Chapter 169: The Prototype of an Empire and a Happy Spring Festival

Due to the disaster situation, Wei Jin Company did not hold an annual meeting this year; instead, the heads of several departments reported their work to Wei Jin individually.

Looking at the summarized data, Wei Jin was still quite satisfied in his heart.

In terms of film, the net profit was very considerable, totaling as high as 712 million, mainly because several films had all completed their revenue collection this year.

Among them, *Ip Man* brought in 90 million, *Search* 72 million, *Brotherhood of Blades* 200 million, *New World* 170 million, and *Room* 180 million; the share brought in by the North American release was particularly considerable.

In terms of television dramas, the earnings were not bad either; several rounds of broadcasts plus online platforms brought in a total of 150 million.

Among them, *Beauty's Rival in Palace* brought in 35 million, *Zhu Xian* 45 million, and *Scarlet Heart* 70 million.

In terms of cinema lines, the Shanhe Cinema Alliance controlled a total of 198 cinemas and over 790 screens, with a market share exceeding 18%; last year's total revenue reached 790 million, with a net profit as high as 190 million.

In terms of artists, they brought a total of over 140 million in net profit to the company, mainly from Qiao Zhenyu, Chen Xiao, and Bai Bin.

In terms of ringback tones, it was already a sunset industry, totaling less than 70 million.

Shanhe Ink had already made a name for itself in the industry, undertaking over 20 films and television dramas last year, with a cumulative revenue of 130 million and a net profit of 40 million.

In terms of variety shows, two variety programs brought in about 70 million in earnings.

It is worth mentioning that as the publicity and distribution team gained experience, the distribution business also began to expand gradually; many companies in the industry came to negotiate business, and last year's distribution income actually reached about 60 million.

Roughly calculated, the total revenue was as high as 2 billion, and after deducting taxes and other expenses, the net profit was close to 900 million.

This was only the earnings of the film and television company; the gaming side had not yet been included.

Last year, the total revenue of *Zhu Xian* was expected to be nearly 300 million, while *CrossFire* had only been promoted for a very short time, with earnings of less than 40 million.

However, Wei Jin had patience; this was a blockbuster game with a future annual output of nearly 10 billion.

In addition, with Jiahe and Yinxiang Net acting as moats, and Tudou becoming increasingly prosperous, Wei Jin's entertainment empire had already begun to show its prominence. — This year's Spring Festival, Wei Jin spent it in Beijing with Ceng Li.

This made Li Jie incredibly happy; during the day, she would change up the ways she cooked delicious food for Wei Jin, and at night, she would change up the ways she let Wei Jin "eat" her.

For a time, it actually made Wei Jin unable to distinguish whether the gourmet food was more delicious or the beauty was more delicious.

On New Year's Eve, the two embraced on the sofa, watching the Year of the Rat Spring Festival Gala; come to think of it, Wei Jin hadn't watched it for many years.

On this year's sketch comedy stage, Old Zhao and his old partner Dan Danjie contributed the worst work of their careers, *Torchbearer*; it was so awkward—as expected, thematic assignments on the main melody are not easy to handle.

Once Old Zhao slumped, the Spring Festival Gala basically collapsed by half; the one with the deepest memory was Wang Baoqiang, who appeared in three programs alone. It was truly because *Soldiers Sortie* was too popular, with dozens of television stations broadcasting it in rotation, and the key was that the ratings were actually quite good—can you believe this?

This drama could also be considered to have made most of the people in it famous, directly causing this group of obscure actors to collectively soar to the height of nationwide fame.

This also made Kang Honglei full of confidence, believing that *My Chief and My Regiment* would definitely be able to sell for a good price when the time came.

This drama was naturally invested in by Wei Jin's company; the previous cooperation had been very pleasant, but this time, Wei Jin took out insurance for the crew, which led to some increase in costs, and he didn't know if it could be earned back.

Currently, the television drama was still in preparation, and Kang Honglei planned to start filming after the New Year, which seemed a bit urgent.

As a person from Shudi, Wei Jin had the custom of staying up on New Year's Eve; that night, no matter how much Li Jie cried and pleaded, she couldn't shake Wei Jin's determination to battle all night long.

On February 7th, the first day of the Lunar New Year, the Berlin International Film Festival held its opening ceremony; *The Equation of Love and Death* and *Love Is Not Blind* were both successfully shortlisted, but Wei Jin knew the results wouldn't be too good.

Also shortlisted from Huaxia films this year were Wang Xiaoshuai's *In Love We Trust* and Hong Kong's Du Qifeng's *Sparrow*.

The film *In Love We Trust* had once wanted to invite Gao Yuanyuan to star, but due to scheduling reasons, it didn't come to fruition.

