Chinese Entertainment: Starting from 1996

Chapter 466: Lunar New Year blockbusters and dark horses
Hollywood is a notorious pitfall. If a newbie or an investor who has only a superficial understanding of Hollywood gets in, he or she may come out with nothing but his or her underwear.

Not to mention ordinary investors, even Wall Street and Hollywood are being cheated.

Hollywood is the only place where Wall Street can get hurt.

Not only is investing in Hollywood movies a scam, but even if you acquire the Big Seven, it's also a scam.

After the Plaza Accord was signed in the mid-1980s, the Japanese yen was forced to appreciate, which made some first-tier companies in a state of financial difficulty.

Since the late 1980s, a company has been buying up American properties and businesses on a massive scale, claiming to have bought up half of the United States.

It was also in 32 that Sony acquired Columbia Pictures for $ billion.

However, Sony had no idea about movies. After Sony took over, Columbia fell into huge losses. By 1995, the entire Columbia company had accumulated losses of $32 billion.

It was not until the late 1990s, after nearly a decade of hard work, that Sony was able to integrate into Hollywood and truly take control of Columbia, a Hollywood giant.

These are the ones who persisted, while there were also those who were afraid of being cheated and did not persist.

The year after Sony acquired Columbia, Sony's rival Panasonic acquired Universal Pictures and its parent company MCA.

Matsushita also didn't understand movies and was also struggling with the operation of MCA. By 1995, the accumulated losses were nearly $ billion.

Although Panasonic Group was wealthy, it could not withstand the continuous transfusions. In addition, it lost to Sony in the DVD standard, so it had to sell MCA to the Canadian wine giant Sigma.

Although things are different now than in the 1980s and 1990s, Hollywood is still not easy to deal with.

If Big Boss Wang is not careful and is still eager for quick success, he may also fall.

Moreover, commercial real estate companies like Wanda already have high debts. Wanda’s current market value is close to 2000 billion yuan, and its debts are over 1000 billion yuan.

Adding the $65 billion for the acquisition of MGM, the debt has increased by more than 400 billion yuan, making the debt even higher.

Moreover, Liu Zhou concluded that Wanda would not give up on the cinema chain either, and would acquire more cinema chains in the future, making itself the world's largest cinema operator and then establishing its own distribution system.

This means billions of dollars more, and Wanda’s debt will be even higher.

If the market continues to go up, Wanda Commercial will naturally rest easy, but once it goes down, the risks will be extremely high.

Running a film company and running a cinema chain are completely different. Although MGM has already produced two blockbuster films, if Wanda cannot seize the opportunity, it will be difficult to bring MGM back to the market.

But it is undeniable that the immediate effect of Wanda's acquisition of MGM was that it completely opened up the domestic film and television industry for them.

Before, Wanda was not short of money, but only of people. Now that this news has come out, I think many people will definitely go to Wanda, the big moneymaker.

But even if Wanda completely establishes its flag in China and takes full control of MGM in Hollywood, Golden Harvest has nothing to fear.

Not to mention Liu Zhou's understanding of the future, Jiahe at present is not afraid of any challenges.

In terms of capital, Golden Harvest is now a large enterprise with a market value of over 90 billion and is about to break 100 billion.

Although Wanda Group's market value will exceed one trillion yuan in the future, it is not entirely supported by real estate. It is impossible for them to invest too much in the film and television industry. Their homepage is still real estate.

Therefore, Big Capital Jiahe is not afraid of any company.

Compared with its previous capabilities, Jiahe is far ahead in China, while Wanda has just started to enter this field. The two sides are not comparable at all.

As for distribution, whether domestically or overseas, Golden Harvest is also far ahead.

Even if Wanda integrates MGM, even if they become the world's largest cinema operator, Wanda's distribution capabilities cannot match Golden Harvest.

MGM has been silent for so many years, and its overseas distribution channels have declined a lot and are no longer as good as Golden Harvest's channels.

Golden Harvest's distribution capabilities in Asia are unique, and Golden Harvest is also working together with Lionsgate in other overseas regions such as Europe and South America. After several years of development, it has now initially established global distribution channels.

Maybe only in North America, MGM's distribution capabilities are slightly stronger than Summit Entertainment, but if Summit Entertainment and Lionsgate Films join forces, they will be no worse than MGM.

