(PS: First draft, I haven't corrected the typos yet, you can wait a while and read it again!)

The Hong Kong film industry has a saying that "those who win the theater line win the world". In the 70s, the Hong Kong film industry was a competition between Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest, because these two companies controlled the two largest cinema chains in Hong Kong and controlled the release of Hong Kong films.

In the early 80s, Mr. Lui, the owner of KMB, crossed the river and established the third cinema chain in Hong Kong - Golden Princess Cinema Line. In order to let the new theater chain have enough new films to play, Boss Lei began to support the New Art City Film Company.

With the strong rise of New Arts City, both Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest are feeling tremendous pressure. For this reason, the two original rivals quickly turned their rivalry into jade silk and formed an alliance to suppress the Golden Princess Cinema Line and the New Art City Film Company.

However, the Shaw Brothers' large-scale studio system has long been unsuitable for the development of the new era. Therefore, after the two cinema chains of Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest formed an alliance, the box office of Golden Harvest's various blockbuster films suddenly increased a lot, but Shaw Brothers' bad movies are still unpopular.

Shao Yifu saw that the alliance with Golden Harvest Company not only failed to suppress the New Art City Company, but allowed Golden Harvest to take advantage of it, so the alliance between Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest soon broke down.

According to the original history, Shaw Yifu saw that TVB was thriving, and Shaw Brothers Pictures was difficult to return, so he finally chose to shut down Shaw Brothers Pictures, and then leased Shaw Brothers Cinemas to invent the "famous brand Pan" that opened a film company to pick up girls, so there was the rise of Debao Pictures and Debao Cinemas in the late 80s.

But due to the rise of the ATV Group, the landscape of Hong Kong's entertainment industry has changed dramatically. First of all, with the heavy support of Li Xuan, Asia Satellite TV launched a fierce competition with TVB for ratings.

In another time and space, because ATV's competitiveness is too weak, it has never posed a real threat to TVB. Therefore, after Shao Yifu took over TVB, he felt that it was profitable, so he decisively gave up movies and switched to TV. But at this time and space, TVB was not only overpressed by ATV in ratings, but more importantly, its profitability was greatly affected.

Li Xuan's purpose in investing in TV stations has never been to make money, what he needs is public opinion influence. Better ratings need better programs to support, and better programs need higher investment as the foundation.

Therefore, Asia Satellite TV is very willing to invest in program production. So much so that the operating costs of TVB, a competitor, have also been greatly raised. Because the audience's eyes are bright, there is really a clear difference between a TV series produced with 1 million and a TV series produced with 10 million!

And because TVB is suppressed by Asia Satellite TV in terms of ratings, its attractiveness to advertisers has also been greatly reduced. On the one hand, the income has decreased, and on the other hand, the expenses have increased, and TVB's operating conditions have declined compared with the 70s.

When ATV began to rise, Shao Yifu had just taken over from the Lee family and started to take the helm of TVB. If Li Xuan hadn't been killed, after overpowering TVB in the ratings, ATV would have stopped the aggressive Jinyuan offensive. Otherwise, TVB may even fall into the quagmire of losing money.

Because of the unsatisfactory transformation of the TV business, and the increasingly prosperous Hong Kong film industry, Shaw Yifu is even more reluctant to give up Shaw Brothers Pictures. In another time and space, Shaw Brothers chose to stop production as early as 1985, but in this time and space, it is still persistent.

"Aaron, I heard that the negotiation between you and Uncle Shao Liu didn't go well?" Zeng Zhiwei put down his racket and wiped the sweat on his forehead with a towel. said to Currylen, who had just finished a game with him.

"Yes, the Shaw Brothers really dare to open their mouths. Yesterday the offer was raised to 200 million Hong Kong dollars!" said Chrillun, grabbing a bottle of Gatorade and taking a few sips.

"Haha, before Jiahe and Xinyicheng only produced dozens of movies a year, you were willing to spend 200 million and 250 million. There are more than 600 movies in Shaw Brothers' film library, and the price of 200 million is already a good conscience!" Zeng Zhiwei squinted his eyes and said with a smile.

As the saying goes, a skinny camel is bigger than a horse, and while Shaw Brothers has not been as good at the box office market in recent years, it has a huge library of more than 600 films. It's still a mouth-watering piece of fat.

