Due to the early prosperity of Hong Kong films, the quality of Hong Kong films and the taste of the audience have improved a lot at this time, and the result is that the Hong Kong film industry is becoming more and more chaotic.

More and more film companies are opening, and there are even people who don't know much about movies, but are willing to invest all their wealth in making movies. It seems that as long as you enter the film industry, everyone can be Kang Jianfei, and you can soar to the sky and be worth hundreds of millions.

Most of these small film companies are shoddy, and the quality of the films is extremely low, and nine out of ten films cannot be released in several major theaters.

Can't be released what they filmed to do?

Don't forget that in addition to the four major cinema chains, there are also many neighborhood cinemas and rural cinemas, where the bones are hard to gnaw and the meat is also meat.

In another time and space, the total number of Hong Kong cinemas in 1980 was 83, and in 1981, due to the sharp decline in the stock market and property market, the total number of cinemas fell to 82 under the economic downturn, but in 1982 it soared to 89 (this year was the beginning of the boom in Hong Kong films).

But now it's completely different, because of the butterfly effect brought about by Kang Jianfei's chaotic entry, the early prosperity of Hong Kong films has not only caused a large number of new small film companies to be added to Hong Kong, but also caused the number of theaters to continue to grow. In addition to the opening of 4 new cinemas in the Golden Princess Cinema Line, many scattered small cinemas have also been added.

Today, in the early autumn of 1981, the total number of cinemas in Hong Kong has grown to 88.

The inferior films produced by those small film companies are screened in a large number of scattered small theaters, and although they can only sell hundreds of thousands of box office if they are killed, it is enough for them to recover their costs and make a small profit.

Especially for those illegal sex films, one bed and one camera, one man and one woman can be filmed, and they are not sent to the electrical inspection office for review at all, and they are directly released in underground theaters after filming.

While the boom in Hong Kong films is accelerating, Shaw Brothers Pictures is in early decline.

The sign of Shaw's decline is not that the number of films produced each year is decreasing. On the contrary, it has skyrocketed this year, producing 17 films in the first half of the year alone.

Why does this happen?

is because the attendance rate of Shaw Brothers' movies is too low, and each movie has to be released in advance within a few days. And the Shaw Brothers Cinema Line has a big stall there, and it loses money every day if it doesn't show movies, so the Shaw Brothers has to increase the production of films to meet the needs of its own cinemas.

This creates a disgusting cycle, the poor quality of the movie causes low attendance, the decrease in attendance causes the number of days of a single film to decrease, and the decrease in the number of days of release must make more movies to make up for the scarcity of film sources, and in order to make more movies, the production cost of a single film will inevitably be reduced, and the reduction of production costs will lead to a decrease in the quality of the film.

It's a dead knot that can't be untied at all.

Shaw Brothers Pictures and Shaw Brothers Cinemas, two companies that should complement and promote each other, are now dragging each other down and becoming each other's burden.

Shao Yifu was already aware of this, but he was at a loss for it.

Compared with Shao Yifu, Kang Jianfei, the boss, is very idle. When Shaw Brothers was first established, Shaw was already a tycoon, and he was 51 years old at the time, still directing or producing films himself. When Shao Yifu became a shareholder of TVB, he was already in his 60s, but he ate and lived on the set every day to guide work.

Whether it is Shaw Brothers Pictures or TVB, it is Shao Yifu's hard work, and he can't give up any of them.

However, now that the film sector is becoming more and more sluggish, coupled with Fang Yihua's vigorous blowing of the pillow wind to develop a TV station, Shao Yifu has to favor TVB, the younger son, and gradually reduce his support and attention to the eldest son of Shaw Brothers Pictures.

The Chinese Rookie Singing Contest was held by Huaxing Records, and at this time, Huaxing was just a department of TVB, and there was no signed singer under it, and it was only responsible for helping TVB act as an agent for record distribution and music production.

In another time and space, the first Chinese Rookie Singing Contest should have been held in 1982, but now Shao Yifu has transferred more funds and jīng efforts to the TV station, causing the singing contest to be held a year earlier.

The reason why the singing contest was held is actually very simple, that is, to train contracted singers for Huaxing Records, and also to cultivate stars for TV stations, and by the way, it also increased the ratings of TVB variety shows.

The first singing rookie contest has come to an end, and the champion of the first singing contest is Wei Qishan, who became the first signed singer of Huaxing Records (Shen Dianxia, Zhao Yazhi, Shi Xiu and others, although they have released records or singles in Huaxing Company, they have not officially signed a record contract).

In the next few days, Zheng Shaoqiu, Luo Wen and others who signed with Entertainment Records all transferred to Huaxing Records. At the same time, Huaxing Company announced to reporters that the company has officially transformed from a department company under TVB to a record company in the real sense.

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The Peninsula Hotel Cafe.

Hong Kong filmmakers like to drink afternoon tea here, which was started by Shao Yifu, and he hasn't changed it even when he is old.

At this time, Shao Yifu and his concubine Fang Yihua sat in the tea restaurant, drinking afternoon tea slowly and leisurely, enjoying that moment of relaxation after busy work.

"Ah Hua, you did a good job in this singing competition." Shao Yifu rarely praised loudly, compared to Shaw Brothers Pictures, which made him anxious, the TVB TV station controlled by Fang Yihua now made him much more comfortable.

