Chapter 266: An Eye for an Eye

After 'Now You See Me' wrapped filming, it didn't end—it entered post-production, which was also very troublesome.

Not only was editing intricate, but many special effects shots needed to be created, making it extremely time-consuming.

Fang Hong definitely had to oversee it; otherwise, if the result deviated from what he wanted, it would be problematic.

Fundamentally, this movie was still made for foreign audiences.

Besides this matter, Fang Hong and Chen Zhixi discussed expanding production volume; previously they'd formed a crowd-sourced actor group, and now the number of applicants had exceeded a thousand.

It was still increasing, and in the future, it would only grow more, not decrease.

Assigning work to so many extras wasn't easy; even 'Now You See Me,' such a massive production, had at most six or seven hundred people at its peak.

The rest were special effects staff and behind-the-scenes personnel.

At least two such large productions would be needed to fully staff them, but now Yu Tu simply didn't have a production team that large.

Shooting one film with an investment over a hundred million was already impressive—how could they shoot so many? Money didn't allow it, and capability didn't allow it.

There were now three paths: first, expand television production volume, take control of the production model, which would not only absorb internal staff but also external temporary workers.

Previously, it was semi-outsourced—bringing in outside crews and hiring directors—but now they would produce everything themselves.

Of course, directors would still be hired from outside.

Relying solely on films wasn't enough; Yu Tu's support staff were growing rapidly—not even counting production staff, the post-production team alone numbered over a thousand.

Why was Huayi so powerful? Because they were also dominant in television, having laid their groundwork years ago.

'Soldiers Sortie,' 'Dwelling Narrowness,' 'The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber,' 'The Deer and the Cauldron'—all were their massive television hits.

Years ago, why didn't Zhang Dahu associate with Liu Tianxian? Because Zhang Dahu had defected to Huayi and become one of their shareholders.

After Liu Tianxian's falling-out with Huayi, she could only choose one side.

At the time, China's film and television environment, with both film and TV booming, allowed Huayi to effectively impose a soft blacklist.

If they casually leaked a bit of information, inviting you to co-produce a film or show—would you take the money or not?

Which star wasn't envious of Huayi's resources?

Moreover, Huayi had also been powerful in music; Yu Quan had once been their artist, as had Zhang Jingying.

This company was essentially one that dominated film, television, and music simultaneously.

But now, Fang Hong had emerged as a wildcard!

So Huayi's power was immense—not just in film, but also in television—and it couldn't be toppled by Fang Hong striking once or twice.

Yu Tu could only be called a regional warlord, and even that was only because it had United States backing; without United States backing, it would be a minor player.

It wasn't enough to have made a few big hits and declare yourself a giant.

Happy Mahua made so many big hits, yet Ning Hao, Chen Sicheng, Jia Ling—all later started their own companies, making films that earned far more than now—who dares call themselves a giant?

Huayi had deep roots; even if it was in decline, it could still survive on copyrights and investing in variety shows.

Later, its stock price soared to nearly a hundred billion—not just because of hot money flooding in, but because they had also entered variety shows.

Huayi participated in investing in 'Keep Running,' 'Ace vs Ace,' 'Idol Producer,' and others.

Getting off track—second path: enter variety show production; variety shows already showed signs of taking off and were quite promising.

If they learned from South Korea and produced outdoor variety shows like 'Keep Running,' they could absorb many reserve personnel.

At least you need people to carry equipment, do manual labor.

Fang Hong had already contacted Li Meijing, asking her to help buy the full copyright of 'Keep Running.'

You couldn't just copy blindly; if you copied foreign shows, domestic people would copy you and say, 'I copied from South Korea,' leaving you speechless.

Buying it outright meant Fang Hong, as a domestic enterprise, wouldn't be so easily bullied.

The third path: open a new arena—web dramas!

Web dramas weren't mature yet, because 4G hadn't been widely deployed, wireless networks were still in the 'borrowed internet' phase, and not every household had access.

