Year: I had a good time when I was young

Chapter 430 Buying the Palace Theater

The conversation with Hader in the evening also went smoothly. However, the old guy suggested that Chu Xiangqian only want the taxi franchise on the main island, so as not to take away all the taxi franchises on the main island and Kowloon, and the opposition from the outside world would be too loud.

Chu Qianqian said with a smile, "What if Kowloon and Hong Kong Island only issue one taxi company license, and I get them all in the name of two taxi companies?
And if you think about it, running a taxi company at this time is not profitable, or even a loss-making business.

But for those of you who are officials, unifying vehicle and service standards will help you achieve political success. "

Hader is not that easy to fool. There are indeed taxis on the market, and there are indeed many problems.

But if Chu Xiangqian operates exclusively, it won't be long before the taxis under his name will be the same as before, and a series of problems such as robbing customers, taking detours, and refusing to take passengers will still occur.

Fortunately, with unified management, it is much easier to find taxi companies than public officials or police officers to find self-employed people, and problems can be solved faster.

This is also the reason why Chu Xiangqian rents part of the taxi to Dongxing Camel.

Society management is often far more efficient than formal company management.

If something goes wrong, all Chu Qianqian needs to do is look for Luotuo, and then he has to solve the problem obediently.

Hader no longer bothered Chu Xiangqian about wanting to monopolize, "How many years of franchise do you want?"

Chu smiled forward, knowing that Hader agreed, "99 years?"

"Impossible," Hader shook his head without thinking, "I'll give you 30 years at most."

Chu Xiangqian quit immediately. Thirty years later, when Hong Kong Island's economy was at its most developed and ordinary people had the most money, the price for contract renewal would not be low at that time.

But then I thought about it, and it seemed that that was also the time when the British were most hesitant.

Otherwise, the society would not have become more and more rampant in the late 80s and early 90s. It was nothing more than the British thinking that they were going to get out, so they simply made a lot of money and left a lot of trouble for the Chinese government.

Renewal should be easy then.

On the contrary, it is more troublesome to negotiate license renewal after China has made the decision.

And I could have discussed the renewal of the contract with Gui Lao in advance in the mid-to-late 80s.

But then I thought about it, since the contract renewal could be negotiated in the late 80s, there is actually no difference between negotiating for 30 years and 40 years now.

Anyway, when it comes to renewing the contract, it will be extended for another 3 or 40 years. When the deadline is up, I will be in my seventies.

Simply sell all the license plates or give future generations a headache.

"30 years is 30 years, but I ask that after 20 years, I have the right to negotiate for renewal in advance."

Hader shrugged. Twenty years later, he would have returned to London to retire. What was he like at that time? What does it have to do with him?
"Give me three sweaty horses, and they must be good horses. I have to report to the Hong Kong Governor. If he doesn't agree, it's basically out of the question."

"Then I want two pieces of land in Hong Kong and Kowloon to build repair shops, vehicle warehouses and office buildings."

Hader shrugged, three good horses with bloody horses, at least 3 pounds.

Converted to HKD 480 million, this amount is just for a taxi franchise, so the asking price is indeed high.

Give two pieces of land as compensation to Chu Qianqian, so that this guy will not feel that he has suffered a loss and want to recover the losses in the future.

After thinking about it, I decided to give him a good location.

"There is a primary school on Tin Hau Temple Road in North Point that is going to be relocated. How about giving you this 3-acre piece of land?"

Chu Xiangqian thought carefully and quickly determined that it should be near Saixi Lake Park.

Although it is currently in a remote area, it will have great development potential in the future just because it is close to the park.

Only 3 acres of land is only 2000 square meters. Even if it is developed, only 2 or 3 buildings can be developed.

“Give me a few more acres so that I don’t run out of money in the future.”

Hader rolled his eyes at Chu Qianqian. Only a fool would drag the car all the way to North Point if he really wanted to repair it.

It must have been repaired nearby. To put it bluntly, Chu Xiangqian's desire to hoard land was at play.

However, compared to the local established and prominent families, the land in Chu Xiangqian's hands is indeed nothing.

And there is indeed a lot of open space around the primary school. "Let me tell you about a plan that has not yet been made public. The Hong Kong government intends to develop the Eastern District.

Tin Hau Road will definitely be built into a luxury residential area in the future, giving you 3 acres of land, which is already a bargain for you. "

Chu Xiangqian was unmoved. The future will be discussed later. Since it has not been developed yet, it is a wasteland.

"Three acres is indeed a bit small. I think 3 acres is about the same."

