Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 531 The Richest Director

Li Qiutang started her business in 2009 and grew the company from 23 to 1,000 employees in just 6 years, successfully taking it public with the highest valuation in the industry.

This isn't to praise Li Qiutang as a business genius; on the contrary, Li Qiutang has often said that he has been fortunate to have the help of benefactors along the way, and that he has achieved his current success by riding the wave of the film and television industry's development.

He debuted during the early stages of Chinese commercial cinema, and his career has coincided with the most vibrant and dynamic period of the development of Chinese commercial cinema.

Li Qiutang arrived in Hong Kong on the evening of the 27th. That same evening, she and actress Chen Kailin, who played Yoko in the film, went to a cinema in the Yinhuang district for an event related to "Mojin: The Lost Legend".

"Mojin: The Lost Legend" performed moderately well in Hong Kong, with a total box office estimated at around HK$17 million. It's quite an achievement for a mainland film to gross over HK$10 million in Hong Kong.

Li Qiutang doesn't have many fans in Hong Kong. The event was mostly attended by ordinary audiences, media, and some celebrity guests, a large portion of whom came specifically to see Miss Hong Kong, Grace Chan.

The official promotional materials for "Mojin: The Lost Legend" did not include a Hong Kong event. Today's event was added on short notice by the Hong Kong distributor, Edko Films, after they learned that Li Qiutang would be listing the film in Hong Kong.

That evening, they even arranged for him to appear on TVB's entertainment talk show, "Star Talk," all for movie promotion. Since he was already there, Li Qiutang accepted without hesitation.

At the event at the cinema, a reporter asked Li Qiutang: "Mojin: The Lost Legend is hailed as a benchmark for the industrialized production of Chinese-language films. Director Li, what are the differences between the film industry in mainland China and the film industry in Hong Kong?"

That's a good question, but it can't be explained in just a few words here, so Li Qiutang will keep it brief:

"Hong Kong was once at the forefront of the industrialization of Chinese-language cinema, but with the continuous development of the film market, even if I don't say it, you have to admit that the center of the Chinese-language film industry is shifting to the mainland, and it will inevitably remain there in the future. The mainland's film industrialization is still in a very early stage, still catching up with others, but the object of this pursuit is Hollywood. So, returning to your question, what are the differences between the film industries of the mainland and Hong Kong? I think rather than saying they are different, it's more accurate to say that one represents the future, and the other the past. This is a complex issue. If you would like to discuss it in more detail, we can continue our exchange after the event. Thank you."

A local Hong Kong reporter asked Li Qiutang, "Will you collaborate with Hong Kong actors in the future? Or take on leading roles or something like that?"

Li Qiutang gave an affirmative answer: "Of course I will. I really hope to work with Andy Lau. Please pass on my message to him and hope he won't refuse me when I ask him for help in the future. Also, I saw Sister Jialing and Teacher Liang Jiahui here today. They are both actors I really like and want to work with. I will definitely give them scripts when I have the opportunity in the future."

So, when sharing her thoughts on the movie later, Liu Jialing said in Mandarin, "I've written down everything you just said. I'm waiting for your script."

Leung Ka-fai also said he hoped to be favored by the director: "You don't need to look for Andy Lau anymore, I can act in it, and I'm even cheaper than him."

Liang Jiahui's words drew laughter from the entire audience.

Chen Kailin, who plays Yangzi, has some impressive action scenes in the film, which has been widely publicized by Hong Kong media. She was very active on set, constantly thanking the director and the crew.

"Mojin: The Lost Legend" is now aiming to break film history records, and even if Grace Chan is foolish and lacks tact, she knows that she should put away her previous arrogance at this time.

"It is an honor to participate in a film made with such a production."

After finishing her activities at the cinema, Li Qiutang rushed to TVB's studio to record "Star Talk".

After recording for an hour, Li Qiutang's impression was not very good.

This host clearly hadn't seen "Mojin: The Lost Legend." His questions were all formulaic; he would move on to the next question as soon as Li Qiutang finished answering, without any interaction or exchange with her.

Moreover, compared to the filming and production of the movie, the host was clearly more interested in Li Qiutang and Liu Yifei's family life. After talking about the movie for a few minutes, the conversation would veer off to their love life, and the host would even ask Li Qiutang if he had informed his ex-girlfriend about the wedding.

