Wong Kar-wai is at the premiere.
Special feature of 1905 film network "The success of the reunion is the success of American movies. As a local film, if we don’t insist on it ourselves, we won’t see this hope of success. We need heroes and beliefs in this era. Heroes without faith are just a bunch of robots. "
It’s rare that Wong Kar-wai, who cherishes words like gold, kept talking for three minutes at the premiere of "Killed a Sheep", which was the platform for this new work directed by Pema Tseden. You know, director Wong Kar-wai only said three words under the banner of the 25th anniversary of his company’s Zedong film: "I like it."
It’s also produced by Zedong, with director Wong Kar-wai as the producer. Why is there such a big difference in treatment? Looking through the materials of two films — — There are 10 producers and 8 co-producers. The scale of "Killed a Sheep" is much smaller: there are 3 producers and 2 producers.
Companies involved in the production and distribution of "Killed a Sheep"
Not only is the number of investors decreasing, but among the three production companies, apart from the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, "Seeing Heaven and Earth" and "Fanhuali" are Wong Kar-wai’s own companies. "Killed a sheep" can be said to be the real "Zedong production" movie.
"A Sheep" on the Wong Kar-wai platform, although it hit the aircraft carrier-class film "Reunion 4", found its own audience by relying on the special line of the Art Association. The most obvious point is that from the initial total box office estimate of about 8 million, it has doubled to 16 million now.
The forecast box office of "Hit a Sheep" has risen to 16 million.
Compared with Pema Tseden’s works two years ago, the box office income of "A Sheep" is six times that of the former. Although the script "Killed a Sheep" was completed earlier than "Tallow", the first film "Tallow" ended up with only one million box office.
It can be said that without Wong Kar-wai, "A Sheep" may not get rid of the fate of a one-day tour even if it is released by the Art Association.
Wong Kar-wai’s blessing, the topic of putting an art film on a commercial giant, and the two "nouns" of Pema Tseden and Tibetan movies are also familiar to more and more audiences. This is the fifth year of Wong Kar-wai’s layout in the Mainland.
Although at the beginning, Wong Kar-wai cooperated closely with Shanghai Film Group, and at that time, Bona Film entered; But it was not until recent years that Wong Kar-wai really turned its business eyes to the vast inland.
After The Grandmaster, Zedong Company in Wong Kar-wai successively produced The Ferry Man and other films that have not yet been released. Different from the past workshops, films with large investment such as The Ferry Man and European Raiders often reach the phenomenon that more than a dozen companies jointly produce them.
This is probably a particularly interesting phenomenon in the years when the mainland film market was booming. Film investment, as a risky "product", sells well at the box office and may be profitable; It ended badly and the company lost all its money. Therefore, diversification of investment has become the best means of "capital preservation".
For example, in recent years, an actor-turned-director’s work has changed from company A to company B from production to distribution. Among them, company A sold its investment rights to company B at a premium, and the movie ended up in a mess at the box office, but company A still made a small profit.
Therefore, although The Ferry Man and The European Raiders are not ideal in terms of box office results, it is very likely that the investment cost of Wong Kar-wai’s own company has been recovered almost at the production stage, and the final loss will be borne by other companies that have purchased the investment rights.
"What Wong Kar-wai has done in recent years, you must understand that he is doing it for." A person in the film industry interprets Wong Kar-wai’s various commercial activities in the Mainland.
For the company in his hand, Wong Kar-wai has a clear distinction: the production company Zedong Film, the production company Chunguang Film, and the artist agency People’s Stage.
As early as May 2014, it has not been spread by Alibaba Pictures’s backdoor listing culture China. Its subsidiary signed a cooperation agreement and supplementary agreement on film creation and development with Chunguang Yinghua in Wong Kar-wai, and the company obtained the priority investment right of up to five films directed or acted as producer and screenwriter by Wong Kar-wai within five years. If it does not reach five, it has the right to extend it for one year.
Also in 2014, Wong Kar-wai’s Beijing-based company Jiantiandi Cultural Communication was quietly established.
After the spread of culture in China and its transformation into Alibaba Pictures, The Ferry Man became the first project independently produced by Alibaba Pictures, which explains why it has now become a movie ticket owed by Wong Kar-wai to Ma Yun. So "The Ferry Man" must be launched.
In this project, there is another company in Wong Kar-wai — — Nanjing ferryman. However, after the film was finished, the company did not have any other new trends.
In 2015, Wong Kar-wai’s Blossoms Shanghai appeared on the annual film list of Shanghai Film Group. Then, there was the news that Wu Yifan played Blossoms Shanghai.
Wu Yifan’s first film after returning to China also had Alibaba Pictures’s predecessor — — Investment of Zhejiang Taobao Network Co., Ltd.. Therefore, before the expiration of this agreement in 2019, Alibaba Pictures is also eager to move about this project in Blossoms Shanghai.
Wu Yifan was once exposed to play Blossoms Shanghai.
What really makes people know about the existence of "seeing heaven and earth" is an equity transaction in 2016. Dong Ping, a cultural businessman who facilitated the transaction between Wong Kar-wai and Alibaba Pictures, once again cooperated with Wong Kar-wai to introduce it into Joy Media and become a shareholder of the company. The condition for obtaining the priority investment right of Wong Kar-wai film and television works is that Joy Media distributed 100 million new shares to Master China Films, accounting for 4.15% of the total share capital.These companies with English names are Wong Kar-wai’s major companies in the Mainland.
And Wong Kar-wai’s network of companies in the Mainland is becoming more and more dense. Due to cost considerations, Zedong Consulting Company in Shanghai no longer undertakes the production business, but instead derives a new company Fanhuali; The earlier company "Taiwan Central" basically retired behind the scenes.At the same time, in Xiangshan, Wong Kar-wai registered Ze Shidong as a production company, and Horgos also had more ferrymen. The elders of Zedong, such as Jacky Pang Yee Wah, Dong Yanyan, Yang Defen, etc., have staggered shareholding in these companies, which has become the capital vein of Wong Kar-wai in the Mainland.
In addition, Wong Kar-wai is actively expanding the channels of overseas cooperation: in 2016, it was reported that he might direct a film about the Italian Gucci family; In 2017, it cooperated with Amazon to shoot the news of the online drama "Tangkou Dispute" of Chinatown gang dispute story.In July 2018, Joy Media reported HK$ 2.07 per share, which means that Wong Kar-wai has HK$ 200 million in assets. What’s more, the cooperation between Wong Kar-wai and Joy Media has not set a gambling agreement with performance commitment.
However, since The Ferry Man, there has been no specific trend in Wong Kar-wai’s new works. Blossoms Shanghai has been in the process of preparation, although several promises will be made. In 2019, it was finally revealed that Wong Kar-wai would shoot an online drama, with 45 minutes each episode, a total of 12 episodes.
However, after careful search, this is actually old news in 2016. Earlier, it was mentioned that Joy Media’s investment in the single episode of this online drama reached 25 million yuan. The recent news is that the online drama has finally entered the stage of early development.
Since The Ferry Man, although Wong Kar-wai’s commercial tentacles have gradually expanded in the Mainland, it has been followed by a decline in the reputation of its producer films. Compared with the obvious box office revenue and capital operation, there have been several cracks in the golden signboard of Wong Kar-wai.
After The Ferry Man and The European Raiders, a real Zedong production, Killed a Sheep, was ushered in, which was probably an adhesive he found for mending his signboard.