Thomas made an equity claim to Jiayi Cinemas on behalf of United Arts Cinemas, not because of any attempt at Hong Kong cinemas, but because of the film company they were going to help Lin Youlun acquire in the United States.

According to the U.S. antitrust law, a cinema chain and a film company cannot be owned by the same business entity. MGM Pictures, which monopolized Hollywood in the 30s and used the Oscars as its own territory in its heyday, was broken up because of this decree. Since then, Hollywood has never had a single studio dominate.

Although prohibited by law, the major cinema chains in North America have not given up their influence or control over film companies, and powerful film companies, in turn, will tie up their own interests more closely through some means and measures.

Lin Youlun acquired a film company in the United States, while United Arts Cinema Line indirectly had an interest in the film company in the United States through its equity in Hong Kong's Jiayi Cinema Line, so as to achieve the purpose of implicitly controlling a film company.

Lin Youlun needs an American film company to do OEM production for Hong Kong films, and United Arts Cinemas can indirectly participate in film investment in the United States through this hidden interest link.

"First of all, United Arts Cinemas will transfer the money to Mr. Lam's account in Hong Kong through normal and legal means, such as the box office split of a certain movie; Next, Mr. Lin transferred the money back to the film company in the United States for film investment; After the film is completed, it will be handed over to the United Arts Cinema for release, but in terms of box office sharing, the part that originally belonged to the producer is now owned by the theater. Thomas explained the specific operation steps to Lin Youlun in detail.

In Hollywood. A movie's box office split. Producers, distributors and theaters each account for one-third. In this way, Lianyi is equivalent to bringing together the production and cinema business.

It is not impossible for United Arts to directly support such a film company in the United States, but it is easy to attract attention by doing so, and it is difficult to guarantee the reliability of the collaborators, and Lin Youlun does not have these two concerns.

As long as there is no evidence, no one can suspect Lin Youlun's money in investing in films in the United States to United Arts Company, and the purpose of Lin Youlun's purchase of the American company is only to legally turn Hong Kong films into American films. In this way, when the statistics are made later, the box office of these films will no longer be classified as Hong Kong films, and the voice of the Hong Kong film threat theory will naturally weaken.

Lin Youlun picked up the teacup, looked at Thomas and said, "I am personally very interested in the idea of Lianyi Company, but I don't have any extra shares to transfer for the time being. ”

Thomas nodded in understanding, and one of the important reasons why Lianyi chose Lin Youlun as a partner is that he values his absolute control over Hong Kong cinemas. Thomas can also see that Lin Youlun is not particularly interested in acquiring an American company right now: "We hope to work with Mr. Lin in the long term, so it's not a problem to wait a year or two." ”

Lin Youlun was very satisfied with the pragmatic attitude of the Americans, and when he drank tea next. His eyes inadvertently glanced out the window, but he unexpectedly saw a scene that interested him in front of the hotel across the street.

Thomas followed Lin Youlun's gaze and saw the discoloration. sighed lightly and said in surprise: "Isn't that Mr. Lin Jianyue of Media Asia Film Company?" ”

A silver-gray sedan stopped at the door of the hotel, and two people got down from it, shook hands with Lin Jianyue one by one, and after chatting a few words, the three of them turned around and entered the hotel together.

Lin Youlun withdrew his gaze from the window, and then collided with Thomas's gaze.

"Mr. Lin knows the two people who got out of the car?"

Lin Youlun nodded, "It's kind of acquaintance." ”

The two people who walked into the hotel with Lin Jianyue, one is called Huang Baiming and the other is Gao Zhisen.

Huang Baiming's career experience is very similar to Lin Youlun, both of them entered the entertainment industry as screenwriters, but Huang Baiming specializes in comedy, and he met Lin Youlun twice when he stayed in Xinyi City, but he did not have a deep friendship.

Speaking of which, Huang Baiming is also a very powerful screenwriter, so far, the leading actors of the two movies "The Wrong Car" and "Why Have Me" written by him have won the Academy Awards, and Huang Baiming himself is also an important representative of Hong Kong New Year films.

And the high IQ who came with Huang Baiming used to be a stage play, and later after Huang Baiming's appreciation, he directed the ghost film "Happy Ghost", which collected more than 17 million box office at a cost of only 2 million, becoming the most profitable movie in Xinyicheng that year.

Gao Zhisen became famous in one fell swoop, and then directed "Merry Christmas" also performed well at the box office, but Xinyicheng only gave him a salary of more than 100,000 yuan for each movie, and when Pan Disheng's Debao asked him to change jobs with a salary of 1 million per play, Gao Zhisen naturally "went to a high place".

In Debao, Gao Zhisen has made a lot of blockbuster movies, one of which reflects the "windfall dream" of Hong Kong citizens, "Rich and Powerful", which caused a sensation, and Gao Zhisen also entered Lin Youlun's sight because of this movie.

