Chapter 294 The Third Batch of Equipment

Ends the third week of October.

The box office of "Frozen" has successfully exceeded 6.5 million, and the daily box office remains at around 7 million. According to the remaining time, it will be no problem for the box office to exceed million.

"Frozen has been released in the island country for two weeks, and the box office has exceeded 80 billion (RMB), and it has broken many box office records."

"The number of moviegoers in South Korea exceeded 400 million..."

The booming mainland market has made the lifeless Hong Kong film industry envious and jealous.

To be honest, if you think about it carefully, so many Hong Kong films have been introduced to the mainland in the past two years, but only a few of them really make money, and some movies don't make much even if they do.

Only Zhen Zidan's "Ip Man" series performed well at the box office. I heard that he is preparing to shoot the next one.

This feeling is like the poor boy whom you used to look down upon suddenly marries a beautiful, rich and pretty woman and reaches the peak of his life.

A group of film companies in Hong Kong Island are more unwilling to accept this, and some people cannot accept the reality of the decline of Hong Kong films.

...

Near the end of October, the biggest news in the circle is not Zhang Yimou's "The Flowers of War" or the art film in which Liu Yifei is about to star.

Instead, it was the third batch of equipment imported by Xingchen Film and Television Company that was delivered to the company.

According to media reports, these machines are currently the most advanced 3D equipment in Hollywood and are worth tens of millions of dollars.

Including the first two batches of machines, Gu Weilong has spent a total of over 100 million US dollars. The third floor of the company has been filled up, and most of the fourth floor is currently occupied by the new equipment.

In the spacious office, Gu Wei and Han Sanping sat opposite each other. The latter said, "This is incredible. It must have cost a lot of money again."

Gu Wei smiled and said, "It's OK. The money doesn't matter. The main thing is that it took a long time to get this batch of equipment. It's a bit troublesome."

Han Sanping felt emotional when he heard this. Unconsciously, he and Gu Wei had known each other for ten years. He watched him progress step by step, win the director award, and make blockbusters ranked in global film history. Unconsciously, the other party had grown to this point.

"You are so generous now that you don't care about tens of millions of dollars.

That's right, if you open your mouth now, there will be plenty of people willing to give you money with checks!"

Gu Wei smiled and nodded slightly. It was true. Then he said, "It's true. Someone contacted me recently and wanted to use my name to release a product."

Over the past few years, all of Gu Wei's films have been big hits, which has really attracted many investors. Some bosses have offered to invest money by waving checks, but were all rejected by Gu Wei.

Some people in the financial circle want to participate through private equity investment.

In their opinion, as long as they can reach a cooperation with Gu Wei, they can issue a financial product with an annualized return of about 10%-15%, which will definitely sell for hundreds of millions. By then, they can definitely make a lot of money just from fund management fees and investment income.

More importantly, as long as the connection is established, when Xingchen Film and Television's A-shares are listed in the future, you can also get a piece of the pie. Although Gu Wei has no intention of going public at present, no one can predict what will happen in the future, so most of the people come from the financial industry.

Han Sanping's expression was serious, and he sighed, "These people who deal in finance are very cunning. You better be careful and don't learn from Bo."

Gu Wei knew what he meant. Yu Dong’s blog was a typical example.

In 07, Bona received investment from two internationally renowned venture capital firms: Sequoia Capital and SIG Asia Venture Capital.

Then in the second round of financing in 09, Matrix Partners and Sequoia Capital injected RMB 1 million into the company, and it was finally successfully listed on NASDAQ.

When it first went public, Bona was extremely successful. Later, due to the good box office performance of several movies it invested in, it made considerable profits and its stock price continued to rise. However, to date, Bona's market value is only around 3 billion yuan.

But the market value of Huayi Company, which is listed on the Growth Enterprise Market, is close to 30 billion. To be honest, is the gap between the two companies really as big as ten times?
More importantly, the two venture capital companies hesitated between Huayi and Bona. If they had invested in Huayi instead of Bona, the situation of the two companies would most likely have been reversed.

In the original time and space, Bona eventually delisted from NASDAQ and sought to list on the A-share market. Although it has not reached that step now, the huge market value gap makes Bona inferior to Huayi Company in every aspect in the circle.

“I understand this. Xingchen Films is not short of money now and has sufficient funds.

In addition, the company is also making some investments and does not need to take money from private equity funds.

Even if we are going to go public later, I will maintain absolute control because this is my hard work.”

Hearing Gu Wei say this, Han Sanping felt relieved. He was more worried about what might happen to Xingchen Film and Television than Gu Wei himself.

As the two chatted, Han Sanping mentioned that some companies in the Internet field recently wanted to get involved in the film and television industry, and the leader was the "Tai Chi Ma".

"I heard that they have been in contact with Huayi Film Group recently and have also had dealings with Guangguang Film Group. They are very ambitious."

