The director starts by learning from the abilities of renowned directors.

Chapter 159 Breaking 10 Million

Maoyan Movies launched in September and, as of November 15, has contributed a total of 560 million yuan to the box office, of which more than 100 million yuan came from films not affiliated with the Magic Films series.

"It surpassed 6 million in November, and 'The Great Wall' is coming out in December. The exclusive screenings of 'The Great Wall' alone are expected to contribute 2 million."

With box office revenue ranging from 100 million to 300 million yuan, Maoyan Movies' contribution to the box office could potentially surpass 1 billion yuan by the end of the year.

When dealing with businesses involving multiple subsidiaries, the meeting room is usually located at the head office, Shenqi Investment Group. Chen Zhixi has officially taken up the position of CEO of Jumei Entertainment, but at this time she still holds the position of Vice President of Maoyan Movies. Therefore, the task of introducing the recent development of Maoyan Movies falls on her shoulders.

Shen Qing flipped through the documents in front of him. He was not just satisfied with Maoyan Movies' performance, but rather pleasantly surprised.

Launched in September, it broke the 10 billion mark before the end of the year, which means that there is a high probability that it will break the 12 billion mark for the whole of 40. Maoyan in the original timeline only reached the 14 billion mark in 50, and it relied on the power of large-scale ticket subsidies, while Shen Qing only used the trick of exclusive large-scale preview screenings.

However, unlike the original timeline, where the total box office in 2011 was only 130 billion yuan and grew to 170 billion yuan in 2012, this timeline has already surpassed the 170 billion yuan mark. The film market in this timeline is one and a half to two years ahead of the original timeline.

Actually, this is also thanks to Shen Qing.

Since Shen Qing's transmigration, the domestic film market has seen several blockbuster films appear out of nowhere every year, not only directly increasing the size of the domestic market but also strongly stimulating it. As a result, the speed of cinema construction and opening in this timeline is even more exaggerated than in the original timeline.

"This year's total box office will exceed 200 billion yuan. It is predicted that nearly 1000 new cinemas will open this year. Next year's total box office is conservatively estimated at 250 billion yuan. If Maoyan Movies can successfully capture 40 billion yuan of that, it will account for 16%, which is enough to give it an advantage in negotiations with cinemas."

"This was said by Shen Li, Vice President of Maoyan Movies."

Chen Zhixi will leave Maoyan Movies next year, and Shen Li will be appointed as the CEO of Maoyan Movies. This is something everyone knows.

Shen Qing said to Shen Li, "Tell me more details."

Shen Li nodded and said, "The first thing to do is to ask the cinema for a discount, at least to cover the service fee. Ideally, online tickets should be one or two yuan cheaper than offline tickets."

Currently, ticket prices on Maoyan Movies are basically the same as those in cinemas, but the platform loses about 2 yuan for every ticket sold.

That's right, Maoyan Movies is already subsidizing the prices, but the prices are only on par with offline prices after the subsidies. At first, Maoyan Movies tried adding more than two yuan to the price, but the results weren't very good. The idea that it should be cheaper online is practically a dogma for netizens.

As for why not raising the price would result in a loss.

If Maoyan Movies wants to implement online seat selection, it must connect to the cinema's ticketing system. Currently, the mainstream ticketing systems used by cinemas in China are Phoenix, Flamingo, Full Sky Star, Zhongxin Huike, and Vista. After connecting, these systems will ask for a share of the revenue for every ticket Maoyan Movies sells.

Among these cinemas, some demanded 1 yuan for every ticket sold, some demanded 1.5 yuan, and some even demanded 2 yuan. In addition, the ticket machines installed by Maoyan Cinema also required operating and maintenance costs, and some cinemas also demanded a cinema service fee.

If Maoyan Movies wants to make money, it needs to add at least 3 yuan to each ticket, but even with that 3 yuan, it might only get a few cents in return.

"You'll be in charge of this."

Shen Qing called out Shen Li's name.

"Okay." Shen Li nodded.

"Sewing Machine Band" was taken off the screens in mid-November, with a final box office of 4.3 million yuan. The result is not particularly outstanding among the films produced by Magic Films, but for Da Peng personally, this result is simply amazing.

