1982 Started from Hong Kong

Chapter 158: Get the Theaters
On December 12, the release advertisements for "A Better Tomorrow" were being advertised all over Hong Kong.

Cai Lan called and brought Zhai Yuan a piece of news.

"Sixth Uncle agrees to rent you the four theaters: Jade, Gold, Baosheng and Wenhua."

His voice paused in the receiver, and he continued, "The rent is 30 million Hong Kong dollars per year, plus a maintenance fee of 1 million."

Zhai Yuan frowned when he heard the price: "Are you kidding me? If I rent it, I must renovate it in the style of the current 1024 theater. The renovation fee will cost several million. Who doesn't know that 1024 is the most popular theater now? You are still talking about maintenance fees. Do I have to restore it to its original state when the lease expires?"

The 1024 Cinema has been open for almost a month. Different movies are shown in rotation in its four halls, and even old films still have a high attendance rate.

Those large theaters that can accommodate two to three thousand people only show four or five movies a day at most, and the attendance rate is often less than half.

With the development of the times, young people who pursue enjoyment have money in their pockets, and the advantages of multi-screen mini theaters are gradually increasing.

"Uncle Six guessed you would say that."

Cai Lan said with a smile, "If you are willing to renovate the four theaters in the style of 1024, the rent will only be million per year, and you don't have to pay for the maintenance."

Zhai Yuan thought that this sounded like a normal thing to say.

But twenty-eight million was too high, and considering how much the land price had dropped this year, he wanted to bargain.

Cai Lan refused directly: "It is impossible for these four theaters to reduce the price any further. Uncle Six said, if you think it is expensive, you can consider the surrounding suburban theaters."

"I don't need to ask Uncle Six if I want to rent a theater in the suburbs!"

Zhai Yuan complained, then said after a moment's silence, "Twenty-eight million is fine, but I want to rent it for twenty years, and the rent will be paid annually."

"Twenty years, you wish for it."

Even through the receiver, one could imagine Cai Lan's helpless smile: "Five years at most. We'll renegotiate the price after five years depending on the market conditions."

"Five years? Then why don't I just stop doing it after the renovation and return the theater to the Zhao family for free?"

Zhai Yuan frowned in displeasure.

It is now 1983, and it will be 1988 in five years, which is almost the time when Hong Kong's economy is at its most crazy and the film market is at its most prosperous.

After working hard and waiting for the day when the cinema chain was taken back, could Zhao Yifu have predicted it?

"For fifteen years, regardless of market conditions, I will increase the rent by 5% every year."

Zhai Yuan knew that this condition would certainly not impress Zhao Yifu. Tycoons like them might not be able to see the prospects of the film market, but they could definitely see that there was still plenty of room for appreciation in land prices.

By then, demolishing the theater and selling the land will definitely make more money than renting out the theater.

He gritted his teeth and added another condition: "If Zhao wants to make movies again in the future, except for the summer vacation and New Year's Day schedules, these four theaters will give priority to Zhao's films at other times!"

This is equivalent to Zhai Yuan spending money to cooperate with the Zhao family and giving up some of the initiative.

Because in his impression, a few years after Zhao's films stopped production, the eight major film producers from Taiwan entered the market one after another, and the film market became increasingly hot. Zhao was jealous and formed a Metropolitan Film Company with the Television Broadcasting Corporation, which was fully responsible for by Miss Fang Yihua.

On the other end of the phone, Cai Lan hissed softly. Apparently, even he felt that Zhai Yuan was doing a losing business.

How confident do you have to be to ensure that every movie is a hit and to recoup tens of millions in rental income each year?

"wait."

Cai Lan said something, and then the receiver suddenly fell silent as if someone was covering it.

Zhai Yuan frowned and put his ear close to the phone speaker, vaguely hearing the sound of a conversation.

Damn you! Zhao Yifu has been listening in, so let's start the discussion now, right?

As expected, he is called Zhao Laoliu.

But come to think of it, how could such a big business allow Cai Lan to be the only one to act as a mouthpiece?

Not long after, Cai Lan's voice came again: "Uh, A Yuan..."

Zhai Yuan interrupted him directly: "Okay! Give the phone to Uncle Six. He's the boss, so there's no need to bother with eavesdropping, right?"

Cai Lan was choked and gave two dry laughs before saying nothing more.

Immediately, Zhao Yifu's hearty laughter was heard from the other end of the phone, without any embarrassment of being exposed.

He asked, "Yuan Tsai is optimistic about the film market in Hong Kong?"

Zhai Yuan replied: "Yes! And I think the movie I make will definitely be a hit."

His tone was very arrogant and confident, just what he would say at his age.

