Chapter 113 Copyright Transaction
By the end of December, the hottest news in the circle was no longer about Boss Zhao, but Feng Kuzi's new film "Big Shot".

After two years, Feng Kuzi once again entered the Lunar New Year box office and everyone was paying close attention to it.

However, what made the media, who never mind making trouble, feel a little regretful was that Liu Zhou was missing this time.

They heard that Liu Zhou's new movie had been completed, and they were quite looking forward to it, wondering if the two would have a rematch this time.

But after waiting for a long time, there was no news about the release date of Liu Zhou's new film, and they also knew that the two probably wouldn't be able to fight this time.

So everyone has to turn their attention to Feng Kuzi's new movie. After all, he is also a well-known director, and the Lunar New Year period is his home turf.

The movie "Big Shot" invited Feng Kuazi's old partner Ge You and Hong Kong's popular actress Rosamund Kwan, and its performance did not disappoint.

It earned 2.3 million on its first day of release and nearly 8 million on its first weekend.

Based on this result, we can predict that the total box office of this movie will be at least 30 million. If it has enough stamina, 40 million is not impossible.

Seeing Feng Kuazi's result, Han Shanping was slightly relieved.

It is true that this year's mainland box office performance is really terrible.

Including imported films, the current highest-grossing film in mainland China is the American blockbuster "Pearl Harbor", which has barely exceeded 100 million yuan.

The next thing that fell was the first film released by Bona in winter, "My Brothers and Sisters".

But its box office was only 15 million, which can be said to be a cliff drop.

Last year, there was a movie called "Life and Death Decision" which had a box office of over 100 million yuan. Liu Zhou's two movies each grossed over 50 million yuan, plus Feng Kuzi's "A Sigh" which also grossed 40 million yuan. It can be said that the results were very good.

But compared with last year, this year is simply appalling. There is not even a single shameful movie in the mainland.

Feng Kuzi's "Big Shot" can be considered to be a barely redeeming feature of mainland films.

This is also the reason why the higher-ups and Han Shanping did not allow Liu Zhou and Feng Kuazi to confront each other this time.

Of course, if Liu Zhou's movie is scheduled first, they will definitely not allow "Big Shot" to be released at the same time.

Feng's comedies are not out of date yet, and his movies are still quite popular among some audiences.

Ten days after its release, the box office of "Big Shot" has reached 24 million.

When Liu Zhou flew to the United States on the 16th to attend the Sundance Film Festival, "Big Shot" had already earned 35 million at the box office, and 40 million should be a good hope.

If Liu Zhou remembers correctly, before "A World Without Thieves", Feng Kuzi had only two movies that reached 40 million, namely "See You Tomorrow" and next year's "Cell Phone".

Now the movie "Big Shot" has a high probability of breaking through 40 million box office, and it is obvious that Huayi Brothers has put in greater effort behind the scenes.

However, Liu Zhou didn't care about it at all. As long as the box office of Feng Kuzi's movie did not reach 50 million, he would have to hold his breath.

After arriving in Los Angeles, Liu Zhou and his entourage had no time to adjust to the jet lag and took a flight to Park City, Utah, where the annual Sundance Film Festival is held.

Liu Zhou's "The Piano Tuner" was submitted for review early on, and the final result was not surprising. It successfully became one of the 100 feature films participating in the exhibition.

Liu Zhou and his group took a day off, and the next day was the opening time of the film festival.

The Sundance Film Festival is very different from the three major European film festivals because it only lasts for ten days, but has one hundred feature films and sixty short films to be screened.

So ten films are scheduled to be screened every day, the schedule is very tight, and film transactions are happening at any time, not necessarily after the awards ceremony.

Liu Zhou's "The Piano Tuner" was scheduled to be screened on the morning of the third day. This time was not bad. At least the film producers or distribution companies had a night's rest and would be more clear-headed.

Most of the films at the Sundance Film Festival are from the United States, and there are relatively fewer films from overseas. However, the Sundance Institute has been gradually expanding the scope of its overseas film selections.

A few days ago, Liu Zhou handed over the promotion task to Zhong Lifang, and went to watch these so-called independent films.

What opened Liu Zhou's eyes was that many independent films were shot like pornographic films, which was a feast for his eyes.

