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

Chapter 403 Spring Festival

In the Internet age, countless news appear every day, and the public's attention is being diverted at any time. The discussion about Meng Bai was lively on the Internet for more than half a month, but the heat gradually began to dissipate and was slowly replaced by new hot events.

However, the attention to "The Wandering Earth" is still good. The "audience wants to watch" data on Maoyan Movie APP, one of the distributors, has exceeded 500,000. Finally, Mr. Meng's "200,000 red envelope" did not go to waste.

However, the entertainment industry is not without fun at the end of the year. The two most eye-catching news during this period are Yang Mi’s divorce announcement and Zhao Liying’s pregnancy announcement.

As the two people with the highest traffic among the "85 Flowers" in recent years, the sudden outbreak of such a big melon is still very eye-catching.

However, it is somewhat different from the common public opinion in the past. The Weibo of Yang Mi, who is getting divorced, is full of fans cheering and celebrating, while Zhao Liying, who announced the happy event, is full of controversies.

Comparing the two people's previous reputations on the Internet, it is somewhat black humor.

But no matter whether it is praise or criticism, the troubles in the entertainment industry ultimately just add some gossip to the public's daily life.

The New Year's Day holiday in 2019 was spent in these ordinary trivialities.

The holiday is over and there is still one month until the Spring Festival. All companies have begun to wrap up their year-end summary.

However, compared to the past, this year, there are fewer news reports about large and small companies showing off their high year-end bonuses. The decline in the capital market has begun to spread to all aspects, and people from all walks of life are lamenting that this year may be difficult.

The situation on Arc Light's side remains the same. In the past year, they are one of the few film and television companies whose performance has not declined, but has increased significantly.

Thanks to many hits such as "Detective Chinatown 2", "Criminal Minds: City Lights", "Peace Hotel", and the support of new overseas markets, ArcLight's annual revenue exceeded 30 billion.

Compared with the annual performance announced by other leading listed companies in the entire film and television industry, this data ranks fourth, second only to China Film, Wanda and Mango Super Media.

That is to say, ArcLight is not listed, otherwise, after the annual report is released, it will definitely produce several daily limit increases.

Since they made money, Meng Bai naturally would not cut the year-end bonus like other companies did. It even increased it a little based on previous years.

Including the bonuses for the annual meeting, they were all increased, and the special prize was doubled from 100,000 to 200,000, which caused cheers from everyone in Arc Light.

Speaking of which, the big boss Meng Bai’s expectations for the annual meeting are no less than those of his employees.

The only difference is that while the employees were waiting for the lottery, he was waiting to “open the blind box”.

The first year, the special prize went to Yang Chaoyue, and the second year, it went to He Yihe. He really wanted to know what surprise he would get this year.

"…The employee number that won the annual meeting's special prize this year is 0358."

In the huge annual meeting banquet hall, a man with a happy face ran onto the stage holding up his work badge amid the envious cheers of the audience.

"Meng, Mr. Meng, hello." The man said to Meng Bai excitedly, "My name is Wei Zhilin, and I'm from the Film and Television Department."

"Good luck." Meng Bai looked at him with a smile, "Congratulations on winning the prize, do you have any wishes?"

“My biggest wish was to win the lottery, and now it has come true!”

"I mean, do you have any wishes after winning the prize?" Meng Bai said to him in a stimulating way, "You have seen all the winners of the past two years. If you have any wishes that you want to realize, the company can help you realize them if it can."

"A wish..." Wei Zhilin glanced at Meng Bai and asked cautiously, "Is it necessary to have one?"

"..." Meng Bai said with a bit of a smile: "No, it doesn't matter if you don't have it."

"Ah, then I don't have any other wishes. I just want to use the bonus to make enough for the down payment and buy a house in northern Beijing." Wei Zhilin scratched his hair and smiled with a naive and expectant look.

"Buying a house... OK, that's good too." Meng Bai took a deep breath and patted his shoulder. "I'll ask the finance department to transfer the bonus to you in the next two days. You can discuss with your family where to buy a house during the New Year."

