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

Chapter 782 When the machine starts, gold pours in!

After riding an electric scooter for more than half an hour, Gong Yu finally arrived at the legendary Happy Forest and met the two heads of the Volcano Studio.

Ah Huo and Xiao Ye.

Gong Yu is very familiar with these two; they are old acquaintances.

He tried to dig up two people back then, but he couldn't. In the end, the two of them went to South Korea with Li Mingyang.

The two were among the first to establish Mingyang, and were at the leadership level at the time. One was in charge of Mingyang's most important storyboard team, and the other was in charge of Mingyang's daily management.

After Lao Wu returned to China, the two of them worked together on the special effects for Pangu. Once the special effects for Pangu were on track, the two of them started an animation studio together.

Although not well-known, not as famous as Lao Wu, Guo Fan, Da Peng, Zhang Wei, Li Ming, etc.

But these two have always been members of Li Mingyang's core team.

Li Mingyang's core team has a very special name: Inner Ring.

Seeing Ah Huo and Xiao Ye, Gong Yu felt much more at ease; the animated version of "Your Name" was almost a certainty.

Although Zuo Shandiao has disappeared from public view, he still contributed behind the scenes. The animated version of "Your Name" also disappeared from censorship, and no one in the industry has watched it...

Deep in the Happy Forest, Gong Yu saw the legendary Volcano Studio.

It has nothing to do with high-end or sophisticated; it's more like the rural pig farms he saw when he was a child.

The rusty red iron gate and the courtyard wall made of red bricks and cement evoked a flood of distant, dead memories.

Stepping into the courtyard, with its cement floor, rows of bungalows, and a dilapidated basketball court, it no longer resembled a pig farm but rather a rural primary school.

However, the workstations inside, with their square, cubicle layout, look a lot like pig farms...

"Mr. Gong, does this seem familiar?" Li Mingyang asked with a smile.

"A little bit, indeed."

"It's not that I'm unwilling to spend money or treat my employees like pigs, it's just that building houses in the mountains is quite troublesome, and this is the most time-saving and labor-saving option," Li Mingyang said, pushing open the door to a screening room.

The screening room was... very basic, a bit like the video arcades from my childhood.

A large television set and several data cables.

Genuine leather sofa? No way, it's just a four-legged stool.

In this simple environment, Gong Yu saw the animated version of Your Name being transmitted.

Within just the first few minutes, Gong Yu was so shocked that he couldn't put his words into words.

The animated version of Your Name has completely transcended the concept of a University of Tokyo animation film! It has transcended the scope of a University of Tokyo film!
This is completely unacceptable for domestically produced goods!

The visual quality is comparable to that of island nations!

Then, a three-minute high-octane meteor shower special effect and exquisite holographic camerawork completely captivated Gong Yu.

"Director Li's work is a game-changer! The production level is beyond common sense! It has raised domestic animation to a new level!" Gong Yu said sincerely.

Li Mingyang shook his head and laughed, "This film was produced by China, Japan and South Korea. It's not a purely domestic Chinese animation."

"That's still quite an achievement!"

"Would you like to be the primary publisher?"

Gong Yu was stunned for a moment, then overjoyed. Director Li was giving him a huge gift! Sure enough, following Director Li always brought unexpected benefits.

Of course, based on our experience collaborating with Weathering With You, this benefit won't be easy to obtain!
"Director Li, just tell me what you need, and I'll do everything I can to meet it!"

How much do you think this movie will gross?

Animated films are a niche genre in China, but their potential is quite high. The highest is Kung Fu Panda 2, one of the few films in mainland China to break the billion-yuan mark.

Since Li Mingyang has said it, then he's aiming for first place.

Gong Yu said directly, "I'll release your name on the film. It'll gross at least a billion yuan, and it'll definitely surpass the box office record of Kung Fu Panda 2!"

"We can't surpass it."

"If we don't surpass it, we'll lose money. We're betting on 11 billion yuan in box office revenue. Whatever the shortfall, I'll make up the difference!"

Gong Yu, in a menacing manner, immediately set the terms of the betting agreement to the finality.

Li Mingyang's actual box office target for the animated version of Your Name is only 500 million... Your Name is more suitable for an overseas version.

