Chapter 509: Not Short of Money
There is no need to say more about how important distribution is to a movie.
There are currently two main distribution models in China.
One is Huayi Pictures. They usually use large-scale productions and star lineups to establish the market appeal of the films with high-quality films, attract audiences, and thereby influence the theaters' schedules.
Another type is the optical development industry, which adopts a matrix model, which is to arrange distribution personnel stationed throughout the country.
Both models have their pros and cons.
For example, the former has a relatively low distribution cost. After all, labor costs are getting higher and higher these days, but the disadvantages are also very obvious.
That is easy to be out of touch with the market.
It is well known that Huayi Pictures does not attach importance to building a distribution network, and it does not have distribution personnel stationed across the country.
Some people even joked in cinemas that the distribution staff of Huayi Films were like elusive hermits, and that if you were not destined to meet them, you would never meet one in your lifetime.
The lack of a distribution network and a lack of responsiveness to the market have forced Huayi to go down the path of big productions and star casts, but problems have arisen in the past two years, especially this year.
The two major productions that Huayi valued the most in 2012, Feng Xiaogang's 1942, did not receive as good a market response as expected, nor did the box office revenue meet expectations, while the new genre work Tai Chi suffered a disastrous defeat.
You know, Huayi has high hopes for Tai Chi. It filmed Tai Chi 1 and Tai Chi 2 in one go, and Tai Chi 3 is also on the agenda, which shows Huayi's expectations for this movie.
But the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment. The box office of both Tai Chi films was terrible!
The failure of these two big productions caused Huayi to suffer heavy losses. Even the gold medal producer Chen Guofu was under heavy pressure and announced his resignation.
It was in this situation that Miracle Pictures took advantage of the opportunity and brought the gold medal producer under its wing.
If we say that the failure of Huayi Pictures' distribution model was due to its lack of respect for the market, then the thing that the optical development industry is most proud of is its grasp of the market.
But the photodevelopment industry's distribution model also has disadvantages.
One is the huge cost pressure. It is not easy at all to manage a huge distribution system consisting of so many people, and the cost is quite staggering.
More importantly, you have to release enough movies every year to ensure that this system is not idle and to improve the efficiency of the distributors! Otherwise, if you only release one movie a year and you have such a large distribution team, wouldn’t you be losing money?
According to preliminary estimates, at least twelve films must be released each year, which means that one film must be released each month.
And the quality of these movies can’t be too bad!
However, the strengths of the photolithography industry lie in distribution, promotion, and publicity and marketing, but its weakness lies in the production of film content. After all, as a private enterprise, its financial resources and resources are limited.
So, when Yang Huan announced the establishment of Miracle Pictures and entered the film market with great fanfare, the choice was before him.
Is it to learn from Huayi’s emphasis on content?
Or do we need to learn from Guangxian and pay attention to channels?
Master Huan finally chose to focus on both content and channels, and both hands must be strong!
The reason is simple, just having money!
Therefore, Miracle Pictures spent more than a year to quickly build a distribution network covering more than 120 major movie box office cities, while also attaching great importance to film content production.
"The release of Cold War was the first time our distribution system was put into operation."
Zhang Qiang used PPT to introduce the distribution model of Miracle Pictures to everyone present.
"So far this year, we have only had one Cold War released, so the vast majority of the work of local distributors is to understand the local market, actively visit various theaters to understand the situation, accumulate contacts, and build relationships so that they can schedule more screenings when the movie is released, and also cooperate with our promotion."
"As early as a month before the release of Cold War, our distributors had already communicated with local theaters, secured screenings, and negotiated promotional activities. Based on these, they developed a distribution plan that included the release date, screening schedule, promotional activities, promotional materials, etc., down to the smallest detail."
"We are still using WeChat now, but as early as a year ago, we had already started the development project of the distribution system software. In the future, we will use mobile phone apps and computers to achieve contact and communication."
"After receiving the distribution plans from various regions, the headquarters will consider various factors and decide whether to adjust the schedule in order to obtain the most favorable film schedule, as well as organize various promotional activities, and then re-issue it to the distributors in various regions!"
"Cold War has not adjusted its release date, but it has received a very ideal screening schedule. As for our upcoming Lost in Thailand, based on feedback from various places, we have decided to adjust the release date because of the unsatisfactory box office response of 1942 and the general disappointment of domestic movie fans on the Internet and social media with this year's domestic films!"
"Lost in Thailand's new release date is December 12, 2012!"
When everyone heard what Zhang Qiang said, they all laughed.
This number is really rare!
But if you think about it carefully, you have to admit that Miracle Pictures' distribution system is really shocking.
From scheduling to promotion to release, the entire process is completely based on market trends.
Cold War is just the first attempt at this system, and its box office of over 500 million shows its potential.
If it can be fine-tuned and coordinated with a series of publicity, promotion and marketing by land, sea, air, online and offline, then this distribution system will definitely be able to fully tap the box office potential of a movie.
It's simply an invincible weapon, isn't it?
But it can also be seen that Master Huan has a long-term vision. In the past year, he has invested over 100 million yuan to build such a distribution system. He can only be described as wealthy and powerful.
