Chinese Entertainment: Starting from 1996

Chapter 529 Tired and happy
This high-level meeting lasted a whole day and ended at around eight o'clock in the evening.

The main reason is that Liu Zhou has been very busy in the past two years. Two blockbusters, "Interstellar" and "Aftershock", were launched and filmed one after another, without even a break in between.

The production of a blockbuster is not that simple. It is very troublesome from the beginning of preparation, not to mention that these two films also involve a lot of special effects shots, which requires more time and effort.

If Liu Zhou had not been able to mobilize the entire Golden Harvest Group's resources for his own use, it would have been difficult to produce these two blockbusters in more than two years.

But despite this, it also consumed most of Liu Zhou's energy. It can be said that the last two years have been the busiest time since he started his career.

Even when Golden Harvest went public, it wasn’t so rushed. Although it was busy at that time, everything was organized.

Moreover, when he was shooting movies in the past, he would usually make one a year or even two every three years. From project establishment and preparation to shooting, post-production, and final promotion and release, everything was extremely easy for him.

The only time he worked non-stop was when he was completing the two projects "Interstellar" and "Aftershock". He was only able to relax after the release of "Interstellar" at the end of last year.

From the establishment of the project of "Interstellar" to the preparation of "Aftershock", after the filming of "Interstellar" was completed, they immediately invested in the filming of "Aftershock", while also having to devote their energy to arranging the post-production of "Interstellar".

Then, after finishing the filming of "Aftershock", without even two days of rest, "Interstellar" began to be promoted and released. In order to realize his ambition of breaking the box office record of "Avatar", Liu Zhou also devoted himself to the promotion.

It wasn't until before the Spring Festival that he finally had some free time.

Although "Aftershock" has not been released yet, there is still a lot of time and he doesn't need to worry too much. He will only be needed to participate in the promotion when the summer movies are released.

However, this time he will not participate in the entire promotion like he did when "Interstellar" was released and go on a crazy road show for half a month, traveling through more than 20 cities across the country.

Liu Zhou will return to his previous rhythm, participating in one or two talk shows at most before the release, and then promoting the film on Weibo.

Don’t underestimate his promotion of movies on Weibo. He is currently one of the top ten big Vs in terms of the number of fans on the entire Internet. As of now, he has more than 12 million fans.

He didn't buy his fans, they were accumulated since his debut.

Actually, Liu Zhou started his career at the end of 1996 when he sent his first novel to Mengya magazine, and has been on this path ever since.

Therefore, the composition of his fans is quite complex, including book fans, movie fans, career fans, and appearance fans. They make up the 12 million fans of Liu Zhou on Weibo.

He does not have any inflated posts, so his Weibo is very active, and every time he posts on Weibo, he easily gets over 100,000 comments.

However, the main force in promoting a film still has to be the leading actors. The starring cast of "Aftershock" is not bad either. Zhou Gongzi, Liu Yifei, Zhang Yi and Hu Jun are all currently first-line stars in China.

Later, he only planned to participate in roadshows in Beijing, Shanghai and his hometown of Guangzhou. If the partner of this movie was not Tangshan Zhanyou, he would only participate in the Beijing show at most.

It’s not that Liu Zhou is not interested in the movie, but that the publicity and promotion team of Golden Harvest Group is already very mature and able to promote "Aftershock" all over the country.

At most, he plays a role of icing on the cake.

His status now is different from before. Not to mention his title of the richest man, even as the chairman of Jiahe Group, it is impossible for him to fight on the front line like before.

If Liu Zhou had not placed high hopes on "Interstellar", he would not have been able to promote it for nearly a month.

Since acquiring Golden Harvest, he has rarely participated in the promotion of films, including "The Martian", the first hard-core science fiction blockbuster he shot in China.

So even if he didn't put as much thought into "Aftershock" as he did into "Interstellar", Tangshan couldn't say much given his status.

After being busy for so long, Liu Zhou really wants to have a good rest for a while.

Making movies is his hobby. In fact, with his current status and position, doing this may seem a bit unusual to outsiders, even though he started out as a director.

