Chapter 555 The fiery Fearless
Time soon came to 1970, and the 1970s officially began;
On January 1st, the movie "Fearless" was officially released. Thanks to the early publicity, Li Xiaolong's own popularity, and the movie that can beat the Japanese, as a Chinese, who doesn't like to watch it?
A large group of people are queuing at the entrance of the Cheung Hing Commercial Cinema in Queensway, Hong Kong;
"The queue is too long. There are more people queuing than when I bought a house before."
"Li Xiaolong's new movie will naturally be watched by many people. Just wait and see. It will be available in half an hour."
"I heard that we are still going to fight against Japan, we have to see what happens."
Many people were discussing while queuing up, and they seemed to be used to it. Hong Kong's real estate has been doing well this year, and many people are used to queuing up to buy a house, but they often can't get in line, mainly because many scalpers are involved.
"There are no more tickets, no need to queue up!"
Suddenly, the staff at the front said loudly, causing controversy among the people behind: "How is it possible? Doesn't this theater have more than 1,000 seats? There are only a hundred people in front of it, right?"
Many people at the back thought it was strange. It was not until the people buying tickets in front were stopped that they realized that there were actually people buying dozens of seats in the front at once, hoarding movie tickets, and then selling them at high prices;
"You scalpers even hoard movie tickets? I won't watch it yet."
"If you don't see it, others will." A young man with yellow hair said disdainfully.
At the headquarters of Changxing Building, Yang Wendong and Li Xiaolong were drinking afternoon tea together. Zou Wenhuai came over and said: "Yang Sheng, Li Sheng, something happened. There were scalpers hoarding movie tickets for "Fist of Fury", which caused Many people can’t buy tickets and have to pay more.”
"Scalpers are hoarding movie tickets? Do these movie tickets expire? Are there people hoarding them?" Yang Wendong asked in surprise.
You can stock up on houses, cars, industrial products and even vegetables, because some will not break and some can be stored for a long time, but movie tickets will become invalid when the time comes. If you hoard them and cannot sell them by the time, then it will be Losing money.
Zou Wenhuai explained: "I was also surprised. After checking it later, I found that they bought a large number of tickets for the seats, and then sold the tickets for the good seats at high prices to make profits;
It is estimated that if it cannot be sold in the end, the tickets may be sold at a lower price. Once the price is lower, it will be easier to sell, especially since "Fearless" is so popular now. ”
Yang Wendong shook his head and smiled: "These scalpers are really everywhere. Hasn't this kind of thing happened in the film industry before?"
Zou Wenhuai replied: "No, the highest movie box office before was only one million Hong Kong dollars. Compared with many other industries, it is far behind, and the uncertainty is relatively high, because even the directors who shoot movies cannot guarantee the success of their movies. Able to fire;
But this time Li Xiaolong is too famous, and with our publicity, people in the market are also looking forward to the movie. The combination of these factors makes the risk of hoarding relatively small;
As long as it is profitable and the risk is low, it may attract the attention of many professional scalpers, and they have been everywhere over the years. ”
"I also know some of these people. When Hong Kong was short of water, they also maliciously hoarded water." Yang Wendong nodded and said.
In 1963, there was a serious water shortage in Hong Kong. He also spent a lot of resources to find water, and by the way, he also distributed water in a slum area. He did not want to ensure that everyone had enough water, but at least there was water available so that they would not die of thirst or seriously affect their lives;
At that time, scalpers were involved in all other water stations, including the water distribution point managed by the Changxing Charity Foundation. The main reason was that it was profitable, and there was basically no need to worry about not being able to sell the water.
These people are so arrogant because there is a group of gangs behind them who specialize in this kind of business. Even some real estate companies will hire them to queue up, pretend that the houses are selling very well, and then deceive the few others who are really likely to buy houses. Of course, this kind of The problem is not just in Hong Kong, it is also the same in other countries and even the mainland in previous lives.
Zou Wenhuai asked: "Then we should do something about this matter. Their hoarding of movie tickets has no direct impact on us. On the contrary, it makes our tickets sold earlier;
But it seriously affects the business and reputation of the theater chain, but it is not illegal, and it is not easy for us to deal with them by force. ”
Changxing Company is also a top company in Hong Kong. Even if it can treat some gangs as dogs, it cannot directly participate in such things. This is the principle;
Especially now that the Hong Kong government has begun to crack down on gangs and corruption. Regardless of the purpose of suppressing Chinese gangs and police forces, they are still justified in terms of justice.
Yang Wendong thought for a while and said: "In this case, you go to Wei Zetao. He knows some people on the road and ask them to warn them not to touch my business;
In addition, there is a restriction on ticket sales. Anyone can only buy 3-5 tickets at a time. Generally, a family can only buy this number, so scalpers cannot take advantage of it. Although their behavior will not affect our box office, it will We will never allow anyone to suck our blood. ”
On the surface, scalpers are a group that does no direct harm to sellers, but they will definitely cause resentment among customers. In the long run, they must not be allowed to exist;
However, this kind of behavior is indeed not illegal, and I can only restrain them through appropriate restrictions.
"Okay, I'll go right away." Zou Wenhuai left quickly.
Li Xiaolong laughed and said: "There is no such thing in American movie theaters."
