"Don't say it, I'm going to class!" Natalie over there was about to hang up, Wang Yang snorted, looked at the several storey buildings on the street outside the car window, and said, "I'm going to class soon, but now, I'm going to work at the company, bye-bye." ”

Natalie hadn't closed the line yet, and said lightly: "As for "Sweetheart", forget it, it's not you who directed it anyway." As she spoke, she suddenly said in surprise: "Oh, man, it was later than I thought, and we talked for an hour? Several times he was about to end the call, but she said, "I have one more question about your script," and then after a long conversation, he smiled, "Thank you for those ideas, I think it will be useful." ”

The headquarters of Flame Films is no longer where it used to be, having moved to the small seaside town of Santa Monica late last year.

In this building, there are more than 200 employees of Flame Films and its subsidiary Flames-Man, of course, there are many positions that do not work in the office, especially the distribution department, overseas distribution department, public relations department and other departments, plus these perennial business travelers, Flame Films, which had only more than 50 people at the beginning, now has nearly 300 people, and if you add more than 200 independent subsidiaries Blue Sky Studio, the number of employees of the Flame Group has exceeded 500 people.

"Good morning, Mr. Wang. Although he does not often appear in the company, as a member of the flame movie, who does not know that his boss is the "youngest billionaire" Magic Young? Even the company's cleaners can casually tell his history, how he has changed from 10,000 US dollars to hundreds of millions of dollars.

"Hey, everyone!" Wang Yang nodded to them with a smile and walked into the open elevator together. He didn't recognize the names and positions of these people, but it didn't hurt them to talk, a black-haired white girl holding a briefcase and wearing a women's suit smiled and asked, "Mr. Wang, I'm Ada, when can I see your next movie?" Wang Yang looked at her and replied with a smile: "Maybe it's been a while, Ada, but I have a plan to executive produce a movie, you can watch the Los Angeles Times." ”

Another black man said jokingly: "Mr. Wang, I love this job, but you know that the world is not very good now, and my child is about to be born again, when will I get a raise?" Everyone in the elevator immediately laughed, they all knew that this young boss was a very easy-going and kind person, so several people also coaxed and said, "I'm getting married", "My mortgage pressure is too great......"

Wang Yang smiled and hugged his head, spread his hands to them, and said, "Oh, maybe you should ask Mark? I don't care about the company." He suddenly remembered something, and said suspiciously: "Guys, why do I remember that last Christmas, the company raised salaries?"

Laughing and talking with the employees, soon the elevator opened and closed, Wang Yang came to the office floor of the company's high-rise, as soon as he stepped out of the elevator, he saw Mark Slunt in the distance instructing a copywriter secretary something, he waved and shouted: "Hey, Mark!"

"Get all these documents ready to be sent to the conference room......" Mark Slunt heard the voice, turned his head to look at it, and said with a smile: "Hey, my boss! You came so early, it surprised me, you came 'on time' for every meeting." Wang Yang walked over with a smile and said, "If it weren't for the traffic jam, I would have come earlier, I like this place in Santa Monica." ”

After staying on this floor for a while, Wang Yang wandered around the company again, including the film storage room, equipment warehouse and other places, and when the time came to ten o'clock in the morning, the meeting officially began.

In the bright conference room, the long conference table was full of people, Wang Yang sat as the chairman, and Mark Slunt and other senior executives of the company sat on either side.

In fact, the company's current board of directors is empty, and Flame Films is still a very independent private film company, not burdened with debt, not seeking venture capital and other financing from Wall Street, and not publicly traded on the Nasdaq. And whether it is Mark Slunter, who is proficient in business, or Wang Yang, who is not half a bucket of water, they all believe that the time has not yet come for the company to go public.

The purpose of going public is to raise money and get more cash to grow the company, but Flame Films is now not short of money, enough to cope with the step-by-step development, everything is going on in an orderly and rapid manner. No matter how fast it is, it can't be fast, if you blindly spend money on expansion, it is easy to suddenly lose control one day.

But now Wang Yang is not the sole owner of the flame movie, 95% of the company's shares belong to him, while the other 5% is distributed among the company's executives such as Mark Snent.

The core reason why Flame Movies can have the current scale is because of the launch of several super-blockbuster movies such as "Youth Musical" and "When Happiness Knocks on the Door", although most of the credit can be attributed to him, but the operation behind the company, the distribution and publicity that is implemented, as well as the sales of peripheral goods in the later stage, and the expansion of channels, etc., are not his achievements, and he doesn't even know the specific situation.

