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

Chapter 310 What is the value of Arclight Films
Looking at the name on the phone, the room fell silent for a moment.

"Coincidence! It's totally a coincidence!" Bai Lu said hurriedly.

He Handan glanced at her and said, "Let's not talk about whether it's a coincidence or not. As a worker, I suggest you answer the phone first."

That's true. Bai Lu took a deep breath, adjusted her mood, then smiled and answered the phone.

"Hello, Mr. Meng."

Meng Bai's voice came from the phone: "Busy, Xiaobai?"

"I'm watching Psychological Crime 2, contributing to the streaming volume." Bai Lu said obediently: "Mr. Meng, do you have something to talk to me about?"

"It's like this. There's a role in Arclight's movie project in the second half of the year that's quite suitable for you. If you have time in the next few days, you can come over for an audition."

"Movie project?"

Bai Lu was confused for a moment. Arclight’s movie this year is “City of Lights”!

But hasn’t the lead actor of this movie been decided to be L? Ugh, hasn’t Li Qin been decided?

As if he had guessed her thoughts, Meng Bai explained: "It's not the movie "Psychological Crime", it's the project "Soul Ferry"."

Bai Lu suddenly realized that indeed, there were two movies on the film list released by Arclight Films at the beginning of the year.

One is "City Lights" and the other is "Soul Ferry: Huangquan"

However, everyone knows that the subject matter of "Soul Ferry" is limited and can only be broadcast online, so people habitually ignore it.

But Bai Lu's eyes still lit up.

Although "Huangquan" is just an online movie, the weight of the "Soul Ferry" IP is no less than that of "Psychological Crime".

Although it has been two years since the finale of the second season, the show can still be seen from time to time in various reviews, editing and re-creation videos on the Internet.

In the past two years, Yu Yi has also been touring the stage play "Soul Ferry", and almost every show was sold out, maintaining a certain level of popularity.

At least for Bai Lu, a new and unknown person, it is already a very good resource.

Therefore, she agreed without thinking.

"The role isn't very big, don't feel too stressed, just do your best." Meng Bai comforted her, "Okay, continue watching the show."

Bai Lu held the phone, paused for a moment, and asked, "Boss Meng, is this what you're calling about?"

"Yes, what else?" Meng Bai was puzzled. "Why, do you have something else to do?"

"No, no, thank you, President Meng. Goodbye, President Meng!"

Bai Lu denied it repeatedly and then hung up the phone in a panic.

Putting her phone down, she collapsed back on the sofa, then clenched her fist and gave a small cheer.

After finishing, she looked at her best friend again: "Well, I'll say I'm innocent."

"That's hard to say." He Handan said calmly.

Bai Lu rolled her eyes and said, "Come on, didn't you hear everything just now? My boss and I just have a simple working relationship."

"Tsk——"

He Handan raised his index finger and shook it in front of him: "You have an agent, right? Why didn't they send this kind of work information to her, but contacted you directly? Think about it, think about it carefully..."

"You mean, he came to me on purpose. No, that's impossible... Hehe... Oh, how is it possible... Pfft!"

Bai Lu waved her hands repeatedly to indicate that it was impossible, but she couldn't help but feel that what her best friend said made sense.

Could it be that the boss really did this to me... Oh, so embarrassing!

"Snapped!"

A snap of fingers woke up Bai Lu, who was denying while trying hard to hold back her laughter.

"Wake up, girl, I'm just teasing you."

He Handan looked at this worthless girlfriend with disdain: "Based on my many years of experience as a social slave, the most likely reason a big boss would call an employee directly is that he has thought of some work arrangement and wants you to work overtime."

"what?"

"Think back, did he first tell you that there was an important job, which made you feel like it was an opportunity to show off? Then he told you that your abilities were the most suitable, which made you feel that the big boss cared about you? Finally, he gave you a consolation sentence, which made you feel that the boss was very approachable and you must seize this opportunity."

"It seems, it seems to be true..." Bai Lu recalled the conversation just now, and it seemed to be exactly the same.

He Handan waved his hand: "Capitalists all over the world are the same. Every day they talk about opportunities and growth, and never mention money. Of course, the profession of an actor is a little different. This is indeed an opportunity for you."

"Haha, you know a lot!"

"If you go to school for a few years, you will be the same." He Handan said: "And after you started filming, I would read entertainment news when I had nothing to do, so I know a little bit."

"As expected, you are the best to me. Give me a kiss, mua~"

Bai Lu kissed her best friend under her "disdainful" gaze, then rolled her eyes and said, "Haha, why don't you just quit your job and come work for me."

"what?"

"I think you're smarter than me. With your help, maybe we can really have a good life!"
-
Hearing Bai Lu hang up the phone in surprise, Meng Bai couldn't help but frown.

But he was used to it. After all, this girl had been so weird and careless since they met.

Putting away his phone, Meng Bai followed his previous train of thought and considered the shooting schedules of the two film projects.

The preparations for "Soul Ferry: Huangquan" are almost done. Yu Yi, Zhu Xudan and other leading actors are also available, and the filming will start next month.