This is his film debut.

On the phone, Da Peng's tongue was slurred, indicating he had been drinking heavily. He then professed his loyalty to Shen Qing, promising to go through fire and water for Magical Films.

The problem is that he will be a signed artist with Sohu.

Of the 4.3 million yuan box office, 3.94 million yuan was distributable. The production company's share of the revenue increased to 46%, leaving 1.81 million yuan. The distributor only received 5% of the distribution fee, leaving 1.72 million yuan. Magic Films took 9% of the share and was expected to receive approximately 1.54 million yuan in revenue.

In November, the conflict between Zhang Weiping and the cinema chains had completely escalated. Zhang Weiping demanded that the revenue sharing ratio of "The Flowers of War" be increased to 46%, similar to the situation of Shen Qing's films, and that the minimum settlement ticket price be increased by 5 yuan. This was met with a joint boycott from more than a dozen cinema chains.

"Is that even a question? I'm from the production company, so of course I'll sit on their side."

When questioned by the media, Shen Qing responded with absolute certainty. "He increased the revenue share of the films he controlled to 46%, and then the films opposing Zhang Yimou also increased their revenue share? How is that possible?"

Why wasn't a request to raise the minimum settlement price made?

After thinking for a moment, Shen Qing said, "Things should be done one step at a time, and Maoyan Movies is the key to fundamentally solving the bad habit of minimum settlement prices."

He never forgets to promote his own Maoyan movie platform.

The current minimum settlement ticket price is 35 yuan in first-tier cities, 30 yuan in second-tier cities, and 25 yuan in third-, fourth-, and fifth-tier cities.

The so-called minimum settlement price means that no matter how much a movie theater sells a ticket for, the revenue sharing base cannot be lower than the minimum settlement price.

The minimum settlement price is 35 yuan. Even if the cinema sells it for 20 yuan to attract more customers, the cinema still has to settle with the film distributor based on a ticket price of 35 yuan. The film distributor will receive about one-third, or 11.6 yuan.

If the cinema sells the film at a higher price, for example, 100 yuan per ticket, then theoretically the cinema should share the revenue with the film distributor based on 100 yuan, and the film distributor should receive approximately 33 yuan.

The problem is that the film producers have no way of verifying the exact price the cinemas are charging. As a result, even if a cinema sells a ticket for 100 yuan, the film producers can only get 11.6 yuan back.

Shen Qing's movie is so popular, do you think theaters will raise the price when it's released? Definitely! But will Shen Qing receive the extra money? It's almost an industry practice for theaters to split the revenue based on the minimum settlement price, so Shen Qing certainly won't receive the extra portion.

That's why Zhang Weiping demanded a higher minimum settlement price.

Why is Maoyan Movies able to fundamentally solve the problem of minimum checkout prices?

"Maoyan Movies makes the price of each ticket transparent to both the film producers and the cinemas. If a ticket costs 100 yuan, the film producers can share the revenue based on that 100 yuan. Maoyan Movies is expected to contribute about 1 billion yuan in box office revenue in the fourth quarter of this year, accounting for more than 20% of the total box office revenue in the fourth quarter. If the box office revenue share of online ticketing platforms can be increased to 90% in the future, then the bad habit of minimum settlement price will be fundamentally solved."

Settling accounts based on the lowest settlement price instead of the actual ticket price is one of the ways cinemas "steal box office revenue." Film producers have always been able to defend themselves by striving for a higher minimum settlement price. Now, Shen Qing suddenly says that Maoyan is the fundamental solution, which is like dropping a bombshell on the film and television industry.

After the report was published, the film's producers were still skeptical, but cinemas had already begun to feel the chill.

Previously, cinemas only thought that the harm of Maoyan was that cash flow was transferred to Maoyan. Now it seems that another major problem for cinemas is that they are being cut off from the "box office theft" problem!

But what good is knowing?

Seating capacity is the lifeline of cinemas, and Maoyan can really help cinemas sell tickets!

What else can cinemas do?

On the 14th and 15th, the daily box office of "Breakup Buddies" exceeded 80 million.

On the 15th and 16th, the number exceeded 70 million.

