An explanation
Why "Wulin Gaiden" has a production budget of 200 million yuan in everyone's eyes, because in this world, it was made at the S level from the beginning. For the S level, they gave such a budget figure, I think It shouldn't be an exaggeration.
Everyone thinks it is exaggerated and outrageous because the actual production cost of "Wulin Gaiden" 20 years ago was substituted into it, so they think 200 million is outrageous. But what if this matter had not happened? Let’s look at a 30-episode costume drama from a conventional perspective. The platform is set to be an S-level production. Is 200 million high?
Secondly, the era when "Wulin Gaiden" was produced is no longer the same as the current film and television production environment. At that time, the director's salary, actors' salary and screenwriter's salary were very low because they were not well-known celebrities. So is this still the case in "Wulin Gaiden" under the current situation?
Share some data from my research:
Before entering the money-burning era, there was one costume comedy that I felt should be the benchmark, and that was another costume comedy "Dragon Gate Escort" by Ning Caishen. The news said it was 40-60 million. Except for Anita Yuen, none of the leading actors at that time were Big-name star Guo Jingfei became popular later. It was broadcast in 2013 and was produced earlier. In my memory, when it was broadcast, the video platform was not as popular as it is now. From my understanding, no video platform has brought into the era of "capital burning", and stars' remuneration has not increased to the exaggerated level now, and they have to spend so much money, so under the current situation, "Wulin Gaiden" is impossible Is it still a mid- to low-budget drama?
In 2021, iQiyi CEO Gong Yu said in a conference call: "We invested a lot of costs. At that time, a TV series cost about several thousand yuan. Now even though we do not rely on copyright procurement, The copyright purchase starts from 2 million per episode, so everyone can basically watch it The starting price of a drama is two million, and if it is broadcast independently, it may be six million or eight million, so the cost has increased, and based on profit requirements, it will also increase. "
For a thirty-year-old drama. I think it is reasonable to set a budget of 200 million for an S+-class costume drama from an industry perspective.
Of course, if you still can’t accept this, I will accept it too. I'm just explaining to you why I wrote such numbers. I didn't just slap my head on my head and write them down casually.
Are there any low-cost costume comedies in this era?
Yes, one is a low-cost drama after online dramas entered the traffic era, "Legend of the Magpie Sword". The production cost was about 15 million. In the end, Tencent rated it as a B-level film, with a publicity budget of 2 million. Of course, it later became popular, far exceeding expectations.
This also shows that the higher the investment, the better the drama.
However, under the general environment, many dramas nowadays are not "The Legend of Magpie Sword", but "The Son-in-law".
Just like it is also written in the novel, Chen Ziyan said to Lu Yanhe: "Yanhe, you don't understand what an S+ level drama means to a platform, unless you give Bai Zhantang and Tong Xiangyu The role is cast by a big star, otherwise, in the acting As for the actors, the platform must be a big difficulty. Your screenwriter is indeed a big attraction, but it cannot carry the drama.”
The platform rated "Wulin Gaiden" as S+. Went with big-name screenwriters, big-name producers, and big-name actors.
Even Chen Ziyan said that if Lu Yanhe didn’t find a star, the platform would not foot the bill—in other words, it would not give him 200 million in production funding. Of course, that's another story.
Concerning the production cost of 200 million and Lu Yanhe’s choice of actors for "Wulin Gaiden", the subsequent contradictions and conflicts between him and the platform are the hooks I buried in this chapter.
To put it simply, the basic market has the basic market, and Xiaolu has what Xiaolu has to do.
I cannot think that "Wulin Gaiden" can be reproduced intact just because of its original production cost.
For a drama, there are cheap ways to shoot it, and there are expensive ways to shoot it.
In the eyes of many people, "Wulin Gaiden" must be an expensive film, because many people have high hopes for it.
For Lu Yanhe, "Wulin Gaiden" does not need to be so expensive to shoot, because he knows that it can be popular even if it is not so expensive.
This is another thing to explain.
One more thing, I have also thought about whether to let Xiao Lu do such a low- to medium-cost drama. After thinking about it, I feel that it is not in line with Xiao Lu's current setting. Because after the broadcast of "Six People", all major platforms are competing for Xiao Lu. Under this situation, Xiao Lu has almost no reasonable drive to make such a drama. Of course, after seeing everyone's feedback, Xiao Lu's salary of 1.5 million per episode is indeed a bit high. I will ponder some more information and make revisions later.
above.
(End of this chapter)