Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 780 Begging for a Leak: Chen Zhixi
It's a fact that's hard to admit, but everyone criticizes historical dramas, yet they're also known for promoting actors and generating huge audiences.

The platform is willing to produce historical romance dramas.

Those who speak out are always a minority; the silent majority simply enjoy watching these kinds of things.

Li Qiutang doesn't understand historical romance dramas, but he understands the audience and has some knowledge of communication and marketing.

If you were to launch an online poll, what kind of content would you most like to see directed?

If you actually vote according to the ballot, you'll be 100% doomed!
Go look at the global box office rankings; there isn't a single film with a non-linear narrative, let alone a multi-narrative one.

DC got completely destroyed by Marvel.

Disney offers daily singing and dancing fun for the whole family.

This is enough to show that most viewers don't have high expectations for the story. The story should be as simple as possible, and other things should be used to attract them to buy tickets, such as spectacular visual effects or intense emotions.

How many people want to see you in the movie theater passionately denouncing the evils of Gotham City and lashing out at the government's incompetence? What the audience wants to see is Batman driving his big motorcycle and smashing everything!
Another fact that is even less readily acknowledged is that, at least in the realm of television dramas, male viewers are leaving the market.

The saying "He who wins over women wins the world" is not just an empty phrase.

And what women want to see was already clearly written by Hans Christian Andersen a hundred years ago.

This fall, another modern romance drama, "Go Go Squid!", will be broadcast during the summer season. Several other female-oriented historical and modern romance dramas are also in preparation.

Chen Zhixi, wielding Boss Li's authority, went to Century Autumn to beg for money, hoping Cao Ping could sell the company's new drama to a new platform at a negotiable price.

However, "Go Go Squid!" sold its online rights early in the filming process. The show didn't receive high praise internally at Century Autumn, and various platforms had reservations, so the initial broadcast rights were sold to two satellite TV channels and three online platforms. Multi-channel distribution helps to mitigate risk.

Chen Zhixi, after all, comes from a film background and is an academic, so it's inevitable that she would be interested in some weighty themes.

She set her sights on two dramas that Century Autumn had not yet started filming: "The Silent Truth" and "The Hidden Corner".

Even though filming hadn't started, Chen Zhixi was still late. Century Autumn's previous work, "The Untouchable," was very successful on iQiyi, so iQiyi entered the fray while "The Silent Truth" and "The Bad Kids" were still in the creative stage.

After "The Untouchable" finished airing, Kiwi learned that Zijin Chen's copyright was in Century Autumn's hands, so it couldn't wait to urge the company to start a new project.

Cao Ping has already taken the money!

It's not really fair to blame Century Autumn for collecting money so early. For production companies, bringing in platform assistance during the creative stage makes project preparation smoother and allows them to recoup some money upfront. For platforms, early involvement in projects allows them to lock in their rights and interests in advance and better control project quality and progress.

So, you'll have your own video platform in the future, and then you won't sell any of your current shows? That's not how you do it.

Is the kiwifruit broadcast exclusively?

"Whether it will be exclusively broadcast or not has not been discussed yet." The film hasn't started shooting yet, and the platform can't make a decision without seeing it. If the film isn't good, Kiwi might just sell the film.

“Then give me the distribution rights.” Chen Zhixi made a decisive move. “I’ll not only give you copyright fees, but also advertising revenue sharing.” A new platform, a new beginning. With LeTV’s current membership base, how much can advertising be worth? Chen Zhixi, having nothing to lose, was fearless and made her promise without hesitation.

If she didn't do it this way, would Chen Zhixi be able to compete with the kiwifruit?
However, distribution is not solely decided by Century Autumn. After all, Kiwifruit was involved in the project during the creative stage and has priority in selection. Without Kiwifruit's approval, Century Autumn cannot distribute to other online platforms without authorization.

Li Qiutang used this right of first choice to keep all potential buyers of "The Three-Body Problem" out of the door.

