Huayu: A Commercial Director

Chapter 281: The Shock of 154 Billion

"Holding onto the film industry to become the second-largest shareholder of Wanda Pictures?"

Inside Huayi, Wang Zonglei was stunned for a very long time upon hearing the news.

When Wang Zongjun told him, he thought it was a joke. After confirming it several times, he finally realized it was true: Chen Shouzhe had bought a quarter of Wanda Pictures' stock.

Although Wanda Pictures is currently suspended from trading, its valuation can still be calculated, at around 620 billion.

Chen Shouzhe spent 154 billion to buy a quarter of it, paying in cash.

On the one hand, no one expected Wanda Pictures to sell so many shares; on the other hand, no one expected Chen Shouzhe to take out so much cash, which shows that Chen Shouzhe is really rich.

154 billion in cash! What's Huayi's current market value? Chen Shou could buy most of Huayi in one go, making him much richer than the two brothers.

I felt envy, jealousy, and hatred, but in the end, only anger remained.

Because Chen Shouzhe owns the cinema chain, and Wanda Cinemas is even larger than Huayi's cinema chain, it means that the upstream is the manufacturing industry that Chen Shouzhe already has, and he himself is the largest producer.

Now that we have a mid-range cinema chain, which is the number one cinema chain company in China, our film scheduling is more secure. Although Chen Shouzhe and Wanda Pictures already had a good relationship, it's even better now that he's a major shareholder, which means he can schedule films even more recklessly.

Finally, regarding downstream copyrights, Chen Shouzhe partnered with Tencent Pictures. Tencent Pictures has traffic channels, and with Tencent Video's continuous investment, Chen Shouzhe's downstream reach was effectively secured.

Most importantly, they also swallowed a large piece of meat from Alibaba's mouth.

Alibaba was originally eyeing Wanda, as its entertainment plan includes a significant cinema component.

Huayi Brothers and Hengdian World Studios both have cinema chains, but Wanda Pictures is the largest cinema chain company. If Alibaba could acquire Wanda Pictures, the boost to Alibaba would be unimaginable.

Alibaba makes money not through its products or services, but by profiting from the stock market.

Chen Shou's interception this time is tantamount to cutting off Alibaba's big entertainment plan, and by establishing a relationship with Tencent, he has effectively bypassed Alibaba.

Wang Zonglei could only watch helplessly as Chen Shouzhe grew stronger step by step, and could only curse and grumble. Now he dared not easily take action behind Chen's back.

“It will be harder to target him in the future, and he might even target us instead. Wanda has targeted us a lot because of Ye Ning, and now that Chen Shou has Wanda Cinemas, he will target us even more,” Wang Zongjun said.

“Yes, we have to be wary of him attacking us from behind,” Wang Zonglei nodded.

Both brothers were afraid that Chen would make a move, and other companies felt the same way, with each company reacting differently.

However, they all had one thing in common: Chen Shou was serious about it.

Previously, Chen Shouzhe was just a production company, and its influence on everyone was limited to film production, posing no threat to them.

Now that Chen has theater chains, the threat he previously posed was only to some production companies. With scheduling conflicts, it was likely still a back-and-forth competition between them.

Now they are under Chen Shouzhe's control. If they are released in the same period, Chen Shouzhe has the final say on the screening schedule for Wanda Pictures' huge theater chain.

What about the screening schedules of other people?
Chen Shouzhe caught them off guard, and some people are already privately demanding a thorough investigation into the transaction.

Why was the deal reached? What gave Chen Shouzhe the right to buy Wanda Pictures stock? He should be restricted from owning theaters, otherwise they'll be suppressed and manipulated by Chen Shouzhe in various ways in the future. Major production companies are worried about future scheduling conflicts, but their worries are unnecessary. After all, there are quite a few production companies with theater chains; they just don't make as much money as Chen Shouzhe, so it's not as noticeable.

Actually, they should be more afraid of companies like Huayi Brothers, since their movies have an even more frighteningly large number of screenings. So they are afraid that Chen Shouzhe will do the same thing and squeeze out their movie screenings.

Compared to the production company's concerns, the celebrities in the entertainment industry could only be described as nouveau riche when it came to Chen Shouzhe.

With 154 billion yuan in cash, Chen Shou took out the money in one go and bought the film and television cinema company with the highest market value in the film and television industry, becoming its second largest shareholder.

Young, wealthy, and capable, Chen Shouzhe immediately became the focus of their discussion.

Those with good relationships are naturally happy. The higher Chen Shouzhe's position, the greater the benefits he can bring to them.

For example, Yang Mi is very excited now. The more wealth and influence Chen Shou has, the more benefits it will bring to her. Although the two are not married, everyone knows that they have a close relationship.

In the future, we'll still have to give her face out of respect for Chen Shouzhe, and isn't that a benefit?

"To have become a major shareholder of Wanda Pictures so quietly, I'll have even more confidence to speak up from now on," Yang Mi said happily.

"Yes, Director Chen is really rich. He bought a quarter of Wanda Pictures' shares for 154 billion in cash. I heard that Alibaba also wanted to buy it, but Alibaba wouldn't buy so many shares. I didn't expect Director Chen to come up with so much money in one go. He's really rich." Yang Mi's agent glanced at Yang Mi. This person who was Chen Shou's bedmate probably didn't even know that he had so much money.

When she thinks about how Chen Shouzhe made billions from movies last year, she, as someone in the industry, can only describe him in four words.

So terrifying.

It feels like he's made all the money in the film and television industry, and no one else has shared it with him.

She longed for a man like that, but unfortunately, she felt she wasn't good enough for him.

"Yes, I don't know how much money he has. He makes money from the film industry, Little Dream, and overseas. He should have earned even more in the overseas market over the years."

"Yes, nobody knows about his overseas income. Only Director Chen can make a fortune abroad with his films. Other directors can only earn a little from copyrights."

"Yes, it's a pity he won't give me his resources."

Chen Shouzhe's overseas channels are the envy of countless people, and many want them, but unfortunately, Chen Shouzhe doesn't give them the opportunity, so they can only watch helplessly.

The first time they co-produced a film, things were fine. But when they stopped co-producing films the second time, some people got upset. So from then on, Chen Shouzhe stopped including any domestic capital in any of his overseas films.

This also led to China Film Group and Shanghai Film Group being heavily criticized, as they were stabbed in the back at a crucial moment.

China Film Group repaired its relationship with Han Sanping and Vice Chairman Wang, while Shanghai Film Group made an exchange, giving Reba a chance, which salvaged the relationship and allowed her to participate in some projects afterwards.

Now Chen Shouzhe's business has grown significantly, making him the second-largest shareholder of Wanda Pictures. He wields more influence in the domestic film and television industry, making him more difficult to control and preventing the previous situation from recurring.

Now the scariest thing is coming: the Lunar New Year is just a few days away, and with two movies from the film studio about to be released, what should we do?
Can they really win in a head-on fight? And now they have Wanda Pictures backing them up.

Three films have just been withdrawn from release, and the authorities have already prohibited them from withdrawing any more. Otherwise, would there only be two films left for the Spring Festival release schedule?

(End of this chapter)