Chinese Entertainment: Starting from 1996

Chapter 491: Aftermath and Bona's IPO

The next day, although the news about "Let the Bullets Fly" was everywhere, the news about the 40th anniversary dinner and charity conference of Golden Harvest last night also occupied a lot of space, and there were lively discussions online and offline.

The reason for such a big fanfare is, on the one hand, the vigorous promotion by Golden Harvest. After all, the purpose of Golden Harvest holding this evening party is to promote Golden Harvest’s brand.

However, they were a bit unlucky as "Let the Bullets Fly" happened to be a hit in both box office and reputation, which greatly reduced the effectiveness of Golden Harvest's promotion.

In fact, it's not just Golden Harvest. The producers of "Let the Bullets Fly" couldn't help but feel like cursing. They were also caught off guard by the popularity of Golden Harvest's 40th anniversary party.

I thought it was other competitors that would have an impact on the film, but I didn’t expect it to be a crossover, a party.

Fortunately, the reputation of "Let the Bullets Fly" is strong enough, and the Golden Harvest Gala did not have much impact on the promotion of the film, and the box office performance in the first week was very outstanding.

On the other hand, another reason why the Golden Harvest 40th Anniversary Gala was so lively was that so many business giants gathered and the amount of donations was astonishing.

Those industrial tycoons are still okay, as their reputations are often lower, but Internet companies and other companies are trendsetters. Even if their leaders are not well-known, the company's fame and influence are there.

Moreover, with so many big names attending, the amount of donations raised reached a record high of nearly 70 million, which was very interesting and also in line with the psychology of the outside world.

Those who worship wealth put themselves in the situation, spending money like water and showing great style.

Those who hate the rich feel comfortable thinking about these capitalists bleeding.

Win-win!

However, what netizens talked about most about this evening party were the celebrities.

No matter what, even if you raise 1 million yuan in donations, it will have nothing to do with most ordinary people. They care more about their idols and celebrity gossip.

The guests invited this time are all second-tier and above celebrities from both sides of the Taiwan Strait and Hong Kong, and they are also the group with the largest number of fans.

But compared to simply looking at celebrities, people are more interested in celebrity gossip.

Yesterday's party seemed peaceful and quiet, but in fact, there were undercurrents. Various details made countless "bad spirits" rush into the melon field, leading to various interpretations.

Jackie Chan and Jet Li meet.

The Wang Fei couple and the Xie Tingfeng couple looked at each other awkwardly.

Fan Xiaopang spends a lot of money and looks down on all the big stars.

Zeng Li made her first public appearance after giving birth to her second child.

There are also countless grudges and entanglements among celebrities.

In this evening party that lasted less than four hours, the media and the crowd of spectators imagined countless dramas.

What's more, some self-media even specially edited videos and posted them on Tieba, "The Top 10 Moments of Golden Harvest's th Anniversary", which instantly became popular on the entire Internet.

Those who knew it was a charity gala thought it was another award ceremony where people were competing openly or secretly.

But this is considered good. At least with the face of Liu Zhou and Jiahe, everyone is still harmonious on the surface.

The Bazaar Charity Night is truly exciting. Ever since the first event, a lot of gossip has been revealed every time.

The main reason why Bazaar Charity Night is gaining more and more attention is not because of its charitable attributes, but because of its celebrity gossip attributes.

Fan Xiaopang, who "shine" at the Bazaar Charity Night this year, is far from being comparable to the historical ones. She doesn't need Bazaar's resources and exposure at all, so she didn't participate this time.

She was originally targeted by all the big stars, but because of her absence, Zhang Ziyi became the target.

Li Bingbing and Zhou Gongzi rarely joined forces, and together with Xu Cainv, a Beijing girl who had a good relationship with Huayi, they openly and secretly excluded Zhang Ziyi.

But Zhang Ziyi is no pushover as she has fought through wind and rain to get to her current position. Although her current situation is not very good, she does not show any weakness.

Zhang Ziyi relied on her good relationship with the organizer Su Liubai and went head-to-head with other big names and Huayi stars.

With the help of Su Liubai, he got the position [02] and the auction card, beating out all the big stars and young actors. He then spent another 55 yuan and won the bid.

In addition, there are many beautiful women around Yu Dong, all of whom want to be the boss lady of Bona.

At that time, Bona had already decided to go public in North America. As the first film and television company to be listed on NASDAQ, Yu Dongfeng was the most popular person at that time.

