Huayu: From charlatan to great entertainer

Chapter 341 I Want to Walk in Your Shadow
Beep, beep, beep…

On Xinyuan South Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, at the bottom of Huayi’s headquarters building, a shiny bald head is particularly eye-catching.

Xu Zheng lingered outside the side door, looking at his watch from time to time, fearing that Wang Xiaolei's urging call would pop up on his cell phone.

He slipped out on the pretext of going to the restroom, as he had to go back to the meeting soon!

Ning Hao was on the set of Detective Chinatown and took a long time to call him back: "Hello? What's the matter? Why are you so anxious? I'm filming!"

Xu Zheng cried out in pain: "My brother! I am in a state of uncertainty about my life or death, can't you just put your own affairs aside and help me?"

"Oh! You're such a drag."

Ning Hao gestured to the stagehands to wait and walked out of the studio: "I've told you countless times, Director Lu doesn't blame you for going to Huayi at all! He supports you! He blesses you! Do you understand?"

"I don't believe you! What on earth did you tell Boss Lu that day?"

"Oh, I just arrived at Huayi, and right after I asked Jiahe, all thirteen luxury theaters across the country cut the screening schedule for 'The Banquet'. And they're still relying on 'Alien Land 2' with Leonardo DiCaprio and Concubine Liu to bully others?"

"Isn't this directed at me? There was something wrong with the way Wang Xiaolei looked at me just now!"

"Planescape: The Last Airbender" soared at the North American summer box office, with the stable sequel audience contributing more than $2 million in box office revenue. However, this has become commonplace in major forums.

After all, the box office boom and huge sales of derivative products three years ago are still fresh in our memory.

Such a killer movie was released during the National Day holiday, and with the added popularity of Concubine Liu Yi, it is even more powerful than ordinary Internet movies.

Ning Hao was at a loss whether to laugh or cry. He actually didn't quite understand the company's standards this time.

But given Boss Lu's temper, if he really wanted to manipulate you, Xu Zheng, he wouldn't go to such lengths, right?

"Well, Xu Zheng, think about it, if he doesn't want you to leave, would you dare to resist with just one word?"

"Don't dare."

"That's it! You didn't do him any wrong, and you were careful and tactful when you left."

Ning Hao laughed and said, "To put it bluntly, you, Xu Zheng, are nothing. If someone says to let you go, then let them go. Is it really necessary to make such a fuss over you?"

"Also, I'm going to show him the sample footage of Detective Chinatown at the end of this month. Can you come with me?"

"Okay, okay, it's settled. You must notify me in advance!" Xu Zheng finally felt relieved.

It's not that he's brilliant and Zhu Bajie is useless, it's just that Boss Lu's reputation is too bad!

It’s better to be careful than not to do anything wrong. Xu Guangtou, a sober person in the domestic entertainment industry, turned around and went upstairs.

In the conference room on the third floor, Xu Zheng, who had just entered the Huayi system, pushed the door open and carefully sat down in the last row.

There is a certain awareness of not getting involved in any matter.

I'm here to make a movie, not to fight with the big guys.

It’s better to avoid this kind of attention-seeking things if possible!

Behind closed doors, Little Cannon spoke without restraint: "This is too much of a bully! What kind of thing is this?"

"We've all avoided the popular National Day holiday, but he still moved Planescape: The Last Airbender forward. Isn't that just giving us no chance to survive?"

Suddenly, some laughter came from far away. Everyone looked sideways and saw Ma Yun and Deng Wendi entering the room with Chen Sicheng nodding and bowing.

It’s because Lao Ma has an amazing aura, otherwise his height would be quite funny standing next to Wendi Deng, who is 1.8 meters tall and wearing high heels.

"Xiaogang! Don't worry, President Deng and I are here to provide reinforcements!"

Feng Xiaogang's expression eased slightly, and he forced a smile that was uglier than crying to greet the two of them.

Wang Dajun looked around and found that core directors and decision-makers such as Zhang Jizhong, Xu Zheng, and He Ping were basically all there, so he naturally didn't call any actors.

"Everyone, please sit down first, and let Xiaogang calm down." Wang Dajun sighed. "It's market competition. After all, he didn't do anything more extreme. It's not easy for us to say anything."

Wendy Deng was in no mood to greet them, let alone comfort anyone.

The setback she suffered at the beginning of the year became the greatest humiliation she had ever experienced in her life, and the bow in front of Hong Kong Disneyland almost broke her spine.

The Huntress came this time with three things in mind!
The dry road is wide! The dry road is wide! The fucking dry road is wide!

"Han Shanping and the Film Bureau just agreed to his temporary change of schedule. Don't we have any influence on the decision?"

