I'm just trying to ride the wave of popularity!

Chapter 271 Bloodshed and Calamity! (Part 1)

In October, the autumn colors of Yanjing (Beijing) are in full bloom.

A gust of bleak autumn wind swept up withered leaves, which drifted down to the window.

[Huaying International] Office.

Li Mingrui stared at the two glaring reports on the table!
The left side shows the box office data for "The Black Robe Alliance" on October 8th!
This film, which they had previously suppressed and relentlessly attacked, unexpectedly achieved a box office comeback on October 8th, with a single-day box office exceeding 10 million RMB and a total box office of 290 million RMB, soon to break the 300 million RMB mark...

Judging from the box office trend, "Black Robe Alliance" is very likely to break the box office record set by the Chinese domestic film "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", and may even rival the box office performance of the original "Spider-Man"!
On the right is the record of seven consecutive days of dismal attendance at [Huaying International].

He sat there, staring blankly at the various statistics for "Catwoman," still unable to accept the fact...

The highly anticipated Hollywood superhero film "Catwoman" has suffered an unbelievable critical and commercial failure.

The film's overall attendance rate in major Chinese cities has now plummeted to 7%, a shockingly low figure, and the internet is filled with criticism.

For Huaying International, this film has clearly lost its potential for profitability and is almost on the verge of being pulled from theaters!

however……

Once Catwoman is taken off the screens, who can replace her?

His gaze fell upon the domestically produced films already released by China's five major film companies...

The film, which was previously expected to be the "savior of the National Day box office," has performed poorly at the box office due to its outdated subject matter and rough production. It even performed less than a fraction of the box office of "The Black Robe Alliance" and is now on the verge of being pulled from theaters. Meanwhile, the pre-sale tickets for several upcoming films are performing very poorly, which clearly shows that audiences are not very interested in these films.

Data shows that these films barely filled the gaps in theatrical releases and maintained a basic balance between revenue and expenditure...

Looking at the Hollywood import film schedule, the summer blockbuster season has long since ended, and the Christmas blockbusters "The Matrix" and "Nightcrawler 2" will not be released in China for another two months. During this vacuum period, there is not a single blockbuster commercial film that can fill the market!
At that moment, he silently closed his eyes, his clenched fists trembled slightly, a deep sense of powerlessness welled up in his heart, and an indescribable sense of absurdity suddenly arose in his heart.

He felt that the Chinese film industry, facing a talent shortage at this moment, was like a fishpond that had been drained of water, with only a few dying fish struggling in the mud...

Another gust of wind blew in!

Li Mingrui stared at the continuously declining Hong Kong stock price of Huaying International. The angry accusations and sarcastic remarks in the shareholder group were particularly jarring...

"Mr. Li, this is the last time I'm telling you!"

"What if the stock price drops again!"

"Get out of the boardroom with your Catwoman poster!"

A series of cold sounds kept echoing in my mind!

He suddenly lost control, angrily smashing the coffee cup on the table, his expression contorted with rage, and he was panting heavily!

His body was trembling!
The humiliation I suffered at [Xuan Shi Entertainment] yesterday is still vivid in my mind!

He had already adopted a humble posture, giving Zhou Yang ample face and sincerity!

He even compromised at 55 in the end!
But Zhou Yang, that bastard, bit his throat like a hungry wolf, not even giving him a chance to breathe!
The humiliation of that glass of plain water, the humiliation of slamming the door and leaving, the scene of being "invited" away by security guards in front of all the small cinema owners—these images are like poisonous thorns piercing my heart!

damn it!
He clenched his fist, his nails digging deep into his flesh, but in the end, after staring at today's stock data, he finally let go in despair.

He knew very well that Zhou Yang had gained the upper hand at this moment!

Now is not the time to act impulsively!
"June 4th it is!" He gritted his teeth and squeezed out the words, "At least... let's get through this October first!"

He closed his eyes and dialed Dong Qichang's number again.

he!
They chose to completely bow down!
“President Dong…” Li Mingrui’s voice was low, with a slight tremor of suppressed emotion: “Tell Zhou Yang that we’ll accept the 60/40 split for ‘Black Robe Alliance’! I’ll personally oversee the allocation of screenings. Isn’t he aiming to top the box office charts? We’ll give him a helping hand!”

There was a long silence on the other end of the phone.

Then, Dong Qichang's sigh was somewhat dry, tinged with melancholy: "President Li, it's pointless to talk about this now."

"What do you mean it's meaningless!" Li Mingrui suddenly lost control of his emotions, crumpling the reports on his desk into a ball. "These are the conditions he personally stated yesterday! I've fucking bowed down now! What else does Zhou Yang want? Does he want me to kneel down and kowtow? Apologize? If he wants to apologize, I'll apologize right now. You tell him, fucking! He wants to apologize online? I'll fucking apologize to him!"

Silence fell once again on the other end of the phone.

