Year: I had a good time when I was young

Chapter 451: Buying a plane and becoming famous with fists

When Margaret answered reporters' questions, she rambled on if she didn't want to answer.

Those who want to answer will also glance at Chu Qianqian, who is standing opposite.

Seeing him shaking his head, Margaret pouted and answered the question obediently.

When the reporters declined the invitation to stay overnight and rushed back to Santa Barbara and Los Angeles to publish today's interview as soon as possible.

The impression left by reporters on Margaret was that she was noble, funny, and very relatable to ordinary people.

It makes people feel like chatting with her. Although they clearly feel the aristocratic style in her, they don't feel that she is arrogant or rigid at all.

The most important thing is that the smile is friendly.Compared with her sister's stern expression in her TV speech, people like to get close to her more.

It can be said that this interview was particularly successful, and it was good for Margaret.

Not only was she loved by the Americans, but the English also thought she was decent and had earned enough face for the royal family.

More importantly, I heard that a joint operation between the Los Angeles FBI and the police that night not only arrested all the local mafia leaders.

Even the minions caught 7 or 80 of them.

Moreover, the operation was not only efficient and fast, but also did not make any noise.

Later I heard that this was a direct order from the White House, without even notifying California and Los Angeles.

This matter soon reached Margaret's ears, and she hugged Chu Qianqian's arm and kept praising him for his greatness.

No need to do anything to get rid of the trouble.

And it’s not the ranch’s fault. In the final analysis, it was the Mafia people who had bad intentions in the first place. It’s unreasonable for them to fight back.

After staying at the ranch for another three days and determining the location of the shooting range, Chu Xiangqian gave the owner of the construction company in the town an order for the shooting range project.

A project worth 10 US dollars can earn at least [-] to [-] US dollars, not to mention the follow-up projects such as golf courses, resorts, wineries, small airports, and new cowsheds and sheep pens.

The total follow-up investment would be at least one million US dollars, and the other party was so happy that he wanted to kneel down and kiss Chu Qianqian's boots.

That morning, Chu Xiangqian took a car and personally sent Margaret to Santa Barbara Airport.

Since England has decided to let Margaret visit the United States as a representative of the royal family to meet the pro-English politicians and wealthy people in the United States, they will naturally not let Margaret and her group fly to Washington by civil aviation.

Yesterday, a private plane flew all the way from London to Santa Barbara Airport.

When the visit to Washington is over, Margaret will fly directly back to London.

Chu Xiangqian flew to Hawaii-Tokyo and then transferred to the capital.

When sending Margaret to the plane, Chu looked forward at the interior decoration of the plane and shook his head in disgust.

Although the Douglas DC-6 has been a star among medium-sized long-range passenger aircraft since the 40s, in Chu Xiangqian's eyes, it was too small.

Moreover, the propeller engine not only flies slowly, but also looks outdated and old.

Looking at Margaret, she said, "My dear, you should order a 707 from Boeing as soon as possible to use it as our family's private jet."

After that, under the watchful eyes of Margaret, Arthur and the accompanying officials and stewards who came from England.

Chu Qianqian sat on the cabin seat, took out his checkbook, signed a check for HK$1200 million, and handed it to Margaret.

"The announced price of the Boeing 707 passenger aircraft is US$300 million. You take this check of HK$1200 million. If Boeing does not accept the Hong Kong dollars, wait for a month and I will give you another US$300 million."

If $300 million is not enough because of private customization, you can give me a call. "

Margaret nodded in surprise. She was worried that Chu Xiangqian didn't have enough money before, so she rejected Chu Xiangqian's proposal to buy a 707 two months ago.

Now, I spent US$740 million to invest in Universal, US$300 million to film Roman Holiday, and US$600 million to buy a ranch.

It also spent US$50 to improve the ranch’s water channels and water sources, and to develop 1500 acres of farmland.

He spent nearly 1700 million US dollars, and he didn't feel too distressed, let alone a shortage of funds.

When spending 300 million US dollars to buy a private jet, Margaret didn't feel that Chu Xiangqian was trying to make a fool of herself.

He hugged Chu Qianqian and kissed him.

The people around him are probably used to it, and with the 300 million yuan to buy a plane, no one thinks he is not worthy of Margaret.

Even the English officials who flew from London to accompany Margaret on her trip did not find anything wrong with the two people hugging each other and kissing.

After all, if he was sent here by the royal family, he would naturally be a member of the royal family, and before coming, someone must have told him about the relationship between Margaret and Chu Xiangqian.