Wendy Deng's questioning embarrassed everyone. Wang Xiaolei explained, "'Alien Land 2' is invested by Wenjie, China Film Group, and Eagle King. Whether in mainland China, Hong Kong, or Taiwan, the scheduling resources are first-class."

"In the past, we could have made some moves at the Film Bureau. If nothing else, we could have avoided him."

"But recently he brought up this whole film industry thing. Now several bureau chiefs have ordered everyone from top to bottom to study its feasibility, and he's even serving as a consultant. This whole thing is..."

It's not surprising to have a temporary shift in schedule.

Later, during the 2005 Lunar New Year holiday, Han Kuo-shi temporarily moved the release date of "The Promise" to that of "A One Man's Journey" in order to hype up the showdown between Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige.

For China Film Group, which is both a contestant and a referee, this is a routine operation.

What's more, "Alien 2" starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Liu Yifei, two top stars from both China and the United States, won the historical box office championship in the mainland three years ago.

Whether it is for this movie or for Boss Lu himself, "Ask the World" and "Alien Land 2" are obviously the more popular ones.

Lao Ma was still a layman after all, so he frowned and said, "Let's not talk about the release date, what about the schedule?"

"I heard that not only has the film industry cut its screening schedule for The Banquet to rock bottom, but many other theater chains are following suit."

Little Cannon seemed to have found a lifeline and couldn't help complaining, "Yeah, Mr. Ma, that's exactly the truth. Isn't this just bullying others by taking advantage of his power?"

"He's just the richest man! That's the valuation. As soon as your Ali goes public, Mr. Ma, we'll kill him off!"

Ma Yun waved her hands and said pretentiously, "It's over, it's over. Mr. Lu and I just had dinner together recently. He's a pretty good guy. As for this matter..."

Wang Xiaolei explained: "Mr. Ma, you don't deal with him much, why don't you ask..."

He was just about to say that he would know by asking Ms. Deng, but that would be a slap in the face!

Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of Xu Zheng, who had just joined the team. "Old Xu, you're familiar with Wenjie. Please talk to Mr. Ma about this."

"I... I'm not that familiar with them. I've only worked with Ning Hao and the others a few times." Xu Zheng declined and did not move forward.

Deng Wendy gave him a scrutinizing look, which made Xu Zheng feel a chill in his heart.

He knew about the old grudge between him and this fellow boss, and he hadn't been to the country for more than half a year. He came to Huayi to discuss matters now that public opinion had subsided.

Seeing everyone in the office looking at him, Xu Zheng said in an embarrassed tone, "As for the schedule, the relationship between Mr. Lu and Mr. Han is well known in the industry, so I won't go into details."

"The cinema schedule is like this. Wenjie currently directly controls only a little over 100 screens, but Mr. Lu has a great influence in the industry."

"Especially after last year's Lunar New Year holiday, he broke with his usual habit and released a disaster film to compete with The Promise, which no one dared to touch at the time. Crucially, it won a resounding victory in the end."

"Recently, Gao Jun went downstairs to discuss film scheduling, and other theater chains asked him why the film was only given so few screenings."

Xu Zheng spread his hands and smiled bitterly: "What can Gao Jun say? He said that Boss Lu didn't think this movie was good. Isn't that..."

Old Ma was genuinely surprised. "How come Mr. Lu is in the entertainment industry and has such good influence in the film industry?"

Wang Dajun sighed, "Boss Ma, President Deng, some things you say don't necessarily boost others' morale."

"But when it comes to marketing ideas, vision, and judgment in the film industry, this guy hasn't failed yet. Last year, Golden Harvest had almost zero screenings for The Promise, but other studios had more, so it wasn't noticeable."

Wendy Deng had long known how difficult this person was, so she remained relatively calm. "How much of an impact will the current siege and blockade of the film's release schedule and scheduling have on Director Feng's The Banquet?"

Wang Dajun said solemnly: "Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the three major voting bases in China, each have their own characteristics."

"The Magic City has a developed economy and a high degree of internationalization, so fashion films and Hollywood movies are quite popular."

"Yangzhou is relatively close to Hong Kong and Macau, and its culture is close to the Cantonese-speaking world, so Hong Kong films perform relatively well."

"Beijing is our home base, and Xiaogang's films have a strong Beijing flavor, which is quite popular with audiences."

The president of Huayi paused and said, "The problem now is that Eagle King is using 'The Disciple' to make a big splash in the Guangzhou metropolitan area, while 'Alien Land 2' is being developed in Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta, and Beijing is also working hard to release the film."

"If it weren't for our good relationship with the New Film Federation, we might not even be able to hold on to this last stronghold!"

