The richest person in Chinese entertainment

Chapter 311 A New Year, a Series of Major Events
"Chenchen, are you waiting for this thing to come out?" Sun Fangping looked at her son who had stayed in the manor for nearly two months. "But this thing shouldn't have any effect on Baidu."

"Well, it really doesn't do them any good."

Under Liu Yifei's expectant eyes, Zhang Chen picked up a piece of the dish she cooked. After putting it into his mouth, he frowned because of the saltiness: "Is the salt on sale in the supermarket today?"

"That doesn't make sense. I've clearly tasted it." Liu Yifei took a piece out of disbelief.

After eating, he spit it out: "Pah, pah, pah, weird!"

"I've been learning for two months, but I can't even cook a dish properly, what a noob~" Zhang Chen rolled his eyes, put down his chopsticks and decided not to eat anymore. He turned to look at his mother and started talking about business: "This thing came out just to give me a reason to make trouble."

"Just be aware of this, so you don't end up working for nothing."

"No, this is just the beginning. Next year we will have exciting things to do in China."

Just as Zhang Chen said, China's Internet landscape will be full of excitement next year.

Judging from the current and known information.

Shanda has accumulated a large amount of cash with the game "Legend" and is eyeing other Internet companies.

Alibaba and Yahoo have reached a new cooperative relationship through SoftBank, and the possibility of bigger moves next year cannot be ruled out.

Among the companies controlled by Zhang Chen, Google has confirmed that it will enter China's search engine market this year, and Penguin has just developed "QQ Fantasy" and will enter into a cooperative relationship with Wahaha.

In addition, in terms of online shopping, various companies have also begun to make efforts to catch up with Taobao, including enterprises.

In addition, the product that has just been launched only provides a formal and powerful endorsement for what Zhang Chen has been promoting, which can give him a legitimate reason to do so.

Later he prepared a series of things to deal with Baidu.

Having been targeted twice in a row, although it is not clear whether it was intentional or just a coincidence, the grudge has been completely formed, and it is definitely impossible for Zhang Chen to let it go so easily.

"Brother, let's go watch Kung Fu together tomorrow?"

"Why do you like watching comedies?"

"There aren't many movies to watch this year. When will your movie be released?"

"It's still early for my movie, let's wait a little longer, I'll ask the theater to send a copy over and we can watch it at home."

"Can we do this?" Liu Yifei looked surprised. She was still thinking about what to do to avoid being discovered by fans when she went to the cinema.

Zhang Chen shrugged and didn't answer.

Morning Light Cinemas has never done such a thing. They would only do it when they want to see a movie earlier, and they would just make an extra copy each time.

Currently, relying on the huge financial support of Zhang Chen, the Morning Light Cinema Chain has been frantically enclosing land and building cinemas in core areas of the country. The number of screens in the chain's own theaters has reached 1218, and the number of screens in franchised theaters has reached 450, with a total of 1668 screens.

At that time, there were only 4256 screens in the country.

The entire Morning Light Cinema Chain accounts for 39% of them, which is almost the same number of screens controlled by China Film, reaching a trend of dividing half of the world.

Without Zhang Chen's intervention, the current number of screens in China would not even exceed 3000.

It is precisely because of Zhang Chen’s strong intervention that domestic cinemas have sprung up like mushrooms after rain, taking root and sprouting rapidly across the country, contributing to the booming domestic film industry.

Why is Zhang Chen liked by some people?

Because Zhang Chen has spent a lot of money all over the country.

Why does no one blame Zhang Chen for doing something willful?

That's because the tax paid by the company under Zhang Chen's name in 04 reached 10 figures! In addition, everything Zhang Chen did was within the rules, never crossed the red line, and did things with a legitimate reason. They must be crazy to make trouble for Zhang Chen.

It is precisely because of this that when the public questioned whether Zhang Chen's wealth was clean, the most authoritative media immediately spoke out to support Zhang Chen, fearing that Zhang Chen would be unhappy.

Even though China now has so many screens thanks to Zhang Chen’s influence, the domestic movie ticket sales data is still not ideal.

