Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 26 Complete the mission
"No No No," Li Qiutang was arguing with a fat Indian man, "200, no, 300, yes."

The fat Indian man refused: “200 is ok.”

"Not ok, 280 is ok."

"No No No, 200 is good." The fat Indian man didn't want to add a penny.

Li Qiutang still had a smile on his face, but he cursed in Chinese: "Wow, you fat bastard, you can't even afford 8 yuan."

But then he said in English: "India so good, so rich, 280 is good."

The fat guy also saw that the delay was too long, which had already aroused the dissatisfaction of the film producers in the queue behind him, so he finally said, "250 is good."

"OK, OK, 250 is good." Li Qiutang didn't want to bother with the Indians any more. The key point was that Indian English was too difficult to understand. The deal was settled at 25 US dollars.

Actually, to be honest, in the Indian market, just sell as long as you pay!
"The Night the Comet Came" has no singing or dancing and is too short, which does not suit the taste of Indian audiences. Li Qiutang had never thought in advance that Indians would buy it, and she felt it was a profit if it could be sold for 25.

I guess the fat guy will just sell it to a TV station after buying it, or distribute it directly in DVD.

After the buyer's screening, Li Qiutang met with many film distributors and was able to close most of the deals. Li Qiutang talked to three Japanese buyers alone, and finally sold the film to Gaga Films for US$3.

The Korean copyright was sold to CJ Entertainment for a reasonable price of US$33. The Koreans were smarter than India and they stuck to the price and refused to pay a penny more.

The copyrights of small Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand were packaged and bought away by the distributor of Emperor Entertainment Group for US$53. They also maintain a good sales network there.

The outstanding performance of "The Night the Comet Came" in the trading market attracted the attention of domestic media.

Their original attention was on the crew of "The Banquet" and Brad Pitt's new film that were coming in a few days, as well as "Still Life" and "Exile" that were transferred from Venice.

"Still Life" won the Golden Lion Award and the film was sold well in more than 30 countries in the Toronto trading market, which is cause for celebration.

But no one expected that "The Night the Comet Came" would sell so well.

Li Qiutang revealed the situation in an interview: "It's selling well, especially after the buyer's screening, many film producers came to us for talks. It has been sold to 30 or 40 countries now... I'm very happy that the cost has been recovered and I am worthy of the investors and creators... I will prepare for the release when I go back, and the pressure is much less."

Li Qiutang did not reveal the specific figures, but the reporter estimated that "The Night the Comet Came" sold about 200 million US dollars in three days in Toronto, which is a relatively outstanding performance of domestic films overseas this year.

The key is that he is still so young!

Early in the morning on the 10th, Li Qiutang dressed up to attend the screening of "The Night the Comet Came". He invited several leaders from Haitui Company to walk the red carpet with him, saying: "I am the only one from our crew, and it would not look good if I walked on the red carpet. Please help me and walk the red carpet with me so that it won't be too lonely."

Li Qiutang wanted to invite the crew of "The Good Man of Three Gorges" over, but the section chief and Qiaoqiao were too busy.

The crew of "Exile"?
Li Qiutang doesn't speak Cantonese and the other party doesn't understand Northeastern dialect, so they can't communicate.

The scale of the Toronto Film Festival is definitely incomparable to that of Montreal, and the event site was really packed with people.

Regardless of whether they came to join in the fun or to attend the event and watch a movie, Li Qiutang was always very happy to see that his event could gather so many people.

Accepting an impromptu interview with domestic media on the red carpet, Li Qiutang also expressed her feelings at the moment: "There were only 500 people queuing for Brad Pitt's new film, but for my film, you can see there were a thousand people at the scene, so why should I be dissatisfied?"

Zhou Tiedong also answered reporters' questions on behalf of Haitui Company. He did not say that "The Night the Comet Came" was not a project promoted by the company: "The main reason why "The Night the Comet Came" sold well was its quality. We just played a supporting role... Yes, so far, "The Comet" is the best-selling domestic film in Toronto this year. I cannot disclose the specific figures, but it definitely exceeds your estimate, hahahaha." Zhou Tiedong played a marginal ball, but Li Qiutang also allowed him to do so. After accepting interviews from several domestic and foreign media, Li Qiutang and others entered the theater.

