Chapter 85 Extra A-1
"Qiong Yu 1" has received rave reviews worldwide.
And it also set the box office record of that year and even for more than a decade before and after.
Until it was finally taken off the screen in China after a 120-day key extension, it had grossed over 4.5 billion yuan, ranking among the top three in the history of Chinese-language films.
Globally, it also earned more than 300 million US dollars in box office revenue, breaking the record of 210 million US dollars for overseas box office of Chinese-language films that had been maintained for more than 20 years, becoming the well-deserved number one Chinese-language film.
More importantly, its outstanding performance at the Oscars was a powerful response to those critics who had previously been pessimistic about Chinese-language films.
Even under China's strict censorship system for films, it still managed to innovate in the plot and raise the artistic level of the entire film.
It is truly a miracle.
Before this, although many people said that "Six Masks" was a success both at home and abroad, whether in terms of domestic reputation and box office, or in terms of international awards and even box office performance, it has become a miracle, but there were also many harsh reviews that believed that it took advantage of the popularity of "Light and Shadow 7" or the popularity of historical themes.
After all, Chinese films seem to have no works that are oriented towards the future, and historical themes are always popular.
But the emergence of "Qiong Yu 1" undoubtedly shattered these evaluations.
It is a space opera theme that is rare even internationally, and it incorporates China's most classic martial arts elements, becoming the most valuable IP of the year.
And "Qiong Yu 1" is just the beginning of a series of IPs.
"The Sky Talking 2" released a year later was an even bigger hit.
Qiao Yiqiao still chose the Spring Festival schedule.
What’s terrifying is that when pre-sales opened a week before the Spring Festival, the box office had already exceeded 500 million.
A reporter interviewed Qiao Yi Qiao and asked him what he thought about the expected box office success of this film.
Qiao Yiqiao was silent for a long time, and finally said: "It doesn't matter whether it's money or not. I don't have any idea about these numbers now. What's most important is that everyone enjoyed themselves in these 180 minutes."
reporter:"……"
Is this the world of the rich?
It's so scary, I don't understand it at all.
Seeing that the pre-sale results of "The Sound of Clouds 2" were so good, some other big productions even chose to withdraw.
After all, no one wants to be
It's time to wrestle with this box office monster.
Qiao Yi Qiao also responded to this.
"As long as it's fair competition, I welcome it, and I hope everyone can bring better film and television works to the audience."
But even if he said so, in the end, the only one that dared to challenge him head-on was Da Chong's new film "Farce", while other films were just runners-up.
"Farce" is the nonsensical and absurd comedy that Da Chong loves the most and is best at. He put a lot of effort into this film, which took him three full years to finally release.
This time, as usual, he and Qiao Yiqiao launched a bundled sales campaign.
On the one hand, Qiao Yiqiao likes Da Chong very much and felt very good after watching his new film. On the other hand, Qiao Yiqiao also intends to join forces with other filmmakers to boost the box office to avoid everyone saying that he is a box office killer. With his schedule, other films dare not be released.
Qiao Yiqiao not only released Da Chong's new film in China, but also asked Liu Chong to help him make plans to screen it worldwide.
"The Sky Talking 2" was also released around the world at the same time, and it has the style of a complete blockbuster.
And the box office results still set new records.
The box office reached 1.8 billion on the first day, and continued to rise in the following days. Finally, when the film was taken off the screen, it achieved a good result of nearly 6 billion.
The overseas box office has also exceeded 300 million US dollars and is heading towards 400 million.
Almost locked up the title of the year.
Although Da Chong's new film could not beat Qiao Yi Qiao's record at all, it also achieved a good result of 2 billion, breaking Da Chong's own personal record.
Their benign bundling sales have become a good story in the industry, and many people have even started to contact Qiao Yi Qiao secretly and asked him to help them.
However, Qiao Yi Qiao is a very unproductive creator after all, and he cannot produce one every year like Wang Yi Ge does, so relying on him is not a solution.
In response to these directors, Qiao Yi Qiao gave a very consistent and concise response - "The Chinese people should strive to be self-reliant."
While "The Legend of the Condor Heroes 1" was being released and "The Legend of the Condor Heroes 2" was in post-production, Qiao Yiqiao had actually finished filming "The Legend of the Condor Heroes 3" and "The Legend of the Condor Heroes 4" back to back.
Now "Qiong Yu 3" is in the post-production stage in full swing.
This film has more than 5,000 special effects shots and an investment of 1.3 billion yuan. Xin Nan also expressed that this is a huge pressure.
