The Rise of Chinese Entertainment in 2008

Chapter 172 Carnival

"Don't tell me that."

Hearing this, Liu Sanxi felt overwhelmed and said, "Just tell me what you're planning to do? Invest in a film studio?"

"The investment in film and television cities is too large."

Gu Ning shook his head and said, "I'm planning to get into theatrical distribution."

Film studios require a larger investment than cinemas, and several major film studios have already been developed in China.

Building a film and television city at this time wouldn't be very meaningful in terms of competing with them.

The land acquired for film and television production has very little potential for appreciation.

The film market is expected to grow rapidly over the next decade, reaching 641 billion yuan in 19.

Although this was the peak, it actually declined thereafter.

However, based on 08 figures, the increase was around 15 times.

In other words, the cinema chain industry still has a glorious period of more than ten years.

In comparison, running a cinema chain is far better than running a film and television base.

"We'll discuss these details later; there's no rush," Gu Ning said.

"Yes, I know, but theaters need a lot of money. I'll contact a few more people then," Liu Sanxi said.

Gu Ning nodded without saying anything; the more people, the better.

With more people, there are also more disagreements.

However, coal mine owners really believe in leaving professional matters to professionals.

If they had interfered recklessly, they wouldn't have been forced to leave the entertainment industry.

Coal mine owners entered the entertainment industry for the first time as a hobby, but the second time they came with the intention of transforming themselves and making money.

Even so, they were still severely wronged by people in the industry, which shows that they are really bad at management.

As long as the contract stipulates that Liu Sanxi can gain the support of certain individuals even with dispersed shareholding, he can control the narrative.

Gu Ning doesn't intend to cheat them. As long as the business is managed well, why would they fight for power?

Come to think of it, the second time coal mine owners have poured large sums of money into the entertainment industry seems to have been in the last few years.

Could it be that this was stimulated by Huayi's listing?

Gu Ning was unaware that the coal boss's renewed involvement was indeed influenced by Huayi.

Not only coal mine owners, but also a bunch of new entertainment companies have sprung up since Huayi's IPO.

During our casual conversation, we arrived at the filming location.

Li Xue was watching in front of the monitor as Shu Chang and Yin Xiaotian acted out a scene together.

"President Gu!"

When Li Xue saw Gu Ning and the others approaching, she quickly got up to greet them.

"I was busy filming here and couldn't go to greet you—"

Gu Ning waved her hand to interrupt him: "Don't worry about these things. Besides, it was my request to film the movie. If you leave the crew to go and meet me, you'll be letting me down."

Li Xue breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this and said, "Mr. Gu, this is my first time filming a period drama, and I don't have much experience. Could you please give me some guidance?"

Gu Ning knew he wanted her to see if she was satisfied with the footage, so she nodded and didn't refuse.

Shu Chang and Yin Xiaotian, who had already been called to a halt, came forward in their costumes to greet Gu Ning.

Gu Ning looked Shu Chang up and down. She was dressed in the style of a Manchu noblewoman from the Qing Dynasty, and she looked quite good.

He didn't want to say much to Shu Chang, so after exchanging a few pleasantries, he looked at Yin Xiaotian with his braided hair and smiled, "How is it? Getting used to it?"

Right?

Yin Xiaotian touched his bald patch and said, "My scalp felt a little cold this morning. Speaking of which, aren't the Manchus from the Northeast? The weather there is so cold, why would they keep this hairstyle? Don't they get cold in winter?"

"Haha, I actually know that."

Gu Ning smiled and said, "The winters there are cold and resources are scarce, so people rely on fishing and hunting for a living. Hair hanging down on the forehead can easily block vision. Also, if it sticks to the hair after sweating, it can freeze and cause a lot of trouble. Over time, it became a custom."

"I see. Director Gu is truly knowledgeable," Yin Xiaotian praised.

Gu Ning didn't know if Yin Xiaotian was genuinely unaware or simply had high emotional intelligence.

