Hong Kong Entertainment: The King of Kung Fu

When filming "Terminator 2", John Woo accumulated a lot of experience as an assistant director.

When he was promoted to director of "Terminator 3", Yang Ye saved himself a lot of trouble.

Yang Ye would leave after finishing his own scenes every day, and use the saved time to take care of fund matters.

Since the fund was just launched, Paulson had little reputation and often had to appear in person.

Over the past twenty years, Yang Ye's performance in the film industry has been obvious to all, and no one doubts his dominance in this field.

When Yang's private equity fund appeared, it immediately attracted great attention in the North American capital circle.

During this period, Yang Ye began to use his knighthood to frequently move in and out of North America's upper class society.

A "socialite culture" is popular in the upper classes of Europe and the United States.

Many socialites are invited to attend salons hosted by some wealthy people.

These socialites are mainly divided into four categories, and those with European royal or aristocratic blood are generally considered to be true socialites.

Next are the heirs to wealthy families, outstanding female representatives in various fields, and popular reality show stars.

Of course, there are also many fake socialites who try every means to package themselves and then go in and out of these occasions in the hope of catching a rich husband.

In later China, there were special training classes for socialites, where students learned how to seduce and serve rich men, and some even succeeded in getting married.

For example, Aaron Kwok’s wife is said to have graduated from a socialite training class.

After China's rise, many celebrity daughters were also invited to Europe and the United States to attend these debutante balls.

For example, the daughter of kung fu superstar Jet Li, the second princess of Juhua, and the daughter of the gambling king have all been invited to attend the Paris Debutante Ball.

They wore custom-made gowns, fine jewelry, and danced with the "Knights," which became their introduction to the fashion industry and the media.

Yang Ye has been attending various salons frequently during this period, and has met many socialites. He has even transformed himself into a "knight" and danced with them.

Yang Ye is not only one of the world's top billionaires, but his profound knowledge and humorous conversation also make him very popular among these socialites.

These socialites were very interested in this big movie star, especially since they had heard from Madonna that Yang Ye was very ferocious.

So, they all expressed their affection to Yang Ye and asked him out for dates. Yang Ye was not polite and had a great time with these celebrities.

Of course, having fun is just a pastime, the main purpose is to make money and build connections.

Yang Ye openly announced that in addition to traditional industries such as stocks and real estate, a large portion of the funds he raised would flow into the film industry.

This means that Wall Street's funds have a new place to go.

How attractive is investment in the film industry?

After entering the 1990s, the film industry has been extremely prosperous, with many excellent films being produced all over the world and movie box office revenues being continuously pushed up.

Between 1990 and 2000, North American box office revenue grew 52 percent, and foreign markets also experienced explosive growth.

With the development of technology, the sources of income for movies have become very wide.

In addition to movie box office revenue, film companies can also make huge profits in areas such as advertising sponsorship, video revenue, television rights, TV on demand, movie peripherals, game adaptations, and novel publishing.

All this made film one of the most profitable industries at the time.

However, the film industry remains an extremely risky one.

Because as the market gets better and better, the production costs of movies are also rising.

When Yang Ye first traveled through time, the average production cost of a Hollywood movie was less than 500 million US dollars.

By the 2500s, it had increased fivefold to US$ million.

"High-concept" movies characterized by large investments, large productions, large marketing and large markets have become the mainstream in Hollywood.

Movies that cost more than $100 million to make began to appear.

High investment means high returns, but also high risks. If you are not careful, you will lose everything.

Even a commercial director like Spielberg had his Waterloo moment like "Empire of the Sun".

Therefore, film companies around the world will not invest too much of their own funds when making movies.

They like to burn investors' money so that they can ensure a stable income regardless of drought or flood.

If the movie is a big hit, everyone is happy.

Even if the movie fails, you can still make a lot of money by doing the accounting.

On the other hand, due to the sluggish stock market and low bank interest rates, Wall Street has abundant funds, and there are even some super private equity funds with fundraising scales of more than US$100 billion.

Wall Street's financial capital is in urgent need of finding new profit points, and Hollywood's good market performance naturally comes into their sight.

