The King of Soft Rice in Chinese Entertainment

Chapter 546 Two things

While the crew of "The Myth" was filming at the Yellow River Stone Forest, two significant events also occurred in the mainland entertainment industry.

The first thing was that Feng Xiaogang's "The Banquet" was a complete failure after its release, with both its reputation and box office performance collapsing, which can be regarded as the first death knell for Huayi Brothers.

The reason for this is that the two kings, who had been cornered and had no other options, placed their last bet on "The Banquet".

Last year, Wang Jinhua's departure from Orange Sky Entertainment still happened. Although she didn't have as many cards to play as someone else did in the past, it still caused Huayi Entertainment a lot of damage.

However, Feng Xiaogang remained with Huayi Brothers, which gave Wang Xiaowang and Wang Dawang hope for a comeback.

After all, at this point in time, content is king.

They tried hard to win over Feng Xiaogang, and Feng Xiaogang made an outrageous demand, wanting to make a film called "The Banquet" for fun.

He considered himself to have achieved great success in commercial films, so he wanted to make an art film to boost his prestige.

The two kings naturally agreed, because for certain reasons, Huayi had made a fortune on the US stock market and was not short of money at the moment.

But no one expected that after the new year, their film "The Promise," in which they had invested a considerable sum, would become a laughing stock, and would be utterly defeated by "The Bloody Case of a Steamed Bun." Although the box office was barely held up by various means, the reputation was completely ruined.

Even more unexpectedly, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit and froze all of Huayi's assets in the United States on charges of "insider trading".

Furthermore, some American media outlets have claimed that they will thoroughly investigate Chinese companies listed in the United States, especially media companies under News Corporation.

That's it. Given the current social atmosphere, if Americans say you committed a crime, then you must have committed a crime.

Moreover, it also implicated many IT companies, so from NetEase to Sina to Baidu, everyone wished Huayi would die.

The Wang brothers certainly didn't want to just give up like that, so they had to make a comeback. They found Feng Xiaogang and forced him to re-edit the already filmed "The Banquet".

In their view, as long as Huayi Brothers proves to be a leader among domestic private film and television companies, the government should protect it. So, regardless of what artistic style Feng Xiaogang is trying to pull, everyone is in the same boat, so let's make "The Banquet" watchable as soon as possible!

According to Xu Jiuyang's information, this version of "The Banquet" is watchable; at least it doesn't have the so-called "a group of people trying to show off in various ways at the Prince Art Academy getting killed."

Unfortunately, it still wasn't enough. After all, when the two kings made their demands, the movie was already basically finished filming. They had to do reshoots and rush to release it. How could they possibly raise a 60-point film to a 90-point film? Feng Xiaogang was already quite capable to be able to get the editor to coax out a watchable story.

Unfortunately, neither the two kings knew that even if "The Banquet" became a hit, and even if it was a critical and commercial success, Huayi Brothers was still doomed.

In fact, the fact that they have been able to hold on until now is the result of some people's indulgence, and all their self-rescue actions have been planned by some people.

“The guy surnamed Feng is very clever. Angela’s people gave him a slight hint, and he agreed. However, he didn’t make the editing of ‘The Banquet’ too difficult. Do you know why?” Fan Bingbing’s voice came from the other end of the phone.

"What else could it be? It's the Communist army's old trick. As spies, we can't make the battle plan too outrageous," Xu Jiuyang said irritably.

“That’s right!” Fan Bingbing chuckled. “The two kings are my puppets. They do whatever I tell them to do, and they do it however I tell them to do it!”

"Mine, or ours?" Xu Jiuyang asked, offering a reminder.

"Is there a difference?" Fan Bingbing asked back. "There's a huge difference. The former is a queen, the latter is a partner," Xu Jiuyang said seriously.

A distinct grinding sound came from the other end, and then Fan Bingbing said, "Speaking of which, Roubao and Jiaozi haven't seen their dad in a long time. How about I bring them to visit the set?"

“Sure, it would be best to invite Sister Yuanyuan along, and bring Tangyuan too, and then see if Yunxin is free.” Xu Jiuyang said nonchalantly, “There’s some gossip circulating in the crew about gigolos right now, I’ll let them see what a real gigolo looks like.”

After a long pause, Fan Bingbing finally said dryly, "Okay, I'll check the time..."

His tone was somewhat strained and resentful.

Xu Jiuyang also knew when to stop: "Now we can close the net, otherwise things might change if we drag it out any longer."

"It was settled by the end of August. Angela found two related funds as plaintiffs, and the deal was already made in China," Fan Bingbing said with a snort. "If it weren't for me, as a director of Baidu, communicating with IT companies, they would have been finished long ago."

"Yes, yes, thanks to Mr. Fan," Xu Jiuyang laughed. "That's all for now, I'm hanging up."

After putting his phone away and checking the time, he got out of the RV and started warming up. He had a lot of horseback riding scenes to film these days, so he needed to be in good shape.

Despite having many questions in her mind, such as why it had been delayed until now, and why Fan Bingbing and the others were able to accurately grasp the movements of the two kings, since things had come to this point, and Fan Bingbing had confidently stated that they were doomed, then they should just ignore it.

I just don't know to what extent Huayi will be completely exploited.

Another significant event mentioned earlier was the formal acquisition of Golden Harvest by Little Red Boat Entertainment, which spent HK$4.8 million to purchase 51.23% of its shares.

Little Red Boat Entertainment is Xiaoli's business, and the name Red Boat Film Industry is too obviously suggestive. If someone uses it to make a fuss, it could cause some trouble.

Xu Jiuyang suggested that if there was an opportunity, they could change the name or use a different shell to confuse the audience. So, taking advantage of the opportunity to acquire Jiahe, Sister Xiaoli and Li Yunxin jointly established an entertainment company and named it Little Red Boat.

To this, someone could only shrug. At least it was better than the Red Boat. The only question was whether Sister Xiaoli and Li Yunxin had met, and whether they had noticed anything between them.

It was precisely because Little Red Boat Entertainment was a newly established media company that many people in the industry were very surprised at the beginning, wondering where this stone monkey had come from.
However, as the acquisition news was further revealed, many people understood the cause and effect. Hongchuan Pictures and Hongchuan Media are now quite well-known in the film and television industry. They have invested in many TV series and have basically made a profit. This summer, although it was not a hit, the long-tail effect of "Li Lei and Han Meimei" was also produced by them.

Moreover, Little Red Boat Entertainment's partners also include Golden Crow Media.

Anyone with inside information knows whose business Jinwu Media is, and those with even better connections also know that Jinwu Media collaborated with Hongchuan Pictures when Zhang Dahuzi was producing Jin Yong dramas.

Therefore, it would be quite natural for the two companies to join forces to establish a new entertainment company, and then for this new company to acquire Golden Harvest.

There weren't many people in Hong Kong who opposed the acquisition. Golden Crow Media is a South Korean company, and South Korea used to be a dumping ground for Hong Kong films; Red Boat Films, on the other hand, is a Hong Kong company, and at least its registered office is Hong Kong.

In addition, those with keen senses in Hong Kong's entertainment industry have already realized that a harsh winter is coming.

In a sense, the sale of Golden Harvest was one of the signs. Ostensibly, it was because Raymond Chow was getting old, his children weren't interested in movies, and he wanted to retire. But if it were profitable, wouldn't it have been difficult for Golden Harvest, or rather Raymond Chow's, network to maintain a moderate level of success?

(End of this chapter)