China Entertainment's whatever you want

Chapter 666 Stock Price and Salary Limit

[Huayi Brothers] The past two months have been very difficult.

After the [Mobile Phone 2] incident broke out, the public was full of doubts about Huayi, who was closest to Fan Bingbing.

There are various rumors on the Internet that there are major tax problems of a listed company, and its financial personnel have been subject to judicial enforcement measures by the police for being suspected of concealing and deliberately destroying accounting documents.

Originally, the two presidents of Huayi Brothers did not intend to pay attention to such rumors. After all, spreading rumors would be a waste of time if they were refuted. However, Huayi is a listed company, and the company's credibility will be directly reflected in the stock.

So Huayi took a series of self-rescue measures, inviting more than 30 institutions to investigate the company, sending various lawyer letters, and issuing clarification statements through Weibo, trying to restore its credibility in the public mind and not wanting to destroy the reputation of the company that has been in business for many years. .

Unfortunately, the real effect is not obvious.

Affected by various negative news, Huayi, as a leading company in the domestic film and television sector, has lost nearly 40 billion yuan in market value in the past two months.

On July 7, "Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings" directed by Xu Ke was released.

This film is the third in the Dee Renjie series, and it is also a key film that Huayi hopes to boost the confidence of shareholders.

After all, Xu Ke's martial arts movies have laid a good foundation for Huayi to harvest the box office.

In the past eight years, the "Detective Dee" series has not disappointed Huayi Brothers.

"Empire of Babel", released in 2010, cost about 1.3 million and ended up grossing 2.86 million at the box office.

In 2013, "The Dragon King of Gods" was released at a cost of 6 million, and the box office was locked at million.

In fact, according to the principle of three times the return on capital, the first two Detective Dee films were not very popular. However, as the producer, Huayi, in fact, returning the capital is equivalent to making a profit.

The first is to earn the film's copyright and network broadcast fees, and the second is to earn the film's reputation and shareholder confidence, which is reflected in the stock price: soaring!

After "The Dragon King of Gods" was released on September 2013, 9, Huayi Brothers' stock price doubled, completing a peak qualitative change from 28 yuan to 10 yuan, and its market value doubled.

Therefore, this time after the [Mobile Phone 2] incident, when the company's stock price continued to fall, Huayi regarded the [Four Heavenly Kings] as a life-saving straw to increase the stock price.

On the 27th, after the release of "Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings", the single-day box office on Friday exceeded 1.85 million yuan, and then the two-day weekend revenue reached million yuan.

It was released for 3 days in the first week, with a total box office of 2.96 million.

Then in the second week, the movie's single-day box office dropped sharply, earning 7 million yuan in 2.17 days, and the total box office exceeded 10 million in 5 days of release.

This trend is exactly the same as the second part of the "Di Renjie" series, "The Dragon King of Shendu", but "The Dragon King of Shendu" was released in 2013, so it is already 18 years ago.

And according to the law of gradual increase in the cost of series movies, in terms of the actors and special effects of "The Four Heavenly Kings", the cost is at least 3 million.

To make money back, the box office needs to be at least 9 million yuan. Now it has only exceeded 10 million yuan in 5 days. Let alone 9 million yuan, it is not easy to surpass the 6 million yuan box office of the second part.

Also because of the unsatisfactory box office performance, Huayi has been unwilling to disclose the production costs after the release of "The Four Heavenly Kings", fearing that negative news will make the stock market, which already lacks confidence, worse.

At the same time, "I'm Not the God of Medicine", which has been in theaters for one month, has a total box office of more than 32 billion yuan and has received the key to postpone it.

Of course, judging from the current single-day box office of the movie, this one-month delay is greater than the actual situation, and it is estimated that it will not get a box office of 100 million in the end.

But no matter what, there is no doubt that [I am not the God of Medicine] will be a hit.

A feature film actually achieved a box office of over 30 billion, crushing countless so-called commercial blockbusters. This situation surprised everyone in the industry.

At the same time, many people are also keenly aware of the changes in the domestic film market.

In the past, Chinese audiences liked to watch commercial blockbusters with exciting visual effects, so Hollywood's various special effects blockbusters could reap the box office in the mainland market and make a lot of money.

Now, after so many years of cultivation, the movie-watching habits of mainland audiences have changed.

Pure visual stimulation can no longer satisfy everyone.

Take the most typical Transformers movie as an example. When the first movie was released, the audience thought the Hollywood special effects were awesome, the robot battles were so cool, and the various fighting and explosion scenes were awesome.

In the second and third parts, I can still maintain a certain enthusiasm.

By the fourth and fifth movies, everyone was numb. They just felt that apart from the special effects, the plot of this movie was a piece of shit and it was impossible to watch it.

The threshold of domestic audiences has increased, and they are increasingly indifferent to some movies that only have special effects and storylines that cannot withstand scrutiny.

This is also the reason why Hollywood movies have not achieved high box office in China in recent years.

