Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 24 is on sale in Toronto!

When Li Qiutang left the Huayi Celebration, she also took away a copy of Liu Yifei's album of the same name.

Liu Yifei said the album has not been released yet: "I'll give you a copy to listen to."

"You brought your album to other people's celebrations? Do you give it to everyone you meet? Do you want to build your reputation?"

"I'm not giving it to you." Liu Yifei wanted to take the album back.

"Yes, yes, yes." Li Qiutang smiled, "Give me an autograph so I can brag to others that I have a signed album from the Fairy Sister."

Liu Yifei seemed to like hearing such compliments, and readily signed her name on the album cover. Li Qiutang took one look and said, "You must have practiced signing a lot."

"Why are you so rude!" After signing the album, she returned it to Li Qiutang and said, "When your movie is released, give me two tickets."

"September 9th, the same day as their Baby Project. I'll pay you, and you can buy your own ticket. It's my treat."

After chatting and laughing for a while, the two separated.

In the report of the next day, Li Qiutang did get a chance to appear in Liu Yifei's camera.

"Yesterday, Huayi Brothers' 12th anniversary celebration was held at the Yanjing China World Hotel, with more than a hundred celebrities present to congratulate. ... The picture shows Liu Yifei walking on the red carpet."

Li Qiutang: ???

I'm just standing next to you, don't you even introduce yourself to me?

Some media also recognized and introduced him, saying that he was the young director Li Qiutang, a classmate of Liu Yifei at the Film Academy.

But that's all.

That year, I attended the celebration and stood like a minion.

The last domestic blockbuster of this summer season comes from Zhang Guoli, who is directing again after 13 years. The film is adapted from last year's "600 celebrity phone leaks" incident and is titled "The 601st Call."

The film brings together Zhang Baizhi, Zhou Bichang, Hu Ge and other popular idols. Zhang Guoli shouted before the screening: "I will not make any more movies if the box office is less than 3000 million!"

The film promotion period just happened to coincide with "Love in the Wind". Zhang Guoli also recognized Zhou Bichang as his "goddaughter" at the press conference. Zhang Baizhi also had a passionate performance for the film. All these raised the audience's expectations high.

But the 500 million box office revenue in the first weekend was not enough to comfort Zhang Guoli. The film failed in the most critical Guangdong market, with attendance dropping again and again, almost the same as the horror film "The Call."

Zhang Guoli was defeated. He admitted that the movie failed at the box office, but he would not admit that he failed: "The most important reason is that people do not pay enough attention to domestic films. Now when you go to the cinema to watch a movie, everyone's first reaction is to watch American blockbusters. The whole market has been made into a genre film market. "The 601st Call" is not bad, after all, it is scheduled for the summer season. I don't know how many domestic films have been shelved. ... Audiences and cinemas should change their mindsets and pay more attention to domestic films. Only by changing the types of food can you eat healthily."

"It's not time to discuss success or failure yet. I won't admit that I failed."

He also said that audiences are too demanding of domestic films: "Now our films are competing with Hollywood blockbusters every year, but no one pays attention to this. This is very unfair to those of us who are making movies."

It is understandable that filmmakers are so stubborn about their own works.

In fact, the "600 celebrity phone numbers leaked" incident is very suitable for adaptation into a psychological thriller, but Zhang Guoli and his team don't seem to have any ideas in this regard.

Just when Zhang Guoli was confronting the audience and the media, his leading actor, Lao Hu, got into a car accident!

Lao Hu is a rising star in the domestic entertainment industry. Both his “Legend of Sword and Fairy” and “Fairy From the Other World” were very successful on air.

His car accident affected many people, and the most direct impact was that Tang Ren's "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" crew stopped filming less than a month after it started.

After the first weekend of September, Li Qiutang packed her two suitcases and boarded a plane to Toronto.

The Toronto Film Festival is the largest film trading market in North America, and it can even be said to be the second largest film trading market in the world after the Cannes Film Festival.

