In 2013, the world, having survived the Mayan prophecy of doomsday, began a new chapter.
In terms of movies, after the hit of Jackie Chan's "Chinese Zodiac", although "Lost in Thailand" has entered the final stage of box office harvest, it is still making money every day.
At present, Blue Whale has obtained a key extension for "Lost in Thailand" in order to prolong its box office life as much as possible. According to industry estimates, there is a great hope that it will exceed 1.2 billion.
But whether it can break the mainland market box office record of about 1.34 billion yuan of "Avatar" depends on human efforts and fate.
In any case, "Lost in Thailand" broke the 1 billion box office ceiling for Chinese-language films, and "Chinese Zodiac" and "Painted Skin 2" also had outstanding box office performances. It is rare that the top three box office hits of the year are all Chinese-language films.
"Get Famous" also made it into the top ten, slightly lower than "The Avengers", ranking seventh.
The strong performance of Chinese-language films in 2012 is encouraging, and with the emergence of new stars such as Wuershan, Wei Yang and Xu Zheng, industry insiders are all excited and full of expectations for the film market in 2013.
In comparison, the TV drama market also performed well, and what is more noteworthy is the growing rise of online platforms.
A number of online dramas such as "Soul Ferry", "Diaosi Man" and "Northeast Stories" have emerged that are specifically designed for Internet platforms and have a considerable influence.
The most important thing is that the online broadcasting rights have skyrocketed! Last year, the online broadcasting rights of many TV series have exceeded 50 million, and a single episode of one million is no longer a big news that shocks the industry.
There are also rumors that Blue Whale has already agreed on the price with LeTV, and the latter will acquire the online broadcasting rights of "Joy of Life 2" and "Joy of Life 3" for a total price of 250 million yuan.
The online broadcasting rights of a single TV series have exceeded 100 million yuan, which is another new huge impact on the TV drama market.
In a market economy, money matters!
Originally, the TV platform offered a high price, and the revenue from the online broadcasting rights was just an easy profit. So the film and television companies would definitely make TV series and pay attention to the requirements of the TV platform.
If online platforms also offer high prices and the professional online drama market develops rapidly, film and television companies will also make strategic adjustments accordingly.
At this stage, TV stations are still the boss, but the voice of online platforms can no longer be ignored, and the gap in status between the two sides is slowly narrowing.
Blue Whale had already had the first taste of last year’s “Soul Ferry”.
This year, the output has been increased even more. As early as the end of December, Blue Whale officially launched the [Online Drama Plan].
The first drama is naturally "Soul Ferry 2". This brand that was hard to establish must not fall.
The second drama, "The Darker Side", was not developed by Blue Whale itself, but was found from outside.
This drama is based on the best-selling suspense novel "Death Notice". Someone adapted the drama into a script and then passed the script to Wei Yang through his connections.
One of the initiators of this project is Zhou Linhao, who graduated from the Performance Department of Shanghai Theatre Academy. Feng Shaofeng was his classmate and college roommate.
The reason why he was able to establish a relationship with Wei Yang was naturally because of his connection with the Shanghai Theatre Academy. Moreover, he was not only a student of the Shanghai Theatre Academy, but also a member of the Shanghai Drama Center.
As mentioned before, there are three major drama centers in China, namely the People's Art Theatre and the National Theatre of China in Beijing, and the Shanghai Drama Center.
Leaving aside the first two, the latter is basically the preserve of the Shanghai Theatre Academy. As long as you are a graduate of the Shanghai Theatre Academy, you can always find acquaintances there.
In addition, Zhou Linhao’s girlfriend is Qian Fang, who is also Qiu Yingluo in “Dragon Gate Escort”.
Although Qian Fang is not well-known in the entertainment industry, she is a well-known figure in the drama circle of Shanghai.
He and Guo Jinfei both work with Ning Caishen. They are leaders of the younger generation in the drama circle, especially in commercial drama.
The best-selling dramas in recent years are divided into two parts: one in the south and the other in the north. In the north, it is Happy Twist, with Shen Teng and Ma Li as the mainstays; in the south, it is Ning Caishen and his gang, with Guo and Qian as the flag bearers.
Many later backbones of the Shanghai circle and even the entertainment circle, such as Lei Datou and Yang Haoyu (Uncle Gong), had a close friendship with them.
At this stage, this group of people has not yet developed, but their connections cannot be ignored. At least they have the face to hand the script to Wei Yang through channels.
Wei Yang is really interested in this script, and this drama can also be made into a series and developed in the long run.
Right now, the online drama market has not yet taken off, and Wei Yang's main goal is to seize the market and make a name for himself. It cannot be said that he is losing money to gain publicity, but the profits are limited.
In this situation, Wei Yang has ideas about the development of online dramas.
First of all, it has to be big! Nowadays, the censorship of online dramas is loose, so we give priority to those themes that TV stations don’t allow to be broadcast, so as not to waste creativity and the audience will also find it exciting.
In addition, it is best to develop for a long time! Try not to do a one-time deal, so that even if the early profits are not large, they can grow bigger and bigger with the influence, and even make up for all the previous losses.
This is the case with "Soul Ferry" and "The Darker Side". They are too large-scale, at least they cannot be broadcast on TV platforms. The series cycle is long, at least three or four parts. As long as the quality and reputation are maintained, they can be given more credit.
Of course, the most important thing is excellent quality. These two projects have been tested in the previous life. Now with the optimization of Wei Yang and the Blue Whale team, they will definitely not damage their own reputation.
The third web drama is called "Folk Strange Stories", which is an original script by Blue Whale, and is somewhat inspired by Lin Zhengying's zombie series.
It tells the story of a pair of capable sorcerers, a master and his apprentice, who travel into the world and encounter folk tales, mountain spirits, wild monsters, lonely ghosts and the like. The story is set in the Republic of China.