This kind of thing, even if it is Boss Lu bullying, is also a business practice within the rules, and they have no right to complain even if they want to.

It’s their own cinema chain, they can show whatever movies they want, who cares?
The key point is that his influence is too great, which has led to the fact that all the larger cinema chains in the country are observing and questioning the decisions of Golden Harvest, and Huayi is very passive.

Ma Yun curled her lips and said, "Dajun, I think you need to come up with a plan soon. If you keep going like this, will you always be waiting for death?"

"Theater."

Everyone listened as Wendy Deng suddenly blurted out a word.

“Theaters are fundamental.”

The female hunter who dealt with the six big men in Hollywood all day long crossed her arms.

"Cinema chains are a sunset industry in Hollywood, but there is still a lot of room for development in mainland China."

"In other words, the only weakness of the entertainment industry in the entire industry chain is the cinema chain." Wendy Deng has obviously done research.

In other words, she has been frantically conducting background checks on this huge mainland giant and its opponent during this period.

She suddenly turned to Ma Yun and said, "Boss Ma, I have a suggestion."

"please say."

"Huayi already has a joint venture with Warner. Now that Warner is withdrawing from the Chinese market, this part of the equity must also be liquidated."

"How about we both take over and acquire Warner's remaining theaters in exchange?"

"I've had people do some research, and the profitability of several flagship cinemas jointly owned by Warner Bros., Shanghai Film Group, Shenzhen Guotou Investment, and Shenzhen Development Bank is very good. They are high-quality resources."

Ma Yun frowned: "This..."

He had just entered the entertainment industry and was planning to follow the path of a romantic swordsman, so why did he come out so ferociously and chop down Mount Hua with his sword?
You want money again?

The two brothers Dajun and Xiaolei looked at each other and were both extremely happy.

Sometimes the enemy is just so cute. Many reforms are implemented from top to bottom under external pressure.

It is difficult to ask them to continue to trick these two companies into paying money.

But with Boss Lu's pressure, it became a natural thing.

In fact, even Gao Jun got the news that Warner was going to withdraw. Wasn’t Huayi, which had a joint venture with them, aware of this?

Such a good cinema, no one in the industry would miss it unless they are blind.

It’s just that they are poor and have low aspirations!
"Red Cliff" is still being invested, and "The Legend of Immortal III" has just started to be aired on Hunan TV. The costs of the two big productions have yet to be recovered.

The overseas copyright of "The Banquet" is not going well, and it is also facing sniping in China. Where will the huge amount of money come from to take over these theaters?

Wendy Deng was determined to confront Boss Lu, and her attitude was firm: "Boss Ma, Wenjie's strength in the mainland spans the Internet and entertainment industries. His two arms complement each other."

"If we eliminate any one of them, it will be beneficial to the overall competitive situation."

"In the past two years, Wenjie has been focusing on acquiring land and building cinemas in first-tier cities, blindly pursuing ultra-high-end and giant-screen cinemas. I think this is our opportunity."

Ma Yun was a man of his own ideas, and he wouldn't make a decision on impulse. "Let's wait and see. Ali Star Search hasn't even started yet, and now they're launching a cinema project. The budget should be quite high, right?"

Wang Dajun was quick to respond: "Looking at the location and renovations, they're both among the best in the country. A single theater should cost around 50 or 60 million."

"Wow!" Lao Ma was shocked. The cost of this entertainment industry was not much lower than that of his Internet!
No matter how much you play the victim and fish for trouble, it's a pity that Feng Qingyang is not an ordinary person. He will not make such a blind investment decision.

Wendy Deng suddenly said, "Boss Wang, let's do a private placement, or increase capital and expand shares."

The female hunter sighed leisurely, "If we don't take over this cinema, I really don't see any chance of Huayi catching up with the world."

Her eyes swept across Xiao Gangpao, Heping, Xu Zheng and other Huayi directors, and the meaning was self-evident.

When it comes to making movies, you can’t beat others;
You can’t even boast about your industry status;

He is tied to the interests of key figures such as Han Shanping, but he is not as good as others.

The person who knows you best is always your opponent.

Just as Boss Lu said in the internal meeting, the development of cinema chains is the biggest weakness of the industry right now.

She proposed a private placement and capital increase and share expansion, and of course Wang Dajun and the others agreed!
The so-called private placement means that a limited liability company increases its capital to specific personnel, which only requires the consent of two-thirds of the shareholders with voting rights.

Increasing capital and expanding shares means "distributing" profits to all shareholders.

Shareholders who do not accept the "showdown" will be deemed to have automatically waived their priority subscription rights, and their shares will eventually be diluted.

As for why it is called "apportionment", Wang Dajun naturally knows:
"The artists and core directors within the company are already somewhat resistant to subscribing last time."

