Upon receiving Li Yan's message through Chu Yi, Qiao Pan wasn't disappointed by his relationship with Li Yan compared to Chu Yi, but rather, he was very excited!

After all, behind Heavenly Film is the towering Paradise Group, and Li Yan has just come to power. He feared Li Yan might insist that Heavenly Film solely fund the project, which wouldn't be ideal. Now, Li Yan informed him through Chu Yi, acknowledging his partnership with Chu Yi, and indicating that Li Yan's relationship with Chu Yi is quite good. This not only presents an opportunity to attract a major investor but also paves the way for a more harmonious collaboration.

Thus, he came to Heaven Mansion in advance, eager for this collaboration. Meanwhile, Li Yan and his team started the second evaluation after work, finally deciding to engage with Qiao Pan and collaborate.

Currently, although Qiao Pan still has his connections, companies are cautious in investments. Over several months, he hadn't secured a main investor. Therefore, he places great emphasis on Heavenly Film. During the preliminary official contact, he vigorously promoted the current project, stating that the script has been revised multiple times, making it quite polished; the subject matter has market appeal, ensuring a substantial profit if executed well.

Regarding the project budget, he has significantly lowered it compared to the proposal shown to Wen Qianyi and Li Yan months ago. Perhaps interacting with various companies and filmmakers during this period made him realize his credit limit was only this much. Even well-known directors were hesitant to collaborate with him. Consequently, he streamlined the budgets repeatedly, settling on a total investment of merely ten million, with an expectation that Heavenly Film covers 60% to 70% of the investment, while the remaining 30% to 40% would be divided among Chuyi Culture, Mo Yan, the distributor, and certain cinema chains.

Within Yun Country Mainland's film market, the traditional planned economy methods persist. Films are primarily produced by state-owned studios, where everything is nationalized and profits or losses are secondary, as releases are handled by Yun Film through distribution agreements. "Huang Feihong: Lion King Competition" was the first film where producers directly negotiated box office splits with regional cinemas, setting the stage for "Fugitive," "True Lies," and other early imported big-budget films from Si Country.

The irregular market and outdated industry structure—along with the video halls of the early 90s and the VCDs towards the end of the decade—severely impacted Yun Country's film market. However, towards the late 90s, private capital like Huayi began entering the film market, with Feng Xiaogang opening up the festive film market, initiating commercialization routes. Though as iconic figures, repeated national film champions like Feng Xiaogang, barely hit tens of millions in box office earnings. The highest grossing films were still international blockbusters and films from Cloud Island, such as Titanic, which maintained a near ten-year record in 1998.

Before joining the WTO, the annual quota for foreign film imports was only a dozen, with films from Cloud Island also considered imports. At that time, apart from a few main-themed films booked for showings, the standout works were Feng's festive films. Following the East Continent financial storm, Cloud Island's cinematic production dramatically decreased from several hundred to merely thirty to forty annually, leading to mass closures of film companies, with top stars like Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and Zhou Runfa relocating to Si Country. The only ones who persisted and thrived against the market were Du Qifeng and his Galaxy Image team.

The Mainland market was even worse; a colossal Yun Country had an annual box office total of merely a few billion! That means just the box office earnings of one Si Country film could match that entire annual sum! Not necessarily the top ones, but any around a hundred million International Coin could suffice. "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" had over two hundred million International Coin globally, but the Mainland market only contributed around one percent or two million-plus International Coin, reflecting the situation then.

In 2002, a film emerged that had a profound impact on Yun Country's journey into commercial cinema—nation guru's star-studded martial arts epic "Hero." Prior to this, people were used to the typical ten to twenty million champion domestic films, even Feng Xiaogang's films were similar, with the market considered small. But "Hero" raked in 2.5 billion, accounting for a quarter of the annual sum, with global box office earnings nearing two hundred million International Coin, astonishing filmmakers across the board. Thus commenced Yun Country's era of blockbusters and big investments! Following a batch of "star directors plus Cloud Island celebrities" entertainment film model, the Yun Country market began leaping forward rapidly, surpassing a ten billion International Coin annual total several years later, entering the global top ten…

Profit leads to investment. During the mid-90s when Si Country blockbusters first entered, a single cinema promotional slogan for "Future Water World" claimed to be equivalent to the investment of 800 domestic films. Evidently, domestic films, aside from the main-themed war epics, rarely had large investments due to national machines and salaried actors. With marketization ongoing, private capital started entering and state enterprise Yun Film, beyond losing monopolistic status, engaged in imports, distribution, and also underwent major reform, increasing investments.

