Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 503 Airborne
To be honest, Li Qiutang was moved the moment Lao Wang said those words.

Old Wang is definitely not stingy when it comes to spending; he'll surely get a good price for his Lantern Entertainment business with Wanta.

But Li Qiutang quickly calmed down and said, "My little workshop is just a small-scale operation, how could it be of any interest to Wan Da?"

Such a large acquisition would take anywhere from six months to one or two years to be decided in just a few words. It's likely that Vantone was already in contact with Legend last year.

Ye Ning said, "Among Hollywood's independent studios, you're the only one who can compete with Lionsgate. Last year, you even made it into the top six at the US box office. If you're a small studio, then there aren't many big companies in Hollywood."

It seems that Wan Da has also done some research on Lantern Entertainment.

"Is Lantern Entertainment also going through the IPO process?"

"There's nothing to hide," Li Qiutang admitted. "We started planning last year, and it should be ready by the end of this year or the beginning of next year."

Which board of the US stock market?

"Nasdaq".

"Congratulations in advance on taking your company public in the United States."

It wasn't that Li Qiutang was showing off. He said, "It's only natural. When you run a company in the US, you have to go public at this stage."

Old Wang's claim of buying Lantern Entertainment was obviously a lie, but his interest in it was genuine. Acquisition wouldn't work, but he was very willing to take a stake in the company.

But what kind of collaboration can VanD collaborate with Lantern Entertainment in Hollywood?

Wanda was essentially a lone wolf in Hollywood. They bought AMC Theatres, but AMC remained an independent entity, not under Wanda's control. Lantern Entertainment couldn't acquire AMC's North American theater resources. Their later acquisition of Legendary Pictures also maintained Legendary's independent operation; Wanda didn't even control its personnel or finances—it was simply a simple acquisition.

But Li Qiutang did have something she needed Wan Da's help with.

Pacific Rim 2 is still in pre-production under Toro's direction, but conflicts between Toro, Legendary Pictures, and Universal Pictures have already surfaced.

After Legendary ended its partnership with Warner Bros., it switched to Universal, but the two films, Seventh Son (released at the end of 14) and BlackCross (released at the beginning of this year), which were led by Legendary and distributed by Universal, were global flops.

Fortunately, there was a global blockbuster like "Jurassic World," but the conflict between Legendary and Universal was further amplified with "Jurassic World."

Thomas Tull took credit for Jurassic World's success, claiming that it should be attributed to him and Legendary Pictures.

It has to be said, this is a cool (and stupid) guy's behavior.

Under these circumstances, the fate of the upcoming "Pacific Rim 2" has become very uncertain.

Legendary doesn't have that much money, Universal might not pay them because they're unhappy with Legendary, and their former employer Warner Bros. is unlikely to take them on.

Li Qiutang didn't want anything to happen to the film for his wife, so Wan Da had to step in at this point—it's unreasonable for the original timeline audience to blame Wan Da for the failure of "Pacific Rim 2".

But Li Qiutang couldn't directly ask Wan Da to work with him on "Universe 2" at this point, since the acquisition deal wasn't finalized yet.

Therefore, Li Qiutang chose to curry favor with Wanda, promising to cooperate with Wanda in both domestic and international business, and revealing in advance that he was preparing a sci-fi blockbuster: "We haven't started recruiting partners yet, but if Wanda is willing, I can make the decision to have Wanda join us in advance."

Before Lao Wang could speak, Ye Ning spoke up first. He was really worried that the boss would agree too hastily. Science fiction films were too risky. Putting aside whether to do it or not, at least an evaluation should be done first.

For other genres, Wan Da would definitely pay without hesitation, but not for science fiction, and not even for Li Qiutang to direct!

Old Wang understood Ye Ning's meaning and said that the collaboration on the sci-fi blockbuster could be discussed in detail later; the most urgent task was to complete the work on "Mojin: The Lost Legend." After discussing work, Old Wang also introduced his son to Li Qiutang. Young Wang addressed Li Qiutang as Director Li, and his attitude was actually quite good.

Old Wang said, "You are four years older than Si Cong, so you are the same age. You can communicate more in the future."

But Old Wang knew better than anyone that his son and Li Qiutang didn't get along.

Old Wang left with his men, while Ye Ning stayed behind. He asked Li Qiutang for information about the sci-fi blockbuster he was currently working on. Despite the risks, he believed in Li Qiutang's abilities.

“You can ask Zhixi; she’s the executive producer of this film.” “The Wandering Earth” will indeed be very expensive. “This film is definitely profitable, but the production cycle will be quite long.”

How long can it be?

"It's even longer than 'Mojin: The Lost Legend'." From the time Li Qiutang took over the project until its release this December, "Mojin: The Lost Legend" took three years to make. Li Qiutang didn't insist on a definitive answer, saying, "You can take a look at the materials first, and whether you invest or not is up to you."

…………

Ali Pictures' first self-produced film, "The Ghostwriter," capitalized on the popularity of Li Qiutang's "Nobody in My Eyes." Filming began last December and wrapped up this March.

The film is directed by Hong Kong director Ma Yucheng, produced by Tsui Hark, and stars top celebrities Li Yifeng and Zhao Liying.

News has been constant since filming wrapped, especially in the second half of the year, with the production company continuously promoting the film.

Thanks to the immense popularity of its two lead actors, this film has garnered significant attention and generated considerable online discussion.

However, a release date has yet to be set.

With 12 days to go until National Day, Ali Pictures suddenly announced that "The Ghostly Swordsman" will be released during the National Day holiday, on the 30th, the same day as "Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe," and released the final trailer titled "The Stormy Martial World."

A sudden release date can be very damaging to a film. With less than two weeks until its release, there's not enough time to do any promotional activities, while films like "Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe" and "Lost in Hong Kong" started their promotional campaigns in mid-to-late August.

But Ali has plenty of tricks up his sleeve. On the day the release date was set, he launched a 9.9 yuan ticket subsidy event on his movie ticketing platform: Li Yifeng invites you to watch the movie; Zhao Liying invites you to watch the movie.

Whether it was due to the strong support of the two actors' fans or the technical prowess of the backend engineers, "The Ghostwriter" sold over 3000 million pre-sale tickets in just two days.

Will China Film Group and LeEco do something?
Everyone else is making up for lost invoices, but making up for lost invoices like this is clearly inhumane.

Enraged, LeEco's vice president directly cursed on Weibo: "Who's afraid of throwing money around? At worst, nobody will survive!"

Ahri's sudden appearance and unlimited ticket subsidies have angered too many people.

As soon as LeEco launched its campaign, other production companies quickly joined in.

The distribution director of Huanxi Media, who was in charge of "Lost in Hong Kong", also condemned Ali's unfair behavior in an interview: "He has no bottom line and is destroying the market!"

Chen Zhixi, vice president of Autumn Pictures, posted a long article on her WeChat Moments, saying that this kind of abuse of invoicing subsidies has disrupted the market: "With the pre-schedule for the release period basically confirmed, suddenly resorting to this move will make us the enemy of the entire industry!"

"The Ghostwriter" already piggybacked on Li Qiutang's popularity, and now that he's resorting to this disgusting tactic, Li Qiutang naturally won't let him off the hook.

Li Qiutang's words weren't too harsh. He said, "Sudden release dates are usually used to try and catch a whirlwind, but this year's National Day holiday is full of strong competitors, and 'The Ghostwriter' might not be able to succeed. I can only assume that their company didn't reach a consensus on the film and that their management was chaotic. Otherwise, no film company would do something so thankless and offensive to their competitors. See, they're getting their comeuppance. This company was never really in the business of creating content."

(End of this chapter)