Chapter 601: The Return of the Great Sage and the Lunar New Year War

After more than three months, Liu Zhou returned to the capital again.

I spent several days dealing with the accumulated affairs of various companies and taking the opportunity to learn about the recent developments of the companies.

There is nothing special about Sina Group. As time comes to the end of the year, Sina Group wants to jointly organize an annual Sina ceremony in the name of Sina Video and Sina Weibo.

In fact, it is an imitation of the annual party held by LeTV last year.

However, Sina is far from comparable to LeTV.

Last year, LeTV spent tens of millions of dollars on the LeTV celebration, but there were not many celebrity guests, and only one or two big names came.

Now, if Sina wants to hold an annual celebration, it can attract most people in the entertainment industry to participate.

In its past, Weibo also had a Weibo Night, and the three major video sites also had their own annual awards ceremonies.

In fact, they are all just to promote their respective companies.

This event was jointly organized by Sina Video and Sina Weibo, mainly to promote Sina.

Both companies are leaders in their industries, especially the latter, which is the only one in the market.

The two companies have come together to make Sina’s annual ceremony more grand.

And this inevitably requires the cooperation of Golden Harvest Group.

So apart from being busy with the Lunar New Year period, Golden Harvest Group is mainly cooperating with Sina Group to do this.

However, when browsing the documents of Jiahe Group, Liu Zhou noticed one thing.

One of the films that came to attract investment, which was an animated film, was marked with a cross by the review department of Golden Harvest Group, which means it has no investment value.

It’s okay if you haven’t heard of this animated film, but its name is “The Return of the Great Sage”!

If the “Pleasant Goat” series of animated films is the only profitable domestic animation in recent years, it is not representative because it is aimed at children.

Only “The Return of the Great Sage” is the iconic film that opened the era of profitability for domestic animated films.

Without much publicity, the film grossed nearly 1 billion yuan at the box office just by word of mouth.

Since this movie, more domestic animated films have flooded into the market.

Especially Jiaozi’s two “Nezha” films, which made animated films known to everyone.

Unfortunately, “The Return of the Great Sage” was released in 15, but the second part has yet to come.

It’s only been a year or two, and it’s already the darkest time for animated films.

In fact, the project of “The Return of the Great Sage” has been in preparation for a long time, but it has never attracted enough investment.

Just look at the attitude of the audit department of Jiahe Group now and you will know that they are not optimistic at all.

According to the plan submitted by director Tian Xiaopeng, the total investment of the film is 70 million yuan and the production cycle is as long as three years, which makes many investment companies hesitate.

Although the Journey to the West theme is well-known enough, it is still a problem for most companies to recover the cost, not to mention that the cycle is as long as three years.
The repayment period is about four years. Even if it is profitable, the return on investment is too low.

What’s more, no matter how you look at it, it’s a losing business.

According to the documents, Guangxian also participated in the project at the beginning of the year, but later withdrew.

Obviously Wang Changtian is not optimistic about this project.

However, it is understandable and correct for the review department to make such a decision. After all, not everyone can foresee the future.

Liu Zhou then called Zhang Zhao over.

“Mr. Zhang, this animated film ‘Journey to the West: Hero is Back’ is available for investment. Go talk to the other party and find out how much investment is still needed. We at Golden Harvest will cover it all.”

“The Monkey King: Hero is Back”?
Zhang Zhao was a little surprised. He was also not optimistic about this film. He thought the production cycle was too long, which could be seen from the fact that few film and television companies in the industry had invested in it over the years.

I didn’t expect Liu Zhou to be optimistic about this animated film.

Liu Zhou had a very clear vision and had never made a mistake.

Is it possible that there is something really good about “The Return of the Great Sage” that I haven’t discovered?
“Mr. Liu, what’s so unique about this movie?”

“It does look like a money-loser.” Liu Zhou said with a smile, “But I think the story outline is pretty good, and director Tian Xiaopeng has been preparing for this film for several years.

Hollywood animated films are very popular all over the world, but we can’t produce a single decent animated film in our country.

The last classic animated film was “The Lotus Lantern” produced by Shanghai Animation Studio more than ten years ago, but it was still hand-painted.

And we can’t regard “Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf” as a representative work of animation.

So I am willing to support such persistent and determined animation filmmakers. After all, it’s only tens of millions, so if they lose, they lose.”

Hearing this, Zhang Zhao couldn’t help but stand in awe. It seemed that his vision was still too narrow, and he only focused on whether he could make a profit.

“Okay, Mr. Liu, I’ll arrange for the production department to contact Tian Xiaopeng later.”

“By the way, our investment must include copyrights. It would be best if we could get all the copyrights.”