"Well, thank you, Mr. Meng!"

Looking at Wei Zhilin who left happily, Meng Bai sighed with some disappointment, but then he laughed to himself in his heart.

The special prize at the annual meeting is drawn randomly, and there is no "best employee elimination system". How can there be surprises every year?

Yang Chaoyue's is a metaphysics, He Yihe's family is not bad, but for most ordinary employees, it is much better to get the money directly than to gamble on a chance. Forget it, just treat it as opening an "empty blind box" this year.

Thinking of this, Meng Bai no longer cared about this matter.

The annual meeting is over, and the Spring Festival is only half a month away. Arclight currently has only one major project left, which is the release of "The Wandering Earth".

January 28th, Little New Year.

The theater in Wanda Cinema in Beijing's CBD, which can accommodate hundreds of viewers, is almost full today. On the wide screen at the front, several movie trailers are playing in a loop.

"How many screenings have the cinemas scheduled for the first day?"

"11%."

"It's a bit less..."

"There's nothing we can do. The competition for the Spring Festival slot this year is too fierce."

The time has not come yet, and the crew is temporarily in the lounge outside the theater. Meng Bai, Guo Fan, Wu Jing, and Gong Geer are sitting together, chatting about the Spring Festival period.

As one of the four most important periods of the year, the Spring Festival period has always been a battleground for box office blockbusters, with a "battle of the gods" taking place almost every year.

Take this year's Spring Festival as an example. In addition to "The Wandering Earth", there are at least three other blockbusters that are highly anticipated.

One is "Crazy Alien", which brings together Ning Hao, Huang Bo and Shen Teng, three top creators in the field of domestic comedy films.

One is Han Han’s new work, "Flying Life", also starring Shen Teng.

There is another one, which is the sequel to Zhou Xingchi’s classic work "The New King of Comedy".

Whether in terms of subject matter or cast, they are more attractive than The Wandering Earth. The cinema chain obviously has the same view, so these three movies alone account for 60% of the screening share.

In addition, there is the stable annual output of "Boonie Bears: The Wild Age", Jackie Chan's "Detective Pu Songling", and "Peppa Pig Celebrates the New Year", which became popular online with a "What's Peppa" promotional video.

Therefore, it is already quite good that 11% of the screening time is reserved for "The Wandering Earth".

"It's okay, it's just the first day's screening." Meng Bai said confidently, "I believe in the quality of our film. As long as word of mouth spreads, the audience will naturally make a choice."

Gongger at the side also said: "Yes, and we are the only one that opened a midnight show, which gives us an extra night for evaluation and dissemination. As long as the audience can recognize our quality, the scheduling of the film will naturally improve."

At this point, the only thing everyone can do is believe in their own work.

"Brother Meng Bai!"

As soon as the four of them dispersed after encouraging each other, Meng Bai heard a familiar voice calling him. Turning around, he saw it was Zhao Jinmai.

"Mai Mai." Meng Bai greeted her with a smile, then looked her over and asked, "Did you design your hair like this on purpose?"

Compared to the last time we met, this girl's hair was much shorter. But it wasn't the common short hair, but it was about to the middle of her neck, which looked neither long nor short.

"Doesn't it look good?" Zhao Jinmai touched his hair and asked with some disappointment.

"That's not the case." Meng Bai said, "The girl is pretty, so any hairstyle won't affect her."

Being praised so directly, Zhao Jinmai was both happy and a little embarrassed, but she still showed a smile that she couldn't hide: "I was filming a drama before the New Year, and the role required me to cut my hair short, and then I grew it long recently, so this is it."

She recently filmed a TV series called "Youth" with Zhang Jiayi and Yan Ni. Her character is called "Lin Miaomiao", a high school girl who is a bit boyish.

"You're playing a high school student?" Meng Bai asked, "Does this even need to be acted out?"

Letting high school students play high school students is what it means to act in their true colors.

(End of this chapter)