During my years at China Entertainment

Chapter 859 Three Girl Groups of a Trillion-Dollar Entertainment Empire Join Forces to Fight Against Japan
Inside the main conference room of the Shanhe Building, the group's annual summary meeting is underway.

Wearing a tailored suit, Wei Jin held onto the armrest of his chair with one hand and rested his chin on the other, listening to the speeches from various departments one after another, maintaining a smile on his face throughout, clearly in a very pleasant mood.

There was no way around it; Shanhe Media experienced a complete boom this year, with its various revenues exceeding Wei Jin's expectations!
In terms of movies, the three blockbuster films released in the second half of the year before last, namely "Operation Mekong", "Goodbye Mr. Loser" and "The Taking of Tiger Mountain", all generated a total revenue of 12 billion yuan.

Last year's releases, including "Breakup Buddies," "Gone Girl," "Wolf Warrior," "Bad Genius," "Seattle 2," "Monkey King: Hero Is Back," and "Go Away Mr. Tumor," have all had their revenue sharing settled, totaling a staggering 23.5 billion yuan.

Although the box office revenue sharing for films released after September has not yet been received, the film production department still achieved a net profit of 35.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of nearly 20%.

Whether in terms of profitability or growth rate, the film production department truly lives up to its reputation as the company's core business unit, standing out from the crowd!
Sitting to Wei Jin's right, Zhong Lifang and Chen Xi couldn't stop smiling; this was all thanks to them.

Meanwhile, the TV drama production department, which is also a core department, also saw a significant increase in revenue last year due to the rise of online platforms and the money-burning strategies of major TV stations.

Several TV series and web dramas, including "Joy of Life 2", "Darker 2", "Together Through Windows 2", "Nirvana in Fire", "The Disguiser", "Chicken Feather Flies to the Sky", "Wu Xin: The Monster Killer", and "The Imperial Doctress", have been broadcast multiple times and on online platforms, bringing in a total net profit of 22 billion yuan.

In addition, the outstanding works accumulated over the past decade have generated nearly 5 million in continuous cash revenue.

The entire TV drama production department achieved a total profit of 27 billion, representing a growth rate of over 30%!

In terms of variety shows, "The Voice of China," now in its eighth season, saw a resurgence in viewership last year after inviting Jay Chou to join the show, averaging around 3%.

The variety show department is ready and will gradually adjust the guest lineup, inviting popular celebrities, determined to further explore the potential of this variety show.

The other music variety shows, such as "The Masked Singer" and "I Am a Singer", have been sold to cooperating TV stations, which not only directly earned a large amount of copyright fees, but also have continuous revenue sharing.

Several outdoor variety shows have maintained relatively strong ratings and remain among the top in the industry.

Among them, the seventh season of "Keep Running" saw a surge in viewership due to Lu Han's addition, with an average rating exceeding 3!

In light of this, the variety show department has decided to invite Zhang Yixing to join this year's "Go Fighting!" in an effort to achieve new ratings highs.

The two travel variety shows, "Sisters Over Flowers" and "Divas Hit the Road," have maintained their freshness due to the constant changes in their guests.

So even in the fourth season, the ratings remained quite stable, still hovering around 2%.

Comedy variety shows, including "Happy Comedians," have a high audience engagement due to their genre, and their ratings have consistently remained above 3%!

As for the newly launched slow-paced variety show "Back to Field" and the competitive music variety show "The Voice of China", they have not yet started airing due to scheduling conflicts with the TV stations.

However, thanks to Shanhe Media's prestigious brand, it has already generated nearly 8 million yuan in revenue from naming rights fees and advertising sponsorships alone.

In addition, several self-produced variety shows in collaboration with Tudou, such as "I Am a Singer-Songwriter" and "Qipa Talk", have also performed well.

Both the click-through rate and the level of discussion are very high, and the profitability is also considerable.

In this context, the variety show division achieved a total revenue of 32 billion last year, surpassing the TV drama production division for the first time and ranking second in the group headquarters!

The distribution department, due to the group's high productivity, does not take on many external business, releasing a total of 24 films last year.

However, due to the overall prosperity of the industry and the emergence of numerous high-grossing films, revenue actually increased, with total profits approaching 300 million.

The animation production department faced a significant increase in workload due to the launch of three animated films. Last year, they only developed two blockbuster IPs, "I Shall Seal Immortals" and "The Great Ruler," with revenue barely reaching 4 million.

