Chapter 1148: Revising the Theater-Circuit Plan; The Fangs of Capital!

On the first day of Spring Festival, the national box office totaled 1.81 million yuan; yet on the first day of last year's Lunar New Year, that figure was over one billion!

The contrast between these two sets of data is nothing short of night and day, and it plainly means that the entire film industry has already entered a state of eating through its reserves.

The television drama industry, with its complete shutdown of filming and production, is essentially the same — the whole industry is sinking into the ground.

Just imagine — if this special situation keeps going, even for only half a year, what will become of the entire film and television industry?

One must remember that the rank-and-file workers in the entire Chinese-language film and television industry number well over a million — where will their wages come from?

Let's not even mention whether there are a million families behind them, but several hundred thousand families certainly exist — how are those families supposed to survive and live?

Without question, the industry simply doesn't have enough money to let so many people sit around eating through their savings — not even for half a year!

"Big companies and big capital are still fine — grit their teeth, bleed a little, and they can barely hold on; but small and mid-sized companies in the industry basically have no chance of lasting half a year. The odds are they'll all go under…"

Listening to Wang Wang Changtian's lament, Lin Nan nodded in full agreement.

But he wasn't worried about his own company running into trouble, because the interest alone on the money sitting in the company's accounts was already barely enough to feed every employee.

"What about Enlight?" Lin Nan asked with a smile.

"No problem — after all, it's a listed company worth tens of billions." Wang Wang Changtian chuckled, his tone carrying confidence.

Before Lin Nan could tease further, Big Lao Wang's tone shifted, and he ribbed him again: "But you, on the other hand, had better be careful."

"What do you mean by that?" Lin Nan didn't catch on for a moment.

"Last year, the box-office share earnings for Lin Nan Pictures for the whole year — you left them all sitting in the company's accounts, right?"

"Mm, that's right, all on the books. I didn't even withdraw the year-before-last's earnings — deposited them as a fixed-term unit deposit, haha."

"That's exactly why I'm warning you — you need to be careful. Your cash flow is way too abundant. Setting aside however many hundreds of millions are sitting in Lin Nan Pictures' accounts, just the money at Crystal Pictures alone…

In a situation where the entire film and television industry is going to be eating through its reserves for the long haul, you've got several hundred billion in cash sitting right there in plain sight on the books;

How many people across the industry, from upstream to downstream, do you think will be eyeing you? Borrowing money, financing, shamelessly pestering you… there might even be companies from other industries coming to curry favor with you!"

Lin Nan was stunned — this moment was undoubtedly a bucket of cold water poured over his head, a delayed realization! "I get it. From today on, I am Lin · Grandet · Nan."

"Haha, as long as you're mentally prepared. Then next, let's talk about the most important thing."

The first half of Wang Wang Changtian's sentence was still laughter, but by the second half, a certain "sinister" note had crept in.

The scene was the spitting image of two villains sitting together plotting how to ruin other people.

"Go ahead, I'm listening."

"How long do you think this situation will last?"

"It definitely won't be short."

"I think so too! I bet within a year there's absolutely no way the storm will clear — it'll probably take even longer. After all, right now the whole world is in the middle of a storm, and it's still on the upswing…"

"So?"

"On a large scale, every industry will take a heavy hit. On a small scale, just take our own industry… Lin Nan, the entire domestic theater-circuit industry will absolutely collapse completely — within half a year at the very least, a huge batch of cinemas will die off.

Before, we only had our eyes on Wanda, but now it's different — we can look at every theater chain and cinema in the country; they're all food on the plate.

Of course, the time to start eating has to be chosen carefully. We can't take over during the worst of the external environment, even if it's at a smash-bottom price.

And I can say with one hundred percent certainty that when the time comes, our two companies can still pick and choose… in the end, I can also fully screen and reorganize for Enlight a theater circuit that meets expectations — the very best of the best."

Hearing Wang Wang Changtian's earth-shaking tone, Lin Nan couldn't help but swallow hard. "Wang Dong, you haven't been sitting at home mulling this over all these days, have you?"

