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

Chapter 501: Youzu Calls
The 2021 Spring Festival is relatively late, starting in mid-February, so the Spring Festival movie season will not officially end until March.

The final box office performance of "Assassination of Novelist" was fixed at 14.28 billion yuan. Not only did it successfully recover its costs, but it also made nearly million yuan in box office profits, which can be said to be a great success.

The success of three consecutive films has allowed director Lu Yang to prove his commercial value, making him another core director under Shuidi Agency after Guo Fan.

The male lead, Lei Jiayin, has also firmly established himself as a top-tier actor, proving his performance in the film industry.

Similarly, although the heroine played by Li Qin is a tool person, being the second lead is also counted in her personal achievements. The cumulative box office of the two films reached 23 billion, surpassing Zhou Dongyu to become the first among the "90s flowers".

Li Qin's fans can be said to be extremely happy. During this period, various record posters have been flying around to help their sister publicize her achievements.

Naturally, this move also caused dissatisfaction among many fans of the rival team, who said that this result was purely obtained by mistake and had nothing to do with Li Qin herself.

[It's so funny, the audience of "Psychological Crime" is watching Meng Bai and Qin Hao, and the audience of "Assassination of Novelist" is watching Lu Yang and Lei Jiayin, what does it have to do with Li Qin? 】

[“The top three female lead roles are counted as personal achievements” is recognized by the global film industry. Our Qinqin played the third female lead and the second female lead in two movies. What’s wrong with that being counted as achievements? 】

[Every day they say "the best young actress", I thought she was amazing, but it turns out she only has over 90 billion, which is enough to show off among the mediocre "00s actresses". I won't even use the ones above to bully you, even the young actresses born in the "50s", there are Zhao Jinmai with 30 billion and Zhang Zifeng with billion.]

[We were originally talking about the "90s girls", don't make extrapolations every day. Our main character is so obscure, don't drag Mai Mai and Zi Feng out to take the blame.]

【Stupid brainless fan! 】

【Garbage little black guy! 】

【…】

【…】

The verbal battles in fan circles are always like this, from the sarcasm at the beginning, to the mutual slander later, and finally to the mutual abuse, reversing the course of human civilization over and over again in the Internet age.

However, no matter how much they quarrel, these verbal battles are ultimately limited to the fan circle. For the vast majority of ordinary passers-by, the most impressive movie during this year's Spring Festival is "Hello, Li Huanying", which has been soaring all the way and finally won an astonishing box office of 55 billion.

Before this, no one would have thought that a comedy film directed by a new director and without major special effects would be able to show such a strong box office dominance, even surpassing last year's "The Wandering Earth" and "Nezha: The Devil Child Comes into the World" to top the domestic film box office list.

Many filmmakers and film and television celebrities have given explanations for the reasons, such as the flu has led to the accumulation of audiences' enthusiasm for watching movies, theaters have generally raised movie ticket prices, there is only this comedy film in the Spring Festival this year, there is a lack of competition from big productions during the same period, and the popularity of the combination of "Shen Teng + Jia Ling" has brought about a strong appeal...

In the final analysis, family-friendly comedies will still dominate the Spring Festival period.

The biggest beneficiaries of a movie that is a big hit are naturally the production and distribution companies behind it. "Hello, Li Huanying" has four producers, 19 co-producers, and eight distributors and co-distributors.

The core position is naturally the main producer Hengten. According to the total box office of 55 billion, after deducting the share and costs, the final income is about 5 million.

You know, the total bet income set by Hengten Network when acquiring Ruyi was only 15 billion, and it was divided over three years. Now that a movie has completed one-third of it, you can imagine how explosive the result is this time.

Previously, due to the impact of the "help letter incident" from its major shareholder Evergrande, the stock price of Hengten Network fell slightly.

However, with the release of the box office results of the two films "Hello, Li Huanying" and "Assassination of Novelist", the original downward trend took a sharp turn and started to rise directly without even a buffer.

However, not all of Hengten's projects were successful. They also participated in the investment of "The Crowd" which was also released during the Spring Festival. Although the final box office reached 7.6 million, the production and promotion costs of this film were 2.5 million, and after deducting various commissions, it still suffered a small loss.

In general, this Spring Festival period has made a lot of money for Meng Bai and Chen Zhixi. And this is only the beginning of the year, and there are still several movies waiting in line for release this year.

Although it is still hard to say what the results will be like now, judging from past results, the possibility of success is much greater than failure.

Unconsciously, Heng Teng, or Ruyi, has become the main force of the new generation in the film industry.

……

"Tsk tsk, look at the title of this interview, 'From a professional actress to a billionaire beauty producer'."

Meng Bai looked at the interview report written in large letters on the screen and said to the phone in a teasing tone: "Sister Xi, I think you forced the reporter to add the word 'beauty', didn't you?"

