1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Many people thought that Hong Kong would be very lively after its return. However, after July 1, Hong Kong not only did not become more lively, but suddenly became quiet.

Before July 1st, Hong Kong was actually very lively.

Because the return is imminent, the entire Hong Kong is undercurrent, and forces from all sides can no longer hold back and jump out.

There are three types of underground forces in Hong Kong. One type believes that they will face difficulties after Hong Kong's return, so they try every means to flee abroad. The most popular destination is naturally England, the spiritual homeland of many people.

There is another type of people who want to run away but cannot. After all, their family businesses are all in Hong Kong, and they cannot take much with them at this critical juncture. They are reluctant to give up their family businesses.

Therefore, they stayed in Hong Kong honestly, but before Hong Kong's return, they tried every means to whitewash themselves so that they could have a smooth transition.

The third type belongs to the radicals. Not only do they not think about a smooth transition, they also want to take this opportunity to reshuffle. These people were previously in the middle stream, and the middle stream will have the most opportunities if the cards are reshuffled.

No matter who you are, if you wanted to do something, you have already done it before July 1st. If you haven’t finished it, you can’t continue it now.

All that remains is to wait and see whether there will be any new developments in the new era.

However, although Hong Kong was calm, the whole of Asia was in turmoil on July 2.

On July 2, Thailand suddenly announced that it would abandon the fixed exchange rate system and implement a floating exchange rate. In a short period of time, the Thai baht plummeted by 20%.

The sharp depreciation of the Thai baht swept through the financial markets of Southeast Asia like a huge wave. A group of international speculators appeared in Southeast Asia like vampires, attacking the currencies of Southeast Asian countries for profit.

The financial crisis in Southeast Asia does not seem to have any impact on China, at least at this stage.

However, "Time Traveler" has been affected to some extent, because starting from July, "Time Traveler" will begin to be released in various countries in Southeast Asia.

At this critical juncture, the currencies of Southeast Asian countries are changing every day, and the box office revenue of movies released in these countries is likely to be greatly reduced.

There are two possibilities to avoid losses.

The first is to predict currency depreciation in advance and provide movie ticket prices to the expected level.

For example, if a movie ticket originally cost ten yuan, and now we know that the local currency is going to depreciate by 50%, we can raise the price of the ticket to twenty yuan.

However, if the price of movie tickets is increased so drastically, many local movie fans will definitely be unwilling to go to the cinema to watch movies. After all, the currency has depreciated, and they have not had more money. Movies are not a necessity, so they are most vulnerable at this time.

Another possibility is that the local currency received by the cinema on the same day is immediately exchanged into other strong currencies such as US dollars, but the question is who will exchange with you?
With the exchange rate constantly falling, it is very difficult to exchange money.

It is very awkward for "Time Traveler" to be released at such a time. Fortunately, they did not have high expectations for the box office in Southeast Asia, so they did not take it too seriously.

On July 4, Yu Hua and Shi Tiesheng arrived at the studio. After watching the rehearsal of the Youth Piano Orchestra, they went to Zhou Yan's office.

The three were originally talking about leaving for Hong Kong in two days, and then they talked about Thailand.

Yu Hua didn't know much about economics, so he asked curiously, "How can Soros, who runs a fund company, bring down a country's currency?"

Zhou Yan smiled and explained to Yu Hua, "The method is actually very simple. The Quantum Fund first borrows a large amount of Thai baht from a Thai bank, and then exchanges the Thai baht for US dollars. Thailand's foreign exchange reserves are prioritized, and this large-scale exchange behavior is likely to cause market fluctuations. Soros only needs to publicize to the media that the Thai baht is about to depreciate, causing retail investors to sell Thai baht, which will naturally cause the Thai baht to depreciate. Thailand is trying to take out 10 billion US dollars to maintain the exchange rate this time, but the Quantum Foundation has more money and cannot resist at all."

In fact, it is not just a matter of media publicity. After the incident, rating agency Moody's downgraded the credit ratings of Thailand's three major banks by two levels.

"Is it that simple?" Yu Hua asked in surprise.

Zhou Yan nodded. "It's that simple to say, but it's not easy to do. The Quantum Fund has very strong organizational capabilities, and they have money on hand. They have done this more than once."

"Since it happened more than once, why didn't Thailand take precautions this time?"

