The Wind of China Entertainment 2005

Chapter 702: Soul Ferry

"My Love from the Star" received a share of 4.9 million yuan, and Lu Yuan's personal salary was as high as 1.53 million yuan.

These two incidents caused a sensation on the Internet.

Based on the data and growth rate of 2012, the per capita income in 2013 is estimated to be around RMB 4.3.

In first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, housing prices range from 2.7 to 3.8 yuan per square meter.

Compared with the average income level of the society, Lu Yuan's pay is an astronomical figure, which is jaw-dropping.

This is also the feeling of many colleagues in the industry.

In recent years, with the influx of a large amount of hot money, actors' pay has shown a crazy upward trend.

Especially in the field of TV dramas, the pay of top-tier actors generally exceeds 1000 million yuan, which is much higher than that in the film industry.

CCTV once blasted the high pay of first-line stars, which directly led to insufficient costs and became an important reason for the crudeness of film production from location selection, shooting to post-production.

In addition, there are various means in the industry to conceal the actual amount of pay that actors receive so that the total amount does not seem too shocking.

But even with these "modified" figures, the income gap with ordinary people is still huge.

The salary a star earns for one episode of a TV series is enough to support the living expenses of several ordinary families for several years.

When Lu Yuan's personal income was calculated and made public by someone with ulterior motives, some unscrupulous media once again pushed the topic of sky-high pay to the forefront of public opinion in order to gain traffic.

But this wave of public opinion did not last long.

Lu Yuan’s speech at the media meeting of “My Love from the Star” was dug up by “powerful” netizens.

In the video, Lu Yuan sat upright and spoke sincerely.

"When I was filming My Love from the Star, I did not take any salary in advance, but chose to participate in the profit sharing."

"The current film and television industry is too dependent on big-name actors, and the scarcity of excellent actors has led to a shortage of supply. In order to attract audiences, many producers are willing to pay high salaries to hire well-known actors, which directly pushes up the salary level of stars."

"The high pay of stars is never caused unilaterally, but is the result of an imbalance between market demand and supply. When the pay of actors is too high, the crew will desperately cut production costs, which will eventually lead to a constant stream of bad dramas, which will affect the reputation of the actors, thus forming a vicious cycle."

"So I urge big-name actors to try a different approach. Instead of taking a fixed salary, they can become partners and use their salary as shares. This will not only save costs and put more money into production, but also as long as everyone works together to make a good drama, everyone can gain both fame and fortune..."

Before the filming of "My Love from the Star" started, Lu Yuan's words may not have attracted enough attention from people in the industry.

After all, the investor of this drama is Yuanfang Media, Lu Yuan’s own company. The other party might have other purposes in saying this.

However, when the astronomical figure of 1.53 million yuan was exposed, many first-line actors in the industry fell into deep thought. With the facts before them, perhaps they could really try the new model proposed by Lu Yuan.

Instead of taking a fixed salary of tens of millions, it is better to take a gamble. If you win, ten million may become tens of millions. If you lose, the worst that can happen is that you can just make another movie.

On the small screen, the failure of one or two dramas does not have much impact on top-tier actors, as their basic audience appeal has always been there.

The high revenue sharing of "My Love from the Star" on PPS has an impact that goes beyond this.

The astronomical figure of 4.9 million quickly became a benchmark in the industry.

For a time, many production companies flocked to the PPS content department, eager to broadcast their works on the platform in order to obtain equally generous revenue-sharing returns.

Among these works, there are both backlogs that have been ignored by TV stations for many years, and there are also big-budget dramas with luxurious casts and high expectations.

"Freaky Mom?"

Xiamen, the set of "Burning Sun".

Lu Yuan finished filming a scene and received a call from Lu Jing.

On the other end of the phone, Lu Jingdao was in a good mood.

"Yes, New Classics Media contacted us out of the blue, hoping to broadcast this drama on PPS. The leading actors of this drama include Sun Li, who became popular last year with "The Legend of Zhen Huan", and Zhang Yi, Wu Junmei, Ming Dao, Xi Meijuan, and Zhu Yin, who starred with you in "Soldier Assault"."

