Chapter 460: The Entertainment Industry Tycoon

It has been a week since "I Am Not Madame Bovary" was released on the 18th.

Thanks to Director Feng’s long Weibo post [A Letter from Pan Jinlian to Mr. Wang Jianlin], the movie has remained popular since its release.

The film grossed a total of 205 million yuan in the first three days of its release. For a feature film disguised as a comedy, this result is quite good. At least the film's profitability is a foregone conclusion.

However, after three days of screening, the market response to this film was rather average.

Audiences who like Feng's comedies think that this film is not funny at all, while those who are more picky about the plot think that the film is not as profound as Feng's previous works "1942" and "Aftershock".

Especially the heroine of the movie, Fan Bingbing, her acting skills are really stretched, and she is easily killed by supporting actors such as Fan Wei, Liu Ye, Zhang Yi, and Zhang Jiayi who only have two minutes of screen time.

Starting from the second week, the box office of "I Am Not Madame Bovary" plummeted. The single-day box office on Monday was 24.17 million, and within two days it dropped below 20 million. Judging from the trend, it is completely impossible for the movie to become a big hit.

"Haha, you're blaming the filmmakers. If they can't make a good film themselves, no amount of hype will help."

Wang Sicong sat on the sofa, crossed his legs, holding a cigarette in his hand, looking at the box office data of "I Am Not Madame Bovary" on his mobile phone, and said with gloating eyes.

Opposite him were five gaming computers in a row, and the screens were showing the victory interface of the League of Legends game. It was obvious that he had just finished the game and returned to the sofa to rest.

"It doesn't really matter. Director Feng signed a 500 million yuan minimum revenue guarantee contract with the distributor [Yaolai Films] when the film was first released, so he will make money no matter what the box office does."

Gu Wei sat not far from Wang Sicong. He leisurely picked out his favorite fruits from the fruit plate on the coffee table, picked them up with a toothpick and put them in his mouth.

There was nothing to do today, and Wang Sicong asked him to go out and play again, so Gu Wei simply accepted his invitation and came over to have some fun.

In addition to the two of them, they were joined by Lin Gengxin and two rich second-generations whom Gu Wei did not know. Everyone brought their own female companions, so there were a total of 10 people in the noisy room.

Wang Sicong’s female companion still had an internet celebrity face, but she was not the same person that Gu Wei met last time.

The two female companions of the rich second generation were just ordinary girls with pretty faces. They were excited for a while after Gu Wei arrived. If their boyfriends were not with them, they would have probably rushed up to ask for his autograph and take photos with him.

The person who came with Lin Gengxin was his new girlfriend, who was also a female celebrity in the circle. Gu Wei felt that she looked familiar at first. After she was introduced, he found out that her name was Wang Likun. Then he remembered that this person seemed to have the title of "natural-makeup goddess".

Gu Wei brought Meng Ziyi with him.

Nazha went to France two days ago, and his other female friends were either not in Beijing or it was inconvenient to take them out for such occasions.

Just like Liu Yifei, she has nothing to do and is staying at home, but Gu Wei can't ask her to join Wang Sicong's game.

After thinking about it, it seemed that his junior schoolmate Meng Ziyi was fine now. When she was not filming, she was attending classes at school, so Gu Wei called her and asked her out.

"The more I think about this, the more unlucky I feel. It's like a toad lying on your feet. It doesn't bite you, but it makes you feel disgusted."

Wang Sicong is still upset about Feng Xiaogang using Wanda and him to hype himself up.

Gu Wei smiled.

"Director Feng's Dongyang Mira signed a gambling agreement with Huayi. It's inevitable that there's been some rush to capitalize on the recent film releases. Wanda just happened to be in the right place."

Is the screening rate of "I Am Not Madame Bovary" really low after its release?

Not really.

Even though there were personnel conflicts with Huayi, Wanda's cinema chain still gave it 10% of the screenings. Combined with other domestic cinema chains, the national screening rate of "I Am Not Madame Bovary" was as high as 36%, more than ten percentage points higher than the second place.

In the domestic film market, many movies that have achieved huge box office success, such as "The Mermaid", only accounted for more than 30% of the screenings when they were first released.

Feng Xiaogang has always been good at using topics to market his movies. The series of farces after the release of "I Am Not Madame Bovary" is just a way for him to hype up his own movies.

It was just that Wanda, which had conflicts with Huayi, was chosen as the target of hype, and the impatient Master Wang rashly helped.

"It's also my fault. I acted impulsively and argued with him during the movie release. I ended up helping Huayi."

I feel a little annoyed when I think of Wang Sicong.

