In 2013, when "The Grandmaster" was released, many viewers commented that they "cannot understand". Teacher Zou Jingzhi, one of the screenwriters, said that making movies is about "pursuing poetry", and "storytelling" is:
The lowest form .
I don’t know whether Wong Kar Wai agrees or disagrees with this. Ten years later, Director Wang did the "lowest" thing -
made a TV series "Flowers" with a smooth story that everyone could understand.
Of course, "Flowers" is clearly the "highest" (although it may not necessarily have the best reputation), which is a dimensionality-reducing blow to Chinese dramas. It took 5 years to prepare and write the script, and another 3 years to shoot and produce. It took a full eight years to produce a work, which is a luxury. But for Wong Kar-wai, this is no big deal. He is a famous large-scale "tractor".
In the mobile Internet era where "speed is everything", if you are not fast, you will retreat. For example, Zhang Yimou, a great director at the same level, went crazy and made 5 movies in four years. In the middle, he also worked on the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics. This efficiency...is similar to a shortage of money.
Zhang Yimou is indeed lacking. After all, he has three children to raise. Ten years ago, because of these three children, not only were they scolded, but they were also fined seven to eight million. Today, he can be called a "heroic" father - taking the lead in solving the problem of low fertility. However, the noisy group of people at that time would not use money to compensate Zhang Yimou, but he was not allowed to earn it by himself!
Even if he doesn't have to raise a child, there is still a question in comparison: Wong Kar-wai is so slow to make a living, is he not short of money?
On the surface, "Flowers" is a story about wealth. From A Bao to Mr. Bao, and from Mr. Bao to A Bao, money gathers and scatters, and flowers are blooming like brocade.
So, what about the reality outside the drama?
If you want to list tags, Wong Kar-wai must be "artistic film director". As we all know, the box office of literary and artistic films is poor, and it took ten years to sharpen the sword. How does Wong Kar-wai rely on to "earn points" (in Shanghainese, it means making money)? And how much did he earn from the project "Flowers"?
-1-
In fact, everyone has misunderstood one thing. Movies that make money are not classified as literary or commercial.
Moreover, if a commercial movie fails, it will really fail. If no one pays for it, it will fail in any market. But the ability of high-quality literary films to make money is beyond people’s imagination. Their income often does not come from the theater box office, or even from the local area.
There is an unverified anecdote:
At the end of the last century, the literary film director Jia Zhangke had just filmed "Xiao Wu" and "Platform". When the film industry was still underground and even unknown to the public, his bankbook There are millions of cash lying there. At that time, Section Chief Jia was less than 30 years old. The secret of
is - global distribution. In other words, in addition to Chinese-speaking areas, the commercial potential of literary and artistic films is promising.
The fledgling Jia Zhangke has made millions after just one or two movies. What's more, Wong Kar-wai has been famous since the late 1980s? Moreover, he is one of the few directors of Chinese-language art films recognized worldwide.
In 2019, BBC selected "100 Best Foreign Language Films" (Non-English Films). Among Hong Kong filmmakers, only one director was selected: Wong Kar-wai.
In that list, Wong Kar-wai has three movies on the list. 1997's "Happy Together" ranked 71st, 1994's "Chungking Express" ranked 56th, and 2000's "In the Mood for Love" ranked ninth. This was judged by 209 film critics from 43 countries. Their opinions are:
"Although the Hong Kong film industry has a long history, Wong Kar-wai is one of the few directors whose film works transcend language and cultural restrictions. Maybe he is the only one. One."
Hong Kong has always been the bridgehead of film and television culture in the Chinese-speaking region, but before Wong Kar-wai, everything was commercial-oriented. The first film directed by Wong Kar-Wai was titled "Carmen". It was also because the screenwriter of "The Fight between Dragons and Tigers" got such an opportunity after making money for investor Deng Guangrong.
"Carmen" is a gangster film. To a certain extent, it continues the style of Hong Kong films in the 1980s. Although it already has Wong Kar-Wai's later shooting style of not paying attention to plot, it is not too unique.The film grossed 10 million at the box office and made a small profit.