As Lu Yuan listened to her introduction, he recalled relevant information about New Classics Media.

The company was founded in early 2007 and can only be considered a "newcomer" among many veteran film players. It initially focused on period dramas and fashion dramas and made its mark.

Its works such as "Beijing Love Story" and "Du Lala's Promotion" have achieved remarkable results.

Since 2010, New Classics Media has been involved in the film industry, starting with low-cost productions and participating in the investment of many films such as "Under the Hawthorn Tree", "Hidden Marriage", "101 Marriage Proposals", and "Searching", which have received good market feedback.

The founder Cao Huayi is from Beijing, has extensive connections in the Beijing circle, and has a keen eye.

Currently, the company has signed Chen Kaiquan, Hai Qing, Li Guangjie, Zhang Jiayi, Hu Jun, Song Jia and others.

After Lu Jing finished speaking, Lu Yuan asked in confusion: "I remember that "Hot Mom" ​​was previously in contact with Tencent Video, why did it suddenly switch to PPS?"

Last year, Sun Li rose to fame with the role of Empresses in the Palace. Although she did not win any mainstream awards, in the commercial field, she has become one of the highest-paid actresses on the small screen.

Lu Jing explained: "I think there are two reasons. One is the price factor. Tencent Video initially offered 6000 million yuan. At first, the producers behind "Hot Mom" ​​were ready to sign the contract, but when the revenue sharing of "My Love from the Star" was 4.9 million yuan, they wanted to adopt the revenue sharing model."

"But Tencent Video currently has a limited number of paying members, and it is unknown whether it can get 6000 million by adopting a split-revenue model. So the producer asked for a higher price, but Tencent disagreed. Sun Li's popularity is high, but compared with you, she can't compare in appeal. The two parties broke down the talks."

"On the other hand, streaming media is an inevitable trend, and New Classics Media may want to take this opportunity to get in touch with us in advance."

Lu Yuan nodded, and then asked, "How is the contact with Kedun Media going?"

"Huace has raised its offer to 18 billion. Judging from their attitude, they are determined to acquire Croton Media. We are considering whether to continue to follow up."

"Follow up." Lu Yuan said firmly: "PPS needs a lot of film and television dramas to fill the content. The market changes rapidly. The preferences of the post-90s are different from those of us who were born in the 80s, and the post-00s are different from those who were born in the 90s. Using big data to analyze the audience's preferences is more reliable and more efficient than simply relying on the experience of the creators."

"But I'm worried that SMG will have objections to the funding." Lu Jing hesitated. The acquisition of Croton Media is crucial to PPS's strategic layout, and several directors of the company have agreed.

But there is a realistic problem. PPS has not made much profit in recent years. Even though it finally made a fortune from "My Love from the Star", it lost it all again.

Therefore, this acquisition can only rely on the proportional capital contributions from several shareholders behind it.

The current shareholding ratios of several companies are:

Blueprint holds 75%, vivo 5%, oppo 5%, SMG 10%, Lei Liang, Zhang Hongyu and Xu Weifeng hold a total of 5% of the shares.

As a state-owned enterprise, SMG does face certain difficulties in terms of capital contribution.

Lu Yuan leaned against the wall: "Don't worry about the funds. If SMG and several other shareholders disagree, Blueprint can try to buy Croton Media alone and redistribute the share ratio later."

"it is good."

On the other end of the phone, Lu Jing nodded. Her brother was not short of money and was very rich.

As far as she knew, Zhou Mingyuan's game studio had skin sales of nearly 3 million in just one month after the collaboration with "My Love from the Star". Combined with the profit sharing from "My Love from the Star", the funds in the account would be enough to buy two Croton Media companies.

Lu Yuan paused for a moment and added, "Or we can also consider holding shares together with Huace. Wu Lang has done research and found that this film and television company has a good eye for TV dramas. PPS needs a lot of content support, and investing in a top content production company in the industry is a good way to go."