Hader rolled his eyes at Chu Xiangqian, "There are only 3 or 4 acres of open space next to that elementary school, but if I give it all to you, I won't care about the Kowloon side.

Otherwise, in a year or two, someone will definitely cause trouble for me. "

Chu Qianqian thought for a moment and nodded, getting the land and franchise rights first.

And if I want more land, the worst I can do is continue to exchange it for ghosts like horses and Hader.

Anyway, the bloody horse is not worth anything to me.

Once an agreement was reached, the rest of the conversation was much more casual.

While chatting, Hader suddenly heard something and paused for a few seconds, then said to Chu Qianqian with bright eyes, "Stark, I heard a friend mention that the lease of the North Point Palace Theater is coming soon.

But Mr. Cao said he wanted to renew his contract, but in fact he seemed to be delaying it.

If you could help, rent the theater and renovate it, it would be perfect for a leading cinema. "

Chu Xiangqian has long been interested in this theater, and he also knows that the boss Cao mentioned by Hader is Cao Dahua, who is already considered the top rich man in Hong Kong Island.

Secretly, it seems that Boss Cao is short of money.

But why didn't Sanjiangshui report to him that Boss Cao went to Aolan Casino?

Either the people in Sanjiangshui are not serious about their work, or maybe even though Boss Cao is addicted to gambling, he has not gone to Aozhu yet. Instead, he lost the cash in his hand playing cards with his friends.

Chu Xiangqian thought for a while and secretly thought that this was fine. If Boss Cao went to Aolan Casino, he would not be able to do anything.

My mind couldn't help but turn back to the Palace Theater.

This theater was built in 32 and was originally called Gongxuan Theater. In 52, Boss Ou bought it and spent money to expand it to [-] square feet.

In front are two six-story buildings facing the street and a huge stone-carved facade, but people these days are used to budgeting carefully.

The facade building looks really nice, but it is not used. Not only does it have no customer waiting area, but even the backstage makeup area looks very small.

But there are really many seats. The 908 wooden bench seats are definitely one of the best on Hong Kong Island.

If we buy the 6-story building next door, the area can be expanded to 3.6 square feet, or almost 3500 square meters.

The stores and buildings facing the street can be transformed into 8 stores.

There are also small screening rooms with 80 to 120 seats, or offices, billiard halls, and dance halls.

Moreover, there is not a single high-rise building around the theater. In the future, many real estate developers will build dozens of buildings with more than ten floors or no more than 29 floors around the theater.

Chu Qianqian also came to his senses. Since Hader told him this, he must have a purpose.

He smiled and asked, "Do you know Boss Ou from the Palace Theater?"

Hader nodded. Speaking of which, Boss Ou is also in the entertainment industry, and he entered this industry as early as 45.But like most theater owners on Hong Kong Island at this time, these people were only engaged in the entertainment industry of theater performances.

Theater troupes, pianos and other entertainment projects were invited from all over to perform. Unfortunately, it has been glorious for more than ten years. Although listening to theater is the most common entertainment activity for locals.

But its appeal to young people is becoming increasingly weak.

Then it became increasingly difficult to survive being hit by movies.

Hader smiled and said, "Speaking of which, you and Boss Ou are still competitors. And what theater owners like them hate the most is you and Boss Shao."

Chu Xiangqian laughed, but he didn't care in his heart. The last thing to look at in the negotiation was the price.

The land for the theater originally cost NT$39, and the construction of the theater cost HK$200 million. It can be said that this theater was the only national-level theater on Hong Kong Island back then.

But after using it for more than [-] years, it gradually became outdated.

Looking at it from the perspective of future generations, it will not even compare to the first large-scale cinema in the future.

But as long as it is bought, people in the North Point area, Quarry Bay, and even people in Shau Kei Wan will definitely go to the big theaters to watch movies in the future.

After all, it was originally designed to be used for performances, with excellent light, shadow and sound effects.

Spending some money to renovate it can create 400 'super' seats upstairs, which is equivalent to expanding the original 908 seats to 1200.

and a screening room for 120 people.

Chu Xiangqian had already thought about it. After the renovation was completed, this theater would only play his own company's movies from now on. When he was free, he would still invite opera troupes to perform.

Even blockbuster movies from Europe and America are screened.

Otherwise, it would be difficult to accommodate 1200 seats and maintain a high occupancy rate all year round.

In the future, there will be several cinemas on Hong Kong Island that specialize in showing Western films, and they will make a lot of money.

It can be seen that the decline of Hong Kong movies has little to do with Hollywood movies.

The real main reason is the loss of the Wanwan and Nanyang markets.

