Chapter 173 Media: Behind Lu Ping'an's Glory Is a Trace of Loneliness (Two in One)

Xiang Guoqiang has had a lot of tasks in his hands recently.

He is the manager of Exx Special Effects Company. After the special effects of "Wonderful Night" were produced, he personally escorted them back and forth between Beijing and Los Angeles.

In addition to the special effects company, Lu Ping'an's funds are also temporarily managed by him.

He bought stocks, made money, and used the money to invest in various fields designated by Lu Ping'an.

He is in charge of the income and expenditure of each fund, as well as the legal affairs of each fund.

In addition, Lu Ping'an now has filming technology.

This involves the embodiment of technology and the development of theater distribution.

This is also handled by Xiang Guoqiang.

It can be said that as a worker, Xiang Guoqiang has done the best within his ability.

And such work is naturally not matched with the remuneration.

So after receiving Lu Ping'an's call, Xiang Guoqiang mentioned the issue of salary increase for the first time.

Lu Ping'an agreed without hesitation.

His offer is about to expire in 3 years, and it is time to talk about the salary.

Lu Ping'an doesn't mind giving him more. Such a capable person should not be treated unfairly.

So soon, after an hour of telephone communication, the new treatment was reached.

Xiang Guoqiang is still Lu Ping'an's assistant in secret, and he will serve as the president of all other industries of Lu Ping'an except Xingchen Film and Burger King.

The most important company is "Small Target Capital", and all future industrial expansion of Lu Ping'an cannot be separated from it.

Xiang Guoqiang's treatment has been increased to 2 million per year plus a step-by-step salary increase, as well as a step-by-step equity incentive of 0.5% to a maximum of 5%, and countless benefits.

This remuneration is relatively reasonable.

After all, it is 100% loyal.

There is no need to worry about betrayal, which is equivalent to being a family member. It is not a big problem to give a little more than the market.

In this way, at least more than ten years can be managed, which is not bad.

Things are settled, and the next step is to work.

In terms of the film industry, the top priority is still the domestic distribution channel, that is, the expansion of cinemas.

Now it is April, and Lu Ping'an has expanded from 8 before the New Year to 26.

These cinemas are scattered, some were originally cinemas, and some were shops.

Lu Ping'an's plan is to turn these into a chain of cinemas, and then join the mainland cinemas that have already invested in them as a whole, in order to obtain relevant qualifications and apply for an independent cinema license in the future.

The standard for each of the 26 cinemas is to have at least 6 theaters, and at least one of the 6 theaters is a large theater that can adapt to the future giant screen.

And 26 theaters are far from the focus. Lu Ping'an's plan is to complete an investment of 500 million yuan this year.

Lu Ping'an currently has a lot of funds in his hands.

Of the 262 million US dollars earned by NetEase, 90 million has been spent on investing in Summit, purchasing copyrights, investing in Golden Harvest and mainland cinema companies, and preparing for the production of "Batman".

Of the remaining 170 million or so US dollars, 120 million is prepared to buy land and build buildings for Beijing.

The remaining 50 million US dollars can be used for the expansion of cinemas.

In addition, Lu Ping'an's box office revenue from "Saw" and "Death Day" in Hollywood and some disc revenue have also arrived, adding up to nearly 70 million US dollars.

In this way, the plan to use 500 million yuan for the expansion of mainland cinemas this year can be fully realized.

There are definitely many people who are running cinemas, but who would spend 500 million yuan to do it?

If Lu Ping'an's behavior is known to the public, he will inevitably be called a fool.

A fine-decorated cinema with land is a heavy asset. Few people think that the potential of the current film market will become so large in the future, and real estate may not continue to rise in the future.

Playing like this is simply a gamble with your life!

But can Lu Ping'an not be clear about the future development?

If you calculate the accounts carefully, it is a sure win no matter what.

The cinema business will be prosperous for at least fifteen years in the future.

In addition to this, there are shops and land. Lu Ping'an does not require real estate in marginal cities, but in first- and second-tier cities.

So according to the increase in housing prices, Lu Ping'an can make a fortune from the value of these real estates in the next ten years.

It doesn't matter whether you make money or not, or how much you make, as long as you don't lose money.

The most important thing is that you can get a guaranteed voice through this big move.

Movies, production is one aspect, distribution is another.

With 500 million this year, there will be at least 100 or 200 theaters, and each theater will have 5 large screens. The market share occupied by this is not a small number.

Of course, this is only an ideal state. According to the actual situation, it will be quite good to have 50 theaters before the release of "Wonderful Night" this year.

But this is enough.

50 theaters, hundreds of large screens, colleagues in the industry, try to speak loudly to me?

500 million is used for theater expansion, and the remaining 60 million US dollars or so can also be used, that is, to invest in some Internet companies.

In June this year, Penguin will be listed on the Hong Kong stock market.

During the financing stage of Penguin, Lu Ping'an was not easy to participate. Now that it is listed and he has money, he naturally wants to participate.

