Global Movie Emperor

"Um?"

"The company is short of money."

He frankly stated the company's predicament at the moment. He held the steering wheel with both hands and stared straight ahead, waiting for the red light to change at the next moment. Then he suddenly stepped on the accelerator. The car roared out of the old town like an arrow. It seems that he wants to experience more of the joy that his car can bring to the driver before losing it.

"Are you gambling again?"

"Do you think I'm the kind of person who gambles with company funds?"

Mickey rolled his eyes at Lu Ze and threw a piece of chewing gum into his mouth. Although he had a gambling addiction and liked to go to the casino to play when he had some spare money, he was different from those demented people who lost everything when their brains got hot. He always thinks that he will lose everything when he enters the casino, and never pursues the idea of ​​winning money back, even though he is really good at playing cards.

In comparison, he was more like being intoxicated by the pleasure of spending a lot of money, rather than being greedy for the game of cards. He would play when he made money, and when he almost lost, he would leave with food and food in hand. He never thought about playing cards at all. He will not use the company's funds to squander the capital, because he knows that this is capital that he can continue to squander.

This is the difference between Mickey and ordinary people. If you say he has self-control, then a person with true self-control will not go to the gambling table. But if you say that he has no self-control, he can firmly control himself at the gambling table for a long time. He has a consumer mentality, does not risk his life, and has terrible self-control on some levels.

Perhaps because he felt that he had said something stupid, Lu Ze did not continue the topic immediately, but carefully thought about how much the company's expenses were during this period.

Since the establishment of the brokerage company, visible expenses such as renting office space and decoration did not actually account for the majority of the company's total expenses. Therefore, Lu Ze did not feel that the expenses were high at first, but the problem was that the amount of invisible expenses was somewhat It was huge. After all the calculations were completed, Lu Ze began to sweat on his forehead.

Counting from the beginning of the establishment of the brokerage company, the biggest expense is not the labor cost, but the cost of cooperation with other economic companies. To put it bluntly, the amount of money used to pave the way is too huge.

New actors recruited by conventional economic companies initially need to exchange resources with other companies, or directly connect with downstream industries, that is, the crew, to help their actors quickly enter the market. However, the problem is that Mickey has a strong presence in the European market. So many friends? Or does he have friends?

No, even Gambiano Pictures, which is a shareholder and brother company, except for Fatini, the president who has a good relationship with Mickey and Lu Ze in private, still maintains a business-like attitude when it comes to cooperation. It's not bad for a small fee. It's just a dream to expect others to help you. After all, they invest in your Universal Brothers Pictures, not the Universal Brothers Agency. You have nothing to do with them in training your own actors. .

In such a European market that values ​​money over people, the only way to quickly promote your own artists is to use money to pave the way, conduct friendly cooperation with other economic companies, establish a network of contacts, and exchange resources. To put it bluntly, The white point is to change roles between each other.

This is not the compensation price offered after negotiating for a role. It is just the price to bridge with other economic companies. If you want roles in the future, you still need to give the other company a certain amount of financial compensation, so that the other company will take over your actor and promote it. To the downstream crew.

This is the upfront price that a small company needs to pay if it wants to get a share of this oligarchic market. This expenditure alone consumed the company's nearly 30 million euros of start-up capital in just six months. If it weren't for This year, I am ready to open a brokerage company. Mickey has decided that the film industry will not pay dividends. It is estimated that the old fund will be empty.

Don't think that this amount is too exaggerated. If the global economic downturn after 2020 had not caused the entertainment industry to shrink, otherwise the funds consumed would be even more exaggerated. After all, it is a bubble. One price at a time. As an upstream industry, film and television drama production The fundamental point is that if you don’t have some wealth, you won’t be able to do this at all.

After calculating the company's existing funds and taking into account the production costs of Mickey's next movie, Lu Ze generally understood the company's situation. No wonder Mickey wanted to sell the car, even if the car could be sold for a hundred and fifty at most. One hundred thousand euros is nothing more than a drop in the bucket of funds needed by the company. It is the cost of a medium-sized scene, but...it can be a little more.

