Chapter 291 Wanda withdraws investment
Time always passes quickly on the set.
Unknowingly, more than a month has passed since the Spring Festival.
As the progress of the "Peace Hotel" crew has reached the middle stage, the actors have gradually adapted to the roles and the rhythm of shooting, and will no longer be as tired as they were when the filming started.
In this way, Qin Lan finally had the opportunity to "discuss the script" with Meng Bai.
At noon, in the hotel room.
It was rare that Qin Lan had no scenes today and could rest for a day, so he fought hard with Teacher Meng for several rounds last night.
At this moment, the two were resting with "honesty".
"Ding-da-ding-ding-ding, Daddy answer the phone~"
A ringing sound of a mobile phone that sounded a little childish rang, and Qin Lan was awakened from her sleep. She
groped over following the sound, and then took a mobile phone from the bedside.
Until now, she finally opened her eyes.
Frowning and looking at the screen, the caller's name was written as "Sister Xi".
Who is "Sister Xi"?
Qin Lan tried to use her brain, and then reacted.
This didn't seem to be her phone.
She took another look, and it was indeed not hers.
No wonder the ringtone sounded so strange.
As a mature sister, she would not take the wrong phone and make mistakes.
Pushing the little man beside her, Qin Lan handed the phone over.
"Your phone."
"..."
Meng Bai, who was forcibly awakened, took a deep breath and suppressed his morning mood.
"Hey, Sister Xi, it's a crime to disturb people's sleep so early in the morning."
He said in an unhappy tone, and shook his head to Qin Lan who was consciously asking "Do you need to avoid it?" and whispered "It's okay."
"It's almost time for lunch, okay? How can it be so early in the morning?"
Chen Zhixi's voice came from the phone, but then she heard the muttering on the other side.
Although she didn't hear what was said clearly, combined with the scene, it is not difficult to guess that there must be someone else around the other party.
Thinking of this, Chen Zhixi said with a hint of sarcasm: "Sorry, it seems that I did disturb you. Meng Bai, why don't you go ahead and do your work, we can talk in the afternoon."
"No, we are all awake anyway, just tell us what you want to say." Meng Bai said.
Chen Zhixi would not refuse, and changed back to a serious tone and said: "Okay, I have some news to tell you."
"From your tone, it seems that it is not good news." Meng Bai sighed, "Go ahead, I'm ready."
"I just got the news from Wanda, they have plans to withdraw their investment from the "The Wandering Earth" project."
"...Have you made a decision?"
"Not yet, but it's almost certain."
After saying that, Chen Zhixi said puzzledly: "You don't seem very surprised."
"What's there to be surprised about? I can probably guess it since the beginning of the year." Meng Bai's lazy voice came.
He really wasn't pretending to be deep, but he had indeed thought of this situation before.
"The Great Wall" finished its regular schedule in mid-January, and then applied for a one-month key extension, but the cumulative box office still did not exceed 1.2 billion.
Even if we add the $330 million earned from overseas markets in the following month, it is still a loss.
With this one move, Wanda Film and Television’s full-year earnings for 2016 were almost wiped out.
And for Wanda Film and Television, the difficulties are far from over.
A bit like Boss Jia, Wanda has also been trying to build a “full ecological chain” in the film and television industry in recent years.
Entering the entertainment and film and television industry, establishing cinemas, producing movies, acquiring Legendary Pictures and AMC Cinemas...
Wanda is much more stable than Boss Jia, and has more resources behind it. So far, it has basically been achieved.
It's just that the "ecological chain" has been built, but the benefits are not much.
The days of Wanda headquarters have not been easy in the past two years. According to the annual report released at the beginning of the year, the profit margin for the whole year last year was less than 0.4%, which is no different from a loss.
Overseas acquisitions have consumed a lot of funds, and domestic film and television content is getting worse and worse.
At the end of last year, Wanda also said that it would merge Wanda Film and Television and Wanda Film (cinema). As a
result, the blockbusters "Warcraft"
and "The Great Wall" directly dragged down the merger and acquisition process. To some extent, Wanda is very similar to Leshi.com a year ago.
However, Wang is still better than Boss Jia after all, at least Wanda still has assets to sell.
Hotels, commercial complexes, cultural and tourism plazas... The capital market has begun to circulate projects that will be "packaged" by Wanda.
In this case, investment in film and television will naturally become more cautious. Every project must be fully evaluated for risk ratio.
Obviously, a film like The Wandering Earth is a project with a very high risk ratio.
Therefore, it is not unimaginable that Wanda will withdraw its investment.
"What should we do now?" Chen Zhixi asked, "If they withdraw, there will be a gap of 80 million in the budget."
"What else can we do? We can find a new partner." Meng Bai sighed.
It is impossible to rely on Arc Light to make up for the 80 million funding gap.
After all, the company's funds had been allocated before the New Year.
There are only two ways now. Either postpone the start date for another half a year and wait for Arc Light to recover part of the funds for this year's project.
But in this way, the entire production time will be too long, and it is inevitable that a situation similar to Wanda will occur. It
is inevitable that there will be more troubles. Or, find a new investor.
"How about this, I will go back to Beijing tomorrow to discuss the performance conditions with the actor of the little male protagonist 'Liu Qi'. Let's talk about it when we meet." Meng Bai said.
"Okay, then I'll wait for you at the company."
Chen Zhixi responded and prepared to hang up the phone.
But before she finished, she didn't forget to make another joke: "I advise you to be careful, don't be like Lao Chen, who got caught again."
The "Lao Chen" Chen Zhixi mentioned refers to Chen Sicheng.
Not long ago, after the Spring Festival, he was photographed by paparazzi meeting a beautiful woman at a hotel at night.
And compared to last year, this time it has been upgraded to "1VS2".
During this period of time, he has been scolded on the Internet for this matter.
After all, he could find some excuses to perfunctorily deal with it last year, but this time it is completely unexplainable.
During this period of time, netizens and Tong Liya's fans have scolded this old man on the Internet.
In other words, the performance and quality of "Detective Chinatown" broke the circle and became a hit last year, which helped him add some weight.
At least if he can't say it, he can still use the sentence "Talented directors are all romantic" to save his face.
Otherwise, he would probably be sprayed out of the circle.
"Sister Xi, how can you slander someone's innocence out of thin air? I am a serious single and there is no such risk."
Meng Bai said without hesitation.
This was a bit shameless, so not only did Chen Zhixi spit at him, but even Qin Lan, who was lying next to him, couldn't help but pinch the soft flesh around his waist.
Meng Bai took a breath, held the sister's hand, and said to the phone: "Okay, Sister Xi, let's do this for now, and I'll talk about it when I get back."
(End of this chapter)
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