Chapter 598 Complementary Cooperation

The next morning, Lin Youqing rushed over and said, "Mr. Yang, a vice president from 20th Century Fox is free tomorrow afternoon. What do you think?"

"Okay." Yang Wendong nodded.

Lin Youcheng immediately took out a document and said, "Mr. Yang, this is the general situation of 20th Century Fox. Please take a look at it first. It will take some time to get the details."

Yang Wendong took the information and said with a smile, "Okay, thank you for your hard work. It is indeed difficult to find a lot of information in such a short time."

In the era without the Internet, it was very complicated to search for information. When it came to information about other companies, much of it was kept within the company, and some external information would also be kept in government agencies or designated places.
Even if some places store a large amount of information, such as old newspapers, finding a certain content is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Lin Youqi smiled and said, "Not bad. I have collected some information about some large American companies before. In 68, you asked me to look up information about various American companies, so I have prepared the general content."

"That's right. I didn't expect that the request I made at that time could still help me today." Yang Wendong said.

By 68, although his layout in Hong Kong was not fully completed, many of the basics were almost in place, so the strategic focus of business began to shift overseas, on the one hand to Southeast Asia, and on the other to Europe and the United States;
As the financial world is the most developed in the United States, Changxing Group also has a lot of funds here, so naturally it wanted to take advantage of the 69 stock market crash to buy at the bottom;
However, he was not very familiar with the situation of American companies in the 70s, so he could only investigate some information of large companies to stimulate his memories of his past life.

Lin Youqi went on to explain: “Mr. Yang, there is a lot of content here, so let me give you a brief introduction;

Twentieth Century Fox was one of the earliest film companies in the United States. It was very powerful in the 1930s and 1940s and was even able to influence some of the White House's policies. It was not until the antitrust law was established that, although it was intended to deal with large financial groups such as Standard Oil, Hollywood companies were also affected.

By the 60s, 2800th Century Fox was one of the top film companies in the United States, but it lost tens of millions of dollars after filming "Cleopatra". The next few films were not very good, and the company almost went bankrupt. It was not until it filmed "The Sound of Music" that the box office was million US dollars, and with the help of channels, that it recovered a little. "

"Shooting a large-scale movie is indeed very risky," Yang Wendong said with a smile.

In the early years, HSBC had an internal policy that there were three things it would not lend to: shipping, aviation, and film. This was because investing in these three industries was extremely risky and had almost no collateral, so even Hong Kong's "quasi-central bank" HSBC had to avoid them.

Later, Luk Brothers and Shaw Brothers began to monopolize theaters and rely on overseas markets to successfully reduce the risks. However, they only dared to shoot low-budget movies. Shaw Brothers even turned the movie into an assembly line and did not dare to shoot blockbusters because the losses would be too serious.

There have been many film companies in Hollywood history that went bankrupt just because they shot a big movie. However, the eight giants had strong foundations and held many copyrights, so even if they lost money a few times, they could still survive until they made the next hit movie to make up for it.

Lin Youqiang also said: “Yes, if The Sound of Music had not been successful, 20th Century Fox would have been kicked out of the ranking of Hollywood giants even if it had not gone bankrupt.

Even now, 20th Century Fox has not recovered the vitality it had ten years ago and is one of the weaker giants.”

Yang Wendong smiled faintly and said, "No wonder they are so eager to cooperate with us. It seems that they also want to open up new markets and obtain new sources of income."

Relatively speaking, companies that are short of money will definitely be more willing to explore new businesses.

Originally, Golden Harvest seemed to be cooperating with Warner, but this is not important. Among the Hollywood giants, it is enough to cooperate with one. It is not a long-term business in itself. After cooperating once, you can change it at will next time, and the price will be different. It all depends on the results of the first cooperation period.

Lin Youqi said, "Yes, there are so many film companies in Hollywood and the competition is very fierce. By cooperating with us, we can open up the market of Hong Kong Chinese and some American customers who like martial arts. This market is almost brand new. We can also use our group's capabilities to sell box office to Asia. For 20th Century Fox, it is a hundred benefits and no harm."

"Okay, I've also asked Xiaolong to come to the United States, and he'll be here tonight, so tomorrow afternoon is just the right time for us to meet." Yang Wendong nodded and said.

He had no plans to cooperate with a Hollywood company during his visit to the United States, but since he had come across one, he naturally wanted to push for it. So yesterday, he made a phone call and asked Li Xiaolong, who was still filming in Hong Kong, to take an emergency flight to the United States.

Cathay Pacific had no extra tickets, so Changxing Group bought a ticket to Canada and let Li Xiaolong fly to Los Angeles after arriving in Canada. It was a bit troublesome, but it was faster than letting his own private plane fly back to Hong Kong and then return.

