Huayu 1992, my entertainment era

"Mr. Qiu, I didn't expect you to come here in person!"

The person who found Zhou Ziheng is considered a big shot in the Hong Kong and Taiwan film industry.

He is Qiu Fusheng, one of the eight major Taiwanese film producers in Hong Kong and Taiwan during the 1990s.

This man, known as the "media tycoon" in Taiwan, has been a pioneer influencing the development of Taiwan's media since the 80s. He has always been known for being "good at observing trends". When other colleagues only care about what will happen in two months, he has already seen what will happen in two years, so he often has innovative moves that are ahead of the trend.

The most well-known one is, especially among mainlanders like Zhou Ziheng.

In January 1990, he initiated the establishment of the famous "China Cross-Strait Film and Art Association" and served as the first chairman. This was the first cross-strait exchange group established by the Taiwanese film industry, playing the role of a pioneer in cultural exchange.

In addition, he also established the Era Film Company in Hong Kong, and quickly signed two film contracts with Zhang Yimou under the name of "Hong Kong Era" (this was an unprecedented precedent because Taiwan prohibited direct cross-strait cooperation in filming at the time).

He used his personal network in the international film and television market to bring Zhang Yimou, who originally belonged only to China, to the world.

Zhang Yimou's film "Raise the Red Lantern" was invested by his Era Film Company. He also specially invited Hou Hsiao-hsien to be the nominal producer, successfully creating a sensational topic of "the first cooperation between international famous directors from both sides of the Taiwan Strait".

Barbara Robinson, who later became the managing director of Columbia (Asia) and an important promoter of Hollywood investment in Chinese-language films, was working at Era International at the time and was responsible for the international sales of Raise the Red Lantern.

The film won the Silver Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards, making Zhang Yimou famous in the international film scene.

Two years later, Zhang Yimou directed "To Live" for the era again, and won the Best Actor Award for Ge You at the Cannes Film Festival, which was a brilliant achievement.

As for Zhou Ziheng personally, among the many industry promoters in Hong Kong and Taiwan, Qiu Fusheng is one of the people he admires the most.

It is his upcoming operation that will bring about great cooperation in cross-strait cultural exchanges.

It’s a pity that due to some political reasons, the cultural exchange between Qiu Fusheng’s two cases was interrupted just a few years after it began.

This also made him discouraged and he stopped participating in this matter, and instead focused on TVBS, which he founded together with TVB.

"Mr. Zhou is really young and promising. When I was your age, I was still a white-collar worker who knew nothing.

Mr. Zhou has already created a huge business empire."

Qiu Fusheng shook hands with Zhou Ziheng with a smile on his face.

"Personally, I admire Mr. Qiu very much. Your contribution to cross-strait cultural exchanges is unmatched by anyone. I admire you very much!"

The two of them praised each other and found a seat to sit down.

Qiu Fusheng didn't say much. He sat down and directly stated his purpose.

"Mr. Zhou, I have two purposes for coming here this time.

First, I am very optimistic about your Hengyu Films and would like to invest in it, but I wonder if there is any hope?

Also, I heard that you want to enter the video disc distribution market and are looking for a partner in Taiwan's distribution.

Regarding this aspect, I think no one in Taiwan can have a say like me. I control a lot of theaters in Taiwan. If we work together, it will be a strong combination. "

Hengyu Films was established not long ago and has produced two films.

One is "Tazza" and the other is "Uncle Trouble".

Needless to say, "Tazza" is one of the best Chinese-language films this year in terms of profit data in the Asian market because of Zhou Ziheng's starring role.

The low-budget movie "The Trouble with the Nightmare" also achieved very impressive results. The movie eventually earned 16 million box office in Hong Kong. Combined with the distribution of videotapes and copyrights in other regions, the profit was dozens of times higher.

The success of the two films made Hengyu a hot commodity in the eyes of many people who still wanted to make a difference in the film industry.

Therefore, Zhou Ziheng was not surprised that Qiu Fusheng wanted to invest in Hengyu.

However, he was destined to disappoint the other party.

As for Hengyu Film, he didn't intend to let other people get involved.

So he said directly:

"Mr. Qiu, I'm sorry, Hengyu is not accepting investments or acquisitions for the time being.

We can talk about cooperation in distribution.”

Now that he has already gotten involved in the cinema chain, Zhou Ziheng naturally doesn't want to be limited to this.

In recent years, with the booming VCD market.

The disc market has experienced a huge boom.

