Chapter 398 Hollywood Invitation

Since building his own theaters wasn't cost-effective, Hu Xiaoxiao considered acquiring some small, bankrupt, or nearly bankrupt, cinemas. With the recent decline of the Baogang film market and the constant news of theater closures, Hu Xiaoxiao planned to select some of these struggling theaters with good locations and potential for development, and either rent or buy them.

Hu Xiaoxiao is a person with strong execution ability. After deciding on the plan, he immediately asked the employees in the marketing department to follow up on the matter, conduct market research first, and then write an acquisition or leasing plan.

At a time when the film market is sluggish and companies are preparing to scale back or change their business, Shengshi Entertainment is bucking the trend. This, of course, requires tremendous courage. If the strategy is wrong and they can't recover from their overexpansion, Shengshi will be finished in a few years.

Hu Xiaoxiao, Huang Yuliang and Dong Peiyu discussed this matter in the conference room. They said it was about the cinema chain, but in fact it was a discussion about the company's future development direction.

Dong Peiyu said: "I have been following the development of the film market. In recent years, many film companies have begun to focus on overseas markets. I think we can also develop overseas."

Dong Peiyu looked at Hu Xiaoxiao and smiled, "Xiaoxiao is also well-known in the overseas market. The TV series you filmed for the TV station were very popular overseas, and the movie "The Hitman's Bodyguard" is Starlight Film's best-selling movie in the overseas market. The company can definitely use Xiaoxiao's fame to expand into the overseas market."

Huang Yuliang nodded and said, "We can cooperate with Formosa Boulevard. In recent years, Formosa Boulevard has introduced many films from Hong Kong and Taiwan. We can talk to them about introducing them."

Huang Yuliang has a wide network of contacts in Taiwan, so he can go there to discuss matters concerning the Taiwan market.

If the overseas and Taiwan markets can be opened up, it will be enough to make up for the disadvantages of Baotou and Hong Kong.

Hu Xiaoxiao agreed with the two and offered his own thoughts, "I've always believed that the mainland market is the largest, with its large population and vast territory. The reason we haven't seen a box office advantage yet is because mainland film development hasn't really taken off. Shengshi Entertainment should prioritize this market for future development."

Dong Peiyu was worried. "There are a lot of restrictions there. Many subjects can't be filmed. The introduction of films is also very strict. It's not easy to get in."

"Then don't shoot controversial topics. You can start with safer topics, such as costume dramas, historical dramas, and martial arts films," said Hu Xiaoxiao.

Huang Yuliang looked at Hu Xiaoxiao with surprise. Because the mainland was underdeveloped, many people looked down on people and things there. Take the Hong Kong entertainment industry, for example. Stars who wanted to advance their careers generally yearned for Hollywood and competed for careers there. But Hu Xiaoxiao never seemed to have such thoughts, and she'd even considered returning to the mainland more than once—perhaps it had something to do with her origins there?

Huang Yuliang didn't hide his thoughts and asked Hu Xiaoxiao: "You seem to have always been optimistic about that side. Do you really have confidence?"

"I know that many actors, after reaching a certain level of success, want to go to Hollywood to prove themselves and raise their profile. But after so many years, with so many actors going there, who has succeeded? They're either given supporting roles or negative ones. It's clear that those foreigners don't treat us as their own and won't give us fair and just opportunities. This can be seen even in the foreigners in Baogang. They live in Baogang and rely on Baogang for their livelihood, yet they discriminate against us. If they're like this in Baogang, how can we go to the foreigners' territory and let them bully us?"

Hu Xiaoxiao's personality made it impossible for her to go there and beg for food. Discrimination against foreigners was deeply ingrained. Even if you were willing to beg, good resources and awards would be denied. How could Hu Xiaoxiao even be interested in those marginal, unwanted roles?

Huang Yuliang also knew the rules of Hollywood. If he went there, not only would he not be able to get good roles, he couldn't even make his own films, and they wouldn't be able to get screenings at all.

If you think about it carefully, if Chinese films want to find a real way out, they really can only go to the mainland.

Huang Yuliang began to face the problem squarely, saying, "I've also learned about the situation in mainland China. Policies have been increasingly open lately, and companies from Baogang that have invested there have benefited greatly. Perhaps we should take a chance, too. No matter how hard we explore the Baogang market, it's only so far. It's time we find a new path for the company's future development."

"That's right, that's exactly what I was thinking. Enter early and seize the market as soon as possible." Hu Xiaoxiao looked at Huang Yuliang and Dong Peiyu. "We'll proceed in two steps. One is in Baogang. While others are exiting, we can grab some good resources at a low price. The other step is to start setting up branches in mainland China and seize the market in major mainland cities in advance..."

The three of them talked in the conference room for half a day and determined the future development plan.

Dong Peiyu was responsible for organizing the meeting minutes. After the meeting, she put the recorded development plan into a briefcase and walked out of the meeting room with Hu Xiaoxiao.

"I originally thought that after you reached the pinnacle of your career in Baogang, you'd plan to break into Hollywood like everyone else. I even helped you gather a lot of Hollywood information." Dong Peiyu laughed. "Who knew you'd suddenly turn around and look inland? Aren't you afraid of what others will say about you?"

Nowadays, the entertainment industry looks down on the mainland entertainment industry, and mainland actors are treated much worse when filming with mainland actors. Hu Xiaoxiao is so famous, but instead of going to Hollywood, he goes to the mainland market that they look down upon. Dong Peiyu can already imagine how many people are coming to laugh at Hu Xiaoxiao.

Hu Xiaoxiao doesn't take other people's gossip to heart at all. "If I care about what others think about everything I do and just follow the path they have taken, then I will be wasting my life."

From her debut to today, Hu Xiaoxiao has always followed a path of clear goals, unconstrained and free to follow her heart. Constantly challenging and constantly surpassing herself, this is the brilliant life she enjoys.

Dong Peiyu likes Hu Xiaoxiao's courageous spirit. Partnering with Hu Xiaoxiao, it seems that life is full of surprises.

"Although you don't want to go to Hollywood, Hollywood has sent you an invitation," said Dong Peiyu.

Hu Xiaoxiao asked, "What invitation?"

"It's not a good resource. I see you've been very busy lately, so I rejected it for you." Dong Peiyu's job is to help Hu Xiaoxiao filter out those meaningless jobs. Otherwise, Hu Xiaoxiao is so popular and has so much work to do. If everything is brought to Hu Xiaoxiao for decision, he will be too busy to handle all this every day.

However, Hu Xiaoxiao still wanted to know what kind of invitation this was. Even though Dong Peiyu had a good impression of Hollywood, she actually rejected it directly.