Chapter 296 Warning
In Hollywood, "Frozen" has not yet been released, but the first batch of box office revenue from "Despicable Me 2" has already arrived. Seeing hundreds of millions of dollars deposited into the company's account, Reid's face showed excitement.

Blockbuster movies are still better. The box office share from the North American market alone can make back the investment cost, not to mention the subsequent box office share from other regions around the world.

Reid immediately notified Gu Wei of the arrival of the funds and proposed to continue producing animated films to reap the global box office.

"Most of this money will be used to pay for the post-production special effects of 2012. We will consider these matters after receiving our share from other regions."

After hearing his boss's decision, Reid, as an employee, certainly had no objection. After thinking about it, he talked about a major event that happened recently in Hollywood.

MGM, once a glorious company in Hollywood, recently filed for bankruptcy protection.

"Boss, some people say that the failure of Windtalkers led to MGM's bankruptcy."

"That's a bit ridiculous. To say that Windtalkers accelerated MGM's bankruptcy is somewhat plausible, but such a big company can't go bankrupt with just one movie."

MGM was once a big name in the Hollywood entertainment industry. Even the establishment of the Oscars had its shadow. Now it has filed for bankruptcy protection due to debts of up to 40 billion US dollars. The company's expenses are not enough to cover its income, and the movies it invested in have continued to suffer losses.

The news of MGM's bankruptcy came from Hollywood, which caused a huge uproar in China. It turned out that the Hollywood film and television company, which was considered high and mighty in everyone's impression, would also go bankrupt one day.

However, this has little impact on the growing domestic film and television industry.

However, some people took the opportunity to speak out publicly, hoping that a domestic company could provide a transfusion and take over MGM.

Powerful large companies such as China Film, Huayi, and Xingchen Films attracted the audience's attention at the first time.

Some people also expressed that "MGM's bankruptcy means that Hollywood has begun to go downhill and indicates that Hollywood is no longer viable."

As soon as the news came out, Gu Wei sneered after reading it. Not only would Hollywood be able to succeed, but in the next ten years, it would reach its peak with superheroes and special effects.

Furthermore, although Hollywood appears to be dominated by large companies such as Warner, Paramount, DreamWorks, and Disney, in fact, there are large conglomerates behind these companies. These conglomerates have a firm control over the entire American entertainment industry. Not to mention that MGM went bankrupt with a debt of 40 billion US dollars, even if other companies went bankrupt together, these financial giants could support other entertainment companies in minutes to become their successors.

The MGM incident is purely entertainment news for entertainment purposes. No company in China has the strength to take over. Moreover, even if they do, they can only acquire shares at most, and it is impossible for them to get a share of the Hollywood pie.

The Americans will not allow outsiders, especially Chinese companies, to have the opportunity to interfere in the entertainment and cultural industry. After all, this is a powerful tool for the Americans' external propaganda.

...

The opening ceremony of "On the Beach at Night Alone" was held in the capital, and the filming location was also in the capital, with some filming locations in Shanghai and Europe.

On the day of the start of filming, the ceremony was relatively simple. Gu Wei and Liu Yifei, Su Chang, Qin Hao, Chen Minghao, Tong Liya, Qi Xi and others were interviewed.

Yes, there are no outsiders in the main creative team of this movie. Liu Yifei and Qin Hao are artists under Xingchen Film and Television, and Su Chang and Chen Minghao are old friends.

Tong Liya, Qi Xi and others are all artists of Shiba Culture Company. Except for the guest stars, they are all our own people.

Until the opening ceremony began, Tong Liya still couldn't believe that she had passed the audition so smoothly and won the role of supporting actress.

Recalling the audition scene a few days ago, it was naturally vivid in her mind, and she couldn't help but feel a little dazed.

"Liya, what are you thinking about? Get ready, you're about to be interviewed by reporters."

Chen Minghao on the side had a good relationship with her. After all, the two of them had been together in Shanghai Film and Television City for more than a month. Chen Minghao usually took good care of this girl who was younger than him.

In the original time and space, Tong Liya entered the industry in 06, but it was not until the hit of "Palace" in 11 that this girl received widespread attention.

At this stage, thanks to Gu Wei's intervention, the other party not only starred in a TV series, but also played the leading role in a movie directed by Ning Hao. Along the way, she felt like she was living in a dream.

"Ah, um, sorry, I got distracted a bit."

Tong Liya reacted quickly and said to Chen Minghao beside her, her face turning slightly red unconsciously.

"Haha, don't be nervous. We are all supporting roles. We just need to act well. The box office appeal issue that the reporter just asked about has little to do with us."

Chen Minghao is a humorous person. He saw that Tong Liya was a little nervous, so he made a joke.

Not far away, reporters were interviewing Liu Yifei. As the most famous and talked-about protagonist, the reporters focused most of their attention on her.

