Shadow Empire

Chapter 589 No One Can Default and International Vision
The ringing sound of the telephone made Mr. Serre, who was reading the newspaper, shift his attention from the news to the old crimson telephone.

He put down the newspaper in his hand, took off his glasses, and picked up the phone. "This is Korgan Cinema Management Company. I'm Serre."

Mr. Serey is president of Colgan Cinema Management, a family-owned business.

Mr. Serey's grandfather built the first cinema. At that time, the novelty of movies attracted many curious people to the cinema, allowing them to earn their first money.

The old man thought that this was a brand new entertainment project that was bound to be brilliant because it was not incomprehensible like opera, and the price of watching movies was low and anyone could afford it.

The most common people in this world are not rich people, but poor people.

It is much easier to get five cents from every poor person than to get five million from the rich. Mr. Serre's grandfather continued to invest the money he earned into opening new cinemas.

They were able to maintain a healthy business until the guy who shouted "Five Cents at the Movies" showed up.

The annual gross profit is approximately between 300,000 and 500,000, depending on whether there is a hit movie.

But after the slogan and business strategy of "5 cents to see a movie" came out, their profits began to plummet.

Because of the fear that other people's five-cent tickets would steal their customers, everyone was lowering the price of tickets.

At the beginning, none of them were willing to lower the prices. He also participated in some social activities organized by theater operators, and everyone agreed to maintain the prices together.

But as some people secretly started lowering the prices of movie tickets during midnight shows, a price war broke out.

It didn't take long for the price of movie tickets in Jinzhou to drop to five cents. It can be said that in the two years before the advent of talkies, filming a movie was a gamble, and showing a movie was also a gamble!
If you win the bet, you can make money.

If you lose the bet, you lose money.

The entire cinema chain has fourteen cinemas operating in Golden State, and business is pretty good.

The Golden State is a prosperous and wealthy place, home to some of the richest and most powerful people in the federation.

Just a little bit of what leaks out from between their fingers is enough to feed and satisfy the people here.

This is the place with the highest consumption level in the entire federation, but people's salaries are also very high.

According to the federal government's statistics on the average wage of ordinary people, the federal government leads the entire federation with an average wage of one dollar and fifty cents.

It is even twice the average wage in some remote areas!
This also makes people here more open and trendy in their consumption concepts, and they are willing to accept new things.

So...they're actually doing pretty good business.

However, good business cannot cover up the fact that the cinema chain has been losing money in the past few years. If Mr. Serre had not thought that these were "ancestral properties" and he wanted to pass them on, perhaps he would only have half of the cinemas left in his hands now.

He sold his villa, car and other things, and used the money to maintain the cinema.

If talkies had come a little later, he might not have been able to hold on!
But fortunately, talkies came with unstoppable force, and movie theaters instantly came back to life and started making a lot of money.

Everything he had lost was earned back in a very short time by showing movies, and it was earned back many times over.

Movie tickets are no longer five cents, but twenty-five cents, thirty cents, and thirty-five cents!
Recently, some cinema operators in Jinzhou have been discussing whether to increase the price of movie tickets to more than 40 cents!

All in all, his life is very happy now.

The wife who always quarreled with him over trivial matters became docile and was even willing to take the initiative to help him relieve stress through oral sex.

The two children who always ignored him also became sensible and obedient. They knew to hug him and tell him "Welcome home" when he came home.

If someone asked him how many steps it takes to get from hell to heaven, he would definitely answer that person that there is only one step - to become rich.

I should get a nicer phone, this one is too old!
As he thought about this, he formulaically spoke the words he had said many times into the microphone.

"Mr. Seray, I'm Wanli Pictures."

Mr. Serre frowned when he heard the name, and then a mocking smile appeared on his face.

A small local film company actually wants to share the box office with him?

He attended film festivals and exhibitions in Valley City and was attracted by the new genre film "Angel Lake Mystery" at first sight.

He inquired with the producer and was willing to buy out the film for eight thousand dollars and play it in his fourteen cinemas.

In the end, they failed to reach an agreement. He finally offered a price of 12,000 yuan, but the production company did not agree. They only accepted a share of the box office revenue.

There was no choice but to agree.

In the actual operation, he found that the other party did not have any good way to determine how many tickets he had sold. So the idea of ​​defaulting on the debt arose in his mind and could not be erased.

He didn't pay any money for this movie, but he made tens of thousands of dollars from it, and it's still making a profit.

"Is it you again?"