It's like in 1999 when "Youth Musical", in addition to the sales and rental of original CD and DVD and videotapes in the later period, other peripherals were not developed much, not because they didn't want to develop, but because they lacked channels and relationships, not to mention the overseas market, and several peripheral copyrights like toys and clothes didn't make much money in order to establish a relationship network;

The company has been making progress, and it is precisely because of the efforts of these high-level talents that it would not have been possible for him to develop into an independent film company with excellent distribution capabilities and rich distribution channels in two years, even if there are many high-grossing films.

Although Wang Yang didn't know much about business, he was forced by the blonde girl to reluctantly gnaw some books on business and marketing, and "worked hard" to go to Stanford, of course, he finally chose USC, and Stanford never applied. But he didn't go to business school and knew that if he wanted to retain talents and encourage them to work enthusiastically, in addition to shouting "work hard for the future of the company!", there must be practical benefits.

Partnership is a good system that can bind these talents to the company, so that they really have a "home" feeling, which is also their company, and the better the company, the better they are.

5% may not seem like much, but it is actually very lucrative, because this is not a 5% stake in any subsidiary, but the parent company Flame Films, which means that FM Company, Blue Sky Studios and all subsidiaries of Future Flame Films have their share. In the long-term contract signed by the senior management, with the company's annual performance improvement in the future, under the reward system, they can gradually get more shares, and the overall maximum limit will not exceed 10%; before the future listing, they can also buy a certain number of shares from Wang Yang at less than half of the issue price, and the terms of the contract are absolutely full of energy.

Of course, this ratio will not be this way forever, and it will change with future financing, equity dilution, etc., but for now, this distribution has made all the important people in the company very satisfied.

Facts have proved that many times a person has the ability and how much ability he has, even he doesn't know, many people just lack an opportunity, and once the opportunity comes, coupled with hard work, his ability will burst out, making him feel unbelievable.

Just like Mark Slunter, if he hadn't become the CEO of Flame Movies, maybe he would still be an agent now, and he might have tapped up some big star and become a gold agent, or he might continue to be a bad agent. But from the moment he got that contract, his life went a different way, and now he is one of the "giants" of flame films, becoming a rising star in the business world.

And Simon Willis, Sandy Pikes and others, who were originally depressed and mediocre in the era of A-Pix, came to the era of flame movies, and under the correct development strategy, they also completed their positions and tasks very well and contributed a lot to the company.

Of course, the company is getting bigger and bigger, and it needs more talents to help, so Wang Yang hit the idea on Lionsgate, because Lionsgate is the most successful independent film company in the future, its operation and development methods are worth learning, and its operation and execution are more worthy of vigorous invitation.

When FM was formed last year, Wang Yang called Jon Feltimel and sincerely invited Jon to join Flame Films, so that he could get about 2% of the stock shares of the head office and take over the affairs of FM Company.

FM is more of a new brand, and it shares resources with FF in terms of distribution and production. After the creation of it, Flame Films transferred all the business of outsourced films to it, and later FM was responsible for the implementation of Lionsgate's "film and television library" program, distributing outsourced films, and those independent films and commercial films that were produced as investors, but the production cost of a single film was limited to a budget of 200-20 million, and the distribution fee for large-scale releases did not exceed 10 million;

However, Jon, who is also a partner of Lionsgate and has a long-term contract for several years, declined Wang Yang's invitation without much thought. But Flame Films is not without new talent, Michael Burns, the current president of FM, and Peter Wilkes, investment director of FM...... Wang Yang looked at the financial statements on the conference table, which clearly stated the company's income and expenditure in 2000, and listened to Mark Slunt over there and said with a smile: "In 2000, our company released a total of four movies on a large scale, all of which made money, and the performance was amazing! Let us give the chairman some applause first." Simon Willis, Michael Burns and others all laughed and applauded, and the conference room burst into thunderous applause.

"Thank you!" Wang Yang also clapped his palms with a smile and said, "This is everyone's joint effort! This year, in the future, please continue this enthusiasm, thank you!"

Three years ago he could never have imagined the situation he could have said to a group of men and women in their thirties and forties, sitting in a conference room, but now he was at ease, without any nervousness, confusion, or excitement. He feels a little old, not like a 21-year-old person, you must know that he has already obtained the "liquor license" this month, he has imagined many times before, what he will do after getting the license, go to the bar to bubble hot girls, get drunk? But now he has done nothing, incredible.

He smiled and looked down at the documents, in 2000, the flame film released "When Happiness Knocks on the Door", "Youth Musical" 2, "Memory Fragments" and "Juno", but in this report, "Juno", which was only released for Christmas, was not counted.