Bombard the doujinshi anime film market!

He doesn't think the animated version of Your Name will achieve high box office returns.

The plot offers nothing new; it's basically a direct copy of the original!
The live-action version of Your Name was incredibly popular back then, its reach was so vast, and the plot was so easily understood at a glance.

"Alright, since you're so confident, I'll leave it to you," Li Mingyang said.

He waved to Ah Huo and Xiao Ye, presenting Gong Yu with an extremely difficult problem.

"I don't want to take away the benefits of the animated film 'Your Name,' as it doesn't bring me much improvement. But Ah Huo and Xiao Ye are different. I hope you will focus on them when promoting the film."

Gong Yu inwardly admired Li Mingyang's selflessness, but said aloud, "You're putting me in a difficult position. If the animated version isn't associated with you, we won't benefit from your popularity! This is bad for publicity! Director Li, please think it over!"

Ah Huo and Xiao Ye were moved, but they still managed to keep their composure.

The animated version of Your Name was entirely decided by Li Mingyang. If it were made by the other two, they wouldn't have been able to create the final version of the animated version of Your Name.

So the two of them joined the group trying to persuade him.

However, Li Mingyang was determined.

"President Gong, the opportunity is right in front of you... If the conditions weren't so demanding, I wouldn't have asked anyone else to take charge. Just leave it to Guangxian. Don't worry, Guangxian will fully cooperate with you!"

What Li Mingyang said is true.

Gong Yu took a deep breath and gave Li Mingyang a look.

Li Mingyang waved his hand, signaling Xiao Ye and Ah Huo to leave.

Xiao Ye gently closed the old wooden door.

Gong Yu lit a cigar, took a deep drag, and said in a deep voice, "Director Li, I roughly understand your thinking. Your popularity isn't endless. You don't want to give your name too much of your own traffic. You want to bet everything on One-Punch Man and aim for a 2 billion yuan box office."

"But have you ever thought about it?"

Who is the biggest obstacle to One-Punch Man getting a theatrical release?

"Hollywood and Wall Street are certainly unwilling, but those people prioritize their own interests. As long as you're willing to share the overseas rights to One-Punch Man, they'll definitely compromise... In fact, they've been waiting for you to give them up all along..."

"Your biggest obstacle is not overseas, but your own people."

"You come from an academic background, but you have never used the resources of the academic world. Your success is due to disrupting the market with the internet."

"Your achievements are too great, your reputation is unshakeable, and you're too much of an eyesore..."

Gong Yu earnestly advised Li Mingyang to give up the record of 2 billion yuan in box office revenue. He argued that it would be better for him not to take the record, but taking it would only make things worse.

"That's all ancient history. One-Punch Man Part 2 is already under internal review." Li Mingyang grinned, his words shocking.

Gong Yu's eyes widened. "The Mountain Eagle helped?"

"of course."

"Holy crap, this isn't right! Why is he always giving you preferential treatment..."

"Stop talking nonsense. Your Name is the animation's distribution. Are you going to take it or not? If not, I'm going to find Zhang Zhao."

"Answer it! Of course I'll answer it!"

……

Li Mingyang gave iQiyi the primary distributorship for the animated version of Your Name.

Naturally, iQiyi acquired the exclusive online streaming rights for the animated version of Your Name.

The online broadcasting rights for one month sold for ten million.

Gong Yu felt it was too expensive, while Li Mingyang felt it was too cheap, but in the end, they reached an agreement.

That evening, Li Mingyang, on behalf of Volcano Studio, and Gong Yu, on behalf of iQiyi Pictures, signed the "Your Name" gambling agreement.

After the agreement was signed, Li Mingyang left Volcano Studio and headed to Shanghai.

Gong Yu stayed at the Volcano Studio, where he held meetings with Ah Huo and Xiao Ye to plan the publicity for "Your Name".

iQiyi Pictures has also released some movies, and Gong Yu is not completely ignorant about them; on the contrary, he knows quite a bit about them.

After all, I've learned a lot from my mistakes; those were experiences I bought with money.

The three of them sat in a simple meeting room, drinking coffee and smoking cigars, talking all night long.

At first, Gong Yu took the lead, but later he simply gave up thinking and listened to Xiao Ye directly.

