Who are you calling "little fresh meat"? I'm the king.

Chapter 677 Shanghai International Film Festival Invitation (23)

"...I'm about to join the crew of 'Zhou Chu,' how could I have time to attend the Shanghai International Film Festival?"

"We're not going public, so why bother with a film slate launch event? We'd have to rent a hotel... With that money, we might as well improve our lives!"

In a teahouse near Jinmao Mansion, Shen Yan and Ji Xiang discussed their June itinerary...

Ji Xiang not only wanted Shen Yan to attend the Shanghai International Film Festival, but also planned to have him host a special "Spark Night" event to announce the film lineup...

Without even thinking, Shen Yan definitely refused!
"But we're about to acquire Maoyan, and you're planning to invest 30 billion RMB of your own money? Do you have that much money? It will definitely need to be converted into company shares... What's the company's valuation? You need to promote it, right?"

Shen Yan rolled his eyes: "I've already planned to give 12% of the company's shares to Tencent, and they'll invest 35 billion... then I'll use that money to buy Maoyan..."

Do you think they will agree?

"If you disagree, I'll just pay for it myself. It's not like I can't scrape together 30 billion!"

Ji Xiang was stunned: "Where did you get 30 billion?"

Shen Yan said, "My stocks in the US stock market are worth $1.6 million. I just sold off about $7 million worth of stocks, plus the $8 million worth of Tencent and Moutai stocks... How can I not come up with $30 billion?"

"...Wait a minute, US stocks?"

“Yes, I invested about $7000 million, and it’s doubled in value!” Shen Yan added, “Of course, I’m reluctant to cash out now, it’ll definitely keep going up… but if I need to raise the money, I’m not against selling!”

Ji Xiang was taken aback: "What stocks did you buy?"

"I invested $1000 million in each of the four major tech stocks... $2000 million in Netflix, and then I bought $1000 million worth of Tesla..."

"Which one saw the most dramatic price increase?"

Netflix's price has tripled... but it will definitely rise further!

"You're amazing." Ji Xiang was speechless. "But are you really planning to spend money to acquire it?"

"I plan to use 7 million in cash plus 10% of the shares for a swap..." Shen Yan picked up his teacup, took a sip, and continued, "Although Maoyan has a 40% market share, it doesn't make much money just from ticket sales, and right now is the time to invest heavily. Maoyan can't compare with BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent)..."

"Then why did you acquire Maoyan?"

"To complete our terminal market and take control of our distribution capabilities... I don't want to hand over distribution to others anymore!"

"So how do you plan to win the ticketing market war?"

"The film industry is nothing more than financing, filming, production, and then promotion and distribution. Online ticketing is just a tiny link in the chain that reaches the end user... Cinemas are the end user, and since the era of cinema ticketing, selling tickets has never been profitable. What makes money is merchandise, revenue sharing from subsequent broadcasting rights such as DVDs, cinema concessions, theme parks, and so on... Therefore, if you want to make money, you have to extend upstream!"

"A theme park? You want to build a theme park?"

"I'm just stating the facts... Where would I get the money to build a theme park?"

Theme parks…

Theme parks have recently become incredibly popular, with a large number of film and television companies announcing plans to develop theme parks, cultural tourism towns, and the like…

The Disney model is a hot topic – all of Disney's businesses revolve around IP, extending into various business models such as movies, games, theme parks, and cultural and creative products.

A bunch of film and television companies in Beijing are releasing various press releases promoting the Disney model, with Huayi Brothers being the most vocal, publicly stating, "We are determined to follow the Disney path, to create location-based entertainment, and Chinese entertainment companies will become world-class companies in the future!"

There were also advantages; Huayi's market value peaked at over 800 billion!
Of course, very few of them actually come to fruition.

Wanda, which famously declared that "with Wanda around, Shanghai Disneyland will have a hard time making a profit for 20 years," eventually sold its dozen or so theme parks to Sunac!

"But even if Maoyan gets involved in upstream production, we still can't compete with BAT!"

“I know…” Shen Yan shrugged: “Fight for a year first, then seek a merger…” “Merge?”

"Of course they'll merge... Do you really think I have the money to compete with BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent)?"

Ji Xiang nodded, then asked, "If we're going to merge, why do we need to invest?"

"Even if you're offered amnesty, you have to prove your worth!"

"So... are you still going to the Shanghai International Film Festival?"

Shen Yan thought for a moment and said, "Go ahead and listen to them brag. It'll be quite interesting."

Ji Xiang nodded, then casually asked, "Cat's Eye... what's the maximum number of shares you'll offer?"

"At most 9%, they can't possibly surpass you!"

“To be honest,” Ji Xiang hesitated, “…actually, I don’t think it’s necessary…our partnership with the ticketing platform is just a simple collaboration…”

"You mean we don't need to acquire it?"

"Yes, we cooperate with video platforms, such as Tencent and iQiyi... so it doesn't affect our ability to make money!"

"What if... the three major video platforms ask you to choose sides?"

"Isn't it?"

"How could it not be? Right now they're paying for the copyrights and funding us to produce their own dramas. In a while, they can hire their own production teams and sign their own artists... just like TVB..."

"iQiyi has indeed established a talent agency, Guoran Entertainment, and the CEO is Liu Tao... My former colleague signed more than twenty artists at once!"

"iQiyi has already started doing artist management, do you think Tencent and Youku will fall behind?"

Among the artists signed with iQiyi, notable actors include Chen Zheyuan and Li Mozhi, as well as contestants from "Idol Producer" such as Xiao Gui and Zhu Xingjie, and VAVA from "The Rap of China," who are also under Guoran Entertainment…

On the Tencent side, Wajijiwa's presence is so strong that people often overlook the fact that Tencent Penguin Pictures also has an artist management business. Li Muchen, who played "Tang Rou" in "The King's Avatar," and Liu Haikuan, who played Lan Jia's eldest brother in "The Untamed," were both signed artists with Tencent Penguin Pictures and starred in many self-produced dramas.

Youku is relatively slow. Kuyang Entertainment was only established in 2017, and its official Weibo profile states that it is "the only artist brokerage company under Alibaba".

Hosts, actors, the idol boy group BlackACE, and popular contestants from the "This Is" series are all under this company...

Sohu also has an artist management company. After withdrawing from the copyright war, Sohu began to focus on being "small but beautiful" and rarely used star lineups. Instead, it continuously selected new talents through its own campus beauty pageant and campus hunk pageant, trying to create a business closed loop of "talent show + artist management, video platform, and media distribution".

Everyone wants to replicate TVB!

Then... the era of short videos arrived, directly destroying the ecosystem of long-form dramas!
"That…"

Shen Yan smiled and said, "The same goes for ticketing platforms. In the future, there will definitely be only two or three companies dominating the market. Do you think we will still have room for negotiation then?"

……

This summer, Spark Studio has three films in the pipeline: "Your Wedding," "Monkey King: Hero Is Back," and "Go Away Mr. Tumor," which will be released in August…

Oh, I almost forgot, Monster Hunt also counts, since the company was also a producer.

The original plan was that these films wouldn't be specifically screened at the Shanghai International Film Festival, but after discussion, *Monkey King: Hero Is Back* was chosen as the film to be screened on the opening day of the festival…

Media screening.

This can also be considered a form of advertising!
(End of this chapter)