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

Chapter 99 Net profit of 1500 million!
Knowing that Meng Bai was quite busy recently, Zhu Xudan did not bother him too much. After having a meal and saying goodbye to her best friend, she obediently returned to Jingbei.

As for her contract, Meng Bai promised to think about it carefully in the near future and give an answer or solution before her contract expires.

After seeing off his junior sister, Meng Bai continued to be busy with the filming of the crew, but he was always thinking about that problem in his heart.

Does Arclight Pictures need to increase its artist management business?

In fact, most traditional film and television companies also have artist management business. Whether it is for cost, profit or convenience, it is better to use their own people rather than outsiders.

And there is also a psychological issue involved here. No one wants their own project to end up making someone else famous.

Because Arclight Films was established too recently and has little background, and because web dramas are a new market, most of the actors used in the few dramas they shot are newcomers. The few who are not, such as Zhang Ruoyun, Yu Yi, Zhu Xudan, etc., are either from the investors or work alone.

The only special one is Li Qin, but the entanglement between her and Meng Bai is more complicated and cannot be viewed as an ordinary relationship between a producer and a leading actor.

So far, ArcLight Pictures has not been too involved in issues concerning artists from other companies.

But this state will certainly not last forever. As the online drama market gradually prospers, more and more second- and third-tier "mid-level actors" will inevitably move into the online drama market to grab resources.

It is impossible for Arclight Films to only use newcomers. If the newcomers become popular, they will also sign with the company. At that time, the question of "whose actors to use" will inevitably arise.

Meng Bai has been thinking about this issue when he has nothing to do these days, and even asked Noon Sunshine about their situation in this regard - Noon Sunshine also has signed actors, such as Jin Dong, Wang Kai, Liu Yijun, and Liu Mintao, who have frequently appeared in "Noon Dramas" in recent years, are all under its own company.

On the Noon Sunshine side, Hou Hongliang did not hide anything from him and told him directly that there are pros and cons to film and television companies signing artists.

The advantages are that, first of all, the company's revenue increases, after all, using its own artists can reduce the pay, and there is also an additional income from the agency business. And it is also easier to find people when there is a role needed in a project.

Moreover, there is an advantage that Meng Bai had not thought of before, but is particularly suitable for Arc Light Films. That is, if a series is shot, the casts of the previous and subsequent dramas will be very stable. The situation will not occur where the first part is completed, the actors become popular, and there are not enough actors for the second part.

This benefit is exactly what Arclight Films wants. Each drama in the "Green Ivy Series" basically needs to be divided into many seasons, and the stability of the cast is indeed a very critical issue.

In fact, when he was filming "Soul Ferry 2" this time, he had already vaguely felt the trouble of shooting a sequel to the series. The time he spent on communicating with several leading actors about their common schedules was longer than the time from project initiation to start of filming.

Moreover, this was done just in time for "Pendulum 2", and none of the leading actors suddenly became popular or gained a huge star status, otherwise the preparation for the sequel would have been even more difficult.

As for disadvantages, of course there are some.

For example, Noon Sunshine and others, because they have their own artists, so every time there is a new project, they always start with their own artists. Sometimes there are inevitably better choices for the role, but because the difference is not much and to save trouble, they finally choose their own people.

Secondly, if the artist management business is added, it is equivalent to the company expanding a new industry, which will inevitably distract the company's management energy. Especially for companies like Arclight Films or Noon Sunshine, the operators themselves are also the main project creators.

Just like Meng Bai, he is now only in charge of film and television production, so he can focus completely on individual project works, and the company can just keep operating normally.

But if ArcLight Pictures added artist management business, it would need to pay extra attention to the development of its actors, and it would be difficult to concentrate on the production of its works.

This is the case with many things. No matter what choice you make, there will always be pros and cons. The key is to see which aspect you value more.

Meng Bai thought to himself that the best way would be for Arclight Films to become a shareholder and invest in an agency. Then, the agency contracts of its artists could be placed with the agency, while the film and television contracts would remain with Arclight Films.

This can be considered a way to kill two birds with one stone. The only problem is where to find a suitable partner. Those mature agencies certainly have little chance. They either have their own film and television production capabilities or have long-term partners. In any case, they are not short of a "new player" like Arclight.

But since it was a new company, Meng Bai didn’t know much about it and didn’t have any connections, so for a moment he really didn’t know how to start.

After weighing the pros and cons for a long time, he finally decided to start the artist management business. As for how to find the right collaborator, he would have to wait until the filming of "Pendulum 2" was finished before trying to find a way to get to know him in depth.
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The "Pendulum" crew was in a hurry to prepare in Shanghai, but the filming was also fast, because most of the plot took place indoors, there were no unnecessary actions and designs, and it almost entirely depended on the actors' performances and lines.

This kind of drama has lower requirements for the director, but very high requirements for the actors and screenwriters.

At this point, we have to say that the powerful are the powerful. Mr. Zhang Yonggang's acting skills can be said to be perfect and vividly perform the core of the script.

Yu Yi's performance was also pretty good. He managed to withstand the pressure and got the role.

Thanks to the efforts of all the actors, this unit was completed in less than a week.

The small crew disbanded on the spot, and Wu Bai, Yu Yi and several staff members from the "Pendulum 2" crew returned to Blue Island together to continue filming the remaining parts there.

Meng Bai did not go back with them, but returned to Jingbei.

The statistics of various data for "Psychological Crime" have been completed, and Arclight Films can get a share of the profits.

Compared with the previous share of "Soul Ferry", the data of "Psychological Crime" this time is better, especially in terms of new members and members' viewing time, which can be said to be far ahead.

This is normal. After all, suspense dramas have a larger audience than horror dramas, and the audience stickiness is also stronger.

However, due to the increase in the investment budget, and the fact that Arclight Films is also the investor this time, the profit sharing ratio cannot be as high as last time - of course, there is no need to share the money with Teacher Li this time.

Therefore, after the final calculation, Arclight Films will probably get more than 790 million in profit share this time.

Looking at this number alone, it is actually much smaller than the profit of the last "Pendulum". But don't forget that Arclight Films will also get a share of the investment this time, which is the big deal.

Although there is no detailed data yet, the "head manager" Chen Jing told Meng Bai that based on the final profit sharing ratio, the investment share is at least over 1100 million, which is no less than the previous number.

Excluding the 1500 million yuan in investment, Arclight Pictures made at least million yuan in net profit from "Criminal Mind". This is the terrifying profit that a hit drama can bring.

Of course, Leshi.com made more money, but they were playing with stock prices and didn't care much about this little money.

The profit sharing calculation was completed. Although it would take some time for the money to actually arrive in Arclight Films' account, it was enough for Meng Bai to breathe a sigh of relief.

Previously, because of his investment in "Psychological Crime" and the financing of Leshi Films, he almost emptied the working capital of Arclight Films. With this money, Arclight finally no longer has to live a "hard life", and Meng Bai no longer has to hear Chen Jing "complain" to him every now and then.

After thanking Liu Jun, Meng Bai was about to leave when the other party told him an unexpected news.

"Have you heard about the National Drama Festival hosted by Anhui Satellite TV?" Liu Jun said, "I saw that they have two online drama awards this year, so I applied for Soul Ferry. Recently, the organizer sent a message saying that Soul Ferry has been selected for the annual popular online drama award, and we may be required to attend then."

(End of this chapter)