The Wind of China Entertainment 2005

Chapter 611 I Don’t Like Money

The year 2012 passed by quietly.

The end of the world predicted by the Mayans did not come as expected.

In the domestic film market, the box office performance of "New World" remains strong.

January 2013, 1, the day after New Year’s Day.

When I woke up, I saw fresh media reports that "New World" had been released for 12 days and the box office had officially exceeded the 10 billion mark, reaching a staggering 10.35 billion!
On New Year’s Day, the film’s box office shook off its sluggish trend and reached a new high, with a single-day box office of over 7000 million.

During this year's Lunar New Year holiday, "The Chinese Zodiac" ranked second and also earned 6.7 million yuan in box office.

However, "The Great Devil", which was released at the same time, faded out of the audience's sight unnoticed.

Not only that, "New World" also performed well in overseas markets.

The film grossed nearly 1600 million in South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and other places.

Among them, the Korean market contributed the most and received high praise.

After the data was released, it quickly caused a sensation on the Internet.

Netizens celebrated the birth of the second milestone film in the history of Chinese-language films to break the billion box office mark.

Generally speaking, the golden period of movie box office is concentrated in the first two weeks after the premiere. After 15 days of release, the box office will drop off a cliff.

If the film has good reputation, the daily box office can barely maintain in the range of 2000 million to 3000 million, and may rebound slightly during holidays.

On the contrary, due to poor word of mouth, the average daily box office is estimated to be less than 100 million. "The Banquet" only earned 2 a day, which is a living example.

There are still 8 days left before "New World" was originally scheduled to be released.

The entire Internet is discussing whether the film’s total box office can break the 13.29 billion record set by "Lost in Thailand".

Han Sanping even called Lu Yuan personally to ask whether he would consider postponing the release of "New World" in order to achieve higher box office revenue.

After all, the 20-day release is just a publicity gimmick. If Lu Yuan agrees, the film can apply for an extension of the key and it won't be a problem to exceed 30 days.

Lu Yuan refused without hesitation.

If we say 20 days, it means 20 days, not a day more or less.

What's the point of going back on your word? You're fooling the audience and treating them like toilet paper to be thrown away after use?
The audience is smart. Once fooled, they will not be fooled a second time. Even if "New World" is of high quality, this move will ruin its popularity.

Han Sanping's proposal was based on his position as chairman of China Film Corporation, and he wanted to create a new box office record for Chinese-language films.

But for Lu Yuan, this is undoubtedly killing the goose that lays the golden eggs, and goes against the concept of long-term development.

Besides, even if this fails to break the box office record of "Lost in Thailand", so what? He can just retire and continue with the next one.

Having said that, the crew still sincerely announced the end of screening time of "New World" on Weibo.

Wen Muye and other main creators did not forget to mention this matter when they were interviewed.

Netizens expressed their opinions on this.

“There’s only one week left until The New World is released, so let’s go watch it again this weekend!”

"'Chinese Zodiac' can finally take a breather, having been overshadowed by 'New World'. Once the movie is out of theaters, maybe there will be a box office recovery!"

"I don't think so. Don't forget, there's also Wong Kar-wai's The Grandmaster coming up."

Yes, the Kung Fu epic "The Grandmaster", which was polished by King of Sunglasses for 8 years and filmed for 3 years, and starred by Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Zhang Ziyi, Zhang Zheng, Song Hui-qiao and others, will be released on January 1.

Wang Jia made a bold statement that he would compete with "New World"!
At this time, another incident quietly attracted the attention of netizens.

Southeast Express is a well-known media in Fujian. It is a traditional paper media with a daily circulation of over 50 copies.

However, with the rapid popularization of the Internet in recent years, the print media industry has generally encountered a cold snap and has declined across the board, and has sought online transformation in order to survive.

The same is true for the Southeast Express, which has embarked on the road of transformation.

However, in the era of paper media, the user group was relatively fixed and limited to Fujian and its surrounding areas.

Online media, on the other hand, targets the entire Internet community, which makes the transformation of Southeast Express not very smooth.

At the beginning of 2013, Southeast Express published an entertainment report in anticipation of the upcoming Chinese New Year, with the idea of ​​trying its best.

