Reborn Action Star: Starting in Hollywood

Chapter 433: God-making and Listing Plan

When the battle was over, Lin Yuan reached for the bedside clock: it was 1: in the afternoon.

If you want to catch a flight at 4 o'clock, you must leave home before 2 o'clock.

"Let's have lunch. We still have half an hour." Lin Yuan put on his clothes and got out of bed.

It was lunch time when the two men started fighting. They hadn't eaten lunch and then had another fierce battle, so they were naturally feeling hungry.

After the butler brought lunch, the two began to talk while eating.

"Lin Yuan, you've really made a fortune this time." Betty said with a smile.

"Because of the Oscars ceremony last night?" Lin Yuan asked.

"Well, look at how the media is praising you." Betty opened her bag, took out several magazines and newspapers, and placed them in front of Lin Yuan.

"'The King's Avatar' made history. This is the first time that the Oscars have awarded the Best Picture to a purely action-packed commercial film. Lin Yuan has proven with his actions the bold statement he made before filming began: this will be the best action film ever." - Review from The New York Times.

"I can't say anything else, but 'King of Spy' is definitely the most thrilling and exciting Oscar-winning film! It absolutely deserves the honor and is well-deserved." - Renowned film critic Kane Boss wrote a review at the invitation of the Los Angeles Times.

"The box office success of 'The King's Avatar' forced even the almighty Oscar committee to bow their heads. There are people in this world who can truly disregard small amounts of money and claim to despise it.

But when faced with a mountain of gold, anyone has to change their mind. That's the magic of money." —Fox News commentary

Seeing the report from Fox News, Lin Yuan frowned slightly.

It seems that they are praising themselves, but in fact they are trying to sow discord between themselves and the Oscar Organizing Committee. It turns out that the media controlled by the Rockefeller Foundation is full of malice towards themselves.

However, the Oscar organizing committee would not be so foolish as to fall for such a simple and crude provocation. It was simply to disgust Lin Yuan.

The focus of previous media discussions was on "The King of Spy" winning the Best Picture award.

But more media focused on Lin Yuan personally.

Lin Yuan flipped through the documents Betty handed him, including The Washington Post, Time Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times...

These media outlets are all hotly discussing one thing: Lin Yuan is very likely to become the youngest actor to win the Oscar in history.

Becoming an Oscar winner at the age of 21 is a record that is unlikely to be broken by anyone in the future.

It's not just that it's difficult for later comers to achieve the same success as Lin Yuan, but also because there are too many factors to weigh when promoting a too young actor to the position of Best Actor.

As the CNN reporter said on the red carpet at the awards ceremony: From an interest perspective, how long will the 21-year-old actor occupy the top ecological niche?

If you occupy a seat so early, how uncomfortable will it be for those who come later?

The weighing and consideration of these interests will inevitably lead to the fact that in the future, not only will there be a younger actor than Lin Yuan, but even actors under the age of 30 will probably become extinct.

However, those who had previously been pessimistic about Lin Yuan winning the Best Actor award actually made a mistake, which was that they subconsciously still regarded Lin Yuan as an actor.

But in fact, Lin Yuan is more than just an actor!
He has reached his current position not only as an actor, but also as an investor and martial artist.

Therefore, even if Lin Yuan won the Best Actor award, he would not occupy other people's resources.

On the contrary, he is the pioneer who uses his own resources to make the film and television industry bigger so that more people can have enough to eat.

It is precisely because of this that at last night's Oscars, when "The King's Avatar" won two major awards, most of the guests present expressed support and joy, except for filmmakers like Peter Jackson who had a direct conflict of interest.

If in the future, Lin Yuan can continue to create box office miracles with the performance he achieved in 2003.

The entire film market could then be fully activated with this opportunity. Better box office, more investment, and more screens would propel the entire box office market upwards by several steps.

Many films that originally had no chance of attracting investment for filming may now receive investment, be filmed and put on the big screen.

Every movie released, with the help of more big screens, achieves better box office results than previously expected.

All these are tangible benefits, brought by Lin Yuan as an opportunity.

It is precisely because of this that the Oscar organizing committee was willing to award two major awards to "The King of Spy".

"Did you see what was going on?" Betty asked with a smile. "The meaning behind giving you two big prizes at once."

"Guess why they gave you the Best Picture award even though The Lord of the Rings didn't win any major awards?" Betty asked further.

"No need to guess, they have already made their cards clear. Last night, the film industry conveyed their support for me through Mr. Eisen. I hope I can continue to create miracles in the future." Lin Yuan replied.

"Yes. You have been chosen to become the target of the new round of deification in the Hollywood film industry. Congratulations, Source God." Betty said with a smile.

Even without Mr. Eisen and Betty's words, Lin Yuan felt that this was clearly the beginning of a new round of deification movement.

Any industry needs heroic myths, because the public likes and worships heroes, which is human nature.

This is the only way to attract attention, fully develop commercial value, and thus expand the market.

For example, the NBA once created Michael Jordan, and the NFL created Tom Brady.

This is true.

