The cinema line is the most important link in the construction of Zhangran's ecological chain, if there is no cinema chain, the entire industrial chain is incomplete, and a link is missing. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 infoIn addition, when film and television companies encounter financing needs, it will be more troublesome because there are no fixed assets to mortgage, and after owning a movie theater, they will have more say in financing. Therefore, after the early completion of the acquisition of Golden Harvest, Century Summit began to open theaters in the name of Golden Harvest.

The focus of the layout of the pinnacle of the century is not on the first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, but on the second- and third-tier cities. There are cinemas in the bustling areas of first-tier cities, and there are even three or four movie theaters in many places, and squeezing them into them will become vicious competition. Second- and third-tier cities lack high-quality cinemas, and there is room for large films.

Take Nanchang as an example, with the people's cinema and cultural hall fading out of the market, Nanchang only left three state-owned theaters in Hubin, Jiangxi Art Theater and Baihuazhou, the whole market is relatively depressed, and the total box office of Nanchang films in 05 is only 6 million yuan. However, in April '06, Wanda's five-star theater on the top floor of the Walmart mall opened. In just 6 months now, it has achieved a box office of 8 million yuan, surpassing Nanchang in the whole of last year.

This is not an isolated example, the box office of Nanning Wanda Cinema in 05 years has also become twice the total box office of the entire Nanning 04 year; Harbin Film Market originally only had a box office income of less than 8 million yuan, after the opening of Harbin Wanda Cinema, a cinema earned 17 million box office.

Since the beginning of this year, Century Summit has begun to purchase one or two floors of commercial buildings in prosperous areas in second- and third-tier cities to operate as a cinema city. So far, 4 theaters have opened at the summit of the century, while 5 more are under construction, and they will open soon.

Zhang Ran believes that when other cinema chains crowd these cities in four or five years, the peak of the century has completed its layout and turned to the fourth and fifth tier cities. Of course, the first-tier cities are not giving up, but not ordinary cinemas, but boutique cinemas, and IMAX theaters with better audio-visual enjoyment.

Zhang Ran looked at the data of the 4 Warner theaters in his hand and found that the business was doing well, and it was completely designed according to American standards, with excellent hardware and software. If you can win these 4 theaters, you must win them, but these 4 theaters have problems with their equity, Zhang Ran said: "The shares of these 4 theaters Warner are only 49%, and Shenzhen State Investment accounts for 51% of the controlling party." If we can't take control, there's no point. Is SZIC willing to sell its shares?"

Wu Ruide explained: "Shenzhen Guotou is a trust and investment company, and the cinema built by Shenzhen Guotou has always been operated by Warner Cinemas. In July this year, China Resources Group acquired a 51% stake in Shenzhen State Investment Corporation, and China Resources did not understand the cinema industry and was unwilling to continue investing, so they were willing to sell their shares. ”

Since he can hold the holdings, Zhang Ran has no doubts: "These theaters are good, they have great potential, and they are not worth winning." You can make your own decisions as the CEO, and you should not only come to me about these four movie theaters, right?"

Wu Ruide asked with a smile: "We now have 4 in our hands, plus Warner, these 3 movie theaters that have been built, there are 7 cinemas! Next, we are going to prepare to set up our own cinema chain!"

Zhang Ran was stunned: "We want to set up a cross-provincial cinema line, and we need at least 15 cinemas to form an inter-provincial cinema line, and we are still short of 8?

In February 04, the state adjusted the film financing policy, and the cinema chain was open to capital outside the system for the first time, including private capital, which can be built as a sole proprietorship. According to the regulations, if a private enterprise wants to establish a cinema chain as a sole proprietorship, the formation unit must invest no less than 50 million yuan within three years for the new construction and renovation of the cinema in the cinema line company. At the same time, the formation of a provincial cinema chain must have 10 theaters, and the formation of an inter-provincial cinema chain must have 15 theaters distributed in different provinces.

An investment of 50 million is not a big deal for the peak of the century, and the real trouble is that the formation of an inter-provincial cinema chain must have 15 cinemas.

Of course, if you go through the relationship, it is not difficult to get a theater license. For example, when Wanda Cinema Line was established, there were only 5 cinemas, but the General Administration allowed Wanda to set up a cinema chain on the grounds that Wanda's 5 cinemas had outstanding performance, which was actually a relationship. Zhang Ran has a lot of enemies now, he doesn't want to leave a handle on people, and plans to follow the normal process.

Wu Ruide said with a smile: "Acquisition! We have almost negotiated with Silver Star Cinemas, and we have injected 40 million yuan, accounting for 60% of the shares." Silver Star Cinema Line was renamed Golden Harvest Silver Star, and we will supply the film in a unified manner and carry out brand management in a unified manner!"

Investing in cinemas is nothing new, since the implementation of the cinema system in China in 02, with the continuous addition of foreign capital and social capital, mergers and acquisitions and reorganizations between cinemas have continued to occur. At the end of 03, 12 theaters of the original Zhejiang Xingguang Cinema Line joined the Magic City Lianhe; At the beginning of 2004, the four theaters in the Xichuan Emei Cinema Line collectively jumped to the Chinese Movie Star Art Cinema Line; 05 years, Jiangsu Yangzi Cinema Line and Oriental Cinema Line officially merged; in the same year, Liaoning North Cinema Line joined the Beiping New Film Association; Jilin Long Cinema Line joined Wanda; and Hengdian Group has successively invested in Zhejiang Starlight, Guangdong Zhujiang and other cinema lines.

Zhang Ran is familiar with the top few theaters in China, but he is relatively unfamiliar with Silver Star, and asked: "What is the specific situation of this theater?"

