In another time and space, 1993 is considered to be the turning point in the decline of Hong Kong films.
Around 1992, a large number of production companies emerged in Hong Kong, such as Andy Lau's Tianmu, Wang Jing's Jingyi, Wong Kar-wai's Zetung, Jet Li's Zhengdong, etc. The behind-the-scenes funders of these companies are all Taiwanese film merchants.
Taiwanese filmmakers are very generous in their actions. As long as Hong Kong producers propose a story theme and list a celebrity lineup, they can first take out millions of cash to buy this plan (commonly known as buying trailers).
Such an approach will naturally benefit Hong Kong filmmakers. For example, Wong Kar-wai relied on the all-star lineup of Leslie Cheung and Brigitte Lin and the plan to adapt Jin Yong's martial arts to trick scholars into investing tens of millions, and successfully started filming "East Evil and West Poison". After the budget was used up in the middle, he continued to fool Taiwanese businessmen to pay.
It is precisely because it is too easy to make money that most Hong Kong filmmakers have unprecedented confidence, and they have made up their minds to make a fortune before the return of 97.
Unexpectedly, before the year of return, Hong Kong movies have already suffered the consequences.
Around 1993, Hong Kong films followed the trend, with single themes and box office plummeted, but the cost of shooting continued to increase due to the surge in celebrity pay.
After this vicious cycle, no matter how abundant Taiwanese businessmen have, they cannot withstand that their income is not proportional to their investment for a long time.
Taiwanese businessmen are increasingly dissatisfied with Hong Kong producers, and even as "Jigong" starring Stephen Chow is selling it to Taiwanese filmmakers for a high price of more than 30 million yuan, the Taiwanese filmmakers lost all their money.
This incident triggered the eight major film producers in Taiwan to start negotiating with the Hong Kong Film Practitioners Association on how to curb the cost of Hong Kong films and reduce the pay for Hong Kong films. In the end, the negotiations broke down.
Taiwanese film companies then reduced their investment in Hong Kong films and joined forces to boycott Hong Kong films that exceed a certain budget, instead asking the Taiwanese authorities to relax restrictions on Hollywood films.
By 1995, the Taiwanese authorities lifted restrictions on Hollywood films at the request of film manufacturers, and Hong Kong films gradually lost the Taiwan market.
Due to the butterfly effect brought by Kang Jianfei, Hong Kong films have flourished for at least two or three years in advance. Run Run Shaw also announced that he would no longer invest in movies, so "Jigong" produced by Shaw will naturally not appear again.
Although there was no collective rebound of "Jigong" incident in Taiwan films, the deterioration of Hong Kong films was even worse than that of the original time and space, with shoddy production, single type, blind follow-up, and inflated costs...
All of these have made Taiwanese film merchants suffer.
Finally, "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" released in Taiwan during the Spring Festival this year was a huge hit.
This movie is a kung fu comedy film that Taiwan Dragon Film Company found Sammo Hung and invested 20 million Hong Kong dollars to co-produce with Shuanglian Cinemas.
Longxiáng Pictures only owns the distribution rights and box office revenue in Taiwan and Nanyang. As a result, when the film was released in Taiwan, it only received a box office of more than NT$8 million. This data made Longxiáng Pictures unable to cry.
Longxiáng Film is the leader among the eight major film companies in Taiwan. After the investment failure, he immediately came to his peers to discuss countermeasures.
It happened that Changhong invested in "New Meteor Butterfly Sword" and "Urban Heroes" invested by scholars also failed the box office. In the end, the heads of eight major film dealers gathered in Hong Kong to talk about the negotiations with the Hong Kong Film Practitioners Association of Taiwan.
The so-called eight major Taiwanese film manufacturers, namely China Film, Scholars, Sciences, Longxiáng, Judeng, Changhong, Xiongwei, and Fugui, are the Taiwanese film investment and distributors that invest and purchase the most Hong Kong films every year.
Hilton Hong Kong.
Eight major film dealers in Taiwan stay here, and the location for the negotiations between filmmakers from Hong Kong and Taiwan is naturally chosen in the hotel.
It was only nine o'clock in the morning that representatives of the eight major film dealers had gathered in the conference room and were recently communicating before the meeting.
Their purpose is to force Hong Kong producers to reduce costs and reduce celebrity pay. If the negotiations collapse, they have to go back to Taiwan and prepare to turn the table over.
At 9:14, Huang Baiming, the representative of Xincheng Cinemas, came, entered the conference room and greeted the eight major film dealers, and then sat there and waited.