Not to mention "The Longest Day in Chang'an," Chen Zhixi never even thought she could buy the rights to that drama. But Cao Ping gave Chen Zhixi two brand-new dramas that no platform had yet approached—which probably meant that these two dramas weren't highly regarded.

"If you're willing to take it, I'll give you a discount."

A drama called "Si Teng" was started last year and directed by Li Muge. Her previous work, "East Palace," was released on Valentine's Day this year and became very popular, making Jing Tian popular again. However, it was temporarily taken down a few days ago because "the content needs to be optimized," which hurt many viewers.

The niche genre of "Si Teng" – urban fantasy romance – has been hampered by the reluctance of major platforms to invest resources since its inception, resulting in slow progress.

Urban fantasy romance—this one's obviously not going to be a hit.

Selling a TV series depends on its actors. This show currently only has one director and one script, and none of the main actors have been cast yet. How can it be sold?
But good dramas don't come to Chen Zhixi, who enters the scene late. If she doesn't want "Si Teng," then she gets nothing.

"I won't let you suffer any losses. How about I give you another movie about cracking down on organized crime? That one's sure to be a huge hit."

This is a good topic, and it's worth watching.

“We just discussed this project before the Lunar New Year,” Cao Ping told Chen Zhixi. “I mainly wanted to make a TV series about cracking down on organized crime. I approached Xu Jizhou and told him about it. He was very interested and took on the job. It’s still in the script development stage. It would be perfect if you could join us.”

Chen Zhixi said she would talk to Li Muge and Xu Jizhou about the ideas before deciding whether to join the two projects.

Chen Zhixi chose to come here as her first stop because it was so close to the 21st Century Autumn. Next, she would have to visit major domestic companies such as Huace, Huanrui, and Ciwen Media to see if they had any projects they could sell to her.

This is why it takes a top-notch producer like Chen Zhixi in the industry; if it were someone else, they might not be able to get their hands on these companies.

No sooner had Chen Zhixi stepped into Ciwen Media than Autumn Pictures released its annual report for the previous year.

The net profit attributable to the listed company reached 43 billion yuan. If the judgment is correct, Qiutian Pictures will retain its title as the number one private film and television company.

Box office revenue contributed over 70% of the total revenue, and the revenue from other business segments also showed very promising growth.

Criticism of Huayi Brothers is understandable, but in practice, everyone wants to reduce their over-reliance on box office revenue, as it is indeed too unstable. Li Qiutang even considers 70% too high; if the box office revenue share could be reduced to around 50%, the company would be very healthy.

It's common knowledge that Autumn Film Studio made a fortune, so it's not surprising. But today's focus isn't on how much money Autumn Film Studio made.

Instead, it was an internal open letter from Li Qiutang.

On the evening of the same day the annual report was released, Li Qiutang posted and pinned a letter to all employees on the company's internal forum.

This is the first time Mr. Li has done this since starting his business.

But Mr. Li came to pour cold water on things, or to put it more politely, to let the chill permeate everyone.

Li Qiutang is not good at micro-analysis of corporate management. Asking him to explain what the growth of this data means, what the decrease of that data means, how this department is doing, and how that department is doing is more painful than killing him.

He told all employees at Autumn that the global film and television industry was about to enter a downturn, and that everyone should be prepared for the worst. He also instructed the entire Autumn Group to "help as much as possible" with the new LeEco platform, sparing no resources to make the new platform bigger and stronger. Li Qiutang regarded the new LeEco as a new engine for the company's development.

Finally, Li Qiutang launched a name-soliciting campaign for the new platform within the company: "LeTV is history. Our new platform needs a new name. Please use your imagination and offer your suggestions."

Why not mention AI empowerment? Because AI technology was not disclosed in the autumn annual report or any public information in advance. Li Qiutang's open letter mentioned AI, which might attract regulatory attention, so he didn't want to cause that trouble.

(End of this chapter)