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

Chapter 272 Bloodshed and Calamity! (Part 2)

Huaying International

In the conference room.

Li Mingrui stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of the conference room, gazing at the darkening sky outside.

He stubbed out his cigarette, his eyes unusually cold.

But when he turned around, a gentle smile, honed by twenty years of professional experience, graced his face as he looked at the familiar figure before him.

"Old Zhang, you've worked your way up from projectionist to East China regional director for eighteen years... Back when the equipment caught fire, you were the one who rushed out with the film reels in your arms..."

The familiar figure trembled slightly, then nodded without saying a word.

Then, Li Mingrui looked at another person, patted the marketing manager on the shoulder, and said with a slightly complicated expression: "Xiao Liu, the money for your daughter's congenital heart disease surgery was raised by the company's labor union, do you remember?"

The meeting room was completely silent, the blue light from the projector reflecting the complex expressions on everyone's faces.

As Li Mingrui spoke one reminiscing sentence after another, everyone felt a little dazed, as if they had been transported back to the early days when they started their business with Li Mingrui...

Memories are a bittersweet mix of emotions...

Every early morning spent gritting their teeth, every heated argument over screen time, every eye burned by box office numbers—all have now become specimens nailed to the cross of history…

“I know that everyone in the [Theater Alliance] has been in contact with you all…”

“I know they’ve offered you double or even triple your salary, but… will they really pay you?”

"..."

Li Mingrui's voice echoed in the conference room, tinged with a hint of hoarseness and earnestness: "Gentlemen, we have been through the most difficult years for Huaying together, those days of working through the night to revise the film schedule, those negotiations where we wore ourselves out trying to secure a prime-time screening."

His fingers tapped lightly on the projector remote, the blue light casting flickering shadows on his face: "Now someone is trying to poach you with promises made by Zhou Yang, but do you really believe those people will keep their word?"

"Look at these numbers! How long can the box office phenomenon of 'The Black Robe Alliance' last? Besides that cheap $12 horror film, what else does Zhou Yang have? Can Hollywood's handouts feed him? Can he stay popular forever? He..."

The conference room was deathly silent, with only the hum of the air conditioner vents breaking the silence.

Li Mingrui emphasized and repeated himself, but no one responded. By the end, Li Mingrui himself even felt a sense of oppression.

He saw Liu Zhiming, the marketing director, silently lowering his head.

I also saw Zhang Jianguo, the head of the East China region, silently looking at various data...

I don't know how much time passed.

Zhang Jianguo finally looked up, breaking the silence, and sighed softly: "President Li, [Huaying International] has received countless hours of our hard work, and we don't want to leave the cinema industry, but times are changing, and prices are soaring. Last year, I mentioned that we asked if we could get a raise. Since the year 2000, the company has been listed on the stock exchange, but our salaries haven't increased at all. We haven't even received the original shares that were promised to us!"

Li Mingrui looked at Zhang Jianguo, remained silent for a long time, and then said with a serious expression: "The company is currently going through its most difficult time. Lao Zhang, I promise you, as long as October is over, as long as Christmas is here, I will give you all a raise. Everyone will get one!"

"Mr. Li, before the IPO, you said that the stock price would increase for us, but what about now?"

"Old Zhang, going public is a process, it's not something that happens immediately after the listing. We need to stabilize our capital, and we've put in a lot of effort during this process..."

Zhang Jianguo suddenly laughed, a laugh tinged with sadness.

He took off his employee badge and gently placed it on the conference table, then stood up: "President Li, [Changkong Cinema] is offering more than just double wages."

He pulled out a gold-embossed contract and pushed it over, "And there's a 0.5% box office revenue share from the 'Fast & Furious' project—Zhou Yang's name alone is worth three times his annual salary!"

Under the blue light of the projector, the words "[Xuanshi Cinema Alliance]" on the contract were particularly glaring.

Li Mingrui suddenly noticed that after Lao Zhang took out the contract, everyone in the conference room silently took out the same envelope.

"Actually, after 'Black Robe Alliance' managed to get 800 million yuan in daily box office revenue under such heavy pressure a few days ago, I knew... we had bet on the wrong horse!"

At this moment, Wang Lei, the head of the projection department, suddenly sighed: "President Li, I know that our company is in the most critical period right now. We really don't want to leave at this time, but we can't see any hope... What good will it do if the three major cinema chains and five major film companies in China join forces to suppress Zhou Yang? Why can't we cooperate properly with Zhou Yang... Why do we have to suppress him?"

His voice silenced Li Mingrui instantly.

After a moment, Wang Lei looked at Li Mingrui and sighed deeply: "President Li, on behalf of everyone, I hope you can sign an agreement. Now that the company is in its most critical moment, we will not leave; we will stay here. But in return, I hope you can immediately raise our salaries. We don't need double, triple, or even triple; we just need a 10% raise. In addition, everyone here will receive a share of the box office revenue as a guarantee, and then we will stay here!"

"..."

Li Mingrui fell silent after listening.

His gaze swept over everyone in the conference room, and he knew clearly that if this core team really did leave en masse, Huaying International would face an unprecedented operational crisis.

The company's stock price may fall even further to the bottom due to short-term staff shortages, business chaos, and the chain reaction in the capital market.
Despite his inner resentment, he could only nod heavily in the face of reality.

"Okay, I promise you!"

In October 2004, China's three major cinema chains were hit by the most devastating "talent poaching storm" in history!
With the backing of capital, the cinema alliance launched an almost frantic poaching campaign against the three major cinema chains.