"Except for top artists like Xiaogang, Director Zhang, and Bingbing, it's difficult for smaller artists to shell out millions of dollars in cash right now."

Wendy Deng shook her head. "Let's vote first. If President Ma is worried, or the artists are unwilling to pay, I'll do it."

She was determined to push this matter forward, and News Corporation had long wanted to find a way to enter the mainland.

The last time Boss Lu used the name of the Olympics to launch a precise attack, their years of hard work at Phoenix TV and Star TV were already on the verge of extinction.

Entering the mainland's entertainment and public opinion industries through Huayi is their secret base.

Taking advantage of the Hongse resources behind Huayi and the good development momentum of Ali in China is much better than News Corporation's original reckless rush.

In addition, like later generations, Myspace has already started cooperation with SoftBank in Japan.

The latter invested in Nippon Myspace, becoming the first subsidiary to be established in an Asian country.

From this point of view, the relationship between News Corporation and Ali is closer.

Xu Zheng standing aside was groaning in his heart. If this share allotment happened in the real world, everyone would sell everything they had and spend all their money to buy it.

Didn’t you see that the tycoon Dong Shuangqiang was so happy because of that little bit of equity?
But in Huayi...

The main reason is that two years ago, Zhou Jun persuaded Tom, Xinlang and Yahoo China to join the company, and used his own connections to raise Huayi's net assets per share too high.

How could Huayi's second-tier actors and directors easily afford so much money?

As for people like Bingbing, Zhang Jizhong, Zhou Xun and others who could afford it, the money was basically paid for by someone else.

If they were in their place, they might not be willing to spend 10 or 20 million to gamble.

During Zhou Jun's era, Huayi first introduced internet capital Tom and Xinlang, and reached a cooperation with Warner through Morgan Stanley, engaging in an arms race with the industry.

This has resulted in some distortion in Huayi’s valuation.

By the time Deng Wendi gets back in the game and Huayi increases its capital and expands its shares, some of Huayi's "poor and lower-middle peasants" will be facing a period of transition.

If core artists such as Fan Bingbing do not take over, Wendi Deng will have to pay for it herself.

But this would become a targeted share issuance, which would lead to changes in the equity structure, which is not what Wang Dajun and Xiaolei want to see.

The powerful figures conspired in the conference room and, under pressure from someone, attempted to "break through" in the only direction of pursuit.
-
Since the second half of 2006, the mainland entertainment industry has been in turmoil and quite noticeable.

What is very strange to entertainment reporters is that Boss Lu, the hot topic in recent years, seems to have disappeared.

Apart from accepting some interviews during the monthly open day of the crew of "The Sky of History" or returning to Beijing to teach students of the Pan Asia Film Academy, outsiders rarely see him on weekdays.

But this world of martial arts does not only have one famous sect, nor does it have only him as the leader.

With the expectation that the mainland entertainment industry and film market will become increasingly hot, the superpowers and many strong countries have never stopped catching up.

Among the slightly weaker contenders, Li Shaohong from Hongyunda cooperated with Beiping TV Station and, riding on the nationwide satellite TV talent show craze, launched a talent show variety show for the new version of "Dream of Red Mansions".

Among them, Eagle King artist Bai Bing competed fiercely with Yao Di in the Baochai group.

Pony.com did not blindly try its hand at movies, but continued to delve into the production of high-quality TV series.

"Comrades: Almost a Love Story" directed by the direct director Gao Xixi was a hit, which made Deng Chao famous and also allowed Sun Li, who had already become popular because of Hai Yan's dramas, to continue to gain fans.

The ones who made the bigger moves were still the second oldest Huayi and the third oldest Chengtian.

Chengtian continued the pace of later generations and accepted an investment of nearly 4 million yuan from AVEX Group, the world's largest independent record company, and two other American and British consortiums, accounting for 15% of the shares.

It then acquired the sixteen-year-old Jinyingma Film and Television Company.

The latter's more famous works include "Black Hole", "Winter Solstice", "The Mansion Gate" (sequel), "The Nth Power of Home", etc.

In terms of film investment, in addition to "Red Cliff" which is expected to be released during the Lunar New Year holiday, it also participated in the investment of "The Assassin" (later renamed The Warlords) directed by Hong Kong director Chan Ho-yan.

It is reported that the project will be co-invested by China Film Group Corporation, will start shooting in 2006, and will be released during the 2007 Lunar New Year holiday.

In addition, Chengtian and Huayi collaborated on a low-budget movie "Love Call Transfer", which was directed and starred by Huayi's newly signed director and actor Xu Zheng.

