Huayu: Starting from Fahrenheit

Chapter 449, Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons, was released and became a box office hit.
Both Baofeng and Tencent agree with the tripartite alliance agreement proposed by iQiyi.

Because the tripartite cooperation does indeed help the three companies cope with the increasingly fierce competition among video platforms.

At the same time, it can also enhance the platform competitiveness of all three parties.

The reason why it is said to enhance the platform's competitiveness is...

Because there is a clause in this agreement:
"The three parties will jointly purchase high-quality video content that they mutually recognize, and the purchase will basically be carried out by sharing the costs in cash among the three parties."

For the films and television dramas that have already been purchased, the three parties will exchange them according to their respective needs.

Regarding post-purchase marketing and broadcasting, the three parties will contribute their best marketing resources for joint marketing efforts to enhance the product's appeal to advertisers.

In other words, the three parties can exchange their exclusive dramas with each other.

For example, the recently exclusively broadcast drama "Nirvana in Fire" on Baofeng.

After the three parties reach an agreement, the other two companies can exchange their exclusive dramas for Baofeng's content.

Similarly, Baofeng can also replace the other two platforms' top-performing dramas.

Once this cooperation model is established, Baofeng, iQiyi, and Tencent will officially form a regional broadcasting chain.

You can watch dramas from iQiyi and Tencent on Baofeng, and you can watch dramas from Baofeng and iQiyi on Tencent.

In an instant, the number of dramas broadcast by all three companies will be greatly expanded.

Furthermore, there is another advantage to tripartite cooperation.

That means the three companies should join forces to purchase the copyright.

This means that each of the three companies only needs to pay one-third of the money to acquire the rights to a TV series.

Undoubtedly, this can save the three platforms a significant amount of money on copyright purchases.

Furthermore, while preventing the three companies from continuing to clash over copyright, it also creates an advantage for other platforms.

This advantage is also very obvious.

This is a joint effort by three companies. Since each company only needs to contribute one-third of the money, their financial capacity is undoubtedly stronger.

Other platforms, operating independently, often have to bear the cost of purchasing a drama series on their own.

Once or twice is fine, but in the long run, how could they possibly defeat the three-way alliance here?

……

All three parties were aware of the benefits of this alliance, so the negotiations undoubtedly went very smoothly.

However, because many things were involved, the three parties dragged their feet for almost half a month before finally settling on the alliance.

Subsequently, the three parties jointly established an organization independent of the three platforms—the Video Content Cooperation Organization (VCC).

Yes, it is an organization independent of the three platforms.

The reason for this is that all three parties know that although an alliance is inevitable, they cannot truly be bound together.

Therefore, it is imperative to establish an organization jointly formed by the three platforms.

The sole purpose of this organization is to help three platforms purchase film and television content copyrights.

After obtaining the copyright, all three platforms can broadcast the films and television dramas purchased by this organization.

Furthermore, there is another advantage to going independent.

That means the three platforms can continue to purchase their own exclusive dramas under their own names, further widening the gap with other platforms in terms of content advantage.

After VCC was established, it immediately began to make moves.

This is no small matter.

VCC, through competition with Youku and Sohu, directly secured the streaming rights to more than a dozen Hollywood blockbusters, including "The Avengers," "The Amazing Spider-Man," and "The Hunger Games."

This move effectively established VCC's reputation, making the industry aware that Baofeng, iQiyi, and Tencent had formed an alliance.

Then, Sohu and Youku immediately panicked.

Especially Sohu.

Sohu's advantage in the past two years has been its exposure to Hollywood films.

Several years ago, Sohu began to acquire Hollywood film and television rights, aiming to become a "copycat" of Hollywood content in China.

However, the alliance formed by Baofeng, iQiyi, and Tencent has not only begun to purchase large quantities of domestic film and television copyrights, but has also set its sights on Hollywood, which is certainly something Sohu should be wary of.

Sohu Video, unable to sit still, immediately approached the three-party alliance, wanting to join it.

Obviously, it's impossible for Sohu to join now.

If they couldn't join, they would sabotage it. After the three-party alliance firmly and clearly rejected them, Sohu simply pulled together Youku, LeTV, and Suning to form a new alliance to counter the three-party alliance.

Since then, the video industry has officially entered a period of joint confrontation between two major camps in just two months.

After the two major video camps were established, they did not immediately focus on each other.