"That's right, I've thought it over carefully for several days. In fact, to say something a bit unpleasant — the current situation out there has an extremely powerful amplifying effect on our two companies' theater-circuit industry layout, and the longer it lasts, the greater the amplification!"

"Although what you're saying is true, it's really not pleasant to hear at a time like this."

"So I'll only mention it to you once, and I won't bring it up again after this.

Lin Nan, our two companies shouldn't make a move this year. Even if some theater chains are on the verge of collapse, don't touch them — because their backbones haven't completely snapped yet, that last breath in their chests hasn't fully dissipated, the timing isn't ripe…

Let's take another look next year. We'll definitely see a huge batch of smash-bottom offers, we'll see cabbage prices everywhere… we can acquire a large batch of premium cinemas and theaters at the lowest prices, including the property and land… and after we get these cinemas, I can even keep them closed, not staff them, just wait… wait for the storm to pass…"

At this moment, Lin Nan was completely dumbfounded. Wang Wang Changtian ought to be strung up on a lamppost.

"Mm, I agree with your proposal." Lin Nan nodded in assent — he himself ought to be strung up on a lamppost too!

After hanging up the phone, Liu Liu Yifei beside him finally muttered to her own big director, still shaken: "That Wang Dong just now — I almost didn't recognize him. Even his tone was a bit scary."

Lin Nan gave Liu Liu Qianqian a smile and soothed her: "This is the real Wang Wang Changtian — the big capital of the film and television industry, a meat-eating wolf!"

"Maybe it's because I'm used to seeing Wang Dong all smiles and chuckles, I forgot he's still a big-capital boss." Miss Liu reflected for a moment, still not quite adjusted.

"At a time like this, as long as someone isn't single-mindedly profiting from disaster, isn't oppressing ordinary people, they're already a good person." As he spoke, Lin Nan also flipped through his phone contacts again and called Yue Jun.

"Lin Dao, you've seen the box-office news too?" A dozen or so seconds later, Yue Jun's chuckling voice came through.

"I saw it. But I'm calling you about something else."

"You're not about to dump work on me, are you? Lin Dao, today's the second day of the Lunar New Year — it's dangerous out there, one careless step and you could get hauled off…"

Yue Jun couldn't help but crack a joke. Both Lin Nan and Liu Liu Yifei were tickled into barely suppressed laughter.

"You can have a good New Year at home, and you don't need to carry any work matters in your heart at all." Lin Nan laughed and cut him off.

"What do you mean?"

"Weren't you the one who kept insisting on having a proper New Year first, and then gritting your teeth to push forward with the theater-circuit construction after the holiday?

Now you don't need to grit your teeth, and you don't need to carry things in your heart through Spring Festival — stay home and keep your wife, kids, and parents company.

Look, the situation out there is what it is — the construction of the Shanhe theater circuit can only be temporarily shelved. At least for this year, there's no need to proceed…"

……

In the afternoon, led by Beijing Film Academy, the Central Academy of Drama, Shanghai Theatre Academy, and Communication University of China, more than twenty key art schools across the country issued announcements one after another, officially postponing the arts examination dates;

As for the specific arts examination dates, further announcements would be made later depending on the situation…

At the same time, Old Jiang's call also came through.

The graduate school entrance exam results would come out in late February; even without any policy favoritism, Liu Liu Yifei would definitely be fine.

As for the graduate school interview date, the school would tentatively set it for late March; barring any surprises, it should also be an online interview, but it would be screen-recorded in its entirety.

This was undoubtedly good news, because in Miss Liu's joking words:

She no longer had to risk going out, nor worry about drawing excessive attention from other students and the media during interviews;

After all, unlike written exams where one could wear a mask and a hat, a normal interview required showing one's face, didn't it? Now that it had switched to online interviews, it was simply too considerate and humanized.

The next morning, as countless people in the country opened their eyes, they saw a sensational global news headline topping the Weibo hot search.

How to describe its sensational impact? It was that everyone in the world who loved the sport of basketball had fallen silent.