This film is still jointly invested by China Film Group and Paige.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that the second and third largest players in the industry are closely tied together to fight against the largest player, and are trying to drag China Film Group Corporation into the refereeing process.

Huayi is no exception.

With the help of Ali and News Corporation, the first "Ali Star Search" was a complete success, and Hunan TV won the second place in the average ratings of talent shows throughout the year.

It is only second to "The Voice of China Season 2" on Travel Channel.

Shanghai's "Come On! Good Man" ranked third.

But the most eye-catching thing was Wang Dajun's announcement at the "Ali Star Search" celebration party, along with Zhejiang businessman Ma Yun and Myspace Asia President Deng:
Huayi will carry out the last round of capital increase and share expansion within the year.

It then hired CITIC Construction Investment Securities Co., Ltd. as its listing counselor and underwriter, and received standardized guidance to ensure that its various indicators met the listing standards.

In line with this, the company will complete the transformation from a limited liability company to a joint stock company before 2008, laying the foundation for listing.

The domestic entertainment industry was in an uproar!
The second-in-command is the second-in-command. Even if it is suppressed and squeezed by the terrifying boss, it is still about to start listing guidance relying on its strong background.

There was a flurry of speculation within the industry. One source believed that with the financial giant behind it going public, Huayi would have ample funding.

With the help of its two Internet allies, Ali and Xinlang, and the channel expansion of overseas news groups, the dominant position of the news industry will be threatened.

A considerable number of financial commentators also believe that the entertainment and Internet integration model of Wenjie has been fully understood by its business rivals.

Not only Ali, but also Zhang Chaoyang of Sohu, Li Yanhong of Baidu, and Ma Huateng of Penguin are all looking for suitable partners.

The core competitiveness of the industry will gradually be lost in the next few years.

In any case, leaving aside the industry leader Wenjie Holdings, Huayi, as the first domestic entertainment company to officially be listed, has attracted widespread attention.

In early November, the 11th Popular Film Hundred Flowers Awards opened in Lin'an.

A film festival began to brew in the afternoon.

Unlike previous film festivals where stars walked the red carpet, the organizers of the film festival paved a "Hundred Flowers Avenue" on the Baidi Causeway in West Lake. The stars attending the festival took small boats ashore to have close contact with fans.

This was also the scene that the media present had been looking forward to for a long time. It was as if overnight, the film festival that the media complained about having a dim star suddenly became star-studded.

The crew of "Tangshan", the champion of the Lunar New Year box office, which made a shocking 3.1 million yuan in the mainland box office with its disaster special effects, arrived as scheduled.

Lu Kuan and Zhou Xun were sitting in a small boat.

"Why isn't Sissi here? Her film 'Bad Genius' got several nominations, didn't it?"

Boss Lu shook his head: "I didn't realize it before, but now I realize that she has a really stubborn personality, like Liu Xiaolu!"

"It took a while for her to adjust a little bit, but recently she's sunk again."

"But any aspiring actor has to go through this, so let's see..."

Zhou Xun said with emotion: "I can understand this feeling. When I was filming Suzhou River, I was also a young and inexperienced person. One day, Lou Ye was so obsessed with me that I suddenly got an inspiration and couldn't let it go."

Lu Kuan thought to himself that you really haven't let it go. You have completely thrown yourself into the roles of Mudan and Meimei, and you have fallen in love with the male lead because of the drama.

Reporters and fans on the shore screamed and cheered, and the two men greeted them with a smile, and then talked about Huayi's capital increase and share expansion.

"Are the Wang Dajun brothers so bold this time?"

"I guess I put too much pressure on you?"

Boss Lu smiled and said, "These two brothers have always been cautious in the past. This time, they are willing to take the risk of changing the equity structure to increase capital. They also intend to make a desperate effort before the listing."

Zhou Xun's expression remained calm. "But the two brothers still hold nearly 40% of the shares. Add in Feng Xiaogang's 5 points. If you want to do anything, it won't be easy."

Lu Kuan only asked her to hold shares on his behalf and did not disclose any other information.

Maybe she guessed something, or maybe she didn't see it clearly.

But whether it is the friendship that was formed in 2001 when the young director had not yet made his mark, or the latter's rise like a towering tree in the past four or five years.

For both public and private reasons, and for both emotional and logical reasons, Zhou Xun knew that he just had to do what he was told.

He never treated himself badly.

For example, after "Tangshan" won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects, it introduced itself to several internationally renowned directors such as Martin Scorsese.

For example, there is almost no one else who can win the Hundred Flowers Award for Best Actress this year.

The young director smiled calmly, looking at the shimmering waves and the rippling water, silently calculating the shares of equity he held and expected to hold.