However, winning the "Qiong Yu" series also made her famous in the industry.
I guess I won’t have to worry too much in this life.
What made Qiao Yi Qiao even happier was that during these three years, the entire Chinese film and television industry finally prospered.
The first is the diversity of genres, not only science fiction and comedy, but even stop-motion animation, clay animation, ink animation and other film genres that were rarely seen in the past have been released one after another and received rave reviews.
Many more of them, with the help of the Film Bureau and Liu Chong, have gone global and received acclaim from all over the world.
Everyone says that Chinese films are truly alive.
Of course, most of the honor belongs to these courageous creators, but Qiao Yi Qiao also claimed another small part - after all, most of these creators relied on his fund to make their ideas come to life.
He doesn't want to be a leader in the film and television industry. Just as he has led so many of his brothers to success, he also hopes that more and more talented creators can shine on the world stage.
Therefore, during the post-production of "Qiong Yu 3", Qiao Yi Qiao was mainly doing this.
He is constantly looking at projects every day, making appointments with creators, and even going to various universities to find some talented people with good ideas but who are not professionally trained.
Some people asked him why he was unwilling to support some creators who had received professional training.
Qiao Yiqiao could only reply: "I think students majoring in film and television have received a lot of support. They also have very good teachers to cultivate them. They don't need me."
That day, he held a long meeting with the two creators as usual, and it was already past eleven o'clock in the evening when the meeting ended.
Although he was physically tired, Qiao Yiqiao felt very satisfied mentally.
Because there will be two more very good works coming out.
He hummed a song and drove back to Yizheng campus.
Yes, he still lives here.
In fact, the money he has now is enough to buy the best house in Heng City, or even in the whole of China.
But he still prefers living in the top-floor dormitory on the Yizheng campus.
Many employees of Yizheng Entertainment still live here.
Because it feels like home.
And cheap.
Just as he was about to enter, he suddenly noticed a somewhat familiar figure in front of him.
The man squatted at the gate of Yizheng Campus like a mushroom.
Qiao Yiqiao drove closer to the other party, rolled down the window, looked at him for a long time, and then asked hesitantly: "...Sachiko?"
The little mushroom looked up and saw Qiao Yiqiao's eyes.
Shine: "Ah! Qiao Yiqiao!"
Qiao Yi Qiao quickly parked the car on campus and ran out again.
After confirmation, this person is indeed Sachiko.
The little mushroom on Netflix.
Qiao Yiqiao met this man once when he attended the Rotterdam Film Festival a few years ago.
In the end, "School of Chaos" was released on Netflix, which she was in charge of at the time, and the response was very good.
It's just that the two have not had any contact in the past few years. Qiao Yiqiao is a busy man, and Xiao Mushroom Sachiko is a socially anxious technology geek. Neither of them is the type to contact each other actively. In addition, Qiao Yiqiao's films have not been released on Netflix since then, so naturally there has been no contact.
Therefore, Qiao Yiqiao felt a little surprised when he saw her appear on Yizheng campus.
But Sachiko was more surprised. She stood up and said, "Director Qiao! You still remember me!"
Qiao Yiqiao couldn't explain why he had such an exaggerated ability to remember people, so he could only change the subject and ask, "Why did you come to Yizheng campus?"
Sachiko pushed up her glasses and said, "Of course we have important matters to cooperate on."
So Qiao Yi Qiao brought her into the campus.
There is now a separate building on campus, right next to the cafeteria, which serves as a dedicated place for meeting guests and holding meetings.
The two sat down in the tea room and the waiter brought them a pot of good tea.
"I'm sorry to bother you so suddenly. I wanted to ask your secretary to make an appointment with you today, but I've always heard that Yizheng campus is very different, so I wanted to come and take a look," Sachiko smiled shyly. "I didn't expect the plane to be delayed, and it was already very late when I landed. I didn't know if your night tour was over, so I came to try my luck, and I didn't expect to meet you."
Now, Yizheng Campus has also opened for tours, just like Paramount and other studios. There are at least several hundred tourists visiting every day, and it has become another major attraction in Heng City besides the film and television city.
However, the night parade had ended long ago. Fortunately, Sachiko was discovered by Qiao Yiqiao, otherwise she would have returned empty-handed.
But this is okay.
It saves you from all the hassles of making appointments.
Sachiko took a sip of tea and handed over her business card: "Director Qiao, I got a promotion!"
