or four gun procedures.

Gu Long often has a wonderful front and a weird style in the back, or it is not as good as before, which is mostly due to the inconsistency between the writing style of the gunman and Gu Long.

Gu Long's fault is the fault of most talented authors.

Because genius authors pay attention to mood and inspiration, and if the writing mood and inspiration are gone, then it is impossible to write even if you stare at the outline plot all day long.

This kind of emotional author is easy to put the work in eunuchs and unfinished. If you want to force Gu Long to write every day like going to work, maybe it's okay, but you can barely squeeze out some words in pain, is that still Gu Long's free and easy style?

When the movie "The Legend of Double Dragons of the Tang Dynasty: Origin" is coming to an end, for the time being, Baolong Film Company and Zhang Shaojie himself have no capital to make "Datang 2" for the time being!

Therefore, Zhang Shaojie and Gu Long discussed that the cost of the next movie would be reduced to a budget of 5 million to make a new martial arts movie style "Six Finger Qin Demon"!

"Six-Fingered Piano Demon" This is the copyright sold by Ni Kuang to "Ming Pao".

The copyright adaptation of Ming Pao is now mainly Zhang Shaojie's final say. And Zhang Shaojie intends to take "Six Fingers Qin Demon" to Baolong Film Company for filming.

After all, the plot of "Six-Fingered Piano Demon" is very suitable for film and television adaptation. In addition, the main team of Baolong Film Company at this time is also mainly making martial arts movies, and the next movie will be "Six Fingers Qin Demon. is obviously a martial arts film like this, and it is obviously more grasped.

In the blink of an eye, Baolong Film Company and Zhang Shaojie have played an increasingly important role. Moreover, since Zhang Shaojie joined Baolong Film Company, the first major change brought to the company is - big production!

The employees of Baolong Film Company, who have spent more than 40 million in a few months, are now very high-spirited. With an investment of one or two million Hong Kong dollars, the employees of Baolong Film Company seem to have belonged to the family-like little family. The investment of five or six million Hong Kong dollars is an absolute big production in the eyes of other companies, but in the eyes of the employees of Baolong Film Company, it is just an ordinary medium-sized production.

In Hong Kong's small-scale production-oriented environment, Baolong Film Company is already a maverick company. Zhang Shaojie is also nervous about how far this model can go, but no matter how difficult this road is, he regrets it

Zhang Shaojie believes that those small-scale movies are too low-tech, and anyone can follow suit. A swarm of plagiarism on comedy themes, zombie themes, underworld themes, and gambling films, there is no doubt about it!

What can really gain a foothold in the international film market in the future is a commercial blockbuster with high investment and high output. With the combination of Silicon Valley and Hollywood, computer technology is increasingly applied to movies, and the blockbuster era has begun!

The only commercial blockbusters that can fight against Hollywood's rolling commercial blockbusters are big-budget commercial blockbusters!

Big-budget movies have swept the mainstream market of movies, and perhaps from the perspective of return on investment, small-made movies may create millions of investments and hundreds of millions of box office miracle ROIs. But the real mainstay that determines a region's position in the global film market is dominated by blockbusters with high investment and high box office!

(To be continued)