This time, in order to raise funds to purchase several legacy cinemas from Warner, Huayi did not hesitate to turn the capital increase and share expansion into a private placement, allowing Fan Bingbing, Zhou Xun, Zhang Jizhong and others to acquire a lot more shares.

Based on the net asset value per share of US$50, a 1% stake would be worth more than RMB 400 million.

Among Huayi's small and medium shareholders, there are not many who are so arrogant and confident.

That was 2006 million in 400!
No matter how grand the listing plan is, it can only attract those who can afford to buy, such as a few top artists.

But this is obviously beneficial to Boss Lu, and everyone including Xinlang has continued to cooperate in the capital increase.

"Oh right." Zhou Xun suddenly remembered something: "There's something rather strange that I haven't figured out yet."

"what?"

"Yang Mi, do you remember? My junior sister from Rong Xingda got 3.5% of the shares."

Boss Lu was surprised: "She? Why? Is Yang Mi very popular now?"

"It's not bad. Hunan TV's 'Chinese Paladin III' has really made her popular. It's been trending on blogs several times in just one week, and its ratings are only slightly lower than your 'Myth'."

Zhou Xun laughed and said, "The key is that this little girl has some tricks up her sleeve. Now the company is promoting her as Xixi's best friend."

"Her blog had only 500 million followers a few months ago, but now it's grown to over 150 million. The hype started with that photo of her friends on Xixi's birthday in August."

Boss Lu nodded thoughtfully.

After returning to Shiqiu Film and Television Base from Peiping, he focused on filming and naturally would not ask about these trivial matters.

"Speaking of which, Yang Mi is currently the most popular young actress after Xiao Liu. Xue Jian is like Zhao Linger to Liu Yifei. She has walked this path in a proper manner."

The young director said solemnly, "But this doesn't seem to be enough to make Wang Dajun and the others favor her so much."

"The reason is that they don't want Ma Yun, Deng Wendi, or even core artists like you to take any more shares. Instead, they use her as a check and balance."

"After all, a young girl who debuted only a few years ago should be easier to negotiate terms with than you big stars, right? As long as she can afford the money."

Zhou Xun smiled and said, "That's right. This time, we only got a little bit, and it was divided up by the newcomers like Yang Mi and Xu Zheng."

"It's just that young actresses like Yang Mi are really amazing now. They can easily spend over 15 million in cash. When we first became famous, we were so poor."

Boss Lu quipped, "You're being modest, aren't you?"

"When we first met in 2001, your salary for The Legend of the Condor Heroes was per episode. You even gave me my first set of clothes after I came down from the mountains."

Zhou Xun joked, "Oh my! This is the best decision I've ever made in my life. I hugged a thigh with a pair of trousers!"

She immediately sighed: "Five years have passed in a flash. I have to say that time flies..."

When Boss Lu mentioned The Legend of the Condor Heroes, the emotional Zhou Xun was reminded of the duck shed.

Recently, his and Wang Fei's daughter went to the United States for surgery due to cleft lip, and Zhou Xun also sent her blessings.

The two chatted and laughed as they walked onto the red carpet. Song Jia and Hu Jun from the "Tangshan" crew were waiting on the shore, and took photos with other main creators.

Today's award ceremony is broadcast live by CCTV, so the hosts chosen are all CCTV's top hosts.

Among them was the commentator Huang Jianxiang, who became famous at this year's World Cup for his phrase "great Italian left-back", who also appeared on the stage abruptly.

This year's Hundred Flowers Awards adopted a model that combined expert and public judging, with the final vote being taken by 99 audience judges on site.

Of course, just listening.

Many key awards of this session were won by the main-theme movie "Zhang Side", which caused great controversy and made people call it the second Huabiao Award, completely losing the significance of the award ceremony.

This time, "Tangshan Earthquake", in which Tangshan Government and China Film Group have a stake, is a key project of the Art Department of the Ministry of Culture and Art, and is also on the "People's Cinema Line". It is obvious that it will change the original award pattern.

After all, "Zhang Side" and "Tangshan" are both mainstream films in a certain sense.

But the latter's artistry, special effects scenes and box office figures are impeccable, and there is almost no controversy over the award.

Those who are doing the work will not fail to see this.

Boss Lu took the time to come here at the invitation of organizers such as the Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the Film Festival Association, to show some support and build momentum.

This is courtesy.

After a song and dance performance, the award ceremony began quickly, but the process was uneventful.

"Tangshan" won the Best Feature Film and Best Director awards.

The remaining excellent feature films were distributed like eggs to films such as "A World Without Thieves", "Kung Fu", and "Huo Yuanjia".

Lu Kuan became the busiest guest on and off the stage, receiving awards himself and presenting awards to others.

