Chapter 230: Capital-Style Playbook

These days, Liu Tianxian has been running around doing publicity for "The Four Great Constables," attending all sorts of events and interviews.

At the premiere, she wore that kind of dress with a short-hair look.

Liu Tianxian wanted Fang Hong to come to their premiere, but Fang Hong didn't go; he had zero interest in that film, no desire to watch it at all.

A big-name director, and he can't even hit a passing 6 out of 10!

Fang Hong was busy with his own affairs — for anything, you have to have real strength yourself; everything else is empty.

Without strength, you can't even keep love.

"The Purge: Anarchy" is set to release on July 18, right in the United States summer window.

Next, Yu Xian will produce two films: one "The Shallows," and another "Fall."

Both are thrilling suspense films, not requiring many actors — the former needs only one actress, the latter only two.

The investment isn't large: "The Shallows" at 17 million. Although it's a one-lead solo show, the shark still needs special effects.

It works out perfectly to outsource some of the special effects to Jade Rabbit.

"Fall" at 3 million bucks — this one is just tacked on, filmed together on the side.

But shooting both at the same time is too much to handle, so we'll stagger the timing a bit — produce one, prep one.

Total investment for the two is 20 million bucks. Previously, "Split" brought in 69.5 million at the box office. Subtract 20 million invested in Tesla, subtract 10 million invested in miHoYo, that leaves 39.5 million; subtract another 20 million for these two films, that leaves 19.5 million.

Of course, Zhonghua Family's books have more than that — the rights, DVDs, and TV pay-per-view for "The Conjuring" and "Split" haven't been counted, nor the rights to other films.

These are ongoing, not one-time — as long as there's no world war, you can collect on them till you die.

Besides "The Shallows" and "Fall," "Fifty Shades of Grey" has entered the project-launching stage.

"Fifty Shades of Grey" has a production cost of 40 million bucks — Zhonghua Family can cover that from the books, and after this film is shot and released, it'll be next year, still many months away.

Production costs in the United States really are expensive — if it were domestic, 40 million could do it.

Because there's no need for special effects, just some props, upscale sets; labor and actors aren't that pricey.

"You've piled way too much on me all at once — three films, are you trying to kill me or what?" Yu Xian complained.

"The capable carry more!" Fang Hong said.

"Yeah, right. Before, we shot one then shot the next — that was fine. Then it became shoot one, prep one, seamless back-to-back — I get it, you've got your difficulties.

Now it's release one, produce one, prep one, launch one — damn, you really think that highly of me? Just split me into three and be done with it."

Yu Xian went on and on, venting: "I've finally seen through you — you're boiling the frog in warm water, piling more on me bit by bit. Next time is it going to be release one, produce one, prep one, launch one, explore one? You've mastered the essence of that state scientific research playbook."

"It's not that exaggerated," Fang Hong said.

"Why'd you go all quiet? That's not like you!" Yu Xian had ranted for so many lines, and all he got back was a few words.

He knew his buddy well — before, he was always sweet-talking, that mouth could talk the dead back to life.

Now he'd gone quiet, and it felt a bit off.

"Ran into a lot of things. A lot of what we did before is going to come back and bite us," Fang Hong said.

"You mean the plagiarism, siccing the feminists on people, hogging everything, the box-office fights — all of that's going to bite back?" Yu Xian caught on right away.

After all, he'd spent so long in the United States, he'd grown up too.

"Yeah. On the way up, I offended a lot of people. Standing where I am now, I'm all alone out there — no friends, no one to help," Fang Hong said.

Yu Xian was silent for a moment; he could roughly understand.

"It's fine. You've got your own circle. Take it slow, build that circle bigger and stronger, and eventually everyone will depend on you," Yu Xian comforted him.

"It's just that I've piled all my pressure onto you — I feel a bit bad about it," Fang Hong said.

Going up against that many elites in the entertainment circle, two giants, plus a bunch of others playing support — Jade Rabbit is being isolated and it's rough.

