Chapter 373: Excellent Performance in the Film Industry

Chapter 373: Excellent Performance in the Film Industry

Chapter 373: Excellent Performance in the Film Industry

Wang Yongqing said with a smile: "Haha, well, let's take a look first. However, according to the original plan, this supermarket will open at the end of January next year, just in time to catch up with the hot sales before the Chinese New Year."

"That's good." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "After this supermarket opens successfully and I have some experience, I will start to open stores in other cities. Wang Sheng also needs to be prepared."

The pioneer effect exists not only in the Internet but also in all service industries. If a company in a place is the first to bring benefits to the locals through a product or service, then the market will basically stabilize as long as the company does not commit suicide later.

In history, supermarkets started to become popular in Asia in the 70s. However, since I opened a supermarket in Hong Kong ten years earlier, it is hard to say whether there will be smart people in places like Taiwan who will imitate me.

Therefore, the best mode is to take the initiative and control the market first.

"No problem." Wang Yongqing agreed and said, "Actually, I'm just providing a title, but the real management is still yours."

"Haha, that's right, but I still want to tell you about it." Yang Wendong smiled.

According to the agreement between the two parties, Wang Yongqing was just a figurehead, because Taiwan at that time did not allow foreign investment in the service industry, only factories.

The operation, management, material purchasing, etc. of the supermarket are all controlled by Carrefour Hong Kong, and there is also contractual control.

It is also because of the deeper cooperative relationship with Wang Yongqing in other fields that we can operate with such confidence.

"Okay, I'll just follow your instructions." Wang Yongqing said, "Mr. Yang, my new factory has opened. Why don't we go take a look?"

"Okay." Yang Wendong nodded and agreed.

Afterwards, everyone came to Formosa Plastics' new factory. This factory has an annual plastic production capacity of up to 120 million tons, and it is already a large chemical production base.

"Mr. Wang, your plastics business is getting bigger and bigger. It seems that sooner or later you will become a global plastics tycoon." Yang Wendong said with a smile.

Being an industrial tycoon in Hong Kong or Taiwan is just like rolling around in a pond, but any "king" at the global level, even if he is a garbage collector, is definitely a tycoon.

Wang Yongqing said with a smile: "I have to thank Mr. Yang for his help over the past few years. Otherwise, I would not have achieved the scale I have today so quickly."

"It can be considered a win-win situation." Yang Wendong nodded and said,
Although Wang Yongqing was just as successful in history, with his help, the speed will definitely be much faster, and his future achievements may even be much greater than in history.

"That's good." Wang Yongqing said, "Mr. Yang, in addition to expanding production capacity, I am also planning to move into the oil derivatives manufacturing industry."

"Petroleum derivatives?" Yang Wendong was moved and asked, "Does Taiwan have this technology now?"

Wang Yongqing said: "This is not a problem. The Taiwan government has recently reached an agreement with the United States. Some American oil companies will transfer some old equipment. I am going to buy some of them. In this way, I can do a better job in cost control."

"Will there be any problem with funding?" Yang Wendong asked again.

Wang Yongqing nodded and said, "Yes, it will definitely require a lot of funds, but if it is built, the benefits will still be huge."

"Okay, I support your expansion." Yang Wendong said, "But I also need a detailed explanation of the specific investment plan and future returns."

Companies in Taiwan or Hong Kong are often forced to develop their own industrial chains because many supporting components can only be imported, which is very expensive, so they can only penetrate into the front-end industrial chain step by step.

Just like my own sticky notes, they were originally made of imported paper, but now that we produce them ourselves, the cost is naturally much lower.

Of course, the raw materials for the supply chain also need to be imported, but the cost of raw materials is bound to be lower, and there are generally more options, such as waste paper or pulp, which has a lot of room for choice, and the transportation process does not require consideration of protection issues like new paper.

Wang Yongqing smiled and said, "Okay, that's no problem. I'll give you the relevant information."

"Yeah." Yang Wendong smiled and said, "Mr. Wang, at your current rate of development, I'm afraid you'll have to buy oil fields outside and produce oil yourself in the future, right?"