"We need to build a good relationship with them first. They have a large business, and if there is a problem with the capital chain someday, PPS may be able to invest in or even take over the company."

“Well, brother, do you have any bad ideas again? The problem with the capital chain is man-made or man-made.”

"Get out!" Lu Yuan cursed with a smile.

The long-tail effect of "My Love from the Star" continues to ferment in the entertainment industry, and the topics of Professor Chen and Song Yiren remain hot.

But the story is finally over, and new topics have emerged in the entertainment industry in September.

First, Wang Fei and Li Yapeng’s marriage came to an end, and the two announced their divorce on the grounds of “difference in values”.

When it comes to educating children, Wang Fei advocates giving his daughter enough freedom and space to let her grow up naturally.

Li Yapeng, on the other hand, prefers to discipline his daughter strictly, hoping that she will become a well-behaved and sensible child.

In addition, Li Yapeng's career was not going well. He was never able to find an accurate positioning and his business suffered repeated setbacks.

These differences gradually exacerbated the conflicts between the two and eventually led to the breakdown of their marriage.

This is not the only couple in the entertainment industry to divorce in September.

And there is Wang Feng.

The incident started when rock singer Wang Feng was photographed holding hands with Zhang Ziyi on the streets of Los Angeles.

Shortly afterwards, Wang Feng announced his divorce from his third wife.

As for his relationship with Zhang Ziyi, he chose to remain silent in front of reporters and did not disclose it.

In July, Sa Beining and Zhang Ziyi broke up. Their relationship only lasted about half a year.

There were many different opinions among the people at that time, and most people thought that there was a glow on Xiao Sa's head.

Just as netizens were immersed in watching the drama, the PPS platform announced the broadcast schedule of TV series and variety shows in the second half of the year, following "My Love from the Star".

The list covers more than ten films and TV series, including "Soul Ferry", "Let's Get Married", "Hot Mom", "Eternal Love", "The Cliff", and "Never Expected".

As well as many variety shows such as "Running Man", "Where Are We Going, Dad", "Happy Camp", "Happy Boys", "I Am a Singer", and "China's Got Talent".

The program list has excited PPS paying users.

As for variety shows, they are all the flagship programs of Hunan Satellite TV and Dragon TV. I don’t know how PPS got them, but many people went to the official Weibo account to leave messages, praising its awesomeness.

Some careful netizens also noticed the guest selections of "Running Man".

The dozen or so TV series that followed made them even more eager to try, especially "Eternal Love", "The Cliff" and "Hot Mom".

The main cast includes Lu Yuan, Liu Shishi, and Sun Li.
But when they focused their attention on "Soul Ferry", they couldn't help but feel confused.

Pan Yuemin, one of the leading actors, has been controversial for being accused of being a gambler, incompetent and neglecting his family. Many netizens expressed dissatisfaction with PPS's choice to broadcast the drama starring him.

"Damn it, Ah P, why don't we return the product? This actor has a bad character. Dong Jie has such a good girl, but he doesn't cherish her."

"Yes, yes, we are generally satisfied with the dramas in it. Good films are hard to find. We can understand if you mix some bad films into the program list, such as "Never Expected", a three-no work, but what is "Soul Ferry"? We don't know the director Li Gen, Pan Yuemin is a scumbag, and only Lin Genxin has some fame."

"Ah P, you're making it difficult for me. I'm a fan of Dong Jie."

Netizens left messages on the official PPS account.

Dong Jie also stood up and said very magnanimously that what should have passed should have passed, people should look forward, and hoped to let Pan Yuemin go.

Fans praised the sister for being beautiful and kind-hearted, and mocked Pan Yuemin for being a good-for-nothing.

Pan Yuemin remained silent, and the comment section was not closed.

It was just that a famous paparazzi suddenly posted a short video on Weibo that he had treasured for months.

In an instant, the topic of "Soul Ferry" reached its maximum!

(End of this chapter)