Chapter 957

2004, January.

A time commonly used to take stock.

At the internal high-level meeting of the Oriental Media Group, Xiong Chengchao slowly read the report materials dictated by him and prepared with the help of his secretary.

Because there is really nothing to brag about.

Although there are many businesses under the Oriental Media Group, the theater chain is definitely the most important one.

The performance of the theater chain was not very good, and the performance of the entire company followed suit.

Although the internal situation, not only within the company, but even outside, there are many people who understand what is going on, but after all, such performance will be written into his personal career resume.

In the fiscal year of 2003, the domestic movie market was thriving in the first half of the year and slightly sluggish in the second half of the year. However, looking at the entire fiscal year, all major, medium and small theater chains across the country, except for a few that were poorly managed, almost without exception achieved profitability. , and even substantial profits.

This is definitely another golden year for the cinema industry.

However, in the first half of the year, Oriental Cinemas, the number one leader in the domestic theater chain industry and the long-standing leader among non-state-owned theaters, lost seven million yuan. After it was screened, it managed to make a profit, and evened out the accounts for the whole year, realizing a profit for the entire fiscal year—only 4.33 million!

Xiong Chengchao joined the Oriental Cinemas in 1993, served as the deputy general manager in 1996, and took over as the general manager in 1997. Since then, the Oriental Cinemas under his leadership has always been in a state of triumphant progress, even if In 1998, when the film market was in a collective downturn and sinking, he still led Oriental Cinemas to achieve a profit of tens of millions, not to mention the golden years of the past few years.

However, in this golden year, Oriental Cinemas almost lost money.

"...Next year's domestic film industry is still full of variables. Li Qian's "The Matrix", Zhao Meicheng's "Blood", Liu Chengzhang's "Flying", Wu Han's "Laughing Heroes", Guo Yulong's "Feng Huo Opera Princes" ", it is said that it may be directly called "Beacon", are all objects that we should pay close attention to. At the same time, there is another film that I think it is necessary to specifically mention, that is Jin Han's "Dragon Inn". "

"Jin Han, the director, has always been obsessed with literary and artistic films in the past, but this time, he made a commercial martial arts film. Not only did Li Qian personally write the script for him, it is said that even the actors were personally selected by Li Qian, He Yingyu , Zhou Zhiyu and Cheng Suping are definitely not to be ignored. According to the information I received, Li Qian personally visited the door and invited Fang Baijin, the art director of Liu Chengzhang, to serve as the art director of this film. Therefore, I think, This film is likely to become a dark horse in the film market next year!"

"In addition, it is said that Zhao He's new movie will start shooting this year, that is, in the spring of 2004. According to the information received so far, it will be a martial arts movie! Zhou Baoshan will definitely join Yes, it is said that there is another Jiang Yiyi who will also join! Judging from the current trend, she is the little girl that Minghu Culture will promote in the next step, and once "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" is released, she, the actor of Huang Rong, is very It may become a hit! At present, we have no definite information on whether this movie will be released in 2004, but since Zhao He and Zhou Baoshan are here, I think this movie is worthy of our close attention , when it is released in the future, I will work hard to get more canvases for it!"

"Besides, of course, Qin Wei and Feng Bicheng are said to have no new film plans, so we don't need to discuss them for the time being in the 2004 film market."

"In addition, there is one thing I want to say, that is, I think we should face up to one thing from now on, that is, Minghu Culture's acquisition of Columbia Film Company of the United States. huge impact on the market."

"The "Gourd Baby", which is currently being screened, has fully proved Li Qian's great appeal to domestic movie fans! At present, whether the negotiation has been completed or not, and how the negotiation is going, we don't know. , but as far as we know, this matter has received strong support at the national level, so once this matter happens, what should we do? Should we deal with it?"

"From an internal point of view, once Minghu Culture completes the acquisition of Columbia, the Great Wall Cinemas is likely to be a reward for Minghu Culture from the government! According to the internal information we know, of course it may not be reliable, so a large cinema, including the When the movie theater was built, many of the land in the downtown area attached to the name of the movie theater will be sold to Minghu Culture at a very cheap price."

"So, once this deal is concluded, Minghu Culture, in addition to the existing loose theater alliance, will get a very large nationwide network before their theater expansion plan starts to be implemented on a large scale. The theater chain, Minghu Culture is not the group of Great Wall Cinemas, Qi Jie, or their distribution department. Integration, everyone is also concentrated in the layout of theaters in prosperous areas of big cities, which will lead to an extremely serious competition for customer sources between us and the other party.”

"From an external point of view, Minghu Culture itself is very strong. They have long been strong enough to obtain approval documents from radio and television, and have the qualifications to introduce movies in the form of approval. They can even easily import movies that share accounts. It is easy to get a certain share, and Minghu Culture has never done this before.”

