The Wind of China Entertainment 2005

Chapter 584 Winning over
Ritan Park.

It was first built during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty as a sacred place for royal memorial services and was opened to the public in 69.

Entering from the east gate of the park, there is a hot pot restaurant with a very lazy name, just called Ritan Hot Pot.

Song Ge and a man in a blue suit stopped in front of the store.

The man in the suit was wearing glasses, had a straight nose, tightly closed lips, and his eyebrows were slightly in the shape of an inverted 'e'. He looked quite serious.

"Mr. Ye, this is the one." Song Ge introduced.

Ye Ning is a general whom Wang Jianlin relies on in the film sector.

He joined Wanda Group in 2002 and became the general manager of Wanda Cinema Line in 2008.

This year, Wanda spent US$26 billion in cash to acquire the loss-making AMC Theaters at a premium. Ye Ning participated in the entire process and served as a director of AMC after the dust settled.

"Let's go and try Mr. Song's food." Ye Ning nodded slightly and pushed open the door first.

As soon as I stepped in, the sharp-eyed waiter came closer and asked kindly, "Sir, are you two?"

"There is another friend, box number 205." Song Ge answered from behind.

The waiter stretched out his right arm and immediately prepared to lead the way: "I'll take you two up right away."

"No, thank you." Song Ge waved his hand: "I know where it is, come often."

"Okay, I won't bother you two anymore."

The hot pot restaurant has two floors. Song Ge and Ye Ning came to the private room on the second floor and sat down by the window.

Song Ge carried the teapot and poured a glass of water for Ye Ning. He said, "At the end of last year, Zhang Weiping made a scene with The Flowers of War. Now, several major distributors including China Film, Huayi, and Bona Film Group have formed an alliance again. They are coming in full force."

Ye Ning picked up the cup and took a sip. "Fortunately, you invested in New World in advance, otherwise New World would have completely turned to their side. In addition, they have several blockbusters in their hands, such as 1942 and Chinese Zodiac. If they join forces to force us to abdicate, we may not be able to resist."

The 2012 Lunar New Year movie season is approaching.

The films released by China Film include: "Laughing Through 2012", "The Secret Garden", "" and "The Banquet".

Huayi: "1942" and "The Chinese Zodiac".

Bona: "The Great Shanghai" and "The Grandmaster".

Xingmei: "The Feast of Kings" and "The Guillotines".

Light: "New World".

At the end of last year, when the movie "The Flowers of War" was released, producer Zhang Weiping challenged the eight major cinema chains and demanded that they increase their share of the film's revenue in order to snatch food from the cinema chains.

As a result, Bona's Yu Dong stabbed him in the back and the matter came to nothing.

A year later, the storm arose again. In order to fight for their own interests, the producers took action again and launched an attack on the theaters.

All major cinema chains have received word that several major domestic distribution companies are secretly conspiring to form an Avengers alliance and will issue a joint statement soon.

The general idea is: the box office sharing ratio between distributors and theaters should be no less than 45% to 55%. In layman's terms, it means that the distributor's share of the box office should be increased by 43% from the current 2%.

This is cutting flesh from the cinema chains.

Naturally, the country's largest cinema chain, Wanda Cinema Line, the second-ranked Lianhe Cinema Line, and other cinema chains ranked in the top twelve in the country, such as Guangzhou Jinyi and Southern Shinkansen, were unwilling to accept it.

So the twelve theater chains got together to form a Guardian Alliance and reached a consensus, firmly opposing an increase in the profit-sharing ratio.

It's not enough to just oppose it, we also have to pull people around us, otherwise the distributor will choose not to show it, so what will happen to the Lunar New Year period?
Therefore, they decided to split up as they did last time. In the adult world, interests always come first, and the major issuers are definitely not a monolithic group.

It just so happened that Wanda Film and Television invested in "New World", so the task of persuading Lu Yuan was given to Wanda Cinemas.

"It's luck. I didn't expect this to happen." Song Ge smiled shyly.