There may be various reasons why there has been no second part of “The Return of the Great Sage”, but copyright factors are definitely a major reason.

If we could get the copyright, there wouldn’t be so many constraints and it would be much easier to make the second part.

Then, Liu Zhou thought of another big production of Journey to the West, and continued:

“You go talk to the other party, give them enough funds, and we will find a way to solve the problem of manpower. Let them shorten the production cycle by another year, and strive to release it in 14.”

Animated films are different from live-action films. In addition to technical experts, more people in art are needed. Most of these people are in state-owned studios. Private film and television companies have money but no people.

The reason why the original time and space “The Return of the Great Sage” took so long to produce was not only due to lack of money, but also lack of manpower was also a major factor.

But lack of staff is not a problem for Golden Harvest, as it can easily borrow the industry’s top art talents from various state-owned factories.

There is no need to worry about special effects talent, as Golden Harvest Special Effects Studio has the most advanced equipment and the most talent in the country.

As for why they wanted to release “The Monkey King: Hero is Back” a year earlier, it was because during the 14 Spring Festival, a highly anticipated special effects blockbuster “Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons” was released.

Trample the sky to pieces, act unbridled and unruly.

What would happen if “The Return of the Great Sage” and “Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons” collided with each other!

Not to mention other things, with the huge momentum created by “Havoc in Heaven”, it can at least make the Journey to the West theme popular, and “The Monkey King: Hero is Back” can at least take advantage of the popularity.

Which one do the audience like better, the muscular monkey played by Zhen Zidan or the skinny Monkey King?
This can be seen intuitively from the box office of the two movies.

“Journey to the West” was known as the most expensive and most powerful special effects blockbuster at the time, with an investment of more than 400 million yuan, which created a huge sensation.

The final box office was only over 10 billion.

“The Return of the Great Sage” did not have many resources for promotion, and it relied entirely on word of mouth to bring in more than 900 million yuan at the box office.

Ten years later, not many people remember “Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons”, but many people still remember “The Monkey King: Hero is Back”.

The only effect of “Havoc in Heaven” may be to set off a craze for “Journey to the West”. But the people who followed did not film it well, and even Mr. Liu got lost in it.

This time, Golden Harvest will be promoting “The Return of the Great Sage”, so it will definitely not be as shabby as in the past.

When it goes head to head with “Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons”, it’s not certain who will win.

The hot sales of movies on Journey to the West will surely drive the rise of Journey to the West as a major IP. At that time, “The Monkey King: Hero is Back”, which has defeated “Havoc in Heaven”, will surely get a bigger piece of the pie in this IP feast.

At this time, Zhang Zhao thought more and said:

“Mr. Liu, do you think we can set up an animation film investment department to specifically support domestic animation films?

As a large company in the industry, we also need to shoulder certain industry responsibilities. Since we can support new directors, we can also support domestic animation. “

Unexpectedly, Zhang Zhao could see so far. Liu Zhou smiled and replied:

“Of course, there is great potential for animated films in the future, but the investment in animated films is much greater than supporting newcomers, so you need to pay more attention to the funding.”

“There is no need to worry about funding. With the Golden Harvest Film and Television Industrial Base about to be completed, the group will be able to save a large sum of money every year. There is no pressure at all to spend 200 to 300 million yuan every year to support animated films.”

“In that case, then you should make this happen. You can make The Return of the Great Sage the first animated film you support.

I have a feeling this movie will be a good box office hit, and it might even help to make our brand famous.”

After talking about this matter, Liu Zhou couldn’t help but ask:

“Have you arranged the Lunar New Year and Spring Festival schedules?”

“It’s all arranged. The Lunar New Year movie Mojin: The Lost Legend will be shown during the Lunar New Year, and the Spring Festival movie Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons, which I collaborated with Stephen Chow, will be shown during the Spring Festival.”

“This year’s Lunar New Year box office looks a bit intense.”

“No matter how intense it is, it’s not as intense as it was two years ago.” Zhang Zhao said with a smile.

“That’s not necessarily true.”

There are three blockbusters released during the Lunar New Year holiday this year, one is Golden Harvest’s “Mojin: The Legend of the Dragon”, one is Jacky Cheung’s “The Chinese Zodiac” co-produced by Emperor Entertainment Group and Huayi, and the other is Li An’s “Life of Pi”.

His film will also be Green Book’s biggest competitor for the Oscars next year.

By then, there will be two Chinese directors competing for the Oscars next year.

Of course, in addition to these three big productions, there are nearly ten movies released during the Lunar New Year period.

Maybe their box office won’t be too high, but if there are too many movies, it will still divert a lot of box office revenue.