Friends like Xiao Ma Ge, Chen Tianqiao, Ding Lei and even Zhang Chaoyang all advised him to give up the career of director.

Although Zhang Chaoyang often appears in entertainment gossip news with young models, luxury cars and beautiful women, he will definitely not agree if you ask him to show up in movies or TV series.

Later, he became a physics teacher and started live streaming his classes.

However, Liu Zhou does not want to give up his career as a director. After all, he does not regard it as a way to make money, but he really likes making movies.

Although he felt a little regretful that he did not have the opportunity to become a director in his previous life, it was also related to film and television, and he enjoyed this profession at the time.

In this life, I have made up for the regrets of the previous life, and I am also happy to be a director.

Not only that, Liu Zhou also wants to make a contribution to the Chinese-language film industry, especially to change some bad situations in the original time and space, and now he has the ability to do this.

Maybe he won't succeed, but at least he tried it and has a clear conscience.

So even though he has become the richest man in mainland China, he has not given up making movies.

But if one is always busy making movies, one will inevitably lose the fun of making movies, and now he doesn't want to lose the fun of making movies.

Therefore, no matter what, he needs to take a good rest for a while to eliminate his fatigue from the movie.

Resting doesn’t mean doing nothing, but doing something other than movies.

Liu Zhou also took this opportunity to take care of the affairs of several of his companies.

Because he has been busy making movies in the past two years, he must have neglected the company, although the management of each company would send documents to him for his processing and approval.

But he could only get a general idea and was still a little unclear about the company's specific situation.

Just like the Golden Harvest Group, it was through this high-level meeting that he had a relatively specific understanding of the situation of each subsidiary.

He had always thought that the Jiahe Film and Television Industry Base and the cinema chain company would require a lot of investment from the group, but he did not expect that the company would be self-sufficient and could afford the investment in these two projects.

Moreover, it does not mean that everything will be fine after holding this meeting to understand the situation of each subsidiary. After the meeting, Liu Zhou will definitely need to spend some time to gain an in-depth understanding of the situation of each subsidiary.

Only in this way can he have a clear understanding of the entire Jiahe Group.

If you really just focus on being a director and leave the operation of the company to the management team, this is not decentralization or trust, but stupidity. What you did is a great test for the management team, and not many cadres can withstand such a test.

Human nature is the most vulnerable to the test. Maybe Zhang Zhao and others were working well, but by doing this you are forcing them to release their desires to a certain extent.

So how could Liu Zhou hand over the foundation he had built with so much effort to others just like that?

He couldn't afford to neglect the past two years. He had to make up for it now that he had time and continue to deepen his presence within the company.

After the meeting, the heads of each branch went about their business.

Zhang Zhao was also busy coordinating the affairs among various companies. Not to mention other things, just transferring the profits from various subsidiaries was not an easy task.

Because the revenue from movies produced by Golden Harvest last year has not yet been fully received, especially "Interstellar", which also achieved good box office overseas.

It is not easy to get overseas revenue. Although the distribution companies are Golden Harvest International and Lionsgate, which is in its honeymoon period, the settlement will take at least two or three months.

Therefore, the 2 billion yuan to be invested in the Jiahe Film and Television Industry Base this year cannot be allocated all at once, so Zhang Zhao needs to coordinate well.

Otherwise, the funds here have not arrived yet, and the film and television industry base needs money, which will cause trouble.

This meeting not only Liu Zhou, but several other senior executives also gained a more intuitive understanding of the group company.

It has been more than two years since Jiahe went public, and only one meeting was held at the beginning of the listing, which was to allocate the funds raised from the company's listing and its subsequent development plans.

No more high-level meetings were held after that. All the subsidiaries were focused on development, and Zhang Zhao coordinated the affairs of the entire group while taking care of the Golden Harvest Film and Television Base.

This can be said to be the second high-level meeting after Golden Harvest Group went public.

Although there are no new business arrangements, given the current size of the Golden Harvest Group, any small moves in some of the existing business segments would be able to create quite a stir in the industry.

Last year, Golden Harvest Group made a profit of nearly 3 billion yuan, but this was not disclosed in its external financial reports. Instead, the profits were accounted for through investments in cinema chains and film and television bases, and only a few hundred million yuan was disclosed.