Instead, they began subconsciously sweeping away those short video platforms that lacked large capital and financial support.

To be honest, it's gotten to this point in time.

Video platforms have entered a period of intense competition among capital players.

Most of the mainstream video platforms on the market are backed by large amounts of capital.

iQiyi is Baidu, Tencent Video is Tencent, Sohu is Sohu.com, Youku is Alibaba, Suning is Suning Appliance...

Even Baofeng Technology, after Wu Zhuo took over, realized that he might not be able to compete with other large capital firms on his own, so he brought Wanda into the fold.

With the support of Legendary Entertainment, Storm, while not the strongest, is not weak either.

Then, it is worth mentioning that Tencent truly lives up to its reputation as a troublemaker.

After Wu Zhuo helped Baofeng get back on its feet, Tencent, seeing its potential, eagerly approached them and, through various means such as resource swaps, acquired 5% of Baofeng's shares from Wu Zhuo.

……

The fierce competition between video platforms did not affect Wu Zhuo.

In February, with the Spring Festival approaching, he began to actively participate in the promotional activities for "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons".

This film, while not as crucial to Legendary Entertainment's IPO as "Wolf Warrior," is still significant for the company.

However, Legendary Entertainment still attaches great importance to this project.

Legendary's internal estimates suggest that if the film is successful, it could push Legendary's market value to over 40 billion.

Therefore, the entire company attaches great importance to this project and has put a lot of effort into its promotion.

In recent years, the internet has become the primary channel for promoting movies.

Legendary spent nearly 20 million yuan on promotion for the show on several major websites.

Yes, that's why it's not even half the height of Wolf Warrior.

The main reason is that Wu Zhuo and Stephen Chow's brands are there.

Both of them are now top names in the film and television industry.

Just their names alone will draw a large number of movie fans to the cinema. Therefore, when promoting the film, Legend doesn't need to force content onto the audience like previous Legends did; Legend simply needs to guide the audience along naturally.

Just like on Weibo, Wu Zhuo posts a Weibo, Stephen Chow posts another Weibo, and then some marketing accounts hype it up, and naturally, attention comes in.

On February 4th, "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" officially premiered at Wanda Cinemas.

All I can say is that the pairing of Wu Zhuo and Stephen Chow is indeed a bit intimidating.

Huang Bo's self-introduction in "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" is:

"You know the Thirteen Protectors of Huaguo Mountain, right? I'm the leader. Back in the day, I was armed with two watermelon knives. I hacked my way from the South Heavenly Gate all the way to Penglai East Road. I hacked back and forth for three days and three nights."

As Huang Bo said, "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" broke various records on its opening day box office with ease.

On February 10, "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" had 29,300 screenings nationwide, attracting 2,009,600 viewers and grossing a total of 86,846,500 yuan. Including the box office from the preview screenings on February 2, the film's total box office has reached 88,845,200 yuan.

This impressive opening day performance surpassed the opening day box office records set by Hollywood blockbusters such as the 3D version of "Titanic" and "Kung Fu Panda 2," and also broke the 6800 million yuan opening day record for Chinese films set by "Painted Skin 2." It ranked second in the history of Chinese film box office, second only to the 9121 million yuan opening day record of "Transformers 3."

Meanwhile, the film also broke the box office record for Chinese-language films by grossing over 2.2 million yuan within three days of its release, becoming the fastest-grossing Chinese-language film to earn money.

On Valentine's Day, the film's single-day box office reached 1.42 million yuan, surpassing the record of "Transformers 3" and becoming a new record in the history of Chinese films.

Meanwhile, the film also set records for the highest single-day box office in mainland China for its opening day, second day, third day, fourth day, fifth day, and sixth day.

Without a doubt, "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" was a huge hit.

Just like last year's "Lost in Thailand," it became the most anticipated film of this year's Spring Festival.

Online, clips from the movie are circulating everywhere.

Clips of Wu Zhuo's alluring dance, Show Lo's "Old Onion" clip, and Huang Bo's clip.

Of course, the special effects scenes in it are also a hot topic.

Stephen Chow has once again proven that he is the undisputed King of Comedy.

[The legacy of the legendary box office king: Wu Zhuo succeeds Stephen Chow as the most bankable actor in Chinese cinema]

There's a kind of song written by Wu Zhuo, and a kind of movie starring Wu Zhuo. He's truly the first person in the Chinese-speaking world to have unparalleled appeal in both film and music.

