Hollywood New Century

"Mr. Pike, Ms. Zhou, good evening, I am Junichi Oimoto, the president of Shochiku Films. I am very happy to see two distinguished guests here!" The young man took the initiative to come over to say hello.

"Following the president, it seems we haven't seen each other for a long time!" Zhou Lixian is familiar with RB's Toho Co., Ltd., Shochiku Film, Toei Co., Ltd., Kadokawa Film and Nikkei Co., Ltd., after all, as Sony Columbia Asia Branch President for many years.

"Simon, this Chaimoto Junichi was the vice president of Dongbao before, and he left the company a few years ago to be the president of Shochiku Films. He has a good ability," Zhou Lixian said to Simon in Chinese.

Simon nodded and looked at Chase Ben Junichi. He couldn't look at his appearance. The first impression this guy gave him was wretchedness.

"Songzhu Films, if I remember correctly, the RB movie "The Undertaker" currently released by Venus Pictures in North America seems to be produced by your company, right?" Simon smiled and said, Venus Pictures is responsible for independent literary films and overseas films The North American release, "The Undertaker" is indeed an excellent literary film.

"Yes, Mr. Parker, that "The Undertaker" was produced by Shochiku Films. It was very popular in RB and received high reviews! And we have decided to let "The Undertaker" hit the Oscar for best foreign language film next year. In this regard We have already communicated with Venus Films, and we will step up publicity." Although Tsui Ben Junichi has confidence in the high reputation of "The Undertaker", the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film is not so easy to get.

Since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon won the Oscar for best foreign language film in 2001, no Asian film has won the award in years.

"Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film!" Simon nodded. Venus Films is responsible for literary and artistic films. Since it is ready to report, there must be a certain degree of confidence.

The president of Songzhu Yinghua, of course, is a big guy in the RB entertainment circle, but it is not enough to watch in front of Simon, and he is dismissed after a few words.

Even if he is the representative chairman of Toho Co., Ltd. or Shochiku Co., Ltd., Simon will not waste too much time.

"Songzhu Films hopes to obtain the right to show Xinghai Films' films in RB's theaters, and the conditions offered are also good," Zhou Lixian smiled. After all, Dongbao is the best of the five RB film companies, and Songzhu Films is the second child. As the third child of Toei, Kadokawa and Nikko are not qualified enough.

The film, TV and animation resources of Shochiku Film are of course not comparable to Dongbao, and although the proportion of Hollywood films in RB has declined, it still has a huge market and influence.

Paramount, Universal, and Twentieth Century Fox, which was negotiated this year, Toho Pictures owns the exclusive theatrical rights to the films of the three Hollywood studios.

There are not many Hollywood movies that Shochiku Films can compete for. After all, the first choice of other Hollywood film companies is also the most powerful Dongbao Films.

"RB is an open market, and now Hollywood movies are showing a downturn, but I believe that there will still be a market for our Xinghai Films' films in RB in the future. It is imperative to set up a RB branch of Xinghai International Films," Simon dares to do this now, and also It's not because the movies currently developed by Xinghai Pictures are all their own funds, it sounds like it's crazy, and there is no overseas pre-sale release!

"Mamma Mia!" did well at the RB box office. It seems that 20th Century Fox has a good ability to see Dongbao films, so they signed an exclusive distribution contract," Zhou Lixian, the former president of Columbia Pictures' Asian division, is very concerned about this kind of thing. learn.

Zhou Lixian said, and found that Simon was looking at Hayao Miyazaki not far away. Sure enough, I heard Simon's question: "How much is the RB box office of "Ponyo on the Cliff" produced by Ghibli Animation Studio this year?"

"15.5 billion yen!" Zhou Lixian responded quickly. After all, Hayao Miyazaki's animations basically set off the RB box office.

Simon was stunned. According to the current ratio of US dollar to Japanese yen is about 105, 15.5 billion yen is equivalent to nearly 150 million US dollars. Pure hand-painted animation can be so powerful, not only shows that Hayao Miyazaki is powerful, but also shows that the RB market animation The big cake.

"Studio Ghibli has been cooperating with Dongbao Pictures, and Dongbao is responsible for the distribution of his animations, and Dongbao is also responsible for overseas marketing!" Zhou Lixian is very clear about Simon's thoughts, but this kind of project Bao will not involve outside investment.

"Forget it, if you are in charge of the market here in the future, you can also consider it if there are promising animation projects. To enter the local market, you still need something with local characteristics," Simon said and didn't think much about it. Anyway, for RB, Anime is definitely one of the features.

Zhou Lixian nodded, and then reminded in a low voice: "Simon, I have received a lot of invitations for RB economic and cultural exchange meetings recently. It should be that some political and commercial figures from RB want to use me as a bridge to meet with you. !"

"Oh, it seems that my status is indeed getting heavier now. When I was in the United States, I even met the Secretary of the Treasury, and my drawer was filled with invitations for meetings with heads of various companies. Now RB is like this, very Normal!" Simon said with a smile, but for himself, the impact of this crisis in RB was not big enough, and the unemployment rate was not even 4%.

The losses of several major automakers have not hurt the bones. With the current appreciation of the yen, the impact will gradually increase, and it is not enough.

"By the way, are there any other RB movies that you are optimistic about recently, or have the opportunity to be released in North America?" Simon should indeed take advantage of the current opportunity to exchange a batch of Japanese yen and invest in the RB region. He must have a certain industry in RB. That's right, otherwise when the yen appreciates, Japanese capital will flow to the United States.

"Shochiku Yinghua has an RB costume action adaptation movie "Women's Head Market" which will be released on RB in the next few days. I think this movie can be tried and distributed in the United States," Zhou Lixian said. After all, Kitano Takeshi also Directed and starred in a "Zatoichi".

"Uh, you can figure it out." Simon didn't report too much hope for the internationalization of RB movies. The golden age of RB movies was in the 1950s and 1960s. Now RB movies, whether commercial or artistic, can win The start is animation.

"The heroine of "Women's Head Market" is the heroine of "My Girlfriend is a Robot" released before. She is called Haruka Ayase, a new generation actress of RB, who is very popular this year," Zhou Lixian explained casually, anyway, now Xinghai The film industry is definitely business-oriented, and even if "Women's Head Market" is released in North American theaters, it is not prepared to invest much resources.

"So it is!" Simon pretended to nod, thinking of Haruka Ayase, a great RB actress, not bad.