Therefore, Wong Kar-wai has the possibility of directing the second film "Days of Wild", which will still be invested by Deng Guangrong's Yingzhijie Company. The film starred the most well-known stars at the time, such as Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, and Jacky Cheung, with an investment of 40 million. However, Wong Kar-wai went a step further and used an extremely uncommercial method to shoot. The result was, as you can imagine, a box office failure. , after its release, only more than 9 million was recovered, with a huge loss of more than 30 million.
There are rumors that Deng Guangrong's heart couldn't bear it due to the huge losses in "Days of Being Wild" and he had to be rushed to the hospital for treatment. But there are blessings and misfortunes. Although "Days of Wild" failed at the box office, it swept all major awards (Golden Horse Award for Best Director) and was regarded as a classic by film critics. After
, Wong Kar-wai's works began to win awards. "Chungking Express" not only won the FIPRESCI International Film Critics Award at the Stockholm International Film Festival, but also received praise from American director Quentin Taratino, who even regarded it as " brother". At that time, Quentin also used his personal connections to protect the overseas distribution of the film.
At this point, Wong Kar-wai has basically opened up the international market.
David Bordwell believes in "Secrets of Hong Kong Film: The Art of Entertainment" that "Wong Kar-wai's works are unorthodox genre films by Hong Kong standards, but because they can be pre-released in Europe and Japan, they can be used by large-scale As a star, he can be exposed in film festivals."
By the mid-1990s, Wong Kar-wai had "become a favorite in European and North American arthouses." In addition, you will also earn a lot of income through video tapes, DVDs, etc.
Before 2000, although Wong Kar-wai only shot Hong Kong films, he became a global director like John Woo, Jackie Chan and other filmmakers who entered Hollywood.
Therefore, although Wong Kar-wai claims to be "a not very successful commercial director", he knows how to find a market for his movies. For example, in Japan, bookstores have Wong Kar-Wai counters. According to the book "Secrets of Hong Kong Films", "Whenever his works are screened locally, a set of commemorative catalogs will be released at the same time, which often includes a map of Hong Kong indicating where each scene was shot. His Japanese partner An art book was released for "Happy Together", which contains collage pictures, golden sentences, and several souvenirs."
Therefore, although Wong Kar-wai's works have little box office in China (except for "The Grandmaster" which received 200 million (more box office), but it can make a lot of money in overseas markets. In addition, Europe and the United States and other countries have strong copyright awareness, and piracy is basically unobstructed, which also guarantees Wong Kar-wai's income to a certain extent.
As for how much revenue these literary films can generate, it is difficult to accurately calculate, but the important thing is that starting from the filming of "Ashes of Time" in 1992, most of Wong Kar-wai's film copyrights have basically been returned to his subsidiary Zedong Pictures all.
-2-
The name "Zedong Movie" was given by director Liu Zhenwei's wife. It was originally English jet tone (meaning the engine of the aircraft). Later, the transliteration became "Zedong".
In the early 1990s, Wong Kar-wai and Lau Chun-wai were considered the polar opposites of the Hong Kong film industry. One is famous for making literary films, and the other is best at making commercial comedies. In the same year that "Days of Wild" failed at the box office, the comedy "The Gambler" directed by Liu Zhenwei had a box office of 40 million Hong Kong dollars, breaking the record for Hong Kong films at the time. box office record.
These two people did not know each other originally, but because they had both "worked" for Deng Guangrong's Yingzhijie company and were "colleagues", they formed a deep friendship. Due to the dismal box office performance of "Days of Being Wild", which brought down the movie heroes, Deng Guangrong and Wong Kar-wai and Lau Chun-wai broke up after a heavy drink, and the two brothers had to "fend for themselves".
Wang and Liu combined to form their own company. The division of labor is clear: Wong Kar-wai is responsible for creation, and Liu Zhenwei is responsible for making money.
Later, Liu Zhenwei's encyclopedia resume recorded his identity as "Zedong Film Shareholder", but in fact, he had never held a shareholding - and even parted ways with Wong Kar-wai after filming "East and West" (The relationship did not break down).
Zedong's first work is "Ashes of Time".But one year after obtaining the adaptation rights from Jin Yong, when investment was brought in, except for the finalized cast, there was no trace of anything else, and the finalization was far away. Wong Kar-wai knew that it would be difficult to explain, so he suggested to Cai Songlin, the owner of the investor Scholar Company, to make a comedy first.
