This director is vindictive.

Chapter 557 Whale Fall Brings Life? No, It's the Darkest Hour for the Entertainment Industry!

Although Chen Mo and his many female confidantes all hoped that fans and moviegoers would discover this on their own.

But unexpectedly, the marketing accounts were the first to discover it.

In fact, their actions were quite obvious. Chen Mo was a little better, but the women didn't try to hide it at all.

For example, terminating endorsements or early contract terminations are already quite telling.

Unfortunately, the fans didn't think about it that way at all.

The main reason is that celebrities in China's entertainment industry make money too quickly. Therefore, since the beginning of the new century, it can be said that very few people have actually announced their retirement from the industry and actually left.

Unless it's due to illegal or criminal activities, or being listed as a disgraced celebrity, it's safe to say that almost no celebrity would be willing to retire voluntarily.

Even many celebrities in their seventies and eighties occasionally come out to make a quick buck. For example, one of them even came out to play a young girl.

Although Fan Binbin had precedented, people still didn't think too much about it.

After all, these women are all at the peak of their careers. It's very rare for female celebrities to retire before the age of forty, unless they've lost their popularity. Otherwise, not many people would even consider that possibility.

But this kind of thing is like a piece of paper; it breaks as soon as you poke at it.

After the revelation, more and more evidence suggests that this possibility is very high.

The key point is that neither Chen Mo, the person involved, nor his close female friends clarified the situation immediately. In the entertainment industry, not clarifying immediately is tantamount to admitting it to some extent.

That's why it had such a big impact.

Shengshi Pictures' stock price plummeted, and even the stock prices of other entertainment companies followed suit.

This demonstrates the immense influence Chen Mo and his family of celebrities have within the Chinese entertainment industry.

Although some people still wonder: "The entertainment industry never stops turning, it's just a few female stars retiring and a director retiring, is it really that big of a deal?"

However, many people quickly responded: "As if!"

During a live broadcast on a financial channel, senior industry analyst Li Mingyang directly presented data charts: "This is not a simple case of an artist retiring from the industry, but a breakdown of the industry's ecosystem! Look at these figures—director Chen Mo's merchandise sales over the past decade account for 17% of the film and television derivative market, and his film and television projects have created over 2 jobs. More importantly..."

He switched to a slideshow to display a network of relationships: "Yang Mi, Liu Yifei, and other actresses born in the 1980s are the only group that can simultaneously carry the weight of viewership ratings, box office revenue, and brand endorsements. Can we find actors among the new generation who can make three brands popular with a single drama? Can we find movie actors whose salaries exceed 100 million yuan and who can guarantee a stable profit for investors?"

In today's fast-paced mobile internet era, celebrities in the entertainment industry are replaced even faster than food delivery services.

Today they're hailed as "top idols" by fans, but tomorrow they might be completely forgotten—look at those idols who debuted through talent shows, they rise to fame quickly and fade away even faster, those who can last three years are considered evergreen in the industry.

But a group of female celebrities born in the 80s and 90s have managed to fight their way through this fierce battle for popularity. As soon as Yang Mi appears in a drama, viewers immediately recognize her: "That raised eyebrow and glaring gaze, it's definitely Yang Mi!"

Even if Fan Binbin doesn't act for ten years, when people mention "Wu Zetian", they still think of her stunningly beautiful face.

Not to mention Gao Yuanyuan's Ye Lanqiu, Liu Yifei's Xiaolongnu, Zhao Liying's Hua Qiangu, Jing Tian's Si Teng, and Er Qian. These characters have long been welded into the audience's memory and have become living trademarks of the entertainment industry.

Back when the "Four Dan and Two Bing" (referring to four top actresses and two top actresses known for their beauty and talent) dominated the entertainment industry, everyone worried about what would happen when these leading ladies retired.

As a result, the five beauties from "Chinese Paladin" and the 85 Flowers group directly took over the baton—Yang Mi's "Palace" ushered in the era of time-travel dramas, Liu Shishi's "Scarlet Heart" created a ratings miracle, and Tang Yan's "My Sunshine" became the template for idol dramas.

Zhao Liying's "The Journey of Flower", Jing Tian's "My Love from the Star", and so on.

This group of people managed to expand the empire built by their predecessors threefold with hit dramas like "Eternal Love," "The Journey of Flower," and "The Story of Ming Lan."

The situation is even more extreme now: these female celebrities have long transcended the category of "actresses" and become walking commercial IPs.

Yang Mi wearing a sweater can make the entire Taobao store popular, and Liu Yifei drinking a cup of tea can cause the brand's stock price to hit the daily limit.

They don't need to deliberately make their presence felt; just putting their names on a poster is enough to attract investors who will line up with cash. This level of brand influence is something that the new generation of "traffic stars" who rely on filters can't catch up to even after twenty more years.

The scariest thing is that these post-85 actresses have long since stopped relying on their looks for a living. Yang Mi became a boss and signed new talents, Zhao Liying transitioned to producing, and Liu Yifei went straight to Hollywood. While today's idols are still cheering for "a million reposts on Weibo," these women are already sitting at the capital table playing resource allocation games.