In a blink of an eye, it was the third day. Liu Zhou and Zhong Lifang came to the exhibition hall early in the morning to prepare for the screening of the movie.

"The Piano Tuner" is the first Chinese film to participate in the Sundance Film Festival, and the organizing committee gave the film a high evaluation, so there were quite a few audiences and film producers coming.

Looking at the exhibition hall which was gradually filling up, Liu Zhou couldn't help but smile.

The movie started quickly, and it began with a somewhat confusing shot of a hunter aiming a shotgun at a rabbit.

What’s strange is that the rabbit’s left eye is blind and the right eye has no eyeball.

thumping!
The hunter fired a shot directly, but the screen suddenly went black, and the story officially began.

The first half of "The Piano Tuner" is like a sweet romance between the hero and the heroine. It is not until the second half when the hero witnesses a murder that the plot starts to become brain-burning.

Liu Zhou noticed that the audience in the audience were able to watch the movie quietly at the beginning, but gradually became a little impatient. It was not until the suspenseful murder plot began that they gradually became serious.

Until the end, when the hero and the heroine reunited after a long separation, he still walked with the help of a cane as before.

However, just when the male protagonist was about to hit a can on the road, he used his crutch and accurately knocked it away.

This last shot was obviously a bit beyond the expectations of the audience. They couldn't help but talk about it in a low voice, and some even exclaimed.

Although there was no applause, seeing some audience members whispering to each other as they left, Liu Zhou felt that the movie had a 50% chance of success. He just didn't know what the film producers were thinking.

After the movie screening, all Liu Zhou could do was wait.

He also knew that these film producers were old foxes, and unless they were particularly optimistic about a film, few would come to discuss business right after the movie was screened.

But what Liu Zhou didn't expect was that that night, two Hollywood distribution companies came to inquire.

However, they obviously thought that Liu Zhou had never seen the world and wanted to take advantage of the situation, so they offered a very low price.

Liu Zhou was too lazy to pay attention to such insincere film producers and directly asked Zhong Lifang to send them away.

Over the next two days, people came to inquire one after another, but Liu Zhou was not satisfied with the prices they offered.

It was not until the third day after the release of "The Piano Tuner" that Liu Zhou received an offer that made him a little excited, and it was from Miramax, a well-known Hollywood distribution company.

But as he watched the fat man who called himself Harvey Weinstein talking big, Liu Zhou was thinking about the many evil deeds of this fat man.

Harvey started out by distributing independent films, and his outstanding ability to operate awards made him famous in Hollywood.

He is of course most famous for his red sofa, which has become an unspoken rule known within the industry.

In his more than 30-year career, he had sex with more than 100 Hollywood actresses, including those with names and surnames, and there is no telling how many more are unknown. Liu Zhou feels that this is the correct way to open American entertainment articles.

However, because he was too unscrupulous, he eventually suffered a backlash and was sentenced to more than ten years in prison.

But by then he was already in his seventies and had enjoyed all he should have.

He is not only notorious in Hollywood, but also in the independent film circle.

This fat guy has a good eye. If he likes a movie, he will offer a high price and very good conditions even when facing many competitors.

After signing the contract with you, we will give you a part of the deposit to reassure you.

But after other competitors leave, he will suddenly change his mind and offer a low price.

This puts the production company in a particularly passive position. Even if you want to go back on your word, it’s easy for you. At most you’ll lose some deposit, but other distributors have already left and you don’t know who to sell to.

In the end, in order to avoid wasting time on the film, the production company often had no choice but to grit their teeth and sell the film to Harvey at a low price.

Later, his trick spread throughout the independent film circle in the United States, and he began to cheat overseas production companies.

Poet Chen's "The Promise" was ruined by this fat guy, and Oscar, which promised to help him, didn't make any move at all.

Being fooled like this made poet Chen so angry that he cursed Harvey in China.

But they are on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, so no matter how loud you curse, they can't hear you, and it won't have any effect on them. It will only highlight your impotent rage.

So Liu Zhou, who saw through the true nature of this fat man, would not agree even if Harvey spoke beautiful words to him or offered a high price.

However, Harvey Weinstein still has some energy. It can be seen that he appreciates Liu Zhou's movie, so Liu Zhou did not deal with him casually as before.