As Arclight’s first film project, “Psychological Crime: City Lights” took a little longer to prepare.

In addition, Zhao Jinmai is still filming "The Wandering Earth", and Qin Hao also needs some time to adjust his body shape, so the filming will officially start in August.

If you calculate it this way, ArcLight Films has quite a few projects in the second half of the year.

In addition to these two movies, "Day and Night" will be aired in August, and "Chef Fang in Flowers" will be aired in September. Then Chen Sicheng will prepare to cooperate in the project of "Detective Chinatown" web drama before the end of the year.

In addition, the post-production of "Peace Hotel" will be completed in two or three months, and we also need to contact the TV station to discuss viewing the film.

Fortunately, Arc Light Films no longer needs Meng Bai to do everything himself, he only needs to take care of the general direction.

Otherwise, with so many projects, he would be exhausted to death.

Just as I was thinking about it, there was a knock on the office door.

Meng Bai shouted "Come in", and then Liu Jun pushed open the door and walked in.

"Just now, Fang Fang from Penguin Pictures called me and told me the latest data of "Psychological Crime 2". So far, one-third of the broadcast progress has been made, and the total number of views on the entire network has reached 15 billion. Even after dehydrating the data, it can be around 11 billion."

Liu Jun smiled and said, "I really didn't expect that this drama would do so well."

"Yeah, we didn't expect it to be so popular before." Meng Bai nodded.

Strictly speaking, the popularity of the "Psychological Crime" IP in the entire "Green Ivy Series" is only average.

"Detective Chinatown 3" is a blockbuster movie and is the most popular project in the entire series.

"Forensic Qin Ming" initially became popular with the hot search label of "heavy-tasting drama that goes well with meals", attracting many "non-suspense lovers" audiences.

The next drama to be aired is "Day and Night", which has not yet started airing, but the male lead Pan Yueming became popular again last year with "The Lost Tomb", and is also highly anticipated.

Although the "Criminal Mind" project is the initial work of the entire "Green Ivy Series", the first season was broadcast more than two years ago.

Today, compared with several other projects in the same series, it seems a little niche.

Therefore, before the broadcast of "Criminal Minds 2", the expectations for this drama within Arclight were not that high.

Of course, the "not high" mentioned here is relative to Arclight itself. The final playback data is about 20 to 30 billion.

Unexpectedly, after it was actually broadcast, the results were much better than expected.

According to the current performance, the total number of views is estimated to reach about 40 billion by the finale.

You know, last year's online drama champion "The Lost Tomb" only had 56 billion views. Although this is due to the expansion of the online drama market and the increase in statistical water, it has exceeded the original target by a lot.

Meng Bai also looked through the audience's comments on the Internet before.

I found that in addition to the fans of "Criminal Mind" itself and the audience of suspense dramas, there are also many people who came for the "Green Ivy Series" background story mentioned in the promotion, that is, the setting of the "Q Organization" in the "Re-education Camp" plot.

After all, this organization, which sounds like the "ultimate boss", has been mentioned before in the easter eggs of "Psychological Crime 1", "Forensic Qin Ming", and "Detective Chinatown".

In other words, some viewers wanted to see the background setting of the entire "Green Ivy Detective Universe" and watched "Criminal Investigations 2" by the way.

It may be a bit disappointing for the main creators of the crew, but it is a very good sign for the entire arc.

Because this represents that the film and television universe effect of the "Green Ivy Series" is gradually emerging.

Just like Marvel's superheroes, many viewers may have never read the comics before and have never heard of those heroes.

But as long as this hero joins the MCU universe, fans will naturally want to watch it.

Even if you are not interested in the story of the hero itself, it is good to check out the linkage or easter eggs.

In fact, this is the real power of the "film and television universe", which reduces the publicity and promotion costs of a large number of new projects to attract audiences.

Because of this reason, the actual performance of "Psychological Crime 2" exceeded expectations.

Many fans have already left messages online in anticipation of the upcoming drama "Day and Night".

"In the next 'Green Vine Series' project, we can appropriately add some cross-plots." Meng Bai said.

Liu Jun nodded: "We have almost accumulated a basic base of audience fans, and we can indeed add the 'universe' part."

After chatting about the subsequent project arrangements, Meng Bai asked, "Did you come here to talk about this?"

"No, there is something else."

Liu Jun's expression became serious for a moment, and he said seriously: "Some time ago, Cheng Wu, the CEO of Tencent Pictures, contacted me and said that he wanted to meet you."

“Tencent Pictures?”

For large companies of the level of BAT, in addition to constant external "fighting", internal competition is also equally fierce.

Especially at Tencent, what Jack Ma likes to do most is to arrange several project teams to develop one business simultaneously and engage in internal competition.

Until the end, only one "Gu King" was left.

This was done in the gaming industry before, and later in the film and television industry, the same approach was used.

In 2015, Tencent founded Penguin Pictures as a link between Tencent Video and China Literature Group, and officially entered the field of "film and television production".

