Chapter 417 Peak Moment

On September 2, a heavy rain in Beijing washed away the midsummer heat and added a bit of freshness and coolness to the late summer.

It was a little after nine in the morning when Wang Zhongjun, chairman of Huayi, came to the company to work.

First, he leisurely brewed a pot of tea, then he calmly turned on the computer, preparing to browse the hot searches on Weibo while sipping tea.

As the CEO of a listed film and television company, paying attention to hot developments in the entertainment industry has long become a daily habit for him.

Take a sip of tea and the mellow tea aroma spreads on your tongue.

Wang Zhongjun opened Weibo and his eyes suddenly paused when they fell on the top of the hot search list. He wondered, didn’t Liu Shishi attend the Bazaar Star Charity Night last night? Why was she still on the hot search list?

At this moment, the entry "1. Liu Shishi, the number one star of Tangren" is firmly at the top of the list, overshadowing all the stars who tried their best to gain traffic last night.

With some curiosity, Wang Zhongjun clicked on the link and saw the official announcement blog released by Tangren Film and Television late last night. He instantly understood the whole story.

On the computer screen, it was the carefully planned official announcement:

Tangren Films v: Eight years of poetry, another chapter of splendor! Eight years of poetry and calligraphy, another five years of new look.

A sincere agreement locks in the future: @刘师师v officially renews her contract with Tangren Films for five years!

Shishi started her journey as "Longkui", grew up after being tempered by "Ruoxi", and finally amazed the world with "Yuer".

After eight years of hardships, she wrote the most affectionate confession of the "Sugar Family" with her original intention;

In the new journey ahead, we will protect this shining star with all our sincerity and write a new chapter together!

The legend begins again: Director Li Guoli’s final work "The Imperial Doctress" has been officially approved!

Ingenuity and dedication: Tangren's chief director Li Guoli has devoted half his life to the aesthetics of ancient costumes, and brought a team of history and traditional Chinese medicine experts to examine the details, from clothing embroidery to prescriptions and classics, to reproduce the splendor of the Ming Dynasty. 5 million yuan was spent on creating 50 sets of gorgeous costumes, and the mountains and rivers are hidden in the needlework.

Poetry and medicine: Liu Shishi plays the female lead for the third time in Director Li's film, and plays the role of Tan Yunxian, a female doctor in the Ming Dynasty! This time, watch her break the ethics and establish her sense of responsibility in the troubled times, and use the eye of a needle as a blade to pierce the dark clouds of the times!

"This woman Cai Yinong has average ability in running a company, but she is very good at hype." Wang Zhongjun was secretly amazed.

Cai Yinong chose the right time very cleverly. He used the breaking news of Liu Shishi's contract renewal to overshadow the female star who wanted to be in the spotlight last night, and also promoted his new drama at the same time. It was really a win-win situation.

“Boom boom boom!”

"Come in!"

"Brother!" Wang Zhonglei pushed the door and entered the office. Without any formalities, he sat down directly opposite his brother.

Wang Zhongjun poured a cup of tea for his brother: "Have you checked the trending searches?"

“It seems that Cai Yinong is indeed quite capable. He managed to please Liu Shishi to her satisfaction and took the opportunity to firmly hold on to Tengda Group.

This renewal is for five years, which is enough time for Tangren to go public." Wang Zhonglei's voice was full of envy.

In the era of Internet traffic, the value of first-line stars to film and television companies is self-evident.

Business resources can directly feed back into the company's profits, and the star effect can significantly boost confidence in the capital market.

What's more, Liu Shishi is far from being comparable to ordinary first-tier stars. She is a combination of top stars and capital. She has massive resources and can be called the "business hub" of the entertainment industry. More importantly, her husband is the richest man in Asia.

Although Wang Zhongjun also envied Cai Yinong's good luck, Liu Shishi was already the top star of Tangren, and it was ultimately her ability to persuade her to renew the contract.

"Other people's affairs have nothing to do with us! How is Xiaogang's preparation for 1942 going?"

Wang Zhonglei's expression became serious, and he suppressed his previous cynicism: "It will be released at the end of November. The subject matter of "1942" is too heavy, and it doesn't match the expectations of the Lunar New Year audience. Cinemas are reluctant to release it during the Spring Festival."

Wang Zhongjun sighed softly: "Without a good release date, this movie will probably lose money!"

"1942" was filmed by Huayi Company at a cost of 210 million yuan, plus 30 million yuan in publicity and promotion costs, with a total investment cost of about 250 million yuan. The box office must exceed 600 million yuan to break even.

Although the film market has been booming in the past two years and box office revenue has repeatedly set new records, movies with box office revenue exceeding 600 million are still rare.

What's more, "1942" is about famine and human nature, which are not the topics that the audience likes. Huayi is not optimistic about the box office of this movie.

Thinking about the box office failure that would inevitably lower the company's stock price, Wang Zhonglei got angry and cursed: "Xiaogang is just too bored. Why don't you just make movies that the audience likes and make money quickly?"