Also, Fang Hong wanted to build his own video platform—he already had Bilibili.

He just needed to continue developing and refining it, adjusting operations, optimizing the interface, and so on.

"These are the television projects—all planned and discussed in advance," Chen Zhixi pushed a file over.

Fang Hong picked it up, flipped through it: "'Let's Get Married' is injecting 49 ads? That's ridiculous."

"High investment, no product placement—where's your money coming from?" Chen Zhixi retorted.

'Now You See Me' alone drained over a hundred million, plus investments in other TV and film projects—hundreds of millions gone.

Fang Hong had no reply; overseas funding never came, they were living on loans, working themselves to exhaustion for the banks.

Of course, the company account still had funds—otherwise operations couldn't continue.

'Let's Get Married' had a seven-million-yuan investment, a project co-produced with CCTV, to be broadcast on CCTV—that was the guarantee.

The bulk was funded by Yu Tu; CCTV only held a share!

The director was Liu Jiang—the same person who introduced Fang Hong to Director Ouyang during Liu Tianxian's "same" incident.

It was essentially repaying a favor.

"How much did the product placement bring in?" he asked.

"So far, 21.6 million," Chen Zhixi said.

"That's nothing—someone else placed 20 ads and made sixty million," Fang Hong said, referring to Feng Kuzi's film 'If You Are the One 2.'

'Personalized Customization' was even wilder—eighty million from product placement, and it broke even before release.

Other directors didn't have Huayi's lack of decency.

"Television still differs from film; films market through ads, trailers, and information before release, gaining far greater influence than TV dramas," Chen Zhixi casually explained.

Fang Hong knew this—film screenings were concentrated, allowing massive exposure within days or weeks.

TV dramas aired over months.

Currently, TV dramas hadn't yet reached the Traffic Era, where they could rival films in commercial value.

By then, everyone had a phone.

At this stage, films have higher commercial value, and prestige has always been high. Fang Hong looked at the other film and TV projects — "Men Di" was adapted from a novel; the 300 million copyright had been swept up in the original plan.

"Lost Love in 33 Days" adapted into a TV series — the copyright already belonged to Jade Rabbit.

"Fleet of Time" was also owned by Jade Rabbit.

So far these are the TV dramas set up; aside from "Let's Get Married" being a big investment, the others are all relatively small.

For actors, use Jade Rabbit's whenever possible — for example, "Let's Get Married" gave the male lead to Guo Jinfei, "Men Di" gave the male lead to Zhou Yiwei.

Both of these actors' management business is now with Jade Rabbit.

Besides these projects to be filmed, with the addition of "Legend of Lu Zhen," "Star From Another World," and "The Heirs," Jade Rabbit can also be considered to have formally entered the TV drama field.

Currently Jade Rabbit has only aired one show, "Beijing Love Story," and that was Chen Sicheng seeking out Chen Zhixi on his own.

This counts as Jade Rabbit formally planning to enter the TV drama field; before, they only filmed whenever they felt like it.

Chen Zhixi leaned back in her chair, her chest visibly full — it seemed she'd been developed: "How do you plan to handle that matter from before?"

She was referring to the incident with the extras causing trouble.

"Of course retaliate — not to reciprocate is discourteous. They've come knocking on our door; if I don't make some kind of gesture, won't that damage my Principal's reputation?" Fang Hong laughed.

Chen Zhixi smiled, then asked: "So how do you plan to retaliate?"

"I haven't decided yet, wait until I think it through. Anyway, the New Year Slot and Spring Festival Slot are coming up soon — plenty of opportunities." Fang Hong wasn't in a rush.

"Spring Festival Slot?" Chen Zhixi was puzzled.

"Right, Spring Festival Slot. Xing Ye's 'Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons' should be scheduled for around that slot — of course, that's my guess." Fang Hong corrected himself.

This film was co-invested by Huayi and Alibaba!