As of now, the highest-grossing movie in 04 was Zhang Yimou's "House of Flying Daggers", which grossed 2.25 million yuan. The box office of other movies barely exceeded million yuan:

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 1.18 million

"The Day After Tomorrow", 1.07 million

"Troy", 9500 million

Spider-Man 6730, million

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, 5500 million

New Police Story, 5100 million

2046, 4100 million

In fact, missing from this list is "A World Without Thieves" which was originally scheduled to be released this year, because Feng Kuzi was shelved by Zhang Chen before the film was even approved. Under the current circumstances, this film can at least earn no less than 1.5 million yuan at the box office.

And now "Kung Fu" will not be released until tomorrow. If nothing unexpected happens, it should be able to win the domestic movie box office championship this year.

By then, the total domestic movie box office should be able to reach about 21 billion, equivalent to about 2.7 million US dollars, of which domestic films should account for more than 50%.

But compared with the entire world's film market, this is still too small.

04 is almost over, and the box office of all movies in the world has been counted:
The box office champion was DreamWorks' "Shrek 2," which was released on May 5 and earned $19 million in its opening weekend. It eventually earned $1.29 million in North America and a total of $4.41 million worldwide.

The second place is "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", which is currently ranked sixth in the domestic box office, with a box office data of 8 million US dollars.

The third place is "Spider-Man 2" with a box office of 7.9 million US dollars.

Fourth place is "The Incredibles", produced by Pixar Animation, half of which has been acquired by Zhang Chen. However, this was produced for Disney and the box office data reached 6.31 million US dollars.

"Don't you have another movie investment in the United States?"

“This movie will be released in a few days.”

“When will it be released in China?”

"Domestic." Zhang Chen thought for a moment, "It should be next year. It's impossible to release it simultaneously around the world. After all, it's not a big movie."

"The Pursuit of Happyness" started filming at the beginning of the year, and all post-production was completed three months ago.

For a movie without special effects and with few actors, post-production is relatively simple.

If it is a movie like "Harry Potter", the post-production alone will take more than half a year. This is one of the reasons why many production companies cannot afford big productions. The remittance cycle is too long.

Coupled with high production costs and market uncertainties, it is easy to bring down a production company with unhealthy cash flow.

"Then shall we go to the United States to have a look?" Liu Yifei seemed eager to try.

"Spring Festival Gala!" Zhang Chen tapped the little girl's forehead, "There have been a lot of rehearsals recently."

"I can't understand why you still want to be on the Spring Festival Gala when you have achieved such a high position. You are almost becoming a fixture on the Spring Festival Gala like Uncle Zhao." "You don't understand. I have my reasons."

Zhang Chen didn't explain either. It was better to keep this kind of thing in mind.

Because his elders went to Zhejiang Province, he could only visit them during the Spring Festival Gala in the past two years. This matter was much more important than other things.

On Christmas Day, December 12th, "The Pursuit of Happyness" was officially released on the other side of the ocean.

At the premiere, Quentin and Will Smith mobilized their connections and basically called everyone who was famous in the U.S. entertainment industry to attend.

Among them are "The Voice of China" mentors Michael and Madonna, whom Zhang Chen met because of her, as well as students Taylor Swift and Rihanna, who are new generation singers who are currently becoming famous in North America.

It’s a pity that the students of China’s “The Voice of China” are basically all singers from Morning Light Entertainment, so they were all busy preparing for the Spring Festival Gala and did not attend. Otherwise, this would have been a great opportunity for exposure.

However, several mentors such as Wang Fei and Zhang Guorong attended the premiere.

Because Zhang Chen was willing to spend money, he allocated $5000 million for production costs and another $1 million for publicity and promotion costs in a 1:5000 ratio.

As a result, the film received nationwide attention in North America as soon as it was released.

Although it is not a top-notch A-level production, the lineup of the premiere and the starring role of the famous movie star Will Smith made many people choose this movie during Christmas, a time of family fun in the West.

In its first week, "The Pursuit of Happyness" became the box office champion of the week with a score of 3500 million US dollars.

Then, in the next half month, "The Pursuit of Happyness" monopolized the Christmas period of 04, overwhelming other movies of the same period, and the box office data successfully exceeded million US dollars.

At the same time, when "The Pursuit of Happyness" was a big hit at the box office, the Oscars had already included this movie in the voting range on the 27th, and it was selected simultaneously with all the movies of this year.

Many media in the United States speculated that this movie should win many awards at the Oscars. This also made Will Smith, who had never won an Oscar, very excited and he called Zhang Chen that day.