More than 60 million on the 18th.

On the 19th and 20th, the daily figure dropped to just over 30 million.

From the 14th to the 20th, the box office revenue reached 4.35 million yuan. Adding the 3.15 million yuan from the first three days of the premiere and the 250 million yuan from the seven days of previews, it just broke the 1 billion yuan mark.

After seven days of previews and ten days of public screenings, the film has been showing for a total of seventeen days and has grossed over 10 billion yuan.

Moreover, "Breakup Buddies" still had box office potential at this time.

The media gave an in-depth report titled "The Billion-Yuan Box Office Club Welcomes Its Second Director," and Ning Hao's reputation soared after this achievement.

Previously, his reputation was mainly within the industry. While he was known to a small number of audiences, he wasn't exactly a household name either. Now, Ning Hao is showing signs of breaking into the mainstream, with many people who have never been to a movie theater or even watch movies regularly hearing about him.

At the celebration banquet for 1 billion yuan in box office revenue, Ning Hao, who was so drunk that he slurred his words, raised his glass and said, "When 'Crazy Racer' broke 100 million yuan at the box office, my scalp tingled. I, Ning Hao, have succeeded! In just two years, I have gone from a director with 100 million yuan to a director with 1 billion yuan. I thank my senior for his guidance. If I had taken this step on my own, it might have taken 5 years."

Of the eight female actors, only Dilireba returned to Shanghai for classes; the rest were present. Among the male actors, Huang Bo, Xu Zheng, Lei Jiayin, and Wang Yanhui were also present.

Ma Su flirted with Shen Qing so openly that she didn't even hide it. She walked up to Shen Qing with a wine glass in hand, her hints quite direct.

This displeased Gao Yuanyuan, Zhao Liying, Li Yitong, Gulinaza and others present.

Gao Yuanyuan is the female lead in "Breakup Buddies". Her movie has grossed over 10 billion yuan. At this exciting moment, Shen Qing finally took her home.

After Chen Zhixi took over as CEO of Jumei Entertainment, she quickly signed a group of new talents.

One of them is a model for Mina magazine named Zhu Xudan, born in 1992.

One of them is Yang Caiyu, a freshman at Beijing Film Academy in 2011.

One of them was a female actress named Gao Ye, who was in the class of 2006 at Beijing Film Academy. She had worked as an intern assistant director on the set of Zhang Yimou's film "Under the Hawthorn Tree". Because she had no roles to play, she was considering switching to behind-the-scenes work. Her classmate Zhu Yilong was an actress under Jumei Entertainment. She recommended Gao Ye to Chen Zhixi. After meeting her, Chen Zhixi thought she was pretty good and signed her.

One of them is Bai Jingting from Capital Normal University. This is a candidate that Shen Qing "chancely met". It was his suggestion that Chen Zhixi seriously investigate this person. Some time ago, he finally officially signed with the company.

Shen Qing had the idea of ​​producing "With You" a long time ago, but the original actor Liu Haoran was born in 97 and is still too young. So Shen Qing thought of Bai Jingting, who was born in 93.

Another is Wang Kai, who has collaborated with Magical Pictures multiple times. His contract with Xiangchao International will end in July next year, and Wang Kai himself has agreed to join Jumei Entertainment.

In addition, Liu Shishi's contract with Tangren will expire in January 2013. Liu Shishi is hesitating. Cai Yinong of Tangren has been kind to her, and Chen Zhixi begs Shen Qing to step in and make sure to sign Liu Shishi.

The drama "Princess Agents" is about to start filming. The director has signed Li Huizhu and Deng Weien. A man named Yin Tao came to apply for the assistant director position. Shen Qing thought he was okay after the interview, so she kept him on.

"Put these newly signed players on 'Princess Agents' to hone their skills," Shen Qing said to Chen Zhixi.

As for how to arrange things after training.

Two new dramas will begin production at the beginning of next year.

The male lead in the drama "With You" was played by Bai Jingting, and the female lead was played by Tan Songyun.

The male lead for the drama "Love O2O" will be revealed after the new year, while the female lead will be played by Mao Xiaotong.

