Huayu Entertainment: Tianxian really wants to improve

Chapter 350 Let's turn the little cannon into a dud!
"Brother, who would have thought that Weibo belongs to Gu Bei?"

Wang Zhonglei looked aggrieved and couldn't help but complain.

Back then, if he wanted to cause trouble and target Gu Bei, he would definitely do it on the most popular platform!
The then-emerging Weibo platform was the most suitable candidate, not only because of its large user base, but also because its inherent nature was conducive to creating buzz, and its dissemination speed was much faster than other platforms.

After spending a large sum of money...
I just realized that Weibo is Gu Bei's platform.

Isn't this embarrassing?
Spending money to sabotage someone else's boss on another platform was a complete waste of money. According to his subordinates, that person's QQ icon has never lit up since then.

"I know that thing wasn't your fault."

Wang Zhongjun waved his hand magnanimously and offered another opinion: "What I mean is that public opinion on the Internet is becoming increasingly important, so we must take it seriously."

We can't create a platform like Gu Bei did, but we can replace these partners. We organize people to guide public opinion online.

"That's a good idea!"

Wang Zhonglei nodded.

Organize your own manpower,

It's unlikely that they'll run away like last time.

"This 1942 is very important for Huayi. We are about to submit our IPO application to the Growth Enterprise Market. If the application is successfully approved, we will become the first mainland entertainment company to be listed in China!"

Wang Zhongjun sat in the main seat and earnestly addressed everyone, "The timing of our release coincides almost exactly with the release date of '1942.' This is both an opportunity and a risk for us, so the box office performance of '1942' absolutely cannot be allowed to fail!"

Don't worry, bro!

Wang Zhonglei confidently patted his chest and readily agreed.

"Mr. Wang, I've been preparing this story for over a decade. With the previous installment, 'Assembly,' as a precedent, it's absolutely impossible for it to fail!" Feng Xiaogang grinned, showing off his teeth, and boasted.

Chen Guofu was the only one who was distracted. Huayi's listing had nothing to do with him, since he hadn't bought any of Huayi's original shares.

On the contrary, Feng Xiaogang,
He owns 288 million original shares of Huayi.

Holding 2.29% of the current shares, it is Huayi's fifth largest shareholder.

The total number of Jokers is naturally the largest, with Jokers accounting for 34.85% and Jokers accounting for 11.03%.

Of course, this is the shareholding percentage before the listing. This prospectus is expected to raise 42 million shares, and the shareholding percentage after the listing will be reduced by 25% for everyone.

Besides the two CEOs and the two major investors,

Feng Xiaogang owns the largest share.

Chen Guofu could understand why Feng Xiaogang was so concerned this time.

"Guo Fu?"

Wang Zhongjun looked at Chen Guofu.

"I think Director Chen's films are naturally excellent; audiences are happy to watch whatever he makes!"

Chen Guofu naturally wouldn't say anything discouraging; he focused on praising the person.

Feng Xiaogang grinned across from him.

After looking around, Wang Zhongjun sighed inwardly.

What a miscalculation!

Feng Xiaogang should have been in charge of last year's Lunar New Year film season, and Chen Guofu should have been in charge of this year's National Day film season!

In fact, he knew last year that there was a high probability that the company would be able to go public this year.
So the original plan was to have Feng Xiaogang direct this year's Lunar New Year films to boost profits from last year and the first half of this year, in order to increase the market value at the time of listing.

But after seeing Gu Bei's terrifying rate of return on investment,
He planned to follow Gu Bei's vision and have Feng Xiaogang film 1942, to replicate the success of Assembly.

However, because the filming time for 1942 was too long, it definitely couldn't be released during last year's Lunar New Year holiday, so it could only be released during the National Day holiday to compete with Gu Bei.

Finally, with no other choice, they could only let Chen Guofu take charge of last year's Lunar New Year film season, and pair him with Xiangdu Films' "The Dragon and the Phoenix" to compete in this year's Lunar New Year film season.

However, Chen Guofu is no match for Feng Xiaogang, and Xifeng Lie suffered a minor loss. Fortunately, Youlong Xifeng supported the Lunar New Year film season last year.

For the sake of market capitalization upon listing,

After all, the company had a total profit of 6600 million in 2008, so the first half of this year can't be too bad.

He could only relinquish a portion of the profits to bring the first half of the year's accounts to a profit of 3000 million, which could barely be used as the final financial report before the IPO.

Looking back now, if we hadn't been so greedy, the profits in the first half of the year would have been much easier to achieve.

"Luckily, I still have two cards to play!"

Wang Zhongjun thought to himself, "One is Xiaogang's 1942 release, and the other is my first opportunity to collaborate with Lionsgate."

