If we're going to play, it's a high-stakes gamble.
Seeing Suming deep in thought, Long Wu didn't rush him, quietly waiting on the side.
"Long, if we start shooting soon, when can the film be released?" Suming suddenly asked.
Long Wu's eyes lit up slightly, "I thought you would ask about the director, screenwriter, lead actors, those kinds of questions."
"Those are details, not important," Suming said.
Long Wu nodded seriously, "Right, this ti it's a big move. The shooting schedule determines when we can recoup the money, and for a businessman, cash flow interruption is the most terrifying thing. But rest assured, the Xiangjiang film model is different from Hollywood's, not to say which is better or worse, just different styles. A film that Hollywood takes years to make, using our thods, of the sa quality, can be finished in a few months. Of course, for the special effects, we can only hire a European team and accelerate the process with more money."
"How about this, Long, I will give you a specific investnt figure by tomorrow, is that okay?" Suming asked.
...
After returning to the hotel that night, Suming imdiately contacted the heads of his various subsidiaries, to quickly tally the funds that could be mobilized from all the companies while ensuring sufficient reserves for normal operations, as well as the planned incoming revenue.
He then stayed up the whole night.
He was excited!
The Magical Beast blockbuster was a golden opportunity that had fallen into his lap.
As a casual player of World of Warcraft, even though Suming rarely spent ti playing the ga, he was well versed in its status. It had a massive player base not only in Huaxia but also globally.
This was a film that could sell on nostalgia, setting a basic box office floor;
At the sa ti, its large player base in the West ant the European and Arican markets could easily be tapped into.
Due to cultural differences, any dostically produced Huaxia film found it almost impossible to truly break into Western markets. The more a film encapsulated the essence of Huaxia culture, the truer this was.
Suming had never confined his perspective to the dostic market when running his film company. From the first movie onward, he considered the Western market, but reality had proven that it was extrely difficult for Eastern films to break into Western box offices.
World of Warcraft represented an excellent opportunity.
As for the possibility of making a terrible film, Suming hadn't given it much thought.
After several discussions about movies with Xin Linli, Suming had a new understanding of so-called terrible films. There are two kinds of terrible films: those that are derided and don't make money, and those that are derided but make money. The forr category included films like The Legend of the Gods, while the latter consisted of movies with huge fan bases that trade on nostalgia.
There are too many so-called "Big Movies" in the country that are disastrously bad, yet they rake in huge profits, relying on fan effects and nostalgia.
Based on Suming's current understanding of the global film market and the World of Warcraft ga, even if this indeed turned out to be a terrible film, a box office floor of over 300 million US dollars worldwide was absolutely achievable without a problem.
Suming himself had contemplated making a World of Warcraft movie, but first faced by financial constraints since a fantasy blockbuster of this type could not be produced without several hundred million Huaxia currency, an amount he could not yet afford.
But most importantly, he couldn't obtain the rights.
Making a World of Warcraft movie, as long as it was from an established film company, was guaranteed to make money. After deducting theater distribution costs and the share given to Blizzard Entertainnt, the profit would be close to doubling the investnt.
In the West, perhaps this couldn't be said with absolute certainty because the cost of filming there is more than three tis that of the East.
The main reason for such understanding was that Suming himself was a World of Warcraft player and had played on and off for many years, experiencing firsthand the ga's status among players. Even Long Wu didn't have this advantage, nor did the majority of businessn in Xiangjiang, and most players who did possess this deep market insight didn't have the money to invest in movie production.
Xiang Zuo might have it, but after all, he wasn't Long Wu himself and couldn't impart that genuine experience to Long Wu.
Long Wu approached him partially because he really was short on cash, and to so extent, to return the favor for the previous investnt in The Legend of the Gods.
Suming had an advantage that others did not possess: animals. In the World of Warcraft ga, there is an abundance of fierce beasts and magical creatures.
Furthermore, with the supervision and guidance from Blizzard Entertainnt, and the involvent of Taoyuan Film Industry, this future World of Warcraft movie might not necessarily be a flop.
If a fantasy blockbuster is well made, its market potential internationally is imasurable. The Lord of the Rings trilogy, for instance, with a 250 million US dollar investnt, achieved a total box office of 2.9 billion US dollars.
Suming didn't expect anything like 2.9 billion, but if this movie's global gross surpassed 500 million US dollars, he would make a fortune, and if it reached 1 billion US dollars, that would be a super lucrative deal.
The more he invested, the higher the returns would be.
Moreover, Suming's thoughts went deeper than Long Wu's.
Even if the movie didn't turn a profit, as long as the loss wasn't too severe, Suming had decided he absolutely must invest, and the bigger the buzz, the better.
Because currently under the Taoyuan Group, the key enterprise leading the charge to go public is Taoyuan Film and Television!
Taoyuan Film and Television needed a high-profile blockbuster to go public!
Nothing could better rapidly open up markets globally and raise the profile of Taoyuan Film and Television than World of Warcraft—even if it turned out to be a flop.
Once Taoyuan Film Industry was public, the real profits would be in the stock market, transforming Suming from a locally renowned entrepreneur into the true ranks of the wealthy, sitting shoulder to shoulder with Long Wu, Huaxia Star, and a series of big shots from the mainland in the film and entertainnt industry.
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