Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Publicity was a huge part of the cost of other movies. That would also affect the film's final income.

The producers and distributors of certain movies loved to sign the valuation adjustment mechanism agreement. For example, the producers would authorize the film's guaranteed distribution rights at a total box office of one billion yuan. That way, the producers could directly obtain more than 300 million yuan in guaranteed income.

The advantage of doing so was that the producers could take less risk. Even if the movie box office failed miserably and lost all of their hard-earned money, these losses would be borne by the distributors, and the producers could still obtain more than 300 million yuan from the distributors.

However, if the box office of the movie exploded and exceeded one billion yuan, only a small portion of the money would be given to the producers and the bulk of it would be taken away by the distributors.

Of course, not everyone was qualified to sign such an agreement. Usually, only the best-known film series of directors could receive such treatment.

However, this also reflected a fact. Distributors had a lot of say in the film industry. If a movie wanted to become popular, it had to spend a lot of resources to publicize it. The distributors would definitely not take any less money when they split the money.

If the distributor paid for the movie's publicity and distribution fees, the distributor would charge 12-20% of the proxy distribution fees. If the distributor promised to keep the bottom, buy out the distribution fees, and pay for the production fees, the proxy distribution fees would be even higher.

Many film producers would not bear the cost of publicity on their own in order to reduce the risk. Thus, a large portion of the final box office earnings had to be paid to the distributors as proxy fees.

This was the reason why producers were still losing money even though movies seemed to be doing well at the box office.

However, Mission and Choice was an anomaly. The box office had exploded but they did not spend much money on publicity!

Since the distributors did not have to pay for the publicity fees, they could only take 5-15% of the box office of the distributors as the agency distribution cost, which, when converted into a shareable box office ratio, was only 2%~6%.

The specific ratio would be adjusted according to the weight of both parties' words.

Fei Huang Workspace, which had the successful experience of Tomorrow is Beautiful and had a close relationship with Shenhua Films, obviously had a higher say.

In other words, the 1.5 billion yuan box office earnings that Mission and Choice earned was at least 10% more than other movies!

On the other hand, for a box office of this level, every additional one or two percentage points might differ by tens of millions of yuan.

What's more, these calculations were based on the current 1.5 billion yuan box office.

The movie would be delayed for another two months!

Of course, the box office would not fluctuate too much even if they were to extend for two months according to conventional experience. If the extended box office could reach half of the total box office, it would be not bad even if it was only 5%.

1.5 billion yuan in the box office. The delayed box office would only be 60 to 70 million yuan at most.

That was because a movie would become popular very quickly. In the month after it premiered, those who wanted to watch it would have seen it. Those who did not would not watch it again. The box office that would be supported by some 'fish that slipped through the net' would not be much. What's more, the cinema chains would not foolishly give them so many slots.

However, the problem was that 'Mission and Choice' had not had prior publicity, so it had a strong after-effect. The box office performance on the thirtieth day was obviously higher than the average, and the ratio of delayed box office sales was probably better than other movies.

This casual bluff was another box office of tens of millions!

What's more, extending the screening of the movie would continue the popularity of the movie. Every domestic movie's box office records would increase a little. Many domestic video websites wanted to buy the copyright of the movie and send it to their own websites. The price offered would also be more generous…

Pei Qian slumped back in his chair, feeling like he had nothing to live for.

Pei Qian had originally thought that the worst had passed since the movie 'Mission and Choice' had ended. That was why he had prepared to take a look at the box office and accept the cruel reality.

However, after taking a look, he realized that it was not the worst yet. He had to cremate it again. The incinerator had just begun to heat up!

"This is bad. The benefits for the 515 Games Festival are still too little…"

Pei Qian felt hopeless.

The saddest thing in the world was that he had thought that he had successfully completed the mission and spent a huge sum of money. However, he realized that another huge amount of unexpected money was about to enter his account!

What should he do?

Pei Qian could only open the detailed document for the 515 Games Festival once again and think about how to salvage the situation.

Tengda Corporation's president's office was filled with worry.

…

At the same time, Long Yu Corporation looked completely different.

Zhao Xuming rushed to the conference room and met Eric.

"Good news!"

"The development team of 'Eternal Hunter' has just announced that they have decided to postpone the official release date of the game to next month due to technical reasons!"

Eric put down his work and looked up. "Oh?"

His eyes were also filled with surprise.

Logically speaking, it was very normal for game manufacturers to delay. Some would for a month or two, while others could be for half a year. There would only be more with no end.

A two-week delay like this was not considered big news.

However, this was a huge piece of good news for Eric and Zhao Xuming.

Eric chuckled. "Calling it a technical reason is probably an excuse. After all, Eternal Hunter had already gone through two rounds of testing. There were no malignant bugs, and the game was running quite well."

Zhao Xuming nodded. "That's right. They probably want to avoid us!"

"That's good. We don't want to collide with them either."

'Eternal Hunter' was an action mobile game that had been developed with a huge sum of money. It had already been publicized a few months ago, and there was a lot of support.

Before this, this game had already been tested twice. It had a good reputation and was very popular.

The only problem was that the official launch time of this game was set to be this Saturday. It would clash with IOI's mobile version.

That made Zhao Xuming worried for a while.

He might have absolute confidence in IOI mobile games and could not be at a disadvantage against any opponent but it was never pretty if they clashed.

