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A Chinese billionaire who bought a letter for $200 million 5 years ago
Five years ago in Beijing, a 124-character letter was auctioned away by a Beijing billionaire for $207 million amid the exclamations of the crowd. After counting down, each word is worth 1.67 million yuan, and you can buy two E-class Mercedes-Benz.
Wang Zhongjun made his fortune in film art and has a special love for visual art. When he was young, he failed to apply for the Central Academy of Fine Arts, but he did not lose his love for art. In addition to buying "Bureau Posts", he also collected the famous paintings of Picasso and Van Gogh, and in his spare time, he was also intoxicated with Danqing, and opened personal exhibitions in Beijing and Shanghai, of which the painting "I Am Not Pan Jinlian" was also auctioned for 3.45 million yuan.
The "boss" of this later Chinese film and television entertainment company, the start-up capital of the business is very grassroots, which Wang Zhongjun has accumulated little by little while riding a bicycle and carrying pizza in the United States.
In 1994, Wang Zhongjun, who was studying in the United States while delivering takeaways, returned to China, he took a master's degree and saved $100,000 in delivery of takeaways in 5 years, called his brother Wang Zhonglei, and the two brothers together established "Huayi Brothers".
At the beginning, he did not enter the film industry, but did other businesses for 4 years, such as making albums and magazines, standardized commercial services for chain companies, and so on. At that time, the largest chain enterprise in China was the bank, and Wang Zhongjun saw that all McDonald's stores in the United States were standardized, and inspired by this, he provided such services to banks and made a lot of money.
In 1998, under the introduction of friends, the more powerful Wang Zhongjun began to invest in movies, and within two years, he invested in The Filming of Feng Xiaogang's "Endless", Chen Kaige's "Jing Ke Thorn Qin King", and Jiang Wen's "The Devil Is Coming". Through the cooperation with these three directors, Wang Zhongjun officially entered the door, and the "Huayi Brothers" and Chinese films have experienced 20 years of rapid development.
In 2009, Huayi Brothers became the first listed film and television entertainment company in China, and has long been the "industry first" of China's private film and television companies.
Just when huayi brothers rely on the film and television stars represented by Feng Xiaogang and Fan Bingbing, in the Chinese film industry, the scenery is flourishing, Wang Zhongjun threw thousands of dollars at the auction, talking and laughing, no one thought that one industry earthquake after another directly overshadowed the two golden signboards, And Huayi brothers and Wang Zhongjun also walked to the "darkest moment" overnight.
Andy Lau, Wang Zhongjun, Feng Xiaogang
2、
Fan Bingbing retreated, and Feng Xiaogang was old
Wang Zhongjun lost
In 2003, Feng Xiaogang's "Mobile Phone" was released and earned a box office of 53 million yuan, which now seems to be worthless, but it was the box office champion of Chinese mainland films that year.
In this movie, we see Fan Bingbing, who has just transformed from the "little girl who will steal the scene" in "Huan Zhu Gege" to the female number one. In the movie, Fan Bingbing plays a "third party" who has an affair with a married male host. With the performance of this film, Fan Bingbing won the first heavyweight film award in her life - the Hundred Flowers Award for Best Actress. Officially ranked as a first-line actress in China.
Since then, Fan Bingbing's career has been soaring, how popular she was back then, needless to say, we can say that we are all witnesses.
Cui Yongyuan, from the beginning of the release of "Mobile Phone", he formed a beam with Feng Xiaogang and Fan Bingbing. Because he thinks that the male protagonist yan Shouyi, who is dressed in a well-dressed costume on the stage and lies offstage and messes with the relationship between men and women, is alluding to himself.
The program hosted by Yan Shouyi is called "there is one to say one", and the program he hosts is called "Tell the Truth", the name of the program is similar, and the form and hosting method of the program are also similar.
Cui Yongyuan lost his position as host due to depression and overwork, and recommended a female host to take over, which is similar to the plot in the movie. Cui Yongyuan also said that during the pre-production of the film, Feng Xiaogang told him that he was making a New Year movie about a talk show and the host, and asked him how the "Tell the Truth" column worked and how the host of the show completed his work.
All this in Cui Yongyuan's view, that is, to "disgust" him. At that time, this incident also made a lot of noise, but in the end, the screenwriter apologized to Cui Yongyuan and did not hurt Feng Xiaogang and Fan Bingbing.
At this time, Fan Bingbing is already the most popular actress in China, domestic and foreign awards to get soft, advertising endorsements are difficult to agree, or one of the few actresses who can have important roles in Hollywood blockbusters, Huayi Brothers' annual most profitable movies, almost all of which are starring her.
In the end, Cui Yongyuan's report attracted an investigation by the State Administration of Taxation, and Fan Bingbing confessed his mistake and apologized, paid a fine of 880 million yuan, and has since "retired" in the entertainment industry.
"Only Yun Knows", which was released at the end of 2019, ended in dismal terms of word-of-mouth and box office, so that he was lamenting that "incorruptible and old".
"Can't see it, you spent money, scolding a few words out of the air should be." Compared with the arrogance of "there are too many garbage movies in China because there are garbage audiences", this kind of discouragement is not only the edges and sharp edges.
In April 2021, Huayi Brothers released its 2020 annual report. According to the annual report, Feng Xiaogang's Zhejiang Dongyang Meila Media Co., Ltd., which was acquired at a cost of 1.05 billion yuan that year, only achieved a net profit of 5.5238 million yuan, which was lower than the performance commitment of 174.9 million yuan. According to the VAM agreement, Feng Xiaogang needs to pay performance compensation of about 168 million yuan.
Fan Bingbing retired, Feng Xiaogang grew old, and after the golden signboard was taken off piece by piece, Wang Zhongjun also ushered in the first loss in more than 20 years of entrepreneurship.
3、
epidemic situation
It is nothing more than a tidal wave that has accelerated the change of the times
According to the annual report, huayi brothers' net profit in 2018 and 2019 was -1.181 billion yuan and -3.966 billion yuan, respectively. In just two years, Huayi Brothers has lost the sum of its net profits since its listing for 9 years. Entering 2020, under the epidemic, the entire industry is a cold winter. Although "Eight Hundred", which was released after several twists and turns, sold well and became the global box office champion in 2020, it was not enough to fill the debt hole of Huayi Brothers, and it was not surprising that it continued to lose 1.048 billion.
In 2021, losses continue and debt remains heavy.
Wang Zhongjun, a Chinese film tycoon, was also sued in court because he did not have money, becoming a "dishonest person" and restricting high consumption.
"For the safety of the company, I can sell anything." Wang Zhongjun said.
Flowers are not red for a hundred days, and people are not good for a thousand days. This is especially true in the entertainment industry.
Who would have thought that Wu Jing, who played the "perverted killer" in a Hong Kong movie, is now "unaffordable" and is China's first "10 billion" actor. The movies of the "Wolf Warrior" series not only sold well, but also received the recommendation and support of mainstream public opinion, enabling Wu Jing to swim against the current and lead the way in the cold winter of the industry.
And the original industry boss Huayi, in addition to a belated "Eight Hundred", in the past few years, there really is no acclaimed and popular movie to get their hands on.
16 years ago, "No Thief in the World" became the first film in China to exceed 100 million yuan at the box office, and Feng Xiaogang took the media, chartered two carriages, and went from the mainland to Hong Kong for a premiere. Recalling that year, Feng Xiaogang said: "Everyone spent the night partying on the Beijing-Hong Kong line, what a pride."
It is quite a bit of sadness of the white-haired general "dreaming back to blowing the horn company camp".