He can only rely on Yu Xian to make big money; if things collapse over there, Jade Rabbit either falls apart or has to bring in outside capital.

"Don't talk like that — I'm getting paid too, aren't I? And I've got a bit of standing now. Those little blonde beauties who want to be famous, who want roles — a lot of them want to climb into my bed."

Yu Xian switched from his complaining attitude just now and turned enthusiastic.

Now he had some name recognition in Hollywood — sure, it's not some A-list, Super A-level production, but for small actors, he's the type with resources.

United States production tiers: above 200 million is Super A-level; above 130 million is A-level; 80 to 130 million is Quasi A-level.

Below that, 80 million is B-level.

All the above units are in U. S. dollars.

In other words, Zhonghua Family doesn't even count as B-level — it's several tiers below B-level.

So no matter how much money the Hollywood giants see him making, they're not that interested — because the tier is too low.

Hollywood's global market — films that cross 100 million at the box office, there are at least fifty a year.

The films Zhonghua Family releases can talk a big game, but there are only a handful a year — really nothing to write home about.

"Just don't get played. I heard the guild bans casting-couch stuff," Fang Hong said.

"I know. It's mutual consent — if they're not willing, I won't force it." Yu Xian was very smooth about it.

"Sigh, didn't expect it — you've fallen too."

Fang Hong sighed.

"Honestly, have you hit that Liu?" Yu Xian was very curious.

"Of course I have — don't know how many times. We go at it a few times every night." Fang Hong raised his voice.

"Hahaha, nice, nice."

Yu Xian didn't know if he was telling the truth or not, but it sounded a bit fake — this long, every day with the same woman? You'd get sick of it.

Anyway, he himself could bang a little blonde beauty, and after half a year he'd be sick of her and want to switch. The two chatted and drifted back into dirty talk.

It made Fang Hong itch with envy — jealous that Yu Xian could swap beauties at will, bang whoever he wanted, and split whenever he didn't.

Damn, the more he talked about it, the more it stung!

Next, Fang Hong went to the Propaganda Department — "Painted Skin 2" had also entered its publicity phase.

When Producer Xiao Wang was asked about the simultaneous release with "Lucy 1," he said: "We never even gave that film a second thought, because we never gave the Jade Rabbit a second thought."

Since they want to fight, then let's fight! Now Tu Piaopiao has completed resource integration with Tencent, Meituan, Wanda, and Enlight Media.

That means connecting into their channel entry points.

And Tu Piaopiao has also completed the installation of ticketing machines in more than nine thousand cinemas nationwide; the ticketing machines can also print tickets — it's an integrated system.

For cinemas that can't be covered by machine installation, their circuit systems have also been connected, so users can still buy tickets on Tu Piaopiao and still pick up tickets at the cinema without any hindrance.

Now even if the cinema sells tickets, Tu Piaopiao can see the purchased seats — it just can't see how much the cinema sold them for.

That information is reported to the National Film Data Center, so they can just get the box office data directly from there.

Tu Piaopiao has also undergone a second major version update, upgrading to version 4.0, which is more comprehensive and intuitive.

This time, summoned by Fang Hong, a board meeting was held on Tu Piaopiao, with representatives from Tencent, Wanda, Enlight Media, and Meituan all attending, presided over by Zheng Zhihao.

The meeting was simple: implement a ticket subsidy plan, that is, pull people's ticket-buying habits online.

Now China's smartphone users have reached 252 million, total internet users number 564 million, affecting 859 million households.

Implementing ticket subsidies now to pull people's ticket-buying habits online is seizing the market, and competitors are already doing this, just not with much force.

Having raised 480 million earlier, that money hasn't been spent yet — Fang Hong's proposal is to spend it all.

That is, with the current average ticket price around 40 yuan, anyone who buys tickets on Tu Piaopiao gets a 20-yuan coupon, making movie tickets 19.9 yuan each.