His voice got louder without him noticing, "Shit, I already told you."

"No one in Golden State cares about the mystery movie you shot, and no one likes to watch it. I haven't even sold a thousand movie tickets yet!"

"If you want money, no problem, I'll mail you a hundred bucks. Don't call me every day. I don't have time to waste with you greedy bugs!"

He glanced at the steaming coffee and newspaper, as well as the pipe placed aside. He had an afternoon to spend quietly here.

The voice on the receiver was relatively young and unfamiliar. It was not the same person who had called previously. "Mr. Serey, other movie theaters in Golden State have reported good box office results. Did you make a mistake?"

Mr. Seray cursed, "What the hell does that have to do with me?"

"Listen, young man."

"I don't care what your movie is like, I have it here, it just doesn't sell, I've taken it off the playlist, got it?"

"Also, stop calling me!"

The young man's voice in the receiver did not become abnormal because of this. "Do you know what the consequences of doing this are?"

"Consequences?" Mr. Seray laughed twice. "Does it mean you will come over and bite me twice?"

"Ha ha!"

He hung up the phone with a click, then shook his head and picked up the newspaper again.

For him this was his job, just sit there, and every once in a while, the ticket office would bring over a box of money.

His workers counted the money in front of him, stacked it neatly, and then put it into a metal box.

At night he would deposit part of it in the bank.

That's how the job is, simple, easy and hassle-free.

He didn't take any small film company far away in Likalai State seriously. This was the Golden State, not a small place like theirs.

Lance put down the phone, stubbed out his half-smoked cigarette in the ashtray, and looked at the director, "Anything else?"

The director then took out several cinemas and their detailed information, "Some of these also said that no one watched the movie, and some reported the box office but never transferred the money."

Lance took it and looked at it. They were available all over the country. This was indeed a headache, but he had no choice but to do so.

"Is it the same at other film companies?" Lance asked, seeming to have some new ideas.

The professor shook his head. "At present, we are the only one using the box office revenue sharing model. They still use the buyout screening method."

After all, the buyout screening lasts for so many years, and for the production company, it can recover the cost at one time, avoiding many troublesome problems.

For film investors, they also prefer the buyout screening model. After the filming of the movie is completed, the payment cycle is very short, which is conducive to their fund mobilization and adjustment.

Seeing Lance's expression, the director lowered his voice a little, "But in fact, everyone is willing to use this model. Two previous films sold nearly 10 million in total, but they were only sold for less than 3 million at the film festival."

"More than 7 million in profits were eaten up by the cinemas, and the production companies are also discussing that they can actually get more from this."

"And they were able to sell it for so much money because they used the gimmick of being the first sound film to sell it at a higher price." "Nowadays, even for the same movie, the maximum price might be 700,000 or 800,000."

"And we've already made nearly that much profit on this movie."

Lance took another look at the list. The cinemas involved were scattered all over the place, covering more than a dozen cities in seven or eight states.

The room was quiet while he was thinking. After two minutes, he asked, "What if we can ensure that the box office sharing can work and maximize the profits generated by the movie?"

"Do you think there will be film companies that will give us their films to distribute?"

The director took a moment to react, with an uncertain look on his face, "Probably?"

"After all, once we prove it, they should be able to see that this can make them more money."

Yes, definitely!

Lance looked at Erwin and said, "Make arrangements. I hope these cinemas and their operators can deposit the money they owe me into the company's account as soon as possible."

"If someone doesn't cooperate..." He nodded slightly, and Erwin immediately understood.

No one can deny paying Lance's debt and still live a carefree life.

"I know what to do." Erwin took the list and looked at it. "I'll arrange it now."

Lance added, "I'll go to this Kolgan Cinema myself."

He happened to have something to do in New Gold City, and with the reopening of the casino and the funds squeezed out of the Kodak family, the first batch of money had begun to flow.

He could transfer the money directly to the account designated by Tom without going to Xinjin City.

But you can also go over and let them know where the money comes from and who gave it to them.

Benefits must be given in a practical way.

The director had a surprised look on his face, "Will this... cause some trouble?"

Lance shook his head and leaned back in his chair, crossing his legs, and said with a smile, "You are a professional when it comes to running a film company and making movies."

“But I’m a professional in this area.”

Lance's consideration is simple. He wants to make money from the criminal business and he also wants to make money from the legal business. Moreover, the film industry is an industry with huge future potential and huge influence.

