There is a saying in the film industry that channels are king, and only by mastering distribution channels can we truly grasp the market.

It is very difficult for Wang Zijun and Zou Wenhuai to enter the Japanese film distribution industry out of thin air, at least they will not get the distribution rights so easily.

In this case, it is necessary to cooperate with local film distribution companies in Japan, or simply pay for acquisitions, which is an effective method in the current situation in the Japanese film industry.

Let's first take a look at the situation of Japanese films over the years.

In the early post-war period, Japanese cinema developed slowly, but in the 50s, it began to leap forward, with major studios flourishing, independent productions flourishing, and gradually internationalizing beyond Japan. Until 1960, the annual production of Japanese films peaked at 547 films.

However, since the 60s, Japan's economy has developed rapidly, but Japanese films have been declining due to the impact of television. After 1960, the situation of Japanese films took a sharp turn for the worse, and the entire film industry was in a state of turmoil, chaos and depression. Of the original six large companies, Shin Toho and Daiei collapsed in 1961 and 1971 respectively, and their production was greatly reduced, and they were turned into distribution, theater operations, and other ancillary businesses.

Originally, the production, distribution, and release of Japanese films were in the hands of large companies, but by the 70s, this situation slowly ceased to exist. Especially since the mid-1970s, the studio system of Japanese films has faced a complete collapse, and the monopoly of the film industry by large studios is gone, and some non-film companies are eyeing the film market, waiting for an opportunity to encroach on the film market.

From 1970 to 1980, it was the golden age of the development of Japan's television industry, but it was also the lowest point of the Japanese film industry, and it was the best period for Wang Zijun to enter the Japanese film market. In a few years, that is, after the 80s, after a series of explorations, Japanese filmmakers began to integrate film, television, publishing and other resources, and Japanese films would fully recover, and it would be too late to enter Japan at that time.

In fact, in a few months, Kadokawa Pictures would be founded, and after that, the "Kadokawa Commercial Law" was developed, which linked publishing to film, making a major breakthrough and making a good start to the revival of Japanese films.

Wang Zijun and Zou Wenhuai acquired a company called Takahashi Film Co., Ltd. a few years ago. Takahashi Film Co., Ltd. was founded in the 50s, which was the golden age of Japanese film development. Its founder, Saburo Takahashi, was originally an independent director, and after making a few pots of gold, he formed his own film company.

At that time, Japanese filmmakers were very happy, just like the Chinese directors a few years ago, making one film and earning one, Takahashi Saburo's company became bigger and bigger, gradually entered the field of distribution, and established a good scale cinema chain in the Kanto region.

However, by the mid-'60s, Takahashi Film Company began to decline, and the successive box office fiascos made it unbearable, until 1972 when it finally announced that its studio had closed, leaving only the distribution and theatrical business.

After more than three years, due to the overall decline of the Japanese film industry, Takahashi Saburo's distribution company and movie theaters gradually became unsupportable, and he looked for someone to get rid of.

However, it was not until the late 70s that companies in the non-film industry invested in films on a large scale, because they all saw the sweetness of Kadokawa Pictures (Kadokawa Pictures entered the film industry as a publisher and made a lot of money after the success of Kadokawa Commercial Law) and wanted to get a piece of the pie. At this moment, except for those who are very forward-looking in the market and dare to eat crabs, no one wants to take over a film company that is bound to lose money.

In addition to being conservative, there is another important reason why Run Run Shaw did not get involved in Wang Zijun and Zou Wenhuai's plans, that is, Run Run Shaw is very familiar with the current situation of the Japanese film market - everyone else has hit the streets in Japan, and you can get a good deal with Chinese films?

Wang Zijun does not believe in evil, Zou Wenhuai is also a daring person, and after the two sent assistants to go around Japan, they fell in love with Takahashi Film Co., Ltd. At a price of $250,000 per person and a debt of 100 million yen from the former Takahashi Company, the company acquired 90 shares of Takahashi Film Company. (The yen exchange rate fluctuated greatly in the seventies, appreciating three times and depreciating twice, and the yen exchange rate against the U.S. dollar at this time was about 250:1, and 100 million yen was about 15.2 million Taiwan dollars).

In other words, the two spent a total of $1 million to buy a medium-sized distribution company and 90% of the shares of 31 movie theaters. If it weren't for the need for one person to continue to run the company, Wang Zijun and Zou Wenhuai would have bought it 100%. …,

This seems to be a big advantage, but in fact, if the two don't make any reforms, then these companies and movie theaters will not only not be able to make money, but will lose money every day.

In fact, in Japan over the years, companies like Takahashi Film Co., Ltd. have closed down I don't know how much. You must know that there were many Japanese film companies in the 50s, but how many could survive the revival of Japanese films in the 80s?

Takahashi Saburo is 53 years old this year, he was born as a director, but he was beautiful back then, and now although he retains a stake in the company, he has also become a part-time worker of Wang Zijun and Zou Wenhuai.