Subsequently, Roger Cheng (Yonggao Cinema), Chen Rongmei (Shuanglian Cinema), He Guanchang (Jiahe Cinema), Jiang Zhiqiang (Oriental Cinema) and others also attended the event. In addition, some independent producers such as Xiang Huaqiang, Lee Xiuxian, and Madon Xiong also attended.
(Note: The glorious Golden Princess Cinema has completed its business, and its theaters were acquired by Chen Rongmei, the boss of Xinbao Cinema, and reorganized into Jinsheng Cinema. Jinsheng and Xinbao are collectively known as Shuanglian Cinema)
Taiwan is led by Yang Dengkui, who is the chairman of the Taiwan Producers Association. He is accompanied by Wang Yingxiang, Cai Songlin, Xu Anjin, Qiu Fusheng, Gong Xiangquan, Wu Dun and others.
After the two sides exchanged greetings and shook hands, Yang Dengkui glanced at the Hong Kong representative and asked: Didn’t Mr. Kang and Boss Zou come?
He Guanchang said: It is enough to have me to talk about it.
Jiang Zhiqiang also smiled and said: Mr. Kang has other important matters, and I am fully responsible for representing Oriental Cinemas, Oriental Entertainment Distribution Company and Oriental Dream Factory.
Cough, Yang Dengkui coughed and said, "You are all representatives of the Hong Kong and Taiwan film industry. First of all, I want to admit that everyone has worked together happily over the years. I also hope that everyone can continue to make a fortune together in the future... However, the cost of Hong Kong films is getting higher and higher, and the pay for celebrities is getting more and more, and there are many Hong Kong films invested by Taiwan that cannot be delivered as scheduled. All of these have caused us Taiwanese film merchants to suffer heavy losses.Today, I hope everyone can sit together and solve all these problems properly.
On the Hong Kong filmmaker side, Xiang Huaqiang first said: How do you want to solve it?
Wang Yingxiang, the boss of Longxiáng Film, said: Standardize the pay for celebrities, urge Hong Kong films to be delivered as scheduled, and instead issue Hong Kong films by commissions.
He Guanchang narrowed his eyes and asked: How to draw commissions?
Cai Songlin, the CEO of Scholar Pictures, explained: Films with a box office of less than 10 million will receive a commission of 20%, and films with a box office of more than 10 million will receive a commission of 15%.
These 20% and 15% commissions are just to give Taiwanese film manufacturers a distribution fee, not the box office share of the theater.
Jiang Zhiqiang directly rejected: I don’t agree with this distribution method.
Wu Dun said: Why did we change it to commission-drawing and issuing it?This is because Hong Kong films are now shoddy, with regular box office less than 10 million, and the cost of purchasing films is inflated.This is very unfriendly to our Taiwanese film merchants. It has been changed to a commission-drawing method, which is fair to everyone.
Jiang Zhiqiang smiled disdainfully and said: With the box office of more than NT$200 million in "Jurassic Park", will you have to charge 30 million for the issuance fee?
Well... Wu Dun choked and said, Mr. Kang's film is just an exception. Apart from him, which Hong Kong film has a box office of over 100 million in Taiwan?
Jiang Zhiqiang was unreasonable and said: So, your commission issuance method is loopholes!
Eight major film producers in Taiwan looked at each other, then whispered for a while, saying: We just discussed that the commission for movies with a box office of 50 million or above is 13%. For every 10 million or above, the commission for the distribution is reduced by 1%, and the lowest is 6%.
Jiang Zhiqiang did some calculations and found that this way of issuing commissions is beneficial to DreamWorks. He nodded and said: On behalf of Oriental DreamWorks, I agree to issuing commissions.
Xiang Huaqiang strongly opposed: No, you are passing the distribution risks onto the producer.
Yang Dengkui is now the boss of the Tiandao Alliance. He is not afraid of Xiang Huaqiang and sneered: Why do people agree to DreamWorks, but you Yongsheng disagree?It’s not that I follow the trend and make shoddy products, I’m afraid that Taiwan’s box office will be less than 10 million.
Wu Dun also refused to go to Huaqiang and said: We Taiwanese film merchants are not fools. We just bought bad movies and paid for the distribution fee for the purchase of films. Can this business continue?
Xiang Huaqiang sneered: Will you lose money?Except for the people from China Film Festival, no one of you started by publishing Hong Kong films!
Qiu Fusheng coughed and said: That was the past. Now it’s no longer profitable to release Hong Kong films. All the money has been earned by your Hong Kong producers, directors and celebrities.
