After all of them were reborn, who would still be an actor?

Chapter 780 Speculative Stocks! Tightening the Grip!
Xiao Yang didn't want to lose; this was his first film as the director himself!

To boost the film's popularity, he spent 500,000 yuan to buy trending searches and promote the film's joint concert.

A movie ticket for 5.9 yuan can be entered into a draw to win concert tickets worth hundreds of yuan, and there are 50,000 tickets up for grabs!

This is a genuine prize draw bonus!

This immediately caused the box office of "Old Boys: The Way of the Dragon" to surge against the odds.

This trick really works, and the results are remarkable!

Jackie Chan's Chinese Zodiac was pirated as soon as it was released. Despite rampant piracy, it still managed to gross nearly 1 billion yuan at the box office by holding movie ticket raffles and concerts!

Xiao Yang and Wang Taili watched with delight as the box office soared, breaking ten million, twenty million, and thirty million in a single day!
But they overlooked one crucial question: Do they have the capability to hold a concert? Do they have that many songs?
Although some people had warned them, the two of them didn't take it seriously. They focused on getting the box office going first, and would deal with other things later!
The Dragon Crosses the River, Setting Off Another Box Office Boom!
Meanwhile, The Left Ear is also about to be released.

This year's Lunar New Year film season is a bit unusual, a bit clownish.

Li Mingyang hyped up this year's Lunar New Year film season, but the lack of participation from other major filmmakers resulted in a good release window but no good films.

Many films lacking stars, quality, and marketing—the "three no's"—rushed into this Lunar New Year film season, only to suffer terribly.

Trying to ride the wave of popularity without even offering ticket subsidies is practically suicide!

The market is desperately lacking in good movies!
This creates a very significant positive development!

That means the movie doesn't need much pre-release promotion, it can just go straight to the action!

All slots are empty!

Typically, a film's promotion and distribution are arranged two months to six months in advance before its release.

Promotion began during the pre-production phase, and as the film's release approached, the cast appeared on various variety shows to promote it.

Happy Camp and Running Man are such variety show platforms.

With its high traffic, it's perfect for promoting movies.

Many celebrities who appear on these two variety shows not only don't receive payment, but also have to pay for it out of their own pockets.

There was some pre-release promotion for The Left Ear, but Guo Fan wasn't proactive and even forgot about the movie, which shows how bad the promotion was.

There wasn't enough time to appear on variety shows, and Li Mingyang didn't plan to have the Left Ear crew record Happy Camp.

The main reasons were celebrity Weibo reposts and Rao Xueman's 18-city Left Ear autograph session.

Weibo is an absolute behemoth of public opinion!

It has a particularly large influence among young people.

Portal websites all rely on microblogs to provide news material.

The Left Ear will be released on December 11th!
The box office on the first day was only 1450 million, which is a terrible result!

Li Mingyang was completely dumbfounded by the poor performance.

In its previous life, The Left Ear grossed nearly 500 million yuan at the box office!

Li Mingyang had high hopes for this film, but his world collapsed...

"The box office performance is really disappointing..."

On the ninth floor of Mingyang Entertainment, it was snowing outside and freezing cold.

Wang Changtian was covered in sweat, wiping his face with a towel as he spoke.

It’s so stressful!

This was the most stressful time of his life!
The combined pressure from the releases of "Love Like a Bouquet," "Your Name," and "Weathering With You" doesn't compare to this!
"Although the release date was good and there were few competitors, the pre-release hype was insufficient..."

Li Mingyang slammed his Apple laptop shut on the coffee table and started smoking in frustration.

"It might still be salvageable, but unfortunately there's no competition. Otherwise, we could have used it to our advantage and generate some buzz," Wang Changtian said regretfully.

Li Mingyang didn't answer. He smoked half a cigarette, then suddenly stood up and walked towards the door.

Seeing this, Wang Changtian quickly followed!

Li Mingyang's office is right next to the finance department of the flower shop, where it used to be bustling with activity and people were extremely busy.

