1928: The rise of giant merchants

August 20, the seventeenth year of the Republic of China (1928).

The first episode of "The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple" was released for five days, earning a total box office of 71,907 oceans, which is a miracle in film history.

However, these five days also allowed Ye Luo to see clearly the consumption power of ordinary people in Shanghai for entertainment such as movies during the Republic of China.

"The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple" almost touched the box office ceiling of the Shanghai film industry during the Republic of China.

Even so, after only five days, the subsequent attendance rate was already only 45%. It can be seen that the number of viewers who are willing to enter the theater and can afford the minimum ticket price of 40 cents is not very large.

The sales of the Chevrolet 490 alone have brought Yeluo a profit of nearly one million oceans (not counting the U.S. dollar exchange income), and the car rental industry is also extremely stable, with a net profit of nearly 300,000 oceans a month.

According to Ye Luo's calculations, the total box office of the first episode of "The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple" will not exceed 150,000 yuan. After deducting all miscellaneous expenses, the profit will be only 100,000 yuan at most. But fortunately, it is a series model and can be filmed in total. Eighteen episodes, the total revenue can exceed one million oceans.

Moreover, the copyright of the film is still in the hands of Ye Luo. As long as it can be played in other theaters, the subsequent profits will still be considerable.

Now, driven by Liangyou Pictorial, newspapers and periodicals all over Shanghai are hyping up this masterpiece of film history. Even Ping Jiang's original martial arts work "The Legend of Jianghu" has begun to sell well in major bookstores. For this reason, Xiang Kairan The husband also made a special trip to thank Ye Luo.

At the same time, on August 20, according to Ye Luo's wishes, the second episode of "The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple" was also released while the iron was hot. Although this will squeeze the first episode's scheduling rate, it can also boost the first episode. By the way, we can see how the audience reacted to the second episode.

On the day when the second episode was released, there was a spectacular scene of empty streets in Shanghai Tang County!

Even people living in remote places like Hongkou came across the river just to watch this martial arts and monster movie that will go down in film history.

Because Yip's Guangming Cinema is located in the downtown area at the junction of the Public Settlement and the French Concession, it is already crowded with people. In addition, the release of the second episode of the film actually caused a rare traffic congestion phenomenon. The neat Chevrolet 490s and rickshaws took their respective places. On one side, it's like a unique sight.

Under the leadership of Ye Hao, the staff of Ye's Security Company assisted the patrol room in maintaining order at the scene. Whenever a person comes to the theater, they will see the upcoming Big World amusement park next to it and receive a free literary tabloid!

Is there any advertising that can be more powerful than this?

Some are happy and some are sad.

Luo Mingyou has a headache now.

In order to set up Lianhua and Ye Luo ahead of schedule and challenge the second young master's determination, he boasted to many shareholders that his Lianhua would defeat Tianyi and Yip's and become the number one film company in Shanghai. .

After all, he is the king of movie theaters in the north. After hearing his bullshit, these shareholders still chose to believe it, inject capital in advance, and establish it in advance.

However, the total box office of Lianhua's "Yi Yan Qing Yuan" in five days was only 3,495 yuan, which was a fraction of others and not as good as the 3,788 yuan of "The King of Fighters". Instead, it ranked last.

Luo Mingyou felt his cheeks burning as he recalled that he had previously ridiculed Ye Luo's film company system model and looked down on his path to sound films.

After thinking about it for a long time, Luo Mingyou finally plucked up the courage and decided to reconcile with Ye Luo.

The other party was able to let his movie be filmed at Yip's Guangming Cinema regardless of past grudges, but I couldn't bear to show off my shame to schedule the other party's movie at the Shanghai Grand Theater. I was really petty!

He called the driver, and because he didn't know where Ye Luo was, he went straight to the filming base of Ye's Film Company, hoping to wait and see, but he didn't expect to actually meet Ye Luo here!

"Huh? Boss Luo? You're here just in time. Come and help me take a look." Ye Luo saw it was Luo Mingyou and waved to him quickly, "Is there something wrong with these audio equipment?"

