King of Capital

[Cailian News at noon on May 5: Grapefruit Capital announced that the new round of US dollar fund has completed registration, with a single round of fundraising of US$3 billion.

According to foreign media reports, Grapefruit Capital received a total of US$85 billion in subscriptions, with an oversubscription ratio of 40%. This set a new record for the amount of funds raised by VC funds investing in China.

"90+60, how much is this?"

Zhong Lifang read the news on her phone screen and said to herself: "According to the exchange rate, this is 490 billion RMB. We are investing all our energy in filming TV series, so why not let a little slip through our fingers in financial investment?"

"I remember that Mr. Xie announced the fundraising in early March. It has taken only two months to raise so much money. This is unprecedented in the financial industry." The middle-aged man on the side also sighed.

"Mr. Ye just joined the company and doesn't know. Sister Fang, are you still unclear?"

Song Anli tasted the coffee with great interest, smiled and shook her head, saying: "We may be called the second generation of rich people, but we are actually children who have split up the family and are self-reliant. We can't benefit from our parents' fame."

"That's what I said, but we still have to feel proud of it. In case our parents are in a good mood and give us a red envelope one day, we can also compete for a big production. Don't you think so, Mr. Ye?" Zhong Lifang deliberately gave the conversation to the new colleague beside her.

Ye Ning said calmly that big productions are good, but large quantities of well-made and guaranteed content are the cornerstone for a film and television company to survive in the long run.

Song Anli looked at him without leaving any trace, nodded slightly with satisfaction, and was secretly pleased that she had not offended anyone in vain.

Ye Ning wore a pair of black-framed glasses on his face, had a slightly high hairline and a green stubble on his upper lip. At first glance, he looked quite artistic and elegant, and his speech and behavior were very proper, giving him the image of a very standard professional manager.

This is indeed the case. He has served as general manager of Wanda Cinema Line and vice president of Wanda Cultural Industry Group, in charge of the film and television business sector. It can be said that this old servant who has worked for Wanda for 14 years has poured every drop of blood and sweat into the foundation of Wanda's cultural and film and television industry.

But he personally finds it difficult to integrate into Wanda's foundation. No matter how well the cultural and entertainment business is done, commercial real estate is the core of the group.

Even though he had just been singled out and praised by Lao Wang at the annual meeting last year, as Wanda focused on large-scale overseas acquisitions this year, a cold personnel appointment was made to parachute in a senior executive of the same level, who could take away his power in a minute and be responsible for the capital operation of overseas cultural industries.

He is not treated as a family member at all, but just a professional manager hired from outside.

Ye Ning felt very disappointed, but Song Anli beckoned him, and he simply resigned and joined Xiaoma Pentium.

This kind of job-hopping among the same industry is quite common. In recent years, Tencent Video, Alibaba Pictures, and iQiyi, Youku and Tencent Video have poached many people from traditional film companies. However, Ye Ning was just singled out and praised by Lao Wang last year, and he is indeed a capable talent.

The old employer immediately offered a "dedication agreement". Song Anli originally thought that the two parties had a strategic cooperation in the era of micro-film, and that she could just pay some money and say some soft words and it would be over.

As a result of this incident, Wanda suddenly remembered that last year, Li Ning, the boss of its own film distribution business, resigned with several senior executives and jumped to Xiaoma Pentium!
It may be okay to squeeze out Melatonin from a toad, but this is intolerable. Wanda Pictures has issued an internal verbal order not to schedule screenings for films invested in or controlled by Xiao Ma.

When gods fight, mortals suffer. The director of that movie and his creative team went bankrupt quietly, without even a sound to cry.

Song Anli is naturally not someone to be trifled with. In the early stages of the Microfilm Times project, she was the one who personally led it. She immediately went to have a cup of tea with its chairman Lin Ning, and the next day she secured the internet publicity and promotion resources for several of Wanda's highly-scheduled films.

