The richest person in Chinese entertainment

Chapter 324: A fine of $10, a way out

Chapter 324: A fine of $10, a way out
On the 30th, China's capital time, Oscar still did not express any opinion.

However, the press conference held by Zhang Chen yesterday began to be broadcast on media in various countries.

Some media outlets conducted "selective reporting".

However, all this was done after Facebook released the full video of the press conference, causing those media outlets that quoted the news out of context to lose face.

By the beginning of March, the news from the Academy of Oscars finally came. Frank, on behalf of the 3,000 members of the Academy, convened a press conference with various media:

"Some time ago, our Oscar host made some inappropriate remarks at the awards ceremony. On behalf of the Academy, I would like to express my sincerest apologies to everyone who was hurt. At the same time, we will also impose necessary punishment on the host involved."

"What exactly is the punishment?"

Frank was silent for a moment before responding, "Chris Rock will be expelled from the Academy and Mr. Chris Rock will be banned from attending the Oscars for 10 years."

"Then may I ask if there is any punishment for the perpetrators?"

Frank glanced at the reporter and saw that he and Chris had the same skin color, so he didn't feel strange. "First of all, we apologize for what Mr. Leon suffered at Oscar, but we also have to punish him accordingly for beating someone."

When the reporter heard the word "punishment", he sat up straight.

Not only his compatriots should be punished, the person who beat him must also be punished, even if he is Zhang Chen!
"Therefore, we have decided to impose a fine of $10 on Mr. Lyon."

This punishment
Reporters at the scene looked at each other, not knowing how to comment on this punishment.

"This is unfair, why don't people like Leon, who are vulgar and violent, be banned from the Oscars?"

The reporter looked indignant. He felt that this punishment was not a big deal for Zhang Chen. Would someone like Zhang Chen be short of $10?
It seems like punishment is just for the sake of punishment, to make everyone save face.

"10?"

Zhang Chen looked at the leaders of film and television companies from all over the world.

While Frank was holding a press conference, Zhang Chen was also receiving film and television companies from all over the world on the top floor of the Morning Light Building.

"Leon, please understand our suffering. If you are not punished, there will be demonstrations in our country."

"I spent tens of millions to give you something you liked, but I was humiliated at the award ceremony, and now you want me to pay a fine?"

As Zhang Chen spoke, he slapped the table harder and harder, until the cups of the representatives flew into the air.

“Leon, let’s just let it go this time, right?”

"Forget it?" Zhang Chen sneered, "Is this the condition you negotiated for me?"

Zhang Chen doesn't believe that these film and television companies combined will not be able to win an Oscar.

Afraid of demonstrations?
The people behind these companies can ensure that this kind of news never makes it to the front pages of any media outlet, without causing any waves at all.

It's just that they feel that doing this is time-consuming and laborious, so they want to use the simplest method to calm the matter down.

In their opinion, Chris has been punished and banned from attending the Oscars ceremony for 10 years, and Zhang Chen has also slapped him in the face, so the punishment should be adequate.

“Leon, this $10 should be nothing to you, this way, it’s a face-saving thing for both of us.”

For Zhang Chen, $10 is just a bottle of wine, so there is no need to care about it.

"If I pay the $10, you will have face, but what about mine?"

Of course Zhang Chen knew that this was the other party trying to give him a way out.

Whether the $10 is paid or not, and what the subsequent public opinion will be like, all depends on how he guides it.

If there is no guidance and the rhythm is led by people with ulterior motives, then the matter will become that Zhang Chen bows to Oscar and the world's king is no more than this, and so on.

If guided a little, it would become that Zhang Chen spent $10 to slap someone with a dirty mouth to vent his anger, showing his domineering attitude.

Now, in order to give the other side a way out, as long as Zhang Chen pays the money, those sitting here today will turn a blind eye to Zhang Chen's behavior of guiding public opinion. This is the tacit understanding between the two parties.

However, today's meeting is not just to discuss the Oscars. If we give in on this matter now, we will lose a bargaining chip for the things that come later.

"Leon." Lorenzo was familiar with Zhang Chen, so after thinking for a moment, he spoke on behalf of the representatives of major Hollywood studios, "You know we are not here to talk about this matter this time."

"Why are you here if you're not here to talk about this?" Zhang Chen played dumb.

Lorenzo was choked by Zhang Chen's words, but he quickly adjusted his mindset and continued, "We came here today to discuss two things with you."

"Oh?"

One thing is obvious, Zhang Chen and everyone present know it, but as for the other thing, it is hard to say whether it is what Zhang Chen thinks.

But he still planned to continue listening.

"The first thing is that we want to talk to CGT about how long it would be appropriate to put our film on the online platform after it is released."

"How long do you think it will take?"

"36 months."

Zhang Chen frowned and thought for a while: "You should ask William over there."