[Golden Horse, Hong Kong Film Awards, even Golden Rooster Awards—Wu Zhuo deserves a Best Actor award.]

[A groundbreaking performance: Wu Zhuo's first foray into comedy, yet he flawlessly executed his role.]

Experts predict that "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" will ultimately gross over 15 billion yuan, becoming the highest-grossing Chinese film.

Since last year, domestic films have repeatedly achieved record-breaking box office results, and Legendary Entertainment has played an important role in this.

Both "Lost in Thailand" and "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" are produced by Legend Entertainment.

Legendary Entertainment has become a premium film production company in China.

Established for five years, the company has produced over ten films, ranging from big-budget productions to low-budget films, all of which have achieved both critical and commercial success.

Numerous accolades from the media and prominent figures have further fueled the film's popularity.

As the box office continued to soar, netizens also gave the film extremely high praise.

"This is absolutely a standard example of Stephen Chow's nonsensical comedy."

"Am I the only one who feels that Wu Zhuo in this movie doesn't look like Wu Zhuo?"

Indeed, in my impression, Wu Zhuo has always had an idol-like quality, just like Andy Lau. No matter what role he plays, he is always himself.

But in this film, Wu Zhuo undoubtedly broke away from his past image, creating a completely different character.

"Liu Shishi's dancing scene was so beautiful! I suddenly realized that she is indeed a good match for Wu Zhuo. I heard that this may be Liu Shishi's last film. After that, she will settle down to be Mrs. Wu."

"Liu Shishi is so lucky! Does this mean she's married into a wealthy family?"

"Of course, he's a wealthy family. According to Forbes' list of celebrities, Wu Zhuo's net worth has reached 400 billion."

If someone with such a high net worth isn't from a wealthy family, then who is?

“Wu Zhuo is also amazing. He started from scratch. Just like Fan Binbin said, he is a role model of the wealthy family himself.”

"Brother, don't compare Fan Binbin to Wu Zhuo."

The two are completely incomparable. Believe it or not, if Fan Binbin were in front of Wu Zhuo, she'd have to serve him tea and water.

"Stephen Chow's talent is as good as ever!"

Because of its critical and commercial success, almost all other films released in the same period suffered heavy losses.

Films including "101st Proposal" starring Huang Bo suffered a significant drop in box office revenue, with "Journey to the West" absorbing most of their screenings and box office earnings.

The phenomenal box office numbers of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" naturally attracted the attention of many foreign film distributors.

Almost all Southeast Asian countries, including Japan, South Korea, and Thailand, are influenced by Chinese culture.

Stories like Journey to the West are also very popular in these Southeast Asian countries.

Not to mention Wu Zhuo's influence in these countries.

Therefore, after "Journey to the West" became a box office hit in China, these foreign film distributors quickly contacted Legendary Entertainment to begin preparations for importing the film.

Apart from foreign theatrical film distributors.

Domestic streaming media also collectively got their hands on this idea at this moment.

Everyone can see how popular the movie "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" is.

Whoever secures an exclusive deal will undoubtedly gain a significant advantage for their own platform.

As a result, companies including Tencent, iQiyi, Sohu, and Youku all approached Legendary.

Everyone actually knows the relationship between Storm and Legend.

Both companies are directly controlled by Wu Zhuo.

They are brothers.

However, there's a saying that business is business.

Even between brothers, accounts must be kept clear.

Legendary Entertainment now has more than just Wu Zhuo as a shareholder; it also has shareholders like Wanda.

Under these circumstances, Legendary Entertainment, for its own benefit, would never give the film away to Baofeng Player for free.

It can only be said that because Baofeng is Wu Zhuo's company, it will have a certain advantage. Under the same price, Legend will definitely give priority to Baofeng.

Now, other platforms are betting that their prices will be higher than Baofeng Player's.

The copyright fees are much lower compared to older films.

The streaming rights fees for newly released movies are often very high.

After several media outlets approached Legendary Entertainment, they immediately began bidding against each other.

They started at 1.1 million RMB and kept raising the price to 1.9 million RMB.

Ultimately, before the film had even finished its theatrical run, "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" was acquired by a three-way alliance consisting of Baofeng, iQiyi, and Tencent for 1.9 million RMB.

(End of this chapter)