Gong Yu was very surprised to encounter such an ambitious genius in this secluded mountain valley!

Gong Yu knew the contents of the bouquet very well.

He learned many secrets about bouquets from Zheng Dalong, Bai Bin, Zhang Wei, and Wang Changtian.

He was also aware of the most mysterious inner circle.

In his mind, Xiao Ye was a person without ambition. Otherwise, with his qualifications and abilities, he would either become a director like Lao Wu or be in charge of a region.

There's absolutely no way they'd stay in that remote mountain village, and they even refused the option to offer the bouquet.

I don't know if he was provoked by something, but Ye Xiangdong has become very extreme.

The animated version of Your Name grossed 11 billion yuan at the box office, but that was just him pandering to Li Mingyang's claims.

Once he reaches 500 million, he can open champagne.

Once it exceeds one billion, Chairman Li will jump out and try to claim the credit!

How many billions is Xiao Ye's target?

Two billion in box office revenue!
He not only had this idea, but also a complete reverse derivation plan!
Li Mingyang's regret at not participating was filled at that moment by Xiao Ye's ingenious idea.

"Xiang Dong, Ah Huo, I'm leaving first... You two pack your things, I'll send someone to pick you up later to go to Shanghai."

As Gong Yu said this, his eyes were completely fixed on Xiao Ye, not Ah Huo.

Xiao Ye gave a faint "hmm" and saw Gong Yu out.

"Xiao Ye, can the animated version of Your Name really reach 2 billion yuan at the box office?" Ah Huo stood on the mountaintop, watching the Emma electric car and Gong Yu drive away, and asked.

"Give it a try, what if it works?"

"But... if Director Li finds out we're collaborating with Huayi, he'll kill us both," Ah Huo said fearfully.

"My body is in Cao Cao's camp, but my heart is with Han, that's enough!"

"Um... I have a feeling you're playing with fire."

"Just listen to me, I'm supporting you!"

"I'm destined to be a second-in-command, you're much more suitable than me..."

In terms of appearance, Xiao Ye is certainly not bad; with a little grooming, he's a handsome and artistic young man. "You're more suited to the aura of a great animation director!"

"Really?" After a miserable night, Ah Huo was overjoyed to hear someone praise him.

Xiao Ye nodded firmly. Ah Huo in her eyes was a loser with black-rimmed glasses, chubby, wearing a loose T-shirt and ripped jeans, perfectly fitting the definition of a nerdy director.

At the same time, in Las Vegas.

Following the address on his phone, Wang Changtian arrived at a secluded hotel, went up to the second floor, and then made a phone call.

A short while later, a chubby, white old man opened the door and furtively beckoned to Wang Changtian, signaling him to come over.

"Why did you choose this place?" Wang Changtian asked Hughes.

"It's a gambling city, so it's normal to see a bunch of unfamiliar faces. The community police are a real pain."

Wang Changtian entered the room and saw a long table with eight people surrounding half of it, and more than a dozen laptops running simultaneously on the table...

It could be that the laptop's performance is not good enough, or it is operating under high load.

The entire room was filled with the piercing noise of the fan.

"Why is the noise so loud? Don't you have any good machines?" Wang Changtian frowned.

"Come on! What a beautiful sound! It's the sound of a banknote counting machine!"

……

12 month 13 day.

Guo Fan's long-hidden "Yang-Chen affair" has finally been exposed by paparazzi!

The news broke late at night, and by morning it was all over the news, trending on Weibo.

At noon, the first roadshow in Shanghai was packed with media reporters, who practically blocked the cinema.

The reporters inside the venue were no longer concerned with the film "Left Ear" itself, but rather with the rumors surrounding Yang Yang and Chen Duling.

The two denied the allegations on the spot, stating that they were just friends and colleagues.

Chen Duling kept her word; during the more than one-hour roadshow, she didn't even glance at Yang Yang, as if he didn't exist.

Yang Yang, on the other hand, would glance at Chen Duling with a seemingly casual look and frequently hand her the microphone.

His body language and micro-expressions were constantly conveying his affection for Chen Duling to the audience and media present.

The roadshow had just ended when Weibo was flooded with photos, video clips, long posts, and online trolls bombarding the site!
This series of elaborate tactics propelled their rumored romance to the top of the trending searches.

