Facing everyone's gaze, Lin Yuquan smiled slightly, and then said calmly: "There is no doubt that the box office of "Painted Wall" has fully reached our expected goal, although it is placed in the North American market, the box office of "Painted Wall" is expected to break 10 million US dollars is not very high, it must be known that there are about twenty or thirty films in the North American market every year with a box office of more than 100 million, and the box office of more than 10 million is even more than 100, but as a foreign language film released in the North American market, the box office of "Painted Wall" is already very good, After all, the reality is that all foreign language films are weak in North America and belong to the non-mainstream.

So why did "Painted Wall" achieve fairly good box office results in the North American market? Looking back at the box office results created by Chinese films in North America in the past, the highest is my "Painted Skin", which grossed $208 million, followed by "Red Cliff" $181 million, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" $128 million, "Huo Yuanjia" $119 million, "Hero" $53.71 million, "Red Fan Zone" $32.29 million, "Kung Fu" $17.1 million, "Super Police" $16.27 million, "Simple Mission" $15.31 million, " Iron Horse" $14.69 million, "A Good Man" $12.71 million, "Black Man" $12.5 million, "Drunken Fist 2" $11.55 million, "Ambush on All Sides" $11.05 million, "Flying Eagle Project" $10.4 million, so far there are a total of fifteen Chinese films with a box office of more than 10 million in North America, and the characteristics of these fifteen movies are also clear at a glance, costumes, kung fu, martial arts, action, this is the unique cultural label of Chinese films in North America.

There is no doubt that the results of the release of "Painted Wall" are naturally inseparable from such a unique cultural label, so the question is, why did "Painted Wall" achieve a good result of more than 10 million US dollars at the box office. In the past three years, in addition to my "Painted Skin", the four Chinese costume masterpieces of "The City Full of Golden Armor", "Wuji", "Night Banquet" and "Casting Names" have suffered fiascos after their release in North America? ”

Speaking of this, Lin Yuquan paused: "Obviously, the quality of the film itself is by no means the decisive factor, but we have not only put in the effort to produce a North American special version. is still sparing no effort in distribution, marketing, and publicity, which is what the other four films have not done. And the question arises again, relying on these two points, can we achieve the promotion of the film produced in the international market? What do you think? ”

As he spoke, Lin Yuquan's gaze, which was obviously full of consideration, swept over everyone present in turn.

"No, at present, the export genre of Chinese films is very simple, mainly focusing on costumes, kung fu, and action genres, and this kind of film has been in a state of eating old books for a long time, and there is no good innovation. It is difficult to satisfy the increasingly discerning appetites of overseas audiences, especially those in North America; Secondly, in other types of films, due to the late start of domestic commercial films and the decline of Hong Kong films, there are very few good commercial films, but in Hollywood, a large number of commercial films are produced every year, and there are far more excellent works than ours. In the case of similar genres and high story similarity, our films. For example, "No Man's Land" and "Old Boy", in fact, it is difficult to make North American audiences who have high requirements for movies interested, that is, there is no overseas appearance. ”

Ye Zetao said slowly, as the person in charge of Shuguang's film distribution business, among all the people present, he naturally knows the most about overseas promotion. In addition to costumes, kung fu and other characteristic genres, commercial movies are either not made at all commercial and not entertaining, or they are too localized and can only be popular in Chinese-speaking areas. Either it can be accepted internationally, but the story model is more Hollywood, and it can't compete with others.

"That's right, that's exactly what I want to say, overseas output, content is king, the current situation is that Chinese films are completely unsatisfactory in terms of content quality, special effects and funding are still secondary, the problem is mainly that we lack people who can tell the story well, Lao Ye, you are responsible for the overall promotion of the company's films, and you have a better understanding of the situation in various overseas markets, what kind of story do you think and what kind of film can be popular in overseas markets?" Lin Yuquan looked at Ye Zetao with thoughtful eyes.

"The mainstream of world cinema is technological spectacle, action, special effects, boss, your movie is to achieve the world's top level in terms of action and special effects, so it is popular all over the world, in fact, movies are divided into local films and global films, even if it is Hollywood, most of the hundreds of films it produces every year are facing the United States, only the dozens of films that spend a lot of money to create are global films, which are Hollywood blockbusters in our usual sense.

