Capítulo 303: Risk and Investment
The topic of 3D movies was brought up, which also made Alexander blush slightly. When Levi brought up this topic a year ago, he thought it was too risky and refused to do it. But now, a year later, he brought it up again. He himself felt a little embarrassed.
Yet, as the saying goes, no risk, no reward.
The movies of the past two years have allowed Alexander to see that with the advancement of the times, if you want to make money, you must either have enough technology or enough influential movies and if you're going to make big money, you must have both.
The most popular movie series in the past two years — Spider-Man, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings — were all works that had significant influence even before their film releases.
The top three most influential superheroes in the United States, the most popular fairy tales, and fantasy novels that have been familiar to people for many years — only such influential works can arouse enough interest from people.
After being adapted into movies, popularity can be exchanged for a high box office. Other movies are always inferior.
This is the information age. Whether a movie has enough publicity before its release and whether it can arouse sufficient interest from people are directly related to the movie's box office. No matter how high the film's promotional expenses are, it will not be as well-known as something that has already had a profound impact on people.
Logically speaking, acquiring more influential works seems like a viable strategy now that the company understands this. But the problem is, how can those influential works be so easy to acquire?
The acquisition of the adaptation rights for any influential novel will never be cheap, not to mention that many of them have already been acquired by large companies early on.
While Mystery Company is not small, it does not rank among the top-tier giants. Competing with companies like Disney for works like The Chronicles of Narnia is impossible.
Therefore, in a sense, the arrival of the blockbuster era determines that competition will persist in this manner. Big companies will only continue to expand, making it challenging for smaller companies to compete.
After all, large corporations have a significant advantage in terms of connections, technology, and resources, while small companies might have countered with creativity and novelty. In this era, there are fewer and fewer such opportunities.
If it's just that he can't make big-money movies, Alexander might just accept his fate. He can still make a living even if he doesn't make much money. However, can this model really make a living if it continues to operate? This is also a big problem.
The rise of commercial blockbusters has significantly constricted the fertile ground for contemporary literary and artistic films. After the emergence of commercial blockbusters, investment has increased step by step.
In today's landscape, a movie is seldom considered a blockbuster unless it commands a budget of at least 100 million dollars. Such films naturally generate substantial profits, making them financially successful works. A company can make huge profits, but when it comes time to lose money, it can also be huge.
Carlock fell for Cutthroat Island, and MGM fell for Windtalkers. This trend persists to this day — movies that achieve blockbuster status but end up in financial loss. Such instances continue to emerge relentlessly, posing a significant risk for small companies. For such a large investment, if you lose money once, you will be in ruins.
It is true that movies are a hugely profitable industry, but it is also a bottomless pit when it loses money. People look at the huge profits made by big companies, but they always ignore the small companies and those at the bottom who died miserably.
Mystery Company is not a small company now, and the movies it shoots are relatively profitable.
However, among their films, whether it is Resident Evil or X-Men, the copyrights were purchased when the blockbuster era was still in its ascendant.
In this day and age, they can make money with these two cash cows, but what should they do if people lose interest in these two series?
Should Mystery Company continue to acquire promising themes? The cost of such acquisitions can be substantial. Is digging for new and innovative topics a viable strategy? While Levi's two previous bets proved successful, that doesn't mean he can continue to win. What if he loses?
The blockbuster era has actually had a huge impact on these small companies. Traditional small investments no longer make money, and large investments are too risky, making their living environment more difficult.
The Mystery Company spends a lot of money, encompassing venue rentals, equipment, staff salaries, and technology research and development — all demanding significant investments.
Making money from movies can support them, but if a movie is ruined and the loss is 100 million, then the only way Alexander can think of, besides relying on the income from the TV series to make up for it, is to hope that Levi will spend money on it.
Of course, with the income from the TV series, it probably won't go bankrupt. And Alexander doesn't doubt that Levi's love for movies will do just that.
However, the film company he ran ended up losing money, and he relied on the money earned by his partners to invest in it. This kind of thing was undoubtedly an insult to Alexander's business ability.
No one likes to fail.
The development of the times has put too much pressure on the company. Therefore, after thinking about it, Alexander gradually accepted the idea of a 3D movie that Levy proposed last year.