That was because there were only so many recommendation spots in the country.

For example, the various cell phone application markets would definitely discuss cooperation with these games in advance and give their best recommendation spots to the games released this month.

While IOI mobile games could obtain the best recommendation spots, 'Eternal Hunter' would definitely have other good recommendations. That way, players would definitely be distributed, and IOI mobile games' stats would definitely be affected.

However, now, Eternal Hunter has given up!

Obviously, the people from Eternal Hunter also felt the pressure and felt that it was not appropriate to choose this time to be released. They decided to postpone it for two weeks to avoid the edge and ensure that the game would enjoy the highest popularity once it was released.

Eric asked, "In that case, the other games in the same period cannot be compared to IOI mobile games, right?"

Zhao Xuming nodded. "That's right! I just went through the application store two days ago. The new games in the same period are all small productions. They're on a completely different level from our mobile games. They won't pose any threat."

"I've seen the old games on the rankings as well. Tengda has a few evergreen mobile games, such as GOG, Bloody Battle Song, and the mobile version of Ocean Stronghold. However, these games are all played by fixed groups. They should not form a direct competitiveness with IOI mobile games."

Eric was very happy. "Alright, then hurry up and arrange for the mobile game to be released! The players probably can't wait any longer."

Long Yu Corporation was promoting IOI mobile games as their main focus. They exaggerated it alot. There was a huge discussion at the previous news conference. Gamers' expectations had reached a peak.

If this dragged on, the gamers' enthusiasm would dissipate. There would be no rush.

What's more, it was now a critical period for Tengda's "515 Game Festival". If IOI's mobile game was released earlier, it could also divert the attention of the entire internet to IOI's mobile game.

Zhao Xuming immediately went to make arrangements happily.

After Zhao Xuming left, Eric took out his cell phone and opened Shenhua's application store to check on the more popular newbie tour.

He did not doubt Zhao Xuming's words. He just glanced at it out of habit. That way, he could feel more at ease.

Eric used the POUIO cell phone himself, but he also had a Shenhua cell phone for work. After all, he was the person-in-charge of IOI in the Huaxia area. Shenhua cell phones occupied a huge market share in the entire mainland market. The situation that he saw through the Shenhua cell phone application could also reflect some problems.

Suddenly, Eric's gaze stopped at the recommendation spot at the top of Shenhua's application store.

It was a game called Fitness Battle!

Eric was a little confused. "Even such a game is able to get the best recommendation spots?"

He flipped through the game rankings in the application market, including the free rankings and best-selling rankings. He did not find this game among the top twenty this month.

He opened the other two applications markets and searched. He found that there was indeed a game called Fitness Battle, but it did not have a recommendation spot as good as Shenhua's application market. It was ranked very low on the best-selling list.

"This game seems to have only been released today. That's why it hasn't made it to the top of the rankings yet."

"We can't tell whether it earns money or not now."

"It looks like it has something to do with Shenhua. For a new game to be given such recommendation spots, it's not something that ordinary games companies can do."

"From the current ranking, it doesn't seem to be enough to pose a threat to IOI's mobile game."

"I wonder if Zhao Xuming saw this game before? He might not have seen it at all, or he might have seen it but did not care…"

Eric did not think much about it at first. After all, mobile games were developing like wildfire. There were a few new mobile games online almost every day. There was nothing to be surprised about.

However, when he clicked on the details page of the Fitness Battle and saw the developer's name, he immediately became alert.

This was created by Shang Yang Games!

It was the critical period in the price war with Tengda Corporation. Eric was very vigilant. When he saw the words' Shang Yang Games', he immediately stopped underestimating the game.

"No wonder Shenhua's application store gave such a good recommendation spot! They are in the same boat as Boss Pei!"

"Given the number of users in Shenhua's application market and Tengda's appeal, this game would probably reach the top of the best-selling charts very soon…"

Eric was not a good-for-nothing. He immediately understood how dangerous this was.

Perhaps the reason why Eternal Hunter delayed the release of the game was not only to avoid IOI mobile games, but also to avoid Fitness Battle!

However, what should he do next?

Delay, like what the Eternal Hunter did?

Eric quickly dismissed the idea.

On one hand, the delay would definitely bump into Eternal Hunter. It would not be easy to deal with it. Instead, he would hand over the market for the second half of the month to the Fitness Battle. This would cause him to incur a huge loss.

On the other hand, they were at the critical juncture of the '515 Game Festival'. If the game was delayed, how would gamers interpret it?

Either Finger Games had admitted defeat, or Finger Games had gone back on their word and had problems with project management. They had said that they would be able to come online but then jumped ship.

Either way, it was very bad for Eric!

After much consideration, Eric decided to follow his previous plan and not delay!

Eric would definitely not be confident if GOG's mobile game were to clash with IOI's mobile game.

However, one could tell at a glance that Fitness Battle was a leisure game related to fitness. It was not the Tengda Games department that was in charge of developing it; it was Shang Yang Games.

MOBA games did not even dare to play casual games. That was too embarrassing!

What's more, even though it was risky to go online at the same time, the benefits were huge.

If IOI's mobile game could become popular after it was released and seize a lot of public opinion, it would be a huge piece of good news for the money-burning war that both parties were engaged in!

At that thought, Eric did not inform Zhao Xuming to postpone the game. Instead, he allowed IOI's mobile game to be released within the week.