director of the millennium

Beijing.

The Guangying Times Cinema Chain, which was once very bustling and prosperous, is now a scene of depression.

It is already the beginning of March, and the posters, which should have been updated long ago, are still for movies released before the New Year, and each one is still a poster for the movie released on December X.

The few posters that were scheduled to be released during the Spring Festival all showed signs of damage, and it was obvious that they had been torn off in a hurry.

But compared to this bleak appearance, the tightly closed door of the cinema is even more disheartening.

A Mediterranean man wearing a suit and an N95 mask stood at the tightly closed entrance of the cinema with his hands behind his back and sighed.

"We can still keep our own cinemas open, but what about those rented cinemas?"

"Every day of downtime means the company loses hundreds of thousands of dollars!"

Just as the Mediterranean uncle was sighing, another Audi A6 drove slowly over, and a handsome uncle who looked to be in his early s got out of the car and walked over quickly.

"How is it?" Ye Yun asked.

The middle-aged man with his hands behind his back immediately turned around, bent down slightly and said, "Boss Ye, all cinemas across the country have stopped working. Everyone is gritting their teeth and holding on. Our situation is relatively good."

"Just looking at the current trend, maybe we will have to suspend operations for several more months. It's still okay for movie studios that own their own land, but for movie theaters that rely on rentals or franchises, I'm afraid it will be difficult to hold on."

"Even if you can't hold on, you have to grit your teeth and persevere." Ye Yun shook his head and said firmly: "Believe that difficulties will always be overcome!"

Ye Yun is the second general manager of Guangying Times Cinema Chain.

It was also under his leadership that the Guangying Times Cinema Chain became one of the top five cinema chains in mainland China with more than 300 cinemas.

However, the unexpected black swan event dealt a heavy blow to Guangying Times Cinema Chain, no, it should be said that it dealt a heavy blow to the entire cinema industry.

If we were to say which industry has been most affected by the epidemic, it would definitely be the service industry.

Such as restaurants, bars, KTV and so on.

Cinemas are also part of the cultural service industry.

To watch a movie, you first have to go out, go to a public place, and stay in a semi-enclosed screening room with a bunch of people.

My God, this is an absolute disaster in the current situation.

Therefore, cinemas are among the first industries to be forced to close, along with KTVs and bars.

As early as late January, there were no movies to show in major theaters across the country.

All movies currently showing have been taken off the screen, all movies scheduled for the Spring Festival have been withdrawn, and all subsequent movie release arrangements have been canceled.

And there is no definite time when it will be restored.

This is undoubtedly a disaster for the film industry.

After all, the operating costs of running a cinema are very high.

How many cinema chains can build their own cinemas?
It can be said that except for Wanda Cinema Line, which is engaged in real estate, 90% of the cinemas under all other cinema chains operate in rented venues in business districts rather than being self-built.

In this way, once the cinema is forced to close, the rent still has to be paid as usual. Although the employees do not need to be paid in full, they must at least be paid half to maintain their family life.

The bigger the cinema chain, the more money it will lose every day in the face of this shutdown crisis, and it will be a net loss with 0 income. Who can bear this?

Even if Guangying Times Cinema Chain is Wu Yuan’s brand, it can’t hold up!

In addition to the nearly 30 cinemas under the Guangying Times Cinema Chain that were built on their own land, the other cinemas across the country also rent a floor in a business district!
Now, Guangying Times has more than 300 cinemas, and the rent for just one month is at least eight figures!
Faced with this serious loss crisis, Wu Yuan was also helpless when he learned the news.

There is nothing he can do!

This crisis caused by force majeure cannot be saved by human power at all.

As far as he knows, cinemas can be said to be one of the industries hardest hit in the next two years.

Like the well-known Dadi Cinema Group, it has several sub-brand cinemas including Dadi Cinemas, Orange Sky Golden Harvest, Freeman, and Sino-Swiss. In 2019, it still had more than 500 cinemas across the country. It is the second largest cinema investment company in China after Wanda Cinema, and is at the top of the industry.

However, by 2024, after the black swan event had passed, the number of cinemas that could still purchase tickets normally on the official ticket purchasing platform of Dadi Cinema had dropped to 163, a decrease of nearly % from the peak period.

Although the reasons for the decline of Dadi Cinemas are complex, one of the important reasons is that it was affected by the black swan event and had to close a large number of stores.

Except for Wanda Cinema, which is wealthy due to its own real estate, other cinema chains have closed a large number of stores and laid off employees in this black swan event, and have been hit hard.

This kind of thing is inevitable for Guangying Times Cinemas.

Wu Yuan is not in the real estate business, and he can't afford to provide his own cinema chain with land for free to open a cinema.

So he was actually mentally prepared that his cinema company would lose a lot of money this time.

Even for extreme considerations, Wu Yuan was mentally prepared for the possibility that 300 stores would close down and only 50 would remain.

There is no way around it. This kind of heavy asset is just so “bulky” and its ability to resist risks is relatively low.

This is also the reason why most people in the past decade have not liked to do business and prefer to start Internet companies. The former requires more investment, less profit and higher risks!

If it weren't for the need to control upstream cinema resources and ensure that his own films would not be blocked, Wu Yuan would definitely not have entered the cinema industry.

So he had no choice but to accept this difficult situation.

However, no matter how helpless he was, since the cinema itself was not Wu Yuan's core industry, he was still in the mood to make some sarcastic remarks.

"Xu Guangtou is really ruthless. When he saw that movie theaters would be closed in the short term, he immediately put Lost in Russia online for free."

"But his actions have offended people severely."

"Now all the major cinema chains hate him, the investors behind him are also dissatisfied with him, and his peers in other film production companies are also dissatisfied with him."

"This move has completely overturned the table. Guangtou Xu will never be able to continue to stay in the industry in the future."

Wu Yuan didn’t know how much money Douyin gave Xu Guangtou to allow him to premiere his movie that was about to be released in theaters on the short video platform for free.

This operation is too cruel. It is not just an ordinary business behavior. It is completely an act of overturning the table and even destroying the entire industry.

It is impossible that other movies scheduled to be released during the Spring Festival at the same time as his did not receive such invitations, but they did not dare to do so. They simply withdrew their films and waited to be released later, for fear that they would make money but offend the capital in the circle and upstream theaters.

But Xu Guangtou dared to do this. He is a ruthless man! (End of this chapter)