Chapter 651

Previously, Liu Tianxian had endorsed Xiaomi; there were competing brands, but Xiaomi did not renew the contract after two years, as endorsements typically lasted two years, and non-renewal meant non-renewal.

Now Lei Bus himself endorses Xiaomi phones—he is the official spokesperson.

Liu Tianxian is no longer needed; back then, Xiaomi only used her because the market was immature and its promotional positioning unclear, and when Fang Hong happened to mention her, they hired her.

Now Xiaomi's market is mature, with established brand influence, and no one is more suitable than Lei Bus to endorse his own products.

Lei Bus is racing full-speed toward internet celebrity status, just like how he later promoted cars—he must appear publicly every day.

But Lei Bus wasn't like this at first; he didn't pursue internet celebrity status too aggressively, and Xiaomi still relied on scarcity marketing and value-for-money, which were Xiaomi's strengths.

It was only later, after netizens kept making funny videos of him and with Dong Dama's bet against him, that he was turned into an internet celebrity—Dong Dama was also turned into one.

That's why Lei Bus became what he is today.

Actually, this isn't good—it's a double-edged sword; consumers buy your product because of you, not because of its quality.

Once your persona collapses or your product fails, the backlash will be severe, just like with celebrities.

Fang Hong has always opposed turning himself into an internet celebrity to market products; he'd rather focus on the product itself—marketing and endorsements are what celebrities should do.

Playing your own role well is the best approach.

Just like the recent animated film, Inside Out, which is sweeping the box office across North America.

Yutu has been very low-key, and Fang Hong has been too—they haven't loudly promoted this as a Chinese animated film, completely unlike the approach taken with Big Hero 6.

The media has had almost no coverage, because Yutu released no announcements and didn't screen it domestically.

The reason, naturally, is that international politics have been shifting since this year; for Yutu to profit globally, ignoring these factors is impossible.

Inside Out earned $34.2 million on its first day in North America, $90.5 million over the weekend, and $135 million over seven days.

With an average of $8,667 per theater across 3,946 North American theaters, it's terrifying.

It set the record for Universal's highest opening-weekend box office.

Of course, it didn't surpass Disney's Frozen, but it defeated all competitors to claim the top spot in North American box office rankings.

This success gave Universal some clout in the animated film field, allowing it to establish a foothold and compete with Disney, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., and others.

For a long time, Universal's position in Hollywood's animated film industry has been weak, due to a lack of any notable representative works.

Disney, of course, dominates the animated film field absolutely; 20th Century Fox has Ice Age; Warner Bros. has The Lego Movie; Paramount has SpongeBob SquarePants.

Universal had no decent animated films at all.

Otherwise, it wouldn't have later acquired DreamWorks Animation as its animation studio.

Now Yutu only produces the animated film; how Universal distributes and operates it is entirely their own business—Yutu doesn't interfere.

And this film isn't purely Chinese; it's a co-production, since Yutu has a branch in Hollywood.

Outside North America, the UK earned $11.4 million in its first week; South Korea earned $10.6 million; Mexico earned $8.7 million; France earned $7.6 million; Japan earned $6.5 million.

Because release dates varied—some came out two or three days later, others a week later—the opening days differed.

Because opening days differed, some had two-day weeks, others three-day weeks—for example, if it opened on Friday, that week's box office counted only three days.

Despite this, global box office figures show Inside Out's first-week total reached $265 million—a performance impressive enough to dominate and envious to all.

According to international analytics firm GSA, if no unforeseen events occur, Inside Out's final box office should range between $650 million and $750 million.

The basis is stable box office performance in European and Asian markets, as the global second-week drop was around 42%.

If so, the second-week box office would exceed $400 million.

This prediction and performance surpass the box office of Big Hero 6, whose final international gross never reached $600 million.

Such a high box office is both good and bad.

The Los Angeles Times reported: "How Inside Out turned psychology into a box office goldmine."

The Guardian wrote: "A film that makes adults cry and think!"

The Times of India wrote: "Why Indian parents are taking their children to psychology classes!"

Major global media outlets have all covered this animated film, calling it an educational movie.

This is why Inside Out became a global sensation.

