Who are you calling powerful?.

Chapter 702: The Cold Winter of Film and Television Has Arrived at the Beginning of Autumn
Boss Wei went to an appointment with Fatty Yu, and in the end nearly twenty people came to the party.

Most of them were members of the Film Association. There were six vice-chairmen alone, including Chen Daoming, Boss Wei’s former rival.

Old Chen is very open-minded. He is lower in position and not as strong as the other one, but he still puts on airs and pretends to be powerful. Aren't you expecting others to make things difficult for you?

With his status and qualifications, he doesn't have to worry about being banned by Boss Wei and losing his job, but being targeted and tripped up would be enough. However, there is no need for this. The two of them have no personal grudge, and he doesn't have to be the chairman of the Film Association, so there is no need to confront him head-on.

You can say he is cowardly or that he is timid.

Whether it was his statement at the previous election meeting or taking the opportunity to come and attend the party now, Chen Daoming was sending friendly signals to Wei Yang.

It can't even be said to be sending a signal. Apart from using more obscure words to save face, it is no different from directly surrendering to Wei Yang.

Wei Yang accepted Lao Chen's kindness without hesitation. No matter in meetings or private gatherings, he always showed respect to Lao Chen and gave him enough face in front of others.

However, judging from the division of labor in the Film Association's plan, Boss Wei still had to guard against Old Chen and the other two senior vice-chairmen.

Most of the work they are responsible for are those seemingly respectable affairs, which are highly praised on the surface, but are basically empty talk with very little real power.

In this way, you give face, but they can't find any handle on you, and you don't have to worry about being disturbed.

Anyway, when Fatty Yu learned about the general division of labor plan, he felt that Wei Yang was really sinister, and those in the Film Association who treated him as a youngster and bullied him were in big trouble.

Having said that, Fatty Yu didn’t know what those people were thinking.

Wei Yang didn’t have much experience in the system before, but he did have management experience.

He was able to build several large-scale business groups from scratch, and during this period there was the classic case of him defeating a strong force by defeating PPTV from Suning. Even if he is not familiar with the institutional rules, he can easily defeat a group of half-baked people with stronger literary and artistic attributes with just the most basic routines.

Precisely because he understood all this, Fatty Yu was very indifferent to the affairs of the Film Association and basically just followed Wei Yang.

Compared with the Film Association, he is actually most concerned about Bona.

Last year, Bona participated in not many projects. One was "Operation Red Sea" with Blue Whale, and the other was "Shadow" directed by Zhang Yimou in collaboration with LeTV.

Although the movie "Shadow" has many flaws, its overall reputation is still pretty good, at least much better than the previous "The Great Wall".

Although the reputation is good, it doesn’t make money.

It is rumored online that the cost of this movie is over 3 million yuan, but the actual cost is not that much, but it is not much different either.

According to the calculation formula that the producer gets about one-third of the box office revenue, "Shadow" would have to gross over 9 million yuan to break even, but the actual box office of this movie was less than 7 million yuan.

Just based on the box office share, this project is bound to lose money, but the good thing is that the director of this movie is Zhang Yimou.

The reason why famous directors are valuable is because the halo of a famous director is not only applicable to the box office, but also has great benefits in attracting advertising, selling copyrights, etc.

Even though Zhang Yimou is a little out of fashion now, he is still one of the top directors in China. Advertisers and platforms are all willing to pay for his work and the price they offer is much higher than that for normal projects.

With Zhang Yimou's backing and decent word of mouth later on, it can be managed, so the "Shadow" project can be considered a non-loss project.

Only on paper, Bona did make a profit from this project, but the amount was relatively small. However, considering Bona's investment, it actually lost money.

In addition, other projects last year were not very strong, which made Bona’s business look very bad, and Fatty Yu almost had high blood pressure.

Under pressure from all sides, Bona has made great efforts this year and has made many moves, including "The Captain" and "Ip Man 4".

This is still a big gamble, but if it fails, Fatty Yu won't have to worry about Jiang Shuying and the like. It would be a relief for him if the Peacock Princess didn't run away.

The purpose of this gathering is to seek the advice of Boss Wei and put my mind at ease. By the way, I also want to play the victim in advance and lay the groundwork.

If he really gets into trouble, he can ask Boss Wei for help, whether it is to participate in a project or to borrow some money. At least he has to ask Boss Wei to help his old friend and give him a way out.

The place where Fatty Yu treated the guests was a high-end club with a full range of functions, including swimming, indoor golf, chess and cards, fitness, foot bath, audio-visual room, billiards, cigars and many other leisure and entertainment activities.

