During my years at China Entertainment

Chapter 805 Troublesome! You're in big trouble!

As a veteran who had followed Wei Jin for over ten years, Chen Zhiming always had a good sense of propriety and would never disturb his boss early in the morning.

But today, Wei Jin was unusually woken up by Old Chen's phone call.

"Mr. Wei, the box office figures for 'Seattle 2' are suspicious. We've investigated."

Listening to Chen Zhiming's explanation over the phone, Wei Jin's expression was quite interesting, showing anger at being offended, but even more so disbelief.

Since its release, "Monster Hunt" has repeatedly broken box office records, especially after the weekend, when its daily revenue actually exceeded 200 million.

Wei Jin originally thought it was the result of controlling comments or inflating box office figures, but he didn't expect that the other party was even bolder and dared to steal the box office revenue of a movie produced by Shanhe Media!
To be honest, box office fraud is a common occurrence in the industry, and countless small and medium-sized production companies have encountered this problem.

This is because cinemas are scattered all over the country, making it impossible to completely eliminate them, and the cost is also too high.

Therefore, the usual practice is to entrust the distribution of films to powerful distributors, so that those shady operators will be more cautious when doing things.

But given the size of Shanhe Media, for Anle to dare to challenge such a powerful figure is absolutely outrageous!

"Old Chen, get the documents ready and wait for me in the office."

After Wei Jin finished speaking, he hung up the phone and then called Lao Zhu, instructing the latter to stand by. He then got up and began to get dressed.

The luxuriant flower, which had been sleeping soundly all night, was also awakened by a series of sounds from the Wei and Jin dynasties.

Ignoring her naked body, her snow-white, pert figure pressed against Wei Jin's back as she asked curiously, "Brother, what's wrong?"

Looking at Fu Guihua's delicate and exquisite face, Wei Jin's anger subsided. He gently patted her shapely buttocks and said softly:

"It's nothing. I have some things to take care of at the company, so I won't be able to attend the celebration banquet at noon. We'll celebrate your birthday tonight, okay?"

"Bad Genius," starring Jing Tian, ​​has finished its run after its last weekend of release, with a final box office of 12.08 billion yuan.

As one of the few domestic films to gross over 10 billion yuan, a celebration banquet is a must, and it was scheduled for today—Jing Tian's birthday.

This is also the main reason why the young girl hurriedly ended her trip with the brand and returned to Beijing from abroad.

However, due to the unexpected situation, Wei Jin could no longer attend to this dinner party.

"Yes, brother, you have important business to attend to. I'm fine."

Although she didn't know what had happened, Jing Tian was very decisive when it came to important matters. She nodded obediently and watched Wei Jin leave the room.

"Boss, breakfast."

Wei Jin had just finished washing up when he came out of Dongshan Villa, and the dutiful Old Zhu was already waiting there, thoughtfully serving him breakfast.

"Thank you."

After receiving breakfast from Lao Zhu, Wei Jin ate it in the Maybach and then drove to the company.

As soon as I arrived at the office, I saw that Chen Zhiming and Zhao Feng were already waiting there.

"President Wei, the information is all here. Anle's shady dealings are truly numerous."

Chen Zhiming stood up and pointed to a file folder on the table, his expression one of disgust as if he had swallowed a fly.

"Okay, let me take a look first."

Wei Jin nodded, opened the file folder, and browsed through the photos inside; they were all from the cinema.

There was also a statistics table and a USB drive containing videos and photos, which were obviously quite a lot.

"Old Chen, how did you figure it out?"

While reviewing the evidence, Wei Jin asked questions.

"Mr. Wei, I sensed something was wrong with the box office on Sunday. Logically speaking, a drop in daily box office for 'Seattle 2' is normal, but a precipitous drop is not."

Wei Jin understood the logic in Lao Chen's words: the successive releases of "Monster Hunt" and "Jianbing Man" squeezed out the screenings of "Seattle 2," so the decline in box office revenue was normal.

But if it drops directly from a high of 40 to 50 million to 20 million, then there is clearly something wrong.

Because the screening rate of "Seattle 2" only dropped by a few percentage points, "Tiny Times 4" and "Forever Young" were more affected.

Moreover, besides its high screening rate, "Seattle 2" also maintained a fairly good occupancy rate thanks to its positive word-of-mouth. All things considered, there's definitely something fishy going on!

"So while I was secretly visiting other cinema chains, I also had General Manager Zhao investigate the situation, and we discovered that there really was a problem."

Upon hearing this, Wei Jin looked at Zhao Feng, who had remained silent, with a hint of disappointment on his face—because Shanhe Cinemas was among the many names in these photos.

As a cinema chain controlled by the group, the fact that someone could be caught stealing from someone else's premises makes General Manager Zhao Feng undeniably culpable!

Zhao Feng understood this principle and stated directly and decisively: "President Wei, I apologize. It was indeed my negligence in my work."

I never expected a bunch of bugs to appear inside the company, playing dirty tricks on me. I'll accept whatever you decide to do with it.