Luo Mingyou was stunned for a moment and quickly walked up. Surrounded there were Luo Yongxiang, Guan Wenqing and others. They followed Li Minwei from Minxin to Ye's family and are now the backbone of Ye's family.

Li Minwei on the side was sweating profusely. He was a little overwhelmed watching Luo Yongxiang playing with the equipment. When he saw him coming, he moved out of the way as if seeing a savior.

Although Luo Mingyou is not optimistic about the talkie film market, he has an in-depth understanding of this type of technology when he studied abroad in the United States and in Hollywood. He has also seen many foreign talkies, so he is quite familiar with these devices.

Ye Luo only knew that sound films began to appear in the audience's field of vision starting from the movie "The Jazz Singer" recorded in 1927 using the "Vitawind" wax disk recording system adopted by Warner America.

Since then, film recording technicians have developed film sound from mono to stereo, and applied stereo sound reproduction technology to the 1934 film "Fantasia".

The set included a "Vitawind" wax disc recording system, but it didn't work properly.

After checking it, Luo Mingyou stood up and said to Ye Luo: "Second Young Master, this set of equipment has been damaged. And most likely it was not damaged during transportation, but was broken from the beginning."

He probably guessed that this was audio equipment that Ye Luo spent money to import from overseas. There seemed to be a lot of similar equipment piled up in the warehouse. If this was not a coincidence,

Ye Luo's face gradually became ugly.

Everyone's eyes were focused on Li Minwei. After all, he was the representative of Yip's Film Company during this trip to the United States. He also brought this pile of sound equipment back from Hollywood.

Li Minwei was so frightened when he saw the look in Ye Luo's eyes that he wanted to kill someone, but he still said in a deep voice: "Second Young Master, I will investigate this matter thoroughly and give you a satisfactory answer. It is my fault. Please don't blame Yong." Cheers to them."

Ye Luo glanced down at him and shook his head calmly: "Of course this is not your problem, Manager Li. Boss Luo also said just now, I'm afraid these things were originally defective products, but they were just resold to us and cheated us. .”

If Li Minwei really had a problem, he shouldn't blatantly buy defective products. Embezzling some funds is not easy to be discovered, so why is he seeking death?

However, when a problem arose, Li Minwei did not argue or explain immediately. Instead, he chose to swallow the mistake and take care of his subordinates. This showed that he was an available talent, which made Ye Luo very happy.

If he immediately shirks his responsibility in a panic, Ye Luo will be very disappointed.

The matter was so big that no one at the scene dared to speak. The solemn atmosphere could also be felt in the studio where the shooting was taking place. Hu Die, who was holding the sugar water, paused and did not continue to come.

"Everything has been checked, Second Young Master, and everything is damaged." Guan Wenqing came over with a sullen face and whispered.

"Manager Li, how much did these equipment cost me in total?" Ye Luo asked lightly.

"A total of 200,000 to 270,000 oceans." Li Minwei knew that Ye Luo was very interested in the talkie film market and not only wanted to open a talkie cinema but also shoot domestic sound films. Ye Luo gave him a budget of 300,000 yuan, so he spent 20,000 yuan on it. One hundred and seventy thousand.

Unexpectedly, all the 270,000 yuan was wasted!

Luo Mingyou's eyelids jumped when he heard this.

This is an ocean of 270,000 yuan!

According to the current box office momentum, the revenue from the first few episodes of "The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple" may not be able to fill this hole.

Thinking of this, Ye Luo became the person who made wedding clothes for others.

This is also the first time Ye Luo has suffered a loss in business.

He was extremely upset now.

Not because of the mere 270,000 oceans.

The money paid for his tuition fees, but he felt that it was worth it. Fortunately, he did not fail in his big business.

What bothered him was that such a big deal should be discussed carefully with his subordinates.

Li Minwei knew that he had made a big mistake. He quickly recalled the whole incident in his mind, and soon understood where he had been deceived.

"Second Young Master, the problem should lie with Edward Sassoon." He said in a deep voice.

"Edward Sassoon? A member of the Sassoon family?" Ye Luo looked at him with murderous intent in his eyes.