On the 21st day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar, January 20, 2006 in the new calendar, it was a great cold.

Ahn Joon-hyuk, who took a hasty day off, returned to J.H. to take charge of the company's affairs, and by now, J.H's negotiations with independent cinemas have reached an impasse.

There are many discerning people in the world, and the predicament of "The King's Man", although it is not in the industry, is like seeing flowers in a fog and can't figure it out, but the news of J.H's contact with CJ, Rakuten, and Mega.Box has not been concealed from the outside world, and what cannot be concealed is that CJ.CGV is not interested in "The King's Man" and withdraws from the negotiations.

This is the main factor that causes the current predicament, CJ.CGV has more than 800 screens, accounting for about 40% of the total number of screens in the country, and they say that they are not optimistic about "The King's Man", whether it is out of public intentions to really analyze it, or to hide their selfish thoughts to cut down a competitor for their own family, it gives others an excuse.

With the leader of CGV in front of him, everyone understands the thorns and twists and turns on the road to the release of "The King's Man", and the reason why the owner of an independent cinema, who has always been able to pick up some leftovers, dared to open his mouth and compress the share ratio of J.H Company in the negotiation is to see this point and hold the meaning of sitting on the ground and starting the price.

Although Lotte and Mega.Box are regular chain companies, they don't look so ugly, but they don't have similar ideas, and they have been dragging their feet without replying, only asking J.H to hold a preview screening before negotiating, most of them also want to sit and watch "The King's Man" and "Head Master One 2" compete with each other, and they are so good that they can play left and right. Cash in on.

On January 20th, J.H's only large conference room was full of people again, J.H's negotiation team, some theater jointly elected representatives, plus the person in charge sent by Lotte and Mega.Box, dozens of people sat in the conference room, playing Tai Chi casually with each other, or talking in whispers with each other, and naturally there were occasional disputes during negotiations, blushing and shouting.

“…… Not bad. There are not many movies released at the end of the year. "The Beast", "Lost Love", "Holiday", these are all already released, and in a few days, there will be "Head Master One 2", and more than half a month later. There is also "Millionaire's First Love". So many pieces. Enough to fit into the winter vacation schedule. Enough for us to open the door every day...... Of course, Minister Kwon and Minister Park, we don't mean to belittle your company. But it's really hard to adjust the screening of so many films, and the current schedule is not easy to arrange, and "The King's Man" suddenly has to be added, which really makes us very embarrassed!"

A representative of an independent cinema, rubbing his bald head with his fat palms, stretched out his hands at Kwon Bo-geun and Park Young-jun with a look of embarrassment.

With his eyes lowered, he looked at Park Yingjun, who was expressionless beside him, and Kwon Bo-geun secretly sighed.

The dead fat pig is secretly changing the concept, what "Beast", "Missed Love" and other films are mediocre works that have been weak at the box office for only one week after their release, among which "Beast" is criticized by fans for its lack of foreshadowing and explanation, and is currently temporarily listed on the box office list, thanks to the joining of Kwon Sang-woo, who made a farce of exploitation and squeezing by agents some time ago, industry insiders know that the box office of the film will inevitably decline sharply next week.

The other two films that have been released also have various problems, "Lost Love" is too bland in tone, and the literary and artistic love concept cannot make the audience feel a sense of substitution, and the box office performance is mediocre.

Only "Holiday" is quite decent, but unfortunately the theme is too heavy and lacks enough explosion, and the eye-catching performance of 300,000 people in the first week of release is probably the limit of the follow-up increase.

The total number of screens of these movies is probably no more than 300, and these 300 also include CJ, Rakuten, and Mega.Box, and most independent movie theaters are probably preparing to draw them.

As for "Head Master 2", it's completely nonsense, this film is CJ Entertainment's masterpiece of the year, in order to efficiently recover costs, CJ.CGV freed up nearly 500 screens for it, such a large number of screens, it is almost the limit of the premiere screen, no matter how much it is, it is a waste, even if the performance is strong, there are chain theaters such as Lotte to take over, independent cinemas don't want to earn a penny from it!