First of all, the income situation, in terms of screening box office, "When Happiness Knocks on the Door" is 203 million in North America, 385 million worldwide, and the after-tax income is more than 140 million, "Youth Musical" is 101 million in North America, 221 million worldwide, and 83.5 million after tax, and "Memory Fragments" has a box office of 55.31 million in North America, a global box office of 84.11 million, and an after-tax income of 31 million. This adds up to a net profit of $254.5 million.

In 2000, the total box office in North America was 7.6 billion, and the four films of the Flame Company grossed 450 million, accounting for nearly 6% of the market share, the most among independent film companies, while Lionsgate only had 1%.

On the soundtrack CD and DVD, "When Happiness Knocks on the Door" has sold 800,000 sets of original CD and 4 million sets of DVD worldwide, with an after-tax income of 50 million; "Song and Dance 2" soundtrack CD continues to sell well, and now the sales volume has reached 4 million sets, and the DVD that has been on the shelves for a short time has also sold 5 million sets, bringing 80 million after-tax income; the original CD sales of "Memory Fragments" have also sold 120,000 copies, and the DVD has not yet been put on the shelves, so its income here is close to 1 million.

These two main peripherals have added 131 million after-tax income to the company, and at the same time, the three films also have leasing and other peripheral 060 million income, and the follow-up of "Song and Dance Youth" brought 100 million, and the copyright fee obtained by the redistribution of the films in the company's film and television library is 100 million, and there is another 201 million here, plus box office profits, about 465.5 million.

That's the company's after-tax income excluding Juneau, which nearly ran out of cash in the mid-2000s.

But this is not a figure on the company's account, because there are still expenses, such as 35 million dollars for the publicity and screening of "Juno", 65 million for the production of "Mr. Hughes", which is about to start filming, 35 million for "Youth Musical" 35 million, as well as shareholder dividends, salaries and bonuses for the company's employees, and the development of core business, which cost about 70 million US dollars, and 50 million yuan for FM Company.

Because it is a private company, he withdrew his own 20 million cash as a major shareholder, and donated another 20 million a few days ago, so a total of 295 million was spent, and now the cash owned by Flame Movies is 170.5 million.

If you add the 50 million FM company, the 100 million Blue Sky Studio, and two movies in production, the market capital of the Flame Group is 400 million; if you count the global box office after-tax income of at least 100 million yuan for "Juno", and its considerable periphery, the market capital of the Flame Group has reached more than 500 million, and the available cash figure will soon be 300 million US dollars.

"Very good!" Wang Yang put down the financial statements, looked around at all the smiling executives at the conference table, applauded and smiled: "I was really surprised, very good!" He looked at Mark Slunt and nodded, "Mark, let's start discussing the company's plan." ”

This year's flame movie (FF) except for "Song and Dance Youth 3" is confirmed to be released on a large scale in August of the summer vacation schedule, there is no film plan, and the "Sweetheart" that has not yet been approved is obviously too late to be launched in the summer vacation, even if it is in time, it will be harmless to collide with "Song and Dance Youth 3", and the cruel Christmas schedule is not suitable for youth song and dance films, so if it goes well, "Sweetheart" is likely to be released in March and April 2002.

In 2002, FF Company also had "Ice Age" in the summer vacation, and "Mr. Hughes", which had not been scheduled but would definitely be released, but this was all in 2002. Only one film will be released on a large scale this year, and the new work of "Money-Grabbing Chairman" seems to be far away, so this year, the focus of Flame Group's work will be shifted to FM, and the supply of funds will naturally be sufficient, and the goal is to let FM form a good and stable screening model as soon as possible, and continue to develop its film and television library.

"This year we will release a film on a large scale, test screening 20 films, and expand the library to 2,000 films. Michael Burns stood in front of the projector, pointed to the image behind him, and introduced: "Our goal is to increase the mass release to two by 2002, and then at a rate of two per year......

"It's time for us to start a TV business, I've been in touch, and a lot of TV stations are interested in booking our TV series, we can start with a small-budget sitcom......

"We haven't developed enough overseas markets, and many countries and regions have not released our films, which has cost us too much overseas box office......

Wang Yang sat quietly in the chief, turning the pen in his hand, occasionally expressing a few opinions, but he would not have too many affirmations or vetoes, he was not a professional, he handed over the company to these talents to take care of, that is, let them make decisions; of course, if he was sure that he knew what to do better, he would speak out and take ideas. There are also some more important investment matters that also need to be asked of him.