Qiao Yiqiao looked at the name on the business card that read [Lu Xingzi, Netflix Greater China Business Manager] and smiled: "Congratulations, but I'm not sure, does Netflix also have business in Greater China?"
Qiao Yi Bridge
Although I haven't paid much attention to Netflix, I know that this film and television website is very popular internationally and has produced many phenomenal works.
However, due to censorship and other factors, Netflix has always been a website that has been "blocked" in China, and domestic users have no way to log in directly to watch.
Sachiko nodded. "We have just reached a cooperation agreement with the Film Bureau. Netflix will soon have a version exclusively for the mainland. In the future, mainland audiences will be able to watch Netflix without having to climb over the wall. Of course, the content they watch has been reviewed by the Film Bureau in advance."
"I see," Qiao Yi Qiao expressed his understanding of the situation.
It seems that not only domestic works want to go abroad, but also a lot of foreign capital and works want to come in.
Qiao Yiqiao was also happy for Sachiko: "So, you are the person in charge of this mainland version of Netflix?"
Sachiko nodded excitedly: "That's right!"
Qiao Yiqiao asked: "I wonder what kind of business you want to cooperate with me for? As you know, my films have been sold to other websites, and there are no copyrights for sale at the moment."
"We know this," Sachiko smiled. "To be honest, Director Qiao, your films, except for 'Chaotic School', do not match our website's positioning. I am not here to claim the copyrights of those films."
Qiao Yiqiao was curious: "Then you are...?"
"Now our domestic video websites are very mature. If Netflix wants to enter this market, it can only rely on foreign works. This is because domestic video websites do not have those copyrights," Sachiko thought for a while, "but we don't have any copyrights for domestic film and television works. We can only do some distant works, but we don't have any advantages. For example, we can't do popular fairy tales, ancient costumes, love and other themes. So we want to do something more unconventional."
Qiao Yiqiao nodded and expressed his understanding.
Netflix got its start by producing some rebellious films and TV shows, and it seems they want to follow this route in China as well.
"Of course we don't have a specific definition of 'weird', and it shouldn't have a specific definition. Director Qiao, you are the weirdest director in China and even in the world," Sachiko said seriously, "So, we want to work with you and hope that you can have a weird work as our Netflix's first work."
Qiao Yiqiao: “…”
It turns out that he is positioned as the most "weird" director?
It sounds...
Not bad.
“And, after my
Investigation shows that the creators supported by your foundation are also very... weird," Sachiko smiled, "If possible, we also want to open a way for them, let's make Netflix Greater China version weird to the end!"
Qiao Yi Qiao couldn't help but laugh when he heard Sachiko's "grand plan".
But when he thought about it carefully, he found it very reliable.
Although he has worked on many projects with many weird creators, the response of these projects in theaters was not that good. They were more successful in China than abroad.
Qiao Yiqiao also understands that many foreign audiences watch their works with a sense of curiosity and curiosity.
The favorite works of the mainstream domestic theaters remain unchanged, and it is expected that this will not change in the distant future. They will always be films that focus on effects or plots, such as police and gangster, and romance themes that sell well.
The weird films made by his people are often buried under these commercial blockbusters.
In this case, online distribution might be a better route.
Their audiences are all young people, which is a high degree of fit. Plus, the production standards of these "weird films" are usually relatively low. Sometimes forcing technology to meet theater standards is a burden for new directors. It would be better to go directly to the Internet, which is good for both parties.
However, before that, not many video websites were willing to accept their films.
Now that Netflix is coming, it is definitely a good opportunity.
This is how his "Chaotic Campus" came about.
Thinking of this, Qiao Yiqiao nodded: "I think this general direction is very good. I can make a film first, and then see everyone's response, and then decide whether the projects supported by my fund should be launched on Netflix."
Although he thought it was a good idea, the Greater China version of Netflix was still a work in progress, and Qiao Yiqiao did not want to test the waters with other people's projects under his command.
And he didn't have much to do recently, so it would be nice to shoot a film.
"No problem," Sachiko also understood what Qiao Yiqiao was thinking, "Then Director Qiao, we won't restrict your creation. In short, the weirder the better. We are waiting for your creativity."
Qiao Yiqiao nodded: "No problem."
Even though he didn't want to admit it, he had to admit that the idea of making a movie that was "the weirder the better" was very tempting to him.
He now has money and status, and is becoming more and more proficient in the filming of the "Qiong Yu" series.
When a person reaches a certain peak, he wants to have some fun.
Maybe we can come up with some very interesting things.
However, there is still a very important issue that has not been discussed.
