Huayu is free to do as you like

【Huayi Brothers】has had a very bad time in the past two months.

After the 【Cellphone 2】 incident broke out, the public was full of suspicion about Huayi, which was the closest to Fan Bingbing.

There were all kinds of rumors on the Internet, saying that a certain listed company had major tax problems, and its financial staff had been taken judicial compulsory measures by the police for suspected crimes of concealing and deliberately destroying accounting documents.

Originally, the two Wangs of Huayi Brothers did not intend to pay attention to such rumors. After all, it takes only one mouth to spread rumors, but it takes a lot of effort to refute them. However, Huayi is a listed company, and the company's credibility will be directly reflected in its stocks.

So Huayi took a series of self-help measures, inviting more than 30 institutions to conduct research in the company, sending various lawyers' letters, and issuing statements through Weibo to clarify, trying to restore its reputation in the public's mind, and not wanting the reputation of the company that has been operating for many years to be ruined.

Unfortunately, the real effect was not obvious.

Affected by all kinds of negative news, Huayi, as the leading company in the domestic film and television sector, has lost nearly 4 billion yuan in market value in the past two months.

On July 27, "Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings" directed by Xu Ke was released.

This film is the third in the Detective Dee series and is also a key work that Huayi hopes to boost shareholder confidence.

After all, Xu Ke's martial arts movies have laid a good foundation for Huayi to harvest box office revenue.

In the past 8 years, the "Detective Dee" series has not disappointed Huayi Brothers.

"The Empire of Heaven" released in 2010 cost about 130 million yuan and finally grossed 286 million yuan.

"The Dragon King of the Capital" was released in 2013 at a cost of 200 million yuan and locked in 600 million yuan at the box office.

In fact, according to the principle of 3 times return on investment, the first two Detective Dee films were not very popular, but as the producer, Huayi actually made money by returning the investment.

First, it earned the copyright and network broadcasting fees of the film, and second, it earned the reputation of the film and the confidence of shareholders, which is reflected in the stock price: a sharp rise!

On September 28, 2013, after the release of "The Dragon King of the Capital", Huayi Brothers' stock price doubled, completing a qualitative change from 10 yuan to 20 yuan, and the market value doubled.

So, this time after the incident of "Cell Phone 2", when the company's stock price continued to fall, Huayi regarded "The Four Heavenly Kings" as a life-saving straw to increase the stock price.

On the 27th, after the release of "Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings", the single-day box office on Friday barely exceeded 100 million yuan, and then closed at 185 million yuan over the weekend.

In the first week of release for 3 days, the total box office was 296 million yuan.

Then in the second week, the single-day box office of the movie dropped sharply, earning 217 million yuan in 7 days, and the total box office exceeded 500 million yuan in 10 days of release.

This trend is exactly the same as the second part of the "Detective Dee" series, "The Dragon King of the Capital", but "The Dragon King of the Capital" was released in 2013, and it is now 18 years.

Moreover, according to the law of increasing costs of series movies, the cost of actors and special effects of "Four Heavenly Kings" is at least more than 300 million yuan.

To make a profit, the box office must be at least 900 million yuan. Now it has only broken 500 million yuan in 10 days. It is not easy to exceed the 600 million box office of the second part, let alone 900 million yuan.

Because of the unsatisfactory box office, Huayi has been unwilling to disclose the production costs after the release of "Four Heavenly Kings", fearing that negative news will make the stock market, which already lacks confidence, worse.

At the same time, "Dying to Survive", which has been released for a full month, has a total box office of 3.2 billion yuan and has obtained the secret key for extension.

Of course, judging from the current single-day box office of the movie, the form of this month's extension is greater than the actual box office, and it is estimated that it will not get 100 million yuan in the end.

But no matter what, the big sales of "Dying to Survive" are beyond doubt.

A feature film has actually achieved a box office of more than 3 billion yuan, crushing countless so-called commercial blockbusters. This situation surprised everyone in the industry.

At the same time, many people have also keenly felt the changes in the domestic film market.

In the past, Chinese audiences liked to watch commercial blockbusters with stimulating visual effects, so Hollywood special effects blockbusters could reap box office revenue in the mainland market and make a lot of money.

Now, after so many years of cultivation, the viewing habits of mainland audiences have changed.

Simple visual effects can no longer satisfy everyone.

Take the most typical "Transformers" as an example. When the first part was released, the audience thought that Hollywood special effects were really awesome, the robot wars were so cool, and the various fighting and explosion scenes were so cool.

They could still maintain a certain enthusiasm during the second and third parts.

By the fourth and even fifth parts, everyone was numb and felt that the plot of this movie was a piece of shit except for the special effects, and they couldn't watch it at all.

The threshold of domestic audiences has increased, and they are increasingly indifferent to some movies that only have special effects and the plot can't stand scrutiny.

This is also the reason why Hollywood movies have not been able to get high box office in China in recent years.