Qiu Fusheng didn't say anything, that is, Taiwanese cinema merchants also made a lot of money, but the cinema merchants were not in the negotiations today.
The two sides were quarreling back and forth, but they still couldn't reach an agreement after a long time of argument.Except for DreamWorks and Jiahe who agreed to issue commissions, all other Hong Kong representatives refused.
In the past, Taiwanese film merchants had to bargain with the price of buying films, so they had to pay for the Taiwan distribution rights of Hong Kong films, and then they were distributed and released in Taiwan.
This trading method has two benefits for Hong Kong producers. One is that they recover funds quickly and can get the purchase fee before the movie is released in Taiwan; the other is that they don’t have to bear the risk. Even if it is a piece of shit, they have already got the money when they sell the movie. Whether they can make a box office is something that Taiwanese film merchants need to worry about.
Once the commission is used to issue the distribution method, the Hong Kong producers will only be able to recover funds until the film is released, and if the box office is too bad, they will have to pay a high distribution fee.
This solution is a good thing for large companies like DreamWorks and Jiahe. Although there are some minor troubles in fund recovery and issuance, it can better highlight the financial and quality advantages of large companies.
For companies that want to make money by relying on shoddy production and blindly following the trend, it is tantamount to bad news from the sky. Their money-making speed is at least several times slower than before.
With this alone, the conflict between the two sides is simply irreconcilable.
Jiang Zhiqiang and He Guanchang sat firmly on Diaoyutai, laughing at the people from other companies fighting with Taiwanese film merchants.
This negotiation is actually an opportunity for Jiahe and DreamWorks to play to their own advantages.
Regardless of whether other companies agree or not, Jiahe and DreamWorks will definitely contact Taiwanese film manufacturers in private, and there is no psychological burden to sell their peers.
The issue of commission issuance cannot be agreed, so Yang Dengkui had to raise the second issue. He threw out a form and said: As of April 1 this year, there have been more than 250 Taiwanese-funded Hong Kong films that have not been delivered as scheduled. I hope your association can urge relevant producers and directors to complete the production as soon as possible with quality and quantity!
Jiang Zhiqiang smiled and said: DreamWorks never accepts investment in Taiwan. You can talk slowly, I will smoke a cigarette first.
Around 1992, a large number of production companies emerged in Hong Kong, such as Andy Lau's Tianmu, Wang Jing's Jingyi, Wong Kar-wai's Zetung, Jet Li's Zhengdong, etc. The behind-the-scenes funders of these companies are all Taiwanese film merchants.
Taiwanese filmmakers are very generous in their actions. As long as Hong Kong producers propose a story theme and list a celebrity lineup, they can first take out millions of cash to buy this plan (commonly known as buying trailers).
Such an approach will naturally benefit Hong Kong filmmakers. For example, Wong Kar-wai relied on the all-star lineup of Leslie Cheung and Brigitte Lin and the plan to adapt Jin Yong's martial arts to trick scholars into investing tens of millions, and successfully started filming "East Evil and West Poison". After the budget was used up in the middle, he continued to fool Taiwanese businessmen to pay.
It is precisely because it is too easy to make money that most Hong Kong filmmakers have unprecedented confidence, and they have made up their minds to make a fortune before the return of 97.
Unexpectedly, before the year of return, Hong Kong movies have already suffered the consequences.
Around 1993, Hong Kong films followed the trend, with single themes and box office plummeted, but the cost of shooting continued to increase due to the surge in celebrity pay.
After this vicious cycle, no matter how abundant Taiwanese businessmen have, they cannot withstand that their income is not proportional to their investment for a long time.
Taiwanese businessmen are increasingly dissatisfied with Hong Kong producers, and even as "Jigong" starring Stephen Chow is selling it to Taiwanese filmmakers for a high price of more than 30 million yuan, the Taiwanese filmmakers lost all their money.
This incident triggered the eight major film producers in Taiwan to start negotiating with the Hong Kong Film Practitioners Association on how to curb the cost of Hong Kong films and reduce the pay for Hong Kong films. In the end, the negotiations broke down.
Taiwanese film companies then reduced their investment in Hong Kong films and joined forces to boycott Hong Kong films that exceed a certain budget, instead asking the Taiwanese authorities to relax restrictions on Hollywood films.
By 1995, the Taiwanese authorities lifted restrictions on Hollywood films at the request of film manufacturers, and Hong Kong films gradually lost the Taiwan market.