The last "Millionaire's First Love"......

Quan Baogen thought for a while, and then remembered that this is a love film played by two newcomers, in which the heroine is still SM's Lee Yeon-hee (no need for Lee Yeon-hee, lest some friends don't know those two words), but this film has been screened some time ago, and the reputation can be described as miserable, and its distribution company is too lazy to publicize the screen for it, and is only ready to release a DVD to make a profit.

These excuses are embarrassing to come up with, and the shamelessness of the owners of independent cinemas has broken through the sky!

Seeing that several other representatives also agreed, Quan Baogen knocked on the table with a not very good-looking face, didn't bother to care about any face, and told everything he had learned from the above, and after reaching the most, he said with a smile: "...... Ladies and gentlemen, our company is very sincere, this is our first time cooperating, and J.H will invest in more films in the future, and strive for mutual benefit and reciprocity together, but you don't seem to take our sincerity into account!"

The room was a little quiet for a while, and the excuse was punctured, and the representatives of those independent cinemas were not embarrassed at all, but the old gods were there, smiling and listening to Kwon Bo Gen's words.

Now it's J.H who is in a hurry, not them!

The person in charge of Lotte and Mega.Box, also quietly, Rakuten's current demand for movies is not high, although the market has been sluggish recently, for a long time, the attendance rate has not reached 20%, but their business focus is on shopping malls, department stores and supermarkets, operating theaters, is the result of the development of shopping malls when the interests of the deep mining, they themselves are part of the Lotte chain of shopping malls, can maintain profitability in various ways.

However, the representative of Mega.Box, while calming down, looked at the scene and still talked about it without results, and seemed a little irritable, but he still didn't say much.

After talking about the worst, the independent theater side still did not let go, and the atmosphere was deadlocked again, and Quan Baogen, who presided over the negotiations, shook his head secretly. Ignoring the red-faced and thick-necked independent theater representatives who were battling with the J.H team, they quietly exited the conference room and walked towards the basement floor of the building.

The basement floor of the building had been renovated a month ago, and then it was ventilated for half a month, and it was not until a few days ago that the equipment was moved in and officially put into use.

It's just that the company currently does not openly select trainees, and those who usually appear here, except for the recording engineer and others in the technical equipment department, there is only Li Cailin, and occasionally Bai Zhiying will come over to practice his voice. Maintenance status.

But I haven't seen her much lately. The closer to the end of the year, the more frequent music programs on major TV stations become, and for Baek Ji-young, who has just made a comeback, this is a great opportunity to consolidate his popularity. It is currently being announced in four places under the arrangement of the company.

He came to the innermost recording studio on the first floor. There was a knock on the door. After a while, Ahn Junhyuk's familiar voice inside answered, "Come in!"

Quan Baogen pushed the door in and lowered his head slightly. Bow to Ahn Jun-hyuk, who was sitting in front of the computer with his back to him in the dimly lit room: "President!"

"How's the negotiation going?"

"In terms of independent cinemas, they still bite the 65% share and don't let go, and they seem to be sure that we are cornered. Quan Baogen sighed helplessly, "Lotte and Mega.Box also seem to be very moved by the insistence of independent theaters, and I'm afraid they are also waiting for us to be unable to hold on, and after agreeing to the proportion of independent theaters, we will follow with a piece of the pie." ”

On the computer's console, Ahn Junhyuk got up, took out two wet wipes and wiped his hands, and when he turned around, he smiled: "It's normal, when CJ.CGV withdrew, such a result was already inevitable......" As he spoke, he paused, and then asked: "What is the countermeasure that the negotiation team came up with?"

"The negotiation team believes that although the current impasse is caused by independent theaters, what ultimately makes them persist is the ambiguous attitude of Lotte and Mega.Box, these two chain theater giants are the heaviest stone on our heads, and if we don't move them away, the negotiations will not be fruitful at all!" This conclusion was reached before today's negotiation, and Kwon Bo-geun said without thinking when he heard Ahn Jun-hyuk ask.