Wang Zhongjun looked helpless.

Movies with realistic and historical themes have extremely high box office risks. He had repeatedly persuaded Feng Xiaogang to give up filming "1942", but the other party was determined to shoot it.

In order to avoid disrupting the cooperative relationship, Huayi had no choice but to invest.

"Never mind. He has been preparing for this film for many years. Let him fulfill his dream, and he can work with the company with peace of mind in the future. Anyway, he has promised to make a comedy for the company next year."

Wang Zhongjun paused, then changed the subject and solemnly instructed: "Arrange external traders. If the box office of "1942" is really not good, short the company's stock price in time. Be clean and don't leave any traces!"

Wang Zhonglei looked solemn and nodded in response: "Don't worry, I know the severity of the situation!"

The two brothers have been working together for many years, and they can understand each other's thoughts with just a glance without saying anything.

Wang Zhongjun glanced casually across the computer screen and discovered that the news of "2012 Hurun Rich List" had soared in popularity and was about to enter the top ten of the hot search list.

"This year's rich list is out!" After mentioning it to his brother, Wang Zhongjun couldn't wait to click on the link and browse it carefully.

"It's out? It seems to be a few days earlier than previous years!" Upon hearing this, Wang Zhonglei excitedly took out his mobile phone to check the rich list to see if he was on the list.

On the morning of September 2, the Hurun Research Institute released a new Hurun Rich List, which ranks the wealth of mainland Chinese entrepreneurs.

Song Ci, chairman of Tengda Group, topped the list with a wealth of 440 billion yuan, winning the title of richest man for the fifth time.

Wahaha founder Zong Qinghou and Wanda Group Chairman Wang Jianlin followed closely behind with a net worth of 80 billion and 65 billion yuan respectively, ranking second and third.

The top ten cover industries such as beverages, real estate, and technology, and the threshold for the top ten richest people is as high as 35 billion yuan.

Looking at the shocking figures, Wang Zhongjun's pupils shrank slightly, and he cried out in surprise: "440 billion" is it possible that the statistics are wrong?"

Wang Zhonglei explained: "Tengda WeChat and Wechat users now exceed 1.5 billion, making it the mobile software with the most users in the world. The latest valuation of Tenda Group has reached 180 billion US dollars."

Wang Zhongjun shook his head as he listened and continued reading. He quickly finished the list of the top 100 richest people.

"Master Liu is on the list again."

The name of Yijie was prominently on the list. With a net worth of 8 billion yuan, she was ranked 154th on the list together with Jiaduobao CEO Chen Hongdao and Xinhualian Group President Fu Jun, up 92 places from last year.

"She is probably the one who got her wealth most easily among all the rich people on the list."

Wang Zhongjun and Wang Zhonglei looked at each other and couldn't help but smile bitterly. The two brothers had worked hard for half their lives, but their net worth was not as much as that of a little girl. It was true that people's destinies were extremely different.

The two sighed at the same time and continued to scroll down. After skimming through a series of names, they finally saw their own name.

The two brothers ranked 452nd on the list with a net worth of 3.8 billion yuan.

After reading the entire list, Wang Zhongjun felt no joy at being on the list, instead he felt a little bored.

Ordinary people may just treat the Hurun Rich List as a topic of conversation after dinner and laugh it off, but for people like them, they can get a glimpse of the undercurrents of the market.

Affected by the rise of Internet e-commerce, the wealth of the rich in the clothing and retail industries has generally shrunk, while the assets of the rich in financial investment, real estate and Internet technology have grown rapidly.

In the entire entertainment industry, apart from Liu Shishi and their two brothers, only Jet Li made the list. This also shows how small the proportion of the film and television industry in the national economy is.

Wang Zhongjun's eyes were deep and his tone was firm: "Huayi must be "de-filmed."

Wang Zhonglei didn't say anything, just nodded. He and his brother had the same idea.

The box office revenue of the film industry is extremely unstable, and the domestic market is also impacted by imported films, posing huge operating risks.

"Zhong Lei, we can see from this list that real estate and the Internet are the future direction! The company must speed up the layout of Internet entertainment and real-life entertainment."

"I understand. Mobile games are very popular nowadays, and I have my eyes on a mobile game company and am negotiating to acquire a stake in it. As for real estate, several film and television theme parks have already started construction."

Wang Zhongjun nodded gently: "Very good, but we can't rush it, the company's transformation needs a smooth transition.

I still say that de-filming does not mean not making movies, but it means not just making movies. At present, Huayi still needs impressive box office results to boost its stock price in order to obtain sufficient funds to support its transformation. "

Turning back to the topic of movies, Wang Zhongjun asked: "What is the exact situation regarding the box office share for Stephen Chow's movie Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons?"

Wang Zhonglei sneered: "They are still arguing. Zhou Xingxing is also fanciful. Seeing that the box office of Painted Skin 2 exceeded 700 million, he raised the expectations of Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons.