Therefore, in a short period of time, Liu Zhenwei used the same cast of "Ashes of Time" to film a hilarious comedy "The Last Day", which inadvertently became a comedy classic. In the end, "East and West" earned a box office of 26 million, which relieved the production pressure of "Ashes of Time" and saved the fate of Zedong Films.
The year "Ashes of Time" was released, Liu Zhenwei basically left Zedong and wrote and directed "Westward Journey" starring Stephen Chow. This nonsensical movie, which later became a comedy masterpiece, used a lot of "Ashes of Time"-style lines, and even the character name "Supreme Treasure" came from the character played by Carina Lau in the first version of "Ashes of Time".
After "Westward Journey" was released, Wong Kar-wai saw Zhou Xingchi's "Bandit King" in the theater and laughed - he must have thought of Carina Lau's changed role.
It can be said that the establishment of Zedong Films directly contributed to the birth of three classic movies-"Ashes of Time", "A Journey to the West" and "A Westward Journey". Although, "A Westward Journey" has nothing to do with Zedong. Although not commercially related, he is in the same spirit as Wong Kar-Wai.
In the 30 years from 1994 to today, Zedong movies have always belonged to Wong Kar-wai. This personal company owns the copyrights of all Wong Kar-Wai's works except "Carmen" and "Days of Being Wild".
Although he rarely shoots movies, Zedong makes money not only by making movies. He is also one of the most well-known advertising production companies in Hong Kong. During the preparation of "Flowers", Wong Kar-wai took on a commercial in order to raise funds.
In addition, it will also launch peripheral products of past works. For example, at the 30th anniversary auction of Zedong, an NFT work "In the Mood for Love - A Moment" was exhibited; at the 25th anniversary, the music of "Ashes of Time" was released Will wait...
It can be seen that Zedong tried his best to make Wong Kar-wai's only 10 works continue to "shine".
Fortunately, Wong Kar-wai's works are all high-quality literary films that can travel through time cycles without fading. For example, Liu Zhenwei's "The Gambler", which was a huge hit back then, has actually lost its "prestigiousness" with the passage of time. Even if it can still be watched today, its value is far inferior to that of "Days of Wild".
Zedong is now a group company with three business sectors: film production, international distribution, and artist management. Among them, the corresponding brands are:
main label Zedong is responsible for film and television production; block2 distribution is responsible for international distribution and innovative content development and promotion; People's Stage "manages actors, singers, musicians and models from all over Asia" (Zeng Has signed contracts with Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Carina Lau, Gong Li, Julian Cheung, Zhang Chen, Fan Zhiwei, Rongrong Zhang, Ke Jiayan, etc.).
The producer of "Flowers" is none other than Zedong. As for the producer, "Shanghai Fanhuali Enterprise" is also owned by Wong Kar-Wai - it has the same registered address as "Zedong Consulting", a Zedong mainland organization located in Shanghai.
In 2016, when Wong Kar-wai supervised Zhang Jiajia's film "The Ferryman", he also established "The Ferryman Film and Television Company". Although the failure of "The Ferryman" made him controversial, the box office of more than 400 million is considered the highest peak of all his movies.
-3-
"Times Finance" reported that the total cost of "Flowers" is 300 million, with an average of 10 million per episode. As the filming unit, Zedong earns pure income without any risks; generally speaking, the production cost will be Taking up 60-80% of the cost, Zedong will take at least about 200 million, of course, including the wages of the crew, daily operating expenses, etc.
As a Zedong-affiliated company, "Shanghai Fanhuali Enterprise" is the fourth producer (after CCTV, Tencent, and Shanghai Film and Television), and there will also be a large number of advertisements embedded in the series and during the broadcast. Subsequent share.
According to statistics from Douban netizen "Look at the Moon", "Flowers" has as many as 286 advertisements, making it the most in a drama series in history.
In 2013, when "The Grandmaster" was released, many viewers commented that they "cannot understand". Teacher Zou Jingzhi, one of the screenwriters, said that making movies is about "pursuing poetry", and "storytelling" is:
The lowest form .
