The entertainment empire began with Liu Yifei's premarital pregnancy.

"Director Lin, may I attend the premiere of 'Flying Swords of Dragon Gate' tomorrow?"

Baby lay on Lin Bufan's chest, tilting her head slightly and looking at him with a sweet and innocent expression.

"Want to go?"

"Um!"

Baby nodded vigorously.

"I'll have Xiaobai give you an invitation later!"

Lin Bufan thought about it and agreed.

Given Baby's current status, she is not qualified to be among those invited. However, since both of them are already at that level, it's just a matter of receiving an invitation.

"Director Lin, you're so kind!"

As Baby spoke, she first kissed Lin Bufan, then her eyes flickered slightly downwards...

……

The next day, July 14th, was also the premiere of "Flying Swords of Dragon Gate," and tomorrow is the official release date of the movie.

The premiere was held at the Kyoto Cinema in Beijing.

Lin Bufan certainly wouldn't miss out on the possibility of building a cinema, but due to limited funds, he has only built one cinema, the Kyoto Cinema, in Beijing so far.

Lin Bufan rented this Kyoto Cinema in March. It is located in a three-story commercial building in Chaoyang District, with a total area of ​​nearly 5,000 square meters. The first floor is the largest, with a full 2,000 square meters.

This three-story commercial building costs tens of millions of yuan a year just for rent.

Fortunately, this was in 06; otherwise, twenty years later, the rent for this commercial building would be at least hundreds of millions.

I rented it in March, but the renovation wasn't officially completed until the end of June.

This Kyoto cinema has a total of 12 screening rooms, with 5 screening rooms on the second floor and 5 screening rooms on the third floor. Each screening room has an average of about 300 seats.

According to the standards for cinemas, the standard for a Class A cinema is an average of 0.8 square meters per seat, while the standard for a Class B cinema is an average of 0.7 square meters per seat.

Clearly, the Kyoto cinema's standards have exceeded those of a Class A cinema, averaging nearly one square meter per seat.

Aside from the lobby, ticket counter, rest area, and snack area, the first floor only has two screening rooms, but they are the largest screening rooms in Kyoto Cinema.

Theater 1 is the largest, with an area of ​​800 square meters and a total of 600 seats.

The main purpose of Theater 1 is actually to host movie premieres. Since movies released by Kyoto Entertainment will still need to have premieres anyway, it's better to just put them in their own theater.

Therefore, the decoration of this No. 1 theater is the most grand, and Lin Bufan spent millions on the decoration of just this one theater.

The premiere of "Flying Swords of Dragon Gate" was held in this No. 1 theater.

Theater 2 is relatively smaller, with only 500 square meters and 500 seats. Its specifications are the same as the theaters on the second and third floors, except that it is larger.

There are 12 theaters, with a total of 4100 seats. Currently in Beijing, a movie ticket costs between 30 and 50 yuan.

In later years, the movie "Curse of the Golden Flower," which was released in December 2006, had a ticket price of 50 yuan in Beijing.

Of course, the main reason why this movie has a high ticket price is that it is directed by Zhang Yimou. Movies directed by other directors do not enjoy this treatment.

Based on an average ticket price of 40 yuan, Kyoto Cinema, with 4100 seats, can earn 16.4 yuan in box office revenue per day if fully booked.

However, no cinema is ever completely full. On most days, the occupancy rate is around 50%, and only during peak seasons can it approach 80% or 90%.

On average, this movie theater earns about 3800 million yuan in box office revenue per year.

This Kyoto Cinema is affiliated with China Cinema Line, since Kyoto Cinema is the only one of its kind and cannot yet establish its own cinema chain.

Under the current box office revenue sharing system, theater chains receive about 55% of a film's box office revenue, with theater chains taking a 10% cut and cinemas receiving 45%.

That adds up to an annual income of 1710 million. After deducting rent and staff costs, the box office revenue alone is about 500 million a year.

However, this only covers box office revenue. Another major source of income for cinemas is the snack section.

As we all know, snacks sold in movie theaters are more expensive than outside, and in this day and age, the general rule is that outside snacks are not allowed in movie theaters; if you want to eat or drink something, you have to buy it inside the theater.

This income alone, when calculated, can easily generate a net profit of around three million a year.

Not only in this era, but even in future generations, opening a movie theater would be a sure-fire way to make money, but the entry threshold is too high for ordinary people to afford.

Taking this Kyoto cinema as an example, Lin Bufan spent 10 million yuan on rent alone. The subsequent decoration and equipment costs were about 15 million yuan. In total, the investment in this cinema cost a total of 25 million yuan.

Ordinary people simply have no chance to enter this industry.

Of course, this Kyoto cinema is just the first one; Lin Bufan will continue to invest in a second, a third, and so on...

His goal is to open over a thousand cinemas in major first- and second-tier cities across the country.

Don't think this goal is too high. In fact, about 24 years later, according to statistics, there were about 13,000 cinemas in China.

Lin Bufan's goal is only to capture 7.8% of the market.

With its own cinema chain, Kyoto Entertainment truly took off, achieving almost complete self-production and self-distribution from film production to cinema distribution.

……

The premiere of "Flying Swords of Dragon Gate" was held in Hall 1 of the Kyoto Cinema, and it was quite a large-scale event.

It's not like the time when "Love is Not Blind" was released. Back then, Lin Bufan was just a director in the industry who had been nominated for a Golden Globe and was somewhat well-known.

Now, he is the first Chinese person to win the Oscar for Best Director, and has gained international recognition.

More importantly, Lin Bufan transformed himself from a director into a capitalist.

The director is already at the top of the food chain in the industry, not to mention that he founded Kyoto Entertainment and even has connections that extend to Hollywood.

This is why Lin Bufan and Kyoto Entertainment hold a very high status in the industry.

For this premiere, a long red carpet, over a hundred meters long, was set up in front of the Kyoto Cinema. Both sides of the red carpet were cordoned off, and a professional security team was hired.

The premiere was at 10 a.m., but by 9 a.m., the red carpet was already surrounded by reporters from various entertainment newspapers, as well as many fans of celebrities.

For fans who want to see their idols, the red carpet is the best opportunity.