"Oh, the negotiation team is analyzing it like this, do you want to capture Lotte or Mega.Box first?"

"No!" Kwon shook his head, "After today's negotiations, we have seen that the attitude of the two chain giants is very resolute, and they have been allowing independent theaters to play, they are chain operations, and the results determined by the person in charge will not change for the time being." However, in terms of independent cinemas, the interior is not monolithic. The survival situation of each theater is different, and every time we negotiate, it is only a part of the representatives, and it is impossible to dominate the will of all theater owners. The negotiation team believes that Lotte and Mega.Box should be kicked out first, and then some of the poor operating conditions should be screened out in independent theaters, and the alliance of independent theaters should be broken from within by buying out the screens...... Some of the bosses have made money, and how many of them can sit still?"

The faint light of the computer screen illuminated Ahn Jun-hyuk's side to it, making the outline of his side face look stiff, and when he said these words in one breath, Kwon Bo-geun gasped slightly, and then stopped, bowed his head and stood respectfully in front of Ahn Jun-hyuk, waiting for his evaluation.

In his view, this is the best solution to the current situation.

Sure enough, after waiting for a while, An Junhyuk nodded: "It's a good way, in this way, the so-called alliance will be self-defeating!"

Kwon Bo Gen's heart was filled with joy, but before he could show his joy, he heard Ahn Jun Hyuk continue: "But, have you calculated how long it will take to do this? It will take at least two or three months to force the owners of those independent theaters to join our camp when the two steps of differentiation and co-optation are implemented, but what if we absorb them? How many screens do all their theaters add up? How many screens can they free up for us? And those movie theaters ......?" As he spoke, he smiled, and Quan Baogen heard disdain from his laughter: "...... The facilities of those movie theaters are more and more dilapidated, the environment is very poor, and the ordinary ticket price of the chain theater is 8,000 won, which is already cheap, but their ticket price has to be halved before anyone enters. With such a low ticket price, even if we are freed up on the screen, how much do you think we can earn?"

A series of rhetorical questions, asking Quan Baogen was full of cold sweat.

These factors were indeed ignored by the negotiation team, and if this method had been used, let alone making money, J.H. would have lost all his money. Of course, there will be such an oolong, and it is also the company's first entry into the industry, and the market research has not done a good job.

"Independent cinema, it's just an embellishment......" Seeing him wipe the sweat from his forehead, Ahn Junhyuk spoke softly, and didn't talk about this issue anymore, but made a decision: "Since the negotiation can't be reached, then you go back and tell them that this negotiation is canceled, and the company needs a week to consider it, and then restart the negotiation after a week!"

"Yes!"

Agreeing, Kwon Bo Geun exited the recording studio, and when he closed the door, he found that not only was he sweating cold on his forehead, but his back was even about to get wet.

Ahn Jun-hyuk's mind is getting deeper and deeper, there were still clues to be found before, but recently it has become more and more ethereal and unpredictable. Last time, in order to recruit Li Cailin, the newly recruited middle management and senior executives in the company were dissatisfied with his insistence, although most people later admitted his vision because of Li Cailin's strength, and the so-called dissatisfaction turned into admiration, but there were still a few private complaints.

As a result, those people have been kicked out of the company in the past two months, and one of them has been discredited and can no longer be allowed to be peers!

However, the other middle and senior executives who remained in the company did not associate the departure of those people with him at all.

Kwon Bo Gen knew that if he hadn't worked with Ahn Jun Hyuk for a long time and had many positions on his body, he could catch some traces, and I am afraid he would not have found out.

Of course, there is no point in thinking about this now, the negotiation team's decision-making was wrong, since Ahn Jun-hyuk didn't mention it more, it means that he didn't want to pursue it, so he didn't need to be afraid, so after a short period of fear, he calmed his breath, and Kwon Bo-geun hurriedly went upstairs to prepare to inform Ahn Jun-hyuk of his decision.

Of course, there are still doubts.

Like what...... Why do you want to restart negotiations in a week?

He wondered if he felt that this was really the time he was talking about "considering". (To be continued......)