Take Paramount as an example. Even in a bad year, Paramount's internal rate of return can reach 15%. If it is the year when "Top Gun" was produced, the rate of return will be even higher.

The average hedge fund seeks a return rate of between 12% and 18%. This shows that investing in movies is an extremely cost-effective deal.

However, nowadays, the popular financing targets for film companies around the world are mainly film producers around the world.

Normally, a Hollywood movie can recoup 80% of its investment by selling copyrights without even needing to be released.

It’s even more exaggerated in Hong Kong. You don’t even need a script. You just need to get the contracts of a few first-line actors to raise tens of millions of investments.

So, although Wall Street wants to cooperate with Hollywood, it has no way to do so because Hollywood does not need their money.

Historically, due to the continuous increase in film production costs, the investment recovered through pre-sales became less and less. It was not until the millennium that Paramount took the lead and reached a cooperation with Merrill Lynch to establish a private equity fund called Melrose.

The fund had a size of $2.3 million and invested in a total of 25 Paramount films over three years.

Why 25 movies?

Because investment institutions at the time believed in a portfolio theory called "Monte Carlo". Based on this theory, when the number of film projects invested reached 20-25, the volatility of investment returns would be relatively small.

In short, investing in movies always results in gains and losses. When the number of movies invested in reaches a certain level, the probability of losing money becomes smaller.

So, during that period, Wall Street funds and investment banks such as Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers began to invest crazily in Hollywood.

The funds mobilized each year amount to billions of dollars, and even spawned a number of powerful independent production companies.

And then... they were fooled by Hollywood!
When the US subprime mortgage crisis broke out in 2008, Wall Street investment banks and funds fell into crisis. In order to save themselves, they were forced to sell their movie shares at 3% to 7% off. Hollywood took the opportunity to buy up the shares, causing Wall Street to make a lot of money.

……

As the controller of the fund, Yang Ye did not just rely on his face to ask for money everywhere.

He designed a theoretical model and began to sell it everywhere, claiming that it could predict the success rate of a movie.

At a party, Yang Ye spoke at length and roughly explained his theoretical model.

"Based on factors such as a film's director, leading actors, genre, and release date, with my many years of experience in the film industry, I can roughly predict the chances of success of a film after it is released to the market..."

In order to enhance his persuasiveness, Yang Ye brought out Xiang Huasheng's eight key winning tips, added some exaggeration to them, and startled the investors.

Due to Yang Ye's invincible experience in the film industry, many people began to believe that the success of a film can be calculated in advance.

In fact, this thing can only provide a rough prediction idea, how can it be accurate?
If the calculations were accurate, there wouldn’t be those dark horses.

The script of "First Blood" had been circulating in Hollywood for more than ten years but no one took it up. By the time it was made into a movie, Sylvester Stallone himself thought it was a fucking bad movie.

Stallone planned to spend a sum of money to buy the movie and destroy it because he couldn't afford to lose face.

After being rejected by the film company, he suggested that his scenes be cut as much as possible. However, when the film was released, it was a huge hit and became a masterpiece of his career.

The same thing happened with "A Better Tomorrow". After the filming was completed, Michael Hui said forget it and don't release it as the audience wouldn't like it. If it was released, it would have to pay distribution fees. But it turned out to be a big hit in Asia and the director and the leading actors all became popular.

Movie box office is a very mysterious thing, how can it be predicted?

Only a time traveler like Yang Ye can know which movie will be successful.

But he couldn't say it directly, so he had to come up with a set of so-called theories to cover it up, which was actually just playing tricks!
Someone asked Yang Ye at the scene: "Which movie that will be released this year do you think is the best?"

There are many exciting sequels coming out in 1992, such as "Batman Returns", "Home Alone 2", "Lethal Weapon 3", etc.

The predecessors of these movies all achieved very high box office, but Yang Ye did not predict these movies, as that would not show his ability.

Yang Ye replied, “Some time ago I went to visit my friend Whitney Houston, who was filming a movie called The Bodyguard.

This movie tells the story of a bodyguard who once protected the president and was hired to protect a popular singer.