It is no exaggeration to say that this is actually the industry that really makes money.

At least until 2005, this market will be a big cake.

Hengyu can produce movies on its own. If it can have a disc distribution channel, future movies will not have to sell the disc copyright at a low price.

It is indeed a bargain.

The disc copyright of Hengyu's "Tazza" sold for more than 10 million.

In fact, Zhou Ziheng learned that in the whole of Asia, the disc revenue of this movie was at least over 60 million, and more.

And this is only the profit for half a year.

This horrific profit made Zhou Ziheng very jealous.

So, he is looking for a partner to enter the disc videotape market.

Actually it's not just him.

In recent years, many film and television companies in Hong Kong and Taiwan have actually begun to covet this market and have taken action to this end.

In fact, the decline of Hong Kong films is related to the rise of the videotape and DVD market, which led to the decline of theaters and production companies.

With the emergence of VCD discs, this cheap and convenient way of watching movies has been favored by most audiences.

Many audiences who used to like going to the cinema to watch movies now prefer to buy DVDs and watch them at home.

Even though the prevalence of piracy has reduced the profit margins of the legitimate video disc market, the market it still has is extremely large.

Last year alone, China's disc video market generated billions of dollars in revenue, exceeding theater box office revenue.

The disc market will obviously become even more popular in the next few years, and the whole of Asia will usher in an unprecedented boom.

Golden Harvest has been extremely regretful in the past two years.

In the early 90s, Golden Harvest gradually reduced its production business as it focused on theatrical distribution. In 1992, it sold all 400 films in its film library (made between 1970 and 1992) to Asia Satellite Television (Star Chinese).

As a result, within two years, Jiahe regretted its decision.

The price of the more than 400 films they sold to Star Chinese Media increased by no less than five times in two years.

Starry Sky Chinese produced these movies into DVDs and launched them into the market, making Starry Sky Chinese earn a lot of money.

Zhou Ziheng was not quite sure about the exact price of the copyrights of more than 400 films that Golden Harvest sold to Star Chinese, but he speculated based on the market price at the time and predicted that it would not exceed 100 million.

As far as Zhou Ziheng knows, Shaw Brothers, which had always held the copyrights, sold the copyrights of more than 2000 films in for more than million yuan.

Not only has the price increased several times, but also, not to mention that most of Shaw Brothers' films are actually old films and are less valuable than Golden Harvest's films.

With Golden Harvest's current technology, plus the future online film copyrights, it will be a huge profit.

Zhou Ziheng will never sell the copyright of his movies.

But he also didn't want to just hold on to it and do nothing.

Producing and distributing DVDs by himself is obviously the most beneficial way for him and the one that can make him a lot of money.

However, it is obviously difficult for Zhou Ziheng alone to distribute and produce DVDs.

In particular, he does not have complete distribution channels in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and other places.

So finding a partner is undoubtedly the best way.

Qiu Fusheng’s Era Group is not just a pure entertainment group, he has a lot of industrial investments throughout Asia.

This is a large company.

There are many benefits for Zhou Ziheng to cooperate with it.

"What a pity! I'm actually really optimistic about Hengyu Films!" Qiu Fusheng looked regretful, but he didn't continue to dwell on this issue. Instead, he said:

"Then let's talk about the distribution of Hengyu's future films on Wanwan and the DVD production issue you mentioned."

"Of course!"

……

Zhou Ziheng did not personally participate in the follow-up of the cooperation with Era Company, but entrusted it to the distribution manager of Hengyu Films.

He stayed in Wanwan for another three days, participated in an episode of "Dragon Brothers" and held a book signing event for "Too Soft-Hearted".

On the 19th, Zhou Ziheng returned to the mainland.

There were more than ten or twenty people when they left, but when they came back, there were only him and a few team members.

Even Huo Wenxi was not with them. She returned to Hong Kong a few days ago.

The filming of "Murderous Affair" has reached the later stage, and she has to keep an eye on it.

It’s not that I suspect Zhang Yimou is doing something wrong.

The main thing is that she is the one who takes all the money for the crew, and many things depend on her.

Originally, Zhou Ziheng told her not to use Wanwan.

She was worried that the new assistant would mess things up, so she rushed over to look after Zhou Ziheng personally.

The news that Zhou Ziheng won the Golden Horse Award for Best Actor caused quite a stir in mainland China.

He is the first mainland actor to win the Best Actor award at the Golden Horse Awards.

To a certain extent, this is actually an honor.

