China Entertainment started from Nortel 96

Chapter 325 This night has just begun

Lin Jianyue began to talk slowly, and Qi Wei roughly understood his plan to plot Jiahe.

In the early 90s, Golden Harvest became the truly No. [-] film production and distribution company in Hong Kong after defeating its biggest competitors, Princess Golden and New Art City.

And it reached its peak after the launch of 94.

Also starting in 94, Hong Kong films, which gradually lost their market share, also began to decline rapidly.

As the leader of the industry, Golden Harvest naturally shoulders the responsibility of continuing the glory of Hong Kong films.

The number of films produced and financed continues to increase compared to before.

Between 94 and 98, Golden Harvest produced and invested in more than 200 movies.

However, in the context of the gradually sluggish Hong Kong film market, the more films Golden Harvest produces and invests in, the more losses it will suffer.

Even the movie about the famous Brother Long is no exception.

In 95, the movie "Red Zone" invested and produced by Golden Harvest successfully promoted Big Brother Long to Hollywood, and Big Brother Long's net worth also increased accordingly.

Jiahe also made a lot of money.

But in fact, the great success of "Red Zone" is not entirely a good thing for Jiahe.

After "Red Zone", Big Brother Long has been favored by Hollywood companies and received many movie invitations.

After that, the eldest brother Long shifted his career center to Hollywood, and with movies such as "Rush Hour" and "Shanghai Noon", he completely established himself in Hollywood and became the No. 1 Chinese-language film industry today.

The box office of Big Brother Dragon movies is generally very high, but at the same time, the investment cost of Big Brother Dragon movies is also very high.

If we really want to settle accounts, Big Brother Long's movie profits may not be higher than Jet Li and Zhou Xingxing's.

Although Big Brother Long's artist contract was still with Jiahe at this time, after Big Brother Long became successful in Hollywood, Jiahe wanted to find Big Brother Long to make a movie. The scale of film production must be closer to that of Hollywood, and the salary must also be similar to Hollywood.

This makes the investment in Big Brother Dragon Movies get higher and higher, ranging from tens of millions to hundreds of millions.

Although Brother Long's films have the ability to be exported overseas, in the context of the decline of Hong Kong films, it has become increasingly difficult to make profits.

Jiahe basically loses money and makes money.

A small loss doesn't matter, but just one defeat is enough to strain Jiahe, who is far less powerful than before.

For example, "Glass Bottle" was produced last year and released this year.

This movie is Jiahe's ambitious work, and the cast of the movie is quite luxurious.

In addition to Big Brother Long, we also invited the powerful actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Shu Qi, the most popular actress in the Hong Kong film industry at the time, and Ren Xianqi, the most popular music star in the current music industry besides Qi Wei, and even Zhou Xingxing made a cameo.

But what was the result? "Glass Bottle" only made more than 2700 million at the box office in Hong Kong, ranking fourth in the year. It also made 1500 million yuan at the global box office, which is almost 1.1 million Hong Kong dollars.

You must know that at this time, the global box office of Big Brother Long's movie was at least over 3000 million US dollars, and "Glass Bottle" directly cut it in half.

The disastrous box office failure of "Glass Bottle" is related to the sluggish environment of the Hong Kong film market at that time, but there is another point, that is, the eldest brother Long fell in love in "Glass Bottle".

You said that as a martial arts superstar, you don't do action scenes well, but love scenes. If you don't fight, who will?

In love scenes, everyone definitely prefers watching handsome guys and beautiful women. Who likes watching big-nosed dragons?

Perhaps the eldest brother Long considered that he was already 45 years old and did not expect that he could still play for more than ten years, so he regarded "Glass Bottle" as an experiment in transformation.

The failure of "Glass Bottle" at the box office did not have much impact on Big Brother Long. He would receive no less in salary and box office share, but this was a bitter experience for the film's investor, Jiahe.

The direct loss was tens of millions.

The Asian financial crisis had already severely damaged Jiahe's vitality, and the fiasco of "Glass Bottle" made Jiahe's situation even worse.

But Jiahe's predicament goes beyond that.

Now that Big Brother Long's contract is about to expire, if Jiahe cannot support him like in the past, there is no need for Big Brother Long to choose to cooperate with Jiahe again.

After all, Big Brother Long's value is still there. There are many film companies out there who want to poach him, and he has many choices.

If it loses the golden signboard of Big Brother Long, Jiahe will inevitably fail to recover.

Jiahe couldn't bear the risk of losing his eldest brother Long, so he had to do his best to retain him.

The way to retain him is to give his eldest brother Long another drama to regroup.

"According to the information I got, Golden Harvest is planning to make a movie for him called "The Secret Agent", and the investment has reached an astonishing 2.5 million Hong Kong dollars."