China has a population of over one billion. Even if the horror and suspense market is small, its size is very considerable given this population base.
The early Hong Kong zombie films and many subsequent online movies have confirmed this point. If this market is explored, the profits will be considerable.
Taking advantage of the current lax Internet supervision, Wei Yang is thinking about making a film to test the waters. After all, this kind of subject matter doesn't require too much investment, and it doesn't matter if he loses money.
He is both serious and humorous, can laugh, scold, and act like a spoiled brat, but he can also be mysterious and slay demons and monsters.
Wei Yang pondered for a while and wrote down a few names, the leader of which was You Benchang.
These three dramas are the main online drama projects currently being developed by Blue Whale.
After all, the company's focus is still on movies and TV series, especially TV series can still get a share of the online market.
If it weren't for the restrictions on subject matter and long-term planning considerations, some people would think that Blue Whale's investment in online dramas is unwise and a waste of resources.
Many people think that Wei Yang attaches too much importance to web dramas, but they don’t know that if Wei Yang didn’t have many concerns, he would have wanted to act in web dramas.
There was no way. The censorship of online dramas nowadays was too lax. In the eyes of future generations, it was simply heaven. Wei Yang had a lot of creative ideas that were ready to be put into practice.
For example, a zombie movie. Wei Yang has wanted to make one since his previous life, but this subject matter is too difficult to pass domestic review.
But with the current review standards, the chances of passing are very high. Even if the modern background is not okay, ancient zombie films are completely fine. If it really doesn't work, the setting can be changed, such as poisoning or epidemic. "The Legend of Sword and Fairy 3" has a similar plot of poisoning people.
Read the original text at Liu#9@书/吧!
At present, Korean dramas such as "Kingdom" have not yet been released, and Wei Yang really wants to take the lead and let the Jinyiwei and the zombies collide.
However, to shoot an ancient zombie movie, the investment is definitely not low. Given the current online drama market cannot absorb it, Wei Yang can only wait.
But at that time, no one knew how the policy on online drama review had changed.
So this is where the problem is! If the management is lax, the market will not be good, and you will lose money if you do it too much. When the market picks up, you can do it too much, but the review and regulations will be strict, and many things cannot be filmed.
As a company mainly engaged in film and television production, Blue Whale will undoubtedly act in line with changes in the film and television market.
Last year’s great success also gave Blue Whale more sufficient funds, enabled the team to develop better, and attracted many new talents.
In addition to the above-mentioned web drama plans, multiple projects in the film and television dramas have also begun preparations.
Among them are movies such as "Detective Chinatown" and "Time Raiders", as well as mid- to high-budget dramas such as "The Journey of Flower", "Swords of Legends" and "Love at First Sight".
In addition, after the Spring Festival, the Blue Whale Brokerage Department will be officially established.
The company’s first variety show will also begin preparations for production this year.
This variety show is adapted from the Korean national variety show "Running Man" and is tentatively named "Run."
Even though Wei Yang had made arrangements in advance, he still paid a heavy price in the face of competition from major satellite TV stations, but fortunately the ending was good.
No matter how bad the variety show "Running Man" may be in the future, it is indeed the most famous national variety show in the country. Several old team members have been promoted to the top, and even if they rely on their old reputation in the future, they have maintained sufficient exposure.
More importantly, this is a super money-making behemoth.
As for the third season that was disclosed to the outside world in the previous life, the total oral and hard advertising cost more than 500 million yuan, the sponsorship fee was nearly 350 million yuan, the exclusive online sponsorship fee was 180 million yuan, and the purchase price of iQiyi was estimated by the industry to be more than 400 million yuan.
Adding in other miscellaneous revenues, it’s hard to say whether the total revenue will reach 2 billion+, but 1.6 to 1.7 billion is not a problem.
And this is just one season of "Running Man". Even though the third season is considered its peak in terms of influence and other aspects, the other seasons cannot be compared with it, but the gap is not too far.
So Wei Yang chose "Running Man" without hesitation as the opening variety show for Blue Whale.
Even if this variety show has some flaws and shortcomings, big or small, in the later stages, Wei Yang will not give up billions in profits.
Moreover, Blue Whale can make adjustments and optimizations to some of the flaws and drawbacks of "Running Man", and it may not degenerate into the miserable situation of its previous life.
At present, "Running Man" has not been announced to the public, but the project preparation has quietly begun.
There are two key points. One is to find a cooperative platform, that is, a TV station, and form a recording team.
Another thing is to select the right MC. There are seven in the original Korean program, and the original group in the previous life was also seven people. Guiyang plans to keep this setting.
But the Running Man team in the previous life was a collaboration between Zhejiang Satellite TV and Huayi. Now that "Running Man" is in Wei Yang's hands, the members will definitely have a major change.
In Wei Yang's mind, among the original seven-member group, the ones he prefers to stay are Deng Chao and Wang Baoqiang, Chen Chichi is to be determined, and the other four will all be replaced.
To be honest, Yang Tianbao's performance in the show is actually quite good, but there is only one spot for a female star, and it is impossible for Wei Yang not to support his own person, so he gave it to Xiao Ming's wife.
So, if nothing unexpected happens, the only female member of "Running Man" will be chosen between Dilraba Dilmurat and Guli Nazha.
Or just let the two of them take turns, with each recording a few episodes, or each recording a season.
But this is not very stable and not conducive to shaping the so-called team spirit. It still depends on the needs of the program team.
Anyway, no matter who is chosen, it means that Wei Yang has basically determined that they can't be talented actors. The negative impact of variety shows on actors is not very meaningful to them. Increasing popularity and exposure is the right thing to do...
(End of this chapter)