Hong Kong: Starting with 10 billion

Chapter 74 A Wonderful January

Starting from August last year, large-scale strikes and demonstrations broke out in Iran and lasted for more than four months.

In mid-January this year, King Pahlavi was forced to leave Iran and flee overseas.

Two weeks later, Khomeini returned to Tehran after 15 years in exile and was welcomed by millions of Iranians.

Soon, Iran will become an Islamic Republic.

This Islamic revolution will bring a huge impact to the world.

On the economic level, Iran is now the world's second largest oil exporter.
After the revolution, its oil production dropped sharply, causing international oil prices to soar.
From $1978 per barrel in 14 to $1980 per barrel in 35,

This triggered the second oil crisis which lasted for more than two years.

The oil crisis has dealt a heavy blow to the global economy.
Since oil is an important energy source for industry and transportation,

Rising oil prices lead to higher production costs, increased inflation, slower economic growth and higher unemployment.

Especially today's major industrial countries, such as the United States, Japan, Germany, France, etc.

Both suffered from the economic recession of the early 1980s.

It is estimated that the US gross domestic product fell by about 3%.

The U.S. economic recession has led to a decline in exports from trade-oriented countries around the world.

As the global economy becomes increasingly difficult, countries have begun hoarding gold as a means of hedging and preserving value.

As a result, the price of gold also soared.

从1978年5月份的170美元/盎司涨到了1980年1月的850美元/盎司。

In order to cope with the crisis, countries have also taken a series of measures.
Such as raising interest rates, reducing energy consumption, increasing strategic oil reserves, and developing alternative energy sources.

Japan also took this opportunity to export its small-displacement, fuel-efficient cars in large quantities to the United States, the world's largest auto market.

It was not until the mid-20s that oil prices fell to pre-crisis levels.

Americans are starting to buy large-displacement muscle cars again, such as pickup trucks, SUVs, etc.

Fang Hexuan is very grateful for the Islamic Revolution led by Khomeini.

Without the help of this religious leader, he would have had no chance of becoming rich quickly.

So, on the day Khomeini returned to Iran,

Fang Hexuan bought ten rolls of firecrackers with 100,000 bangs each and ran to Saigon to satisfy his craving for firecrackers.

DreamWorks' second film, "The Kung Fu Panda", has been completely taken off the screen.
The final box office revenue was locked in at HK$806 million, HK$262 million more than the original record.

This has exceeded market expectations, and the most direct manifestation is reflected in the stock price of DreamWorks Entertainment.

It has risen from HK$12 at the end of December last year to HK$9.72 now.

As the film begins its overseas screening journey, the overseas box office share of Drunken Master has already arrived in DreamWorks Pictures' corporate bank account.

Among the four places of Southeast Asia, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, Japan had the highest box office, reaching 20 billion yen.

Converted into Hong Kong dollars, it is almost 4000 million Hong Kong dollars. After deducting the distribution fee, DreamWorks can get about 1800 million Hong Kong dollars.

Originally, "Drunken Master" was expected to be released in Japan in July this year, with a final box office of 7 billion yen.

But Fang Hexuan directly contacted Neon Nikkatsu Films, which had a cooperative relationship with the pornographic magazine.

As a result, the film was released in major theaters across Japan in mid-December last year.

Fang Hexuan made a small concession on the profit sharing, but asked the daily activity to increase the publicity and promotion expenses.

To put it bluntly, the successful experience in Hong Kong is also copied to Neon.

The total share of the four places is more than 3200 million Hong Kong dollars.

Fang Hexuan did not take the money, allowing DreamWorks Pictures to keep the funds as start-up capital for several subsequent films.

However, he still let DreamWorks Entertainment announce the financial gains.
The result shocked the whole of Hong Kong at that time.

Many people didn’t expect that movies could make so much money. With an investment of 200 million, the profit can be multiplied more than ten times, which is easier than robbing money.

DreamWorks' share price suddenly surged from HK$10.58 to HK$13.14, an astonishing increase.

The fierce reaction in the market is completely the imagination of outsiders about the movie.

"Drunken Master" was able to earn more than ten times the profit, but it was a combination of many factors.

For example, the production team is reliable, the publicity and promotion is powerful, and there is also the blessing of Jackie Chan, a superstar who is naturally popular with the audience in Japan.

If it's an average movie, it would be good enough if it can break even.

However, during the late 80s and early 90s when Hong Kong films were at their peak,
As long as you make a movie, you can really make money without doing anything.

This is also the reason why a large amount of corporate capital has entered the film industry.

Low risk and high return, more profitable than selling powder and more reliable than collecting land fees.

But now, it will take a few years for the momentum of Hong Kong films to build.

Fang Hexuan was looking forward to some not-so-smart big shots rushing in and throwing money.

Borrowing their funds to muddy the waters of the film market,

Then DreamWorks continued to shoot and release high-grossing movies.

This is the only way to highlight the real strength of DreamWorks Pictures in the Hong Kong film industry.

Thereby indirectly driving up the stock price.

Therefore, in order to increase the stakes, Fang Hexuan specially asked Zhou Liang Shuyi to accept newspaper and television interviews.
Try to exaggerate DreamWorks' profits.

Maybe great minds think alike, but Golden Harvest also boasted about the box office profits of its own films.

Fang Hexuan estimated that Zou Wenhuai should have understood his way of playing the game.

It is far from enough to rely solely on movie box office revenue to maintain the company's operations and expansion.

Because only by following Fang Hexuan's example can Jiahe be listed on the stock market.

According to the original history, Jiahe was not listed until 1994, which was too late.

Now, others are following suit, using movies as a promotional tool to directly boost Golden Harvest's stock price.
Only after issuing new shares and cashing in large amounts of money will we be able to have greater strength to resist the attack from DreamWorks.

Fang Hexuan couldn't help but sigh that Old Zou was indeed better than his Sixth Uncle.

Shaw Brothers films ceased production and went out of business, and were never released on the market.

Uncle Six is ​​old now and no longer has the ambition to expand the territory he had in the past.

In mid-January, the Hollywood movie "Jaws 1" landed in Hong Kong theaters.

This special effects film earned $1.88 million worldwide, which is much less than the $4.77 million of the first film.

However, it also triggered a viewing craze in Hong Kong.

After all, with the foundation laid by the first film in 76, Hong Kong people are very interested in this kind of monster disaster film.
Just like the book, there is a special preference.

The film "The Thief" which was released in late January, followed DreamWorks's example and carried out large-scale publicity and promotion.
It seems that they want to grab the biggest and most fat meat outside of Golden Harvest, Shaw Brothers and DreamWorks.

I can only say that it was also luck that I copied the homework from the right person.

This movie also attracted a large number of audiences, so it will definitely be a big hit.

In 1979, the Hong Kong film industry had three blockbuster movies in the first month of the new year.

It will undoubtedly stimulate more capital and more dreamers to enter this industry.

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　Thanks to Yijidao, Feixiang Feicui, and book friend 20171029004947168 for their recommendations!

(End of this chapter)