In addition to the mainstream, there is also a trend of pursuing humanistic wonders and oriental hunting, in this regard, our Chinese films can be said to be the most curious at present, because our Chinese culture is the deepest, and it also has its own unique martial arts elements, and a costume martial arts movie can be made into a movie that integrates humanistic wonders, oriental hunting, action, and special effects, just like "Red Cliff" and "Painted Skin".

It's a pity that as the boss said, we lack directors and screenwriters who can tell the story well, our directors and screenwriters always like to tell stories from the perspective of human feelings, rather than from the perspective of human nature. For example, in "Wuji", Zhang Dongjian's character does not have the slightest resistance to his slave status, which is incomprehensible to foreigners, and values such as loyalty to the monarch, Acura war, and Acura dictatorship are also the same, so "The City is Full of Golden Armor", "Vote for Fame", and "Night Banquet" cannot be recognized in North America.

Secondly, unless you take the niche route, to go to the international market, you must make the movie simple and clear, never overestimate the audience's IQ, and the audience enters the theater to watch the movie more to seek spiritual pleasure and relaxation, not many people will like to use their brains, and then take "Wuji" as an example, it can be seen that director Chen Kaige intends to express his cultural connotation and humanistic care, the overall narrative of the film and the audience's acceptance level have cracked, the theme of the film seems too empty, even we Chinese ourselves are in the clouds, Can you expect others foreigners to understand? In addition, there are serious problems in the action and special effects, and there is a lack of innovation in the action. It's always repetitive, and Hollywood has long since introduced our Chinese action direction in filming, unless there is a major innovation, a simple kung fu film can no longer arouse the interest of foreign audiences. In addition to technical and financial reasons for special effects, directors generally lack imagination in scenes, props and graphics, which is precisely the most important thing. Only the boss has amazed the world with your level of imagination. Ye Zetao finally slapped a little fart.

Everyone in the conference room smiled, but they didn't think that Ye Zetao's sycophants were too explicit, but they strongly agreed with Ye Zetao's statement, Lin Yuquan's level of special effects imagination was indeed amazing, incomparable.

Lin Yuquan also showed a smile on his face, very satisfied with Ye Zetao's answer, a glimpse of the whole leopard, Ye Zetao showed his keen understanding of the global distribution business very well, and his words pointed out in detail the way for Chinese films to go to the international market. Exactly what he wanted to hear.

"Very good, to the point, I hope you can understand two points, the first point, the future of Chinese films is not overseas in China, our film market is expanding rapidly, and there are too many people who have not developed the habit of entering the cinema to consume, so to speak. The domestic film market has unlimited potential, 10 billion. 20 billion, 30 billion, these are not the end, the huge demographic advantage makes it entirely possible for us to surpass the United States in the near future and become the largest box office market in the world, therefore. Our future production focus is first of all based on China, making movies for domestic audiences, and making good movies that can be liked by Chinese people; Second, we cannot rest on our laurels and rest on our laurels. We need to have a foothold in the domestic market, and at the same time, let the films we produce have the ability to compete with Hollywood films in the international market, such films do not need too many, and we can focus on making one or two films a year in the initial stage. ”

"So do you need to make "Dragon Gate Flying Armor" into such a movie?" Qiu Qingyi said immediately.

Lin Yuquan did not answer immediately, but thought quickly in his mind, Mr. Lu Xun once said, "Only the national is the world." In this regard, he quite agrees that the international production of Chinese films does not mean that the characteristics of Chinese culture should be abandoned, on the contrary, the most important thing to do in international production is to maintain the oriental charm, and it is difficult for Chinese films without oriental charm to achieve good results overseas, so the film must first tell a unique story unique to China, at the same time, the type of film is naturally the top priority, costumes, kung fu, martial arts, action, although foreign audiences seem to be less and less interested in Chinese films in recent years, But this is more because Chinese films have not done enough in terms of innovation and their own quality, in fact, the four major elements are still the most popular for foreign audiences, and the question is whether Xu Ke can make "Dragon Gate Flying Armor" into a movie with international standards?

Since the success of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", a series of costume commercial blockbusters have achieved amazing commercial returns either globally or domestically, such a boom has made it possible for major film companies and investors to be enthusiastic about the model of costume commercial blockbusters despite the box office failure every year, but the lack of progress at the creative level and the pale weakness at the story level of films of the same type are seriously overdrawing the audience's enthusiasm for costume blockbusters.

