Chapter 558: Negotiation of Box Office Dividends

The more meetings he held, the more Lu Yan He discovered that he knew nothing about company management.

Many operating principles were not understood, and he also realized how difficult it was to coordinate things.

A sum of money is invested in one place, when is it expected to come out, how much can come out, what places are waiting for money at that time, what if the money waiting in the early stage is lost, or can't come out so much, is there a backup plan?

Lu Yan He often heard the term "capital chain rupture" before, not knowing what it meant. Now that he heard them talking about it, he slowly understood some of it.

It's not that there is really no money, but it's stuck in a certain project and can't come out. Other places are waiting for money, there is no money to use, and then, they can't wait indefinitely, and then, many things are dragged down.

Linghe's profits in these few years have been quite good.

However, the early accumulation is far from enough for the scale and goals to be realized next.

Unless Lu Yan He takes out his own money to fill it—Chen Ziyan has been reminding him from the beginning that he can't do this.

This is not entrepreneurship. Once operating a company requires taking one's own money to fill it, it shows that this company is not in a healthy operating state.

And, eat as much as you can.

Fill this end, what if a problem appears at the other end, do you fill it? How much to fill is the end?

Inevitably, financing was mentioned.

After all, this is the fastest way to get money.

However, the reason why Lu Yan He and Chen Ziyan have always chosen not to finance is that one is that they want to firmly control the company, and the other is because the value of selling some shares to pay back the money now is too low, and it is too disparate from the value of this company in the future.

They would rather the company's development pace be slower and carry out original accumulation themselves.

After all, this is not an industry that compares speed and who is one step faster.

As long as the content projects they do are good, the company will not be eliminated.

In the end, Linghe determined one thing.

First, reduce the investment amount for *Raise the Red Lantern*. The production party of *Raise the Red Lantern* is in Director Wang Zhong's company, and this movie is not short of investment. It's just that because of Lu Yan He's relationship, the investment share of this movie was prioritized to Lu Yan He—but this movie is not a box office blockbuster. After it is released, it will not be able to realize a big profit for a while relying on the box office.

In this way, a part of the funds can be moved out first and used to increase the investment in *Chinese Paladin*. This drama, Linghe is the copyright party and also one of the production parties. This drama is filmed this year, and the post-production will take almost a year. The broadcast might be in the second half of next year. But before that, Beiguang's investment money will be hit, plus various incomes such as advertising sponsorship, and the first round of repayment will be received first.

But this puts relatively high requirements on *Co-renting Men and Women*. If *Co-renting Men and Women* cannot be broadcast in the second half of the year, *Co-renting Men and Women* cannot come back, and *Chinese Paladin* will have to absorb external investment again—

Then Linghe will have to earn a little less. At the current stage, Lu Yan He filming *Chinese Paladin* is a project that will definitely make a profit and sell well—movies need box office to collect money no matter how popular they are in the early stage, but TV dramas don't need it. Beiguang pays the bill. Even if this drama really flops in the end, Linghe's money has already been received, and the loss is only Beiguang's—even Beiguang might not lose, after all, the early advertising business income might have already earned back the early investment.

Lu Yan He heard the back and said to Chen Ziyan: "No, Sister Ziyan, these are too complicated for me. I won't participate in the discussion process in the future. It also consumes my energy. I still have to rehearse and film with everyone during the day, and I have to squeeze in time to cooperate with the publicity activities of the two crews. It's too tiring. What the company should do, you discuss a result, and then I will know."

Chen Ziyan also felt that it was too consuming for Lu Yan He recently.

She said: "You don't participate in the discussion during the filming of *Friends*. You are almost done filming this drama anyway, but you still have to join in. You have to understand these things. What direction the company should go, how to arrange it, you can say less, but you have to listen more. Putting aside other things, you will act in plays in the workplace in the future, these are life experiences for you. You don't always have to look at this world from the perspective of an actor. Linghe Company is another perspective for you to understand this world."

Chen Ziyan's words can always scratch Lu Yan He's itch in the most critical places.

Lu Yan He's work and life now are indeed too smooth, almost never encountering any difficulties, nor encountering this kind of situation that makes his head big.

If he keeps sticking to his own way like this, the roles in his life will really only be left with being an artist.

Lu Yan He nodded, accepted Chen Ziyan's statement, and said okay.

*The Mist* broke 60 million in North American box office one week after its release in North America.