William also came to the Morning Glory Group today, which was a rare occasion. The main reason was that all the major Hollywood studios were here, and if they were going to talk, they would definitely talk about the release time of the movies on the online platform.

As the president of CGT, William will definitely attend this meeting.

"Leon, don't pretend in front of us. Everyone knows that you are closely related to CGT. You should have a lot of shares in it, right?" Lorenzo chuckled. "Look, we have invited William as well. With the two of you present, we can discuss this matter."

"I'm just a small shareholder. William and I will decide on the specific matters." Zhang Chen looked at William with a smile, "Right, William."

“Haha, I still need to respect the opinions of my shareholders. If it weren’t for Mr. Leon, I wouldn’t be able to achieve what I have today.”

"Selling Google's stock to you was the biggest mistake I have ever made in my life." Zhang Chen looked pained.

“That’s why I keep saying that Mr. Leon is my benefactor, so I will respect your choice this time. After all, no one knows whether your choice will bring me another surprise.”

Zhang Chen and William sang the same tune and cleared up the relationship between the two. At the same time, William handed the right to speak on what they were going to discuss today to Zhang Chen.

After listening to the conversation between Zhang Chen and William, others had a deeper association about the relationship between Zhang Chen and William.

No wonder there have been rumors that the relationship between these two people is incredibly good. Many things show that they are like a pair of pants.

From the tricks involved between Morning Glory Music (USA) and Facebook, it can be seen that the cooperation between the two companies has always been very close.

Now after listening to the conversation between the two, they more or less understood that Zhang Chen had been helping William make money.

That’s right, in their eyes, Zhang Chen was helping William make money.

If you look at it this way, it makes sense that William respects Zhang Chen's decisions on many things.

As for making money, as long as the money ends up in your own pocket, that's enough.

“Since William has said so, let’s discuss it directly with you, Leon. What do you think of the 36-month period?”

"I don't think it's very good. It seriously delayed netizens' time to watch movies, and also gave pirates ample time to pirate copies."

"But we need to leave enough time for disc rentals."

In the United States, the disc rental business has existed for so long that it once became the main source of income for many production companies.

Some movies actually don’t perform well at the box office when they are released, and they have to rely on the subsequent disc rental income to recover the film’s revenue.

This period of time is generally around 3 years.

After more than three years, the rental income of movies will decline significantly.

"Haven't you ever thought that CGT could also make money from movie rentals, but on a larger scale and at a lower cost?"

Zhang Chen did not directly respond to the feasibility of the 36-month expiration, but proposed another feasibility.

The reason why these film and television companies come to him to discuss the release time of their movies on the Internet is simply because they cannot give up the profits from DVD rentals.

So as long as we can keep this part of the benefits for them, things will be much easier to negotiate.

"Leon, do you already have an idea?"

"CGT's standard membership fee is now $9.99 per month. Once you become a member, you can watch the movies you want on the player. The platform has already signed a profit-sharing agreement with you for this part of the fee, right?"

All the representatives nodded.

When they signed this agreement with Zhang Chen, it was to find a way out for those TV series and movies that were gathering dust in the copyright library.

The most important thing is that Huli.com did not receive their attention at the beginning. Thinking that every penny earned is a penny earned, they signed the relevant agreement with CGT.

However, with the rapid development of mutual benefit networks, CGT can now bring them a very considerable share every year.

In this case, cooperation with CGT should also become more formal and rational.

This is the main thing they came here to discuss today.

"We can open another pay-per-view service on the Internet."

Zhang Chen smiled and proposed a feature that many users in later generations hated - pay-per-view.

“Pay-per-view?”

Many people were stunned. They had never thought that it could be played like this.

"Yes, after a movie is released in theaters, many people who don't have time to go to the theater can only watch the movie through DVD rental. Or some movie lovers who want to relive the plot will also consider DVD rental."

Zhang Chen first stated the main consumption purposes of customers in the DVD rental market, and then he continued, "In this case, why don't we just put the movie on the platform after it's off the screen and let users pay to watch it?" "What about the price and expiration date?"

Someone asked this key question.

“The price is $8 per movie, or we can launch a super membership, which costs $12 per month more than the regular membership. Super members can watch the same content as regular members, and they can also watch movies that originally required a paid subscription for free, that is, movies that have just been released from theaters.”

"hiss--"

Many people took a breath.

Dark, really dark!

Zhang Chen's behavior will undoubtedly make users spend a lot of money to pay for these movies.

However, from the perspective of the production company, they saved the huge DVD production costs, saved store rentals, saved labor costs, and in short, saved a lot of money.

This is a way to move DVD rentals directly to the Internet, and it is a more profitable way.

They had no reason to disagree with such conditions.

"As for the time limit, it's 12 months. The movie will become free one year after it was charged on the platform."

Zhang Chen didn't think there was anything wrong with doing this.

If there were no online platform, movie fans who wanted to watch movies would have to go to the cinema to buy tickets or rent discs.

