Chapter 243: The Profitable "Red Cliff"

The weather in Beijing in April is still a bit cold.

Although six or seven years have passed, Dengcao Hutong seems to have not changed much.

Unlike the areas outside the Third Ring Road where there are construction sites everywhere, this place is still bustling and peaceful.

Liu Zhou and Zeng Li haven't returned to the courtyard house in Dengcao Hutong for a long time.

After finishing the filming of "Room", Liu Zhou and Zeng Li also returned here and planned to stay in the courtyard for a few days.

Although the two of them seldom come here, there are cleaning staff who come to clean the place regularly, so when they come, they can check in directly.

But to be honest, after being used to living in a modern villa, I feel a little uncomfortable suddenly moving to a courtyard house.

But looking at the smile on Zeng Li's face, Liu Zhou felt that nothing else mattered.

After filming "Room", Zeng Li seemed to be too immersed in the role. She stayed at home for a few days and could not get out of the role. She looked depressed.

Liu Zhou saw this and was anxious, but there was nothing he could do.

Things like this can only be dealt with slowly by the actors themselves.

The only thing Liu Zhou could do was to stay by his side quietly.

So since the film was completed, Liu Zhou has not even taken care of the post-production and has been staying at home with Zeng Li.

However, thinking that the Aobei villa area was a bit too deserted and lacked much of the atmosphere of life, Liu Zhou took Zeng Li directly back to the courtyard in Dengcao Hutong.

In addition to being more lively here, the two of them also had many good memories here.

Sure enough, Liu Zhou's idea was right. After returning to Dengcao Hutong, Zeng Li was obviously much more energetic and today she even showed a long-lost smile.

At this time, the two were sitting in the pavilion in the yard eating skewers.

It seemed like they hadn't had a proper barbecue since graduating from college.

The weather was nice today, so Liu Zhou ordered some barbecue at the barbecue restaurant at the entrance of the alley.

Eating the familiar skewers, the two seemed to be back in college.

After finishing the last skewer of lamb and drinking the remaining half bottle of Sprite, Liu Zhou couldn't help but burp, but felt particularly comfortable.

"It's been a while since I've enjoyed kebabs so freely."

"Everyone is busy now, and it's hard to have the mood to eat barbecue like when I was in college."

"Yeah, everyone is busy now." Liu Zhou also sighed.

Back here, Liu Zhou couldn't help but think of his college days.

No wonder after entering the society, everyone misses their college days, because they were really carefree back then.

At this time, Zeng Li came to Liu Zhou, then sat on his lap and rested her head on Liu Zhou's shoulder.

"Zhou Zhou, thank you. If you hadn't been with me these past few days, I might not have gotten over it so quickly."

"I'm your boyfriend, if I don't accompany you, who will? Don't act so hard next time. You don't know how worried I have been about you these days."

Zeng Li smiled and said:

"I will not do it again."

Seeing Zeng Li's smile, Liu Zhou felt completely relieved and couldn't help but tighten his arms around Zeng Li's waist.

After a long while, Zeng Li said softly:

"Zhou Zhou, let's go back tomorrow. You can go and do your own thing. You don't have to stay with me all the time."

"Okay, if you feel bored, you can come to the company to find me."

Liu Zhou is indeed very busy now.

Not only does he have to do post-production on The Room, but Edge of Tomorrow will also be officially released in late April, and he also needs to take a trip to the United States.

And in a few days, I will go to Hong Kong to attend the Academy Awards.

This year's Academy Awards are very different from previous ones, so Liu Zhou must be present in person.

The next day, as soon as Liu Zhou arrived at Jiahe Company, Zhang Zhao knocked on the door and walked in.

"Mr. Liu, I need to report some work to you."

Liu Zhou also stopped what he was doing and said:

"You said."

"First of all, let's talk about the preparations for Painted Skin. The budget has been made, and the cast has been finalized not long ago. Director Xu plans to start filming in June."

“Isn’t there enough money in the account?”

“It’s not enough, but we didn’t transfer all the money to the projects we invested in at once, so we still had some money for the early preparation of Painted Skin.

Moreover, the box office revenues of Red Cliff Parts 2 and and Blade of the Dragon King have been calculated, which is the second thing I want to report to you."

"So fast?"

"Boss Liu, it's not that fast anymore. We are not a small company. The theater chain doesn't dare to drag it out with us for too long."

"Okay, just put the file here about the movie's revenue. I'll take a look at it later. Tell me about Painted Skin."

"The budget for Painted Skin was 50 million. As for the cast, after consultation with Director Xu, we gave the role of the male lead, Wang Sheng, to Huang Xiaoming.

The female lead Peirong was given to Zhang Tong, and the other female lead Xiaowei was given to Xu Ke. Finally, after auditions, he decided on Zhou Gongzi. "

Hearing Zhang Zhao's story, Liu Zhou couldn't help but smile.

The protagonists are the same as Liu Zhou imagined.

"Director Xu, do you really have any objections?" "No, Director Xu is not the kind of director who doesn't understand the ways of the world. When I communicated with him before, I also told him to try to choose actors from within the company.

