Rebirth In Hollywood

Time just entered 2007, China Film Group transferred a total of 13.75 million US dollars of "Transformers" Chinese box office share to Disney Pictures, this quarter of the box office share is not much, even in "Transformers" overseas In the box office split, they do not account for the top five.

However, no one can ignore the rapid expansion of the Chinese film market. You must know that two years ago, the vast majority of Hollywood companies set $10 million as the box office target for those super-commercial blockbusters entering China. What about now?

"Transformers" took US$55 million at the box office in China, which is close to 430 million RMB at the current exchange rate, which is already the highest box office record ever recorded in the Chinese film market.

With a huge population base, hundreds of millions of potential consumers, a fast-growing theater chain, and its own extremely backward film industry, this is almost the ideal dumping ground for Hollywood films.

Unfortunately, it is not easy to enter this market. The negotiation between China and the United States on the supplementary clauses of the memorandum on the WTO agreement on films and cultural products has not yet come to fruition.

After all, the bureaucrats here are not stupid. If the market is liberalized too much at this time, the Chinese film industry will inevitably be swept away by Hollywood films. Even like European films, it can only survive in the cracks.

Fortunately, Disney's films in recent years have basically made profits from the Chinese box office.

"Transformers" has been released in North America for more than a month. After the box office exceeded 350 million US dollars, it can only rely on the weekly box office of less than 10 million US dollars. Offline and offline, the global box office has reached 790 million US dollars.

Whether the film can finally hit the global box office of 1 billion US dollars depends on the market response of dozens of countries and regions that join the screening.

Just in the past month, Transformers temporarily surpassed Barbie as the most popular toy in America. Transformers were all the rage more than 10 years ago, and this time Bumblebee, Optimus Prime and Megatron made a comeback with the craze of the movie version of "Transformers".

According to the statistics of Disney and the North American Cinema Alliance, since the release of "Transformers", each theater has sold an average of about 2,500 Transformers toy models, and the revenue of a single theater alone is as high as 150,000 US dollars.

The development of derivative products is the general trend of Hollywood movies, and toy movies such as "Transformers" are no exception.

Although the rights to the toys belong to Hasbro, Disney gets 30 percent of the profits from each movie-related toy, according to an early agreement between the two parties.

For other graphic and text licenses, Disney, the film rights owner, can share 70 percent of the profits.

In addition to the traditional peripheral products such as toys, dolls, stationery and cultural shirts that are essential for every movie, Disney also launched a series of Transformers novels and photo series. The sales are also good. In just one month, more than one hundred were sold Thousands of volumes.

Of course, the most popular of them is definitely the related products of Optimus Prime.

"Good and brave, he is the embodiment of justice."

"Has great stamina, punch. And optimism."

"When others are in danger, he will definitely give his life to save..."

The Autobot leader Optimus Prime in the film is actually a symbol of the so-called American spirit, which has won unanimous praise from the audience, not only that. Optimus Prime is also an idol worshipped by many "small audiences".

"My son likes Optimus Prime, so I bought him a leader-level toy model, and as soon as he got it, he took it apart and played with it. Very happy."

These are the words of a parent who takes their children to watch a movie. It is a very representative and positive Optimus Prime. Undoubtedly the best gift parents can give their children.

Especially in the middle of Christmas, according to a North American media report, during the Christmas period in 2006, the Transformers series of toy models became the most photographed Christmas gift among many families in North America.

The Internet is also a sales channel that cannot be ignored. Websites such as eBay and Amazon have set up Transformers sales areas. All kinds of peripheral products in the play have become hot sellers on the Internet. Around Christmas and New Years, the value of 99 US dollars is engraved again. The leader-level Optimus Prime model of "Freedom and Right to All" has already topped the sales charts on both sites.

But in just over a month, Disney has made more than $150 million in revenue from merchandise and other licensing, a number that is bound to expand over time.

In addition, Disney will also develop the game "Transformers: Battle for Cybertron" based on the world view of the movie; and Disney TV will soon launch an animated series called "Transformers: The Proof of the Leader" .

There are also a large number of sponsors who have benefited. For example, Chevrolet's Camaro sports car is one of the most popular sports cars in North America; , priced as high as $38, and after the film was released, it became a popular product.