And some movies that are logical, have good storylines, or can impress the audience at a certain point are becoming more and more popular.

The most typical one is the one made by Gu Wei and Ni Ni [The Ex 3].

The movie can only be said to be average from the storyline to the shooting quality, but the discussion about love and exes just hits that point in the hearts of young people. Coupled with some publicity operations and the blessing of Gu Wei's own fame, so Only then can we get a high box office that far exceeds the quality of the movie.

The same goes for "I'm Not the God of Medicine", and compared with "Predecessor 3", "The God of Medicine" has achieved both box office and word-of-mouth success.

Now that it has been released for a month, as the number of people who rate it increases, the score has dropped slightly, but it still has 9 points.

There are only a handful of domestic films that have a score of 9 or above on Douban, and every one of them is absolutely a good movie.

And the only one that has received such high ratings and sold well at the box office is "I'm Not the God of Medicine".

Gu Wei stayed in Beijing for three days. After shooting the cover of [Mr. Esquire], he flew back to the mountain city set that night.

Huayi had invited him to the premiere of "The Four Heavenly Kings" before it was released, but Gu Wei was very busy and could not disrupt his schedule with unimportant matters.

Moreover, the relationship between him and Mr. Wang is purely based on interests. Huayi is now in a quagmire, and he naturally does not want to get involved.

The tax turmoil in recent months has had a great impact on many media companies and celebrities in the entertainment industry.

The overall environment of the film and television industry is on a downward trend.

Capital is most sensitive to the direction of the wind. The influx of hot money has also calmed down. Affected by this, many film and television projects under planning have been terminated due to lack of funds.

Of course, for truly high-quality projects, money is never a worry.

[Young You] crew.

After filming a scene with Zhang Zifeng, Gu Wei sat on a chair in the rest area and chatted with Zhou Ming.

"According to the crew's shooting plan, I can finish filming in one day."

"Yes, congratulations. It happens to be summer vacation, so I can take some time off after finishing filming."

Although Zhou Ming's role is that of the second female lead, she doesn't actually have too many scenes. The reason why it was filmed until now is because the scenes involving her were not shot intensively.

"Actually, I have nothing to do. The company currently doesn't have much work for me, and I don't know what I'm going to do after the project is completed." Zhou Ming said with a roll of his eyes.

"Why don't you stay on the set? I can learn something from watching you and Zifeng filming every day."

Gu Wei gave her a funny look.

"Okay~ If you want to stay, no one will kick you out. There are more than 200 people in the crew, and you are not one of them."

"Hehe~"

Zhou Xi narrowed his eyes and showed a cute smile.

After finally filming with the boss, why can't I find a way to stay a little longer? Maybe there will be such a good opportunity next time.

"By the way, the ancient puppet show [Sweet Honey as Ashes as Frost] that Sister Yang Zi filmed with County Brother has started airing. Brother Wei, do you know?" Since being brought into Gu Wei's small group by Peng Peng, Zhou Ming has been with other Our relationship is also going well, and everyone is paying attention to any new works they have recently.

"Nonsense, this drama is produced by our company, how can I, the boss, not know this?

During the preparation of [Xiangmi], I decided that Yang Zi would play the role."

Zhou Ming smiled awkwardly.

"This drama produced by the company has become popular again. I have been following the drama these days. Now there is a lot of discussion about [Xiangmi] on the Internet. Sister Yang Zi's performance is really good."

Gu Wei nodded.

"Normally, [Xiangmi] itself is prepared and filmed on the scale of an S-class ancient puppet show, and it can be compared to the company's previous productions [Three Lives, Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossom] and [The Legend of Chu Qiao].

The story is adapted from the best-selling novel of the same name, with a full plot, online logic, and a certain fan base.

In addition, the acting skills of Yang Zi and Li Xian are also good. It can be said that they have all the prerequisites for a big hit. It is expected that the results will be good after the broadcast."

Zhou Ming thought for a while and asked:

"Brother Wei, are you watching tonight too?"

"When I have nothing to do, I occasionally watch it twice. After all, it is our own company's TV series. I always have to pay attention."

"Then, how about I go to your room tonight and watch it with you?
Watching dramas alone is a bit boring.”

Zhou Ming mustered up his courage and said.

Gu Wei looked at her strangely.

"Why don't you look for Zifeng?"

"Zifeng Zifeng has been studying at night recently. After all, she is a high school student, and the study pressure is relatively heavy. She misses classes when she goes out to film, so she uses her evening time to make up for it."

Zhou Xi's mind turned quickly and he quickly found a reason that sounded very reasonable.

Gu Wei didn't suspect anything. When he and Zhao Jinmai were filming "The Wandering Earth" together, he gave each other tutoring lessons every day. In his opinion, it was normal for Zhang Zifeng, who was about the same age, to make up for tutoring while filming.

"Child actors like them actually have a hard time. They have to take care of school studies while filming. Guan Xiaotong, who I first worked with in "Left Ear", and Zhao Jinmai, who you know, are like this.
Fortunately, their grades seem to be good, especially Xiaotong, who scored 552 points in the college entrance examination."