The bodyguard had a strong sense of responsibility and kept his public and private affairs separate. He would never have any emotional connection with his employer, but he was conquered by the singer's charm and the two fell in love.

This is a very touching movie. I watched the original version and felt it was very well made. I even had the idea of ​​making a Chinese version.

Based on my analysis, I think this movie will be the dark horse of this year. I predict that its box office will be at least over 300 million US dollars, and it may even become the box office champion.

As far as I know, the movie will be released before Christmas Eve, so stay tuned!"

Yang Ye ignored the menacing sequels and openly predicted that a movie that would be released in half a year would become the box office champion, which aroused great interest among many people.

Someone asked on the spot: "Sir, are you sure that the movie you said, The Bodyguard, will be the box office champion this year?"

Yang Ye certainly wouldn't say anything final, he corrected, "I'm saying this movie will be a dark horse. I predict it will take in over $300 million, and it might even become the box office champion. Of course, this kind of thing is not certain."

The man said reluctantly: "Well, can you predict a more accurate number?"

Yang Ye was provoked and asked immediately: "Excuse me, who are you?"

The man said, "I'm an investor on Wall Street. My name is Ryan Kavanaugh."

Yang Ye shook his head and said, "Mr. Kavalao, I am not a god. This is just based on my understanding of the film and my analysis of the market.

But I can make a bet with you. I bet that the box office of this movie will be more than $300 million. If it doesn’t reach that, I can lose you one million dollars. ”

Ryan Kavanaugh didn't believe that Yang Ye could accurately predict the box office by watching a rough film, so he said immediately: "Well, if the box office exceeds 300 million US dollars, I can also lose one million US dollars to you."

Yang Ye and Ryan Kavanaugh high-fived each other to take an oath. Many people at the scene witnessed the event and everyone was waiting for the result with great interest.

If Yang Ye wins, his accurate prediction ability of the film market will make the fund he controls very popular.

In this highly developed capitalist society, if you can make money and bring them income, you are the grandfather.

……

For Yang Ye, filming a movie like "Terminator 3" was actually very easy.

There were many shots that seemed very dangerous, but he didn't even have to be present.

With John Woo in control of the overall situation, he only needs to keep an eye on it from time to time to make sure the movie does not go astray.

This ensures that he has plenty of time to travel around. In addition to lobbying wealthy Americans to invest in his fund, he can also find time to spend with his daughter and Akina Nakamori.

For example, shortly after the movie begins, TX drives a speeding crane and throws the T850, which is tightly grasping the hook at the tail end of the crane arm, into a roadside store. The scene is very thrilling and is one of the famous scenes in "Terminator 3".

During the filming, it was of course impossible to really hang Yang Ye on a crane and crash it into the house. Although Yang Ye could be called a "superman", he did not have a body of steel.

How was this scene filmed?
The set design team spent two weeks building a two-story shopping mall on the filming location.

The mall was specially designed to ensure that the crane arm would pass through the building when it hit.

During the filming, the stuntman drove a 140-ton crane, speeding along the mall, with Yang Ye's stuntman hanging on the hook of the crane, and smashed the house hard.

In order to make the house collapse, explosives had to be used, and in order to create a more spectacular visual effect, the special effects department also placed some fireworks inside the mall.

Finally, Ziqi Company replaced the stand-in prop with an electronic model of Yang Ye, which had been scanned of Yang Ye in advance.

When editing, combined with the close-up of Yang Ye’s face taken in the early stage, a lifelike effect can be achieved, and almost no one can tell which are the CG images.

After years of working together, Yang Ye's team has become very mature and efficient in doing these things.

Yang Ye only needs to tell the team what kind of results he wants to achieve, and everyone will take care of the rest.

Of course, if there are any technical difficulties, Yang Ye will personally take action.

As a director, John Woo was very envious of this. Such an awesome team was exactly what he had dreamed of.

It’s a pity that this team was created by Yang Ye and only obeys Yang Ye. He, John Woo, only uses the experience card.

While John Woo was using the experience card, Yang Ye was invited by the American Film Association (MPA)... (End of this chapter)