There weren't many people around at that time.

Li Mingyang arrived at the finance department, the office area with the most concentrated staff.

A group of people stared intently at the monitor screens, all of which displayed stock market candlestick charts, a mix of red and green!
"Godmother, are there any developments in the film and television stocks today?" Li Mingyang asked.

Xia Yuhe took off her glasses and shook her head. "Today is the same as the past few days, nothing's happening."

"Didn't it drop?"

"It's not that easy for it to fall... The market is currently in a wait-and-see mode, with a lot of capital supporting the market."

Li Mingyang asked one of the traders to stand up, sat in the other's seat, and started looking at the candlestick chart.

In his previous life, Li Mingyang never traded stocks. In this life, he traded stocks many times, and each time he won big and escaped.

The secret is...!
He only fights battles he's confident of winning!

Use light to dominate, stay invincible, don't be greedy, and know when to stop!

But this time it's different; he's betting on the overall market!

Since Wang Changtian's return, Enlight Media's stock has been soaring, with its market value once again exceeding 40 billion. At this price, there is absolutely no value in manipulating the stock price.

There is no opportunity for market manipulation. Domestic film and television stocks are centered on box office revenue, fluctuating with the release of a film and ending when it is no longer in theaters.

But the lighting is a little different...

Capital has such high hopes for him; he's practically a miracle born for financial films!
Except for Bouquet, which didn't gross over 100 million yuan, all the other films grossed over 100 million yuan.

The film didn't do well at the box office in mainland China, but it was a hit overseas, achieving an impressive seventh place in the annual box office rankings in South Korea.

This has led to Enlight Media's market value hovering around 30 billion.

Wang Changtian let the horse go to Nanshan, and BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) even personally stood up for him, stabilizing the stock price of Enlight Media.

It didn't give Enlight Media's market value a chance to plummet...

So... if you want to make big money, you have to follow the big market trends!
This will boost the entire film and television stock market!
Li Mingyang and Wang Changtian mortgaged everything they could, even the Bouquet Hotel, raising over 900 million yuan.

They've been accumulating shares.

When the stock market is stable, whether it goes up or down, there are always opportunities to make money. Stability is painful!
The money can't be spent.

"You still have to do it. How about we move up the release date of the animated series featuring your name?"

"They haven't even set a release date yet, why are they moving it up..."

"The most urgent task is to disrupt the situation. Your name can definitely open up the door! As long as one movie grosses a billion, their vested interests will instantly crumble!"

"Can this animated film break 1 billion? It seems that there's only one animated film in China that has broken 200 million. Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf."

"That's because they did a terrible job. Hollywood animated films are very popular in China. You can't keep using domestic animated films to define yourself. Besides, Your Name animated version is a Sino-Korean co-production. Many viewers will buy tickets for it because it's a foreign production."

Li Mingyang thought about it and still felt it wasn't very reliable.

The main problem is that the IP address isn't big enough!
For domestic films to break box office records, you still have to look to Monkey King!

Journey to the West is the strongest film IP at Tokyo University! It's popular with everyone!

Nezha 2 also benefited from the popularity of Journey to the West.

The animated version of Your Name generated decent buzz, but its box office potential is limited due to its niche subject matter.

"You have confidence, but I don't... I have an idea, can you give me your opinion?"

"You're still thinking about One-Punch Man? Forget it, that's practically impossible."

"Not One-Punch Man."

Li Mingyang shook his head and returned to his office. As soon as Wang Changtian entered the room, he closed the door and slyly revealed his thoughts.

At first, Wang Changtian didn't think much of it, but after listening to the rest, he realized how brilliant it was!

"Your idea is absolutely brilliant!"

“It’s a bit difficult to achieve, and we don’t have much time, so we want you to step in and settle things with them. They’re afraid of you, after all, you’re really taking away their livelihood.”

Wang Changtian was no longer flustered and patted his chest, assuring everyone, "No problem!"

