Chapter 181: Profits Before Launch

As soon as he returned to the capital, Gu Wei told Yang Mi that he wanted her to be the female lead in "The Blade of the Assassin 2".

Of course, the sooner this happens, the better, as Lu Yang is still waiting for her to audition.

Deciding on the leading actors early will also facilitate communication on schedules and preparations for other matters before the film starts.

There are many things that need to be prepared from planning to shooting, especially for a blockbuster like "The Sword Identity".

That’s right, because of the huge success of the first film, the second part of the film has now become a completely big investment.

Gu Wei's own salary alone is 20 million, and Yang Mi's current salary for filming is between 5 and 8 million.

It's not surprising. As two people who became popular this year, Yang Mi may be more popular, but in terms of movie pay, Gu Wei earns so much more than her.

This is actually very reasonable. In today's film market, except for a very small number of "chick movies", male actors basically play the main roles.

Investors also usually believe that male actors have stronger appeal than female actors.

Especially in some action movies, female characters often play the role of a vase, and their roles and importance are far less than those of male characters, so naturally their pay will be much less.

This situation is much better in the TV drama circle.

Unlike movies, Chinese TV dramas, no matter what type, often involve romance, and the proportion of male and female characters is almost the same.

In recent years, some TV dramas with strong female protagonists have become more popular with audiences. Being able to attract audiences is naturally worth more money, so when filming TV dramas, male and female actors of the same status often have similar pay.

Since Yang Mi was able to get such high-quality resources as "Assassin 2", he definitely would not ask for a high salary, probably 5 million.

As a result, the salary of the male and female protagonists alone is as much as 25 million, while the investment in the first film is only 30 million.

Lu Yang estimates that the filming cost of the second film will be around 80 million yuan. Judging from the box office of 220 million yuan for the first film, although the investment is more than double that of the first film, it is still easy to recover the cost.

In the morning, after breakfast, Gu Wei tidied himself up, put on a baseball cap and a mask, and was about to leave Yang Mi's house.

Last night, he was invited to the dinner party. There was no other way. Gu Wei usually found it difficult to refuse his elder sister's invitation.

To express his gratitude, Yang Mi personally went into the kitchen and prepared some of Gu Wei's signature dishes.

The two spent a wonderful night together. Of course, what impressed Gu Wei the most was definitely not the food cooked by Yang Mi.

"Can you come over tonight?"

Yang Mi followed Gu Wei to the door, reached out to adjust his collar, and asked softly.

She is now becoming more and more satisfied with Gu Wei.

She has a good figure and good looks, and can help me in my career. The only drawback is that she is too young and not mine yet.

Gu Wei thought about it.

"I've been quite busy these past few days. My new drama is about to start filming in Shanghai. You know that your company's dramas require a lot of attention."

"When will we be able to collaborate on a TV series together again? It's bound to be a hit, just like [Gu Jian] was."

Gu Wei said with some amusement.

"Miss Mi, you have three movies coming up. Apart from [Love in the City] where you are the female lead in a unit film, [The Love of Siam] and [Knife Assassin 2] are both big IP female leads.

Haven't you always wanted to make a movie? Why are you thinking of making a TV series now?"

“Oh~ You don’t know, although I really want to make movies, I always feel unsure after finishing them because the audiences have criticized my movies as bad too many times.

On the contrary, I was full of confidence when filming TV series."

Gu Wei ignored Yang Mi's Versailles and gave further instructions.

"Go to Director Lu Yang early. I've already told him. Just call him and schedule a time for your audition.

I've left the script with you. Prepare it well. I think there's nothing wrong with it, but it's best to leave a good impression on the director."

"Okay, I know."

The main managers were present in the company's conference room.

The filming of "Love O2O" will start in a few days, and today's meeting is also to report and summarize the preparations in the recent period.

"Mr. Gu, as of now, a total of 28 advertisers have contacted us to place product placements in the drama [Love O2O].

After several rounds of screening, we communicated with director Lin Yufen and screenwriter Gu Man, and finally reached cooperation agreements with fifteen of the manufacturers without affecting the filming of the TV series.