Speaking of which, Takahashi was lucky, at least he sold the company to not only pay off his debts, but also get $500,000.

The investment of the two Chinese bosses made Takahashi Saburo very grateful, especially the company reserved a 10% stake for him. For the company's feelings, Takahashi Saburo is deeper than anyone else, and he is simply being treated as his own son. In the past few years, many shareholders want to declare bankruptcy, but Takahashi, who still has hope for the company, refuses to admit defeat. For this reason, he did not hesitate to sell and mortgage his real estate, luxury cars, and other properties, buy the shares in the hands of his partners and bring them to the bank to continue to support him, and now he has to rely on his children to support his life.

Saburo Takahashi is very busy and anxious now, the Japanese dialogue of "Food Truck" has been dubbed, and he is busy with the final round of publicity according to Wang Zijun's instructions.

I don't know if this Chinese-language film can achieve a good box office in Japan, where the film market is sluggish.

These days, Takahashi Saburo is personally responsible for contacting other theaters, and at the beginning, those movie theaters heard that it was a Chinese-language movie, and they directly refused. It wasn't until Takahashi said that he was the director of Wang Zijun that some of them agreed one after another, and with the gradual expansion of publicity, more and more theaters finally agreed to release it.

Takahashi is talking on the phone with the person in charge of a theater chain and has made an appointment to meet tomorrow, Takahashi Film Company, no, it should be said that the head of the publicity department of Asia Film Distribution Company Isamu Asada came in and reported: "President Takahashi, Fuji TV, Nippon TV, TV Tokyo, etc., have confirmed that they will enter the final round of publicity tomorrow, and advertisements in newspapers such as the Yomiuri Shimbun will be printed in full tomorrow." ”

"You're doing a great job," Saburo Takahashi nodded and smiled.

"With all due respect, President," said Asada after a moment's hesitation, "we have already spent more than 20 million yen on our promotional expenses, and we will continue to increase the cost in the future." With such a huge investment, if the box office fails, the company will never have a way out. ”

Takahashi Saburo smiled for a moment, took a deep breath and said, "Asada-kun, you don't need to worry about this. All you have to do is do it according to our publicity plan."

Asada is also a veteran employee of the company, who has been working here for ten years, and when he saw Saburo Takahashi say this, he could only nod and say, "Yes, I will do my best to do my best." ”

After Asada Yunao left, Takahashi Saburo sighed, he didn't have much confidence in this publicity. Unlike Taiwan and Hong Kong, Japan has only a few TV stations, and no one has done it before relying on TV to promote movies, because if you want to achieve the publicity effect when the film market is already sluggish, then I don't know if the box office will be able to earn back the huge publicity money.

What's more, this publicity is not only for TV stations, but also for various newspapers and magazines, as well as huge advertisements in various places.

With such a terrifying scale of propaganda, even Zou Wenhuai was against it, feeling that Wang Zijun was too radical. It wasn't until Wang Zijun later said that Wang's company would pay eighty percent of these publicity fees, and then he would take two percent more from the Asian film distribution company at the box office, that it was decided.

Let's hope it succeeds

………………………………

On the streets of Tokyo, it's morning work time.

Akimoto Mu was an ordinary salaryman, and he got out of the subway station and hurried to the company as fast as usual.

Suddenly, he stopped, staring in amazement at an office building in front of him.

Not only Akimoto Mu stopped, but many passers-by stopped, and even some vehicles made a short pause.

On the side wall of an office building in the distance, it was bare yesterday, but early this morning, a huge movie poster with a height of more than 30 meters was hung.

The main body of the poster is the amorous Laura. Fona, Cheng Long and Yuan Biao smiling hippie shoulders behind Laura, and finally Sammo Hung fighting Albert on the left, and Irushandu and Kaibo on the right.

And the advertising slogan on the poster is also eye-catching:

The latest masterpiece of international director Wang Zijun, the king of kung fu, Bruce Lee, strongly recommends the film - "Food Truck".

The dazzling East-West fighting competition, beautiful European customs, and passionate Spanish girls will take you into a new screen world.

The 750 million yen blockbuster kung fu film, which is a shocking hit in Asia, will be released on February 15

"Oh, it looks like this movie is good." Akimoto Mu smiled, picked up the briefcase under his arm and continued to move forward, if he didn't leave, he would be late for work.

However, Akimoto Mu has already written down the movie "Food Truck" in his heart, and as long as he is free at that time, he will definitely go to see it. In fact, the decline of Japanese films today is the same as the decline of Taiwanese films a few years later, and some of the factors are the same, that is, the improvement of people's living standards and the rapid popularization of television sets, which has reduced the per capita viewing rate, not that ordinary people have no money to enter the theater.

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Yesterday's one seemed to have a bit of a big reaction, Lao Wang's fault, I'm sorry.

Originally, I would write until the 80s, but now the more I write, the more tired I become, trying to speed up the plot.

Lao Wang is now thinking about a new book, of course, this book will be written at least two or three months .......