I don’t know whether Wong Kar Wai agrees or disagrees with this. Ten years later, Director Wang did the "lowest" thing -
made a TV series "Flowers" with a smooth story that everyone could understand.
Of course, "Flowers" is clearly the "highest" (although it may not necessarily have the best reputation), which is a dimensionality-reducing blow to Chinese dramas. It took 5 years to prepare and write the script, and another 3 years to shoot and produce. It took a full eight years to produce a work, which is a luxury. But for Wong Kar-wai, this is no big deal. He is a famous large-scale "tractor".
In the mobile Internet era where "speed is everything", if you are not fast, you will retreat. For example, Zhang Yimou, a great director at the same level, went crazy and made 5 movies in four years. In the middle, he also worked on the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics. This efficiency...is similar to a shortage of money.
Zhang Yimou is indeed lacking. After all, he has three children to raise. Ten years ago, because of these three children, not only were they scolded, but they were also fined seven to eight million. Today, he can be called a "heroic" father - taking the lead in solving the problem of low fertility. However, the noisy group of people at that time would not use money to compensate Zhang Yimou, but he was not allowed to earn it by himself!
Even if he doesn't have to raise a child, there is still a question in comparison: Wong Kar-wai is so slow to make a living, is he not short of money?
On the surface, "Flowers" is a story about wealth. From A Bao to Mr. Bao, and from Mr. Bao to A Bao, money gathers and scatters, and flowers are blooming like brocade.
So, what about the reality outside the drama?
If you want to list tags, Wong Kar-wai must be "artistic film director". As we all know, the box office of literary and artistic films is poor, and it took ten years to sharpen the sword. How does Wong Kar-wai rely on to "earn points" (in Shanghainese, it means making money)? And how much did he earn from the project "Flowers"?
-1-
In fact, everyone has misunderstood one thing. Movies that make money are not classified as literary or commercial.
Moreover, if a commercial movie fails, it will really fail. If no one pays for it, it will fail in any market. But the ability of high-quality literary films to make money is beyond people’s imagination. Their income often does not come from the theater box office, or even from the local area.
There is an unverified anecdote:
At the end of the last century, the literary film director Jia Zhangke had just filmed "Xiao Wu" and "Platform". When the film industry was still underground and even unknown to the public, his bankbook There are millions of cash lying there. At that time, Section Chief Jia was less than 30 years old. The secret of
is - global distribution. In other words, in addition to Chinese-speaking areas, the commercial potential of literary and artistic films is promising.
The fledgling Jia Zhangke has made millions after just one or two movies. What's more, Wong Kar-wai has been famous since the late 1980s? Moreover, he is one of the few directors of Chinese-language art films recognized worldwide.
In 2019, BBC selected "100 Best Foreign Language Films" (Non-English Films). Among Hong Kong filmmakers, only one director was selected: Wong Kar-wai.
In that list, Wong Kar-wai has three movies on the list. 1997's "Happy Together" ranked 71st, 1994's "Chungking Express" ranked 56th, and 2000's "In the Mood for Love" ranked ninth. This was judged by 209 film critics from 43 countries. Their opinions are:
"Although the Hong Kong film industry has a long history, Wong Kar-wai is one of the few directors whose film works transcend language and cultural restrictions. Maybe he is the only one. One."
Hong Kong has always been the bridgehead of film and television culture in the Chinese-speaking region, but before Wong Kar-wai, everything was commercial-oriented. The first film directed by Wong Kar-Wai was titled "Carmen". It was also because the screenwriter of "The Fight between Dragons and Tigers" got such an opportunity after making money for investor Deng Guangrong.
"Carmen" is a gangster film. To a certain extent, it continues the style of Hong Kong films in the 1980s. Although it already has Wong Kar-Wai's later shooting style of not paying attention to plot, it is not too unique.The film grossed 10 million at the box office and made a small profit.
Therefore, Wong Kar-wai has the possibility of directing the second film "Days of Wild", which will still be invested by Deng Guangrong's Yingzhijie Company. The film starred the most well-known stars at the time, such as Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, and Jacky Cheung, with an investment of 40 million. However, Wong Kar-wai went a step further and used an extremely uncommercial method to shoot. The result was, as you can imagine, a box office failure. , after its release, only more than 9 million was recovered, with a huge loss of more than 30 million.
