The richest person in Chinese entertainment

Chapter 531 What are you planning?
"Zhang Chen, the 100 billion you donated this time shouldn't be that simple, right?"

After a few people exchanged pleasantries for a while, Tong Gang went straight to the point and stated his purpose.

However, Zhang Chen held the teacup and did not answer or deny it.

This incident was the result of a discussion between him and his uncle.

Recently he has been busy with this matter.

The reason I went to meet Han Sanping at that time was because the China Film Corporation, which Han Sanping was in charge of, was the most representative "recycler" in certain aspects.

After all, the transaction with that group of young masters was too secretive at that time.

We are now in the early stages of the financial crisis. If something like that were to happen, it would easily lead to a lot of uncertainty in the surrounding environment.

Now, maintaining stability is the core.

That’s why Zhang Chen came up with such a ostentatious idea of “a donation of 10 billion yuan”.

It is also because his usual "charitable" image is more deeply rooted in people's hearts.

Otherwise it would be difficult to do this so blatantly.

However, the core of the matter still lies in China Film Group and Shanghai Film Group.

"Old Han, even if you don't come to me today, someone will come to find you."

Zhang Chen put down the cup, looked at the anxious Han Sanping and said, "But China Film Group is already a step behind."

"Zhang Chen, how can I make up for my mistake?"

"Error?" Zhang Chen was surprised.

This guy actually admitted that he made a mistake?

It’s also rare.

But this was exactly what he wanted.

Originally, he wanted to use this matter to find Han Sanping to achieve some goals.

Although the current course of events has deviated a little from the plan, it actually makes it easier for him to achieve his goal.

"Yes." Han Sanping said dejectedly, "Just like you said, China Film Group is already one step behind."

"If Director Tong doesn't bring me here today, I won't be surprised if someone suddenly tells me to take over my job tomorrow."

Tong Gang drank his tea in silence.

Zhang Chen nodded.

Obviously, Tong Gang was satisfied with Han Sanping's daily work.

Otherwise, I wouldn't have brought him here at this time.

"Then I'll be frank." Zhang Chen didn't want to continue playing cryptic games, so he said directly, "It's been a while since I took over as the special advisor to the Federation of Literary and Art Circles, right?"

Tong Gang and Han Sanping sat up a little straighter.

They knew that the following words were not said by the chairman of the Morning Glory Group, nor by the celebrity Zhang Chen.

Instead, he spoke in the capacity of "Special Advisor to the Federation of Literary and Art Circles."

Gao Tonggang is half a level, and Han Sanping is one level.

Although it was not a formal meeting, the two still needed to take it seriously when revealing their identities.

"How much do you two know about foreign culture?"

Tong Gang and Han Sanping looked at each other, not understanding what Zhang Chen meant.

"Do you know the several 'hegemonies' that the United States has exported?"

"Military, economy, and technology?" Han Sanping asked.

These are the obvious three.

Especially 01. After the two buildings collapsed, some of the United States' external actions allowed the world to see the status of these three aspects in the world.

The former took place in the desert, awakening all countries in the world that were still stuck in the thinking of the last century.

In the economic field, Soros in 98 and the series of actions taken by the United States today after the outbreak of the financial crisis have been witnessed by all.

The core of all this is comprehensive leadership in technology.

Not to mention anything else, many talented people in the country now yearn for the beautiful country.

In their eyes, the United States has the world's top scientific research team and the best treatment for scientific researchers.

"Actually, there's one thing missing." Zhang Chen reminded.

"Which one?"

"Cultural export." Zhang Chen said firmly.

"culture?"

Tong Gang and Han Sanping looked at each other.

It’s not that they don’t understand, but they don’t understand the two words "culture" and "hegemony". They don’t seem like words that can be connected together, right?
"You two should have heard about my recent actions, right?"

"Zhang Chen is referring to shorting the U.S. housing market?" Tong Gang smacked his lips. "Did you really do that?"

Han Sanping also looked at Zhang Chen in shock.

This matter has been circulating for a long time, and even ordinary people have made this guess after watching Zhang Chen's two movies.

After all, we have united people from all over the world to be bearish on the U.S. housing market.

As the initiator, it is impossible that Zhang Chen had no involvement at all.

But everyone still has questions.

One is why.

They couldn't understand why Zhang Chen would do something so likely to offend others.

This is a beautiful country!
Is Zhang Chen really not afraid of death?
Second, how much did Zhang Chen earn?

Zhang Chen must have done it.