Miramax is still okay as a backup.

In case "The Piano Tuner" fails to perform well, at least there is someone to take over.

When Harvey Weinstein saw that he had raised the price to five million US dollars and the other party remained unmoved, he knew that the Chinese man in front of him was not a country bumpkin who had never seen money.

Seeing that he couldn't scare Liu Zhou, Harvey Weinstein left a business card and said goodbye.

At this time Zhong Lifang suddenly asked:
"Mr. Liu, I think that Harvey was quite sincere and offered a high price. Why don't you sell the copyright to him?"

"You may not know this, but this person has a bad reputation in the industry. Don't listen to what he says, it's all bullshit. Let's wait and see if there are other distribution companies interested."

As the Sundance Film Festival was about to end, Liu Zhou couldn't help feeling a little anxious.

But on the day before the closing ceremony, more than a dozen film producers came to inquire about the copyright issues of "The Tuner".

Among them are well-known Hollywood distribution companies such as Fox Searchlight, Focus Features, and Lionsgate.

This made Zhong Lifang and Liu Zhou, who had been idle for a long time, very busy all of a sudden.

It took Liu Zhou and Zhong Lifang nearly two days to screen out several suitable trading partners.

The appropriate criteria are also very simple, just look at your bid and the strength of your company.

Liu Zhou would not consider at all those companies whose bids were very high but whose names he had never heard of. Even if he missed out on the opportunity because of his ignorance, he would not hesitate.

This involves millions of dollars in funds, and Liu Zhou doesn't dare to take the risk.

On the evening of the 28th, at the Sundance Film Festival awards ceremony, Liu Zhou also won an award called the Global Film Award.

This award is given to non-American films. It is given to two films in total. In this film festival, it should be second only to the Best Film (Fiction Film Award).

But the awards ceremony at the Sundance Film Festival is just a formality, and the influence of the awards is not very high.

But no matter what, it is an honor for Liu Zhou to win such an award. She can still brag about it in China. At least she will not be ridiculed by the crowd like Houston, the actress.

What surprised Liu Zhou a little was that when the short film awards were presented, he heard a familiar name.

Wu Shixian won the short film award for his short film "Car 44".

Well, this short film award is just an honorary mention, which means it’s just a mention on the stage, and there’s not even a trophy.

Wu Shixian is of mixed race, but he was still somewhat famous in mainland China at that time. He later filmed a movie called "Waiting Alone" which was also pretty good, but then there was no further news.

Liu Zhou didn't know him and had no intention of making friends with him. The most important thing for him now was to sell the copyright of "The Tuner".

After two more days of negotiations, Liu Zhou finally shortlisted three companies, namely Fox Searchlight, Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment, all of which are well-known Hollywood companies.

Fox Searchlight is backed by 20th Century Fox, one of the seven major Hollywood studios, so it is more confident and was willing to pay only US$3 million to purchase all copyrights of "The Piano Tuner" except for Asia.

The reason why the price is so high is because the copyright includes the adaptation rights.

Lionsgate is a rising star in Hollywood. They became famous last year for producing and distributing "Saw". Although their strength is not as good as the other two companies, they are the most ambitious.

Lionsgate also purchased all copyrights except Asia, but the bid reached four million US dollars.

Summit Entertainment is the company that produced "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" and the "Twilight" series. At this time, they had just completed their reorganization, introduced new shareholders, and were preparing to do a big thing.

They were interested in the adaptation rights of "The Tuner" and offered Ken one million dollars for it.

Liu Zhou could certainly take a gamble that the distribution rights of "The Tuner" could be sold for a good price, but he didn't want to take the gamble.

At the same time, Liu Zhou did not consider the development of Hollywood for the time being, so he decisively chose to trade with Lionsgate, which paid more.

It took three days for Liu Zhou and Lionsgate to officially sign the contract.

Lionsgate didn't play any tricks and simply transferred the $4 million over.

When Liu Zhou saw Zhong Lifang nodded at him with surprise, he was completely relieved.

Four million US dollars, nearly thirty-five million RMB, this is net profit.

It turns out that the overseas market is more profitable!

Although taxes had to be paid, it immediately filled the studio's slightly empty account.

(End of this chapter)