Huayu 1992, my entertainment era

When Chen Musheng heard Zhou Ziheng asking about the investment budget, he was silent for a moment and asked back:

"Who is the protagonist going to invite?"

"Who do you think is suitable?" Zhou Ziheng asked.

The investment budget is linked to the actors' pay.

The movie in which the young actor and the big star star starred is one in heaven and one on earth.

Guys like Jackie Chan and Jet Li earn over 10 million just for their movies.

The pay for the plays they act in accounts for a large part of their budget. Plus, the bigger the star, the more they focus on the quality of the film. So, if you calculate it, a play cannot be made without 20 or 30 million yuan.

Zhou Ziheng did not reply immediately, but tapped the table and pondered.

Ultimately, it was because of his lack of foundation. After the company was established, he happened to be ostracized by the Hong Kong circle, which made the company not know who to use as the leading actor in filming.

“My suggestion is to find new talents, as there are many actors in TVB and ATV who want to enter the film industry.

They only care about whether there are movies to shoot or not, and they don’t care about the film industry banning you.

Of course, I am just suggesting that if you have a candidate, I can accept it. "

Chen Musheng spoke.

Zhou Ziheng nodded.

Indeed, although he seems to be incompatible with the Hong Kong circle.

But just like Chen Musheng came to Hengyu to have movies to film and make money.

The same is true for the actors.

Especially TV actors from TVB and ATV, many of them are almost going crazy wanting to enter the film industry.

"I'll leave the actors to you! Is the investment budget of 7 million enough?" Zhou Ziheng said directly without further ado.

"enough!"

When Chen Musheng heard the number Zhou Ziheng reported, his face immediately lit up with joy.

He came to Hengyu, besides the fact that Hengyu would not interfere with his filming and the salary was high, another reason was that Hengyu did not have any famous directors.

He wanted to take this opportunity to shoot a big production here at Hengyu.

It’s embarrassing to say.

Although he has filmed many movies in recent years, in fact, the investment budgets of the movies he directed were pitifully low and never exceeded five million.

As soon as he came to Hengyu, Zhou Ziheng approved 7 million for him, which was definitely a big surprise for him.

Seven million may seem like a small amount.

In fact, this number is already not low.

Currently, for the movies on the market, except for a few box office hits whose investment budgets often exceed tens of millions, the investment budgets of most movies are around a few million.

With these seven million, Chen Musheng felt that he could do a lot of things.

This time he was able to create the explosions and gun fights that he had not dared to shoot in the past.

Zhou Ziheng actually knew that seven million might be too much. If this project was really to be filmed and newcomers were chosen, four million would be enough.

The reason why he gave an extra three million was to show off to the outside world.

He wants to let those directors and actors who are still hesitating whether to cooperate with Hengyu know that Hengyu is not just playing around, but is really willing to make a big drama.

This is definitely a fatal temptation for directors who want to make big productions.

As a director, which one doesn’t want to make a big production?
Who knows, if you’re lucky, a director might even come to visit you!

At noon, Hengyu organized a meeting.

All the senior executives of Hengyu were present.

Needless to say, Florence Hui is the one who manages the money and is called the housekeeper by everyone.

There are two housekeepers in Hong Kong.

One is Aaron Kwok’s agent Xiao Mei, and the other is Zhou Ziheng’s agent Florence Hui.

In the agent circle, the two are known as Nan Xiaomei and Bei Wenxi.

Then there is Huang Wen, the manager of Hengyu's distribution department. Zhou Ziheng invited Huang Wen from Europe and the United States. Huang Wen had worked at Warner Bros. in Hollywood and was very familiar with distribution. Zhou Ziheng invited Huang Wen to be in charge of the company's distribution. Many people confuse theatrical release with film distribution, but in fact, these are not the same process at all.

In this era, the distributor and the cinema chain can be the same company, but distribution and film screening are two different processes.

Film distribution is a key link in the film industry, responsible for the promotion, sales and dissemination of films to ensure that they can meet the audience on the big screen.

This process involves multiple links and collaborations, from obtaining distribution rights to the final box office statistics and subsequent market development. Each link requires the distributor to invest a lot of time, money and energy.

Copying costs money, publicity costs money, and market research costs money.

More importantly, cinemas in this era do not have direct contact with producers.

This can be seen as a collaboration between theaters and distributors to defraud money.

But that's the rule.

If the production company takes the movie directly to the theaters for screening, it is 100% certain that the theaters will not screen your movie, no matter the quality of your movie is good or bad.

This situation will continue until the advent of the digital age, when producers will begin to contact theaters directly, eliminating the 15% share that goes to distributors.

Even in the digital age, distribution companies are still prevalent.

They have connections in theaters and can arrange for movies to be released during prime time in theaters, and they also have the resources to promote the movies.

At this time, Hengyu, like other companies with cinema chains such as Golden Harvest, was responsible for both distribution and screening.

It’s no wonder that film companies that own cinemas can make a lot of money by doing this.

That's what Hengyu is like.

The film distributor must take a minimum share of 15%, and the theater chain takes no less than 40%. The share varies depending on the film.

In addition to the distribution manager Huang Wen, there is also Ma Boliang who is in charge of the theaters.

Ma Boliang is originally from Singapore and he owns three cinemas in Singapore.

Zhou Ziheng wanted to establish cinema chains in Singapore and Malaysia, so he acquired his cinema chain and invited him to Hong Kong to be in charge of Hengyu Cinemas.

"This is Chen Musheng. He will be the company's chief director from now on. Everyone, please welcome him."

Zhou Ziheng personally introduced Chen Musheng to everyone.

Everyone knew that Chen Musheng was coming and welcomed him with a smile.

There are many people from mainland China in the company, including former veteran Zhujiang photographers Huang Weimin and Huang Wei.

There is only one letter difference between these two people's names, but their personalities are completely different. Huang Weimin is more old-fashioned, while Huang Wei is a young man with a relatively cheerful and active personality.

He stood up and welcomed Chen Musheng, saying with a smile: "I have always thought that I would be the top director in the company in the future. It seems that I still have to compete with you."

"We will be colleagues from now on, please take care of me!"

Chen Musheng smiled and shook hands with him.

After everyone sat down, Zhou Ziheng looked at Huang Wei first, "How is the filming of "Yin Yang Road" going?"

Hengyu is such a big business, it is impossible for Zhou Ziheng to decide everything.

He doesn't have to decide on some small actions in the company, the people below will take care of it, and he is only responsible for looking at the results.

Just a few days after the filming of "Tazza", Huang Wei, the first guy to follow Zhou Ziheng, approached Zhou Ziheng and expressed his desire to make a formal movie.

So, Zhou Ziheng told him the idea of ​​"The Untold Story" which was originally starring Louis Koo.

This guy is quite capable. After listening to Zhou Ziheng's idea, he directly applied to the company, formed a small crew and started filming.

"It's OK! Mr. Zhou, I promise that my movie will be a box office hit!"

Hearing Zhou Ziheng's question, Huang Wei said with some excitement.

Zhou Ziheng smiled and didn't take it to heart.

"The Yin-Yang Road" was just something he did casually, with a total investment of no more than 1.5 million. For such a small production, he wouldn't feel bad if it failed, but everyone would be happy if it made a profit.

This play is mainly used to fill the midnight shows in theaters.

If a midnight show doesn't show horror movies, what's the point of calling it a midnight show?

(End of this chapter)