Super Zoo

The film industry works much like a company, with people responsible for decision-making, others for execution, some for market customers, and some for production. Although he was pessimistic about the movie, Long Wu was, after all, a producer, and the box office performance was directly related to his vested interests. Wherever possible within his abilities as a producer, he would certainly contribute.

When Suming was first recruited, a major reason was his network in distribution and experience in film production—otherwise, why would anyone willingly invest only to share the profits with others later on?

After exchanging some jokes, Suming sent Long Wu the film's completion date, release schedule, and other details from online.

"Brother Shi, I'm counting on you!" Suming said.

"Why so formal all of a sudden," Long Wu laughed. "Don't worry, I'd like to make some money too."

After hanging up the phone, Long Wu opened the database on his computer.

Since the handover, his entertainment company had been advancing into the mainland market and naturally had numerous dealings with mainland cinema chains, holding quite a substantial amount of their data.

There are almost sixty cinema chains in the country.

Just by this number alone, the mainland market has vastly outpaced that of Xiangjiang, where even at its peak, there were only three or four cinema chains fighting tooth and nail for a small market worth a few billion.

Of course, among these sixty-odd chains, not every one of them warrants attention; more than half of these small chains strictly speaking, cannot even be considered 'cinema chains'. The so-called cinema chains, as the name suggests, must possess a large number of theaters, connecting points to form a line, with many theaters as a backbone and capital and film supply as ties. Cinema chains implement uniform branding, scheduling, operations, and management across their theaters.

The smallest cinema chain in the mainland has only two theaters.

The genuinely influential ones that require effort to win over are only about ten, and coincidentally, last year, the revenue of these ten chains all crossed the ten billion mark, joining the ten-billion club. Among them, Wanda Cinema Line, the leader, had a box office nearing 50 billion.

Besides these, there are another dozen or so chains with potential that constitute the cornerstone of the domestic film distribution network.

Long Wu's Huaxia Star Entertainment Group has deeply studied mainland cinema chains and classified them into several categories: real estate cinema chains, such as Wanda, Poly Wanhe, etc.; state enterprise cinema chains like Shanghai United, Beijing New Film Federation, Zhejiang Times, etc.; "Rural" cinema chains targeting third and fourth-tier cities and small towns. These three categories are relatively easy to win over, as long as making money is on the table, capital will pave the way.

The most unique ones are China Film's cinema chains—China Film Star Beauty, China Film Southern New Line, China Film Digital—which all have the shadow of the China Film Group. These chains consider not only box office but are also influenced by the strategic plans of the China Film Group, making them relatively difficult to win over.

It had been over a decade since the Huaxia Star Entertainment Group under Long Wu began expanding into the mainland, having dealings with numerous cinema chains and recently even discussing cooperation with a major mainland company. Naturally, he had his channels. Finally, he picked out several chains he believed unlikely to refuse his request, and made calls to them one by one.

An hour later, Long Wu hung up the phone, looking rather displeased.

"Dammit!" Long Wu smacked the desk in frustration, causing a blue-and-white porcelain cup to jump from the impact.

"What's wrong?" Mrs. Xiang came out of the room upon hearing the noise and noticed her husband's troubled expression. This was Mrs. Xiang's 'unique skill'; Long Wu usually maintained an expressionless face, his emotions hard to read, making it quite difficult for most to discern any 'expression' on his face.

"These young people in the mainland cinema chains are utterly lacking in manners. Even ignoring the fact that I'm the chairman of a conglomerate, I'm at least their senior, right? The way they talk to me is as if they're brushing off a beggar!" Long Wu said angrily.

"Wow, everyone talks about the petulance of the elderly, and now you're acting just like a child," Mrs. Xiang walked behind him and started massaging his temples, trying to soothe him. "You know what cinema chains are like, all arrogant as if they're gods, both in the mainland and Xiangjiang. Back in the days when you were so imposing, weren't you still polite and offering red packets to the young managers under Zou Wenhuai and Sir Run Run Shaw? Why are you getting upset over this now?"

"Hmph, did you forget how that person was scared by Yaoxing into coming over to apologize?"

"Alright, alright, you're the mightiest, no contest..." Mrs. Xiang said with a laugh. "So how did the negotiations go in the end?"

"A few of the major chains showed me some respect and agreed to take the film. However, the scheduling rates aren't confirmed, and I'm not optimistic," Long Wu said.

"For a film like this, it's already good if it gets released at all. Even if we don't make money this time, Su Sheng is finally in the circle. He's young and sharp, and there will be plenty of opportunities for him in the future," said Mrs. Xiang.

Long Wu changed the subject, "How's the preparation for 'The Investiture of the Gods' going? That multi-billion investment blockbuster—if it flops, I might have to go vegetarian." Experience new stories with My Virtual Library Empire

"It's in the works, you know. Cecilia's had it tough managing on her own after the divorce with a child to look after, so I thought to give her a chance."

"Cecilia, ah..." Long Wu shook his head. "That girl lacks calm and is too spoiled... Alright, handle it how you see fit, OK?"

...

Poly Wanhe Distribution Department.

"Mr. Ling, Mr. Xiang from Xiangjiang's Huaxia Star just called, they have a small production hoping for a release in our theatre chain," an assistant reported.

Mr. Ling, the vice president and distribution director of the cinema chain, was busy on the computer, processing work. Since summer began, his workload had sharply increased; summer was the blockbuster season, a critical thirteen-week period that accounted for over a quarter of the annual box office revenue, with many big films scrambling to premiere during this season to make a substantial profit.

It was generally accepted that the films released during the summer season were regarded as promising, at least in terms of box office competitiveness. Deciding how to schedule showtimes in order to maximum the cinema chain's profits was now a job requiring technical expertise.

With the heavy workload and tight schedule, Mr. Ling had delegated some of the entry-level tasks to his assistant. While listening to the assistant's report, he remained glued to the computer screen and, without lifting his head, asked, "Did you agree to it?"

"Yes, we have had collaborations with Huaxia Star before, and Mr. Xiang has a wealth of experience in the industry. He is the producer of this project, so I tentatively agreed," the assistant said.

"Mr. Xiang, huh..." Mr. Ling chuckled, the senior was indeed a veteran in the industry, and Huaxia Star once had its golden days. Unfortunately, they seemed a bit out of step with the market in recent years; their films barely maintained a second-tier position, and those crossing 300 million were few and far between.

His involvement as a producer clearly indicated the film had potential for profit, though a massive hit was unlikely. The assistant made the right call in agreeing to screen it.

"Send me the details of the film," Mr. Ling said.