Entertainment: I just want to be the boss behind the scenes

Chapter 242 Is it so difficult to recruit a receptionist?

In addition to interaction and publicity, the most important part of the premiere is watching the movie.

Meng Bai originally wanted to pull Li Qin to sit together, and take advantage of the darkness to see if he could take advantage of her or something.

Unfortunately, the leading actors of the movie were all seated in a fixed area in the front row, so he didn't get a chance.

There was no other choice, Meng Bai could only sit with Chen Zhixi, Ke Liming and others.

At first, out of politeness, he watched the movie a little, but within ten minutes, his patience ran out.

Let’s not talk about the problems with the plot and characters. After all, it’s just a youth pain movie, and that’s the whole thing.

The key is that the story's rhythm is fragmented and the actors' acting skills are ridiculously bad.

"Su Yunjin, what are you going to use to pay me back for what you owe me?"

I don't know how this movie will repay the audience for the movie tickets they owe.

For Meng Bai, the only redeeming feature of this movie is Teacher Li, who is dressed in school uniform.

Looks very fresh and juicy.

After enduring for an hour and a half, the movie finally ended. Chen Zhixi, who was sitting next to me, asked, "How did you feel about the movie?"

Meng Bai frowned and thought for a while, but there was really nothing to praise, so he could only say: "Fortunately, the box office should not be a loss."

Chen Zhixi obviously understood what he meant and laughed, "This movie has a guaranteed release price of 4 million, so we will definitely not lose money."

Ever since Huayi Films released "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" with a guaranteed box office of 2013 million yuan in 3, and eventually made a fortune with a total box office of 12.4 billion yuan, "guaranteed release" has gradually become a common operating model in the film industry in recent years.

The producer transferred the risk and the distributor increased the expected return, and everyone benefited.

Of course, there will definitely be cases where the guaranteed data cannot be achieved, and the issuer can only blame themselves for their bad luck.

For example, Weying Times, which guaranteed the minimum income for "So Young", is one of the unlucky ones.

Thanks to the popularity of the two leading actors, the movie grossed 1.7 million yuan in its first weekend, which is pretty good.

But what followed was an overwhelming amount of negative reviews.

The audience's main focus is on the two leading actors, especially the male lead Wu Fan.

To use the most liked comment -

Tianxian never thought in her life that there would be a day when she could crush others with her acting skills.

The Douban score is 3.9, which is the lowest.

The happiest person right now should be Guo Fan. Who would have thought that his "6-point passing masterpiece" "You are the One" has become the ceiling of youth-themed movies in the past two years.

Along with the collapse of word of mouth, the box office of the movie also collapsed. From the second week onwards, the figures dropped precipitously, and it is estimated that the final result can exceed 3 million, which is quite good.

When Li Qin and Meng Bai were talking on the phone, they felt sad and relieved.

What’s sad is that we finally made a movie, but the results and reputation are so bad.

Fortunately, the focus of the complaints was on the two main actors, and it had little impact on the minor supporting roles.

Another unexpected good news is that because the film’s performance and reputation were so poor, a lot of subsequent promotional interactions were cut, so she can take a break for a while.

The producer Ruyi Films is in the same situation as Li Qin.

Seeing that the movie industry was basically in a "dying" state, Ruyi shifted his focus and put his main energy on "Detective Chinatown 3" which was to be released at the end of the month.
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In the first half of the year, ArcLight Pictures seemed a bit quiet due to the heavy filming of "The Lost Tomb" and the agreement with Leshi.com.

But after officially announcing the termination of cooperation with Leshi.com, good news came one after another as if by some stroke of luck.

The first person to bring the good news to Meng Bai was Huang Zheng.

After several months of research and analysis, Tencent finally decided to lead the investment in Pinduoduo's Series B financing.

Together with several other investors such as Gaorong Capital and Cathay Capital, the total financing amount in this round is US$1.1 million, and the total valuation is as high as 20 billion.

With sufficient funds, Huang Zheng decided to expand Pinduoduo's publicity efforts and expand Pinduoduo beyond the Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai regions.

Immediately afterwards, the strategic cooperation between ArcLight and Huace Film & TV was officially reached.

In addition to the cooperation on projects on both sides, ArcLight can also use Huace's channels to develop copyright income from its works.

The first cooperation between the two sides is the overseas promotion of "Soul Ferry 1, 2", "Psychological Crime" and "Forensic Qin Ming".

Not to mention, these dramas are quite popular in surrounding markets, especially the Southeast Asian market.

Just as American and British dramas are very popular in China, domestic dramas have always been popular in Southeast Asia.

Among Arclight's several dramas, the most popular one is the "Soul Ferry" series.

Belonging to the same East Asian cultural circle, their mythological customs and emotional connotations are relatively similar, so their popularity is naturally very high.