Normally, Wei Yang might play with things that young people like.

There are many old comrades today, so Wei Yang spends more time in calligraphy places, teahouses, Chinese courtyards, etc. When Fatty Yu found him, he was practicing calligraphy with an old senior who had also joined the Calligraphy Association.

Some hobbies will appear unconsciously when you get older, such as drinking tea, fishing, and listening to operas.

Wei Yang has lived two lifetimes as a human being, so he actually knows a little bit about these elderly care hobbies.

For example, fishing, which he often goes fishing on now, is a habit he developed when he entered middle age in his previous life, and drinking tea also counts as half of it.

As for calligraphy, Wei Yang had some interest, but he was too lazy to practice. He would just try to show off his interest, but would throw it aside after a while when he got bored of it.

In my previous life, I was just trying to be cultured. At most, I bought two calligraphy books and got a few brushes to play with. I used industrial ink and never touched an inkstone.

I have a little money in this life, and even if I just did it on a whim, I have bought a lot of good things.

Even though Wei Yang no longer practiced calligraphy, he would buy any nice-looking inkstones, brushes, ink sticks, etc. and put them in his study for collection and decoration.

He also collected a lot of calligraphy works by famous calligraphers. Although most of them were from contemporary times and the Republic of China, their total value added up to over seven figures.

So even though his calligraphy was average, Wei Yang was able to chat with this group of people. After all, he did know a little bit and was proficient in stationery.

The most important thing is that if Boss Wei is happy chatting, he will give you inkstones worth tens of thousands of dollars, Hui ink that is equivalent to gold, or calligraphy and paintings by famous calligraphers.

Everyone hates RMB players, but it’s another matter when RMB players give you good equipment.

"Mr. Fan, please don't be polite. My bad handwriting is not worthy of these good inks. If you write two good pieces of calligraphy for me later, I will make a profit."

After seeing the old senior off with a smile, Fatty Yu glanced at Wei Yang curiously.

"Boss Wei, I remember I haven't introduced you yet. How did you know that Mr. Fan's son works in the propaganda department?"

"is it?"

Wei Yang, who was reading the calligraphy, raised his head with a somewhat "astonished" expression: "There is such a secret? Oh, I am just making friends with him through calligraphy. I think we can get along well. Mr. Fan won't misunderstand anything, right?"

Fatty Yu suddenly realized it and said with a smile, "As a gentleman, misunderstandings don't matter. Just explain it clearly."

"That's fine."

Wei Yang nodded, and then said no more, holding the pen and continuing to write according to Mr. Fan's instructions. Fatty Yu ground ink for him and indirectly asked about Bona's film plan for next year.

"What are you worrying about? Apart from other projects, Ip Man 4 and The Captain are sure-fire money-making projects. Just these two projects will ensure Bona's success next year. Besides, don't you have other films that we invested in, My People, My Country and Speedy Life?"

It can be seen that the repeated failures last year were quite a blow to Fatty.

In fact, although the cold winter of the film and television industry was completely triggered by the use of masks, there were already signs of it before the use of masks.

Especially last year, Huayi and Feng Kuzi had a big explosion, which made many entertainment companies and artists tremble with fear. Except for a few companies, the stocks of many listed film and television companies shrank as a result. Coupled with the rise of major platforms, many small and medium-sized film and television companies that make a living from TV dramas have been struggling to develop.

If someone looks through older news, they will find that some people have started calling for a "film and television winter" since 2018.

It’s just that the market as a whole is improving, so most people don’t take it seriously.

Even if development is not going smoothly, it is considered to be a temporary off-season. It is normal for the market to fluctuate, or it is beginning to reach a certain bottleneck period in development. Just hold on and you will be fine.

Even the more pessimistic ones only think that it has reached its peak and will slowly decline afterwards.

This inference is correct. Under normal circumstances, even if it has fallen from the peak in 2019 and entered the cold winter of the film and television industry, it will become colder little by little.

But unexpectedly, the three-year-old mask caused a super instant drop in temperature.

From the beginning of autumn when there was still a bit of heat in the air to the coldest days of winter when it was freezing and snowy, many people were frozen to death without even a chance to struggle to warm up.

Fatty Yu is relatively pessimistic, but not desperate, otherwise he would not have invested so much money.

But tension is inevitable, and people are worried about gains and losses, and even start planning for the worst-case scenario and ask Boss Wei to cover the loss.

After being enlightened by Wei Yang, Fatty Yu felt much better, but he still asked unwillingly.

"What about Chasing the Dragon 3?"

"Although I have a good relationship with Director Wang, it turns out that when he chooses to live off his past achievements, it means the project is entering the countdown."