"The value of copyright is not determined by the number of films, and these old Shaw Brothers films cannot be said to be unwatched, but they can never be distributed on a large scale like new films! Do you know which type of film in the Shaw Brothers film library that we found after our investigation is the most popular in the videotape market?

Ke Lilun shook his head and continued, "The 80 million Hong Kong dollars we gave before is actually not low. But now that there is suddenly one more competitor, Uncle Shao Liu naturally wants to sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight!"

JVC and other Japanese video recorder manufacturers were not stupid, and they were crazy to discover the conspiracy of Oriental Shoji to control film and television content. JVC actually used the same method when it started the video format war with Sony.

At that time, RCA played a pivotal role in this war. This is partly because RCA, as one of the most well-known home appliance manufacturers in the United States, has a great influence in market share and distribution channels.

On the other hand, NBC Broadcasting, a subsidiary of RCA, as the largest public television network in the United States, can provide a large number of TV dramas, variety shows, talk shows and other program content that meet the tastes of American audiences. Therefore, RCA chose to stand on the side of JVC's VHS format and made great contributions to the early promotion of VHS format.

In addition to competing for TV program resources, Sony and JVC also engaged in a fierce intrigue in order to win the support of Hollywood production giants.

Therefore, Japanese video recorder manufacturers are not unaware of the importance of controlling content, but the Asian market has not always been the core market in the world. Therefore, JVC and Sony are willing to compete for exclusive rights in the United States and Japan, but they have never considered buying exclusive rights to Hong Kong films.

This also gave Oriental Commercial Company the opportunity to calculate or not. But when the Japanese manufacturers really reacted, they acted very quickly. This time, the new opponent who suddenly jumped out to compete with Oriental Commercial for the resources of the Shaw Brothers Chip Library is an unknown company with a Japanese investment background.

"The yen is constantly appreciating, and now the Japanese are very powerful in the world, and they are not short of money at all! Last year, the number of Japanese tourists to Hong Kong increased by 40 percent, and they went to the shopping malls to shop as if they didn't want money!" Zeng Zhiwei nodded and said.

"What are you two talking about?" Li Xuan walked over with a leisurely face holding a glass of colorful cocktails.

"I'm talking to Zeng Dong about acquiring the rights to the Shaw Brothers Film Library. It seems to be more difficult!" explains Crowlen.

"Since the Japanese are so interested, we might as well become adults! Of course, Alun can discuss with Uncle Shao Liu, and try to help him raise the price, so that he can scrape a little more money from the Japanese!" Li Xuan said disapprovingly.

Whether or not he can win the Shaw Brothers' film library does not affect the overall situation in Li Xuan's opinion. VCD in the competition with video recorders. But the VCR already has a huge stock market, so it is not realistic to strangle it all at once!

"Li Sheng, I recently heard a new news, Chen Rongmei and Feng Bingzhong intend to set up a new cinema line, and it is said that they have been lobbying those independent cinemas to join during this time! And as far as I know, behind Chen Rongmei and Feng Bingzhong, there is also overseas funding support, but it is unknown whether these supports come from Japan!" Zeng Zhiwei suddenly broke out another new news.

Zeng Zhiwei is a smart man, and he knows he wants greater support within the Eastern Bloc. Efforts must be made to move closer to the core business of the Group. The focus of Oriental Group's business is undoubtedly the electronics industry, so he is very concerned about the promotion of VCD, because this is the first time that Asian Entertainment has really participated in the core strategy of the group.

Speaking of Chen Rongmei and Feng Bingzhong, Li Xuan is really no stranger. At the beginning, Dongfang Electronics' first marketing action was carried out in Lisheng Cinema. As a result, the two arcade machines "Hong Kong Cube" and "Tank Battle" caused a sensation in Hong Kong in one fell swoop, kicking off the legendary rise of the Eastern Bloc.

At that time, the two bosses of the Lisheng Cinema Line behind the Lisheng Cinema were Chen Rongmei and Feng Bingzhong. But soon after Dongfang Electronics' arcade machine entered Hong Kong cinemas, the two men sold a majority stake in the cinema chain company to KMB's Lui Juekun. As a result, Lisheng Cinemas was renamed Golden Princess Cinemas.

But Chen and Feng never expected that the theater chain that had been losing money in their hands. After being taken over by Boss Lei, the pheasant soon turned into a phoenix and began to enter the gold bucket every day. Seeing that it is getting easier and easier for the Hong Kong film industry to make money, Chen Rongmei and Feng Bingzhong finally began to hold back impatiently.

