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

Chapter 283 The clown is actually me?
New year new life.

With the New Year's Day holiday coming to an end, 2017 has officially begun.

With the single-day box office dropping below 10 million, the failure of "The Great Wall" was basically a foregone conclusion.

The four producers, including Leshi Films, China Film, Legendary (Wanda), and Universal, suffered a final loss conservatively estimated at 7-8 million yuan.

The average loss per company was nearly 200 million.

China Film Group is a large company with a huge business, and Universal is also a Hollywood giant. Although this loss is painful, they can still hold on.

In comparison, Leshi and Legend are in a very bad situation.

If it was just Leshi Pictures itself, then it would be a loss, and Meng Bai could just watch the joke.

But if Legend also suffers losses, then he won’t be able to have fun anymore.

After all, Wanda is behind Legendary Pictures today.

"Sister Xi, what did Wanda say?"

In the office of Ruyi Films, Meng Bai sat opposite Chen Zhixi and looked at her and asked.

"Not very optimistic." Chen Zhixi shook his head and said, "I asked Wanda's new CEO Jiang about the investment in The Wandering Earth project, and his reply was quite ambiguous. He just said that he had just taken over Wanda and was busy with a movie project, so we should talk about it after a while."

In the second half of last year, not long after "Detective Chinatown" was released, Wanda Film and Television replaced its "leader".

The new president is Jiang Defu, who was previously the general manager of China Film Marketing Company and is mainly responsible for the distribution of China Film’s film projects.

Speaking of which, this is the fourth manager Wanda Film and Television has changed in the past five years.

The first one was Song Ge, who left in 13 and established the current Jingbei Culture, which is the company that previously gave Wu Jing an “2 million guarantee” for “Wolf Warrior 8”.

The successor was Ye Ning, who left in 15 to join Huayi Film and Television.

At that time, his departure, coupled with the scheduling issues of "I Am Not Madame Bovary", directly led to a falling out between Wanda and Huayi.

The next one was Zhao Fang, who was responsible for "Detective Chinatown" in collaboration with Meng Bai and Chen Sicheng.

Including the investment plan for "The Wandering Earth", which was also determined during her tenure.

Meng Bai had never met Song and Ye before, so he didn't know how they worked together. But for Zhao Fang, their cooperation was quite pleasant.

Unfortunately, she switched to Warner in the second half of last year.

As the saying goes, when a person leaves, the tea gets forgotten. With the new president taking over, the previous investment projects have become "children without a mother".

If it were a year or two ago, when Wanda Film and Television was at its peak, it wouldn’t have been a big deal.

It’s just an investment of 30 or 50 million, just give it.

At worst, it doesn't matter if I lose money. I can just consider it as attracting business for Oriental Movie Metropolis.

Unfortunately, due to the strategic planning of the parent group, Wanda Film and Television has gradually become a bit strong on the outside but weak on the inside.

Now, let alone Oriental Movie Metropolis, even Wanda Films itself is uncertain about its future.

Under this situation, a large-investment domestic science fiction film with unknown prospects naturally becomes a resource of lower quality.

"Don't wait until the crew starts filming and Wanda tells you they're going to withdraw their investment. That would be really..."

In front of Chen Zhixi, Meng Bai didn't say the rest of the curse.

"It's hard to say." Chen Zhixi sighed, "By the way, have you heard about the recent news in the capital circle?"

Meng Bai said: "You mean Sunac has invested in Leshi Internet Cafe."

If we talk about the biggest news in the capital market these days, it must be "Sunac spends 170 billion to save Leshi.com."

Last year, as Leshi.com disclosed the news of its tight capital chain and the huge losses of "The Great Wall" at the end of the year, everyone thought that Leshi.com was about to collapse.

But unexpectedly, Boss Jia's skills as the "God of Drawing Pieces in the Sky" have reached a new level, and he actually managed to bring in Sunac to help take over.

Previously, Sunac has been focusing on real estate, but seeing the booming film and television industry in the past two years, it also wanted to follow Wanda's example and engage in entertainment.

It just so happened that Leshi.com needed money and asked for help, so the two parties hit it off. However...

"Does this have anything to do with us?" Meng Bai asked.

"It's hard to say. I've only heard some rumors so far." Chen Zhixi frowned and said, "Wanda seems to want to sell most of its cultural and tourism sectors, including Wanda Plaza and Oriental Movie Metropolis. One of the parties currently in talks is also Sunac."

"what?"

Meng Bai was surprised.

I knew Wanda was in trouble, but I didn't expect it to be this bad. Even its core business was sold out, it seems that it really has no money.

Chen Zhixi was also full of emotion. Ruyi Pictures has been trying to find a big investor behind it in recent years.

At first, they cooperated with Guangguang, and later switched to Wanda. Now Wanda is also failing, and they have to continue to find new ways out.

"The risks in traditional industries are too great. If you really want to find one, I suggest looking for emerging Internet capital," said Meng Bai.

Chen Zhixi nodded, what Meng Bai said made sense.

Among the newly emerged film and television companies in recent years, except for "freaks" like Arc Light Pictures, almost every one of them has the shadow of Internet capital such as BAT behind it.

Thinking of this, she smiled and said, "How about it, is Hu Guang interested in our Ruyi?"

"Don't be funny, Sister Xi." Meng Bai said: "I am interested, but we also need money."

"No way. As far as I know, Arclight's revenue last year was close to 500 million. Are you still short of money?"

"Well, you earn a lot but spend a lot too. Compared with the big capitalists, you are still far behind." Meng Bai waved his hand.

Now it was Chen Zhixi's turn to be surprised: "No, you really have so much revenue?"

She had only given a relatively high estimate based on her experience and wanted to tease this "little boy".

You know, although Ruyi invested in so many film projects last year, the total revenue was only around 500 million.

But I didn't expect that they actually achieved it.

I'm the clown myself?
Looking at Chen Zhixi's surprised expression, Meng Bai smiled gently and said nothing.

In fact, if we only count the revenue of Arclight Pictures itself, it is indeed similar to what this sister estimated.

But don’t forget that ArcLight also has Taiyang Chuanhe, Xiaotangren Culture, and the “online drama going overseas” project in cooperation with Huace.

What's more, he also has a "king-level" Qiming Venture Partners, which has invested in Pinduoduo.

Of course, the last one is his personal investment and cannot be counted into ArcLight’s project.

But Meng Bai did not lie to Chen Zhixi.

Just as he commented on himself after making his first fortune from "Soul Ferry".

The speed at which you spend money is definitely faster than the speed at which you make money.

This year, the Spring Festival came early, and the New Year's Eve was on January 1. Excluding holidays, there was only half a month between it and New Year's Day.

Therefore, each company’s year-end summary, New Year’s plan, annual meeting and other activities are also held together.

Arc Light was no exception. As soon as Meng Bai left Chen Zhixi, he returned to Arc Light to hold the New Year's meeting.

"Mr. Meng, this is the list of films that are scheduled to be broadcast and approved this year. Please take a look."

In the conference room, Liu Zhi projected a document onto the screen.

As one of the earliest veterans who grew up with the company, this young man who previously worked alone in major drama crews in northern Beijing has now become the general manager of the Arc Light online drama department.

Meng Bai looked at the project names on the screen. In addition to the already confirmed "Day and Night Chase" and "Psychological Crime 2", there are many projects that have not yet started but have already been planned.

Like the movie version of "Psychological Crime: City of Light", "Soul Ferry: Huangquan" movie, "Detective Chinatown" web drama, "Forensic Qin Ming 2"...

Altogether, ArcLight has nearly a dozen projects, including its own and its collaborators.

(End of this chapter)