Setting the scene for success

"Hong Kong film people have two advantages," claims Zhang Zhao, who was Enlight Pictures' president until he jumped to head Le Vision instead. "One is their professionalism, and the other is their familiarity with genre formula."

That distinguishes them from most mainland talents, who sees themselves as artists first, and against genre conventions.

As Hong Kong films have been regarded as domestic productions since 2003, much of its industry has been integrated with the mainland and resources have been pooled.

Still, a Hong Kong-film people-led project often has a distinct flavor that, on the upside, is rarely self-indulgent but, on the downside, can be formulaic.

The runaway success of Lost in Thailand has provided Wang with an epiphany: Mainland talents, when they dig into the secrets of genre movies, can outshine their Hong Kong peers because they more intuitively understand what local audiences want - and this is especially true of comedies.

"We've got to develop local directors if we want to grow stronger," Wang says.

Another thing China's film industry lacks is franchise movies that have sequels and branding.

Wang intends to develop Lost in Thailand into a series for Xu. It does not hurt that Wang offered the greenhorn director 10 percent of the profits, which represents something like 40 million yuan.

As for Wang Baoqiang and Huang Bo, who do not contractually share the windfall, Wang Changtian says he'll develop projects for both of them. "They should have their own brands of movies."

Asked about the risks of moviemaking, Wang is clear: "Nobody can guarantee your next project is going to be a hit."

The worst-case scenario for Lost in Thailand, when it first arrived on his desk, was an estimated return of 70-80 million yuan, which would justify the 30 million yuan budget. (Chinese producers and distributors get a share of 43 percent of the box-office gross.)

About the high end of the estimate, Wang says that "for the first 400 million yuan in box-office takings we credit our hard work, but beyond that it is not in our hands to control".