Chinese Entertainment: Starting from 1996

Chapter 508 Leaving
Huang Bo is undoubtedly an iconic actor in China. In addition to his influence and appeal, he is also known for his high emotional intelligence.

He can be said to have climbed up step by step from the bottom of the entertainment industry. His high emotional intelligence should not be the result of marketing, and there has been no negative news about him since his debut.

"Crazy Stone" made him a little famous, and "Bullfighting" won him and Nick Cheung the Golden Horse Award for Best Actor, which made him start to emerge in the film industry.

However, what really made him famous was the movie "Lost in Thailand" in which he collaborated with Xu Zheng.

From then on, Huang Bo became a hit in every movie he starred in, comparable to his rise to fame after "A Better Tomorrow".

In just these seven or eight years, he has accumulated box office revenue of over 10 billion yuan, and the title of billion-dollar movie emperor has taken his influence to a new level.

However, after "A Good Show", Huang Bo's subsequent works were not very successful, but at that time he no longer needed to prove himself through box office performance.

Although Huang Bo has some fame now, he is not a big shot in the film and television industry. He is not even a celebrity. There are many artists of the same level as him.

However, because he is an artist under Golden Harvest, the industry looks at him differently.

So Zeng Jia actually didn’t quite understand why Huang Bo wanted to leave Golden Harvest after his contract expired.

Although she didn't understand, Zeng Jia didn't care too much. In her opinion, Huang Bo didn't have much commercial value.

What she didn't expect was that Liu Zhou actually thought highly of him and gave him a big gift package before leaving.

"Mr. Liu, I want to report something to you about Huang Bo." Chen Guofu said after hesitating for a while.

"what's up?"

"It's the movie about Journey to the West that Zhou Xingxing plans to cooperate with us. He seems to like Huang Bo very much and wants to invite him to play the leading role."

"Oh, Zhou Xingxing has finished writing the script?"

Liu Zhou naturally knew which movie about Journey to the West it was. Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons was also a box office bomb, with a box office of over 1.3 billion yuan.

In the original film, Stephen Chow collaborated with Huayi, but later the Wang brothers betrayed him and the two sides even went to court.

Although the Wang brothers won the lawsuit, they did lose more profits later. Stephen Chow turned to cooperate with Light Media and produced "The Mermaid", which directly caused Light Media's stock price to hit the daily limit for more than a week.

However, in this life, last year when Zhou Xingxing was besieged by the Xiang family, Liu Zhou supported him. After the incident subsided, he may have approached Liu Zhou to express his intention to cooperate in order to return the favor.

Of course Liu Zhou readily agreed to this, believing that no company would refuse to cooperate with him.

If Zhou Xingxing turns around and cooperates with the Xiang family, the Xiang family might just swallow their pride.

However, Liu Zhou felt that even without this relationship, he would still choose Golden Harvest. After all, Golden Harvest is the undisputed number one giant in the domestic film and television industry.

In the original time and space, wasn’t it because of Huayi’s reputation as the number one private film and television company that Zhou Xingxing approached Huayi?

This is Zhou Xingxing's complete transformation behind the scenes, and he has completely placed the focus of his career on the mainland. In order to increase the chances of success, he will definitely seek cooperation with the most powerful film and television companies.

When Stephen Chow approached Liu Zhou, he only had an idea at the time and had not yet fully finalized the script. He has been perfecting the script over the past year or two.

If Chen Guofu hadn't mentioned it now, Liu Zhou would have almost forgotten about it.

"It's already been written, but he's still perfecting the script, but he's already started planning for the film."

"Since he wants to choose Huang Bo as the lead actor, let him choose. You should also know that he is quite overbearing in controlling the crew. It is difficult for us to intervene unless we have a bad relationship with him."

Liu Zhou actually understood what Chen Guofu meant. Huang Bo was about to leave, but he was still investing resources in him, and it was not worth it even if they were top-level resources.

However, Liu Zhou felt that it was unnecessary. Huang Bo could not be suppressed, and there was no need to suppress him.

Not only that, in addition to "Ghost Blows Out the Light" and "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons", Liu Zhou also plans to hand over "Lost in Thailand" to Huang Bo, and only Huang Bo.

The iron triangle of Xu Zheng, Huang Bo and Wang Baoqiang is irreplaceable. This is a box office of over 1 billion, and he doesn't want any accidents to happen.

Later, in order to prevent Wang Baoqiang from participating in the investment, Xu Zheng replaced him with Bao Bei'er in "Lost in Hong Kong". Although it won the box office, it lost reputation, which had an impact on the "囧" series.