However, in this era, capital equals resources. Why can't the younger actresses perfectly inherit the legacy of the "Four Dan and Two Bing" (referring to four top actresses and two top actresses from the post-85 generation)? Because they become famous quickly, but it's difficult for them to achieve the same level of success as the post-85 actresses, with one hit after another.

Therefore, there are truly no perfect replacements for their retirement. In an era where television viewership is declining and people have more and more entertainment options, the departure of these young actresses, whose rise from obscurity to stardom was witnessed by mainstream audiences, will significantly diminish the future "star" effect.

As for Chen Mo, there's even less need to elaborate.

He can almost be considered a flagship figure in the Chinese film and entertainment industry.

Looking at his past works and the events associated with them, it's almost an unrepeatable legend.

Let's not talk about the distant past, but take the most successful case of the deeply rooted free economics today, the 814 Welfare Festival. What kind of impact will it have if Chen Mo lets go?

If this man, who has created countless legends with his achievements and is the god of investment in the film and television industry, really retires, then one can imagine that in the future, we will lose not only a great director, but also a flag bearer of the entertainment industry!
Therefore, if the news of his retirement from the entertainment industry is true, then this can absolutely be considered the darkest moment for the Chinese entertainment circle!

With this interpretation, many people became extremely pessimistic.

The hashtag #DarkestHourInTheEntertainmentIndustry# instantly became a trending topic.

Meanwhile, Chen Mo's friends, business partners, and especially the shareholders of Shengshi Pictures, were the first to panic.

They all called Chen Mo to ask what had happened.

Old Wang from the Light Source said, "No, Brother Chen, what's wrong with you? I'm so old and I haven't retired yet, why are you, a young man, retiring?"

"You believe the reports from outside?" Chen Mo said with a smile.

"That's good. I knew you were in your prime, why would you retire? These media outlets really dare to say anything." Old Wang breathed a sigh of relief.

"Retirement is true, but not now, though it should be soon," Chen Mo said with a smile.

Old Wang: "."

"However, the main issue is that I probably won't be making any more movies. We'll still look at the company's overall direction. After all, I'm just retiring, not dying, so the impact isn't that dramatic," Chen Mo added.

Chen Mo reassured several old friends.

However, the reactions from other peers were quite interesting.

When the news of "Chen Mo and his family collectively retiring from the entertainment industry" first broke, the entire entertainment industry was outwardly shocked, but inwardly they were overjoyed—especially those competitors who were vying for resources with Shengshi Pictures.

"That's great! Chen Mo has retired, and Yang Mi, Liu Yifei, and other top stars have also retired. With so much market share freed up, we can finally breathe a sigh of relief!" The CEO of a film and television company was grinning from ear to ear at a private dinner, his wine glass almost wobbling.

After all, over the years, Chen Mo and Shengshi Pictures have been like a mountain weighing down on the entire industry: they have snatched up the best IPs, signed the best directors, and even advertisers are lining up to give them money.

The key point is that they have money, influence, and connections, so you can only compete normally, but you simply can't beat them!

Now that this mountain is suddenly going to move itself, who wouldn't be secretly delighted?
Even financial analysts jumped out to sing praises: "This is a major positive! Shengshi Pictures' limit down is just a short-term fluctuation. After Chen Mo's artists completely retire from the industry, the market share vacated will be worth at least 200 billion!" The report also listed a bunch of data: Yang Mi's commercial endorsements were worth 15 billion in a year, Liu Yifei's movies had an average box office of 30 billion, and Chen Mo's directorial works accounted for 30% of the industry's box office.
But before these people could even celebrate for 24 hours, reality slapped them in the face.

The next day, as soon as the stock market opened, the entire entertainment sector was in the red! It was not surprising that Shengshi Pictures hit the daily limit down, but what was surprising was that other companies fell even more! Huayi Brothers plummeted by 9%, Enlight Media fell directly below the six-month moving average, and even Huanrui Century, which had just signed a top-tier actor, followed suit.

"What the hell! What does Chen Mo's retirement have to do with us?" a board secretary of a listed company cursed during a conference call.

But the data doesn't lie: funds are frantically selling off film and television stocks, foreign capital is withdrawing more than 50 billion yuan in a single day, and variety show sponsorships and drama series pre-sales are declining across the board—capital is showing its stance with real money: without Chen Mo and his group to support them, the entire industry will depreciate!
As one film critic put it, "You thought they were rivals for the cake, but they were actually the oven that baked it. Now that the oven has gone out, everyone realizes—we were all just raw dough in our hands."

Those colleagues who had been expecting a "whale fall and all life" were now collectively dumbfounded. Because reality told them that when the whale actually sank, the first to starve to death were often the small fish and shrimp that depended on the whale's ecosystem.

Chen Mo and the group of women had previously considered that if they collectively retired from the entertainment industry, it would cause a major earthquake in the industry.

However, most people only thought it was a major earthquake in public opinion, but no one really expected the impact to be so exaggerated.

This has affected the entire industry ecosystem.

As a result, Chen Mo had no choice but to step in to handle the incident, and even the China Securities Regulatory Commission and his superiors called to inquire about the situation.

This has really blown up! It caught the entire industry off guard, not to mention Chen Mo himself.

(End of this chapter)