Chapter 310 How much is Arclight Films worth?
Looking at the name on the phone, the room fell silent for a moment.
"Coincidence! It's a complete coincidence!" Bai Lu said hurriedly.
He Handan glanced at her: "Let's not talk about coincidence or not. As a working person, I suggest you answer the phone first."
This is true. Bai Lu took a deep breath, adjusted her mood, and then smiled and answered the phone.
"Hello, Mr. Meng."
Meng Bai's voice came from the phone: "Are you busy, Xiaobai?"
"I'm watching "Psychological Crime 2" and contribute to the playback volume." Bai Lu said obediently: "Mr. Meng, do you have something to talk to me about?"
"It's like this. There is a role in Arclight's film project in the second half of the year that is quite suitable for you. If you have time these days, you can come and try it out."
"Movie project?"
Bai Lu was stunned for a moment. Arclight's movie this year, isn't that "Psychological Crime·City of Lights"!
But hasn't the starring role of this movie been decided to be L, bah, Li Qin?
As if he had guessed her thoughts, Meng Bai explained: "It's not the movie of "Psychological Crime", but the project of "Soul Ferry".
Bai Lu suddenly realized that there were indeed two movies on the list released by Arclight Films at the beginning of the year.
One is "City Lights" and the other is "Soul Ferry Huangquan".
However, everyone knows that the subject matter of "Soul Ferry" is limited and can only be broadcast online, so they habitually ignore it.
But Bai Lu's eyes still lit up.
Although "Huangquan" is just an online movie, the weight of the IP "Soul Ferry" is no less than that of "Psychological Crime".
Although two years have passed since the finale of the second season, this drama can still be seen from time to time in various inventory, editing and secondary creation videos on the Internet.
In the past two years, Yu Yi has also been touring the stage play "Soul Ferry", which is almost full every time and always maintains a certain degree of popularity.
At least for Bai Lu, a newcomer, it is already a very good resource.
Therefore, she agreed without thinking.
"The role is not very big, don't feel too stressed, just try your best." Meng Bai comforted her, "Okay, you can continue watching the drama."
Bai Lu held the phone, paused, and asked, "Mr. Meng, are you calling about this?"
"Yes, what else?" Meng Bai was puzzled, "Why, do you have anything else to do?"
"No, no, thank you, Mr. Meng, goodbye!"
Bai Lu denied it repeatedly, and then hung up the phone in a hurry.
Putting down the phone, she collapsed on the sofa, then clenched her fist and cheered a little.
After the end, she looked at her bestie again: "What do you think, I will say that I am innocent."
"That's hard to say." He Handan said calmly.
Bai Lu rolled her eyes: "Come on, didn't you hear everything just now? My boss and I just have a simple working relationship."
"Tsk--"
He Handan raised her index finger and shook it in front of her: "You have an agent, right? Why didn't he send this kind of work information to her, but contacted you directly? Think about it, think about it carefully..."
"You mean, he deliberately looked for me. No, it can't be... Hehe... Oh, how is it possible... Haha!"
Bai Lu waved her hands repeatedly to indicate that it was impossible, but she couldn't help but feel that what her best friend said made sense.
Could it be that the boss really did this to me... Oh, so shy!
"Snap!"
A snap of fingers woke up Bai Lu, who was denying while trying hard to hold back her smile.
"Wake up, girl, I'm just teasing you."
He Handan looked at this worthless best friend with disdain: "Based on my years of experience as a social slave, the most likely situation when the big boss calls the employee directly is that he has suddenly thought of some work arrangement and wants you to work overtime."
"Huh?"
"Think back, did he first tell you that there was a more important job, which made you feel that it was an opportunity to show your ability; then he said that your ability was most suitable, which made you feel that the big boss paid attention to you; and finally he said a few words of comfort, making you feel that the boss was very approachable and you must seize this opportunity."
"It seems, it seems to be true..." Bai Lu recalled the conversation just now, and it seemed to be exactly the same.
He Handan waved his hand: "Capitalists all over the world are the same. Every day they talk about opportunities and growth, and never mention money. Of course, the profession of an actor is different. Yours is indeed an opportunity."
"Haha, you know a lot!"
"If you work for a few years, you will be the same." He Handan said: "And after you started filming, I usually flip through entertainment news and so on, and I know a little bit."
"Sure enough, you are the best to me. Kiss me, mua~"
Bai Lu kissed her in the "disdainful" look of her best friend, then rolled her eyes and said: "Haha, why don't you just quit your job and come to work for me."
"Ah?"
"I think you are smarter than me. With you helping me, maybe we can really have a good life!"
——
Hearing Bai Lu hanging up the phone in surprise, Meng Bai couldn't help frowning.
But he was used to it. After all, this girl has been so weird and careless since they met.
Putting away the phone, Meng Bai followed the previous train of thought and considered the shooting schedule of the two film projects.
The preparations for Soul Ferry: Huangquan are almost done, and the main actors Yu Yi and Zhu Xudan are also available, so it will start filming next month.
