Chapter 34: Want to Take Advantage? No Way! (Seeking Reads)

Meanwhile, numerous film companies in Hong Kong were also pondering the secret to the success of *Legend of the Northeast Hunter*.

The ratio of investment to return was simply too exaggerated.

The production cost of *Legend of the Northeast Hunter* did not exceed one million, yet it achieved a box office of 13 million.

For current blockbusters with box office figures exceeding 30 million, there was indeed a significant gap, but it was still very profitable.

After deducting the 17.5% entertainment tax, the remaining revenue all went to the cinema circuit and the production side.

Let's put it this way: excluding the box office share distributed to Wu Feng, the Yindu Institution's overall income exceeded 8 million.

It was just a low-budget film, and from filming to release, it didn't take more than three months.

Earning 8 million in profit in such a short time—which film company wouldn't be envious?

What surprised other film companies the most was that because of the novel serialization, published books, and comics, there was no need to spend heavily on promotion; *Mong Kok News* covered it all.

And this was only because the Shuangnan Circuit wasn't a mainstream circuit. If it had been screened on the Golden Princess or Golden Harvest circuits, the box office would likely have been several million higher.

Who doesn't like shiny Hong Kong dollars?

Whether it was Cinema City or Golden Harvest, they all wanted to replicate such a success story.

It was only D&B Films, which was using movies to promote luxury watches and filming urban fashion movies, that wasn't interested in the success model of *Legend of the Northeast Hunter*.

Other small and medium-sized film companies were also restless. The tactic Hong Kong filmmakers were best at was plagiarism and imitation, capable of killing off a genre film in a short time.

Not to mention, Wu Feng's "big entertainment linkage" maneuver truly shocked the bosses of Hong Kong film companies: they hadn't expected movies could be played like this!

Especially Cinema City and Golden Harvest, which held the copyrights to many classic masterpieces; their eyes were green with envy.

Any movie with a certain box office foundation could basically be adapted into a novel and comic following Wu Feng's maneuver, and with the movie's promotion as a base, sales wouldn't be bad.

Just a simple market survey revealed that this was also a gold mine measured in millions of Hong Kong dollars!

As for whether it would impact the existing power structure of the Hong Kong novel and comic circles, what did that have to do with them?

Look at Yulang International; they went public just by selling comics, and their status in the financial circle was higher than Cinema City and Golden Harvest. Where could you even argue with that?

Cha Xiansheng was even more incredible; could *Ming Pao* have gone public without the support of novels?

It could only be said that the income models of film companies in the past were too thin, and the peripheral business was handled too poorly.

However, when they prepared to replicate the success model of *Legend of the Northeast Hunter*, they suddenly ran into trouble.

In the Golden Harvest boss's office, Zou Wenhuai fiddled with the playing cards in his hand, speechless.

If you looked closely, you would see that the back of the playing cards was the official poster for *Legend of the Northeast Hunter*.

The front was a photo of various specialty animals from the Northeast!

The Big and Small Jokers were a Northeast Tiger and a Black Bear, and the rest of the cards featured unique animals like Northeast wild boars and roe deer.

Beside him, He Guanchang held several posters, all of beautiful snowy scenery from the Northeast, shot quite beautifully!

The two were speechless for a moment, not knowing what to say.

"Imitating it is probably going to be quite difficult, especially with these peripheral images as a comparison. If we can't produce promotional posters of the same standard, it won't just be a matter of being inferior!"

"The mountains and rivers in the Mainland are magnificent; Hong Kong doesn't have an environment to compare. If we go to Southeast Asia to shoot, that's fine, but we can't film many movies!"

"Then it can only be this way. I didn't expect that kid Wu Feng to be so cunning!"

As the behind-the-scenes boss of *Mong Kok News* and the investor in *Legend of the Northeast Hunter*, how could Wu Feng's actions be hidden from the big shots of the Hong Kong film industry? His name was naturally not unfamiliar to them.

At this moment, the playing cards and special posters held by the two Golden Harvest bosses were naturally Wu Feng's "anti-counterfeiting" measures, giving those film company bosses who wanted to follow the trend a massive headache.

When the crew was filming *Legend of the Northeast Hunter* in the Mainland, Wu Feng specifically requested the director to capture the local beautiful scenery in the film.

Coupled with peripherals like playing cards and posters made from photos of local specialty animals, he directly set an invisible standard for this type of film.

Movie fans already had a reference standard; if subsequent films didn't reach it, they would be cursing.

If any film company wanted to reach that standard and went directly to the Mainland to film, Wu Feng would accept it as a contribution to increasing Mainland foreign exchange income.

Similar discussions were also happening at Cinema City.

Boss Lei greatly appreciated Wu Feng's ability and methods, and the idea of recruiting him became even more intense.

His ambition was huge, and naturally, he wanted to earn more money!

It was already the beginning of 1987, and Wu Feng's recent days had been quite leisurely.

After more than a month of adjustments, he had transferred all the unreliable nightclubs and "Four-Nine" (low-level gang members) under his control to Tangge, letting Tangge, the boss, manage them personally.

It wasn't that he was truly generous, but these nightclubs really had huge safety hazards!

Not only was the environment poor, but the bosses themselves had significant problems, often resulting in "honey traps."

If you said there were no tricks involved, Wu Feng wouldn't believe it even if he died.

There were also those secretly selling pills. Wu Feng couldn't tolerate sand in his eyes; once discovered, he immediately reported them to the police secretly.

But there were too many guys willing to take risks; one was taken in, and the next immediately popped up, and they were vaguely connected to the behind-the-scenes bosses. Wu Feng had quietly used harsh methods, but the effect wasn't great, so he simply chose to ignore it.

Some venues were truly hiding dirt and filth; he felt disgusted just hearing about them, so naturally, he didn't want to touch them at all.

Tangge was naturally overjoyed and followed Wu Feng's suggestion to send those "Four-Nine" members with huge hidden dangers out as cannon fodder to fight for territory.

Some people were truly rotten to the bone, genuine scum and villains. Not cleaning them out not only posed huge risks but also greatly affected the stability within the society.

These guys were mostly old-school "Four-Nine" from the era of the former boss, Zhong Ye, and they were all very slippery.

Tangge's confidants wanted to move up, and they had to firmly control core resources, so naturally, they had to resolve all these eyesores.

The underworld was so cruel; sometimes you didn't even know how you were unlucky.

The fighting over at Xintian Street was quite intense. Tangge personally directed the destruction of two small societies and occupied half the street's territory, but then it couldn't proceed further.

It wasn't that the society holding the other half of the street was very powerful, but the other side's identity was hard to deal with.

A "Red Pole" (high-ranking fighter) under the United Society had power on par with Tangge's, but the problem was that the United Society was a first-class society backing them.

Although underworld rumors said "United produces chicken essence" (referring to their focus on prostitution), and they were quite low in combat power among first-class societies, they still weren't someone Hong Yi could provoke at this time.

Tangge was very annoyed by this, but Wu Feng didn't take this United Red Pole seriously.

Wanting to kill or cripple them was simple; the key was that the aftermath was hard to handle.

Besides, when fighting for the Xintian Street territory, Tangge didn't have the slightest intention of letting Wu Feng make a move.

Wu Feng had always been stationed in the rear, and even the society's collection meeting at the end of December 1986 was presided over by him personally. Some things were just understood by everyone.

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 35 =====