Zhou Yan said with a smile, "Because they have no ability to defend. In essence, Soros was able to short the Thai baht because the Thai baht has room to fall. Thailand's economy has been weak in recent years, and exports have declined. At the same time, they have borrowed a large amount of short-term and medium-term foreign loans from overseas banks and financial institutions, with foreign debts as high as 80 billion US dollars. Under this circumstance, their exchange rate is high and maintains a fixed exchange rate with the US dollar. It was at this time that the US dollar index began to strengthen and the Federal Reserve raised interest rates abnormally, giving Soros an opportunity."

"These small countries are too difficult. Any company can deal with them." Yu Hua sighed.

"In fact, Soros doesn't think highly of these small countries in Southeast Asia because there is too little meat to be gained and they must have bigger goals behind them."

"A bigger goal?"

"Well, for example, Korea, and for example... Hong Kong."

Yu Hua was surprised and asked, "They still dare to short Hong Kong?"

"Why not? Hong Kong is a big piece of fat meat."

Shi Tiesheng frowned and pondered, "Didn't you just say that the Quantum Fund was able to short the Thai baht because Thailand itself had problems? But what's wrong with Hong Kong? Hong Kong's economy is so strong now, can the Quantum Fund take advantage of it?"

Zhou Yan shook his head. "Hong Kong looks impeccable, but it also has its shortcomings. Before the British government left, it invested too much money in infrastructure, and the subsequent financial pressure to maintain it is not small. In addition, Hong Kong has been overheated in recent years. The Hang Seng Index has increased several times. Hong Kong people of all identities are speculating in stocks, and many people are leveraging their money. House prices have also increased several times. Last year alone, house prices soared by 50%. Under such circumstances, Soros only needs to find an opportunity to snipe Hong Kong."

Hearing Zhou Yan's words, Yu Hua worriedly asked, "Isn't Xiangjiang very dangerous?"

"Yes, it's very dangerous." Zhou Yan nodded.

The situation that Xiangjiang is facing this time is indeed very dangerous, but the final result should not be a problem.

Now that Xiangjiang has returned to the motherland, they naturally have strong backing to protect them when facing the attacks from the Quantum Fund.

Yu Hua and Shi Tiesheng didn't know this. They were very worried when they heard Zhou Yan say that Hong Kong was in danger.

However, even if they are worried about such major international events, they can do nothing about it.

Not to mention Yu Hua and Shi Tiesheng, even Zhou Yan probably wouldn't be able to help.

Their company does have some US dollars, but this money may be just a drop in the bucket for Hong Kong's financial war. If they want to resist the attacks of international speculators, the funds needed may be as high as hundreds of billions of US dollars.

However, his brother Zhou Hong was very concerned about the developments of Quantum Fund. When they were on the phone yesterday, Zhou Hong casually mentioned this matter.

Zhou Yan wanted to remind Zhou Hong, but after thinking about it, he said nothing, because from Zhou Hong's position, if he wanted to participate in this financial war, he would be on the winning side, so there was no need for Zhou Yan to say anything. It was impossible to say that Zhou Hong, holding foreign exchange, went to short Hong Kong with those foreign hot money.

If this is true, their Zhou family will probably be implicated by Zhou Hong, and Zhou Hong will definitely have his legs broken when he returns home.

Zhou Hong is not a fool and will definitely not do such a thing.

“Trust the country on this matter.”

Yu Hua nodded, "We won't be affected, but you are unlucky. Time Traveler happened to be affected by this incident, so the box office will be greatly affected."

Zhou Yan said indifferently, "The box office contribution from these Southeast Asian countries is not high to begin with. In the current situation, we can only leave it to fate."

"That's right. Your main voting base is still Japan and North America."

"There are also several European countries, so we should be able to get some box office revenue."

"I only know that the movie will be released in North America in a few days. Has the release date in Europe been confirmed?"

"Well, several countries have already confirmed it, basically in July and August. The UK is at the end of July, and France, Germany and Italy are at the beginning of August."

Zhou Yan's films are quite popular in France and the UK. This time, "Time Traveler" is released in Europe, and he also pays more attention to these two countries.

Especially in the UK, Wang Lihong has already gone there to perform in advance to help promote the movie before it is released.

The song "How Long Will I Love You" is very popular in the UK. After it landed in the UK, it won the singles championship for four consecutive weeks, making it the country with the most number of championships for this song.