D19 company arranged for several main actors to appear on several popular television programs in the United States to do relevant publicity for *The Mist*.

They actually also wanted to call Lu Yan He back to cooperate with the publicity, however, Lu Yan He had to refuse this time.

His *Friends* was still in full swing, and the rehearsals for the Spring Festival Gala had also started. Where would he have time to run to the United States for the publicity of *The Mist*.

They only gave that little remuneration. Now the box office results are so good, and they didn't say they would give him a bonus—in Chen Ziyan's words, there is no sincerity in asking him to continue to cooperate with the publicity. They don't mention the remuneration at all, as if this is the actor's compulsory labor.

Although *The Mist*'s box office is good, it is of great benefit to Lu Yan He. But this does not constitute a reason for D19 to use Lu Yan He's labor for free.

As a result, in the second weekend, *The Mist* still took more than 20 million in box office, the movie officially broke 80 million US dollars, plus overseas box office income, *The Mist*'s global total box office reached 130 million US dollars.

D19 sent a celebration message—

According to this trend, *The Mist*'s box office in North America breaking 100 million is a nail in the coffin.

With such good theater box office results, the prices of other copyrights have risen with the tide.

*The Mist* is looking to become one of the movies with the highest return on investment in Hollywood this year.

At this time, many viewers and fans of *The Mist* suddenly gathered on Twitter, calling on D19 company, hoping to film a sequel to *The Mist*. They want to see the return of the Asian ghost played by Lu Yan He.

In Europe and America, this kind of petition activity often appears—hoping that a certain drama can continue to produce sequels, or liking a certain character very much, hoping to develop a spin-off for this character. This is not rare.

Developing sequels is very normal in the United States, whether it is movies or dramas. A work with a box office explosion rarely does not develop a sequel.

It can be said that the "sequel industry" is also very mature and perfect in the United States.

In fact, *The Mist*'s box office is so good, D19 must also be developing a sequel for this movie. It's just that D19 has some thoughts about whether to let Lu Yan He return. Because of Lu Yan He's performance and popularity in this movie, plus the praise of the media review circle for him, the sequel's salary will certainly not be low. D19 has not started the sequel negotiation with Lu Yan He's side, just because they haven't thought about what kind of salary to give him.

Lu Yan He is really quite popular in the United States now.

Among the several actors in *The Mist*, the attention received by other actors combined is not as high as Lu Yan He's.

A very important reason why D19 is unwilling to give Lu Yan He a high salary is that they think Lu Yan He can become the biggest beneficiary actor of *The Mist* because their early promotional strategy provided Lu Yan He with great topicality.

Now, Lu Yan He has made a name for himself in the United States relying on *The Mist*, and also has their credit and contribution.

However, they can just say this to themselves. If they really take this point to suppress Lu Yan He's salary, let alone Lu Yan He's side certainly won't agree, if it spreads out, it will even become a joke in the industry.

Of course, D19 has been slow to start negotiations with Lu Yan He, and there is another important reason. They sent another script to Lu Yan He before, which is also a horror thriller script, but it was politely declined by Lu Yan He's side.

That script, Lu Yan He was even the first lead, running through from beginning to end from his perspective, but Lu Yan He's agent said that Lu Yan He had just acted in a horror movie and wanted to act in other types of movies next.

That's no way.

Then would Lu Yan He be willing to return to the sequel of *The Mist*?

Without showing a little sincerity, how likely is Lu Yan He to return?

This is the problem they need to face.

After being in contact with Lu Yan He for so long, if they didn't know enough about Lu Yan He's situation at the beginning, or their understanding was still at the stage of relatively arrogantly thinking that Asian actors were rushing for Hollywood's invitations, now they won't think so.

Lu Yan He's popularity and topicality are not just staying in Asia.

For Hollywood stars, Lu Yan He's popularity and influence in Europe and Asia are even what many of them cannot reach.

Look at the box office of *The Mist* in overseas—

According to the media reviews and social media popularity of *The Mist* overseas, most of the media, film critics, and those who comment on this movie on the internet are focused on Lu Yan He, which is an indisputable fact.

Judging from the data fed back by box office survey agencies, especially in Asia, the audience who walked into the cinema to watch this movie for Lu Yan He accounted for about 30%.

This day.

After Lu Yan He completed a joint rehearsal for the Spring Festival Gala with Li Zhibai and Yan Liang, he went to the stage to watch the playback of themselves just now.