As for the music production department, just as Wei Jin had predicted, with the implementation of the Jianwang Action, the era of paid content has arrived.

Last year, leading platforms such as Kugou, NetEase Cloud Music, Impression Tianyin, and QQ Music all launched paid subscription models.

However, because it has only been a short time, the growth in the number of paying users is not yet very obvious.

However, as the copyright holder, the music production department made a fortune from licensing fees alone, and its overall revenue increased significantly, exceeding 7 million!
Overall, the group's headquarters achieved substantial growth in both revenue and profit last year, showing a thriving trend.

Of course, the group's various subsidiaries also performed admirably, delivering satisfactory results.

In terms of special effects, with the start of the financing and listing process, Shanhe Shuimo consciously increased its revenue and profits, and maintained full-capacity operation throughout last year.

The company undertook 64 films and TV series, with cumulative revenue exceeding 10 billion yuan for the first time, and net profit reaching 3 million yuan.

According to Wang Ke, the person in charge, the average valuation offered by the several capital firms they have been in contact with is around 80 billion yuan.

Frankly, this valuation isn't high, but globally, there's no precedent for a visual effects company going public independently, so we can only take it one step at a time.

If all else fails, Wei Jin plans to integrate October Culture and Yang Yu's companies in Sichuan Province, package them together for listing, and increase the initial valuation.

However, the former is easier to deal with, since Shanhe Media already has a significant shareholding, but the latter will probably require further discussion.

In terms of artist management, with the establishment of Galaxy Entertainment, the artists who received original shares developed a sense of ownership and worked even harder.

With rising actor salaries and endorsement fees, Galaxy Entertainment, despite being only established for a year, has achieved remarkable annual revenue, exceeding 10 billion yuan!
In terms of cinema chains, in addition to the 18 cinemas acquired from Edko Films and the 31 cinemas expanded by Longfor Group's real estate, Shanhe Media has also added 47 high-end cinemas through leasing and self-owned properties.

In total, Shanhe Cinemas currently controls 682 cinemas and more than 4800 screens, with a market share of 15.37%, ranking first!

With the booming film market, cinema revenue has also increased significantly, with box office revenue alone exceeding 10 billion yuan, reaching 106 billion yuan.

Furthermore, with the economic recovery and the rise in audience spending, non-box office revenue—that is, revenue from various merchandise—also saw a significant increase, reaching 42.83 billion.

The entire Shanhe Cinema chain achieved a total revenue of nearly 150 billion yuan and a net profit of 24 billion yuan last year, representing a year-on-year increase of over 100%!

This performance far surpasses that of Wanda Cinemas, and the credit for this should naturally go to CEO Zhao Feng, who was praised by Wei Jin on the spot.

Of course, the most profitable subsidiary is Shanhe Technology.

Thanks to the huge success of the TV series and movie, the games "The Journey of Flower" and "Dark Journey to the West" experienced explosive growth in a short period of time. In just six months, the combined revenue from PC games, web games, and mobile games reached nearly 20 billion yuan.

Other traditional PC games such as "New Jade Dynasty" and "Jade Dynasty World", as well as several cash-grabbing web games such as "Brotherhood of Blades 2", have also continued to generate nearly 30 billion yuan in revenue.

The competitive games "CrossFire" and "League of Legends" have seen explosive growth this year, with global revenue exceeding 17 billion, an increase of more than 50%!

As for mobile games, they have also seen explosive growth with the expansion of major mobile application manufacturers.

The growth of puzzle and casual games such as "Happy Match", "Subway Surfers" and "Protect the Carrot" is not yet significant;

However, the growth-type game "Honkai Impact 2" and several newly developed role-playing mobile games, such as "Mang Huang Ji", "Snow Sword", and "Zhu Xian", have already tasted success, with their total revenue exceeding 40 billion last year!
This includes the newly developed competitive mobile game "Honor of Kings," which, despite its short time on the market, has seen less promotional efforts than its predecessor.
However, relying on social platforms such as Weibo, Impression.com, and Tudou, the number of users has been rising steadily, with monthly revenue exceeding 5 million.

It is foreseeable that this game will become a significant growth driver for Shanhe Technology's revenue and profits.

