Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 90 (First Update) The “Richest Man” Has Many Troubles
In the end, Zhang Chao did not nod his head to agree to the investment, but just said that he would go back and think about it.

It’s not that I don’t have confidence in the box office of my movie, but the financial calculations of a movie are relatively complicated and professional. As an individual, if there are no professionals to check it for me, the final profit is likely to be a mess.

Losing some money is not unacceptable, but being taken advantage of is really uncomfortable.

Why do Hollywood stars only get a share of the box office revenue, rather than a share of the profits? Because there have been cases where a movie was a big hit, but when the stars asked the film company for money, they were told that the company was actually losing money. For example, for Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings, Warner Bros. and New Line said they lost a lot of money!

From the creative stage to the final release of a movie, there are often hundreds of organizations and thousands of people involved. It is easy for large companies to use financial means to reduce their net profits or even lose money.

Even if an individual wants to pursue the matter, it is difficult to afford the time and money costs. So it is not as simple as ordinary movie fans understand that 33% of the box office is equal to the producer's income, and then adding or subtracting it from the production cost equals the producer's profit.

However, Huayi Company's reputation in this regard is really average. In Zhang Chao's impression, Huayi Company had a dispute with Stephen Chow over box office sharing in the previous life.

But this also reminded Zhang Chao that he should start managing his finances.

《富布斯中国名人榜》从2004年开始就把内地作家列入榜单。例如在2004年初公布的2003年名人财富榜上，于秋雨就以420万元年收入排在综合排名第54位。

Writers' royalties are all legitimate, and publishers will deduct taxes before paying them, so writers are not as "dangerous" as entrepreneurs on the list. But they will eventually become the target of public criticism.

Writers who have reached the top of the list over the years are almost always repeatedly tested by public opinion for a period of time afterwards. Although there is no loss, it is indeed annoying. Not being afraid of people knowing that you are rich is different from being stared at by people all day long.

After the meeting, Zhang Chao went home, turned on his computer, and checked his income this year. In the past, publishing houses and newspapers would send him an email in advance when transferring money, but he usually just glanced at it and closed it. Fortunately, he opened the online banking service when he applied for the card, otherwise he would have to go to the bank again.

The next step was to install the driver for the browser, restart the computer, insert the U-Shield, enter the account number and password... After all these operations, I finally saw my bank balance: 4356911.1 yuan.

Zhang Chao expressed his relief that the bank balance number was finally longer than the password.

Let’s look at the income details:

The bulk of this was the royalties for "Young Like You" paid to him by Huacheng Publishing House. The total amount of royalties from the first print plus the reprints has exceeded 440 million yuan.

Then there are the royalties for "Your Name" paid to him by Huacheng Publishing House. The first installment of royalties paid to him was 60 yuan.

Next is the royalties for "Undercurrent Collection" paid by Lu Jinbo. The first print run was 30 copies, with a single copy priced at 19 yuan. The part of the first print royalties that has been paid to him is 50 yuan.

Huayi Company paid 80 yuan for the film and television adaptation and screenwriting fees of "Better Days", which is the first installment of the fees.

Mingchuang Publishing House paid 3 Hong Kong dollars in royalties for the first print of "Young Like You".

Kadokawa Shoten introduced "Your Name" with an initial print run of 5 copies, priced at 600 yen per copy, and had already paid 100 million yen in royalties in advance.

There were also newspapers and magazines that published and reprinted his articles, and the miscellaneous royalties he received were about 3 yuan.

Shueisha reprinted the comic version of "Your Name". Zhang Chao had previously promised that all serial royalties would go to Xia Da, so it was not included.

The total income is about 640 million. After deducting 100 million for my parents, about 100 million for buying houses in Yanjing and Changfu, and my own various expenses, I get the current number.

Of course, with the gradual payment of royalties from several books, it is very likely that the revenue will be close to 200 million by the end of the year. Especially for "Youth Like You" and "Your Name", the sales of the former should exceed million this year, and "Your Name" unexpectedly has the potential to exceed million now.

Looking at this amount of money, Zhang Chao still felt a bit overwhelmed. Since he had little wealth in his previous life, he naturally had no experience in financial management.