How many people were in this group? Definitely over 1 billion! And almost all of them knew one person, a legendary NBA superstar—Kobe Bryant.

That's right, in the early hours of today in the country, this global sports star died in a plane crash.

Although Lin Nan also felt regret for him, since he too loved the sport of basketball, he did not, like the vast number of domestic celebrities, rush to repost on Weibo or use heart-wrenching words... because it was inappropriate, he couldn't do it!

Under these current terrible circumstances, so many people were leaving in pain every day in the country, including many contributors fighting on the front lines... yet no one saw them weeping bitterly over this?

Instead, they rode the wave of a legendary superstar they had never even contacted, each one putting on a more dramatic show; they even made a grand public fuss posting on Weibo, afraid of missing out on this traffic? It was truly speechless, appearing ridiculous and ironic.

"Just one thousand, I think Brother Jackie Chan and Brother Hua and others are at that number. Hmm, in the name of the two of us, you go coordinate it today, run it through the company accounts..."

When Lin Nan came out of the study, Liu Liu Yifei and Watching Shu Chang were each on the phone. Currently, many in the circle were donating, so naturally their own family couldn't fall behind, could they?

Standing on the stairs, Lin Nan quietly watched them finish their calls. Hongxing Yu would donate ten million, Watching Shu Chang's studio would put out two million... it seemed top-tier female stars were roughly at that number, around one or two million.

"Changchang?" Lin Nan hesitated a moment, then spoke up.

"What is it?" Watching Shu Chang looked up at Lin Nan, and Liu Liu Yifei looked over too.

"Did you cash out all the shares of Tudou?"

Hearing Lin Nan's question, Watching Shu Chang chuckled and nodded sheepishly, "I told Liu Liu Qianqian about it before."

"Yes, she made over two small goals," Liu Liu Yifei said with a smile, nodding.

"You can buy some more recently, not too much, try to keep a low profile. Guangxi's stock is also fine, but not as good as Tudou..."

Lin Nan murmured as if sleepwalking, then went out the door on his own. It was snowing outside; although a bit cold, the scenery was quite nice.

In the living room, Watching Shu Chang looked at Liu Liu Yifei with sparkling eyes, somewhat surprised but uncertain: "Your husband, my brother... is he giving me inside information?"

"Shh~~"

Liu Liu Yifei held up a finger like a green onion stem in front of her lips, winked her right eye at her best friend; a cunning smile was on her face as she whispered softly, "Low profile, low profile."

Time moved to the 28th, the fourth day of the Lunar New Year; strictly speaking, the Spring Festival holiday had only a few days left and would end soon.

But everyone clearly understood that given the severe situation outside, returning to normal work and starting operations was completely impossible.

All industries could only continue to eat through their savings, struggle on, or go bankrupt and close; yet even if they struggled on, most companies in the industry would likely end up closing their doors anyway.

"Companies in the circle have already started going bankrupt; within just one day today, 16 film and television companies issued deregistration announcements, and they were all legitimate production companies, not shell companies for holding money or passing accounts."

While Xing Aina handed the final draft of the script for "My People, My Homeland" to Ning Hao, she also spoke seriously about the situation outside.

"16? That's just the beginning, not many. The number of bankruptcies per day afterwards, I estimate, will at least double. With no hope for cinema lines to resume work, some listed companies with thin foundations in the industry will even be teetering on the edge of delisting..."

Ning Hao muttered while drawing storyboards. That's right, even though danger lurked everywhere outside, the project "My People, My Homeland" could not be affected or delayed.

Now it all depended on luck; he only hoped his luck would be better after joining the crew later, not getting infected like the "Under the Cliff" crew.

"If things go on like this, only big companies will survive."

"No need to sigh; everyone is currently just looking out for themselves. Just being able to survive is already quite good.

By the way, send a notice to the company employee group later, telling them they don't need to start work according to the return-to-work time in the pre-holiday document... safety comes first, wages will be paid as usual;

Fortunately, we don't have many employees; if we were like Lin Nan, with several hundred or nearly a thousand employees to support under the banner, I'd vomit blood..."