Suddenly, Lu Ze was envious of Fatini's economic conditions. When he made a movie, he never had any shortage of funds, and even continued to invest more. The scenes were not big enough, and the props were too cheap. , it’s like having a money printing machine in your pocket, money spitting out.

Looking at the generals of Universal Brothers, they had just made some money and had yet to warm themselves up. They were back to the days when buying a cup of milk tea had to put two straws in to share the drink. Lu Ze couldn't help but lean against the glass and let out a long sigh of melancholy. , announced in a tired tone the only solution to the company's current cash shortage situation.

“Then we can only raise funds.”

"Well, we've already let it out. It won't be long before someone comes to your door."

Personal capital injection is against the rules for an already established company. After all, "Global Brothers" now has three shareholders. Any personal capital injection by any party will have an impact on the fluctuation of the shares. You can't invest money in vain, and then the shares No change at all? But how much should be divided into changes?

Even if there is valuation measurement, for the "Global Brothers" whose current valuation is still rising and the total price is not stable, everyone hopes to hold the shares in their hands and no one will let go easily. Lu Zehe Mickey's relationship is okay, but once the shares change, Gambiano's side will still be profitable, and the two don't want Gambiano Pictures to take advantage in vain.

Therefore, Lu Ze has never thought about touching the personal assets of more than 10 million euros in his hand, unless it is a joint capital injection from three parties, but the question is, can Mickey still provide an equal amount of cash flow? Very blue.

Now there is only one last way to go, and that is financing. Big players are entering the market, but there is a problem, that is, less than two years have passed since the Series A financing of "Global Brothers".

For a company in the high-tech industry or the IT industry, the financing speed is very fast. After all, they need a lot of cash flow to invest in the market for marketing. It is said that the promotion cost of most apps today is about 200 per person. At about 100,000 yuan, more is needed in the European and American markets, so rapid dilution of equity is imperative for high-tech companies.

But the entertainment industry is slightly different. Although you can think of a movie as an app product of an Internet company, the profits and traffic that a movie can create are relatively limited, so the value-added of an entertainment company can only rely on a large number of works. Measured against the value of public figures, and investing in the entertainment industry is extremely risky, it is natural that it will not be particularly favored by investment banks. This is also the fundamental reason for the slow rise in the value of entertainment companies.

This is the disadvantage of "Universal Brothers Pictures". First of all, the company currently has very few works. Although it has excellent reputation, its profitability is not as profitable as commercial movies, so the income is not considerable. If there is a big IP, the situation will be completely different, but unfortunately The thing is that "Universal Brothers Pictures" has long been producing original scripted films, and it is difficult to form IP based on its own themes, so... in the eyes of most investment banks, their small temple is really not worth much.

Lu Ze believes that there will definitely be investment banks interested in his company. After all, mosquito meat is also meat. For capitalists, earning an extra dollar is a happy thing, but he also needs to admit that the shares of "Universal Brothers Pictures" are really It's not worth much.

Spending money will always bring unpleasant emotions to people. When those beautiful items that can make people do anything are slowly peeled off from their bodies, they will definitely cause pain from the heart. Therefore, neither of them were very interested in this journey. , because letting capital in is a very dangerous thing. At the very least, you need to give up some aspects of freedom.

Both of them have certain speculations about the future situation, but they are not deterred. The most important question for them now is how to get more chips and exchange for more before the B round of financing. White money.

"We should now launch some more awesome movies and introduce some more well-known actors. "No One Can Hear" is the key, but it is not enough, there are too few. I think... we should create some IP."

When we arrived in the city, a large number of homeless people were wandering around. The old man in shabby clothes sprayed some foam water on the car glass, and quickly cleaned the car window before the green light, and then stood at the door of the driver's seat, hunched over and staring. There was a slight flicker, but he didn't dare to make a sound.

