Chapter 81: The Tang Dynasty
The next day, after Zou Shifang sobered up, he actually felt a little regretful. After all, he had no relatives or friends in Hong Kong, and Great Wall Films would not help him for no reason.
"Hey, drinking will cause trouble!"
"Do you regret it?" Liu Hongmin asked with a smile.
Zou Shifang said stubbornly, "Who regretted it?"
Liu Hongmin also thought about it last night. It was indeed a good move to keep Zou Shifang in Hong Kong. He didn't need Zou Shifang to manage the company. He could find someone in Hong Kong to do that. After all, professional things are handled by professionals. He only wanted Zou Shifang to take care of the accounting. Liu Hongmin needed someone he could trust at this moment. Moreover, Zou Shifang could send him messages at any time, allowing him to give remote instructions.
"Actually, it's not that scary. I plan to get Xu Xiaoming to work with me. He has a lot of connections in the Hong Kong film industry. Then I will talk to He Renzong. After Great Wall and New United merge, we will bring in the new company to be responsible for distribution. By then, we will have a complete team, and you just need to keep an eye on the finances."
Hearing Liu Hongmin say this, Zou Shifang immediately felt relieved.
If he only focuses on the financial aspect, then there is no problem. Although he does not understand finance, he can learn. There is only one opportunity, and if you miss it, you may never have it again.
"I can do it!"
Liu Hongmin smiled and pulled him up, "Wash up, let's go have breakfast and perfect the plan."
Over the next few days, the two put down on paper everything they could think of.
Liu Hongmin found Xu Xiaoming and talked to him about the cooperation.
"Brother Xiaoming, this is my plan. All my future royalties from Sanlian will be invested in the company until it gets on the right track. As long as you can come, I will give you 10% of the shares."
Liu Hongmin's royalties from Sanlian are already over 2 million, and as long as Xu Xiaoming joins the company, he can get more than 200,000 Hong Kong dollars for free. Although he earns a lot of money every year, getting 200,000 Hong Kong dollars for free is still a great temptation.
"What do you need me to do?"
Xu Xiaoming knew very well that this money was not so easy to get.
Liu Hongmin certainly had conditions. "Brother Xiaoming, you have a lot of connections in the Hong Kong film industry. I hope you can help serve as the general manager of the company, organize the crew, shoot the film, and contact the theaters."
Xu Xiaoming thought for a moment and said, "Brother Liu, you are leaving the company to me!"
Liu Hongmin smiled and said, "We are a strong team. I will provide the script and Xiaoming will shoot it. If the film needs to be shot in Beijing, I will take care of the mainland matters. If it is shot abroad, Xiaoming will be responsible for the location. We are a natural partner, and it is mutually beneficial for us to work together."
Xu Xiaoming smiled, he was not moved by Liu Hongmin's words.
"I know that Brother Liu has a lot of royalties from Sanlian, but this money may not be enough to make a movie."
Liu Hongmin: "I already have an idea. Two million Hong Kong dollars should be enough."
Xu Xiaoming raised his eyebrows, "Then wait until the script is ready. If it is feasible, we can discuss this matter again."
"can!"
Liu Hongmin didn't expect to convince Xu Xiaoming all at once. Xu Xiaoming was a talented person and many people wanted to win him over.
However, Liu Hongmin was confident that Xu Xiaoming would agree to his proposal after seeing the script. In the following days, Liu Hongmin and Zou Shifang went to RTV from time to time to make their presence felt while waiting for the release of "Da Tang". In their spare time, both of them started writing. Liu Hongmin wrote the outline of the novel "Judge Bao 2" and gave it to Zou Shifang to write the novel. Then he wrote the movie script.
Because of the limited funds, we have to write a script with low investment. There are only two themes to win big with a small investment: comedy and martial arts.
Liu Hongmin wanted both, comedy and martial arts.
When it comes to martial arts, Liu Hongmin immediately thought of the young actors from the Shichahai Martial Arts Academy, and immediately came up with an idea in his mind.
Zou Shifang's writing is also very smooth. After writing "Justice Bao", his writing skills have been greatly enhanced. Now when writing "Justice Bao 2", he basically just takes it and writes it. I believe that after "Justice Bao 2" is finished, he can review it himself. In the future, whether he wants to continue writing "Justice Bao" or write other novels depends on his own choice.
Just as the two were creating the film, "Tang Dynasty" was released.
Great Wall's publicity and promotion was mainly targeted at Southeast Asia, and not much was invested in Hong Kong, only some posters were hung in cinemas.
Even with such a simple promotion, many people still noticed the existence of "Tang Dynasty". In Hong Kong, although moviegoers and TV watchers are two different groups of people, there is still some overlap between the two groups.
"What movie is this? Filmed on Green Island?"
The full name of "Tang Dynasty" shows that it is not a Hong Kong movie. In addition, Green Island movies are often shown in theaters, so many people speculate that it was filmed by Green Island.
At this time, many people who have watched it on RTV will explain: "It's not Green Island, it was filmed in mainland China."
"Does the mainland still make movies?"
"Of course! And the movie is very good and touching."
Hong Kong movie fans who have never watched mainland movies suddenly became interested. It was a good experience to spend a dozen Hong Kong dollars to watch a movie out of curiosity.
Then, a strange phenomenon occurred. In many theaters, more people watched movies in the morning than in the afternoon. When the theater managers looked at the box office, they noticed a name.
"The Last Military Expenditure of the Tang Dynasty's Anxi Army"!!!
Soon, Liu Hongmin received news that the cinema had added the screening of "Tang Dynasty".
Liu Hongmin was very happy and took Zou Shifang to the cinema to check the attendance of "Tang Dynasty". The result disappointed him. In fact, there were not too many people and the attendance rate did not even reach 30%.
Compared with the mainland, this attendance rate is a complete flop. But in Hong Kong, it is already very good to have such an attendance rate during the day.
Although Hong Kong has a developed entertainment industry, people still have to work during the day. They usually go to the movies at night, and even at midnight shows, the average attendance rate is over 50%.
Some theaters took the risk of moving the screening of "The Great Tang" to the evening, but the situation they worried about came true. The attendance rate of "The Great Tang" at night was not as good as other movies in the same schedule. The theater conducted a survey and found that people who watched the movie basically went to see "The Great Tang" out of curiosity.
At the same time, they also learned that many people who watched the movie would recommend "Tang Dynasty" to their relatives and friends. However, many of those who were recommended went to watch the RTV TV recording, and only a few came to watch the movie.
Unable to compete with movies released in the same period, "Tang Dynasty" can only rely on curiosity to gain some box office revenue.
Half a month later, "Da Tang" was gradually withdrawn from the theaters, and the final box office was only 89 Hong Kong dollars. Liu Hongmin was not disappointed. After all, this was just a test film, and Hong Kong was not the main promotion location for "Da Tang". It was a profit to get these box office. 8 Hong Kong dollars has already recovered more than half of the 9 yuan that Liu Hongmin spent on purchasing the distribution rights.
(End of this chapter)