The general idea is that in recent years, many popular actors have "turned from acting to business", opened their own studios or companies, become bosses, invested in film and television dramas, and got involved in industries outside the entertainment industry.
It also lists a list of the "highest-earning stars" in the mainland entertainment industry, with separate lists for men and women.

In the list of male stars, Huang Xiaoming ranked first with 3.9 million yuan.

The reason is that in addition to investing in movies and endorsing advertisements, Huang Xiaoming also invested in real estate, medical care, and red wine, becoming the most profitable star in 2012.

Among the female stars, Fan Binbin topped the list with 2 million yuan.

The reason is that Fan Binbin has advertising endorsements for 21 products, with each endorsement fee being approximately 800 million yuan, which means his annual income is close to 1.6 million yuan.

Adding her film pay and various commercial activities, her income this year should be close to 2 million yuan, making her the highest-earning female star.

As soon as this report was released, it immediately caused controversy.

Netizen Hala Shao bluntly said: "Huang Xiaoming takes all kinds of roles, but the ones he makes are all bad, such as Xiao Ma Ge, Yang Guo, and the recent "The Great Devil City", which is just a waste of money."

Netizen Master My God commented: "Huang Xiaoming has participated in the filming of many blockbuster movies in recent years, which shows that he has also paid a lot of hard work to get these opportunities.

But looking at his acting in the drama, to be honest, it's really not that good. A real actor, who plays roles that the audience likes and produces some good works, is the real wealth."

Netizens argued endlessly and searched down the list, but the name they wanted to see did not appear.

That’s right, it’s Lu Yuan!
Even Liu Shishi made the list with an income of 5000 million, but this guy is not on the list.

Netizens were dissatisfied and questioned the credibility of the list: "Southeast Express, are you messing around? How did you miss the most critical person, Lu Yuan? How much did Lu Yuan earn?"

"Fuck, I was wondering why this list was wrong. I always felt like something was missing."

"All those on the list are my younger brothers. Lu Yuan earns more than them from just one movie."

The Southeast Express chose to remain silent and read the message but did not respond.

On the one hand, someone had given us a heads-up beforehand.

On the other hand, isn’t such controversy also a topic and traffic for newspapers?

While netizens were complaining to the Southeast Express, they began to sort out and calculate spontaneously.

Lu Yuan had three films released in 2012, namely, "Unknown's Battlegrounds", "Lost in Thailand" and "New World", with a cumulative box office of over 30 billion yuan.

Then I went to look up the producers of these three dramas. Wow, I had no idea until I did, and I was shocked to find that they were all Yuanfang Media.

Netizens don’t care whether they need to pay taxes or what the investment ratio is.

After a simple estimate, it was concluded that Lu Yuan’s income from investing in movies alone was close to 10 billion!
In addition to his offline endorsement of vivo in various public places, it is rumored online that the endorsement fee vivo paid him set a record, 5 million yuan in 2 years, or 4000 million yuan a year.

In addition, he also has business endorsements for high-end brands such as Longines and Armani.

Lu Yuan doesn’t have many endorsements, the number is no more than a handful, but they are ridiculously expensive, totaling nearly 2 million.

Netizens just calculated it casually with their fingers!
I was surprised to find that Lu Yuan’s income in 2012 was over 12 billion.

Is there any artist in the entertainment industry who makes more money than him?

Probably not.

This is even more than what film and television companies such as Huayi, Bona, and Guangguang earn. No, it should be higher than the earnings of most listed companies.

You know, as a listed company, Huayi has a market value of more than 300 billion yuan, but its annual net profit in the film and television industry is only 3 million yuan.

soon.

#Lu Yuan's annual income exceeds 12 billion#
#Lu Shiyibo#
Topics like this quickly became hot searches.

This made Zhang Bowen and others very anxious.

Lu Yuan has never liked to expose his income to the public.

So they mobilized their connections in the circle to try to quell the storm, but they couldn't cover it up.

It is January, winter in the United States, and the weather is freezing cold.

Chen Kexin placed the surveillance camera in the RV and stared at the screen for a long time. After confirming that there was no problem, he picked up the little bee and said, "I declare that the filming of "Chinese Partners" has been completed!"

Upon hearing this, the staff on the set clapped and cheered, celebrating the completion of the filming.

"Oh, finally the filming is finished."

"I can finally go back to my country. I really can't get used to the food abroad."

