“The Tenants Downstairs,” a movie adapted from a novel of the same title by local author Giddens Ko, grossed over NT$100 million (US$3.18 million) at the box office in just 10 days after it was released Aug. 12 in Taiwan. Not only is the number a record high for locally produced R-rated films in 2016, the novel also topped the bestseller list of locally based Kingstone Bookstore 12 years after it was first published.
With a production budget of NT$150 million and cast comprising award-winning stars from Taiwan and Hong Kong, including Simon Yam and Lee Kang-sheng, the film makes no bones about human nature through the story of a landlord who secretly watches his eight tenants. Combining the genres of fantasy, horror, mystery and suspense, the movie is widely seen as a breakthrough in local productions, which are mostly fluffy romantic stories.
The film marks the directing debut of Adam Tsuei, the mastermind behind the blockbuster. The former head of Sony Music in Greater China, Tsuei was credited for single-handedly creating popular singers such as Jay Chou, Jolin Tsai and Leehom Wang. At the peak of his career, then 50-year-old Tsuei left Sony to “nurture the local culture.” Determined to pursue his dream in cinematography, he set up his own production company and enrolled himself in the motion picture master’s program at National Taiwan University of Arts to become the “oldest rookie director.”
Box office based on readership
While it seemed back to square one for Tsuei, he enjoyed an advantage in market knowledge over rival directors given his undergraduate degree in law, master’s in business administration and more than 20 years of management experience in a multinational corporation. “It is no surprise at all that the movie would earn more than NT$100 million. I just did not expect it to happen in such a short period,” Tsuei said.
Tsuei has a proven track record in the movie business. Including “You’re the Apple of My Eye,” “Tiny Times” and “Cafe. Waiting. Love,” his past forays totaled NT$6 billion in box office receipts. Movies are like commodities to Tsuei. It is not only possible to predict market responses, he said, but there are also clues available to help make such estimates.
During the second year of his graduate study, Tsuei said he once sat up reading the novel “The Tenants Downstairs,” and decided to turn the story into his graduation project. He brought the novelist Ko in to write the screenplay and invited TV producer Angie Chai to handle production. But their first responses were “Are you out of your mind?” Chai said the story and production sets were complicated, including six rooms, eight tenants and one landlord. “With so many storylines, it is too difficult to explain everything clearly in two hours and make it a fine piece.”
Tsuei’s daring plan was actually backed by meticulous calculations. “My primary goal is to embrace the audience. It will be best if I can make money at the same time.” In fact, whenever he decided to sign new artists for Sony Music, he would always tell them that “you do not sing for your own pleasure. You have to please others.” To him, no decisions can be out of touch with reality.
In the face of a segmented market, Tsuei said a movie needs to find its own target audience. For example, before filming “The Tenant Downstairs,” Tsuei performed a big data analysis based on the novel’s sales number and online downloads. “I then multiplied the numbers by between three and five considering pirated copies and the fact that most of Giddens Ko’s articles can be downloaded for free.” These are the basics for box office income estimations.
Capping budget variance at 10 percent
This is not the first time Tsuei capitalized on intellectual property rights. While working for Sony Music five years ago, he was bullish about “You’re the Apple of My Eye,” which was also adopted from Giddens Ko’s work and featured Ko Chen-tung, a rising star with Sony. He flew to New York three times in six months to pitch the project to headquarters. In the end, Sony’s NT$10 million yielded a profit of NT$200 million.
Four years ago, the production company of “Tiny Times,” based on a novel by mainland Chinese author Guo Jingming, approached Tsuei and Chai for collaboration. “After calculation, I said I would definitely give the movie a shot. There was no way it would be a loser,” he said. At the time, Guo had 37 million Weibo followers. Under a conservative scenario that one in every 10 followers would go to the theater, the movie would attract 3.7 million viewers. Multiplying the number by ticket prices, the box office receipts could easily top NT$100 million.
Tsuei’s market perceptiveness left a lasting impression on Wu Ming-hsien, chairman of Taiwan’s Vieshow Cinemas. Wu said that before “The Tenants Downstairs” was released, Tsuei came to him with a stack of reports to discuss the film’s distribution by Vieshow. “Tsuei produced a profit-loss analysis based on past experiences and presented possible results from the best- to worse-case scenarios.”
Wu said that many box office estimates by filmmakers were overly optimistic and had to be cut in half. But Tsuei backed his assessment with precise numerical analysis and made his case so compelling that it left no room for doubt.
Tsuei likes to formulate a detailed plan and stick to it with no exception. For example, he kept production cost within 10 percent of the budget, worked 12 hours a day and finished shooting in 60 days. “The best movie length is two hours. I would not hesitate when it comes to movie editing.”
Building a fan base in advance
While most movies do not begin promotional planning until late in the production stage, given the eight-month pre-production of “The Tenants Downstairs,” the film’s marketing team not only had to study the script, they played a part in casting.
In order to make the movie a hot topic of discussion, Tsuei spent more than NT$10 million producing a teaser trailer before shooting began. He also set up a Facebook page to create die-hard movie fans, with the demographics of its fans serving as the basis for charting the marketing campaign.
Since the movie contains nudity and violence, Tsuei adopted a Hollywood approach and spent three weeks organizing a discussion session for a 200-member focus group. He also designed a four-page questionnaire and conducted the interviews himself. “I attach great importance to scientific analysis, because it helps me make adjustments to my movie scenes and exercise better discretion over the content of an R-rated film.”
Tsuei, a most unorthodox filmmaker, set an amazing record Aug. 27 by becoming the only director in Taiwan to have attended 100 post-screening discussions. “The audiences were all steamed up. It was something I never experienced when working as an executive at Sony.”
Tsuei, excited at the prospects of a new career in his 50s, vowed to remain close to the audience while tracking market developments at his own pace and in his own way. (E)
[By Li Ya-chu / tr. by Meg Chang]