……

Li Mingyang has been in the industry for many years, but he has not been on good terms with the Beijing and Hong Kong/Taiwan film circles, and has also had conflicts with several major film companies.

Every time his movie is released, it causes a bloodbath. The most successful directors in China, such as Jiang Wen, Feng Xiaogang, Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou, and Xu Ke, have all become his stepping stones!

It perfectly illustrates the saying: "One general's success is built on the bones of ten thousand."

Due to conflicting interests, Li Mingyang's relationship with internet capital was also strained, with frequent clashes or sudden departures.

Li Mingyang fights this person and battles that person!

He has never targeted any celebrities, and even the celebrities from Huayi Brothers have a good relationship with him.

The top female and male celebrities are eager for him to take down Huayi as soon as possible!
With capital remaining inactive and the film and television stock market calm, everyone is watching and waiting.

Li Mingyang decided to start by investing in celebrities!

There are too few shares available for him to buy.

Since we've decided to pull off something big...

Wang Changtian acted immediately, calling the celebrity shareholders of Huayi Brothers, LeTV, Perfect World, and Alibaba Pictures from Li Mingyang's office.

Wang Changtian's track record is verifiable; he really does target celebrities.

Before long, word spread in the industry that Wang Changtian had bought up a large number of film and television stocks.

They even bought Huayi Brothers and LeTV.

This unusual behavior left Jack Ma and Little Ma completely bewildered; what was going on?

Buying such a large amount of shares in other listed film and television stocks carries a very high risk from a return perspective.

One looks at the overall market, the other looks at their own situation.

Li Mingyang is perfectly capable of boosting the market, but revitalizing the overall market is too difficult.

Many people were baffled. But Wang Changtian was indeed spending money to buy it.

Wang Dajun and Lao Jia tried selling some at a price 10% higher than the market price, and Wang Changtian actually bought them all at that price.

Judging by their actions, they're really going to buy as many as they can get.

"Hey, I have a feeling there's some kind of conspiracy going on here..." Wang Dajun sighed.

“No need to worry, he can’t handle Huayi. Brother, how about I sell another five million shares?” Wang Xiaolei laughed.

Wang Dajun stared at the stock price on the screen and shook his head. "Five million shares is too few. Let's sell him 1% and see if he dares to take it."

"What if he accepts?" Wang Xiaolei asked.

Wang Dajun, fiddling with the walnuts, sneered, "If he dares to take it, I dare to keep selling."

Upon receiving instructions, Wang Xiaolei immediately contacted a securities firm to sell his shares.

Ten minutes later...

"My brother bought it. I bid for almost 20% of it and he accepted it all," Wang Xiaolei said hurriedly.

Wang Dajun was so worried!
One-tenth is about right; eating nearly two-tenths is just unreasonable!
Wang Xiaolei also realized there was a problem. Huayi's stock price is currently hovering around 30 billion, and 1% is 20% higher than the market price, which is no small amount!

"Brother, what should we do now?"

"Wait, go check which people at Huayi have sold their shares."

"Are you worried that Wang Changtian will take over Huayi? He can't take it over. Even if he takes over all the celebrity stocks, it won't be more than 5%."

Wang Dajun waved his hand, his face dark, and said, "Just do what I tell you to do. Why ask so many questions?"

Wang Xiaolei was choked by dust and went to investigate, looking disheveled.

"Are we really going to get involved in this big market? What's the point?" Wang Dajun complained as he took out his phone to call Lao Jia.

It was learned that Wang Changtian was also buying shares from LeEco's celebrity shareholders, also at a premium.

Not only did they buy shares in LeTV.com, but they also bought shares in LeTV Sports and LeTV Pictures. That's a really big spender!

All of these are large transactions, and they all go through the brokerage firm; they are almost all openly traded.

In less than a day, they bought more than 200 million yuan worth of goods.

"Old Jia, why do you think Li Houzi would take such a big risk to buy our stock?" Wang Dajun said.

Wang Dajun has already figured out Li Mingyang's purpose in using his reputation to launch this multi-billion dollar Lunar New Year film.