Subsequently, some netizens began to dig into the backgrounds of the two.

One is Jia Baoyu, a rising star.

One is a campus beauty from China Southern Airlines and an internet celebrity.

After the rumors started circulating, Chen Duling's posts, comments, and number of followers increased at an extremely rapid pace.

Yang Yang is an insider in the entertainment industry and has many works, but his popularity is not as high as Chen Duling's.

Guo Fan quickly made adjustments, and the online army began to irrigate Chen Duling's area.

Chen Duling gained 100,000 followers in just one day!

And the box office of The Left Ear, fueled by the hype surrounding the scandal, has finally started to rise!
On Friday, December 13th, the box office exceeded 12 million yuan in a single day!
On Saturday, December 14th, the daily box office hit a new record, reaching 29.5 million!
On Sunday, December 15th, the daily box office exceeded 12 million, reaching 3750 million!
It raked in nearly 9000 million in its opening weekend!
It became the highest-grossing film in the opening weekend of this year's Lunar New Year film season!

The film "Left Ear" saw a surge in box office revenue thanks to a scandal.

On the other hand, thanks to the concert's marketing, the box office for "The Dragon Crossing the River" saw a significant boost over the second weekend, reaching over 7000 million yuan.

Successfully surpassed 2 million.

Xiao Yang and Wang Taili also got carried away and set their sights on 5 million.

Saying a lot doesn't mean you have to do a lot!
The exact amount depends entirely on the market response.

To boost ticket sales, the two went to great lengths, marketing their concert, doing promotional tours, and even bringing together a bunch of friends from the industry to evoke nostalgia and sentimentality.

We contacted a whole bunch of people, including Xiao Shenyang, Dapeng, Qiao Shan, Guo Degang, Zhao Dashan...

The only comedy film in the Lunar New Year film season!
They have absolutely no rivals! These two have really reaped all the benefits!

It made countless people drool.

Li Mingyang thought that with the success of "Old Boys: The Dragon Crossing the River," there must be others who would try to capitalize on the popularity of this Lunar New Year comedy season.

For example, Feng Xiaogang's comedies and Hong Kong comedy films.

However, what he never expected was...

Sohu is here! Zhang Chaoyang's "Men's Diary" movie is making its way into the Lunar New Year film season!
Originally, "Men's Diary" had already entered the Lunar New Year film season, but for reasons unknown, Zhang Chaoyang changed the release date midway and moved it to the Spring Festival season.

Now they've come back.

The release date is also quite troublesome, December 19th.

I Am Somebody and the animated version of Your Name were both released on the same day, December 20th!
Sohu's move seems to be leveraging the popularity of the two movies to time their release.

"Brother Li, Boss Zhang asked me to prepare for the premiere and roadshow. I... should I do it or not?" Da Peng said, holding his phone.

"Go for it! Of course we have to do a good job. It's rare that this tightwad is willing to put this movie out there."

The copyright for the movie version of "Diaosi Men" belongs exclusively to Sohu, and there have been many twists and turns in the process.

In order to advance the China-Korea bouquet project, he had no choice but to give this generous gift to Zhang Chaoyang.

Afterwards... Zhang Chaoyang spent another two million to swallow the 10% that he had.

Zhang Chaoyang has been investing heavily in Sohu Video in recent years, spending money lavishly and readily acquiring copyrights. He's incredibly generous, but in reality... his stingy nature is there. He appears generous on the surface, but he's actually quite a swindler.

Sohu's development focus is on self-produced dramas!
In the realm of self-produced dramas, Sohu is truly impressive! Even Li Mingyang admires this.

It's truly the Whampoa Military Academy of streaming media, not only cultivating a large number of pioneering leaders in the streaming media industry, but also training the most outstanding behind-the-scenes team!

Sohu's self-produced dramas have nothing to do with Dapeng.

It was a makeshift team put together by internal staff, but this makeshift team actually produced a lot of great dramas.

There really are talented people.

Zhang Chaoyang always attends the press conferences for Sohu's self-produced dramas.

In Sohu Video's overall strategy, original content is second only to TV dramas, with investment increasing year after year. Original content has also become Sohu Video's first profitable content product line.