Relying on the success of "The Lost Tomb", Penguin Pictures has developed rapidly in the past two years and has become an important part of Tencent's film and television industry.

But few people know that Tencent Pictures was established together with Penguin Pictures.

The two companies are in a competitive and cooperative relationship, and their main business is IP film and television adaptation.

If there is any difference, one is backed by Tencent Video and focuses on online dramas, while the other cooperates with China Literature Group and focuses on movies.

However, compared with Penguin Pictures, the development of Tencent Pictures lags behind.

I have participated in many projects, but the results were either average or I just followed the crowd.
After two years, he is still unknown in the circle.

Because ArcLight mainly produces online dramas, it has always been cooperating with Penguin Pictures and has nothing to do with Tencent Pictures.

Therefore, Meng Bai was a little curious. What was the other party planning to do by suddenly asking him out?
"Did the other party say anything?"

"I didn't say anything too specific, I just wanted to get to know you and see if there's any chance for cooperation."

After saying that, Liu Jun suddenly frowned again and whispered, "But I heard a piece of gossip before."

"Another gossip?"

"Hey, don't underestimate the gossip in the circle. Sometimes it's not groundless."

Meng Bai smiled and said, "Okay, what gossip?"

"Tencent Pictures, backed by China Literature, has always wanted to adapt IP, but it has always been short on production." Liu Jun said: "It is said that they have begun to contact several film and television companies in the industry, hoping to acquire a suitable team and then start IP film and television adaptation."

Meng Bai stroked his chin and pondered, "So what you mean is that they contacted us to acquire Arc Light?"

"maybe."

"Ha." Meng Bai couldn't help laughing, "Do they know the valuation of Arclight?"

“Do you know how rich Tencent is?”

“…Fuck, I really can’t refute it!”

Seeing Meng Bai lost in thought, Liu Jun couldn't help but ask, "Well, if they really offer a good price, will you sell it?"

"That depends on how much they offer. If they can offer 800 billion or 1000 billion, why not sell it?"

"You're dreaming!" Liu Jun laughed and scolded, "Wanda Film's current market value is only 600 billion, and China Film is only 400 billion. My goodness, your mouth is half of the film industry."

Looking at the entire domestic film and television industry, no, the entire entertainment industry, the company with the largest market value is China Literature Group, which was just spun off and listed at the beginning of the year, with a market value of nearly 750 billion.

Next up were Leshi.com and Wanda Films, which fell to 600 billion.

Further down, there are the second tier with a total of 30 to 40 billion, including China Film, Perfect World, Light Media, and Huayi.

Although Arclight Pictures is known as the "No. 1 domestic web drama team" and has developed rapidly, it is still far from reaching 100 billion yuan.

So Meng Bai’s meaning was very clear, he had no intention of selling it at all.

"Then the invitation from Tencent Pictures..."

"It's okay, we'll meet if necessary. Acquisition is impossible, but it's good to talk about cooperation."

Meng Bai smiled slyly: "That's right, I also want to see how much our Arclight is valued at in the capital market."
-
Cheng Wu, who made an appointment with Meng Bai to meet, is not only the CEO of Tencent Pictures, but also the chairman of China Literature Group.

It was also under his leadership that Tencent's animation, literature, entertainment and other related sectors were integrated together to create "Reading", the first domestic IP library.

The meeting place was agreed to be a private club in northern Beijing.

It's the kind of weird place that often appears in urban online novels, where the story is exaggerated and miraculous, but there is always some brainless rich second-generation people appearing for the male protagonist to "show off in front of others".

But in fact, once you come here, you will find that it is just a more private place to eat.

"I've heard of Mr. Huguang Meng's name for a long time, but I've never had the chance to meet him."

Wearing glasses and looking gentle and refined, Cheng Wu smiled kindly and said, "After seeing you today, I can see that you are indeed a young talent!"

"Mr. Cheng, you're too polite. Arc Light is just a slightly famous online drama." Meng Bai said.

It's always like this when you first meet someone, with all sorts of small talk and business exchanging.

However, somewhat unexpectedly, Meng Bai and Cheng Wu actually have a lot in common.

"What I admire most about Arclight is actually the 'Green Ivy Detective Universe' as a whole." Cheng Wu said: "In recent years, the industry has been talking about IP. But if we really want to talk about the perfect use of the value of IP, only Arclight is the only one."

"Mr. Cheng won the prize."

"No, this is what I really think." Cheng Wu said with emotion: "The value of IP requires high-quality content and time to polish. The so-called IP development nowadays is essentially just consuming the vitality of the original work."

Meng Bai smiled. He actually agreed with this point of view.

After taking a long breath, Cheng Wu finally turned the topic back to business.

"I wonder what Mr. Meng thinks about the future development of Arclight?"

"I'll do my best and let nature take its course." Meng Bai said calmly.

Cheng Wu smiled and said, "Indeed, with the support of President Meng's content, Arclight can indeed develop steadily. However, if there is help, perhaps it can move faster."

(End of this chapter)