I'm just trying to ride the wave of popularity!

Chapter 181 Their Year-End Bonuses! (Part 1)
The second day of the new year.

[Huaying International]

Dong Qichang stared silently at the data!

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" grossed 2400 million yuan on the second day, and 4600 million yuan in two days, setting a new record for the box office of domestic films in China!

The comedy film "The Taste of the New Year" performed poorly at the box office, only grossing 1000 million RMB on the first day of the Lunar New Year...

Meanwhile, on the first day of the Lunar New Year, a Hollywood family comedy film, "The Kids," distributed by Star Shine Entertainment, was released. It grossed over 2000 million yuan on its opening day and was gaining momentum, but it couldn't beat the rising popularity of the Chinese film "The Young Warriors."
On the internet, countless filmmakers excitedly proclaimed that Chinese films had defeated Hollywood films for the first time, creating a new historical record. Those passionate posts even made Dong Qichang's blood boil!

but……

In this fierce battle for box office success during the Spring Festival!
The movie data for "The Spirit of Zhao Zilong" continues to climb!

"To cope with the popularity of 'The Spirit of Zhao Zilong,' the four cinema chains have all started using old cinemas and screening rooms in the county town..."

"On the first day of the Lunar New Year, staff from the four cinema chains integrated nearly 40 older cinemas and put them into operation..."

"In some rural areas, cinemas even sent staff to go to the village halls to screen movies, in the style of collective screenings from the 80s..."

"The ticket price is around 4 yuan..."

"..."

"In the movie theater, these people not only introduced seated tickets, but even shamelessly introduced standing tickets! You have to stand to watch the movie!"

"..."

The core business of Huaying International is no longer under Dong Qichang's control.

Even the staff under Dong Qichang were no longer able to take on other core business.

Therefore, Dong Qichang simply had his team keep an eye on the TV series "The Spirit of Zhao Zilong"!
A set of data appeared before Dong Qichang, which shocked him!

While everyone was focused on "The Legend of the Condor Heroes," the movie "The Spirit of Zhao Zilong" was quietly setting one viewing record after another!

He saw the attendance rate climb from 120% to an incredible 150%!
He saw that the film grossed 95.6 yuan on its premiere night on New Year's Eve, and its total box office exceeded 140 million yuan by the first day of the Lunar New Year!
It's increasing, doubling and doubling...

What alarmed Dong Qichang even more was the data!
"Zhou Yang didn't deliberately hide the sales data for the related copyrights. In fact, he openly sought out partner manufacturers..."

"On New Year's Eve, they sold 25 pieces of merchandise related to 'The Spirit of Zhao Zilong,' achieving sales of nearly 400 million yuan!"

"On the first day of the Lunar New Year, they only sold 20 items, generating 320 million RMB in sales, but pre-orders have already exceeded 50!"

"Currently, the sales of merchandise are only handled by the theaters. In the past two days alone, the number of pre-orders for merchandise has already exceeded 1300 million RMB..."

"Today, we're looking for Li Dongqiang, the person in charge of peripheral copyrights and CDs for Zhou Yang's company. Right now, his company is surrounded by all sorts of distributors who have caught wind of the opportunity. They've all seen the business potential and want to cooperate with Li Dongqiang..."

"As the influence of 'The Spirit of Zhao Zilong' surged, some of Zhou Yang's business partners took the opportunity to put Zhou Yang's previous movie DVDs on the market!"

"To date, 'The Haunted Village' has sold a total of 1200 million copies!"

"The game 'The Distant Ones: Reboot' has sold 1000 million copies!"

"The movie 'Monkey King vs. Superman 2' has sold 700 million copies..."

"After 20 days of release, 'Love Rollercoaster' has grossed over 1500 million yuan at the box office, and its DVD sales reached 500 million copies in just ten days!"

"..."

"The DVD of 'King of the Beasts' initially sold 400 million copies, but in the last two days, with the phenomenal success of 'The Spirit of Zhao Zilong,' the movie also became popular, selling 150 million copies, for a total of 550 million copies..."

Dong Qichang took the documents from his assistant and saw a series of detailed data!
In terms of box office, perhaps due to the ban, the box office performance was mediocre and unremarkable.

In the DVD market, Zhou Yang's films seem to be slaughtering the legitimate market like madmen, and each DVD release has even generated a ripple effect!
Dong Qichang could vaguely sense a surging, overwhelming wave of enthusiasm sweeping in!
After looking at the data!

He stood up instantly!

Then, under the assistant's complicated gaze, he walked towards the chairman's office.

He knew that Chairman Li Minghao had just finished a meeting and was about to rest.

He knew Li Minghao would dislike him!

But he had to fight for it!
[Huaying International] The Future Growth Driver!
Perhaps, this IP called "Martial Soul" series can even rival the Japanese IPs "Kamen Rider" and "Ultraman"!

……

"President Li, the commercial value of this IP is enough to support a derivative product industry chain, which is our future growth point... We must put aside our prejudices and reach out to Zhou Yang. We are not giving Zhou Yang an opportunity, but rather, giving ourselves a possibility for the future!"