It can be said that it is a very risky decision to shoot a super high-investment costume blockbuster at this stage, if possible, Lin Yuquan certainly does not want to limit the international Chinese blockbuster to the costume blockbuster, but the reality is so helpless, in terms of science fiction themes, Chinese films are not competitive enough at all, awareness, literacy, and technology are all lacking, disaster films, epic films, war films, based on domestic shooting is OK, based on international competition, if you want to compete with Hollywood, its investment will be amazing, Who can rest assured that such a movie will be handed over to him except him? Spy war action films, police movies, well, this is actually a very good genre, Cheng Long has also achieved international popularity because of this, but such a genre, Hollywood, Hong Kong, and South Korea can be filmed, but only in China, due to censorship, it will encounter great obstacles, so looking back, only costume blockbusters have good operability.

As for small and medium-budget films, it is undeniable that they can greatly enrich the creative genre of Chinese-language films and expand the audience's reach, but China cannot become a film power by relying only on medium- and low-cost films. What truly represents the hard power of a country's films, has the widest audience base and overseas communication power, is always a high-quality commercial blockbuster. It is said that Hollywood has conquered the global film market, but in fact, it is only a very small number of Hollywood blockbusters that have conquered the global film market, and it is unimaginable that without "Star Wars", "Jurassic Park", "Terminator", "Titanic", "Harry Potter", "Spider-Man", "Raiders of the Lost Ark", "The Lord of the Rings" These films, what Hollywood will be like now.

Thinking of this, Lin Yuquan quickly made a decision.

"Shoot, let's start with "Dragon Gate Flying Armor" to build our international production, budget, you first consider it according to the budget of 200 million, if you need to add a budget, and then hand over the specific plan to me."

And although shooting a costume blockbuster means that it will inevitably face an extremely severe test, the need to break the vice of repeated production, and the need to be determined to innovate, if even Xu Ke can't do it, who should he hand it over? Of course, he can shoot it himself, but after all, he is just a person, he lacks skills, how many movies can he make, the strength of the dawning film should be the strength of the collective force, and there need to be more international big productions other than him, in the absence of better candidates and no better works for a while, "Dragon Gate Flying Armor" is obviously already a good choice.

"Okay, boss." Qiu Qingyi nodded.

"Okay, then what I just said about shooting movies that domestic audiences like based on the local market, through the box office situation of "No Man's Land" and "Old Boy" and the audience's word-of-mouth evaluation, it is not difficult to draw a conclusion that small and medium-cost realistic genre commercial films are currently extremely eager to see by the audience. If this kind of film is of outstanding quality, the economic return brought by it is not even inferior to that of blockbusters, and there is an incomparable advantage of commercial blockbusters, its investment risk is very small, and through a series of rational commercial operations, there will be no loss that will break the bones. Therefore, in my planning, small and medium-cost commercial films with realistic themes will be the focus of the company's production, and comedies, youth films, and romance films can all be made. On the contrary, it is a big-budget film, at this stage, it should not be too much, try to control it to two to three per year, of which the costume type should not exceed two, it is best to concentrate resources to create a film with international competitiveness, and literary films and niche films are decided according to the script."

"In terms of TV dramas, we must continue to carry forward the principle of high-quality dramas, ancient costumes and military genres should not be too much, try to control them within two, just like movies, our production focus should be on urban dramas with realistic themes, in terms of quantity, I hope to maintain the production output of at least six dramas per year, but not more than ten, it is not a good thing to pursue quantity too much, we must win by quality"

"In terms of variety shows, our current focus is, of course, the preparation of "The Voice of China", but while preparing, we must also pay close attention to the planning of new programs, and that's what I want to say." After planning the work of the dawning film in the coming year, Lin Yuquan smiled slightly and looked at Qiu Qingyi: "Now it's time for you to say, start with Tsing Yi, what are the film and television dramas that the company has basically determined that can be filmed next year?" ”

"In terms of movies, I can be completely sure, there are four that are waiting for the boss to make your final decision, one is "Du Lala's Promotion", one is "People in Embarrassment", one is "Gentleman's Makeover", and the other is "The Piano of Steel", which is a synopsis of the script." Qiu Qingyi got up and handed the materials that had already been prepared to Lin Yuquan, and continued: "Among them, "Du Lala's Promotion" is based on the workplace novel of the same name, I don't need to say more, boss, you already know, "People in Embarrassment" is the script we received not long ago."

At the same time as Qiu Qingyi's introduction, Lin Yuquan also looked at the outline of the script. (To be continued......)

PS: Well, I guess I'm going to be talking about water again.