Seeing Yutu's second film explode in success, Zhang Hongsen sent Fang Hong a message: "Great progress—keep going!"

But this film isn't live-action; if it were live-action and had such a massive response, that would be excellent.

Live-action films represent Chinese faces and Chinese influence, and their core is Chinese culture.

Animated films, unless they depict traditional Chinese culture or ancient mythological tales, contribute little to promoting Chinese culture.

Because when people think of Chinese culture, they think of ancient things—later animated epics all revolve around traditional myths, with almost nothing modern.

In contrast, Blue Cat and Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf are wildly popular overseas, but the most sensational is The Shepherd's Whistle.

This animated film represents the pinnacle of ink-wash painting—it's a very old piece, telling the story of a shepherd boy and his ox.

Inside Out has elevated Yutu's capabilities, as overseas revenue includes not just box office but also merchandise and licensing rights, all of which are being gradually licensed and sold.

Toy and character licensing, plus clothing and daily-use products, plus video games and interactive content—combined, licensing fees have reached $159 million.

This is only temporary; ongoing merchandise and licensing rights will continue to generate income.

Streaming rights fees amount to $50 million.

DVD and TV rights haven't been released yet—they'll only come after the film leaves theaters.

Of course, there are other collaborations, such as McDonald's Happy Meal partnership, which launched children's meals featuring the film's characters.

An animated film has enormous potential for merchandise development.

Now that Yutu has money, it's still acquiring cinemas, slowly paying off the money owed to Orange Sky.

Previously, Shimao Circuit was acquired by Wanda; Yutu lost the bid, as both companies are real estate firms with resource exchanges.

Because Shimao intended to bundle properties with property management—this was Wanda's strength.

Even if Yutu wanted to acquire it, it would have to sell to a third party, and such a sale would certainly be a loss.

Yutu is targeting Shanghai Xingyi, which owns over seventy cinemas, all located in first- and second-tier commercial cities, priced around $3 billion.

Since they can't compete in the lower-tier theater chains, Jade Rabbit will just go after the expensive ones. The expensive ones have a high threshold — not many have that kind of capital, easily running into several billion. Even Wanda has to think twice.

Lao Wang Zong must know about Jade Rabbit's moves; it's impossible he doesn't. But he's helpless — he can't just compete for whatever the Principal has set his sights on.

"The Principal can't be held back anymore." Lao Wang Zong sighed, having also seen Inside Out's international results.

A 3-billion acquisition! He too has to weigh it carefully, thinking about whether to compete.

Don't listen to his bragging about a hundred million being a small goal, five hundred million being nothing. Once the unit "hundred million" hits double digits, that's an astronomical figure — you can't just open your mouth and produce it.

These real estate companies are different from Jade Rabbit. They don't have high profit margins — they're squeezed from above. Their profit margin is only a few percent, never exceeding ten percent.

Moreover, these companies do everything — a mountain of things to handle. Their cash flow is tied up; otherwise, they wouldn't be carrying debts of hundreds of billions.

But Jade Rabbit doesn't carry much baggage. All its business segments are limited to content production — just make good content. You could say this is Jade Rabbit's specialty.

Although content has long cycles and slow returns, as long as one piece explodes, the profit can outshine a listed company — let alone if multiple film, TV, and animation works explode together.

As long as there's continuous content output, the ancillary benefits attached to it are enormous.

We've heard of artist management companies going bankrupt, but rarely of film and TV production companies going bankrupt. Even Huayi, which later became a mess, never said it was going under.

That's because they have their copyrights holding them up — all those accumulated film and TV copyrights earning them money every year just lying there.

This is the brilliance of cultural content. As long as you're not particularly self-destructive, don't have wild ambitions, don't go on about striving and struggling — make one good work, and as long as you have some copyrights, you can eat off them for life.

A song sung well can feed you for life; a novel written well can feed you for life.

While Inside Out was raking in box office internationally, and while this drama was still being filmed, Fang Hong was also working to strip Da Baobei of her endorsements.

Since Fang Hong wasn't busy, he could go all-out against Huayi. First, he pulled Da Heiniu off Run Brother and spread dirt about Chen Chichi being a scumbag, tanking his commercial value.