Although Maoyan is controlled by Guangxian, Xinda holds a high proportion of shares, and it is you, Wanda, that is targeted.

The two companies together account for 70% of the online ticket sales market share, allowing the entire industry to see for the first time which one, the traditional cinema chain or the Internet ticket sales platform, is the ultimate market terminal with more say.

When celebrity fans ignorantly criticized the poor promotion of the movies starring their idols, and industry experts commented on the problems in the operations of Weying, Maoyan and Wanda, colleagues who knew the inside story were all saddened - times have really changed.

Even though it is currently the off-season for the industry and releasing movies is not a key project, Wanda still could not hold out for a month. Xiao Wang went too far in his WeChat Moments by accusing Song Anli of bullying and ended the dispute hastily.

After all, compared with Xiyou's strategic investment in Wanda's privatization project, this matter is really trivial. If the conflict escalates, both parties will easily be scolded by their own bosses.

Let’s keep in mind all the grudges and love for now. If you do something against me again in the future, I’ll probably repay you double.

As for the stakeholders of the film projects who have suffered negative impacts, now that things have come to this, if there is really no other way, they might as well switch to selling roasted sweet potatoes.

Song Anli felt very sorry about this but could do nothing about it. Man's fate was determined by heaven, and there would still be a sky of thunder and rain above her head.

"Mr. Song, I'll leave first. Please come and help me if you need anything."

After a brief conversation, Ye Ning saw that it was almost time and offered to leave.

Song Anli stood up to see him off: "Ask the administration to get whatever the office needs as soon as possible. Get settled in and get familiar with the office environment first. The company needs you to devote yourself to the work."

"Of course, don't feel pressured and go into battle lightly. Just like you just said, company development is a marathon." Zhong Lifang added encouragingly.

Ye Ning thoughtfully adjusted the positions of the two female bosses in his mind and silently planned to leave the office.

Li Ning, an old subordinate at Wanda, is now in charge of film and television distribution business at Xiaoma Pentium. He jumped here to temporarily take over the self-operated cinema business.

Then Zhong Lifang is left with the core businesses of film and television, variety show content investment and production, as well as artist brokerage, which are gradually being decentralized. However, she does not sound weak during the conversation, and there may be other explanations for the company's subsequent personnel arrangements.

Ye Ning's meticulous observation and sharp thinking can only be considered basic qualities. Song Anli doesn't care. She closes the office door, yawns lightly with her red lips covered, and shows off her beautiful figure.

Zhong Lifang blinked with envy: "Didn't you sleep well last night?"

"Lao Miao gave me two pieces of bacon, but I didn't know how to eat it. I kept looking up recipes and making them until very late." Song Anli pouted in distress.

Zhong Lifang smiled in silence and said with a hint of meaning: "Isn't it time to come to the capital?"

"He travels around the world all year round. When he finally gets a few days off, he either goes to LeTV or to Kujiji Studio. He's always busy, so who knows him?" Song Anli sat back at her large desk and propped up her chin with her hand.

It is full of the tune of the resentful concubines in Qing Dynasty palace dramas, who learn to cook in various ways to relieve their boredom and look forward to their men coming back every few months.

I’m twenty-seven years old this year, how many months are left to look forward to?

Zhong Lifang wanted to comfort him, but after thinking carefully about her condition at the time of 27, she decided to just forget it. It was not her turn to show sympathy.

"Did Lao Miao's investment in Wanda go smoothly?" she asked, changing the subject.

Song Anli perked up a little: "He is a little worried about the progress of Wanda's return to the A-share market. No one can predict this matter, so we should prepare in advance and make good use of Ye Ning."

"Is there any hope?" Zhong Lifang's heart was pounding.

Song Anli weighed the issue ambiguously: "We will do our best whether it succeeds or not. Since we have decided to go the independent listing route, we have to fight for it."