The next afternoon, Yang Wendong brought Li Xiaolong, who had just arrived in Los Angeles, to the headquarters of 20th Century Fox in Hollywood.

"It feels like many years have passed since I came here again," said Li Xiaolong.

Yang Wendong smiled and said, "To you, today is a different status. I have said before that only if you gain some fame in Asia can you appear here with confidence like this."

Li Xiaolong agreed, "Yes, I never dreamed that I could enter the headquarters of 20th Century Fox and meet their senior executives."

Yang Wendong said: "Let's go and see how they want to cooperate."

Soon, George Robert, the vice president of 20th Century Fox, came to the company's door to greet them and took Yang and Li to the top floor of the company's headquarters building. "Eric, Bruce, how is the scenery here?" George Robert asked with a smile, "From here you can see most of the scenery in Hollywood, and you can also see the most famous Hollywood sign."

"It's really beautiful, with lots of trees." Yang Wendong praised, "California lacks water, but there are so many green areas, which is really amazing."

Although a fire in Los Angeles in the past burned the pockets and face of the American empire, many Hollywood stars' houses were destroyed, and many people became homeless;

But Los Angeles of this era is still very good in many aspects, and Americans of this era are also very pragmatic, and everyone is striving for a better life in the future.

It’s a pity that no matter how powerful an empire is, it will be beyond salvation if it is parasitized for too long.

George Robert continued, "Haha, yes, Eric, Bruce, if you are interested, you can buy a house in California. Maybe we can cooperate regularly in the future."

"I'll consider it." Li Xiaolong responded.

Although the experience of making movies in Hong Kong is very good, if he wants to become a global superstar, he still needs to achieve results in Hollywood, which naturally requires living in Los Angeles for a long time, and he himself has lived in the United States for many years.

Yang Wendong did not reply, but asked: "George, let's discuss our cooperation first, how about it?"

George Robert agreed: "Okay, then please sit down."

After the three of them sat down, a blonde assistant served coffee and left. George said, "Eric, we already have some understanding of your company's situation in Asia. Your company has a large number of cinemas in Asia, especially in Japan. This will be a perfect cooperation for us.

Our company has a large number of films that can be sent to Asia for broadcasting. Now that Asia's economy is gradually developing, I think we can all benefit from it."

"Are you talking about your previous movies?" Yang Wendong asked back.

George replied: “Yes, old movies, but there is absolutely no problem with the content, the quality is also very good, and many of them were popular movies at the time;

Asia's economy today is very similar to that of the United States many years ago, so it's a good time to watch these movies."

"It may be okay within ten years, but not before." Yang Wendong shook his head and said, "Asian audiences today are not fools. If they play American movies with poor technology, they will definitely not like it."

George nodded and said, "That's true, but there are also many movies that are not set in modern society."

Yang Wendong smiled and said, "Then we can try it, but how much should we pay?"

George smiled and said, "We will sell it to you at a suitable price, and then the rest of the profits will be yours."
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Yang Wendong quickly shook his head and said, "No, this won't work. It's too risky for me. How about we adopt a profit-sharing model?"

In fact, film companies prefer one-time buyouts because they can get the money first. This is how Hong Kong films have always made money by relying on overseas sources. Only companies like Run Run Shaw who have overseas cinema chains or deep overseas connections will consider releasing their films overseas.

George shook his head and said, "Let's not talk about the share ratio for now. It's hard to determine whether the box office is real or fake. If we share it, we will be taking a real risk."

Even if you get 9% of the profits, what can you do if the accounts are already in the red?
Hollywood often cheats other investors, but when it comes to other people's land, it naturally needs to treat others the same way it would treat them.

"Haha." Yang Wendong smiled and said, "How about this, let's pick a few movies first to test the results. After the results come out, we can decide how to cooperate based on the data. How do you think?"

Changxing Cinema Line has invested so much in Asia, and although its core purpose is to expand the market for Hong Kong film companies, it is impossible for it to only cooperate with Hong Kong film companies;

Appropriately introducing other local films can also increase the box office of theaters and put some pressure on Hong Kong film companies. Otherwise, if they remain invincible for a long time, they may decline.

American movies are naturally the best choice. One reason is that the United States is now an international beacon. Although Yang Wendong doesn't care, many Asian people still admire it very much. The second reason is that English is also the mainstream language in some Asian countries, which makes it convenient to watch directly, even more convenient than Chinese.

"That's fine." George also knew that such a thing could not be decided in half a day, so he asked again: "The second thing is that I hope to cooperate with Bruce and shoot a joint venture movie."

PS: Ask for monthly ticket

(End of this chapter)

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