Huayu Entertainment: Tianxian really wants to improve

Chapter 364 Let Me Beat Up Gu Bei!? Huayi Goes Public
[The Message has been granted a delayed release; is this extension in an effort to reach the 500 million yuan box office mark?]

The domestic film protection month has been extended again, and no major foreign films have been imported to China for several months!

[The continued dominance of patriotic films in cinemas has caused the film market to lose its market-regulating function!]

Discontent has begun to emerge in public opinion.
The box office performance of "The Message" this time is truly enviable.
After the initial excitement about the domestic film market subsided, people naturally began to envy the box office performance of "The Founding of a Republic" and "The Wind Rises," and some underhanded remarks started to emerge.

Since so many people have seen the movie, they can't really attack its quality, so they attack the film's delayed release, claiming that The Message is unwilling to be taken off the screens in order to reach 500 million in box office revenue.

Movie box office.

[With so much buzz going on, it still hasn't broken 500 million. Could it be that it won't reach 500 million until November?]

"It seems possible. There's been no news for so long, and any news we hear is that it's been delayed, possibly until November."

"That shouldn't be the case. The long run of The Message is much better than Painted Skin last year. I don't understand why it hasn't broken 500 million yet after so long?"

"It's possible that because we were suppressed too much by Feng Xiaogang in the early stages, we didn't get any screenings until the 5th. So, although it looks good in the long run, it's actually just average."

Amidst a chorus of pessimistic voices,
A different voice emerged: "I have a different idea. The Message should have already surpassed 500 million at the box office, it's just that Director Gu hasn't released it yet."

"The moderator is here!"

"Did the moderator receive any news?"

"There was no special information; we just tallied the cumulative number of viewers for The Rumors."

Since The Message has never fallen out of the top ten at the box office, the total number of viewers published weekly on the Times Cinema website shows that The Message alone has grossed 2400 million yuan.

The Times Cinema chain typically accounts for 4% to 5% of the national box office, meaning that "The Message" would have grossed at least 480 million yuan, and possibly as much as 600 million yuan.

"This data is quite normal. The rumors are much more stable than last year's Painted Skin, and it should be breaking 500 million in box office revenue soon."

"Liu Yifei's fans upstairs, stop pretending. Times Cinemas is a cinema chain in Zhejiang Province, and Gu Bei is from Hangzhou. Isn't it normal for Zhejiang Province's box office to be higher? Otherwise, why wouldn't they release a press release if it broke 500 million!"

"I'm not Gu Bei, how would I know why he's not posting? Can't he just focus on filming? Besides, I follow Liu Yifei's fan club, so why can't I follow the movie's box office? I should be asking you whose fan you are!"

"Stop arguing, everyone upstairs. I have a suggestion: Gu Bei might be waiting for Huayi to go public!"

after one day.

This post went viral.

"Damn, bro, you were absolutely right! Huayi is going public tomorrow, and tonight Gu Bei will announce that the box office has surpassed 500 million, or even 520 million!"

"What grudge does Gu Bei have against Huayi that he's targeting Huayi so much? Huayi must be the least popular of the first 28 companies listed on the ChiNext board, right?"

"That's true. When Huayi first got approved, they were asking for a price of 15 yuan. But after the National Day holiday, their final IPO price was only 22.5 yuan, the smallest increase among all these companies."

"Damn Gu Bei, I really won the lottery! What am I going to do?"

"Haha, just sell it as soon as the market opens, what else can we do? New shares can't lose money, they'll definitely be worth more than the issue price!"

……

Huayi.

The conference room was filled with smoke.

"This is really never going to end. Why did they have to announce it today of all times? Is it just to dominate the news tomorrow morning?"

"I told you he didn't say a word when he broke 500 million, turns out he was waiting for today!"

Chen Guofu sat at the table, watching Wang Zhonglei and Feng Xiaogang smoke heavily while cursing Gu Bei.

He thought to himself, "The biggest factor affecting the stock price is the failure of '1942,' isn't it? If '1942' had been a box office success, there would have been profit expectations for the second half of the year, and the issue price would have immediately gone up!"

However, Chen Guofu naturally wouldn't speak up.

After all, the hardest thing to admit is one's own mistake.
Even if Wang Zhonglei and Feng Xiaogang admit that the defeat was due to the 1942 incident, they will attribute it to the fact that Weibo heavily promoted Feng Xiaogang's "trash audience" remarks.

Chen Guofu then looked at Wang Zhongjun.

They discovered that Wang Zhongjun was not as arrogant as before.
He just sat there smoking without saying a word, seemingly without emotion, but in fact, his heart was full of emotions.

Wasted!

They're all ruined!

