Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 187 Artistic Compromise

There was one more thing that required Cao Yang to stay in the capital for a few more days.

In mid-June, Baidu completed its third round of financing.

In fact, Baidu started its third round of financing negotiations at the end of 03, mainly to screen out investors who can bring different values ​​to the further development of Baidu.

At that time, Baidu had already established its absolute leadership in the domestic search engine market.

The statistics from Alexa, an American research organization, in 2003 showed that Baidu, which ranked first among Chinese search engines, has become the second largest independent search engine provider in the world. In the short term, no one will shake its position in the Chinese search engine market.

The emergence of "Cao Yang Bar" made Mr. Li begin to face up to Cao Yang's influence in China.

The Oscar for Best Picture and other international awards won by Cao Yang, as well as the nearly $1.5 million box office in North America for "Meanwhile Milk", show that Cao Yang has a great influence in the United States.

Since they were looking for investors who could bring different values ​​to Baidu, Mr. Li thought divergently and felt that with Cao Yang's influence, he could definitely tell a good "story" for Baidu's listing.

So, Mr. Li tentatively asked Cao Yang whether he wanted to invest in Baidu during its third round of financing.

Cao Yang had this idea a long time ago, and they hit it off immediately.

Therefore, in the third financing announcement released by Baidu in mid-June, a total of nine institutions were included in the investment list.

Among them, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Google and CY played the leading role in this round of investment.

Nine institutions invested a total of US$2000 million to purchase 299.9 million shares of Series C convertible preferred stock, equivalent to US$6.67 per share.

Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Google and CY each bought 500 shares for US$75 million.

At this point, Baidu's third round of financing, which is also the last round of financing before its listing, has ended.

CY, the company registered by Cao Yang in the United States, is currently responsible for the operations related to "Cao Yang's Fantasy Journey".

Originally, Mr. Li only wanted to give Cao Yang a few hundred thousand shares, just to have a name for it.

Who would have thought that Cao Yang had such a big appetite that he actually wanted to lead the investment together with DFJ and Google.

At first Mr. Li disagreed, thinking that young people have big appetites and are not afraid of eating too much. Where do you get the money and courage to be compared with DFJ and Google?

He asked someone to investigate CY carefully - although I value your reputation and influence, you can't fool me with a randomly registered shell company, right?

Then, something happened that stunned Mr. Li.

CY has a small business, but it operates "Cao Yang's Fantastic Journey", which is on the North American bestseller list and has sales of 30 million US dollars.

Mr. Li has spent eight years in the United States and has worked on Wall Street and Silicon Valley. He is well aware of the influence of best-selling books.

Moreover, he knew that another major source of income from best-selling books was the film and television adaptation rights.

CY's official website shows that there are two co-productions, "District 7000", which claimed to have invested million US dollars, and another one called "Juno", both of which are novels.

Mr. Li doesn't know how much money is involved, but he must admit that this is a golden egg that can be produced continuously.

This made Mr. Li look at Cao Yang with new eyes. This was not just about influence in terms of reputation.

If all the novels in "Cao Yang's Fantastic Journey" were adapted into movies, the impact would definitely be more than just one plus one equals two.

I had originally planned to use Cao Yang’s fame and influence to tell the Americans a wonderful “story” when Baidu went public, but I didn’t expect this story to become a TV series!
What else is there to say? It’s just the lead investment, no big deal, I agree!
Cao Yang has to go to Baidu headquarters on July 7 to sign an agreement before he can leave Beijing and go to South Africa to continue filming.

On July 7, Cao Yang and Tian Zhuangzhuang watched an extremely wonderful concert at the Workers' Stadium.

It is said that on this day, in order to recoup the cost of 50 yuan and to attract perverts... no, to attract audiences, all the branch venues held a model beauty pageant in the cinema.

This is really interesting. "Are we attending a movie premiere?"

After watching the concert, Lao Tian was completely confused.

In his opinion, shouldn't the premiere have the main creators come on stage and talk to everyone about the filming of the movie, talk about the interesting things that happened during the process, or complain a little, answer a few questions from reporters, and then everyone watch the movie together?
Today's one is obviously a concert, okay?

"Just tell me if it's exciting or not?
The Mudanfang in the movie is brought to life in real life. Some popular singers sing for you there, and there are also American singers in it. We can see so much without spending any money. Tell me, is it worth it? "

Cao Yang joked with a smile.

Old Tian was silent for a long while, then he sighed and remained silent for a long time.

"Okay, why are you feeling so sorry for yourself? Director So-and-so looks pretty happy, doesn't he? He's the director of the entire show."

Cao Yang patted Lao Tian on the shoulder and comforted him.

He knew why Lao Tian sighed.

Who is Lao Mouzi?
It is also one of the faces of Beijing Film Academy.

He has won so many awards internationally and is a renowned international director and artist.

How did it fall to this point just for the sake of box office?

Lao Tian probably has a faint sense of desolation in his heart now, not only for Lao Mouzi, but also for those of their class.

After entering the Beijing Film Academy to teach, he was, to some extent, considered a member of the system and was able to get some inside information.

The country attaches importance to the market and is determined to support commercial films. This determination is not affected by individual will and will only grow stronger. This can be seen from allowing private and foreign companies to enter theaters.

Whether it is a private or foreign company, what is the purpose of entering the cinema chain?
make money!

They only follow market rules. They will give priority to the movie with high box office and can make them money, and will put it in a good showtime and time period.

We have to admit that in terms of the market, commercial films definitely have more advantages than art films.

Zhang Yimou has undergone this transformation. Who else from the same class as him can be spared?

This is art compromising with the box office.

"Zhang Weiping is such a fucking bastard!"

Old Tian was silent for a long time, and finally cursed viciously, almost with gritted teeth.

“It’s just a general trend. There’s nothing wrong with following the laws of the market.”

Cao Yang comforted.

"Alas, I just feel sorry for Yimou. He can change and compromise, but... he doesn't have to go to such extremes and make people laugh at him for nothing!"

Old Tian shook his head and sighed.

Cao Yang smiled. He could understand Lao Tian, ​​and also roughly understood Zhang Weiping's thoughts.

Because "Hero" was almost ripped off, Zhang Weiping is a little hesitant to sell the copyright to Americans again. However, with such a huge investment, it is difficult to recover the cost relying solely on domestic box office.

How to do?
What else can I do?
They can only try every possible way to expand their influence, sell more box office tickets, and maybe even earn more copyright fees in Europe and East Asia.

However, Zhang Weiping was indeed a little obsessed, and turned the premiere into a song and dance party.

Ugh!
(End of this chapter)