Therefore, when he got off the plane, he was immediately welcomed by the Guangdong media.

Compared with the Hong Kong and Taiwan media, the mainland media really treats Zhou Ziheng as their own child.

In Hong Kong and Taiwan, if you buy a few newspapers, you will always find various articles criticizing or belittling him.

But in the mainland, this is rare.

Especially in Guangdong, the media here rarely slander Zhou Ziheng.

Even when the Hong Kong media were slandering and attacking Zhou Ziheng, these media still stood up for him and published various articles in support of him.

And today, the media in Yangcheng did something that made Zhou Ziheng feel very warm.

Because the flow of information in the mainland is not as good as that in Hong Kong and Taiwan at this time, even though Zhou Ziheng is extremely popular, there are very few fans to pick him up at the airport.

But today, as soon as Zhou Ziheng left the airport, he was warmed by the scene in front of him.

Almost all the media in Guangzhou sent people here.

Moreover, like Zhou Ziheng's fans, they held up posters and banners.

"Congratulations to Comrade Zhou Ziheng for winning the Best Actor Award at the Golden Horse Awards. You are our pride!"

"Thank you! Thank you for your hard work!"

Zhou Ziheng went up to hug and greet the reporters.

Most of them are familiar faces. In the past few years, most of the interviews he has given in Guangzhou have been with people like them.

Many people actually have a good relationship with him in private, and some have even had meals together with him.

"Xiao Zhou, take out the trophy and show it to us."

"Yes, yes, let's see if it's gold."

After greeting him, these reporters did not immediately catch him and ask questions like the Hong Kong and Taiwan reporters, but asked him to take out the Golden Horse Awards trophy for inspection.

Zhou Ziheng did not hide it and asked his assistant to take out the trophy.

The trophy is indeed made of gold, but it is not pure gold. Judging from the weight, it is probably still hollow inside.

But what makes this thing valuable is not the gold itself, but the meaning it represents.

This is the first time that a mainland actor has won the Golden Horse Award for Best Actor. This is actually very commemorative.

"Tsk tsk, good stuff!"

"Of course it's a good thing. It represents a different meaning."

A group of reporters were not polite at all. They scrambled for the trophy and chattered about it.

Finally, a group of reporters asked Zhou Ziheng to take a few photos holding the trophy before they started interviewing him.

"Ziheng, we are all very sorry that the movie Tazza: Tazza was not released in mainland China.

I heard that your company is shooting a new film, and is collaborating with Zhang Yimou.

Is there any hope that the new film will be screened in mainland China? "

Ma Yu from Yangcheng Evening News asked first.

"We have indeed invited Director Zhang Yimou to direct the new film, and the filming of the film is almost in its final stages.

Originally, I did think that the film might not be shown in mainland China.

Later I found a friend from Zhuying, who helped me with the formalities.

Therefore, this movie should be able to be released in mainland China, and everyone can look forward to it.”

In fact, urban crime films were not shown in the mainland during this period.

Especially the movies are set in the mainland.

It may be because they are afraid of affecting their image, or it may be because they are too conservative.

There is not even a shadow of this kind of movie in mainland China now, and no one dares to make it.

Originally, Zhou Ziheng also felt that there was no hope for the film to be released in mainland China.

However, due to the success of "Tazza" in Asia, Zhou Ziheng himself is currently the most influential star in the mainland.

After Zhou Ziheng applied for the release, the film was finally approved for release.

However, the requirement is to watch the entire film, so the amount may be reduced.

"Xu Wei's "Once Upon a Time" sold very well after its release, and it even topped the charts for a time when it was catching up with "Heart Too Soft".

We all know that you discovered Xu Wei and signed him to your Hengdong Records. We want to know, how did you know him in the first place? "

Some people are very interested in Xu Wei.

They had no choice but to be interested, mainly because Xu Wei was very popular these days.

On the 10th, "Once You" was released.

After its release, the order volume of this album has reached more than 300,000 in just one week, which is a very good result in the country at present.

On the charts, "You Once" was the second most popular song in December after "Heart Too Soft".

Therefore, it is normal that everyone is curious about Zhou Ziheng's evaluation of him.

"I saw Xu Wei in a Japanese magazine.

He actually already had a good influence in the rock circle before.

At that time, my record company had just been established, and I thought I definitely couldn’t be the only one, so I asked someone to go to Xi’an to find him.

However, I did not find him in Xi'an, but met him in Beijing."

(End of this chapter)