I Forged the Myth of the Ancient Overlords
Chapter 115 - 115 114. Million profit_1

Chapter 115: 114. Million profit_1 Chapter 115: 114. Million profit_1 I have to say, perfect video material with a hundred percent task exploration truly is excellent.

Not only is the image quality extremely high, but the angles are varied, and some of the experiences, Lu Ban himself hasn’t even been through.

However, looking at the Red Leaf in the video, Lu Ban still felt a bit melancholic.

“Thinking about it like this, if these videos were widely circulated, at least the people of this world would know about you, remember you, that’d be a memory too.”

Lu Ban muttered to himself and then felt someone pat his shoulder.

Turning around, Lu Ban saw a pair of eyes full of blood vessels, watching him from the shadows by the bedside.

“Did you come up from the sewer?”

He asked a question and the eyes slowly vanished beneath the shadow of the curtains.

How should I put it? It’s like a pet cat at home. No matter how you call it usually, it won’t respond, but when you’re focused on doing something, these cats will keep coming over wanting cuddles, hugs, and high fives, even patting you with their little paws.

Lu Ban turned his attention back to the computer.

“Videos longer than thirty minutes can basically be considered micro-movies.”

He pondered for a moment and then started searching online for revenue information concerning micro-movies.

“To make money from long videos, a reliable method is to make a short film and rely on box office revenue. If the ticket price is twenty, then watching by one hundred and forty thousand people would almost complete the task. However, that’s a calculation for the cinema. If it’s just a low-cost online feature film or movie festival screening, the profit-sharing percentage could be higher.”

Lu Ban had studied the profit-sharing model of domestic movies before. Roughly speaking, out of every hundred yuan of box office revenue, about ten percent goes to taxes and a special film fund. Then, the cinema chains and movie theaters take a little over half, the distributor takes another ten percent or so, and less than forty percent eventually reaches the production company.

This profit, after deducting costs, means the box office needs to be at least three times the cost to break even.

However, Lu Ban’s costs were almost zero, so whatever he earned would be pure profit.

“It’s a bit difficult to go through cinemas; the sharing percentage is low, and the video material I have isn’t really enough to make a ninety-minute movie. A forty to fifty-minute film just isn’t enough to draw people to the cinema.”

Lu Ban then checked the revenue models of online feature films.

Setting aside the shares taken by investors and producers, the revenue of online movies is also calculated by clicks. On video websites like ‘Craftsman Video Network’ and ‘Scarecrow Video Network,’ movies are rated and different ratings correspond to different click rates ranging from fifty cents to two and a half yuan.

Since these video websites mainly profit from VIP monthly subscriptions, the playback volume also distinguishes between valid and invalid views. When a viewer watches the movie for over six minutes, it counts as a valid view, and revenue is calculated based on these valid views only.

This is why many website movies have a ‘six-minute curse,’ where free users can only watch the first six minutes.

With this model, Lu Ban would need to reach at least four hundred thousand valid clicks on an exclusive platform to make a million in revenue.

If not exclusive, the total clicks across all platforms would need to exceed seven hundred thousand.

“Looking at it this way, making money with online movie broadcasts seems to be faster.”

He had some internal data from when he established a film studio. Although many websites do not directly show the number of plays, the internal data still has accurate figures. Hot online movies can get three to four million valid plays within two months of release. Based on exclusive profit-sharing, this translates to a revenue of around six million yuan.

But this model is a case of survival of the fittest, just like online literature. People see small investments making big returns, but they don’t see how many network dramas and online movies lose everything.

Many people look down on web series and online movies, thinking they can’t compare to the feature films shown on TV and in cinemas, considering them as rough, shoddy knock-offs.

In reality, there are indeed many web series and online movies that are merely riding on trends, like ‘Tomb Notes of the Green Tung Tree,’ ‘Ghost Blows Out the Light of the Green Tomb,’ ‘Interstellar Travel of the Dream Stealing Knight’ and so on.

However, there are also some online video works that, due to less stringent censorship, have more open content, especially when it comes to themes of mystery, social issues, and crime.

Of course, Lu Ban had a third option, which was to take advantage of the end-of-year movie festival craze and screen at a movie festival node. The cinema’s cut in this scenario is smaller, and he would get a larger share of the profits. Moreover, movie festivals usually attract more passionate movie enthusiasts who have a stronger willingness to pay.

In the past, Lu Ban had seen examples of low-budget films that first got good reviews at film festivals and then went on to achieve solid box office results in cinemas.

Of course, he likely wouldn’t be able to attend the film festival. A video length of just over an hour could barely qualify as a student’s graduation project, let alone make it onto the big screen.

“It seems like broadcasting on the internet is the most convenient.”

Lu Ban tentatively made a decision, but in the end, it would still depend on the final film he was able to produce.

He first organized his own experiences, dividing the entire film into several small segments, differentiating them by structure following the pattern of setup, development, climax, and resolution. Then, he began to work seriously.

“Speaking of which, I wonder if that murderer has been found.”

In the evening, Lu Ban stretched and murmured to himself as he spoke casually.

He decided to go downstairs for dinner.

At night, there seemed to be more people in the community.

Lu Ban saw elderly people walking with children, girls walking dogs, and a destitute-looking middle-aged man in a suit sitting on a bench, with a couple nearby engrossed in their phones, showing affection to each other.

“You’re going to catch a cold like that.”

Lu Ban kindly said to the down-and-out middle-aged man, whose hair was damp, as if he had just climbed out of the water. The man was clutching a briefcase as if afraid of something.

The man glanced at Lu Ban but did not speak.

However, the couple nearby looked towards the bench suspiciously and then at Lu Ban.

“Who are you talking to?”

The guy asked.

“To this uncle here.”

Lu Ban pointed at the middle-aged man.

“…Let’s leave, we shouldn’t stay here.”

The girl said with some disgust, pulling her boyfriend to stand up.

“Alright then, if you want to stay here, so be it.”

Lu Ban didn’t fuss about it, as he had only intended to give a friendly reminder.

After dinner behind Jiangcheng University, Lu Ban returned to the building where his apartment was located.

Taking the elevator up, he arrived at the hallway of his home.

“Hmm?”

From a distance, Lu Ban noticed something odd about his door.

“Did I leave the door open?”

He frowned slightly.

Because the security door was ajar, seemingly available to open with just a nudge.

*

Seeking monthly and recommendation tickets!