Some professional media and investment institutions outside certainly don't believe this, and even some more discerning stock investors don't quite believe it, but they can't do anything if Jiahe doesn't release the specific data.

No one expected that Golden Harvest would achieve such brilliant results last year without making a big publicity about it.

With a total profit of over 2 million for If You Are the One , Huayi is eager to promote it to the whole country.

Generally speaking, in the entertainment and media industry, it is impossible to make a fortune quietly. You have to be high-profile and let others know how awesome you are.

Let actors, directors, advertisers, theaters, TV stations, and manufacturers from all walks of life know how awesome you are. This way you will be more successful, and they will give you face and come to you for cooperation.

But Golden Harvest already has all these. Even if it stops promoting it, everyone knows that Golden Harvest is awesome. Apart from anything else, the market value of Golden Harvest of nearly 100 billion yuan is visible.

Moreover, they produce so many hit movies and TV series every year, which are more effective than any advertising.

Just like this time, Golden Harvest deliberately kept a low profile, and no company dared to underestimate it.

Although Golden Harvest keeps a low profile, some specific projects inevitably leaked out.

While the management of Golden Harvest was busy with their own things, the outside world and the industry were also agitated by Golden Harvest's new move.

The first is Golden Harvest Films’ most important project "Empress Wu Zetian". With Fan Xiaopang agreeing to Jiang Xueruo's willingness to join, the preparations for this TV series have entered the fast lane.

Although the script has not been completed yet, and the costumes and props have not been completed either, there will be no accidents. For Jiang Xueruo, the most important thing is Fan Xiaopang's joining.

Now that this biggest unexpected factor has been resolved, she can speed up preparations for other matters.

Therefore, "Empress Wu Zetian", starring the most popular actress Fan Xiaopang and with a huge investment of 120 million yuan, inevitably became a hit in the industry, and even many media and netizens had heard of it.

Since there are no specific official reports, the media and netizens can only report or discuss some related gossip.

But in the industry, anyone who is slightly informed knows that this is true.

Everyone also realizes that the drama "Empress Wu Zetian" is clearly aiming to be the best drama of next year.

Obviously, the huge success of "The Legend of Zhen Huan" has made Golden Harvest taste the sweetness, and "Empress Wu Zetian" is definitely trying to replicate the success of "The Legend of Zhen Huan" again.

The strong writing team, the participation of Fan Xiaopang and an investment of over 100 million yuan all demonstrate that "Empress Wu Zetian" can replicate the success of "The Legend of Zhen Huan".

It hasn't been long since the first round of broadcast of "The Legend of Zhen Huan" ended, and it is now in the second and third rounds of broadcast. Everyone can still remember how popular this drama was.

This time, everyone knows what the drama "Empress Wu Zetian" is about just by looking at the name. Wu Zetian's deeds are obviously more widely circulated in China and have a large mass base.

Therefore, as long as the quality of "Empress Wu Zetian" is not a problem, this TV series will definitely be a hit. As for whether it can become as popular as "The Legend of Zhen Huan", it depends on whether you have that luck.

But no matter what, the "Empress Wu Zetian" project is not only the most important project of Golden Harvest, but also a highly anticipated project in the circle.

For the actors, they definitely hope to be able to join this TV series. Being the protagonist is impossible, but a supporting role will be fine.

I don’t know how many supporting actors have become famous because of “The Legend of Zhen Huan”, and some of them have benefited even more than the leading actors.

The most typical example is Cai Shaofen, whose role as the Queen made her extremely popular in mainland China and directly brought a second spring to her career.

So even though "Empress Wu Zetian" hasn't announced auditions yet, many people have come to inquire about it, including some first- and second-tier stars.

Not only that, in addition to the actors, several TV stations also contacted Golden Harvest after hearing about this.

"The Legend of Zhen Huan" was so popular that they didn't want to let their competitors take the lead in "Empress Wu Zetian" this time.

Therefore, these days Jiang Xueruo has been busy dealing with people from the TV station and those who have contacted her in a roundabout way to find out the situation. She can be said to be tired but happy.

(End of this chapter)