Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 542 The First Step of Reform

Zootopia's opening day box office in China was not good, only 2200 million yuan, making it look like a Hollywood animated film that was about to flop.

However, it topped the Friday box office charts in North America with $1946 million, performing well in its home market.

Based on past experience, if it sells well in North America, it should do well in the Chinese market as well.

In comparison, "Ip Man 3" stands out much more, grossing 1.55 million yuan on its opening day, breaking the record for the highest-grossing opening day for a Chinese action film—isn't "Mojin: The Lost Legend" an action film?
Even "The Flower in the Cop Shop" performed better than "Zootopia," earning over 5000 million yuan on its opening day thanks to its decent quality and the presence of two highly popular actors.

There are no less popular release dates now.

However, Zootopia had a strong follow-up performance. On Saturday, its box office revenue jumped to 6000 million, matching that of The Cop. On Sunday, it surpassed The Cop, grossing 7200 million, while The Cop dropped back to 4300 million that day.

However, the box office champion this week is still "Ip Man 3", which grossed 4.4 million yuan in its first three days, more than the previous two films combined.

Zootopia and The Bride and Groom ranked second and third, respectively, with $1.55 million and $1.53 million.

Based on the opening weekend results, "Zootopia" and "The Last Man Standing" are both contenders for 5 million yuan, while "Ip Man 3" has the potential to reach 10 billion yuan.

But the next day, someone revealed that "Ip Man 3" had bought box office receipts.

某影城在半夜0:56分开始，每隔10分钟排一场《叶问3》，票价高达203元。

And this wasn't just one cinema doing it; it was happening all over the country. Some cinemas were scheduling a large number of screenings outside of normal times; some cinemas with low box office revenue saw a surge in revenue when showing "Ip Man 3"; some screenings had identical seats sold out, and even when the middle seats weren't sold, the front row seats were reserved...

This is clearly a case of buying box office revenue.

Of course, the production company will not admit to buying box office receipts. In response to the accusations, the production company said: "A show every 10 minutes? 203 yuan a ticket! Do you believe that! If you want to criticize 'Ip Man 3,' please do it professionally."

However, the person in charge of the cinema involved, who was the first to be exposed, responded in a timely manner, saying that such scheduling was his personal behavior, because only by reaching a certain screening rate could the cinema receive subsidies from the third-party platform, and he added invalid screenings for "Ip Man 3" in order to obtain subsidies.

Therefore, it's really too difficult to launder money from movie box office revenue. It might have been possible in the past, but now with online ticketing, the data is public, and there are many more parties and people involved, so there's basically no room for money laundering from movie box office revenue.

These coins have a better use—live streaming. But that's another story, so I won't go into details.

Li Qiutang even called his cinema manager to ask if he was involved.

The manager laughed and said, "I would also like to make this money, but they think we are too small and won't let us do it."

Li Qiutang was both annoyed and amused. Qiutian currently only owns 12 cinemas with 83 screens, so it's understandable that others wouldn't be interested in buying box office tickets.

It's better to stay away from this kind of thing.

Zhang Zhao led a team to Europe to study film festival organization experience, while Li Qiutang was also busy in China.

He knew that food had to be eaten one bite at a time, and a journey had to be taken one step at a time.

He received approval from his superiors, but that wasn't a magic bullet; anyone who stood in his way would be eliminated. A film festival involves the interests of various parties. Li Qiutang had said this year that he wanted to completely revise the film festival from beginning to end, so his work was guaranteed to be stalled. He has 10 years; he can take his time.

So he didn't mind disturbing her and even asked Tong Jue to talk about his thoughts after get off work that evening.

The Changchun Film Festival will be held this year. Li Qiutang cannot touch the competition section and some systemic issues right away, and he has no say in the financial affairs of the Changchun Film Festival—this needs to be carefully planned—so he plans to create a new section.

“Let’s organize a project pitching event.” Li Qiutang poured Director Tong a glass of wine. “Currently, the only good project pitching events in China are FIRST and the Shanghai International Film Festival, and they’re both in May or June. There hasn’t been a decent project pitching event in the second half of the year. The Golden Rooster Awards have been around for so many years, and they still haven’t set up a project pitching event. I don’t know what they’re waiting for. If they won’t do it, I will.”

Director Tong certainly knew more than Li Qiutang, and explained to him, "It's understandable that the Golden Rooster Awards doesn't hold a venture capital event. First of all, where does the money for the venture capital event come from? The bidding cities have already cut their budgets for the opening ceremony again and again. Do you expect them to contribute even more money to hold a venture capital event? Government funding is limited, and corporate sponsorships are also limited. There's no extra money for the Golden Rooster Awards to hold a venture capital event. Another practical issue is that the Golden Rooster Awards move from place to place. If the venture capital event actually incubates something successful, who gets the credit? My city's or the Golden Rooster Awards'? Logically, it should be credited to the film festival. Then the host city has even less incentive to hold a venture capital event. If I go through all the trouble to hold a venture capital event, and something goes wrong, I take the blame, but if something goes well, it belongs to someone else. Would you be happy in that situation?"

Indeed it is.

However, the Changchun Film Festival does not have this problem, as the organizers, co-organizers, and venues of the Changchun Film Festival are all fixed.

"The reason why the Changchun Film Festival is not being held is actually very simple: first, there is not enough money; second, seeing that the Golden Rooster Awards are not being held, I will not hold one either. If we don't hold it, nothing will happen; if we hold it, who knows what might happen."

But Director Tong added, "Actually, the timing is really good if you want to hold a venture capital event. The biggest reason why the Changchun Film Festival doesn't hold venture capital events is because it doesn't have money. If you Northeasterners had money, what wouldn't you dare to do?"

This is true.

"The bureau supports you, but that's not enough. You need to win over the local bullies in Xidu, and you also need to come up with a venture capital plan. Where will the money come from? How will it be done? How will the entire venture capital mechanism be set up? You'll have to do all of that."

“No problem, I’ll go back and recruit people and come up with a plan. I’ll handle things locally in Xidu.” Boss Li still has some connections in Northeast China.

Li Qiutang has never worked in venture capital, but he worked in the trading market during his first two years in the industry and worked on the Towering Tree Project after he became famous, so he has personally experienced the difficulties faced by newcomers.

“Golden Deer Ventures must maintain close contact with companies from the very beginning, and sign a commitment letter with companies to hold a minimum number of negotiation sessions. You can’t just come here and sit here without saying a word. That won’t do. I don’t want you to give me face like that.”

Li Qiutang already has a general framework for Jinlu Venture Capital, including ideas on fund supervision and redemption, industry integration, and review mechanisms.

“Our venture capital program has sections for everything from scriptwriting and production to film acquisition and distribution. Directors, producers, and screenwriters can all attend. Of course, you can’t just come to the venture capital meeting with an idea; that’s called cheating people out of money.”

Li Qiutang and Director Tong chatted about their thoughts on the Changchun Film Festival. Director Tong encouraged Li Qiutang: "Ten years is a long time, but it's also a short time. You've only been in the industry for ten years, but you've already achieved what many people can't in a lifetime."

Li Qiutang smiled modestly, never underestimating the difficulty of this job: "Life is always full of challenges."

He even boasted, "I've broken film history records, married the most beautiful woman in the industry, and made my company an industry leader. It's time to do something more challenging."

Director Tong laughed at him: "Don't you want to win the three major European awards and the Oscars?"

"Take it slow. Organizing a film festival doesn't conflict with making a film, and deliberately chasing awards isn't a good thing."

(End of this chapter)