That night, Jay Chou proudly invited Du Xinghe and the accompanying staff in the mainland to have an authentic Taiwan dinner in Xinye.

Kang Kang was also invited to eat together, and it was Kang Kang who Du Xinghe took the initiative to invite. After all, Brother Kang is a host who once brought him a lot of joy. Now that he has the ability to give back to the other party, he also hopes to give Brother Kang a happy return.

Kang Kang's current work schedule is to plan to make new movies, and although this year's "100,000 Gang Urgent" did not achieve the expected explosive results, it still allowed him to accumulate a lot of experience as a director. He is ready to shoot a new film to fight the film market again.

The theme song of "100,000 Gang Emergency" was written and composed by Jay Chou, and Kang Kang, Uncle Da and Li Guohuang sang together.

I was happy that night, and Kang Kang also sang this theme song to everyone on the spot-

……

Simple years ~ nothing ~ often shed tears ~ forgot who I am ~

In modern society~everyone thinks~deception is not a crime~rich is the most valuable~

In this fake world~Master taught us to defend ourselves~

From now on ~ no longer follow ~ scarred night ~

In this fake world of supply ~ learn that everyone should be at their own risk ~

It doesn't matter~ I won't next time~ let him have a chance again~ You say it's not right~

Being a man is like a dusty person ~ almost no zài ~ being played by someone is reckless ~ moving slowly and half a beat ~

The era of money worship ~ Worthless is love ~ Always outside the situation ~ It's really sad to think about it~

In this fake world of goods ~~ (goods ~~ goods ~~ goods ~~ goods ~~.~.~.)

The master taught us to defend ourselves~~(goods~~goods~~goods~~goods~~goods.~.~.~.)

From then on~no longer followed~~ scarred night~

In this fake world of goods ~~ (goods ~~ goods ~~ goods ~~ goods ~~.~.~.)

Learn to put everyone at risk~~(goods~~goods~~goods~~goods~~goods.~.~.~.)

It doesn't matter~ I won't next time~ let him have a chance again~ You say it's not right~

In this fake world of goods ~~ (goods ~~ goods ~~ goods ~~ goods ~~.~.~.)

Losing our burden teaches us to defend ourselves~~(goods~~goods~~goods~~goods~~goods.~.~.~.)

From now on ~ no longer follow ~ scarred night ~~

In this fake world of goods ~~ (goods ~~ goods ~~ goods ~~ goods ~~.~.~.)

Learn to put everyone at risk~~(goods~~goods~~goods~~goods~~goods.~.~.~.)

From now on ~ no longer follow ~ scarred night ~

Look~~~ How many times can you lie to me~~~~~~

……

Seeing that Brother Kang was old and habitually made others laugh, Du Xinghe felt very emotional. He really wants to give Brother Kang a hand, so that Brother Kang can go more smoothly on the road of film.

The fellow Blue Entertainment staff could feel Du Xinghe's good impression of Brother Kang, so they were eating. I told Kang Kang about some of the mainland film distribution situations that they know as mainland insiders, hoping that Kang Kang will not go to a dead end and understand the most important unspoken rule of mainland film distribution.

In 2014, the annual box office of Chinese films exceeded 29 billion yuan. As of the end of September 2015, the mainland box office has exceeded last year's 29 billion, approaching 30 billion. Converted to Taiwan dollars, it is a staggering 150 billion Taiwan dollars!

Such box office results have made the world staggered, as if Chinese films have entered a prosperous era.

However, in 2015, director Wang Shuai's new film "Break-in", which was released on May Day, suffered less than 1% of the film schedule, and director Wang Shuai issued an angry reprimand that ""Break-in" suffered a pre-publicized murder case, and was announced by the theater in advance of the death penalty without seeing the audience. Almost at the same time, May 3, 2015. Director Gao Qun wrote a Weibo: "Now is there a movie that can exceed 100 million in three days without buying more than 50 million on the first day?" ”

Outsiders don't understand such a call. In fact, in this era when domestic films continue to break box office records, and more than 100 million has become the starting price of the box office, behind the myth that the box office performance is increasing year after year, there is another set of unspoken rules surging undercurrent.

