Chinese Film Approval Story 23: Where are the treasures that have been seized with great sums overseas now?

the Cannes market is very popular, but it still advocates rational consumption. Although it is a commercial act, at least a little respect for the film is retained before buying and selling.

it has been a month since the end of this year's Cannes Film Festival, and the excitement has passed for a while, whether it is the red carpet beauty or the main competition, but the once high-end Cannes Film Festival now seems to be getting closer and closer to us.

as an important part of the Cannes Film Festival, the Cannes film market has long been a flocking target for Chinese companies. Years ago, the media began to report that Chinese buyers are a new force in the Cannes film market. Today, this team is still growing, and there are still more and more film buying legends and bitterness in parallel.

this year, Weiying won the distribution rights of nine films in China, including the jury Award film" No Love to tell "and the Best Screenplay Award". Weiying bought all the ten-year rights and interests of these nine films except airplanes and hotels. It is planned to make a variety of combined distribution routes.

Xiyi Pictures bought the domestic distribution rights of Schwarzenegger's Why We Kill Gunther. They began to pay attention to the film from the preparatory stage. In Xiyi's view, the film is novel and highly completed. And there is another old friend of the Chinese audience, Schwarzenegger, so they are optimistic about the film and locked in cooperation at the beginning of this year.

Lemon Tree, which bought Xavier Dolan's "just the end of the World" in Cannes last year, has also made a move this year, buying the domestic rights to "come out of thin air" (best actress award-winning film) and plans to release it in theaters.

the film market in Cannes is hot, so what happened to the treasures that Chinese companies went overseas to fight back?

strong > made money! / strong >

at the end of 2001, China joined the WTO, and the annual import share of blockbusters increased to 20. In addition, there are another 20 "multi-country, multi-genre, multi-style imported films" that have entered the Chinese film market in the form of buyout, which are "approved films".

when the approved film was just opened, the price was very low. Some people in the industry said, "you can get a film for about 50, 000 to 100000 US dollars, so the cost risk is very low. Even if you shoot a small-budget film in China, it will cost at least 2 million RMB. You have to organize a group of people, and if you get a foreign approved film, you only need hundreds of thousands of RMB. Three or five people will be enough. Why not do it?"

A large part of the reason why approved films are so popular in the film market is that they have made a lot of money in China. For example, "Emperor Penguin Diary", "double Apartments", "Life Express 3" and so on, these batches have all made a lot of money for distributors. the most typical example is the Expendables, which was released in 2010. at that time, Genesis was introduced into China at a copyright price of about 500000 US dollars, and the box office exceeded 70 million in its first week. in the end, the mainland earned 215 million at the box office, deducting projection rights and copying costs of about 6.2 million yuan. Genesis made a net profit of more than 60 million. The success of "Expendables" undoubtedly injected a shot of stimulant into China's wholesale film market, and more and more companies began to pay attention to it.

strong > is it gone? / strong >

some industry insiders say that most people in this area do business only after they have made a profit, and too many people have silently lost money, and many films have been shelved indefinitely, and not a few have been smashed.

Last year, the most popular Korean film in Cannes, "crying", was bought by a company named Yingfutong. More than a year later, the resources of "crying" have long been popular on the Internet, but there has been no news of the release of the film. In the face of the strict domestic censorship system, the film will encounter great problems in terms of content, and from the national level as we all know, the release of this film from South Korea may be a long way off. So is the "crying" just gone? No one can tell.

strong > other ways / strong >

some batches that have been bought have taken other forms of screening routes.

Last year, the popular Cannes hit "just the end of the World" was bought by lemon trees, and they also bought Japan's Koji Akita's "standing in the Abyss." now both films are shown on iQiyi line

. Chinese companies have become more and more crazy about the cake in Cannes film market.

under madness, there are many chaotic images.

strong > people are foolish enough to bid up prices / strong >

also take Expendables as an example. After the first film made a lot of money in China, the price of Expendables 2 in Cannes was bid up to 5 million US dollars the following year. Finally, Expendables 2 was bought by Letv Pictures for 8 million US dollars, and the screening rights fee soared 15 times over the previous year.

another such story happened in the Cannes film market. An overseas film was favored by a number of Chinese buyers at the same time, including traditional film wholesalers that had read the script, followed up the project for a long time, and worked out a preliminary announcement plan. When the price was 100000 US dollars with overseas copyright holders, a "Cheng Yaojin" who was "not short of money" was killed halfway, saying that he was willing to pay a higher price. If overseas copyright owners hesitated, Cheng Yaojin offered to take away 10 films at a price of US $100000 each, thus robbing the film of the screening rights of the multi-favored film.

in the interview, industry insiders also revealed to us that it would be too bad to ask around in the Cannes market if the Chinese copyright of that film had not been sold.

strong > is not professional enough and is looked down upon by outsiders / strong >

Chinese companies go to Cannes to buy films, just like Chinese aunts go shopping abroad. This metaphor widely accepted by the industry vividly describes the relationship between Chinese companies and the Cannes market.

as more and more people enter the Cannes film market, there are more and more buyers who don't know the rules, make random quotations, buy films eagerly and lack professionalism. A foreign filmmaker once told a story to a familiar Chinese company: "you know, when I sold you a Chinese film last year, he immediately paid 30% in advance. Later, when the film was ready, we couldn't contact him again." He didn't even ask us for the 30% advance. Why on earth do you think that is? "

there are many jokes like this in the Cannes film market, so although the Cannes film market welcomes Chinese buyers, it also despises Chinese buyers to a certain extent.

strong > buy / strong >

once a Chinese filmmaker shared his experience in the Cannes film market. An American filmmaker once asked him: "Today someone asked me about the copyright of Scream 4. This kind of film, which has been in trouble from beginning to end, can't pass the trial in China, right?" Why do they still want to buy it? "

later, the Chinese filmmaker watched a movie in Cannes, and there were a lot of bloody and violent pictures in the film. after watching the movie, he chatted with the film and asked if there was any Chinese copyright left, and the other side replied, "it's gone." the Chinese filmmaker's inner monologue at that time was, "Ghost knows that this film cannot pass the trial in China. What do they want to do?"

there is no planned distribution route of the film, there is no reasonable film release mode, just rely on a warm blood and money in the pocket to buy in the film market, this kind of chaotic buying behavior is not rare.

Today, the Cannes film market is very popular, and it is an inevitable phenomenon that there is a mixture of fish and dragons under the popularity. There are good films to get better screening space, and many films are unfortunately aborted. After signing the sale contract, the door of Cannes is often open, and people are welcome to buy it, but rational consumption is still advocated. Although it is a commercial act, at least a little respect for the film is preserved before the sale.

Edit: mary