Sun Li won the Best Newcomer award for her role in Huo Yuanjia. Boss Lu shook hands with her and Zhen Huan, who had just started a relationship with Deng Chao, was extremely respectful.

As Zhou Xun received the Hundred Flowers Award for Best Actress trophy from Lu Kuan, the audience cheered and applauded her achievements this year.

In April, she won the Best Actress award at the Hong Kong Film Awards for "If Love" and the Best Actress award at the Hundred Flowers Awards for "Tangshan".

If she wins the Best Actress award at the Golden Horse Awards at the end of the month, she will have achieved the Grand Slam of Best Actress in the Chinese film industry within a year.

In next year's industry rankings, Zhou Xun's position among the four major actresses will undoubtedly move up, only second to Zhang Ziyi who broke into Hollywood. It is foreseeable that her net worth will soar.

For Huayi, Bingbing is the company's most economically valuable actress, but Zhou Xun is the star of the show.

As for Li Binbin and others who have been pushed into a corner long ago, perhaps even the unstoppable Yang Mi will catch up with her soon.

The cocktail parties after the film festival are always exciting, and there are naturally a lot of people around the young director.

Bingbing suddenly came over with the trembling Xie Jin, and his wife Xu Dawen supported the old director.

Boss Lu smiled and said, "Director Xie, Ms. Xu, Bingbing, you're here."

He took the initiative to step forward and shake hands with Xie Jin: "Director Xie, I was just about to talk to you!"

"No, no, it's me, an old man, who wants to chat with you for a few more words! Haha."

Xie Jin looked much more pale than the last time they met, and his eyes were a little cloudy. He was the honorary chairman of this film festival.

Xu Dawen smiled and said, "Director Lu Kuan, I listened to your speech at the Beijing Film Academy over and over again."

"He can't see very well now, but he listens to it when he eats, sleeps, and even reads the newspaper. Thanks to you, his appetite has improved recently!"

Xie Jin smiled and shook his head, patting Lu Kuan's hand repeatedly. "You old lady, you're making fun of me, but I completely agree with what you're saying about the industrialization of Chinese film."

"I have written a letter of appeal to the Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the General Administration, hoping they will take it seriously."

"Now is probably our best opportunity. We have a leader like you, and a few others like Mou working hard to create works that are close to the market. This is a good thing!"

Boss Lu was modest but didn't dare to talk to Xie Jin about some route issues and comment system issues.

Soon, Vice Chairman Zhong of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles and Chairman Wu of the China Film Festival Association came over, and these powerful people standing at the top of the mainland's literary and artistic pyramid looked forward to the future of the mainland film industry together.

From beginning to end, Bingbing didn't say a word.

She stood quietly at the side, wearing an exquisitely tailored black dress with the hem trailing slightly on the ground, outlining her graceful curves.

The tiny silver sequins on the neckline of the dress sparkled like stars under the light, but they were not brighter than the look in her eyes as she looked at the young director.

Yesterday's early meeting somewhat eased the actress's homesickness.

Today, under the guise of Xie Jin, I couldn't help but want to get close to him.

Even if it's just from behind, looking at the short blue stubble on the back of his neck is enough to comfort her heart.

Lin'an is Ma Yun's home turf. As a shareholder of Huayi, he would naturally not miss such occasions.

"Mr. Lu!"

Boss Lu suddenly turned around, also with the attitude of an old friend reuniting: "Old Ma!"

The crowd watched and whispered.

Just watching these two people, a handsome and elegant director and an unprepossessing business genius, drinking and chatting happily, it is really a unique mix.

Ma Yun half-seriously sighed, "It's like a mountain between two different industries, Mr. Lu. You don't know until you step into this industry. Only when you step in will you realize that this is your home turf."

"What is Mr. Ma talking about?" Boss Lu was full of doubts.

"Night Banquet was being attacked from both sides by your boss, Lu, and Eagle King, Li! This was my first lesson in entering the entertainment industry!"

The young director suddenly realized something and exclaimed, "Oh!" Then he laughed and said, "Oh! I didn't think it was a big deal!"

"Mr. Ma and News Corporation are also very tough!"

"Warner had five studios up for sale, all of which were under contract, and you guys snatched away two of them."

"Old Ma, this doesn't seem like Feng Qingyang's style. Where's your image as a sage?"

Ma Yun laughed heartily. "It's mutual. Business dealings won't affect our relationship."

"I've been thinking about when I can come visit your courtyard again and have a drink and sing songs together!"

"Always waiting."

An old fox and a young fox teased each other, which served as a footnote to the first battle after the alliance between Ali and Huayi.