The only aspect in which Golden Harvest is slightly inferior to Wanda is its cinema chain. However, Golden Harvest is also striving to catch up with the domestic cinema chain, and it works closely with China Film Group Corporation, so it is not afraid of being strangled at all.

The situation where Feng Kuzi's film in the original time and space was blocked from screening by Wanda Cinemas will definitely not happen to Golden Harvest.

As for overseas, don't worry. Cinema chains are already a sunset industry overseas, and large production companies are the more powerful party.

Moreover, owning a cinema chain only means owning the screening channels, but it does not mean owning the distribution capabilities. In addition to screening channels, distribution also includes publicity.

So it can be said that Liu Zhou has laid a solid foundation for Jiahe in the past few years and is not afraid of challenges from anyone.

Fortunately, Jiahe had a very good foundation before, otherwise Liu Zhou would not have been able to build the company to its current scale and strength in just ten years even if he had worked hard.

Distribution channels, especially overseas channels, cannot be established overnight. Even at its peak, Huayi failed to secure overseas distribution channels. Even for channels in Hong Kong and Taiwan, it had to cooperate with local companies.

Later, Huayi destroyed its own strength due to its wrong decision to de-film, and began to go downhill until it completely fell into decline.

As for Golden Harvest, even if Liu Zhou lets go now, as long as it does not de-filmize like Huayi and develops step by step, it will not decline.

Maybe it may not be able to produce a blockbuster movie or even a flop for one or two years, but it can still make up for the losses with its strong distribution capabilities.

Moreover, large companies have strong ability to adjust and trial and error, so it is impossible for this situation to occur for several consecutive years.

The reason why MGM was on the verge of bankruptcy two or three times because of a movie failure was because MGM had already been burdened with heavy debts before.

If the finances are healthy, like Golden Harvest is now, even if the next two blockbusters "Interstellar" and "Aftershock" both flop, it will not cause any serious damage to Golden Harvest.

The outside world's excitement about Wanda's acquisition of MGM lasted for more than a week, during which time Wanda and Big Brother Wang's reputation also spread across the country.

Big Boss Wang became a well-known wealthy man several years earlier than in the original time and space. I believe that with Wanda’s subsequent actions, Big Boss Wang will become a household name several years earlier.

In his previous life, his fame spread completely after he became the richest man in mainland China.

However, Liu Zhou is no longer paying attention to this matter. He will only be able to take notice of MGM when Wanda truly revitalizes it.

To be honest, Liu Zhou still felt a little regretful for missing out on MGM when Wanda acquired it. No matter how declining MGM was, it was still much stronger than Summit Entertainment, and it also had a good foundation.

Golden Harvest is not a newcomer in Hollywood. If Golden Harvest can acquire MGM, it can take over seamlessly without worrying about being cheated. At that time, there is a great possibility that MGM can be revitalized.

By integrating Summit Entertainment into MGM, MGM will also own the two major series of "Twilight" and "The Hunger Games", plus the "007" series. It can be said that MGM will not have to worry about production issues in the next ten years.

Combined with Liu Zhou's understanding of the future, it may not be possible to make MGM return to its peak, but it should not be a problem to make it among the leaders.

If Golden Harvest owned a well-run Hollywood giant, then Golden Harvest would truly become a strong global film and television company.

So Liu Zhou felt that MGM was more suitable for Golden Harvest.

However, in the past year or so, Liu Zhou has been very busy and focused on the domestic situation. He didn't pay much attention to Hollywood at all, so he missed the news of MGM's impending bankruptcy and reorganization.

It’s cheaper now, but if you miss it, you miss it.

If we miss this opportunity, the worst that can happen is that we can spend more time and effort to run Summit Entertainment well. The original Lionsgate was able to develop into a company that is no less inferior to the seven major Hollywood companies, so there is no reason why Summit Entertainment cannot do the same.

As time passed, it was November in the blink of an eye.

At this time, "Ip Man 2" is still in theaters because it has applied for an extension key, and the box office has exceeded 4.2 million to reach million.

However, the box office growth of "Ip Man 2" has been very slow, and the final box office of the movie should be around 4.5 million.

This result can be said to be very good, much higher than the box office of more than 200 million in the original time and space.

This is due to the selection of a good release date and Golden Harvest's strong publicity and promotion capabilities. In addition, the film market is larger than the original time and space, which fully unleashed the box office potential of this film.

