Huayu: A Commercial Director

Chapter 191 I Want the Female Lead
Undoubtedly, Stephen Chow stole some of the attention at this premiere, but that attention was limited to the film industry.

Not many people outside the film industry pay attention to this; the focus is still on the movie "Mojin: The Lost Legend".

Whether a movie is good or not is what they want. They want to hear news that a movie is good, and then buy movie tickets to go to the cinema and enjoy a visual feast.

Only people in the film and television industry pay attention to what happens inside the industry, since they are professionals in the field.

Just like in Guo Degang's crosstalk, ask a rocket expert if rockets shoot fire by lighting a match.

If a child asks, it's just innocent talk, and you can explain to them with a smile that children are the future of the country.

If an adult of normal intelligence asks such a question, any expert who even glances at him would be considered to have lost.

Similarly, different circles are primarily concerned with their own issues and whether they can bring them benefits.

Stephen Chow directly stated at the premiere that he would be collaborating with Chan Sau-che again, indicating that there will be another project next year. How come Chan Sau-che's projects never stop? He releases several movies every year, earning huge sums of money from the box office every year. How are they supposed to survive?

It's one thing to make money overseas, but why should you also make so much every year?

"Stephen Chow and Chan Sau-cheung are teaming up again, what about us?"

Wang Zhongjun looked at his younger brother, and then at Ye Ning, the current general manager of the film production company. Their company had been neglecting the film and television industry for far too long.

Now that the real estate boom is over, they have been thoroughly humiliated. The company's stock price is beyond dire; it's about to fall below 30 billion yuan. The number one stock in the domestic film and television industry will soon cease to be.

The price of one share is almost 10 yuan.

To put this into perspective, at its peak, Huayi Shares could reach 60 or 70 per share, with a market value of 90 billion yuan. It was aiming for a market value of 100 billion yuan.

Now things have really gone wrong. The stock price has plummeted. They tried all sorts of methods, including acquiring Feng Xiaogang's company at a premium and several other celebrity studios, which temporarily brought back some shares, but now it seems to have been completely useless.

It's estimated that it will be surpassed by light soon.

In October, the company had a market value of 35 billion, but now it has fallen below 30 billion.

Last year's films were almost all box office failures. If Huayi Brothers doesn't return to the film market soon, it's really going to be finished.

"Try to contact them. Stephen Chow and Tsui Hark have a good relationship. Let Tsui Hark talk to him. Since he's made it public, he's obviously trying to create momentum for himself. He probably doesn't want Chan Shou to control the whole movie. I know Chan Shou too well. He's getting more and more domineering. Stephen Chow is just a tool in his movie scripts," Ye Ning said.

After listening, Wang Zhongjun looked at his younger brother, Wang Zhonglei. In the first half of the year, Huayi Company's net profit was just over 300 million yuan, a decrease of 30%. In order to make the financial report look better, they sold shares of a technology company this year, which brought in a profit of about 150 million yuan, which made their company's financial report look better.

If no measures are taken soon, Huayi will truly be inferior to Enlight Media.

“I’ve already made plans with Xu Ke, Xiao Gang, and Guo Li. Xiao Gang has agreed, and we’ll be working with Liu Zhengyun again next year.” Wang Zonglei wasn’t without options; now they had to return to the film market and become the industry leader.

Ye Ning sighed. He hadn't expected Hua Yi to have lost so much. It looked powerful, but its inner strength had long been completely eroded by the two brothers.

Back then, the higher authorities supported them so much, giving them the green light all the way to go public, but they ended up going off to speculate on real estate and invest in tech companies.

What kind of nonsense is this? We asked you to develop the cultural and entertainment industry, but you went off to make money in real estate.

Huayi is currently in a state of utter disarray. If it doesn't take action soon, with the entry of internet companies, they will find ways to crush traditional film and television companies like Huayi.

Huayi Brothers can only be deeply tied to Feng Xiaogang; to put it bluntly, they rely entirely on him. In contrast, on the 17th, the premiere of "Mojin: The Lost Legend" took place, and Enlight Media announced with great fanfare that its net profit for the entire year was between 7 million and 7.5 million, a year-on-year increase of 74%.

Huayi Brothers forecasts a net profit of 8.3 million to 10.25 billion yuan for last year, similar to the previous year. The question is, where does the money come from? It's not from film revenue, but from other sources.

It's obvious to everyone that Huayi Brothers is starting to be overtaken by Enlight Media in the entertainment industry.

With capital investment waning in the film and television industry and the nationwide bear market, Chen Shouzhe's Shouzhe Pictures is currently the most promising company in the industry.

His box office revenue last year alone surpassed that of many listed companies, and the outside world can only make an assessment of the money he made by guarding the film industry on the surface.

With movies like Let the Bullets Fly, WALL-E, A Chinese Ghost Story, and Stone, Chen Shou earned more net profit than two companies just from these films.

Who in the film and television industry isn't envious and drooling over Chen Shouzhe's overseas income and ongoing revenue from copyrights?

It's all his money.

You wouldn't believe it until you did the math. Someone on Weibo roughly estimated that Chen Shouzhe's cash reserves are staggering, possibly exceeding 10 billion yuan, all of which belong to him alone.

The value of a stock cannot be sold off all at once, and there are absolutely no individuals in the entire country who can come up with 10 billion yuan in liquid funds.

A message from Stephen Chow caused unease in the film industry. At the banquet following the premiere, Chen Shou was immediately surrounded.

"Director Zhou, your words have caused me quite a bit of trouble," Chen Shou said.

"I'm so sorry, Director Chen, I didn't expect it either. I was too excited and accidentally blurted it out," Stephen Chow said with a smile.

"Was it really an accident?" Chen Shouzhe glanced at him.

"Really, by the way, Director Chen, I hope the female lead this time..."

"I want it."

Chen Shouzhe didn't give him any chance to continue, forcefully interrupting him.

Zhou Xingxing's words caught in his throat as he realized that Chen Shouzhe seemed angry.

The project hasn't even started yet, and what he said might indeed cause trouble, but all he wants is to use his own value to gain more control.

Unexpectedly, Chen Shouzhe didn't give him a chance at all and took away the most important role.

"Director Chen, I'm not sure if the actress you recommended is suitable." Stephen Chow could only rephrase his statement.

“Actors can be trained. There’s no real-life counterpart, so anyone can play the role. Besides, if the actors are bad, it means the director is also incompetent. If they can’t train the actors well, I have faith in Director Zhou’s abilities. There’s absolutely no problem,” Chen Shou said calmly.

Stephen Chow chuckled along, thinking, "Could he possibly refute me?"

All he could do was laugh. As for the specifics of the collaboration, in his opinion, if he could really secure a large contract this time, it wouldn't be a problem to give the female lead to Chen Shou. No one would turn down money, not even him.

(End of this chapter)