Chapter 244 The big money-making "Blade of the Assassin 2" and the reform of the Academy Awards

Of course, in terms of revenue alone, the money earned by the two parts of "Red Cliff" combined is not as much as that earned by the movie "New World".

"New World" originally brought Golden Harvest more than 200 million in profits.

But that’s not how it’s calculated.

In terms of creative value, "Red Cliff" is definitely much greater than "New World".

After all, Golden Harvest only accounted for 20% of the investment in "Red Cliff" and did not have the distribution rights. Despite this, it still made a profit of more than 100 million.

Companies like China Film Group and Emperor Entertainment Group earn more, at least over 200 million yuan.

"New World" is wholly owned by Golden Harvest and distributed entirely by Golden Harvest.

This is just the apparent income. The invisible income brought by "Red Cliff" is incomparable to that of "New World".

Not to mention that "Red Cliff" broke the box office record of "Titanic", it was a huge boost to Golden Harvest's corporate brand image, and the biggest gain was directly gaining recognition from above.

The higher-ups have a good impression of you, and film censorship standards may be more relaxed in the future. More importantly, your investments within the industry and even across industries will be smoother.

Duan Yongji and his group’s understanding is actually correct. When doing business in the mainland, personal connections are really important.

So for a large company like Golden Harvest, sometimes the apparent profit is not the most important thing.

But no matter what, the box office settlement of the two parts of "Red Cliff" also means that the project has officially ended.

This project is undoubtedly very successful and will definitely leave a strong mark in the history of mainland films like "Hero".

Even the influence of "Red Cliff" and the economic effect it triggered are greater than those of "Hero".

After all, the Three Kingdoms fever in mainland China has not yet subsided, and the history and culture of the Three Kingdoms have been a hot topic since last summer.

This is something that Heroes cannot do.

Putting down the documents about "Red Cliff", Liu Zhou started to look at the revenue of "The Swordsman 2".

"Blade Runner 2" was released on the first day of the Lunar New Year and stayed in theaters for a month and a half, with a total box office of 2.65 million yuan, barely exceeding the box office of "Hero".

This also made the box office performance of "The Blade of Red Cliff 2" successfully rank among the top three domestic films, second only to the two parts of "Red Cliff".

However, the main reason why the box office of "The Blade of the Dragon King 2" exceeded that of "Hero" is that the entire film industry has become bigger.

You have to know that the box office of "Hero" was 2.5 million yuan, and the total box office of the whole year in mainland China was only billion yuan, and "Hero" directly accounted for a quarter of it.

But in the future, when I count the results, I will not look at this, I will only look at the data.

"Blades of Smash 2" was independently invested and distributed by Golden Harvest, so it can enjoy all the profits alone.

The box office share is also much simpler. After deducting taxes and the theater's 41.7%, Golden Harvest can get % of the total box office.

The total box office was 2.65 million yuan, and Golden Harvest was able to get about 1.1 million yuan.

There were also various other copyrights sold, and "The Swordsman 2" also sold for five million.

Then there are Hong Kong and Taiwan. The former barely earned 20 million Hong Kong dollars, while the latter took in more than 40 million Taiwan dollars, equivalent to about 10 million yuan.

These two regions are also directly distributed by Golden Harvest, so they can get 50% of the share, which is 15 million.

Now, as Golden Harvest's distribution network in Asia is becoming more and more complete, if we make an effort, we can already release movies simultaneously across Asia.

However, this is just a nice gimmick and does not have much significance. If it is not necessary, just release it as planned.

Therefore, the release time of "Blade Runner 2" in other parts of Asia is one week later than that in mainland China, and all the films have been taken down by now.

Although the box office revenue has not yet been settled, the specific figures can already be calculated.

In South Korea, "Blade Runner 2" ultimately received 136 million viewers, equivalent to a box office of approximately US$ million.

Good quality martial arts movies have always performed well at the box office in South Korea.

However, people in some regions are not so fond of martial arts movies; they prefer kung fu movies.

However, the film market in Japan is much larger than that in South Korea, so the box office of "The Blade of the Dragon King 2" in Japan is also higher than that in South Korea.

The movie grossed just over 900 million yuan, equivalent to about 8 million US dollars.

This result is completely incomparable to that of "Red Cliff".

The first volume of "Red Cliff" grossed 46 billion yen at the box office, and the second volume of "Red Cliff" grossed 58 billion yen. The combined box office of the two films exceeded billion yen.

As for the entire Nanyang region, the total box office revenue was only over 8 million US dollars.

For distribution in Asia, Golden Harvest adopted a tiered approach and negotiated a 30% share.

Currently, among all the film and television companies in mainland China, including Hong Kong, no company except Golden Harvest can negotiate such a high share.

This is also the reason why Liu Zhou was eager to acquire Jiahe. Their foundation is too strong.

Although they have declined, as long as they can revive themselves a little, they can bring out their true strengths.

In the past, the only distribution company in Asia that was comparable to Golden Harvest was Shaw Brothers, but Shaw Brothers did not persist and ceased production in the 1980s.

Only Golden Harvest has flourished and declined with Hong Kong films from the 1970s to the new century. Now Golden Harvest has regained its vitality in the hands of Liu Zhou, which is much better than when it fell into the hands of Cheng Tian in history.