"You're dreaming quite a bit? There probably aren't that many employees even in your dreams?

You need to understand, although Lin Nan has many employees and high pressure, he has the full confidence to support them. If your company account also had several billion, would you worry?

Besides, the more people you employ right now, the more policy benefits the authorities give, fiscal subsidies or tax reductions..." Xing Aina teased, unable to hold back her laughter.

"Fine, fine, we can't compare to him; he's just a big dog landlord, should be on the utility pole or streetlight."

"Here, remember to notify Huanxi as well, tell them to submit the script for review on the first day the bureau resumes work on February 1st; earlier is better than later." Ning Hao cursed while smiling.

"Hmm, I'll notify them together later. By the way, there's another thing I need to tell you." After agreeing, Xing Aina suddenly became serious again.

"What is it?"

"Dong Ping and Xu Zheng are probably buying water army."

"What did you say?" Ning Hao could hardly believe what he heard, "What are the two of them buying water army for?"

"Isn't it about the 'Lost in Russia' thing?

Right now, the internet has started a large-scale campaign to set the rhythm, saying Xu Zheng, Huanxi, and 'Lost in Russia' are the weak side, pioneers breaking the traditional cinema film screening model, conscientious practitioners letting everyone see free cinema blockbusters...

Saying the blockade by the cinema side is bullying the powerful, only thinking of making money, completely disregarding the high risks to ordinary people in the current environment...

Judging by this, Xu Zheng and Dong Ping probably want to gain as much goodwill from ordinary people as possible, to have a basic support and market leverage to resist the blockade later."

Hearing this, Ning Hao instantly felt a headache, blurted out a curse: "Are these two people's brains burned out? Do they really want to go down this path to the end!"

On the morning of the 29th, in the small group, Luo Jin announced good news to everyone: he and his wife were going into early seclusion like Lin Nan and Liu Liu Yifei three months ago, starting to wait for delivery.

It had to be admitted that at this time, moving into a hospital delivery room, even a private hospital or a high-end ward in a public hospital, the pregnant woman would absolutely be very anxious.

And Luo Jin was obviously man enough, responsible enough; he resolutely moved in with Tang Yan.

Sure enough, in less than half a minute, the group became completely lively. Everyone started betting and placing wagers on whether it would be a boy or a girl.

"Zhu Zhu Yawen, what's the situation over at the 'Under the Cliff' crew now?"

"What situation could there be? Eating and sleeping in the room every day, taking measurements on schedule.

Anyway, the production cost of this movie will definitely rise; after all, several hundred people were directly laid flat, and wages still have to be paid as usual...

Fortunately, the actors are very sensible; although the signed schedule will definitely be extended for a long time, not a single one is making a fuss demanding higher pay..."

"What cold joke are you talking about? Do you dare make a fuss?" Lin Nan sent a voice message with a laugh.

"Old Zhu, I still strongly suggest you propose 'reasonable requests' to the crew. When the schedule gets dragged out later, just openly tell the heads of Shanghai Film, Huayi Film, China Film, and Ying Huang that you demand compensation for the pay..."

"Luo Jin, you bastard, are you trying to get me blacklisted?" Zhu Zhu Yawen swore irritably.

Before the others in the group chat could keep egging things on, Zhu Zhu Yawen on the other end of the group call suddenly started making a big fuss.

"What's wrong?"

"Another one hit the crew. The time we have to stay in the room has to be extended by another cycle. Wish me luck—I hope I can still make it back alive to see you all…"

"My wife's having a baby here, can you say something nice for once?"

Before long, the call in the small group ended. Honestly, after Zhu Zhu Yawen's bit of "sentimentality," both Lin Nan and Liu Liu Yifei felt an inexplicable touch of melancholy.

"As the boss here, I should probably give Zhang Yi a call too." Forcing a smile, Lin Nan tried to lighten the mood.

"And Dilraba and the others—anyone 'locked' in the crew has to be given another call to check in. The last time we contacted them was a week ago." Liu Liu Yifei reminded him quite seriously.

…………