The perks of watching financial movies.

Just eating large portions of food... the risks are too great, completely uncontrollable.

Huayi only has one card in its hand: Feng Xiaogang's private custom-made clothing.

He himself didn't believe the film would do well at the box office, otherwise he wouldn't have voluntarily sold his shares...

LeTV doesn't have many competitive films either. Tiny Times 2 and Ice Age 3D: The Rebirth Gate are still in production, and Wu Baige's The Crossing hasn't finished filming yet.

Compared to Huayi Brothers and LeTV's Lunar New Year film lineups, Enlight Media is clearly a cut above the rest!

Diverse genres, featuring big-name directors, big stars, and big-budget productions...

There's also an animated version of Your Name.

Wang Dajun solved one mystery, only to fall into another.

Old Jia spent several hours comforting them, but didn't reveal the real reason.

Sheraton Shanghai Hotel.

After hanging up the phone, Lao Jia leaned on the balcony railing, gazing at the dazzling night view of Shanghai outside the window, and said with a wry smile, "No wonder he's been up the mountain, he really knows how to have fun... The bank is directly lending money to Maoyan and Taopiaopiao, clearly planning a big operation."

"How do we manage this market? Can you come up with a more brilliant idea than ticket subsidies?"

"Relying solely on the box office revenue of a single film cannot boost the overall market..."

Old Jia was both confused and speechless.

This 10 billion yuan Lunar New Year film season has absolutely nothing to do with him!
It would be in his best interest for Li Mingyang to lose and become a clown.

From beginning to end, he never intended to go!

“What I’m most worried about right now is the Hong Kong entertainment circle…” Old Jia murmured.

Not long after Lao Jia finished speaking, he received a phone call.

Hong Kong entertainment industry gets a large number of release dates announced!
Andy Lau's Storm! Nicholas Tse's Firefighting Hero! Hong Kong Stars' Lunar New Year Film, All's Well, Ends Well! Joe's Control! Koo's Gambling Bust! All Set for Release!
Everything's concentrated in January!

……

Hong Kong's entertainment circle has always prioritized profit.

This rush to January isn't about saving the day, but rather about watching from the sidelines and praising Jack Ma!

Rumors are circulating in the industry that the box office performance during the Lunar New Year season was so poor that Li Mingyang was struggling to keep the company afloat and needed someone to step in and save the day.

And the person who put out the fire was none other than Jack Ma.

A few days ago, Li Mingyang confirmed this rumor with Cai Zhongxin.

He didn't want to be the leader either, so Zuo Shan Diao disappeared without a trace.

It would be wonderful if Jack Ma could take over this huge undertaking.

Their interests are completely aligned!
Jack Ma is a fame-seeker who craves both recognition and online traffic.

Li Mingyang is burdened by his reputation and desperately wants someone to take over. Jack Ma is the best buyer! Moreover, he really wants to make the Lunar New Year film a multi-billion dollar success!
To Li Mingyang's surprise, he had just video-chatted with Jack Ma, expressing his determination to support him, and even told him the release date of "Your Name".

Soon after, the Hong Kong film industry started setting release dates!

They're all concentrated in January.

Films featuring bouquets and light are clustered in December.

It's somewhat like watching a fire from across the river, or engaging in a competition from afar!
to be honest……

When a movie is released, there needs to be competition, comparisons, flame wars, explosive moments, and verbal battles... In short, a one-man show is unlikely to generate much buzz, and the overall box office won't pick up...

The animated version of Your Name is scheduled to premiere on December 20th, but it has not yet been officially announced.

I Am Somebody is also scheduled for release on December 20th. The film's promotion and distribution have been ongoing and are very popular! In order not to affect the promotion and distribution of Old Boys: The Way of the Dragon and The Left Ear.

Li Mingyang deliberately suppressed the hype surrounding the film, and Er Dongshen, being a reasonable person, called his old friends to help promote it after the premiere of "I Am Somebody".