When this aircraft is delivered, it will not only be larger and more luxurious than the royal family's private jet, but even the aircraft used by the Prime Minister of England to visit cannot compare to the luxurious customized 707.

Maybe in the future, when the royal family goes on a trip, they will ask Chu Qianqian and Margaret to borrow a large plane.

In the future, the 707 will be a wide-narrow, medium-sized aircraft, but in this era, it is a proper large aircraft.

It is also the first civilian four-engine, long-range jet aircraft.

Boeing is definitely still worried about how to promote this new aircraft to private individuals. Maybe after Margaret places the order, the heads of state of major developed countries in Europe and the United States will switch to the 707 as their cars in the future.

Moreover, Boeing has many opponents these days, and Boeing has been suppressed by Douglas.

Even Lockheed's Constellation aircraft can overpower Boeing these days.

It can be said that just ordering a private jet is advertising for Boeing.

If Chu Xiangqian wasn't an American national, he would have no problem saying he wanted to invest in Boeing.

After sending away Margaret, who was focused on buying a plane, Chu Qianqian turned around and went to Universal Pictures.

More than ten days have passed, and the preliminary preparations for the Roman holiday have been completed.

This time I came here not only to confirm the director, but also to talk to Elizabeth Taylor, who agreed to chat after reading the script.

When meeting this woman, it can be said that Taylor was at her most beautiful.

But besides being famous for her beauty and good acting skills, this woman is also a madman for getting married.

I was married 8 times in my life, and the longest one only lasted 6 years.

They often get close to the leading actor or producer because of filming a certain movie.

And like many Hollywood actresses with unhappy marriages, she has a super unreliable mother.

In 50, when Taylor was 18 years old, she married her daughter to the youngest son of the Hilton family.

At that time, Hilton Jr. was worth US$1.3 million. It could be said that she joined a wealthy family. Unfortunately, it is not so easy to marry into a wealthy family.

The two divorced in less than a year, and by last year, in 59, Taylor had been married four times.

After understanding this, although Chu Xiangqian felt that Taylor was extremely beautiful now, he was a little afraid to provoke this woman.

And this woman is known to be a jewelry collector.

Rumor has it that you can easily win her favor by giving her super jewelry.Taylor was also very curious about the young, handsome Asian man in front of him.

Being one of the eight largest shareholders in Hollywood is already considered a moderate giant in Hollywood.

It's a pity that I just got married last year, otherwise, it would be good to have a foreign love with him.

Thinking about it this way, he unexpectedly agreed to star in the movie Roman Holiday.

After the contract was signed, Universal General Manager Mike Hellman had to remind Chu Xiangqian, "Stark, it's okay if you just play for fun, but if you have real feelings for her, I guarantee that you two will be together in a few years." hand."

Chu shrugged forward, secretly thinking that he had never thought about being with her.

Otherwise, everyone will know that there will be trouble in the custody, and then all the women in the family will jump out to cause trouble.

Maybe Margaret will come directly to kill him.

This chick doesn't care about Hollywood stars when she's crazy.

After confirming the director and the leading actor, Chu Xiangqian called Hong Kong Island and called over 15 people behind the scenes such as Wrigley Huai, He Guanchang, Hong Sanbao, Guo Zhenhua and the company's photography, lighting, etc.

As an investor and producer of the film, Chu Xiangqian used some Asians to work behind the scenes, and no one would say anything.

Wrinkle Huai, He Guanchang and others admired their boss for becoming one of the top eight shareholders in Hollywood and also supervising the production of a western film.

It can be said that as long as they make a few more movies with Hollywood crews, these people will be much better than their peers in terms of experience and vision in the future when they return to Hong Kong Island.

In the future, it will be much easier to make kung fu movies to break into Hollywood.

Chu then pulled executives from Universal and Decca Records forward to watch Snake and Drunken Master together.

Hollywood action movies these days are all western cowboy shootouts.

In terms of fighting, let alone the beauty of fighting, in Chu Xiangqian's eyes, even the street gangster's tortoise boxing couldn't compare.

Even in Hollywood action movies from the 80s, the fighting plots seemed childish and boring.

Otherwise, Stallone would not have become famous in Hollywood with the boxing movie "Rocky" and embarked on his own path to action stardom.

Of course, Rocky's success is not just about the wonderful boxing shots, but also the touching story of fighting at the bottom and not giving up.

Then the box office of Rocky 2 and Rocky 3 was not as good as the other one.

When it came to First Blood, Stallone still relied on gunfights and resistance from the bottom.In terms of movement, it’s just like playing house.

In the late 70s and early 80s, The Snake and The Drunken Master achieved such high box office numbers that they can be said to be the masters of Hong Kong Kung Fu films.