Among the company's artists, the only ones who could play the male lead were Qin Hao and Huang Xiaoming, and in the end Director Xu decided on Huang Xiaoming himself.

He also directly decided on Zhang Tong for the role of Peirong, one of the two female protagonists, but he insisted on holding an open audition for the other female protagonist, Xiaowei.

"Okay, as long as he doesn't mind."

Xu Ke has experienced the rise and fall of Hong Kong films completely, so he is absolutely good at dealing with people.

For him, using artists within the company was a very common request, so he chose Huang Xiaoming and Zhang Tong.

But as for the selection of Xiao Wei, Liu Zhou felt that Xu Ke must have seen that this role was the most outstanding, so he wanted to carefully select the most suitable person.

In the end, the heroes thought alike and he also chose Master Zhou.

"What about Pang Yong's selection?"

"Mr. Hu!"

Hearing Hu Jun's name, Liu Zhou couldn't help but nodded.

Although Hu Jun has always claimed to be a literary actor, after "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils", everyone thinks he is a martial arts actor.

The script of Painted Skin written by Liu Zhou was slightly modified.

Liu Zhou simply combined the roles of Pang Yong and Sun Li into one.

The character of Sun Li is redundant at first glance, and in order to make the story more melodramatic, a hidden love line is created between Sun Li and Pang Yong.

Although the biggest highlight of "Painted Skin" is the love line, it is the love line between the three protagonists.

Therefore, Liu Zhou also cut off the emotional line between Pang Yong and Pei Rong, and changed their relationship to one as close as brother and sister.

However, Liu Zhou still retained the character of the lizard spirit.

Liu Zhou felt that there should be quite a few people who could see their own shadow in the lizard spirit.

"Who did the lizard spirit target?"

"It's our newly signed actor, Zhu Yawen."

"Zhu Yawen? When did you sign him?"

“Last month, he was originally signed to Huayi, but he got the role of Zhu Chuanwu in Crossing the Guandong.

I thought he was pretty good during the audition. Now that Qin Hao and Huang Xiaoming have both focused on movies, we need someone to focus on TV dramas.

I thought Zhu Yawen was a good fit, so I bought his contract from Huayi."

"Hua Yi didn't ask for too much, did he?"

"No, Zhu Yawen isn't very popular right now, so they don't dare to ask for too much. If they want to rip us off, I will just give up, and Zhu Yawen won't be able to get Zhu Chuanwu's role."

"Okay, just handle it as you see fit. I have no problem with the situation of Painted Skin. You can move on."

"Okay Mr. Liu."

After nothing happened, Zhang Zhao also left Liu Zhou's office.

At this time, Liu Zhou also picked up the movie revenue settlement document and read it carefully.

The mainland box office for "Red Cliff" was 3.2 million yuan, and the final box office for "Red Cliff" was 4.3 million yuan, so the total of the two films is 7.5 million yuan.

The mainland producers can get a 2.55% share, which is million yuan.

Jiahe holds a 20% investment share and will receive 51 million.

Then there is the box office in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The two films in the two regions combined only made more than 60 million.

After deducting the 50% from the theaters and the 10% from the distribution, the producer can get 40% of the share, which is 24 million.

There are also other copyright incomes, the two films together have 6 million, plus the box office share income from Hong Kong Wanwan, it is exactly 30 million.

Jiahe will also get 6 million from this part.

Then there is the overseas revenue. In South Korea, the two films together earned a box office of 22 million US dollars.

In one volume, the total box office of "Red Cliff" exceeded 10 billion, reaching 10.6 billion yen, which is equivalent to about 100 million US dollars.

The two places are talking about profit sharing, and the ratio is 30%. The reason why it is so high is because Jiahe has helped.

Of the 30% share, 8% is distribution fee, with Golden Harvest accounting for 3% and Emperor Entertainment Group accounting for 5%.

The total box office for the film and South Korea combined is 122 million US dollars, and the producer's share of 22% is about 27 million US dollars.

For this part, Golden Harvest can get 5.4 million, plus 3% of the distribution fee of 3.66 million, a total of about 9 million.

Finally, for the Southeast Asian regions and areas outside of Asia, Edko Films adopts the method of buying out the copyrights.

The two films together sold US$25 million in Southeast Asia, and US$35 million for the rights outside of Asia, for a total of US$60 million.

After deducting the 8% distribution fee of 4.8 million from Enlightenment Pictures, there is still 55.2 million US dollars left.

From this part of the money, Golden Harvest can get about 11 million US dollars.

Therefore, the total overseas revenue that Golden Harvest can obtain is exactly 1.7 million US dollars, which is equivalent to about million RMB.

Adding the revenue from the mainland, the total is 2.27 million.

The original total investment in the "Red Cliff" project was 4.5 million yuan, and later an additional million yuan in publicity funds was added, bringing the total cost to million yuan.

Golden Harvest invested 2.27 million and has now recovered 1.37 million, making a net profit of million.

(End of this chapter)