Chapter 539 "Escape from the British Museum"
In early May, the Magnolia Awards issued an announcement that this year's Magnolia Awards ceremony was cancelled. The various film and television drama projects that have been registered will be postponed to next year for selection.
This news is still quite shocking to the film and television industry. After all, even when the flu was at its worst in 2020, the Magnolia Awards were only postponed for a few months. The last similar situation dates back to SARS in 2003.
It is understandable, after all, the core of this "second round" of transmission is Shanghai. Since the end of March, this national economic center has been silent for more than a month.
Because this time the virus is a new variant, even patients who have been infected before may still be re-infected, and many people have "double positive" situations.
However, as the new variant becomes more contagious, its pathogenicity has greatly decreased. In addition, after two years of training, today's medical resources are sufficient, making the threat level of influenza no longer so high.
Including officials and medical experts, everyone believes that this virus that has affected the whole world should be at the end of its strength.
This is undoubtedly good news for everyone.
Taking this into consideration, Meng Bai, Chen Zhixi, Ke Liming and Tencent and other shareholders within Ruyi decided to accept Wanda's request for help after several rounds of discussions and officially started negotiations on the acquisition of Wanda Film.
According to the division of shares, 22% of Wanda Film's shares are held by Wanda Investment. Excluding the circulating shares, it has an absolute controlling advantage.
Therefore, if Ruyi wants to take Wanda Cinema Line into its pocket, it does not need to buy all the shares. As long as it gets 51% of Wanda Investment's shares, it is enough to take over the indirect control of Wanda Film.
At present, the two sides are mainly negotiating the price of this part. Wanda offered 2.4 billion according to the market value, while Ruyi's price was about 2.1 billion. The difference is not too big, indicating that both parties have the intention to make a deal.
However, it will not take one or two days to reach a deal. The teams of both sides will have more detailed discussions on the transaction amount and the subsequent theater rental, property and other cooperation conditions. This kind of negotiation often takes more than a dozen rounds, and there will definitely be endless arguments without a year or two.
"Only after we fill in the gap of cinema chains can Ruyi truly have a say in the industry."
In the president's office of Ruyi, Chen Zhixi said with emotion: "However, Wanda Cinema Line's current losses are a bit serious. How to solve this financial problem after the acquisition in the future is also a very arduous task."
"The income of cinema chains mainly depends on the situation of the film market. If we want to solve the financial problem, it depends on whether the film industry can produce more high-quality box office blockbusters in the future." Meng Bai said, who was sitting opposite.
Chen Zhixi sighed: "That's true, but movies are born with a metaphysical aura, and no one can guarantee that a project will be successful. Especially in the past two years, due to the impact of influenza, fewer and fewer projects have been approved, and it is estimated that it will be difficult for a while in the next two years."
Meng Bai thought for a while: "Next year should be fine. We have three big productions, "The Wandering Earth 2", "Her Disappearance" and "All or Nothing", and the other companies also have some inventory. It will be no problem to hold on for a year. The real hardship will be after 2024."
Both of them are a little worried about this, but this kind of problem involving the entire industry is not something that Ruyi can solve by itself, and it can only take one step at a time. Fortunately,
in addition to the film business, Ruyi now also has the new "Pumpkin Short Drama".
With the seriousness of the influenza situation, while offline entertainment has been affected, online entertainment has ushered in a new peak. The number of users of the long drama platform has increased a lot, and the number of users of the short drama platform has grown by leaps and bounds.
Compared with before this round of flu, the number of monthly active users of Pumpkin Short Drama is still at the level of 20 million, but the average daily usage time of users has increased from 0.8 hours to 1.02 hours.
This means that as the user scale expands, more and more viewers are more keen on watching short dramas.
However, as the trend becomes hot, some problems have gradually emerged.
For example, because the review has not been touched for the time being, a large number of short dramas that skirt the line have begun to emerge. At the same time, because the production threshold is low, the homogeneity of short dramas is also very serious.
The short plays for men are basically concentrated on themes such as the return of the Dragon King, the rise of the son-in-law, and the descent of the miracle doctor. The short plays for women are all kinds of domineering wives, which is very similar to the style of the online literature market in the early days.
In other words, most of the current short plays are essentially just online literature adapted for film and television, which is essentially the same thing.
For Meng Bai, this scene is very familiar to him. When online dramas first emerged, there was also the same chaos, and he had experienced it once.
It is precisely because of his experience that he deeply knows that the low threshold of short dramas will not last long. In less than half a year, it will inevitably be included in the review system.
Therefore, the future development direction of short dramas, like today's online dramas, must take the route of high-quality production. As one of the pioneers of the short drama industry, he naturally needs to set a benchmark for the entire industry.
First, it is to prove to the official that short dramas are also part of the normal entertainment system, so as not to destroy the industry one day with an iron fist; second, it is also to let the audience understand that short dramas are not just those crudely made yellow skits, but also excellent works.
"Is this the short play script you mentioned some time ago?"
Chen Zhixi looked at the document in front of him. Compared with regular film and television scripts, this book is much thinner. The name of the story is written on the cover - "Escape from the British Museum".
"Tsk tsk, this is the first short play personally directed by our President Meng. Do I have to wash my hands and burn incense before reading it to show respect?"
"Sister Xi, your style is a mature female CEO. Don't always do this kind of malicious cuteness."
"Hehe, I'm afraid what you actually want to say in your heart is 'old age'?"
"How could it be." Meng Bai sipped his water, "I won't admit it."
Chen Zhixi rolled his eyes at him, but did not deliberately tease him again, but lowered his head to read the script in his hand.
Zhang Yongan, a young painter who is keen on depicting cultural relics, came to the foreign country of Britain for his interest. He wanted to see the original work of the "Biography of Women" in the British Museum. Unexpectedly, after arriving, he was told that the Huaxia Museum was temporarily closed because of the mysterious loss of a Chinese thin jade pot with twigs.
Zhang Yongan, who failed to fulfill his wish, was about to leave with regret, but he bumped into a little girl in emerald green Hanfu at the entrance of the museum, who asked him to take her away. As they were both Chinese, Zhang Yongan agreed to the little girl's request, took her away and invited her to dinner.
During the conversation, the girl who called herself "Chanzhi" said that she had come here from China not long ago to display oriental art, but when she arrived, she was entangled by a group of weird old people.
These old people were very old, their memories were scattered, and their words were incoherent. In particular, one of the old ladies named "Nu Shi" always frowned and complained that Chanzhi's behavior was not standard and her words were too presumptuous.
However, these old people remembered one thing very firmly, that is, they were brought to the UK a long time ago, and they wanted to go home but couldn't find the way to leave, so they hoped that "Chanzhi" who had just been sent here would tell them how to go back.
But "Chanzhi" never took the "nonsense" of these old people seriously, and was annoyed by listening to their quarrels every day, so she escaped by herself.
Listening to Chanzhi telling her story, Zhang Yongan gradually realized that the girl in front of him was the "Chinese Jade Pot with Wool Pattern" that mysteriously disappeared from the British Museum. And those "nonsense" old people were the stolen cultural relics of the motherland.
Faced with the situation, Zhang Yongan decided to persuade Chanzhi to help those "wandering for a hundred years" cultural relics return home...
(End of this chapter)
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