1982 Started from Hong Kong

Chapter 111 Olive Branch

The Pioneer Building is located on Nathan Road in Mong Kok. Since its construction in the 1930s, it has undergone two renovations and has now been renamed the Pioneer Centre. The decoration style has changed from the original British dome building to the current Chinese-style office building. Even the old cinema next door, the Lai Sing Theatre, has been renamed the Hoi Sing Theatre.

The only thing that remains unchanged is that for more than 50 years, the ownership of this property has always been under the Kowloon Motor Bus Company.

Today, the original center has been transformed into a department store and trade building, and has become mostly a film and television production center.

Count the entire building from bottom to top.

The second to fourth floors are behind-the-scenes production departments such as dubbing, editing and special effects processing.

The fifth floor is Li Xiuxian’s independent producer company.

The sixth floor is Yongjia Film Company founded by Chen Xunqi and Li Ying.

As for the three floors from the seventh to the ninth floor, they all belong to the most popular film company in Hong Kong, New One City.

"Mr. Lei, we have sent someone to contact the director Guan Weiming, but he has not responded yet."

At this time, in the office on the seventh floor of Xinyicheng.

The three shareholders, Mecca, Huang Baiming and Shi Tian, were sitting together and reporting to a middle-aged man in the middle.

The middle-aged man is called Lei Juekun, and he is the financial backer behind Xin Yicheng.

In addition to being the chairman of Kowloon Motor Bus and Central China Real Estate Group, Lei Juekun is also the owner of Golden Princess Cinemas.

The super big mouth of Hong Kong entertainment circle.

But now this big water piper is a little dissatisfied because he has not seen any return on the money he spent.

The reason was that after Lei Juekun learned that a movie called "This Man From Earth" was released in Hong Kong, he immediately took the shareholders of New One City to fly overseas to watch the movie. Although they could see at a glance that the overwhelming news publicity was a low-quality hype, they were quite supportive of the content of the movie.

There are very few people in the Hong Kong film industry who can tell a good story with very little cost.

Therefore, Lei Juekun’s first thought was to take over this independent production company for his own use.

"As you know, I'm not very familiar with film production, so I never interfered with your creations in recent years."

He is nearly 50 years old, looks plump and amiable, and speaks slowly: "But I believe in one principle, as long as I am willing to spend money, I can keep the best creative team around me and provide fresh blood for my cinema chain. This is also the reason why I have turned Golden Princess from a glass cinema chain to one of the three largest cinema chains in Hong Kong today."

The three Meccas nodded in agreement. This was indeed the case. In just a few years since its establishment, Golden Princess had been able to compete with Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest, and even surpass the other two cinema chains. This was all thanks to the big boss who kept spending money to keep talented people in the film industry under Golden Princess.

Although there was no such thing as the seven dream factories under Golden Princess at that time, mainstays such as Xu Ke, Danny Lee, Ringo Lam, and Chen Xunqi had all gathered at Golden Princess, and the excellent films they produced each year occupied more than half of the top ten positions in the rankings.

"Now this director named Guan Weiming has become a hot figure in the film industry. I heard that Golden Harvest and several other small theater chains have sent people to woo him."

Lei Juekun said this, glanced at the three people, and continued: "Talent is hard to come by. How many theaters in our Princess Jin are showing his movies now?"

"We have scheduled screenings at nine theaters. We just received a notification that the attendance rates are all above 70%."

Huang Baiming pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses and answered quickly.

"What about Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers?"

"Shaw Brothers only has six theaters showing this film, but Golden Harvest has ten theaters showing it, which is just one more than ours."

Lei Juekun frowned when he heard this. Isn't this pure provocation? Even Shao Liushu has to avoid me, so why should you, Zou Wenhuai, compete with me?