"Boss, I suggest that the company build a sound stage. Mark Slunt asked the secretary to hand a document to Wang Yang, he lifted his black-rimmed glasses, and said: "This is my plan, I have this plan for several reasons, first, the company's cash is sufficient and its financial situation allows, and second, whether it is "Mr. Hughes" or the future films produced by the company, it will need to use a sound stage, which will save a lot of costs......

Wang Yang looked at the plan in his hand and nodded slightly, although so far, all the movies he has made are all shot in real time, but one day he will use a sound stage, not to mention that FM plans to launch more than 6 self-made movies every year by 2005. After owning a studio, the crew of the Flame Group does not need to rent the studios of other film companies when filming, which will save a lot in the long run.

After looking at it for a while, he nodded affirmatively and said with a smile: "I agree to this plan, it's time for us to have a studio." ”

"Wow!" The conference room burst into thunderous applause, and everyone immediately cheered and applauded happily, which means that the scale of the company has risen to a new level, in addition to the market share of the box office, it has gradually become a large independent film company in terms of equipment.

When the applause stopped, Mark Slunt continued: "Boss, look at the back, I suggest choosing the location of the studio in Vancouver, where there are many, many preferential tax exemption policies, which can not only save the cost of the studio, but also benefit its operation." You must know that now more and more crews are going to Vancouver to film in order to save money. He laughed, "Damn America!" and a burst of laughter erupted in the conference room.

Wang Yang flipped through a few pages of the plan, looked at the content behind it with a smile, and quickly nodded: "OK, since there are so many discounts, it's good to build it there." ”

In the plan, the total cost of the studio is 100 million US dollars, but it will be divided into several phases of the project to complete, the first phase of the first investment of 50 million, including the construction of some regular indoor scenes, offices, hospitals, homes, etc., and in the future, when the film of the Flame Group needs to be set up, it will be carried out there as much as possible, after the shooting, those that can continue to be used will be retained, to achieve the goal of reuse of resources.

Soon the time came to noon, Wang Yang had lunch at a restaurant next to the company, enjoyed a sea breeze on the beach in Santa Monica, and came to the afternoon meeting to continue again, and discussed several decisions, although he was tired, but he was in a very good mood, because he saw a sharp and thriving company!

In the garage, Wang Yang looked at Jessica's car parked next to him, he threw the key in his hand, and shouted while walking out of the garage: "Jessica, I'm back, are you at home?" Jessica's crisp voice faintly came from the house: "Well, I'm blowing Danny's hair, it's almost ready, it just finished taking a shower!"

Wang Yang listened attentively, and sure enough, there was the buzzing of the water blower, thinking of Danny, who was jumping around when he was blowing, although the process was very short, he still didn't want to participate, he smiled and walked towards the back garden, shouting: "I'll go to the garden!" He came to the garden and did not lazy, but continued his previous unfinished work, which was to tie a swing to the plane tree, which was not Jessica's idea, but his, he dreamed of such a plank swing when he was a child.

Standing in front of the huge and dense plane tree, he looked up at the tall branches above and muttered, "A man's life." With that, he took a few steps back, ran and jumped to a stop with his legs, and climbed the plane tree with agility.

"Chirp, chirp......" Hearing these sounds, Wang Yang, who was standing on the fork of the main branch, frowned suspiciously, "Bird? When did there be a nest of birds in the tree?" He climbed up a little more along the sound, and looked at a tree branch in the distance, only to see a bird's nest firmly built there, and a few small yellow-brown young birds poked their heads out and chirped.

"Oh, man! Wang Yang looked at those ordinary and aura sparrows, took a few deep breaths, and suddenly shouted loudly: "Hey, Jessica! Jessica! Come out." Jessica's voice was also shouting from the distance: "Wait a minute, what's wrong?" Wang Yang replied loudly: "A surprise!" He looked at the new little beings with a smile, was silent for a moment, and asked softly: "Hey, is your mother an underage girl?"

As he spoke, he shook his head and laughed, his heart was suddenly full of lightness, as if he had let go of a big stone, he knew that he had completely let go of the pregnancy incident of "Juno", don't worry so much, life will naturally find a way out.

"What's wrong?" Jessica's voice got closer and closer, Wang Yang smiled and slowly climbed down the tree, turned around and said, "Life! He was about to step on the next foothold, but suddenly stepped into the air, and suddenly the whole person fell backwards from a height of two meters, exclaiming: "Oh my God......"