Um?This surprised Qi Wei. Qi Wei remembered that the initial investment for this movie was only HK$1.7 million, and the final overrun was increased to HK$2 million, which was far less than 2.5 million.

Qi Wei heard Lin Jianyue say again: "You also know that his film investment cannot be low, but the reason why the investment in "The Secret Agent" is so high has something to do with you."

"Do you still have something to do with me?" Qi Wei didn't remember any interaction with his eldest brother Long.

Lin Jianyue explained with a smile: "You have just returned from the United States. Didn't you reach a cooperation with Jet Li? I heard that the investment in the movie "Hero" you collaborated with reached 3000 million US dollars, and he is the number one movie star in the Chinese entertainment industry. , naturally I don’t want to be compared with others, so I require that the investment in “Agent’s Secret” should be no less than that of “Heroes”.”

I didn't expect that there is such a layer of cause and effect.

Seeing Lin Jianyue toasting to him again, Qi Wei quickly clinked glasses with him and heard him ask again:
"Mr. Qi has always had a keen sense of smell, so do you think "Secret Agent" can make back its money?"

Obviously not possible.

Not to mention that later generations have proven this, even if Qi Wei has no memory of later generations, a little analysis can lead to such a conclusion.

At this time, Hong Kong films have lost the market in Taiwan and Southeast Asia. Even Big Brother Dragon's films are still popular in these places, but the revenue from the films is definitely not as good as before.

Big Brother Dragon's movies can enter the mainland market, but the mainland film market has been sluggish in the past two years, and even the imported Hollywood masterpieces cannot get high box office, so they cannot rely on the mainland market.

Mainly depends on the North American market.

Nowadays, Big Brother Long has successfully entered Hollywood, and movies like "Rush Hour" have also achieved good box office results. So, can "The Lost City" continue its glory?
Obviously not.

"Rush Hour" is a movie produced by a Hollywood film company. The original Hollywood movie is more favored by North American audiences.

But "The Secret Agent" is a Hong Kong film.

At first, "Red Zone" shocked Hollywood because of Big Brother Long's daring and hard-working style, and it achieved unprecedented success.

But Big Brother Long's subsequent movies are all in the same style, which actually caused a certain degree of aesthetic fatigue among North American audiences.

In addition, a large number of martial artists from Hong Kong have gone to Hollywood to develop, which has led to a super evolution of Hollywood action movies, and action movies unique to Hong Kong movies are no longer as attractive as before.

There is still a market for Hong Kong action movies in North America, but the upper limit has been locked.

Brother Long returns to action movies. The box office of "The Lost City" will be higher than that of "Glass Bottle", but not much higher.

The global box office of the later "Secret Agent" was only around 2000 million yuan, and the final loss reached 1.3 million yuan.

And if you invest more in this life, you will suffer more losses.

The risks of making a movie are very high, and Jiahe also knows the risks involved, but Jiahe is now riding a tiger and it is difficult to get off.You can only take a gamble.

If you win the bet, you can still survive; if you lose the bet, you are not far from bankruptcy.

Jiahe cannot afford such a big loss now.

"Mr. Qi really has a keen sense of smell, and I don't think his play will be successful."

Seeing Qi Wei smiling and shaking his head, Lin Jianyue nodded with satisfaction, and then said:

"Jiahe wants to take a final gamble, but they can't come up with chips. They simply can't come up with so much money. Even if they borrow it, no one else will lend it to them. In this case, we can lend him this chip.
As long as "Secret Agent" fails and they don't pay back our money, they will have no choice but to use Golden Harvest to repay their debts."

After borrowing a room, Qi Wei and Lin Jianyue talked for nearly two hours.

In the hall, Wang Zuxian, who had no intention of reminiscing about the past, poured himself a glass of wine, looking worried.

"You've drunk enough." After sending away several guests, Zhang Guorong looked at Wang Zuxian, who was already drunk on his face, and grabbed her wine glass.

"No way, I have a good drinking capacity, give it back to me!" Wang Zuxian subconsciously stretched out her hand to grab it back.

"Using wine to drown your sorrows will only make your sorrows worse." In the end, Leslie Cheung did not let Wang Zuxian take the wine glass.

Putting the wine glass aside, following Wang Zuxian's peeking eyes from time to time, Zhang Guorong also looked at the room where Qi Wei and Lin Jianyue were talking.

He said, "That's why I didn't invite you. I knew you wouldn't let go so easily."

Wang Zuxian looked at Zhang Guorong with some surprise.

In fact, after so many years, she has let go of some things.

The reason why she kept frowning and saying nothing and looking worried was just because of Qi Wei.

Wang Zuxian remembered Yan Danchen's reaction that night when she told Yan Danchen that Zhou Huimin had given birth to a child for Qi Wei.

As Wang Zuxian thought, Yan Danchen was indeed sad, but what Yan Danchen said next was completely beyond her expectation.