However, he felt that the latter was more likely, and Yin Xiaotian was reluctant to directly say how much he had sacrificed for this film.

Since the topic of shaving came up, Gu Ning naturally wanted to remember this favor.

It's normal for actors to make some sacrifices for a role.

But he only took the role because of Gu Ning.

After shaving his head, he had to wear a wig for a short period of time after filming, which was a huge sacrifice.

After exchanging a few pleasantries with them, Gu Ning was pulled away by Li Xue to look at the footage being filmed.

To be honest, Gu Ning wasn't too worried about this drama.

As long as you know how to direct, follow the script, and the actors' acting skills are up to par, there shouldn't be any problems.

Shu Chang and Yin Xiaotian's acting skills are undoubtedly excellent. Although the acting skills of the other supporting actors are not as good as theirs, the production team did not consider other factors when casting, and the actors they chose were all decent.

Gu Ning was not disappointed by the footage shot by Li Xue, and was very satisfied after watching it.

"Great shot!"

Gu Ning nodded and said, "Your basic skills are very solid. As long as you follow the script, you will definitely be able to produce a good film."

"Thank you for the compliment, Director Gu. I will definitely film strictly according to the script," Li Xue quickly assured him.

As a small-time director, he has little desire to add his own ideas to his work.

A junior director doesn't think about changing the script; what he fears most is that other people want to change it.

Many people watch bad movies and then criticize the directors and screenwriters for being brainless.

They can even come up with such a melodramatic plot; they have absolutely no market sense.

In fact, this is a misjudgment of the director and screenwriter. Those bad movies are actually quite good if they get the first draft of the script.

However, once the script is written, it still needs to be approved by the investors.

If the investors are simply making investments, that's fine; some investors also sign artists.

When investing in film and television dramas, it's natural to include your own artists.

In order to give artists more opportunities to showcase their talents, they would request script revisions and add more scenes for the artists.

In order to maintain the artist's public image, some will even request changes to scenes that might have a negative impact on the artist.

The screenwriters may not be satisfied with the final version of the script, but in order to satisfy the investors and get the money, they have no choice but to follow the investors' requirements.

For investors, while making money from the show is important, it's even more important for their actors to become famous.

Ultimately, investing in TV dramas is just a one-off deal. Once an artist becomes famous, they can act in other dramas, get GG endorsements, and do variety show appearances, etc.

These can earn much more money than a movie.

Li Xue was worried that Shu Chang would ask for changes to the script, but not only did Shu Chang not make any requests at all, she was also exceptionally cooperative during filming.

Yesterday, because filming had just started and there wasn't enough time to get used to each other, one scene had to be reshot more than ten times, but Shu Chang didn't show any impatience at all.

"I'm telling the crew to wrap up early today, so I'll treat everyone to dinner!" Gu Ning said.

Li Xue said, "Then I thank Director Gu on behalf of everyone!"

That evening, when Gu Ning treated the crew to dinner, Huayi also held a grand celebration banquet.

On the day of its listing, Huayi's stock price reached a high of 91.8 yuan per share, more than tripling its issue price, and its market capitalization approached 230 billion yuan.

100 million.

Although it fell significantly later, closing at only 70.82, its market capitalization still exceeded 177 billion.

Wang Zhongjun holds 34.85% of Huayi's shares, making his personal net worth exceed six billion yuan.

Wang Zhonglei holds 11.01% of the shares, making his net worth nearly 2 billion.

Feng Xiaogang's stock holdings are worth over 200 million yuan, while Huang Xiaoming's are close to 200 million yuan.

Huang Xiaoming is quite shrewd; he wouldn't have been able to acquire so many shares otherwise.

However, due to the allocation of Huayi Brothers' resources and the quotas for artists, some people didn't have enough money to buy as many as they could, while others were worried about losing money and didn't buy as many.

He then found some people and paid to buy the shares they were giving up.