The entire social system of the Federation has various problems. For example, people in the upper class never treat people from the lower class as human beings, and those gentlemen even say such things.

They believe that ordinary people are not human, the elite are barely human, and only the upper class are human.

Some people even believed in private conversations that inferior people should be deprived of their right to reproduce because they should not continue to reproduce.

But people have to admit that they seem to be inseparable from these large numbers of people at the bottom of society. So whoever has greater influence on the bottom of society will have more initiative in the economy, politics and other aspects.

With the power of more profitable distribution in hand, the studios would become more dependent on him, and until they could do that themselves, they would have to listen to Lance.

By the time they were able to do it themselves, Lance had already used this time difference to accomplish more things and make more arrangements, making his position even more unbreakable!
Think about it, those hugely famous movie stars and actors publicly expressed opinions that were favorable to him, or stood on his side at critical moments. Even if he stood in the dock one day, the prosecutors would have to be careful with their words.

In the Federation, reputation is the best amulet.

Police officers in the city can find a reason to kill an ordinary person who no one knows without any care, but when dealing with famous people, they have to be doubly careful and consider not getting into trouble.

That's the benefit of reputation.

Lance needs prestige.

At the same time, this also represents huge economic benefits. When film companies find that they can gain more benefits from this, they want to ask Lance for help with distribution, and they need to pay Lance a sum of money.

The money Lance can earn from here is no longer a small number. It is a percentage of the total box office of all movies in the federation each year, not a specific number!

Where there are interests and vision, there is driving force.

Soon the young men of the Lance family began to take action.

Lance also boarded the train to Xinjin City.

Two days later.

When Lance came out of the station, the feeling of the surging times became very clear again. Standing on the steps of the station, he seemed to be able to hear the heartbeat of the "blood flowing" in this city and this country as it pumped.

The heartbeat of the times!
Everything here is filled with something powerful!
To be honest, he likes this city.

After standing on the steps for a while and adjusting his mood a little, his eyes fell on Tom standing on the sidewalk at the bottom of the steps and he shook hands with Tom.

"Why did you decide to come here in person?" Tom welcomed him into the car on the roadside. Lance's motorcade was also here.

He came here by train, and the convoy came directly from the interstate highway. At this time, the speed of the train and the car was almost the same. As long as they kept going, the car could go even faster.

After all, it takes much faster to refuel a car than to refuel a train with coal and water.

Lance sat in the car, swaying back and forth to prevent his butt from pressing down on his clothes. "I'll deliver the first payment in advance and talk to the Senator while I'm at it."

"Also, I have some small things to take care of here."

Tom said jokingly, "The senator will be available tonight, but it will be a little later."

Lance nodded. "Don't worry, focus on Mr. Senator's business. These are just small matters."

Tom said with a half-smile, "This is not a small matter."

He knew how much money Lance had sent over in this batch, so he said that.

After the two of them chatted briefly, Lance asked, "I read in the newspaper recently that the conflict between us and Dantra seems to have begun to escalate. Has Congress made any decision?"

Tom looked at Lance in surprise.

If these words were spoken by politicians, celebrities, or experts, he would not find it strange.

But when it comes from the mouth of a gang leader, it makes him feel ridiculous.

Since when do gang leaders need to have an international perspective and a high degree of political sensitivity?
If all gang leaders are like this, then won't the federation be in turmoil?

He was in a daze for a moment, then quickly nodded with a smile, "It's no secret that the federal government will not compromise with the Dantra government. In fact, there is no possibility of compromise between us."

He seemed to be hesitant to speak, but Lance sighed, "The war is coming."

Tom asked, "Why would you think that?"

Lance looked at him as if he were an idiot, which made Tom feel a little embarrassed and annoyed. "I was just testing you."

"I hope you're really testing me!" Lance retorted, but soon he and Tom both laughed.

Neither of them went further into the topic. Tom knew the "standard answer", so he was not that interested in Lance's answer. As long as the result was correct, it was fine.

Tom treated him to a meal, and the Federal dinner was just so-so. Lance even felt that it was not as delicious as the one cooked by that stubborn old man Anderson.

After dinner he was taken to the villa where Senator Cleveland worked, where he worked and rested.

It is called a villa, but it is more like a large office with a rest area.

Although Congress provides each senator with an office, the small office cannot accommodate the senator and his team.

So except when they are on duty and have to be in the office, they will work somewhere else at other times.

It was almost nine o'clock in the evening when the senator came back from outside, reeking of alcohol.

(End of this chapter)