"Young people are very shrewd in their words, just like me back then. Whether it's your gunfight movie or the movie before that, or the TV show you did for James Wong and Alan, I can see that you do have brains."

Zhao Yifu said with a smile, then changed the subject: "But business is business, and a fifteen-year cycle is too long. Uncle is seventy-six years old this year, and he may not live that long."

Zhai Yuan thought to himself, "Oh, you are too polite. Fifteen years is nothing. You can even wait thirty years." Zhao Yifu said, "Eight years. I think I can handle eight years."

Zhai Yuan said: "Fourteen years!"

After some bargaining, Zhai Yuan finally gained a slight advantage.

He eventually won the lease of Zhao's four leading theaters with a twelve-year lease.

The annual rent of the four theaters is 28 million, with a 5% annual rent increase and the condition of giving up some of the film schedules.

"Come up tomorrow to sign the contract. Your film can continue to be sold through Zhao's theater chain in Southeast Asia. We will first give you 20 overseas theaters to test the waters. The specific share will depend on the box office performance."

Zhao Yifu's final words sealed the deal.

"Lao Deng!"

Zhai Yuan couldn't help but curse when he heard the beeping sound of the receiver disconnecting the call.

But no matter what, the four leading cinemas were finally acquired, and Zhao's distribution theater chain in Singapore, Malaysia and Borneo was also obtained.

However, there has been no progress in the Japanese and Korean markets for the time being. There are theaters in these two ticket bases willing to take over this film, but because Jiuyi Entertainment is too unknown, the other party is only willing to pay HK$1 million to buy out the screening rights of "A Better Tomorrow".

Of course Zhai Yuan would not agree, as this is not how charity is done.

But he is not in a hurry for the time being, as the movie needs to ferment.

At this time, most of Hong Kong's films are not qualified to enter the Japanese and Korean markets. However, as long as they are a big hit in Southeast Asia like Chen Shilong's "Drunken Master", the other party will naturally take the initiative to come to negotiate. It will only be a matter of postponing the release in Japan and Korea for a while.

"Hold on! First, we need to conquer the local market, then Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, then Japan and South Korea, and finally North America."

Zhai Yuan was thinking clearly. This was how the market was. Jiuyi Entertainment was an unknown production company. Even if they were to make a "Star Wars" now, it would not be possible to achieve success overnight.

at the same time.

Shen Wei and Chen Jiale also brought back news.

After watching the copy of A Better Tomorrow, the heads of the two Western film cinema chains, Pan Asia and Royal, compared the overseas film copyrights they had purchased and ultimately decided to clear out the Lunar New Year schedule of the five theaters under the two cinema chains, give up overseas Western films, and place their bets on A Better Tomorrow.

Lianhua Cinema Line, which has Chinese capital background, gave Zhai Yuan enough face this time because of his previous high-profile style. It has a total of seven theaters, and all of them were arranged for him during the Lunar New Year period. Jiuyi Entertainment was treated like its own son.

"In fact, Lianhua was not optimistic about this movie at first. They thought it was too violent and had problematic values."

Shen Wei brought the news back to Zhai Yuan and said, "But later a person in charge named Liao made the final decision and gave us seven theaters the Lunar New Year period."

Last name Liao?

Zhai Yuan was moved and asked, "Who was the one who made the filming of Shaolin Temple possible?"

Shen Wei nodded.

Zhai Yuan's heart beat violently a few times, and he thought to himself, ashamed, such a small matter of mine actually alarmed the city of Yanjing?

Luen Wah Seven Theaters.

Three Pan Asia cinemas.

The Royal Family has two theaters.

The most special thing about 1024 is that it has just absorbed Zhao’s four leading theaters, and now has a total of five theaters and nine screens.

Seventeen theaters, twenty-one screens.

But in terms of quantity, it has exceeded the theaters owned by Jiahe and Silver Princess, but the quality of the theaters is obviously greatly compromised.

But it is rare for a movie to be screened in four theaters, even if there are a few crappy theaters among them. This is definitely rare in the Hong Kong film market where the competition is becoming increasingly clear.

A new round of posters for "A Better Tomorrow" has been rushed out.

The picture is exactly the same as the original, except that the theaters where the movie will be shown are printed on it.

The release date is still December 12nd.

Around the same time, Jiahe and Silver Princess' Lunar New Year films were also scheduled for release.

"Project A" will be released on December 12nd.

"The Best Partner: The Queen's Secret Order" will be released on December 12nd.

It would be fine if the two major cinema chains did not take action, but once they did, they would settle all past grievances with Zhai Yuan in the market.

The time is getting closer to the winter solstice.

　Liao Gong's timeline is half a year behind, so don't delve into this minor bug.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)