"Yeah, omelettes in the morning, hamburgers and sandwiches at noon, and all kinds of steaks at night. It's okay at first, but I get tired of it after two days. I just want to eat light food. No wonder there are so many fat people in Europe and America. Rice is still more suitable for me."

Lu Yuan wrapped himself in a down jacket and hurried to the car.

Zheng Qian followed behind with a toolbox in her hand. After getting in the car, she looked through the window at the pedestrians on the road.

After a comparison, I found that I was still shivering even in a down jacket.

But most Americans on the street only wear a thin cotton coat, a trendy T-shirt inside, and a pair of pants underneath, and swagger around on the street.

She didn't understand and sighed: "How come these Americans don't seem to be afraid of the cold? They wear so little in the winter. Aren't they worried about getting arthritis?"

Chen Kexin has lived in the United States for many years and laughed: "Arthritis is a common disease in North America."

"Oh, I see." Zheng Qian blinked.

"The food here is high in calories. Eating steak every day is relatively easy to withstand the cold."

Chen Kexin explained casually, and when he finished his work, he saw Lu Yuan looking at his phone and asked, "Mr. Lu, when is the flight?"

"tonight."

"With Huang Xiaoming?"

"Yes." Lu Yuan put his phone in his pocket, stared at him, and asked, "Director Chen, how is the investment for Wu Yusen's The Crossing going?"

Chen Kexin smiled and said: "It went very smoothly. He sent me a message saying that he had originally planned to discuss with Pony.com after returning to China to take over the 40% investment share that Huace would withdraw.

I didn’t expect that right after I got off the plane, I received a call from iQiyi staff, saying that they wanted to invest in this movie and they would cover the rest.”

"iQiyi has money." Lu Yuan said, then shook his head with a look of regret: "Oh, what a pity, such a good script, but there is just not enough money."

The internet says you made 12 billion this year. Chen Kexin grumbled inwardly, looked at him suspiciously, and said, "Mr. Gong from iQiyi also said that, and he hopes that The Crossing can enter Chinese film history."

Lu Yuan nodded.

Wu Yusen's identity as an international director is indeed quite deceptive.

But he couldn't help but think of a possibility: if "The Crossing" loses too much money, will Gong Yu be kicked out of iQiyi by Li Yanhong?

The loss shouldn't be too great.

After all, Yusen Wu is an international director after all.

The plane flew through the sea of ​​clouds, and the outline of the capital city was looming.

Huang Xiaoming looked at the scenery outside the porthole, turned his head to look to the side, and asked: "Junior brother, what is it like to earn 12 billion a year?"

Lu Yuan didn't answer, but just concentrated on flipping through the magazine in his hand.

"What are you looking at?" Huang Xiaoming stretched out his hand and waved it gently in front of his eyes.

Lu Yuan then raised his head from the magazine: "A report about child trafficking."

"Trafficking? It's a persistent problem that's too serious." Huang Xiaoming sighed and repeated the question.

Lu Yuan asked back: "So, Senior Brother, did you really make 3.9 million?"

"No, how is that possible?" Huang Xiaoming quickly denied.

"I didn't make that much. Although the box office of the movie looked good, the initial investment was also a large sum. After calculating, there is actually not much left."

"I really didn't make that much, but you may not." Huang Xiaoming obviously didn't believe it.

The reason why the Southeast Express did not report on Lu Yuan was probably because this junior brother had given a heads-up in advance.

"Really not!"

"Oh, do you think I believe it?"

Lu Yuan said frankly: "Why would I lie to you? 12 billion is really not enough. It's too exaggerated. There are other investors. After deducting taxes and various fees, it's about 10 billion."

About 10 billion. About 10 billion.
"You" Huang Xiaoming was choked and speechless. After a while, he sighed: "10 billion, how many movies do I have to shoot to earn that much."

He was quite envious and began to mutter: "Junior brother, if you have any investment projects in the future, remember to take me with you."

"Okay, okay, I'll let you know when I have the chance." Lu Yuan's head hurt from the noise so much that he simply turned around and faced him with the back of his head.

"Really?"

"I can't fool you."

Huang Xiaoming nodded in satisfaction, and then asked curiously: "We both graduated from Beijing Film Academy and are both actors. How do you make so much money?"

