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

Chapter 731 Box Office Fraud (14)

"The Chinese-language film market is big enough, and I've discovered that I don't know that much about North America either... I always thought the North American market was very free, and you could make any kind of film you wanted, but it turns out... it's not that simple!"

"Political correctness in North American films has reached an obsessive level... For example, the racial composition of a mainstream commercial film... It must include Black people!"

"Is political correctness that important?"

"Yes, it's very important. Even we at A24 need to invest in and produce projects led by Black directors!"

The issue of political correctness in Hollywood later developed to an incomprehensible degree.

It's a movie that should have featured beautiful women, but they ended up casting an ugly woman.

Referring to this image, could you please tell me what the storyline is?
Alien?
NO!

It's Romeo and Julia...

If Shakespeare had known his plays would be turned into this mess, he probably wouldn't have written them!

You have no idea what these people are thinking...

How could they cast such ugly actresses for "The Little Mermaid" and "Snow White"?
Later, I gradually understood.

For some large American film companies, the purpose of making movies is no longer to make money, but to protect themselves, or rather, to survive.

If you continue to make politically incorrect films that appeal to the masses, just to make money, you will definitely be the target of concentrated attacks…

The impact will not only affect the companies themselves, but also the organizations behind these groups, as well as the Democratic Party behind these organizations.

Hollywood is the Democratic Party's stronghold and base, and the Democratic Party itself rose to power through political correctness!

For these Democrats who control public opinion, not adhering to political correctness is tantamount to disobeying our discipline and challenging our authority!
Do you want to die?

Those big capitalists, you can doubt their morality, but you can't doubt their brains!
Since he still insists on political correctness despite the dismal box office performance and the barrage of criticism, it shows that if he doesn't do it, he'll really suffer a terrible fate!

This is a matter of policy; the struggle over policy is inherently a matter of life and death.

It's that simple!
Moreover, playing the political correctness card initially made a lot of money – in the beginning, political correctness was the mainstream in the European and American markets, and most people were "moved to tears" when they saw it.

Black Panther grossed $7 million in North America, but its European performance was lackluster, with the UK, France, and Germany contributing $1.4 million in overseas box office revenue…

That's how he makes money!
Get Out had a budget of $450 million and grossed over $1.7 million at the North American box office.

As I said before, the version updates are happening too fast, and I often can't keep up...

……

On March 4th, "Ip Man 3" was released...

By March 8th, "Ip Man 3" had grossed over 3 million yuan!

Shen Yan had a deep impression of the movie "Ip Man 3" - the Kuailu incident directly triggered a major pause in the film market!
Its issuance chain includes not only two listed companies, but also one guarantee company and several P2P companies.

Before the film's release, the two listed companies announced a total investment of 1.6 million yuan under the guise of a guaranteed minimum distribution, with a target of 10 billion yuan. However, both listed companies, Shenkai Shares and Shifang Holdings, belong to the Kuailu Group…

Kuailu Group has a bunch of P2P companies, including online platforms like Dangtian Wealth and Dangtian Finance, and also provided project financing for "Ip Man 3".

From launching P2P crowdfunding for film projects to guaranteeing 10 billion yuan in distribution by two major companies, the mastermind behind all of this is the holding company of Kuailu Group!

How were you discovered?
Has the box office exceeded 500 million yuan in just four days?
Then, a large number of netizens exposed the abnormal situation of ticket sales for "Ip Man 3" in cinemas across the country: the seats in the prime time slots were completely empty, but the first and last rows of tickets for the late-night slots were sold out. In addition, there were a large number of "ghost screenings" of "Ip Man 3", that is, tickets for the movie in the late-night slots and early morning slots were sold out.

Similar incidents occurred in more than a dozen cinemas, including BJ Yaolai Cinema Xihongmen Store, Mega Joy Cinema Sanlitun Store, UME Cinema BJ Shuangjing Store and Huaxing Store, among other cinemas in the BJ area.

This box office fraud scandal involves large cinema chains such as China Film Group, Stellar Cinemas, Huayi Brothers, Pacific Cinemas, UME, Yaolai Cinemas, and CGV. Industry analysts believe the collusion between film producers and cinemas to manipulate box office figures is very clear…

Why fabricate evidence?

What is the intention?
To put it simply, the box office fraud was just a pretext for the investors of "Ip Man 3" to play a capital game; the real reason was to use fake box office figures to inflate the company's stock price and cash out.

For example, the stock prices of the distributors, Shenkai Co., Ltd. and Shifang Holdings, surged by 36% and 22% respectively after the release of "Ip Man 3"...

Actually, cinemas welcome booking entire theaters with real money, but they want to inflate box office figures at the lowest possible cost. According to Hu Qiming, president of Lumiere Films, "But their bookings weren't traditional ticket purchases. They wanted me to generate 1000 million yuan in box office revenue for them, and then give me a 150 million yuan subsidy. That's fake box office. I was extremely disgusted when I heard that. If this is how it works, the film industry becomes a competition of who has the most money, and a terrible movie can achieve high box office numbers just by spending money."

You may not be willing, but there are others who are!

You give me the money, and I'll handle the box office for you, but I can't actually give you the afternoon or prime-time screenings, because there are always audiences buying tickets for those screenings!
Then we'll have to go for midnight shows, early morning shows, or other less popular times...

Why would they spend money to buy box office revenue?

Is it just for cashing out?

It's not just about cashing out. On one hand, they hope that "Ip Man 3" will achieve good box office results to promote Kuailu's next film. On the other hand, they also need to profit from high box office returns in the secondary market and absorb more funds through P2P.

Shen Yan also mentioned this in his live stream: "I said before, Internet + Movies + Finance = Fraud!"

"If this continues, the State Administration of Taxation will soon take drastic measures... for example, banning ticket subsidies from entering the industry..."

“I’ve never met the CEO of Kuailu, but he has met with my agent and offered to buy out ‘Detective Chinatown’ for 10 billion RMB… I refused. On the one hand, he’s unreliable; I even refused Alibaba Entertainment’s investment.”

On the other hand, I think "Detective Chinatown" has a chance to compete for the Spring Festival box office champion, and the Spring Festival box office champion has a box office of at least 3 billion yuan...

"To convince me, you'd have to offer at least five times that amount... If he gave me five billion, I might not be able to resist..."

"By the way, thank you everyone... 'Detective Chinatown' has grossed 37.6 billion yuan, and I estimate it will definitely reach 39 billion yuan..."

Many netizens have donated 40 billion!
Shen Yan smiled and shook his head: "Let's not even think about 40 billion. Let's save it for next year when 'The Wandering Earth' breaks the 40 billion record! Besides, 'Detective Chinatown' isn't just a one-off..."

"Yes, I'm on the set of 'The Wandering Earth'... Tomorrow morning, I'll show you what a top-tier sci-fi film crew looks like..."

"Let you know where our 4.5 million investment went!"

(End of this chapter)