"But then, it is said that when they were talking about the North American release of "Calabash Baby", they had already negotiated a two-way distribution agency agreement with Columbia. Once the acquisition is completed, they will spare no effort in introducing Hollywood movies! Therefore, even in the Hollywood movies that we have been particularly good at operating in the past, they will very likely make up for it all at once, and have the ability to compete with us in the same period as the imported blockbusters!"

"Faced with this situation, what should we do? I think this should not only be something that our theaters should consider, it should be something that the entire Oriental Media Group and everyone here should consider. In For our theater chain, next I will organize a certain amount of manpower to draw up a preparation plan to deal with various situations, and when it is completed, I will bring it to the meeting for your reference and discussion."

"This year our situation seems to be less than ideal, but..."

…………

Xiong Chengchao's speech was a bit lengthy, a bit dull, and even a bit superseded.

Because he felt that in the past year, he, and the Oriental Cinemas under his control, really had nothing to summarize and brag about.

Therefore, he can only talk more about his outlook and expectations for next year.

While he was speaking, the meeting seemed particularly dull.

It wasn't until he finished speaking that Zong Chengze, the general manager of the group, took over the conversation and said a few words of praise to the cinema, the atmosphere in the entire meeting room became lively again.

At the end of the year, the big summary, and the year-end bonus, everyone wants to be happy and happy. No one wants to hear pessimistic things, or even something like a wake-up call.

Besides, your theater chain is still profitable, isn't it? This is already worthy of boasting and bragging! Why are you so pessimistic and dejected!

On the other side of the production department, "Lonely Smoke in the Desert" lost like that, and Wu Han's new movie was forced to become a joint investment of three companies, and they didn't hear their complaints!

New Year's Eve, what a disappointment!

However, Mr. Zong didn't say anything, he just praised it. Everyone peeked at it, and it seemed that the chairman didn't mean to criticize. During Xiong Chengchao's speech, he nodded frequently and had a smile on his face.

So no one is willing to stand up and refute anything.

However, if Xiong Chengchao still had some friends in the company, by now, he really doesn't have many friends.

But the chairman still admires him.

…………

The year-end summary meeting lasted for two full hours, and when it ended, it was past twelve o'clock.

After the chairman finished speaking and announced the end of the meeting, everyone stood up and prepared to go back to the department they were in charge of for a meeting after lunch.

Then, in the evening, there is a company dinner, which is considered an annual meeting.

Xiong Chengchao also stood up like the others, holding his own speech in his hand, turned to leave, but heard Zhou Yanghua call him, turned around, and saw him waving, "Cheng Chao, come on, don't you Hurry up!"

So Xiong Chengchao had no choice but to stand still and watch other colleagues go out one by one.

In the end, Zhou Yanghua and Zong Chengze walked over one after the other. Xiong Chengchao was tall and tall. Zhou Yanghua couldn't wrap his arms around his shoulders like he did with other people to make an intimate gesture. He could only pat him on the shoulder and said with a smile: "No Are you in a hurry to eat? Come and have a drink in my office!"

While talking, he walked forward and said, "It's the year-end inventory, be happy!"

Xiong Chengchao thought to himself: How can I be happy!

But after the chairman had said everything, he still forced a smile, followed him and Zong Chengze to the chairman's office, and took a glass of red wine poured by Zhou Yanghua himself.

After he himself sat down, Zhou Yanghua first asked with a smile what little program the theater had prepared for tonight's group dinner, chatted with each other, and then said with a smile: "Cheng Chao, what did you say at the meeting just now? The questions are very good, very sharp, but also very practical."

After a pause, he shook the wine glass in his hand and said with a smile, "How about some things this year? I know you have emotions! Blame me, blame me! Next year's theaters, I won't interfere, you said Forget it, okay?"

Xiong Chengchao raised his head and asked, "What do you mean?"

Zhou Yanghua smiled, a slight displeasure flashed in his eyes, but he still raised his glass with a smile, "Of course what you say is what you say, and if I say no to meddling, I will definitely not meddle! Just feel free to do things!"

Xiong Chengchao hesitated when he heard the words, raised the cup in his hand, touched Zhou Yanghua, and said, "Thank you for the chairman's trust! We will hold the year-end summary meeting next year, and I will definitely give you a very good performance!"

Zhou Yanghua said "yes" when he heard the words, and immediately laughed.

Seems very satisfied with Xiong Chengchao's military order.

But after taking a sip of wine, with the cup in his hand, he said again: "But, there are some things that you should pay more attention to in the future. Right? The company holds a year-end summary meeting, and everyone is happy, saying How nice is something happy? Isn’t it? You’re good, you started to be pessimistic when you first came up! You almost pointed at my nose and said, this year is all because of Lao Zhou’s meddling, which made the performance of our theaters very poor. It’s ugly! Think about it, it’s not a good influence! After all, you want to save some face for me, don’t you?”