As Arclight's first film project, Psychological Crime: City of Lights will take a little longer to prepare.
In addition, Zhao Jinmai is still filming "The Wandering Earth", and Qin Hao also needs some time to adjust his body shape. The filming will start in August.
With this calculation, Arclight Film and Television has quite a few projects in the second half of the year.
In addition to these two movies, "White Night Chase" will be broadcast in August, "Chef Fang in the Flower Room" will be broadcast in September, and Chen Sicheng will prepare to cooperate in the project of "Detective Chinatown" web drama before the end of the year.
In addition, "Peace Hotel" will be completed in two or three months, and the TV station will be contacted to discuss the film.
Fortunately, Arclight Film and Television no longer needs Meng Bai to do it himself, and only needs to manage the general direction.
Otherwise, with so many projects, he must be exhausted.
Just as he was thinking about it, there was a knock on the door of the office.
Meng Bai shouted "Come in", and then Liu Jun pushed the door open and walked in.
"Just now Fang Fang from Penguin Pictures called me and told me the latest data of "Psychological Crime 2". As of now, the broadcast progress is one-third, and the total number of views on the entire network has reached 1.5 billion. Even after dehydration, it can be around 1.1 billion."
Liu Jun smiled and said, "I really didn't expect that the performance of this drama could be so good."
"Yes, we didn't expect it to be so popular before." Meng Bai nodded.
Strictly speaking, the popularity of the IP "Psychological Crime" in the entire "Green Ivy Series" can only be considered average.
"Detective Chinatown" is the most popular project in the entire series because it is a hit movie.
"Forensic Qin Ming" also became popular with the hot search label of "heavy-tasting drama for eating", attracting many "non-suspense lovers" audiences.
The next "White Night Chase" has not yet been aired, but the male lead Pan Yueming became popular again last year with "The Lost Tomb", and it is also highly anticipated.
Although the project "Psychological Crime" is the initial work of the entire "Green Ivy Series", the first season is more than two years ago after all.
Compared with other projects in the same series today, it seems a little niche.
So before the broadcast of "Psychological Crime 2", Arclight's expectations for this drama were not that high.
Of course, the "not high" here is relative to Arclight itself. The final playback data will be around 20 to 30 billion.
Unexpectedly, after it was actually broadcast, the results were much better than expected.
According to the current results, by the time of the finale, the total playback volume is estimated to be around 4 billion.
You know, last year's online drama champion "The Lost Tomb" only had 5.6 billion playbacks.
Although there are reasons for the expansion of the total market of online dramas and the increase in statistical water, it has exceeded the target set at the beginning.
Meng Bai also looked through the comments of the audience on the Internet before.
It was found that in addition to the fans of "Psychological Crime" itself and the audience of suspense dramas, there are many who are attracted by the background story of the "Green Ivy Series" mentioned in the publicity, that is, the setting of the "Q Organization" in the "Reformation Field" plot.
After all, this organization that sounds like the "ultimate boss" has been mentioned in "Psychological Crime 1", "Forensic Qin Ming", and "Chinatown Detective" in the easter eggs.
In other words, some viewers want to see the background setting of the entire "Green Ivy Criminal Investigation Universe" and watch "Psychological Crime 2" by the way.
For the main creators of the crew themselves, it may be a bit disappointing, but for the entire arc, this is a very good signal.
Because this represents that the film and television universe effect of the "Green Ivy Series" is gradually emerging.
Just like Marvel's superheroes, many viewers may have never read comics before and have never heard of those heroes.
But as long as this hero joins the MCU universe, fans will naturally want to watch it.
Even if they are not interested in the story of the hero itself, it is good to see the linkage or Easter eggs.
In fact, this is the real power of the "film and television universe", which reduces the publicity and promotion costs of a large number of new projects to attract audiences.
For this reason, the actual performance of "Psychological Crime 2" exceeded expectations.
Many fans have already left messages online to look forward to the upcoming "Day and Night Chase".
"In the next "Green Ivy Series" project, some linkage plots can be appropriately added." Meng Bai said.
Liu Jun nodded: "The basic base of audience fans has been accumulated, and the "universe" part can indeed be added."
After chatting about the arrangements for the subsequent projects, Meng Bai said: "Did you come here to talk about this?"
"No, there is another thing."
Liu Jun's expression was serious for a moment, and he said seriously: "Some time ago, Cheng Wu, the CEO of Tencent Pictures, contacted me and said that he wanted to meet you."
"Tencent Pictures?"
For large companies of the level of BAT, in addition to constantly "fighting" externally, the internal competition is also equally fierce.
Especially Tencent, what Lao Ma likes to do most is to arrange several project teams to develop a business at the same time, and compete internally.
Until the end, there is only one "Gu King" left.
This was done in the game field before, and later in the film and television field, the same approach was used.
In 2015, Tencent founded Penguin Pictures as a link between Tencent Video and China Literature Group, and officially entered the field of "film and television production".