"Yifei, you have switched from commercial films to art films. What are your expectations for this movie's box office?
Director Zhang's art film "The Hawthorn Tree" has grossed over 100 million yuan at the box office, just breaking the record for domestic art films."

Reporters are also constantly looking for topics and gimmicks so that they can have more material to report.

For example, at the launch conference of the movie produced by Xingchen Film and Television Company, Liu Yifei said frankly that it would create a new box office record for domestic art films?

Liu Yifei is acting in an art film for the first time, and frankly she is not inferior to others. Once this title comes out, no matter what the content is, it will definitely attract a considerable number of fans, and the traffic will increase.

The young lady sitting on the stage smiled slightly when she heard this. She is not a newcomer now, and she has experienced too many similar interview questions, so she can come up with standard answers easily.

"Well, this is my first time acting in an art film. I will put all my energy into the performance. I believe in my acting skills and my box office appeal."

Liu Yifei said confidently that today she was wearing women's casual clothes and looked heroic.

Speaking of box office appeal, it is a magical thing. It cannot be seen or touched but it exists in a real way.

When Chow Yun-fat moved from the small screen to the big screen, every movie he made flopped and he was called box office poison. It was not until he finished filming "A Better Tomorrow" that he finally rose to fame.

To put it simply, box office appeal means that when you hear that a certain movie star has a new movie released, without knowing the title or story of the movie, do you want to go and see it?

For example, if a new movie starring Stephen Chow is released, many people’s first reaction is to watch it first.

Relatively embarrassing is the superstar Liu Dehua. He is a first-line superstar, but the box office of most of his films stops at 300 million. A very important reason for this is that his label or personality is far less box office appeal than it was in the past.

In contrast, Liu Yifei, who has achieved great success in Hollywood in recent years, has gradually become a box office guarantee in the Chinese-language film industry.

Gu Wei, who was sitting on the stage next to her, listened to Liu Yifei talking non-stop, and felt as if the little girl had suddenly grown up.

But the more I listened, the more something seemed wrong. This girl, who was calm at the beginning, gradually went astray.

"Well, besides this script, there is another one, which is more realistic and cruel than this one..."

Gu Wei rolled his eyes and couldn't help coughing twice.

Liu Yifei, who had been immersed in the reporter's routine unknowingly, quickly reacted and waved her hand to indicate the end of the interview.

But the reporter was already satisfied. Yifei had told him everything he wanted to know, and it was all solid information.

After the opening ceremony in the morning, the crew officially started filming in the afternoon.

At the set, Liu Yifei, with her makeup put on, was already waiting for the filming to begin.

"Will you be clear about the character's status when we start shooting?" Gu Wei asked again before the filming started.

"Well, from being on top to falling from the clouds, under the dual pressure of a huge blow and rumors, the spirit will be in two completely different states..."

The young lady spoke softly, looking at Gu Wei from time to time, indicating that she was in good condition.

Gu Wei looked at Su Chang and Qin Hao next to him. They were both in good condition, especially Qin Hao. He looked like nothing had happened and he seemed to be very familiar with the job. He was indeed the little prince of art films.

"action!"

As Gu Wei shouted loudly, the shooting officially began.

Liu Yifei, who had been smiling just now, suddenly seemed like a different person. Gu Wei smiled knowingly, it seemed that the nearly one month of studying the script was not in vain.

.........

“MGM’s bankruptcy: a last word to Chinese movie fans and a warning to Chinese filmmakers.”

The bankruptcy of Hollywood giant MGM is still affecting the domestic film industry.

In a survey conducted by a certain website, 80% of netizens expressed that they were "very sad" about MGM's bankruptcy.

This sadness largely comes from the fact that the company's film works have participated in or influenced our literary and artistic life, such as the "007 series", "Tom and Jerry", "Gone with the Wind", "Waterloo Bridge", "The Wizard of Oz" and so on.

However, the collapse of MGM also inspired other companies in the domestic film industry. It turns out that Hollywood is not omnipotent. They can also go bankrupt and go out of business.

The biggest warning that MGM's bankruptcy brings to domestic film companies should be to concentrate high-quality resources to do big things, cultivate a single film brand, abandon useless projects, and pursue the most perfect combination of business and art. Only in this way can they gain a firm foothold.

At the same time, the success of blockbusters such as "Titanic", "Harry Potter", "Transformers" and "Avatar" has also made Hollywood film studios understand the importance of a single film brand.

As the WTO ruling has become a fact, the domestic entertainment product market will be further opened up to the outside world next year. This means that the domestic market will face the impact of various entertainment products from Hollywood and other countries, including movies, music, games, books, etc. The MGM bankruptcy case is a vivid lesson for domestic film companies.

(End of this chapter)