In addition to the UK, the song stayed at the top of the singles charts for two weeks in Germany and for one week in France.

"Does your movie have a chance to gross over 100 million U.S. dollars worldwide?" Yu Hua asked.

Zhou Yan said with a smile, "One hundred million US dollars has been completed."

"finished?"

Yu Hua and Shi Tiesheng looked at each other and saw disbelief in each other's eyes.

They didn't pay much attention to the box office of "Time Traveler", and all the information they knew was from the news.

The various data in those reports are dizzying, and the monetary units are not unified.

Unexpectedly, the box office has exceeded 100 million US dollars.

"Yes, it's done." Zhou Yan nodded. "Thanks to the appreciation of the neon currency in recent times, the box office of Time Traveler has increased a lot when converted into US dollars. The key is that the settlement during this period has increased a lot more money than before."

Since the year before last, the value of neon coins has been depreciating overall.

When "The Sixth Sense" was released, eighty neon coins could be exchanged for one US dollar.

But by the beginning of this year, it took more than 120 Neon coins to exchange for one US dollar. Fortunately, the money earned from "The Sixth Sense" the year before last had already been converted into US dollars. If I had waited until the beginning of this year to exchange it, the amount would have been greatly reduced.

Starting from June this year, the Neon Coin suddenly began to appreciate again. When they were chatting today, one US dollar was exchanged for 114 Neon Coins.

This is naturally good news for Zhou Yan. The profits of "Time Traveler" have begun to be settled. At the current exchange rate, the Neon coins earned by "Time Traveler" in Neon are converted into US dollars, which is much higher than before.

The distribution income of "Time Traveler" in Japan has now exceeded 6 billion Japanese coins, and the box office is estimated to be about 13 to 14 billion Japanese coins.

Based on the exchange rate of 114 to 1, the box office of "Time Traveler" in Japan has reached nearly million US dollars.

The combined box office revenue from mainland China and Hong Kong is close to 20 million US dollars, and the total revenue from these three markets is close to 140 million US dollars.

Hearing that Zhou Yan had taken advantage of the exchange rate, Shi Tiesheng laughed and said, "If things get bad in one place, there are always other ways. Although you suffered a loss in Southeast Asia due to the exchange rate, you got an advantage here in Japan, which can make up for the loss."

"It's more than just making up for the loss." Zhou Yan said with a smile, "Comparing the exchange rate in Japan before June with the current exchange rate, the difference is close to 10%. The box office of Time Traveler has increased by more than 10 million US dollars out of thin air."

Shi Tiesheng was shocked and said, "So many, can all the countries in Southeast Asia combined have so many box office?"

"Almost. Probably not yet."

"No wonder you don't take it seriously." Yu Hua rubbed his hands. "Then let me ask you again, is there a hope that the global box office of Time Traveler will exceed 200 million US dollars?"

Zhou Yan pondered for a moment, then nodded and said, "There is still some hope."

"Time Traveler" has earned nearly 140 million US dollars in the three box office markets of mainland China, Hong Kong and Japan. There are still more than 60 million US dollars left to reach 200 million US dollars, and there are still many box office markets left.

The popularity of "Time Traveler" this time is obviously higher than when "The Sixth Sense" was released, and the box office in the UK is also much higher.

According to conservative estimates, the box office of "Time Traveler" in North America could reach 20 million US dollars.

With this 20 million US dollars in box office revenue, the rest of the box office revenue would only need 40 million US dollars.

If France and Britain perform well, this goal can be achieved directly.

Of course, maybe we don’t even need to look at the European box office. If the North American box office performs well, the goal can be achieved directly.

Now all parties are paying attention to whether the North American box office of "Time Traveler" can exceed 3239 million US dollars.

Why is it 3239 million US dollars, such a round number, because the box office of the highest-grossing Chinese-language movie in North America, "Rumble in the Bronx", is this number. If "A Time Traveler" can exceed this box office, it will once again become the highest-grossing Chinese-language movie in North America.

Previously, "The Sixth Sense" surpassed "The Wedding Banquet" with a box office of more than 3 million to become the highest-grossing Chinese-language film in North America, but it was soon surpassed by "Police Stories " with more than million.

Not long after that, Rumble in the Bronx was released and surpassed Police Stories 3 to become the first. (End of this chapter)