However, Zhang Chen's attention was not on the land of North America.

Because he had been waiting for something for a long time, and it finally came.

If this matter can develop as he remembered, then his campaign against Baidu will be able to successfully take a step forward.

At 2005:1 a.m. on January 12, 7, the customs officers of Hong Kong Island arrested a little-known person:

Chen Naiming uploaded the "seeds" of three movies on BT software some time ago.

After a week of trial and investigation, he was charged by the Hong Kong Procuratorate with three counts of "attempting to distribute infringing copies without the permission of the copyright owner".

The first digital copyright case in the country has officially begun.

"The movies you produced have all been nominated for Golden Globe Awards, but you're not going to participate?"

Sun Fangping looked at her son staring at the computer in the living room, feeling somewhat confused.

This is what many domestic directors and actors dream of, but his son doesn't care at all?
You should know that Zhang Yimou went to the United States early to prepare for his "House of Flying Daggers".

Although "The Pursuit of Happyness" is not a local Chinese film, Zhang Chen is the producer.

Given the producer-centered system in Hollywood, it is a bit unreasonable for Zhang Chen not to be present.

"There's no need to guarantee a prize." Zhang Chen still stared at the computer.

It contains a lot of information that Xue Yining has recently sorted out.

He can’t go back to his original home anymore, as it has almost become a check-in spot for his fans and tourists from all over the country.

As soon as he steps into that place, he is quickly recognized by fans.

Now he has begun to consider developing that place into a tourist attraction.

But he didn't think it was a pity. After all, he lived there for the convenience of going to school.

He is already a junior now, and he only goes to school once a year when he reports to school every semester, so there is no need for him to live near the school.

The suburbs are also good, the place is large and quiet.

Sun Fangping and Zhang Zhiguo are suffering again. They have to watch their son lying at home doing nothing every day.

"You've been busy for half a year, but I think you're just making a lot of noise but not much action. Baidu has already started preparing for an IPO on NASDAQ, and it's said that the situation is very good."

"I'm not in a hurry, so why are you? It's really the emperor who is not in a hurry." Zhang Chen shuddered and swallowed the rest of his words.

"Hmm?" Sun Fangping looked at her son with a smile, "Zhang Da Tian Wang, Chairman Zhang, what did you just say?"

"What I want to say is that the emperor is not anxious, but the empress dowager is." Zhang Chen put down the work in his hands, ran behind his mother and massaged her shoulders.

I almost got beaten.

"What on earth have you been busy with all day?" Sun Fangping accepted her son's courtesy with a smile, "Xixi has learned a lot during this period, why don't you help her?"

"Don't look at her busying about this and that. In the end, I guess she won't be able to stick to anything."

I have been busy cooking for a month, but I still haven’t made a decent dish.

Zhang Chen didn’t know how the little girl managed to hold on.

"You don't understand." Sun Fangping patted her son's hand and motioned Zhang Chen to come to her. "There is a reason why girls can't cook well."

"What's the reason?" Zhang Chen raised his eyebrows. Isn't he stupid?
"Do you think you don't need her to cook anymore?"

"Yeah, it tastes so bad after all."

"Your grandma also thought my cooking was bad, so your dad has been cooking for half his life."

Zhang Chen looked at his mother in disbelief when he heard this: "Are you pretending?!"

"What nonsense are you talking about!" Sun Fangping glanced at Zhang Chen unhappily, "You should find her something to do. As her mother-in-law, I know she can't cook. Let her be quiet."

"What mother-in-law?" Zhang Chen scratched his face with his fingers and coughed awkwardly.

"Don't I understand what you're thinking?" Sun Fangping looked at her son with disdain. "Xixi will be an adult this year. Have you prepared a gift?"

"without!"

"You really are..." Sun Fangping slapped Zhang Chen's thigh in frustration, "Are you going to make up for it like you did when we were kids?"

Zhang Chen rubbed his red thighs and said helplessly, "I don't know what she wants either."

"Why did I give birth to such a stupid thing like you?" Sun Fangping was so angry that she stood up and walked out. "I won't help you if Xixi gets angry."

"Actually, we have made preparations, but isn't it too cheap?" Zhang Chen muttered softly as he watched his mother walking away.

　Hey, Xiao Liu is finally becoming an adult!

　　I've waited too long!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)