They are A Chinese Ghost Story, RIO, OPPO, Three Squirrels, HP, Be & Cheery, Yakult, Kuake, Dongpeng Special Drink, Mofashijia, Weiquan, Vipshop, Jeep Cherokee, Ulemei, and Mofan.

The largest advertising placement was NetEase's "A Chinese Ghost Story", which replaced "Dream Wandering in the Jianghu" in Gu Man's original novel and became the background game in the TV series.

Because the game played such a large role in the TV series, we ultimately agreed with NetEase on a 30 million RMB advertising placement fee.”

"so much?

NetEase simply paid the money?"

Gu Wei interrupted when he heard this. Gu Wei didn't know how much money NetEase paid for the product placement in Yang Yang and Zheng Shuang's version of "Love O2O", but it was definitely not as much as 30 million.

When the original version of this TV series was filmed, Yang Yang was not yet the top star he later became and was not very famous.

On the contrary, Zheng Shuang, the female lead, has been popular for many years, and external publicity mainly relies on the female lead.

“Because our company has produced two hit online dramas, Princess Taiping and Yu Zui, advertisers are very confident in the drama O2O.

This TV series is starred by you personally, boss. Although it has not started filming yet, there is already a lot of discussion about it on the Internet.

Moreover, the contract NetEase signed with us was a bet-style contract.

If the TV series reaches over 3 billion online views after its release, we will receive the highest advertising fee of 30 million. If the number of views is between 2 billion and 3 billion, we will receive 20 million. If the number of views is less than 2 billion, we will only receive the lowest 10 million.

"Haha, NetEase is really cunning. They don't want to take any losses at all. Has the number of views of [Yu Zui] reached 3 billion now?"

“Not yet. The second season is currently airing, and the number of views has just exceeded 2 billion. According to LeTV’s prediction, it is expected to exceed 3 billion after the show is finished.

So far, the only TV series with over 3 billion online views this year is your "Gu Jian Qi Tan." Others, including the hit "Love Apartment 4" at the beginning of the year, have only 2.5 billion views.

“What about other advertisers?”

Gu Wei was not worried at all about whether he could get the 30 million advertising fee from NetEase. The original version of "Love O2O" became an Internet hit when it was exclusively broadcast on Youku, and the number of views of a single episode once reached over 1 billion.

Now he is replacing Yang Yang in the role. With his fame far exceeding Yang Yang's and his better acting skills and looks, the TV series will only perform better.

The only problem is with the female lead Nazha. Although she is far better than Zheng Shuang in terms of appearance and figure, she can be said to be closer to the image of "Bei Weiwei" in the original work.

But her acting skills may be a little bit worse, and her popularity is even worse. During this period, Zheng Shuang had a lot of crazy fans on the Internet.

However, Gu Wei has confidence in himself, and with his ability, it should be no problem for him to bring up Nazha.

“Other manufacturers’ advertising fees range from 1 million to 5 million, depending on the length of the appearance.

The total advertising expenses of the 14 companies are around 42 million yuan.”

The TV series has not even started filming yet, but the revenue from product placement is already 72 million.

"Love O2O" is a youth romance film without any special effects or big scenes. The only part that requires extra money is the game-like scenes in the drama.

The total cost of the entire drama is about 50 million. Because it was a drama solely produced by his own company, Gu Wei only received a small salary. Otherwise, according to the market price, he would have taken away half of the total investment.

The TV series hasn't even started filming yet, but it's already making money through product placement.

No matter how much the film is sold for, it will be a profit.

Gu Wei now understands Feng Xiaogang's feelings when he was filming comedy movies.

It is said that when Director Feng was filming If You Are the One 2, 14 product placements and 10 in-film advertisements brought in a total of more than 50 million yuan, which basically offset the investment. The box office of more than 450 million yuan was equivalent to pure profit.

In the film and television industry, only top products that are truly favored by everyone can achieve this level.

(End of this chapter)