The whole of December was just a bunch of people playing with bouquets and lights, which easily led to accidental injuries to teammates...

Li Mingyang and Wang Changtian aggressively bought up film and television stocks through the stock exchange in the A-share market, and their aggressive approach did indeed provoke a market reaction.

The market capitalization of various film and television stocks has started to rise, but the increases are not significant.

Even more people are now adopting a wait-and-see approach!
Li Mingyang must have bought so many stocks to make money!
Whose money do we make? Of course, it's the money of those who are involved in the game!

2013 was a very strange year for the A-share market!
It's a major bear market, but also a major bull market!

In December of last year, after three consecutive years of decline, A-shares began a significant rally.

At that time, the market generally believed that A-shares would embark on a bull market from the bottom.

However, after a year of ups and downs, the A-share market has remained stagnant.

However, the divergence in A-shares is more pronounced than before, with the ChiNext market unexpectedly experiencing a bull market that has more than doubled in value.

The hype surrounding individual stocks has been hot from the beginning to the end of the year!

The ChiNext market is mainly driven by speculation on TMT (Technology, Media, and Telecom) concepts.

The cultural and media sector is the most unfavorable, yet it is showing a very strong upward trend!

Among them, Enlight Media and Huayi Brothers have high market capitalizations, but it's not obvious. Film and television companies that are listed through shell companies have really gone crazy!
The best performer saw its annual increase exceed 10 times.

The A-share market has been dormant for too long. This bull market within the 13-year bear market is the beginning of a major bull market in the future!
A super-skilled expert who makes money with his eyes closed!

Li Mingyang didn't have such grand ambitions. He invested over a billion yuan in A-shares, earned enough to pay off his debts, and then withdrew!

Making double the price difference isn't difficult!
To be honest, Li Mingyang and Wang Changtian were forced into this situation, which is why they bought film and television stocks!

But financial films are such a tempting prospect, absolutely irresistible.

Plus, streaming media is a huge traffic driver!

This led to countless companies following suit, and the higher-ups probably realized that this was not a good thing.

Too eye-catching.

From cinematic anchors to financial insights!
From 12 to 13, the overall market fluctuated, with a continuous decline in 12, marking three consecutive years of decline.

Thirteen years of dramatic rises and falls, then stagnation.

In the past two years, the most bizarre stocks have been film and television stocks!
In the future, film and television stocks will be known as "demon stocks"!
It can plummet to your despair in a short time, and surge to your joy in a short time... The A-share market is a fickle thing!
Then, in order to take remedial measures, the authorities restricted the listing of film and television stocks.

As a result, the IPOs of Tangren, Tangde, and Huanrui were all suspended!
Bernard's dream of returning home was once again put on hold.

He was deeply hurt and, along with his aggrieved wife, went to the bandit leader every day to complain about his misfortune.

It will be difficult for him to come back, even though he has Poly Group as a backer.

Many people's interests are involved behind Huayi Brothers and Enlight Media, and Bernard's return will cause trouble...

He hasn't reached his most desperate point yet; he's still clinging to his shares.

If we follow the stock market trends of film and television companies in the previous life, it wouldn't be long, just over a year, before Huayi's market value is more than ten times that of Berna.

This disparity directly broke Yu Donggan's resolve... which led to his collaboration with Sequoia Capital and Fosun International to privatize the company and bring it back to China!

Li Mingyang's bet on this large market is based on sound reasoning!

Enlight Media, Huayi Brothers Media, and LeTV are all notorious speculative stocks in the film and television industry!
If you wait patiently for a year or two, you can at least double your investment of over a billion!
But what he lacks most is time!

If we wait a year... he'll probably go bankrupt.

Even clearing out assets isn't enough to cover the losses, and you'll end up in endless triangular or multi-party debt lawsuits.

As the central figure in this multi-billion-dollar Lunar New Year film season, Li Mingyang felt not the calm of the eye of the storm, but rather an attack from all sides...

Like a tight band tightening little by little! Irresistible!
(End of this chapter)