Li Jie could not bear the "felling," so she rested at home; Wei Jin then rotated among several women, focusing on "distributing rain and dew equally."

It was a pity that Liu Yifei and her mother had gone back to Jiangcheng to accompany her grandmother for the New Year, otherwise she could have also tasted the favor. — Taking advantage of the holiday, Wei Jin accompanied Gao Yuanyuan to watch *CJ7*. The cinema was very empty; the Spring Festival Film Season still had a long way to go, but this film showed extremely strong box office potential.

Even in the face of strong wind and snow and the Spring Festival period, the daily box office was over 10 million; the audience's love for Zhou Xingxing was true love.

After watching the movie, Wei Jin naturally had to "flip the tablet" of Yuan Yuanjie that night; after disguising himself and changing routes along the way, he finally arrived at the villa.

"Yuan Yuanjie, you are truly on fire right now."

Wei Jin's words were somewhat filled with emotion; fortunately, he was only recognized after the movie was over, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to leave at all.

"Good brother, it's all your credit."

Yuan Yuanjie said, then took the initiative to offer a fragrant kiss.

During this period, Gao Yuanyuan was in a very good mood; since *Let's Get Married* began airing, the ratings had been rising steadily, from the premiere result of 3.8 all the way up to 8.4; without a doubt, this was another phenomenal work.

One must know that since the appearance of the internet, television drama ratings could never return to the past; a drama that broke 10 two years ago might only need to break 6 now to be considered similar.

With such explosive ratings, Gao Yuanyuan naturally ushered in a wave of massive popularity; she was now completely on par with the Four Dan Double Bing, and perhaps even exceeded them, as she had proven herself in both film and television.

At the same time, this also caused shock throughout the television drama industry, with countless professionals conducting analysis and breakdown.

With *Golden Marriage* before and *Let's Get Married* after, such phenomenal blockbuster dramas must have their own basic logic for exploding in popularity.

As long as one mastered this set of logic, by "drawing a tiger using a cat as a model," one could also produce works above the standard.

Soon, smart people analyzed the keyword—realistic marriage themes.

This had a lot to do with the national conditions in recent years; the marriage rate was gradually declining.

Without a doubt, this was the higher-ups intentionally wanting to make this type of marriage-themed television drama, using it as a positive guide to stimulate the overall fertility rate.

For a time, many companies in the industry launched such projects one after another, striving to catch this favorable wind and make a big profit.

"Since that's the case, how does Yuan Yuanjie plan to thank me?"

The cold of winter could not resist the restlessness in Wei Jin's heart, his hands wandering wantonly over Gao Yuanyuan's hot, delicate body.

"Bad guy, you know what you like..."

Although Gao Yuanyuan was a bit shy, she still led Wei Jin into the bedroom and changed into the "shy" outfit she had prepared long ago.

That night, Wei Jin witnessed what is called "two-dimensional," what is called "both pure and seductive"; Yuan Yuanjie was becoming more and more skilled. — During the Spring Festival, it was naturally inseparable from various social interactions; Wei Jin naturally had to visit the big shots of relevant departments in the film and television industry, and the leaders and mentors of the Academy were also a matter of course; in addition, there was answering various New Year greeting calls and replying to text messages, which kept him quite busy for a while.

What surprised Wei Jin was that Hunter, far away in North America, also called Wei Jin, mainly to wish him a happy Spring Festival; ever since he started following Wei Jin, he had learned a lot about Huaxia customs and knew that this was the most important day of the year.

He also took the opportunity to report on the company's recent situation and plans for this year.

*Dead Silence 2* was released in December last year, and the box office performance was not too good, with 54 million in North American box office and 78 million in global box office; compared to the predecessor, the gap was not small, and Summit Entertainment was not sure whether to develop it further.

*Taken 2* had already begun preparation, expected to start filming in March and striving for a year-end release; everyone at Summit Entertainment had great expectations for this.

In addition, *The Conjuring 2* was scheduled for mid-March, which had already become a convention; as for *Twilight 2*, it would undoubtedly be scheduled for the Summer Slot.

The post-production of *Now You See Me* had been completed; before filming the exterior scenes, Wei Jin had already arranged it, and currently, it just depended on which slot to choose.

Regarding this, Wei Jin actually had some ideas; there were basically no suitable slots in the first half of the year, and *The Martian* would definitely be released at the end of the year, so the Summer Slot was relatively suitable.

Time flashed by, the 2008 Spring Festival flashed by; the third update of the day, 9,000 words presented, I earnestly request all fellow readers to reward me with a subscription, follow-up read, and collection. You must flip to the very last page for the follow-up read, thank you everyone! (End of this chapter)