Li Qiutang only got the news while sitting in the theater that there were at least 1,200 to 1,300 viewers queuing up to buy tickets for today's screening.

"The theater is considering whether to give us an extra screening in the next few days."

Li Qiutang had no objection: "Extra screening is good, I wish they would all come to see my movie." Even though Li Qiutang didn't get a penny from the box office during the film festival.

After the screening, the audience burst into enthusiastic cheers and whistles.

"Bravo!"

As usual, Li Qiutang stood up to accept their cheers and congratulations. Regardless of whether she knew them or not, Li Qiutang enthusiastically shook hands with the audience and guests around her.

Li Qiutang changed her closing remarks: "Seeing that you like Coherence so much, I know that my efforts have not been in vain. Thank you."

Li Qiutang watched the audience leave, and he was almost the last to leave.

After the screening in the morning, Li Qiutang received interview invitations from more than ten media outlets.

Seeing that he could not handle the job alone, Haitui Company sent two staff members to assist him.

Li Qiutang burst out with great energy at this time. He seemed to be tireless and accepted all the interviews he could. He talked to every reporter. He also did not delay the trading market and stayed in the Hyatt Hotel to discuss transactions between interviews.

After the screening, North American buyers finally came. Copyrights from other parts of the world had already been sold out, so Li Qiutang was just waiting for the big fish from North America.

Independent producers such as Lionsgate, Miramax, Focus, and Lakeshore came to negotiate one after another, and major studios such as Warner, Fox, and Universal were also very interested in the film.

In the end, Li Qiutang chose New Line Cinema, a subsidiary of Warner. Warner and other big companies tacitly did not want to pay too high a price for an oriental movie. Although New Line is a subsidiary of Warner, it has always maintained independent operation and has very rich experience in distributing B-level and low-cost films. The company became famous for distributing Hong Kong movies that no one dared to distribute, so New Line has always had a strong interest in oriental movies and is very courageous.

New Line offered $210 million, and Li Qiutang was willing to pay $250 million, but New Line didn't want to pay $250 million. In the end, the deal was negotiated to $238 million. New Line won the North American and Central American rights to "The Night the Comet Came" and added another $62 to make up $300 million. New Line also acquired the South American rights to its back garden.

This became the largest single transaction for "The Night the Comet Came".

So far, except for the film-deserted countries in West Asia where the copyright cannot be sold - if someone asks, we will sell it for money - the copyright of "The Night the Comet Came" in major regions of the world has been sold out, which took 6 days.

Li Qiutang can pack up and return home early.

The exhibition hall of "The Night the Comet Came" was closed the next day. The posters, signs, and TVs at the door were gone. When the reporter asked the company, he learned that "The Comet has completed its sales mission and Director Li has left the market."

This time, Xiao Li doesn't need to direct and act in the film himself, as he has his own reporters to promote it for him.

"Toronto News: The work "The Night the Comet Came" by young Chinese director Li Qiutang has been well received at the Toronto Film Festival. As of today, the global copyright of the film has been sold, and the profits are considerable."

"Fox Entertainment's young Chinese director Li Qiutang brought his work "The Night the Comet Came" to the Toronto Film Festival. It was only two months since he won the Best Film Award at the Montreal Fantastic Film Festival. "Comet" also attracted the attention of the audience and the media in Toronto. More than a thousand audiences lined up to buy tickets at the premiere. Director Li Qiutang was particularly happy about this scene. After the premiere, "Comet" received the largest number of transaction inquiries in the trading market. Today, the reporter went to the trading market again and saw that the booth of "Comet" was empty. According to the on-site staff, Director Li Qiutang worked in the trading market until 11 o'clock last night. "Comet" has completed copyright transactions in most markets around the world and exceeded the task. According to the reporter's observations and estimates in the past few days, the global copyright price of "Comet" is about 500 million US dollars. The film will be released in theaters across the country at the end of this month, which can be said to be profitable before it is released."

(End of this chapter)