Who could have expected that Lost in Thailand would break 1 billion? The first and second highest-grossing movies in China are both starring Lu Yuan. "It's a blessing to see Mr. Song grow up. Here, I'll offer you a cup of tea. I hope you can take care of me in the future." Ye Ning raised his glass and joked.

"Hey, Mr. Ye, please stop teasing me."

"Bang." The two clinked their glasses.

Song Ge's smile faded and he frowned, "Actually, I'm a little worried. Lu Yuan looks gentle, but he's actually not easy to deal with. I don't understand a lot of his actions, and he's not just an actor or director. Baidu suffered a big loss due to the iQiyi incident some time ago, and paid out 30 billion in cash."

"It's an exchange of interests. We need to listen to what he means first and keep him calm. We will definitely have to spend some money. It depends on how big his appetite is." Ye Ning pinched his chin with an amused look on his face.

As one of the investors of "New World", Wanda can fully use its rights as a producer, but who says this drama is related to Lu Yuan?

They don't want to make things too ugly.

As he was talking, Song Ge noticed a Mercedes stopped outside the window and a tall man wearing a baseball cap walked out.

"he came!"

"Mr. Lu, this is the general manager of Wanda Cinemas, Ye Ning."

Song Ge welcomed Lu Yuan in from outside the box.

Lu Yuan stared at the other person for a moment and extended his hand: "Mr. Ye, nice to meet you."

Ye Ning was usually serious, so his smile was a little stiff. He also extended his hand: "Mr. Lu, I've heard of your name for a long time. I have to take advantage of your wealth. A TV series has brought Hunan Satellite TV 11 billion in revenue, which is much more profitable than making a movie."

“Hahaha.” Lu Yuan laughed, and then answered modestly: “That’s Hunan Satellite TV’s own ability, it has little to do with me.”

"Has the female lead been decided?" Ye Ning asked casually.

Lu Yuan casually replied: "Boss Ye overestimates me. The choice of actors is determined by the director. I am only responsible for filming. I have no say in other matters and I don't know anything about them."

You fart! Ye Ning grinned. The simple test was met with a soft nail. This sentence blocked his next move.

Just as Song Ge said, it was not easy to deal with. He put away the contempt he had for the other party because of his identity as an actor.

"Come on, don't stand, sit down, I'll tell the waiter to serve the mutton." Seeing this, Song Ge interrupted in time.

Lu Yuan pulled out a chair. Before coming, he roughly guessed the purpose of Song Ge's organization of this event, which was to share the box office revenue.

This year, the mainland has opened up more quotas to Hollywood, and the number of imported films has increased significantly, causing a huge impact on domestic films.

Compared with last year, domestic films have lost more and earned less from March this year to date. Distributors can only gain more profits in this way to ensure that they do not lose too much.

The game between distributors and theaters has never stopped.

But he didn't expect that he would sit at the poker table in a daze and have a significant impact.

Based on the success of the previous films, theaters are generally optimistic about the box office of "New World". During the Lunar New Year holiday, everyone wants to make money and have a good year.

After a few pleasantries, just when he thought they were about to get down to business.

Ye Ning suddenly said, "Mr. Lu, you know about Wanda's acquisition of AMC, right?"

"Of course I know. Mr. Wang is promoting domestic films to the world and enhancing the international influence of the Chinese film industry. That's it." Lu Yuan gave a thumbs up.

Ye Ning shook his head: "In fact, as early as when the merger and acquisition agreement was signed, the group and AMC's management team reached a long-term employment agreement.

After the merger and acquisition, the group will only send one or two representatives, and the specific operations will still be handled by AMC's original management team.

Whether to import Chinese films, what films to import, and how many to import are decided by AMC management based on U.S. industry rules and market demand, and the group will not interfere. "

Lu Yuan raised his eyebrows. He really didn’t know any of this.

"But!" Ye Ning changed the subject: "I can help you run "New World" and release subsequent movies you participate in overseas."

(End of this chapter)