Hong Kong has not had a singing competition before, but this time Huaxing Records teamed up with TVB to add entertainment to each link, making this singing competition a great success, and the ratings threw off the same program of the same period on Lishi's side.

Fang Yihua put down the teacup and said: "The company is asking someone to write a song for the champion Wei Qishan, and plans to fill her with a record while it is hot this month." ”

Shao Yifu nodded and said: "It's okay, although the singing competition is over, the heat has not completely dissipated, and it is a good time to release a record." ”

Fang Yihua said with a smile: "Chen Meiling of the entertainment record company has also made sense, and she will be able to sign a contract with Huaxing Company next month." ”

Chen Meiling is a beautiful girl star who became popular in Southeast Asia in the early 70s, and now she is only in her early 20s. If Huaxing Records signs Chen Meiling, then the Nanyang Record market is guaranteed.

Shao Yifu nodded, but his mind turned to the movie again. Movies are his favorite career, and he can't give up no matter what.

But Shaw Brothers and Shaw Cinemas have been losing money since the third quarter of last year, and they have lost even more this year.

On the film company's side, it can also send overseas box office to make back the money it lost, but the money lost by Shaw Brothers Cinemas has no possibility of making it back.

There are a total of 16 cinemas under the Shaw Brothers Cinema Company, but only 11 really belong to Shaw Yifu, and the remaining 5 are all joined by others, and they are large cinemas located in the downtown area.

Those 5 large movie theaters, if there are good film sources, will generate a lot of profits every day. But if the attendance rate is very low, then they are much more expensive to operate than other theaters, so the loss situation is even more serious.

Due to the recession of Shaw Brothers' movies, now the 5 franchised movie theater owners of Shaw Brothers Cinemas have begun to break up.

Shao Yifu thought about it for a long time, but he couldn't think of a good way, to solve the current problems of Shaw Brothers Pictures, he had to use a knife to dig up carrion. But this treatment method is too fierce, maybe the Shaw Brothers Pictures disease is not cured, and the company has already dispersed first.

Seeing that the time was almost up, Shao Yifu stood up and said, "Let's go!" ””

Fang Yihua immediately came over to help Shao Yifu out, and the followers of the two came from another table, holding their belongings and following.

As soon as he walked out of the tea restaurant, suddenly seven or eight reporters who had been waiting for a long time ran forward, aiming their long guns and short guns at Shao Yifu and Fang Yihua.

Both of them thought that the reporters were here to cover the news about the singing contest, and they had become accustomed to it these days, so they had no objection, and walked slowly to cooperate with the reporter's interview.

The reporters really came to cover the singing competition, and a reporter preemptively asked: "Ms. Fang, do you remember that there was a female contestant named Anita Mui in the Chinese rookie singing competition?" ”

Although the Chinese Rookie Singing Contest was made by Fang Yihua, she has a lot of things to do all day long, and she cares about the semi-finals at most, so how can she go to watch the knockout round?

Fang Yihua didn't have any impression of Anita Mui, but she was afraid that her brain would miss out, so she didn't dare to talk nonsense, but nodded with a smile: "Every contestant is great, I hope they can continue to work hard in the future?" ”

Another reporter asked: "Then do you know that Anita Mui became a signed singer of Fengxing Records after being eliminated in the singing contest?" ”

At the mention of Fengxing Records, Fang Yihua immediately remembered Kang Jianfei, and looked at Shao Yifu with a slight change in his face.

Shao Yifu has gone through strong winds and waves, so naturally he will not show any strange expressions because of this little thing, he smiled: "Everyone has the right to choose, since the singer surnamed Mei chose to sign Fengxing Records, then we can only respect her choice." ”

These seven or eight reporters have been squatting outside the Peninsula Hotel for a long time, because many people in Hong Kong know that Shao Yifu likes to drink afternoon tea here.

While waiting for Shao Yifu to come out, these reporters had obviously discussed and set up a trap for Shao Yifu and Fang Yihua to drill in.

However, Shao Yifu and Fang Yihua are both old and mature characters, and they answered several questions in a row with politeness and moderation, and they didn't fall into the set at all.

Finally, a reporter couldn't help but say: "The singles of Shao Tycoon, Ms. Fang, and Miss Anita Mui were broadcast on two radio stations in Hong Kong yesterday. As soon as the song "Song of a Thousand Thousand Que" came out, it was exploded by the audience's on-demand, don't you know the way? ”

Shao Yifu's face changed slightly, but Fang Yihua's face darkened directly, because they didn't know anything about it.

In fact, there are not many people in Hong Kong who know that "Song of a Thousand Thousand Que" is sung by Anita Mui, and these seven or eight reporters are all news deliberately released by Kang Jianfei. The purpose of this is not to disgust Fang Yihua, but to use the singing contest that has not yet dissipated its popularity, as well as wireless stations and Huaxing Records to hype, so that Anita Mui's fame will expand rapidly.

Kang Jianfei didn't want to disgust Fang Yihua, but Fang Yihua was really disgusted. It gives her a headache when she thinks about it, a singer who was eliminated in the Chinese Rookie Singing Contest got good results when he signed a contract with Popular Records and released a single in a blink of an eye, isn't this slapping Fang Yihua's face and saying that she has no beads? (To be continued.) )