"In fact, we have invested a lot of resources in the cinema chain in the past two years. With Ye Ning joining us, the results on paper are not bad." Zhong Lifang couldn't hide her dry mouth and expressed her attitude. When Xiyou took over Xiaoma Pentium, Xie Jingxing decided on the strategy of self-operated cinema chain in the first in-depth discussion with her. However, this business is really not something that can be done by throwing money and resources in three or two years. It has always maintained a lukewarm development rhythm without any great results.

Currently, Xiyou has made a strategic investment in Wanda. If it fails to go public, it will have to repay 350 billion yuan plus interest. What if it cannot repay the money?
Use Xier to pay off the debt!
Although Song Anli never said anything clearly, this sentence is enough to argue for what needs to be argued.

Ye Ning, Li Ning, and Wanda Cinema's core management team are already in hand, and they also have a certain scale of self-operated cinema business. If there really comes a day when Wanda Cinema swallows up Wanda Cinema, there will be competition to see who will take over this piece of fat worth tens of billions!

Ye Ning's analysis was correct. Last year, when Xiyou just acquired LeTV, Song Anli once tried to let Zhong Lifang take over the position of CEO of Xiaoma Pentium. She gradually sorted out her work and turned to compete for the leadership of LeTV.

This is why President Zhong can remain proactive even after being decentralised.

But after a long period of calm thinking, Song Anli divided the entire entertainment industry map of Xie's capital into two parts: LeTV and Nan Ke Holdings, which consists of Xiaoma Pentium and Kujiji Studio.

She insisted on going to LeTV perhaps to take a shortcut, or perhaps she was choosing a long way over a near one, so she calmed down and returned to leading Xiaoma Pentium to seek an independent listing.

As a result of the chain reaction, Zhong Lifang was stuck in the middle, which was a bit awkward, but she was willing to take the risk at least until the big carrot was dangling in front of her before it went on the market.

Furthermore, the bubble in the entertainment industry has reached its peak this year, and the film and television production and the decision to develop a variety show production strategy at the end of last year have expanded her power in disguise.

Have you ever seen a drama selling copyright fees of 13 billion?

Now the entire industry has seen that New Classics Media, a subsidiary of Tencent invested in through its subsidiary China Literature Group, is working on a sequel to "Empresses in the Palace", "Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace", and the huge production investment has been hyped up even before filming began.

Based solely on the script and the cast, Tencent Video plans to team up with iQiyi to spend 8 million to purchase the online copyright. After roughly calculating the TV broadcast rights, the total copyright fees sold are 13 billion, which makes Zhong Lifang drool with envy.

"Our investment in film and television this year has increased by 35% year-on-year, which is actually very common in the market. The entry of Internet giants has made everyone crazy." She sighed speechlessly.

Just now, I jokingly said in front of Ye Ning that I was looking forward to "giving a red envelope" from Mr. Xie, but in the face of this epidemic market, it is inevitable that I feel powerless when communicating with colleagues who are engaged in production.

The company's key TV drama project this year is "Princess Agents" starring Concubine Pei, which was invested by Kujiji Studio. The actual production cost exceeded 100 million yuan.

But he took the trailer to iQiyi, Youku and Tencent Video and easily got the online premiere rights for 2.3 million. Even LeTV, a member of the Xie family, couldn't afford such a ridiculous price, and the TV premiere was sold to Hunan Satellite TV for another 2 million. It's hard to feel guilty about making such money.

There is also another movie called "Three Lives Three Worlds" starring Yang Mi, which is mainly controlled by Jiaxing and invested by the company and is mainly broadcast on the Internet. It can be sold at about the same price.

"Costume idol dramas have strong monetization capabilities, which clearly represents the trend of the audience of TV content shifting to femininity, thus further highlighting the strategic necessity of our variety show production business."

Song Anli listened to her complaints for a while, half comforting and half emphasizing: "Everything will decline after reaching its peak. The bubble will burst sooner or later. When the time comes, combined with the impact of short videos on the industry, variety shows will support our performance to grow a second time."

