Chapter 137: Martial Arts Fever and Topping the Hong Kong Box Office Chart

Han Shanping booked the largest banquet hall at the Capital Hotel to hold a celebration banquet for "The Swordsman".

This celebration banquet was larger than any previous one.

Not only did Yang Cheng bring a group of Hong Kong celebrity artists, but Han Shanping also invited a large number of well-known artists from the mainland.

Even some people from the Beijing circle, led by Huayi, came to show their support, including Jiang Wen, Boss Zhao and others.

Moreover, Zhang Ziyi, who had fallen out with Zeng Li on the set of "Hero", also came with Zhang Weiping.

Liu Zhou didn't have to worry about anything at all. He could just come here with the film's main creators and a few people from his own studio.

The ice sculptures Han Shanping prepared this time were also much larger.

When hammering the ice sculpture, Han Shanping insisted that Liu Zhou stand in the middle, and Yang Cheng also persuaded him. Liu Zhou did not refuse and stood in the middle.

Liu Zhou looked at Han Shanping standing on his left and Yang Cheng standing on his right, and with a smile on his face, he joined the two of them in smashing the ice sculpture engraved with the Arabic numerals of 208 million.

The people standing around looked at the three people with envy, especially Liu Zhou who looked too young.

This position is self-evident. Liu Zhou is already on par with industry giants like Han Shanping and Yang Cheng.

In other words, Liu Zhou is now also a powerful figure in the circle, and his flag is firmly planted on the ground.

After the ice-breaking ceremony, everyone found someone to communicate with, which was also a rare social occasion.

Liu Zhou did not go around to greet the guests as he did before.

Now he was sitting contentedly in a booth in the hall, but people kept coming to greet him, talk to him or keep in touch with him.

After dealing with a group of people, Zhang Weiping suddenly came over with a foreigner.

"Mr. Liu, congratulations."

"Thank you. It's rare that Mr. Zhang has time to come and attend this celebration banquet today."

"Well, there's always time if we squeeze it in."

"By the way, why didn't Director Zhang come?"

"He is preparing a new film and is currently shooting in Sichuan Province."

"That's a shame. I was hoping to have some communication with Director Zhang."

"There will be a chance. By the way, I forgot to introduce you to the person next to me, Mr. Bill Russell, the head of Sony Columbia's Greater China region."

Only then did Liu Zhou look at the meticulously dressed middle-aged foreigner. If he had only looked at his appearance, Liu Zhou would have thought he was an elite from Wall Street, but he didn't expect he was from Hollywood.

"Hello, Mr. Liu."

Bill Russell's Chinese was not very good, but he could speak Chinese, which made Liu Zhou feel a little fond of him.

"Hello, Mr. Bill."

"Boss Liu, Bill Russell wants to discuss something with you, and then he asked me to introduce him to you. You two can talk now, and I will go talk to Master San about cooperation first."

After saying that, Zhang Weiping got up and left.

To the outside world, Zhang Weiping gives people the impression of being arrogant and outspoken, as if he dares to say anything.

But when Liu Zhou dealt with him privately, he felt that he was gentle and polite, neither humble nor arrogant.

Liu Zhou didn't know which face was the real him, or which face was not the real him, they were just disguises.

After all, Zhang Weiping is a businessman, and it is very normal for him to have multiple faces.

Anyway, Liu Zhou and him wouldn't have much interaction. The two knew each other when Zeng Li and Zhang Manyu were competing for the leading actress in "Hero", but now two years have passed and they have only contacted each other a few times.

These thoughts flashed through Liu Zhou's mind, and then he said to Bill Russell:
"Mr. Bill, what do you want to talk to me about?"

"There's a Chinese saying that goes 'get straight to the point', so I'll just state my purpose. I'm here on behalf of Sony Columbia Pictures to purchase the overseas rights to 'The Swordsman'."

Seeing that the other party was here to discuss business, Liu Zhou couldn't help but sit up straighter and said:

“Can you tell me about your offer?”

“Five million dollars for all territories except Asia.”

Hearing this price, Liu Zhou decisively refused:
"Mr. Bill, this price is too low. I can't possibly agree to it."

Liu Zhou is not like Huayi or some of the Hong Kong film companies that have never seen the world. Each of his films has earned huge profits overseas.

His last film, The Piano Tuner, sold the rights for $4 million outside of Asia.

Now you want to get the copyright of "The Swordsman" for only five million US dollars?

Seeing that Liu Zhou simply rejected his offer, Bill Russell continued:

"Mr. Liu, I can add another $500,000."

Liu Zhou was too lazy to argue with him about hundreds of thousands of dollars, so he said directly:

"Mr. Bill, now is the time to celebrate. The most important thing is to relax and have fun. As for business matters, we can talk about it later." After Liu Zhou finished speaking, he raised his glass and clinked it with him, took a sip of red wine, and then walked towards Han Shanping.

Bill Russell frowned and watched Liu Zhou's back as he left, not knowing what went wrong.

As a half-expert on China, how could he not hear that Liu Zhou's words just now were an excuse?