Xiong Chengchao pursed his mouth a few times, but finally put down his wine glass and said sincerely: "Chairman, I really don't mean to accuse you. The theater belongs to the group, and the group belongs to you. Of course I know that small interests obey big interests." The problem is that I am a professional when it comes to theater chains. You can't..."

"Why……"

Before he could finish speaking, Zong Chengze interrupted him with a rough frown, "Old Xiong, what are you talking about! Don't talk nonsense! Oh, you are the most professional in theater? You are number one in the world? Don't forget Well, it was the chairman who opened up the theaters back then, he was the founder, the pioneer, you were single-handedly pulled out by him, how can he not be as good as you? When it comes to the operation and management of theaters, who is the chairman better than? They are all experts! Last year it was just fighting spirit! We tried to suppress the rise of Minghu Culture, strategically speaking, the chairman did nothing wrong!"

Xiong Chengchao frowned all the time, and couldn't help but want to interrupt his words to refute several times, but at this time, Zong Chengze had just finished speaking, and before he could speak, Zhou Yanghua had already waved his hands with a smile, "Oh, good Alright, what’s the fuss about this! Don’t even talk about it! Let’s let the past go! Let’s look forward together and get things done in 2004 right?”

So Zong Chengze stopped talking, and Xiong Chengchao couldn't say anything after holding back his stomach.

At this time, Zhou Yanghua suddenly lowered his voice, and smiled softly, "But, Cheng Chao, what you said at the meeting just now is the impact that Minghu Culture's acquisition of Columbia brought us. I think it is very likely that we are all worrying for nothing!"

After a pause, he said with a smile on his face: "Let me tell you some news. I just got it from inside the radio and television this morning. It is said that because the protests of the people in the United States have always been loud, so the White House It seems to have hinted something to Coca-Cola, and now, it is said that the negotiations are very difficult!"

"Even the internal meeting in Columbia is said to be extremely opposed to being acquired! So think about it, even if Coca-Cola wants to sell, the pressure is very high! This deal is very likely to fail halfway!"

Xiong Chengchao's eyes sparkled when he heard the words, and asked, "Really?"

Zhou Yanghua smiled like Maitreya Buddha, "The internal news should be true! Anyway, the acquisition of Minghu Culture has encountered interference and opposition from all sides, and it should be almost impossible to go on!"

Xiong Chengchao looked relieved when he heard the words, but soon, a disappointed expression flashed across his face.

Although everyone is in a state of hostility, even if Du Yihua has wooed him several times on behalf of Minghu Culture, he still wants to stay in the Oriental Media Group, and is unwilling to help them set up any Minghu theater chain, but everyone is after all. Chinese people are Chinese filmmakers.

When dealing with the outside world, of course everyone should stand on the same side.

Therefore, even if it is an opponent, Xiong Chengchao was excited when he heard that Minghu Culture was going to acquire Columbia—in his opinion, once the acquisition is completed, it will represent a big step forward for Chinese films!

But obviously, there seem to be not many people in the Oriental Media Group who share his views.

At this time, Zong Chengze said: "It's normal! Chairman, when this incident first came out, didn't you just say that no matter how poor Columbia is, it is also the top seven in Hollywood. Minghu Culture is too aggressive this time." It’s getting bigger, a Chinese company wants to buy the Seventh Big Hollywood in the United States... Tsk tsk, how is that possible!"

Zhou Yanghua laughed heartily when he heard the words.

"That's right, you're overthinking yourself!"

Hearing such a conversation, Xiong Chengchao turned his head to look at Zong Chengze, then at Zhou Yanghua who was smiling, and suddenly lowered his head, completely silent.

…………

United States, Los Angeles International Airport.

The plane landed smoothly.

This is Li Qian's fourth visit to the United States in the past two or three months.

This time, Liao Liao returned to the United States on the same plane as him after going back to China to rest for a few months, and continued to develop her various businesses here.

And Li Qian just made a transfer at Los Angeles Airport. After saying goodbye to Liao Liao, he boarded another airliner and flew directly to Atlanta.

There is the headquarters of the Coca-Cola Group.

Up to now, the negotiation team of Minghu Culture led by Qi Jie and the leading negotiation team of Morgan Stanley have been negotiating with Coca-Cola in that city for half a month.

Affected by this incident, "Calabash Baby" has sold well at the box office in North America and in China, and its global influence seems to have grown a lot at once.

However, the acquisition negotiations themselves seem to have reached an impasse.

For the current Minghu Culture, the acquisition of Columbia Films is already on the verge of completion, and it has to be done—it can't even tolerate failure under any excuse.

Therefore, even though Qi Jie was there, Li Qian was actually very relieved, and knew that maybe even if he came, he would not be able to help much, but he was always feeling uneasy when he was working on "The Matrix" in the later stages of the country , it happened that Liao Liao was about to fly over, so he immediately decided to fly over with him.

Come and see for yourself what this negotiation is all about!

***

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