He knew that the housing prices in Yanjing would continue to rise, and buying a house now would undoubtedly be the most secure return. But you can't just leave the houses there if you buy too many, right? If you rent them out, you have to negotiate with the tenants; if you don't rent them out, you still have to maintain them, pay property fees, and deal with various chores... It's actually quite tiring to think about it. If no one helps manage it, it's better to buy two stocks of big companies that everyone knows will continue to rise and leave them there without worrying about them. As for buying coins, it's still too early.

Zhang Chao knew that Penguin was listed in Hong Kong Island this year, but unfortunately he didn't have time to go to Hong Kong Island to open an account.

Thinking of this, he opened his mailbox and sent an email to Mingchuang Press, asking them not to transfer the remaining royalties in a hurry, and to withdraw them together when he went to Hong Kong Island.

But there is a sum of money that he has to spend recently - to get a driver's license and buy a car.

It's not 20 years later. If you want to take a taxi, you can call it on your phone before going downstairs, and you can get one right after you leave the community gate. Although there are many taxis in Yanjing, they are not always available. If you don't get one right away, you have to wait for a long time.

I have a lot of things to do and I can't commute to work like most of my classmates, so it's most convenient for me to have a car.

Thinking of this, Zhang Chao went downstairs to eat, went to withdraw some money, and then wandered around the community. After a while, he saw a sign of "SuDa Driving School" in a row of shops next to Qinghua University. This kind of driving school that serves students usually has a good reputation, so he went in to ask about the price.

When the person in charge saw Zhang Chao coming in, he came forward and greeted him enthusiastically: "Student, do you want to get a driver's license? We have discounts here for those with student ID cards!"

Zhang Chao asked: "How much does a C2 certificate cost? How long does it take to pass it?"

The person in charge said: "Do you want to take the C2 test? The C2 is an automatic transmission, which is much more expensive, costing 5000. The C1 manual transmission is cheaper, only 3800."

In this era, most driving tests require manual transmission. Driving schools have a large number of manual transmission training cars, and many of them are old pickup trucks with rough skin and thick flesh. They don’t even have power steering, and the steering wheels are very heavy.

Automatic transmission is usually only learned by some girls, and there are usually not more than two automatic transmission training cars in a driving school. The most important thing is that automatic transmission cars are expensive to maintain and cannot withstand the damage of students, so even if the fees are much higher, driving schools generally recommend students to learn manual transmission.

Although Zhang Chao took the manual transmission test in his previous life, he had no addiction to driving, nor did he enjoy the "pleasure of driving". He also did not want to experience the torture of pressing the clutch and starting on a slope with the driving school's crappy car, so he chose C2.

The person in charge had no choice but to say, "The C2 with student ID discount is 4600 yuan. It will take about six months to eight months to get the ID."

Zhang Chao was surprised: "Why does it take so long?"

The person in charge said: "You know that the driver's license has been changed to C1 and C2, but how come you don't know that the test rules have also changed? In the past, you only had to take the traffic regulations, pole test, and road test, and you could get the license in as fast as one month. Starting from April this year, it was divided into subject 1, subject 4, and subject 1, which is very difficult to pass!

Many of our students who registered in April have not yet finished their exams.”

Zhang Chao asked curiously, "Is there no subject 4?"

The person in charge was shocked and said, "It's hard enough to take the test now, and you still want to take Subject 4? Isn't this going to cost you your life? Don't be ridiculous, classmate."

Zhang Chao got his driver's license in 2015, so he didn't know about this. But he knew how to drive, so he didn't care. After asking about some details of driving training, Zhang Chao paid the money and signed up.

The person in charge smiled happily and took out a thick stack of information and handed it to Zhang Chao. The most important thing was a thick question bank for Subject 1.

Zhang Chao returned home with the materials and started looking through the question bank. He found that it was similar to the time when he took the driving test, so it should not be difficult. He could pass the test by going through the questions carefully.

In the evening, Zhang Chao received a call from his parents: "Son, this National Day, we are going to BJ to have fun! Surprise!"

(End of this chapter)