As for Huayi, the overseas copyright of "The Banquet", which cost $1600 million, was bought by Fox at a low price of $800 million.

After deducting the $150 million spent on promotion and publicity at various international film festivals, it will still cost about $950 million to make back the investment.

Converted into RMB 7600 million.

Excluding the 1400 million yuan in DVD copyright and the 1500 million yuan in advertising revenue from various domestic channels, the box office revenue must have reached at least 1.4 million yuan.

"Night Banquet" was originally a bad movie, and later in the mainland it only earned 1.3 million. In this life, it was deliberately or unintentionally sniped by Boss Lu, and only 1 million was revealed.

The huge loss really put the little steel cannon to the test.

"The Banquet" is actually Huayi's follow-up work under the two big directors and big productions of "Hero" and "The Promise".

At that time, the box office of the former shocked the mainland film industry in 2002, opening the curtain of commercial films. Many big directors were eager to try such high-investment films.

But Feng Xiaogang was not suitable for this style and route. After "Night Banquet", he made a down-to-earth movie "Assembly", which became a huge hit.

The same is true for Chen Kaige.

After the tragedy of "The Promise", he picked up the drama theme "Mei Lanfang" again this year, hoping to relive the glory of his "Farewell My Concubine".

In the film industry, "Alien 2", which continued the popularity three years ago, dominated the National Day box office with its absolute advantage in scheduling, and finally closed at 3.4 million yuan!
If "Curse of the Golden Flower" had not been a huge hit at the end of the year, it would have won the championship of the entire year.

The movie's big hit is almost a foregone conclusion——

A joint production of Wenjie, China Film Group and Eagle King, with top domestic scheduling and marketing resources.

Coupled with the targeted attacks specifically targeting "Night Banquet", the situation was so severe that there was almost no rival.

Although Huayi suffered a heavy blow, it was still able to fight back with the support of Ali and Wendy Deng.

At least this time Boss Lu has not yet completed his mission——

Two of the five Warner Cinema heritage theaters that I had been eyeing were snatched away by Huayi through various public relations and price increases.

There was a slight setback tactically, but strategically, the huge pressure brought by the questioning world had already put Ali and Wendy Deng in a trap.

With the huge amount of money invested before and after, it seems that there are plans to continue to make efforts in theaters.

From now on, it will not be easy to extricate yourself.

Ma Yun enthusiastically invited Boss Lu to have a small gathering in Lin'an, but the latter declined and went straight to the airport after the party.

The filming schedule is tight, and we will be heading to the US and Germany film sets after the New Year.

Add to that the 3-4 months of post-production time for war dramas and period dramas, and every day counts.

Zhou Xun and Huang Xiaoming insisted on seeing him off. Sun Li, who had just presented an award today, also came with her boyfriend Deng Chao to see him off, hoping to make herself familiar to this person.

Because of the dark car film, they didn't see the other big star in the back seat.

"Why are you so anxious?" Bingbing carefully considered his tone, not daring to show any resentment, but also wanting to let him know that he was reluctant to let him go.

Lu Kuan sighed: "I haven't had a good night's sleep in several days."

"I have to report the Olympic plan to those bosses at the beginning of the year, and I still have scenes to shoot in the US and Germany. I can't wait any longer."

Boss Lu closed his eyes and rested, and there was silence in the car for a while.

When talking about the crew of "The Sky of History", Bingbing couldn't help but think of the girl whom she dared not even mention now.

The twists and turns at the birthday party only resulted in losses for both her and Concubine Liu Yi.

Concubine Liu Yi was heartbroken and didn't want to talk about it anymore, hoping that time could heal everything.

Bingbing didn't dare to mention it again. He couldn't bear to recall the experience of being almost thrown into the abyss because of his crossing the line.

She could only enjoy the glory and capital brought to her by this man while diligently doing things for him in order to have a glimmer of hope.

The famous actress leaned back in the leather seat, her cashmere shawl slipping half an inch from her shoulders.

The car's blue ambient light flowed over the surface of the South Sea pearl on her earlobe, dyeing the pearl into an enchanting peacock green.

She just felt that time passed so quickly. Before she had time to look at his tired profile and fine stubble, the car had already stopped in front of the airport.

"I want to get off the bus and walk you a little bit, okay?"

Lu Kuan smiled calmly: "What's wrong? Let's go."

The seductive beauty on the actress's face faded a little, and her smile was as innocent as a girl's.

The neon lights on the airport road froze in her watery eyes, following closely the hem of the man's windbreaker in the cold wind.

Lu Kuan's tall figure cast a shadow behind him, and Bingbing followed him step by step, placing himself in it, feeling an inexplicable sense of security.

I really hope this road will never end.

(End of this chapter)