Shen Li's negotiations with cinemas for ticket discounts progressed quickly. Given that Maoyan Movies contributed more than 5 million yuan in box office revenue in just two months after its launch, many cinemas agreed to give Maoyan Movies discounts.

According to Shen Qing in a previous interview, Maoyan Movies could contribute 10 billion yuan in box office revenue in the fourth quarter of this year alone, and the most conservative estimate is that it will contribute 40 billion yuan in box office revenue for the whole year of next year. Now is the period of rapid development for Maoyan Movies. Every day, new cinemas are being signed, and every day more people are going from being unfamiliar with Maoyan to being familiar with and trusting Maoyan's online seat selection and ticket purchase. In the coming year, Maoyan Movies' growth trajectory will not be linear, but exponential.

Cinemas have little bargaining power when faced with a company that has gradually gained control of cinema ticket sales.

"From now on, the ticket prices on our Maoyan movie platform will generally be 1 yuan lower than offline prices." After explaining the details of the communication with the cinemas, Shen Li finally talked about the results of the negotiations.

Although reluctant, most cinemas eventually agreed to Maoyan Movies' request for ticket discounts.

After the meeting, Zhu Wenjia, the technical lead, caught up with Shen Qing and said he had some ideas he wanted to discuss with her.

Zhu Wenjia, a former senior engineer at Baidu's search department (T6 level), joined Maoyan Movies earlier than Shen Li, who was also from Baidu. He was the first person Shen Qing recruited after deciding to develop Maoyan Movies. He was given 2% of the four-year vesting period stock options and a monthly salary of 50 RMB. In the near future, he will be officially appointed as the CT0 of Maoyan Movies.

"Speak," the assistant said, then left after serving the two of them tea.

"Our exclusive behind-the-scenes footage and the latest celebrity news on the Maoyan Movies app are very useful; many web users use them—"

"I specifically downloaded the Maoyan Movies app so I could see this content in time," Zhu Wenjia said.

Shen Qing nodded. At that time, Douyin had not yet been established, Bilibili had not yet risen to prominence, and although Weibo was booming, exclusive, professional, and high-definition content about celebrities was still a scarce commodity.

Celebrity content is scarce yet in high demand, and Shen Qing has exactly what he has in abundance. The exclusive content that Shen Qing possesses can instantly solve the most critical problems for new apps: initial traffic and initial users.

"These are very valuable resources with a large user base. It's such a waste to use them only as bait to lure users from the webpage to the app."

"What else do you want to do with these things?"

"Blindness has separated these exclusive behind-the-scenes clips and the latest news about celebrity commercial performances and roadshows into a brand new app called Yipu."

Once the app is operational, it will naturally attract traffic. Then, find a group of writers to create content using celebrities as inspiration.

For example, if Liu Yifei is performing at a commercial event in a certain location, and the app has already released the latest photos, a hired writer could first post a few beautiful pictures of Liu Yifei to attract traffic, and then write: "Today, Liu Yifei is attending an event in [location]," followed by a description of the famous restaurants, local specialties, and commercial streets associated with the event.

Shen Qing nodded, thinking, "A restaurant reviewer? A travel blogger?"

Zhu Wenjia continued, "Not only can we utilize the exclusive behind-the-scenes footage and artist schedules held by our sister company, but we can also expand to the activities and behind-the-scenes footage of stars from other companies. Our sister company has abundant film and television resources and has collaborated with many artists from other companies. Through resource exchange, we can obtain more content. The content we can write about can also be infinitely expanded. Which famous people have emerged from the local history? We can then write about cultural heritage and historical content. How is Liu Yifei's outfit? Users can buy alternatives or the authentic version, and then we can showcase the effect of the celebrity's outfit on an ordinary person versus the authentic version on an ordinary person, etc."

Shen Qing thought to herself, "History blogger? Fashion blogger? Isn't this just the same logic as those amateur fashion reviews on platforms like Toutiao and Douyin?"

Zhu Wenjia continued, "How is Liu Yifei's makeup? How would the same makeup look on an ordinary person? How can ordinary people choose makeup that is more suitable for them, whether for work or going out?"

Shen Qing frowned slightly, thinking, "A makeup blogger?"