Qiao Yiqiao: "Then our film..."
"Oh, yes," Sachiko drank the tea in one gulp, "I haven't told you the budget for this project yet, right? Two hundred million for production, that should be enough, right, Director Qiao?"
Qiao Yiqiao: “!”
He almost forgot how rich Netflix is...
Take out 200 million to have some fun, and the weirder the better.
Qiao Yiqiao was itching to death!
"No problem!" Qiao Yiqiao nodded seriously, with a tragic look on his face, "I will definitely come up with something super weird!"
"OK, I believe you, there will be no problem!" Sachiko held his hand, "Then I'll come to listen to your ideas in a month. Come on! You're really weird!"
Qiao Yiqiao: “Ah.”
This kind of encouragement is not worth it!!!
…
After Sachiko left, Qiao Yiqiao fell into deep thought.
Speaking of weird ideas, there are many in his Creative Box, but Qiao Yiqiao was not satisfied after searching through them all night.
The next day's schedule was still a meeting, but this meeting was more relaxed. It was a meeting on the derivative works of "Qiong Yu".
Qiao Yiqiao himself did not have much control over the development of derivative works of "Qiong Yu". This aspect was mainly led by Xiao He, which was a true implementation of the most popular "producer-centered system" in Hollywood.
As a big IP, "The Sky Language" has two directions for derivative works. In terms of movies, the main development is the single-player series of each character, which is very similar to Marvel. If "The Sky Language" itself is "The Avengers", then the derivative film works are like "Captain America", "Iron Man" and "Black Widow".
These Xiao Hes have also found suitable directors to create, and different personal derivative works have different directions. For example, Da Chong is responsible for the creation of the personal works of one of the very small and unscrupulous characters, and he also follows a comedy route.
Qiao Yiqiao and Xiao He mainly focused on determining the general direction. After all, the worldview of the entire "Qiong Yu" has been very perfected after several years of running-in. The large document alone has as many as 500,000 words.
Their main concern is to make sure that these derivative works do not conflict too much with the main world view and the sequel to "The Sky Language".
The development of the spin-off series is still relatively orthodox, mainly to re-tell the story of "Qiong Yu" in detail. In this regard, Qiao Yiqiao is involved in
Even less, after all, he is not a professional in making TV series, so it is better to leave it to the top TV directors and screenwriters.
The meeting lasted a whole day, and all kinds of derivative ideas came up, and everyone had a great time chatting.
Qiao Yiqiao really likes this creative atmosphere and has a feeling that these derivative works will be very good.
When holding this kind of creative meeting, it is inevitable that everyone will talk about many comparable works.
Someone even made a table listing all the derivative works of other IPs.
In order to impress the largest audience, these works cover almost all genres, such as comedy, science fiction, action, suspense, etc.
In the process, Qiao Yi Qiao discovered a blind spot.
They all ignored a genre, or rather, there was no derivative work of a big IP in this genre.
——Singing and dancing.
In fact, among all movies, song and dance is the least common category.
A light bulb immediately popped up above Qiao Yiqiao's head.
He wants to do it!
It has been a long, long time since China had a musical!
He also never made a musical.
Speaking of weird and unpopular, is there anything more unpopular and weird than a musical?
Moreover, his work on Netflix can also be a spin-off series of "The Sky Language".
This way, it can satisfy the other party's desire for a weird movie, and further enhance the added value of the entire "Qiong Yu" series and open up more possibilities.
It can be said to kill two birds with one stone.
When he thought of this, even Qiao Yi Qiao himself was convinced.
How come no matter what time it is, he always wants to achieve the greatest effect with the least money and energy!
In the following half month, Qiao Yiqiao rediscovered the joy of creation.
He began to retreat and work on his creation again, and after another half month, he had completed the first draft of the outline.
Soon, it was time for Sachiko to listen to the ideas.
Qiao Yi Qiao threw the outline over without saying anything.
Before Sachiko looked closely, she asked a question: "What is the subject of this?"
Qiao Yiqiao smiled and said, "A musical, is that weird enough?"
Sachiko's eyes lit up without exaggeration: "It's really weird."
But unexpectedly, Qiao Yiqiao continued, "It's a musical with a crime genre added on top. To be more precise, it's a science fiction + Mafia (gang) genre. How about that? Isn't it a weird one?"
Sachiko froze.
After a long while, she recovered and gave a thumbs up weakly: "Huaguo, no, the world's weirdest director QYQ, his reputation is well-deserved..."!
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