Wu Ruide introduced: "Silver Star Cinema Line was jointly established by film companies in Qingdao, Zibo, Weihai and other cities in September 02. There are currently 20 cinemas, 30 screens, and there is currently a five-star cinema under construction in Qingdao. The situation is similar to that faced by other old-fashioned cinemas in the country, with a lack of funds, neither the ability to renovate old cinemas nor the ability to build new cinemas on a large scale, and the business situation is not very good due to the old equipment and lack of attractiveness to audiences. Now that Wanda's foreign cinema chains have begun to build cinemas on a large scale in Qingdao and other cities, the pressure on Silver Star is even greater, we have funds and brands, and cooperating with us is undoubtedly the best choice. Speaking of this, Wu Ruide suddenly remembered something: "By the way, the leaders of Qingdao City met with me, and they hope that the Asian Film Academy Awards can settle in Qingdao!"

In Zhang Ran's impression, Qingdao attaches great importance to the development of the film and television industry, and in 09 years, under the promotion of the municipal government, the Golden Phoenix Award held by the China Film Performing Arts Society settled in Qingdao, and in 13 years, it promoted Wanda to build the Oriental Film City in Qingdao. He waved his hand and said, "The Academy Award will be held in Japan next year, and I will return to China until the year after next, so there is no hurry to do this." ”

Wu Ruide looked at Zhang Ran and said, "The city government and I talked about one of their plans, hoping to put Phoenix Island, which is a small island surrounded by the sea on three sides, and the scenery is very beautiful. They hope to build Phoenix Island into a coastal tourist resort with international standards with the theme of mid-to-high-end leisure vacation, film and television culture and entertainment. They are pushing a concept that they want to develop Phoenix Island into China's Hollywood. We have plans to build a film and television industrial park in the future, and it would be a good choice if it was placed in Qingdao, because the government itself is promoting the concept of Hollywood in China, and it will be very cheap to get land, and there will be a lot of preferential policies!"

Zhang Ran suddenly realized, no wonder Wanda will spend tens of billions of dollars in Qingdao to build the Oriental Film Metropolis in the future, it turns out that this is the case. The film and television industrial park he planned is close to Wanda's Oriental Film Metropolis, and it is indeed a good choice to place it in Qingdao, but there are so many cities in the country, it may not be more suitable: "We have a lot to do now, and the industrial park needs too much money, and the time is not right." Let's talk about the cinema chain, since the negotiation of Silver Star is almost over, then finalize it as soon as possible, Warner's four cinemas are boutique cinemas, which is good for enhancing our brand image, and we should win it as soon as possible, and then report to the General Administration for approval to build our cinema chain as soon as possible!"

"After the theater is formed, someone must be in charge, we need a general manager!" Wu Ruide came over this time, in fact, for this matter.

"Let Gao Jun concurrently serve first, he was originally the general manager of the New Film Federation, and the cinema chain is his business, and he will find someone to take over after he is on the right track, what do you think?" Zhang Ran has no particularly suitable candidates now.

Wu Ruide nodded: "I also think that Gao Jun is the most suitable candidate at the moment. However, I think the current situation is very different from our original idea, we should attract some theaters to join, and Gao Jun also means this!"

The advantage of joining the cinema line is that the expansion speed is fast, but the adhesion between the franchised cinema and the cinema line is very low, many cinemas are still subordinate to this cinema today, and tomorrow other cinemas will immediately jump ship if they open better conditions;

Zhang Ran knew the disadvantages of joining the theater chain, and insisted: "I still mean to insist on self-construction, don't join in!"

There is also a reason why Wu Ruide wants to join: "We have to deal with Huayi now, and the more theaters we have, the greater the pressure on Huayi." Next month, on the 23rd, Huayi's movie "Ink Attack" will be released, and if we have one less game, then "Ink Attack" will lose one box office. If the theater chain in our hands is exerted at the same time, then the loss of "Ink Attack" will be great, and whoever wants to cooperate with Huayi in the future will have to weigh it!"

Zhang Ran felt that this was indeed reasonable, if there were enough theaters in his hands, as long as he shouted that Lao Tzu would not arrange Huayi's films, it would further compress Huayi's living space and force the Wang brothers to raise funds: "You are right, but when the time comes, not only Huayi, but also a bunch of experts who don't understand bullshit will jump out, shouting about the peak monopoly of the century, and shouting about the Paramount Act!"

Wu Ruide said disdainfully: "We only have a few theaters in our hands, what kind of monopoly do we have? As for the Paramount Act, no one who really understands the US film industry will talk about it, and the Paramount Act caused a miserable disaster to the US film industry in the first place!"

Zhang Ran said with a wry smile: "The problem is that there are too few people who really understand the American film industry. Forget it, don't talk about this, you just have to do it, and I'll carry the scolding!"

On October 25, some media reported that Warner would divest from China, and Century Summit would take over Warner Cinemas.

This news did not cause much reaction, after the acquisition of Golden Harvest by Century Summit last year, it began to build cinemas in China in the name of Golden Harvest, and it is not surprising to take over Warner's theaters.

However, on the 28th, when the news of the acquisition of Silver Star Cinemas by the Summit of the Century spread, the industry was shocked. Winning Silver Star is equivalent to getting a theater license, and then Golden Harvest's theaters may join Silver Star.

However, everyone's estimation was wrong, on November 15, Golden Harvest Cinema Line passed the approval of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, and was officially established in Beiping, and Silver Star was merged into Golden Harvest Cinema Line. This is the second privately-owned cinema chain in China after Wanda.

Everyone has not recovered from the shock, and on the 20th, a more sensational news came out, and the Northern Cinema Line withdrew from the New Film Federation and joined the Golden Harvest Cinema Line.

This news has no repercussions among the people, but it is tantamount to a ten-magnitude earthquake in the circle, and the effect brought out is shocking.