However, in the end, Bona’s listing was not a success.

Just one day before the Golden Harvest Dinner, that is, December 27th, Beijing time, Bona officially entered the Nasdaq stock trading market.

The NASDAQ bell ringer can bring in up to fifty people. In addition to representatives of major shareholders, Yu Dong also invited international star Gong Li and actresses such as Yuan Quan and Yuan Li from Bona to add to the momentum. All of them had a red flower pinned on their chests.

At that time, Yu Dong originally wanted to invite Liu Zhou to attend, but he was busy with the 40th anniversary party of Golden Harvest and had no time to go. He could only apologize to him.

Yu Dong could understand this. After all, Jiahe started promoting this event and set the time at the beginning of the year.

Although Bona’s roadshow is not going well, the situation has not yet been resolved and the company has to be listed on Nasdaq even if the stock price falls below the IPO price.

So even though I was a little worried, after all it was my own company going public, so I was still somewhat excited and thrilled.

When Yu Dong stepped into the Nasdaq Stock Exchange with mixed feelings, he discovered that this place, which attracted countless mainland Internet companies, was actually very simple inside.

Visitors or guests can even see rows of servers through the glass, and these servers are the core of Nasdaq.

Then we came to the studio, which was equipped with dozens of cameras of various types, making it look just like a TV station.

The hall can still be seen from the outside, the glass walls are transparent, and passers-by outside are not surprised.

Nasdaq’s bell ringing ceremony is not that complicated and is much simpler than in China.

First, the head of Nasdaq's marketing department spoke, and it was nothing more than a welcome.

Then Yu Dong brought Bona COO Chen Yong and international superstar Gong Li to the stage to give their speeches.

"Today, Bona Film Group successfully listed on the Nasdaq in New York. The history of Chinese film will remember this moment of extraordinary significance.

It is the continuous development of China's economy and culture, and the trend of the rapid growth of China's film industry, that has given Bona the opportunity to stand in a new history and step onto the stage of Nasdaq.
I would like to thank all the friends from all walks of life, my colleagues, my family, and my partners who have helped Bona grow. I hope that you will continue to witness and walk with Bona’s new glory in the future.

Finally, thank you Nasdaq! "

The whole speech was in Chinese, and although it only had 400 to 500 words, Yu Dong still read it aloud. In fact, it was understandable that for him, this moment could be said to be the most important moment in the past ten years. No one could help but be excited.

Nasdaq rings the opening bell every day, but how many companies in the world are qualified to ring the opening bell for companies listed on the U.S. stock market?

Chinese companies are especially rare. If it weren't for the Internet companies that took the lead, there would be almost no domestic companies listing on Nasdaq.

No matter what happens to Bona after its listing, it is already amazing that Yu Dong can stand here.

So instead of forcing himself, it is better to read from the script so as to avoid making mistakes. He wants to ensure that the listing process is foolproof, so even the slightest mistake in his speech is not acceptable.

By this time, the launch ceremony in the studio was almost over. Everyone went on stage and gathered around Yu Dong, waving their hands and throwing colored paper.

At this time, the wall of the Reuters building opposite Nasdaq was scrolling photos and news about Bona's listing, and there were also huge photos on the exterior wall of the trading building.

This is the world-famous Times Square advertising screen, and also the most expensive advertising screen in the world.

In later generations, many traffic stars took advantage of the fact that domestic audiences didn’t understand. They just made a poster here and brought it back to China, claiming that their brother had appeared on the big screen in Times Square.

What's even worse is that some people like Wu Fan's team even promoted him performing at the Super Bowl halftime, saying that he was the first Chinese star to perform on the Super Bowl stage.

But the reality was that they just set up a simple stage on the street outside the venue to sing, and they boasted loudly.

Football is the number one sport in North America, and the Super Bowl, the finals of the American Football League, is the most watched event in North America, with the highest viewership of any event in the United States.

The NBA Finals and the Oscars, which we are familiar with, cannot be compared with the Super Bowl.

Ever since Michael Jackson's first Super Bowl halftime performance made a global sensation, only the world's top singers, such as Rihanna, Beyonce and Lady Gaga, can sing on this stage.

Although almost no one watches football in China, a quick search on the Super Bowl will tell you what level of game it is.

A Chinese star, even if you are the top star in China, but outside of China, who knows you? How can you be qualified to be on the stage of the Super Bowl?