"What? Am I not worthy of this title?" Chen Zhixi's murderous voice came from the other end of the phone.

"Haha, how could that be? I just think the word 'beauty' doesn't bring out your temperament, Sister Xi."

"Oh, you should save these words for your girlfriends." Chen Zhixi said, "Besides, the magazine wanted to interview you, but you pushed the job to me." "I'm a grown man, and I can't get as much attention as you, a 'beautiful producer'." Meng Bai said with a smile, "Besides, as a behind-the-scenes worker, my popularity is already a bit too high, and I need your help to share the burden."

"Your popularity is too high? Your scandals are too high!" Chen Zhixi complained bluntly.

That being said, she didn't call just to complain.

"Lehua Entertainment has started to seek a re-listing this year and is preparing to introduce new benchmark investors. They really hope to use our resources in film and television. Do you think we should get involved?"

"Lehua Entertainment? It's not that I look down on them, but now except for Wang Yi Bo, they don't seem to have anything to show off." Meng Bai said.

As one of the oldest entertainment companies in China, Lehua Entertainment's development in recent years has not been smooth.

As the influence of Korean idols in the domestic entertainment industry gradually declines, the "export-to-domestic sales" model they relied on in the past can no longer continue.

As for the few artists currently on hand, Han Geng is basically out of date, and Meng Meiqi and Wu Xuanyi's popularity has gradually dissipated over time after leaving "Rocket Girls".

Cheng Xiao, who was previously given high hopes, first lost her original unique track by losing weight to attract female fans, and then was criticized for her acting skills after transforming into an actor.

As for new idols who came out of talent shows such as "Yuehua Seven", Wang Yiren, and Jin Zihan, they are basically confined to their own small circle of fans.

However, the virtual idol group A-SOUL, which was launched by Lehua in cooperation with ByteDance at the end of last year, has developed rapidly. However, the domestic two-dimensional industry itself is not very large, and virtual idols are even a niche among the niches. It is still difficult to see how it will develop in the future.

Currently, the only product that Lehua Entertainment can show off is Wang Yi Bo.

However, it must be said that this person is indeed very efficient, and he alone supports nearly half of the company's revenue. It is also because of him that Lehua has the confidence to restart its IPO.

But they also understand that there is no singing and dancing market in the domestic entertainment industry, and idols will eventually have to develop into actors. Lehua itself has no film and television resources, so it needs to introduce a backer.

As Lehua had cooperated with Heng Teng before, they took the opportunity to make an investment invitation.

"But you have to admit that with Wang Yibo here, Lehua's listing shouldn't be a problem. It's indeed a good investment." Chen Zhixi said, "There's no rush for this. Let's talk about it in detail at the next board meeting."

"That's fine, but I remember Wang Yibo signed with Lehua a long time ago. You have to pay attention to how many years are left on their contract. If you really want to invest, you have to include the guarantee of personnel stability in the agreement."

"Indeed, this is also a problem. I will communicate more with the other party here, and we will talk about it when you come back."

Putting down the phone, Meng Bai thought about it and felt that investing in Lehua seemed to be no big problem, as long as there was no problem with the contract period just mentioned.

"If you really want to invest, you can send Bai Lu over there to fulfill her dream of becoming a singing and dancing idol. And Boss Li, you can also give it a try after rejecting the scouts from Korean Entertainment."

Thinking about the scene of Li Yitong dancing a girl group dance for him, Meng Bai suddenly felt a little more interested in this investment.

He shook his head and smiled, shifting his attention from the small head back to the big head, and continued to read the information in front of him.

He was currently in Blue Island, in charge of the "Sweeping Dark Storm" crew as the chief producer. Although he no longer needed to take care of specific matters in his current position, matters concerning financial transactions and budgets still had to be reviewed and approved by him at the final stage.

While looking at the funding documents submitted by the crew, the phone beside him suddenly rang. Meng Bai glanced at the screen and saw that it was an unfamiliar number.

After frowning and thinking for a while, he still answered the phone.

"Hello, is this Mr. Meng from Arclight Films?"

On the other side of the phone, a familiar female voice came from the other side, sounding a little nervous and hesitant.

"Hello, I'm Meng Bai." Meng Bai said calmly.

"Hello, Mr. Meng." The woman paused on the phone and continued, "I am Lin Qi's lover from Youzu Networks. I have met you before at a research meeting."

"Ah, Mrs. Lin." Meng Bai recalled instantly, "Do you want to talk to me about something?"

The other party didn't say anything. After a few seconds, she seemed to have made up her mind and said, "Mr. Meng, I want to trouble you about the cooperation between Youzu and Arclight. Do you have time convenient for me now?"

Meng Bai smiled and said, "Of course, just tell me."

(End of this chapter)