A super-selling movie can always create countless business opportunities.

As the popularity of the film continues to heat up, Disney also announced plans for future discs.

The Blu-ray DVD disc of "Transformers" will be officially released in North America in April. This is not a simple director's cut version. In order to attract fans to buy, Disney has added a lot of content.

It includes a commentary on the film by director Michael Bay, an expansion that delves into the human aspect of the Transformers movie, and an introduction to the production process of the Transformers virtual image; Ryan will describe his fascination with and experience with Transformers. , on the original conception of the film, the filming process, how to turn Hasbro's iconic toy into a living action hero on the screen, and discussions with Michael Bay and ILM's digital engineers.

About some interesting tidbits, such as the Transformers culture crash training course, the Transformers culture consultant, and the military renting real guns and real guns to help film the film will also be introduced in detail.

What is even more attractive to the fans of Transformers is that the video disc also shows the behind-the-scenes sketches of the major action scenes of the movie, such as the scene of the massive attack of the Decepticons such as the Sack giant, which will show fans the director's ideas and screenwriters one by one. How the idea of ​​​​step by step has become a staggering and tense scene on the screen.

In addition to the above movie shooting related content, "Transformers" DVD also specially prepared an ingenious gift - online interaction of Transformers characters.

Consumers can connect to the Internet through the disc, see the famous Transformers characters constantly updated by the 'Automobile' studio, and see the character shapes and weapons of each Transformer through the "Transformers Intelligence Mode", their power attributes, appearances renew.

The most important thing is that the 'Autobot' studio will update the images of the two newly added King Kongs in the second part on this system as soon as possible, and even the discs already have horizontal guns, sound waves, robot dogs and Al. Akane's concept look.

Shortening the time it takes for a movie to move from the theater to home entertainment has always been the focus of Walt Disney's business operations, and online pre-sale is undoubtedly one of the best ways to achieve it.

Riding on the film's lingering craze, Disney launched a massive media promotion for DVD pre-sale, the first of its kind in the company's distribution history, costing as much as $3 million across TV, radio, print, and Internet media.

The marketing also provides consumers with some interesting mini-games. For example, "Transformers" fans can customize a message sent by "Optimus Prime" for their friends online, and send them to their friends via phone, text, or email.

Co-promotion partners - Chevrolet Auto and McDonald's will also promote the pre-sale DVD through their channels, and each "Transformers" DVD buyer will have the opportunity to receive three "Bumblebee" series specially customized by Chevrolet. One of the Milo sports cars...

Just over a week after the pre-sale release, the pre-sale number of "Transformers" on DVD has reached 6 million, which is infinitely close to the total sales figure of 7.3 million copies of the 2006 DVD sales champion "Spartan 300 Warriors".

You know, the latter disc has been on sale for three months, and if you count online pre-sale, the time will be longer.

Although there is still some time before the official launch of the DVD, many media and professional organizations have begun to predict that the DVD of "Transformers" is bound to create a new record of weekly sales and total sales of North American discs, and the single-week sales breakthrough at the time of release. Ten million is not impossible.

Disney is priced at $39.9 for the deluxe version of the disc set and $19.9 for the regular version. The North American market disc alone will bring Disney huge revenue.

Even if Hasbro wants to take 30% of the profits, Disney's "Transformers" in the next few months can only be described as lucrative.

Besides, this is only North America, and Disney’s licensing transfer negotiations with many countries and regions around the world are coming to an end.

Even if you don’t count the box office, Disney’s profit from peripheral products in the next year is expected to be around $400 million.

As a commercial director, Michael Bay turned over completely and once again stood in the ranks of Hollywood's first-class commercial film directors, while Hasbro, the parent company of "Transformers", regretted putting the company's two major series too early. Adaptation rights sold to Ryan...

That is, in January after the new year, Hasbro offered to buy back the adaptation rights of "Special Forces" at a double price, and at the same time, they finalized another toy series "Super Battleship" with Universal Pictures almost as fast as possible. ” film adaptation plan.

Ryan's answer is very simple, there is no problem with repurchasing the film adaptation rights of "Special Forces", but the two parties need to make some changes to the "Transformers" peripheral sharing agreement... (To be continued...) ()