What Chinese people like most is to discuss business at the dinner table. Judging from Liu Zhou's attitude just now, he obviously doesn't want to talk to me.

There were a lot of people around Han Shanping, but when they saw Liu Zhou coming, they greeted him tactfully and left.

On the other side, Yang Cheng, who seemed to have been paying attention to the two of them, also walked over leisurely with a glass of red wine.

The three of them came to the small private room in the banquet hall, and Liu Zhoucai said:
"Just now, someone from Sony Columbia came to me and wanted to buy the overseas rights to "The Swordsman" for only $5 million. It feels like they really think I'm a young man."

"Haha, Mr. Liu, your age is indeed very deceptive." Yang Cheng said with a smile.

"I also have someone from Warner asking about the copyright of 'The Swordsman', but they haven't made an offer yet," Han Shanping continued.

"Boss Yang, how are you over there? Is anyone coming to see you?"

"Hey, yes, New Line Cinema, which collaborated with Jackie Chan on Rush Hour, also sent someone to look for me."

In fact, New Line is still a subsidiary of Warner, but the president of New Line is relatively powerful, and the two companies generally operate independently and are clearly separated.

"Is it the New Line Company that produced the Lord of the Rings series?" Han Shanping asked.

"Yes, this is the one."

"Since when have Chinese films become so popular with Hollywood film companies?"

Liu Zhou knew the reason behind this. In recent years, there has been a martial arts craze sweeping overseas.

In recent years, film companies in mainland China and Hong Kong have been flocking to shoot martial arts films. In addition to the good box office in mainland China, the overseas copyrights are easy to sell and they basically do not lose money.

If a famous director or a superstar joins, there is a high probability that you can make a lot of money.

However, this craze only lasted for a few years, and now is the period when overseas people are most obsessed with martial arts films.

"This may be thanks to Li An and Director Zhang, who used the two films "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Hero" to bring about a martial arts craze overseas."

"I think what Mr. Liu said is right. These foreigners are very smart. If it weren't profitable, why would they be so eager to buy the copyright of a Chinese movie?"

"In that case, we can't sell the copyright cheaply. We have to rip them off." Han Shanping said with a smile.

"We can put this matter aside for now, let's discuss the release of "The Swordsman" in other parts of Asia."

“There is only one book left in Asia and the Southeast Asia region. The market for one book is huge. Mr. Liu, you also have channels. I think we can go the route of cooperative publishing.

We also have some channels in the Southeast Asian region, and we can handle both buyout and co-distribution."

After Yang Cheng finished speaking, he looked at Liu Zhou and Han Shanping, wanting to hear their opinions.

Liu Zhou pondered for a while and said:

"I can handle one copy, but for the Southeast Asia region, I'd better buy it out. Co-publishing it will take too long."

The main reason is that there are too many countries in the Nanyang region, and it would be too troublesome to issue it. Liu Zhou was also worried that there would be tampering involved. After all, issuance is the easiest to operate.

If you encounter a company without moral integrity and it directly operates with negative profits, you will have no way to deal with it.

The Big Seven in Hollywood often do this, leaving independent film companies in tears.

Although Liu Zhou believed that this would not happen, he still felt that it would be better to land directly.

"Director Han, Mr. Yang, can the box office settlement be made as quickly as possible? I'm in urgent need of the money."

As of now, "The Swordsman" has been released in Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea.

In addition to the box office of over 2003 million in mainland China, this film also took in more than million Hong Kong dollars in Hong Kong, surpassing the last two "Infernal Affairs" films and ranking first on the Hong Kong box office chart in .

This is the first time that a mainland film has topped Hong Kong's annual box office chart, which makes Hong Kong filmmakers feel very excited.

However, the Hong Kong circle also knows how to comfort itself. They did not promote the box office performance and director of "The Blade of Young Sword", but instead kept bragging about Andy Lau, Ting-fung Ng, and even Yuen Woo-ping.

Liu Zhou didn't care about it at all. No matter how much they reported, it couldn't change the fact that "The Blade of Embroidery" was a mainland movie.

In Taiwan, "The Blade of Eternal Youth" only earned NT$41 million, which is less than 10 million RMB, just over 9 million.

Now Taiwan's film market has gone completely astray. Apart from Hollywood blockbusters, perhaps only Taiwan's art films and some youth nostalgic films can bring in box office revenue.

Liu Zhou's "The Swordsman" has achieved pretty good box office results in Taiwan.

Finally, it was South Korea, with a total of about 1.2 million moviegoers, which translated into box office revenue of about 4.8 million U.S. dollars.

Liu Zhou had already communicated with CJ Group a long time ago, and hoped that they could complete the box office settlement as soon as possible this time.

"Mr. Liu, if you really need money urgently, I can lend you 50 million yuan first. You can pay me back after the box office is settled."

Yang Chengguo is indeed a generous person. No wonder he gave Jiang Wen a red envelope of 8 million yuan after the filming of "Let the Bullets Fly".

(End of this chapter)