"Haha, I hope so too." Wang Yongqing smiled and shook his head, saying, "That's too far away. Besides, the oil industry doesn't have strong political resources behind it, so it's better not to touch it."

"Yes." Yang Wendong nodded.
Oil can breed mold. This is not necessarily a good thing for individuals, let alone many small countries involved.

Of course, if you play on a smaller scale, the impact won't be that big. After all, businessmen just want to make money. Historically, Li Jiacheng also acquired a Canadian oil company, which was considered quite profitable. But it is basically impossible to reach the level of Mobil.

In the next few days, Yang Wendong communicated with several officials from Taipei City, also about business investment. Yang Wendong naturally negotiated politely.

However, no actual projects were left. At present, our industry still has great development potential in Hong Kong. It is because of diversification considerations and tariff considerations of some countries that we have one more place to invest.

In the short term, his industrial investments will mainly be in Hong Kong, which is also in his best interests. As for Taiwan, he will not consider this matter until at least the late 60s, when the electronics industry has developed to a certain level.

After traveling in Taiwan for a few days, Yang Wendong returned to Hong Kong on December 12.

As the end of the year approached, the Hong Kong film market gradually became active. On the 27th, Zou Wenhuai also came to Changxing Building to report to his boss on the progress of the film company in the past six months.

"Come, sit down." Yang Wendong said.

"Thank you, Mr. Yang." After Zou Wenhuai sat down, his assistant served coffee. He then took out a document and said, "Mr. Yang, this is the performance of Changxing Film Company in recent months. It includes the movie The Return of the Condor Heroes, which grossed a total of HK$76, which is slightly worse than The Legend of the Condor Heroes. There are also three other movies that we shot ourselves, with plots that we conceived ourselves, and the box office revenues were HK$33, HK$17, and HK$29 respectively."

"Well, it adds up to more than one million." Yang Wendong took the information, looked at the names for a while, and asked, "What about Waifu?"

Zou Wenhuai said: "We also sold some of the foreign films because The Legend of the Condor Heroes performed well in Southeast Asia, so it made the foreign film sales of our other films much easier;
The specific information is on the second page. The company’s total external revenue is currently HK$66.”

"Well, what about the cost of these movies?" Yang Wendong asked again.

Zou Wenhuai said: "The film and television city in Tseung Kwan O is still under construction. The scenes of these movies were rented or built by us, so the total cost of the four movies is HK$4.
Including the share given to our own cinema chain, the film we shot made about HK$5 in Hong Kong, and the foreign part was pure profit.”

Although the cinema chain also belongs to its own company, the financial revenues of the two are separate.

It's not a big problem if you are a little partial to one movie, but if you exclude other movies, that will have a bad impact.

"No wonder the movie profits are so high." Yang Wendong smiled and said, "This is all pure profit. The data is really good."

Zou Wenhuai explained, "Mr. Yang, this is because our film company has a lot of resources and the quality of our films is also good, so we have achieved such good results abroad. Many Hong Kong film companies can't even sell their films abroad, or they can only sell for a few thousand yuan."

"It's the same in any industry, including physical factories." Yang Wendong nodded and asked, "What about our cinemas?"

Zou Wenhuai replied: "The cinema chain and the film company are independently operated. The current half-year revenue is 462 million Hong Kong dollars, and the net profit is about 90 Hong Kong dollars. This is only the operating income, not including the real estate appreciation."

"Well, that's how it should be calculated." Yang Wendong nodded and said with a smile: "It seems that the cinema chain makes more money than the film company."

Zou Wenhuai said: "Yes, it is the same all over the world. Some film companies may have high profits for a year if they have a hit movie, but if they have a mediocre or even loss-making movie, the data will become ugly.

Cinemas are much more stable, and basically they don’t have to worry about the weather. Even if there is an economic crisis, more people will go to the movies.”

"What a good business." Yang Wendong smiled and said, "Now that you are in charge of the cinema chain, you should continue to cooperate with Changxing Real Estate Company and prepare to expand the number of cinema chains;
We don’t necessarily have to buy now, but we can look for a suitable location first and then slowly negotiate. I hope that within five years, we can own more than 5% of the cinema chains in Hong Kong.”