Relying on the success of "The Ancient City of Jingjue", Penguin Pictures has developed rapidly in the past two years and has become an important part of Tencent's film and television industry.
But few people know that there was also a "Tencent Pictures" established together with Penguin Pictures.
These two companies are in a competitive relationship, and their main business is IP film and television.
If there is any difference, it is that one is backed by Tencent Video and mainly deals in online dramas. The other cooperates with China Literature Group and mainly deals in movies.
However, compared with Penguin Pictures, the development of Tencent Pictures is much behind.
There are many projects involved, but either the results are mediocre or they just follow the crowd.
After two years, there is still no name in the circle.
Because Arclight mainly produces online dramas, it has always been cooperating with Penguin Pictures and has nothing to do with Tencent Pictures.
Therefore, Meng Bai was a little curious about what the other party was planning to do by suddenly inviting him?
"Did the other party say anything?"
"He didn't say anything too specific, just said he wanted to get to know us and see if there's any chance for cooperation."
After saying that, Liu Jun suddenly frowned again and whispered, "But I heard a piece of gossip before."
"Another gossip?"
"Hey, don't underestimate the gossip in the circle. Many times it's not groundless."
Meng Bai smiled, "Okay, what gossip?"
"Tencent Pictures, backed by China Literature Group, has always wanted to go the IP adaptation route, but it has always been a shortcoming in production." Liu Jun said, "It is said that they have begun contacting several film and television companies in the industry, wanting to acquire a suitable team and then start IP film and television adaptation."
Meng Bai stroked his chin and pondered, "So you mean, they contacted us and also want to acquire Arclight?"
"Maybe."
"Ha." Meng Bai couldn't help laughing, "Do they know how much Arclight is valued?"
"Do you know how rich Tencent is?"
"...Fuck, I really can't refute it!"
Seeing Meng Bai lost in thought, Liu Jun couldn't help asking: "Well, if they really offer a good price, will you sell it?"
"That depends on how much they offer. If they can offer 80 billion or 100 billion, why not sell it?"
"You're thinking pretty well!" Liu Jun laughed and scolded: "Wanda Film's current market value is only 60 billion, and China Film is only 40 billion. My goodness, your mouth is half of the film industry."
Looking at the entire domestic film and television, no, the entire entertainment industry, the first market value is China Literature Group, which was just spun off and listed at the beginning of the year, with a market value of almost 75 billion.
Next, it is Leshi.com and Wanda Film, which have fallen to 60 billion.
Further down, there are the second echelons of 30 to 40 billion, such as China Film, Perfect, Light Media, and Huayi .
Although Arclight Film is known as the "first team of domestic online dramas" and has developed rapidly, it is still far from 100 billion.
So Meng Bai's meaning is very clear, that is, he doesn't intend to sell it at all.
"Then the invitation from Tencent Pictures..."
"No problem, we'll meet if necessary. An acquisition is out of the question, but it's good to talk about cooperation."
Meng Bai smiled slyly: "It just so happens that I also want to see how much our Arclight is valued at in the capital market."
——
Cheng Wu, who asked Meng Bai to meet, is not only the CEO of Tencent Pictures, but also the chairman of China Literature Group.
It was also under his leadership that Tencent's animation, literature, entertainment and other related sectors were integrated together to create the first domestic IP library in addition to "China Literature".
The meeting place was arranged in a private club in northern Beijing.
It is the kind of strange place that often appears in urban online novels, where there are always some brain-dead rich second-generations appearing for the male protagonist to "show off in front of people".
But in fact, when you really come here, you will know that it is just a more private place to eat.
"I have heard of Mr. Meng of Arclight for a long time, but I have never had the opportunity to meet him." Cheng Wu
, who wears glasses and looks gentle and refined, smiled kindly and said: "I see you today. You are indeed a young talent!"
"Mr. Cheng is polite. Arclight is just a little famous in the field of online dramas." Meng Bai said.
The first meeting is always like this, with all kinds of greetings and business praise between each other.
However, somewhat unexpectedly, Meng Bai and Cheng Wu actually have a lot in common.
"What I admire most about Arc Light is actually the collection of 'Green Ivy Detective Universe'." Cheng Wu said: "In recent years, the industry has been talking about IP. But if we really want to say that the value of IP is perfectly brought into play, only Arc Light is."
"Mr. Cheng, you are too kind."
"No, this is what I really think." Cheng Wu said with emotion: "The value of IP requires high-quality content and time to polish. The so-called IP development now is essentially just consuming the vitality of the original work."
Meng Bai smiled, he actually agreed with this point of view.
After a long breath, Cheng Wu finally turned the topic to business.
"I wonder what Mr. Meng thinks about the future development of Arc Light?"
"I will do my best and let nature take its course." Meng Bai said calmly.
Cheng Wu smiled and said: "Indeed, with the support of Mr. Meng's content, Arc Light can indeed develop steadily. However, if there is help, perhaps it can go faster."
(End of this chapter)
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