Youtang International Building, Chaoyang District, Beijing.
The largest private film distribution company in China and the first private film company in China to obtain a distribution license, Pauley Bernard Film Distribution Company is located in this building.
As the CEO of the largest private distribution company in China, Yu Dong has not been having an easy time recently.
Although the company lost its controlling position in the cooperation with Poly Group four years ago, it still relied on Poly Group's Eastern Shenlong Pictures, Poly Vanward Cinemas, and Changying Group, the other major shareholder behind Oriental Shenlong.
In addition, when "My Brothers and Sisters" was released, I met Wen Jun, the chairman of the Hong Kong Film Awards.
At that time, Hong Kong movies were at a low ebb, and Yu Tung successfully became the agent of Hong Kong films in the mainland, almost taking over the distribution of Hong Kong films in the mainland.
PolyBernard Film Distribution Company has also occupied 20% of the market share of the box office of distributed films for three consecutive years since 2004, making it the number one private film distribution company.
In addition to being the general manager of Poly Bernard Film Company, Yu Dong also serves as the general manager of Oriental Shenlong Film Company and the chairman of Poly Vanward Cinemas, which ranks among the top fifteen in the country.
It can be said that Yu Dong is one of the most powerful people in the film industry.
However, starting in 2005, PolyBernard's status as the industry leader began to face major challenges.
In "Seven Swords" directed by Xu Ke in 2005, the investor Xiangjiang's Oriental Film was unwilling to give up the distribution profits to Bernard.
It happened that Ciwen Media was preparing to enter the film industry, so it jointly established Ciwen Oriental Film and Television Company in Beijing with Oriental Film to distribute "Seven Swords" on its own.
In 2006, "Baby Project" starring Cheng Long, due to Huayi's investment, the mainland distribution rights were naturally taken away by Huayi.
The loss of the distribution rights of two heavyweight films in a row gave Yu Dong a sense of crisis, so he decided to enter film and television production, not just distribution.
"The Letter of Investment" is the first major production that Bernard participated in investment.
At the same time, in order to produce more blockbusters, Yu Dong also asked Poly Group to continue to increase capital.
However, the leaders of Poly Group in charge of the film and television culture industry have no intention of increasing capital, and also require profit dividends.
The cooperation between the two parties began to break down. Yu Dong already had the idea of repurchasing PolyBernard's shares, and received a first-round investment of US$10 million from Red Shirt Capital and Haina Asia to fully integrate all aspects of film and television production, distribution, and screening.
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To get involved in film and television production, you must have a reliable director, which was also the focus of Yu Dong's work throughout the first half of the year.
Fortunately, Xu Ke's next film, the suspenseful romance film "Deep Sea" is still invested and distributed by Bernard, so this great director has not been lost.
However, Bernard still needs to recruit more excellent directors.
But it’s so easy to find directors who can sell box office. Domestic directors have long been divided up.
The only new director is Ning Hao. After the release of "Crazy Stone", Ning Hao is said to be preparing the script for a new film.
But he changed his mobile phone number five or six times in a row and could no longer be contacted. He made it clear that he did not want to have contact with these film companies.
Moreover, Ning Hao's film must be produced by China Film Group Corporation, so he probably won't have a share in it.
At this time, the assistant knocked on the door and came in.
"Mr. Yu."
"What's up?"
"The director of the previous Internet drama "Sniper Phone Booth" is about to release a new movie."
Assistant Hui reported, "The movie is called "Jaws". It looks like a horror movie. It will be online at 8 o'clock next Friday night."
"Sniper Phone Booth"?
Yu Dong remembered that the director seemed to be named Li Qian.
Originally, Yu Dong was not interested in a big internet director. He had seen the previous film "The Taoist Goes Down the Mountain", which could not be considered a movie.
Even the record-breaking Internet directors are like this, and Yu Dong doesn't expect any talents among the directors of the Internet directors.
However, as the box office of "Sniper Phone Booth" exceeded 10 million, and the reputation was unexpectedly good, Yu Dong also took the time to watch it.
However, it gave him a big surprise. From the perspective of his thirteen years of experience in the industry, "Sniper Phone Booth" can definitely be regarded as a masterpiece among suspense movies.