As mentioned before, one of Fatty Wang’s old habits is that after making a project popular, he would start working hard to make money from the project.

Not to mention the distant past, he ruined the “The Man from Macau” series with his own hands, and “Chasing the Dragon”, the IP that helped him restore his reputation, sent him back into the abyss step by step.

Fatty Yu was a little disappointed. Among "Chasing the Dragon 2" and the many movies listed above, the only ones that can be truly considered to be produced by Bona are "The Captain" and "Chasing the Dragon 2".

Although Bona also participated in a lot of "Ip Man 4", the first producer and the main controlling company was still Huang Baiming's Oriental Pictures.

"My People, My Country" was led by China Film Group, Shanghai Film Group and Blue Whale. Bona only took the role of co-producer and was only responsible for investment, with almost no say.

He was the one who introduced Blue Whale to invest in "Speeding Life", and the largest investors in the film are Blue Whale and Bona.

As a result, director Han Han gained recognition and support from Blue Whale, and his voice increased greatly, resulting in Bona's limited control over the project.

Therefore, in Fatty's heart, he most hopes that "The Captain" and "Chasing the Dragon 2" will be big hits, as this will benefit Bona the most.

Now one of them has been sentenced to death by Boss Wei, and Fatty Yu's mood, which had just improved, has collapsed again.

What made him feel even worse was that when Wei Yang reviewed several movies afterwards, his evaluation of "Speeding Life" was obviously better than "Ip Man 2", which he valued more.

"The Ip Man series has been filmed for so many years, and we can actually see that the basic base is this big."

"Unless the fourth film is of exceptional quality or breaks through something, the upper limit is set. The third film made less than 8 million yuan last year, and the fourth film made just over 10 billion yuan? Or even more?"

"I don't particularly like Han Han, but I have never denied his talent. His debut film and his previous film, Riding the Wind and Breaking the Waves, have proven his box office appeal."

"Racing is his comfort zone, and with Shen Teng, who is extremely popular among the public, 15 billion should not be a problem. If he is lucky, 20 billion+ is not impossible."

Wei Yang's analysis is not entirely based on God's eyes, because due to the butterfly effect, the box office of many movies fluctuates.

So now when analyzing the box office, Wei Yang will refer to the data from his previous life, but he will also combine it with reality. The two will be verified, and the data accuracy is extremely high.

This is also the reason why Fatty Yu asked him for analysis and trusted him very much. He had been shown off too many times before and was already impressed by him.

"This is a bit troublesome..."

Fatty Yu had a headache, but Wei Yang couldn't help laughing. He knew what the other party was worried about, and it was actually related to him.

As mentioned earlier, Bona was one of Han Han's financial backers. Later, in order to get closer to Blue Whale, Fatty Yu returned the favor and introduced Han Han and Blue Whale, and they successfully reached a collaboration on the project "Flying Life".

As a result, this cooperation went wrong!

Blue Whale's professionalism is not on the same level as Bona. As a producer, they take care of what they should do and don't care about what they shouldn't do. They are also quick to cooperate in all aspects and can even provide Han Han with various kinds of creative, production, and post-production support.

Originally, Han Han and Bona had a very pleasant collaboration, but now when compared with Blue Whale, the gap is immediately apparent.

It was at this time that the Bona team and Han Han had disagreements on some issues related to "Flying Life".

As mentioned earlier, Han Han won the support of Blue Whale and his voice was increased, which also led to the decline of Bona's control over the project.

Although Bona and Han Han did not fall out with the mediation of Blue Whale, some conflicts still arose.

It is said that a senior executive of Bona privately scolded Han Han, saying that he was ungrateful, licking the thigh of the new master (Blue Whale) and then turning around to bite the old master, and that he would be dealt with sooner or later.

Now, Fatty Yu is counting on Han Han to make money and gain fame, as well as to continue the cooperation in the future, so he has to appease him.

Today's Bona is no longer the behemoth it was in the past. Even Fatty Yu, the vice chairman of the Film Association, has benefited from Boss Wei.

If Han Han can show good box office performance, there will be many people willing to support him. Even Blue Whale may not approve of Bona targeting Han Han as a profitable partner. So unless they are determined to break off relations, the best way is to turn hostility into friendship.

Fatty Yu was a man who could take things easy, and he immediately called Han Han to come over for the party.

With Boss Wei here to help mediate, I'll find an opportunity to say a few soft words to ease the conflict.

Wei Yang readily agreed. As a boss and partner, he should help mediate if there is a problem, and watch the fun while he is there...

(End of this chapter)