Fortunately, the ChiNext board doesn't have a bell-ringing ceremony.
Otherwise, none of the three brothers would be able to go on stage and preside over the ceremony.

"Snapped!"

Wang Zhongjun stubbed out his cigarette on the table and then slammed his hand on it.

The entire conference room was silent.
Wang Zhonglei and Feng Xiaogang, who had just been loudly cursing Gu Bei, both fell silent.

At this moment, Wang Zhongjun's role as the backbone of Huayi was fully demonstrated!

Wang Zhongjun looked at everyone in the conference room with a hint of gloom in his eyes: "This defeat was indeed quite significant. I underestimated Gu Bei's box office appeal in mainland China."

"It's my fault; this time the filming was indeed too tragic."

Seeing that Wang Zhongjun had admitted his mistake, Feng Xiaogang took the initiative to speak.

“I have a question too,” Wang Zhonglei quickly added.

"Let bygones be bygones. There's nothing we can do to change it. Fortunately, the TV drama department can support the profits for the second half of the year."

Moreover, the funds raised in this IPO are quite substantial, so we can really go all out and make a big splash!

Wang Zhongjun looked at the group and began to assign tasks for next year, "Xiaogang, you'll be in charge of next year's Lunar New Year film season. Are you confident?"

"Absolutely!"

Feng Xiaogang also made a bold statement, swearing, "If I fail again in next year's Lunar New Year film season, I will..."

"No need to say that, Xiaogang, you have always been Huayi's most important core asset, and I have absolute confidence in you!"

Wang Zhongjun interrupted Feng Xiaogang's oath and vow.

Upon hearing this, Feng Xiaogang showed a look of gratitude.

Wang Zhongjun is a retired soldier.
He exudes a strong older brother aura.
Especially during such a setback, Wang Zhongjun's tolerance stirred within him a sense of loyalty and a willingness to die for a friend, and the previously raised tail of the assembly call immediately subsided.

Subsequently,

Wang Zhongjun then looked at Wang Zhonglei: "Xiao Lei, you need to pay more attention to the film's distribution next year!"

"Hot Summer Days, a co-production with Fox; Shanghai, a co-production with Disney; and the Chinese version of High School Musical—these are all movies that need your dedicated promotion."

Wang Zhonglei nodded solemnly: "Brother, I will definitely not let you down."

"As for me, I'm responsible for advancing the collaboration with Lionsgate."

Kingsglaive is Lionsgate's biggest A-list production for the next two years.
"It's a remake of the two Conan movies that made Arnold Schwarzenegger famous, and it was through this series that he landed the Terminator role." After explaining his task, Wang Zhongjun finally looked at Chen Guofu, who hadn't spoken until now, and said, "Guofu, Xiaogang is going to be in next year's Lunar New Year film season. How about you change the release date? How about next year's National Day holiday?"

"without……"

Chen Guofu was about to agree when
Based on the current progress of Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, it will definitely be able to make it to the National Day holiday next year.

But then he suddenly realized something: "I remember that Gu Bei's Gravity was scheduled for release during the National Day holiday next year, right?"

Let me beat up Gu Bei!?

Chen Guofu felt his head was filled with all sorts of questions. Had Wang Zhongjun ruined his brain from smoking?
Or perhaps Wang Zhongjun didn't realize that Gu Bei would also be in next year's National Day film lineup!
Chen Guofu looked at Wang Zhongjun with his last glimmer of hope, only to see a hint of madness in Wang Zhongjun's resolute gaze.

"That's right, it's the National Day holiday next year!"

Wang Zhongjun stared intently at Chen Guofu and said firmly, "Judging from the box office of The Message, we can see that the potential of the National Day film season in China has been fully realized. Xiaogang's 1942 failed simply because it wasn't commercially viable enough."

Moreover, Gu Bei's Gravity seems to have a large investment, but sci-fi blockbusters are not so easy to make. Have you forgotten Xu Ke's Shushan?
"With Xu Ke on your side, why would you need to be afraid of Gu Bei?"

afraid!
Scared!
I'm terrified!
Chen Guofu is a big believer in fortune.

Gu Bei's current fortunes are clearly unstoppable.
He was just trying to fight Gu Bei, which was clearly like a mantis trying to stop a chariot!
However, judging from Wang Zhongjun's eyes,

He could clearly tell that the other party was very serious.

Although he failed this time, Wang Zhongjun clearly had no intention of avoiding Gu Beifeng's sharp edge, and even planned to go all the way down this path.

The same National Day release, the same Huayi blockbuster, another showdown with Gu Bei!
"I……"

Chen Guofu was in his heart,
He had already scolded the remaining three people in the meeting room.
He could somewhat understand Wang Zhongjun's decision. Huayi had become the first listed film company in China, but if it wanted to become the leader in the domestic entertainment industry, then Gu Bei, this outsider, had to be suppressed.

