Huayu: Starting from Fahrenheit

Chapter 339 The Collaboration with Wang Leehom Begins

Driven by China Film Group and other investors, "Red Cliff" became the hottest movie after mid-June.

There are reports about this play everywhere online and in print media.

Initially, the movie received rave reviews, but after a few days, the investors began to lose control of the negative reviews.

Therefore, the Red Cliff team shifted their publicity focus, promoting the film using a black-and-red approach.

You know what, black and red are still red.

The more online criticism there is, the higher the movie's box office becomes, with the box office figures increasing day by day, almost becoming a hot topic of discussion among the entire nation.

Affected by the success of "Red Cliff", the box office figures for "Connected", starring Wu Zhuo, declined day by day in the following days.

By the 17th, the daily box office was less than 300,000.

Seeing this, Emperor Entertainment had no choice but to pull the film from theaters early.

Ultimately, "Connected" grossed a total of 3300 million RMB at the box office in mainland China.

Hong Kong, HK$2400 million.

Taiwan Province, NT$6000 million.

Singapore, 300 million Singapore dollars.

In addition, there are Malaysia and Thailand.

The film ultimately grossed 8700 million RMB.

The only regret is that this film was never released in Japan or South Korea.

If it were imported to these two countries, the box office figures might be even higher.

On June 20, Chibi continued to sell very well in the market.

There wasn't a single positive review online.

That noon, Wu Zhuo arrived at Sony Music's branch office in Beijing.

As Wu Zhuo was about to enter the Sony branch office building, he heard someone honking their horn behind him.

Looking back, I saw Wang Leehom getting out of the car.

"I thought you wouldn't be here until the afternoon."

Wu Zhuo smiled and hugged him, "I have to get here early to record a song with you, Second Brother."

Today is the day Wu Zhuo and Wang Leehom agreed to record a song.

Their collaborative EP will be jointly produced and released by HIM International Music and Sony.

It's worth mentioning that Sony Music's influence in the Greater China region has been growing stronger in recent years.

Currently, apart from Wu Zhuo's overseas record distribution being handled by Sony,

Sony handled the album releases for both Jay Chou and Wang Leehom.

Wang Leehom debuted under a subsidiary of Sony, and later worked at Linfair Records for a period of time before officially becoming a singer under Sony Greater China in 1998.

As for Jay Chou...

His record contract was originally with Alfa Records, but after he founded his own record company last year, he switched to JVR Music.

But that's the production rights; the distribution rights have always belonged to Sony.

Compared to them, Wu Zhuo appears to have collaborated with Sony the least.

But the benefits it brings to Sony are no less significant.

Wang Leehom and Jay Chou don't have much of a market overseas; they mainly rely on the Chinese-speaking regions.

Wu Zhuo, on the other hand, succeeded in both areas.

Its sales in Chinese-speaking regions are comparable to those of Wang Leehom and Jay Chou.

He's in a league of his own overseas; currently, no Chinese singer has achieved his record sales figures abroad.

Sony made a fortune from record sales in Japan alone.

"I can't wait to produce and release the song with you."

Wang Leehom rubbed his hands together, very excited.

As the two were talking, several people rushed out of the Sony building.

The man in the lead approached the two men with an apologetic expression.

"I'm so sorry, I was just dealing with work."

"Brother Cui, you're too kind. It's not like I'm unfamiliar with the company. You didn't need to come out to pick us up at all."

Wang Leehom was very familiar with the person who came, and he spoke to him rather informally.

"Hello, Brother Cui!" Wu Zhuo greeted him with a smile.

The visitor was Cui Zhendong, the president of Sony Music China.

He holds both Wang Leehom's and Jay Chou's record contracts.

He didn't have any dealings with Wu Zhuo, because his record distribution in mainland China was handled by Gold Typhoon. Speaking of which, Wu Zhuo's record contracts are quite complicated now.

HIM International Music is one of his contracted record companies.

However, HIM International Music's scale is too small to handle Wu Zhuo's albums.

Therefore, the record distribution rights in mainland China and Hong Kong were handed over to EMI Records. However, EMI Records has been poorly managed in recent years, and its headquarters were sold to Citibank. As a result, the distribution rights that HIM International Music had given to EMI were then transferred to Gold Typhoon.

Then, in Japan, the record distribution rights were handed over to Sony, while in South Korea, Sony and Seoul Records were jointly responsible for the distribution.

Sony is also handling the operations in Europe and America.

"I've always wanted to get to know you, Abel, and I'm so glad I finally did."

"I'll definitely do you the honor of having dinner together later."

Cui Zhendong is the president of Sony China.

It's no exaggeration to say that he is one of the most important driving forces in the Chinese-speaking world.

Given his status, there was absolutely no need for him to personally come down to pick up Wu Zhuo and Wang Leehom.

The reason he came down.

They came entirely because of Wu Zhuo.

He was very envious of Wu Zhuo's record deal.

As far as he knows, Wu Zhuo's contract with HIM International Music will end in the second half of 2010.

At that time, Wu Zhuo will be a free man.

He desperately wanted to recruit Wu Zhuo into his camp.

"I'm also very curious about President Cui. I'll definitely have a few more drinks later."

With only two years left on his contract with HIM International Music, Wu Zhuo also had some other ideas.

He will contact other record companies to see what offers they can make.

He may disagree, but there's absolutely no harm in learning about it.

At that time, whether he signs with a company or establishes his own record production company, the distribution of his records will still be inseparable from these international giants.

The group talked as they walked upstairs.

Instead of going to the office, I went straight to the recording studio.

After entering the recording studio, Cui Zhendong made an excuse to leave so as not to disturb Wu Zhuo and Wang Leehom's song recording.

After adjusting the equipment, Wang Leehom looked at Wu Zhuo and asked:

"Should we record your song first or mine?"

The two songs are "Always Remember Us This Way" written by Wu Zhuo and "Full Power" by Wang Leehom.

"Let's record your song first; the arrangement for mine isn't finished yet."

"OK!"

Without further ado, the two began recording.

The song "Full Power" is neither particularly difficult nor particularly easy.

The main issue is the singing style.

Wu Zhuo tried it out, and found that singing the song in his own style would give it a completely different feel.

Especially the climax area.

That small part really has to be sung by Wang Leehom.

So the two of them divided the lyrics.

Wang Leehom sang the Mandarin part, while Wu Zhuo sang the English part, and then they sang together during a climax.

Down with imperialism!

"Unwilling to make any more effort"

……

Having not recorded a song for a long time, Wu Zhuo was actually a little out of sorts for a moment.

When we started recording, I found myself unable to fully express myself in my singing.

This prompted Wang Leehom to jokingly remark:

“Singing is your main job. Don’t put the cart before the horse and think you’re an actor.”

"You've also gone into acting in movies, and I heard you're even going to be a director."

You're not planning to hire a proxy photographer, are you?

"So what if I looked for it? I paid for it anyway."

(End of this chapter)