Wang Zhongjun felt much more at ease when he thought of Feng Xiaogang.

The release date of this film coincides perfectly with the release date of Feng Xiaogang's 1942.

It will be reviewed on September 27th.
This was in 1942, right at the height of the propaganda campaign.

And after the listing application is approved

October 19th was the date of the stock issuance and the date the issue price was determined.

Twenty days was enough for 1942 to rake in box office revenue, which allowed for a sufficiently high release price.

October 30th is the listing date for all the first batch of companies listed on the ChiNext board, which happens to be the date when "1942" finished its run. Huayi Brothers' stock price can perfectly benefit from the box office success of "1942".

The greater the risk, the greater the reward!
Now, Huayi's IPO price and listing price will depend on the box office performance of 1942!

I hope Feng Xiaogang won't disappoint me too.
The thought flashed through Wang Zhongjun's mind, but he still felt it was impossible.
After all, there was already a film called Assembly on the subject of 1942, and audiences still paid for Feng Xiaogang's film about suffering!

Wang Zhongjun concluded by saying to everyone, "This time, the goal for 1942 is to secure third place and strive for fourth. We must surpass Red Cliff and become the number one Chinese-language film in history!"

……

Just as Huayi was gearing up,
Gu Bei had just contacted Peng Shaobing on Weibo: "What's going on?"

Peng Shaobing saw the link Gu Bei sent him, clicked on it, and his expression turned somewhat unpleasant: "President Gu, let me explain, there's a reason for this."

"It's nothing, I was just checking the situation," Gu Bei said calmly.

"The reason we restricted the traffic to director Feng Xiaogang's Weibo account is because he mentioned information from Tencent Weibo, which seemed to be guiding his fans to follow him there. That's why we took this measure."

Peng Shaobing said somewhat nervously.

The powerful arrival of Tencent Weibo put far more pressure on him than Sina Weibo.

While he was struggling to cope, a powerful sword called "Zhang Xiaolong" was hanging over his head.

If Gu Bei really does let Zhang Xiaolong replace him as rumored, all his efforts over the past two years will have been in vain.

"I see."

Gu Bei flipped through the evidence provided by Peng Shaobing and found that Xiao Gangpao had indeed struck first. However, his Weibo posts had been blocked by the platform, making Xiao Gangpao seem very innocent.

As he examined the evidence, he asked Peng Shaobing, "What's the current situation with Tencent Weibo?"

Peng Shaobing hesitated for a moment, but still chose to tell the truth: "They are developing very quickly. They started internal testing in late August, and in less than a month, the number of registered users has exceeded three million."

"That's how it is with Tencent. They have the cheapest user acquisition channels, so their registered user growth is definitely much faster than ours."

Gu Bei wasn't surprised; Tencent had a huge user base, that much was undeniable. "But their growth is too fast!"

Peng Shaobing gave a wry smile.

"Are you under pressure?"

Gu Bei asked with a smile.

"A little, after all, it's a penguin!"

Peng Shaobing immediately perked up and replied in a very firm tone, "However, pressure is what drives motivation. In the field of original content creation on the internet, there is no way to truly establish a foothold without defeating Tencent at least once."

Original?

Aren't we just copying Twitter?

Gu Bei didn't bring it up, after all, Peng Shaobing was already under a lot of pressure, so it would be good for him to hypnotize himself up.

After a pause, he looked at the blocked Weibo posts in Feng Xiaogang's account and said calmly, "I've already read all the content he posted, why not just ban him?"

"what?"

Peng Shaobing was slightly taken aback upon hearing this.

He said with some disbelief, "This is Feng Xiaogang! If we ban such a big director, it will definitely cause a public opinion crisis."

"Then he openly promotes information about rival platforms on our platform, can't we still ban him?" Gu Bei retorted directly.

"Mr. Gu, we have always been practicing a celebrity strategy."

Peng Shaobing sensed the firmness in Gu Bei's tone and carefully explained the pros and cons: "If we ban him, it will definitely cause panic among other celebrities."

As a platform, we are instinctively perceived as the dominant party in public opinion.

"With Tencent Weibo's aggressive expansion, it will be much easier for them to poach our talent, and the foundation of our Weibo platform will be destroyed."

"That's right, if I'm not mistaken, Tencent Weibo has reached a cooperation agreement with Huayi this time."

Gu Bei said calmly, "Besides Feng Xiaogang, there should be other Huayi artists who are also testing our bottom line."

This is the penguin's open strategy.

But at the same time, Gu Bei is also partly responsible.