The filmmaker provides the film, sells tickets through the guò theater, and then the audience pays for it, so as to achieve the box office of a film - this is a normal ecological chain. But nowadays. Many filmmakers buy a large number of movie tickets at their own expense, and then give them to the audience in the form of gifts and low-cost sales. not only creates the illusion of a high box office, but also squeezes out competing films in the same period; Or, everyone fights who has the money to play the game – this is known as buying the box office.

In China's current account-sharing system, filmmakers/distributors and theaters share 43% and 57% of the box office respectively. But there are also many filmmakers, in order to make the theater give themselves more shows when scheduling films, and automatically give profit points. Returning the box office share that should have belonged to you to the theater - this method is called rebates.

In a way, buying box office is indeed useful to improve the box office performance on the surface, and rebates can indeed get high-ranking films to get a good box office, but in fact, not everyone acquiesces to this manipulation. Some filmmakers have questioned its rationality, arguing that it undermines the fair competition mechanism in the market and harms the long-term development of Chinese films.

Just like Brother Kang, if you're a new director and you're making a movie that's about to be released, and you're very nervous and active in taking the actors to all the publicity, giving interviews, running around the press conferences, and doing early test screenings with opinion leaders and audiences, you think that this behavior will have a positive effect - make the theater manager feel that the film is of good quality and get attention, and then give a better schedule, for example, 4 of the prime shows in a day.

However, after the film is released, you find that the movie schedule is pitiful, and the theater manager you know may tell you: "Brother, you didn't rebate or buy the show, I really can't handle it." You see so-and-so film doing just that. "Then, you find that this film may not be as good as yours in terms of quality and volume, but it has a higher schedule, and you will inevitably cry out for yourself. However, the rules of the game in the distribution industry have indeed changed, and rebates and box office buying have become the most common means to get high-ranking films and high box office.

The specific method of buying box office and rebates is cumbersome but not complicated. The key is to have money to do things. For example, the senior management of a distribution company once participated in a large-scale box office purchase. He revealed that the filmmaker spent 60 million yuan to buy box office across the country at that time, and the specific operation was carried out by the distribution company. "The filmmaker first transferred the 60 million to our company's account, and more than 200 of our staff across the country went to various cities to negotiate with theaters or theaters, and directly paid the money with one hand and the ticket with the other." Tickets are out. Although it is unknown whether it reaches the hands of the audience, the number has been included in the total box office, and the box office of the film has become 60 million.

Because of the large number of ticket purchases, the membership price of each theater to the distributor is also lower than the retail price, Wanda's membership price is the most expensive, 45~50 yuan a piece, and other theaters, the cheapest is 25 yuan a piece. The distributor doesn't need to buy all the tickets for a show, he said: "The theater requires us to book at least 50 percent of the ticket volume. They've only just started a show. At the same time, the theater can also sell some tickets through the normal channels, and our 50% of the role is to ensure that they have to earn. ”

This kind of discount allows the film side to buy quite a lot of shows with 60 million, which not only obtains a high box office base, and will have a good number when reporting the box office to the outside world, but also grasps the key point of competition - seizing the film schedule. This also means that other movies released in the same schedule have been squeezed out.

Another means of operation. can also achieve the same purpose - the filmmaker and the distributor reduce the proportion of box office revenue and give part of their box office profits to the theater. The industry calls this rebate. According to the convention, after deducting 3.3% of the business tax and 5% of the special fund for films, the filmmakers and theaters receive 43% and 57% of the box office respectively. The rebate is that the filmmaker will give 2 to 10 percentages of the original 43% to the theater, and under the stimulation of interests, the theater will of course give a higher schedule to ensure that these films take the lead in the box office war.