There are rumors that Deng Guangrong's heart couldn't bear it due to the huge losses in "Days of Being Wild" and he had to be rushed to the hospital for treatment. But there are blessings and misfortunes. Although "Days of Wild" failed at the box office, it swept all major awards (Golden Horse Award for Best Director) and was regarded as a classic by film critics. After
, Wong Kar-wai's works began to win awards. "Chungking Express" not only won the FIPRESCI International Film Critics Award at the Stockholm International Film Festival, but also received praise from American director Quentin Taratino, who even regarded it as " brother". At that time, Quentin also used his personal connections to protect the overseas distribution of the film.
At this point, Wong Kar-wai has basically opened up the international market.
David Bordwell believes in "Secrets of Hong Kong Film: The Art of Entertainment" that "Wong Kar-wai's works are unorthodox genre films by Hong Kong standards, but because they can be pre-released in Europe and Japan, they can be used by large-scale As a star, he can be exposed in film festivals."
By the mid-1990s, Wong Kar-wai had "become a favorite in European and North American arthouses." In addition, you will also earn a lot of income through video tapes, DVDs, etc.
Before 2000, although Wong Kar-wai only shot Hong Kong films, he became a global director like John Woo, Jackie Chan and other filmmakers who entered Hollywood.
Therefore, although Wong Kar-wai claims to be "a not very successful commercial director", he knows how to find a market for his movies. For example, in Japan, bookstores have Wong Kar-Wai counters. According to the book "Secrets of Hong Kong Films", "Whenever his works are screened locally, a set of commemorative catalogs will be released at the same time, which often includes a map of Hong Kong indicating where each scene was shot. His Japanese partner An art book was released for "Happy Together", which contains collage pictures, golden sentences, and several souvenirs."
Therefore, although Wong Kar-wai's works have little box office in China (except for "The Grandmaster" which received 200 million (more box office), but it can make a lot of money in overseas markets. In addition, Europe and the United States and other countries have strong copyright awareness, and piracy is basically unobstructed, which also guarantees Wong Kar-wai's income to a certain extent.
As for how much revenue these literary films can generate, it is difficult to accurately calculate, but the important thing is that starting from the filming of "Ashes of Time" in 1992, most of Wong Kar-wai's film copyrights have basically been returned to his subsidiary Zedong Pictures all.
-2-
The name "Zedong Movie" was given by director Liu Zhenwei's wife. It was originally English jet tone (meaning the engine of the aircraft). Later, the transliteration became "Zedong".
In the early 1990s, Wong Kar-wai and Lau Chun-wai were considered the polar opposites of the Hong Kong film industry. One is famous for making literary films, and the other is best at making commercial comedies. In the same year that "Days of Wild" failed at the box office, the comedy "The Gambler" directed by Liu Zhenwei had a box office of 40 million Hong Kong dollars, breaking the record for Hong Kong films at the time. box office record.
These two people did not know each other originally, but because they had both "worked" for Deng Guangrong's Yingzhijie company and were "colleagues", they formed a deep friendship. Due to the dismal box office performance of "Days of Being Wild", which brought down the movie heroes, Deng Guangrong and Wong Kar-wai and Lau Chun-wai broke up after a heavy drink, and the two brothers had to "fend for themselves".
Wang and Liu combined to form their own company. The division of labor is clear: Wong Kar-wai is responsible for creation, and Liu Zhenwei is responsible for making money.
Later, Liu Zhenwei's encyclopedia resume recorded his identity as "Zedong Film Shareholder", but in fact, he had never held a shareholding - and even parted ways with Wong Kar-wai after filming "East and West" (The relationship did not break down).
Zedong's first work is "Ashes of Time".But one year after obtaining the adaptation rights from Jin Yong, when investment was brought in, except for the finalized cast, there was no trace of anything else, and the finalization was far away. Wong Kar-wai knew that it would be difficult to explain, so he suggested to Cai Songlin, the owner of the investor Scholar Company, to make a comedy first.
Therefore, in a short period of time, Liu Zhenwei used the same cast of "Ashes of Time" to film a hilarious comedy "The Last Day", which inadvertently became a comedy classic. In the end, "East and West" earned a box office of 26 million, which relieved the production pressure of "Ashes of Time" and saved the fate of Zedong Films.