At the beginning of the listing, the total market value of Penguin was only a few billion Hong Kong dollars, and the issue price was 7 Hong Kong dollars. By July, the lowest stock price was below 4 Hong Kong dollars.

At that time, half of Lu Ping'an's share of "Insidious" will be received, and the funds in his hands will exceed 100 million US dollars.

So it is easy to acquire 100 million or 200 million shares of Penguin's circulating shares, and the shareholding ratio will easily reach more than 10%.

10% of the shares, let alone the appreciation of the stock, will make a lot of money in the future!

In addition to Penguin, Internet companies such as NetEase should also continue to hold.

With so much money, he has earned a great future for himself, which is super value no matter what.

But in this way, the funds in Lu Ping'an's hands will bottom out in the next few months.

But it doesn't matter, all the funds for recent projects have been reserved.

And Lu Ping'an's movies are not big-budget movies except "Batman", so the financial pressure is not great.

After the completion of several recent projects, the funds will be abundant again.

So money is not a big problem for him, the problem is just time.

After the arrangements were made, Han Sanpin called and said that the release date of "Happy Death Day" almost failed to pass.

The reason is that after the release date was set, the superiors verbally conveyed the instruction that starting from this year, June and July will be the protection month for domestic films.

It was verbal communication, and no document was issued, with the intention that all theaters would cooperate consciously.

And this rule will continue until 2023 in the future.

"Happy Death Day" set the release date a few days in advance, and this movie is relatively special because the director is Lu Pingan.

So this year's domestic protection month will start from June 25th to August 15th.

Han Sanpin said that this is some care given by the superiors, otherwise "Death Day" would have to be placed after May or August.

In this way, the "ambush" encirclement of "House of Flying Daggers" will still not be affected.

The superiors will not be unaware of this.

Han Sanpin said that this also shows that Lu Pingan's weight in the eyes of the superiors is getting heavier and heavier.

Well.

Lu Pingan can only say: "I will continue to work hard"

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. . . . . . . .

As May came, the lukewarm mainland film industry gradually began to boil.

The main force stirring the market was still the much-anticipated "House of Flying Daggers".

In mid-May, "House of Flying Daggers" competed at the Cannes Film Festival.

Although it was not shortlisted, the media articles were very high-profile.

"Zhang Yimou's new film "House of Flying Daggers" was highly recognized by foreign movie fans."

It was still the same.

It was just a screening, not shortlisted, and nothing was achieved, but it was reported in the mainland and became a positive one.

But who can blame this for not being the age of universal information?

What is going on abroad? The public all depends on what the media says.

So the publicity effect of "House of Flying Daggers" was very good.

And the publicity of "House of Flying Daggers" by New Picture did not stop there.

Since "the film gained a reputation in Cannes, France", various publicity copywritings have been released one after another, and the publicity trailers and theme songs have also announced the release time.

A series of various publicity have made the public highly expectant of "House of Flying Daggers".

However, the situation of "House of Flying Daggers"'s publicity control did not last long.

Lu Ping'an, another domestic commercial film director who cannot be ignored, also released news about his new film.

And once released, it was a series of news.

First, "Happy Death Day" was scheduled to be released on June 24.

After seeing the news, domestic movie fans were excited.

They knew the relevant background information of this film.

In addition to being Lu Ping'an's work as a Hollywood director, this is also a film that Lu Ping'an has completely established a foothold in Hollywood, which is of great significance.

After "Insidious" became a big hit, many domestic media have reported on Lu Ping'an's Hollywood journey.

Lu Ping'an entered Hollywood for the first time and made a big splash with "Chainsaw 1".

But he still couldn't get any big-budget films.

This is unfair treatment. If other directors had his achievements, the cost of the second film would at least start at 50 million, but Lu Ping'an only got 5 million!

Facing discrimination and injustice, Lu Ping'an did not complain. He knew that if he wanted to be respected by others, he had to become stronger!

So he was still very competitive in the second movie, and made "Happy Death Day" with only 4 million US dollars. In the end, it won a global box office of 115 million US dollars under the pessimism of the audience, and once again made a big splash!

Through this film, Lu Ping'an's director's value also reached 3 million US dollars, becoming the first among Chinese directors at present.

Not only that, Lu Ping'an also got the investment opportunity for the third movie.

However, the opportunity was there, but the script submitted still had no potential, and Lu Ping'an's own script was not recognized.

Lu Ping'an realized at this time that the success of the two movies still could not bring him the desired respect.

So Lu Ping'an decided to show his super talent again!

In the third movie, Lu Ping'an used his career as a bet, and under great pressure, he only used "Insidious" with a production cost of 800,000 US dollars to cut a global box office of 200 million US dollars.

After "Insidious", Hollywood finally recognized Lu Ping'an and even gave him the title of "King of Horror"!

Lu Ping'an's director's value also soared to 10 million US dollars! And he firmly secured the position of the director of "Batman".

What is the hidden story behind the several changes of directors that the director of "Batman" has experienced?

The media didn't say, only saying that we will know after "Batman" is released.