Zhou Ming nodded like a chicken eating rice after listening to Gu Wei's words.

"Then I'll do it tonight."

"You can just come over. [Xiangmi] has two consecutive episodes at 19:35, and it ends at just after 9:. You can watch it in my room."

With Gu Wei's permission, Zhou Ming smiled even brighter.

"I'll go over and bring you something delicious tonight."

Gu Wei nodded slightly.

While the two were chatting, Yang Dan came over.

She held several pages of A4 paper stapled together in her hand and handed it to Gu Wei.

"Boss, this is a document just released by the General Administration. Many of the contents in it are relevant to us."

Gu Wei took it over unexpectedly. The title on the white paper was in big words [Notice on further strengthening the management of radio, television and online audio-visual cultural programs].

He looked through it carefully, and there was another one at the back [Opinions on Promoting the Strengthening and Excellence of Radio and Television Broadcasting Institutions in the New Era].

There is a lot written, most of which are empty words and clichés. The essence is the official "salary limit order" for celebrity artists.

Notices and opinions are clearly marked:

The comprehensive channels of various TV stations must report guest names, salaries and other information to the General Administration in advance for variety shows broadcast.

The total salary of all guests in the program shall not exceed 40% of the total cost, and the salary of the main guest shall not exceed 70% of the total salary of the guests.
TV series: The remuneration of all actors in each TV series shall not exceed 40% of the total cost, and the remuneration of the leading actors in the drama shall not exceed 70% of the total remuneration.

The single-group salary (including tax) of a single actor shall not exceed 100 million yuan, the total salary (including tax) shall not exceed 5000 million yuan, and the total salary of a variety show artist shall not exceed 80 yuan.

Take Gu Wei's current quotations for film and television dramas as an example. His most recent foreign film was co-produced with Zhao Liying last year [Do you know?].

At that time, the total salary was 6500 million yuan, which was 130 million yuan per episode. This income obviously exceeded the State Administration's opinion that "the salary of a single group should not exceed 100 million yuan, and the total salary should not exceed 5000 million yuan."

Not only Gu Wei, but also the heroine Zhao Liying, whose total remuneration was 5400 million, also exceeded this category.

In fact, because "Do You Know" is produced by "Noon Sunshine", the remuneration of Gu Wei and Zhao Liying is so low. Based on their current fame and popularity, the real market price is much higher than this amount.

For example, in Ni Ni's previous movie "Tian Sheng Long Song", she and Chen Kun were paid a total of 1.5 million, Da Baobao's "Lonely Love" was 8000 million, and Yang Mi's "Fuyao" was 8000 million. .

At present, the salary of all the first-line stars in domestic entertainment far exceeds the regulations of the General Administration.

The top actors are paid so high, and the salaries of other second- and third-tier stars are also not low. This has caused the cost of film and television dramas in the current market to rise steadily. Most of the money for filming is given to the actors, and a small part is used for filming, which leads to the loss of film and television dramas. The drama is shoddy and of low quality.

This is also the reason why the General Administration issued "Notices and Opinions".

"What's wrong?" Zhou Ye looked over curiously.

Gu Wei happened to finish reading and handed the document in his hand to her.

"New regulations."

Zhou Ming took it and flipped through the pages.

"It turns out it's a 'salary limit order', and it doesn't seem to have much to do with me."

She is a complete newcomer and has only filmed two films so far, "Take My Brother Away Quickly" and the current "Youth".

She is not well-known, she is still a supporting actor, and her pay is not high, so the "salary limit order" is still far away from her.

As she spoke, she looked up at Gu Wei and said worriedly:

"Brother Wei~ Is this rule very detrimental to you?"

Although Zhou Ming didn't know it in detail, but according to the simple logic of whoever is famous has a higher salary, it is estimated that there is no star in the entire entertainment industry with a higher salary than Gu Wei.

Then isn't this "salary limit order" the most inappropriate for him?

Gu Wei spread his hands.

“It seems like that, but actually it doesn’t have much impact on me.
For the films I am currently taking, they are either produced by the company, or part of the remuneration is converted into investment shares.

The actual money in hand is not much.
In fact, the official intention is good, but in the end there is still a question mark as to how far the "salary limit order" can be implemented."

"Could anyone violate it openly?"

"After all, our entertainment industry actually follows the most basic business principles. Stars' high salaries are due to the hot market. Producers can earn high income by using stars to film movies and produce variety shows, so they are naturally willing to pay stars high salaries.

Even if there is an official mandatory upper limit on film remuneration, the producers will find ways to give more remuneration in order to invite big stars. If they cannot give cash, they will compensate in other aspects. In short, they can always find it without violating the "regulations". method
After all, the domestic market is too big and everyone can make a profit. If we want stars’ salaries to really come down, the entire domestic entertainment market must be more complete.”

(End of this chapter)