For Wang Xiaohu, it is not a problem to win Luen Mei Company for 500 million US dollars, you must know that in the past ten years, except for the first two years when he was in a state of extreme poverty, he has been working hard to make money for the next eight years. 【Reading.com】

Starting from "Rocky", "Home Alone", "Jaws", "Star Wars", "First Blood", "Mythology", "ET", "Shaolin Temple" and other works have earned more than hundreds of millions of dollars around the world, among which "Star Wars" and "Jaws" not only earned Wang Xiaohu 200 million after tax, but also earned a good reputation in Hollywood, as for the current power of "ET" has not yet been shown, it only recovered 70 million US dollars in a few months after its release, which is still early from the myth of 790 million US dollars in the world.

Calculated carefully, Wang Xiaohu's current deposits in Swiss bank accounts have just exceeded the 700 million mark.

700 million may be an amount that others can't earn in a lifetime, but Wang Xiaohu still thinks that this amount of money is still too little. Because the future film investment will be big productions, and it will often be hundreds of millions of dollars invested, in comparison, this money will be used up after investing in a few movies.

Some might say why not take the company public? Why not pull the capital to invest?

Wang Xiaohu can tell you clearly that going public is not what he wants, because it will take greater risks, and pulling funds will reduce his ability to control the film, and he doesn't want investors to dictate his films, to put it bluntly, he has a strong control over Concord**, because this is a film company he created with Bruce Lee.

If 500 million US dollars are taken out to receive Luen Mei, the remaining funds in the account will only be 200 million, which is not enough for the company's turnover.

"Lack of money!" After Wang Xiaohu realized this problem, he immediately sighed.

Counting the films that the company has not yet released, the only big production in Hollywood is probably the first part of "Raiders of the Lost Ark", which will be released on the Christmas schedule according to the monthly data reported by Winterdur, and the second part of "Star Wars" has also completed half of the filming schedule.

Hong Kong, although Hong Kong looks very beautiful on the surface, it is still a bit miserable compared to the European and American markets, and a movie is capped at 20 million Hong Kong dollars, hey!

Wang Xiaohu is now very glad that he chose the development route of Hollywood, because that is the real place to make money, if there is no subsidy from the Hollywood market in the past few years, the company in Hong Kong will definitely fall into economic difficulties, not to mention the investment in Concord Film and Television City and the money that the mainland has thrown into in recent years.

But how to say it, Wang Xiaohu is still quite satisfied with the current situation, after all, he has opened up a good situation, once Concord acquires Luen Mei, the overall strength will be consolidated, and at that time, use a few blockbusters to make some money to supplement his consumption in Hong Kong and the mainland, Concord Company is still alive for a while.

As the saying goes, there is pressure to have motivation, near the end of November 1981, Xinyicheng's "Take the Wrong Car" began to be released, compared with the Concord Company's release tradition in the past few years, due to the reorganization of Concord's five major satellite companies, on the surface, the New Art City Company has been out of Concord's control, so "The Wrong Car" was released simultaneously in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Run Run Shaw felt a little unreasonable, so this time he worked very hard to cooperate with the release of "The Wrong Car" in Taiwan, and almost used all the strength of Shaw Brothers Taiwan Branch to help promote it, and one of its main theaters and the scattered theaters acquired by Wang Xiaohu were released simultaneously.

As a literary film, "The Wrong Car" depicts a retired veteran who became mute due to injuries sustained while fighting on the battlefield, known as a dumb uncle, who makes a living by buying empty wine bottles and picking up rags. Early one morning in the winter of 1957, the dumb uncle picked up an abandoned baby girl in the alleyway of a high-end residential area, and in the swaddling clothes was a note left by the abandoner of the baby girl, the baby girl was called Gillian. For this, his wife had a conflict with him and left home.

The dumb uncle is both a father and a mother, and the father and daughter depend on each other for their lives, struggling in hardship and poverty. In order to make Gillian have more fun in life, Uncle Dumb played beautiful music for her in addition to being tired

The film was released in Taiwan and immediately caused a sensation, this is the second high-quality literary film delivered by Hong Kong film institutions to Taiwan after "A Tiger" that year. In short, it should be the fate and psychological conversion of an entire generation, and it is also a perception of modern ideas, a retrospective, and an impulse that cannot be resisted.

"The Wrong Car" was released in Taiwan for two weeks and won a good result of NT$6 million, which was a well-deserved achievement in the Taiwanese market when literary films were sluggish at that time, and this achievement deservedly became the leader of the ranks of literary films.

With the popularity of the film, Su Rui's song "If the Wine Sells Nothing" quickly became popular in Taiwan.