Li Mingrui's hand was trembling as he held the phone, and he was breathing heavily, looking frighteningly unwell.

But... this eerie silence instilled in him a sense of indescribable panic.

"President Li..." Dong Qichang's voice gradually became hoarse: "President Zhou asked me to tell you that some doors, once closed, will never be opened again!"

"Dong Qichang! Do you even know what you're saying?! Say it again, you fucking...you're trying to wipe us all out!"

"Mr. Li, please... take care!"

The call was suddenly disconnected!

Li Mingrui called Dong Qichang again.

But no one answered the phone anymore.

He called Zhou Yang, but the call still went unanswered.

Just then, there was a rapid knocking at the door.

Just then, the phone rang.

Immediately afterward, the secretary rushed in, her face pale and her voice filled with unprecedented panic: "President Li! Something terrible has happened! Those people from the [China Cinema Alliance] have gone mad! They're poaching the core teams from our three major cinema chains with high salaries, from the projection manager to the marketing director, and even the cleaning manager has been lured away with double the salary!"

Li Mingrui abruptly stood up from his chair, staring intently at his secretary: "Who exactly are they?"

His voice trembled uncontrollably.

The secretary hurriedly reported: "We just received news that Li Weibin of [Changkong Cinemas] personally led a team to block the entrance of the Shanghai branch and signed the entire East China operations team on the spot."

“And it gets worse,” the secretary whispered, “[Starlight Cinemas] booked out the Hilton Hotel’s conference room and summoned all our key personnel from the North China region for negotiations! The worst part is! They’re using the 'Fast & Furious' project proposal that Zhou Yang just signed as bait, saying that anyone who jumps ship there will be able to participate in the distribution and profit sharing of this Hollywood blockbuster…”

Upon hearing this, his pupils contracted sharply!
The office fell into deathly silence.

A moment later, Li Mingrui's voice suddenly became urgent and shrill; he almost shouted, "Where did they get the money?!"

The secretary's voice trembled slightly: "It's those coal mine owners in the [Cinema Alliance], and those capitalists who quickly switched sides after seeing the market shift..."

"They..." The secretary swallowed hard. "They're launching a financial attack on the three major cinema chains!"

This answer made Li Mingrui's face turn deathly pale instantly.

He plopped down in the chair, as if struck by lightning!
....................................

once Upon a time!

The small and medium-sized cinema chains in the [Cinema Alliance] are merely marginal players in the film market.

They huddle in the corners of the commercial street, the seats are old and worn, and even the cleaning ladies are too lazy to wipe them down a few times...

Their survival space was constantly squeezed by the three major cinema chains and five major film companies in China. They were suppressed and acquired one by one...

Among them, several cinema chains, including Changkong Cinemas, were even on the verge of bankruptcy. In order to withstand the fierce attack from the three major cinema chains, they eventually joined forces...

but!
Initially, no one had any confidence in them, and they weren't even interested in giving them a second glance!
but!
With Zhou Yang's return, everything was rewritten!
They saw the early release of the Hollywood movie "Catwoman" and joined forces with China's three major cinema chains and five major film companies to strangle Zhou Yang's "Black Robe Alliance"!
They witnessed how, in this war without gunfire, a war that seemed hopeless and impossible to win, "The Black Robe Alliance" miraculously survived and even crushed the once invincible Hollywood superhero movies!
They saw the phenomenal returns of "Saw," the global deal for "Fast & Furious," and the ongoing news of Marvel's superhero licensing deals...

In particular, when the October attendance and profit figures of the cinemas under the three major cinema chains appeared on the capital table, everyone realized that the new order of the entire Chinese film industry was very likely to be completely rewritten in this battle between "Catwoman" and "Black Robe Alliance"!
Everything, like a flame, ignited the capital market!
Capital swarmed in like wolves smelling their prey, with hot money pouring into the 12 small and medium-sized cinema chains under the [Cinema Alliance].

Initially, three coal mine owners who were cooperating with Zhou Yang, under Zhou Yang's instruction and hints, frantically brought more coal mine owners into the cinema battlefield.

Following closely behind, major cinema chain investors, led by Redwood Capital and Front Wave Capital, reacted swiftly, investing heavily in five cinema chains, including Changkong Cinema and Stellar Cinema…

Subsequently, more small and medium-sized capital with a strong gambling mentality also joined the investment battlefield of this competition for cinema chains!
In just three days, almost every cinema chain that used to be huddled in a corner of the commercial street suddenly had tens of millions of yuan more in working capital...

The cinema owners who received the investment had bloodshot eyes, staring intently at the three major Chinese cinema chains, and grinning maliciously!

They poached key technical personnel from the three major cinema chains by offering double the annual salary, lured the marketing director with the global premiere rights to "Fast & Furious," and even had headhunters call the cleaning supervisor's home...

Once relegated to the sidelines, these cinema chains, once in power, have turned into bloodthirsty beasts...

(End of this chapter)