At this time, it was obvious that Lin Yuan had been chosen by the American film industry as the target of a new round of deification movement.

In fact, as a Chinese, Lin Yuan is definitely not the best candidate for the deification movement, which is why he was selected so late.

If he was a white Angolan, he might have been pushed to the forefront after filming "Pirates of the Caribbean" with that amazing mast fight scene.

But if you want to become the object of deification, the most important thing is to be strong enough.

Without achievements that can convince the public, no matter how many resources you invest, you will never truly "become a god". Instead, it will accelerate your collapse.

With Lin Yuan's strong and irreplaceable qualities, he finally made the American film industry tolerate his ethnicity and started to promote him.

But as Mr. Eisen conveyed, this kind of praise is not unconditional. Lin Yuan must keep moving forward and continue to prove himself with better results in order to continue to gain the support of the American film industry.

"If you can keep producing high-grossing movies and lead the entire industry to make a profit, then your Chinese identity will not only not be a disadvantage, but will become an advantage," Betty said.

"Hollywood has always liked to tout diversity. While being Chinese may irritate some conservatives, your commercial value in East Asia will actually highlight the irreplaceable value of your Chinese heritage." Betty added, "Look at this! The entire East Asian region is almost trying to make you a national hero. No, it should be an Asian American hero."

Lin Yuan took the information Betty handed over and flipped through it:

"Last night, Lin Yuan became the first Chinese actor to win the Best Actor award in Hollywood! He's also the first Asian actor ever to win the Best Actor award!
He achieved a feat that his predecessors, Bruce Lee, Chen Long and Li Renjie, had never achieved!
This proves that Chinese people can carve out their own space in the European and American world. Lin Yuan has made history and is a hero of the Chinese people!" - CNTV News Report.

This was the evaluation from mainland China's official media, which surprised Lin Yuan. They praised him so highly and directly pushed him to the position of a Chinese hero.

"That night, Lin Yuan represented our yellow-skinned Asian community. With his tremendous success, he set an example for all Asian communities. Countless successors will follow in his footsteps and secure their own place in the world's mainstream cultural market." - Comment by South Korea's Chosun Ilbo.

The Chosun Ilbo, South Korea's most influential news media and oldest newspaper, also heaped praise on Lin Yuan.

It’s just that the writing feels a bit like “stealing”, blurring Lin Yuan into a representative of the “yellow-skinned Asian community” so that he can legitimately come in and take advantage of the situation.

"As we all know, Master Lin Yuan has an indissoluble bond with Japan and the Japanese kendo world. He won the Best Actor award in Hollywood, which made our old Japanese friend feel proud. He is not only the pride of the Chinese people, but also the pride of us Japanese. I wish him to go further in the days to come." - Comment by Japan's "Asahi Shimbun".

Because Lin Yuan speaks fluent Japanese at a master level and has deep connections with the kendo world and the Japanese business community, Lin Yuan has always been treated as one of Japan's own.

Taking advantage of Lin Yuan's winning of the Oscar for Best Actor, the three East Asian countries unanimously praised Lin Yuan to the sky.

The focus on Lin Yuan in Europe and the United States is primarily on his age, particularly his status as the youngest actor to win a Best Actor award. In East Asia, however, the focus is more on his ethnicity.

After all, this is the highest achievement achieved by Asians in the European and American markets, and it is unprecedented and milestone.

Not only did the Chinese people feel proud and honored, but even Japan and South Korea came to share in the glory. It was a bit like when Liu Xiang won the gold medal at the Olympics, proving that the yellow race could also succeed in track and field events.

But it is obvious that Lin Yuan has won more honors and received more attention this time.

"Your Chinese identity allows you to flourish in East Asia, which makes you a truly global superstar. This is also one of the reasons why the American film and television industry has changed its attitude and is ready to deify you with all its strength," Betty explained.

Lin Yuan nodded. He understood what Betty wanted to express, which was that he now had a foothold in both the Eastern and Western worlds and his situation of having the best of both worlds had been completely established.

No one can ignore his commercial value anymore, so many people have begun to choose to increase their investment in him.

Betty smiled and put the information away, putting it back into her bag.

Lin Yuan asked in confusion, "These paper things are so heavy, just leave them with me."

"No, I'm going to take it home and look at it often. I like seeing others praising you the most. I feel very happy when I look through these. It's super stress-relieving." Betty obviously has the mentality of loving the house and the dog.

So Lin Yuan had no choice but to smile and touch her head.

"By the way, there's something I almost forgot." Betty suddenly spoke again.

"What's the matter?" Lin Yuan asked.

"Now that things have developed to this point, have you ever considered listing your company?" Betty asked.

"Going public?"

Faced with Betty's question, Lin Yuan didn't know how to answer for a moment.

He must have considered this question.

In the public's perception, most companies are eager to go public to raise money, spend shareholders' money, and achieve financial freedom for the boss.

But everything has its pros and cons, otherwise domestic companies like Lao Gan Ma and Huawei would not have insisted on choosing not to go public.