June 2013. When "A Certain Era" was released, film critic Zhu San once made the film's rebate agreement public on Weibo: "In the first week of the film's release, the film company spent money to buy a large number of tickets in many theaters to charter the venue; When the theater schedule reaches 40%, the theater will give one point, and 45% will give the theater two points. Can you behave properly? A cinema source also revealed: "In June 2013, there was a film that sent a letter to our cinema people. It knelt down and begged us to arrange the number of shows and as many films as possible for it, and then the letter mentioned how much it would give us back. The rebate has a contract, probably since 14 years. ”

If buying the box office is still secretly operating, then rebates have become a "promotional method" that industry insiders are not surprised by, and more and more films choose to publicly announce the reduction of the account sharing ratio. Nearly two weeks after the release of the movie "Equator", the distribution company publicly issued the "Notice on the Adjustment of the Proportion of Account Sharing at the Equator" to all theater companies and theaters, announcing that the film will adjust the proportion of account sharing from May 12, and the income of the film and distributor will be reduced by 10%.

Rebates can be divided into two ways: pre-screening return and post-screening return. In a good schedule with fierce competition, in order to occupy the favorable terrain in the schedule and PK other opponents, the filmmaker will negotiate the details of the rebate with the theater chain and the theater in advance, so that the theater will be inclined to itself when scheduling films. Another way is to return after the screening, where the filmmakers first put the film into the market to try the response, and then adjust the strategy according to their own box office expectations.

Whether it is a pre-screening return or a post-screening return, the specific rebate amount is not a one-size-fits-all rebate, but a phased step-by-step rebate, especially when the popularity of the screened film recedes, in order to maintain the film schedule, the filmmaker will increase the rebate points. The distributor of "Equator" revealed that they had formulated strategies for different stages before the release: "For example, what to do when you just enter the May 1st file, and how much to return when you encounter "Avengers 2" in the later stage." ”

The long-term operation has made the "rebate" have a certain technical content, and it is necessary to seize the best time point to achieve the best effect. "It really didn't help us to start lowering the account sharing ratio on May 12," said the publisher of "Equator", "If we did it a week in advance, it would have had an effect, but because the lead and executor of the distribution was not a company, the response was a bit lagging behind." The manager of a cinema in Guangcheng revealed that because "Equator" is a Hong Kong film and sells well in Guangcheng, it will indeed have two more shows on the weekend after the rebate, but it will not change much: ""Avengers 2" sells very well, and I normally sell "Avengers 2" to make more money than rebates." ”

In the face of rebates, both the filmmakers and the theaters are calculating their own small accounts, for example, the filmmakers will calculate how many rebates will be made in order to make the film schedule meet expectations and let the box office exceed the established goals, and at the same time, they will not make less money because they get too much back; Theaters have to consider whether to make more money by releasing new films normally, or accepting rebates to increase the pomp and circumstance of old films. The most important thing is to find the right time to make both parties happy.

"When it comes to buying box office, the most advantageous thing is the theater. Because the theater has already received the money, it is equivalent to saying that I have collected the money for this table first, and if not a single audience does not come, even the cost of the screening may be saved", the personnel of the distribution company said, because the act of buying the box office is that the film company is holding the money to benefit the theater, so the communication with the theater is relatively smooth.

However, having money does not necessarily mean that you can be capricious, a theater manager in Jiangcheng revealed that the distributor of a certain movie had asked her to buy box office, but she refused at the time: "I thought that this film was average in size, and it was a bit scary to do so." The attendance rate of our cinema has always been good, and other movies can achieve such an effect, so why should I accept this kind of box office buying? Isn't this smashing signs? She also revealed that there was another reason for refusing to buy a movie at the box office at that time: ""Fireworks in the Day" and a certain movie were released at the same time, and the theater chain to which we belonged was the distributor of "Fireworks in the Day", and we were asked to fully cooperate with the scheduling of "Fireworks in the Day". ”

Her words revealed another mystery, now many film investors and distributors are the same company, and they also have cinema resources, which is equivalent to the integration of production, distribution, and screening. In the twenties of the last century, Paramount Pictures in the United States was targeted by the government's antitrust department because it was too powerful. In 1948, the Supreme Court issued the Paramount precedent, which prohibited major Hollywood companies from vertically producing, distributing, and projecting films.

But in China, such a one-stop giant covering the whole industry is being formed. (To be continued......)