Mickey lowered the car window, lowered his sunglasses slightly, chewed gum in his mouth, and looked at the old man for five or six seconds. This was not a 100% successful deal, so the old man was not sure what he looked like in front of him. Whether the bad guys would give him some money or not, but in the end, he did succeed.

After digging around in his pocket for a long time, he took out a few coins, about one hundred and fifty pennies. Mickey waved to the old man. The old man was a little excited. He stretched out his hand with his nails full of dirt. He took the money and looked at it. disappointment.

"Sir, this may be... too little. It's not even enough to buy a bottle of beer. Your car is so good..."

"Your glass cleaning skills are not very good. Look, there are traces of sewage all over it. Your ten seconds of work is only worth so much money. Come on, I'm going to be a fucking laborer now."

"Then, sir..."

Mickey had a tough attitude and was unforgiving in his words. Out of awe for the external value, he did not dare to refute, so he could only look at Lu Ze, the co-pilot, with a pitiful look.

"What does it have to do with him? Do you work for him? Are you a car cleaner or a beggar? You also want dignity, right? Leave, right now, I'm leaving... Damn, damn the economy."

The light turned green. Before starting, he flicked the cigarette ashes out of the window. Occasionally he glanced at the rearview mirror and looked at the dejected old man still standing in the middle of the road. Finally, he patted the steering wheel in anger and spit out a mouthful of sullen words. With the tightness in his chest, every British person who has a bad life will curse like him. If the economic situation is better, maybe... the problem at hand will no longer be a problem.

Lu Ze didn't want to discuss the severe economic crisis with him. After all, this was a global problem. China could indeed feel the increasing employment pressure, but it was not like in Western countries where people went bankrupt and ended up living on the streets every day. Especially in the UK, where the economic situation is already somewhat weak after Brexit, the V-shaped economic trend that was originally expected has not picked up yet. So, after the interlude, the conversation returned to the topic, leading to what Mitch said just now about creating IP. Come on.

"IP...what do you want to do?"

"I haven't thought about it yet. The script of "No One Can Hear" has kept me very busy, so I haven't got a clue. But no matter what, it will definitely not be a superhero movie. We can't compete with Marvel, and the investment is too big. It’s not something we can afford. The most important problem is that neither Zhuang Yu nor I have the creative ability to create this kind of IP series of movies.”

Mickey has always been honest about his abilities. If he couldn't get it, he just couldn't get it. Otherwise, he wouldn't have brought Zhuang Yu from China to help him create a character. Lu Ze wasn't surprised.

"Where are the new writers?"

"They still have no clue. They don't know how to create a big IP with a small cost. It's too difficult. We can only do it slowly. There is no rush. All we can do now is to increase the company's film heritage. From the previous Month, I will start collecting films."

Film collection, as the name suggests, is to find some films in the market that individuals have invested in and shoot, and through cooperation in the form of buyouts or shares, distribute them to the video tape market or even theaters.

Generally speaking, most of the films invested by individuals are shot by amateur directors or new directors. Due to the relatively immature techniques, most of the actors have no acting experience, and the production costs are low. Both the visual effects and the auditory effects are very rough, which makes Fans who are accustomed to watching big-budget movies cannot accept it at all. For example, "Siping Youth".

But this does not mean that there are no high-quality movies among them. For example, "The Effect", the first movie collaborated by Mickey and Lu Ze, is a typical example of a huge success that entered the DVD market, but compared to the massive amount of bad movies, In other words, the probability of finding a good movie is very slim.

But no matter what, when the "Global Brothers" have insufficient background and no extra funds to shoot movies, there is only one way they can go.

"Have you found any good movies?"

"It's not that easy. Most people come to me and make fantastic claims, but in fact they are really bad. I have basically given up the idea now. The only hope I have now is to deliver it next weekend. I have a hunch that if I am lucky enough to come across a good quality film, it will most likely be it."

"what type is it?"

"I received part of the script for a horror film. It looks pretty good and quite innovative. The director is a college graduate and has professional background. The title of the film... seems to be something..."

""What's the Spirit...Real Record of Ghosts"."

"..."