The total box office in other parts of Asia was 21 million US dollars, and Golden Harvest was able to earn 6.3 million US dollars.

Together with the 2 million purchased for distribution rights outside of Asia, the total overseas revenue generated by "Blade Runner " is million US dollars, equivalent to about million RMB.

Therefore, "Blade of the Immortal 2" brought a total revenue of 2.11 million to Golden Harvest.

So it’s still the blockbuster movies that make money.

Adding the 2.27 million yuan in revenue brought by "Red Cliff", Golden Harvest will earn 4.38 million yuan in the next two months.

If this news were to be made public, not only would the industry be shaken, but the entire mainland business community would likely be in an uproar.

After all, some companies with a market value of several billion may have an annual profit of less than 400 million.

But now, Golden Harvest has achieved this with just two or three movies.

This is also why when Hong Kong films were booming, all kinds of monsters and capital rushed into the film industry.

It is also the main reason why various major capitals are competing to layout the film and television industry after the prosperity of the mainland film market in the future.

The scale of the cultural and entertainment industry has become so large that no capital can ignore it.

Although the more than 400 million yuan still needs to be reported for tax at the end of the year, the money can still be used before then.

With this injection of funds, Golden Harvest’s current funding shortage problem has been solved at one stroke, and the scale of Golden Harvest Cinemas can even be further expanded.

Now Jiahe can officially generate its own revenue and Liu Zhou no longer needs to invest money in it.

As soon as he returned to the company, he encountered such a happy thing, and Liu Zhou's mood improved.

So when Liu Zhou came to Golden Harvest's post-production department, the employees inside immediately felt that the boss seemed to be in a good mood, with a smile on his face from time to time.

After moving Golden Harvest's headquarters to Beijing, Liu Zhou also built a department in Beijing that could complete all post-production of films.

From now on, Golden Harvest’s films will no longer need to rent post-production equipment from China Film Group, and even Golden Harvest’s post-production department will be rented out.

The filming of "Room" was relatively simple, but as an art film, more attention needs to be paid when editing.

Therefore, during the editing of "Room", whether it was rough cutting or simplification, Liu Zhou was present throughout the whole process.

It took two weeks to complete the editing of this film.

After editing, the post-production of sound effects, subtitles, etc. became much simpler. Liu Zhou no longer followed up personally, but handed over these tasks to the company's post-production department.

It was already April 18th, and Liu Zhou had to go to Hong Kong because this year's Academy Awards would be held on the 20th.

Compared with previous years, this year's Hong Kong Film Awards is more lively than any previous one.

This year's Academy Awards not only attracted big-name stars from both sides of the Taiwan Strait and Hong Kong, but also several well-known filmmakers from around the world.

In addition, the reform of the Academy Awards this time is also very eye-catching.

After last year's Academy Awards, Liu Zhou joined forces with Emperor Entertainment Group and Yongsheng, as well as the chairman of the Academy Awards Organizing Committee, Wen Jun, and Wu Siyuan of the Hong Kong Directors Association, to promote the reform of the Academy Awards.

However, the impression that the Academy Awards belong to Hong Kong films is deeply rooted in the minds of some conservative Hong Kong filmmakers.

As soon as Wen Jun expressed his intention to expand the scope of film selection, he encountered huge resistance.

But Wen Jun’s many years in the Hong Kong film industry are not in vain, not to mention that he is now the chairman of the Academy Awards Organizing Committee.

So Wen Jun mobilized his connections within the organizing committee and, with the support of Golden Harvest, Emperor Entertainment Group and Yongsheng, forced the decision through.

This also led to Wen Jun being subjected to overwhelming criticism.

The Hong Kong media also discussed this matter a lot, and the voices supporting and opposing Wen Jun continued to argue.

Seeing that Wen Jun seemed to be insisting on having his own way regardless of the consequences, some people prepared to launch a vote to remove Wen Jun from his position as chairman of the Academy Awards Organizing Committee.

But before they could take action, the Hong Kong Directors Association, the Hong Kong Photographers Association and the Hong Kong Dragon and Tiger Martial Arts Association, three important organizations in the Hong Kong film industry, publicly expressed their support for Wen Jun.

Not only that, a large number of Hong Kong artists, led by Jacky Cheung, Jet Li and Stephen Chow, also expressed their support for Wen Jun.

With such a huge momentum, any discerning person can tell that there must be someone supporting it behind the scenes.

Golden Harvest, Emperor Entertainment Group and Yongsheng did not hide their opinions and also expressed their support directly.

Now everyone understands that it is these three largest film companies in Hong Kong that are pushing this matter forward.

A person's reputation is like the shadow of a tree. Once these three companies spoke out, the voices opposing the reform suddenly became much smaller.

These three companies are the bread and butter of most Hong Kong filmmakers. With the current decline of Hong Kong films, everyone is relying more on these big companies for their livelihood.

So afterwards, the reform of the Academy Awards gave people a feeling that it was an inevitable trend.

Those who insist on opposing it for whatever reason can only watch the preparations for the reform of the Academy Awards proceed step by step.

(End of this chapter)