Since the last time he knew from Zhao Xiaoyun that his second brother's cinema business was not good, Ling Shizhe sent someone to do a more detailed investigation of the Hong Kong film market, not only Hong Kong, but also Hollywood and European film markets.

The survey found that the Hollywood film market has been in a state of slow contraction since the United States enacted the law that production companies cannot own theaters. After the end of World War II, with the popularization of television sets and the stealing of a large number of audiences, the shrinkage of the film market became even more accelerated, and the recession of the Hollywood film market reached the highest peak in history in the sixties and seventies.

In addition to the popularity of television, the underworld and Hollywood's chaotic unspoken rules are also one of the reasons for the decline of Hollywood movies.

Needless to say, Hollywood was the most prosperous period in the twenties and thirties, but it was also the most rampant period in Hollywood.

How rampant? Think about the Hong Kong film industry in the 90s, you multiply it by ten times is not enough to profoundly describe the chaos in Hollywood at that time, ** The rampant in Hollywood made the American people disgusted with Hollywood to the extreme, coupled with the rapid popularization of television after the end of World War II, Hollywood's audience loss was rapid. Especially in the forties and fifties, when no young and beautiful American girl wanted to be a Hollywood star, it was in stark contrast to the young girls of later generations who rushed to Hollywood, which shows how chaotic Hollywood was at that time.

No American girl wants to go to Hollywood, and there is a serious shortage of female stars, so Hollywood studios have to rely on foreign girls to support the scene.

The shrinking of the film market has done Hollywood a big favor, what is the purpose of the underworld invading Hollywood? Money laundering, the underworld uses the black money earned to make movies, and then as soon as it is released, the box office earned is the legal income of bleaching, and the cost of using movies to launder money is too low, so they are aggressively entering Hollywood.

However, the shrinkage of the American film market has greatly increased the cost of money laundering in the underworld, and even in many cases, not only can it not make money, but it also loses more black money, and finally has to quit Hollywood and then lose money.

In addition to the above factors, the decline of Hollywood is also related to the film censorship system at that time, you must know that the famous Hollywood film classification system was born in 1968, and the previous Hollywood film censorship method was similar to that of the later China Film Administration, this censorship method greatly limited the development of American films, and it was not until the birth of the film classification system in 1968 that the development of Hollywood films was slowly promoted.

In addition, Ling Shizhe also found that although AMC built the world's first multiplex cinema in 1965, they did not find the right market target, and anyone in later generations knew that the largest consumer group of movies was young people, but AMC's purpose in establishing multiplex cinemas was to attract audiences of all ages to the cinema.

In this case, Ling Shizhe keenly found that this was an excellent opportunity to enter the Hollywood theater market, because most of the theater chains in the United States are now in a state of loss, including AMC theaters.

This opportunity is not easy to come by, and if you miss it, you will not be there, so he asked Ling Shirong to come today, and the conversation lasted for a long time, Ling Shizhe also told the current predicament of the American theater chain, he believes that as long as the second brother does what he says, he will definitely become an international theater predator in the future.

After listening to Ling Shizhe's narration, it was already past twelve o'clock in the middle of the night, and Ling Shirong got up to say goodbye.

"Second brother, it's so late, let's stay here, there are a lot of empty rooms." Ling Shizhe retained.

"No, your sister-in-law is still waiting for me at home, she is not in good health, if I don't go at night, she will be anxious."

"Okay, then I'll send you."

Walking out of the door of the villa and coming to the car, the housekeeper opened the car door, Ling Shirong was just about to get in the car and remembered something, and asked: "Old Seven, my Asian cinema company is going to go out of business, and I now have the money to go to the United States to buy a cinema, it seems that I am destined to become an international predator." ”

"Second brother, I thought of your situation a long time ago, what do you think this is?" Ling Shizhe took out a slip from the inner bag of his jacket and handed it to him.

Ling Shirong took it from his hand and looked at the street lamp, and exclaimed, "Citibank's cash check? 500 million US dollars, old seven, what are you ...... What for? ”

Ling Shizhe said with a smile: "This is the money from the Ling Shi Fund, lent to the second brother. ”

Ling Shirong asked in surprise, "Ling Shi Fund has so much money?" ”

"Second brother, you forgot, the children of the Ling family have to take out five percent of the profits earned by starting a company every year and deposit them into the family fund, and the five hundred million dollars I handed over to my company last year are the profits, knowing that the second brother is in urgent need of money to turn around, I took it out and lent it to the second brother."

Ling Shirong said: "500 million US dollars is a lot, does the old man know?" ”

"The old man is the chairman of the Ling Shi Foundation, can I take it out without his signature and nod?"

"You told the old man about my situation?"

"Having said that, I told the truth, the purpose of the establishment of the fund is to use this money to save emergencies when the descendants of the Ling family are in difficulty, and now the second brother is the most difficult among our brothers and sisters, you need this money."

"$500 million is too much, isn't it?"