Now it's stripping Da Baobei of her endorsements. Without much work to show, a female star can only rely on endorsements.

That's just how Da Baobei is — her acting is unbearable; she survives on Variety shows and endorsements.

And Fang Hong once again acted as Liu Tianxian's agent, securing a few endorsements for her. Negotiating with Huawei's marketing department was quite simple.

He only said one sentence and sealed the deal: "Pick out one person in the entertainment industry whose image, temperament, fame, and overall quality can match Liu Tianxian."

That line was a bit arrogant, but since the target was the Principal, it was understandable — a man bragging about his own wife is politically correct.

Chang'e Jade Rabbit and Huawei are two different fields; there's no question of who's better.

Huawei is Chang'e's advertiser; Huawei is also Chang'e's service provider. They simply cooperate in different fields — there's no higher or lower.

Of course, what Fang Hong said was true — in the entertainment industry, there really is no one who can match Liu Tianxian across the board.

And on the road to stardom, as long as the Principal is willing to back Liu Tianxian, she won't run into any major problems.

In every respect, Da Baobei and Liu Tianxian simply can't be compared. If you can pick Liu Tianxian first, you'd definitely pick Liu Tianxian.

It's just that Liu Tianxian is a bit expensive, so she wasn't considered!

Then both sides compromised: Liu Tianxian wouldn't make appearances — providing her likeness or shooting ads would suffice. If the results were good after the second year of cooperation, she'd make appearances then.

In other words, Liu Tianxian wouldn't show up for now, lowering the price. Besides, Liu Tianxian wasn't suited for attending brand events anyway.

Essentially, they'd use her likeness — have her shoot promotional posters and ad films. That works too.

The endorsement contract with Huawei would be signed in November. After Fang Hong finished negotiating, he handed it over to the Red Star Fort team to handle the specifics.

It went smoothly — no obstacles.

After all, Fang Hong is at this level — such a big boss. If he went to Huawei, he'd be seated at Yu Dazui's table. Negotiating a commercial endorsement for Liu Tianxian was a piece of cake.

As for Da Baobei's management team on the other side, they naturally struck out.

They had originally assumed this was just normal endorsement competition — a bit of online bashing, a few curses at Liu Tianxian would do.

But the already-negotiated Pizza Hut was snatched away by Nazha; then Huawei was snatched by Liu Tianxian; Chow Tai Fook is competing against Liu Tianxian.

The fiercest competition is over Dior and Dove — one a luxury brand, the other a stylish mass-market brand, both very beneficial for celebrities.

And these two brands are competing against Zhao Xiaodao!

Zhao Xiaodao, who has been blazing hot over the past two years thanks to her works, naturally has the ability to compete with Da Baobei for brand endorsements.

And with Jade Rabbit backing her, she has quite an advantage. Da Baobei, meanwhile, is running her own studio, being her own boss.

Of course, she has Huang Jiaozhu escorting her.

This continuous, multi-pronged brand endorsement competition can be said to be a siege against Da Baobei, and it made Da Baobei's management team realize something was wrong.

There's a chance the Principal is targeting them.

No need to guess — the recent rivalry between Huayi and Jade Rabbit has been making waves all over the industry.

And Da Baobei just signed a bet agreement with Huayi, so going after Da Baobei is perfectly normal.

Da Baobei had no choice but to seek Huang Jiaozhu's help: "Hubby, the Principal has been coming after me nonstop — you have to think of something for me!"

"This is a tough one!" Huang Jiaozhu was also in a bind.

Clearly the Principal is aiming at Huayi; his wife just got caught up in it. So this is hard to handle — she's not the main target.

Not only is she not the main target, she's an accomplice.

Asking the Principal to let go of an "accomplice to the crime" — unless the Principal is far too kind, which is impossible.

"If you don't help me, all my endorsements will be gone. What did I marry you for? Isn't it so you could protect me? If you can't even protect your own wife, what kind of man are you?"

Da Baobei laid on the coquettish act mixed with PUA, leaving Huang Jiaozhu dizzy and turned around.

(End of chapter)