Money is needed both inside and outside.

As for watching pirated discs?
Whether the platform charges fees or not, or whether the discs are still available for rent, has nothing to do with them.

Let’s talk about the issue of paid on-demand services on the platform.

In fact, to be objective, if Pingtian does not launch this function, it will take at least two years for movie fans to watch these movies on the online platform after the movies are taken off the theaters.

During this period, Zhiping Company needed to use various means to squeeze out the last bit of value from the movie.

As long as the platform can release the movie in a paid form before the popularity of the movie has passed, the production company will have an additional source of income and can offset the losses caused by the premature release.

As for the question of whether eating would be too ugly.

If you think subscribing to pay for movies is disgusting, you can just wait until it’s free.

Moreover, without this function, movie fans can only watch movies by purchasing discs offline. Even if they rent DVDs, the price is higher than the US$8 proposed by Zhang Chen.

It would be great if all movies were free, but if the production company can't make money, then why shouldn't it produce movies for you?

People who get something for free will never think that doing so is a mistake. Just ignore such people.

He will use countless reasons to justify his behavior.

Any business must follow the most basic profit logic. Only when every link makes money can it be a healthy industry.

An industry that does not make money is called strategic XX or people's livelihood.

"We will discuss Leon's proposal after we return." Lorenzo looked at the people around him, and no one wanted to express objection.

However, they still need to discuss the details carefully after returning.

But overall, Zhang Chen's proposal solved the main contradiction between the two, and this trip to China was not in vain.

"By the way, if we really want to do this, we have to sign an agreement to prevent other companies from taking a piece of this place."

"Well." Lorenzo looked at Zhang Chen with some embarrassment, "Let's talk about it later."

In fact, people from Netflix have already contacted them during this period.

They also proposed a condition that attracted the attention of major Hollywood studios, which was the main reason why they came to China to discuss the launch time of the network with Zhang Chen.

Because in Netflix's vision, there is also subscription content and subscription-based paid projects.

There is a conflict of interest between the two.

For major film and television companies, it is best to make the quickest money possible so that they can maximize their profits.

"Okay, let's talk about something else."

Zhang Chen also knew that this matter was more difficult than what he had just talked about, but he had to mention it anyway.

What if it happens?
If you don’t say it, there is no possibility of success.

If you mention it, there is still a possibility of success.

Don't always think that things with extremely low probability should be denied at the very beginning, because many people miss the opportunity to succeed.

Don’t worry about whether it will work or not, as long as the cost is low, just give it a try.

"Another thing"

Lorenzo was in a dilemma.

This was actually what they wanted to talk about the most, but Zhang Chen was a foreigner, and it felt a little strange for them to talk about this with a foreigner.

"What's so awesome about it?"

Zhang Chen looked at Lorenzo with amusement.

Compared with Kevin, this person is much more cautious in doing things. To put it bluntly, he is hesitant and lacks the decisiveness of Kevin.

But Kevin's decisiveness also hurt himself.

Perhaps it is Lorenzo's caution that is the main reason why he was able to replace Kevin as the calm head of Warner's production business.

"Actually, we just want to ask, Leon, is the last clip of you in The Pursuit of Happyness real?"

"It's fake." Zhang Chen shook his head to deny it.

"and you."

Because it was an Oscar-nominated film, these people have seen it many times.

And the more they watched, the more they felt that the situation expressed by Zhang Chen in the movie was very likely to happen.

They also asked people to investigate, and their judgment on the real estate market in the United States was very similar to Zhang Chen's in the movie, but these people only did analysis and could not give them a feasible plan.

But they all agreed that Zhang Chen must have it.

"I don't know much about finance. You can talk to William. He manages a lot of my funds for me."

Zhang Chen was secretly happy in his heart, but on the surface he still had to distance himself from the matter.

It would be fine if these beautiful Chinese people here were to short the property market, but if he, a Chinese, were to get involved, he would definitely suffer the consequences.

There is also the possibility that the donkeys and elephants will blame him and put all the blame for the future on him.

As a person who values his life, Zhang Chen would never fall into this trap.

"In that case, shall we take our leave?"

"After all this time, my losses at Oscar are just over?"

Zhang Chen brought the topic back to the topic.

He spent such a huge amount of money at Oscar, and now these people came to negotiate a business deal and asked him to pay an extra penny. Isn't he losing a lot?

"I heard that Leon shot a movie in your country and went to Cannes?"

"Correct."

“After Cannes, I wonder if Lyon is interested in sending it to the Oscars?”

“A prize guaranteed?”

"We try our best."

These people are all shrewd people and just wrote a blank check to Zhang Chen.

"Okay, then everyone, take care."

Zhang Chen frowned and waved at them in an angry manner.

This matter has been resolved, and he still has something very important to do next.

The Olympics is about to start the director election.

Although he didn't know why his superiors asked him to participate.

But since he had been notified, he had to be present.