3D movies are nothing more than very large investments, but which of the current movies has a smaller investment?
For the current Mystery Company, gambling is a must. Since you want to gamble, maybe 3D movies will become a trump card in your hand. Moreover, despite the Three-Body series not being a high-profile franchise, the associated risks are relatively small in comparison.
Now that they have to gamble as things develop, they might as well try a bigger gamble.
Levi also spoke, listening to his question.
"The deadline for The Three-Body Problem 2 is approaching, and we're still undecided on whether to adapt the script first for a movie release, following the approach of the first installment or to publish the novel first to build anticipation among the audience. Since this decision is yet to be made, I haven't thought about 3D and 2D aspects. If the approach changes, the focus on 3D and 2D will definitely be different, and we will definitely have to think carefully about how to shoot. I haven't started working on these aspects yet."
If you want to turn a novel into a script, in addition to the story, everything from scene design to character modeling needs to be done bit by bit.
Especially for such a commercial blockbuster, it cannot be done by sitting at home by yourself.
The shooting methods and composition of 3D movies will be very different from other movies. Therefore, the scripts will definitely be very different.
While Alexander may not be adept at scriptwriting, he clearly understands what a script entails.
Levi also knew that this aspect could not be hidden from him, so he did not rush to write the script - he hoped to shoot 3D, so he gave Alexander time and waited for Alexander to figure it out.
And now the time has come.
"Then, when you write, you should follow 3D." After listening to Levi's words, Alexander was silent for a moment and then spoke.
"What's wrong? Have you figured it out?" Levi asked with a smile.
"New Line is now preparing to raise funds to shoot a movie called The Golden Compass. This movie has an investment of 170 million. Obviously, they are also ready to take a gamble.
If our company continues to develop, we want to compete with them; we can only increase investment and gamble desperately like them.
So instead of gambling one by one, it is better to suppress them all in one breath - anyway, any failure is difficult for us to bear, so it's better to gamble for fun."
Alexander seemed to have answered the question incorrectly, but he still explained his thoughts clearly. When he spoke, there were some unclear meanings in his own words.
Back then, 240 million was invested in Titanic, almost bringing down two big companies. But now, any movie starts to have such high investment. New Line has never been a big company, but now they dare to invest 170 million.
Times have changed, and investment is getting bigger and bigger.
If this continues, will there be movies in the future with investments exceeding 200 million or even higher? Alexander thinks it's entirely possible. If this is the case, what is the difference between 2D and 3D?
Listening to his words, Levi nodded slightly. He remembered clearly that the filming of The Golden Compass failed, and then New Line was acquired by Warner - in this era, if you fail to invest in a movie, this is the end.
A year ago, he had decided that Alexander would realize the significance of his advice as time went by and now was the time.
"Compared with slowly investing in a movie and slowly taking on the pressure, it's better to make a beautiful attempt directly and take a gamble to see if we have the possibility of winning."
Alexander waved his hand and declared with pride, "I've made up my mind."
But he still only said half of what he thought.
He knew that this approach was indeed a gamble, but this gamble was proposed by Levi a year ago. Since it belongs to Levi, he should have some confidence. Over the years, every investment made by Levi has done well, which also made Alexander vaguely believe that Levi could succeed this time.
But he was embarrassed to say this: He always relied on Levi for development but didn't know anything about movies. It was always like this, and this partner also felt slightly embarrassed.
However, this thought, even if he didn't say it, how could Levi not know it? However, he also smiled softly and did not reveal it.
"There is no problem with any of this." Levi agreed to all of Alexander's arrangements. When it came to investment, Alexander is indeed trustworthy. "Believe me, this movie will definitely be good."
Having the trust of friends is always a good thing. Why bother to undermine his self-confidence? What he should do more is give him confidence.
Besides, he originally thought it would be good.
With a higher level of technology and deeper thoughts, in this era where film ideology is less and less valued and only the special effects of films are paid attention to, it is possible to achieve victory in all aspects.
This movie of his has been planned for a long time.
Whether it is technology or ideas, he believes he can do the best in this era.
*****
Thanks and kudos for my patreons
Marcelo Maia
Britanna
Mandy G
Scott DePaepe
Oluwatimileyin Olayemi
Herylle Ian Gloria
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