From a capital perspective, the performance of movies is uncontrollable and is not a high-quality asset, so HSBC was unwilling to cooperate with film companies in the early days. However, theaters could do so because even if Hong Kong films were ruined, there would still be overseas films.

Although Changxing Film Company has been trying to create high-quality films, it takes a long time of experience, crowd training, etc. to succeed, and there is uncertainty.
But the situation with cinemas is much simpler. Many of Hong Kong’s future commercial districts are just beginning to develop, so it is a good time to move in first.

In particular, the real estate crisis is about to come in a little over a year. At that time, it will be the best time to buy supermarkets, cinemas, other properties, etc.

"Seventy percent?" Zou Wenhuai was overjoyed and said, "I understand, Mr. Yang. In this way, our film company will definitely monopolize Hong Kong."

"No, I don't want a monopoly." Yang Wendong shook his head and said, "Remember, our cinema chain will always operate independently and will not only serve our own films. Other film companies need to ensure a relatively fair competition environment.

What I hope to see is a competitive Hong Kong film market. Only in this way can our films go abroad and earn more money abroad.”

Any product can only have a market if there is competition. Without competition, it will be doomed. In the 90s and even the early 2000s, the quality of TVB's TV dramas was very high. Even ATV had hit TV dramas such as "My Date with a Vampire".

But later, ATV declined, and TVB fell into decline, and the things they filmed later were horrible.
The same is true for movies. The film industry was developed in the 80s because there was sufficient competition.

Zou Wenhuai nodded and agreed: "Okay, I understand what Mr. Yang means."

My boss's industry is so powerful in Hong Kong that it is probably second only to a few traditional century-old giants such as HSBC and Jardine Matheson. He simply looks down on a monopoly in the Hong Kong film market, because even if this market is monopolized, it is only worth about tens of millions.

Only if Hong Kong films go global and become as popular in Asia as Hollywood films, the market will definitely expand tenfold or even dozens of times. This is what Yang Wendong wants.

After reading the documents in his hand, Yang Wendong pushed the information back and asked, "What are the plans for next year?"

Zou Wenhuai said: "Next year's main plan is to shoot a martial arts movie. I plan to adapt Gu Long's novels. His novels have both martial arts and crime solving, and the plot time is also short, which is more suitable for filming than Jin Yong's novels.

In addition, I am also planning to find some movies adapted from the stories in Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, but I have not yet decided what to choose. "

"Martial arts movies are fine." Yang Wendong nodded, and then asked, "When you shoot Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, are you planning to shoot a horror movie or a scholar's love story?"

Zou Wenhuai replied: "It's mainly about love. Horror movies are a bit unconventional and suitable for small businesses. It's not worth it for us to shoot it. This market is too small."

"Well, there are still many good stories in Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio." Yang Wendong said with a smile.

They were all written by ancient scholars, and you are the protagonist. How could it not be interesting?
Zou Wenhuai added: "In addition to these, Changxing Culture is also preparing to produce the movie Black Cat Sheriff and Nezha Conquers the Dragon King. Black Cat Sheriff will be released during the Chinese New Year, and we will also be involved. We also need to cooperate with a lot of film knowledge."

"Okay, you just need to cooperate with them." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Comic movies can be said to be racially neutral and easy to spread. Their early success is also suitable for you to distribute your own movies overseas in the future."

Even at its peak in the 1980s and 1990s, the main customers of movies shot in Hong Kong in Southeast Asia were Chinese. Only a small number of local people liked Chinese movies, or blockbuster movies like those by Li Xiaolong, could attract many indigenous people.

This is normal. Even at the peak of Marvel's popularity, only a small number of people in mainland China could watch its films.

But comics are different. As long as you write well, children will like them. They don't have so many conscious distinctions. In the past, there were a few mainlanders born in the 80s and 90s who didn't watch Japanese cartoons when they were young. Even in 2020, Ultraman is still the favorite of children.
PS: Please give me a monthly ticket
(End of this chapter)