China Film Group is a state-owned enterprise and no one can take advantage of it. However, among the private enterprises in the circle, some may fall in front of money.

"Haha, someone has contacted me, but I rejected them. Sometimes you can't just do whatever you want in the industry just because you have money."

When he said this, Gu Wei was a little disdainful. Different fields are like different mountains. You may be the king of the Internet field, but it may not work in the entertainment industry. Those Hollywood film and television companies dare to take money from Wall Street, but the key is that they don't do anything after taking it. Aren't they still living comfortably?

The same is true in China. Even though Alibaba later invested in Huayi and Guangxian, it did not make much profit every year and was instead cheated many times.

However, Gu Wei rejected the big names in the Internet field, but he would not refuse to cooperate with other film and television companies in the circle.

After all, it is too hateful to eat alone in the film and television industry. Once other companies feel that they have no chance to cooperate with you, nor to benefit from you, and you can earn most of the profits in the film market, they will most likely unite and boycott and hate Xingchen Film and Television!

But if we involve one or two companies in each shoot, and give others some thoughts and hope, it will save a lot of trouble.

When shooting a movie, people are most afraid of troubles. Burning incense and praying to gods at the opening ceremony is just to pray for smooth sailing.

Gu Wei has been doing this and has done a good job. He has cooperated with several companies including China Film, Wanda, Light Media, and Emperor Entertainment Group, and has even cooperated with Huayi several times before.

Afterwards, the two started talking about movies. According to Han Sanping, the sooner a domestic special effects blockbuster is launched, the better. However, considering the current actual situation, Gu Wei decided that the earliest it could be launched would be the middle of next year.

After all, the several special effects jobs the company has taken on will not be completed until early next year, and the preparation of the initial funds will also take time.

"Mid-year, that's fine too. We'll just use the guaranteed production cost of 1 billion RMB. China Film will also reserve enough funds, so there's no need to worry about the money." Han Sanping seemed to be thinking about something. It's not too late yet, but some things can be prepared now.

For example, the script is of paramount importance.

.........

October 10rd this year marks the 23th anniversary of the founding of Beijing Film Academy.

Gu Wei and Liu Yifei received a call from Vice President Xie Xiaojing early on, instructing them to be present that day.

"When the time comes, you and Yifei should come over earlier. You both need to get ready. You will also have speeches to make. After all, you are one of the representatives of the school.

Especially you, write your speech in advance, when the time comes the leaders will come over."

"Okay, I see."

Gu Wei agreed immediately. The other party was just about to come to invite him. Besides, he was in the country and had not joined the crew, so he would definitely go there.

Magic City, the crew of "The Great Robbery".

Starting in early August and lasting nearly three months, Ning Hao's film is about to be completed. The filming time is much earlier than the original time and space.

Firstly, because of sufficient funds, Ning Hao did not have to worry about various equipment, as Xingchen Film and Television was responsible for providing them, and all aspects had been prepared in advance.

The second reason is that Ning Hao made full use of everyone's time. The crew was shooting non-stop except when they were sleeping.

After more than two months of getting along, Lei Jiayin and Tong Liya get along well, mainly because they are of similar age and have much to talk about with each other.

However, the two are just friends. After all, Lei Jiayin has a girlfriend. They both studied at the Shanghai Theatre Academy and are classmates. They are now at the stage of discussing marriage and, if nothing unexpected happens, they will get married by the end of the year.

During the filming, Lei Jiayin's girlfriend came to visit the set several times, and everyone met each other.

"Director, this is a toast to you. Thank you for your care during this period."

For the wrap-up banquet, Ning Hao chose a star-rated hotel not far from the crew, and all the staff involved in the filming gathered together.

"You kid, you've worked hard during this period, go back and have a good rest."

These words made Lei Jiayin sigh a little. During the filming of the movie, the working hours were more than 18 hours a day. He ate boxed lunches when he was hungry, drank cold water when he was thirsty, and his clothes were wet and dry, dry and wet. Thinking about it now, it was really not easy.

Especially during the filming of the highlight scene of robbing the gold shop, because it was filmed in the rain, the crew called in a large fire truck to spray water on the scene. In order to achieve the best effect, this shot alone was shot no less than 40 times and took a whole day.

"Hey, actors do this for a living, there's no such thing as hard work or not."

Lei Jiayin waved his hand indifferently, but his eyes were a little red when he said this.

There were quite a few reporters in attendance at the wrap party in the evening. Everyone paid for their travel expenses and the crew treated them to delicious food and drinks.

The next day, the reporter felt worthy of the money and said a lot of good things about the article online.

"The Great Robbery" was completed today. The main creative team went through a lot of hardships just to bring a classic work to the audience.

Director Ning Hao spent five years honing his skills, repeatedly revising the script during on-site shooting, and once again shot a film with a unique black comedy style.

Filming is not easy, the leading actors and actresses devote themselves to it, etc...

(End of this chapter)