Wu Chenggang returned home and frowned. He had been working on a television station in the past few years and was not familiar with the current situation in the film industry. Fortunately, he had a few old friends who were in the film industry. As soon as he got home, he called them one by one to ask.
The news made Wu Chenggang even more frustrated. It turned out that if the movie was released in Ritz Cinema, it would offend Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers, and it would be difficult to hire stars and behind-the-scenes filming from the two companies in the future.
Zhou Mingfang came out with her child in her arms. Seeing her husband frowning, she asked, "What's wrong?"
Wu Chenggang sighed: "It's not Ah Fei's problem! I had advised him not to rush to make movies, but he just refused to listen. Now it's better, Lisheng Cinema is undergoing renovations, and if his movies can't be released, he will lose money.
More than 400,000!"
Zhou Mingfang advised: "Don't worry, think of other ways, maybe you can find a cinema to show it. At worst, you can take the sample film to independent cinemas and show them one by one. There will always be a few who will agree to show it."
Wu Chenggang said: "Those independent cinemas, either luxury theaters like Lee Stage, don't even bother to show Ah Fei's small productions. Or they are neighborhood theaters and rural theaters that can't sell a few box office. This method won't work."
Zhou Mingfang came up with an idea: "Why don't you go to Shaw Brothers and Jiahe and ask?"
"This is the only way," Wu Chenggang sighed in a low voice, suddenly raised his head and said, "Hey, isn't that Huang Song doing distribution in Jiahe? Do you still have his phone number?"
"What a bad idea!" Zhou Mingfang's face changed. Huang Song and she were lovers at that time, and Zhou Mingfang didn't know that he had a wife until they were pregnant with a child. After Huang Song's wife learned about their relationship, she directly brought someone with her
Killers came to the door and beat Zhou Mingfang until she had a miscarriage.
Wu Chenggang came to the rescue at that time, which offended Wong Song's wife, and the woman's brother was a big boss of Kowloon Walled City, so he had no choice but to hide with his family in Tiu Keng Ling.
Although "Happy Ghost" is a movie by Kang Jianfei, Wu Chenggang is more anxious than Kang Jianfei himself. Now he is in a critical condition and has to seek medical treatment before he thinks of asking his wife's ex-boyfriend.
Wu Chenggang thought it was wrong and said awkwardly: "Forget it, I'll think of other ways."
Seeing his distressed look, Zhou Mingfang couldn't bear to say, "Oh, I'll try calling him. I wonder if he has moved."
…………
…………
The next morning, after Zhou Mingfang put her daughter Wu Ruixue on the bus to school, she and Wu Chenggang went to find Kang Jianfei.
After arriving at Kang Jianfei's house, there were only Hu Juncai and Wen Bixia at home.
Wu Chenggang asked: "Where is Ah Fei?"
Hu Juncai shook his head and said, "I don't know. I went out early in the morning. If I asked him, he wouldn't tell me what he was doing."
Wu Chenggang asked: "Where are the samples of "Happy Ghost"?"
Kang Jianfei was afraid of an accident, so he made two copies of the movie, locking one at home and taking the other out for work.
Hu Juncai smiled and said: "A Fei took one copy and the other one is still there. I'm about to take it to help him find a movie theater. Maybe I can get the job done."
"What do you know?" Hu Juncai urged, "Hurry up and take the samples and follow me."
Hu Juncai said happily: "Cousin, have you found a way?"
Wu Chenggang was not in the mood to explain to him and said: "Don't ask so many questions!"
As expected, Hu Juncai stopped asking, took out the locked movie samples, and headed to Jiahe Company with Wu Chenggang and Zhou Mingfang.
Half an hour later, the three people appeared at the distribution department of Golden Harvest Pictures.
Zhou Mingfang’s ex-boyfriend Huang Song was a young man in the distribution department. He was almost fifty years old and seemed quite calm. After seeing Zhou Mingfang, Huang Song sighed slightly: “I haven’t seen you in more than ten years, Ah Ruan, you
Still so beautiful, it’s a pity that back then…”
Zhou Mingfang's face was as cold as frost, and she interrupted him and said: "Mr. Huang, we are here to talk about the screening of the film today."
Huang Song was a little embarrassed by Zhou Mingfang. He touched his nose and said, "Let's go see a movie first."
Several people entered a screening room. A projectionist from Jiahe was in charge of the screening, while Hu Juncai stayed beside the projector for fear that the film would be dropped.
Hu Juncai accepted death and lacked the brains to do things. Kang Jianfei told him to take good care of the film, but he did not dare to leave for a moment for fear of losing the copy.
Huang Song joined Jiahe when it was first established. Although he is not a veteran, he can still be regarded as an old man. He has always been in charge of the film distribution business and has a good appreciation of films. He has distributed several independent company films.
A big seller.
Huang Song initially decided to take time out to watch the movie to give Zhou Mingfang face. When "Happy Ghost" was first shown, he was quite disdainful, but after watching it for half an hour, the expression on Huang Song's face began to change.
Turning serious. He had a vague feeling in his heart that as long as this comedy ghost film with novel content worked well, it would probably be a big hit.
After the movie was over, Wu Chenggang couldn't help but said: "Mr. Huang, this movie is not bad. I think it is fully qualified to be released in Jiahe Cinema."
Although Huang Song predicted that "Happy Ghost" would be a hit, he looked embarrassed and said: "To be honest, I wasted my time watching the movie just to save Ah Ruan's face. What can I say about this movie? Ghost
The movie doesn’t look like a ghost movie, the comedy doesn’t look like a comedy, and it doesn’t look like one or four, so it’s hard to sell at the box office.”
