Shadow of Chinese Entertainment

Chapter 255 Plan
After the film festival awards ceremony, Hu Xiaobei and his two companions stayed in Berlin for two more days before returning to China.

In the past two days, Hu Xiaobei sold the distribution rights of "Sissi's Dog" to Asian countries such as South Korea and Japan, as well as European and American countries such as the United States and Germany, for a total price of US$1380 million.

In addition, the overseas audio-visual rights to the film were sold for $850 million.

In other words, the distribution rights and audio-visual copyrights for all countries and regions except China have been sold.

During this trip, "Sissi's Dog" sold a total of $2230 million in royalties at the Berlin Film Festival.

After deducting advertising expenses, production costs, taxes, and other expenses, and after accounting for odd amounts, the remaining funds were transferred to the Qianbeifeng Entertainment Company account.

Of the revenue, a portion is used to maintain the company's daily operations, while another portion is retained as a reserve fund for film and television production.

Even after all the deductions, the film still brought in $2000 million in disposable net income for Northwind Entertainment.

Based on the shareholding of Qianbeifeng Entertainment, Hu Xiaobei will receive a net profit of US$800 million, An Xiaoqian US$800 million, and Liu Xiaoli US$400 million.

At the exchange rate of 1:8.049 at the time, 800 million US dollars was equivalent to 6400 million RMB.

With so much money, we could invest in another round of stocks.

Although Liu Xiaoli preferred to invest the money in real estate, she decided to trust Hu Xiaobei's judgment after being persuaded by him, and the three of them went all in on Hudong Heavy Machinery stock.

At this time, Hudong Heavy Machinery's stock price had risen to 8.5 yuan per share, an increase of 1.5 yuan per share compared to when it was purchased in January, showing a strong upward trend.

Besides trust, this is also one of the reasons why Hu Xiaobei was able to easily persuade Liu Xiaoli to go all in on Hudong Heavy Machinery again.

Hu Xiaobei also deducted 800 million RMB from the 500 million RMB advertising expenses that were recovered, specifically for purchasing stocks, and transferred the remaining 300 million RMB back to his personal company account.

At this point, Hu Xiaobei's holdings of Hudong Heavy Machinery shares increased from 1200 million shares to 2000 million shares, while An Xiaoqian and her daughter's holdings increased to 1050 million shares and 520 million shares respectively.

Therefore, the three of them spent almost all of their earnings during the Berlin Film Festival, leaving them with very little except for replenishing their previous funds.

Because Hu Xiaobei holds too many shares, exceeding the 5% disclosure threshold, he needs to disclose his shareholding to the public.

This move will inevitably attract the attention of many people with ulterior motives, and the trouble that follows will naturally be plentiful.

However, Hu Xiaobei had just won one gold and two silver awards at the Berlin Film Festival, which could be considered as bringing glory to the country.

There shouldn't be any problems in the short term.

However, unless he stops buying Hudong Heavy Machinery's stock, he will still be contacted by others.

Therefore, the only way to temporarily avoid some trouble is to improve one's status as much as possible, such as by winning another international award.

The reason it's temporary is because he still wants to continue buying shares of Hudong Heavy Machinery.

After all, there hasn't been a formal decision from above regarding restructuring or renaming yet. He's currently making normal investments and buying stocks, so no one can say anything about him publicly.

At this time, Hu Xiaobei's personal company account had 1000 million RMB remaining in available funds, and his personal account also had a balance of about 130 million RMB.

In addition, Qianbeifeng Entertainment's company account has 800 million RMB in available funds.

The 800 million yuan will be used for the upcoming film production and will be put into use shortly after returning to China.

There are other reasons besides those mentioned above for this urgency.

Firstly, Hu Xiaobei received an invitation from the Cannes Film Festival, hoping that he would bring his film to participate in the festival.

Of course, the original intention of the Cannes Film Festival organizers was to invite him to participate in the main competition at Cannes in 2007.

可胡小北算了算时间，感觉以自己的速度应该来得及，便决定赶一赶2006年5月17日至28日举办的第59届戛纳电影节。

According to the Cannes Film Festival's requirements, as long as you register and submit the relevant materials before the end of March at the latest, you can catch the last train.