"The distribution rights of Hong Kong Pictures are now basically controlled by Asia Pictures, New Arts City and Golden Harvest. Other production companies in Hong Kong want to get movies into theaters, so they can only be recruited by the three of us. And if overseas filmmakers want to obtain the distribution rights of Hong Kong films, they can only be slaughtered by the three of us!

There are many people who secretly spy on the huge profits of Hong Kong films, and Taiwanese film companies and Southeast Asian film companies may be the back-the-scenes financiers of Chen and Feng! Even if they are supported by Japanese funds, they want to set up a cinema chain from scratch. Attracting a large number of production companies to provide film sources is not an overnight thing!

What's more, the theaters with the best geographical location in Hong Kong have basically been pulled into the three major theater chains, and even if the new theater chain is formed, it will be difficult to make a profit for a while!

Therefore, there is no need to worry about the new cinema line, and I am more worried about Uncle Shao Liu's Shaw Brothers Cinema Line! Although Shaw Brothers Pictures is still dying in the past few years, there is no possibility of resurrection for anyone with a discerning eye!

Uncle Shao Liu is also old, and he no longer has the ambitions of the past, and the reason why he maintained the film company at one time and did not close down is just that he can't let go of the obsession in his heart! But since he is willing to sell the copyright of the film library this time, it seems that he has made up his mind to end the film business!

In this way, it no longer makes much sense for Uncle Shao Liu to continue to hold the Shaw Brothers Cinema Line. So I think he is likely to release rumors of selling or subleasing the theater chain in the near future. This is the point we need to be vigilant against!" Li Xuan's eyes flashed with a fine light, and he said sharply.

Shaw Brothers Cinemas is one of the three major cinema chains in Hong Kong, and its influence is far from being comparable to that of a new cinema chain. In another time and space, Debao Pictures quickly became one of the largest production companies in Hong Kong by renting Shaw Brothers Cinemas.

As Hong Kong films have swept the East Asian market, the proportion of the local box office in the overall profit has become smaller and smaller, and many films have been able to recoup their costs with overseas pre-sales alone. But the box office in Hong Kong still has the role of a weather vane.

Especially for those small production companies, they cannot have such strong overseas distribution capabilities as the Big Three, and rely entirely on the box office results of their own cities to sit on the ground and raise prices to overseas studios.

So in case Shaw Brothers Cinemas falls into Japanese hands, they will soon be able to gather a large number of small and medium-sized film companies that lack high-quality release schedules. And Japanese manufacturers are not short of money, and if they cultivate a "new art city" like Boss Lei, the entire Hong Kong film industry will suffer a huge impact.

"The development momentum of our Asian film industry is too strong, Golden Harvest and New Art City have a faint tendency to join forces to compete with us! If we can have a theater chain of our own, we can undoubtedly get rid of the constraints of these two companies!" Zeng Zhiwei nodded immediately.

At the beginning, Asia Pictures did not set up its own theater chain, because it didn't want the spearhead of Golden Harvest and New Art City to point at itself. And with the rapid development of Asia Pictures and the entire ATV Group, the company now has no need to be afraid of any competition!

"Hollywood in the United States in the past ten years, known as the lost decade! A big reason for this is the impact of videotapes, since you can sit comfortably at home and watch movies, many audiences go to the original movie to buy tickets ** greatly dropped!

And with the development of the Asian economy, even if we don't launch VCDs, the penetration of video recorders will increase rapidly. The Hong Kong film industry is also facing a huge impact on videotapes next. In particular, the copyright protection of Asian countries is obviously not as strict as that of European and American countries, so the losses caused by piracy will become more and more serious!

Under such circumstances, how to attract audiences to re-enter the cinema will become a proposition that has a bearing on the life and death of all Hong Kong filmmakers! On the one hand, we must rapidly raise the production level of Hong Kong films.

On the other hand, it is necessary to improve the audience's viewing experience, so that everyone can enjoy the audio-visual feast that cannot be enjoyed at home in front of the TV set in the cinema!

If we can win the Shaw Brothers Cinema Line, we can become the vanguard of promoting the upgrading of Hong Kong cinemas!"

Li Xuan's words made Zeng Zhiwei nod again and again, knowing what his next focus would be! )