Zhu Wenjia was still stroking her, but Shen Qing had already drifted off into thought.

Following in the footsteps of celebrities is like following in the footsteps of internet traffic.

Following—similar to a check-in system?

If you're really going to make an app like this, then you might as well call it "Let's Check In Together" for now.

"Check-in" is a verb, and its advantage lies in its strong extensibility. It doesn't necessarily have to be related to celebrities, nor does it have to use celebrities as a hook. You can check in at celebrity events, or check in at outfits, famous places, places to eat, good shops, places to study, or places to exercise.

Even checking in on news—assuming a user of the Yipu app happens to live abroad and their country is experiencing unrest, the user can send you a video: checking in at the coup scene! The scene is less than two kilometers away from here, and the event has nothing to do with celebrities, yet it still attracts attention.

You can also visit the Haowen Museum, where they will explain the content of Haowen.

It started with checking in on celebrity-related posts, and eventually it became that everything could be checked in.

Isn't this just a combination of today's news articles and early Red Book? Only it lacks the formal news content of today's news articles. Red Book promotes products, fashion, and tourist attractions; Shen Qing envisions this as a platform for checking in at tourist attractions, fashion items, and historical sites, creating an even stronger sense of public participation.

Fashion and beauty bloggers are naturally more likely to get paid, and those who earn money will post more content, thus creating a positive cycle.

More importantly, this app is essentially a training ground for information-finding and information-distribution algorithms. It uses cutting-edge algorithms to research and distribute user-created content to interested people.

This system has clearly defined user interests:

Based on people's love of following celebrities, their love of traveling, their love of reading historical stories, their love of fashion and makeup, and their love of reading literary works, the system can quickly create user profiles.

Moreover, the amount of interactive data is large:

Likes, comments, favorites, reposts, and following celebrity topics all contribute to high-quality data for collaborative filtering training.

Making a news app is extremely difficult and highly competitive. Most major internet companies have their own news apps, and there are serious problems with copying ByteDance's approach to news apps, such as copyright. Zhang Yiming was once sued by Yangcheng Daily for scraping news from Jinriyu Tiao. At his most difficult time, Zhang Yiming even considered shutting down Jinriyu Tiao altogether.

You started this project with celebrities and eventually expanded to everything, but nobody seems to care about the risks.

However, the algorithm logic it uses is the same as that used by Toutiao; essentially, both rely on information to find people.

So, will this algorithm eventually incubate the algorithm for TikTok?

Did Shen Qing seize the opportunity to create Douyin?

First, use this app to practice your algorithms. When the time is right to make Douyin (TikTok), use the algorithms developed by your independent APP team to find people based on their accumulated information.

Following the approach taken by Douyin in its previous life, they went to art schools across the country to find students with artistic talent and taught them how to make Douyin videos.

When an internet celebrity emerges, they can even provide film and television resources to some companies. Shen Qing has no shortage of film and television resources. Even if it's a supporting role, a second or third female lead, or even a worse one, it will still have a fatal attraction for an internet celebrity who suddenly becomes famous but is afraid that her fame will only be a fleeting moment.

Once someone becomes popular on Douyin, they can take advantage of the opportunities to access resources from Shen Qing's film and television company. The influence of such a role model is undeniable, which will inevitably encourage more people to create Douyin videos, thus achieving a positive cycle of high-quality content.

Shen Qing knows who will become famous in the future, focuses on these people, and appropriately gives them traffic. When these future stars truly grow into big stars on Shen Qing's Douyin platform, then—Shen Qing feels that Zhu Wenjia's idea might really be worth a try.

"My former employer was in the business of finding information for people, but in the future, it will belong to Ya Information Find People."

Zhu Wenjia's words brought Shen Qing back to reality. He suddenly wondered, who exactly is this Zhu Wenjia? A T6 senior engineer in the search department at such a young age, that's a position that's truly outstanding. Perhaps he really has made something of great achievements in the future.

Shen Qing then vaguely remembered that he seemed to have read some articles in his previous life, and it seemed that the former CEO of Yutiao was named Zhu Wenjia. Later, this person even became the product and technology leader of the overseas Douyin TikTok.