当然，如果真的来不及也无所谓，还可以参加于2006年8月30日至9月9日，在意大利举行的第63届威尼斯电影节。

Secondly, having achieved both fame and fortune at the Berlin Film Festival, Hu Xiaobei thought he should strike while the iron was hot and try his luck at the Cannes Film Festival.

If we can win an award, it would be best to try again.

Even if they don't win an award, they can still take advantage of the momentum of winning one gold and two silver awards at the Berlin Film Festival to sell their new film for a good price.

Hu Xiaobei naturally wouldn't let such a win-win situation pass him by, given his ability. However, he underestimated the level of attention that domestic media and fans would pay to his one gold and two silver medals in Berlin.

Even though it took them two days to return to Beijing from Berlin, they still couldn't escape this calamity.

At this moment, the Beijing airport was teeming with people, and noise rose and fell.

Even though Hu Xiaobei and his two companions were wearing masks, they were instantly surrounded by a surging crowd as soon as they stepped out of the passage.

Of course, the main reason is that An Xiaoqian is too easily recognizable; unless she disguises herself, it's really hard for her to hide.

"Sissi! Sissi!"

The fans' shouts were deafening, and the support signs and banners in their hands were swaying overhead, making it almost impossible to see the ceiling.

These fans were mostly there for An Xiaoqian, and the media reporters also pointed their cameras and microphones at her.

A quick-thinking reporter shoved a microphone in front of An Xiaoqian and eagerly asked, "An Xiaoqian, congratulations on winning the Berlin Film Festival Best Actress award! Can you share with us how you felt when you found out you won?"

Before An Xiaoqian could answer, questions were thrown at her one after another.

"Sissi, as the youngest Chinese actress to win an international film festival award, what does this mean for your acting career?"

At the same time, many media reporters also pointed their microphones and cameras at Hu Xiaobei.

A reporter asked loudly, "Director Hu, congratulations on winning one gold and two silver medals at the Berlin Film Festival. Could you share your feelings about winning the awards?"

Before Hu Xiaobei could answer, another reporter pressed on, "How will this award affect your career? Do you have any new plans for filmmaking?"

The atmosphere at the scene became increasingly enthusiastic as reporters bombarded the audience with questions.

The microphone was practically shoved in Hu Xiaobei's face, and the barrage of questions left them momentarily overwhelmed.

At the same time, the surrounding crowd began to push forward, and the security personnel found it difficult to stop them. The scene gradually spiraled out of control, and chaos was imminent.

Looking at the chaotic scene before him, Hu Xiaobei knew that things couldn't continue like this and that he had to stabilize the situation first.

So he took a deep breath and shouted, "Everyone, please be quiet! Let's go over there and talk this out!"

First, clear the roads so as not to obstruct the normal travel of other people in the airport.

Then, with the assistance of airport staff, they began to direct the crowd to move to the side in an orderly manner, trying to clear a passage.

Seeing that it hadn't affected other people's normal travel, Hu Xiaobei finally breathed a sigh of relief.

With a humble smile on his face, he kept an eye on An Xiaoqian's safety while answering reporters' questions: "Thank you very much for your support. We were all very excited when we won the award. It is a recognition of our team's hard work."

As for what's next, I plan to rest for a few days before considering that. I hope to bring you more great works in the future.

Hu Xiaobei didn't mention the upcoming filming of a new movie. If he had, it would have been even harder for him to leave the airport today.

Moreover, there will be even more trouble afterward.

But he wasn't lying.

After all, making a movie isn't something you can just do on a whim, so he can still get a few days off.

While signing notebooks and posters handed to her by fans, An Xiaoqian smiled and answered reporters' questions.

"When I won the award, I was really excited and surprised. I felt that all my hard work had paid off. I am especially grateful to the crew and my fans who have always supported me."

Her voice was gentle yet firm, and it was clear to everyone even in a noisy environment.

Even though she tried her best to sign autographs for fans and answer reporters' questions, the scene was still somewhat chaotic.

Fortunately, with the help of assistants and airport staff, and with Hu Xiaobei and Liu Xiaoli watching over them, the chaotic scene was gradually brought under control.

With the last fan receiving an autograph, the matter came to an end, and the airport pickup event proceeded smoothly without any major problems.

(End of this chapter)