And some movies with logic, good plots, or that can impress the audience at a certain point are becoming more and more popular.

The most typical one is "Ex-Files 3" shot by Gu Wei and Ni Ni.

The film is only average in terms of plot and shooting quality, but the discussion about love and ex-boyfriends just hits the spot in the hearts of young people. Coupled with some publicity and promotion operations, and the blessing of Gu Wei's own fame, it can get a high box office far beyond the quality of the film.

The same is true for "Dying to Survive", and compared with "Ex-Files 3", "Dying to Survive" has achieved both box office and reputation.

Now that it has been released for a month, with the increase in the number of people who have rated it, the score has dropped slightly, but it is still 9 points.

There are only a handful of domestic films with more than 9 points on Douban, and each of them is absolutely a good movie.

And the only one that has such a high score and a big box office is "Dying to Survive".

Gu Wei stayed in Beijing for 3 days. After shooting the cover of "Esquire", he flew back to the Shancheng crew that night.

Huayi invited him to the premiere ceremony before the release of "Four Heavenly Kings", but Gu Wei himself is very busy and it is impossible for him to disrupt his schedule because of insignificant things.

Besides, the relationship between him and Mr. Wang is purely a matter of interest. Huayi is now in deep trouble, so he naturally doesn't want to get involved.

The tax storm in recent months has had a great impact on many media companies and celebrities in the entertainment industry.

The overall environment of the film and television industry has a downward trend.

Capital is most sensitive to the wind direction. The hot money that originally poured in has also calmed down. Affected by this, many film and television projects that are being planned have been terminated due to lack of funds.

Of course, for truly high-quality projects, money is never a worry.

[Better Days] crew.

After filming a rival scene with Zhang Zifeng, Gu Wei sat on a chair in the rest area and chatted with Zhou Ye.

"According to the crew's shooting plan, I will be able to finish shooting in one day"

"Really? Congratulations. It's summer vacation now, and I can rest for a while after finishing shooting."

Although Zhou Ye's role is the second female lead, her actual role is not too much. The reason why she can be filmed until now is because the scenes related to her have not been filmed intensively.

".Actually, I don't have much to do. The company doesn't have much work assigned to me at the moment. I don't know what to do after the filming is finished." Zhou Ye said with a roll of his eyes.

"Why don't you stay in the crew? I can learn something from watching you and Zi Feng filming every day."

Gu Wei looked at her with amusement.

"Okay~ No one will chase you away if you want to stay. There are more than 200 people in the crew, and you are not a big problem."

"Hehe~"

Zhou Ye narrowed his eyes and showed a lovely smile.

It's not easy to film with the boss, how can I not try to stay for a while, and the next time there is such a good opportunity, who knows when.

"By the way, the ancient puppet drama [Ashes of Love] filmed by Yang Zijie and Xian Ge has started airing, Brother Wei, did you know?"

Zhou Ye has been getting along well with others since she was brought into Gu Wei's group by Peng Peng, and everyone has been paying attention to their new works recently.

"Nonsense, this drama is produced by our company, how can I, as the boss, not know?

When preparing for [Ashes of Love], I decided to cast Yang Zi"

Zhou Ye smiled awkwardly.

"This drama produced by our company is popular again. I have been following the drama these days. There is a lot of discussion about [Ashes of Love] online now. Sister Yang Zi's acting is really good."

Gu Wei nodded.

"It's normal. [Ashes of Love] was prepared and filmed according to the scale of an S-level ancient drama, which can be compared with the company's previous productions [Three Lives Three Worlds Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms] and [Princess Agents].

The story is adapted from the best-selling novel of the same name, with a full plot, online logic, and a certain fan base.

In addition, Yang Zi and Li Xian's acting skills are also good. It can be said that they have all the prerequisites for a big hit. Now that it has started broadcasting, it is not surprising that the results are good."

Zhou Ye thought for a while and asked:

"Brother Wei, are you watching it at night?"

"I occasionally watch it when I have nothing to do. After all, it is a TV series of our own company, and I always have to pay attention to it."

"Then I will go to your room at night and watch it with you, okay?

It's a bit boring to watch a show alone."

Zhou Ye said with courage.

Gu Wei looked at her strangely.

"Why don't you look for Zifeng?"

"Um, Zifeng, Zifeng has been studying at night recently. After all, she is a high school student, and the pressure of studying is relatively heavy. She uses the time at night to make up for the missed classes due to filming."

Zhou Ye's mind turned quickly, and he quickly found a very reasonable reason.

Gu Wei didn't doubt anything. When he and Zhao Jinmai were filming "The Wandering Earth" together, he tutored each other every day. In his opinion, it was normal for Zhang Zifeng, who was about the same age, to tutor after filming.

"These child stars are actually very hard. They have to take care of school studies while filming. Guan Xiaotong, who I first worked with in "Left Ear", and Zhao Jinmai, who you know, are all like this.