So how much did Zhang Chen earn?

This has been the focus of recent discussions after dinner.

But judging from the "100 billion" donation Zhang Chen made two days ago, he made much more money in this crisis than everyone imagined.

However, how much Zhang Chen earned has always been a mystery.

"Do you think they can feel at ease if I don't invest my own money to do this?"

"That's true." Tong Gang understood.

If even the leader does not invest real money, it will be difficult to convince the followers.

Even if Zhang Chen's reputation is there, it is difficult for those beautiful Chinese people who only care about money to willingly spend money to let Zhang Chen do this.

"Then" Tong Gang swallowed his saliva and asked cautiously, "How much did Consultant Zhang earn this time?"

"How much did you make?"

Zhang Chen stroked his chin and thought.

To be honest, he himself couldn't figure out how much he had earned this time.

Because many things are not paid in the form of "cash".

But the number of “hundreds of billions of dollars” is still there.

But if I say it out loud I'm afraid it will scare the two people in front of me.

And it is easy to cause unnecessary trouble to yourself.

When he earned less in the past, he could still use these achievements to gain others' admiration.

But this time, the money mentioned is not just about worship.

What Zhang Chen fears most is the phrase “With great ability comes great responsibility.”

By then, it will be hard to say whether the money will still belong to him.

But the money has been earned and everyone is still guessing.

That’s a pretty big guess.

So we can't be stingy.

Hundreds of billions are far from enough in the eyes of some people.

Moreover, out of the 10 billion, only a tiny fraction of it was actually paid in.

More of it has flowed into all links of the film industry.

"Yes, how much did you earn?"

Not only Tong Gang, but even Han Sanping was curious.

Zhang Chen is already a super-rich man with a fortune of tens of billions of dollars, and is also the country's apparent "richest man".

It is obvious that Zhang Chen made a lot of money from this financial crisis.

So should this time’s “richest man” become “the richest man in the world”?

In 2006, Bill Gates had assets of $500 billion.

Zhang Chen's wealth in 06 was approximately US$220 billion.

But Zhang Chen's current listed company stocks have been cleared out. The specific transaction figures are unknown.

But there is still real wealth of hundreds of billions of dollars.

Moreover, these stocks were sold out before the financial crisis broke out, which means that the depreciation of one's wealth was preserved.

So while he was able to preserve his wealth, how much did he earn on the other side?
"I can't tell you how much I earned." Zhang Chen shook his head.

In the disappointed eyes of Tong Gang and Han Sanping, Zhang Chen added: "But I can accelerate the development of the domestic cultural industry by 10 years."

"Cultural industry? 10 years?!"

Tong Gang screamed.

Don't blame him for being shocked.

This is not the movie industry or the TV drama industry.

Rather, it is the entire industry under the broad category of "culture".

What concept?
In 2006, the market size of China's cultural industry was approximately 5500 billion yuan.

Accelerated development for 10 years cannot be equated to 5500 billion yuan a year.

But if we want to accelerate this cultural industry, we must at least put out a huge amount of money to promote industrial development, right?

It does not mean that market size and investment are proportional.

Generally speaking, the investment should be smaller than the market size.

But by this calculation, if we want to accelerate the development of the cultural industry, the scale must not be less than 10 billion a year, right?

At least hundreds of billions in those ten years?

Of course, this cannot be calculated based on all "cash".

Generally, having an initial capital can leverage larger funds for circulation.

It’s not like investing in an industry will not produce any results.

There is a return if there is an investment.

To put it simply, based on the movie, the investment was 100 million.

The time window for preparation, production, promotion, release and capital return of the film industry is about a little over a year.

According to the normal profit logic of movies, if a movie wants to make money, the production cost is about one-third of the box office.

The industry driven by this movie is several times the box office revenue.

Because from the production to the release of a movie, there are many other profit points in between, which is also part of the market.

The simplest one is the Coke popcorn sold around the area and in movie theaters.

In other words, a movie with an investment of 6 million yuan can at least drive a market of around million yuan.

Completely unreasonable movies like Zhang Chen's "La La Land" do not count as box office "donations" by Zhang Chen.

That means the box office is at least 5 million, and there is a corresponding 5 million in other markets.

Tong Gang could see the account clearly, but he couldn't figure it out.

He doesn't understand even more about other things that are beyond his control.

But he knew that the film industry he managed was about to usher in spring.

"Zhang Chen, how much do you plan to invest in those film directors?" Han Sanping asked in a trembling voice.