Due to the butterfly effect brought by Kang Jianfei, Hong Kong films have flourished for at least two or three years in advance. Run Run Shaw also announced that he would no longer invest in movies, so "Jigong" produced by Shaw will naturally not appear again.
Although there was no collective rebound of "Jigong" incident in Taiwan films, the deterioration of Hong Kong films was even worse than that of the original time and space, with shoddy production, single type, blind follow-up, and inflated costs...
All of these have made Taiwanese film merchants suffer.
Finally, "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" released in Taiwan during the Spring Festival this year was a huge hit.
This movie is a kung fu comedy film that Taiwan Dragon Film Company found Sammo Hung and invested 20 million Hong Kong dollars to co-produce with Shuanglian Cinemas.
Longxiáng Pictures only owns the distribution rights and box office revenue in Taiwan and Nanyang. As a result, when the film was released in Taiwan, it only received a box office of more than NT$8 million. This data made Longxiáng Pictures unable to cry.
Longxiáng Film is the leader among the eight major film companies in Taiwan. After the investment failure, he immediately came to his peers to discuss countermeasures.
It happened that Changhong invested in "New Meteor Butterfly Sword" and "Urban Heroes" invested by scholars also failed the box office. In the end, the heads of eight major film dealers gathered in Hong Kong to talk about the negotiations with the Hong Kong Film Practitioners Association of Taiwan.
The so-called eight major Taiwanese film manufacturers, namely China Film, Scholars, Sciences, Longxiáng, Judeng, Changhong, Xiongwei, and Fugui, are the Taiwanese film investment and distributors that invest and purchase the most Hong Kong films every year.
Hilton Hong Kong.
Eight major film dealers in Taiwan stay here, and the location for the negotiations between filmmakers from Hong Kong and Taiwan is naturally chosen in the hotel.
It was only nine o'clock in the morning that representatives of the eight major film dealers had gathered in the conference room and were recently communicating before the meeting.
Their purpose is to force Hong Kong producers to reduce costs and reduce celebrity pay. If the negotiations collapse, they have to go back to Taiwan and prepare to turn the table over.
At 9:14, Huang Baiming, the representative of Xincheng Cinemas, came, entered the conference room and greeted the eight major film dealers, and then sat there and waited.
Subsequently, Roger Cheng (Yonggao Cinema), Chen Rongmei (Shuanglian Cinema), He Guanchang (Jiahe Cinema), Jiang Zhiqiang (Oriental Cinema) and others also attended the event. In addition, some independent producers such as Xiang Huaqiang, Lee Xiuxian, and Madon Xiong also attended.
(Note: The glorious Golden Princess Cinema has completed its business, and its theaters were acquired by Chen Rongmei, the boss of Xinbao Cinema, and reorganized into Jinsheng Cinema. Jinsheng and Xinbao are collectively known as Shuanglian Cinema)
Taiwan is led by Yang Dengkui, who is the chairman of the Taiwan Producers Association. He is accompanied by Wang Yingxiang, Cai Songlin, Xu Anjin, Qiu Fusheng, Gong Xiangquan, Wu Dun and others.
After the two sides exchanged greetings and shook hands, Yang Dengkui glanced at the Hong Kong representative and asked: Didn’t Mr. Kang and Boss Zou come?
He Guanchang said: It is enough to have me to talk about it.
Jiang Zhiqiang also smiled and said: Mr. Kang has other important matters, and I am fully responsible for representing Oriental Cinemas, Oriental Entertainment Distribution Company and Oriental Dream Factory.
Cough, Yang Dengkui coughed and said, "You are all representatives of the Hong Kong and Taiwan film industry. First of all, I want to admit that everyone has worked together happily over the years. I also hope that everyone can continue to make a fortune together in the future... However, the cost of Hong Kong films is getting higher and higher, and the pay for celebrities is getting more and more, and there are many Hong Kong films invested by Taiwan that cannot be delivered as scheduled. All of these have caused us Taiwanese film merchants to suffer heavy losses.Today, I hope everyone can sit together and solve all these problems properly.
On the Hong Kong filmmaker side, Xiang Huaqiang first said: How do you want to solve it?
Wang Yingxiang, the boss of Longxiáng Film, said: Standardize the pay for celebrities, urge Hong Kong films to be delivered as scheduled, and instead issue Hong Kong films by commissions.
He Guanchang narrowed his eyes and asked: How to draw commissions?
Cai Songlin, the CEO of Scholar Pictures, explained: Films with a box office of less than 10 million will receive a commission of 20%, and films with a box office of more than 10 million will receive a commission of 15%.