The likes of Zhang Yimou, dubbed the nation guru post-Olympics, and Feng Xiaogang, hailed as the director of the people with his universally acclaimed films, taught many how to manipulate—viewed positively as marketing and operations. Consequently, numerous films boasted of colossal investments, deceiving audiences into theaters with the notion of "big investment plus big stars equals blockbuster." Meanwhile, audience psychology—visiting for the hype, chasing trends, and herd mentality—led to many films pulling off success and savoring profitability.

Several films claiming over 100 million investments in reality were closer to two or three million. The actual situation remained polarized—some genuinely big-budget blockbusters and a majority of small-investment, low-cost films. Specifically, anything below 10 million was considered small-budget, while those above 10 million were mid-sized investments. Investing 10 million doesn't mean earning beyond that equates to profit; at least 25 million in box office returns is needed just to break even.

...

Qiao Pan, Chu Yi, Mo Yan, Li Yan, and others were all acutely aware of these facts. By setting the budget at ten million, Qiao Pan showed a lack of great confidence.

Yet for Heavenly Film, newly established and ambitious, eager to make its mark, investing six or seven million isn't much of an issue. Following initial engagement and reaching a cooperative agreement with Qiao Pan, they obtained a more detailed proposal.

After numerous revisions and an undefined period of adjustments to Qiao Pan's plan, Li Yan and the team together initiated the third and fourth evaluation, also involving Jiang Xueyin in fiscal and investment return assessment.

After a series of precise analyses and reviews, they unanimously agreed with Li Yan's suggestion to adopt this plan as their entrepreneurial work.

Upon notifying Qiao Pan, old Joe was ecstatic, nearly losing his zeal and struggling to maintain his dream and persistence. At this juncture, it felt like a gift from heaven amidst despair!

Seizing the opportune moment, he rallied Li Yan, Chu Yi, Mo Yan, along with the distributor and cinema representatives, finalizing the contract. Of the ten million investment, Li Yan represented Heavenly Film with a 6 million investment, while the other 4 million was split among Chu Yi, Mo Yan, and others, each contributing a million.

Qiao Pan aimed to use this as his turnaround work, driven not merely by a job's income but also to prove himself. Thus, he was incredibly motivated, immediately urging that the initial funds be placed then starting on film preparations after the signing.

This project, a fashionable urban romance film, incurs minimal expenses on props and sets. Such films primarily allocate funds to star salaries and marketing promotions. Eager for a turnaround, Qiao Pan desired blockbuster box office success, originally planning to hire impactful celebrities for leading roles. Post budget reduction, he had to cut costs on actor salaries, but he already had strategies leveraging bundled sales.

This movie titled "Springtime Leaked," has an air of ambiguous clickbait, potentially inappropriate for children and likely scorned by the older generation. However, couples dating, college students, and white-collar workers are the primary audience for movies, making this title more attractive to these groups.

Wong Jiawai previously made an internationally acclaimed film of the same name, which, being too artistic, had niche appeal with limited viewership, exerting scant influence over mainstream ticket buyers. Moreover, that was a Cloud Island film, never released in the Mainland, nor initiated by Yundu TV Station. Therefore, Qiao Pan could get it listed with Yundu TV Station while for Cloud Island distribution, the title could be altered as a nice touch, but ensuring the Mainland market yields profits is key.

The story unfolds through multiple threads detailing the love tales of several couples, both independent and interrelated. With this setup, they could apply the bundled sale method using more recognized actors for one or two threads' stories, while lesser-known or TV actors fill other roles. Consequently, the reduced workload and screen time for each actor naturally lower compensation costs.

Aside from the main lead roles carrying box office responsibilities—the first-line stars compensated by the episode—most compensation was based on scenes. For example, if a film comprised 24 scenes and an actor only participated in 4, they received approximately one-sixth of the pay. If full coverage commanded a price of 600,000, one-sixth participation earned the actor 100,000. Lower-tier actors or TV actors venturing into film may agree to flat fees or negotiate based on shooting days.

This way, key big stars might appear for roughly 20 minutes each, where the fee for one major actor could secure two couples. The rest of the main and supporting roles would be cheap. Ultimately, securing two leading stars alone could afford eight to ten performers. Despite most lacking considerable influence, assembling them together yields an effect greater than two leading stars, offering audiences perceived value in seeing numerous celebrities along with their favorites.

This clever tactic, aside from urban romance films, works for various genres. The prime example being "Night Banquet of the Aristocratic Family" boasting 184 stars, or the 90's "Night Banquet of the Aristocratic Family," which was themed for disaster relief. These are rare occurrences, with high-profile actors simply cameoing in a few shots. —It's October now! September for Mixed was dire, dropping over 70 ranks. The new month transforms monthly votes by doubling them—one vote becomes two—Old Joe earnestly requests your guaranteed monthly vote support for Mixed, to regain the top 50 and urban top 15! (To be continued, for further details please visit www.qidian.com, with more chapters, support the author, support legitimate reading!)

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