In the late 80s, as long as a Hong Kong film crew hired a big star that was a hit at the time, there would be film producers in the Bay Area carrying sacks and directly buying the film for millions or tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars.

At that time, this money was enough for the crew to film.

I even spent 3 million Hong Kong dollars to buy Zhou Xingxing's Jigong, but ended up losing all my underwear.

Moreover, the film producers on Hong Kong Island were overconfident at that time and felt that without the support of Hong Kong films, the five theater chains in Wanwan would suffer losses.

Eventually you will give in.

But I’m not a fool. If the price of Hong Kong movies is not reduced, I will show Hollywood movies.

However, it was not that easy to develop the habit of watching Hollywood movies in the first few years.

As a last resort, these film producers thought of setting up their own TV stations and broadcasting past movies on movie channels. Unexpectedly, they made more money than buying movies directly.

At this time in the Hong Kong film industry, the salaries of stars and directors had already skyrocketed several times.

龙叔91年片酬800万，发哥400万，杰哥180到200万，周星星300到800万，华仔300万。

But in the second year, Uncle Long got 2000 million, Fa Ge got 1 million, Jack got 1 million, Zhou Xingxing got 800 million, and Andy also got 800 million.

In 93, Zhou Xingxing's salary rose again to 1200 million. Unfortunately, the contract between Xingge and Li Xiuxian had not expired at that time.

At that time, he only received hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong dollars. It can be said that he looked prosperous, but in fact, Xingzi was the one who suffered the most.

Without the money from Wanwan Filmmakers, Hong Kong Film Company's funds alone cannot support such a high cost.

In addition, people tend to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, and the bosses of companies that have lost the market are becoming more cautious in investing in film productions.

As a result, it is difficult for Hong Kong Island movies to produce high-quality films, and several countries in Southeast Asia have formulated policies with protectionist overtones.

The Nanyang market is also missing a big piece.

Back then, the biggest wish of Hong Kong stars was to start construction, which shows how prosperous and rampant it was at the beginning, but how humble it was when it declined.

When Jurassic was released, the advantages of Hollywood's special effects technology instantly overwhelmed the local market for Hong Kong films.

In the end, even the locals stopped watching Hong Kong movies.

But after entering the mainland market, this group of people assumed a condescending attitude. Hong Kong films will completely decline, and that is their own fault.

Therefore, Chu Xiangqian didn't care at all if he introduced Western films and someone would accuse him of siding with the enemy.

In the final analysis, all feelings and responsibilities are fake. Everyone is a businessman, so naturally they sell whatever they want to make money.

Whether other film companies can survive is none of my business.

Anyway, I have classic movies in my mind, and my goal is to make both the film company and the theater chain make money.

I was so worried that I lobbied the Hong Kong government to take the initiative to open up the scope of importing Western films.

However, this idea seems a bit presumptuous.

For a long time, Hollywood films in Southeast Asia were unable to compete with European and American films, let alone Hong Kong films.

In the future, Chinese people will feel that the three major European film festivals are just like that and cannot be compared with the Oscars.

But in the 80, [-]s, the three major European film festivals were the mainstream, and they were also the targets of many American directors.
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Chu looked forward to Hader and said, "Do me a favor, I will give you 400 million Hong Kong dollars, and you come forward to talk to Boss Ou. In the end, no matter what price is negotiated, I will buy the Palace Theater with 400 million Hong Kong dollars."

Hader was overjoyed and told Chu Xiangqian about this just because he wanted to make money.

But with a price of 400 million, there is definitely a profit to be made, but the specific amount of profit depends on how much face you have.

In other words, the money you make in the end actually depends on your own rights.

He gave Chu a thumbs up and said, "Stark, as I said before, you are the best person I have ever seen who is good at making money and negotiating."

Chu Qianqian smiled. If he went to talk to him, Ou would most likely not be able to talk to him.

After all, it was the movies that he and Boss Shao released that became more and more popular among young people, which led to theater owners like them making less and less money, and even started to lose money.

Even if he really talks to himself, Ou will inevitably have emotions in his heart.

Maybe 400 million can buy a theater, but he insists on 500 million.

Or, even if he bids higher than others, he may not sell it to him.

It's better to hire Hader as a white glove. How much he can earn is up to him.

Anyway, in my own eyes and in the evaluation of the law firm's accountants, the theater is worth between 400 million and 450 million.

However, it cost HK$32 million to build the theater and purchase the land in 239. Even though the theater is old, the land has appreciated in value.

The actual value may have reached HK$500 million.

And after so many years of operation, the brand of Palace Theater is very valuable.

(End of this chapter)