Coupled with the unique humor of Uncle Long's movies, it can be said that in terms of action movies, these two movies are not only different from the movies of the same period in Hong Kong Island.

It is several levels better than Hollywood action movies.

If you have watched Brother Xiao Long's Enter the Dragon, you will know that from the perspective of people decades later, the fighting in this movie is actually not very exciting.

But in the early 70s, it was a new initiative, a new type of film that had never been seen in Hollywood.

Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many people and action stars worshiping Uncle Xiao Long.

Moreover, the fight design of Hollywood action movies can continue to improve. To put it bluntly, it depends on the action directors from Hong Kong Island.

Even though Hollywood keeps stealing lessons, decades later, a group of Chinese Americans still account for half of Hollywood's action directors.

After watching Snake, Universal executives were eager to introduce the film to Hollywood.

Mike Hellman even directly said that he would skip the test screenings and release it directly in 500 cinemas.

If the box office in the first week is good, given the ethics of the theater chain, it will definitely be expanded to thousands of theaters.

Moreover, these days, it is common for movies to be released all over the world for three to five months as long as the box office is good.

When talking about the box office sharing model, Chu Xiangqian chose the ladder-type split without even thinking about it.

A buyout is definitely not worth it. The fixed account sharing model is the unique right of the eight major Hollywood players.

If he wanted to adopt this bill-sharing model, Chu Xiangqian knew that he would be eligible to negotiate with theaters only if he made at least three or five movies that would be huge box office hits in the future.

And this is a benefit that you can only enjoy if you are a shareholder of Universal and a producer.

Otherwise, no one in the theater chain will take advantage of you.

It took 80% of the total box office in the first week, 60% in the second and third weeks, and only 20% in the fourth and fifth weeks.

How long it will be shown after that has nothing to do with the producers.

However, the biggest advantage of doing this is that the cost can be recovered as soon as possible. At the same time, the profit of the theater chain is long-term. It will often be shown for several months and the total box office will be higher.

The higher the box office, the greater the fame of the producer.

Of course, this model is only most beneficial to big movies, but Chu Xiangqian thought about it and found that it was played in 500 cinemas in the first week.

Thanks to word of mouth, if the show is a hit at the box office in the second and third weeks, it could earn over a million dollars.

Overall, at least it makes more money than selling directly to theaters.

And the most important thing now is to be famous and to become famous in Hong Kong films. As long as The Snake Man can earn a few million dollars at the box office.

In the negotiations for the second part of Drunken Master, maybe the share for the fourth and fifth weeks can be increased from 20% to 30%.

Moreover, theater chains and Universal have no money to make, so how can they broadcast Hong Kong films on a large scale?
As for Universal’s distribution fee, it was 15% at the beginning, but it took two days of negotiation to reach 10%.

This is because Chu Xiangqian signed a gambling agreement. The total box office of Snake in the United States cannot be less than 300 million US dollars, otherwise the distribution fee will still be 15%.

After leaving Universal Pictures, Chu Xiangqian sat in the car, silently thinking about how to expand the reputation of the Snake-shaped Trickster.

After much deliberation, I finally felt that I could only rely on my fists.

He said to Wrinkle Huai sitting in the back row, "Ah Huai, call Zhang Tianzhi when you get back to the hotel and ask him to come over on the fastest flight."

Wrinkle Huai, He Guanchang and Hong Sanbao, who were also sitting in the back row, and Guo Zhenhua, who was driving, were stunned at the same time.

Everyone looked at Chu Qianqian, who was sitting in the passenger seat.

I heard Chu Xiangqian say with a smile, "I plan to take reporters, Aaron, Sanbao and Zhige to challenge various martial arts schools in Los Angeles. If the three of you can't win, I, the big boss, will finally take action.

After challenging ten or eight companies, there will be a period of time-limited heat in Los Angeles and the West. "

Wrinkle Huai and He Guanchang were still hesitant, but Hong Sanbao and Guo Zhenhua nodded without hesitation.

The two are masters who firmly believe that Chu Xiangqian can handle all factions. In "Snake Master" and "Drunken Master", Guo Zhenhua is the protagonist, and Hong Sanbao is also an important supporting role and action director in "Drunken Master".

It can be said that after the movie is a hit, the ones who benefit most directly are the dragon and tiger martial arts masters behind the scenes, such as Guo Zhenhua and Hong Sanbao.

The next day, in the afternoon, Wrinkle Huai took Guo Zhenhua and Hong Sanbao to the Los Angeles Airport in person and picked up Zhang Tianzhi who had flown over.

(End of this chapter)