Moreover, this film can be said to have kicked off the inaugural year of the Neidi Spring Festival Slot — Xing Ye is still awesome.

"That film has Alibaba's investment, real, genuine investment — you mustn't act recklessly." Chen Zhixi reminded him.

If it's like last time, throwing money at ticket subsidies, then Alibaba isn't as easy to bully as Huayi.

They have nothing in excess except money!

Rabbit Ticket isn't exactly Tencent's own flesh and blood after all, and Tencent has also taken a stake in Huayi — it's hard to say they'd put up that much money to help.

"I know." Fang Hong was of course aware.

Those two, for Propaganda Department purposes, even held some "Unbounded Peak Dialogue" event at a university.

But they only cooperated on that one film, and never worked together again — probably fell out over money.

Huayi and Xing Ye also had a falling out over eighty million.

Everyone loves money; saying you don't is bullshit.

………

Recently, the third quarter of "Hero Glory" has been over for more than a month; since launching in South Korea over three months ago, the game's momentum has been unstoppable.

It quickly surpassed both "Aion" and "League of Legends" — looks like Korean players prefer the brightly-colored art style of "Hero Glory."

And the hero designs also match their aesthetic.

The current "League of Legends" aesthetic is terrible — like those skeleton faces, ugly as hell.

"League of Legends" art style changed when it was fully acquired by Tencent — only then did it look much better.

Jade Rabbit started out making films, is also developing Animation Department work, has tons of art staff — their aesthetic can accommodate not just Asia, but also Ouzhou!

Now "Hero Glory" has over 45 million registered users globally, with concurrent online users exceeding two million — and this is excluding China; you could say development has been fast.

Meanwhile, "Dota 2" is still in testing phase, not yet officially launched.

It's basically "League of Legends" and "Hero Glory" splitting the world — which one pulls the other down depends on operations going forward.

"League of Legends" has a big flaw: when they patch, they overhaul the entire equipment and system, making veteran players feel like they're playing a brand-new game — completely unable to get familiar with it.

Whereas "Hero Glory" changes slowly, gradually letting players adapt — there are adjustments, there's freshness, all within an acceptable range. Unless a player hasn't logged in for a very long time, the sense of familiarity doesn't fade.

The gaming division's financial report shows that, excluding China, global sales are 96.13 million USD.

Of which South Korea contributed 19.65 million USD — fierce!

The rest is basically contributed by Ouzhou and other regions; Southeast Asia's contribution is a bit low — only a few hundred thousand.

It's as if "Hero Glory" isn't popular in that region.

96.13 million USD in revenue, only 28.83 million in profit; Jade Rabbit's share is 8.64 million USD, 60.54 million in profit.

Not bad — this year the money was originally spent on developing various language versions, optimizing the client, cracking down on cheats, laying out servers, network maintenance, and building the customer service team.

"Hero Glory" has a dedicated global customer service team, with the goal of providing good service.

And global player competitive tournaments also need promotion and providing services to players — all of this costs money.

This profit has already exceeded expectations — keep in mind Fang Hong never planned to make money these two years, putting all extra funds into maintenance and construction.

Since there's profit, divert 50 million to the Bilibili department — first, do well on "Hero Glory" livestreaming services; second, prepare to handle incoming traffic.

Because coming up, "Star From Another World" will also broadcast on Bilibili.

Bilibili is a video service — once traffic surges, it will crash the platform's systems and servers.

You're watching just fine, then it collapses.

To solve this problem, aside from Data Center, the only option is technical optimization and upgrades.

October 20th is the start time for "Hero Glory"'s first global Grand Finals.

The venue is Shanghai Oriental Sports Center.

This is the first domestic gaming esports competition held there — everything is still in the exploratory stage.

Li Min had arrived at the Dongfang Sports Center esports venue over a month ago, leading the referee team and technical team to make arrangements.

Fang Hong and Liu Tianxian also set off for Shanghai.

(End of chapter)