It is required that based on the total box office, when the mainland box office exceeds 500 million, an additional 1 million in dividends will be received for every additional 10 million in box office.

Relying on Huayi's guarantee but not wanting to take any risks and only thinking about increasing dividends, how can such a good thing happen!

He didn't even do the math. In the past decade, apart from Hollywood blockbusters, how many domestic films have grossed over 500 million yuan?

Wang Zhongjun was obviously unwilling to pay more money according to Zhou Xingxing's idea: "After all, the movie has not been released yet, so the relationship should not be too tense. Things will be smoothed over slowly, so let's delay it as long as possible."

At the same time, Liu Shishi was entertaining Cai Yinong and Hu Ge who came to her home in Jingyuan.

The two saw that Yijie did not attend the Bazaar Star Charity Night last night. After some inquiries, they learned that Song Ci was unwell, so they thought of visiting her.

"Please have some tea, both of you." Sister Li, the housekeeper, served tea to the guests.

"Shishi, how is Mr. Song's health?" Cai Yinong asked with concern.

"It's nothing serious, just a common cold and fever. The doctor just came to check it out. I just need to rest for a day or two. Thank you for your concern."

Liu Shishi was wearing simple home clothes, but her beautiful face could not be concealed.

As the saying goes, people feel refreshed when good things happen to them. First, she was elected the Golden Eagle Goddess, and today she was on the rich list for the second time, retaining the title of the richest person in the entertainment industry. She looks very energetic.

"That's good. You take good care of Mr. Song." Cai Yinong breathed a sigh of relief. Song Ci was a major backer of the Tang people, and there must not be any mistakes.

Hu Ge was relieved after hearing this and congratulated him, "Shishi, congratulations on making the list."

"It's all because of my husband!" Yi Jie smiled, and she was self-aware. "But my fans are very happy. They congratulated me on Weibo and asked me to hold a fan meeting."

"I think it's totally possible!" Cai Yinong agreed, "Holding fan meetings can increase fan stickiness.

To be honest, apart from participating in brand events, you rarely have the opportunity to interact with fans offline. It is still meaningful to hold one or two events occasionally.”

Liu Shishi was very excited: "Then let's hold one. This is my first time to hold a fan meeting. What should I pay attention to?"

Hu Ge had similar experience and answered with a smile: "It depends on how big you want to hold it. Some large-scale fan meetings require tickets. You can also just invite some core fans to get together."

"It's impossible to charge admission tickets." Liu Shishi shook her head. "The number of people should not be too large. Otherwise, we can randomly select 300 loyal fans and invite them to come to Peking during the National Day holiday. I will cover the round-trip travel expenses and accommodation."

Hu Ge gave a thumbs up and praised sincerely: "Sister Yi is so generous!"

Liu Shishi waved her hand nonchalantly: "It's just a small amount of money, as long as everyone is happy.

Some fans have supported me for many years. As far as I know, several sisters have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on my charts. I can’t bear to let them spend more money.”

"For them, being able to witness your growth may be a very happy thing," Cai Yinong said with emotion.

Since Tangren Films officially announced the contract renewal with Yi Jie last night, there have been hundreds of thousands of messages, all of which wish Liu Shishi well and hope that Tangren and Yi Jie will go hand in hand for the next five years.

"By the way, Sister K, has the male lead of "The Imperial Doctress" been decided?" Liu Shishi asked casually while browsing Weibo and interacting with fans.

"It hasn't been decided yet." There was a hint of helplessness in Cai Yinong's tone. The script of "The Imperial Doctress" was revised four times. The emotional lines between the heroine and the two male protagonists were all cut, leaving only the heroine's career line.

Although the two emperors are only supporting male protagonists in this female-dominated drama, countless male artists in the entertainment industry are scrambling to get the resources to act with the No. 1 actress.

Hearing this, Hu Ge first glanced at Sister Yi who was looking at her phone, then looked at Cai Yinong, and calmly tested: "Sister K, since the male lead has not been decided, why don't you consider Lao Yuan?"

Liu Shishi raised her eyes and said, "Oh, yeah, what is Lao Yuan doing recently? I haven't seen him for a long time."

Cai Yinong replied: "He accepted a role in the historical costume drama "Female General". It's not that I didn't want to use him, but his costume didn't have the aura of an emperor at all. Director Li was very dissatisfied after the audition."

Hu Ge sighed. He had tried to get a chance for his good brother, but the director didn't think highly of him and there was nothing he could do.

Liu Shishi didn't say anything else. This was Director Li's final work, and the requirements for the role were very high, so it was not convenient for others to interfere.

Her eyes returned to the phone screen, where she was reading the blog post by Tangren Film and Television announcing the contract renewal last night.

In the comment section, Hu Ge, Yuan Hong, Guli Nazha, Jiang Jinfu and other artists from the "Sugar Man Family" all sent their blessings to the company and Yi Jie for the contract renewal.

One of the unfamiliar names aroused her curiosity: "Sister K, who is this Chen Yao?"

(End of this chapter)