Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 171 After the Popularity
In the company profile of Autumn Pictures, Li Qiutang shamelessly wrote: "The company was formerly known as 'Li Qiutang Studio', a personal film and television advertising studio of Li Qiutang, a famous young director in my country. It was founded in 2004 and renamed Autumn Pictures in February 2009..."

And they have included all the works from "The Night the Comet Came", "Arrogant", "To Be Famous" and "The Sound of the Wind" into the company's works.

"The Sound of Wind" was the first work that made Autumn Pictures famous. The investment in "The Sound of Wind" was made before the company was founded, but after the company was established, all investment rights and interests in "The Sound of Wind" owned by Li Qiutang Studio were regarded by the outside world as belonging to Autumn Pictures.

But in fact, from a legal perspective, the investment rights and interests of "The Sound of Wind" are still in the hands of Li Qiutang Studio and Li Qiutang personally. Li Qiutang Studio has not been cancelled and is now a star studio managed by Autumn Pictures.

But it does not prevent Autumn Pictures from promoting itself, nor does it hinder the outside world's view of Autumn Pictures. Autumn Pictures is Li Qiutang's startup company. What is the difference between the rights and interests being in your personal hands and in the hands of the company?

After the box office of "The Sound of Wind" exceeded 100 million yuan, Autumn Pictures became a hit in the industry!
The fact that the first movie produced successfully broke the 100 million mark is enough to show that the company has certain strength.

In addition to the Li Qiutang name, many newcomers have submitted their resumes and scripts to the company, hoping to gain the company's support and recognition.

After the National Day holiday, "The Whistleblower" grossed 1.82 million yuan. It is no exaggeration to say that Autumn Pictures can gain a foothold in the industry.

Although it seems easy to break the 100 million mark now, how many companies can do it? How many directors are still blocked from the 100 million club?

But Li Qiutang is about to break 2 million.

On the third day after the holiday, which was the day when Li Qiutang urinated in a bottle on the highway, the total box office of "The Sound of Wind" reached 2 million!
Li Qiutang became the youngest director in the 2 million club.

China Film Group, Huayi Film Group and Autumn Film Group each sent out congratulatory messages, saying that this was an excellent achievement for their company, especially for Huayi, which is about to go public, and this achievement came at a very timely moment!

During the silent period, investment-related reports are not allowed to be published, but publishing the company's movie box office performance is not considered a violation.

The Wang brothers have been trying to calm the outside world's suspicions about the relationship between Li Qiutang and Huayi. Taking advantage of the good performance of "The Sound of Wind", Wang Zhongjun once again emphasized: "Our cooperation with Director Qiutang has not ended yet."

Wang Zhonglei, seemingly in violation of regulations, revealed to the media at this time that Li Qiutang held a large number of Huayi original shares: "Director Qiutang is very investment-minded and courageous. He was very active when we subscribed internally. When I talked to him, he said that he was very optimistic about the development of the company and was ready to purchase a large number of shares and hold them for a long time. He also asked me how many shares I could buy at most. I said that the company's artists could buy a maximum of 180 million shares, but you have made outstanding contributions to the company, so you can buy more."

As for the exact number, Wang Zhonglei refused to say. The media speculated that Li Qiutang should hold nearly 200 million original shares.

This is the third largest shareholding among all Huayi celebrity shareholders currently known to the media, second only to Feng Xiaogang's 288 million shares and Zhang Jizhong's 216 million shares.

The media did not know that Li Qiutang held more stocks than Zhang Jizhong.

Wang Zhonglei once again responded to the rumors of Liu Yifei being banned: "I think this rumor is ridiculous. Liu Yifei is currently filming a drama with Li Qiutang. If Huayi really banned her, do you think Liu Yifei can get this drama?"

After "The Whistleblower" broke 2 million yuan, many investors wanted to get on board "In Time" midway, and were even willing to accept an unreasonable premium.

However, China Film Group, Orange Sky, Guangxian and Autumn Film Studios also felt that Li Qiutang was at the peak of his career at that time and that "In Time" would surely sell well, so they held on to their share and refused to sell it easily.

The film industry is short of money, but not all money is needed. Why would anyone take you on a project like In Time that is obviously profitable? You can’t get in even if you have money!