"There are many examples in the market of stars who debuted on variety shows without any film or television works, and whose representative works are variety shows."

Angelababy, my big baby. Zhong Lifang instantly identified herself with the character and opened her mouth, not knowing what to say.

After all, she is a person who has achieved success in the traditional film and television industry, and is only now intuitively feeling the cross-border impact of the Internet long video platform, even though Song Anli has emphasized several times that if she doesn't understand, she doesn't understand.

What exactly is the emerging Internet short video, and what is its core connection with the production of entertainment variety content? This kind of thing is too macro to talk about.

Zhong Lifang disagrees with the idea of ​​slowing down investment in film and television to focus on variety show business and holds reservations. Everyone says that the market is crazy, but no one can deny that big productions, led by ancient idol dramas, are really very profitable!

"Modu TV has notified us that "Star Chasers" will be scheduled soon. They really like Song Yi."

However, Chairman Song has the ultimate right of interpretation. At the end of the conversation, she briefly reported on the business progress.

In addition, "Creation Camp 202", which was co-produced with Panda TV, failed to pass the regulatory review. Because of the existence of LeTV, Tencent Video was unable to take advantage of the situation and buy the exclusive copyright at a high price.

Song Anli's mind moved slightly: "A few days ago, I went to LeTV Pictures for a meeting. Zhang Yimou was preparing for the casting of a new film and found a little girl. She seems to be studying at the Beijing Dance Academy Affiliated Middle School. Her name is Liu... Haocun? That should be her name. Do you think you can sign a contract?"

"Middle school, I need to talk to her family, right?"

Zhong Lifang was in a dilemma. A young girl who was not yet an adult would be troublesome. But it would be fine if Director Zhang was sure to use her in the movie.

Song Anli was silent for a moment: "Let's talk about it. It's a very spiritual image and worth cultivating."

"Ok."

Zhong Lifang just said that the company will slow down its film and television investment and invest in and control no less than three films each year, which will make it easier to train a new talent.

Song Anli smoothed the hair by her ears and said, "By the way, does Song Yi have any schedule at the end of this month? Ask her to come back."

Zhong Lifang looked at the clouds rolling outside the window, and Hu Jianren silently said in her mind: Will Mr. Xie come over at the end of the month?
Song Anli looked at the blue sky outside the window and recalled the group's financing situation revealed by Miao Nan. Is he in a good or bad mood now?

…………

In Hengdian Film and Television City, the sky is clear and cloudless, and the sun is pouring down scorchingly.

Princess Pei, dressed in a heavy theatrical costume, walked breathlessly in front. Her assistant helped hold up her skirt and followed her step by step with a small fan in her hand. Her agent followed closely with a thermos cup in his left hand and a parasol in his right hand.

The bodyguard and driver opened the door of the RV from a distance, and under the awning next to it, the chef quickly brought various lunches into the car.

"What a piece of shit! This director must be replaced. Get him out of here right away!" Concubine Pei walked into the car and cursed while gritting her teeth.

The fat female agent ignored the fact that she was sweating profusely and pretended that she heard nothing. She kept reminding the driver not to turn off the air conditioner and told the chef to make some sour plum soup.

It's torturous to shoot a costume drama in this weather, but ancient idol dramas are the most popular and no one can do anything about it. Feifei was delayed by "Go Where the Wind Is" in the past two years, and she didn't get any benefits from giving birth to a child last year.

She took on three ancient costume dramas in one go when she returned this year. She was so exhausted and under so much mental pressure that she really wanted to change the director and fire him in person. She knew the seriousness of the matter and felt better after venting her emotions.

Fat women may not be good at other things, but the medicine they use is quite accurate.

After lunch, Concubine Pei calmed down a little. She let the makeup artist touch up her makeup, took out her mobile phone, turned on the rear camera, and took a short video of the interior of the luxury RV.

“TikTok, record your beautiful life.”

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