Of course, Shanhe Media's legal department was also extremely busy last year in order to ensure the revenue of multiple games.

They launched a rights protection war against several leading game companies, such as NetEase and Tencent, each employing their own unique methods.

In addition, Impression.com's ticketing commission and advertising revenue have also increased significantly with the industry boom and economic growth, exceeding 8 million yuan.

Weibo, for example, also achieved profitability for the first time last year, with a net profit of 7 million yuan for the whole year. It has only just turned a profit and has not yet distributed dividends.

Overall, Shanhe Technology alone generated nearly 300 billion yuan in revenue and over 50 billion yuan in net profit last year!

This is also a major reason why Shanhe Technology's market value can remain stable at 100 billion yuan. It's just too damn profitable, practically a money-printing machine!
As for Shanhe Film and Television City, it is still in the construction stage where investment exceeds output, with revenue of less than 2 million yuan and profits even less.

Roughly estimated, Shanhe Media Group's revenue exceeded 62 billion yuan last year, making it no exaggeration to call it a 100 billion yuan entertainment empire!

In terms of net profit, after deducting various expenses, foreign investments and taxes, it still reached 160 billion.

It is no exaggeration to say that this level of profitability and net profit margin is second to none in any industry!
"Excellent! I am very satisfied with everyone's work. I hope we can continue our efforts next year and strive to achieve our goal of 100 billion in revenue."

After a brief encouragement, Wei Jin slowly swept his gaze over everyone present and then got down to business.

"Enough with the small talk. The summary is done, so let's talk about next year's work. Well, the film production department is the most profitable. Chen Xi, you go first."

At 34, Chen Xi, who exudes the charm of a mature woman, stood up gracefully with a bright smile on her face.

"Okay, boss, the work for the film production department next year."

After the meeting concluded, Wei Jin and the other senior executives moved to the banquet hall.

It was already past five o'clock, and the huge banquet hall was packed with people.

Many celebrities who haven't yet started their own studios also attended, creating a lively atmosphere.

At the invitation of guest host Liu Yan, Wei Jin walked onto the stage amidst deafening applause.

Without any lengthy discourse, after a simple summary of the past and a look to the future, Wei Jin waved his hand and began the lottery.

Every year at this stage, the atmosphere is at its most intense, and it's also a time for people to show off on Weibo and WeChat Moments because the prizes are so generous.

In addition to a cash prize pool of 9 million, there are 20 Mercedes-Benz cars provided by partners, and 200 iPhone 6S phones that were just released last September.

Other prizes, such as a lucky draw prize of 10,000 yuan for a trip and a shopping card worth 1,000 yuan for New Year's goods, are also numerous and almost everyone receives one!

Jiang Zhenyu, who had just joined the company, was lucky enough to win the newly released iPhone 6S. The 20-year-old girl beamed with joy.

Her roommate, Chen Duling, was even luckier, winning a 15-day luxury European tour worth 28888 yuan.

However, compared to Zhang Wen, a veteran of the industry, all of this is child's play.

This girl is incredibly lucky; she's blessed with good fortune almost every year, and this time she won the grand prize—a Mercedes-Benz E300, a prize that's one in ten thousand.

Having had a few drinks, Zhang Wen was so excited that she couldn't contain herself, flaunting herself in front of her many "good friends" like a butterfly flitting among flowers.

As a resident of Beijing whose property was demolished and who is now receiving compensation, her family is not short of money, but such a windfall would definitely excite anyone.

Many celebrities, despite their own high incomes, envied her good fortune and sent their blessings and congratulations.

Even Naza and Ni Ni, among others, clung to her and shared in her good fortune.

Amidst the lively atmosphere, the annual banquet officially began.

Amidst the clinking of glasses and lively atmosphere, the three major girl groups, Girls' Generation, T-ara, and TWICE, took turns performing on stage.

The rhythmic dance music and the hot, young bodies immediately set the entire audience on the edge of their seats.

However, compared to the cheers, screams, and whistles from the male audience members that were almost enough to lift the roof off, the female artists had very mixed feelings.

Because these sluts are obviously going to take over Boss Wei again.

Sure enough, when the two-hour banquet ended, Naza, Zhang Tianai, Ni Ni and the others discovered that the boss had already disappeared.

"My brother is so annoying! I rushed back all this way, and he didn't even spend time with me."

~~~
(End of this chapter)