However, Chen Zhiming, mindful of their years of working together, stepped forward to plead for Zhao, saying, "President Wei, this matter cannot be entirely blamed on President Zhao."

As far as I know, he's been busy lately with site selection and renovations for several cinemas, as well as negotiations with Longfor Group; he's practically never home.

"Alright, the external issues haven't been resolved yet, so let's put this on hold for now and talk about it later."

Wei Jin waved his hand, not addressing Zhao Feng's problem immediately.

Because box office fraud is indeed very easy to do; a theater manager and a few staff members can easily pull it off.

In particular, Shanhe Cinemas has expanded rapidly in the past two years, resulting in uneven staff quality and management loopholes, which is unavoidable.

However, not punishing Zhao Feng doesn't mean those scoundrels will be forgiven. Wei Jin asked in a cold tone, "Have those theater managers been dealt with?"

"Not yet, but the evidence has been preserved and can be dealt with at any time. It just depends on whether you want to handle it internally or make it public."

Having narrowly escaped disaster, Zhao Feng's anxiety subsided slightly, and he proposed two solutions.

His meaning was quite clear: internal settlement meant settling things privately with Anle, while public announcement meant giving her a severe slap in the face.

But Wei Jin didn't pick up on that topic for the moment. Instead, he looked at Chen Zhiming and asked, "Is there a problem with 'Jianbing Man'?"

As the saying goes, when you find one cockroach in a house, you've already seen a whole nest of them.

Wei Jin was always confident, but Anle's shady dealings made him realize that others might follow suit.

If "Jianbing Man" dares to reach out, he wouldn't mind dealing with them together. Don't think that Mr. Zhang from Sohu has enough influence!
"From what I understand, this movie may be terrible, but the box office figures are real, and there's definitely some leeching involved. It's just that because it was just released, there's been a lot of attention from all sides, so the leeching is relatively small. Unlike us, whose box office losses are conservatively estimated to be over 80 million!"

Upon hearing this number, Wei Jin couldn't help but sneer, "Well, I've really learned something new. Companies from Hong Kong dare to try and take advantage of me. Well done!"

Seeing Wei Jin's chilling tone, Chen Zhiming asked curiously, "Mr. Wei, how do you think we should handle this? Should we go directly to them? Or should we file a complaint with the bureau?"

"Go to the bureau to complain? Wait for them to smooth things over? Hasn't this kind of thing happened a lot in the industry? Every time, it's been downplayed and ignored."

This is probably why Anle dares to act so recklessly, but I want Jiang Zhiqiang to understand that if he dares to make trouble here, he should be prepared to provoke a war! Old Chen, Zhao Feng, you two…”

Wei Jin calmly deployed a series of well-organized arrangements; he hadn't been this angry in a long time.

If we don't teach Jiang Zhiqiang a lesson this time, won't any Tom, Dick, or Harry dare to shit and piss on Wei's head in the future?!
At that moment, Chen Zhiming and Zhao Feng exchanged a glance and understood each other's meaning.

Is the boss going to go all out this time?!
After Chen Zhiming and Zhao Feng acted as agreed, Wei Jin notified the senior management of the group company and its subsidiaries to hold a meeting at headquarters.

If problems can arise within Shanhe Cinemas, then other departments and companies are not necessarily clean either.

Even if there were no problems, Wei Jin wanted to use this incident to teach the company's senior executives, who had long been "pampered," a lesson, to sound the alarm, and to serve as a warning.

While Shanhe Media was conducting an internal investigation, the film and television industry, just as Chen Zhiming and Zhao Feng had predicted, was in complete uproar.

The eyes of countless industry insiders have been drawn to the latest official announcements from Shanhe Media, Shanhe Cinema Line, and Jiahe Cinema Line.

The media was as excited as if it were New Year's Day, because Boss Wei, who had been keeping a low profile for nearly a year, was about to start a fight again!

This time, they're targeting Edko Films, a long-established Hong Kong film company that has made numerous contributions to the development of Chinese-language cinema!

"Recently, our company has noticed abnormal and drastic fluctuations in the box office data of 'Seattle 2'. After investigation, we found that the film 'Monster Hunt' released in the same period stole the box office revenue without our knowledge."

Admittedly, the cost of "Monster Hunt" skyrocketed due to reshoots during filming, putting great pressure on the company to recoup its investment. We understand and sympathize with this situation, but this is absolutely not a reason or excuse for Edko Films to resort to such inappropriate methods!

Stealing box office revenue from other films not only seriously damages the interests of films released in the same period, but also undermines the fair competition environment in the film market!

Furthermore, the practices of "Monster Hunt," such as late-night ghost screenings, widespread ticket rigging, and frequent box office manipulation, have seriously interfered with market fairness and theater scheduling.

If Shanhe Media's announcement merely brought their private "unspoken rules" into the open, it was a resounding slap in the face to Anle Pictures.