Jessica, who came to the garden over there, happened to see this scene, her heart tightened, and she rushed over like a conditioned reflex, and blurted out screaming, "Yang!"

With a pop, Wang Yang fell heavily on the lawn, he felt a pain all over his body, he didn't want to move, he gasped for air, grinned and said, "Crazy...... Oh, shit!!" Jessica came to him with a panicked face, hurriedly crouched down, looked at him, and asked in a trembling voice, "Oh my God, are you okay? Calm, calm down, I'm going to call 911, yes......"

"No, no, no!" Wang Yang reluctantly smiled at her, took a few deep breaths, the pain had almost eased, he shook his head and smiled: "No, I'm fine, I don't have any abnormal sensations in my muscles and joints, it's okay! It's just that my butt hurts a little...... He laughed a few times, stretched out his hands and feet and lay on the lawn, and said with a smile: "It's nothing, I tried to jump from a three-meter-high roof when I was a child, you know what happened in the end? Wow, there was nothing at all." ”

Jessica's brows furrowed tightly, stroking his arm, and said, "Is it really okay? No, we still have to go to the hospital for a check-up." Wang Yang still shook his head: "Believe me, whew! If something happens, I won't hold on, I'm not stupid." Seeing that he seemed to be really intact, Jessica stood up and kicked him lightly in anger, saying, "You scared me to death, this is your surprise? I said I wanted to use a ladder, why didn't you listen to me! You are not Tarzan!"

Wang Yang couldn't help but beat the lawn with a smile: "I don't want to quarrel, but you're right, scold me...... Haha!" Jessica smiled helplessly and rolled her eyes, glancing over the plane tree, where were the sparrows?

"Wait a minute. Looking through the lush leaves of the plane tree, Wang Yang looked at the sky covered with sunset above and the clouds fluttering in the wind, and he sighed softly: "Now it is like this, it is beautiful......

Jessica smiled and sat down on the lawn beside him, looking up at the sky with her knees crossed, but it was really beautiful.

※※Claire pouted and opened the mailbox, she was in a bad mood these days, she thought that a group pregnancy would be a cool and fun thing, but now it seems that it is not so fun. She took out the letters in the mailbox and looked at one of them suspiciously, saying that the address was from their school, and then forwarded it here.

Who sent it, Los Angeles, Wang Yang? Claire blinked, stayed for a few seconds before reacting, and said to herself: "Wang Yang, Amazing Yang! How is it possible!" She hurriedly opened the letter, took out the letter inside and glanced at it a few times, and saw that it was written by herself, she first looked at the last signature of the letter, and it turned out to be the same as the signature of Magic Yang on the Internet, and she couldn't help but exclaim: "Oh my God, this is true......"

Because of the mass pregnancy? She frowned and looked at it, what did he write?

I saw that the letter read: "Hello, I'm Wang Yang, maybe you like me, maybe you don't like me, but I have to say, it's heart-wrenching for you to do that...... Girl, I'm not judging you right or wrong, you're going to make that judgment in the future. You will encounter many, many difficulties in the future, even more difficult than Juno, and maybe one day, you will scold 'Hellish Wonder Young, hellish Juno, let them die'......"

Claire looked at the words on the letter paper in silence, without preaching and teaching, very sincere, I don't know why, she felt very warm in her heart.

She smiled and continued reading: "I hope that in this pregnancy process, you can clearly recognize yourself and understand yourself like Juno...... That way, whether it's raising the baby yourself or looking for adoption like Juneau, you'll take care of it...... Anyway, good luck to you, good luck to the little ones! I'm not cool at all? yes, but do you know what is cool? Actually, I don't know, I'm waiting for the day when you can tell me. Wang Yang. ”

Claire was at a loss in her heart, thinking about her parents' shocked and disappointed faces, looking at the letter, she suddenly choked up a little, like Juneo's mutter, "I don't know what kind of girl I am......" She was silent for a while, and suddenly took the letter and ran to the other end of the town.

"Jenny! I received a letter from Wonder Young...... Claire panted and came to the lawn in front of her good sister Janet's house, only to see Janet sitting on the lawn with a letter in her hand, Claire gasped and asked, "You got it too?"

Janet over there nodded, wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, looked at her and said, "Claire, we're a little too willful. Claire exhaled expressionlessly and said, "I know, but what can we do now?" Janet waved the letter in her hand and said with a smile: "I already have an idea, I will be like Juno, this baby, I will find a good adoptive family for him, he will be happy." ”

"Hmm......" Claire replied silently, and she suddenly smiled, "I, you, Hetty...... Everybody will. ”

(To be continued)