Top of the big era

Friends had dinner together.

After dinner, Xu Baihui also arranged to book a theater to watch the most popular film in China recently... an animated film "Journey to the West: Hero is Back".

This is the first domestic animated film that is not for young children, but a real animated film, which is very popular among young people.

On various social media, many fans have appeared to promote this film spontaneously.

For this purpose, a new word called "tap water" was invented.

It can be said that with the development of the Internet and the emergence of social media, young people are embracing the world and are snatching the right to speak in society. If it were in the past, the right to speak in society was in the hands of middle-aged and elderly people, and young people inventing new words would be considered as a generation worse than the previous generation.

This is a good thing.

Even if it is just a little power to create Internet buzzwords, at least this generation of young people can have a little space for self-expression and can leave some traces of young people in this era.

The popularity of "The Return of the Great Sage" also represents the voice of an era to a large extent.

The animation is very well made.

Because of Zhou Buqi's intervention, this animated film has more production funds, so it can produce more content, extend the plot, tell a fuller story, and make the special effects more gorgeous and attractive.

The film has been released for three weeks, and the domestic box office has exceeded 700 million yuan.

According to the current momentum, the domestic box office is likely to exceed 1 billion yuan!

Zhou Buqi and Xu Baihui have both seen it.

The two sat together.

Xu Baihui said proudly: "Don't look at the current box office of only 700 million, but this is all real box office, without a bit of water injection, which is different from other movies on the box office list."

Zhou Buqi asked: "Are there many water-injected movies?"

"Uh..."

Xu Baihui looked helpless.

Zhou Buqi was slightly stunned, "What's with that expression?"

Xu Baihui said: "It's normal to inflate the box office. If you don't inflate, the theaters won't schedule you. Unless it's a high-quality film like "The Return of the Great Sage", it can be made by hard power. But if you look at the domestic films, there are few decent ones, and they all rely on inflated prices."

Zhou Buqi frowned and said: "This atmosphere is too bad. Is it the Internet that started it?"

"That's not the case. The Internet is just an outsider to the film industry. This is... mainly from Hong Kong Island, and it's all the routines of hot marketing and capital operation. The so-called film industry in Hong Kong Island is self-produced, self-sold, and self-sold. After the film is finished, it is put in its own cinema. Whether the box office is more or less, it's just a number. The extra tax is far from the cross-bank money laundering and capital gains."

Xu Baihui curled her lips.

I was very disdainful.

But there was nothing I could do.

This is the general trend.

Inflated box office means someone spent a lot of money to buy box office, but in fact there is no one in the theater. On the one hand, it is a money laundering game, and the money from the box office share is clean money. There is also a capital game, which is to increase the box office of movies and make money from the capital market by relying on the growth of stock prices.

Zhou Buqi said: "It may not be all bad. At least it can heat up the domestic film market and promote domestic film culture."

Xu Baihui snorted: "I don't care what they do. Anyway, I won't participate. No one should mess with my project. I still have to lead Jieyu Media to cooperate with Netflix, Peacock, Amazon, Hollywood and so on!"

"Ah? Amazon?" Zhou Buqi was very curious, "Amazon what?"

Xu Baihui said with a smile: "Amazon's streaming business!"

Zhou Buqi was quite surprised, "You are quite wild, and you have contacted them?"

"No, they found me. Isn't it that "The Return of the Great Sage" is popular, and Amazon's streaming platform wants to cooperate with us to make cartoons together." Xu Baihui was obviously in a good mood, "But this also Part of your credit is that "The Return of the Great Sage" is a project you are optimistic about. This can be said to be iconic. The success of this movie proves that the domestic animation industry can also produce animated films and TV series close to the level of Hollywood. "

"You are rich now!"

"That's right. Animation is different from live-action films and TV series. Many cartoon characters in animation are universal. They only need to be dubbed in different languages. "The Return of the Great Sage" is set in the background of Eastern culture, and foreigners may not understand it. But if it is an imaginary background with cartoon characters, like "Alice in Wonderland", there will be no cultural barriers between the East and the West."

"Well, this is a good direction. The export of film and television products is not only business, but also cultural output. This is actually the route Japan has been taking. "

Zhou Buqi has a better understanding of this.

The mainstream discourse power of the world is still in the hands of Europe and the United States, resulting in East Asian culture being in the state of subculture. Even the "white, young and thin" aesthetics that East Asians like are considered a morbid aesthetic.

Of course this is not possible!

For this reason, China, Japan and South Korea have made disdainful efforts to promote East Asian culture to the world and develop it from subculture to mainstream culture.

Japan has done the most successfully, and Japanese comics have long been popular all over the world.

South Korea is also doing well, and Korean culture is gradually building its influence in popular entertainment around the world.

The plan adopted in China is to spend huge sums of money to build Confucius Institutes around the world, inviting young people from abroad to take classes for free, and if they do well in their studies, they can receive bursaries. After so many years of doing this, we have spent too much money and achieved little results. Many Confucius Institutes have begun to close their doors.

Cultural export must be Hollywood-style, requiring market-oriented means and relying on the entertainment industry to popularize it.

"The Return of the Great Sage" demonstrates the strength of domestic animation.

Domestic animation production standards are high, production costs are low, and project operations are flexible. They are obviously good partners. Zhou Buqi was already promoting the cooperation between Netflix, Peacock and Jieyu Media. Unexpectedly, Amazon Streaming Media also took the initiative to come forward.

Xu Baihui said: "The cost of animation production in the United States is too high, mainly because the cost of animators is too high. This is a high-end industry in the United States. Creative industries are all high-end industries in the United States. A very ordinary animator's annual salary is It costs three to five million US dollars. It is different in China. Many animators only earn three to four thousand dollars a month. They are not regarded as creatives at all, and they are regarded as screws by the American streaming media platforms. Cooperating with animation studios can reduce costs very well.”

Zhou Buqi said sternly: "Screws are absolutely not possible! Today's artificial intelligence is developing so fast. This kind of screw work in painting production will definitely be gradually replaced by artificial intelligence in the future. The only thing left for animators is creativity. ”

Xu Baihui said "hmm".

Zhou Buqi said: "With Amazon's style, cooperation with Amazon must be based on them. They select the projects and come to you to co-produce."

"Yes, they seem to be making a fantasy cartoon, about 15 episodes."

"The significance of cooperation is not to make money, but to rely on these projects to cultivate more excellent animators for Jieyu Media. The domestic film market is so big, but there is still a gap for excellent animation talents. "The Return of the Monkey King" has opened up the market After that, more good animators need to be involved.”

"I know what you mean." Xu Baihui smiled, "We can rely on American projects and spend American money to cultivate our own talents. Borrowing chickens to lay eggs."

Zhou Buqi nodded, "This is a long-term solution. I have seen it. With the level of domestic live-action film and television dramas, it is impossible to export culture. The only possibility is cartoons. The style of Japanese animation Sex is too single and too clumsy in Korean live-action movies. TV dramas have gone a long way, and if Jieyu Media wants to keep up, it must be cartoons. If Jieyu Media can produce a globally popular cartoon like "Kung Fu Panda", then your social level will be higher. Once you reach a higher level, you don’t need me to protect you anymore.”