Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 459 The Problems of Big Companies
Yang Ying has been observing Liu Yifei and Li Qiutang's reactions for the past few days.

They seem unaware that they've hired online trolls to smear Liu Yifei in the country.

This time they did it discreetly, going through several layers of investigation, so it's basically impossible for them to trace it back to them. It's normal that they don't know about it.

Liu Yifei completed her audition in 40 minutes, and the next day, Huang Xiaoming and Yang Ying flew back to China.

Huang Xiaoming is the most successful male actor in China, arguably the most successful, but Yang Ying is still not satisfied with him.

Look at Li Qiutang, she owns a company in Hollywood.

Look at Mr. Dong Ping, his company is already listed on the stock exchange.

You can win ten thousand Best Actor awards, but you can't become a boss or sit at the table; you'll always be the one being chosen.

While the Lunar New Year was approaching in China, the "Arrival" production team finally received a reply from Australia. Cate Blanchett expressed that she really liked the story of "Arrival" and was very happy to receive the invitation from the production team to play the role of linguist Louis Banks.

That's considered a done deal.

Three days after Kate's casting was confirmed, Li Qiutang finished some cleanup work and set off back to China with Liu Yifei.

On the plane, Liu Yifei frankly said that she did not want to act in "Independence Day 2": "I always feel like I have something on my mind. I can't calm down and work until I finish that thing."

“If you don’t want to act, then you don’t have to,” Li Qiutang said. “This thing is just like ‘Tron: Legacy,’ making a sequel every ten years or so. There’s no other possibility than making money.”

When Universal rebooted Jurassic Park, it was widely believed that it was just a money-making scheme.

At the time, the media believed that Universal's reboot of "Jurassic Park" was to counter "The Hunger Games," since "The Hunger Games" was not Universal's own project, and Universal urgently needed a big IP to balance the public criticism brought about by Lantern Entertainment's "The Hunger Games."

Of course, this statement is giving Lantern Entertainment a bit too much credit.

Li Qiutang didn't support Liu Yifei starring in "Independence Day 2" to begin with. Roland Emmerich is certainly a master of disaster films, but for some reason, since "2012" in 2009, Roland seems to have lost his touch in disaster films, and every film he makes flops. He hasn't had a single blockbuster in the last five or six years.

It seems that "Independence Day 2" was such a flop that they had no choice but to revive the old material to prove they still have the ability.

Li Qiutang slept the whole way on the plane, so she didn't need to adjust to the time difference. She returned to the company that afternoon after landing and held her last meeting of the year.

After this meeting, Autumn Pictures will officially begin its holiday.

The meeting included both new topics and rehashed old ones.

Even after filming wrapped up for "Lost in Hong Kong," Xu Shanzheng continued to tirelessly visit his company, hoping they would give him a break.

Yes, now the company is making things difficult for him; the company won't let him off the hook.

But Li Qiutang still wouldn't allow other senior executives to make the decision on "Lost in Hong Kong": "This was originally a company project, and now it's like we're not letting him off the hook. What kind of logic is that? Tell him to wait!"

"We can talk, but give me 10 billion, and I'll give him all the copyrights to my 'Lost in...' series!" That's called asking for an exorbitant price!

All other projects in the company are progressing smoothly, and the functional departments are operating normally. Any problems cannot be reported to Li Qiutang.

During the meeting, someone suggested that the company should actively embrace the internet.

"Don't just talk empty words. Embracing the Internet sounds simple, but what about the plan? What about the measures?" Li Qiutang commented on the report.

Li Qiutang also knows that the internet is the general trend, but there are many difficulties in combining film and television with the internet. At present, the whole industry is taking it one step at a time.

This executive wasn't just talking nonsense. He cited last year's blockbuster film, *Breakup Buddies*, saying, "*Breakup Buddies* pioneered internet distribution and pre-sales. Exclusive pre-sales on Maoyan exceeded 1.1 million yuan, securing screenings and revenue in advance. I think we can do the same in the future. Relying on our existing distribution system, it's really difficult to achieve what Maoyan has done." The internet has indeed completely revolutionized film distribution methods; there's no denying that. Li Qiutang strongly agrees with internet distribution.

"Last year, there were also large-scale ticket subsidies, with tickets priced at 9.9, 14.9, and 19.9 yuan, which were very attractive to audiences."

"However, behind the ticket subsidies is the fact that ticketing platforms are spending money at any cost to grab market share." This is something that many people can understand.

Upon hearing this, Li Qiutang said, "The platform won't recklessly spend money on ticket subsidies; in the end, the distributor will definitely bear the cost. They're willing to spend money now, but what if, after the market competition has subsided, the platform tells you, 'This show will require 1000 million yuan in ticket subsidies. I'll contribute 300 million, and you'll have to pay the remaining 700 million.' Will you pay then?"

"Isn't this just buying tickets?"

"It's about buying box office revenue and screen time," Li Qiutang said. "Fine, if you don't pay for ticket subsidies, then my platform won't sell you tickets or will sell fewer tickets. What can you do then?"

Finally, Li Qiutang predicted: "In the future, 80% to 90% of the audience will buy tickets online. There's no way around it; traditional distribution will definitely not be able to continue, and they will definitely be working for internet platforms."

This is an unsolvable problem. In terms of distribution, we will indeed have to fully shift to the internet this fall.

The discussion then turned to the internet film and television financing platforms that were all the rage last year: Ali has Entertainment Treasure, and Baidu launched Youxi platform.

Several leading film companies in the industry have received invitations from these crowdfunding platforms, and almost all the films released on the first day of the Lunar New Year this year have crowdfunding products on these platforms.

Although Qiu didn't participate in the Spring Festival film season this year, she still received an invitation from Yulebao, who wanted to participate in Qiu's project next year.

But as soon as the topic was brought up, it was rejected by Li Qiutang.

"To put it bluntly, isn't this just illegal fundraising or the financialization of film and television products?" Li Qiutang said. "Does the company's project need money? Why would it need to use this kind of platform to raise funds?"

Therefore, Li Qiutang emphasized one point: "We can do internet marketing and distribution, but we absolutely cannot touch internet finance. Remember, we are a film and television company, and making good films is our core business."

Finance is indeed very tempting, but some money is not meant to be earned in the fall.

The meeting went on until after 11 p.m., when Li Qiutang discovered a very bad phenomenon in the company.

There is a tacit understanding among the senior executives of various departments that they are weaving information cocoons for Li Qiutang, Zhang Zhao and other top executives of the company.

It's not that they were deliberately deceiving anyone, but rather that they started reporting things that the top leadership wanted to hear, without revealing the most authentic situation from the front lines at the meetings.

After listening to the day's reports, the company was thriving and harmonious, both internally and externally.

However, the headquarters building of Autumn Film Studio already has more than a thousand people, and even Li Qiutang herself feels that the company has been infected with some big company problems.

For example, the staff is too numerous. Counting down from Chairman Li Qiutang and CEO Zhang Zhao, Autumn Pictures actually has 4 senior vice presidents and 8 vice presidents.

Li Qiutang didn't understand why a film and television company needed so many vice presidents!

But no one told Li Qiutang that the company should downsize!

For example, the Production Management Department is a core department of the company, and its importance is self-evident. However, the Production Management Department has too much power, which leads them to completely disregard other departments. They even feel that their department is the only one supporting the entire company, and the employees of the Production Management Department are the most arrogant in the entire company.

But still no one told Li Qiutang that she should rectify the company's atmosphere.

That's all for today. Tomorrow's a holiday. Wishing everyone a Happy New Year in advance.

Li Qiutang went home with a lot on her mind.

(End of this chapter)