If Weibo weren't Gu Bei's company, then even if Tencent poached talent, given the profit-driven nature of the entertainment industry, Huayi would definitely be playing both sides, since opening another Weibo account wouldn't cost them anything.

But precisely because of the conflict between Gu Bei and Hua Yi,

This led Huayi Tianran to believe that there was no need for Weibo to continue operating in the long term.
That's why they're so fiercely supporting Tencent Weibo this time; for them, there are no sunk costs associated with anything on Weibo that they're hesitant to commit.

If Weibo punishes them, they will incite public opinion.

If this isn't addressed, it will continue to be a nuisance to Weibo.

but……

Gu Bei smiled slightly: "We are indeed the stronger party to Feng Xiaogang, and public opinion will sympathize with the weaker party, so why not let us become the weaker party?"

Upon hearing this, Peng Shaobing

He was slightly taken aback at first.
Then it dawned on him: "Mr. Gu, are you talking about penguins?"

"Ok!"

Gu Bei nodded. "Weibo, as a platform, is the dominant party to individuals, but Tencent is also the dominant party to us. Therefore, we must make Tencent, which is hiding in the shadows, the protagonist."

Gu Bei's inspiration still came from the 3Q War.

365 didn't have a very good image in the public's mind to begin with.

But after comparing it to Tencent, people felt that 365 was acceptable.
As a result, the penguin's public image plummeted overnight, and it has taken more than a decade to climb out of that pit.

The impact of the 3Q War on Tencent is something that Gu Bei, who experienced it shortly after joining Tencent, remembers very well.

"I have a solution!"

Peng Shaobing suddenly understood.

"Then let's do it!"

Gu Bei smiled faintly, "Turn this little cannon into a dud!"

Upon hearing this, Peng Shaobing immediately understood. It seemed that the rumors of Gu Bei and Huayi being irreconcilable were actually true. Sometimes, gossip can be believed!
With National Day approaching,

The Founding of a Republic grossed 1.25 million yuan in its opening week, over a period of four and a half days.
It supports the entire film market and accounts for 86% of the total box office revenue.

This is also the best performance of a Chinese-language film to date, much higher than the 1.08 million and 1.14 million of Red Cliff Part I and Part II, and second only to the 1.6 million of Transformers in June.

Especially on Saturdays and Sundays, the film generated 7000 million yuan in box office revenue thanks to local organized screenings, leading everyone to raise their expectations for the box office success of "The Founding of a Republic".

The original target was to secure 2.5 points and strive for 3rd place.
After seeing the data from the weekend, the current goal is to secure third place and strive for fourth.

The box office figures, especially for the seven-day National Day holiday, are quite impressive.

The Chinese entertainment industry has turned its attention to the films "The Message" and "Back to 1942".

Mainstream patriotic films can all exceed 300 million yuan.

Then, wouldn't Feng Xiaogang, known for his commercial films, and Gu Bei, a talented director who has made his way in Hollywood, be even more promising?
For a time,

Major media outlets have begun to focus more on the rumors and 1942.

Feng Xiaogang truly lives up to his nickname, "Little Cannon."
When asked by the media about his box office expectations for 1942,
Feng Xiaogang stated very directly: "I think 1942 can reach 500 million yuan at the box office. In the first half of this year, Transformers 2 raised the box office record from Titanic's 360 million yuan to 450 million yuan."
Now is the time for Chinese-language films to break their records and usher in the era of 500 million yuan in box office revenue for Chinese cinema!

Feng Xiaogang's words,
This immediately triggered a strong reaction.

Many people in the entertainment industry have spoken out in support of Feng Xiaogang, believing it's time for Chinese-language films to reclaim domestic box office records.

However, in this era,

Public intellectuals are the group with the most influence.

The public intellectuals were already unhappy about the booming box office of "The Founding of a Republic".

Using the percentage of private screenings to nitpick and claim that the box office figures for "The Founding of a Republic" are inflated.

As a result, Feng Xiaogang jumped out at this time, making him a sitting duck for public intellectuals.

Suddenly, Weibo was flooded with posts criticizing Feng Xiaogang and 1942, almost like the Eight-Nation Alliance besieging the Forbidden City. Feng Xiaogang was bombarded with insults on Weibo.

This was exactly what Feng Xiaogang wanted!

He took the opportunity of the interview to pour out his grievances.

He said he was suppressed by Weibo, with his posts promoting 1942 being throttled, while posts criticizing him were getting pushed to higher traffic, implying that all of this stemmed from competition with Gu Bei's film, The Message.

the next day.

"Xiaogang, your Weibo account has been banned!"

Wang Zhonglei called, and his tone wasn't very friendly.

(End of this chapter)