I don’t know how many film directors are now waiting for the funding from China Film.

But you also need to queue up for this money.

And many of them are people of the older generation who are eligible to receive this money.

Han Sanping sees many young directors with potential and is worried about them.

He wanted to approve the funding, but there was only so much money available.

This is a big blow to talented young directors.

After so many years, there are only a few directors on the market, and it’s not because there is not enough funding for them to grow.

To put it bluntly, a film director needs to be "fed" with money.

Only by allowing them to watch movies continuously can they grow through repeated failures.

Don’t talk about those directors who win awards and box office right out of the gate.

These are directors that are rarely seen in many years.

Even someone as talented as Chen Kai hasn't had a movie to show off since "Farewell My Concubine".

Even Zhang Yimou doesn't dare to say that every one of his movies can make money.

Under such circumstances, China Film Group Corporation is even more cautious in its investment.

With the support of Zhang Chen's huge amount of funds, projects that we didn't dare to invest in before can definitely be launched quickly.

While speeding up film output, it can also cultivate more outstanding talents in the industry.

"Investing in movies?" Zhang Chen waved his hand in denial. "If I only invest in movies, wouldn't I be able to read the script myself?"

Zhang Chen's words made Han Sanping smile awkwardly.

Indeed, the investment of Morning Glory Group in movies is no less than that of China Film.

Almost all the movies released in theaters on the market have the presence of Morning Light Pictures and China Film.

Among them, the share of Morning Glory Pictures is much higher than that of China Film.

After all, who makes Chenguang Cinemas the largest cinema chain in China?

Moreover, compared with the behemoth Morning Glory Group, China Film's pitiful "budget" is even less than impressive.

He is wealthy and has a background in theaters.

Morning Light Pictures is considered to be the most popular investor among peers in the industry.

"So how do you plan to invest the funds?" Tong Gang asked.

After thinking about it, Zhang Chen reminded: "In terms of movies, I plan to vigorously support special effects, screenwriting, and animation production."

"These." Tong Gang hesitated, "can't be done in a short period of time? And it's hard to say whether there is soil for them to grow in the country."

Let’s not talk about how much say screenwriters have in China’s “director-centered” environment.

In addition, as for special effects, there is no domestic film that can use such high-end special effects.

The cost of special effects is calculated by the second.

For example, the CG cost of producing the movie "King Kong" in 2005 was about US$20 per second.

Even for a smaller company, it would cost tens of thousands of dollars per second.

To make a one-minute special effects shot, the cost would be in the millions of dollars.

But if a movie has the word "special effects" on it, it would have at least ten minutes of special effects shots, right?
Then the cost would start at “tens of millions of dollars”.

Can the country support such a huge investment in a film now?
Nowadays, movies in mainland China that can gross over 100 million yuan are considered big productions.

Nearly 100 million spent on special effects?

What about other inputs?

Even if there are wealthy investors who want to invest, such as Zhang Chen who has the money.

But what about the market?

The country is currently producing single-films, but it has managed to produce something unconventional like "La La Land".

The second-ranked movie at the box office was "Titanic" with 3.6 million yuan.

Excluding this movie that swept the world at the time, the current box office record for mainland movies is 3.2 million yuan for "Curse of the Golden Flower".

The market is so small that it cannot support the market scale required for special effects blockbusters.

Only when the mainland can produce a movie with a box office of one billion yuan can the domestic special effects blockbusters have the soil to grow.

And the soil for this growth cannot be solved simply by the number of screens.

We also need to take into account factors such as residents’ income and consumption habits.

This is not something that can be changed in a short period of time.

So Tong Gang and Han Sanping felt that Zhang Chen was a little bit whimsical.

Having money can indeed drive industrial development.

But China’s current foundation is still too weak.

This is reflected in all aspects and cannot be changed overnight.

Even though the Chenxi Foundation donates money to poor areas every year, it is still a drop in the bucket in this newly developed environment.

"I know it's impossible to become fat in a short period of time, but I need to prepare early."

"What's your purpose in doing this?" Tong Gang was also curious.

"What do I want?" Zhang Chen whispered, "I want the Chinese people to grow up under the nourishment of Chinese films and TV series, rather than a worldview built on cultural products with other ideologies as the core."

Zhang Chen's words were powerful.

But Tong Gang and Han Sanping disagreed.

Is this thing really necessary?
To put it bluntly, movies and TV dramas are just commodities, right?
(End of this chapter)