After Debao stopped production, he didn't hear from Gao Zhisen for a while, and it was not surprising that he and Huang Baiming came together, but these two people were mixed up with Lin Jianyue, which was unexpected by Lin Youlun.

——

Huang Baiming and Gao Zhisen are preparing to form a film company, and they need financial support from powerful investors, and Lin Jianyue's Media Asia Film Company can provide cooperation options in this regard, which is why Huang Baiming and Gao Zhisen went to the hotel to meet Lin Jianyue together.

In fact, with the fame of Huang Baiming and Gao Zhisen, any film company is happy to recruit them, but they can't look down on ordinary companies, and large companies like Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers have a pool of talents, and Huang Baiming and Gao Zhisen may not be reused when they join in.

The predecessor of Media Asia is Xinyicheng, the foundation is not weak, Lin Jianyue is not short of funds, and he is also the director of Jiayi Cinema Line, such an identity advantage is not available to other film companies except Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers.

And Lin Jianyue will choose to cooperate with Huang Baiming and Gao Zhisen, in addition to the urgent shortage of talents in his hands now, on the other hand, he also learned lessons from Pan Disheng's failure.

During the period of running Debao, Pan Disheng was involved in too much energy by big-budget films, and paid insufficient attention to small- and medium-budget films.

Investing in big-budget movies is certainly rewarding, but the risks are also very large, Pan Disheng couldn't beat Lin Youlun in big-budget movies with such a big momentum back then, Lin Jianyue certainly doesn't expect Media Asia to do better in this regard, and although small-budget films can't kill all sides in the international film market like big-budget movies, because the selection of materials is close to the lives of ordinary Hong Kong citizens and is more "down-to-earth", there are often unexpected performances at the box office.

Huang Baiming and Gao Zhisen are both masters of making small and medium-cost movies, especially Huang Baiming, who can not only write hilarious Hong Kong-style comedies such as "Best Partner", but also wash away the Hong Kong flavor when Xinyicheng enters the Taiwan market, and make the entire plot of "The Wrong Car" tactful and melancholy, full of the most popular literary and artistic atmosphere for Taiwanese audiences.

The film was very popular in Taiwan, winning word of mouth and making a lot of money at the box office, and Xinyicheng also completely opened up the situation in Taiwan. When Huang Baiming talked to Lin Jianyue about his idea of the Taiwan market, he mentioned this past, and he couldn't hide his smugness in his words: "At that time, Taiwanese film companies had three fears, one of which was the release of new films in Xinyicheng, and everyone had to rush to avoid it, and tried their best to avoid being released on the same schedule as the new films in Xinyicheng." It's no wonder that some people hated us so much at that time, and even when a new film was released, a threatening letter was received in the theater. ”

And Lin Jianyue's main concern now is not the Taiwan market, Media Asia has not made a decent movie until now, his father Lin Baixin has doubts about the group's decision to invest in the film industry, and he urgently needs a box office success film to prove himself.

Huang Baiming and Gao Zhisen happened to have such a movie in their hands, and Ji Lu planned to find Xu Guanwen to star, but the funds have not yet been settled. Lin Jianyue was overjoyed when he heard this, and immediately decided to invest in the name of Media Asia.

The two sides quickly agreed on the details of the cooperation, and Lin Jianyue left early because he had a dinner in the evening, leaving Huang Baiming and Gao Zhisen to sit in the hotel café and chat.

Huang Baiming showed a preoccupied look, and Gao Zhisen joked and said: "Why is it that the matter is negotiated, but you look sad and unhappy?" ”

Huang Baiming sighed, "If there is a better choice, I will never cooperate with Lin Jianyue." ”

"But I think Boss Lin is very sincere, and he is not the kind of person who is ambitious, it seems that he wants to run this business steadily." Gao Zhisen was very curious why Huang Baiming would say that.

"If Lin Jianyue just entered the film industry like Pan Disheng, I wouldn't be very worried, Lin Jianyue is doing this now, which shows that he is not ambitious."

"The boss is ambitious, and we will get more support for doing things, I don't think there's anything wrong with that?"

"But do you think that person will tolerate Lin Jianyue's ambition to swell like this?" Huang Baiming didn't call him by his name, but Gao Zhisen knew who the "that" in Huang Baiming's mouth was referring to, and his expression became solemn.

The gods fight, the little ghosts suffer, if they are regarded as Lin Jianyue's helpers, and Lin Jianyue loses like Pan Disheng in the end, their life in the Hong Kong film industry will be a little difficult in the future.

[There is a mistake in chapter 344, "The Legend of Double Dragons of the Tang Dynasty" is not Master Huang's pioneering work, this is the negligence of the frog, I apologize to everyone. (To be continued.) )