Taiwanese media said that "her almost shouting singing is a voice and a power that has never been seen in the music world." And this power is not only the power of the voice, but the unyielding vitality of the singer himself. ”

Taiwan is so hot, and the Hong Kong market is a little weak, with only 5.38 million Hong Kong dollars in two weeks after its release, but this also makes Huang Baiming very pleased, after all, the investment in the film is less than 1.5 million, not to mention that the master said that this movie will be released in the mainland, and the mainland is the battlefield that Huang Baiming is most looking forward to.

"The theme of literary films really doesn't work in Hong Kong." Wang Xiaohu pouted, before the release in the mainland, the only thing that can be counted on is the Taiwan market, according to Huang Baiming's phone call, Taiwanese filmmakers attach great importance to the film, and plan to re-screen it several times after the premiere, so as to earn more profit margins.

In early December, Winterdur called again to say that the acquisition had encountered some difficulties.

"Boss, MGM's representatives have also joined the acquisition plan in the past few days, do you still remember our old enemy Warner, they are also ready to intervene now, I am worried that if I drag on for a day, I will have a lot of dreams."

Winterdur looked very anxious on the phone, and Wang Xiaohu asked: "Even if MGM wants to buy, I will find Corkrian, and I will find a way to make him give up the acquisition plan, as for what you said about Warner?" ”

"I don't know, it may be that Victor guy feels that the price I have pressed is too low these days, so he secretly contacted Warner, and they don't know what to discuss these days." After Winterdur finished speaking, he scolded and said: "Those guys from Warner are simply pervasive, they blocked the Oscars last time, and now even if we buy United States, they have to intervene, damn it!" ”

"Keep putting it off and see if they are deliberately acting for us to see, and if Luen Mei and Warner deliberately raise the price, we will give up." Wang Xiaohu advised: "Remember, our bottom limit is still the price you told me last time. ”

Last time, Winterdur had already talked about the price of 450 million, if Luen Mei Company did not play tricks, Wang Xiaohu was still relatively satisfied with this price, how to say that Luen Mei Company is the hometown of Hollywood superstar Chaplin, and it is worth this price.

“ok！” After receiving instructions from his boss, Winterdur hung up the phone and was full of motivation to get busy with the negotiations.

And not long after Wang Xiaohu spoke on the phone, Tsui Hark came to visit with the improved "Xinshu Mountain".

"Brother Tiger, according to your request, the film has been partially modified, you can help take a look." Tsui Hark's attitude is very respectful now, since Wang Xiaohu put forward a few suggestions, he has seriously revised them, deleted the ones that should be deleted, and remade the remakes of the remakes, especially the part of the purple and blue double swords.

Not long ago, Industrial Light & Magic Company came to Hong Kong to help complete the special effects processing work, and Tsui Hark also wanted to take the opportunity to learn some skills, but he didn't learn anything after studying for a long time, because after people came, he directly copied the first cut version and took it to the special effects editing studio of Concord Company for processing.

Besides, even if Tsui Hark really learned something secretly, he didn't have the money to buy those expensive special effects equipment, and Tsui Hark became a frequent visitor to the special effects editing room of Concord Company later.

"Not bad."

An hour and a half later, Wang Xiaohu nodded and praised after watching the sample film, the revised "Xinshu Mountain" has been upgraded enough in terms of picture and plot, if you don't look at it from the perspective of later generations, the overall quality of "Xinshu Mountain" is still good, but it can't reach the height of "Myth" in terms of scene and cultural atmosphere, which is already commendable for a commercial film.

"Ark, congratulations, this movie is going to be your masterpiece." Wang Xiaohu first congratulated Tsui Hark.

Tsui Hark scratched his hair shyly and said: "If it weren't for Brother Tiger's guidance, I'm afraid this movie would still be in the embarrassing realm of second-rate and third-rate films, and the box office would definitely be very bad." ”

"Well, if it is released during the Spring Festival, the box office results should be very impressive." Wang Xiaohu said.

"Spring Festival stalls, it seems to be difficult!" Tsui Hark said with a bitter face: "After all, Siyuan Company has not yet developed a mature cinema distribution, and those small cinema lines in my hand can bring a few incomes." ”

"It's okay, we can act as an agent for distribution, and we can even distribute it in the mainland, you should know that the market over there is still good." Wang Xiaohu said with a smile.

Continent! Tsui Hark's eyes lit up when he heard this, the mainland market was definitely fragrant, but soon Tsui Hark's excitement disappeared: "Brother Tiger, there are some things I can't do, and I have to go back to discuss with the boss." ”

It was from this moment that Tsui Hark began to have the idea of being a director alone.

(To be continued)