Rebirth of Hong Kong - 1978

Chapter 141 Buying a Future
On August 1978, 8, Xiangjiang, Golden Harvest Film Company, Chow Wenhuai's office.

Today, as usual, Zou Wenhuai came to his office early in the morning to start working, a habit he has maintained for many years.

After he finished handling the company's affairs, he would go to the Fushan Road studio to see the progress of the new films being produced.

At this moment, there were three knocks on the door suddenly. When Zou Wenhuai heard the sound, he knew that the person who knocked was He Guanchang.

After he answered, He Guanchang pushed the door open and entered.

"The box office of "Deed of Sale" has accumulated to 500 million yesterday, but it will be released in two days. I think it can be extended for a week to increase the box office."

At this time, Xiangjiang movies are usually released in two weeks. If they do not perform well, they will be canceled in advance. After all, there are still many movies in the queue.

And in two weeks, if the audience who wants to watch this movie has basically seen it, so there is no value in continuing to show it.

Unless the show is selling really well, just like the Xu brothers' movie, even though it has been on the air for almost two weeks, the daily box office is still between 40 and [-].

This is almost the same as the box office of ordinary movies when they were first released.

"Okay, anyway, there aren't any good movies recently, so let's have a good time with Fang Yat-hua's "Five Poisons" in "Deed of Sale"."

On August 8th, Shaw Brothers released "Five Poisons", starring Jiang Sheng, Zhang Che and Ni Kuang as the screenwriter and director, and the producer is Fang Yat-hua.

The five poisons got off to a bad start, and the cumulative box office in three days only barely broke 80.

If this momentum continues, I am afraid that within a few days, it will reach the removal standard of Golden Harvest Cinemas.

Fortunately, their Shaw Brothers films, even if the box office is bad, must continue to be released.

"If Shaw continues like this, I'm afraid that within a few years, Uncle Six will really consider switching to TV."

Zou Wenhuai seems to be very pessimistic about the prospects of Shaw Brothers. After all, Run Run Shaw's large studio system, although it has created the prosperity of Shaw Brothers movies, it has also planted a big disaster for it.

But at this moment, He Guanchang's expression suddenly became a little unnatural. He was holding a piece of paper in his hand, which seemed to record something.

"Did something happen?"

Seeing He Guanchang's expression, Zou Wenhuai knew something must have happened.

He Guanchang shook his head first, then put the paper on the table: "This is the box office record from Treasure Island this morning."

Zou Wenhuai picked up the paper and looked at it. He had a calm face, but suddenly frowned slightly.

The box office of "Master Qian" exceeded 8000 million Taiwan dollars, equivalent to 100 million Hong Kong dollars.

And this is not the final box office of "Master Qian", because the movies on Treasure Island can be shown for a long time.

"Looking at it this way, this movie will finally get at least 2000 million Hong Kong dollars at the box office."

Having been dealing with movies all his life, Zou Wenhuai will not be ignorant of the situation on Treasure Island.

Obviously they should be happy, but strangely, they had a serious expression on their faces, as if the movie was represented by Shaw Brothers.

"You said... Will "Young Master Qian" really break through [-] million in the end?" Zou Wenhuai's breaking [-] million naturally refers to Hong Kong dollars.

He Guanchang immediately shook his head, he didn't think "Young Master Qian" could exceed 30.00 million, because if it did, Lin Daoqiu would share [-]% of the profit, which was stated in the agency contract.

But this is not what they are most worried about, because Zou Wenhuai had already heard from Lin Daoqiu that he was going to help Shaw Brothers make a movie at the finale banquet of "Kung Fu Boy".

Although Zou Wenhuai dared to bet that this time Lin Daoqiu helped Shaw Brothers film the film, the box office in Xiangjiang will definitely not be higher than "Master Qian", because this time there will be no double-screening.

But the overseas box office will probably be a very scary figure. After all, Shaw Brothers is the strongest company in Heung Kong's overseas distribution.

If the agency rights of "Young Master Qian" were handed over to Shaw Brothers, it would definitely not be a problem to break [-] million.

"I plan to take "Master Qian" to Hollywood for release."

Zou Wenhuai suddenly said something that baffled He Guanchang. If Zou Wenhuai really did this, if he also got a good box office in Hollywood, then "Master Qian" would definitely have no problem breaking through [-] million.

"Do you think it's inappropriate for me to do this?"

After Zou Wenhuai finished asking, He Guanchang hesitated for a moment, and finally nodded.

"If I don't do this, big things will happen. Have you ever thought that if Lin Daoqiu's new film for Shaw Brothers, the box office of the overseas release far exceeds that of "Master Qian", what will happen to you if it is replaced by you?" think?"

As soon as Zou Wenhuai finished speaking, He Guanchang suddenly realized.

If such a situation really happens at that time, I am afraid that Lin Daoqiu's plays will be handed over to Shaw Brothers for distribution in the future, and the loss of Golden Harvest will be immeasurable.

"Where is he now?"

"I heard that he went to Baodao to help Li's TV series."

Zou Wenhuai didn't know that Lin Daoqiu was currently filming on Treasure Island.

"You have someone give him the check."

When Zou Wenhuai spoke, he had already taken out his checkbook and wrote a long list of numbers.

He Guanchang felt very strange, he didn't understand why Zou Wenhuai wanted to write a check to Lin Daoqiu.

After the other party finished writing, he handed the check to He Guanchang. He picked it up and looked at it, his eyes widened immediately.

"1000 million? What is this, Mr. Zou?"

He Guanchang really couldn't understand why Zou Wenhuai gave Lin Daoqiu 1000 million. After all, "Master Qian" hadn't broken through [-] million, so there was absolutely no need to give the money to Lin Daoqiu in such a hurry.

"Even if the box office of "Master Qian" doesn't exceed 1000 million in the end, I will give him the [-] million as buying a future."

Since there is no way to beat Shaw Brothers in overseas distribution, but at least they must win in tolerance. I believe that as long as Lin Daoqiu is not stupid, he will understand how he should choose by then.

"I understand."

If it was He Guanchang, he would never give this money.

But he vaguely felt that Zou Wenhuai's approach was right, but there might not be many people with a magnanimity like him in Xiangjiang's movie circle.

…………

Two days later, the manager of Golden Harvest Film Company in Taiwan went to the hotel to meet Lin Daoqiu in person.

"This is what Mr. Zou Wenhuai asked me to pass on to you."

The other party handed over the tens of millions of checks to Lin Daoqiu.

Lin Daoqiu took a look and found that it was a check worth tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars. He raised his head and looked at the other party with doubts in his eyes.

"This is the share of the overseas box office of "Master Qian"."

"Eh... I heard that "Master Qian" has just been released in Taiwan. Although it has a good box office, it is still a long way from breaking the Hong Kong dollar mark, right?"

Lin Daoqiu thought at first that the other party had made a mistake.

"Mr. Zou said that it doesn't matter if the box office of "Young Master Qian" doesn't exceed [-] million in the end, because he wants to let Mr. Lin know the difference between Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers."

(End of this chapter)