Hong Kong Island Old Events

Manager Zhang is the person in charge of a theater in Central of Shaw Brothers.

Shaw Brothers and Sons was formerly known as Shanghai "Tianyi Film" Company. The founder was Shao Zuiweng, the eldest brother of "Ningbo Shaw Brothers". There were five brothers and two sisters in the same generation, making a family of seven.

His father, Shao Yuxuan, ran a paint shop in Shanghai in his early years, named "Jintai Chang".

Later, due to the war, Shao Zuiweng transferred all the film materials and production tools to Hong Kong Island, changed its name to Nanyang Film Company and continued its business. It expanded the studio and acquired cinemas, becoming the film company with the most filming on Hong Kong Island at that time...

Finally, the second brother of the Shaw brothers, "Shao Cunren", owned the largest share in the expansion. Together with his son Shao Weimei and his brother Shao Zuiweng, the Nanyang Film Company was reorganized into "Shaw Brothers and Sons". The second brother, Shao Cunren, was appointed as the chairman, and his son Shao Weimei was appointed as the general manager. Each theater was appointed with a manager to manage it. The eldest brother, Shao Zuiweng, began to take a back seat.

The younger Shaw brothers, "Shao Shanke" and "Shao Yifu", went to Singapore in 26 years to explore the Nanyang Chinese film market and established the "Shaw Brothers" company. Currently, there are more than 100 cinemas in various countries in Southeast Asia. Home amusement park, established a complete overseas film distribution chain, dominating the Southeast Asian market.

In the era before the "Shaw Brothers" returned to Hong Kong Island, "Shaw Brothers" was the most famous film company in Hong Kong Island, already owning four cinemas in Central.

The "Shaw Brothers" are known to everyone in Southeast Asia. They are the leading brothers in the film industry among the Chinese businessmen who came south. It can be said that the Shaw Brothers each have their own achievements. They made their bets separately during the war, and they both had their moments of glory. There are hard times.

"Tianyi Company", which produced the first Chinese-language talkie film in Shanghai, was a hit, but its business was already in disarray during the war and ended in disgrace. What the "Shaw Brothers" did in Hong Kong Island could not surpass the "best in the world" in Shanghai. On the contrary, the "Shaw Brothers" who fled to Southeast Asia came up with something new and surprising.

With the support of Shaw Brothers, the studio manager is considered a respectable figure in Central. He only cares about how much profit he can make. How can he be afraid of the threat of a uniformed policeman?

Ho Ting-hsien moved the projector to the rickshaw, and while holding the projector with Lard Boy, he walked to the North Point Pier to catch the last ferry back to Kowloon.

Projectors are delicate these days, and if they are damaged, the damage will be great. The two of them were careful all the way, and they were relieved when they got on the ferry.

Lardboy wiped the fat from his face and asked, "Brother Xian, we are not really going to open a cinema, are we?"

He Dingxian scolded: "Opening a shitty movie theater. If you have a movie theater but no production company, you are still working for people."

The Shaw Brothers were able to open up and expand the market in Nanyang because of the Shaw Brothers from Hong Kong Island supplying films. On the premise of ensuring the quality and quantity of films, cinemas had room to expand profits.

Otherwise, they are all working for the studio behind them, and they will be on the verge of bankruptcy once they hit the off-season.

However, if the theater chain is large enough, it can also rely on distribution to embezzle small film companies.

The market is a strong-take-all relationship.

"Shaw Brothers" finally returned to Hong Kong Island to seize the rights, and it was also because "Shaw Brothers" was defeated in terms of film quality and had no choice but to come back to host the production.

"Then I really can't figure out why I bought a projector?" Lardboy's shrewdness is of no use in business. If you want to do business well, you need a broader vision.

Ho Ting-yin said with a smile: "When the projector is put into Shek Kip Mei, we only need to enclose an open space and charge one ticket per person, one yuan per ticket."

"A ticket to a cinema in Hong Kong now costs ten to fifteen, depending on the location, studio and cast."

"The ticket price is too expensive." He lit a cigarette and smoked it in the sea breeze: "Those rich people and managers value it, but the refugees don't."

"Although they are showing new movies and we are showing old movies, for people who have never seen them, the old movies are the new ones!"

The cost of acquiring new films is too high, while the cost of acquiring old films is much lower. Two films and the machine only cost 5,000 yuan, while buying one film alone only costs one to two thousand yuan.

In other words, each film can make its money back by selling more than a thousand tickets.

Is this a large amount?

Too little!

Even if only twenty people watch it a day, the money will be recovered in fifty days, and the rest will be pure profit. The audience in the film industry is huge.

His open-air screening room costs nothing.

Lardboy thought about it: "It turned out to be a strategy of doing housing estate business and using rural areas to surround the city. But are the estate boys willing to spend one dollar to go out and watch a movie?"

He Dingxian smiled confidently: "Everyone has entertainment needs. No one is willing to buy a ticket for more than ten yuan, but there are more people who are willing to buy a ticket for one yuan."

"A family in Shek Kip Mei earns more than 100 yuan from hard work. They spend up to 70 or 80 yuan on food and drink. The rest is saved."

"This money is what they will spend. Our ticket price is more than ten times cheaper. One movie can make the whole family a profit, which is only five or six yuan. They spend five or six yuan every month to make the whole family happy." Who wouldn’t want to? There must be a lot of people willing to come and spend.”

The poorer the people, the more they need cheap entertainment. Movies are still a high-end form of entertainment in Hong Kong. If they are labeled as cheap entertainment, most people will definitely support them.

Moreover, there are very few people in the housing estates who have watched movies. Every housing estate resident is a potential consumer. There are far more poor people than rich people on Hong Kong Island. Therefore, if movie theaters want to make money, they must take the civilian route. This is also the reason for the current weak revenue of the Hong Kong Island film market. reason.

Although, the Hong Kong Island film market in this era has obtained the best equipment, screenwriters, production accumulation, and the richest customers from the mainland.

However, the Hong Kong film market in this era was really small. Films basically made little money on Hong Kong Island. They were distributed to the Nanyang market to make money.

Because there are too few rich people and too many poor people in Hong Kong. Making movies into high-end entertainment is bound to keep more people out.

Therefore, there are only nine theaters in Central on Hong Kong Island, only two in Kowloon, and none in the New Territories.

The barren commercial film market has yet to be developed. It is at this moment that the film industry can truly be opened up and a dominant film group can be created. The time in the 1970s and 1980s is no longer glorious.

"Hong Kong Island currently has a population of more than two million, and only two thousand of them are rich. The remaining two million people belong to us!" He Dingxian is full of confidence.

There are far more than 2,000 wealthy mainlanders who have fled to Hong Kong Island in the past two years, but most of them are in dire straits. Their generous family assets have been either robbed or deceived. They will form the talent accumulation of Hong Kong Island in the next fifty years. Most of the tycoons come from here.

The remaining wealthy people are either ghosts or have left for Southeast Asia and North America. When counting the Chinese film market, they cannot be counted as ghosts.