But the media also quoted a line from the lyrics of "In the Name of the Father" during last year's Milk Tea Week: "Behind the glory, there is a loneliness." As the only mainland director who has ventured into Hollywood, Lu Ping'an's success is far more difficult than imagined.

What a passionate and inspiring article.

Whoever reads it will be confused.

This is the pride of the Chinese people!

The light of the Chinese people!

In this era, any Chinese who succeeds in the Western world will be given this kind of halo.

Yao Ming is like this, he played in the NBA and his fame is soaring.

Lu Ping'an is also like this, he played in Hollywood and his fame is also soaring.

So the domestic fans' views on Lu Ping'an have also reached a new height, and everyone hopes that he will go higher and higher.

This also makes everyone look forward to Lu Ping'an's works more and more.

Lu Ping'an's three "masterpieces" in Hollywood that are small and big, the first and third are horror films, which cannot be introduced into China. Now that "Death Anniversary" can be released, many fans are very enthusiastic about it.

Everyone wants to see what kind of movie can make Lu Pingan win over the Americans in Hollywood.

However, the release date of "Death Day" is just one of a series of news.

The second news is also about movies, and it is also Lu Pingan's new film "The Platform".

Compared with "Death Day", this film is relatively unfamiliar to domestic movie fans.

Everyone only knows that this film was in Berlin this year, but did not win an award.

But everyone is also very interested in it.

After all, this is the second film that Lu Pingan and Jiang Wen have collaborated on.

The media also said that this film is large in scale and is the most explicit of Lu Pingan's "brain hole" films!

So many fans are happy: I like explicit ones!

Compared with these two news, the appearance of the third news is the one that completely makes the entire film industry boil.

"Lu Pingan's new work "Code 9527" is officially scheduled, and the new film is called "Night at the Museum", scheduled for July 30."

A week after the news of the first two films came out, "Night at the Museum" also began to promote.

For some movies, you can probably tell what the movie is about just by looking at the name.

"Night at the Museum" is like this. Everyone guessed that this is probably a story that happened in a museum when they saw the name.

As for what will happen.

This time the media also revealed it.

"When the objects in the museum come alive overnight"

Sometimes, movie promotion actually only needs an idea.

The things in the museum come alive.

Just this idea can arouse the interest of countless people.

Of course, the idea of ​​the movie is good, but it depends on who directed it.

For the same movie, if it is directed by a mainland director and a Hollywood director, movie fans will certainly choose the Hollywood one.

Because that is the guarantee of quality.

And if mainland directors shoot these, they will probably not be able to shoot the desired taste, and they will appear to be half-hearted.

So some people often sigh, how great it would be if a certain movie was shot by Hollywood.

But now, this worry does not exist.

Because Lu Pingan is a Hollywood director, and a very successful Hollywood director.

Combined with the high quality guarantee of Lu Pingan's movies.

So just a short sentence has sparked the interest of countless fans.

The official release date of "Wonderful Night" is not just this sentence.

In the report, "Wonderful Night" also released stills of various characters again.

In addition to the characters, there are dinosaurs, African animals, ancient battlefields with thousands of horses galloping, etc.

Among them, the most hilarious is the stills of Fan Wei's confused and frightened expression.

Careful people found that this expression was surrounded by rows of sharp teeth.

Soon someone guessed that this must be the dinosaur skeleton resurrected!

The Internet immediately started a discussion, guessing the plot and guessing the characters.

There are many elements in the released stills, and the topic of speculation is also very popular.

So "Wonderful Night" did nothing, just released a soft article, and its publicity effect seemed to overwhelm all the movies being promoted at the moment.

If there is a software that can collect the "want to watch" data of movie fans at this time, "Wonderful Night" is estimated to have almost surpassed the long-promoted "House of Flying Daggers".

Netizens responded with high expectations, and the media and industry insiders also discovered the interesting point at the first time.

"House of Flying Daggers" encounters an ambush from all sides."

The fans were happy, the onlookers were also happy, and the industry insiders did not express their opinions, but they could not stop wanting to watch the fun.

Zhang Weipin was speechless, and he felt that Lu Ping'an was really a bit unethical.

But he also knew that even if there were no two movies, and only "Wonderful Night" and "House of Flying Daggers" were left to work alone, the current situation has already shown that the current domestic commercial film is no longer dominated by Lao Mouzi.

It seems that it is not easy for "House of Flying Daggers" to achieve a publicity effect that dominates the whole audience.

But this does not mean that he will admit defeat.

In his opinion, now the other party has shown his cards and revealed the name of the film, although it was so popular that he was a little surprised for a while.

But the promotion of the film is not just based on this wave.

There are at least two months before the release of the movie, and the battle for the box office has just begun.

The publicity and promotion plan of "House of Flying Daggers" is extremely complete, at the level of an atomic bomb. At the same time, without the strong support from the top, the film quality, distribution channels, etc. of New Picture are not comparable to those of Lu Ping'an's small company.

So let's wait and see!