I don’t know if Wu Fan’s team has lost their brains to market such a poor press release. They have to brag a little more to make it look decent, otherwise they will be slapped in the face in minutes.

But later on, he didn't need to be slapped in the face, he just went in and operated the sewing machine.

At this time, Bona’s listing ceremony has come to the last item, which is ringing the bell.

But now Nasdaq's bell ringing ceremony is no longer a real bell ringing like before. It's just the name that has been passed down, and now you just need to press a button.

Yu Dong took a deep breath, slowly stretched out his hand, and stared straight at the red button in front of him.

drop!
The ceremony ended and the stock market opened. Bona Film Group was officially listed on the U.S. stock market, becoming the first domestic film and television stock to be listed on the U.S. stock market.

The wall in front of the studio instantly turned into a giant display screen three meters high and seven or eight meters long, on which stock information of dozens of companies began to appear.

Everyone stared at the screen showing Bona shares. As Bona shares began to be traded, the numbers on it jumped instantly.

The original issue price was US$9.1 per share, with 1200 million shares issued, and an expected fundraising of US$ million.

The amount of funds raised is even less than that of Huayi, which also raised nearly 1 billion RMB, otherwise it would not dare to enter the cinema industry.

It is even worse than Jiahe. At the beginning, Jiahe Group raised more than 2 billion yuan in funds, which can be said to be a very large IPO in China.

The US$100 million raised by Bona is equivalent to more than 800 million yuan, but you should know that you can't expect to bring all of this 800 million back to China.

In the United States, it is easy for your money to come in, but it is difficult to take your money out. Even if it is legal and compliant, it will be stripped of its authenticity.

Therefore, it would be good enough if Bona could bring back 600 million yuan of funds to China by then.

The original plan was to set the stock issue price at twelve U.S. dollars. In that case, the funds raised would be able to reach nearly 1.5 million U.S. dollars, which is not a small amount.

However, because the company's roadshow in North America was not going well, Yu Dong had to lower the issue price at the suggestion of investment institutions such as Sequoia.

Bona Group's total share capital is 9.1 million shares. Based on the issue price of US$9.1, the company's market value will reach US$ million.

Yu Dong holds 46% of the shares, which is US$4.186 million, or about RMB 30 billion.

Although Yu Dong had become a domestic billionaire after pressing the button, he didn't pay attention to this at the moment and stared at the screen.

The moment it opened, it didn’t turn red!
This also made him feel slightly relieved, as it showed that the opening price did not fall below the issue price, which was a good start.

Green represents increase and red represents decrease. Although Bona’s stock has not risen sharply, it has maintained a slow growth.

Half an hour later, the stock price rose from $9.1 per share to $9.5, an increase of nearly percent.

In another hour, the stock price rose by 7.7%. Before twelve o'clock, it reached a high of US$10.00, an increase of 9.9%.

However, this was also the peak. After that, it remained between US$9.6 and US$9.8, and finally closed at US$9.7.

Based on the closing price, Bona's market value is US$9.7 million, equivalent to just over RMB billion, so its market value is not low.

However, compared with the listing of Light Media a few days ago, it is obviously still slightly inferior. After all, at the close of the day of Light Media's listing, its market value had exceeded 10 billion yuan.

This really made Yu Dong feel a little regretful. If he had known earlier, he would not have been greedy for that false reputation. It would have been much better for the company to release the film in China. With Bona's performance and the company's strength, there is a great hope of breaking through 10 billion.

Now, Bona’s stock is half-dead. The fact that it did not fall below the issue price on the first day was actually due to the support of him and the investment institutions behind him.

Following this trend, it is highly likely that Bona’s stock price will not rise much further in the future.

The stock prices of several listed film and television companies in China change every day.

Although I feel a little regretful, today is something worth being happy about anyway, and Bona’s listing can be considered a success.

After the interview with the reporter, everyone returned to the hotel and happened to meet another group of companies that came to North America to go public. It was Qingzi's Dangdang.com, but it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Dangdang.com currently has a 30% market share and is the second largest e-commerce platform in China after Taobao, and has also attracted the attention of Amazon.

After a conversation, I learned that Dangdang's stock price has doubled from $13.91 to its peak, with a market value of nearly $24 billion, which can be said to be a great success.

Both companies will host a grand celebratory dinner at the hotel.

(End of this chapter)