Wu Chenggang's heart sank, and he begged in a low voice: "Mr. Huang, how about you give me a chance to have "Happy Ghost" previewed at midnight. If the response is not good, we will naturally not say more. If the audience responds well,
, please ask Jiahe to free up a few theaters."
Huang Song sighed and said: "Brother, you used to be in the film industry, and you know that theaters are not easy to schedule. Now there are 16 theaters under the Shaw Theater chain, and they can't even schedule Shaw Brothers movies every day; and although Jiahe Theater Line
There are 19 theaters, but most of them are reserved for showing our own movies, and the rest are for famous independent film companies like Siyuan Pictures. It’s hard to make movies like yours!”
Wu Chenggang had already plucked up the courage to ask his wife's ex-boyfriend for help. Now that he heard that there was no hope, he sighed and said: "Then I'm going to disturb Mr. Huang today, so I'll say goodbye!"
Zhou Mingfang quickly followed behind her husband, and Hu Juncai also grabbed the sample film from the projectionist. Just as they stepped out of the screening room, they suddenly heard Huang Song say: "Otherwise, I will buy the movie."
Wu Chenggang turned around in surprise and asked: "Buy it? Do you mean to buy out the film directly?"
Huang Song said with a magnanimous expression: "Yeah, seeing how difficult it is for you, I took it upon myself to buy the movie so that you can lose less."
Wu Chenggang asked: "How much do you plan to spend on it?"
Huang Song stretched out two fingers: "Two hundred thousand."
Hu Juncai couldn't help but interjected: "You want to buy it out for 200,000 yuan? Ah Fei spent more than 400,000 yuan to make the movie!"
When Wu Chenggang heard this, he was speechless to Hu Juncai. When discussing business, it is natural to bargain, but this guy actually exposed his background as soon as he came. He really succeeded more than failed!
Wu Chenggang said to Huang Song: "Mr. Huang, this film belongs to my nephew. I can't explain the price to him."
Huang Song "accommodating" said: "We are all old friends, so let's give it 300,000. It's hard for me to buy a bad movie with 300,000, and I might even get scolded by the manager. It's not bad if you pay less than 100,000."
Already."
"No, I won't consider it if it's less than 600,000." Wu Chenggang turned around and left.
Huang Song sighed and said, "Oh, I was the one who was sorry for Ah Ruan back then. Anyway, I paid some money to buy it for 500,000 yuan to compensate for the harm I did to Ah Ruan back then."
When Zhou Mingfang listened to Huang Song talking about business, he was referred to as "A Ruan" on the left and "A Ruan" on the right. Finally, he couldn't help but get angry and said: "Huang, stop pretending, you think I don't know who you are."
Is that so? You are so old, and you use a woman as an excuse to bargain, who do you think you are!"
Huang Song was exposed on the spot by Zhou Mingfang. He turned away in embarrassment, coughed twice and said: "Anyway, I can offer up to 500,000 yuan, it depends on whether you want to sell it or not."
Wu Chenggang thought to himself that if he could sell 500,000 yuan, Ah Fei would be considered to have earned tens of thousands. It would be better than not being able to show it and being naked. He comforted his wife with a few words and said to Huang Song: "Mr. Huang, the movie belongs to my nephew.
I’m not qualified to sell it, but I will tell him the price offered by Mr. Huang.”
Huang Song shook hands with Wu Chenggang with a smile and said, "Then I'll look forward to the good news!"
"Farewell!" Wu Chenggang took Zhou Mingfang's hand and left.
The three of them returned home with the film, and Kang Jianfei was leaning on the sofa eating an apple that Wen Bixia had peeled.
Wu Chenggang asked: "A Fei, where have you been this morning?"
Kang Jianfei glanced at the movie sample in Hu Juncai's hand and said, "I'm looking for boss Lei Jue Kunlei, but I've been busy all morning and haven't seen anyone else. What about you?"
Wu Chenggang recounted their experience in Jiahe, and then persuaded: "A Fei, I think it's not bad to sell out for 500,000. At least you still made tens of thousands."
Kang Jianfei asked: "Cousin, if this movie is really that bad, would that person named Huang spend 500,000 to buy it?"
Wu Chenggang smiled bitterly and said: "I know your films are good, but what's the use of no matter how good a film is without being shown in a theater?"
"Cousin, you can call that man named Huang right now and let him keep the 500,000 to buy shit." Kang Jianfei said angrily.
Kang Jianfei knew very well what Huang Song had planned. He just wanted to spend 500,000 to buy everything in "Happy Ghost", including the copyrights to the interludes and theme songs. Even when it was screened, the director of "Happy Ghost" might
They will become another person, and the production company will definitely bear the name of Golden Harvest Pictures. Everything after that has nothing to do with Kang Jianfei and Oriental DreamWorks.
Golden Harvest has done this kind of bullying of the small ones all the time, and other big companies are also very good at it. Even in the entertainment industry thirty years later, there are frequent incidents of grabbing movies, scripts, and songs.
If a new director or singer with little influence cooperates with big companies and big stars, his works will become someone else's in a confusing way. If you haven't dealt with it yet, just take some small money and get out!
————
If you think the update is too slow, you can read Lao Wang’s previous entertainment article when you have time: "Taiwan Entertainment 1971".
[bookid=2074146,bookname="Taiwan Entertainment 1971"]
