Chapter 590 - 306: Betting Against the Young Master
He also smiled and said, "President Chen, representatives from LeTV’s board will be here tomorrow. The deal for Second-Life Star to acquire the LeTV Film and Television division for 2.5 billion can be finalized right away."
Everyone except the Rice Group executives was stunned for a moment, especially the Internet Celebrity Young Master.
Hearing the figure President Lei mentioned, he had a realization. The 3 billion investment in Second-Life Star was likely for the LeTV Film and Television division. That meant, just as the public had speculated, President Lei’s investment wasn’t for Second-Life Star alone. There were other factors at play, and the LeTV Film and Television division was probably one of them.
But that alone still didn’t seem to justify the valuation. It made him wonder what else was hidden in this deal. Since they weren’t revealing the answer, there was no way to guess. Whatever convinced Boss Lei to agree to a 15 billion valuation had to be something incredible.
Hearing this news, Lin Gou stared at Chen Jincheng in shock.
It was no wonder he reacted that way. If Second-Life Star acquired the LeTV Film and Television division, it would no longer be a simple MCN Company, but a capital firm in the film and television industry.
With Boss Lei’s backing, the other investment firms in the industry would show them respect, or at least not make things difficult. As long as the person in charge of this division had a unique eye for projects, it wouldn’t be hard to grow.
If this news got out, it would definitely cause a sensation. No one would have expected Chen Jincheng and Boss Lei to be making such a big move.
’I’ll have to find a chance to get in touch with him through Xue Qian.’
Chen Jincheng knew Boss Lei was doing this to back him up, and he smiled and said, "President Lei, I’ll be waiting for your call tomorrow, then."
Lei Xiaojun smiled, nodded, and added, "Once this acquisition is complete, you’ll still have over 400 million left from the financing. President Chen, you could use that to test the waters with some projects."
Chen Jincheng smiled and said, "I was planning on it."
There were still six years until the point in time he had transmigrated from. In the movies and TV shows released during those six years, he only remembered the names of the biggest blockbusters, but that was more than enough.
Although many films from his previous world might not exist in this one, as long as they did, he could try to co-invest. Most film companies sought out multiple investors to assemble a project, spreading the risk instead of funding it all themselves.
Take *Joyful Years*, which Penguin had just finished filming. Was it because Penguin Film and Television didn’t have the money to fund it all? Of course they did. But they still found several other investors for the project. In his previous world, there were four investors; in this world, there were six.
’Riding on Boss Lei’s coattails, it wouldn’t be a problem to get a piece of the pie. The next six years hold countless opportunities for profit.’
The Internet Celebrity Young Master’s curiosity was piqued by their conversation. "Mr. Chen, a few movies are coming out in a couple of days. I wonder which one you’re optimistic about?"
"I’ll have to look into it first. You don’t mind if I check which movies are coming out now, do you?" Chen Jincheng said with a smile.
His words left the Internet Celebrity Young Master and the others looking stunned.
’Wait, you don’t even know what movies are coming out? Besides, how can you judge a movie’s quality with just a quick glance at the dinner table?’
The Internet Celebrity Young Master felt he had asked a foolish question that shouldn’t have been brought up at the dinner table.
Chen Jincheng, however, had already taken out his phone and was looking up the movies set to release in two days.
This period in November wasn’t a peak time for the movie market, so there were no big productions or films by famous directors.
A total of seven movies were being released in two days. Three of them had existed in his previous life, and four had not.
*Nameless*, *Venom*, *Wreck-It Ralph*, *Special Agent Te Han*, *Huaxia Blue Helmets*, ..., ...
Among these, *Nameless*, *Venom*, and *Huaxia Blue Helmets* were all from his previous life.
After looking through the list, Chen Jincheng turned the question back to the Internet Celebrity Young Master. "I wonder, Mr. Wang, which of these films are you most optimistic about?"
Hearing this, the Internet Celebrity Young Master replied, "I don’t know much about this, but Dawan Cinema is placing a lot of importance on *Huaxia Blue Helmets*. They think it will be this year’s blockbuster, continuing the Myth of *Red Sea Operation*."
Hearing the Internet Celebrity Young Master, Chen Jincheng suddenly recalled a joke from his past life about investing in movies: just keep an eye on Dawan’s projects. Aside from anything by that one director named Chen, you could profit simply by betting against them. Dawan’s film investments were a series of baffling moves. They would invest in any genre that was doomed to fail and perfectly sidestep every genre that was destined to be a hit. They had even pulled their funding from films that were guaranteed to be a huge piece of the pie, including two that went on to gross over 4 billion at the box office. Luckily, the films by that young Director Chen were all blockbusters, which gave Dawan a lifeline. Otherwise, Dawan Cinema would have been sold off much sooner.
As for the movie *Huaxia Blue Helmets*, Dawan itself had invested in it, so naturally, they were optimistic. Their promotional campaign hyped it to the skies, constantly comparing it to *Red Sea Operation*.
Same genre, same promotional angle... but unfortunately, not the same director.
You could say this film, which had the most buzz, was also one of the biggest flops of 2018. If the marketing hadn’t tried to piggyback on *Red Sea Operation*, it might have earned a little at the box office. But since it did, everyone made comparisons, and the film became even more of a disappointment. He remembered it was widely ridiculed upon release. Its box office for the first three days was less than 20 million, with 13 million of that coming from opening day.
Seeing that Chen Jincheng seemed to disagree, the Internet Celebrity Young Master asked curiously, "Mr. Chen, you’re not optimistic about *Huaxia Blue Helmets*? It has a lot of buzz in the film industry right now. Plus, *Red Sea Operation*, a masterpiece of the same genre, set a high bar."
Chen Jincheng smiled. "It’s for that exact reason that I think *Huaxia Blue Helmets* will flop."