Ten million people watching movies would burn through 200 million!

This proposal made everyone present click their tongues in astonishment — nowadays, any movie that's not bad gets ten million viewers, and twenty million isn't uncommon either.

Subsidizing like this, breaking twenty million viewers would be a breeze, because the public loves a bargain.

The Tencent representative asked: "Won't you limit it to one ticket per person?"

"No limits. Buy as many as you want. Our goal isn't to make money — it's promotion, it's about pulling people's ticket-buying habits online," Fang Hong explained.

"Then with so many movies selling tickets on Tu Piaopiao, how can this bit of money be enough?" the Enlight Media representative said.

"I think you've misunderstood. At this stage, the ticket subsidy is only for 'Lucy 1' — other films won't get it for now. This is a film we're distributing ourselves, so if the box office does well, it can offset part of the losses," Fang Hong said.

This made everyone present exchange glances — after all that fuss, it was for this film.

"This is just a trial run first. Once we have experience, we can expand it to other films. After all, we're here to seize the market, not to worry about winning or losing one particular battle," Fang Hong added.

"I have no objections!" Wanda declared.

This is the capital playbook — essentially handing out money directly to seize the market, while also pulling in people who don't watch movies because they think it's too expensive, which benefits the cinemas.

Not only does it expand the market, it also makes more people aware of Tu Piaopiao — several birds with one stone.

Although the Principal has the suspicion of favoritism, this is no big deal.

"Then why not do ticket subsidies for our 'The Four Great Constables'?" Enlight Media was unhappy.

They didn't bring it up earlier — only after their 'The Four Great Constables' was released did they raise it, making it feel like the Principal was doing it on purpose, playing favorites.

"I just thought of it too," Fang Hong brushed off.

"Principal, you don't have an ounce of sincerity!" the Enlight Media representative said.

"It's just a trial run first. There are many problems involved. To give a simple example — my film, I can adjust at any time. If costs get out of control, I can cut off the subsidy at any time. Technical failures, I can absorb the losses myself.

If something goes wrong, can you handle it? Communicating with you would probably take a lot of words."

Fang Hong spoke very plainly.

If traffic is too heavy, Tu Piaopiao might malfunction and be unable to sell tickets or issue coupons, and ticket prices vary by region — the computational load is huge.

There will be many unpredictable problems in this.

Or what if settlement isn't timely and they're slow to pay — can they handle that? Or what if Enlight Media sees tickets selling well and doesn't want to stop the subsidy, but Tu Piaopiao thinks the subsidy cost is too high and needs to adjust?

Communicating with Enlight Media, they'd probably refuse.

"Let's do it according to General Manager Fang's wishes — we agree too," Tencent agreed to the ticket subsidy.

The capital playbook is like this — it's just that the Principal is being a bit conservative. By their standards, go all out, go big.

He added: "Just make sure you calculate the accounts clearly — best not to have any overspending."

Once this thing starts, it's not just about selling tickets — there are bandwidth, traffic, server, maintenance, computation, and many other costs.

Because once traffic goes up, customer flow goes up, and sales revenue increases, a lot of problems will be exposed.

"Alright, I understand," Fang Hong indicated he got it.

With the capital agreeing, Enlight Media, however unwilling, could only express helplessness. Everyone knew the Principal was playing favorites, but Wanda, Tencent, and Meituan didn't care whose film it was.

They weren't the producers — it had nothing to do with them.

It was just that Enlight Media felt it left a bad taste.

Because this ticket subsidy is Tu Piaopiao spending the money, while the producers enjoy their share of the profits as usual — so it doesn't prevent Enlight Media from earning more, it's just Tu Piaopiao taking the loss.

Tu Piaopiao needs to seize the market, needs to pull people into buying tickets online — this is a path that must be taken.

Even if the Enlight Media representative has opinions about it not being their film, they have to hold it in — this is Fang Hong's Tu Piaopiao, not theirs.

(End of chapter)