These 20% and 15% commissions are just to give Taiwanese film manufacturers a distribution fee, not the box office share of the theater.
Jiang Zhiqiang directly rejected: I don’t agree with this distribution method.
Wu Dun said: Why did we change it to commission-drawing and issuing it?This is because Hong Kong films are now shoddy, with regular box office less than 10 million, and the cost of purchasing films is inflated.This is very unfriendly to our Taiwanese film merchants. It has been changed to a commission-drawing method, which is fair to everyone.
Jiang Zhiqiang smiled disdainfully and said: With the box office of more than NT$200 million in "Jurassic Park", will you have to charge 30 million for the issuance fee?
Well... Wu Dun choked and said, Mr. Kang's film is just an exception. Apart from him, which Hong Kong film has a box office of over 100 million in Taiwan?
Jiang Zhiqiang was unreasonable and said: So, your commission issuance method is loopholes!
Eight major film producers in Taiwan looked at each other, then whispered for a while, saying: We just discussed that the commission for movies with a box office of 50 million or above is 13%. For every 10 million or above, the commission for the distribution is reduced by 1%, and the lowest is 6%.
Jiang Zhiqiang did some calculations and found that this way of issuing commissions is beneficial to DreamWorks. He nodded and said: On behalf of Oriental DreamWorks, I agree to issuing commissions.
Xiang Huaqiang strongly opposed: No, you are passing the distribution risks onto the producer.
Yang Dengkui is now the boss of the Tiandao Alliance. He is not afraid of Xiang Huaqiang and sneered: Why do people agree to DreamWorks, but you Yongsheng disagree?It’s not that I follow the trend and make shoddy products, I’m afraid that Taiwan’s box office will be less than 10 million.
Wu Dun also refused to go to Huaqiang and said: We Taiwanese film merchants are not fools. We just bought bad movies and paid for the distribution fee for the purchase of films. Can this business continue?
Xiang Huaqiang sneered: Will you lose money?Except for the people from China Film Festival, no one of you started by publishing Hong Kong films!
Qiu Fusheng coughed and said: That was the past. Now it’s no longer profitable to release Hong Kong films. All the money has been earned by your Hong Kong producers, directors and celebrities.
Qiu Fusheng didn't say anything, that is, Taiwanese cinema merchants also made a lot of money, but the cinema merchants were not in the negotiations today.
The two sides were quarreling back and forth, but they still couldn't reach an agreement after a long time of argument.Except for DreamWorks and Jiahe who agreed to issue commissions, all other Hong Kong representatives refused.
In the past, Taiwanese film merchants had to bargain with the price of buying films, so they had to pay for the Taiwan distribution rights of Hong Kong films, and then they were distributed and released in Taiwan.
This trading method has two benefits for Hong Kong producers. One is that they recover funds quickly and can get the purchase fee before the movie is released in Taiwan; the other is that they don’t have to bear the risk. Even if it is a piece of shit, they have already got the money when they sell the movie. Whether they can make a box office is something that Taiwanese film merchants need to worry about.
Once the commission is used to issue the distribution method, the Hong Kong producers will only be able to recover funds until the film is released, and if the box office is too bad, they will have to pay a high distribution fee.
This solution is a good thing for large companies like DreamWorks and Jiahe. Although there are some minor troubles in fund recovery and issuance, it can better highlight the financial and quality advantages of large companies.
For companies that want to make money by relying on shoddy production and blindly following the trend, it is tantamount to bad news from the sky. Their money-making speed is at least several times slower than before.
With this alone, the conflict between the two sides is simply irreconcilable.
Jiang Zhiqiang and He Guanchang sat firmly on Diaoyutai, laughing at the people from other companies fighting with Taiwanese film merchants.
This negotiation is actually an opportunity for Jiahe and DreamWorks to play to their own advantages.
Regardless of whether other companies agree or not, Jiahe and DreamWorks will definitely contact Taiwanese film manufacturers in private, and there is no psychological burden to sell their peers.
The issue of commission issuance cannot be agreed, so Yang Dengkui had to raise the second issue. He threw out a form and said: As of April 1 this year, there have been more than 250 Taiwanese-funded Hong Kong films that have not been delivered as scheduled. I hope your association can urge relevant producers and directors to complete the production as soon as possible with quality and quantity!
Jiang Zhiqiang smiled and said: DreamWorks never accepts investment in Taiwan. You can talk slowly, I will smoke a cigarette first.
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