As for the movies that will be released next year, there is no need to worry.
In addition to Lost in Thailand which will be released in December, movies invested by Miracle Pictures will be released one after another in 2013.
For example, Stephen Chow's Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons, Zhao Wei's So Young, Chen Kexin's Partner, as well as Tiny Times One and Two, Andy Lau's Storm, The Chef, the Scoundrel and the Actor starring Huang Bo, Zhang Hanyu and Liu Ye, The Fierce Fight directed by Lin Chaoxian, Waiting for the Wind directed by Deng Huatao, and the romance film 101 Proposal, etc.
The company has been slated to release films from the beginning of the year until the end of the year, so there is no need to worry about the entire distribution system being idle.
Among them, it is worth mentioning Master Xing's Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons.
At first, Miracle Pictures did not invest in this movie, but later as the investment budget of the movie became higher and higher, Huayi Industry was looking for investment from outside. Zhang Ning felt that this movie had potential, so he participated in it.
But not long ago, director Stephen Chow and Huayi Pictures had a bit of a fallout over the profit-sharing terms. In addition, the gold medal producer Chen Guofu resigned and later joined Miracle Pictures. With Chen Guofu's strong recommendation, Miracle Pictures took advantage of the situation and took over the copyright and control of the film from Huayi Pictures.
For this matter, Stephen Chow even came to Beijing specially. After thanking Yang Huan and Zhang Ning, he also attended today's meeting.
There is no need to worry about the films in 2013, and there is even less need to worry about those in 2014.
New films by Ning Hao, Xu Ke, Xu Zheng, Wang Jing, Chen Kexin and others are about to start production, and there are also films that cater to young people, such as Tiny Times, Back in Time, and My Deskmate.
The Boonie Bears movie is also on the agenda.
In addition, there is the work "Embroidered Spring Blade" by Lu Yang, a new director selected by Yang Huan.
It is precisely because of this confidence that Yang Huan allowed Zhang Ning and Zhang Qiang to make such continuous and large investments.
Otherwise, do you really think that Young Master Huan is a fool with a lot of money?
With such a huge distribution system, they only release one or two movies a year. Wouldn't that be laughable?
Everyone in the conference room showed happy and optimistic expressions as they listened to Zhang Qiang's introduction.
With such a huge investment, it is not difficult to see that Master Huan is determined to continue in the film industry.
And judging from the current situation, the future of Miracle Pictures is bright.
There is no need to say much about the other things. Just relying on Yang’s Cinemas, how can Miracle Pictures be afraid that its films will not have box office success?
Yang Huan hadn't said a word since he entered the meeting room. He just listened silently with a smile on his face.
But he took in the expressions of everyone present.
There is no doubt that Miracle Pictures' current development momentum is very strong and very good.
But there are also quite a lot of problems.
Some problems are common to the entire industry and may be unsolvable, but some problems can be solved.
Moreover, if these problems are not solved now, when the development of Miracle Pictures slows down in the future, or the development of the Chinese-language film market slows down, these problems will be exposed one by one and eventually become a fatal blow to Miracle Pictures.
So, as soon as Zhang Qiang finished his speech, Yang Huan stood up.
As soon as Young Master Huan stood up, everyone present suddenly fell silent.
"Let me say a few words!" Yang Huan said with a faint smile.
Everyone immediately looked at Master Huan.
Although Young Master Huan usually appears to be a very kind person, in fact, people who know him well know that he is a man with strong ideas and who sticks very closely to his bottom line.
"First, let me ask everyone present a question!"
Yang Huan glanced at the people present and smiled slightly.
"What percentage of moviegoers do you think know exactly which movie they want to watch when they walk into a theater?"
Yang Huan's question immediately stunned everyone in the conference room.
This question is indeed too unpopular.
It is so unpopular that even they, as veteran practitioners in the film industry, find it difficult to answer.
"I think the proportion should be very high!" Deng Huatao was the first to guess.
"I also think the proportion is quite high, because now is the age of the Internet, many audiences learn about the released movies in advance before going to the cinema. I think they should know which movie they want to watch!"
Xu Zheng also supports Deng Huatao's statement.
"Yes, the majority of moviegoers are young people, and they are very common in surfing the Internet and using social networks. With the development of information technology, the Internet is an important propaganda platform for film companies. There is no reason why it would not be in place!"
"You're right, I think so too!"
“I think it should be half and half!”
"Half and half? Impossible. There aren't that many viewers who randomly choose movies!"
"Exactly, I don't think so much either!"
In the conference room, people were discussing the topic, and the majority of them thought they knew exactly which movie they wanted to choose.
After all, watching a movie is considered a luxury these days. Any movie will be in 3D, and the ticket price will be much higher than before, which is clearly a money-grabbing move.
If I don't decide in advance which movie I'm going to watch, do I have to choose randomly when I get to the cinema?
Young Master Huan never said a word and let everyone argue.
After a full minute or two, when everyone had finished arguing, he smiled and revealed the puzzle.
"You are all wrong!"