Fortunately, their grades seem to be good, especially Xiaotong, who scored 552 points in the college entrance examination."

Zhou Ye listened to Gu Wei's words and nodded like a chicken eating rice.

"Then I'll watch it in the evening."

"You can come over. [Ashes of Love] will be broadcasted at 19:35 for two episodes, and it will end at 9 o'clock. You can watch it in my room."

Zhou Ye smiled more brightly after getting Gu Wei's permission.

"I'll bring you some delicious food in the evening."

Gu Wei nodded slightly.

As the two were chatting, Yang Dan came over.

She handed Gu Wei a few pages of A4 paper stapled together.

"Boss, this is a document just released by the General Administration. A lot of the content is related to us."

Gu Wei took it with some surprise. The title on the white paper was in big characters [Notice on Further Strengthening the Management of Radio, Television and Online Audiovisual Art Programs].

He looked through it carefully, and there was another [Opinions on Promoting the Strengthening and Excellence of Radio and Television Broadcasting Institutions in the New Era].

There were a lot of words written, most of which were empty words and clichés. In essence, it was the "salary limit order" officially issued by the government for celebrity artists.

The notice and opinions clearly state:

The comprehensive channels of all TV stations must report the names of guests, salaries and other information of the variety shows they broadcast to the General Administration in advance.

The total salary of all guests in the program shall not exceed 40% of the total cost, and the salary of the main guest shall not exceed 70% of the total salary of the guests.

TV series: The salary of all actors in each TV series shall not exceed 40% of the total cost, and the salary of the leading actor in the play shall not exceed 70% of the total salary.

The salary of a single actor (including tax) shall not exceed 1 million yuan, the total salary (including tax) shall not exceed 50 million yuan, and the total salary of variety show artists shall not exceed 800,000 yuan.

Taking Gu Wei's current film and television drama quotation as an example, his most recent foreign drama was "Knowing or Not" filmed with Zhao Liying last year.

At that time, the total salary was 65 million, or 1.3 million per episode. This income obviously exceeded the "single group salary shall not exceed 1 million yuan, and the total salary shall not exceed 50 million yuan" in the General Administration's opinion.

Not only Gu Wei, but also Zhao Liying, the female lead, received a total salary of 54 million, which also exceeded this range.

In fact, because the producer of "Do You Know" is "Noon Sunshine", the salary of Gu Wei and Zhao Liying is so low. According to the current fame and popularity of the two, the real market quotation is much higher than this number.

For example, in the "Tian Sheng Chang Ge" that Ni Ni filmed before, she and Chen Kun received a total salary of 150 million, Dabaobei's "The King's Woman" was 80 million, and Yang Mi's "Fuyao" was 80 million.

At present, the salary of the first-line stars in the domestic entertainment industry is far higher than the regulations of the General Administration.

The top stars have such high salaries, and the salaries of other second- and third-line stars are also not low. This has caused the cost of film and television dramas in the current market to rise steadily. The bulk of the money for filming goes to the actors, and a small part is used for filming, which leads to shoddy production and low quality of film and television dramas.

This is also the reason why the General Administration issued the "Notice and Opinions".

"What's wrong?" Zhou Ye looked over with curiosity.

Gu Wei had just finished reading and handed her the document in his hand.

"New regulations."

Zhou Ye took it and flipped through the pages.

"It turned out to be the 'salary limit order', which doesn't seem to have much to do with me."

She is a pure newcomer and has only filmed two films so far, [Take My Brother Away] and the current [Better Days].

She is not famous, and she is only a supporting role, and the pay is not high, so the "salary limit order" is still far away from her.

As she said that, she looked up at Gu Wei and said with some concern:

"Brother Wei, is this regulation very disadvantageous to you?"

Although Zhou Ye has not learned about it in detail, according to the simple logic that whoever is more famous has a higher pay, there is probably no star in the entire entertainment industry who has a higher pay than Gu Wei.

Then this "salary limit order" is the most inappropriate for him.

Gu Wei spread his hands.

"It seems so, but it doesn't really affect me.

For the dramas I'm currently taking, they are either produced by the company or part of the pay is converted into investment shares.

The actual money I get is not much.

In fact, the official's original intention is good, but it is still questionable to what extent the "salary limit order" can be implemented in the end."

"Will someone openly violate it?"

"In the final analysis, our entertainment industry actually follows the most basic business principles. The high pay of stars is also because the market is hot. The producers can earn high income by using stars to shoot dramas and variety shows, so they are naturally willing to pay stars high pay.

Even if the official has a mandatory upper limit on pay, the producers will find ways to pay more in order to invite big stars. If they can't pay in cash, they will compensate in other ways. In short, they can always find a way without violating the "rules".

In the final analysis, the domestic market is too large and everyone is profitable. If you want to really reduce the pay of stars, the entire domestic entertainment market must be more perfect."