Although suspense movies are a niche movie, and the box office cannot compare with those blockbuster films, Tai Dong still sent people to contact the other party and invited Bernard to make cinema movies.
It was just rejected, and I heard that even Huayang Media and Guangxian Media also rejected it.
Rejecting three major companies at the same time, and then pursuing a big Internet company, it must not only be a matter of conditions.
Yu Dong didn't pay attention, he just wanted to draw attention to Li Qian's new movie.
"Okay, I know, remind me on Friday." Yu Dong nodded.
It’s not easy to produce a capable director, so Wang Dadong still wants to watch this film.
If word-of-mouth and box office gain again, Yu Dong will win over Li Qian no matter how much it costs.
One success can be said to be accidental, but it goes without saying that two consecutive successes happened to such a young man.
Even if the screening methods of online movies and theater movies are different, Yu Dong still has to take a gamble.
At about the same time, Wang Changtian of Guangxian Media located in Hangxing Technology Park in Dongcheng District also learned that Li Qian's new film "Jaws" was going to be released.
When he first entered the film industry, Wang Changtian was also ambitious and wanted to have a career.
But the situation Guangxian faced was much more difficult than that of Bernard.
The first movie I participated in last year, "Scared City", was squeezed out of the schedule by "The City of Golden Armor" and was even humiliated by Zhang Weiping.
The two movies he invested in this year, "The Fuse" and "The Iron Triangle" have not been released yet, and both of these movies are controlled by Bernard, and Guangxian does not play a leading role.
In other words, Guangxian has not yet had a film that he has truly directed this year.
Hong Kong films are Bernard's exclusive territory. Directors who can sell box office in China, as well as directors from Hong Kong who have gone north, basically have partners. It is not easy for Guang Xian to get involved.
It can be said that Wang Changtian pays more attention to Li Qian than Yu Dong. After all, Guangxian now has nothing but publicity channels. He is poor in the film industry and has no right to be picky.
"Remind me next Friday and I'll watch this movie too."
After giving instructions to his secretary, Wang Changtian dialed the number of Zhang Zhao, president of his subsidiary Guangxian Pictures.
"Old Zhang, the new movie of Li Qian you mentioned before is about to be released. You can also check it out when the time comes."
Compared to himself, who is an amateur, Zhang Zhaocai, who has a master's degree in film production from New York University, is a professional, and he has also been a director and made films.
Although his directing career came to an end when he returned to China to direct the Sino-US co-production science fiction film "Space Hijacking", at least he has the ability to appreciate movies.
At Huayang Media on the other side, Zhang Jun, deputy director of the production department, also discovered that Li Qian's new film was about to be released.
However, unlike Yu Dong and Wang Changtian, he is eager for Li Qian's new film to hit the streets.
"This Li Qian, I didn't even see him last time. He has a bigger temper than Ma Xiaogang. If this movie is still a hit, won't I have to face two ancestors after coming to Huayang?"
Zhang Jun sighed. As the deputy director of the production department, he was called the second-in-command in the production department.
But they were working for Chen Guofu, and the only people he could manage were his subordinates.
Ma Xiaogang is very powerful in the company, and Zhang Jun cannot control his films.
Moreover, there are four major studios and a special team within Huayang Media.
Fei Lin, Zhong Shuai, Li Xue, Zhou Shiwei, Zhang Siman, Huang Feng, the six big agents, each one is more difficult to deal with than the other. In the films where their artists are involved, the production department except Chen Guojia
, he is not easy to control either.
It is difficult to be the deputy production director. Zhang Jun originally hoped that someone could compete with Ma Xiaogang and make him restrain himself.
Judging from what happened last time, this young man is probably even more crazy.
Zhang Jun was angry after being rejected last time, but as long as Li Qian has the strength, after coming to Huayang, his anger will be useless and he will have to bear it.
Therefore, Zhang Jun hopes that Li Qian's new film will hit the streets more than anyone else.
If he goes out on the street, Wang Zhongjun won't invite him back, and he won't have to suffer any more and have to serve an older man.