So Huang Bo can't be replaced at all, and he can't suppress it.

Thinking of this, Liu Zhou couldn't help but think of the movie "Lost in Thailand".

"How is Xu Zheng now?"

Chen Guofu was a little surprised to hear Liu Zhou suddenly mention Xu Zheng, but as a contestant of Golden Harvest's Spring Festival movie this year, he has been paying attention to Xu Zheng.

"The box office of his film Modern Times did not meet expectations, and because of its previous high profile, it is currently being criticized by the media and netizens."

"What plans do you have for him?"

“There is no arrangement. He is not a contracted director of Golden Harvest. He just has cooperation with Golden Harvest. However, he seems to want to sign a contract with Golden Harvest, but I feel that his ambition is a bit too big.

The failure of Modern Times should have made him realize that the reason why Lost on Journey had such a high box office was mainly due to the promotion of the movie.

"In that case, let's give him another helping hand and give him another chance to prepare for the sequel to Lost on Journey."

"Mr. Liu, do you want to sign him?"

"If we don't sign, we will continue to cooperate the same way as before."

It's no use signing the contract. After Lost in Thailand, Xu Zheng's ambition will be extremely inflated and no company will be able to keep him.

"Ok."

"By the way, the cooperation with Zhou Xingxing should be handled in a fair and impartial manner. Everything should be implemented in the contract. There should be no verbal promises."

As an actor, Zhou Xingxing is undoubtedly very successful, and he can even be said to be the most influential actor in the country.

However, his evaluation in the circle is mixed. There are two main reasons. One is that he is indeed a genius, and a genius with relatively high requirements for acting. Some actors who have worked with him cannot keep up with his pace and thus create gaps between them.

Another reason is that in addition to being a filmmaker, he is also a businessman, a businessman who values ​​money very much.

Many people say that he loves money, which is true, but to be honest he is just doing his job. Stephen Chow's private donations exceed those of 99% of the artists in the circle.

Therefore, don't have any filters when cooperating with him. Treat him as a businessman like Yu Dong and the Wang brothers. Everyone should handle business impartially, so that there will be no disputes in the future.

To be honest, Liu Zhou was still quite envious of "The Mermaid". At that time, the box office of over 3 billion shocked the entire entertainment industry. The jealous Xiang family stood up and fired at Zhou Xingxing again.

The box office of "The Mermaid" is also great news for Golden Harvest, even for its size. It may not be possible for the stock price to rise by more than a week, but it can still rise a lot. "I understand, Mr. Liu."

In fact, Chen Guofu had also heard of Zhou Xingxing's reputation for being very meticulous, and he was even more pleased with Liu Zhou's emphasis on impartiality.

"We won't interfere with the production crew. We just need to monitor the financial expenditures. We also asked Xu Zheng to prepare the sequel to Lost on Journey. Let him finish the script first, and let me take a look at it after it's finalized."

It is undeniable that Xu Zheng is very talented. The "囧" series were almost all created by him, but after all, he did not suffer the failure of "Modern Times" in the original time and space.

Therefore, Liu Zhou was worried that Xu Zheng's mentality would change, which would cause "Lost in Thailand" to go astray. This was also a project that could increase Golden Harvest's market value by more than 10 billion, so he still had to be careful.

He also had a pretty good understanding of the situation at Golden Harvest Films. Last year's profits totaled 2 billion yuan, and the performance was undoubtedly brilliant.

500 million will be left for company operations and investment in new films, and 1.5 billion will be handed over to the group.

This year, three blockbusters from Liu Zhou and others, plus "Cold War", are enough to support this year's performance.

Not only this year, there are also plans for next year. "Painted Skin 2" and "Mojin: The Last Dragon" will both be released next year, and so will "Lost in Thailand" if nothing goes wrong.

"Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" will most likely be postponed to the year after next. Stephen Chow has always been very meticulous in making movies, so the production process will be slower.

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When Liu Zhou was about to turn his attention to Zou Chongyan, Zeng Jia said again:
"Boss Liu, in addition to Huang Bo, Huang Xiaoming is also leaving."

"I know this. He told me before the New Year that although his contract has not expired, don't create obstacles and let him go."

Huang Xiaoming is much better now than he was at the same time in the original time and space. Not only does he have outstanding performance in movies, he also avoids greasy reviews and his reputation is much better.

But his personality and business acumen have not changed. He still wants to strike out on his own and be his own boss.