The director group was still very satisfied with the new song they collaborated on.

Youthful, energetic, in line with their age, and also the look the audience expects most from their trio combination.

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This song itself is very mainstream, "Let the whole world speak Chinese" is a very popular cultural orientation in the past two years. By incorporating RAP into this song and adding traditional elements of Chinese language such as tongue twisters, they made it mainstream while also refreshing, making people feel good to listen to.

Plus Lu Yan He's topicality in the whole world during this period of time, having him, Li Zhibai, and Yan Liang complete this performance together is completely a full-score stage answer sheet.

The director group was very polite to the three of them.

On the contrary, some technical personnel such as photographers and lighting groups had a not very good attitude toward them.

Lu Yan He was somewhat surprised, and later learned that it was because Lu Yan He and Yan Liang were too busy during this period of time, and they hadn't participated in several joint rehearsals before—according to the joint rehearsal standard of the Spring Festival Gala, it actually caused an impact on their work.

For activities of this specification, any small problem may cause a huge negative impact on the career. A performance stage is not just the matter of the performing artists, but also the matter of many staff behind the scenes of this program.

And here, no matter how big a star you are, you are just a label on this stage, a tool to complete a certain job. Nothing can describe their work attitude better than the eight characters "don't seek merit but seek no mistakes." As long as it can be completed smoothly and without problems, it is already a great achievement.

Of course, there is another very important reason.

People who can participate in the Spring Festival Gala program group basically have backgrounds, and it is normal for them to ignore you big-name stars—you are a star, I am not inferior to you.

After the rehearsal ended, Lu Yan He went to eat with Li Zhibai and Yan Liang.

"I saw media saying that D19 intends to film a sequel to *The Mist*, is it true?" Li Zhibai asked.

"It is true."

"It is? Don't you know that they want to film a sequel?" Li Zhibai asked.

Lu Yan He nodded and said: "They probably communicated this intention with my side, but they haven't talked formally, and they haven't officially invited me to return to the sequel."

Li Zhibai: "Damn, they won't change someone else to act, right?"

"Generally not." Yan Liang was still more calm and rational than Li Zhibai, starting from common sense, sequel movies wouldn't operate like this. The reason why a sequel is a sequel is to replicate the success of the first part, and even to go a step further. How can they abandon the box office selling point of the first part.

Lu Yan He said: "Sister Ziyan guessed that D19 hasn't thought about what kind of contract conditions to give me."

Li Zhibai: "Then do you plan to act?"

"Look at what direction they are preparing to develop the sequel. If there can be a good idea and a good story, acting in a sequel is also quite good," Lu Yan He said. "At least there is a character that the public knows in Europe and America."

Like *Late Spring* and *Road to Glory*, although they won awards at international film festivals, for the public, the vast majority have not seen them.

Lu Yan He's commercial purpose for acting in *The Mist* was to open up his popularity and expand his influence in Europe and America.

He has never avoided this point.

"Actually, probably because *The Mist*'s box office results are good, a foreign horror movie also came to find me," Yan Liang suddenly said.

Li Zhibai gave a "yo" and asked: "Is it also Hollywood's?"

"No, it's a script given by a British film company," Yan Liang said. "But I read the script, it's just a very ordinary horror story, no different from those we've seen."

"Then you don't plan to take it?"

"Then you don't intend to accept it?"

Lu Yan He rolled his eyes and said: "This person Zhou Ping'an is like a dog that can't change eating shit, his mouth is full of dung. You don't need to hitch a ride on me at all. *Friends* and *Friends* have already made you noticed by many European and American film and television companies."

Yan Liang: "But I think what he said also makes sense, so I am thinking about this matter."

Li Zhibai asked: "Is the horror movie looking for you the lead?"

"Yes," Yan Liang laughed. "However, my character is a mysterious ghost catcher from the East, not a ghost."

"Sounds very cool."

"Actually, it's just a police and bandit movie that is a bit scary and thrilling. You can understand it as police catching criminals," Yan Liang said. "I feel this script is completely a police and bandit movie mode."

"Hahaha." Li Zhibai laughed.

Lu Yan He: "Director? If the director is also not bad, although the story is new wine in old bottles, it can still be filmed well."

"Don't mention it, this director's previous works are also very mediocre," Yan Liang said. "But if it were better, I wouldn't be so hesitant. And I'm not the kind of actor who must take a script that is particularly good. I haven't reached that level yet. And, this movie is estimated not to be in theaters, directly on streaming media."