Since Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers joined forces last year to try to fight against the rising power of Golden Princess, the two companies that had never interacted with each other have become close. Shaw Brothers screened "Tathagata Palm" in Golden Harvest cinemas, and Golden Harvest screened "The Thousand Faces of Dunjia" in Shaw Brothers cinemas.
As a result, the combined box office revenue of the two companies’ movies was not even as good as that of “Best Partner” from the Golden Princess Cinemas.

After that, Run Run Shaw stopped getting involved in the film industry and focused on TV business. He believed that movies would soon die out and that the future would be dominated by TV dramas that could be watched at home at any time.

Once Shaw Brothers withdrew, it became even more difficult for Golden Harvest to compete with Golden Princess. Fortunately, with the support of Cheng Shilong, they did not lose too badly.

But the fame he gained from this battle also made Lei Juekun firm in his idea that he had to spend money to buy talents in order to secure his position as the number one. Last year, he spent eight million to make "Best Partner", and this year he will invest tens of millions to make a sequel and tie the director and actors to his boat.

"Since we want to use it for our own benefit, we must let this new director see our sincerity."

Lei Juekun smiled nonchalantly as he spoke: "Golden Harvest has ten theaters, so we will open twelve theaters. Princess Jin has also given the green light to the theater chain in Formosa. I wonder if Zou Wenhuai dares to compete with me."

"Also, spread the word that as long as Guan Weiming is willing to come to Golden Princess, he will have a floor in the Creation Center, his film production fee will be calculated at the highest standard, and the film can be screened first in our theaters, and Golden Princess will only charge him half of the commission."

The three people from Mecca looked at each other and realized that Lei Juekun was no longer simply trying to win people's hearts, but was also competing with Jiahe.

It seems that the new director named Guan Weiming will be able to move into the building soon and become our colleague.

……

"Manager Guan, they've given you such a good offer, why don't you become a director?"

Zhai Yuan sat in his office, flipping through the invitation letters from the film industry, and couldn't help but sigh.

Now is still a time to talk about content, and everyone is scrambling for directors with creative ability. In a few years, when you can make money just by putting an actor's name on a film, then people will do whatever it takes to scramble for actors.

"I don't have the talent you have, boss. If I really become a director, I'll be discovered and kicked out within three days."

Guan Weiming put himself in a very positive position and even praised Zhai Yuan while speaking.

Zhai Yuan smiled and said nothing.

However, the fact that several cinema chains, led by Golden Princess and Golden Harvest, extended olive branches to him was not too surprising to him.

I just didn’t expect the competition to be so fierce, so I gave the green light to the screening of "This Man From Earth", which was an unexpected gain.

There are over 100 cinemas in Hong Kong at this time, and today at least 80 cinemas are showing this movie.

Excluding independent theaters, 39 theaters are co-screened by the five major and minor theater chains. This situation only occurs during festivals when everyone agrees to select a Western film to satisfy the audience. Otherwise, a film produced by an ordinary independent production company will never receive this treatment.
For example, the later "Jurassic Park" gave hope to the Western film theaters that had been suppressed. However, after trying their best, they could only get 15 theaters to schedule films.

But the local film theater chain immediately divided 45 theaters and released "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons Strike Back" to compete with "Jurassic Park".

As a result, with the right time, place and people, "Jigong" took in just over 20 million yuan at the domestic box office in three weeks.

However, despite a devastating start, "Jurassic Park" raked in more than 60 million Hong Kong dollars in just two weeks of screening, breaking the box office record in Hong Kong by a landslide.

"Am I now like Jurassic Park with the resources of Jigong?"

Zhai Yuan could clearly feel that the big guys headed by Jiahe and Princess Jin were flirting with him crazily at this moment, as if they were the masters coming to play.

"What a pity! If such a salary had been offered a few months earlier, I would have really found a job as an employee in a movie theater."

Zhai Yuan was stroking a newly produced videotape, which contained a special edition Easter egg-style movie that he gave to his compatriots in Taiwan.

He smacked his lips and said, "I'm quite excited now, but I'm afraid that after this movie is taken off the screen and the videotape is sold, you will have to avoid me like the plague."

(End of this chapter)