"Why are you telling me this? You obviously don't have to tell me. You also know that I don't want to know this. I know you are not well-intentioned."

Wang Zuxian was caught off guard. She quickly replied: "Dan Chen, I am doing this for your own good. He deceived you. He cannot give you happiness at all. You must understand that long-term pain is worse than short-term pain."

"Forget it, you are not me. How do you know that he can't give me the happiness I want? I know that you have always wanted to break us up. You are unhappy with our relationship, and you also want me to be unhappy with our relationship. After breaking us up, then you want to On top, right?"

Wang Zuxian didn't expect to be beaten down by Yan Danchen.

But is it really a slap in the face?Not necessarily, Wang Zuxian felt flustered for no reason.

Wang Zuxian explained: "I have never thought about it this way. I am almost ten years older than him, so it is simply impossible."

"What about Zhou Huimin? She's not that much older than him, and she hasn't given birth to his child yet."

Yan Danchen sneered twice, and then said in a cold voice: "It's not like you have never been a mistress. Don't act like you are so innocent. I know very well whether you have any intentions towards him. Just let it go, I won't break up with him." , even if I die! I will never let you get what you want!"

After speaking, Yan Danchen hung up the phone angrily.

"They came out."

Zhang Guorong’s reminder awakened Wang Zuxian from his memories.

Lin Jianyue and Zhang Guorong left after saying hello, and Wang Zuxian noticed that Qi Wei was looking at her.

She quickly looked away.

"How was your discussion?" Zhang Guorong asked Qi Wei with a smile.

"It's not bad, Boss Lin plans to invest in "Infernal Affairs"." Qi Wei replied, without revealing his plan for Jiahe.

Of course, in order to deepen the cooperative relationship with Qi Wei and also want to find a good film project for Media Asia, Lin Jianyue offered to invest in "Infernal Affairs".

No one was optimistic about the script of the later "Infernal Affairs" and no one was willing to invest. Liu Tianwang starred as an investor and received zero salary. In the end, Media Asia Film invested 0 million in the film.

In this life, "Infernal Affairs" has Qi Wei's investment, which does not require Liu Tianwang to star in 0 remuneration. In the end, Liu Tianwang was given a friendly price of 600 million yuan, which also brought the investment in this film to 2600 million.

Qi Wei's company will be responsible for half of it, and Lin Jianyue's Media Asia Film Company will be responsible for the remaining 1300 million.

"Wow, Andy and the others searched all over Hong Kong but no one was willing to invest in "Infernal Affairs". I didn't expect you to convince Boss Lin so easily. You are really capable."

"Haha, do you regret quitting this drama now? This drama is about winning awards."

"There is nothing to regret. I think Wei Zai can perform this drama well. It would be good if he could be as good as the best actor."

I had recommended Zhang Guorong before, but Zhang Guorong declined.

Perhaps because he was addicted to directing "The Suspect", Leslie Cheung would rather direct and star in "Alien Space" than act in "Infernal Affairs".

Then Liang Chaowei was recommended.

After going round and round, the role of Chen Yongren was still won by Liang Chaowei.

Zhang Guorong saw off a few more guests, and the guests at home were almost gone. Zhang Guorong smiled and raised his eyebrows a few times, rubbed his hands and said: "We haven't played mahjong together for a long time. I have made an appointment with poker friends. Let's play mahjong together today." We have to fight for sixteen rounds tonight, and we are not allowed to leave until dawn."

Before he finished speaking, the cell phone in his pocket rang. Zhang Guorong took out the cell phone and looked at it, "It's a call from the princess."

Since the last announcement, Qi Wei has never seen the princess again.

Qi Wei's relationship with the princess was about letting nature take its course, and he did not want to get too entangled with the princess.

So he didn't really want to meet the princess.

Seeing that Wang Zuxian was a little drunk and staggering about to leave, Qi Wei had an idea and quickly supported her.

Under Wang Zuxian's confused and surprised gaze, Qi Wei said, "I'm not worried about letting a drunk lady go home alone so late. I'll take you home."

But Wang Zuxian's words are uneasy and kind-hearted.

"I still have more rooms here. Xiaoxian, why don't you stay at my place tonight." Zhang Guorong suggested.

"No, I'm still used to sleeping on my big bed." When saying this, Wang Zuxian didn't look away from Qi Wei.

The meaning is already obvious.

After hearing this, Zhang Guorong was too embarrassed to stay.

It must be a man who is talented and a woman who is beautiful, and who seems to be loving and interested at the moment, and there is no room for you, a monster, to object.

So Qi Wei helped Wang Zuxian leave Zhang Guorong's villa.

The vehicle was driving on the road, passing through the bustling night market of Gangcheng, and soon arrived at Wang Zuxian's home in Gangcheng.

The night has just begun.

(End of this chapter)