"Ah?"

"That's what they said, it hasn't been decided yet," Yan Liang said. "This is another point I'm hesitant about, because streaming media movies might be filmed for two or three months, and there will be no splash in less than a week. I haven't seen any movie on streaming media that has caused relatively large topical discussion, and the influence is also very average."

Lu Yan He: "This situation is indeed the case."

Li Zhibai: "Then if you don't want to take it, will Zhou Ping'an force you to take it?"

"Now it shouldn't be," Yan Liang admitted. "The place where I hesitate is not that he must let me take it, but that I am afraid of missing an opportunity."

"The plays you take now are mainly based on dramas. However, judging from the current entertainment industry ecology, if you want to go a step further, you either film a more explosive drama, or you have to mix in the film circle," Li Zhibai said. "Movie actors are more advanced than drama actors—although we don't think so, this industry is defined this way."

Yan Liang: "Yes."

He sighed lightly.

Lu Yan He said: "It's okay, I think since you are hesitant, it shows that this project still has a place that moves you. I actually think you can try it, failure doesn't affect you. When I took *The Mist* at the beginning, I was also nervous. After all, it's a horror movie, and it's said to be relatively low-level, rough, and simple. But later I felt that at worst, the box office performance won't work. I can afford to fail. You are the same. You have two series in hand, *Friends* and *Friends*. You don't have to worry about failure in these few years."

Li Zhibai also nodded.

"Zhou Ping'an, besides his character being bad, his vision for picking plays is still there. If he says this play is worth filming, then there must be a place worth filming."

Yan Liang slanted Li Zhibai.

"Are you taking the words I said to you before and saying them to me?"

Li Zhibai: "You said it yourself, take the strengths of others to make up for your own weaknesses. Since Zhou Ping'an is so good at picking scripts, you can believe his judgment."

Lu Yan He shook his head in disbelief, sighing: "I never thought that I would hear him say such things from Li Zhibai's mouth one day."

Yan Liang also said: "Who isn't? Unbelievable."

Li Zhibai: "... You two are enough."

The average viewership rating of *Friends* has remained above 3% since the two episodes Li Zhibai guest-starred in, especially as students began their winter vacation, the viewership rating remained high.

Online playback is even more so.

Whether it is Yuehu Station or Beiguang Video, they are very satisfied with the results of this drama.

This goes without saying for Maxine.

When *The Mist* broke 100 million in North American box office and the global box office broke 170 million US dollars, after Maxine spent a high price to grab the streaming media playback rights of *The Mist* from several streaming media competitors, D19 finally made up its mind, expressing willingness to give Lu Yan He a sequel salary of 6 million US dollars.

Because D19 felt from the negotiation process with Maxine that their interest in Lu Yan He was actually greater than the movie *The Mist*.

A salary of 6 million US dollars, compared to Lu Yan He's first salary of 1 million US dollars, has increased by more than a little bit. Converted into RMB, it is more than 40 million RMB.

Lu Yan He has never received a salary of this number for acting in movies in the country. 【558

Lu Yan He had never received a paycheck of this amount for acting in a domestic film.

D19 believed it had already been generous enough.

However, Chen Ziyan was not satisfied—not with the figure itself, but with the fact that Lu Yan He could not enjoy a share of the box office revenue.

Yet, from a market perspective, Lu Yan He was an actor who had just arrived in Hollywood to make films; even if his first work had performed so well at the box office, he had not yet reached the stage where he could negotiate for box office points.

There were very few such precedents in the industry.

Chen Ziyan's stance, however, was very clear.

"The development of the sequel is not based on how popular the movie 'The Mist' is; in fact, we are all very clear that the sequel can be developed because everyone likes the Asian ghost character played by Yan He too much," Chen Ziyan said. "This sequel must definitely be developed around Yan He's character, and the selling point is also this character—it is Yan He. In other words, without Yan He, this sequel does not exist. Under these circumstances, I believe Yan He deserves to enjoy box office points; this is what Yan He is entitled to."

The person from D19 responsible for negotiating with Chen Ziyan had a very ugly expression on their face.

Because they believed six million dollars was already high enough, and Chen Ziyan's dissatisfaction was greed.

Chen Ziyan did not care whether their expression was ugly or not, nor did she care if they were angry.

She simply stated her thoughts; as for what came next, she would let D19 go hold their own meetings to discuss it.