Putting aside the possibility of the boss cashing out and running away, from the company's perspective, the benefit of going public is that it can leverage more resources and gather the power of the entire society for my use. The massive amount of funds raised can accelerate the company's development.

The disadvantage is that there will be more constraints, such as the need to publish detailed company financial data and future operation plans, and the company's operations will also be under pressure from major investors.

After all, people invest in and subscribe to your stocks in order to make money and will definitely raise opinions or even objections to your operations.

After thinking for a moment, Lin Yuan formally replied to Betty, "I have considered going public, and I am not opposed to leveraging the power of the capital market.

In fact, I've gotten to where I am today thanks in no small part to the help of capital. I certainly understand the principle that more friends open up more paths, and that more people contribute to a brighter future.

He was right. Whether it was Mr. Eisen's film and television fund, the Morgan Consortium's investment, or the Long Island Investment Bank under his control, they were all manifestations of Lin Yuan's reliance on the power of capital.

While he is leveraging the power of capital, the profits he distributes are also the basis for binding the two parties into alliances.

No matter how strong Lin Yuan is, he cannot choose to eat alone, as he will not go far.

"Excluding Changdao Investment Bank, my current industries mainly consist of three parts: domestic film and television cities, domestic CBD commercial real estate, and film and television companies. Not all of these three parts are suitable for listing. In my opinion, perhaps only the film and television companies are suitable for listing at present." Lin Yuan said.

The film and television city project will not be profitable in the short term, and it is tied together with the CBD project as a financial investment target for investors to calculate.

(See Chapter 422)
Therefore, these two projects are not suitable for listing for the time being.

But film and television companies don’t have such concerns.

The only thing that needs to be considered is: If the film and television company goes public, are the benefits worth the disadvantages that Lin Yuan has to face?
After hearing Lin Yuan's reply, Betty nodded and said, "I also think that your film and television company is more suitable for listing at this stage. How about Morgan Stanley being your listing sponsor and distributor?"
Leave this case to me, and I will definitely give you a satisfactory result."

Keywords frequently involved in listing include: sponsor, IPO, and issuer.

It’s boring and uninteresting to explain, so let me briefly explain it using a very vivid but perhaps not precise metaphor.

A company that wants to go public can be seen as a young girl waiting to be married.

The so-called sponsorship means that someone comes to guarantee the girl who is about to get married and promises that she definitely meets the described conditions.

An IPO can be roughly understood as a betrothal gift. A company goes public to raise funds, and an IPO stands for initial public offering.

If enough betrothal money is raised, the marriage will be successful; if not, the marriage will fail.

The issuer is the matchmaker, helping the girl to find a husband. Its responsibility is to look for large investors called "cornerstone investors" in the market to subscribe to the "bride price" of the IPO.

Generally speaking, a company's listing is similar to dressing up a young girl and marrying her off.

It is obvious that Morgan Stanley is definitely qualified to become the sponsor and distributor for Linyuan Film and Television Company's listing.

"What kind of conditions will you offer? You won't use the conventional ones, right?" Lin Yuan asked.

Business is business, even if he and Betty have a very close relationship, he must ask clearly.

Otherwise, he would not dare to entrust such an important matter as listing to the Morgan Consortium.

I won’t go into detail about the sponsorship aspect, it mainly focuses on qualifications and compliance.

In terms of distribution, there are so many things to try.

The investment bank that undertakes the issuance will generally first look for major customers in the market, also known as "cornerstone investors", to conduct a survey.

Record which investors are interested, what price they are willing to pay, and how many shares they are willing to buy.

Then we evaluate them together, remove some of the water, and give a more reliable price and scale.

(And the total amount of the IPO, and the price per share.)
During this process, the issuer is in the middle, negotiating with listed companies and major investors.

Often PUA is used on both parties.

For example, tell listed companies: the current market conditions are not good, policies are very unfavorable, other listed companies are performing very poorly, it will be difficult if you miss the window period, investors have low expectations and are unwilling to spend money... a series of negative information.

Try every possible means to make listed companies lower their expectations and lower their bids.

On the other hand, they will go to PUA to buy properties as investors: "There are only so many shares in total, if you don't buy now, it will be gone! This is such a profitable project, why don't you buy in? So and so and so have already bought it! We are about to launch, it will be too late if you don't buy now!"
In short, the goal is to lower the expectations of both parties so that the IPO shares can be sold, which means that there are people willing to subscribe to the bride price for a girl's marriage.

Lin Yuan knew that Betty definitely wouldn't want to PUA him, but after the project was handed over to Morgan Stanley, it was hard to say what her team would do.

Betty smiled and said, "Look at how nervous you are. How could I cheat you? I told you I would definitely satisfy you."

She continued, "30 times the PE ratio, and an IPO value of $140 billion. How about these terms?"

30 times? $140 billion?
Lin Yuan couldn't believe his ears.

This condition is really great for him!

Under such conditions, will there really be investors who will subscribe to shares?

Can they really make money after subscribing?
Lin Yuan guessed that Betty was trying to set up a pig-killing scheme for herself, luring those big investors in and slaughtering them like pigs?
(End of this chapter)