"Let's not talk about this anymore, Gu Wei. I saw you join that short video app [TikTok] a while ago, and you brought Yang Mi with you?"

Gu Wei took two small slices of watermelon from the coffee table and handed one to Meng Ziyi who was sitting next to him.

"Yes, I'm now the spokesperson for [TikTok]. All the artists in my company have opened their own accounts, including Ziyi."

Meng Ziyi took small bites of the watermelon and nodded continuously when she heard Gu Wei mention her.

"If you have time, you can also go up and create your own account. With your current popularity, you probably have more fans than some celebrities.

Xiaoxin can also open an account to play."

Lin Gengxin, who was sitting on the other side and whispering with his girlfriend, heard Gu Wei's words, smiled and nodded to him.

“I have a number, but I haven’t verified my identity.

What I mean is, if you can endorse [Tik Tok], why don’t you consider endorsing my [Panda TV]? Short videos and live broadcasts are actually very similar.

Don't worry, you can set any conditions, and I will definitely give you a sky-high contract."

Wang Sicong looked at Gu Wei eagerly. He had been coveting the other party's traffic for a long time.

Gu Wei shook his head.

“I endorsed TikTok because I have shares in ByteDance, and it was mainly for the company’s recent fundraising.

And [TikTok] may not consider launching a live streaming function in the future, so."

"Are you still a shareholder of ByteDance?"

Wang Sicong didn't feel too much after being rejected by Gu Wei again. After all, he had failed to invite the other party several times before. However, he was surprised to know this new news.

"I joined ByteDance the year after its founding. Zhang Yiming is very capable. I have high hopes for him and the company's development."

Gu Wei shrugged and said indifferently.

"Tsk tsk. That's amazing.

Gu Wei, even if you don't become a star and become a pure businessman, you will definitely be a rising star in the business world now.

Your vision is absolutely amazing!"

Wang Sicong looked at Gu Wei and sighed.

Everyone knows that he is the boss of Panda TV, but in fact, the investment company Beijing Pusi Capital is the core of Wang Sicong's career.

He can be considered as someone who is involved in the investment circle. From 2015 to now, [Sipu Capital] has made a total of 48 investments, so Wang Sicong is still quite concerned about some major and minor events in the investment circle.

"Why, is there anything different about that ByteDance you mentioned?"

Listening to the conversation between the two, Lin Gengxin looked at Wang Sicong who was admiring them and asked in confusion.

Wang Sicong glanced at him and found that several people in the room were attracted by the topic he was chatting with Gu Wei, so he said lightly.

"[ByteDance] is now a hot commodity in the domestic financial investment circle. It just completed its Series D financing a while ago. I think Sequoia led the investment and the valuation was $12 billion!"

When he said this, everyone present gasped.

The figure of 12 billion US dollars is really too staggering.

The two rich second-generations who were playing with Wang Sicong today were both from families doing business in Beijing. Their parents were both billionaires, but their total assets were probably only tens of billions. 12 billion US dollars was out of reach even for their parents.

"Oh my god, $12 billion, even if I only own one point of the shares, it's worth nearly 800 million yuan."

"Is an Internet company so valuable?"

“[ByteDance]? I’ve never heard of it!

[TikTok] I know about it, I downloaded it a couple of days ago.”

“.”

Everyone was amazed at how valuable ByteDance was, and wondered how many shares Gu Wei actually had, but no one asked. Being a rich second-generation doesn't mean having low emotional intelligence. Knowing that this was personal privacy, no one would be so presumptuous.

Only Wang Sicong knew that Gu Wei’s shares would not be too small, because the other party had just said that he acquired shares in ByteDance in the second year after its establishment.

Generally, when a company is first established, its valuation will not be too high, and the shares given in financing will be relatively larger. Only after it has truly developed and become bigger and stronger will it become more stingy with its shares.

"Brother Wei, I didn't expect you to be the hidden tycoon in the entertainment industry!"

Lin Gengxin flattered with a smile.

He didn't notice that his girlfriend's eyes were looking at Gu Wei with increasingly fiery passion.

Wang Likun went out with her boyfriend and never expected to meet the big star Gu Wei.

When she saw him in real life for the first time today, she realized that he was indeed recognized as the most handsome male star in the entertainment industry, and his appearance was simply amazing.

She thinks her boyfriend is already very handsome. Lin Gengxin calls himself "the dream of 900 million girls." Although this is a joke, he is still very good-looking.

However, after sitting together with Gu Wei, I clearly found the difference in their appearance. Whether it was face shape, facial features, skin or temperament, they were not comparable. The overall difference was huge.