Starting from October 10th, 12 affiliated cinemas, led by Changkong Cinemas, Wanxin Cinemas, and Xinde Cinemas, have been relentlessly poaching management talent from the three major cinema chains through methods such as bombarding them with phone calls, making in-person invitations, and making repeated visits.

Even more shocking is that this talent war is not only targeting senior executives. Starting from October 3, even ordinary employees such as projectionists, cleaners, and marketing salespersons have been receiving recruitment calls from the [Cinema Alliance].

The talent war is intensifying, with the cinema alliance offering double or even triple salaries, plus box office revenue sharing from popular film projects.

Faced with such temptation, employees of the three major cinema chains wavered and began to demand wage increases one after another.

In an effort to retain their core teams, the heads of the three major cinema chains held an emergency high-level meeting and ultimately agreed to raise employee salaries by 15% and promised to share in the box office revenue of popular projects in the future, thus saving the core teams...

Even so, some mid-level key personnel were still poached by the high profit-sharing terms of the [Cinema Alliance]...

On October 11, a reporter photographed Wang Zhen, the human resources director of Huaying International, carrying a cardboard box as he walked out of the headquarters building, followed by more than a dozen core employees.

On camera, despite Li Mingrui's repeated attempts to persuade them to stay, even threatening them with non-compete agreements, he ultimately failed to retain them and resolutely left...

On the afternoon of October 11, countless media outlets heard another explosive piece of news!

When they arrived at the scene, they saw that the general manager of Tianxing Films' North China region had led the entire operations team to defect to Xingguang Cinemas. Before leaving, they also took away customer resources and the film scheduling database. According to internal sources, Chairman Liu Minghui smashed his office in a fit of rage...

The worst off is [Fengyu International]!
On October 13th, a large group of reporters swarmed outside Fengyu International, having received news that the company had suffered a major financial blow: its backer had suddenly withdrawn its investment and moved to the cinema alliance, causing a cash flow crisis. Although salaries had been promised, some employees had still left…

Facing the media cameras, the finance director, who had just emerged, was visibly agitated: "It's utterly absurd! They're even targeting junior accountants, using stock options from the 'Fast & Furious' project as bait! This kind of behavior, which violates industry rules, is simply insane!"

In just seven days, from October 13th to 20th, the three major cinema chains encountered an unprecedented operational crisis.

Due to the large-scale poaching of some staff, a series of screening accidents have occurred in chain cinemas across the country.

Frequent blackouts in equipment, malfunctions in the film scheduling system, and deteriorating hygiene conditions in the theaters...

These industry giants, who once monopolized the market, were completely thrown into disarray by this talent poaching storm.

The punishments from the capital market come swiftly and harshly!
Shares of Hong Kong's three major cinema chains plummeted 20% in a single day...

But at this most critical moment, the worst thing happened in a dramatic way!

In an effort to secure initial profits, the three major cinema chains released nearly five domestic films in just over twenty days…

however……

These hastily released domestic films have suffered unprecedented box office failures!
The film "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" only grossed 80 yuan on its opening day, with viewers complaining that "the fight scenes are like massages."

"Love Call" was ridiculed on social media for having a plot that was "more boring than the weather forecast," and was forced to be pulled from theaters after only three days of release.

The most ironic case is "Super Power Squad," a "Chinese superhero film" touted as a rival to "The Black Robe Alliance." Due to its cheap special effects and melodramatic plot, its daily attendance rate plummeted to less than 5%, with shockingly empty theaters. It didn't even have the impact of "Monkey King vs. Superman 2"...

Released hastily, and removed from theaters just as quickly!
It turned out to be the most fatal curse for the three major cinema chains in October!
On October 25, the authoritative media outlet Film Weekly published a headline on its front page that was eye-catching: "[Domestic 'Suicide Month': Five New Films' Total Box Office Less Than a Few Bit of 'Black Robe']".

The scheduling managers of the three major cinema chains stared at the few remaining viewers on the monitors and realized that they had lost everything in this high-stakes gamble.

..........................................

"We can't keep showing these lousy movies! Didn't [Washington Brothers] import an Japanese tokusatsu film called 'Dekker Ultraman'? Tell them to schedule its release immediately! And what about their other big-budget films?! Tell them to release them right away!"

"They're already in preparation, and screenings are expected to start next week. They're in a hurry, and their market value is falling! They're even pressuring several fifth-generation directors to finish filming quickly so their movies can recover from the market downturn!"

"Next week is too late, we need to hurry, within three days!"

"Okay, I'll go and talk to them, but..."

"But what?"

"Zhou Yang's 'Wu Hun 3' has also been scheduled for release. On the same day, I heard inside information from [Xuan Shi Entertainment] that someone claimed they were going to compete with 'Ultraman Deckard.' Whenever 'Ultraman Deckard' was released, their 'Wu Hun 3' would be released! We talked to them about cooperation and promised a 64% revenue split, but Zhou Yang still refused to license it to us! He's determined to kill us!"

"Damn it, good! Fight! If he wants to fight, let him fight properly! Damn it, he got lucky with just one 'Catwoman' movie, and he really thinks he's invincible!"

Upon receiving this news on October 27, Li Mingrui slammed his fist on the table!
Li Mingrui stared bloodshot at the direction of the [Xuan Shi Entertainment] building, slamming his fist on the desk with loud thuds.

"Tell [Huashang Brothers] to warn those toy manufacturers that anyone who dares to distribute the 'Martial Soul' series of toys will be disqualified from distributing any 'Ultraman' toys!"

"I don't believe it!"

"Damn it, even Ultraman loses!"

His face was somewhat distorted!

The triple whammy of talent drain, capital withdrawal, and film flop has caused him to lose his mind!
Some of them even went crazy!

(Two chapters guaranteed)
(End of this chapter)