Huace told us that markets in several countries have contacted us to inquire about the copyright issues regarding the remake.

This cooperation alone has brought more than 5000 million in revenue to Arc Light Pictures, equivalent to 8% of last year's total profit.

Of course, Huace also does not suffer any loss, as they also get a share of the profits.

In addition, they can also participate in the investment and production of Arclight's subsequent projects. More importantly, Huace has finally squeezed into the online drama market through this opportunity, which is equivalent to adding another business area.

For listed companies, the specific effect of the cooperation is not important, the key is to have a gimmick.

On the second day after the two companies announced their cooperation, Huace Film & TV's stock price rose sharply, opening 5 points higher.

Huace boss Fu Meicheng was delighted by this and said at the board meeting that this alone made the cooperation with Arclight Films worth it.

The last person to find Meng Bai was Guo Fan.

After half a year of investigation and discussion, China Film Group finally decided to hand over "The Wandering Earth" project to Guo Fan's team.

The budget cost of this project is about 3.5 million yuan, of which China Film Group will bear 2 million yuan. The remaining funds and publicity and promotion expenses will need to be discussed by Guo Fan and Gong Geer.

The two of them had a tacit understanding and the first person they thought of was Meng Bai without even discussing it.

"I promised before that if we can get this project, I will definitely leave a copy for you guys."

In the office of Arc Light, Guo Fan said cheerfully: "Well, brother, I will keep my word."

Meng Bai: →_→

"Brother Guo, you can do it. You always think of me when you need money."

"Hey, this investment, what does it cost money?"

"Okay." Meng Bai said, "Arc Light can get 5000 million, but it certainly can't be paid in one lump sum."

"Don't worry about that." Gong Geer waved his hand and said, "China Film Group has prepaid 1.5 million yuan in advance funds, so there is no need to worry about the early preparations."

As expected, it has to be the case that China Film Group is wealthy.

After talking about investment, the three of them discussed project preparation.

Although Meng Bai had said before that he did not have much time to spend on this project, as the main creator in the early stage, Guo Fan still gave him a co-producer position.

After all, in addition to funds, there are many other places where arc light is needed.

Meng Bai has experience and resources in production teams, special effects companies, prop design, shooting locations, etc., which can help save a lot of energy.

The three of them chatted for the entire afternoon and had originally planned to have dinner together in the evening, but unfortunately Guo Fan and the others had other things to do, so they had to postpone it to another day.

After seeing them off, Meng Bai turned around and walked into the small building with arc light.

Although the new office in Haidian has been put into use, out of habit he still spends most of his time in the original office building in Chaoyang.

"Mr. Meng, there's a delivery for you." The girl at the front desk called him.

"Okay, trouble."

Meng Bai took the package and looked at the girl at the front desk: "I remember you are from the Human Resources Department, why are you here?"

He usually doesn't spend much time in the company, and usually goes to Liu Jun or Chen Jing when he has something to do, but he still has some impression of the company's employees.

"Ah, the supervisor said that they haven't found anyone to work at the front desk yet, so I'm here temporarily to take over for a while." The girl explained a little nervously.

"You haven't recruited anyone yet? It's been about a month." Meng Bai said in surprise.

Is it so difficult to recruit people for the front desk position these days?

He didn't make things difficult for the girl and went directly to the Human Resources Department to find the department head.

"It's just a receptionist, what are you waiting for?"

The HR manager smiled awkwardly.

In fact, it is not difficult to recruit people. Arc Light Films is now well-known and the salary offered is the highest in the industry. The human resources department has received thousands of resumes during this period.

However, since this was a rare task directly ordered by the boss, and he also specifically asked to find a "pretty girl", the human resources manager could not help but tighten up the screening criteria.

Located in the north of Beijing, there are many beautiful girls, and many are willing to work as receptionists, but the key is that they have to meet Mr. Meng's aesthetic standards.

This has actually been decided long ago by ArcLight. Just look at the actresses who have signed the contract.

Li Yitong, Song Zhi, Zhu Xudan, Zhou Yutong, and the most recent one, Bai Lu, basically all have a fresh and clean style.

Therefore, all applicants with the internet celebrity style were eliminated.

Meng Bai: You all misjudged me. The girls I signed just happened to have similar styles. I actually have a very diverse aesthetic taste. As long as the girl is pretty, I can accept any style.

Unfortunately, his subordinates are destined not to hear his voice.

"Don't worry, Mr. Meng. I already have a suitable candidate. I have arranged to meet him tomorrow and he should be able to start work soon." said the HR manager.

"Okay, hurry up, you guys are more picky than me."

Meng Bai gave some instructions and was about to leave when he remembered something.

"By the way, there will be a girl named Meng coming over in the next two days. If I'm in the company, you can ask someone to bring her to me directly."

"Okay, Mr. Meng, I'll have someone pay attention."

(End of this chapter)