"The United States is so big that it is difficult for a star to be as famous as you are in Hong Kong. They have too many choices." Yang Wendong nodded and added: "But after you have achieved success in Hong Kong and Asia, we will Move to the United States; I said, I will definitely make you famous and successful around the world, but the route must start in Hong Kong. Only by gaining a basic base here can we be qualified to negotiate cooperation with Hollywood, otherwise there will be no chance.”
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The mentality of those in Hollywood is as dark as that of Wall Street. To do business with them, you can only think of ways to do it in the long term. In this way, they will not be in trouble because of the benefits of long-term cooperation in the future. donkey.
Li Xiaolong can be regarded as a resource that can be cooperated with for a long time. In addition, he has expanded theater chains in Asia through capital mode. With enough theater chains, he can also become a partner of Hollywood. After all, Hollywood film producers also hope to open overseas markets. Although Asia is a bit poorer, its economy is developing rapidly and its population is large, so its market potential is even greater than that of Europe.
If he can do these two things well, he will have the confidence to talk to Hollywood. This will be much stronger than Jiahe in history.
Li Xiaolong nodded and said: "I understand now that I was too ambitious and thought I could become famous directly in Hollywood."
"Actually, it's impossible for a Chinese to become truly famous in Hollywood, at least he won't take the initiative." Yang Wendong shook his head and said: "Look at the past few years, movies and TV series in Hong Kong occasionally need to find some ghosts, Even Japanese actors, but will we make them famous?
All we want is a decent supporting character to help us tell the story. This is the only purpose. How can we spend resources on cultivating ghost actors? It's the same thing in Hollywood. ”
Not to mention now, even decades later, Hollywood praises some black people because of political correctness, but deliberately makes spoofs of them, such as mermaids. In fact, even if they have to look for black people, it’s not that they can’t find beautiful ones, but they just don’t look for them. The struggle here is actually very interesting.
Li Xiaolong said: "Then when will we contact Hollywood?"
Yang Wendong said: "Let's wait for you to make two more films. I will build you into an Asian superstar first. In addition, my theater chain may invest in Japan recently. If it becomes successful there, then we will cooperate with Hollywood." With cooperation, we will be more confident;
Please...you...collect 6...9...books...!
This first cooperation cannot be rushed. Regardless of the content or how we cooperate, it will be the most important film to enter Hollywood in the future. When all conditions are suitable, we will talk to the United States. ”
In the past few years, Changxing Cinema Company has continued to expand cinema lines in Southeast Asia, and even non-Chinese areas have begun to invest. After all, it is not only the Chinese who like to watch movies, but others will also like it, and at most they will not like it. It’s just a Hong Kong movie;
The theater chain itself is also a business and independent. It can cooperate with Hong Kong movies, but it will not exist just for them. Anyway, even if Hong Kong movies are still not accepted by non-Chinese groups in the future, the theater chain itself can still have business, and The future of real estate in these places will also be good, at least until 1997;
Theoretically, it is the same in Japan, but it is more difficult to do this business in Japan. After all, it is developing early. It is difficult for even domestic capital to enter a mature industry, let alone foreign capital, unless someone wants to sell the industry. It just so happens that now there is an opportunity.
"Okay, everything depends on Yang Sheng." Li Xiaolong agreed.
For Yang Wendong, he was both grateful and admired. If he hadn't pushed him hard, he wouldn't have been so successful. His strong strategizing ability also made Li Xiaolong very at ease, and it seemed that he only needed to do as he asked.
The most important thing is that this year in Hong Kong, he also realized how terrible Yang Wendong's influence is in Hong Kong and even Asia. Let alone a star, he is a major Hollywood company. If he really comes to Asia and wants to do business, I'm afraid we can only cooperate safely.
The experience of working in the United States taught him that if you only have ability but no capital to support you, then everything is useless. On the other hand, as long as you are not too good and the capital is willing to support you, you can basically succeed.
Yang Wendong smiled and said: "We will consider the next step after the results of "Huo Yuanjia" come out."
As the largest Chinese consortium in Hong Kong, Yang Wendong's words soon received feedback. Some young people who speculated on movie tickets were directly arrested by more people and punished. Then others bought the tickets and returned to normal;
But it's just back to normal. Because of the popularity of the movie, many people still need to queue. In the past few days, there were still a lot of queues.
Thanks to the increase in the number of movie theaters in Hong Kong and the improvement of the overall economy, the box office of "Fearless" movie directly exceeded one million on the third day. At the same time, at this time, there are still many major movie companies in the Changxing Cinema Line. People are queuing up.
TVB and various newspapers and media have also paid attention to this matter, especially the scene in the movie in which Li Xiaolong kicked the "Sick Man of East Asia" plaque into pieces, which shocked almost every Chinese.
In addition, some people who have already watched the movie will spread the plot of the movie among their friends, and the popularity of the movie will become even higher. Talks in the streets are all about Li Xiaolong, Fearless, etc.
On January 15, the box office of Hong Kong movies exceeded HK$5 million, easily exceeding the previous box office of 3.2 million in history.
Subsequently, everyone in the Hong Kong market had seen it, movie sales dropped sharply, and the number of screens also began to decrease. On the 19th, the movie was officially released, with a total box office of HK$5.689 million, ranking first in the box office of Chinese movies.
PS: Please give me a monthly ticket
(End of chapter)