The year "Ashes of Time" was released, Liu Zhenwei basically left Zedong and wrote and directed "Westward Journey" starring Stephen Chow. This nonsensical movie, which later became a comedy masterpiece, used a lot of "Ashes of Time"-style lines, and even the character name "Supreme Treasure" came from the character played by Carina Lau in the first version of "Ashes of Time".
After "Westward Journey" was released, Wong Kar-wai saw Zhou Xingchi's "Bandit King" in the theater and laughed - he must have thought of Carina Lau's changed role.
It can be said that the establishment of Zedong Films directly contributed to the birth of three classic movies-"Ashes of Time", "A Journey to the West" and "A Westward Journey". Although, "A Westward Journey" has nothing to do with Zedong. Although not commercially related, he is in the same spirit as Wong Kar-Wai.
In the 30 years from 1994 to today, Zedong movies have always belonged to Wong Kar-wai. This personal company owns the copyrights of all Wong Kar-Wai's works except "Carmen" and "Days of Being Wild".
Although he rarely shoots movies, Zedong makes money not only by making movies. He is also one of the most well-known advertising production companies in Hong Kong. During the preparation of "Flowers", Wong Kar-wai took on a commercial in order to raise funds.
In addition, it will also launch peripheral products of past works. For example, at the 30th anniversary auction of Zedong, an NFT work "In the Mood for Love - A Moment" was exhibited; at the 25th anniversary, the music of "Ashes of Time" was released Will wait...
It can be seen that Zedong tried his best to make Wong Kar-wai's only 10 works continue to "shine".
Fortunately, Wong Kar-wai's works are all high-quality literary films that can travel through time cycles without fading. For example, Liu Zhenwei's "The Gambler", which was a huge hit back then, has actually lost its "prestigiousness" with the passage of time. Even if it can still be watched today, its value is far inferior to that of "Days of Wild".
Zedong is now a group company with three business sectors: film production, international distribution, and artist management. Among them, the corresponding brands are:
main label Zedong is responsible for film and television production; block2 distribution is responsible for international distribution and innovative content development and promotion; People's Stage "manages actors, singers, musicians and models from all over Asia" (Zeng Has signed contracts with Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Carina Lau, Gong Li, Julian Cheung, Zhang Chen, Fan Zhiwei, Rongrong Zhang, Ke Jiayan, etc.).
The producer of "Flowers" is none other than Zedong. As for the producer, "Shanghai Fanhuali Enterprise" is also owned by Wong Kar-Wai - it has the same registered address as "Zedong Consulting", a Zedong mainland organization located in Shanghai.
In 2016, when Wong Kar-wai supervised Zhang Jiajia's film "The Ferryman", he also established "The Ferryman Film and Television Company". Although the failure of "The Ferryman" made him controversial, the box office of more than 400 million is considered the highest peak of all his movies.
-3-
"Times Finance" reported that the total cost of "Flowers" is 300 million, with an average of 10 million per episode. As the filming unit, Zedong earns pure income without any risks; generally speaking, the production cost will be Taking up 60-80% of the cost, Zedong will take at least about 200 million, of course, including the wages of the crew, daily operating expenses, etc.
As a Zedong-affiliated company, "Shanghai Fanhuali Enterprise" is the fourth producer (after CCTV, Tencent, and Shanghai Film and Television), and there will also be a large number of advertisements embedded in the series and during the broadcast. Subsequent share.
According to statistics from Douban netizen "Look at the Moon", "Flowers" has as many as 286 advertisements, making it the most in a drama series in history.There are an average of about 10 pre-roll advertisements in each episode, with the maximum being 11, including series broadcasts, previous review, opening and closing credits, interludes and creative advertisements, etc. The products include Chunzhen, Dove, Pepsi, More than 40 brands including Weilong, Meituan, Wenjie, vivo, Vipshop, and Estee Lauder.
What is impressive is that at the end of the film, Meituan Waimai made a "small theater" creative advertisement. This form of starring actors in the play is expensive.
