After everyone gathered, they officially started ordering.

Seeing that the dishes on this menu are often hundreds of francs, all the filmmakers from the mainland are a little reluctant to let go.

In the 1990s, the exchange rate of RMB against the franc was about one to two.

A dish of hundreds of francs, that is, one to one or two hundred yuan.

In the 1990s, the monthly salary of ordinary employees was only about 100 yuan.

A dish costs two months’ salary, which makes these mainland filmmakers hesitate.

"Don't be polite to me, just be as good as you can. I will treat you all today's accounts, so you can be considered a big eater." Xia Tian smiled.

"Yes, you guys don't have to be polite. A Tian is very rich and he will never be able to eat a meal." Lin Qingxia also greeted with a smile.

After hearing what they both said, everyone started ordering dishes.

...

After the food was served, everyone ate and chatted.

Because almost all mainland filmmakers present are from mainland films, the discussion is about the development of mainland films.

Chen Kaige is a good talker and is very optimistic about the future development of mainland films.

"Now that reform and opening up, there are no restrictions on sensitive topics, and private capital is allowed to invest in movies, so mainland movies will surely flourish in the future." He said confidently.

Huang Lei and Xu Qing also nodded, and were also full of confidence in future mainland movies.

Although Zhang Yimou was not good at speaking, he kept eating his lamb chops attentively and occasionally made a sentence. However, he coincided with Chen Kaige's future development trends, and he also felt that his future was optimistic.

But Xia Tian knew that mainland movies would soon collapse.

Around 1994, with the introduction of European and American blockbusters, Hong Kong and Taiwan blockbusters, the market share of domestic films was suddenly suppressed.

People bought tickets to watch blockbusters in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Europe and the United States. They felt that their scenes were grand, their stories were wonderful, and their fights were fierce, which were incomparable to domestic films. Therefore, the box office of domestic films plummeted, and the mainland became a paradise for European and American blockbusters, Hong Kong and Taiwan blockbusters and co-productions.

In addition, after the mid-1990s, with the popularity of VCD, Tuoban Video Disc began to occupy the market strongly. Unlike the Tuoban Video Cases, which had high production costs and high prices, the production costs and selling prices of Tuoban Video Discs fell sharply, making it popular and entered thousands of households, becoming the first choice for people to watch movies.

This also further hurt the mainland film market, and after China joined the World Trade Organization and was forced to open the mainland film market, it was on the verge of death.

In 2002, the size of the mainland film market was only 9.2 billion yuan. However, during September 1st, the size of the mainland film market was 2.4 billion yuan.

If we count the changes in the purchasing power of the RMB in these eleven years, the size of the mainland film market in 2002 has shrunk by more than ten times compared with the 1991 year.

At that time, American blockbusters accounted for 50% of the box office, while mainland Hong Kong co-productions and mainland domestic films accounted for 25% respectively. This is due to the limited entry of foreign films into China, otherwise mainland films would lose even worse.

...

Even after 2008, the mainland film market began to take off, and mainland films began to create box office miracles, which seemed too much in summer.

Because the mainland film industry at that time did not pay attention to the quality of the movie itself. We didn’t care about the story, the character creation, the technological innovation, etc.

They put most of their money on inviting celebrities and devote most of their energy to movie promotion. By adding traffic stars to hype promotion, the box office of a bad movie can easily exceed 100 million.

In comparison, those masterpieces that have no traffic stars and no money to do big publicity have rarely achieved impressive results at the box office.

This phenomenon is very unhealthy. Because if the film market wants to develop healthily, it must pay attention to the production of movies and the quality of movies. Only when excellent works are constantly released will the people become more and more interested in watching movies.

On the contrary, good movies cannot sell high box offices, while bad movies have achieved good results again and again, which leads to bad money driving out good money, making the market full of bad movies.

People are not fools and will not always be fooled. Sooner or later, they will not buy into bad movies.

The protection month of domestic films will eventually be cancelled. At that time, foreign films will no longer have a limit when entering China. It will fight with domestic films in close combat and compete for the market.

At that time, mainland movies that will only produce bad movies and rely on traffic stars to attract box office will compete with Hollywood blockbusters that frequently produce excellent works and are good at promoting the war. I am not very optimistic about it.

...

"Mr. Xia, why have you never spoken? Do you don't agree with my point of view?" Chen Kaige asked curiously.

Since Xia Tian sat down, he has never spoken much, and he has always talked about it himself. Although this feeling of "leading ahead of the crowd" makes him feel very happy, but after singing a one-man show for a long time, it is inevitable that it is a bit monotonous.

"To be honest, Director Chen thinks the opposite. I think the development of mainland films will be very unsuccessful in the next few years." Xia Tian smiled slightly.

"Oh, why do you say that?" Everyone asked in discomfort when they heard this.

"First, because mainland films have long been state-owned investment, planned economy, unified purchase and sales, mainland filmmakers have also become accustomed to this system.

Now that the reform and opening up are reforms, mainland films are facing reforms. The country no longer invests unconditionally, and no longer purchases and sales are unified. Film factories need to find funds and distribute them themselves. This will lead to a decline in the income of film factories and a shortage of funds.

Mainland filmmakers are accustomed to the old-style system, and the films they make may not satisfy the audience's appetite, so in the future, the box office of the movie will definitely drop, and the number of works produced each year will also decrease;

Second, with the reform and opening up of the mainland, European and American films, Hong Kong and Taiwan films, and co-productions will appear in the mainland film market. It is no exaggeration to say that there is still a certain gap between the current mainland films and Hong Kong and Taiwan films and European and American films. This will also affect the box office of mainland films;

Third, mainland movies will also be infringed on the thief. Due to the thief, the annual losses of our Hong Kong movies are expected to be around 500 million Hong Kong dollars.

Although the mainland's thief market has just developed for a few years, the production cost is lower and the market is broader. Believe me, in less than two or three years, the scale of the mainland's thief market will be no less than that of Hong Kong. This will further infringement of mainland movies.

With the popularity of TV, computers, electronic games, etc., mainland movies will not be easy in the future." Xia Tian smiled slightly.

After listening to his analysis, all the mainland filmmakers present were ashamed.

They all come from the mainland, so they naturally know that what Xia Tian said is actually problems, and there is no alarmist statement.

And the more this happens, the more terrifying it is.
Chapter completed!