Super Zoo

North American Huashi Film Distribution Co., Ltd.

Su Ming had never heard of the name of this film company before. Compared with the eight major film companies in North America, Huashi Films has no reputation at all.

After checking online, Su Ming found that this company is still a bit promising.

In terms of scale and investment, Huashi Company is not only not comparable to the eight major film companies in North America, but also far inferior to ordinary domestic film companies.

However, the main business of Huashi Company is not to make movies. It is currently the only company that specializes in the overseas market distribution of Chinese-language films, especially in the North American market, and has a certain reputation.

Su Ming roughly counted that in the past five years, more than 30% of Mandarin films have been released in North America through the channels of this company.

"Yes, our company plays the role of an intermediary to promote Chinese-language films to the North American market. You can think of our company as a film intermediary that provides a full range of overseas distribution services. Of course, the intermediary fees are very high."

The person sent by Huashi to negotiate is a middle-aged man named Cai Liming, who works as an assistant to the department manager of Huashi Company.

"We can't talk about the cost yet." Su Ming smiled and said, "Mr. Cai, I'm very surprised why Huashi came to me? To be honest, we have talked to several companies, and they are not optimistic about the overseas distribution of Zootopia."

"To be honest, our Huashi is not optimistic either." Cai Liming supported his eyes and said frankly, "Or to put it this way, there is no difference between optimistic and pessimistic about the prospects of Chinese-language films in the North American market, because the results are the same."

"Destined to fail?" Su Ming smiled.

"I dare not say 100%, but it is a high probability event that the box office is poor. Last year, our Huashi released a total of 25 Chinese-language films in North America. These Chinese-language films together accounted for 85% of the mainland box office, but in the North American market, the total box office was only two million US dollars." Cai Liming said.

"Then your company..." Su Ming didn't finish his words, and he realized that he had misunderstood.

He wanted to ask, since the income is so low, why do you still do it? But then he thought, from the perspective of Huashi, they are engaged in intermediary work, and they will do it no matter how much they earn. Just like a real estate boss with a scale of hundreds of billions, he would not ask a small shop owner with an income of hundreds of thousands, why do you still work when you earn so little? This is their job.

Perhaps understanding Su Ming's meaning, Cai Liming smiled and said: "For any movie with a domestic box office of more than 100 million, or a movie directed by a big director, as a rule, we will negotiate overseas distribution cooperation. We are in this business. That's what Zootopia is like."

Su Ming felt a little disappointed when he heard this. At first, he thought that they came here because of their reputation, but from what Cai Liming said, it was just a routine matter.

"Then how much influence can your company have in overseas theaters?" Su Ming asked.

"You can rest assured that we have connections with many theaters in North America. The specific theater chains can be specified in the contract. However, one thing must be explained in advance. This movie may only be screened in one or two cities at first. If the box office is successful, it will be released in other major cities in a short time. Otherwise, there will be no chance. This is also the practice of Chinese-language films to be released in North America. In addition, we not only do theater distribution, but also DVD and online on-demand. Of course, if the theater performance is not good, there will not be much income from these two items." Cai Liming said.

Hearing him say this, Su Ming was suddenly innocent. So many blockbusters with amazing domestic box office have ridiculously poor box office in North America, only tens of thousands of dollars. It has something to do with the model. Domestic blockbusters, whether good or not, are screened in major theaters across the country for at least one week. There are so many theaters and so many screenings. Even if the audience only watches it once and shouts that they have been cheated, the accumulated box office is also amazing.

It is released in several theaters in a city in North America. The scale is smaller than the domestic preview. Once the word-of-mouth box office is not good, the life cycle of this movie will come to an abrupt end, and there will be no chance to cheat money.

"Yes, the North American market is even more cruel, especially for Chinese films, which have always been unpopular. There is almost no luck involved." Cai Liming nodded.

Although he didn't say a good word, this Cai Liming gave Su Ming a much better feeling than the previous Pantara.

When Pantara talks business with people, people feel that he is eager to sell you a certain "goods". Even if he is sincere and there is no deception, you always feel uneasy; and after chatting with Cai Liming for a while, it is more like two people discussing and studying how to do a thing from an objective perspective.

Su Ming looked at the time. There was nothing important today, so he was not in a hurry. He refilled Cai Liming's water and said, "According to your experience, why do our blockbusters fail in North America?"

"Thank you." Cai Liming supported the edge of the teacup with his hand, nodded and thanked him, then thought for a while and said, "The North American market is more stringent for Chinese films. This is one reason, or the main reason on the surface. But in essence, I personally think there are two reasons."

Su Ming nodded, looked at him and motioned him to continue.

"First, it's nothing more than the three views. This is a topic that has been talked about too much. The conflict between Eastern and Western cultures is an objective existence. Europe and the United States pursue universal values. Many people believe that Eastern values ​​are too outdated and unacceptable to Westerners. In fact, I don't agree with this point. The West highly respects traditional Eastern culture, especially the culture of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. It's just that most of our movies don't capture the essence of it, but are very confusing. For example, the movie a while ago..."

Speaking of this, Cai Liming stopped talking, laughed, and raised his cup to drink tea. They are all colleagues, so he can't say bad things about anyone behind their backs, but Su Ming has already heard that Cai Liming is referring to the movie "The Taoist Goes Down the Mountain".

Su Ming asked tentatively: "So movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero, in fact, in our opinion, the ideas are not profound, but the advantage is that they make what they want to express clear."

"Yes." Cai Liming nodded and smiled: "Pretending to be profound is not fun in front of foreigners. Ideas must be presented through reasonable and understandable storylines, rather than using a lot of inexplicable and full of loopholes to prove that the director's thoughts are profound. In my opinion, if a normal adult can't understand a movie, it can only be said that the director's level is poor."

"I agree. What about the second reason?"

"The consumer groups are different. The main audience in North America who go to the cinema are the middle class with certain economic strength. In China, the middle class is reluctant to spend money and has no time for leisure. The main force of the cinema is young people, which leads to differences in viewing tastes."

Cai Liming calmly brought the topic back, "From this point of view, maybe, I mean maybe, Zootopia may have a certain box office in North America."

"Okay, Mr. Cai, let's talk about the issue of distribution."