Sohu has such a strong in-house production team and the ability to generate revenue; in theory, it could follow Mango TV's path and weather the storm.

The problem is that Zhang Chaoyang is unwilling to admit defeat and wants to take a gamble!
Sohu has always been a pioneer in legitimate content, unable to engage in piracy, so it has adopted a lowbrow approach, featuring American and Korean dramas.

These three lines represent a series of sudden deaths!

With the decline of lowbrow content and the tightening of censorship in American dramas, the answer to the call of the times is to bet on Korean dramas!
Then came the ban on Korean entertainment.

Without popular TV dramas to drive viewership, no matter how good your self-produced drama is, it will die without traffic...

The BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) companies have teamed up to throttle traffic; that's ruthless.

When you search for Sohu's self-produced dramas on Baidu, the first page is full of pirated websites. Doesn't that make you want to vomit blood?

What's the point of playing anymore!

Zhang Chaoyang was so amazing at first, so amazing that he became depressed.

A mid-term restart was met with a wave of resignations.

Later, they were taught a lesson by BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent), which made them depressed.

Zhang Chaoyang has invested the most energy and financial resources in Sohu Video compared to all his other projects!

In the end, his fate was even worse than Lao Gu's.

The main problem is that he always wants to take a gamble, but luck isn't on his side!
Sohu Video can be considered both the last and the first in the Chinese entertainment industry.

Video platforms that were brought to a standstill by the ban on Korean entertainment.

“Brother Li, I don’t really want to work for Zhang Chaoyang… He didn’t mention money to me…” Da Peng said with a sigh.

This year, all the films in the Lunar New Year film season received at least 10% of the box office revenue!
If the box office exceeds 100 million, there will be a dividend of more than 3 million after tax!

They're really going all out with the publicity!

"If he doesn't mention money to you, just ask him directly. If you can't get it, ask him for ticket subsidies. He'll definitely be willing to spend money on ticket subsidies."

"He's unwilling to give even a few million, so why would he be willing to spend money on ticket subsidies?"

"I'm willing." Li Mingyang didn't explain why, and then hung up the phone.

Put on your headphones and start watching three youth campus movies produced by the insider team at the Flower Bouquet Studio!

The cicadas chirping on the summer solstice, her dazzling beauty, and my seventeenth year.

All three films cost one million!

The screenwriters for all three films were Zhang Hai, the "Phoenix Chick"!

When filming these three movies, Li Mingyang had one strict requirement: the script could not be changed!

These three films are actually a patchwork of youth films; to put it nicely, they are tributes, but to put it bluntly, they are plagiarisms—plagiarisms in all sorts of ways!
Zhang Hai is particularly skilled at writing borderline scripts; he's a master among masters.

After getting married, Xiao Huangwen's writing quality declined drastically, so he switched to management and became a teacher.

It was at this time that Li Mingyang discovered that he had a great talent for plagiarism and stitching together!

They just lacked a platform to showcase their talents, and life had worn down their edges.

In this lifetime, Li Mingyang has fulfilled his dream of becoming a director, and he will also fulfill Zhang Hai's dream of becoming a screenwriter.

And it's a triple dream!

When writing these three movie scripts, Zhang Hai didn't dare to plagiarize openly; he was hesitant and timid.

Li Mingyang talked to him about his dream of becoming a screenwriter, trying to inspire him.

However, at this time, Zhang Hai did not have such great ambitions, and this dream had not yet taken shape.

But Li Mingyang didn't care!

They forced him to obediently plagiarize and stitch things together!
He wanted to fulfill his brother's dream.

During that time, his mind was filled with Zhang Hai, the man who helped him build his short drama empire in his previous life!

It's actually not fair to Zhang Hai in this life.

But life isn't always fair!
If he hadn't helped Zhang Hai, Zhang Hai would still be working as an extra, earning a few dozen yuan a day.

Even if you make money and open a courier station, there's a high chance you'll encounter a man-made fire.

In business warfare, honest people are often the ones who get bullied.

He's not cut out to be a boss.

Hey!
Li Mingyang clicked the mouse, and the final episode of "My Seventeen Years Old" was finished!
(End of this chapter)