Currently, there is no official disclosure of the advertising and membership revenue of "Flowers". "Entertainment Spring and Autumn" made a rough calculation based on the market price -
A senior person in the advertising and marketing industry, Mr. A, told "Entertainment Spring and Autumn" that according to the market price, the main sponsor's investment in Tencent Video S+ dramas would easily be 10 million. Above, Wong Kar-Wai's dramas are of course even more rare, with a price increase of 50%, reaching more than 15 million; and sub-level advertisements, that is, interruptions and pauses, also need to be close to 10 million; other types of advertisements also need to be in Between 5 million and 8 million. On average, each sponsor needs to pay close to 10 million to enjoy this "flower" feast. Mr.
a believes that Meituan’s small takeaway theater is customized and each episode is different. It needs to be communicated well in the early stage of filming. Each item costs tens of millions and needs to be calculated separately. If all are broadcast, the high probability will be 50 million. above. In addition, when CCTV and Dragon TV broadcast, they attract investment separately, and advertisers will overlap, but there are also differences.
If there are 40 brands and each brand pays tens of millions, the advertising revenue of the entire platform will exceed 400 million. As the fourth producer,
assumes a 20% investment share. The advertising fee shared by Zedong will probably be close to 80 million. You know, for Zedong, this part is pure profit with no cost at all.
conservatively estimates that from the drama "Flowers", Zedong's domestic revenue alone is close to 300 million (production costs + advertising share). In addition to domestic broadcast, also needs to be distributed internationally. This is something Wong Kar-wai is familiar with. And with his reputation in the international film industry, the price in the international market is not comparable to that of ordinary film and television dramas. As a "truly small but beautiful" company,
has such an income from a single project, which is quite impressive. Moreover, this does not include Wong Kar-wai’s personal director’s salary!
Before the launch in 2019, Zedong has registered trademarks such as "Fanhua", "Shanghai Fanhua", "Buxiang", "Sanyang" and "Ms. Wang", covering the fields of jewelry and watches, clothing, shoes and hats, convenience food, beer and beverages, etc. . It can be said that it is planned ahead of time. In the future, there should be "Flowers" peripherals, or it may be authorized by other companies to develop related products.
From this point of view, although Wong Kar-wai does not like to make commercial movies, he is still quite business-minded.
-4-
In addition to the director's salary, owning the copyright of his own works and using Zedong Company to undertake projects, Wong Kar-wai also has other hidden incomes.
In June 2016, Huanxi Media, a listed company established by directors such as Dong Ping and Ning Hao, Xu Zheng, issued an announcement announcing the issuance of 100 million shares to MCFL (Master China Films Limited), a company wholly owned by Wong Kar-Wai. MCFL will hold 4.15% of the former. % shares.
Even based on Huanxi Media’s current market capitalization of HK$2.5 billion, Wong Kar-wai’s equity is worth over 100 million.
Regarding Huanxi Media, there is a famous photo, from Chen Kexin, to Ning Hao, from Xu Zheng, to Gu Changwei, while Wong Kar-wai is standing in the C position, with the boss Dong Ping holding his shoulders, showing his status. Several major directors lined up to share their stocks.
It’s no wonder that Dong Ping once said boldly: Half of the directors in China are here.
However, if Wong Kar-wai wants to get the stock worth over 100 million, he needs to do two things:
First, make an online drama for Huanxi Media and get two seasons; second, grant Huanxi Media a ten-year Exclusive global new media Internet distribution rights.
At that time, it was agreed that a web drama would be released in 2017, with an investment of 20 million per episode. However, 8 years later, the web drama in the ppt has never been filmed. Instead, "Flowers" has no Huanxi Media It is obvious that this clause has expired; and the second point, whether it is still binding, is unknown.
However, Huanxi Media claimed that it did not set up a betting agreement with performance commitments when working with directors. Dong Ping also said in an interview with the media: "We never do betting, because betting can only be temporary, but it cannot last long. , there is actually no point in leaving after the bet is over."
So, theoretically, Wong Kar-wai's 100 million shares of Huanxi Media stock should still be there, otherwise, Dong Ping, who is a big boss, would be talking about himself!