Countless buyers and sellers from all over the world will gather in Toronto.

Li Qiutang's trip to Toronto this time was to sell films rather than screening them. That's why he left early. The trading market usually opens one or two days before the film festival, so that buyers and sellers can work together to hype up the festival.

Food and accommodation in Montreal are already expensive, but I didn’t expect Toronto to be even more expensive than Montreal!

The rental cost of a small cubicle in the trading market is as high as 320 Canadian dollars a day, and the rental cost of a large bed room in a hotel near the main venue starts at 500 Canadian dollars a day!
Film festivals are indeed a money-grabbing business.

After flying for more than 30 hours to Toronto and taking a nap, Li Qiutang went to the main venue of the film festival trade market - Toronto Hyatt Hotel early the next morning.

The Toronto International Film Festival Film Market booth does not accept external applications and must be set up as a representative of a national organization.

Therefore, Li Qiutang's booth was set up in the lobby of the China Film Overseas Promotion Company. This was also good, as she could be with her compatriots and always have someone to look after her.

However, the overseas promotion company did not charge any less fees than it should have and did not even bother to give any discounts.

Arriving at her cubicle, Li Qiutang began to decorate it. She pasted posters of her own movies on the door, put up a roll-up banner, rented a TV, and pushed it to the door to play the English trailer of the movie. She also placed brochures on the small table at the door, as well as small gifts for visiting buyers - panda dolls that Li Qiutang bought specially for her.

Li Qiutang borrowed a stepladder from Haitui Company and sat on it to nail a long poster on the lintel of her cubicle.

I heard a voice in English calling out from below: "Hey, is this the Coherence room? Do you know where their staff is?"

Li Qiutang looked down and saw a bald white man. He thought he was a staff member of the trading market, so he came down and said, "I am a staff member of the "Coherence" crew. What can I do for you?"

"I am the distributor of Memento Films in France. I would like to talk to your distributor about the copyright of Coherence."

I didn’t expect that distributors would come to discuss business before the film festival even opened. This is a good sign.

"No need to look for it. We have just started selling the overseas copyright. I am the director and the copyright owner. I can talk to you." Li Qiutang's hard work in practicing English was very effective.

Afraid that the bald man would not believe him, Li Qiutang showed him the official certificate of the film festival to confirm that he was the director of "The Night the Comet Came".

Li Qiutang invited the bald man to sit down, gave him a panda doll, and brought him a bottle of water.

A senior manager of Haitui Company saw that something was wrong with Li Qiutang and came over to assist the young director.

He helped Li Qiutang verify the bald man's identity and found out that he was indeed the distributor of Memento Films.

Memento Films is a well-known film distributor in France and even Europe, and prefers to explore films from Asian, African and Latin American countries.

The bald distributor said that he had seen "Coherence" in Montreal two months ago and wanted to buy it at that time, but he had to return home early due to some unexpected matters and unfortunately missed it.

After chatting for a while, the bald distributor offered US$70 to purchase the copyright of "The Night the Comet Came" in the UK, France and Germany, or US$210 million to buy out the global distribution outside the mainland. As for how Memento Films would distribute it in the future, it was no longer Li Qiutang's business.

The manager of Haitui Company was very excited. Could this be sold for more than 1000 million?

But Li Qiutang proposed to sell the entire European copyright to the other party for US$150 million, plus US$30 for the African copyright, and he would keep the Asian and American copyrights for later sale.

Memento Films rejected this proposal and offered to buy out the European and African copyrights for 150 million.

"Deal?"

"Deal." Li Qiutang shook hands with the other party and closed the deal!

Sign the contract and leave, it takes no more than 5 minutes.

The trading market discusses copyright so quickly!

The manager of Haitui Company standing by was shocked: "What on earth can this young man do? What kind of movie is this!"

It’s not that he hasn’t seen a movie that makes so much money, it’s that he has never seen a director so young who can make so much money!

(End of this chapter)