Lu Yuan rubbed his ears and smiled: "Do you really want to know?"

"Uh-huh."

Lu Yuan grinned and said nonsense: "It's actually very simple, because I don't like money and have never been interested in money."

"What the hell?" Huang Xiaoming was stunned and looked at him stupidly.

"Money is like chasing a girl. The less you care about it, the easier it is to get it. But when you have less money, need it more, and care more about it, the further away money is from you."

Lu Yuan had an unfathomable expression and he talked nonsense. Finally, he concluded, "I always believe that wealth circulates in society and does not belong to individuals. You own it temporarily, but society allows you to manage it temporarily. If you think the money is yours at this time, then bad luck may begin."

Huang Xiaoming was stunned and didn't understand what was going on, but was deeply shocked.

Is this the reason why my junior brother is so good at making money?
He got it.

Lu Yuan glanced at him, covered his face with the magazine in his hand, and finally he calmed down.

The plane landed, Huang Xiaoming was in front and Lu Yuan was behind. Both were fully armed, pushing luggage, and followed by their respective assistants.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he walked out of the airport, he was surrounded by reporters who had been waiting for a long time.

The PPS reporter put the microphone close to Huang Xiaoming's mouth and asked, "Huang Xiaoming, the Internet reported that you earned 3.9 million last year. Is that true?"

Huang Xiaoming waved his hand and clarified: "I don't make that much money, so the news on the Internet can't be taken seriously."

"Netizens think that you take any crappy movie just for money. How do you feel about this?"

Huang Xiaoming frowned, glanced at Lu Yuan, pushed his sunglasses lightly, and looked sincere.

"I like performing because I love it. As for money, actually, I don't like money and I'm not interested in money... Wealth circulates in society and does not belong to individuals. You only own it temporarily, but society lets you manage it on your behalf."

The reporter was silent.

You are not worth hundreds of billions, how can you say this with the nerve? Aren’t you ashamed?

Even if he is really worth hundreds of billions and is the richest man, he probably would be too embarrassed to say such things out loud.

Behind him, Lu Yuan also fell silent.

No, brother, you really said that in front of the media. I was just making it up.

After Huang Xiaoming finished speaking, he was very satisfied with the shocked expression on the reporter's face.

He turned around, raised his eyebrows, and gave his junior brother a look.

The PPS reporter came to his senses and immediately chose to stay away from the pretender and asked Lu Yuan.

"Lu Yuan, it's said online that you earned 12 billion last year."

"Excuse me, how much is your salary this month?" Lu Yuan looked at the reporter and asked.

The reporter was stunned: "2500."

I sent it. Lu Yuan said, "The news is not true. I did make some money from investing in movies, but it's not as exaggerated as what is said online."

The PPS reporter did not ask any further questions. The company manager had instructed that they only needed to interview the person and follow his words. As for why this was required, it was unclear.

He then asked, "After 'New World', what are your plans for the next movie?"

Lu Yuan pondered for a moment and said slowly: "Reality-based themes, if possible, I hope it will be a movie with a stronger public welfare purpose. It just so happens that my senior brother doesn't like money and is not interested in money. Maybe he and I can invest together at that time, and all the profits from this film will be donated to the society without reservation."

He doesn't want his income to be in the spotlight.

People are greedy for profit, and they are more afraid of having little wealth than of uneven distribution of wealth.

China has not yet achieved an all-round well-off society. In remote areas and mountain villages, there are still many poor families in urgent need of poverty alleviation.

In such a social context, being too ostentatious will undoubtedly bring about unnecessary trouble.

But at the same time, he also knows that the performance of the three films this year is too impressive, with a total box office of 30 billion. It is only a matter of time before the income is revealed, and it cannot be stopped.

After the public opinion emerged, Zhang Bowen and others have been considering how to calm it down.

The report in the magazine just now gave him some inspiration, and he decided to make a movie with stronger public welfare purpose.

If one is successful, one should help the world. He does not have such ability, nor can he reach such a level, and it is not his job.

But he felt that it would not be a big problem as he could do what he could with his existing influence.

"Click, click!" Reporters pressed the shutter buttons one after another.

Under the spotlight, Huang Xiaoming fell into deep thought.

Didn’t you just promise to help me make money?

(End of this chapter)