"This is the proposal I prepared, this is the past information of Zhou Yang's films, and the cinema chains that cooperated with Zhou Yang. Although the box office revenue is average and the profit is low because the movie tickets are cheap, the profit from the agency sales of the IP is higher than that of movie tickets..."

"Also, a few days ago, I pulled up Zhou Yang's past movie records in the office and found that the price of the 'King of Beasts' toy series has soared to almost 0.4 times the original price! That's equivalent to a 0.4-fold increase in profit!"

"I've also seen 'The Spirit of Zhao Zilong,' and it's a really well-made movie. Even I'm looking forward to the next one. We can't miss out on such a lucrative IP!"

"..."

late at night.

He stormed into Li Minghao's office.

He handed over the "Zhao Yun Martial Spirit IP Development Plan" he had prepared a few days earlier, along with materials such as "Children's Market Research" and "Future IP Influence" to Li Minghao.

Li Minghao glanced at it briefly: "You mean we have to schedule screenings for 'The Spirit of Zhao Zilong'? You mean, he practically pointed at us and cursed us in public, and we still have to lower our heads and schedule screenings for his movie?"

"I……"

"We are a cinema chain, remember that! Also, can't you see the box office impact and trending topics of 'The Gangster'? From now until the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, I guarantee that the film industry will only have the popularity of this movie!"

"But we can't..."

"I know they are popular among children, but if a lame Guan Yu and a Zhao Zilong who can only shout can be popular past the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, I'll write my name backwards!"

"But this movie isn't something that can increase our capital investment in our future..."

"What listed companies need are big-budget films that can connect with international capital, not this kind of lowbrow fantasy..." "..."

Dong Qichang watched as Li Minghao coldly threw the document into the trash can.

Dong Qichang lowered his head and stared blankly at the trash can.

"Mr. Li, you've changed!" After a long while, he took a deep breath!

"It's not that I've changed, it's that you've changed! The company is about to go public. Do you know how many people are eyeing the original shares the company gave you? After the IPO, do you know how many times they can appreciate?"

"I……"

"If you feel we're no longer on the same page, you're free to leave and follow Zhou Yang. There's no non-compete agreement between us!"

"I didn't, Mr. Li, how could you think of me like that?"

"Reluctant to give up the initial public offering (IPO) shares?"

"..."

Dong Qichang lowered his head.

"Go back now. Before the IPO, you'd better behave yourself. You don't need to worry about company matters. You'll get every penny of the money you're owed!"

"..."

Under Li Minghao's cold expression, Dong Qichang silently left the office.

A gust of wind blew.

He suddenly felt cold, so cold that he shivered!
At the same time, an overwhelming chill ran through me.

He stayed at [Huaying International] until the morning of the next day.

Looking into the conference room of [Huaying International], another meeting was in progress, and no one had informed him of the future...

He eventually left the company and returned home.

Just as I was about to close my eyes to rest.

He got a call.

The call was from Zhou Yang.

"President Dong, have you seen the sales figures for our game 'The Spirit of Zhao Zilong'?"

"I saw it..."

"Mr. Dong, I won't beat around the bush today. Recently, our cooperative cinema chain has been expanding. My ability is ultimately limited, and I need a manager who can help me... As for the salary, you decide..."

"Mr. Zhou, are you joking?"

"Hahaha……"

A burst of laughter came from the other end of the phone.

..............................

In the following days, Dong Qichang stopped coming to Huaying International.

He simply stayed at home, quietly monitoring the data and box office performance of "The Spirit of Zhao Zilong".

In fact, it wasn't something he was deliberately paying attention to!

Instead, Zhou Yang would send him a data report almost every day without fail.

Second day of the Lunar New Year: Daily movie box office exceeded 200 million yuan, and total toy orders exceeded 60 units...

On the third day of the Lunar New Year: daily box office revenue surged to 240 million yuan, and total orders exceeded 75...

On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, daily ticket sales reached 260 million, and toy orders totaled 90 pieces!

……

Watching the data increase day by day...

Dong Qichang was somewhat agitated.

He then saw the consistently high attendance rate of "The Spirit of Zhao Zilong"!

Furthermore, we saw four cinemas that had partnered with Zhou Yang begin to expand, renovate, and acquire locations across the country, fueled by the capital support of coal mine owners and the popularity of the film "The Spirit of Zhao Zilong."

In just over ten days, more than 20 more cinemas have joined as partners!

During this period...

[Huaying International] still hasn't been able to contact him.

No one asked him to attend any core meetings, as if he had been abandoned all of a sudden!
Until the fourteenth day of the first lunar month.

The fourteenth of the first lunar month.

This is a day destined to be recorded in history for the Chinese film industry!
"The Legend of the Condor Heroes," produced by Tianyu Media, grossed over 2 million yuan in fourteen days, breaking the record previously set by "Qin". It also consistently topped the daily box office of the Hollywood film "The Kids", winning the box office champion for the fourteen days of the Spring Festival!

Just when Dong Qichang thought "A Man in the Jianghu" would completely take over the internet...

However, it was discovered that the movie's popularity was overshadowed by Zhou Yang's news from [Xuan Shi Entertainment]!

He stared blankly at the top trending topic on the [Movie House] website.

He saw a headline...

#【XuanShi Entertainment】Employee Year-End Bonus Amounts Leaked!#
(End of this chapter)