So the announcements from Shanhe Cinemas and Jiahe Cinemas are a proper "public execution" of "Monster Hunt" and its production company!
"Recently, our company conducted an internal investigation and discovered that the film 'Monster Hunt' had serious violations during its screening:"
This film is suspected of colluding with the heads of several cinemas under our company, and engaging in unfair business practices such as stealing box office revenue and wantonly disrupting screening data.

This move not only infringed upon the interests of other film companies and interfered with our internal management, but also seriously damaged the principle of fair competition in the film market.

We have a zero-tolerance policy towards such behavior and strongly condemn it. In accordance with the screening contract, we will take the following punitive measures:
Effective immediately, all cinemas under our management have removed the film "Monster Hunt" from their shelves, and we will take serious disciplinary action against the cinema managers and related employees involved.

Admittedly, box office fraud is indeed an "open secret" in the industry, and most of the time, the small and medium-sized production companies that are targeted can only choose to keep quiet.

Because those who are capable of doing this are not people they can afford to mess with.

Take Edko Films, for example. It has been established for over 65 years and has a very deep network of connections in the industry.

But Shanhe Media is different. It is not only the undisputed leader of private companies in China's entertainment industry, but its leader, Wei Jin, is also a world-class director and Asia's richest man. Its influence is enormous!

Many small and medium-sized production companies with movies scheduled for release recently are already looking forward to it, because if Mr. Wei takes the lead in criticizing, their own movies might also benefit greatly.

Meanwhile, all the unrelated production companies in the industry are looking forward to the subsequent developments and Anle's response.

As for the internet, there is now a huge uproar!
"No wonder! I was wondering why tickets for 'Monster Hunt' were so hard to get. For two days in a row, only standing tickets were available. So that's why they were being snapped up!"

"To be honest, this movie is alright, but it's not as good as the hype made it out to be. The current buzz and box office figures seem a bit inflated."

"Well, that explains why I couldn't post my negative review. Turns out, it got deleted by other people?"

"I'm not sure if there was any box office fraud yet, but ghost screenings definitely happened. I went to see a movie around 1 a.m., and there were clearly only two people there, but the ticketing app showed all the seats were sold out. My girlfriend was terrified."

"Wow, you even have a girlfriend? I'm so envious. But the box office fraud is real. I bought a ticket for 'Jianbing Man,' but they gave me a ticket for 'Monster Hunt.' The staff even said they were the same and wouldn't affect my viewing."

"Hahaha, that's hilarious! Of all the companies to steal, why did they have to steal 'Seattle 2'? Even though it's an exclusive production, Mr. Wei isn't someone to be trifled with. He's really messed up now, hasn't he?"

"Damn, I just came out of the Shanhe Cinema Chengdu Longhu flagship store, and they've already taken down the 'Monster Hunt' posters from the theater. That's incredibly efficient."

"Jiang Zhiqiang and An Le are in deep trouble!"

"."

Compared to the online spectators and the industry insiders, Edko Films, the party involved, was not so calm.

"It's really been taken off the shelves?!"

In the chairman's office of Edko Films, Jiang Zhiqiang, who is over sixty years old, has a furrowed brow.

He originally planned to hold a celebration banquet tomorrow to push the box office to 10 billion, but he never expected such a big mistake to happen!

"Yes, Chairman Jiang, the moment the announcement was released, all cinemas of both theater chains removed the film from their shelves. Not a single promotional poster remained, and even the online ticketing channels were shut down."

Have you communicated with them?

"We have already negotiated with the two cinema chains, but they claim that we breached the contract first, not only deceiving moviegoers but also engaging in illegal operations. They are also demanding that we pay compensation for breach of contract!"

"That's unreasonable!"

Jiang Zhiqiang slammed his hand on the desk, his face filled with barely suppressed anger, but he was already getting anxious inside.

He had considered the consequences of the matter being exposed, and even had a plan in mind for dealing with public opinion and other production companies.

To everyone's surprise, Wei Jin was so assertive that he didn't even bother to discuss it and directly removed "Monster Hunt" from the shelves as punishment.

Keep in mind that Wanda Pictures was among the producers, and China Film Group was involved in the distribution. Does Wei Jin really have no regard for his allies' feelings at all?!

Now that "Monster Hunt" has been pulled from theaters early, the losses are enormous, given that Shanhe Cinemas and Jiahe Cinemas together hold more than 20% of the market share!
However, since the incident had already occurred, it still needed to be faced. After venting his anger, Jiang Zhiqiang fell into deep thought.

After a moment, he looked up and instructed, "The deed has already happened, so we need to deal with it quickly. There is still a chance to salvage the situation."

Inform the public relations team to draft a statement immediately and send it out to suppress public opinion and prevent the audience from spontaneously boycotting us.

Also, I told my subordinates to stop all "box office stuffing" at other theaters for now, and not to give themselves away, until I gave them further instructions.

"Understood, Chairman Jiang, I'll make the arrangements right away."

After his subordinates left the office, Jiang Zhiqiang took out his phone and started calling for reinforcements.
(End of this chapter)