After Wang Zhongjun's persuasive apology, which won people's hearts, Wang Zhonglei and Feng Xiaogang have completely and unconditionally supported Wang Zhongjun's Juding.

After hesitating for a moment,
Chen Guofu nodded: "I'll ask Tsui Hark to speed things up and try to get it released for next year's National Day holiday!"

If you want to lose money, then go ahead and lose money. Anyway, I've already taken my money. I didn't buy a single share of Huayi's stock, so neither the movie nor the stock price will affect me!

……

10 month 30 day.

On the day Huayi went public,
But the front page headlines of the entire entertainment section were all about the rumor that the number of viewers had exceeded 500 million.

"Congratulations, Director Gu, on becoming the first director in China to have a film grossing over 500 million yuan!"

Han Sanpin, holding a freshly printed newspaper, smiled and handed it to Gu Bei.

Although Han Sanpin had already congratulated Gu Bei on the phone last night after Gu Bei posted on Weibo,

But the next day, he still personally went to the China Film Digital Base to congratulate Gu Bei on his new record.

Gu Bei led Han Sanpin through the studio and said with a smile, "Congratulations to Director Han! After so many years without making a move, you've managed to get 400 million in box office revenue!"

"I don't count. The film was mainly directed by Director Huang. I was just the general director and coordinator."

Han Sanpin waved his hand.
This indicates that he cannot claim credit for the achievement.

After a pause, he asked curiously, "What's the situation in North America? The first day's prices were even higher than in China, but we haven't heard any new news for so long!"

"It's really just a difference in culture."

North America has a Friday entertainment culture, while here we have a seven-day holiday coming up soon, so naturally we're not in a rush and only go out for entertainment after the holiday starts.

Gu Bei explained the reasons for the box office performance on the first day to Han Sanpin: "As for the current situation, it's actually similar to the situation of a regular B-movie release."

With only over 600 theaters in its opening weekend, it grossed $7.1 million at the box office.
Now, three weeks later, the number has increased to 1200.
But the cumulative box office was only over $2000 million.

The final estimate is that it should break 3000 million, which would be about right.

"That's the best result for a Chinese-language film in North America in the last two years!"

Han Sanpin looked at Gu Bei with great satisfaction and said with a smile, "Two years ago, Jet Li's Huo Yuanjia only cost a little over 20 million US dollars, and Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle only cost a little over 10 million US dollars. Not every movie is Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

For Han Sanpin,
The Message's current performance is already perfect.

It not only surpassed the 4.03 million yuan box office record set by Transformers 2 in the first half of the year, but also reached the ceiling of 3000 million US dollars for Chinese-language films in North America.
This is enough to prove that the Chinese film market under his leadership is thriving and the entire market is constantly setting new records.

"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon pioneered a completely new genre of film, but unfortunately, no sequel has ever been developed."

Gu Bei's tone was somewhat regretful.

Following the patterns of North American genre films,

Because after Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon finished its theatrical run, even more people watched it on home media and the DVD market.
Even a bad sequel can easily surpass its predecessor.

If filmed well, it could potentially create a completely new series.

"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was indeed unexpected to achieve such success. Subsequently, director Li An was unwilling to continue directing, so the project could not be moved forward."

Han Sanpin shook his head with some regret.

Subsequently,

He glanced at his watch: "Huayi's stock is about to open, right? It's the first listed film company in China!"

“Let’s go take a look. I’m quite interested in Huayi’s opening price.”

Gu Bei led Han Sanpin in a different direction, towards the lounge.

He found Liu Yifei in the lounge: "Qianqian, can I borrow your computer for a moment?"

"what happened?"

Liu Yifei took the laptop from her assistant and handed it to Gu Bei, then noticed Han Sanpin. "Good morning, Chairman Han!"

"We came to check Huayi's opening price."

Gu Bei opened the stock trading software. At this time, Huayi was still in the pre-market auction, and the latest price list kept refreshing, keeping Liu Yifei, who had never traded stocks before, busy.

Gu Bei, however, had already begun to understand the situation.

A few minutes later,

Huayi's opening price has been released.
The price is 45 yuan per share, which is exactly double the issue price of 22.5 yuan per share.

"The stock market is really profitable!"

Han Sanpin said with some emotion.

This price represents a market value of 75 billion yuan for Huayi, a figure that no one dared to imagine before its listing.

however,
Gu Bei chuckled softly upon seeing the price.

If I remember correctly, Huayi's market value exceeded 10 billion yuan when it went public. Now it's more than 30% off!
(End of this chapter)