Two years ago during the Lunar New Year holiday, four blockbusters from Liu Zhou, Jiang Wen, Feng Kuzi and Chen Shishi competed for the top spot, but other films did not dare to participate and become cannon fodder.

So the competition is just between these four blockbusters.

But this year, in addition to competing with three blockbusters, it also has to compete with nearly ten movies for box office revenue.

You have to know that they are not releasing all ten movies at the same time, but rather one by one. The box office of a movie in its first week should not be too bad.

If a dark horse suddenly emerges, the battle will become even more brutal.

So this year’s Lunar New Year box office may actually be more intense than two years ago.

There is no way. The film market is becoming more and more prosperous. The number of films produced each year is increasing significantly, and the box office volume of the Lunar New Year period is also increasing.

Although small and medium-budget films will face competition from blockbusters when released during the Lunar New Year holiday, they may have better box office than when released at other times.

As time gradually came to the end of November, “Mojin: The Last Dragon” took the lead in firing the first shot of this year’s Lunar New Year box office.

After a grand premiere ceremony was held at Beijing Golden Harvest International Cinemas on November 30th, the film was released in all major domestic cinemas at midnight.

The three main actors Liu Ye, Huang Bo and Liu Yifei are also gearing up for a roadshow in 20 cities.

Roadshows are becoming more and more popular now, with almost always more than ten cities in total, and it is common for blockbusters to have more than twenty cities.

But who can blame roadshows for their good box office effects?

Unexpectedly, ten years later, the audience has become accustomed to seeing celebrities, and there are more and more celebrity scandals, which has shattered everyone’s filter for celebrities. Only then will the audience impatiently want the roadshow team to leave and not interfere with them watching the movie.

On the first day of its release, “Mojin: The Lost Tomb” grossed 86 million yuan with 50% of the screening time.

This result is high enough, and although it is amazing, it is also within everyone’s expectations.

Not to mention that the novel “Ghost Blows Out the Light” has many fans, it is also the work of Liu Zhou, and the three main actors are all the most popular stars at the moment.

This film has attracted much attention since the beginning of the project.

The first-day results lived up to expectations, surpassing “Flying Daggers of Dragon Gate” and “Painted Skin 2” which was released during the summer vacation.

In the following two days of the weekend, “Mojin: The Last Dragon” grossed 1.04 million on Saturday and million on Sunday, breaking the million yuan mark in a single day.

In the first three days, “Mojin: The Last Dragon” grossed 2.86 million yuan.

The movie was not only a box office hit, but also had very good reputation.

Whether it is the special effects, plot or actors’ performances, they are all remarkable. Even the most discerning book fans do not have too many complaints, and most of the reviews are positive.

Therefore, the box office did not drop too much in the second week of its release, and it once again raked in 3.3 million in seven days of its second week.

The movie grossed 6.16 million yuan in ten days after its release.

Then, Jackie Chan’s “Chinese Zodiac” and the subsequent “Life of Pi” were released, but with the crazy performance of “Mojin: The Last Dragon”, everyone was still optimistic that the movie box office would exceed the 1 billion mark.

The main reason is that the movie has a very good reputation and its box office potential is relatively strong.

This Thursday, Jackie Chan’s “Chinese Zodiac” is released.

Thanks to the recent uproar over the twelve zodiac animal heads incident, plus Jackie Chan claiming that this is his last life-and-death action movie, it still attracted quite a few audiences to the cinema.

Cheng Long is nearly sixty years old, but his performance in the movie is still admirable.

On the first day of its release, the film grossed 75 million yuan, setting a new record for its best opening day.

In the first three days of the first week, he earned 2.3 million, which also created his best first-week performance.

This week, “Mojin: The Lost Tomb” was released for the third week and earned 1.7 million yuan, pushing the total box office to 7.86 million yuan.

The next week, “Life of Pi” was released. Thanks to Li An’s fame and China Film’s promotion and marketing, it also earned 53 million at the box office on the first day.

This movie didn’t prevent Li An from winning the Oscar for Best Director, but it still has something to offer.

He may not be able to make commercial special effects blockbusters, but he is very capable of making commercial films with an artistic atmosphere that explore human nature.

The box office in the first week reached 1.8 million.

At this time, “Chinese Zodiac” was in its second week of release and earned 2.8 million yuan at the box office, bringing the total box office to 5.1 million yuan.

“Mojin: The Lost Tomb” took in 1.1 million yuan in its fourth week of release, breaking the 8.96 million yuan mark again in a single week, with a total box office of million yuan, just million yuan away from the billion yuan mark.

(End of this chapter)