Unfortunately, she already has a boyfriend, otherwise she would really like to try to win over Gu Wei, the male god of the entertainment industry.

Wang Likun licked her lips and looked at Meng Ziyi beside Gu Wei, her eyes full of envy.

Although Gu Wei introduced this girl to everyone as his junior sister, the fact that she was brought to this occasion meant that they had a very close relationship.

"Don't flatter me, tearing onions is the real rich man."

Gu Wei waved his hand indifferently.

"No, not counting my old man, I am definitely not as rich as you now."

As he said this, he looked up and gestured to his two friends.

"The total assets of their two families combined probably don't even reach the amount of assets under your name!"

The two rich second-generations, Zhao Mingyuan and Li Zheng, looked at Gu Wei with a smile and did not refute Wang Sicong's words.

Everyone chatted for a while, and Gu Wei raised his hand to check the time.

"Everyone, I have some other things to do here, so I have to leave first~"

"I've already arranged the dinner. If it's inconvenient for you to go to a bar or something, let's have dinner together."

Wang Sicong frowned slightly.

"It's because of the game that I'm leaving now. I have to go to Bona's banquet later."

Gu Wei explained.

“Is that so~

Since you have something important to do, I won't force you to stay. Let's go together next time!"

Gu Wei stood up and greeted Lin Gengxin and the others, then took Meng Ziyi out of Wang Sicong's villa.

In the nanny car, Gu Wei turned to look at Meng Ziyi beside him.

"Ziyi, I have a dinner party soon. Do you want me to take you back to school first?"

"Brother, don't you want me to accompany you?"

Meng Ziyi sat next to Gu Wei and turned to look at him with a pair of innocent big eyes.

Gu Wei smiled and explained to her.

"It's different from just hanging out with Lin Gengxin and Wang Sicong. The person who's coming to see me later is Yu Dong, the CEO of Bona Film Group. He probably has something work-related to discuss with me. He won't be as casual as he was during the day. I'm worried you won't be able to adapt."

"It's okay. As long as I'm with you, it doesn't matter where we go."

Meng Ziyi didn't want to go back so early. She finally had the chance to be alone with her idol, so of course she wanted to stay as long as possible.

Gu Wei nodded. Since Meng Ziyi agreed, he didn't mind taking her to the banquet.

Not long after, the nanny car arrived at the booked hotel.

Led by the staff, the two entered the box.

In the room, Yu Dong was wearing a gray suit, and sitting next to him was a gorgeous woman who looked very familiar to Gu Wei.

Seeing Gu Wei come in, the two of them stood up to greet him.

After introducing each other, I found out that the woman was Yu Dong's wife, the once famous actress Jin Qiaoqiao.

Gu Wei also introduced Meng Ziyi to them.

After the four of them sat down, a few minutes later, a table full of delicious dishes were served. Yu Dong poured wine for Gu Wei, and the two chatted while drinking. Jin Qiaoqiao also found a topic to talk to Meng Ziyi, not wanting her to feel left out.

"Mr. Gu, are you interested in my proposal?"

At the dinner, Yu Dong and Gu Wei's conversation gradually got to the point, and Gu Wei also learned the real reason why the other party was looking for him today.

Bona Film Group, under Yu Dong's name, was listed on the Nasdaq as early as September 2010, but its stock price has been weak since its listing on the US stock market, with its market value reaching a peak of about 6 billion yuan.

At the same time, Huayi Brothers, which has a similar scale to Bona, has a market value of tens of billions in A-shares.

Yu Dong has publicly stated on many occasions that Bona Film Group's stock price is undervalued and announced its privatization in June 2015.

After the successful privatization, Yu Dong began planning to list Bona on the A-share market.

So they started to issue additional shares and introduced some capital and celebrity shareholders. In terms of capital, XZ Hehe, Dongyang Alibaba, Xinshi Yuanying, Ningbo Saifu, and Linzhi Tencent all became one of Bona's shareholders.

As for celebrities, Zhang Hanyu and Huang Xiaoming subscribed for 3.4363 million shares respectively, holding 0.31% of the shares; Zhang Ziyi subscribed for 2.0618 million shares, holding 0.19% of the shares; Chen Baoguo subscribed for 1.3745 million shares, holding 0.13% of the shares; Huang Jianxin and Han Han subscribed for 687,300 shares, holding 0.06% of the shares.

Gu Wei, a partner who had just had a good cooperation with Bona and could bring resources and benefits to Bona in the future, was naturally valued by Yu Dong. He hoped that he would invest in Bona and become a true member of the team.

(End of this chapter)