Zhen Zidan is undoubtedly the biggest beneficiary. The box office of more than 400 million yuan for a single movie really made him extremely popular. He is not inferior to Liu Yifei during the summer season.

Now Zhen Zidan's offer for the film has reached 20 million, which is higher than that of Andy Lau, Tony Leung Chiu-wai and others, and is almost the same as Chow Yun-fat.

Sometimes Zhou Runfa couldn't even get 20 million, but now many investors are rushing to write a check of 20 million to Zhen Zidan to let him act in a movie.

As time enters November, the 2010 Lunar New Year movie season is about to begin.

Liu Zhou also temporarily put aside the post-production of "Aftershock" and put more of his experience into this year's Lunar New Year movie, because his "Interstellar" will be officially released on November 30th.

This year's Lunar New Year box office is more lively than any previous year, with four blockbuster films crammed into the box office.

In addition to "Interstellar" which fired the first shot of the Lunar New Year box office, there are also "The Orphan of Zhao" by Chen Shishi, "If You Are the One 2" by Feng Kuzi, and "Let the Bullets Fly" by Jiang Wen, who has been honing his skills for five years.

This time, four of the top domestic directors are competing on the same stage.

So after the release dates of these four films were announced one after another, the outside world and the audience have been looking forward to this year's Lunar New Year holiday.

This is the first time that works by four top domestic directors are released in the same period.

For this reason, Han Shanping did not arrange for several Hollywood movies to be released during the Lunar New Year holiday, in order to provide these four blockbusters with a good release and competitive environment so that they would not be disrupted by Hollywood blockbusters.

This year has come to an end. What the total box office of this year will be will depend on these four domestic blockbusters.

Therefore, Han Shanping's attention to this year's Lunar New Year box office is no less than that of the directors of these four films.

However, the most anticipated movie among these four is Liu Zhou's "Interstellar".

Everyone has been looking forward to this movie for nearly two years. Now it is finally about to be released, and many audiences are looking forward to it.

"Interstellar" is far ahead of the other three movies in Douban's most anticipated movies.

After that came Feng Kuzi's "If You Are the One 2". Although he no longer had "Assembly" and "Aftershock", the two films that established his godhood, he still became one of the top four directors in mainland China thanks to his comedy films.

Therefore, Feng Kuzi still has great appeal in comedy movies.

In addition, the first season of If You Are the One also achieved very outstanding results, and everyone is looking forward to its sequel.

After that came "Let the Bullets Fly". Jiang Wen was very famous, but he had not yet proven himself at the box office. His previous film "The Sun Also Rises" was a bit too artistic, and many people felt that he was just entertaining himself.

However, "Let the Bullets Fly" brings together three top male actors, all of whom are movie emperors, so it is still very attractive.

The last one is "The Orphan of Zhao" by poet Chen. His previous work "The Promise" hurt him so much that he still hasn't recovered.

If it weren't for the Palme d'Or trophy for "Farewell My Concubine", Chen Shiren would have fallen out of the list of the top four directors.

Now people no longer look at poet Chen through filters, but after all, he was once a great director who was as famous as Zhang Yimou or even slightly superior to him, and his new movie is also attracting much attention from the outside world.

But when it comes to the four movies competing in the same field, the other three movies all avoided "Interstellar".

Everyone in the industry knows that this movie will be a box office bomb, not to mention the investors behind the three movies.

"Interstellar" will be released on November 30th, while "The Orphan of Zhao" will not be released until December 15th. "If You Are the One" will also be released on December 18th, and "Let the Bullets Fly" will be released last, on December 24th.

In other words, "Interstellar" dominated the box office market for a full half month.

This is the first time that the other three blockbusters have been forced to take a break and take up half a month during the Lunar New Year holiday.

This shows the popularity of "Interstellar" and their fear of this movie.

However, no matter how highly anticipated a movie is, it cannot be without publicity.

For the globally anticipated movie "Avatar", 20th Century Fox still invested two to three hundred million US dollars in publicity expenses.

Therefore, after entering November, "Interstellar" also began its comprehensive publicity phase, and Golden Harvest's publicity machine also started to fully activate.

But at this time, when everyone was looking forward to "Interstellar", a dark horse quietly shocked the entire entertainment industry.

(End of this chapter)