The market is blind, thinking that Li Qiutang's next movie will definitely be a big hit. But in fact, Li Qiutang is not fully confident about the market performance of "In Time".

What's more, the four producers had already given a portion of their share to the theater investors in order to obtain their scheduling guarantees, and in the fall they gave another share to Hunan Radio and Television Media, so they had to keep the rest themselves.

Of course, this is an open agreement among the four producers. Who knows whether they will sell their shares privately to recover their investment in advance.

The Whistleblower sold 2 million yuan, and the performance is still rising. A senior cinema manager predicted that the final box office of The Whistleblower will be between 2.5 million and 3 million yuan: "It should be said that except for special films such as The Founding of a Republic, it is the best-selling film this year. It is hard to say about the Lunar New Year period later."

After the whistleblower film "The Sound of Wind" sold 2 million yuan, some people took notice of Li Qiutang, which was a good thing. Many film companies handed over projects to Li Qiutang, hoping that he could make movies for their own companies. Logically, Li Qiutang should not take on external projects now, and concentrate on his own projects, but he still has a company to support. Li Qiutang is not opposed to this, but he is very cautious in his choice.

The Shanghai Film Group handed over a main theme film called "Sea Symphony", which is about the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, hoping that Li Qiutang could help them shoot it.

Li Qiutang never expected that someone would ask her to make a musical. Musicals are not very popular in the Chinese-speaking market, but Li Qiutang is still quite interested in them.

The most sincere one is the Ning Province Film Group. Pang Hong actually brought "Painted Skin 2" to Chongqing.

Li Qiutang never expected that Ning Province Film Group would ask her to star in "Painted Skin 2".

Did Chen Jiashang quit? Or did the Ning Province Film Group not want to serve those Hong Kong tycoons and fired him?
Pang Hong said that Li Qiutang's "In Time" used so many special effects, which was more in line with their initial idea for "Painted Skin 2", and Li Qiutang's skillful narrative and audio-visual stimulation were also what Ning Province Film Group needed.

In the world of "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio", Ning Province Film Group certainly also wants to make a special effects blockbuster.

But Li Qiutang did not agree rashly. His current main task was to finish filming "In Time". A colleague in the company responded to the invitation on his behalf.

Pang Hong stayed in Chongqing for three days. He visited the crew of "In Time" and had several in-depth conversations with Li Qiutang. Li Qiutang only said that they would talk about other films after finishing "In Time" and sent Pang Hong away.

Ning Province Film made money from "Painted Skin" and was willing to spend money on the second part. Before Pang Hong left, he promised that Li Qiutang would never be treated unfairly.

Another good thing is that someone finally wants to invest in Autumn Pictures!
It is not an investment in a company project, but an investment in Autumn Pictures.

However, film and television companies are ultimately no match for Internet companies, and they do not attract much investment at this time. I think the investors saw that Li Qiutang had become popular, so they came here to try their luck.

Is this a seed round or a Series A round?
If someone was willing to invest, Li Qiutang was certainly willing to talk. But he couldn't leave the crew, which caused his workload to double after he arrived in Chongqing.

After work that day, Liu Yifei sneaked into the director's room.

Liu Yifei has seen Li Qiutang's workload these days. She is a little worried about Li Qiutang's health, so she came to see him.

"You're not wearing any clothes again!" Liu Yifei saw Li Qiutang in the room wearing only a pair of shorts and with his bare chest.

"I'm alone in the room, who can I wear it for?"

Li Qiutang no longer listened to Liu Yifei. She told him not to put on any clothes and just stood there shirtless for her to see.

"Here, drink this." Liu Yifei also brought a portable soup pot.

"What? Did you make that? I won't drink what you make." Liu Yifei only knows how to make scrambled eggs with tomatoes and fried rice with eggs!
"I bought this Codonopsis pilosula and black chicken soup to nourish you."

Li Qiutang snorted: "Even if I make up for it, there's no place to use it."

How could Liu Yifei not understand: "If you don't drink it, I'll pour it."

"Have a drink, have a drink. This is the loving chicken soup my girlfriend bought for me. How glorious." Li Qiutang took the soup pot and poured a bowl. It smelled quite fragrant.

Liu Yifei left the director's room very late, acting stealthily.

(End of this chapter)