While Li Qiutang was recording the show, in mainland China, Deng Chao went crazy because of "The Villain Angel"!
Since its release three days ago, "The Villain Angel" has seen its box office soar, but its reputation has been abysmal, with reviews described as L-shaped and overwhelmingly negative.

Actually, the box office of "The Villain Angel" has already run into problems. It's unheard of for a Saturday's box office to be lower than a Friday's.

Deng Chao was clearly not having it, so starting at 6:15 PM, he went on a frenzy on Weibo, reposting 78 positive comments about "The Villain Angel," each accompanied by the phrase "I'm impressed" and a doge emoji. This sparked outrage among netizens, with many of Deng Chao's fans expressing their disapproval, and over 10 people unfollowing him within an hour. The speed at which he lost followers was unprecedented.

"Another 10,000 yuan has been lost in five minutes."

"Look at his heartless and insane behavior, I'm unfollowing him without hesitation."

"Sun Li, get a divorce right now! This woman will do anything for a movie!"

"Quite a few celebrities have been cursed at the end of the year!"

"I read every single one of them carefully, and I really admire myself for it."

Back when they were filming "Fame and Fortune", Li Qiutang reminded Deng Chao not to do comedy. If he didn't do comedy, he could be the best male actor in the country.

The next morning, a group of senior executives from Autumn Pictures arrived at the stock exchange in formal attire. Today was the most important day since the company's founding.

Chairman Li Qiutang, CEO Zhang Zhao, Vice President of Production Chen Zhixi, Vice President of Distribution Xu Lin, Cao Ping, the founding member of Autumn and now CEO of Century Autumn, and several other company executives all came to the stock exchange.

Of course, Li Qiutang has not forgotten his first investor, Mr. Zhang, who runs greenhouses in Qilu. Mr. Zhang has built a business in Hongxingwu and is now doing very well. He has even changed his business card to "Senior Publicity Director". He is now very glad that he pretended to be a cultured person and invested 200 million yuan in Li Qiutang. Otherwise, he would never have had the opportunity to ring the gong at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Autumn Films' official offering price was set at HK$27.31 per share, HK$2.05 higher than the previous pricing range, officially bringing its market capitalization above HK$700 billion. This indicates that market demand for Autumn Films' stock exceeds supply, and investors have high expectations for Autumn Films.

This is certainly thanks to the continued box office success of "Mojin: The Lost Legend," and not just any box office success, but a film that has the potential to set a new record in film history.

At 9:30 a.m., Li Qiutang and Zhang Zhao stood on either side and officially struck the gong to mark the listing of Autumn Pictures!

The audience burst into applause!

With the completion of the listing process, Autumn Pictures' shareholder structure has been officially disclosed to the public.

It is worth noting that the largest shareholder of Autumn Pictures is not Li Qiutang herself, but a cultural media company called Haitang International, which holds 30.18% of the shares. The second largest shareholder is an investment management company registered in Shanxi Province, which holds 11.20% of the shares. The third largest shareholder is Tencent, which holds 7.2% of the shares. Li Qiutang is the fourth largest shareholder, holding 6.99% of the shares. Among the other executives of Autumn Pictures, only Zhang Zhao and Cao Ping are included in the disclosed list.

Meanwhile, the list of celebrity shareholders for the fall has also been revealed.

According to information revealed before the fall, celebrity shareholders could subscribe to a maximum of 100 million shares.

Huang Xiaoming subscribed to 100 million shares, Qin Lan subscribed to 40 shares, and Liu Yifei was an exception, holding 1000 million shares.

However, Yang Mi's share among the celebrity shareholders is quite unusual; she owns 230 million shares.

It's not surprising. Yang Mi herself has 1 million yuan, and the other 1.3 million yuan is held on her behalf. As for who holds the other 1.3 million yuan, it's not convenient to say.

After the market opened, Autumn Pictures' stock price continued to rise. According to media reports, Li Qiutang's net worth exceeded 150 billion yuan within 30 minutes of the company's listing, making him the richest director in the entertainment industry.

"It's important to remind everyone that Li Qiutang also has a company in the United States, which is about to go public."

(End of this chapter)