However, the market value of Huanxi Media continues to fall. In 2016, when Wong Kar-wai cooperated, it was still 2.6 yuan per share. Now, it is only 0.68 yuan per share, a 75% drop, and it has become a "penny stock" in the Hong Kong stock market. . If Wong Kar-wai had chosen to sell his Huanxi Media shares in the past few years, he might have made tens of millions more.
After all, Wong Kar-wai is not Mr. Bao. According to his character, he may not like the "chasing the rise and the fall" in the stock market. What flashes in his sunglasses is nothing more than empty paper wealth.
-5-
When "Flowers" first aired, one of the most impressive hot searches was #花花Looks like shot by Guo Jingming#. To say that this entry was to tease and deliberately ridicule Wong Kar-wai, it was very successful. But all joking aside, if someone really thinks so, I suggest you see an ophthalmologist.
would like to ask, does anyone recognize "Tiny Times" in the international market? Foreigners only recognize the hard currency of art, and don’t even think about “plastic handicrafts”. It can even be said that all of Guo Jingming's film and television works combined are not as influential overseas as the movie "Days of Being Wild" 34 years ago.
However, in the mainland market, it must be admitted that Guo Jingming's ability to make money is better than Wong Kar-wai. However, Xiao Si is one of those barefoot guys who has been certified as plagiarizing for 15 years without apologising, while Wong Kar-wai not only wears sunglasses but also thick leather shoes, for fear of exposing his toes and making people laugh.
Therefore, even if Guo Xiaosi can make money again in China, it will only be a short-term benefit. What Wong Kar-wai did is in "Ashes of Time" (the free translation of the English title of "Ashes of Time") Get unlimited treasures.
In other words, compared to Guo Jingming's "cheap feeling", the words Wong Kar-wai alone seem particularly "expensive". Just like the line in "Ashes of Time":
"There is a huge difference in price between swordsmen who wear shoes and those who don't wear shoes. Do you have confidence in those swordsmen who don't even have shoes?"
However, Huanxi Media claimed that it did not set up a betting agreement with performance commitments when working with directors. Dong Ping also said in an interview with the media: "We never do betting, because betting can only be temporary, but it cannot last long. , there is actually no point in leaving after the bet is over."
So, theoretically, Wong Kar-wai's 100 million shares of Huanxi Media stock should still be there, otherwise, Dong Ping, who is a big boss, would be talking about himself!
However, the market value of Huanxi Media continues to fall. In 2016, when Wong Kar-wai cooperated, it was still 2.6 yuan per share. Now, it is only 0.68 yuan per share, a 75% drop, and it has become a "penny stock" in the Hong Kong stock market. . If Wong Kar-wai had chosen to sell his Huanxi Media shares in the past few years, he might have made tens of millions more.
After all, Wong Kar-wai is not Mr. Bao. According to his character, he may not like the "chasing the rise and the fall" in the stock market. What flashes in his sunglasses is nothing more than empty paper wealth.
-5-
When "Flowers" first aired, one of the most impressive hot searches was #花花Looks like shot by Guo Jingming#. To say that this entry was to tease and deliberately ridicule Wong Kar-wai, it was very successful. But all joking aside, if someone really thinks so, I suggest you see an ophthalmologist.
would like to ask, does anyone recognize "Tiny Times" in the international market? Foreigners only recognize the hard currency of art, and don’t even think about “plastic handicrafts”. It can even be said that all of Guo Jingming's film and television works combined are not as influential overseas as the movie "Days of Being Wild" 34 years ago.
However, in the mainland market, it must be admitted that Guo Jingming's ability to make money is better than Wong Kar-wai. However, Xiao Si is one of those barefoot guys who has been certified as plagiarizing for 15 years without apologising, while Wong Kar-wai not only wears sunglasses but also thick leather shoes, for fear of exposing his toes and making people laugh.
Therefore, even if Guo Xiaosi can make money again in China, it will only be a short-term benefit. What Wong Kar-wai did is in "Ashes of Time" (the free translation of the English title of "Ashes of Time") Get unlimited treasures.
In other words, compared to Guo Jingming's "cheap feeling", the words Wong Kar-wai alone seem particularly "expensive". Just like the line in "Ashes of Time":
"There is a huge difference in price between swordsmen who wear shoes and those who don't wear shoes. Do you have confidence in those swordsmen who don't even have shoes?"
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