Chapter 2198: A Good Thing or a Bad Thing?

The cooperation between Huayi and Future Films had ended several years ago.

It was precisely for this reason that the brothers Wang Zhongjun and Wang Zhonglei had thought to compete with Future Films during this year's National Day holiday.

Of course, the reason they thought this way was simple.

Because the director of *Let the Bullets Fly* was Jiang Wen.

Although Old Jiang had made many box-office hits before, anyone with discerning eyes knew that those achievements came with the help of Zhao Fusheng.

To put it bluntly, without Zhao Fusheng's scripts, he could never have made a box-office hit.

This had been proven by facts.

This time, *Let the Bullets Fly* was full of Jiang Wen's personal style. Under these circumstances, the public's initial expectations for the film were not high.

In fact, everyone thought that if the 130 million yuan investment could recoup its costs, they would be lucky.

But the facts proved them wrong.

*Let the Bullets Fly* crushed all other films in the same slot with overwhelming force.

During this National Day holiday, there was only one voice in the film circle.

That was Jiang Wen's voice.

A person's name often has its origin or meaning, such as names like Aiguo or Jianshe. Of course, names like Cuihua or Gou Dan don't count.

The reason Jiang Wen was called Jiang Wen was naturally because he had a strong literary temperament; at heart, he was a literary youth. Everyone in the Beijing circle, or even the entire film circle, knew this.

Except for the films he made in collaboration with Zhao Fusheng, the rest of his films basically lost money one after another.

Although his film concepts were good and the things he made were good films, you had to admit that those things were not suitable for theaters.

In other words, audiences already had a hard life and didn't want to see things in the cinema that upset them.

People preferred to laugh in the cinema rather than think or cry bitterly.

"So what do we do now?"

Wang Zhongjun's wife was also one of the company's top executives, but she had faded out because the company had been developing well over the years.

"What can we do? Consider other options."

Wang Zhongjun sighed and shook his head helplessly.

By now, everyone knew that the rise of Future Films was unstoppable.

If *Let the Bullets Fly* hadn't been a hit, there might have been a chance to block Future Films' rise, because the first film after a company's IPO failing at the box office would be a huge blow to a film company.

It would greatly dampen the confidence of investors.

No matter how rich Zhao Fusheng was or how willing he was to invest, there was nothing he could do.

Because he couldn't change the market's perception of Future Films.

But the problem was,

*Let the Bullets Fly* succeeded!

A film with a box office potentially exceeding one billion yuan was enough to make investors realize the value of Future Films.

Recently, Future Films' stock price on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange had risen by a full 20%, more than one-fifth.

This was clear proof!

Those investors' confidence in the company was already evident.

Now, even if unwilling, Wang Zhongjun had to admit that Future Films was truly the number one private film enterprise in China.

Under these circumstances, Huayi had few options left.

In fact, not only Huayi, but other film companies also had few options.

...

...

"Are we already the target of public criticism?"

Zheng Yao sat in Zhao Fusheng's office, holding a document, and asked him with a smile.

This was the company's follow-up forecast for *Let the Bullets Fly*, predicting how much profit the entire Future Group could make from the film.

Zhao Fusheng didn't look at the document much; he just glanced over it briefly and put it aside.

Hearing Zheng Yao's words, he smiled and said, "That's not quite right. I think we're not the target of public criticism now, but the first to eat the crab."

"The first to eat the crab?"

Zheng Yao was a bit surprised, not expecting Zhao Fusheng to have such a view.

Did he have some other source of information?

After all, to be honest, Zheng Yao and Dong Chenxi had often found some of Zhao Fusheng's judgments incomprehensible. Sometimes, everyone thought he was heading for self-destruction, but facts proved that every insistence of his had its own reasoning, and in the end, he always succeeded.

This was something everyone admired.

"Yes."

Facing Zheng Yao's curious look, Zhao Fusheng explained with a smile, "Think about it: if *Let the Bullets Fly* can achieve a billion yuan at the box office, doesn't that mean our Chinese film market is now qualified to produce big-budget films? In other words, this is the first film to reach a billion yuan at the box office, so will the second be far behind?"

Zheng Yao was speechless.

To be honest, she found herself unable to refute Zhao Fusheng's words.

As Zhao Fusheng said, no one had realized that the Chinese film market had quietly developed to the point where a film could achieve a box office of over a billion yuan.

This was completely unimaginable ten years ago.

But now, it had clearly become a fact.

"You mean there will be another one?"

Looking at Zhao Fusheng, Zheng Yao asked word by word.

Zhao Fusheng nodded and said matter-of-factly, "It's inevitable. You have to understand, our economy is developing. The country has invested so much money, and people have money in their hands, so their need for spiritual life naturally increases. Watching movies will definitely become a part of people's lives."

He meant it. In Zhao Fusheng's memory, the Chinese film market indeed began to take off from this year.

However, many people didn't realize this.

Everyone's attention was more attracted by the rapidly rising housing prices, and no one noticed that, imperceptibly, the output value of our cultural and entertainment industry was getting higher and higher.

By the time everyone discovered this, the entire cultural and entertainment industry had become a feast of capital.

From the initial coal bosses to later investment funds, when capital became the decision-maker of the entire industry, China's cultural and entertainment industry gradually drifted in a deviant direction.

And no one could have predicted all this.

Except Zhao Fusheng.

What he needed to do now was to make Future Films strong enough before this happened, strong enough to ignore the invasion of that capital.