Ling Shizhe laughed and said: "Five hundred million dollars seems to be a lot, but it is not necessarily enough for the second brother, first of all, you have to completely renovate those single-hall theaters in Hong Kong and upgrade the projection equipment into small multiplex theaters, which will cost a lot of money, and then Nanyang, Baodao, and Japan will be gradually renovated, and the money will be almost spent, and finally what about the American theaters?" ”

"To buy American theaters, $500 million is not enough." Ling Shirong said negatively.

"It's not enough to buy the mainstream, but what about the non-mainstream? Second brother, if you want to buy American theaters, don't buy mainstream theaters, the price is too expensive, not to mention, no matter how you operate the acquisition, it will be a loss, and it is a big loss, the water in the mainstream theaters is too deep. We're going to acquire non-mainstream theater chains. ”

"Acquisitions are not mainstream, so what are acquisitions for?"

Ling Shizhe stretched out his index finger and swayed it from side to side a few times and said, "The purpose of acquiring non-mainstream cinema chains is to control those independent producers. ”

……

"Second brother, you don't naively think that those independent producers will honestly listen to your mercy when they grow stronger, right? Now they listen to you because they're too small, and once they're grown, hehe...... Second brother, they will try their best to get rid of your control, and even eat you in turn, what if you don't have an American theater in your hand? ”

Ling Shirong pondered, nodded for a long time and said, "There is this possibility, but what does this have to do with American theaters?" ”

Ling Shizhe smiled, how could it be okay, looking at Ling Shizhe's eyes, Ling Shirong reacted suddenly, slapped his head and said: "Look at my head, which film company in Hong Kong doesn't want to make its own movies into Hollywood, I have my own theater chain in Hollywood, not to mention those independent film companies, even Shaw Brothers or Golden Harvest have to look at me." ”

Seeing that he understood, Ling Shizhe smiled and nodded, the biggest shortcoming of independent film companies is that they are not easy to control, and if they don't do well, they will be counterattacked. If you want to control them, how to control them, those independent film companies are all leather bag companies, you invest money into the holdings, what you enter is just a shell company, give them money for nothing, after they get the money, they turn around and go to register an empty shell, to cooperate with other film companies, you have nothing to do with him, but you have to beg them to come back, ask them to come back and make a movie for you, if you don't divide the greater interests, they will come back? In the previous life, Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan and others were not like this? For example, Sammo Hung, while cooperating with Golden Harvest to set up a film called Baohe Film Company to make films for Golden Harvest, and at the same time cooperating with Princess Jin, the high interest given there will cooperate with that side, and eat at both ends.

But with the American theater chain, it's different, if your movie wants to be released in the United States, you have to obediently listen to me, half-hearted, half-hearted, and when the time comes, just card your film and see what you do.

Why did Ling Shizhe have to ask Ling Shirong to buy a non-independent theater in the United States? Mainly because of the cultural differences between the East and the West, the United States is a country of immigrants, and its people come from all over the world, including blacks, Westerners, and even Chinese.

The cinemas that Ling Shizhe wants to buy are those that are close to Chinese residential areas, or simply Chinatown. In this way, Hong Kong movies can be released directly in these theaters, without worrying about cultural differences, and even directly on Chinese films, see if Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Color Caution" in the previous life were not all released in Chinese theaters?

Of course, after these Chinese theaters are bought, they can't be finished, but they have to be completely renovated, small multiplex theaters are the best business model, in the prosperous area of the Chinese community to establish a modern small multiplex theater in the future, set entertainment and leisure in one, young, fashionable, not afraid of not attracting people.

You can also draw inferences, since there are Chinese communities, of course, there are also Southeast Asian communities in Japan, South Korea, and Nanyang countries, people in these areas have no cultural barriers to oriental culture, and Hong Kong films are released in those areas without the slightest cultural problems.

Later generations of people say that there are cultural differences between the East and the West, Westerners can't understand the movies made by Orientals, do Orientals like to watch Westerners' movies, the reason why these places put Western films is because there are no Oriental movies to play, of course, you can only watch Western films, but now that there are Oriental movies released, and they are in the Chinese version, will they still watch Western films? In his previous life, Ling Shizhe had heard many people say that a large number of Chinese in these Chinese communities had never left here, and they had eaten and lived in Chinatown all their lives, ate Chinese food, and spoke Chinese, no different from China, and could not speak a word of English after living in the United States all their lives. Put Hong Kong films in these places to be released, and if there is a problem, it will be hell; The Chinese community is still like this, so what about the Southeast Asian communities such as Japan and South Korea, I believe there are many such people, and translating Hong Kong films into Korean and Japanese will also be welcomed by them.

As for the problem of non-mainstream cinemas, it is not a problem, why can't the non-mainstream become the mainstream, you must know that now is the period of great change in cinemas, not to mention the price of those mainstream cinemas, and they will be completely transformed into modern multiplex theaters after buying, which is no different from the cost of building a new cinema, you might as well simply build a new one and it is cost-effective.

As long as Ling Shirong goes step by step according to what he said about the successful design, planning, construction, and business philosophy of multiplex theaters in the future, Ling Shizhe still doesn't believe it, the non-mainstream will not become the mainstream, and the second brother will not become a film and television predator.

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