Liu Zhou didn't think about anything else but wish him well. Huang Xiaoming is still pretty awesome, at least better than most actors. Even though he was said to be greasy and humble in later generations, he is worth tens of billions.

In the entertainment industry, apart from the bosses of film and television companies, few people are richer than him.

So since Huang Xiaoming can have better development, as a friend, Liu Zhou will definitely not stand in his way.

After hearing what Liu Zhou said, Zeng Jia swallowed back what he was about to say.

She originally wanted to ask whether Huang Xiaoming would continue to play the male lead in "Painted Skin 2", but seeing Liu Zhou's attitude, there was no need to ask.

But she remembered something else and said:

"Mr. Liu, one of the leading actresses in Painted Skin, Zhang Tong, hasn't acted in a long time. Will you still invite her to the sequel?"

Liu Zhou couldn't help but fall silent. Zhang Tong had been staying in Shanghai since he returned from the Maple Leaf Country with his children two years ago. With his help, he became a lecturer at the Shanghai Drama Academy.

Liu Zhou did not restrict her from acting, but she seemed to have lost interest in acting. Instead, she became addicted to being a teacher and focused all her energy on children and teaching.

He doesn't know whether Zhang Tong is still willing to act. If she doesn't want to, Liu Zhou will not force her, even though the project "Painted Skin 2" is very important.

"Invite her when the time comes. If she refuses, don't force it. Find a second choice."

"Ok."

Zeng Jia also understood Liu Zhou's attitude. It seemed that Zhang Tong really had some relationship with him. As an old man who had followed Liu Zhou for many years, Zeng Jia could clearly feel the difference between Liu Zhou's treatment of Zhang Tong and that of other artists.

But she didn't think it was a big deal. Being in the entertainment industry, she had seen all kinds of bad things. She even felt that Liu Zhou was very restrained considering his wealth and status.

"Mr. Zeng, since we are talking about this, please tell us more about the situation of Golden Harvest Entertainment."

Hearing this, Zeng Jia paused and said:

"Boss Liu, Golden Harvest Entertainment was established at the end of last year, and after a year of operation last year, it has been on the right track. We currently have a total of 12 artists, and only Yang Mi has been signed.

But Huang Xiaoming will leave this year, and next year, in addition to Huang Bo, Zhou Gongzi also seems to be preparing to leave. I have discussed the contract renewal issue with her, and I can feel that she is not very interested. "

It was expected that Ms. Zhou would leave. Although she had good resources at Jiahe, they were no match for Fan Xiaopang, whose fame and influence had surpassed hers.

Her only advantage over Fan Xiaopang at this moment is the award.

She must have felt uncomfortable about this, but there was nothing she could do. She understood that she came to Jiahe relatively late, and Fan Xiaopang was relatively the direct descendant of Jiahe.

So since she couldn't get any more resources from Jiahe, she might as well leave. There was no way she would bow to Fan Xiaopang.

Moreover, after being in the entertainment industry for so many years, she has also noticed the changes in the situation within the circle. The market is obviously getting better and better, and now she will not have to worry about lack of resources if she sets up her own business.

"If she wants to leave, let her go. In the future, don't sign top female artists. Fan Xiaopang is the top actress in Jiahe. Let Fan Xiaopang pick the top resources after Jiahe.

Then there is Liu Yifei, but her acting style is very different from Fan Xiaopang, so there shouldn't be much conflict, and the two of them will focus on movies.

Yang Mi, since you think so highly of her, then you should focus on her training, but let her focus on the TV drama market.

We already have quite a few famous artists at Golden Harvest, so if we want to sign newcomers in the future, we should try to sign newcomers.”

"Okay Mr. Liu."

"Did Golden Harvest Entertainment make a profit last year?"

"Of course. Although the company is newly established, the artists under it are all first-tier and second-tier stars in the industry. After deducting the company's operating funds, Golden Harvest Entertainment made a profit of more than 30 million last year."

"More than 30 million? That much?"

"Yes, thirty-four million!"

Liu Zhou couldn't help but laugh after being amazed:

"It seems that I underestimated the agency. I didn't expect it to make a profit of more than 30 million just one year after its establishment."

"This is mainly due to the strength of the group company and its business operations being far ahead of other companies."

Liu Zhou was indeed a little surprised. He had not noticed it before. He did not expect that before the era of traffic, brokerage companies could make so much money.

Don’t underestimate the fact that 30 million is a small amount. Compared with the giant Golden Harvest at that time, many film and television companies in the industry did not even make a profit of 30 million.

(End of this chapter)