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Film is a risky project.

Although individual movies can sell well and earn hundreds of millions or more than a billion dollars per movie, on average, the rate of return is very low, because most movies are in a state of loss, and the income will be very low evenly. few.

Therefore, Hollywood film companies will gradually diversify and develop into giants.

It is to share the risks of the film business through multiple channels.

The financial system in the United States is very powerful. In fact, it has a whole set of mechanisms specifically for film investment, mainly "loan + insurance" services. It's just a movie. If you don't have money to invest, you can borrow money from a financial institution and purchase the services of an insurance company. The insurance company will supervise and guarantee the investor's income.

That's not very friendly to Hollywood.

What does it mean to ensure investors’ returns?

It is equivalent to transferring Hollywood's money to investors, and Hollywood will make less money.

Therefore, compared to the "borrowing" model to make movies, Hollywood prefers the "financing" model to make movies.

From the hot money in Japan and Europe in the early years to the platter investments launched by Wall Street in the past few years, this strategy has always been used.

Hollywood doesn't owe investors money, but sells them a portion of its movie shares.

After making money, everyone will share it in proportion.

It looks good, but in fact it's not the case at all.

Because this process is full of injustice.

When making the cake, Hollywood and investors are involved.

When it comes time to divide the cake, it will be different. Investors have no say at all, and Hollywood can divide it how they say. Moreover, with the tyranny of Hollywood and the internal transactions under the current giant model, investors cannot supervise even if they want to.

Once there is unsupervised distribution rights, whoever distributes will inevitably get the biggest piece of the cake.

When money is made, Hollywood gets more, while investors get less;

If it loses money, Hollywood will lose less, and investors will lose more.

This is the operating model of Hollywood’s favorite film capital.

This makes it very difficult for outsiders to come to Hollywood and make money. Not to mention outsiders, even Hollywood's own people, independent film companies are still squeezed by Hollywood giants.

Now, the Japanese hot money, the European hot money and the Wall Street hot money have all subsided.

Who will fill this gap?

With the popularity of the domestic film market, hot money has poured into the film industry, and some large domestic companies with ambitions cannot help but rush to Hollywood.

With such a big piece of fat delivered to your door, everyone in Hollywood is eager to eat it!

Zhou Buqi was embarrassed to be so blatantly deceiving people, and said: "If the hot money from outside comes to Hollywood to make movies, there is no possibility of making money. I have been in business for so many years and have made many friends in various industries. The reason why I can be so popular One of the important reasons for the respect of so many friends is that my principle of doing business is to adhere to mutual benefit and win-win results. This is short-sighted speculation and should be built at the institutional level. Designed to defuse filmmaking risks.”

Jason Kilar nodded, "Now we mainly rely on revolving bonds, relying on insurance companies to bear some of the risks. But the insurance companies still bear too little. Once they encounter a failed project, they will still suffer more losses. It will be borne by the producers.”

"That was traditional Hollywood." Zhou Buqi smiled, "Now that it's Internet-based, it may be different."

Jason Kilar looked shocked, "Internet crowdfunding? This seems to be more bullying than using foreign hot money."

Crowdfunding for movies is indeed a very popular financing method nowadays, but Zhou Buqi doesn’t agree with it at all, “That’s not possible, it’s just a scam. There are too many tricks in the movie business, and as long as outsiders are involved, it’s easy for insiders to appear. A layman’s trick. It’s better to be self-sufficient. Look at Netflix, streaming is probably a solution.”

Jason Kilar pondered, feeling a lot of pressure.

Zhou Buqi said: "Money is short of money to make movies. You need to borrow money and finance. The main reason is that the turnover rate of funds is too slow. You need to wait for three or five years of long-term operation before you can earn profits. Streaming media is different. , you can get a fixed membership fee every month.”

Jason Kilar laughed: “For Netflix, membership fees are equivalent to crowdfunding in disguise.”

Zhou Buqi said: "Yes, that's what it means! However, there is an essential difference between membership fees and crowdfunding. In the crowdfunding model, after investors take out their money, they will completely lose the initiative and there is no guarantee. Once If a movie fails, you will lose everything. The membership system is different. Members purchase services. Even if a movie fails, there will be many other film and television works to choose from. The failure of individual works will have a negative impact on users. The overall service level will not be significantly affected.”

Jason Kilar nodded, "There is a bigger advantage, that is, if a crowdfunded movie makes a lot of money, the producer will indeed have to spend a lot of money to distribute dividends. The membership model of streaming media is different. Even if the movie is a hit, there is no need to pay any dividends to users.”

Zhou Buqi said: "So the streaming media model will change the traditional model of the current film and television industry. The production model, financial model, and distribution model will all change. Streaming media is an important means of institutionally solving the film ecosystem's lack of money crisis. . Now Netflix is ​​still in a state of large-scale losses. This is because the streaming media industry has just emerged, and traditional movie users and DVD users have not yet changed. As time goes by, the streaming media model will definitely change. It is increasingly recognized by the market.”

Jason Kilar said: "We should really focus our business on Peacock. This is long-termism and delayed gratification."

"Yes, let's settle it, Chinese hot money... let's not rob it. Whoever wants to rob it, Ziweixing Global must do upright business and stop cheating!"

Zhou Buqi doesn't have such a sense of morality.

Most of the Chinese hot money comes from China, and they are all domestic entrepreneurial friends. When I return to China, I won’t see you when you look up, and everyone will talk about it then... Humph! You, Boss Zhou, are doing so well in Hollywood. If you and your brothers go to join you, it’s fine if you don’t lead them all to make money together. Instead, you trick and deceive everyone. Isn’t it too much?

It's best not to touch it.

Don't take the blame.

Jason Kilar asked tentatively: "I heard from Mike that you wrote a script outline specifically for "The Great Wall"?"

Zhou Buqi said: ""The Great Wall" is a project controlled by Legendary Pictures. We can't care what Legendary Pictures does. They want to use hot money from outside to make movies, but we can't care either. What we can do It means being upright and doing things according to the rules.”

"Um."

"Also, when Universal Pictures cooperates with some independent film companies in Hollywood, it also tries to relax the conditions and not squeeze them too hard. In the long run, the most important thing is to gain control of the streaming rights. Only in this way can our streaming media platform be more competitive. Only by showing a more equitable cooperative attitude will it be more popular and in line with Ziweixing Global's current industry position of dominating the market. Traditional concepts, using our Internet concept, the bigger the store, the less likely it is to deceive customers! Only when the store is big can we provide the best service! ”

"It's going to take time to slowly adjust."

Jason Kilar believes that this is not so easy to achieve, and it is more difficult than streaming.

This is Hollywood after all, and most of the practitioners are from Hollywood.

Hollywood, which has been entrenched for hundreds of years, is best at bullying customers, and one of its favorite things is for insiders to bully outsiders.

It is not easy to make fundamental changes.

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "So the most critical thing is to get Peacock started. Only when our streaming media business is a big success can we use huge success to promote changes in traditional thinking."